{"id":9823,"date":"2013-01-06T04:34:58","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T12:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9823"},"modified":"2013-01-06T04:34:58","modified_gmt":"2013-01-06T12:34:58","slug":"open-thread162013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/06\/open-thread162013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–1\/6\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was so out of it that I forgot to upload the Open Thread to the site.  Fortunately, I received an unexpected phone call from a friend, who shall remain nameless, to check on me.  Today is a high holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, but I slept through yesterday\u2019s meditations. :-(  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 4:03 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Maddow Blog<\/a>: <\/font>I feel like I hear this from GOP lawmakers fairly regularly: they keep creating crises, on purpose, because they’re eager for an epic fight over "the direction and the vision of this country." At a certain level, that’s understandable — in a democracy, these fights over the future can be healthy and necessary.<\/p>\n

But what Graham and too many of his allies seem to forget is that we already had "one hell of a contest about the direction and the vision of this country."<\/p>\n

It was a little something called "the 2012 election cycle," and though Graham may not have liked the results, his side lost\u2026<\/p>\n

…But wait, Republicans say, didn’t the electorate also elect a right-wing House majority? To a certain extent, yes, but in raw vote totals, Americans cast 1.362 million more votes for Democratic House candidates<\/a> than GOP House candidates, which hardly points to a powerful Republican mandate.<\/p>\n

We had an epic fight, and one side won. To pretend the election didn’t happen, and then say it’s time for another epic fight that disregards the will of American voters, is bad for the country — and for democracy.<\/p>\n

I have little to add, except that Steve Benin could not be more spot on here.<\/font><\/p>\n

From The Guardian<\/a>: <\/font>Why Paul Krugman should be President Obama’s pick for US treasury secretary.<\/p>\n

Not only is he the world’s best-known economist, Krugman has the intellect and integrity to resist Wall Street’s calls for austerity.<\/p>\n

President Obama hasn’t picked a treasury secretary yet for his second term, so he has a chance to do something different.<\/p>\n

He could ignore what Wall Street and conservative media interests want and pick somebody who would represent what the electorate voted for. <\/p>\n

Now who is that infamous fellow who has been suggesting that very thing since Obama’s error in picking Timmy the Tool? That’s right! It is I.<\/font><\/p>\n

From MSNBC<\/a>: <\/font>Alan Grayson on the Debt Ceiling and the 113th Congress<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

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

Grayson’s return is a breath of fresh air. Like Dennis Kucinich, he knows no fear when it comes to speaking his mind. Unlike Dennis, I don\u2019t think Alan would ever be so foolhardy as to chose that phony, racist misanthropic gnome, Ron Paul, as a running mate.  Welcome back Alan.  Good riddance Ron.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"6Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was so out of it that I forgot to upload the Open Thread to the site.  Fortunately, I received an unexpected phone call from a friend, who shall remain nameless, to check on me.  Today is a high holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, but I slept through yesterday\u2019s meditations. […]<\/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-9823","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\/9823","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=9823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}