{"id":16674,"date":"2015-10-29T12:40:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T19:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=16674"},"modified":"2015-10-29T12:40:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T19:40:05","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-29102015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/squatchs-open-thread-29102015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch\u2019s Open Thread 29\/10\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was so tired last night that I left this part of the Open Thread until today, Thursday morning.  It is great to see TC back producing his <\/span>On the Edge–10\/29\/2015<\/span><\/a><\/strong> which includes short takes today.  And Nameless produced the <\/span>GOP Debate – Others Watched So You Didn’t Have To<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/strong>with his usual flair for humour which I am both appreciative of and in awe.  I still have my cold but hopefully yesterday's nap and a long sleep last night will boost me forward.  So here we go friends!<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle — <\/strong>Today’s took me 2:49 (average 5:04). 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<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

The Nation<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>— But if Kasich were to call Carson, Trump, Bush and, yes, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and former CEO Carly Fiorina and the rest, out for their extreme stances, if he were to say bluntly and without apology that what the other contenders propose is bad craziness<\/a>, he would not just help his own candidacy.<\/p>\n

He would restore a measure of common sense to a race for the Republican nomination that does indeed raise the questions: “What has happened to our party? What has happened to the conservative movement?” <\/p>\n

I remember reading a short time ago that Rachel Maddow commented that of all the Republicans, she was leaning towards John Kasich in the Republican residential primary.  I was surprised.  John Nichols seems to paint Kasich as "the reasonable one".  Scary, when an avowed conservative like Kasich seems to be "the reasonable one".<\/span><\/p>\n

MSNBC<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — <\/span>Carson also gave an odd response when asked about his reported involvement with a company called Mannatech that made fantastical claims that its nutritional products could cure cancer, autism and other diseases.<\/p>\n

The former neurosurgeon said he “didn’t have an involvement with them” and it was “total propaganda” to suggest so. Bizarrely, he then went on to say he gave paid speeches for them and that he supported their business. “Do I take the product? Yes. I think it’s a good product,” Carson said. Clear as mud.<\/p>\n

Who knows if it will matter to Carson’s current supporters when the next polls come out. But if his goal was to prove he can appeal beyond a hardcore conservative base and convince other voting blocs to take him seriously, his answers did not help.<\/p>\n

The third Republican presidential debate in Colorado last night, a slugfest over the media, specifically the debate moderators..  Here Chris Matthews goes over three takeaways.  Click through for a video and the remainder of the takeaways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — <\/span>In his parting gift to the House, outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hammered out the deal with his fellow leaders in Congress and the White House, enraging the very members of his conference who edged him out.<\/p>\n

The two-year deal, unveiled at midnight Monday<\/a>, lifts the caps on sequestration — automatic budget cuts first put in place in 2011 — evenly across defense and nondefense accounts by a total of $80 billion. That money will be divided with $50 billion budgeted for the first year and $30 billion for the second. In addition, the bill also increases defense spending through the overseas contingency fund, a side piggybank that helps the White House pay for war operations, adding $32 billion to it over the two years.<\/p>\n

In a 266-167 vote<\/strong><\/span>, the House passed the deal, which will keep the government from a default on Nov. 3, and increase the debt ceiling into March 2017. All Democrats and 79 Republicans voted in favor of it. <\/p>\n

There is a Telus commercial from a number of years ago in which a teenager is complaining to her grandfather about her mother.  After the conversation ends, the grandfather says "It's payback time!".  I somehow think that John Boehner must feel like that.  I thought that the agreement would never pass the House, and certainly the very conservative Freedom Caucus is wanting to rip Boehner a new pair.  The vote for the new Speaker is today, so will the Freedom Caucus repudiate Ryan as a tit-for-tat response to the budget decision?  Get your mittens out.  It is getting frosty.  Update: Ryan is the new Speaker<\/span><\/p>\n

M<\/span>y Universe<\/strong><\/strong> — It has rained heavily here last night and much of today, stopping briefly around 4 pm.  It is back to raining cats and dogs which more than pisses off the cats.  So this picture is for all the cat parents that forgot to ensure that Puddy was warm AND dry.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I was so tired last night that I left this part of the Open Thread until today, Thursday morning.  It is great to see TC back producing his On the Edge–10\/29\/2015 which includes short takes today.  And Nameless produced the GOP Debate – Others Watched So You Didn’t Have To with his usual flair for humour which I am […]<\/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-16674","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\/16674","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=16674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}