{"id":6973,"date":"2012-02-03T00:15:24","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T08:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=6973"},"modified":"2012-02-03T00:15:24","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T08:15:24","slug":"open-thread232012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/03\/open-thread232012\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–2\/3\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I made up for lost sleep the day before.  I\u2019m current with replies.  I\u2019m running a little late, because I\u2019m doing laundry at the same time.  I still hate laundry.  Today I plan a haircut and running errands.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today it took me 3:36 (average 4:50).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From FDL<\/a>: <\/font>At least so far, the attempts from inside the military to warn against an early withdrawal<\/a> in Afghanistan are not working. In fact, the US appeared to move in the other direction today, aligning themselves more with France than with the military moles.<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced<\/a> that NATO would shift from a combat to a training mission in Afghanistan sometime in the second half of next year, rather than by 2014 as previously indicated.<\/p>\n

This is a good decision.  Given the complex logistics of withdrawal, due to tension with Pakistan, safe withdrawal would take over a year anyway.  This demonstrates that Obama has abandoned the failed Republican COIN strategy in favor of a much more effective counter-terrorism strategy.  Republicans are livid, because they want to continue COIN.<\/font><\/p>\n

From AP\/Google<\/a>: <\/font>Israel’s defense minister says there is growing international awareness that military action against Iran’s nuclear program will have to be considered.<\/p>\n

Ehud Barak told a security conference on Thursday that he senses a change in international thinking. He says world leaders are increasingly realizing that if sanctions don’t stop Iran’s nuclear program, "there will be a need to consider action."<\/p>\n

Israel, like the West, believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Israel has been a leading voice in calls to curb the Iranian program. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.<\/p>\n

Israel has repeatedly hinted it is ready to attack Iran.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s warmongering only makes the situation worse.  The Obama administration has announced that the US will not support an Israeli attack against Iran.<\/font><\/p>\n

From PR Watch<\/a>: <\/font>Today, hundreds of state legislators from across the nation will head out to an "island" resort on the coast of Florida to a unique "education academy" sponsored by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). There will be no students or teachers. Instead, legislators, representatives from right-wing think tanks and for-profit education corporations will meet behind closed doors to channel their inner Milton Friedman<\/a> and promote the radical transformation of the American education system into a private, for-profit enterprise.<\/p>\n

The 1% hate public education, because they want YOUR tax money to help fund their kids\u2019 education in posh private schools, safe from contamination by YOUR kids.  Of course, the Republican Party supports anything that takes away from the poor and middle classes, so the rich can have more.  If you have not done so, check out ALEC Exposed<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"3Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I made up for lost sleep the day before.  I\u2019m current with replies.  I\u2019m running a little late, because I\u2019m doing laundry at the same time.  I still hate laundry.  Today I plan a haircut and running errands. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today it took me 3:36 (average 4:50).  To do it, click here.  How […]<\/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-6973","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\/6973","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=6973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}