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Wednesday Open Thread

by: Colorado Pols

Wed Mar 31, 2010 at 06:43:20 AM MDT


"The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it."

--Voltaire
Colorado Pols :: Wednesday Open Thread
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Wednesday Open Thread | 58 comments
The days I really miss Colorado...
...is this week, up on the slopes. It's the 24th annual "Miracles on a Mountainside" winter sports clinic at Snowmass, co-sponsored by Disabled American Veterans and the VHA.

http://miracles.dav.org/Page1....

I am waiting for all the fiscally-conservative teabagging idiots to tell me this is a waste of taxpayer money...


"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten." Calvin Coolidge

Great article in Newsweek this week about Vets
Discusses how 120 vets a week (a week!) commit suicide. And how we absolutely need to step up and do more.

Where all the cool kids will be on Saturday - Code War!
[ Parent ]
Why...
Did you ruin a perfectly good opening statement on a fantastic event by throwing a grenade at the teabaggers which only serves to incite them further.  Unfortunately they bask in the recognition when the spot light should be on the veterans at Snowmass.


If you're not upset, you haven't been paying attention.  Mike Littwin
Why...
Did you ruin a perfectly good opening statement on a fantastic event by throwing a grenade at the teabaggers which only serves to incite them further.  Unfortunately they bask in the recognition when the spot light should be on the veterans at Snowmass.


If you're not upset, you haven't been paying attention.  Mike Littwin
They don't need any help from Dan
to be in the spotlight. Fox and the rest of the rightie spin machine and enthusiastic tea party supporting members of congress put them there.  If  some of those R pols are now embarrassed by (or at least questioning the PR value of) the things that show up in that spotlight, they have nobody but themselves to blame.
[ Parent ]
I throw it out because it's already out there...
...apparently, it's a waste of taxpayer money to fly the Secretary of the VA and some staff to attend an event that benefits disabled veterans and their transition to Civilian Society.  

"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten." Calvin Coolidge
[ Parent ]
Hey Polsters I Need Bloggers!!!
Anyone interested in joining us at the Colorado Cannabis Convention in Denver this weekend?  This will be history making.  We are expecting over 100,000 people.

Not just pot...we will have a Town Hall Panel with elected officials from the city, state and federal levels. We wil have legal panels with Warren Edson, Rob Corry and Brian Vincente.  There is a hemp fasion show with wedding dresses!  The designer is out of NYC and is bringing 40 models!

Over 300 vendor booths and Cypress Hill.  Email me if you are interested in live Blogging!

"A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." ~ Abraham Lincoln

As in, "Insane in the Membrane" Cypress Hill?

[ Parent ]
Cypress Hill? Seriously?
I love those guys.
[ Parent ]
40 models
 And Cypress Hill?

yikes.

"Why do Republicans get to be stupid and win while whenever we're stupid, we're just stupid?"  sufimarie Feb 2010

[ Parent ]
I'd love to be there to counter SAFER's insane ranting about CDHS....
...if you could drop a line to Mr. Tvert and ask him not to talk out of his ass about how CDHS is sabotaging Medical Marijuana in Colorado, I'd appreciate it.

If he sticks to the facts and calls on a few docs and clinicians who've worked with vets on this issue, he might find he'll get a lot farther than his insane conspiracy theories..

"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten." Calvin Coolidge

[ Parent ]
INSANE is the word for today!
Seriously, I really hope you all make it down.  A lot of great things will happening.  My favorite Congressman will be heading up a Town Hall on Saturday with Rep Joe McCloskey and members of city coucil at about 1:30.

It should be interesting and eye opening and yes, INSANE.

"A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." ~ Abraham Lincoln

Sorry, Joe.... State Representative Joe Miklosi
No jokes about my industry here! :-)

"A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." ~ Abraham Lincoln
[ Parent ]
Caribou Barbie + Faux News = -journalistic ethics
An new low for the combo of a fake politician and a fake news network. They tried to re-purpose an interview of LL Cool J as proof that Sarah Palin was a multicultural reporter who could draw celebrities to her bogus new show on Faux News:

Here's a chapter in the culture wars that no one saw coming: Sarah Palin and Fox News facing off against '80s rap star and actor LL Cool J.

Palin makes her hosting debut Thursday night on Fox, as captain of an interview special in Greta Von Susteren's 10 p.m. slot. The show is called "Real American Stories," and the New York Daily News explains that it chronicles "people who have overcome adversity and more."

Among the success stories Palin plans to highlight are those of country music star Toby Keith, former GE Chairman Jack Welch, and a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. LL Cool J (birth name James Todd Smith) was also included in the roster - which prompted some conservative commenters to gloat a bit.

The problem is that no such chitchat was produced for the Palin show. LL Cool J, star of "NCIS: Los Angeles," tweeted Tuesday night: "Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/...

Read the Faux News statement and try not to chortle too much...

"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten." Calvin Coolidge

Journalistic ethics?
What is wrong with Fox?  At least act ashamed when you get caught falsifying crap.  Nobody loses their job at Fox for repeatedly actively doing it, yet Rather loses his head for having a piece on his show that somebody else falsified.
[ Parent ]
Fox and ethics are a contradiction in terms.
But what's wrong with Fox under TV rules?

Fox is pulling the ratings. That's ALL that counts.

Sometimes, I guess, you have to let the inner bitch out.

[ Parent ]
He's drilling, baby, drilling!

Very quiet today, but why
Some folks are likely shocked as to the lack of blogs on these recent stories:

Face the State: It's baaaaaaaaaaack
http://blogs.denverpost.com/th...
Lynn Bartels and Brad Jones detail the relaunch of the impactful Face-The-State.

Seeking cash back for RTD
http://www.denverpost.com/news...
The legislature wants the RTD CEO to return a $1.3 million in taxpayer funds provided him via a special pension credit scheme not available to other employees.

November looks poor for 2nd Hickenlooper backed RTD tax-hike
http://www.denverpost.com/news...
They won't provide polling data, but advice from team Hickenritter is, "not now". Now questions will surface as to dueling tax hikes for 2011: A) Killing TABOR, B) Helping RTD Meet its Commitments, and C) The 2011 Gaggle of COFPI-Bell Center Inspired Tax Hikes.

University of WY cancel American terrorist, William Ayers, speech
http://www.denverpost.com/news...
Understand The People of WY have certain principles they won't comprimose on.

Morse's "apartment deal" results in to ethics probe
http://www.gazette.com/article...
The good Senator will fight the State Ethics Commission to explain his $500 "rent" to a banking executive for "The Passion Pit".

Health care negatives appear quickly after Obama bill signature
http://www.denverpost.com/opin...
The elimination of a tax exemptions for retirees has companies counting big losses with some shifting the cost to consumers.


The Morse "passion pit" story
is two weeks old and was much discussed then. You really think people are "likely shocked" there's no diary about it today?
[ Parent ]
If Obama announced he were switching parties
and becoming a conservative Republican, while repealing the health care bill and eliminating taxes for all but the poorest 90% of Americans, in addition to invading Iran and outlawing abortion...
could he get a single Republican lawmaker to say a nice thing about him?

Or would he still be black?

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.

Honestly.
 Do you really believe that?
[ Parent ]
Yes
I really believe that no matter what Republican plan Obama offers, no Republican lawmaker will voice any support for it.

As for why, that's speculation on my part.

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.

[ Parent ]
Tbe Republicans hated Clinton when he advocated some of their ideas.
Like welfare reform.

Damned if he didn't, damned if he did.  

"Politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth." Paul Krugman, 9/2010

[ Parent ]
True that
Actually that's the only evidence I have that the current Republican apoplexy is not completely motivated by race. Clinton-hate and Obama-hate are both very serious mental disorders which seem to have quite a lot in common.

Yet still, it just seems to go ever so slightly further with Obama...

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.

[ Parent ]
I do to LB. I wish i didn't...


"A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." ~ Abraham Lincoln
[ Parent ]
I'd love to say no
But I can't.  I'm sure that there are some Republicans who refuse to work with him because they disagree with his policies, but the universal refusal to cooperate and the scorn and derision with which the entire R side of Congress treats him is different from the way they have treated his predecessors.  And there's only one difference between him and his predecessors.

Do you really disagree?

History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.  (Mark Twain)

[ Parent ]
Yes.
Because I know me.  I'm as opposed to his policies (now) as many of these politicians you guys are calling racist, and that label simply doesn't work with me.
[ Parent ]
LB,
Even if Obama had thrown in drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge along with offshore drilling, he would, no doubt, have received pretty much the same response from the Republican Caucus.

I am in complete agreement w/sxp151 about why.


"The modern conservative is engaged in one of mans' oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."    John Kenneth Galbraith

[ Parent ]
Actually, I don't believe it is the only reason
I think the GOP is overwhelmingly in favor of not letting the middle class have any recovery. We still have some money and we shouldn't. It ain't fair that the corporations don't have it all.

Remember when there used to be surveys about "disposable income" that some of us had? I think there are a lot of corporations that said "If it's disposable it should be ours." A lot of those were health care companies and oil companies.

If the GOP can prevent Obama from implementing an agenda they can 1) call him a failure, 2) point to a lot of things he has not been able/willing to "correct" and then 3) resume their tax cutting means of holding power. All to the detriment of America.

Obama being black is just a bonus for them. Remember the Southern strategy?  

[ Parent ]
Meanwhile, over at DORA
The Post says:

The attorney general's office has asked that a whistle-blower complaint filed by state real estate division director Erin Toll be dismissed, and information obtained Tuesday by The Denver Post called into question a key element of the embattled regulator's complaint

. . . .

In its motion to dismiss, filed Monday, the attorney general's office said paid leave can't count as punishment under state personnel rules and that the dispute between Toll and Kelley should have been settled through a private, internal grievance process before going to the personnel board.

And while Toll maintained that Kelley put a stop to the investigation of American Home Funding, information from the mortgage firm's lawyer shows the company is still under scrutiny, if not a full-fledged inquiry.

Toll told reporters March 2 that the company was under investigation. In her whistle-blower complaint, she said Kelley ended the investigation March 9. But company president Derrick Strauss received a request for information on March 24 from the state real estate division, said the firm's attorney, Jason Dunn.

. . . .

"(Toll) has simultaneously filed an appeal with the board and a grievance with (DORA) regarding the exact same issue," writes Vincent Morscher, first assistant attorney general. "(DORA) must have an opportunity to resolve the issue . . . prior to (Toll) filing an appeal with the board."

Morscher also addresses Toll's concerns about being barred from speaking to the media and her underlings by saying Kelley was following standard procedures for investigations into employee conduct when she imposed the restrictions.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_1...


First of three panels clears "Climategate" scientists
From NPR:
The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee said Wednesday that they'd seen no evidence to support charges that the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit or its director, Phil Jones, had tampered with data or perverted the peer review process to exaggerate the threat of global warming - two of the most serious criticisms levied against the climatologist and his colleagues.

In their report, the committee said that, as far as it was able to ascertain, "the scientific reputation of Professor Jones and CRU remains intact," adding that nothing in the more than 1,000 stolen e-mails, or the controversy kicked up by their publication, challenged scientific consensus that "global warming is happening and that it is induced by human activity."

Sorry, Libertad/LB.

"We're below sharks and contract killers." -- Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), speaking on Congress's 9% approval rating

What a shock!
I can't believe it!

/snark

[ Parent ]
It's a conspiracy!
6,500,000,000 people all get together behind your back to plan out the day's climate science outrage. We all made up a bunch of graphs and crap in order to make Al Gore slightly wealthier, because we know that pisses you off.

Also we plan the weather. We put all that snow out there last week just to piss you off.

Also there's no such thing as science, or universities, or PhDs, or research, or computer simulations, or climate measurements, or temperature. We made up all that stuff just to piss you off.

Once you and Libertad and Glenn Beck finally figure out what we're up to, we will laugh so hard we'll knock the earth out of its orbit.

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.

[ Parent ]
So...
If it's such an obvious problem, why the lying and secrecy from the top scientists of the movement?
[ Parent ]
We couldn't keep up the scam without all the lying and secrecy
You know how difficult it is to run a conspiracy with 6.5 billion people for no particular reason, if you're telling the truth?

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.
[ Parent ]
Lying and secrecy?
You really don't know what you're talking about. This ain't Exxon. This ain't Dick Cheney's energy task force. For the price of admission, you can go to several scientific meetings a year and listen to what climate scientists are doing. You can ask questions. And you know what? You'll get answers.

Did you know that climate change deniers regularly show up at brown-bag colloquies at NCAR and heckle the speakers? (The ones that show up aren't very well mannered.) But nobody shuts them out.

Richard Alley just gave a talk at CU that was not only open to the public, but was intended for the public. Were you there?

I think it comes down to this: You're ignorant of the facts of global climate change and you're not doing a thing to change it. Here's a good reference to start with: http://www.meted.ucar.edu/broa...

Its just like Further, but with tax cuts! - Fidel's Dirt Nap

[ Parent ]
It's really hopeless ajb. These folks aren't interested in facts.


Exercise your right to peaceably assemble and reclaim the commons. Stop the militarization of America.
[ Parent ]
Uh-uh LB.
Science is a human enterprise. It is made more robust by creating incentives, intense pressures, to produce, but those same pressures inevitably incentivize some cheating. Careers are at stake. It has nothing to do with what's being studied. Everything that is being studied has a certain rate of falsified or fudged work, of short-cuts designed to meet the deadline, to publish rather than perish, to get tenure, to stay alive.

In a completely different context not long ago, I pointed this out to David regarding Social Science, and number crunching (and my oft-repeated line about torturing your data long enough), because the social science statistical study error rate is enormous.

Does this fact invalidate all science? No. Does it invalidate any science in which it happens to be discovered in a particular instance? No. Does it invalidate the particular study or part of a study in which it was demonstrated (if, indeed, it is demonstrated)? Yes.

Even granting the premise that this was an authentic case of fudging data (I don't know, I didn't read the emails, so for the sake of argument let's say that it was), it doesn't discredit the hundreds of thousands of pages of measurements, raw data, models, research, and theory, compiled over decades by thousands of different scientists, all creating an amazingly consistent picture of the dynamics involved, a picture reinforced by theoretical predictions that pre-dated the measurements that proved them.

I've studied this in a variety of contexts. I've seen the data, I've read the history. No one who works with information professionally has any doubt about the validity of Global Warming, that it is at least in part (and almost certainly in its entirety, judging from long-term data demonstrating the trends that should occur naturally) a product of human activity, and that, whether it is or isn't, the consequences are going to be devastating for humanity if we don't address it and address it yesterday.

You worry about leaving our children a debt that economists generally agree is less of a crisis than the right is making it out to be. I worry about not leaving them a world due to a scientific paradigm that virtually all scientists recognize to be the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced.

Someone has to get their priorities straight.

We're all in this story together: Let's make sure that we write it well.
http://www.steveharveyforcolor...

[ Parent ]
Just keep ignoring the elephant in the room.
Increased CO2 leads to warming.
CO2 is increasing from man-made sources.
Warming is occurring.

You just keep on ignoring that.
Keep it up.

Its just like Further, but with tax cuts! - Fidel's Dirt Nap

[ Parent ]
Hmmm-what do you all read/watch?
Most of the time I am out of touch with the fine folks on ColoPols. I have no time, nor ablity, to dispute this.

I urge you all to watch--channell 165. I am very tired of watching good ideas get tube because of politics.

I am done. I will be surprised if any you agree.

What are you talking about?
I really don't get what you're saying, and I don't know what channel that is.

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.
[ Parent ]
Thank God.
[ Parent ]
I think it's the special Payday Lending channel.


History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.  (Mark Twain)
[ Parent ]
Romanoff in the WashPost
Pommer is Jxxxx
What an ego based guy. Does he have a job--channell 165--you all should watch
Oh, that clears it up
No wait, what are you talking about?

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.
[ Parent ]
I love this site!
It gets more loony every day.
[ Parent ]
Gee, and you've only been here 6 days.
We must be progressing at a breathtakingly insane rate for you.

"I wouldn't characterize caloric intake as "professional development." c rork
[ Parent ]
It's true.
I can only read every 15th post, otherwise it would be too much for me.  I still have the training wheels on.
[ Parent ]
Tea Party in GJ a Hoot
Photobucket It's not the first time that Hooter Girls have spread love around for conservatives, but one would think with the recent bondage strip club party scandal, the Right Wingers would temper their temptations.

Not so! At the Tea Party Express rally in Grand Junction this morning, going past the second hour of rhetoric when interest was waning, there was a cheerful announcement that the Hooter Girls had arrived to pass out lunch samples.

The ladies posed with audience members and flirted with the Tea Party backstage staff. Unfortunately, it was too cold to show much skin, and they quickly ran out of business cards.

Don't let those old Tea Party coots fool you - they still have plenty of testosterone.
Photobucket

Those pictures seem incongruous
If you're going to treat women like chattel, at least make them wear something low-cut. These women look like they're straight out of the Riyadh Hooters.

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.
[ Parent ]
Something happened on the way to the LHC.

From Things to worry about instead of global warming where The Editors suggest various scenarios that could occur following a "successful" run of the LHC. My favorite:

FALSE VACUUM DECAY FTW!!!1! My favorite.  Ever get the feeling that the reality we inhabit is not the truest reality?  Ever forget which bottle of OJ has all the LSD in it and spend the next 8 hours pondering neoplatonism and Gnostic Christianity?  Philip K. Dick says "yup" and "right after my second bowl of Honey-Nut-Methamphetamine Cheerios", and he could be righter than he ever imagined.  We could be living in a "metastable vacuum", one which could suddenly fall apart into the true vacuum state, where the most fundamental aspects of reality are suddenly redefined, and the LHC could push us over the edge, if there is an edge.  Or it could push us into a new reality exactly the same as our false reality, only Ricky Martin is now gay.  OH SHIT!!!!!!!


"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." --ChuckieD, 1871
Strange polling call
robo-call from "Research 2010" with two questions:

Do you consider yourself a member of the tea party?

Do you support Sarah Palin?




"There are a lot of reasons not to elect me." Mitt Romney in a moment of clarity

"I'm Mitt Romney and yes, Wolf, that's also my first name," Willard Mitt Romney demonstrating 'policy flexibility.'  

As opposed to Research 2000?
Sounds like a scam, or an RNC operation. Or do I repeat myself?

"Have a Bobby bar! My dad made them." --Jon Huntsman Jr.
[ Parent ]
I do live in the 3rd CD, the 'cross hairs' as it were
What the hell kind of question is 'Do you support Sarah Palin?'  for what?  Fake talk show host? http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2...  

"There are a lot of reasons not to elect me." Mitt Romney in a moment of clarity

"I'm Mitt Romney and yes, Wolf, that's also my first name," Willard Mitt Romney demonstrating 'policy flexibility.'  

[ Parent ]
Google says...
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/ro...

This is the call I got:  

'Survey 2010'

Reports suggest call has been widely received

teaparty AUDIO: Spoofed robocall asks about support for Tea Party, Palin

A Raw Story editor received a robocall from an organization claiming to be "Voter Talk 2010" on Thursday asking whether they support the Tea Party and Sarah Palin.

"This is Survey 2010 when a brief survey. Do you consider yourself to be a Tea Party patriot?" asked a voice. After hearing a response, the voice asks a second and final question, "Do you support Sarah Palin?" before pausing, thanking the listener and disconnecting.



"There are a lot of reasons not to elect me." Mitt Romney in a moment of clarity

"I'm Mitt Romney and yes, Wolf, that's also my first name," Willard Mitt Romney demonstrating 'policy flexibility.'  

[ Parent ]
And...
 
I just got some phony call from Voter Talk 2010. They asked if I was a Tea Party supporter. I said: "Of course." They asked if I supported Sarah Palin. I said "Of course" again. Whatever they are up to on this, I did my duty of supplying misinformation. According to the Caller Complaints website: Caution, 208-991-1227 is a "spoofed" number, which means "whoever called you tricked your caller ID to display an incorrect phone number."

http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com...

I, of course, by happy coincidence supplied the same misinformation.


"There are a lot of reasons not to elect me." Mitt Romney in a moment of clarity

"I'm Mitt Romney and yes, Wolf, that's also my first name," Willard Mitt Romney demonstrating 'policy flexibility.'  

[ Parent ]
My mom got that call today
My parents live in CD 6 and she received that call. Their caller ID showed a 303 number that escapes me at the moment. I will call her and ask.
[ Parent ]
Wednesday Open Thread | 58 comments
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