{"id":5668,"date":"2011-08-23T00:32:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T07:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5668"},"modified":"2011-08-23T00:32:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T07:32:19","slug":"open-thread8232011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/23\/open-thread8232011\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–8\/23\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was not as hot, but still too hot to get much sleep.  The temperature at my desk cooled off to 86\u00b0 early in the morning, and rose from there, only reaching 98\u00b0.  It is currently 93\u00b0.  My AC is in Illinois.  I had to go out to run errands.  I\u2019m current with replies.  Today the quest for sleep continues.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today it took me 5:40 (average 6:12).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From ABC<\/a>: <\/font>New York prosecutors today filed a motion to dismiss sexual assault charges against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not saying he did or didn\u2019t get away with something here, but the rush to convict him in the press and the blogosphere, before even an evidentiary hearing had taken place, was sickening.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Reuters<\/a>: <\/font>Republican Paul Ryan firmly ruled out a 2012 U.S. presidential bid on Monday, ending another round of speculation the congressman would make a late leap into the race.<\/p>\n

Even without him, his plan is running for President.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Common Dreams<\/a>: <\/font>The leader of Canada’s socialist New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, died Monday of cancer at his Toronto home, his family said. He was 61.<\/p>\n

"We deeply regret to inform you that the Honorable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 a.m. today," a statement from his wife, Olivia Chow, and his children, Sarah and Michael said.<\/p>\n

He was a truly great man.  I offer my condolences to his wife, his family, and the people of Canada.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>Shery Lanford Smith, the chairwoman of Sumter Tea Party in South Carolina is under fire after posting a joke<\/a> about killing President and First Lady Obama on her Facebook profile last Thursday. In the joke, the Obamas\u2019 helicopter pilot says to his co-pilot, \u201cI could throw both of them out of the window and make 256 million people very happy!\u201d Smith continued, \u201cIf you\u2019re one of [the] 256 million, pass it on,\u201d which implies \u201cshe herself would be happy to see the Obamas killed.\u201d <\/p>\n

There were a few people on the left doing this when Bush was President, and I condemned it then.  With Republicans, it has become the norm, and I condemn it now.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"23Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was not as hot, but still too hot to get much sleep.  The temperature at my desk cooled off to 86\u00b0 early in the morning, and rose from there, only reaching 98\u00b0.  It is currently 93\u00b0.  My AC is in Illinois.  I had to go out to run errands.  I\u2019m current with replies.  Today […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5668","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=5668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}