{"id":8825,"date":"2012-09-12T10:05:22","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T17:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=8825"},"modified":"2012-09-12T10:05:22","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T17:05:22","slug":"open-thread9122012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/12\/open-thread9122012\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;9\/12\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Yesterday I met with a dozen prisoners for our CoDA group.&#160; A lot of the discussion focused on our need to maintain healthy relationships with ourselves, and as always, I could not have been more proud of my guys.&#160; I returned home late and pooped.&#160; I slept late this morning, so this will be today\u2019s only article.&#160; I am not current with replies, but will catch up when I can.&#160; Tomorrow appears routine.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 3:47 (average 4:49).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2012-09-12-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/front.moveon.org\/why-some-women-all-across-the-country-are-rethinking-their-party\/\" target=\"_blank\">MoveOn<\/a>: <\/font>Why Some Women All Across The Country Are Rethinking Their Party<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DA3ff8bjiZ8?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">For men, as well as women, unless you are rich and dominated by your own greed, a hatemonger or a fanatic trying to force your religious dogma on others, the Republican Party is wrong for you.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/09\/12\/world\/middleeast\/anger-over-film-fuels-anti-american-attacks-in-libya-and-egypt.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Protesters angry over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qmodVun16Q4&amp;feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\">an amateurish American-made video<\/a> denouncing Islam attacked the United States Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Tuesday, killing a State Department officer, while Egyptian demonstrators stormed over the fortified walls of the United States Embassy here. <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Here\u2019s that video:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qmodVun16Q4?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I am behind the curve on this issue, so I do not have much to say. However, I remember millions of evangelicals demonstrating in anger over &quot;The Last Temptation of Christ&quot;, and this garbage film is far more offensive. I understand people\u2019s anger over it, but not the actions of the murderers.&#160; There is no conflict between authentic Christians and authentic Muslims. The conflict is between Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians and right-wing Muslim extremists, both of which seek to impose their dogma on others. Remember that the Libyans trying to save our people are Muslims too.&#160; I condemn Willard Romney for his desperate and dangerous political opportunism, and I ask your thoughts and prayers for the families of the four slain Americans.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2012\/9\/12\/whistleblower_brad_birkenfeld_rewarded_record_104m\" target=\"_blank\">Democracy Now<\/a>: <\/font>The IRS has announced a record $104 million reward to a whistleblower who exposed the largest tax evasion scheme in U.S. history. Former UBS AG banker Brad Birkenfeld first reported in 2007 that he and his colleagues had encouraged rich Americans to store more than $20 billion in offshore Swiss bank accounts and cheat the IRS. But after coming forward, Birkenfeld was prosecuted and convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to prison. Following Birkenfeld\u2019s release last month, on Tuesday the IRS vindicated his actions with the largest amount ever awarded under its whistleblower program.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I wonder whether he knows anything about Willard&#8217;s tax evasion using Swiss banks.&#160; Do you think this makes Willard nervous?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline\" title=\"12Cartoon\" alt=\"12Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/12Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I met with a dozen prisoners for our CoDA group.&#160; A lot of the discussion focused on our need to maintain healthy relationships with ourselves, and as always, I could not have been more proud of my guys.&#160; I returned home late and pooped.&#160; I slept late this morning, so this will be today\u2019s <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/12\/open-thread9122012\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-religion","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","category-47-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8825","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=8825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}