{"id":13126,"date":"2014-07-01T00:19:05","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T07:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=13126"},"modified":"2014-07-01T00:19:05","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T07:19:05","slug":"open-thread712014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/01\/open-thread712014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–7\/1\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 71.  I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and have been working like a \"Dog, since I woke up, because there is so much going on.  I\u2019ll be posting more articles that normal.  Tomorrow, I have a grocery delivery from Safeway, because Store to Door is closed for the 4th.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 2:59 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17<\/a> civilians at Baghdad\u2019s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor\u2019s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater\u2019s top manager there issued a threat: \u201cthat he could kill\u201d the government\u2019s chief investigator and \u201cno one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,\u201d according to department reports.<\/p>\n

American Embassy officials in Baghdad sided with Blackwater rather than the State Department investigators as a dispute over the probe escalated in August 2007, the previously undisclosed documents show. The officials told the investigators that they had disrupted the embassy\u2019s relationship with the security contractor and ordered them to leave the country, according to the reports.<\/p>\n

Now known as Academi (formerly Xe), Blackwater, aka the GOP SS, remain the heavily armed thugs that Republican leaders keep ready to unleash upon the American people, as they did during Katrina, should Republicans ever regain the White House.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Last night, Bill Maher had a New Rule about the current conflict in Iraq, boiling it down to revenge.<\/p>\n

I planned to show the video, but it has already disappeared, so I removed it before posting this. Click through for the transcript.<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>A ten-year European plan to gradually phase out American football in the United States and replace it with soccer is \u201cvery much on track,\u201d a spokesman for the European Union confirmed today.<\/p>\n

The E.U. spokesman, Alf-Jergen Holmboe, said the replacement of American football with soccer was the third in a three-step plan to transform the U.S. into a European country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first two steps were electing a socialist President and instituting national health care,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce soccer replaces football, our work will be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dang Andy! This will show up on Breitfart, World Nut Daily, and the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise<\/em>, as real news.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0701Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 71.  I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and have been working like a , since I woke up, because there is so much going on.  I\u2019ll be posting more articles that normal.  Tomorrow, I have a grocery delivery from Safeway, because Store to Door is closed for the 4th. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 2:59 […]<\/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-13126","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\/13126","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=13126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}