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November 18, 2014 06:43 AM UTC

Tuesday Open Thread

  • 48 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

"Boredom is rage spread thin."

–Paul Tillich

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48 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

      1. Wrong….you misread my concern…..it's the fact that Republicans have pushed phony voter fraud stories for years, with almost zero prosecutions, but instead used the phony fraud stories to push voter disenfranchisement policies that have widely suppressed the voter population.

        But, I don't expect you to understand that distinction.

      2. Actually, we have been pushing back against the idea of rampant VOTE fraud, not ELECTION fraud. In fact, we've been pointing out all along that there isn't enough focus on election fraud and the holes in the system were bigger on that side of the fence.

        Election fraud includes things like telling some 4000 election judges in Chicago that they needed to undergo further training and that they shouldn't bother showing up to their posts if they couldn't make it to the training. That happened this year, causing many polling stations to open late and denying people the right to vote as a result. It was perpetrated by two Republican party officials, according to reports.

        It includes telling people that their polling places are somewhere that they aren't, on a day or time that is incorrect, and/or under restrictions that are not true (e.g. the checking of outstanding warrants and tickets by cops at polling sites). Calls and leaflets of this sort are seen year in and year out in poorer neighborhoods that tend to vote Democratic.

        Election fraud is distributing polling equipment and judges in a manner that hurts one party over another, e.g. by removing polling locations from colleges, which happened in several states this year. It is implementing laws that place burdens on some portion of the population that prevent them from voting. It also includes jamming the opposition's GOTV mechanisms – something the GOP has been caught doing several times and is under a Federal consent decree to not do.

        And finally, election fraud includes corrupting the vote-counting system itself. This is something that Democrats and independents have fought against since the introduction of electronic vote counting systems. Republicans – notsomuch.

        1. Exactly. We aren't concerned about the non-problem of people voting fraudulently but about the very real and documented problem of criminal dirty tricks designed to prevent legitimate voters from voting. This is not to say that's the only reason Dems lost this time. The primary reason they lost is that they ran weak, timid, please don't hate me because I'm a Dem campaigns. Again. Still.  But even so, R dirty tricks are despicable beyond belief.

      1. And the Republicans should refuse to fund any security associated with a Golf outing.  Aren't there any Dems left who celebrate Christmas?

        All of this is silly.  In January the R's have enough votes to pass and override the veto.

        1. But what about the article in Forbes (cited yesterday by a polster) that cited one study that predicts gas prices will go up 20 cents a gallon in the Rocky Mountain states if the Keystone Pipeline is built. So you agree Republicans should vote to significantly increase gas prices for the 5 million people living in Colorado so 35 permanent full time and 15 part time jobs (50 jobs total) can be created by building that pipeline.

          The Republican Party has made the Keystone Pipeline into a political symbol and thus far an effective one at that but the end result may be a real nose dive politically. How are you going to spin to millions of people their gas prices went way up so the economy could create 50 jobs?

        2. In January the R's have enough votes to pass and override the veto.

          You fail at math. The Republicans didn't win a veto proof majority in either house.

            1. If you look at the list of Dems who voted yes in the House, most of them are being replaced by the new Republicans reps (John Barrow, Jim Matheson, Nick Rahall, etc.)  So they still won't be able to hit 290 come next week, next month, or next year.

              And even if they did, Yertle must still reach 67.  My guess is that he reaches 60.

      1. I lost my place in line. The  above reply was to Zap on scheduling the Keystone vote. "She" is Mary Landrieu, who is suddenly, and transparently all for Keystone as she shows a little cheesecake to the oil barons who will vote in her belated Senate runoff.

      1. But panic, rage, ignorance and misinformation are much more useful than the plain truth — just ask ACHole.  He'd be out of a job if it weren't.

        ​But modern American political discourse is dominated by cheap cynicism about public policy, a free-floating contempt for any and all efforts to improve our lives. And this cheap cynicism is completely unjustified. It’s true that government-hating politicians can sometimes turn their predictions of failure into self-fulfilling prophecies, but when leaders want to make government work, they can.

  6. Repubs want to get rid of the EPA? Really?

    "Errors were made." (video at KNTV link):

    State officials allowed oil and gas companies to pump nearly three billion gallons of waste water into underground aquifers that could have been used for drinking water or irrigation.

    Those aquifers are supposed to be off-limits to that kind of activity, protected by the EPA.

    Nah. Never happen where you live, right?

    “This is something that is going to slowly contaminate everything we know around here,” said fourth- generation Kern County almond grower Tom Frantz, who lives down the road from several of the injection wells in question.

    According to state records, as many as 40 water supply wells, including domestic drinking wells, are located within one mile of a single well that’s been injecting into non-exempt aquifers.

    Kern County community organizer Juan Flores told reporters, “No one from this community will drink from the water from out of their well. The people are worried. They’re scared.”

    1. What next, a federal program to give local counties the money to expand prisons in energy producing areas?   When was the last time anyone had to build a prison to deal with the criminal elements of wind and solar developments?

      One of the many hidden costs of our "cheap", last-century energy supplies…

      2 Detention Facilities on Ballot in Bakken Region

      “We’re not seeing the normal weekend drunks and stuff like that,” MacDonald said. “We’re seeing hardcore criminals in our jail, and it’s really scary.”

      1. Looks like it'll take them two years to build it, at which point the boom will be over, and once again, the oil companies will skate out without paying mitigation.

         

      2. Traffic accidents are way up in Weld County, due to increased heavy night traffic on rural roads. I've driven  those roads at night a lot lately, lit only by the occasional intense flare of well lights or a farmer's barn light, and it isn't pretty. When one of those big rigs comes barrelling up over a hill, whatever is in its path will be obliterated.

        The other side effect of the oil and gas boom in Weld county is an extreme shortage of low-income and affordable housing. Rents are high, since energy companies will pay twice the going rate to house their guys. The shelters are always full, with waiting lists. 800 children are newly homeless, since 2013.

        Apparently, not many of these boom dollars are trickling down to the neediest residents of Weld County.Pueblo was poor, but it was pretty good at taking care of its mentally ill and homeless residents.

        And if you are right about this oil and gas boom being a temporary thing, a "retirement party", the crash, when it comes, will be epic.

        2. Come over to Mesa County and look for yourself. Everybody climbed on board the gas boom amid the gas company's assurances that this boom will last.'' But the Piceance is more expensive to drill than the shallow gas deposits back east, and the Weld boom is oil, not gas. But it, too, shall pass.

           

  8. Polling is all over the map on the Affordable Care Act.  For example, a pre-election poll by NBC/WSJ poll was 36%/48% good idea/bad idea, while 55% said "give it a chance" vs. 43% "repeal it."

    Polling that goes beyond good/bad clearly reveals that there is a substantial anti-Obamacare caucus that attacks it from the left–people who, presumably, want a public option, Medicare for all, or single-payer, or perhaps who are dissatisfied with the Administration's handling of birth control, kowtowing to religious extremists, or delaying the employer mandate.

    Further, Americans are really, really ill-informed.  How can 48% of us really be "somewhat" or "very" worried that someone in their family is going to contract Ebola?  Jeebus, nearly a quarter are very worried…

    1. I want a public option. I had a healthcare plan that I liked, and it was canceled – not because of Obamacare, but because the Affordable Care Act didn't go far enough. With a public option, I could have kept my plan, but paid more for it, being ineligible for the subsidy.

      So I would be among the left/progressive critics of Obamacare.

  11. Very happy to see that 41st vote against Keystone or as Barbara Boxer called it "Keystone XL" stands for Extra Lethal.  I'm also glad that Mark Udall voted against it.

      1. Right; and, this could cause him problems with a small, but significant and necessary, part of his base.  It will be interesting to see whether Bennet attempts to gain back credibility on the climate change issue; or whether the lure of $$$$ from Big Oil & Gas is sufficient to keep him in their pockets.

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