{"id":9810,"date":"2013-01-02T03:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T11:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9810"},"modified":"2013-01-02T03:05:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T11:05:00","slug":"open-thread122013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/02\/open-thread122013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–1\/2\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m still down, and I\u2019m going to skip the monthly report this month, because the numbers are so bleak.  I was ill for overt half the month.  I\u2019m current with replies.  We\u2019ll see what tomorrow brings.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:46 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker: <\/font>Official Washington was in celebration mode on New Year\u2019s Day after kind of averting a completely unnecessary crisis that was entirely of its own creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis deal proves that if we all procrastinate long and hard enough, we can semi-solve any self-inflicted problem at the very last minute in a way that satisfies no one,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).<\/p>\n

But even as Sen. McConnell basked in self-congratulation, he warned Congress against the complacency that could come with having sort of fixed its own completely avoidable mess.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget that the fiscal speed bump was created to satisfy Republican economic terrorism, when they blackmailed America over the debt ceiling, wrecking our credit rating.<\/font><\/p>\n

From The White House<\/a>: <\/font><\/p>\n

Fact Sheet: The Tax Agreement: A Victory for Middle-Class Families and the Economy<\/p>\n

At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy. For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue. This means millionaires and billionaires will pay their fair share to reduce the deficit through a combination of permanent tax rate increases and reduced tax benefits. And this agreement ensures that we can continue to make investments in education, clean energy, and manufacturing that create jobs and strengthen the middle class.<\/p>\n

I disagree, because I think millionaires and billionaires still pay far less than their fair share. Click through. This info is worth the time to read it.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Huffington Post<\/a>: <\/font>Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) slammed Kwanzaa, claiming "almost no black people" care about the holiday.<\/p>\n

"Almost no black people today care about Kwanzaa — just white left-wingers who try to shove this down black people’s throats in an effort to divide Americans," Grothman said in a press release, according to Patch<\/a>. <\/p>\n

"Why must we still hear about Kwanzaa?" Grothman asked. "Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa — the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year\u2019s?"<\/p>\n

What can I say? Happy belated Kwanzaa to our African American friends from a white left winger who did not shove it down your throats, because I forgot all about it.  And to racist Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian hate mongers, Happy Holidays.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"2Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m still down, and I\u2019m going to skip the monthly report this month, because the numbers are so bleak.  I was ill for overt half the month.  I\u2019m current with replies.  We\u2019ll see what tomorrow brings. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:46 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do? Short […]<\/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-9810","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\/9810","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=9810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}