{"id":20882,"date":"2016-03-28T01:54:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T08:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=20882"},"modified":"2016-03-28T01:54:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T08:54:02","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-27032016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/28\/squatchs-open-thread-27032016\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 27\/03\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well it has been a quiet day.  I decided my cold was not sufficiently gone to risk going to see my mother.  I have been hacking all day.  I did get 2 bags of clothes I no longer wear ready for pick up tomorrow by the Diabetes Assc. Hurray!  More room in my closet!  This week will be my final pastoral care class and then comes the criminal records check for working in hospitals and hospice venues.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

MSNBC<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — A petition for the open carry of firearms at the Republican National Convention has amassed over 32,000 signatures as of Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The convention is scheduled to take place in Cleveland from July 18 to 21 at the Quicken Loans Arena, which bans all weapons on property. While Ohio allows open-carry, the venue’s ban is permitted<\/a> by state law. <\/p>\n

\"2014<\/p>\n

People listen to speakers at the 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control rally outside the NRA's Annual Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 26, 2014.  Photo by Mark Peterson\/Redux for MSNBC<\/span><\/p>\n

… finds fault with the policy, calling it “a direct affront to the Second Amendment.” Pointing to an article that ranks Cleveland among the United States’ most dangerous cities and mentioning “the possibility of an ISIS terrorist attack,” the author said the Republican National Committee and the Quicken Loans Arena are putting people at risk.<\/p>\n

In my view, the 2nd amendment is stretched to the max with its current iterations.  Guns at a highly charged political convention where one candidate routinely and continually incites violence?  Drumpf has already said there will be violence if he does not win the nomination.  An ISIS attack?  Just a little paranoid!<\/span><\/p>\n

Politico<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — This is not a joke. Senator Al Franken should be the Democratic Party’s choice for vice president.<\/p>\n

If I had said that 10 years ago, or even six months ago, the notion would have been preposterous: a former Saturday Night Live<\/i> writer, perhaps best known as the mock self-help guru Stuart Smalley, Franken became synonymous with left-wing bombast thanks to his best-selling book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.<\/i> He took the presidency itself as a joke, writing a satirical campaign memoir, Why Not Me,<\/i> in which Franken wins the White House on a platform of eliminating ATM fees, only to be quickly chased out by the “Joint Congressional Committee on the President's Mood Swings.”<\/p>\n

\"Hillary