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December 13, 2008 04:09 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 45 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.”

–Thomas Jefferson

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45 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. With the total collapse of the Denver media market in full swing, it has now come to light that the DP squats in a pile of debt and [per Singleton] wacked up labor costs [that he himself agreed to in better days].


    “We all know the financial situation is not good in the newspaper industry – he referenced that and requested we begin bargaining (next week),” said Tony Mulligan, a spokesman for Denver Newspaper Guild Local 37074.

    “It’s definitely concessionary bargaining,” Mulligan added, meaning wage, benefit and job cuts would be sought.

    Singleton’s request comes a day after Moody’s Investors Services said his MediaNews Group faces an increased risk of defaulting on its loans, and a week after E.W. Scripps announced it was putting the Rocky up for sale and seeking an exit to the DNA’s Joint Operating Agreement. Moody’s downgraded almost $1 billion of MediaNews debt.

    Hey Singleton … check out of that concessionary bargaining worked out for the BIG 3.  

    I just wonder how long it will take to move from Harry Whipple’s DNA model to a free daily. Will it be Soros or Mellon Scaife who takes control of the Denver media market?

  5. Should we reschedule for another weekend with the arctic cold front moving in?

    I know it’s a bit last-second to pose the question, but I’m concerned for the folks coming from the outer rim of the metro area.

    1. It’s going to be cold, but it’s not supposed to snow that much outside of the mountains. I would say that if you’re OK driving, then you should still come.

      Conditions might change tomorrow morning, but as of right now, I say we shouldn’t postpone.  

      1. I just didn’t want the weather to affect attendance too much.

        I’ve been here almost 10 years, and I’m still a lightweight when the temp. drops below freezing.

          1. He is not looking good folks. His cold has gotten worse and there’s no way I’m letting him out of the house. Though we will both take a rain check and make appearances at the next Pols meeting.  

                    1. TO everyone that showed.  I had unavoidable family stuff related to my kids come up at the last minute and couldn’t make it.  I’m really sorry because I’ve been looking forward to meeting you guys for a long time.

                      Let’s please do it again, and I’ll buy everyone the first round.

                      SXP, especially you.  I’m going to be up in Boulder next week – maybe we could meet up there.  Send me an email at hereard@gmail.com and I’ll get in touch.

                      Again, please accept my apologies, everyone.

                    2. I douched out as well. The bus was 45 minutes late, and by the time it arrived I realized it probably wasn’t worth it to take two hour-long bus rides to only be there an hour. (I thought I’d have to leave early, although my friends here also douched out for out late meetup.)

                      All in all, a crappy day for anyone to try to meet anyone else. Sorry Pam Bennett! Hope you weren’t the only one to be there.

                    3. We had a great time.  Lots of laughs, and political discourse (hard to believe).  Of the large group that made it to the Monk it should be noted that not one of the Republican, or to properly identify them, the minority party, showed up. Tsk tsk.

                      We had a fun time.  I suggest that the location rotate to other places around the Aurora-Denver Metro Region to make it more equitable for attendance.  When we do go to the Springs I will provide the name of a good “neutral” establishment.

                      We even discussed how the minority party might even return to the majority. However that will remain with us.  

                    5. I’m going to start looking at a January version and some dates.  I’m really disappointed I couldn’t get there.  

            2. …I’m completely loopy from the cold meds, and the persistent ringing in my ears will make me even less coherent than normal.

              My apologies to all, esp LB who I desperately wanted to meet…someone please drink an Orval or De Koenick in my absence….

              1. I have to get on the 3:00 bus from Boulder, and I want some convincing before I do it. It looks like everybody’s bailing out except people who already live in Denver.

          2. I had to rebuild my computer and it must be done before tomorrow – or I won’t be able to work. It’s moving along but the number of programs I have to install is gigantic. RIght now I’m struggling over getting DB2 installed with a totally worthless error message when it fails…

                1. That accumulated collection of hotfix uninstallers, temp files and other crap that windoze generates makes that essential.

                  I do the same things, sometimes with a brand-new drive to boot. But by making a complete disc copy with TrueImage, I just have to restore from the backup, rather than install the OS, then the drivers, then the Service Packs, then the new drivers that conflict with the service pack, and then…you get the idea.

    2. Why, I remember when I came to CO in 1972 it was the coldest winter in a hundred years (really!) Or, maybe it was in two generations, but the former sounds better.

      We took it manly, freezing our tongues to bare steel and walking uphill to school both ways.

      Should be good for some beetle killing, no?  

      1. but consider the Denver Metro area pretty mild at its worst compared to Chicago.  Once or twice a winter we might get much more snow dumped at once here than is the norm for Chicago but it’s usually pretty light and fluffy compared to Chicago’s heavy, wet heart attack inducing snow and ice storms.  As for cold, it’s hardly ever below zero here in the day time while it can stay below zero night and day for ten days at a stretch or longer in the Chicago area and the wind off the lake is unreal.  So, in the absence of really dangerous road conditions or getting snowed in, don’t be girly men (or girly women either). Just dress for it.

          1. Wouldn’t be my first choice for weather.  Early June is the best.   Nice and warmed up, not too hot and humid yet, best chance for blue skies and sun, light breeze.  

            On the other hand it’s a beautiful city all dressed up for the holidays .  Michigan Ave will be spectacular. Great, cheap public transportation, great entertainment of all kinds, great restaurants of all kinds including almost any ethnic group you can think of.  And Chicagoans are MUCH nicer than New Yorkers.  It’s like a giant Midwestern town.   Natives are more patient, helpful, easy to talk to, nice to visitors.  

            Traffic really sucks but what can you do.   It’s one of our biggest cities.  And I don’t  care what New Yorkers say.  Chicago Jewish Deli food, especially the corned beef, is the best on the planet. Great place to visit. Glad I live here.

      2. and I remember in Denver growing up we crawled to school, with no shoes (uphill)(both ways).

        Not cold enough to kill the beetles but cold enough to keep those wimpy boys away from the bar.

        Wait,

        I’m home that day.

        nevermind

      3. I remember December 1972 very well. The Air Force provided transportation here along with food and lodging at Lowry AFB.  There was not enough winter gear to distribute so in the great military tradition that an order will suffice in handling any situation – we were ordered “Do Not Get Frostbite”.  

         I did not.  I avoided going outside.

      4. “4 hours before dawn, worked a full-days work before noon so we could eat broken glass and old wood for lunch. ”

        “You had broken glass for lunch? Why, we were happy with thinking about eating!”

    3. It’s Sunday morning, and the road aren’t good out here in Falcon, and Monument Hill is bound to be worse.  I was really looking forward to coming, but today won’t work.

      Sorry friends.  I hope someone has a Mormon friendly rootbeer for me!

  6. from the Times-Picayune

    “I don’t know what Sen. Vitter has against GM or the United Auto Workers or the entire domestic auto industry; whatever it is, whatever he thinks we’ve done, it’s time for him to forgive us, just like Sen. Vitter has asked the citizens of Louisiana to forgive him, ” said Johnson, president of Local 2166. Otherwise, Johnson said of Vitter, it would appear, “He’d rather pay a prostitute than pay auto workers.”

  7. from Jonathan Alter at Newsweek – really good article. First, why education is so critical for all of us.

    It’s the longer-term outlook he’s worried about. He sees that social inequities at home and abroad are harmful not just morally but economically, which explains his obsession with confronting the high-school dropout rate. Over time, he explains, a less equal world hurts everyone.

    Then he dives in to what he thinks we need.

    The Gates Foundation has learned some lessons from its investments in recent years in pathbreaking schools. The first big idea-to break up big schools into smaller, more manageable units-proved insufficient without major changes in personnel. Gates argues that rigorous accountability is the only option, from mayoral control (elected school boards are mostly a menace) to principal control (teacher tenure and onerous work rules are quality-killers) to data control (IT systems that closely track performance are a must).

    And how the unions work diligently to avoid any measurement of their members.

    Betraying his own professional background, Gates shakes his head in dismay at the idea of secondary schools and colleges trying to function at all without simple software that offers them basic statistical information about how students and teachers are performing over time (for-profit colleges are an exception). Everyone in education knows why: unions have simply prevented teachers from being judged, even in part, on whether their students improve during the course of the year. It’s no surprise that Gates is a believer in merit pay and incentive pay and has little use for teachers colleges as presently constituted because there’s no evidence that having a master’s degree improves teacher performance. You never hear Gates or his people talk about highly qualified teachers, only highly effective ones.

    And he talks about working systems that can be very successful.

    At YES College Prep in Houston, 95 percent of the students are African-American or Hispanic and 80 percent are poor. But since 2000, every student has gone on to a four-year college. One hundred percent. Conventional schools with comparable demographics face dropout rates of more than 50 percent and send only a handful to four-year colleges.

    Public education in this country is a disaster. But I think we may finally have reached the point where enough political pressure will exist to overturn the existing mess.

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