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December 09, 2011 04:17 PM UTC

Open Line Friday!

  • 52 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Now, you and Newt are both guilty of flip-flops. So, Mitt, why not flip to full conservative and see what happens? You won’t have to resort to tearing down an opponent. You can tear down Obama. What do you think got Newt where he is, Mitt? What do you think got Trump where he was before he pulled out? Tear down Obama!”

–Rush Limbaugh, yesterday

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52 thoughts on “Open Line Friday!”

  1. With his government now forced to face the excesses of public finance gone bad, the beseiged Mayor now must address insider dealings and the pitfalls of tax increment financing coupled with recipients piss poor business management.

    Happily he can stand erect, knowing he doesn’t have to cower and cover like Jon Corzine. Here’s hoping Mayor Hancock takes a strong and firm position to address the failings off the $127million tax payers funded grab bag of Eco Dev loans, 15% of which are bad.



    Loans are regularly sold, why won’t Denver look into selling this entire portfolio? Monetize the tax payers position and return the hundreds of millions to help the city or restart another loan portfolio.     Keneddy, anyone????


    About 15 percent of the loans in the Denver Office of Economic Development’s $127 million portfolio are in arrears or default, and the city has begun a systematic effort to restructure the most problematic cases.

    Huggybear sees opportunities in pennies on the dollar government inspired loan deals he once promoted.

    One controversy over the proposed refinancing of the deal involves John Huggins, the former director of the Office of Economic Development, who encouraged the Lowenstein redevelopment.

    Huggins, who has not worked for the OED for 4 1/2 years, is now purchasing the tax-increment-financed $2.2 million loan from U.S. Bank for cents on the dollar, Washington said.

    ……..

    “I never thought it was a violation of ethics or the law; the question is that of public perception,” said Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, who serves on the Business, Workforce & Sustainability committee and voted Wednesday against sending the refinance deal on to the council.

    “I am uneasy having an individual player come back after having that person at the table promoting a deal, having it go south and then having that person make a profit from it.”

    Read more: Tattered sales at Lowenstein complex finds city of Denver modifying development loan – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news…

    Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/term…

  2. Prince 1% Bennet is gonna screw IT workers of America.  He & 3 other Senators want to update the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) with the Computer Professionals Update (CPU) Act (S. 1747).  This piece of shit bill would modify the computer employee exemption and effectively eliminate any overtime to

    …any employee working in a computer or information technology occupation (including, but not limited to, work related to computers, information systems, components, networks, software, hardware, databases, security, internet, intranet, or websites) as an analyst, programmer, engineer, designer, developer, administrator, or other similarly skilled worker …

    Please read the bill and then ask yourself  just WTF is Prince Bennet pulling?  

    Anyone in IT/IS knows all about service contracts & contract labor & work schedules & business ops.  How many have worked OT on weekends or holidays or overnight to lessen the impact on business?  How many have performed extended data center work or NOC upgrades that have gone beyond an 8 hr day?

    Well Prince Bennet doesn’t think any of that merits extra pay.  Yeah, those IT gruntlings performing the work are about to get screwed.

    Seriously just WTF is Bennet thinking?  Can anyone tell me because I can’t find statements from he or anyone in his office giving reason to this PoS bill.  This bill dropped in late Oct and move this fast to get on the floor right before a holiday break … that smells.

    So hey, all you Prince Bennet toe-suckers do you think you can get an answer to just WTF he’d doing?  

    1. Senator Bennet raised a ton of money from Wall St and large corporations. They’re the ones that will benefit from this change.

      This will also reduce hiring. Why hire a new person when instead you can have 2 existing employees work an extra 20 hours each week. Base pay is identical and no benefits or overhead for the additional hire you don’t make.

      1. So you’re calling Prince Bennet an elitist 1% Wall St. toadie then.  He does the bidding of his benefactors rather than worry about the high tech working constituents.

        And what is your take on the change?  It’s gotta help your bottom line right?  You’re on the boards griping about lack of workers and I’m sure theres always a wage-to-work issue so now are you gonna apply your own reasoning?  Why hire when you can just work ’em harder …

        1. Virtually everyone in Congress does the bidding of those that fund their campaigns. That’s our political system at present.

          As to my company – we’ll continue to pay hourly employees (which is mainly student interns) 1½ for any hours over 40 as that’s the right thing to do.

          1. singling out members of Congress for their specific corrupt acts is essential to addressing the problem. We’ll never solve the problem by reflexively reverting to the “Oh well, they all do it” refrain.

              1. The specifics of this issue, vs. the larger (and perhaps unrelated to this specific legislation) issue of political corruption. I was addressing David’s take on the latter, irrespective of the former.

    2. A similar exemption already exists in the Federal code; this is an update only, and a minor one at that.

      In order to be considered exempt you must make at least $27.63/hour – that’s about $58k/year, and you must essentially be an engineer, analyst, designer, administrator, tester, technical writer, or co-ordinator of the above (say, e.g. a Scrum manager).

      The changes are mostly involving those last three – testing, documentation, and managing roles.  And the minimum salary is a new addition, too.

      I don’t understand the gnashing of teeth over this.

      1. Testing used to be a crap role that almost never got paid at those rates.  However, in the past 10 years it has grown up, and good testers often have programming skills and make a lot more money than they used to.

        Managers I always thought were exempt, but I’m guessing this is to cover the project co-ordinator roles that aren’t strictly managerial.

        These types of changes are typical clerical maintenance of the laws IMHO.

        2. So what is the ultimate goal and who ultimately benefits of this PoS CPU Act? It’s obvious that this amendment was not designed to support and promote the worker — no making more jobs exempt from fair pay favors the employers.

          This bill protects the very mgmt that causes the problem — if they had enough qualified staff OT wouldn’t be an issue. But thru RIFs, outsourcing, and heaping increased job responsibilities they’ve increased the workload on remaining IT/IS staff and now Prince Bennet wants the government to further protect mgmt’s right to screw the workers.

          IT/IS companies are passing along outrageous health care increases with premiums doubling, copays skyrocketing, paid days off further cut, and now they want to take away overtime. Bennet Has no prob nickel & diming the remaining middle class while protecting corporate profits.

          The current law calls for IT/IS folks whose main role is neither managerial nor creative to receive overtime pay. Now they want to exempt roles like junior sysadmins, DBAs and network administrators and …

          …any employee working in a computer or information technology occupation (including, but not limited to, work related to computers,information systems, components, networks, software, hardware, databases, security, internet, intranet, or websites) as an analyst, programmer, engineer, designer, developer, administrator, or other similarly skilled worker, whose primary duty is-

          (A) the application of systems, network or database analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine or modify hardware, software, network, database, or system functional specifications;

          (B) the design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing, securing, configuration, integration, debugging, modification of computer or information technology, or enabling continuity of systems and applications;

          (C) directing the work of individuals performing duties described in subparagraph (A) or (B), including training, such individuals or leading teams performing such duties; or

          (D) a combination of duties described in subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), the performance of which requires the same level of skill;

          Anyone else think that would be a pretty broad expansion of OT exempt workers? Again, ask yourself just who benefits from these changes?

          1. I’ve been a classified EXEMPT Systems Admin since, well, forever it seems – at least since I made more than $10/hr as a temp employee.  I would have qualified for overtime for about 1/3 of my exempt career under the new law, thanks to the new minimum salary limit to the exemption.

            Many web developers and low-end programmers will actually benefit from this change.

    3. Many companies in the IT space are substituting use of contractors for hiring now because there is so much attention being paid to issues of exempt/non-exempt employment. That means people are getting hourly, fairly low-paying roles that don’t offer any benefits, rather than a full time job with a lower starting salary that requires overtime. I think most people without health insurance would prefer the latte.r

      1. Some would rather have a rising tide to lift all ships rather than blowing the dam to drain the lake.  Guess all good as long as we’re all on the same level?

  3. The feds already have too much power Breaking News: Feds Falsely Censor Popular Blog For Over A Year, Deny All Due Process, Hide All Details…

    Imagine if the US government, with no notice or warning, raided a small but popular magazine’s offices over a Thanksgiving weekend, seized the company’s printing presses, and told the world that the magazine was a criminal enterprise with a giant banner on their building. Then imagine that it never arrested anyone, never let a trial happen, and filed everything about the case under seal, not even letting the magazine’s lawyers talk to the judge presiding over the case. And it continued to deny any due process at all for over a year, before finally just handing everything back to the magazine and pretending nothing happened. I expect most people would be outraged. I expect that nearly all of you would say that’s a classic case of prior restraint, a massive First Amendment violation, and exactly the kind of thing that does not, or should not, happen in the United States.

  4. Economic Experts Gather In DC To Explain Why Politics Has Doomed Us

    “Basically we’re still stuck in the situation we were three years ago and we haven’t made any progress at all except that our problems are much worse because of political reasons, because we now have a crazy party in charge of one of the Houses of our Congress and they won’t allow anything to happen because it’s in their vested interest to make things worse,” Bartlett explained in his typically exasperated way. “Plus they have a theory that is completely nuts…. I’m very depressed. I’d love to see some program like this [paper] enacted. I see zero chance of it happening. The most we can hope for is that a complete crazy person like Newt Gingrich gets the Republican nomination, the Republicans lose so badly that they lose control of the House and don’t get control of the Senate and then maybe in a year we can finally talk about doing something rational such as what is discussed in this paper.”

    And while our best hope is a Democratic majority, we had that before and they didn’t do much to fix things either.

    1. We’ve been over that before.

      We got a shiny new CFPB (that’s neutered because Republicans won’t allow a nomination to head the agency through…), we got a stimulus program through compromise that at least stemmed the bleeding of the economy for a few years, we got a rescue of the auto industry which is now one of the healthy spots in our economy, we got something in the way of health care reform which is more than any other President has managed in 40+ years despite its imperfections…

      But it’s nothing, regardless of the realities of politics you seem so intent on ignoring.

      2. and then lets the criminial go free.  Jesus that is one fucked up, tortured narrative.

        The Republicans have behaved like the economically inept bat shit yahoos they are and have not only failed, but have obstructed any attempt at progress and getting our country back on the right track. The Democrats haven’t done much either, so lets focus here on blaming the Democrats.

        That’s the way it looks to me.

      3. Yes they stopped the bleeding and that was gigantic. But in terms of recovering – we’re still stuck in 17% true unemployment/underemployment. That’s awful.

        With that said, as the article linked and my follow-on both stated, the Republicans are the much bigger part of the problem.

          1. I just don’t try to pretend things will be wonderful if we get a Democratic majority. We have two giant problems politically. The first is that the GOP is basically bat-shit insane in D.C. The second is that the Democrats are also owned by Wall St and the uber-wealthy and therefore won’t propose the fundamental changes we need to fix things.

            A lot of people are focused on let’s bring back a Democratic majority because we suck less. I’d like to focus on let’s get the Democrats in D.C. to fight for the fundamental changes we need so a Democratic majority would bring about significant improvement.

                1. I am under no illusion that a Senate with 60 Democratic votes will be filibuster-proof.  If we get to 60 votes again, it will likely still be with the likes of Ben Nelson and Jon Tester.

                  Nor do I think that Democratic leadership will be in the mood to change the filibuster rules – still, though they should.

                  If we could get to 64 or 65, we could see major change.  But that’s nigh on to a revolution in terms of Senate seats.

                  1. I’m just not going to put in any time & money to elect Democrats who put the interests of Wall St and the 1% over those of the people that elect them.

                    But I agree with Phoenix, with Democrats it is better. Especially on issues where their funders don’t care that much.

                  2. From the Wisconsin uprising, culminating in two successful recalls of state senators,  through the recall in Ohio of even worse than Wisconsin style anti-union legislation, the basement level popularity of the extremist governor’s in those states and in Florida, the way the OWS and the 99%ers have changed the conversation…. all of that would tend to put things in a different light for a Dem majority at this point than in 2009 when it was supposed be all about changing the tone and making love not war (especially not class war) with the GOP.  Making a little war seems to be a much better bet now.  

            2. The second is that the Democrats are also owned by Wall St and the uber-wealthy and therefore won’t propose the fundamental changes we need to fix things. . . . I’d like to focus on let’s get the Democrats in D.C. to fight for the fundamental changes we need so a Democratic majority would bring about significant improvement.

              vs.

              I don’t think you should single out Senator Bennet.  Virtually everyone in Congress does the bidding of those that fund their campaigns. That’s our political system at present.

              . . . sometimes you might be more convincing if maybe you spread some of your responses out over different days.

                1. with being rhetorically consistent, then perhaps logical consistency doesn’t matter.

                  I suppose focusing on getting Democrats in DC to fight for fundamental changes doesn’t necessarily have to include holding the actual individual members accountable for what they do.

        2. In a sane political environment we would have both parties competing for who could fix the economy with each offering policies & plans that history shows would be effective.

          Instead we have both sides offering tiny bits of help along with a race to see who can cut more which is the worst thing to do right now.

  6. Democrats should keep fighting to use a Millionaire’s Surtax to fund the payroll tax cut and unemployment extension.

    When NPR went looking for businessmen who would be affected, they first asked GOP Congressmen to send them a reference – the GOP could not find any.  So then they went to the groups lobbying against the tax – no references from them, either.  Well, there had to be some somewhere, right?  A post to Facebook resulted in some responses, all along the lines of “it’s not a significant consideration to us in our business operations”.  They managed to get three in-depth interviews with affected business owners, who each said that their business decisions were based on demand and need, and that they thought it fair to pay into the government systems that made their companies functionally successful.

        1. We’re exceptional; anyone and everyone else (Limey meterers included), not so much.

          Idiotic? . . . Uh huh.

          Wrong? . . . Ya betcha.

          Irrelevant to my point? . . . Well, yeah (assuming I’ve got one).

          But, I do agree 100% that Gingrich really would be a tremendous gift as the GOP nominee.

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