69th Colorado General Assembly, 2nd Session Open Thread

22 thoughts on “69th Colorado General Assembly, 2nd Session Open Thread”

1. To our legislators, as you go into session, keep in mind:

   The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
   – George Bernard Shaw

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2. And for those that can't come up with 5 pieces of legislation, we have some suggestions.

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3. Keep this in mind too:

   I was dreamin' when I wrote this
   Forgive me if it goes astray
   But when I woke up this mornin'
   Could of sworn it was judgment day

   The sky was all purple
   There were people runnin' everywhere
   Tryin' to run from the destruction
   You know I didn't even care

   'Cause they say two thousand zero zero
   Party over, oops out of time
   So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999

   -the artist formerly known as Prince

    

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4. Really interesting – Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results

   What makes a teacher successful? To find out, starting in 2005 a team of researchers led by Claremont Graduate University education professor Mary Poplin spent five years observing 31 of the most highly effective teachers (measured by student test scores) in the worst schools of Los Angeles, in neighborhoods like South Central and Watts. Their No. 1 finding: "They were strict," she says. "None of us expected that."

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   1. I really enjoyed this book and was surprised by the professionalism of it, as well as the careful and cautious way that conclusions were drawn. 

      "I Got Schooled" By M. Night Schyamalan. 
      http://www.amazon.com/Got-Schooled-Unlikely-Moonlighting-Education-ebook/dp/B00A287N8C

      I think he makes a really good case for the reforms that he has concluded were necessary. And it's data-based, which makes me happy. 

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   2. They didn't "expect" that having high expectations for student achievement and behavior is a necessary part of effective teaching.  Good grief. 

       

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5. Sen Carroll unanumously elected as the new President of the Senate. 

   Widely reported in the media as a show of bipartison cooperation, ignoring the fact that it was the disgusting recalls that made the new election necessary. 

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6. Alexandria University in Egypt just signed up for our code wars!
    

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7. Now it's Tricky Christie — A dirty trick worthy of Nixon:

   New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) deputy chief of staff was directly involved in a mean-spirited effort to create "traffic problems" for a mayor who declined to endorse the governor's reelection bid, according to newly released emails.

   "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly wrote in an email on Aug. 13.

   "Got it," replied David Wildstein, who was then one of Christie's top aides at the Port Authority, which is run jointly by New York and New Jersey.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/08/chris-christie-traffic_n_4561448.html

   The resignations of Christie's lieutenants have already started.

   Bottomline:

   On Wednesday, Buono told the Daily Beast that she believed all along the closures were "an act of political retribution" directed by the governor himself.

   "This is a guy who runs a paramilitary operation,” Buono said of Christie. "His people don't sneeze without checking with him first. But I think what really was the most damning [revelation] was the cavalier attitude that these folks had about subjecting children and the public to public safety hazards. These are terrible people, and the ringleader is Chris Christie."

    

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   1. Even though this doesn't rise to the level of Watergate, in fact because it doesn't, because it's so petty and mean and so fits in with the New Jersey's image as the state of crooked pols and organized crime and Christie so looks and mouths off the part, I'd say his presidential ambitions, never very promising in the first place, are even further along their way to stick a fork in it done. 

      Ruining the first days of school for communities full of children, keeping communities full of workers from getting to work and putting communities full of innocent people at risk by blocking ambulances with a trumped up traffic jam, all for a the sake of sending a gotcha message to an opposite party Mayor who wasn't nice enough to you make the Sopranos look classy and civic minded.

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      1. Another superflouous "the". I've got to start reading stuff over better.

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      2. I have spent the evening engaged in one, almost continual, chuckle.

         Christie is fucked..

         it couldn't happen to a more deserving jerk…

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8. Wondering about all that Polar vortex stuff and its relationship to global climate change? Here's a very nice explanation:

   http://climatestate.com/2014/01/05/polar-vortex-jet-stream-and-climate-change/

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   1. Thanks. 

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9. Rereshing. A newspaper, in Ft Worth Texas, no less, admitting to falling down on the fact checking job.

   The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's executive editor apologized to readers this week for a story it published in November about the trouble people were having getting affordable insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

   In a column teased on Monday's front page, Jim Witt said the reporter and editor of the story did not do their due diligence to discover the background of the people profiled in the story, some of whom turned out to have tea party connections and were actually able to obtain more affordable coverage through Obamacare. 

   "Knowing the background of the person quoted can give readers important clues about someone’s motives, but you didn’t learn that from reading our story, because we neglected to investigate the background of the people we quoted. That’s something you learn to do in Journalism 101. I remember my old professor saying, 'If your mother says she loves you … check it out,'" Witt wrote. 

    

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   1. Aarrgh! Resfreshing! I'm really getting hopeless!

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      1. Double aarrgh! Refreshing. I clearly need to stop trying to type for a while. Bye.

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10. You should all send some congratulations Gessler's way (in the form of a front page story) as he just announced the birth of a new baby.  

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    1. I'd be happy to congratulate him,  and wish him LOTS  and LOTS of free time to spend with his family away from the stressful worlds of government, GOP lawyering, and campaigning to enjoy his new progeny..but I don't see this announced anywhere else…

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       1. No need to be snarky about it.  He posted picture on fb 

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          1. Since when must there be a need to be snarky? Seriously, though, he does seem to be the forgotten party in all the speculation about the next GOTP gubernatorial candidate.  Brophy and Tanc seem to be getting all he attention. So a new baby will be the perfect "I want to spend more time with my family" explanation for dropping out of politics and returning to the more lucrative private sector.

             You can't expect much in the way of warm fuzzy feelings toward the only SOS from either party in living in memory to so blatantly turn his office into a strictly partisan operation dedicated exclusively to creating partisan advantage instead of to running fair, efficient elections from those he's dedicated his time in office to screwing.

             I wish the mother and new baby well.  I sincerely hope that Gessler is never elected to anything ever again. He is a truly awful public servant. 

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             1. Brophy? I'm terrible at prognosticating but the consensus seems to be that – barring a miracle with fundraising this past quarter – his candidacy should be on life support at best.

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