{"id":12840,"date":"2014-05-23T01:47:54","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T08:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12840"},"modified":"2014-05-23T01:47:54","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T08:47:54","slug":"open-thread5232014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/23\/open-thread5232014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;5\/23\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I\u2019m writing for tomorrow early in the morning, before leaving for volunteer work in prison.&#160; I shall return late tonight and will be thoroughly pooped, so when I get home I\u2019ll catch a few ZZZs, do the puzzle, and post this, Friday\u2019s only article.<\/font>&#160; Day 31.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 2:52 (average 4:46).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2014-05-23-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/slow-down-for-a-few-minutes-and-meet-some-of-the-most-beautiful-creatures-were-killing\" target=\"_blank\">Upworthy<\/a>: Meet Some Of The Most Beautiful Creatures We\u2019re Killing<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"281\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/88829079\" width=\"500\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" mozallowfullscreen=\"mozallowfullscreen\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"webkitallowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It&#8217;s enough to make you cry. International readers where Vimeo is blocked can see this clip on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ANa6Y6UAL00\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube.<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/05\/22\/opinion\/troubles-with-veterans-health-care.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>When America sends men and women to fight, it owes them an enduring debt, starting with competent and timely health care and disability benefits when they leave active duty. President Obama <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/05\/22\/us\/politics\/veterans-hospitals.html?hp\">expressed outrage on Wednesday<\/a> at recent charges of wrongdoing in the Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019 health care system. He also dispatched his deputy chief of staff to Phoenix to assess explosive allegations that government workers falsified data to hide long wait times for veterans needing to see doctors.<\/p>\n<p>But expressing outrage is hardly enough for a president who, as a candidate in 2008, criticized the agency and vowed to improve care and address backlogs. It is past time for a more visible personal commitment to right these wrongs as well as strong White House support for legislation that would make it possible for top agency officials to fire those responsible for wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">The Times really missed the most important point here. They just don&#8217;t get it. On the other hand, Chris Hayes and Bernie Sanders do.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9z3J43l27RQ?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Republicans have refused to allow the funds that the VA needs to grow to handle the capacity. Funding may be up 38% now, built that is after years of Republican cuts to funding while the need for VA services grew exponentially.&#160; They need an increase in infrastructure.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/livewire\/50-senators-tell-nfl-rename-redskins\">TPM<\/a>: <\/font><\/p>\n<p>Fifty senators are teaming up to call on the National Football League to change the team name of the Washington Redskins, declaring that &quot;racism and bigotry have no place in professional sports.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The senators wrote a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cantwell.senate.gov\/public\/_cache\/files\/7be140a9-f75a-4d62-bdeb-d1c75908ff36\/letter%20to%20commissioner%20goodell%20on%20washington%20sports%20team.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a> to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell &#8212; led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and co-signed by 47 others &#8212; invoking the racist comments by NBA Clippers owner Donald Sterling as an opportunity for the NFL to follow suit and take action.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The despicable comments made by Mr. Sterling have opened up a national conversation about race relations,&quot; the senators wrote. &quot;We believe this conversation is an opportunity for the NFL to take action to remove the racial slur from the name of one of its marquee franchises.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The Cantwell-Reid letter, dated May 21, was cosigned by Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), John Walsh (D-MT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Carl Levin (D-MI), Mark Begich (D-AK), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tom Udall (D-CO), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Angus King (I-ME), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Amy Klobuchar, (D-MN), Al Franken (D-MN), Edward Markey (D-MA), Mark Udall (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kay Hagan (D-NC), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA).<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Note that zero Republicans were willing to sign this letter. I wonder if we&#8217;ll see a Republican letter urging the commissioner of the NFL to include racial slurs in other team names.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0523Cartoon\" style=\"display: inline\" alt=\"0523Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/0523Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m writing for tomorrow early in the morning, before leaving for volunteer work in prison.&#160; I shall return late tonight and will be thoroughly pooped, so when I get home I\u2019ll catch a few ZZZs, do the puzzle, and post this, Friday\u2019s only article.&#160; Day 31. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 2:52 (average 4:46).&#160; <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/23\/open-thread5232014\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-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\/12840","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=12840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}