{"id":9764,"date":"2012-12-21T04:10:52","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T12:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9764"},"modified":"2012-12-21T04:10:52","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T12:10:52","slug":"open-thread12212012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/21\/open-thread12212012\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–12\/21\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m feeling slightly better today, so I\u2019m going to try to catch up on overdue housekeeping and see how I hold up.  I\u2019m current with replies.  Hopefully this weekend.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:26 (average 5:12).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From MoveOn<\/a>: <\/font>When You Look At Gun Safety This Way, What We Aren’t Doing Sure Seems Ridiculous<\/p>\n

\"21guns\"<\/p>\n

This is exactly what I mean by reasonable regulations. Also, just as there are special licenses required to drive more dangerous commercial vehicles, there should be special licenses required to purchase more dangerous weapons.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Mr. Boehner had evident problems getting his caucus to support Plan B, and he took the plan off the table Thursday night; it would have modestly raised taxes on the really wealthy, the top 0.1 percent, and even that was too much for many Republicans. This means that any real deal with Mr. Obama would be met with mass G.O.P. defections; so any such deal would require overwhelming Democratic support, a fact that empowers progressives ready to bolt if they think the president is giving away too much. <\/p>\n

As in 2011, then, the Republican crazies are doing Mr. Obama a favor, heading off any temptation he may have felt to give away the store in pursuit of bipartisan dreams. <\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a broader lesson here. This is no time for a Grand Bargain, because the Republican Party, as now constituted, is just not an entity with which the president can make a serious deal. If we\u2019re going to get a grip on our nation\u2019s problems \u2014 of which the budget deficit is a minor part \u2014 the power of the G.O.P.\u2019s extremists, and their willingness to hold the economy hostage if they don\u2019t get their way, needs to be broken. And somehow I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to happen in the next few days. <\/p>\n

Once again, I find myself in complete agreement with Paul Krugman. Rachel Maddow and Luke Russert reached a similar conclusion.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

From The Hill<\/a>: <\/font>A deficit-reduction deal that includes cost-of-living cuts for Social Security beneficiaries could cost Democrats the support of House liberals who might be needed to pass the bill, a number of lawmakers warned Thursday.<\/p>\n

But the liberal Democrats stopped just short of saying they’d vote against a deal that included a move to the so-called chained consumer-price-index (CPI), a concession President Obama offered to Republicans this week.<\/p>\n

"It is conceivable that you could have a package that is so attractive in so many other ways that you might swallow it. But here’s the problem: There are going to have to be compromises [by liberals] in other areas," Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told reporters at the Capitol. "And what we’re saying is this one, for many of us, is a deal-breaker \u2014 or close to a deal-breaker \u2014 by itself."<\/p>\n

Since Boehner is unable to deliver his own party on a plan that is completely unacceptable, there is no chance that he can do so on a reasonable plan. To get any plan through, Obama is going to have to have progressive support. Keep up the pressure on Obama, the Senate and the House.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"21Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m feeling slightly better today, so I\u2019m going to try to catch up on overdue housekeeping and see how I hold up.  I\u2019m current with replies.  Hopefully this weekend. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 4:26 (average 5:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do? Short Takes: From MoveOn: When You Look At […]<\/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-9764","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\/9764","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=9764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}