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December 05, 2011 04:32 PM UTC

Monday Open Thread

  • 41 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat.”

–Louis L’Amour

Comments

41 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread

    1. It seems to me that such a technology has to fall under the ruling prohibiting random IR sweeps of homes that was issued I think earlier this year.

      As a technology to help during certain situations where suspicion has already been raised, this is a useful tool.  As a random non-invasive search tool it’s an incredible invasion of privacy.

  1. Why does college cost so much?

    In 2009, spending by Americans for post-secondary education totaled $461 billion, an amount 42% greater than in 2000, after accounting for inflation.



    Indeed, the typical successful university president views his or her key constituencies not to be the customer (students and their parents who pay tuition charges or the granters of research funds), but rather others — the faculty, important alumni, key administrators, trustees and occasionally politicians. They please these constituencies by raising, and then spending, lots of money.

    They effectively bribe powerful faculty with low teaching loads, high salaries and good parking. They give the alumni successful intercollegiate athletic programs that are expensive and usually financed off the backs of students. They give trustees whatever they want, no matter how costly or eccentric.



    Once, as a department chairman, I successfully battled for more faculty members to do the same amount of work, thus lowering productivity. The result? My faculty evaluated me highly so I got a nice raise.

    College tuition is one of the largest expenses middle class families face. And the state has it in it’s own power to address this at the state owned schools. Doing so in the upcoming legislative session is one of the most powerful things the state could do for the residents here.

    But it will mean taking on some very entrenched and politically powerful interests.

  2. Colorado used to have  tuition and fee scholarships for every student in the top ten percent of his public high school graduating class.  That is how I went to college.

    Oklahoma U offers the same kind of tuition and fee scholarship to any student who gets a 29 or greater on the ACT.  What happens in OK is that student take that test many times in order to try and get that grade.  The ACT is big on math….and kids in OK study up on  math.

    I would also like to see published the administrative salaries for staff at public colleges and universities.

  3. Mitt Romney Runs From Another Reporter At Fox News Forum

    Rutenberg writes that, while Newt Gingrich chatted happily with him, Romney and his aides treated him as if he was a leper, and reacted in comically over-the-top fashion:

    Spotting the reporter, Mr. Romney’s aides sprang into action, asking where he worked and what he was doing there, and then insisting that he not physically approach Mr. Romney before or after he was questioned on television by the attorneys general and Mr. Huckabee.

    Running away from reporters doesn’t work this early in the process.

    1. You would think after getting royally panned by other networks and talking heads, Romney would want to play nice with a Fox reporter at a Fox News Forum.  Fox is the 24/7 right wing destination station for the people he needs right now.  Frankly if he’s that adverse to Fox and their treatment of him, he should have skipped the forum entirely.  

  4. Colorado supreme court just issued an order affirming the district court judgment and returning the case to the district court to certify the congressional redistricting judgment to the SOS.  Written opinion to follow later.

      1. I’m officially CD2. I’m officially, for the first time in 19 years, in a district that may actually have a representative that will represent me, Betsy Markey’s brief tenure not withstanding. (Thank you Betsy. You were the best thing that happened to CD4 and I’m eternally grateful for your service.)

        I’m such a happy girl right now. I love you Representative Polis. I mean LOVE you. Like with time and dime sort of love.

          1. I’ve been in CD4 since I moved to Colorado. I won’t know what to do with myself with a real Democrat representing me and by real, I mean one that actually returns phone calls.

            Thank God you ended up in 7. It’s a bummer for you to lose Polis. I’m glad you at least ended up with another good one–Ed.  

  5. The U.S. Postal Service on Monday will announce a cost-savings proposal that would no longer deliver first-class mail on the next day.

    The financially troubled agency will present to its overseers a proposal to change its national standard for first-class mail to two-to-five days from one-to-three, according to interviews with several mail industry officials who received a presentation by the agency this week.

    http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/0

    Guess I had better get on those Christmas, Holiday cards.

  6. and has a flexible schedule, should stop by the COGCC hearing today, which started about an hour ago.

    It is being held in a location other than the Chancery building…on Sherman Street somewhere. I couldn’t locate the address on the COGCC website.

    Unless I miss my guess, you will witness the environmental community ignore the real voice of the gaspatch residents and cave to the governor and the CPA.

    The evidence? A line from the Western Colorado Congress’s notice about the hearing that called the new “fracking rule” a “good first step”.

    WTF??

    The new “fracking rule” being bullied through the COGCC by Hick and the Republic Tower boys isn’t a rule at all. As long as it has a trade secret loophole, it is worthless. Completely worthless.

    A “good first step” is not the message I am hearing from the ground troops out here in the hinterlands…but it isn’t the first time we’ve been ignored.

    I hope I am wrong about this…I really do.

     

    1. to hear my doubts

      Unless I miss my guess, you will witness the environmental community ignore the real voice of the gaspatch residents and cave to the governor and the CPA.

      were unfounded. Early reports are that the environmental community did a good job of presenting the case against acceptance of the new fracking rule.

      Well done, ya’ll.

  7. bulletin board, cubicle wall, and refrigerator door, it should be:

    Send in the Clueless

    Think about what it takes to be a viable Republican candidate today.  You have to denounce Big Government and high taxes without alienating the older voters who were the key to G.O.P. victories last year – and who, even as they declare their hatred of government, will balk at any hint of cuts to Social Security and Medicare (death panels!).

    And you also have to denounce President Obama, who enacted a Republican-designed health reform and killed Osama bin Laden, as a radical socialist who is undermining American security.

    So what kind of politician can meet these basic G.O.P. requirements? There are only two ways to make the cut:  to be totally cynical or to be totally clueless.

    The larger point, however, is that whoever finally gets the Republican nomination will be a deeply flawed candidate.  And these flaws won’t be an accident, the result of bad luck regarding who chose to make a run this time around; the fact that the party is committed to demonstrably false beliefs means that only fakers or the befuddled can get through the selection process.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12

    Sometimes, I guess, even just sucking less has its merits.

  8. even though he’ll never get it from his own party.

    Huntsman’s response to Trump on FOX News Monday: “I’m not going to kiss his ring and I’m not going to kiss any other part of his anatomy.”

    So the Trump/Newsmax holiday egofest “debate” on Dec 27th won’t have Jon Huntsman to kick around (or Ron Paul for that matter).  So far, only Neut has RSVP’d this offer to go head-to-ham shaped head with the Donald.

    For anyone loving a train wreck this bit of must-see-TV cannot fail to satisfy.  I’m just not sure what’s taking Bachmann, Parry, & Santorum so long to hop onboard this ride.  

  9. at the thought that Newt Gingrich might see this story:

    http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.co

    maybe it’s because I read this story:

    http://articles.latimes.com/20

    Gingrich said, mockingly, that those on the left would oppose his idea because it might prompt the children to earn more money and eventually escape poverty, “and then who would rich liberals worry about?”

    He said he favored putting children to work in paid jobs at the schools they attend “as early as is reasonable and practical.”

    “As an historian, and highly acclaimed professorial scholar, I believe we can find solutions to America’s multiple problems of resource development, illegal immigration, child poverty, and economic growth; it’s likely these solutions could even all be found in some of the simplest and most elegant of single solutions.”  Said Gingrich, “liberals, socialists, and bed-wetters all like to say there are no simple solutions to America’s problem.  I say to them — you’re just not willing to try hard enough to find them . . . ”

    (OK, that last paragrah is my snark . . . )

  10. is getting ready to yodel.

    http://www.reuters.com/article

    Romney to pick up Dan Quayle’s endorsement

    Seriously this is a game changer!  Now bear with me, what I’m saying is this — if Romney’s campaign is so far behind the times and out of touch with 2011 America that it thinks that anyone outside the immediate Quayle household is going to care about this endorsement, then I have no doubt that this campaign has officially become Newt’s to piss away.

    (And, on that note . . .

    http://www.reuters.com/article

    . . . might as well give all those good folks in the Tabernacle Choir a little ray of hope this holiday season.  Thank you Santa Donald!)

  11. a name for Donald Trumps’ new spin off of his “Apprentice” reality show?

    Here is the plot…Donald takes on ten apprentices (“apprenti”?…WTF, Donald?) from a school in a “poor” neighborhood and, with an occasional cameo appearance by former presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, they compete to see who can become the best at cleaning the Donalds’ toilets and mopping his floors.

    Whoever wins gets to go outside and be his gardener.

    1. “If Republicans Had Their Way” . . . ?

      “The 99%” . . . ?

      “Remembering the Bushes” . . . ?

      “That 2010’s Show” . . . ?

      “American Idol” . . . ?

      “FOX News” . . . ?

      1. “This is Your Life” . . . ?

        “Sesame Street” . . . ?

        “Mr. Donald’s Neighborhood” . . . ?

        “Rich Man, Poor Kids” . . . ?

        “Once Upon a Time in America” . . . ?

        “Are You Richer than a Fifth Grader?” . . . ?

        “I’m Rich and You’re Not” . . . ?

        “Taxed Enough Already?” . . . ?

        and, finally (I promise) . . .

        “Fuck you, I’m Rich!” . . . ?

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