{"id":4119,"date":"2011-02-21T08:26:03","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T16:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4119"},"modified":"2011-02-21T08:26:03","modified_gmt":"2011-02-21T16:26:03","slug":"open-thread2212011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/21\/open-thread2212011\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;2\/21\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Yesterday I actually returned about three days of visits, but I\u2019m still up against the wall with unabated craving.&#160; I\u2019m up to date with comments.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today it took me 3:56 (average 4:45).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2011-02-21-CE2504A965A9\">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.theaustralian.com.au\/news\/world\/suez-bound-warships-delayed\/story-e6frg6so-1226009703285\">The Australian<\/a>: <\/font>Iran&#8217;s first attempt in decades to send warships through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean on NATO&#8217;s southern flank could further destabilise the Middle East as it reels from a wave of anti-government rebellions. <\/p>\n<p>The passage of two Iranian navy ships, the frigate Alvand and support ship Kharg, through the Suez Canal has been delayed until tomorrow, a canal official said.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Iran\u2019s lone destroyer would certainly present no threat to the US 6th Fleet, but it\u2019s presence in the Med could well put Israel\u2019s panties in a bunch.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2011\/02\/21\/leader-egyptian-unions-wisconsin\/\">Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>Now, as tens of thousands of union members and other Wisconsin residents are taking to the streets to protest against Gov. Scott Walker\u2019s (R) attempt to abolish collective bargaining rights for most public workers, a leader of Egypt\u2019s largest umbrella group of independent labor unions is praising the Wisconsin movement. In a videotaped statement, Kamal Abbas, the General Coordinator of the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services, tells the Wisconsin protesters, \u201cWe stand with you as you stood with us.\u201d He says \u201cno one believed\u201d that the revolution against the Mubarak regime would succeed, yet they were able to bring the dictator down within 18 days. He encourages demonstrators to stay strong, saying, \u201cDon\u2019t give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Thank you so much, Mr. Abbas!&#160; Workers of the world need to stand together against autocrats like Scott Mubarak and Hosni Walker.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newshounds.us\/2011\/02\/21\/fox_news_gets_another_bigger_earful_of_fox_news_lies_from_wisconsin_protesters.php\">News Hounds<\/a>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><object width=\"450\" height=\"370\"><param name=\"movie\" target=\"_blank\" value=\"http:\/\/www.liveleak.com\/e\/405_1298164664\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed target=\"_blank\" src=\"http:\/\/www.liveleak.com\/e\/405_1298164664\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" width=\"450\" height=\"370\"><\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">This is music to my ears!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><a title=\"Clay Bennett\" href=\"http:\/\/comics.com\/clay_bennett\/2011-02-18\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Clay Bennett\" src=\"http:\/\/c0389161.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com\/dyn\/str_strip\/355823.full.gif\" \/><\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Let\u2019s remember what Washington and Lincoln stood for.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I actually returned about three days of visits, but I\u2019m still up against the wall with unabated craving.&#160; I\u2019m up to date with comments. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today it took me 3:56 (average 4:45).&#160; To do it, click here.&#160; How did you do? Short Takes: From The Australian: Iran&#8217;s first attempt in decades to <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/21\/open-thread2212011\/' 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-4119","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\/4119","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=4119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}