{"id":3881,"date":"2011-01-18T11:16:32","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T19:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3881"},"modified":"2011-01-18T11:16:32","modified_gmt":"2011-01-18T19:16:32","slug":"open-thread-1182012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/18\/open-thread-1182012\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread-1\/18\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I did my laundry today, including over twenty trips up and down the stairs, so I\u2019m feeling thoroughly pooped, but I\u2019m up to date with comments and have a couple good pieces for you.&#160; Hopefully I\u2019ll be back to returning visits this week.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today it took me 4:22 (4:42 average).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2011-01-18-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.alternet.org\/teaparty\/149546\/angry_progressive_coalition_to_protest_billionaire_gathering_hosted_by_koch_brothers%2C_major_tea_party_funders\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>The Koch brothers are bringing their super-wealthy friends to the California desert to a private gathering to strategize how they will dominate American political life, and bring a hardcore right-wing government to power in the U.S. In response, on Sunday, January 30, thousands of activists and concerned people are expected to travel to Rancho Mirage, a wealthy enclave adjacent to Palm Springs, to say no to the Koch brothers&#8217; plan. People will be educated about the Kochs and their cabal of rich friends, and peacefully march to offer an alternative to the greed and right-wing agenda that aims to roll back consumer protections, including the environment, health care, credit cards, banks and more.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Bravo!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.abcnews.com\/thenote\/2011\/01\/sen-kent-conrad-not-running-for-re-election.html\" target=\"_blank\">ABC<\/a>: <\/font>Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, announced today that he plans to retire, a move that looks set to further complicate Democrats\u2019 chances of retaining control of the Senate in 2012.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Perhaps we can get a progressive candidate instead of the DINO.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSTRE70H4DO20110118\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>: <\/font>Former Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview aired on Tuesday that he will have decide whether to undergo a heart transplant to replace the heart pump that is now keeping him alive.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Could having a heart, for the first time, effect his personality?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><a title=\"Drew Sheneman\" href=\"http:\/\/comics.com\/drew_sheneman\/2011-01-17\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Drew Sheneman\" src=\"http:\/\/c0389161.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com\/dyn\/str_strip\/351689.full.gif\" \/><\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">What\u2019s up?<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I did my laundry today, including over twenty trips up and down the stairs, so I\u2019m feeling thoroughly pooped, but I\u2019m up to date with comments and have a couple good pieces for you.&#160; Hopefully I\u2019ll be back to returning visits this week. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today it took me 4:22 (4:42 average).&#160; To do <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/18\/open-thread-1182012\/' 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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-35-id","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881","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=3881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}