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October 22, 2010 03:49 PM UTC

Open Line Friday!

  • 134 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“We were young kids. You know, the concept, we laughed at. ‘We’re Americans. Slaves? Slaves to communists and so forth? Vietnamese driving Jeeps in our town?’ We couldn’t see it.  But here for 20 years now all this time–22, 23 years–we have been aware of the possibility that the left could eventually secure majority control of the country and at this juncture they have.”

–Rush Limbaugh, yesterday

Comments

134 thoughts on “Open Line Friday!

  1. Why I Got Fired From Teaching American History

    I showed them that during the American Revolution drunkards, laggards, prostitutes, and pirates pioneered many of the freedoms and pleasures we now cherish — including non-marital sex, interracial socializing, dancing, shopping, divorce, and the weekend — and that the Founding Fathers, in the name of democracy, opposed them.



    I presented evidence that without organized crime, we might not have jazz, Hollywood, Las Vegas, legal alcohol, birth control, or gay rights, since only gangsters were willing to support those projects when respectable America shunned them.

  2. No Government Health Care… But Don’t Touch My Medicare!

    Republican candidates around the nation are running on a platform of repealing health care reform, arguing that “Obamacare” will do nothing to bring down insurance costs and represents a big-government intrusion — “socialism,” if you will — into an area that should be left to the private markets. At the same time, however, many of these same groups and individuals are rushing to assure the public that they will protect government-funded Medicare program.

  3. 1.2 Million [jobless] Will Lose Benefits By Year’s End Unless Congress Acts

    There will be very little time to reauthorize the federal benefits, as Congress returns from its recess mid-November and the deadline will be two weeks away.



    Given Congress’ demonstrated willingness to go on vacation even though jobless aid will lapse in their absence — it actually happened three times last year — NELP has launched an aggressive lobbying effort.

    1. Finally rec’d my Montrose County ballot in the mail yesterday waaaay out east here in 33301.

      For U.S Senate should I:

      – vote for Bennet even though he’s kinda milquetoast-y?

      – write-in Basil Marceaux?

      – write-in Charlie Crist?

      – vote for Buck – so that Arvadonian dude can see how much worse things can in fact get if he doesn’t ‘man up’ and at least vote for the less-bad of two candidates?

      1. They illustrate perfectly the irrelevance into which campaigns for federal office have sunk. Of course, what that government does, or fails to do, will affect everyone, but here is the President of the United States campaigning against Christine O’Donnell! Is there someone here who thinks either B is much better?  Less absurd, maybe. But any more likely to help lead the way out of our current morass?

        1. There is a clear choice and Bennet is much better. Besides it seems to be Colorado’s lot in life to get milquetoast-y Senators.

          But let’s keep letting Senator Bennet know we’d like to see better from him.

    2. It does not conceive that a gun owner can be a liberal , a Democrat or even one who does not watch or take advice from Faux News.

      I’m a progressive who digs guns. They are actually one of the finest American made products out there and very relaxing to use.

      1. I once managed a congressional race for a western Democratic ranchwoman who owned a dozen guns of various types.

        Believe she was the first woman to be endorsed by both the NRA AND Emily’s List.

    3. Although there is NPR on the Dems side. I would rather listen to NPR, which actually DOES represent both sides fairly, than Fox News any day.

      Conservatives don’t like NPR because of it’s obvious fact based bias.

      1. Fox News hired Juan Williams and is now on a campaign to get Congress to stop funding NPR….

        You gotta love those Australians …. they really hate America and know exactly how to con us.  

  4. Others think I’m far, far left

    Dude ! ! “Moderately Liberal”??? “Right Wing Reactionary?” O M G. I read every word you wrote. Your are HOPELESSLY FULL-BORE OFF THE HOOK Liberal. You are NOT REACTING to anything anyone on the left says. YOU ARE O U T T H E R E . You need to get out of Boulder at least every once in a while and see, and listen to what the rest of the world is doing and thinking. You poor soul. Please commit suicide before you write any more

    1. I mean c’mon… get creative with that shit. Tell him to headbutt a bullet or get a job in arsinic quality control or vote Republican. j

      Sheesh. Kids these days. Left all their imagination in their XBox.  

    2. Regarding the late film-maker

      I really didn’t like Donald Cammell, the director, a twister and a manipulator whose only real love in life was f*cking other people up. He was the most destructive turd I have ever met. Also a Svengali, utterly predatory, a very successful manipulator of women.

      and

      Donald Cammell, the film director (“Performance,” starring Mr. Jagger and Anita Pallenberg, Mr. Richards’s longtime lover and partner in crime), couldn’t commit suicide quickly enough to suit Mr. Richards. (He shot himself in 1996.)

  5. My response:

    What is ‘the Left’ as of now?

    It seems like both Parties want my money, one just wants to use it to give me healthcare, while the other wants to use it for a fence on the Mexican border!

    Most importantly? There is, clearly, one PARTY and its leaders, and its activists, who are truly emerging as the protectors of civil rights – the Democrats are not perfect (no Party is), but outside of Ron Paul and Senator Hatch, I’ve spent this last summer rejoicing more over ‘the Left’ than I have over the totalitarian ‘right’

    1. there comes a time in everyone’s life where we have to admit we have to pay for the things we’d like in life. Nothing is free, not even social progress. This is my essential problem with Libertarians who want social progress, but don’t want to pay for it. You can’t have it both ways. (unless of course you’re a Republican and your benefactors control all the levers of the media to convince the gullible public that you can indeed have it both ways…)

    2. You know, if you publish a diary that says you’re planning to vote for Democrats this election cycle, it will get frontpaged.

      Then if Democrats actually win, you can start November 3 complaining about how disappointed you are in them. 🙂

      1. On a serious note – I did make a promise to support the Party (especially the State House & State Senate candidates) at the GOP Convention last May and I keep my word – that’s the honorable and gentlemanly way to ride

        …but I didn’t make promises after Nov 2nd of 2010 to anyone…

      1. We don’t go on Fox Noise and blast his religion or his ideals. We will listen to his ideas and have a spirited debate about those ideas. We will show him the respect he deserves as a “real” American. We are truly a big tent and welcome him when he’s ready.

        The Republicans have shown him nothing but hatred and disrespect unless he gets in line and in lockstep.

                1. yes, Beej, tell  me about all of that late-night talk show crap you routinuely spout.

                  I’ve debunked your posts so often and so completely I shouldn’t even have to bother doing it. So I won’t

                  Next you’re going to tell me that only a Democratic President would do something like calling out the US Military on a State that disobeyed a Federal Law, since Dems are all power-hungry dictators that would tramp on States’ Rights…

                2. Whereas you know, with scientific certainty, that the world was created in six days about 6,000 years ago!  You knows yer science, boy, no doubt about that!

              1. “Well jeezy weezy the word Socialist is right there in the name. Boy Howdy!” – Beej I really thought you had Aspergers but now I’m thinking it’s just plain old run of the mill fucking stupidity.

                Do you believe every country that has the word “Republic” in it just absolutely MUST be a true republic? Have you been tested for mental retardation of any kind? That’s a serious question..

              2. I will calmly ask anyone using the word “socialist” to describe our country to provide an example.

                No one’s done it yet.  Will you be the first?  Or the first to admit you don’t know what it is?  (Socialism: A real thing!)

                Eagerly awaiting your on point response…

                1. His unstable demeanor suggests he’s somewhere between anger and denial as he sees his political universe about to implode.  

                  His thrashing about is actually a good barometer of a big Democratic victory in Colorado.

              1. (and my apologies for weighing on this so late – I missed this convo)

                I respect what BJ is saying

                I’ll always have goodwill for BJ because he was one of the delegates that supported me at the 2010 GOP Colorado Convention – and he knows I am Muslim – I’ll always have love for BJ, because of that

                That said – BJ is right – Parties have their ideals and then they have their activists and it creates a relationship – at some point, you do have to ask which Party you belong in, and when that question comes up, the answer lies beyond the written principles – I didn’t learn that until this last Summer

  6. On CPR this morning during his candidate interview Dan Maes was asked about all the major Colorado Republicans that no longer support him.

    He replied it was “only two or three” so it didn’t matter. The CPR host pressed him on the number and his response was “no it wasn’t” and laughed it off. He then tried to finesse things by saying there’s a difference between Repubs that endorsed him that withdrew that, but still “support” him.

    The transcript is here:

    http://www.cpr.org/article/leg

    Dan is deep deep denial here…anyone know a good shrink that deals with Repubs?

    1. on amendment 63. He hadn’t read it yet so he couldn’t take a stance.

      But he sure took a stance on fixing our crumbling infrastructure because being a fiscal conservative it was obvious to him that the engineers who assessed our needs for repair to our roads and bridges were nothing but a bunch of tax and spend liberals.

      I hope it is him and only him then driving across the next bridge to fail…

  7. iChange?

    President Obama Meeting With Steve Jobs This Afternoon

    President Obama is flying to the Bay Area from Seattle this afternoon. He’s speaking at Google exec Marissa Mayer’s house in Palo Alto this evening.

    Before that, says a source familiar with the details, he will have a one-on-one meeting with Steve Jobs.

    Reached by Business Insider, a White House official confirmed the meeting.

    http://www.businessinsider.com

    On a related note, Rep John Boehner will be meeting with Microsoft executives to confer on the possibility of installing Anti-Democratic website blockers on every seat of Windows 7, which will then send those users directly to Glenn Beck’s site…

  8. This morning the Coloradoan endorsed Ken Buck for U.S. Senate claiming that “Buck excels beyond appointed incumbent Michael Bennet in articulating a clear path toward solutions.”

    I’d like to point to one paragraph in particular that lists a few economic strategies Buck plans to institute once in office. I highlight this because most of the Buck shills on this blog have been unable to give clear examples of Buck’s agenda after being asked multiple times.

    To reduce the deficit, Buck suggests shifting the $300 billion in unspent stimulus money directly to the Treasury; rolling back the federal budget to 2008 levels for a savings of $150 billion; and realigning federal salaries with the private sector to save another $50 billion to $100 billion.

    If I had more time I’d like to point out a few things wrong with this, particularly given his goal to balance the budget, this gets us no where close. But instead, I’d like to call out some Bennet supporters to retort the Coloradoan’s claim that Buck has a clear path in mind to boost the economy. What is Bennet’s?

    1. …Federal salaries are ALREADY much lower than their civilian counterparts. The Buckpedaler is citing a flawed USAToday story that massively over-reported the average Federal salary:

      http://www.usatoday.com/news/n

      Which was debunked so many times I can choose my news outlet:

      http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-50

      http://fcw.com/articles/2010/0

      One important note that it does NOT include Military pay and allowances, which whacks the average WAY down.

      Unlike his Teapublican counterpart, Sen Bennet has all of his plans up on a website, for all to see:

      http://bennetforcolorado.com/i

      http://bennetforcolorado.com/i

    1. There’s no there there whatsoever.

      Is freezing congressional pay Topic A for voters?

      Or ‘corporate jet rides’ for that matter?

      WTF, Bennet campaign??

      Tell us this isn’t how Michael Bennet intends to close the deal with Colorado voters.

      Oy!

    1. Seriously, this doesn’t have anything to do with a single Colorado voter, and you think it’s good news? You don’t think it’s bad news that people who actually live in Colorado have concluded Buck is a sexist and not just part-time?

      1. I like what the Fort Collins newspaper had to say about Buck today when they endorsed him today:

        Every election season offers a surprise. Ken Buck is that surprise.

        While it is irrefutable that Buck, a Republican, has offered some bone-headed sound bites, e.g., high heels, alcoholism and homosexuality, etc., voters are encouraged to take a little more time to hear where he stands on health-care reform, reducing the deficit, higher-education loans, Social Security and growing the economy. Frankly put, Buck excels beyond appointed incumbent Michael Bennet in articulating a clear path toward solutions.

        1. Everyone’s sure they’re there though.  Any thoughts on unicorns?

          They left out the “buyer’s remorse” bone-headed comment.  Ha, ha, surprise.

        2. Homosexuality is like alcoholism, global warming is a hoax, women have no right to choose even in cases of rape and incest, I don’t know/care what a donut hole is, my biggest goal is to get better at golf,  etc.,etc…

          Or Christine O’Donnell questioning whether or not the first amendment addresses separation of church and state.  THE FIRST FUCKING AMENDMENT !

          Or finding out Walker Stapleton just forgot to mention when he was driving drunk AND under the influence of drugs, he hit someone and fled the scene like the little pecker we all suspected he was.

          The more we know about many of these conservative candidates the more we can all understand how dangerous and irresponsible it would be to put them in charge of anything.  I think for a while we were working in a total fact free and consequence free environment, but now the shit is hitting the fan.

          There will undoubtedly be more before of these revelations or complete Jan Brewer Glendale community college brain farts before election day, so we can all get a little window into how completely batshit crazy and unqualified some of these people are.  I look forward to it.

        3. I’d love it even more if he stood in the same place today that he stood last week or next week.

          Buck keeps changing his position on health-care reform, Social Security, and education loans because he doesn’t actually care about any of those things. He’s been on both sides of every one of those issues.

          The editorial board is just wrong. Buck’s “clear path” is like saying “Paradise is just on the other side of that dense overgrown jungle. At least one of the 47 paths through it must lead there. Let’s go, I’ll watch your back!”

          1. about the Coloradoan editorial board being wrong.

            Many of their endorsements clearly include paragraphs written by different members.  Not a lot of flow, or even sense, in those columns.

    2. But if I had to say who I’d rather see win on Election Day – Sestak or Bennet – I’d take Sestak in a heartbeat.

      Here’s a guy who told the President of his own party to take and hike – and went on to kick Arlen Specter’s butt from here to Sunday and back. That takes real moxie.

      Bennet although I voted for him is a bit too much of a toady to Obama – and also looks like he’s twelve.

      1. …my vet buddy leans over and says “he doesn’t remind me of Thurston Howell III, he reminds me of Cameron from ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

        However, if Bennet is ever seen wearing a Gordie Howe Wings jersey, he’s done in this state…

    1. You think everyone here is too dumb to remember that Magellan is a Republican polling firm? You think anyone’s going to actually click on that link to see Buck with a million gazillion point lead in all genders, all age groups, and all party affiliations?

      News flash: we’re not all as dumb as Republicans.

                    1. Obviously I can read; but it’s hard when you don’t give me anything to read.

                      I have a policy against clicking on links when the polster doesn’t state why I should. I enacted it when too many such links turned out to be to misleading and biased reports. Why waste my time?

                      Polsters who give a quick summary also use credible sites. Polsters who don’t use biased and unrealistic sites.

                    2. Tancredo is going to win.

                      I blockquoted it just for you. Clear and simple enough for you to understand?

                    3. Even the most outlier-writing outfit would never write that. That’s just your lame attempt at wit, which only makes me laugh because it’s so sad, and only confirms my suspicions about the quality of the information your link gives.

        1. Didn’t you already pull this stupid shit before? If pigs flew into a purple sky, then yes, I would believe a Republican poll predicting a Republican landslide. Until then, ha ha ha ha ha etc.

    1. Get outta my state.

      Did you notice that Planned Parenthood contradicted the report in their statement?  I only noticed because the lack of disparity by race honestly surprises me.  Even though, the more I think of it, the more it shouldn’t.

      Do you follow this or did you run across it?  I’m really wondering if you have the original report or care enough to find it.  I didn’t find it in the two seconds I had to search (instead I wrote this!), but would love to read it.  So if you care enough to look, please post.  Otherwise I’ll find it myself (jerk) and post it.

      Whichever, I’m leaving my desk, home of all evidence.  The leaves are pretty, but useless for pregnancy data.

      1. is here with what you and Planned Parenthood allude to:

        The Hispanic and non-Hispanic black teen pregnancy rates are three times higher than the non-Hispanic white teen pregnancy rate

        I think what this ham-handed summary was trying to say was that white kids have just as many extra teen pregnancies in abstinence states as minority kids do, and that the risk from abstinence-only “education” crosses socio-economic boundaries.

  9. ….shows that he’s channeling some Jon Stewart to do all the work for him….

    Now, all we need is for someone cut together a Dubya and Orange Man video doing the same thing….

  10. Why do people deface yard signs?  Several large Perlmutter signs in Golden have been plastered with orange “votes with Pelosi” stickers.  Is there some undecided voter that is going to see that and think “oh, that makes me want to vote for the other guy.”  Don’t think so.  

    I may just be old school, but I like yard signs of all stripes. They show that people are engaged, that they care about the process, and that they are not shy about expressing their opinion.

    This isn’t a case of someone stealing a sign, possibly in a pique of frustration.  Someone had to plan ahead, print out these stupid stickers, and, in the dead of night, stick them to the signs.  Its counterproductive, childish, and disrespectful, not the sort of image I would choose for my campaign to project if I were Frazier.

    1. I just left them that way.  It’s still obvious what they were and I kind of like the world knowing that Buck and Tancredo backers are thugs.  It also motivated me to volunteer for two more GOTV shifts.

        1. Of course, I never posted yard signs before, I was sort of Hatched.  Butr I love leaving them up…heard a couple walk by and the woman asked “What kind of people would do that?”

            The answser: Buckthugs.

            The result: Bennet votes.

          T  

  11. Officer Perry’s Tale

    Back a couple decades ago when he was a police officer he was in the business of enabling and then covering for one of those crooked cops who views it as one of the perks of the job doing unwarranted strip searches of pubescent teenage girls.

    The basic outlines of the story have been out there for months. In at least two instances, in one case with a 14 year old and in another with a 16 year old, Perry was on the scene as a police officer under his command, Scott Flanagan, decided that in order to find out whether the girl in question was hiding any drugs he had to search her vagina.

    1. for Amendment 62

      There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Malta, Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus – the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor’s office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal.

      Or exile in El Salvador.

  12. Retiring Judge Accuses Colleague Of Corruptly Siding With Major Financial Firms Over 20 Years

    On his way out the door last month, retiring judge George Painter levied that very charge against his now-former colleague, Bruce Levine. “On Judge Levine’s first week on the job, nearly twenty years ago, he came into my office and stated that he had promised Wendy Gramm, then Chairwoman of the Commission, that we would never rule in a complainant’s favor,” Painter wrote in an order. “A review of his rulings will confirm that he fulfilled his vow.”

  13. A new AP poll on repealing health care reform shows, “Only 26 percent of women favored repealing the law. That restraint was evident even among Republican women – 52 percent supported repeal, compared with 68 percent of Republican men.

    People under age 30 were the most likely to say the law should be expanded to do more.”

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201

    Also, the insurance industry is at odds with the Tea Party and does not want Obamacare repealed.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201

  14. Coincidence: I was thinking about, and reading some reviews of, Judgment at Nuremberg, the film, after which I read this:

    The [latest Wikileaks] documents also reveal many previously unreported instances in which American soldiers killed civilians – at checkpoints, from helicopters, in operations. Such killings are a central reason Iraqis turned against the American presence in their country, a situation that is now being repeated in Afghanistan.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10

    And then what did we do?

  15. thought I’d let you know I’m smoking a turkey while outdoor temp is 33 and snow is falling. Makes me happy. Will be done in about an hour.

      1. And it took a good man from Oklahoma to first point it out.

        Global warming? Heck, my furnace kicked on today! I think we’re looking at a stretch of global cooling! What will the libs think of next?!?

    1. Came out alright. The foil packet of woodchips came open when I was adding some more charcoal so they burnt up too quickly, but everyone said they liked them.

        1. It’s wood. It’s waterproof, for all practical purposes.

          Wrap in foil, put on the coals. Perfecto.

          BTW, apple is the very best smoking wood (although other fruit woods are close) and even the lowly crabapple works just as well as the big boys. I’m almost out of crabapple sticks I schlepped back from CO in the Buick a year and a half ago. Bummer.  

          1. Favors Pecan.

            He put up a Craigslist ad for free tree-trimming services in return for keeping the wood.  The commercial guys got his ads pulled every time.

            1. I had some once and IIRC it is more subtle than hickory.  I bought some chunks of the latter to save my dwindling crabapple wood recently.  Subtle as a 2×4 aside the head.  

              My observations lead me to say that the cold climate fruit woods are the best, then the nut trees like pecan.  I still need to check out some local citrus if I can, someday.

              The one wood I will NOT use is mesquite.  I think the only reason it is so popular in Texas is that it is common.  It’s a weed.  It has an off flavor, to me.

              The crackers here used to use mangrove for smoking mullet.  I should cut a few branches and dry it out, there’s plenty of accessible mangroves here.

              Interesting about your brother and craigslist.  At least he knows better than smoking with mesquite!

              Oh, the best site around for outdoor cooking is http://www.amazingribs.com .  Craig “Meathead” Morton agrees with me on both the apple and mesquite, FWIW.  

        2. About four hours. They smoked for about an hour til my poor job wrapping them in foil (like parsing suggested) bit me in the ass. Ah well, I’m a total n00b at BBQ so a few rookie mistakes are okay.

          BTW, if you see this parsing, I was using cherry.

          1. And, do you have any points of reference?

            See my comments I just wrote above to daftpunk.

            Not sure how a “poor wrapping job” can bite you in the ass.  The wood is pretty well all converted to charcoal in around an hour anyway.  No more smoke.  

            For long, slow cooking meats like brisket or ribs, you don’t want smoke all of the time. An hour is about right, or a bit more. It can be overdone.  

            1. I thought it was nice, but yeah, at this stage in my life I have few points of reference. My guests liked it, but they weren’t moaning in ecstasy which is how I know that I’ve done a really good job.

              I had gotten some grapevine chunks last year but was disappointed because they seemed to char for a few minutes and that was it – they didn’t burn well, even if I didn’t soak them. And I’ve gotten those Jack Daniels barrel chips which are really nice with pork. (I also use them when I’m smoking eggplant for baba ghanouj.)

              But yeah, I’m a BBQ n00b all the way. I’m used to the sauce-smeared stuff and strong flavors that pass for BBQ and am trying harder to learn to appreciate the subtle flavors.

              I’m with you on mesquite. When I use liquid smoke (mostly in hamburgers that are going to be pan fried indoors) I had to search for something that was all-natural AND something other than mesquite. (I settled on hickory, but hope to find some fruit-tree flavor one of these days.)

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