{"id":5067,"date":"2011-06-11T02:00:42","date_gmt":"2011-06-11T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5067"},"modified":"2011-06-11T02:00:42","modified_gmt":"2011-06-11T09:00:42","slug":"open-thread6112011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/11\/open-thread6112011\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–6\/11\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I caught up on paperwork and visited with friends.  Plans for the weekend include catching up on email and setting up our fantasy football league.  I am current on replies.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today it took me 3:49 (5:10 average).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Washington Post<\/a>: <\/font>The anti-tax pledge signed by 95 percent of congressional Republicans faces a key test Tuesday, when the Senate is scheduled to vote on a plan to repeal billions of dollars in annual tax credits for ethanol blenders \u2014 a move the pledge defines as a tax increase.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) surprised Senate leaders when he filed a motion late Thursday to force a preliminary vote on the measure.<\/p>\n

The ethanol credit is widely condemned by Republicans as bad economic policy, and Coburn derides it as spending through the tax code.<\/p>\n

Although I agree with Coburn on ethanol, I consider it hypocritical for him to consider ending tax credits for ethanol blenders a spending cut and ending tax credits for Big Oil a tax increase.<\/font><\/p>\n

From KSAT<\/a>: <\/font>The League of United Latin American Citizens filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas Friday challenging the way state lawmakers are re-drawing maps that determine congressional districts.<\/p>\n

Luis Vera, LULAC’s national general counsel, said state Republicans are relying on bad census numbers and are violating the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n

LULAC filed its legal challenge in the U.S. District Court’s Western District of Texas. The suit alleges the state is trying to take away votes from Latinos.<\/p>\n

In Texas, the KKK is the moderate wing of the Republican Party.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Common Dreams<\/a>: <\/font>On Monday, the National Archives and Records Administration will change that, as it officially declassifies the papers 40 years to the day after portions were first disclosed by the New York Times. In doing so, and in making the papers available online, the Archives could provide researchers with a more holistic way of understanding a remarkable chapter of U.S. history.<\/p>\n

Better way too late than never.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"11Cartoon\"<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I caught up on paperwork and visited with friends.  Plans for the weekend include catching up on email and setting up our fantasy football league.  I am current on replies. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today it took me 3:49 (5:10 average).  To do it, click here.  How did you do? Short Takes: From Washington Post: […]<\/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-5067","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\/5067","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=5067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}