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February 28, 2012 04:40 PM UTC

Tuesday Open Thread

  • 86 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

I understand a fury in your words

But not the words.

–From William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello

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86 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

  2. This Year, Many Prisoners Will See an iPod for the First Time In Their Lives…

    Monday, February 27, 2012

    by В paul

    In 1958, Johnny Cash played his first prison concert to a howling crowd at San Quentin. В In 2012, a select number of inmates will be able to hear his music on an iPod. В And many will be seeing a scroll-wheel for the first time in their lives. В 

    That’s because theВ US Bureau of Prisons is pushing a plan to let a portion of its inmate population use MP3 players. В According to information shared by the Bureau with USA Today, the program is already being piloted in a women’s facility in West Virginia, with a subsequent expansion planned.

    http://www.digitalmusicnews.co…

    http://www.wafb.com/story/1703…

    What’s next, free fuckin’ beany babies and cable tv?

    1. 1.  Gasoline prices — up

      2.  Milk prices  — up

      3.  Beanies (US no. 2 grade – pintos) — down

      4.  Beanie babies — free (WTF?!?)

      5.  Cable TV — TBD?

      (Too bad about your Beanie Baby investments, ‘Tad  . . is that why your cable is being shut off?)

      In the final analysis — Sucks to be you, fumduck.

    3. To continue one of the articles you linked to:

      Which means that spending 23 hours inside a 7-by-8 prison cell just got a little less hellish, and a little more connected to the outside world.  But the plan doesn’t include internet access, and the song selection itself is limited to about one million, RIAA-screened songs.  And, don’t expect any maximum security Spotify-synching anytime soon – this is just MP3 players and downloads for now.

      Let’s see how it goes: if this improves incentives for good behavior and makes guards safer, then it sounds like a win.

       

      So I guess you are in favor of prison conditions that amount to torture and put guards at risk?

    4. But so long as you keep spouting nonsense and pretending it means something, he’ll keep patting you on the head and thanking you for the good work you’re doing.

      I know it doesn’t carry the authority of WND, but The American Spectator spells it out for you, Lib:

      … many Republican voters feel that Romney has a low opinion of their intelligence, that he thinks the base is dumb, that he believes conservative rhetoric is just boob bait for the bubbas. This perception is why a critical mass of conservatives don’t trust Romney and are reluctant to support him.

    5. Next they are going to act like these people are actually humans and treat them appropriately! What is the world coming too?!

      iPod’s seem like total crap to me too though, Prisons need major reforms and giving them Apple products isn’t going to do it. I think I would be happy to see better training for guards, actual rehabilitation programs versus people in cages programs and proper living conditions. Or maybe just getting the prison system out of private company hands so we stop keeping people for minor offenses and turning them into criminals. Or maybe stopping rape? I’m going to get mad about those things, you handle the iPod fury? We got this shit covered.  

    1. You’re question doesn’t matter. His interventionist policies have trapped Americans with an onslaught of big government programs fueled by Trillions in new national debt.

      Worse for Colorado are all the new government unfunded mandates on local governments, state government, businesses and people that occured from Jan 2008-2010.

      You liberals scream, cry and point to the DU fiscal health study that shows Colorado is headed to the toilet, then you back every massive big government program and tax hike yoou can get your hands on. You only stop to blame the GOP for not allowing you to double down.

        1. make sure ya buy loads of it now while it’s at an all time high.  Nothing remotely like common sense among the commodity idiots but hey Glenn & Rush know better so the times is now to buy Gold!    

      2. wow ‘turd it’s really hit & miss while you’re finding out what works.  but stick with the treatment and soon you’ll be returned to a slobbering pre-frontal Rushbo parrot.  the recent posts do have a manic feeling so ya need to cut back some of the Red Bull and work a lil’ more fiber into yer intake.    

      3. Americans were “on food stamps” when 44 was inaugurated?

        How many on unemployment in January 2009?

        How many repub Senate filibusters since January 2009?

        How many jobs bills has the 112th Congress introduced since January 2011?

        Who proposed tanking the world economy to prevent the debt ceiling from being raised last year, and blocked the extension of the Social Security tax holiday this year untill finally caving to public scorn and common sense?

        No child left behind………unfunded mandate.

        Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act, 216-215 in the House, 54-45 in the Senate, signed December 8 2003. 2003………..unfunded mandate.

        Iraq…….on the credit card.

        I’m not on this blog nearly as much as I’d like to be, but Christ almighty, what I’ve read from you, libertad, leads me to believe you’re delusional, intellectually dishonest, a person who’s not in the top 1% but still advocates against your own best interests, simply pulling everybody’s chains knowing your posts are bullshit, or all of the above.    

    2. With the economy (slowly) improving, and with the GOP on its true believer path of destruction with the rise of Santorum, Romney inevitably will be pulled to the right to win the nomination. If it’s Santorum, Obama’s task is all the more accomplished.  

      If so Obama, ever the chameleon , need only stay the course and follow the path of his mentor, a president also from Illinois who once stated “my policy is to have no policy”.      

      1. among women since December. Coincidence that he’s about 10 points up in general? I think a contested convention is a wishful thinking fantasy because I think anyone in the GOP who could actually win the presidency has concluded it’s a lost cause this time around, the damage is done, too much money already sucked up and there isn’t time for a brand new face to organize.  

  4. With ODS on the decline the silver back is making headway.

    Will the Obama SuperPACs have the billion in cash to leverage Barack back to the throne? I’m betting yes.

    Besides Goldman Sachs, MF Capital/Corzine, Buffett, Soros, GE can’t let this guy go down. The potential mayhem their balance sheets would face is not something they desire. They need the crony capitalism that the community organizer brings to their businesses …. lots of cash and little accountability.

    Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14 (see trends).

    http://Www.rasmussenreports.com

    2. Did you just call Obama a “silver back”?

      I’m not sure how you’re going to be able to walk that one back, but you’d better try.

      Look, I can’t stand the guy and will do everything I can to make him a one-term President, but it has to do with policies.  That’s abhorrent, Libby.

      1. And, it seems you are part of it: “I can’t stand the guy”.

        Really? Well, over 3/4’s of the American public think positively of him as a person.

        As we say in my business, there’s no accounting for taste.

        Welcome back.

        1. I can’t stand the guy. You gonna take me to task for stating how I feel about a candidate, too? Or do you save your criticism for the other side only?

          Ellbee actually calls out Libertad and you give him shit for it? Wow. Fucked up priorities but super, caroman. Super.  

          1.      

            when you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas. No offense intended to dogs.  it’s just an expression.  

            The sad truth is, though I completely believe that Elbee doesn’t have a racist bone in his body and appreciate his calling out ‘tad,  racism is obviously, blatantly and undeniably a major component of the element with which Elbee is politically aligned, no matter how much Elbee may wish and insist that isn’t so.   It’s never been just  the same as your despising Santorum.

            We have, for far too long and far too consistently, seen a racism so ingrained that casual, almost unconscious racist language and imagery has been a constant component of the right’s response to this President. It’s sad for the Elbees but undeniably true.  

            2. American Gridlock, by H. Woody Brock, where he hypothesizes that this great schism we’re witnessing has its current roots in the generational battles that started in the 1960″s. Remember when there just wasn’t any getting through to the parents, or vice-versa?

              This book was an attempt to find a way out of the destructive polemic we find ourselves in, and had many ideas worth considering. He calls this situation the “dialogue of the deaf”.

            3. I think more often than not I do it poorly. I’m gonna try here and see how it goes.

              On Sunday, I went to a meet and greet with Jared Polis. One of the side conversations in the room was with a group of folks that were former Republicans and are now Democrats. They feel like they don’t even recognize the Republican Party that they grew up in and worked in, for years.

              The topic of why fellow Republicans don’t stand up and speak out against the more outrageous statements being made on social issues and race came up. When I saw ellbee doing just that and then getting blasted for it, I lost it. I could have framed my reply to caroman much better and that’s on me, not caroman.

              I will say that I am sick of the double standard we set for the average Republican party goer–we criticize them when they don’t speak out and then we criticize them when they do. A little positive reinforcement for doing the right thing would truly be a welcome change of pace, in my opinion.

              A person has a right to choose what political party more closely adheres to their views of government and clearly the Republican platform is the one that aligns with ellbee’s political views. Unfortunately, the Republican Party has been hijacked over the years by the fringes in the party until social issues have become far more important than their views on how to govern. The two have become indistinguishable to me. That said, it doesn’t give anyone the right to lump every Republican as a racist, a homophobe, anti-woman, et al and the more we suppress the few that are stepping up and speaking out, the more we are actually feeding the fringe. In my opinion. Only my opinion.

              Hope to God that this makes more sense than my first frothing comment. Luckily for everyone, this will be my last on this particular thread.  

              2. Elbee constantly denies that racism is at all involved in a pervasive or integral way on today’s right and it’s been so obvious that it is ever since Obama became a serious candidate poised to win the nomination. This isn’t just a matter of a couple of ‘tads, a few bad apples as Elbee always insists.  Neither is it something of which both the right and the left are equally guilty. You know that, MOTR.   Elbee doesn’t or claims not to.  It’s pretty ridiculous. An intelligent, well meaning person really has to be working overtime to maintain that level of denial.

                It’s sad and if it allows the denier to go ahead and vote for the candidates whose profoundly, destructive, middle class killing, socially backward, let them eat cake policies have already done so much irreparable damage to my country and will do so much more if enough well meaning Elbees vote for them, it’s hard for me to feel all warm and fuzzy just because they may be well meaning and personally not racist bigots. Sorry.  Getting done in by people who are personally nice still gets us done in.  I’ll say it again: You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

                1. this particular guy voted for Obama. So any fleas he got up with are on many of us. Ideas are not responsible for their followers; it’s the idea that is supported by him.

                  Am I suggesting that there aren’t racists? No, but they really do live on both sides of the aisle. Open mindedness isn’t exclusively on one side either.

                  Ultimately, my point is that if you want to attack any conservative on policy, by all means. Making a categorical decision that all right are racists and should therefore be branded as such and instinctively not listened to is, well, prejudiced. And you don’t need to do it. You are very capable of intelligently debating nearly any issue with actual facts and results. Embrace that skill and take things as they come.

                  Just saying.

                  1. but racism has been very pervasive in the messaging we’ve seen coming out of the right ever since Obama became a real presidential possibility and  it is simply not true that racism has been all even/steven on the left and right. The right has been using racism as a wedge issue since civil rights  turned the south Republican and since the days of the notorious Willie Hornton ads. It has become common as dirt in the right’s response and language towards Obama.  It is not a coincidence that he is the only President whose right to be a citizen has so persistently been questioned on the basis of absolutely nothing.  What other president in our era has been badgered about producing a birth certificate and then had the certificate dismissed as a forgery?

                    It is Elbee’s constant hear no evil, see no evil denial of anything more than a few bad actors on the right that I find sad and disturbing. When good people indulge in that level of denial, bad things can happen. Very bad things. I have already said i don’t believe Elbee to be racist or bigoted.  

                    1. He exposed it where he saw it and was attacked. That’s not right and seems to go against what you just posted.

                    2. My initial comment was to explain why I thought Caroman was making a justifiable observation if in an unkind way.  Short version of my take:

                      Good and admirable that Elbee spoke out against this blatant racism.

                      Elbee not a racist or bigot

                      Sad and troubling, however, that Elbee is in such deep denial about how common as dirt, not exceptional, this very kind of racism has become in the language and imagery employed by the right these days.

                      That’s my take.  Nobody required to agree.

      3. You owe ‘tad nothing. You (in all of your avatars) are one of the best Conservative contributors on this site, even if most of us don’t agree with your politics. (Or your hockey team.)

        Telling this particularly loathsome piece of human garbage to act human is not worthy of the cred you have with the rest of us.  

        1. Libertad is spending 3 days in the Penalty Box. No one else spoke up until he did so props to him for calling him out. (And yeah, his hockey team blows although they did have a pretty stellar February. Better than my Blackhawks who sucked ass this month.)

            2. Here’s Dave Barnes again to defend racism!

              BREAKING: Silverback isn’t racist when used to describe a gorilla. It is racist when used to describe a black man.

              In the time it took you to find five links referencing it, you couldn’t maybe have stopped for a second and thought about it?

          2. Almost everyone on this site has made a judgment about his posts, which is they are worthless as the shitstains on my drawers.

            But depending on the issue, he ALWAYS draws a ton of return comments he usually never reads or considers.

            I always find a minute to reply to his senseless drivel and taunt him where appropriate, but for the most part I prefer to let him sit in his own echo chamber and leave him alone.

            I got here late today (PTSD/TBI training with Colorado State Judiciary in Arvada) but I probably would’ve ignored his Klan-thinking snark and let him sit alone ignored and scorned.

            It was bad – but feeding the troll only encourages him…

    4. While still saying absolutely everything–about yourself–that using the dirty word would imply?

      Just say it, Libby, we’d all feel better after you were honest about your feelings, and then the Guvs could just ban you already and we wouldn’t have to have excrement smeared across every Open Thread by the time most of Pols wakes up.  

    5. Death penalty this MFer.

      He’s been in the box, and doubly suspended for sockpuppeting from the box.

      Silverback is racist crap which has no place, and he’s been warned…twice.

      AMF

  6. In Daytona for the race, Romney said he wasn’t an ardent fan like most attending the race, but “he was good friends with many of the owners of the racing teams.” And those who own NASCAR racing teams are just your average Joes and Josephines , right?

    Romney’s narcissistic personality evidenced by his lack of empathy for anyone or anything outside his 1% fantasy world ( the $10,000 bet, his indifference to the poor, the fleet of Cadillacs, etc.) make him unqualified to be president of the United States.

    Like most narcissists, he doesn’t “get it”, and he never will.

    2. The amount of income that buys you entree into the mere top 1% is Romney’s idea of pocket change. Make that the .001%  fantasy world and you’ll be closer.  Mid six figure incomes may put you in the top 1% but don’t elevate you beyond the little people in Romney world, as he never fails to remind us as in… hey of course the wife has two luxury Cadillac SUVs.  She needs one each for the bi-coastal mansions. Doesn’t everyone? Bet you 10K they do.  

  7. Chevron halting oil shale effort

    http://www.gjsentinel.com/S=92…  (subscriber required)

    Chevron Corp., one of the three companies issued leases to experiment on oil shale in 2007, is “divesting” its lease in northwest Colorado.

    “While our research was productive, this change assures that critical resources – people and capital – will be available to the company for other priorities in North America and around the globe,”

    Without a government handout, companies like Chevron know shale’s nowhere near a reliable energy source.

    Jason Bane of Western Resource Advocates said it best.

    “Chevron probably decided they didn’t want to build a factory before they knew how to make the widget,” Bane said. “They’re not ‘pulling out’ of oil shale, because that would imply that they were producing something to begin with.”

    2. Or maybe it’s Obama’s fault that shale is not viable yet.  Keystone!!  Solyndra!

      See – chevron is just a good corporate citizen, being hounded by over regulation, subsidies and too much tax.

  8. From the web, so don’t scream like a raging victim, because, as detailed below, you are a victim.

    Occupy Golf Movement

    YOU NEED TO BE HEARD!!!

    You’re a member of golf’s lower 99%.

    You are an indifferent golfer, and there’s no way you could ever make it to the professional level. You will never put in the practice time to be the best. You will never have the shots, skills, or mental toughness to “make it” in the sport. You just never felt like working all that hard at it.

    You were denied access to the tools needed as a child and college student to become a pro golfer …. sure you thought they were dorks while you hit the bong and skipped class, but that has nothing to do with your victim hood.

    Today you play in the union league Friday after work or with your like minded neighbor friends on Sunday morning. You’re forced to pay the twilight rate or join the men’s or women’s league.

    However, you are a part of the golfing community and, as such, feel you should be paid by the top 1% of golfers for what you do. It isn’t fair those players who have worked harder, have studied the game, have better equipment and are more skilled and dedicated should make all that BIG money.

    Where’s your share? You are a Victim!

    The top 1% should pay for your club memberships and green fees and lessons, buy you new clubs, balls, clothes and shoes, and pay you some of their winnings. They can afford it. They are “The Rich.”

    The whole system should be changed to accommodate people like you. You should get together and occupy a golf course and demand those who are better at what they do, pay for those of you who generally suck.

    Whining should will get you something – maybe you’ll make the cover of Time Magazine, garnish some public sympathy. Hell, during this election year you may even get a law or two passed by legislators who want your votes.

      1. much credit, ajb.  Edit it?  Hell, I’ll bet he didn’t even read it (. . . let alone comprehend it).  This is just one more random “cut and paste” from another bookmarked site he found left on one of the library’s public computers. .  

      2. its from a rightey site and now he and hundreds of like nutjob trolls are  mass spamming it.  the only original things outta ‘turd are off-kilter medically induced self-sabotaging screeds that deny reality.  He’s the only soul on this site that regularly shows up for a daily logic ass-whuppin’ which suggests that he possesses a personality disorder bordering on masochism. Frothy would legislate his  perversion away.

    3. being shocked over a President golfing,’tad?  Remember the famous GW golf course interview?  No ? Google “Now watch this drive”.  Interestingly GW pretty much quit golfing after that.  Guess his handlers were afraid of letting the real, what-me-worry doofus GW reappear more often than necessary. After all, they almost had to bodily drag hom away from his vacation to get him to pay any attention to Katrina. Never really recovered, did he?

    4. Obama Gives Eventual GOP Nominee Taste Of Michigan Campaign Ahead

         OBAMA: “… I’ve got to admit, it’s been funny to watch some of these politicians completely rewrite history now that you’re back on your feet. These are the folks who said if we went forward with our plan to rescue Detroit, “you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.”

         “Now they’re saying they were right all along. Or worse, they’re saying that the problem is that you, the workers, made out like bandits in all of this; that saving the American auto industry was just about paying back unions. Really? Even by the standards of this town, that’s a load of you-know-what.

         “About 700,000 retirees saw a reduction in the health care benefits they had earned. Many of you saw hours reduced, or pay and wages scaled back. You gave up some of your rights as workers. Promises were made to you over the years that you gave up for the sake and survival of this industry, its workers, and their families. You want to talk about values?

         “Hard work – that’s a value. Looking out for one another – that’s a value. The idea that we’re all in it together – that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper – that is a value.

         “But they’re still talking about you as if you’re some greedy special interest that needs to be beaten. Since when are hardworking men and women special interests? Since when is the idea that we look out for each other a bad thing? To borrow a line from our old friend Ted Kennedy: what is it about working men and women they find so offensive?

      If the president sounded confident, maybe even a bit triumphant, some polling suggested he had reason to feel upbeat, at least in Michigan. A recent NBC News/Marist poll found the president leading Romney in the state by 18 percentage points and Santorum by 26 points.

      http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsal…

      1. is this part:

        Looking out for one another – that’s a value. The idea that we’re all in it together – that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper – that is a value.

        Which draws a very stark contrast to (pick any one):

        A) let the free market prevail

        B) people are lazy

        C) entitlements are class warfare

        D) we need tax cuts for job creators, and

        E) I’m not really concerned about the poor

        They’ve got nothing. Good to see Obama back at it.

  9. This is surely a blow to Republicans hoping to retake the Senate in 2012: Maine moderate Republican Olympia Snowe has just announced that she will not run for re-election in this November’s elections.

    Among her reasons for not seeking re-election: increasing “my way or the highway” ideologues and partisanship.  I wonder if she just couldn’t take her colleagues on the same side of the aisle any more and this is a big “screw you” going away gift.

    1. They were talking about primarying her with a Tea Party candidate a couple of years ago. I don’t blame her one bit for walking away. What a sudden opportunity for a Dem pick up, one we desperately could use.  

      1. Long story short, Nebraska has a uniquely weird filing system that dictates an

        incumbent must file by February 15 (doesn’t matter if they are running for the seat they hold or another seat–they have to file by the 15th); non-incumbents have until March 1 to file.

        And this is crucial strategy because the guy that most people thought would run on the Republican side, the guy the Dems feared most, Governor Heineman, didn’t file to run for the seat like everybody thought he would. He made plenty of noise about running and then didn’t.

        A lot of politicos figured Heineman decided not to run because Kerrey announced on Feb. 7th that he wouldn’t run for the seat.  

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