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February 23, 2012 04:22 PM UTC

Thursday Open Thread

  • 62 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

A little fire is quickly trodden out;

Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.

–From William Shakespeare’s King Henry VI, Part III

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62 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

  1. Kelley on KNUS opened up his phone lines, this am, and people are calling in from all over the Metro area reporting on weather and traffic conditions. This information is really helpful. It is precisely what used to happen on talk radio in Denver all the time.

    Meantime, boyles is talking about Kyle Dryer still…and Sirota posted the question:  “Are you a vegetarian if you don’t eat anything with a central nervous system?”

    This is SNL stuff.

    I wish that Denver had the equivalent of “Portlandia.”

    1. From DenverRadio.net:

      630 KHOW’s Boyles & Martino on-air fight, Boyles walks out, both in trouble with management…

      Boyles was on the rag on religion thing during his show Thursday… Besides his norrnal anti-Christian babbling he called burning the Koran as getting rid of trash, some odd creepy things about Hitler and the Jews… Said science proved the universe was 72 billion years old (actually 14-15 billion)… Kept ranting about some space alien named something like “Zee-knew”…

      Listening to his show today the word “psychotic” comes to mind…

      Then later, after hijacking Martino’s show with his (Boyles’) Scientology guest, Boyles and Martino get into it over their views on God..

      At one point Martino yelled at Boyles:

      “Don’t treat ME the way YOU treat YOUR CALLERS!”

      Gotta love it…

      KHOW, if you don’t have the balls to fire him then get Boyles to a psych-ward before he hurts someone or himself…

      This is getting sick to watch err… listen to…

  2. In TNTSNBN – when Rep. Chris Holbert, R-Parker was asked what a bill he introduced will do, he referred people to the Independence Institute that wrote the bill. He’s introduced a bill where he has no idea what it does – and admits it.

    Makes him look like a puppet for Jon Caldera.

    1. We ought to have a law that legislators have to write any legislation they submit.  They can get advice but if they can’t write it and explain it themselves they have no business submitting it. Maybe we’d get legislation in a few pages in language everyone with 8th grade reading comprehension could understand.

    2. Here in Douglas County the GOP, from the school board to the legislators, takes all its marching orders from the Independence Institute. Who do you think wrote the voucher program for the school district? You know, the only thing I can figure is that they would like to return to the indigenous tradition of putting us oldsters out on the prairie until we starve or freeze to death. That $230 a month folks on medicare get is breaking the states budget – there will not be enough left to let the corporations get a tax cut. They do not seem to realize the the average PERA retiree gets $39,000 a year. That is living the high life for certain.

      A pox on both their houses!

          1. I don’t know what, if any, policy the CPA has about owners of blogs being members, or whether they’d be full members.

            At any rate, the organization is the Colorado Newspaper Association, as in dead-tree products sold in the marketplace.

              2. are welcome to join the CPA, though since it’s basically a trade association for newspapers, not a news association, the benefits are limited. TV news departments don’t belong to the CPA (they have their own groups) — does that mean the CPA is not embracing the future? Or that they’re simply devoted to a specific industry with its own problems, like postal permits and how to bid on legal notices?

                1. If their interests are primarily print specific then not much point in blogs joining. Is there a Colorado news association of some kind. Or has this historically just been part of the newsprint & TV groups?

                  1. It’s a trade association for print newspapers, and it also issues press credentials. Some bloggers get those through the CPA, some go through other organizations (like the one broadcasters use), plenty go without, as their value in most situations is questionable.

                    If the owners of Pols wanted press credentials for some reason (I can’t imagine why they would), they could apply for them, pay the annual dues, and flash them wherever they thought it appropriate.

                    But the reception at the governor’s mansion today was for publishers, some editors (as gertie noted) and the Capitol press corps (they have their own credentialing mechanism).  

  4. I have to wonder if the Princess Generation will produce a woman nearly so remarkable.

    Marie Colvin, who has been killed by a shell in Syria aged 56, was a fearless but never foolhardy war correspondent who believed passionately in the need to report on conflicts from the frontline. In a career spanning 30 years, she covered wars from around the world for the Sunday Times and was renowned for her compassionate, clear writing.

    She was committed to reporting on the realities of war, especially the effects on civilians. That was exactly what she was doing in the beleaguered city of Homs at the time of her death. She had broadcast the day before and written movingly in her newspaper a few days earlier of the slaughter she observed as Syrian government forces continued to bombard the city.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/medi…

    1. And a reminder that journalism used to be (and still is for a select few) a noble profession.

      Her courage should be held up as an example to all.

  6. Boy, do we miss his steady hand on monetary policy. He was bipartisan, being Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve System in August 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and reappointed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan.

    It may be hard for him, but may he R.I.P.

    1. Na, I betcha he’s “resting” pretty easily, yeah, I  doubt he’s tossing or turning at all other than what happens with normal geological ground shifts … and pretty sure everything mortal would be hard for him in his current state.  

  8. Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

    The key criteria:

    A new study, forthcoming in Psychological Science, and led by Jason Moser at Michigan State University, expands on this important concept. The question at the heart of the paper is simple: Why are some people so much more effective at learning from their mistakes? After all, everybody screws up. The important part is what happens next. Do we ignore the mistake, brushing it aside for the sake of our self-confidence? Or do we investigate the error, seeking to learn from the snafu?

    And how it applies to K-12:

    After the children finished the test, the researchers told the students their score, and provided them with a single line of praise. Half of the kids were praised for their intelligence. “You must be smart at this,” the researcher said. The other students were praised for their effort: “You must have worked really hard.”

    …

    But it soon became clear that the type of compliment given to the fifth graders dramatically affected their choice of tests. When kids were praised for their effort, nearly 90 percent chose the harder set of puzzles. However, when kids were praised for their intelligence, most of them went for the easier test. What explains this difference? According to Dweck, praising kids for intelligence encourages them to “look” smart, which means that they shouldn’t risk making a mistake.

  9. So all us north of Denver denizens have been paying 8 yrs. of taxes now on for the light rail experience and now we ain’t getting it.

    Seems RTD “fiscal miscalculations” have worked to screw over folks from Westminster to Longmont. And there’s a good chance we’re gonna be hit up for another tax increase just to give us buses.

    They present options with #1 but that doubles the cost to $1.7 bil and is still designated “unachievable” in their own presentation. What a bunch of f*ck ups!    

    1. and parts of it we didn’t even start, and we also ran out of money.  

      Now we realize we can’t really do light rail, so maybe heavy rail and some more buses would be nice.

      Oh, and can we have some more money to do it ?

      I hope RTD knows how ridiculous all of this sounds.  

            1. I can’t imagine how fucked northenders must feel …. Oh wait, yes I can because I have that same feeling from Obama, RTD, Pelosi, Ritter, et. al. too.

              For the last 2 years we’ve had democrats in DC pile on state and citizen unfunded mandates …. we’ve been screaming and yet state leaders have sat idley by telling DC…”thank you” and failing to protect Coloradans from our worsening state fiscal imbalance pushed onward by unaccountable big government expansion policies.

              RTD’s fucking will feel like a thermometer compared to the astroglide lacking series of 12″ dildos coming from DC.

              1. but, all those unfounded mandates of the last two years?   Please refresh my memory and name a couple.

                Oh, and BTW, I filled up with gas today — $3.05 per gallon. (You shrieking dumbass.)

    2. CDOT announces yesterday they’re moving fwd & ahead of schedule on US36 expansion for Bus Rapid Transit — how convenient.  CDOT funds different from RTD and they’re delivering the transport infrastructure for $450 mil — so where the f*ck is RTD’s $897 mil FasTracks going?  Boulder/Longmont/Superior/Louisville/Broomfield taxes diverted so RTD can zip empty trolleys down to Park Meadows? Bunch of f*ck ups!  

      1. The RTD proposal to Boulder and Longmont was never about Light Rail; the plan was always (when it existed at all) about running real trains along the existing BNSF tracks.  Why this costs billions of dollars I don’t know, though – if I was doing oversight, I’d be asking just why it was that this part of the project has become so expensive…

        And you’re right – CDOT’s funding for the US-36 BRT expansion is completely separate from RTD’s rail plains.  Also, buses can fit in to development plans where light rail couldn’t.  (Once you hit Boulder, there’s not really any room to put light rail – you can’t make it go all the way to Longmont – but buses can take existing streets…)

        And one more FYI, from someone who used to drive down along I-25 daily; the rail down to Park Meadows was full every day during rush hour, and with the continuing development of housing near the rail line, it will continue to be well utilized.

      2. Honestly, I’m also disappointed that they’re not running trains, but all indications were that the trains were going to be slow, polluting, and noisy. I’d rather not have them at all if they’re not something to be proud of. Speeding up bus service is a better priority (though I thought that was being paid for by RTD, my mistake).

        I think some of that RTD money went to things like fixing that horrible park-and-ride at Broomfield, which typically saves me about 10 minutes per trip going from Boulder to Denver or DIA, so yay there. Not like it didn’t get used.

        And light rail for the Denver suburbs is a good cause. Boulder is too far away to get light rail (I’ve never heard of a system that operates over 30 miles away, that’s all heavy commuter rail). But I’m sure a lot of Boulderites are happy to have paid the taxes as long as people somewhere are driving less.

  10. Just posted over at TPM: Rasmussen’s overnight track after the debates.

    Poor Mittster. His hands are tied. Can’t hit Santorum on social issues, can’t hit Obama on the economy. What’s a guy to do?

  11. Heard @ last night’s Snoozer in AZ:

    Stay-Puft Newt vowed to reform the federal Civil Service system at a savings of “a minimum of $500 billion a year.”  

    Hmm, but seems the entire payroll for our Federal guv’mnt (including military) runs about $432 bil a year.  Not sure about the math there but what the hell it sounds so real when  it comes outta this pig’s mouth.  

    3. I assume you read the same TPM article I did.

      I didn’t see that part, but I did see this:

      Now, the thing that’s fascinating, though, John, is you quoted a government study of how much it would cost. That’s my earlier point. If you modernize the federal government so it’s competent, you could probably do it for 10 percent of the cost of that study.

      That part literally made me laugh out loud, as the entire audience applauded, because hey saving 90% by cutting out waste sounds great!

      You have to be a complete fucking moron to be a Republican, so stupid you’ll literally believe any huckster and scammer, and I’m not sure that was even true two years ago. I should go to Colorado Springs and start a three-card monte table.

  12. ….every idiot in the GOP Presidential Clowncar has a budget pan that increases the deficit more than the current one proposed by President Obama.

    How is it that the GOP is the party of Fiscal Responsibility?


    The Big Deficit Lie: Every GOP Debt Plan Leaves Us With More Debt

    The four remaining GOP candidates have a simple and straightforward plan for the direction of our federal debt. Up. Way up.

    That’s the conclusion from a new report comparing the tax-and-spending plans from Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum, from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

    Today, public debt is equal to about 70% of our economy. If Congress allowed current law to play itself out, the Bush tax cuts would expire and that number would fall to about 60%, according to various estimates. That’s pretty stable. But nobody wants the “current law” scenario to play out. Not Congress, not the Senate, not the White House, and certainly not the Republican field. So we need another plan. Problem is, most of the other plans don’t get us anywhere near stability. In fact, the GOP plans would raise our debt burden to anywhere between 67% and a whopping 126% of the economy by 2021, according to CRFB.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/bus…

  13. Thanks Democrats for all those great policies.

    The economy hasn’t grown under Obama, yet the cost of milk and gas have.  I guess you could try to blame it on those fucking dairy farmers who are more interesting in shipping their product to china for the yuan vs keeping America’s youth healthy.

    1. Lib, you need to trust in the free market and stop listening to that radio. Gas is under $3 and so is milk, I just bought some of both tonight.

      And what’s this obsession you have with rectal penetration lately? Is that because you belong to the party embodied by Santorum now?

    2. your gas and milk?  Do you drink that concoction or put it in the tank of your mom’s station wagon?  What with your newfound rectal fascination, you might do better with that mixture putting it in your enema bag.  Dumbass.  

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