{"id":21554,"date":"2016-05-01T13:43:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T20:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=21554"},"modified":"2016-05-01T13:43:53","modified_gmt":"2016-05-01T20:43:53","slug":"open-thread-512016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/01\/open-thread-512016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;5\/1\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It\u2019s already been a very busy day, as I have been working since early this morning, changing the poll, preparing the graphics and collecting all the data I will need for tomorrow\u2019s Monthly Report, and researching today\u2019s articles.&#160; Needless to say, I\u2019m getting tired.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 2:52 (average 5:01).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2016-05-01-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/05\/01\/us\/politics\/obama-needles-clinton-and-gop-field-at-correspondents-dinner.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>President Obama poked fun at Hillary Clinton\u2019s lack of appeal among young people Saturday night, joking at the annual White House press corps dinner that Mrs. Clinton was like an aging relative who cannot figure out how to use Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you get my poke? Is it on my wall?\u201d he said, imagining Mrs. Clinton trying to use the popular social media site. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019m using this right. Love, Aunt Hillary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/l-5vD5YVLv8?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Policies aside, when it comes to the White House Correspondents Dinner, Obama stands heads and shoulders over every other President in my lifetime.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/health\/2016\/04\/30\/3774258\/end-planned-parenthood-witch-hunt\/\" target=\"_blank\">Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>On Thursday, 98 members of Congress <a href=\"https:\/\/foster.house.gov\/sites\/foster.house.gov\/files\/2016-04-28%20Select%20Panel%20Attacking%20Science%20Ltr.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">wrote a letter<\/a> to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the Chairman of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TEN), asking that they disband the panel and end the investigation into Planned Parenthood\u2019s fetal tissue research.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation into Planned Parenthood\u2019s fetal tissue practices began last summer, when a heavily edited video surfaced claiming that the organization was \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/health\/2015\/07\/15\/3680714\/planned-parenthood-controversy\/\" target=\"_blank\">selling aborted baby parts<\/a>.\u201d Conservatives, especially former Presidential candidate and current Ted Cruz \u201crunning mate\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/politics\/2016\/02\/10\/3748382\/carly-fiorina-suspends-campaign\/\" target=\"_blank\">Carly Fiorina<\/a> \u2014 called for a formal investigation into Planned Parenthood\u2019s practices.<\/p>\n<p>But the claims made in the video have been repeatedly debunked, and in January, after a three-month-long investigation, a Texas Grand Jury decided not to indict Planned Parenthood. Instead, the jury moved to indict the videographers who were responsible for the video in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>However, the select panel has continued to operate, going after not only Planned Parenthood, but also the scientists who are researching fetal tissue as they search for cures for diseases such as Parkinson&#8217;s and Multiple Sclerosis.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">That the basis for the investigation has been proven to be devoid of factual basis does not matter to Lyin&#8217; Ryan and his misogynist Republican cronies. They simply want a platform from which to broadcast lies,<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/story\/2016\/04\/29\/1521522\/-LGBT-groups-ask-Obama-administration-to-pull-education-funds-from-North-Carolina-other-states\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>A group of the nation&#8217;s most important defenders of LGBT rights have written to ask the Obama administration to pull federal education funding from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/dominicholden\/legal-groups-urge-feds-to-threaten-north-carolinas-school-fu?utm_term=.igqDvYzrq#.cu929REZm\" target=\"_blank\">states that pass laws legalizing transgender discrimination in their schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It was sent by the American Civil Liberties Union, GLBTQ Legal Advocates &amp; Defenders, Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Transgender Law Center. A Justice Department spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, \u201cThe department has received and is reviewing the letter.\u201d [&#8230;] <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are talking about official discrimination required by the state,\u201d said [ACLU LGBT Project director James Esseks], arguing North Carolina should lose federal education funds. \u201cThis is something that is egregious and demands a different kind of response.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t an idle threat. The Obama administration has been aggressive in enforcing transgender rights in individual districts; a law like North Carolina, that requires public schools to engage in discrimination specifically barred by the federal government, states must either choose to follow the state law or the federal one. That runs afoul of the $4.5 billion of education funds that North Carolina could otherwise expect to get from the federal government; we can only presume that the North Carolina legislature will then have to cover the cuts with the proceeds of their personal swear jars.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">This sounds to me like a perfectly reasonable response to states where bigoted Republicans have written discrimination in schools into the law.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0501Cartoon\" style=\"border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px\" border=\"0\" alt=\"0501Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/0501Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"451\" \/><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">The Republican elephant rides the rest of us.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s already been a very busy day, as I have been working since early this morning, changing the poll, preparing the graphics and collecting all the data I will need for tomorrow\u2019s Monthly Report, and researching today\u2019s articles.&#160; Needless to say, I\u2019m getting tired. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 2:52 (average 5:01).&#160; To do <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/01\/open-thread-512016\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/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-21554","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\/21554","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=21554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}