{"id":4059,"date":"2011-02-11T08:48:48","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T16:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4059"},"modified":"2011-02-11T08:48:48","modified_gmt":"2011-02-11T16:48:48","slug":"open-thread2112011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/11\/open-thread2112011\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;2\/11\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Articles are a little late today, because I did laundry while researching.&#160; No matter how long it sits there, and now matter how I feel, it just refuses to do itself. <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-sadsmile\" alt=\"Sad smile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/wlEmoticon-sadsmile.png\" \/>&#160; The multiple trips up and down the stairs have me feeling gasses, but I\u2019m current in replying to comments.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today it took me 4:23 (4:35 average).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2011-02-11-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.citizensforethics.org\/the-capitol-is-not-a-frat-house\" target=\"_blank\">CREW<\/a>: <\/font>Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate whether members of Congress who sleep in their offices are violating House rules. CREW also asked the OCE to determine whether these members are violating tax law by failing to report lodging as a taxable fringe benefit. Press reports indicate that at least 33 members &#8211; 26 Republicans and 7 Democrats &#8211; have turned their offices into dorm rooms. <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Are the Republicans engaging in AIDES research?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newshounds.us\/2011\/02\/11\/gov_jan_brewer_uses_fox_news_to_fundraise_for_her_lawsuit_against_the_united_states.php\" target=\"_blank\">News Hounds<\/a>: <\/font>If &quot;liberal&quot; attorney Greta Van Susteren had any qualms about using her show, On The Record, as a fundraising vehicle for Arizona Governor Jan Brewer&#8217;s lawsuit against the federal government, Van Susteren kept them to herself. During the rest of the interview, Van Susteren coddled Brewer like she was Sarah Palin. The entire segment was clearly intended as a set up to promote Brewer&#8217;s legal theatrics and the money pot for it.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">The Arizona Death Angel\u2019s lawsuit against the government is over her racist \u201cpapers\u201d law.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/content\/cpac-christian-nation-needs-biblical-military\" target=\"_blank\">Right Wing Watch<\/a>: <\/font>At the CPAC panel on \u201cHow Political Correctness is Harming America\u2019s Military,\u201d Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness continued her campaign against gay and lesbian members of the armed forces serving openly and honorably, but she was upstaged by GOP congressional candidate Ilario Pantano, who insisted that America is meant to be a Christian nation and that the military must reflect biblical values.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Another Republican lie.&#160; The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, ratified unanimously in the Senate, while many founding fathers were still Senators, states specifically that the US is <strong>NOT<\/strong> a Christian nation.&#160; Subjecting our troops to religions pressure violates the Establishment Clause.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><a title=\"Bill Schorr\" href=\"http:\/\/comics.com\/bill_schorr\/2011-02-07\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Bill Schorr\" src=\"http:\/\/c0389161.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com\/dyn\/str_strip\/354773.full.gif\" \/><\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">TGIF!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Articles are a little late today, because I did laundry while researching.&#160; No matter how long it sits there, and now matter how I feel, it just refuses to do itself. &#160; The multiple trips up and down the stairs have me feeling gasses, but I\u2019m current in replying to comments. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/11\/open-thread2112011\/' 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-4059","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\/4059","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=4059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}