{"id":4866,"date":"2011-05-18T01:49:30","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T08:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4866"},"modified":"2011-05-18T01:49:30","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T08:49:30","slug":"open-thread5182011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/18\/open-thread5182011\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–5\/18\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a busy one.  I went to the post office, the bank and the store.  I paid bills and did other things in preparation for today.  I\u2019m current on replies.  This morning I get my teeth pulled.  It will involve top and bottom, left and right.  I\u2019m nervous as a gay man in Westboro Baptist.  You may not hear from me for a day or two, so if there are no articles tomorrow, you\u2019ll know why.  It will depend on how I feel.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today it took me 3:37 (average 4:20).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From Washington Post<\/a>: <\/font>Since January, six senators have engaged in difficult negotiations and made painful concessions in a politically dangerous quest for something that has long eluded Washington: a bipartisan compromise to control the nation\u2019s mounting debt.<\/p>\n

By Tuesday evening, however, the \u201cGang of Six\u201d was on the verge of collapse. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) withdrew from the bipartisan working group, saying the senators simply could not overcome the polarizing political pressure that each faces. The group\u2019s two other Republicans said it would be hard to continue without Coburn.<\/p>\n

Does this remind anyone else about when snake in the<\/em> Grassley dropped out of HCR negotiations, after using them as a false front to delay the legislation?<\/font><\/p>\n

From Boston Globe<\/a>: <\/font>Senator Scott Brown will not disclose whether he supports a GOP budget plan that includes sweeping changes to Medicare, despite saying to a business group last week that he will vote for the measure when it comes up in the US Senate.<\/p>\n

Hello?  Does he think we\u2019re that dumb?  Actually, his voters are, \ud83d\ude41<\/font><\/p>\n

From Uncovered Politics<\/a>: <\/font>U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan announced earlier today that he would not be seeking the U.S. Senate seat now held by retiring Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl.<\/p>\n

His House district is very red, but statewide, he\u2019d get his ass kicked. Bwaaack-buk-buk-buk!<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

When getting teeth pulled, have a Republican sit on your lap.  (That was not intended to be a factual statement,)<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a busy one.  I went to the post office, the bank and the store.  I paid bills and did other things in preparation for today.  I\u2019m current on replies.  This morning I get my teeth pulled.  It will involve top and bottom, left and right.  I\u2019m nervous as a gay man in Westboro […]<\/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-4866","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\/4866","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=4866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}