{"id":12649,"date":"2014-04-30T00:02:04","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T07:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12649"},"modified":"2014-04-30T00:02:04","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T07:02:04","slug":"open-thread4302014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/open-thread4302014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–4\/30\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and feeling much better than I did yesterday, although I do have some housework to catch up.  Tomorrow I have the same Urologist appointment I missed when Tri-Met sent the lift bus to the wrong address. They seem to have figured out where I live at last.  Because of that, Thursday\u2019s submissions may be limited.  Day 9.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s took me 2:51 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Security Warning<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From ZD Net<\/a>: <\/font>Government security response teams are urging Windows users to consider Chrome or Firefox as their default browser until Microsoft delivers a security fix for a new flaw affecting all versions of Internet Explorer.<\/p>\n

Computer emergency response teams (CERTs) in the US, the UK, and Sweden have advised Windows users to consider avoiding Internet Explorer until Microsoft fixes the vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Microsoft over the weekend confirmed the fla was being exploited in "limited, targeted attacks"<\/a>, which use a rigged Flash file hosted on attack websites to net victims. Attackers that successfully exploit the flaw affecting IE 6 to IE 11 could gain the same user rights as the original user, according to Microsoft.<\/p>\n

The company has yet to announce whether it will release an out of band patch or wait until the next Patch Tuesday, scheduled for 13 May, to deliver a fix. It will also be the first patch update from Microsoft that excludes Windows XP<\/a>, which still runs on around 29 percent of the world’s PCs.<\/p>\n

Personally, I almost never use IE.<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Five years after Dick Armey laid out the blueprint for a racially fueled astroturf uprising as a last ditch gambit to save the Bush-devastated Grand Ole Party from extinction, four years since Glenn Beck’s ‘Sermon On The Mall’ was witnessed by a mighty pilgrimage of the bigoted, the mean and the stupid, the Washington Post has now, finally, discover that the multitude of Tea Party Evangelists are nothing but grifters.  That’s some serious investigative reporting there.  Breaking news.  Now, who would have guessed? <\/p>\n

Uh, ANYONE WITH A BRAIN!<\/p>\n

Here’s the WP’s revelation:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

A Washington Post analysis found that some of the top national tea party groups engaged in this year\u2019s midterm elections have put just a tiny fraction of their money directly into boosting the candidates they\u2019ve endorsed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Next to stealing elections, fleecing sheeple is Republicans’ favorite sport.<\/font><\/p>\n

From LA Times<\/a>: <\/font>A new study argues that more than 4% of all defendants who have been sentenced to death — and who remain under threat of execution — are probably innocent.<\/p>\n

In a paper published Monday in the journal PNAS, a team of researchers statistically examined the cases of 7,482 death row convictions from 1973 to 2004.<\/p>\n

Using a so-called survival analysis mathematical model, study authors estimated that if all death-sentence defendants remained under sentence of death indefinitely, at least 4.1% would be exonerated. <\/p>\n

Even if only one of those convictions resulted in the wrongful execution of an innocent person, that is sufficient cause to outlaw the death penalty.  Several of the men, with whom I do volunteer work, used to be on death row.  Their sentences were commuted between 1972 and 1976, after Furman v Georgia<\/em> caused a moratorium on the death penalty.  They will never get out, but have found purpose in helping others learn to stay out.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Blue Oregon<\/a>: <\/font>Sean Hannity says that "the ranch standoff that took place out in Nevada was not about a man named Cliven Bundy." Some people are making fun of Hannity for "distancing" himself from Bundy, but I take Hannity at his word. Hannity was standing up for a principle. And that principle, of course, is that a man has a right to graze his cattle anywhere he damn well pleases, whether the land belongs to him or not. <\/p>\n

And today it occurred to me that there is a way that we, Hannity’s defenders, can give him a chance to demonstrate that it was that principle that he really cares about. It’s simple: Let’s grab some cattle, find Sean Hannity’s house, and let them loose on his lawn. <\/p>\n

I supported the author of this piece, Steve Novick, for the Senate, before I volunteered for Jeff Merkley’s campaign, after Jeff beat Steve in the 2008 primary. Now you can see why I liked him.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0430Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and feeling much better than I did yesterday, although I do have some housework to catch up.  Tomorrow I have the same Urologist appointment I missed when Tri-Met sent the lift bus to the wrong address. They seem to have figured out where I live at last.  Because of that, Thursday\u2019s […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,141,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-plus","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-141-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}