{"id":5783,"date":"2011-09-05T00:21:11","date_gmt":"2011-09-05T07:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5783"},"modified":"2011-09-05T00:21:11","modified_gmt":"2011-09-05T07:21:11","slug":"open-thread952011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/05\/open-thread952011\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–9\/5\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a lazy day, except for a quick trip out for staples.  It was very hot, as it will be all week, but my little AC unit kept it below 85.  It was still too hot to sleep much so I\u2019m dragging by butt.  I\u2019m current on replies.  Today will be more of the same.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today it took me 4:36 (average 5:22).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Washington Post<\/a>: <\/font>Hillary Rodham Clinton isn\u2019t president, but Dick Cheney says that if she were in the White House rather than Barack Obama, then things might be different today in the country.<\/p>\n

Cheney isn\u2019t getting into specifics, but he does think that \u201cperhaps she might have been easier for some of us who are critics of the president to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

This couldn\u2019t be about policy, because Obama took on Clinton\u2019s advisers, and they are already taking the lead in policy decisions.  Cheney must mean that it\u2019s because she\u2019s white.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Common Dreams<\/a>: <\/font>At least one in seven Afghan soldiers walked off the job during the first six months of this year, according to statistics compiled by NATO that show an increase in desertion.<\/p>\n

Between January and June, more than 24,000 soldiers walked off the job, more than twice as many as in the same period last year, according to the NATO statistics. In June alone, more than 5,000 soldiers deserted, nearly 3 percent of the 170,000-strong force.<\/p>\n

Those Afghans are leaving for a reason.  They know a losing proposition, when they see it.  It\u2019s long past the time for the US recognize this and leave.<\/font><\/p>\n

From KATU<\/a>: <\/font>As he [Brad Avarkian] courts Democratic primary voters to help win the Nov. 8 special election, Avakian is trumpeting solidly liberal positions on a number of issues \u2014 ideas that could play well in the Democrat-dominated Northwest Oregon district, even if they’re less popular in a Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives. Avakian wants, for instance, to immediately end the war in Afghanistan and use the money to hire many of the 14 million out-of-work Americans to build new bridges, and upgrade airports and railways.<\/p>\n

Brad is one of the Democrats running for David Wu\u2019s seat in Oregon\u2019s 1st Congressional District.  The more I learn, the better I like him.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"5Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a lazy day, except for a quick trip out for staples.  It was very hot, as it will be all week, but my little AC unit kept it below 85.  It was still too hot to sleep much so I\u2019m dragging by butt.  I\u2019m current on replies.  Today will be more of the […]<\/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-5783","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\/5783","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=5783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}