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June 19, 2012 03:28 PM UTC

Tuesday Open Thread

  • 60 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

A truth that’s told with bad intent

Beats all the lies you can invent.

–William Blake

Comments

60 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread

  1. With the news about the copy editors yesterday, I think this is very apprapo – The hard truth: Newspaper monopolies are gone forever

    Although most newspaper publishers probably don’t want to admit it, the thing that allowed them to build sustainable media businesses – particularly in smaller markets – wasn’t so much their access to news or the production of great journalism as it was control over a dominant advertising platform.



    As advertising revenue continues its inexorable decline, newspapers are being forced to confront the fact that the financial model that supported their news and journalism is crumbling. And simply cutting costs to try and bring them in line with revenues – as Advance is being accused of doing in New Orleans and Alabama – without investing anything on the digital side is a recipe for disaster. As Niles argues, the only thing that publishers can do in the face of digital disruption is to focus on the things that make them unique and rid themselves of everything related to the old commodity-style news business.

    1. http://blog.heritage.org/wp-co

      “We’ve got a couple of sectors in our economy that are still weak. Overall, the private sector has been doing a good job creating jobs. We’ve seen record profits in the corporate sector. The big challenge we have in our economy right now is that state and local government hiring has been going in the wrong direction. You’ve seen teacher layoffs, police officers, cops, firefighters, being laid off. And the other sector that’s still weak has been the construction industry,” said President Obama.

  2. Will ‘showrooming’ kill businesses?

    People will come into stores, look around, stop at items they particularly like — and instead of carrying them to the cash register, will take photos of them, or type a description into their smartphones.

    Then, in many cases, they will go home, enter the product into a search engine and find some online-only merchant — a merchant who has no real-life stores — who is selling the item for less money.

    1. If I need to look at an item closely enough that I need to go to a store, then I buy it in a retail store, because I appreciate the service they just provided me.

      But I don’t think that’s true of a lot of people.  Media and electronics stores are hardest hit for now, but online shoppers are definitely making brick and mortar tough businesses to run.

    2. You could go to one store, look at the prices, talk to the knowledgeable salesman, then walk out and go buy it at a discount store where nobody knows anything.

      But people still buy things at big specialty stores. Tellingly, the article doesn’t actually have any numbers, which is how you know it’s a bullshit story written by a tedious old man who is trying to learn something from his kid instead of doing research.

      One of the big reasons people go into stores and then just write down product numbers is that an online store will typically have user ratings of things, even if they’re crappy, while a retail store will typically claim that every product they sell is awesome (but the more expensive ones are even better). If retail stores wanted to eliminate showrooming, they would have little screens with web browsers where people could look at any given product and its reviews while still in the store.

      1. If retail stores wanted to eliminate showrooming, they would have little screens with web browsers where people could look at any given product and its reviews while still in the store.

        Stunningly simple solution. Thanks. Wonder why they don’t do that?

      2. User ratings don’t mean anything when the person rating the product just gave their impression based on their specific needs and biases. I would rather talk to someone that is knowledgeable about a wide range of products who can listen to my specific wants and needs and recommend a product based on that. On top of that I want them to be regularly available. I also like to support local businesses that have earned my business.

        If you want product reviews in retail stores shop with your cell phone and look them up.

        1. but then store owners complain about us looking up numbers on our cell phones, as in the linked article.

          Most user ratings are utter garbage, but the fact that you have multiple ones means that you can still extract useful information from them. Having just one salesperson who’s working on commission is not a recipe for reliable advice IMO.

          1. I worked in retail for years and was never put off by people looking up alternative prices. I may have had a different perspective because I sold high end retail where price shopping meant you would find the same product for the same price, but you had to wait 5-7 business days to get it shipped free. On the off chance that you found it someplace online for cheaper, we just matched the price.

            This is always weird to explain, because I really enjoy shopping, like to buy things that are of high quality (probably expensive) and usually shop at either high end stores or local shops that have been in business for a long time as I know the sales people actually know what they are talking about. But, I also know that some people shop purely based on price and hate shopping in general.

            The main thing for me is quality and customer service. If a sales person knows what they are talking about and I get great customer service I don’t sweat the small price difference I may get if I look for it online.

            I don’t like that article for a number of reasons, but the main one being that some items I buy exclusively online and skip the B&M store entirely and others I don’t bother looking online. The article, aside from being purely anecdotal doesn’t look into the difference.

    3. Zappos sells a hell of a lot of shoes without being the cheapest option for that pair of shoes. If retailers can’t compete with online stores on price or convenience, they need to evolve and find another way to compete that moves units out the door. Time spent whining is time not spent evolving.

      (That said, Amazon should collect sales tax.)

  3. For almost 8 years our two outgoing Mesa County Commissioners have led the chorus in “cut government spending” – la, la, la. Whatever the subject, it ends in the same political refrain.  Now the Dept. of Interior has gone and cut back on one of their federal subsidies.

    Mesa County’s check from the federal government came in short last week, $1.6 million instead of the $3.2 million that county officials say is due.

    It’s the second consecutive year that the Department of Interior has sent half the amount due with a note saying that the county’s share of federal money was offset by $1.6 million that the county gets from a different pot of money.

    http://www.gjsentinel.com/S=1a… (pay wall, sorry)

    The commissioners are going to appeal and also investigate how they can get around the decision by restructuring the county mineral

    lease program (the other pot of federal money).  

    All together now – “Cut government spending” la la la.

    1. They mean cut welfare – not farm subsidies, or drilling subsidies, just, you know for immigrants and those other lazy people.

      They mean cut spending on roads and bridges in Denver, and funding for higher ed in Denver.  

      Under no circumstance do they mean cut anything in your county.

      In short, they mean reduce gov’t spending somewhere else.

  4. The red/blue dividing line should be drawn at 100,000 jobs added – because that’s holding steady with the rate of people entering the job market. If it’s moved up, while the losses have been stopped (and that’s gigantic), we’re not working our way out of the hole.

    1. 125,000-150,000 jobs are needed to keep the pace

      No wonder the massive 18-24 year old turnout that backed Obama is so concerning to Democrats …. After they left college they couldn’t find a jobs in Obama’s new economy

            1. to do a breakout of those 18-24 year old voters and see what percentage of them can’t find a jobs. How many in that secotr are on unemployment roles ? Food for thought.

          1. under Obama’s watch, anyone who wanted to retire at the end of the Bush years is in a lot better position now than they were then. What you say only makes sense if you ignore facts and make up your own reality.  

  5. With http://www.rassmussenreports.com polling the Presidents disapprove numbers at +43 it should not be shocking to read the following local perspectives on Dear Leader and his merry band of big government spenders.

    Hanak is sitting inside Jumpstreet, an indoor trampoline park in this wealthy Denver suburb where preteen boys bounce off rubberized walls as their parents get a few minutes of relative peace. A teacher with two kids, Hanak hasn’t been particularly impressed with President Obama. She says his education initiatives have just been “throwing money at the same old problems,” and she attributes the capture of Osama bin Laden to a presidential attempt to get good press. But mostly, she’s just given up on the federal government as a positive force in her life.

    ….snip….

    Down the road in Littleton, a woman named Kate expressed much the same frustration. Kate, who did not want to give her last name for fear of angering her employer,was “downsized,” as she put it, three times after the crisis hit. After 20 years in a solid job in sales, she found herself with no health insurance and working three part-time jobs – including one where she had to unload semi trucks and work in the produce department at a grocery store.

    “I’m a hard worker. I just don’t get it,” she said.

    Kate, who is 48-years-old, makes $20,000 less now than she did at the peak of her career. She has her issues with Mr. Obama as well – the health care law was “jammed down our throat point blank,” and the stimulus package was “a short-term fix” that didn’t address the nation’s long term problems.

    …..snip….

    (Credit: CBS News)

    Back at Jumpstreet, the heterogeneity of the female Arapahoe electorate was on full display. One mother from Aurora, who refused to give her name, said flatly that “Obama hasn’t done anything for the country.” She said she doesn’t “know much about Romney yet,” but it doesn’t matter – she’ll be voting against the incumbent.

    “I don’t even know if Obama has a U.S. citizen birth certificate,” she said as her daughter came over and offered a handful of candy and a shy smile. “Does that make sense? I know he hasn’t served. I think he’s just out there for the public status.”

    Twenty feet away, a woman named Audra described her struggles over the past three years, chief among them having to work a “dead end” restaurant job to support her kids. She backed Mr. Obama four years ago, and finds Romney “too rigid” to earn her vote, but she isn’t sure if she’s going to vote for the president again.

    It gets much worse in Arapahoe county too. Low name ID democrat John Miklosi is challenging longtime Arapahoe County resident Mike Coffman. That would be bad in any year, but Miklosi is facing a double whammy ….after firing a single mother as his finance director Democrat activists learned that the woman (and her infant child) were forced to return to her mothers basement. …the mother….non other than State Senate leader Betty Boyd.

    1. ‘tad, why as such a foaming-mouth defender of the Constitution, do you continue to support a candidate (and a political party, for that matter) that so openly embraces the racist hate of the fringe Christian evangelical church?


      The GOP’s Favorite Hate-Monger: How the Republican Party Came to Embrace Bryan Fischer

      Responsible politicians wouldn’t fawn over an unhinged activist who opposes civil rights and religious freedom for minorities, wants to make being gay a crime and decries his personal rivals as enemies of God, right? But that is exactly what is taking place today in the Republican Party, as likely and declared GOP presidential candidates line up to win the approval of Bryan Fischer, a radio talk show host and spokesman for the American Family Association.

      Fischer’s unabashed bigotry is on full display throughout his writings and on-air rants. His entire career is based on leveling venomous attacks against gays and lesbians, American Muslims, Native Americans, progressives and other individuals and groups he detests. He wants to redefine the Constitution to protect only Christians, persecute and deport all American Muslims, prohibit gays and non-Christians from holding public office and impose a system of biblical law.

      While Fischer’s views are undeniably shocking, what is most disturbing is his growing influence within not only the Religious Right but also the Republican Party.

      http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-foc

      After all, this is the guy who’s proud to have single-handedly knocked out one of the few Gay adivsors on the RomneyBot Team:

      In April, Mitt Romney hired Richard Grenell, an openly gay man, to serve as his campaign’s national security spokesman. Within hours, Grenell was being attacked by a Christian radio talk show host named Bryan Fischer, whose Focal Point call-in show reaches more than 1 million listeners a day.

      Nine days after Fischer began his on-air attack, Grenell resigned. He had been the only openly gay member of Romney’s campaign staff.

      The Christian right and Fischer saw Grenell’s resignation as a “tremendous victory,” says New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer.

      “[Bryan Fischer] feels he and what he calls the ‘pro-family’ movement managed to hound Romney into pushing an openly gay member of his campaign out because of the fact that he was gay,” says Mayer. “So they feel that they’ve really triumphed on this one.”

      http://www.npr.org/2012/06/14/

      But religious affiliation is only important in a Democratic candidate, isn’t it ‘tad? Shall I start compiling the links to the sh8T you were posting in the ’08 election threads?

      So, of course Audra is not going to vote for the RomneyBots this fall, because of his complete sellout to the collection of “God’s Madmen” that the Republican’t Party is embracing in their “do anything to win” strategy this fall.  

        1. Not sure.  Trash?  No one is trash.  Low information?  Absolutely.  What else would you call someone who ignores facts?  One of the facts being the Republican governor of Hawaii (who also happens to be the current Republican Senate nominee from Hawaii) shot down the whole “certificate of live birth” is a fake.  This simple fact should remove any doubt given that over the past 3.5 years of the Obama Presidency he hasn’t been able to get a republican to go along with anything he has put out there.    

  6. mommy and daddy have given him back his gadgets and allowed him back on line.

    Just want to thank Ralphie and Grey for all the smoker advice. I know that hours during the day are the same as hours during the night but I’ve seen times of 18 hours on larger cuts.  That’s why I wanted to know how small to go to get it done in more like 10, guys! 🙂

    And don’t worry Ralphie.  I only use moderate garlic on pork.  I come from an ethnic group that uses garlic on almost everything so I can’t help myself.

    1. between smoke time and size of the cut, although there is certainly a relationship.  For example, two chickens don’t take twice as long as one chicken.  If you want to shorten the smoke time, you can wrap the pork shoulder in aluminum foil and finish it in the oven, but that softens up the nice brown crust.

      Maybe Gray can chime in.

      Remember, the biggest heat sink in your smoker is the water pan.  Water weighs 8 lbs per gallon, so a two-gallon pan holds 16 lbs of water.  That’s a lot more mass than a pork shoulder.

      And I wasn’t too worried about your garlic use.  Being Italian, I go through a LOT of garlic.  Heck, when I make a leg of lamb, I cut slits all over it and stuff them with slices of garlic.  I just don’t put it on pulled pork–I like the smoke flavor.

    2. that times are not linear. Additionally, the thickness of a brisket, more than its total mass, will dictate time. Longer and at lower temps will increase that beautiful smoke ring, add smoke flavor, and, in the instance of some game meats such as bear or racoon, diminish the gamey flavor.

      But, every fall I smoke either pork butt or brisket for a fund raiser and I do that in only 5 hours at high temps with a lot of water and LOTS of chips. For that I even put the pork butt on a bed of wood chips.

      1. can add “smoke ring” and help diminish the gamey flavor when you’re smoking a raccoon. But wouldn’t it be easier to avoid smoking a raccoon in the first place?

    3. that times are not linear. Additionally, the thickness of a brisket, more than its total mass, will dictate time. Longer and at lower temps will increase that beautiful smoke ring, add smoke flavor, and, in the instance of some game meats such as bear or racoon, diminish the gamey flavor.

      But, every fall I smoke either pork butt or brisket for a fund raiser and I do that in only 5 hours at high temps with a lot of water and LOTS of chips. For that I even put the pork butt on a bed of wood chips.

      1. stick that pork butt out on your patio this afternoon . . . no equipment required on the front range this summer . . . if you can keep the animals away you should have a good 18-hour smoke by tomorrow morning.  

  7. IF VISIBILITY IS LESS THAN 5 MILES IN SMOKE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, SMOKE HAS REACHED LEVELS THAT ARE UNHEALTHY. If smoke is thick or becomes thick in your neighborhood you may want to remain indoors. This is especially true for those with heart disease, respiratory illnesses, the very young, and the elderly. Consider limiting outdoor activity when moderate to heavy smoke is present. Consider relocating temporarily if smoke is present indoors and is making you ill.

    Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Greeley Piedra RIver Valley, Lake George, and others.

    I especially like the bit about consider relocating if there is smoke indoors making you ill.  That should read- If there is smoke in your house or workplace GET OUT

    I fully expect a lawsuit against the state for not doing preventative burns.

    Likewise, I fully expect the less gov’t types in these neighborhoods to pretzelize themselves because they mean less gov’t somewhere else.

    But is this burning  normal?

  8. Let’s not forget the Hot Sulphur Springs asshole Candidate Randy Baumgardner and his pervert bunk buddy.  In an interview with KDVR Randy defended sex offender Frierson thusly:

    He came to us a year and a half ago and has been working on our farm. He’s never been anything but respectful. We took him at his word that he screwed up when he was young, and, you know, most of us do.

    Peruse pervert Frierson’s CBI record and you’ll see some of these ‘youthful’ screw ups that Righteous Randy thinks most of us have committed:

    1998:  Fugitive

    2000:  Contempt of Court

    2002:  Weapon Offense, Assault, Menacing Felony, Narcotics Possession

    2003:  Sexual Assault on Child, Enticement of a Child, Sexual Assault – 10 yr Age Difference

    2004:  Weapon Offense, Domestic Violence

    2005:  Bond Violation, Criminal Mischief/Property Damage, Burglary, Larceny Theft

    2006:  Violation of Restraining Order

    2008:  Failure to Appear (Sexual Assault, Burglary, Violating Restraining Order), Burglary

    2009:  Fugitive/Parole Violation, Resisting Officer, Obstruction Police Officer

    2012:  Failure to Register as Sex Offender

    Geez, I didn’t have as much fun in my youth as Randy’s bunk buddy did … but Randy & Lori are sure that he’s all reformed and respect from a ranch hand is all that matters now.

  9. In a purported article criticizing the science that suggests a changing climate and drought are fueling wildfires, the CO Observer doesn’t even bother to quote any scientists to support their case, just industry people.  

    http://thecoloradoobserver.com

    My question to Polsters–

    Are the ‘editors’ and writers over there actually this poorly educated as to believe this is  sound ‘news, analysis, commentary’ as claimed on the masthead?  

    Or are they so corrupted by whomever funds their propaganda shop that they are that willing to debase themselves by authoring and publishing such unadulterated crap?  

    1. That site, and Peak, seem to be part of a concerted (if laughably obvious) effort to have a conservative “news site” and conservative “blog” which can reference one another in an effort to appear legitimate. I predict both will end up going the way of all the previous efforts because they (esp. the “observer”) are such amateur hour products. But both will definitely stick around for the election, being the ArapaBOT presence online.

  10. for students who are undocumented…but I think he’s wrong

    http://kdvr.com/2012/06/19/sut

    I”m pretty sure that SB 10-003 gave governing boards of all the State institutions the right to regulate tuition rates as long as the increases weren’t over 9%.

    23-54-102.5.   Tuition – repeal.  (1)  FOR FISCAL YEARS 2011-12

    THROUGH 2015-16, THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION

    23-5-130.5, SHALL ANNUALLY SET THE AMOUNT OF TUITION TO BE PAID BY

    STUDENTS WITH IN-STATE CLASSIFICATION AND BY NONRESIDENT STUDENTS

    WHO ENROLL IN AND ATTEND METROPOLITAN STATE COLLEGE OF DENVER.

    Basically, The higher ed flax bill gave institutions the power to regulate their own tuition with out going to CCHE for permission  as long as the increase was under 9%. Don’t say nuthin’ about lowering rates.  

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