14 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread”

1. boyles announced this am:
   
   “George Washington did not free his slaves; Jefferson did..on his death bed.”

   Of course, truth is exactly the opposite.  But, when you control the public airwaves, the truth is what you say it is.

   must be nice.

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   1. Of the founding fathers who owned slaves only three freed all their slaves. John Jay and Benjamin Franklin freed their slaves before they died and went on to be prominent abolitionists, but it was somewhat easier for them as they only owned a few. George Washington, as you correctly note, did it in his will.

      If I felt like being generous to Boyles it could have been a think-o rather like the other day when I said Helium when I meant Hydrogen. But I assume he was making some point about how he dislike Jefferson or something stupid like that.

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      1. But the total was a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of people held in slavery.

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   2. He left instruction that his slaves were to be freed upon his widow’s death, leaving her in a rather awkward position. Don’t know if she employed a food taster for the rest of her days.

      As for Jefferson, he was an old school English style “gentleman”, the kind who felt entitled to lead lives of privilege as a birth right whether they could afford it or not.  Since he couldn’t, who knows how many tradesmen had trouble feeding their families because he couldn’t be bothered to pay his bills, let alone have much of a care for slaves.

      The southern contingent of founding fathers was much more akin, in attitude and lifestyle, to the English aristos than most care to remember.  

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      1. I don’t think boyles misspoke.  The tea party people are trying very hard to redress the “founding fathers” as being anti-slavery…hence the Bachmann reference….I think boyles is just following the party line…knowing his audience, sheep like, never question him, don’t know their history anyway…but I am being redundant.

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   3. Peter Boyles’ “Blasting With Boyles” column in the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle (“Jail House Rock,” January 2012) contains “humorous” suggestions for renaming the Arapahoe County Patrick J. Sullivan Detention Facility, given anti-cannabis, former-Sheriff Pat Sullivans’ meth bust. Here are a couple of his renaming suggestions:

      11) The Michael Hancock Heritage Center

      15) The Jared Polis School For Boys

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      1. So, the references could be a whole lot worse.

         This man is on the radio 20 hours a week and he is influential in forming public opinion.

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2. Aides & staffers (the part-timers) are returning today to get their badges and attend an orientation on the new telephone answering system.  “God help us,” was one of my friends remarks yesterday.  

   There will be any number of rumors and more than a little gossip starting today that will show up in Westword or Lynn (over at the paper that shall not be named) will find a way to include to show us how all knowing she is around the Capitol.  

   Discussion of actual bills is starting to surface in the news.  If you have one you are interested in, let me know. My e-mail is in my profile.  I can’t promise I will have enough time to follow all of them, but it will give me some idea of what to watch for on the daily calendar.

   Pita
   

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3. http://news.advocate.com/post/…

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   1. There are some southern cities making the list, and not just in Florida but in real, Palin approved bible belt kind of states, whereas San Francisco didn’t make the cut?  Could Nancy Pelosi possibly not be allied with Satan? Did the Clintons turn Little Rock gay? That does it. It must be end times after all.  

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      1. I’ll believe that SLC is #1 the day I believe that Huntsman has a chance of winning the GOP nomination.  

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         1. There’s no f**king way that is accurate. Or…is it? Hmmmm…

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4. Then again, so is the vast majority of what passes for discourse these days.

   Then there’s this “OOOPS” moment by Panetta.

   U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta let slip on Sunday the big open secret that Washington war hawks don’t want widely known: Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.

   Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Panetta admitted that despite all the rhetoric, Iran is not pursuing the ability to split atoms with weapons, saying it is instead pursuing “a nuclear capability.”

   That “capability” falls in line with what Iran has said for years: that it is developing nuclear energy facilities, not nuclear weapons.

   “I think the pressure of the sanctions, the diplomatic pressures from everywhere, Europe, the United States, elsewhere, it’s working to put pressure on them,” Panetta explained on Sunday. “To make them understand that they cannot continue to do what they’re doing. Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability, and that’s what concerns us. And our red line to Iran is, do not develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us.”

   Republicans have been beating the drums of war in recent weeks as tensions in the Iranian gulf have soared. Iran has threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil transport hub crucial to global industry, if U.S. warships return to monitor their activities.

   http://www.rawstory.com/rs/201…

   With the economic pressures on the MIC, this kind of debunking of major war drum rational, are we witnessing the weakening of the “we need to maintain an empire” argument? I hope so.

   We need our hard earned tax dollars at home………..and stopping the creation PTSD is the best cure.

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   1. The Iranians continue to make moves that are indicative of nuclear ambitions beyond simple energy or medical use, despite their denials.  Furthermore, the regime seems insistent on developing as a regional military power on par with Israel as a counter to the Jewish state, and any such equivalence must include a nuclear component.

      Bush’s blunder on the Axis of Evil I think only cements the desire of the Iranians to become a full nuclear power.  The lessons of Iraq and North Korea loom large…

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