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June 10, 2010 03:50 PM UTC

Thursday Open Thread

  • 96 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possessed with an error, it is, like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty.”

–Samuel Butler

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96 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

  1. from the Denver Post

    A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission employee doesn’t want the public to know who he is or what disciplinary action may have been taken against him for viewing pornography on the job.

    …

    “Many of the employees who engaged in such conduct were at a senior level and earned substantial salaries through their government employment,” the OIG report says. “The employees found to have engaged in this inappropriate conduct included 17 employees at a level of grade SK-14 and above (which can range from $99,356 through $222,418).”

    The report says a senior attorney admitted viewing and downloading pornographic images to his SEC computer frequently, sometimes spent eight hours looking at it and had used up the space on his hard drive to the point where he needed to put it on CDs and DVDs stored in boxes in his office.

    If these are the people who are still at the SEC, I don’t think any level of regulation is going to help. This is akin to the BP blow-out in the Gulf where, if the MMS had been doing it’s job, it would not have happened. We have to craft systems that still work when some regulators are “too busy” to do their job.

    ps – this puts a real yucky spin on the very old saying “who will watch the watchers.”

        1. You’re much safer on the job if you’re looking at porn, or hiding under your desk, or shopping during work hours, or just sleeping at your desk.

            1. Of any government employee fired for “looking at porn, or hiding under your desk, or shopping during work hours, or just sleeping at your desk”? To be honest, I don’t recall it ever happening.

                  1. …that I don’t know of any regulators who don’t do their job and do it very well.  In fact, I would put the ones I know up against any group anywhere–professional, dedicated, smart, hardworking.    

            2. What I saw repeatedly was that the “survivors” were rewarded, not the creative or challenging employees.  The “survivors?”  They’re the ones who don’t rock the boat – they hunker down at their desks, do nothing to improve the agency’s work, but have their safe jobs for as long as they want them, as long as they stay under the radar.  I spent way too many years working long hours, doing far more than the minimum of work.  My reward is just the knowledge that I worked hard trying to improve how government serves people.  I actually have one or possibly two former government employers interfering with my ability to get a job now, because I dared to challenge how things were handled during a layoff.

              1. …from any other occupation how?  It is not unique in anyway from the private sector (and I’ve worked on both sides of that fence).  

                I can tell you without hesitation that the only difference between Erin Toll and the other non-appointed, career regulators at DORA is her desire to be in the spotlight.  That is a function of her personality and not some desire of the profession to “stay under the radar”.    

                Kind of hard to do when you walk through the front door of a Company and start an audit.  And by definition, that is rocking the boat.

                Yes, part of the mental income that comes with the job is the knowledge that your efforts are helping someone.  I take great pride in my work and what I do on behalf of the people of this State.

                I don’t know about your personal problems and honestly, I’ve got enough of my own, so I can’t and won’t comment on that.  But it seems that this is clouding your judgement and causing you to paint a whole group of people with your very broad brush.    

                1. I didn’t say that working for government is different from working for the private sector, in regard to this issue (although I will say that many people believe there are more protections in government jobs for whistleblowers, etc, when there are not).  

                  My original comment was in regard to DavidThi808’s comment in which he said: “It’s not doing nothing that gets you fired from a govt. job – It’s doing something.”  I agreed with him.  I said nothing specific about Toll, and don’t have an opinion about her.  

                  The only “whole group” of people that I’m painting with a broad brush are the ones I mentioned – the “survivors” who never question how and why things are done, who hunker down at their desks staying under the radar, and do little or nothing to make a governmental organization better.

                  1. …there’s a ton of stuff I could read into your comments–trust me on that.  But, as I said before, I’m not doing that.  

                    Your (and David’s) premise that it is “doing something” that gets one fired from a government job is faulty and unfounded in my experience.  If that were the case, there would be no regulators at DORA.

                    The stuff about sleeping at desks, watching pron and such nonsense is just that–nonsense.

                    1. “survivors” sleeping during meetings when working in a government agency?  Right . . .  And I’m hallucinating about all the abuses toward employees that I saw, and I’m hallucinating about the fact that employees most abused were those who were not in the “survivor” category, that instead, they were the ones who asked questions, challenged poor decisions, tried to make government work better?  Right . . .

      2. Toll was suspended for allegedly launching an investigation into a legislator out of her own personal pique and then lying about it.  She eventually walked away quietly from her high-profile job for a paltry $55,000 (some of which was unused leave)…in order to sell condos.  That was basicaly an admission of her own guilt, in my view.

  3. from Louis M. Guenin

    About a month after the aforementioned hearing, the Senate passed its financial reform bill. That bill now awaits reconciliation with its House counterpart. Surprisingly and inexplicably, the Senate and House bills fail to institute any significant regulation of CDOs. Both bills are entirely silent on synthetic CDOs. Only one sentence might be read to reach cash CDOs (this in the Senate bill about disclosing underlying assets, though that reading would require wrenching the sentence from its context of asset-backed securities other than CDOs). It seems that as the drafters trained their sights on credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities, they missed another elephant in the room.

  4. We’ve got the report out from Elizabeth Warren’s panel and it’s brutal. From HuffPo

    Despite the many options it had, the team led by current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner chose to bail out ailing insurer American International Group Inc. and its Wall Street counterparties to the eventual tune of more than $182 billion, a decision that continues to have a “poisonous effect on the marketplace,” according to a new Congressional report.

    The move to pay firms like Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, and Societe Generale SA 100 cents on the dollar to extinguish contracts on sophisticated financial products with AIG, “transforming highly risky derivative bets into fully guaranteed payment obligations,” is unlikely to be repeated when it comes time to repay taxpayers for their generous investment, according to the report.

    …

    “The rescue of AIG dramatically added to the public’s sense of a double standard — where some businesses and their creditors suffer the consequences of failure, and other, larger, better connected businesses do not,” the report notes.

  5. Nancy Pelosi, the liberal House speaker, is heckled by liberals http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

    Political movements tend to unravel gradually, but on Tuesday this one seemed to be imploding in real time. As the “tea party” right has gained strength, Obama’s hope-and-change left has faded. The frustration has crystallized at the gathering this week of demoralized activists.

    Civil discourse and debate in political campaigns I fear is a thing of the past.

    At my age I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever see it again in my lifetime?

    1. Back in the ’60s we had riots at the national conventions. Politics matters so I think in some ways its a good sign that people are so invested. With that said, I would prefer there was less yelling, but I think that will be with us always.

      1. You’re right – But I don’t think our news shows were dominated by screeching talking heads actually promoting the extremes. Even the John Birch Society didn’t make it into the news 24/7.

    1. I think I lost about 10 years off my life when they went into overtime. I really thought they had blown it in the 3rd period.

      Congrats back at you, buddy.

      1. Meant this to be under Dave’s Post….

        Space time continuum thing…. Therefore I never put this comment in the wrong place.

        Denver Broncos… Still Suck!

    1. …I’ve mentioned that Barron X and your company should go into partnership to chase some bizniz with the VA – now they’re asking for your help:

      $80 Million Available for Private Sector Innovations

      WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced today the opening of the Industry Innovation Competition by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the most recent effort under the VA Innovation Initiative.  With this competition, VA seeks the best ideas from the private sector to address the department’s most important challenges.

      http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressre…

      Along with their ground-breaking discovery of wanting to use “computers” to help process claims, they’re also seeking input on Telehealth and Business Accelerators for Vets.

  9.  on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website. In response to a story about Wyomings’ new fracking chemical disclosure regulations,by Dennis Webb,

    David Ludlam, executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said

    a one-size-fits-all national approach wouldn’t address regional disparities in how oil and gas are developed. He said it’s also important to strike a balance between disclosure of fracking chemicals and protection of intellectual property

    .

    I challenged this assertion in the comments section and drew a response.

    Someone from COGA replied with a rephrased statement that essentially repeated the same blarney.

    We’ll see where this goes. Oughta be interesting.  

    3. WSCOGA has not yet responded to my following questions to his non-sensical comments. I guess he/she has one set of responses from which to draw, and nothing else.

      “Regional disparities”, indeed.  

    2. how many solar panels it would take to cover that much of the earth? Yeah it looks small from outer space, but actually covering that much land with solar panels is virtually impossible.

      1. are embroiled in a civil war??? Impossible!

        That would be like sending a Human to the Moon and bringing them back safely… Impossible!!

        /Sarcasm

      1. Quit interjecting inconvenient facts into the discussion.

        There are ~113,000 square kilometers of “impervious” surface area in the country right now (that’s buildings, roads, parking lots, etc.).  According to the link, that’s almost 1/4 of the total area required by 2030.  If we were to convert most of the roofs in this country into solar paneling and add some well-scattered solar power farms, we would barely notice the additional land use required to power the entire country (assuming development of suitable power storage for nighttime use).

        Of course, we wouldn’t use just solar; we’d also use wind, and our current hydroelectric capacity, and probably a bit more geothermal energy, and…  

        1. Specifically, how much does a square foot of durable highway cost (say, 20-30 year lifetime)?  If I’m guesstimating correctly, Texas (a middle-of-the-pack state when it comes to construction costs) says between $2 and $6 per square foot.  Florida says up to 12 times that much.

          If we invested in solar like we invested in our interstate system in the 1950s we could create a few printable solar cell factories and produce the cells for about the same price as a patch of asphalt.

          Oh – our national debt is currently, percentage-wise, almost exactly the same as it was in the 1950’s when Eisenhower started building the interstates.  The difference between then and now is that the top tax rate then was 90%, and we were paying down our debts from the war; now the top tax rate is 36% and we’re racking up debt from the wars, and idiots like you don’t think the rich should have to “suffer” from the undue tax burden they’re under.

          1. And I think most people would agree that a 90% tax rate would be very stifling to the economy. When Reagan cut taxes, revenues went up because of the increased economic activity. You seriously mean to tell me that you think a patch of asphalt costs the same as a solar panel of comparable size? Who’s an idiot?

                    1. Maybe because he was a superb bullshitter. Maybe because a lot of Republicans want to believe it and so refuse to look at the facts.

                    2. from the lower base.  when all was said and done, the final Reagan era rates were higher than they were after his first round of cuts but still lower than he inherited.  

                      Rightwingers tend to remember only the original cuts.  But Dutch was, at bottom, a pragmatist.

            3. I took my numbers for asphalt from actual Texas and Florida DOT numbers, but I had to guesstimate what they meant by “per mile” in terms of width.  Solar panels currently cost ~$14 per square foot, but there are facilities in test mode now that produce panels that cost significantly less (1/3 by wattage, 1/10th by area) and their output could be worked into solar roofing products for not much more than the price of a regular replacement root.

              So to answer your last question: you’re the idiot.

              And while “most people” might agree that a top tax rate of 90% would be stifling to the economy, history proves otherwise.

                1. Per my research above, roads included our entire man-made surface area only slightly exceeds our 2030 needs.  Roads alone wouldn’t do it.

                  And congested roads aren’t really good solar collectors, are they…  On the other hand, a congested road is a good micro wind power environment – putting turbines on the divider walls could generate some spare power, though it would mostly be at a time when people wouldn’t need it – unless we installed inductive chargers in the road to recharge electric car batteries.

        2. … because the key plus of solar is that they’re getting better at efficiently converting sunlight into electricity; read this month’s Discover magazine article on how they’ve figured out how to double the electricity production (from 20% to 40% efficiency of sunlight-to-electricity conversion) from the photovoltaic cells. It’ll be some years before we have those more efficient cells, but the point is that it’s silly to complain about a  technology’s cost-effectiveness when it’s on the verge of at least doubling in efficiency

          1. Who’s going to want a computer when they occupy an entire room?

            Who will buy cell phones as big as a shoe box?

            Oh, if only solar photovoltaic production had attracted the R&D support that computing and cell phones were attracting 30+ years ago.

            Had that happened, not only would each of us have a computer/phone that fits in a shirt pocket, we’d probably have a combined computer/phone/power generation unit that fits in a shirt pocket.

          2. If it becomes efficient enough to the point that it’s profitable; I guarantee you there will be plenty of companies ready to jump on it.

          3. becomes profitible to humanity before it becomes profitible to individual investors, because the public benefits (due to the various public costs avoided through reduced fossil fuel use) are not reaped by private investors. That’s where the economically vital concept of “internalizing externalities” comes in, and the indispensible role of government in doing so. When we use government effective to internalize the public benefits and public costs of private investments and exchanges, then our market activities arrive at more economically efficient outcomes.

  12. It looks like voters, at least in some states, aren’t willing to oust their judges just because a campaign is run against them.

    In San Diego, an attempt by the group Better Courts Now to replace four sitting judges failed at the ballot box on Tuesday.

    1. I’m inclined to say the former, because it subject to the same shenanigans that the rest of the political process is. I’m not warm to the idea of having say a judge distort the judicial process so they win an election: e.g. imposing an overly harsh sentence to look tough on crime.  

  13. COLORADO SENATE REPUBLICANS

    Lundberg to Bennet and Udall: please overturn EPA “endangerment” finding

    Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, is urging Colorado’s U.S. Senators to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment” finding that carbon dioxide — the very substance human beings exhale — is a danger to the public welfare.

    “We’re not talking about a knee jerk reaction to an oil spill in the Gulf,” Lundberg said. “We’re talking about the EPA taking authority they don’t have and declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant, which is absurd.”

    A resolution to overturn the EPA findings is being offered by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, and is up for a vote this afternoon. Lundberg said he hopes that Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall will let Congress do its job and block what he sees as an unprecedented power grab by the EPA.

    “The EPA has already positioned itself to regulate fuel economy, set climate policy and amend the Clean Air Act, powers never delegated to it by Congress,” Lundberg said. “Enough is enough. We need to restore the constitutional separation of powers and put the EPA in its place.”

    Regulating greenhouse gases under the 1970 Clean Air Act has already proven to be disastrous for the economy and freedom of this country. “Congress needs to reign in the EPA,” Lundberg said. “Their job is to enforce the law, not write it.”

    ###  

      1. the circle of systems required for life on this planet.

        Carbon Dioxide is what plants and Trees breathe in and when they exhale they produce Oxygen. In turn Animals (including Humans) Breathe In Oxygen and exhale Carbon dioxide. yes it helps plants grow, Just as Oxygen helps people grow.

        However the less plants on the planet killed by cutting forests. Killed by OIL DISASTERS or carbon Monoxide…

        the less Oxygen is produced for people and animals to breathe.

        so yeah I like CO2 But I like Oxygen even MORE!

        and despise The Carbon Monoxide emitted from your hummer idling at a stop light.

        1. All living organisms on the surface of this planet take in Oxygen and release Carbon dioxide. Animals, fungi, plants, bacteria, etc. If you are alive, you respire, and this consumes oxygen. This is respiration. I remind students every time – if you ain’t respiring, you’re dead.

          All these respiring organisms also all require carbon in order to make more of themselves. All of them take in carbon in some way, usually by consumption of other organic materials (e.g., by eating other living, dead, decaying matter).

          Plants are different in that they can directly take in carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into more plants, and release oxygen as a by-product. This is photosynthesis.

          The carbon that gets cycled around among plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and the atmosphere, is just that – it is continually being recycled. The pools and flows are dynamic but are relatively constant on human time scales.

          What has happened recently is that we are digging up and burning long buried stores of carbon (oil, gas, coal) and pumping this into the atmosphere at rates greater than it can be consumed by living organisms and the oceans.

          This fossil carbon has a different isotope signature than the carbon that’s been recycled among living organisms. Thus the fingerprint of humans has been clearly identified as the major contributor to elevated atmospheric CO2, and thus as the major contributor to current climate change.

          Class dismissed.

      2. I usually take BJ’s idiotic bait, but between this comment and “Bush wouldve plugged the oil leak by now,” it’s getting clearer that while Libertad really means what he says, BJ is just a douchebag posting shit to yank our chains.  

                1. Catching up on this thread and noticed that he was having a little trouble with the numbers around solar energy square footage and Reagan’s tax policies.

                  Poor boy spent too much time in those middle school self-esteem classes instead of focussing on the three R’s.

  14. From yet another breathless (and mindless?) press release from the irrelevant Colorado Senate Republicans (no link yet):

    Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, is urging Colorado’s U.S. Senators to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment” finding that carbon dioxide — the very substance human beings exhale — is a danger to the public welfare.

    There are other things that naturally come out of human beings. Is Sen. Lundberg urging for plumbing and sanitation standards to be relaxed?

    Regulating greenhouse gases under the 1970 Clean Air Act has already proven to be disastrous for the economy and freedom of this country.

    WTF? Really. WTF?

    Since 1980, aggregate emissions have declined by 54% while GDP has increased 126%.

    How can a pro-growth sort conclude that 126% growth in the GDP is “disastrous for the economy?”

    And freedom? WTF?

    Can we petition the EPA to regulate this political diarrhea?

    THIS sort of ignorant, ideological crap is the true danger to the public welfare.

    Good luck with that, Colorado Republicans.

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