{"id":7309,"date":"2012-03-05T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T08:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=7309"},"modified":"2012-03-05T00:00:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T08:00:27","slug":"open-thread352012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/05\/open-thread352012\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–3\/5\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday my COPD was quite severe, so for the most part, I stayed down.  I\u2019m current with replies.  Today I have an appointment that I cannot duck, so what I do will depend on how tired I am, when I return.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:48 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Raw Story<\/a>: <\/font>Iran\u2019s parliament looks certain to be dominated by MPs critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to preliminary election results that also showed a big turnover in lawmakers.<\/p>\n

The partial results, from elections held last Friday, accounted for two-thirds of the 290 seats in parliament.<\/p>\n

However the composition, given by Iranian media, remained obscure and sometimes contradictory \u2014 reflecting the country\u2019s complex politics based on individual MPs\u2019 alliances rather than formal political parties.<\/p>\n

While I claim no expertise on Iranian politics, I don’t see how they could do worse than Ahmadinejad, so this may be a positive sign.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Reuters<\/a>: <\/font>President Barack Obama warned on Sunday against "loose talk" of a war with Iran ahead of a crucial meeting in which he will urge Israel’s prime minister to avoid a premature strike on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n

On the eve of his talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama used a speech to the pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group AIPAC to pledge his staunch support for the Jewish state and to argue that international sanctions on Iran must given more time to work.<\/p>\n

Because AIPAC is the US focus for bigotry against Palestinians, Israeli Terrorism and Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity, Obama\u2019s mere presence there troubles me.  J-Street is a far better venue through which to express support for a peaceful Israel and a two state solution.  That said, for Republicans, if war is the hammer, even a mild headache is a nail.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Raw Story<\/a>: <\/font>There was no sincerity in Rush Limbaugh\u2019s apology to Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke<\/a>, according to the perspective shared by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) Sunday morning. <\/p>\n

Appearing on CBS\u2019 Face The Nation, Paul again called Limbaugh\u2019s comments towards Fluke as \u201ccrude\u201d and expressed that the controversial radio host became nervous over losing sponsors, with currently six companies pulling their backing<\/a> from his show. <\/p>\n

OMG! :-O  I actually agree with rabid Ronnie the racist?!!?  Somebody PLEASE shoot me!!!! \ud83d\ude41<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

Yesterday my COPD was quite severe, so for the most part, I stayed down.  I\u2019m current with replies.  Today I have an appointment that I cannot duck, so what I do will depend on how tired I am, when I return. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:48 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here.  […]<\/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-7309","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\/7309","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=7309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}