{"id":16562,"date":"2015-10-16T09:08:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=16562"},"modified":"2015-10-16T09:08:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T16:08:09","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-16102015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/16\/squatchs-open-thread-16102015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 16\/10\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

It's been a slow day part of which was spent at the dentist.  Do you remember the Crest Toothpaste commercials where the kid runs into the house waiving what looks like a school report card and announces "Look mom, no cavities!"?  Well that was me today.  Actually, I haven't had any cavities in years.  But I do get headaches from having my neck craned in awkward positions so the hygenist can do her work.  I should have spent more time with the blog but instead, I spent time with my kids just relaxing. Tomorrow is a busy day with physio and then teaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle — <\/span><\/strong>Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:24). To do it, <\/span>click here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. How did you do? For those that don't know, we always do the 48 piece classic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mother Jones<\/span><\/a><\/strong> — The charges in the case stem from a scheme by Paul's 2012 campaign<\/a> to pay then-Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson more than $70,000 to endorse Paul in the days before the Iowa caucuses in late 2011. Four of the charges against Benton were dropped<\/a> when a judge ruled that prosecutors had improperly handled the indictments. Benton still faces a count of making false statements to prosecutors after he denied any knowledge of the alleged plan when they asked him about it last summer. Kesari faces six charges, including federal conspiracy and campaign finance charges. <\/strong>Prosecutors also say Kesari attempted to convince Sorenson to not tell investigators everything he knew.<\/p>\n

Do you suppose that this trial, which does not directly affect Rand Paul at this point<\/strong><\/em>, could be why he said "I would throw everybody out, myself included"<\/strong> in a piece that was reported yesterday in <\/span>Raw Story by Rachel Maddow<\/span><\/a><\/strong>? <\/span><\/p>\n

Daily Kos<\/span><\/a><\/strong> — <\/span>I don't think she can straighten out her act, she's been an embarrassment to the entire party for quite some time. It is definitely time for her to step down. …<\/span><\/strong> "The person who is supposed to be leading us is not leading us.”  R.T. Rybak, DNC Vice Chair.<\/p>\n

For the last while, I have seen reports of rumblings within the Democratic National Committee, and almost all of those rumblings involved Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the U.S. Representative for Florida's 23rd congressional district and the chair of the DNC.  Are the rumblings "sour grapes" or is this an issue of a Democratic clown run amok?  Whichever, the rumblings must be dealt with before the Republicans use them to derail the Democrats as they move towards the 2016 election.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Over the last few years, Urban Outfitters has become known for three things (outside of carrying overpriced clothes that fall apart the first time you wash them): 1) Offending every possible<\/a> marginalized group under the sun with apparel that features really tasteless messages; 2) allegedly stealing designs from up-and-coming artists and selling them as their own; and 3) having a president and CEO, Richard Hayne, who has given money to anti-gay marriage crusader Rick Santorum<\/a> and other Republican politicians<\/a>. Now the company is making news for its boldest action yet: asking employees to work for free!<\/p>\n

How to look like you care when you don't.  My guess is that it was suggested<\/em><\/strong> salaried employees get behind the company's plans to help out at the fulfillment centre on a weekend to build camaraderie and keep the orders flowing.  Oh, did the company mention that this was on their own time?  Having been in a very similar situation myself, it was made abundantly clear that not participating would be reflected on my performance review.  How Republican: more profits for less overhead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/a> —  Ken Taylor, whose role in the 1979 "Canadian Caper" made him a hero on both sides of the border for helping shelter six U.S. citizens at the height of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, has died. He was 81.<\/p>\n

\"KEN<\/p>\n

"There were folks who didn't want to stick their necks out and the Canadians did,'' [Ben] Affleck told a Toronto International Film Festival press conference.<\/p>\n

"They said, 'We'll risk ourselves, our diplomatic standing, our lives to harbour these six Americans that we owe nothing to and just because it's the moral, right thing to do.'''<\/p>\n

I bring this to you because this is part of our shared history, Canada and the US.  But for me, Ken Taylor represents an attitude that was previously prevalent in Canada, part of our national identity, that seems to have gone missing, especially under Harper.  I want my Canada back!  Thank you Ken Taylor, rest in peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/strong> — <\/span><\/p>\n

\"575133_434313729922088_1058209586_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Me an' my friends are gettin' ready for Hallowe'en!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It's been a slow day part of which was spent at the dentist.  Do you remember the Crest Toothpaste commercials where the kid runs into the house waiving what looks like a school report card and announces "Look mom, no cavities!"?  Well that was me today.  Actually, I haven't had any cavities in years.  But […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-politics","category-35-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\/16562","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}