“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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BY: Sparky
IN: Marxists and Pedophiles: Republicans React to Legislative Session
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IN: Thursday Open Thread
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IN: Thursday Open Thread
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IN: Thursday Open Thread
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IN: Thursday Open Thread
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IN: Thursday Open Thread
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IN: Wednesday Open Thread
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IN: Thursday Open Thread
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from the Denver Post
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.”
Not that that absolves the perps, but I recall my brother sending me a Yahoo News item awhile ago.
Apparently they still work there. Getting paid 200K/year to watch porn – I think just about every teenage boy is qualified for that job 🙂
Erin Toll wasn’t sitting around downloading porn all day. She was doing her job.
Unfortunately that’s what got her fired.
Erin Toll wasn’t sitting around downloading porn all day. She was doing her job.
Unfortunately that’s what got her fired.
It’s doing something. Seems like being an active effective regulator is the one route to losing your job.
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.
Not to mention offensive and ignorant.
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.
…that all regulators sit around and do these things all day and get fired when they’re “active and effective”?
I was just asking if you had any example of regulators being fired for not doing their job. Clearly the SEC people who spent all day looking at porn weren’t fired.
…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.
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.
…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.
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.
…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.
“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 . . .
is a government job.
Hmmm….
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.
Her attorney usually gets more from the settlements than his clients.
from Louis M. Guenin
We’ve got the report out from Elizabeth Warren’s panel and it’s brutal. From HuffPo
Nancy Pelosi, the liberal House speaker, is heckled by liberals http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
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?
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.
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.
On the Chicago Blackhawks’ first Stanley Cup since the 1960/61 season.
They’re young enough so that it won’t be so long until the next one.
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.
I know you’re a long suffering Cubs fan, so this should definitively brighten your day.
maybe 40 years. 🙂
from New Scientist
I have used that resolution method before….
Denver Broncos… Still Suck!
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!
how to be an awesome coder
…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.
A couple of our partners are applying for stuff. If they win we’ll be the reporting component.
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
.
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.
If they disclose in Wyoming then guess what – we can read that disclosure here. Can’t they at least come up with an excuse that makes sense?
… at least from the public (not sure it provides protection from IP disclosure when dealing with government agencies).
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.
to power all of the earth with energy from solar panels. Drill baby drill??
http://mvnm.tumblr.com/post/67…
http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/#…
Spill baby spill?
every beautiful site in CO! Thanks ajb
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.
are embroiled in a civil war??? Impossible!
That would be like sending a Human to the Moon and bringing them back safely… Impossible!!
/Sarcasm
And silver in the Colorado lead mines.
No way could we build 47,000 miles of interstate highway!
It would be too hard and cover too much area.
Virtually impossible!
Go away.
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…
A solar panel is much more costly and technically complex then a square of asphalt.
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.
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?
You are.
Not as much as revenue went up when he raised taxes.
That’s news to me. I thought conservatives loved him because he cut taxes. Maybe I’m just crazy.
http://mises.org/freemarket_de…
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh0…
So why does Reagan have a reputation as a tax cutter?
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.
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.
I can’t prove the former- you’ve have done fine demonstrating the latter.
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.
That’s why 90% sounds so scary to him.
Clearly we hav enough surface for that.
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.
… 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
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.
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.
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.
.
who ever said that progressives cannot laugh at themselves ?
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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.
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.
You beat me, but I put a picture in mine!
It helps plants grow.
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.
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.
As proven by ClimateGate. I’m not buying your junk science and faked charts.
As proven by your posts on CO Pols.
Troll.
I’m so hurt. Not.
And gravity is optional.
ANd Obama is from Kenya
Then lets quit this crap about CO2 being a harmful pollutant and focus on carbon monoxide.
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.
Although I do mean what I say.
A very FEW times I exaggerate a SMALL bit to make my point.
on this board alone. I, in contrast, invariably understate my points;-)
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.
From yet another breathless (and mindless?) press release from the irrelevant Colorado Senate Republicans (no link yet):
There are other things that naturally come out of human beings. Is Sen. Lundberg urging for plumbing and sanitation standards to be relaxed?
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.
Fits the EPA to a T.