{"id":9796,"date":"2012-12-31T02:59:36","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T10:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9796"},"modified":"2012-12-31T02:59:36","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T10:59:36","slug":"open-thread12312012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/31\/open-thread12312012\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–12\/31\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m still down, but will have at least two articles tomorrow.  I\u2019m current with replies.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:34 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Religious Ecstasy<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"1230-Broncos38-Chiefs3\"<\/font><\/p>\n

They clinched the top seed in the AFC, giving them home field advantage throughout the playoffs.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>Howls of protest filled the halls of the U.S. Senate today as dozens of Senators expressed their outrage at having to work through the weekend to save the United States from financial Armageddon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hearing a lot about the country plunging back into recession and millions of people being thrown out of work,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). \u201cWhat we\u2019re not hearing much about is how our Sunday is being completely and irrevocably ruined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator McConnell said that when President Obama called the Senate back to work on a budget deal this weekend, \u201cAt first I thought he was kidding. Not only have I never worked on a weekend, I\u2019ve never met anyone who\u2019s done such a damn fool thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It must be horrible for Bought Bitch Mitch to be called on to save the economy, especially since he has already expended so much effort in the opposite direction.<\/font><\/p>\n

From MSNBC<\/a>: <\/font>Jeff Merkley (D-OR) discussed fiscal speed bump negotiations.<\/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

I agree completely with my Senator. although I could accept a higher income cutoff level on the Bush tax cuts, as high as $500,000. However no deal is acceptable unless it extends unemployment benefits. He is also right that more people working is the fastest way to reduce the deficit.<\/font><\/p>\n

From The Nation<\/a>: <\/font>\u201cWe\u2019re not going to have any Social Security cuts,\u201d the Senate majority leader said on the floor of the chamber Sunday.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s just doesn\u2019t seem appropriate at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, had attempted Saturday to use the \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d fight to advance a proposal to adopt a chained consumer price index\u2014\u201cchained CPI\u201d\u2014scheme<\/a> that would slash cost-of-living increases for Americans who rely on Social Security and other government programs. The Obama administration had entertained the \u201cchained CPI\u201d switch<\/a> earlier in December. But as the critical point when a deal to cut Social Security might have been made, Reid said \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

That simple rejection of the false premises of Paul Ryan and all the other fantasists who have tried to push Social Security over the \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d\u2014and into the grips of the Wall Street speculators\u2014confounded the political pawns and the \u201cexpert\u201d pundits who imagined that \u201centitlement reforms\u201d (Washington for Social Security cuts) were \u201cinevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within hours of Reid\u2019s Sunday announcement, McConnell and the Republicans backed down and it was clear, finally, that Social Security was \u201coff the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kudos to Reid. I’m glad he finally grew a pair.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"31Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m still down, but will have at least two articles tomorrow.  I\u2019m current with replies. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 4:34 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do? Religious Ecstasy: They clinched the top seed in the AFC, giving them home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Short Takes: From 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":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9796","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\/9796","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=9796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}