{"id":18573,"date":"2015-12-29T03:03:25","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T11:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=18573"},"modified":"2015-12-29T03:03:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T11:03:25","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-28122015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/squatchs-open-thread-28122015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 28\/12\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well I am back after resting almost 18 hours, 10 of those hours sleeping.  I felt fairly good this morning when I awoke for physio.  Since then, I have felt terrific.  Somehow the snow missed us except in the mountains behind me.  I would say the sight was stunning, but the clouds and mist hid the view.  For those that don't know, TomCat was having a new desk delivered and installed.  Something happened during the installation and he lost his internet.  Hopefully, he won't be offline for long.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

CBC<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/strong>— <\/span>The Bakours' three-bedroom house, rented for them by the Metropolitan United Church, is a drastic change from the tent they called home in a crowded refugee camp since fleeing Syria four years ago.  <\/p>\n

\"Wahida<\/p>\n

Wahida and Hussein Bakour fled Syria with their children after the brutal civil war began four years ago. Mohamad, 7, Malak, 6, Rahaf, 3, and twin boys Ali and Fawaz, 10, are in a home in Toronto thanks to a Toronto church congregation's help. (Nicole Ireland\/CBC)<\/span><\/p>\n

"Muddy, dirt, like the life was not pleasant at all," Wahida Bakour said. <\/p>\n

"There were rats all over the place when we were sleeping … like all around us," said her 10-year-old son, Ali. <\/p>\n

Then there was the never-ending hunger. <\/p>\n

 "My father used to go to the trash and pick … like bread and feed those kids," Wahida Bakour said.  <\/p>\n

As I come across these stories of the lives the Syrian refugees have left as told in their own words, I will share them. Our news is so sanitised but the ordeal, nay the hell these people have lived through is very real.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think Progress<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — As storms once again<\/a> battered the state of Alabama over Christmas, Republican Gov. Robert Bentley moved to divert funding from the 2010 BP oil spill recovery effort to finance the renovation<\/a> of a second Governor’s mansion on the Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yet that beachside mansion, which Alabama governors beginning with famed segregationist George Wallace have enjoyed, was not damaged by the BP oil spill. It was damaged more than two decades earlier by Hurricane Danny, and has sat empty ever since.<\/p>\n

Ah! . . . fiscal conservatism Republican style.  The funds may not be classified as taxpayer dollars, but they certainly belong to some of the taxpayers.  "Bentley <\/span>argues<\/span><\/a> that the mansion repairs are a priority for economic development…" and I say "in a pig's eye!"<\/span><\/p>\n

ABC<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Meadowlark Lemon, the "clown prince" of basketball's barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters<\/a>, whose blend of hook shots and humor brought joy to millions of fans around the world, has died. He was 83.<\/p>\n