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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy News

Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy News

by Anne Laurie|  December 8, 20145:21 am| 31 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Readership Capture, War on Terror aka GSAVE®, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

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The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,The Colbert Report on Facebook,Video Archive

.

Via New York Magazine. Set your DVRs now.

Also a small ray of hope, from Daniel Politi at Slate:

Six detainees who had spent 12 years in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were sent to Uruguay as refugees in the first resettlement of detainees in a South American country. The prisoners—four Syrians, one Tunisian, and a Palestinian—were detained in 2002, but were never charged and made up the largest group ever resettled in the Western Hemisphere. They have been getting ready for the transfer for months and have been taking Spanish lessons at the detention center since March, reports the Miami Herald. The best-known of the six is Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a 43-year-old Syrian who has been on a prolonged hunger strike and filed a lawsuit to prevent the military from force-feeding him. Although his release is likely to make the case irrelevant, the fight over whether a videotape of the procedure should be released is likely to continue, details the New York Times.

The United States has transferred 19 prisoners out of Guantanamo this year, leaving a total of 136 detainees in the controversial prison that President Obama has vowed to shut down. The White House is optimistic that if it can get the number of detainees down to “two digits,” Congress will revoke the law preventing the transfer of Guantánamo prisoners to U.S. soil, details the Times. If all low-level detainees approved for transfer are taken out of Guantánamo, some 69 would remain…

***********
Apart from hoarding what hope we can gather, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?

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Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    December 8, 2014 at 5:31 am

    Just for the record:

    Countries that have resettled detainees

    Albania 11

    Belgium 1

    Bermuda 4

    Bulgaria 1

    Cape Verde 1

    El Salvador 2

    France 2

    Georgia 6

    Germany 2

    Hungary 1

    Ireland 2

    Latvia 1

    Palau 6

    Portugal 2

    Qatar* 5

    Slovakia 8

    Spain 3

    Switzerland 3

    Uruguay 6

    * Separately, Qatar is functioning as a one-year, way-station for five Afghan prisoners from the Taliban released May 31, 2014. Source

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 8, 2014 at 5:51 am

    Had the granddaughter for the wkend and spent all of yesterday cooking. Started with smoking a brisket (that took most of the day) and then she and I used the afternoon to produce copious amounts of crackers, graham and herb. She had fun (I had a blast) and was appropriately proud of her efforts (took some home to share with Mommy, Mommy’s partner, her other Grammie and Grandpa too). Not sure what I will do with my day, but I won’t spend it in the kitchen.

    Also, I had to laugh. At the start of yesterdays game with the Redskins? The 6 current players on the Rams roster (5 starters) they received in draft picks in the RG III trade 3 years ago? Rams coach Jeff Fisher sent them out for the coin toss. Kind of kicking a man when he’s down, but as my dear old Daddy used to say, “If you can’t kick a man when he’s down, when can you kick him?”

  3. 3.

    mai naem mobile

    December 8, 2014 at 6:52 am

    Wouldn’t it be cheaper to have these people moved to some island in the Pacific or somewhere remote.Set them up with a well(s),alternate energy, farm animals, housing etc., mobile medical and set up some cameras(satellite maybe)and 24hr monitoring with the navy. Sounds a lot cheaper. I’m kinda serious.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 8, 2014 at 7:03 am

    You know the biggest difference between the current residents of Guantanamo Bay and the homeless? We insist on feeding the “terrorists” while insisting on not feeding the homeless.

    What could be the motivation? As commissioners acknowledged in the ordinance, “the City of Fort Lauderdale has a substantial interest in the revitalization, preservation of property values and the prevention of the deterioration in its downtown.”

    And feeding the homeless – which destroys the visual impression of a booming downtown – kind of wrecks that image.

    Once again, property values trump basic humanity.

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 8, 2014 at 7:08 am

    I found out overnight that the third actor in my one-act play can’t do the show so guess what… I get to play the part. Yeah, I have a BFA in acting, but I also gave up acting for playwriting because it’s a lot easier to write the lines than memorize them. Fortunately I have a great director and the other actor is perfect for the part. Showtime is December 20 and 21, so I have time…I’ve been running lines since I got to work.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 8, 2014 at 7:18 am

    @Mustang Bobby: Have fun!

  7. 7.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 8, 2014 at 7:25 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I hope to. I have a feeling that at some point I’m going to ask the director who wrote this shit?

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 8, 2014 at 7:27 am

    @Mustang Bobby: HA!

  9. 9.

    Iowa Old Lady

    December 8, 2014 at 7:28 am

    @Mustang Bobby: You wrote the lines. Doesn’t that make it easier to memorize them?

  10. 10.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 8, 2014 at 7:31 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: You’d think, wouldn’t you? I have to work hard not to make “improvements” to the script as I go along; I’m just an actor now. To a playwright, an actor is just a prop with feet.

  11. 11.

    Iowa Old Lady

    December 8, 2014 at 7:46 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I can see how it would be kind of painful to turn your work over to someone else like that. I assume there’s a director? (Probably a stupid question, but I’ve never done anything in theater)

  12. 12.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 8, 2014 at 7:51 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: Not at all a stupid question. One of the things I’ve learned as a playwright is to trust the work and not worry about someone else taking over. After all, theatre is collaborative with the actors, designers, and director and playwright all going for the same vision: the play. I’ve seen my work done poorly, but it — and I — survived.

    I’ve got a terrific director whom I trust with the work, and he’s in charge. Now I just have to learn my lines.

  13. 13.

    JPL

    December 8, 2014 at 7:51 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I have no doubt that you can do it. We’ll be here cheering you on.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    December 8, 2014 at 7:55 am

    A friend sent me this in my email..
    “The Koch brothers and their allies are pumping tens of millions of dollars into a data company that’s developing detailed, state-of-the-art profiles of 250 million Americans, giving the brothers’ political operation all the earmarks of a national party,
    political wire

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 8, 2014 at 8:01 am

    I’ve had bad days before but this would drive me to drinking: Vermont Man Crashes 2 Trucks, Tries To Tow Them With An ATV, Gets DUI Charge Wait a minute… Let me rethink that.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2014 at 8:04 am

    “You’re so close, yet so far away.
    “We’re sorry, but this video isn’t available in your location.”

    Pout.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    December 8, 2014 at 8:12 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Also, you won’t have to work to get into the character’s head, right?

    ETA: “To a playwright, an actor is just a prop with feet.”

    I can hear my acting friends groaning…

  18. 18.

    mai naem mobile

    December 8, 2014 at 8:21 am

    @JPL: the teabaggers can go kiss some Koch ass when their medicare and social security disappears along with free public schools. Idiocracy indeed.

  19. 19.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2014 at 8:27 am

    @debbie:
    Not long ago, motion-capture acting pioneer Andy Serkis (the new Planet of the Apes franchise, The Lord of The Rings, etc.) referred to the computer graphics applied to his acting performances as “digital makeup”. Guess whose feelings got hurt.

  20. 20.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 8, 2014 at 8:41 am

    @debbie: Having worked both sides of the stage, I can say that actors get a lot of abuse heaped on them, som deserved, some not. Playwrights and designers try to make their plays actor-proof; i.e. so they can’t be “improved” by them, and I am sure that there are plenty of actors who know they could be great if it wasn’t for those damn lines they had to say and furniture to avoid. It’s a collaboration of the necessary, not always the willing.

  21. 21.

    MomSense

    December 8, 2014 at 8:55 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Break a leg! Can’t wait to hear all about it..

  22. 22.

    jo6pac

    December 8, 2014 at 10:15 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Thanks this morning LOL

  23. 23.

    Sherparick

    December 8, 2014 at 10:22 am

    On Steve Kornaki’s show on MSNBC, he had some really interesting exit polls on Landreiu and the change of the vote in Louisiana. Here support among white voters fell from 33% in 2008 to around 18% in 2014. The constant “dog whistling” by folks like Jindal, Vitter, Foster, etc. in Louisiana that Obama is “sitting down every day and taking money from “hard working people” and giving it “away,” had ad the intended effect of shifting even white moderates and entire white working classes into reinvented one party “Neo-Confederate Party,” this time under the name Republicans, as opposed to Democrats. However, as Eric Foner said post-the first Reconstruction, this is about a corrupt, reactionary, violent, elite once more establishing control in the Confederacy.

  24. 24.

    John M. Burt

    December 8, 2014 at 10:29 am

    @MomSense: High time someone said that to Mustang Bobby!
    Bobby, Friend MomSense speaks my mind in this matter.

  25. 25.

    Citizen_X

    December 8, 2014 at 10:35 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Guess whose feelings got hurt

    The makeup crew?

  26. 26.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 8, 2014 at 10:57 am

    @John M. Burt: While I always liked that phrase, my mother’s go-to “good luck” phrase was “Hals und Bein bruch” which means — correct me if I’m wrong, Amir — “break a leg and your neck.”

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    December 8, 2014 at 11:03 am

    Cats are still bickering. We put Charlotte into a room by herself last night and of course she spent half the night howling and scratching to be let out. (If you didn’t realize that house cats can howl, believe me, they certainly can.) The point of dispute seems to be the Ikea bookcases that were delivered on Saturday and who gets to sit on the boxes, but it’s gotten a little ugly. Time to pick up more Feliway diffuser.

  28. 28.

    shelley

    December 8, 2014 at 11:38 am

    Hey, anybody hear anything about Betty Cracker’s dog? You know, she was concerned that his tail might have been broken. I guess no news is good news.

  29. 29.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 8, 2014 at 12:06 pm

    I recall early in Obama’s presidency reading that he had shipped out every prisoner other countries would allow within their borders already. I’m not surprised he keeps trying to place new ones. It’s the only option Congress hasn’t taken away.

    @Sherparick:

    this is about a corrupt, reactionary, violent, elite once more establishing control in the Confederacy.

    Just remember, they’re not bamboozling anybody. 99% of them are regular joe voters, and those people know exactly what they’re voting for. They’ve chosen what’s important to them, and it’s kicking the other guy rather than lifting up themselves.

  30. 30.

    Mike G

    December 8, 2014 at 5:15 pm

    The White House is optimistic that if it can get the number of detainees down to “two digits,” Congress will revoke the law preventing the transfer of Guantánamo prisoners to U.S. soil, details the Times.

    Charlie Brown, meet Lucy and her football.

  31. 31.

    John Weiss

    December 8, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    Gaaaah! Autoplay!!

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