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August 23, 2011 03:35 PM UTC

Tuesday Open Thread

  • 85 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“We shall support whatever our enemies oppose and oppose whatever our enemies support.”

–From Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong

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85 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

  1. Voices of the Jobless

    “Possibly the worst thing about being unemployed is having to suffer through the pundit and the politician classes gassing on interminably about what it’s like to be unemployed, what kind of people are unemployed and how they think and act, when none of them knows or understands one damn thing about it, nor do they even want to. Get down here on the ground, and try to go a year on $350 a week with no hope in sight, and then tell us why the lazy unemployed just need a good swift kick to get the country moving again.”

    Do we have anyone in Congress who was unemployed for awhile? Probably very few. For the rest – they have no idea how debilitating it is to not be able to get a job. In our culture an awful lot of self-worth is tied to your job.

    Meanwhile all the effort in D.C. revolves around spending cuts, which will make this worse. They talk about jobs all the time, but the effort is all cuts.

    1. what he does to better understand the plight of those stuck in poverty or without jobs.  He was able to dispassionately tick off his past work starting charter schools which he said were, in part, for homeless youth.  But I detected no empathic understanding of what millions of people in this country are struggling with.  There may be others in Congress who have a genuine, emotional understanding of the struggles of so much of the middle class, and of course those living in poverty, but I’m guessing very few.

      2. Probably sympathy, but someone who is the 6th richest man in Congress cannot empathize with the unemployed.  It isn’t a criticism of our electeds, it is a fact.

        Polis started his charter schools and may have socialized with the students and faculty, but he didn’t empathize with them. Just as the unemployed can’t empathize with the pressures and stress in Polis’ life.

        1. the ability to empathize, if one has it, crosses many barriers and income/wealth is one that must be crossed. As is ethnicity. Surely many of us developed empathy for Holocaust victims, for those impoverished in Appalachia, for Haitians, for those in New Orleans following Katrina. I even empathize with Tea Puppets.

          Sympathy, while it can be a trait that leads to empathy is less helpful for sure.

          1. I’ve always held a high bar, personally, on empathy. I can’t empathize with Katrina victims because I’ve never been in their situation (i.e. house blown away by a big fucking storm). I have no idea what it would be like to be in a death camp. I’ve never experienced diphtheria, chronic hunger nor rape and torture.

            I can empathize with unemployed people because I have stressed about where my next meal will come from and how am I going to pay my rent. I can empathize with minorities because living overseas I was a minority for a long time and discriminated against. I can empathize on battling addiction.

            I’m  betting Polis has never worried about where his next meal will come from, nor worried about paying his rent.

            He can sympathize, but not empathize, IMHO.

            1. When I was a young man in 1965-1966, I worked at El Paso Ambulance Service inTexas.  During my 2-3 yr tenure I responded to no less than a dozen incidents of what was then called “coat hanger abortions”.

              Yes, I felt sympathy you these frightened young women, many very close to my age, but I also felt something else.  I don’t know whether you would define it as empathy, since obviously I was not at risk myself.

              What I did feel made me a life long advocate for women’s choice and for womens rights in general. I have lived, argued, and voted that position all my life.  I am 64 now.

              As I rode to the hospital with these scared teenagers, who knew they were in deep trouble with their parents, their church and who thought they might be dying I developed what I call empathy.  It may not fit your cut and dried deffinition of empathy, but it has sufficed for me.

              I don’t doubt for a second Rep. Polis’s empathy.  At least, not by my definition.

              1. Also, you confused me with my father, he’s Car 51, I’m 31 – big difference 🙂

                Empathy comes from powerful emotions shared with another. You shared the fear, shame and pain of those young women and connected with them through care and healing.

                Empathy is not cut and dried for anyone. Personally, when I see rich people do good deeds I see them as sympathetic to causes and not empathetic to people.

                1. Sorry about confusing you with your dad 🙂

                  When I was working on my MA in counseling we were told that the one thing you never say to a client is, ” I know just how you feel”.

                  We were taught to think about “empathy’, in this sense, in terms like this.

                  We have all walked in our forests of pain.  They were different forests, but we all remember how we felt while we were there.

                  I can empathize with the pain you are feeling, without haveing been in the exact same situation.  

                  That explaination seemed to work both for me and for my clients in the real world.  I offer it now with great respect.

                  I agree with the below comments by grey, I would welcome you as a friend

            2. I do not know Jared so I can not speak well about his ability to empathize.

              But, I know empathy involves much more willingness to feel for others than you seem to be willing to admit even for yourself. I empathize with you because I do know folks who, like you, think if they haven’t experienced it themselves they can not empathize.

            3. I think your definition of sympathy and empathy is correct. It doesn’t make Polis a bad person for not being able to feel empathy with the poor, just like he’s not a bad person if he can’t feel a stabbing pain in his eye. It’s just a word, but it means something, and we should use it correctly.

              2. Car 71 is my granddaddy. Talk to him about empathy and he’s say, “If ya can’t drink it, it ain’t worth it”…

                Didn’t mean to divert into pyshcological musings here.

                David’s point in the original post is relevant – Congress has little sympathy and even less empathy towards the general public, the middle class and the working class.

                Any Congressman who says they have empathy for the unemployed or downtrodden, I doubt.

                1. with his stated desire to quadruple the size of a house is doing worse than not demonstrating empathy. He is showing that he can not even understand that there are many having trouble making ends meet. He is saying “Let them eat cake”

  2. Al Jazeera

    “Rebels enter the first gate into Bab Al-Aziziyah camp. Gaddafi’s forces have pulled back to Sirte and Al Jafra in the south”.

    Do you think Gaddafi will finally run for it? Or will he go down fighting wondering why the Libyan people have not rallied to him as they all “love” him?

  3. This is serious, really “breaking  news”  The Post website did not have the info last night.  I read about it on the KUSA website.  The Denver Post hard copy this morning did not have it.  Do they turn out the lights at six pm over there?

    What ever happened to “Stop the Presses?”

    I find this sad.

  4. Pat Delany resigns over wife’s offensive e-mail to gold medal Olympian, Carl Lewis  

    A freshman Republican lawmaker resigned because his wife sent “an offensive and racist” email to the Democratic state Senate campaign of nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, a GOP official acknowledged Monday.

    And while resigning, also throwing wife under bus:

    Delany said in a statement that he and his wife don’t share the same racial views. He said he was sorry. “On behalf of my family, we sincerely apologize to Mr. Lewis for any pain this caused him,” he said.

    So, instead of taking the usual lame stream media will blow this out of proportion route, Delaney pretty much said… yep, even I realize my wife is a racist. Must be pretty chilly in the Delaney household these days, regardless of scorching summer temps.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

  5. Congratulations to Jacqueline Carole Shumway, who is the 1st candidate approved on the November ballot at-large school board race.  Shumway will now have the opportunity to be destroyed by DPS administration shill Happy Haynes.

    http://www.denvergov.org/Clerk…

    Frank E. Deserino and Roger Kilgore did not submit enough signatures yet to qualify to be crushed by Happy, but have until Friday to rectify the situation.

    Happy has also not yet turned in signatures.

    2. Those of us who do not live or vote in Denver have been thoroughly chastened about voicing (or even having?) an opinion about what goes on in Denver.

      From now on, please keep these sorts of uninteresting and parochial announcements confined to DenverPols.

      Thank you very much.

      2. Though isn’t it your sin for reading and not mine for writing?

        Also, I think I’ll demand that everyone’s response includes their full name and Denver address.  The anonymity of this site is ruining America.

  6. and reduces their fine/penalties by 2/3rds. The fines have been reduced from $48,700 to $15,707.61.

    Bob Moore reports that Gessler claims Larimer County GOP was “merely negligent in it’s failure to oversee” Chairman Larry Carillo’s activities.

    “Unfortunately, when the public witnesses these kinds of fines, I’m concerned it discourages civic participation in our political process,” Gessler said in an opinion column he wrote for the Coloradoan explaining the fine-reduction decision.

    According to Luis Toro, director of Colorado Ethics Watch,

    “As a general rule in Colorado, a principal is liable for an agent’s conduct within the scope of his duties, and certainly Carrillo’s responsibilities included making sure reports were filed on time,” he said. “The finding that Carillo’s willful disregard for the deadline shouldn’t be imputed to the LCRP is contrary to Colorado law. The LCRP is getting a break here that they wouldn’t have received in a court of law.”

    I know. What a surprise. The GOP Secretary of State cuts a Republican County Party a major break. Shocker.

    1. “civic participation” was his top priority here and that his decision would have been exactly the same had this been the county Dems organization. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to feed and water my invisible unicorn.  

    2. we now have a new category of guiltedness.

      “And, how do you plead?”

      “Merely negligent, you honor.”

      “It is so entered.  Baliff, whack . . . er, I mean, gently tap . . . his . . . “

        1. so to speak, until they’re allowed to bring “companion” and “therapy” dogs, or those miniature ponies that get to ride on airplanes, into the classroom. Imagine the word problems sxp can formulate using the packs of therapy dogs and prancing horses as examples. This is truly a win-win-whinny situation and should not be mocked.

          1. There are no miniature ponies. Ponies are already ponies and thus small. Miniatures are horses, as they are bred to mimic the proportion and temperament of a horse rather than a small pony.

            …wait, were we talking about something not horse related? Sorry. You pushed the “repository of equine facts” button.

            1. on those little guys.

              But miniature ponies are even smaller than regular ponies or the miniature horses. They’re suitable for middle school classrooms.

                1. But before the miniature horse fully matures, isn’t it a miniature pony? The kids can take the mini horse to college with them, but the mini pony works well in the public schools for the students who need them to get by.

                  1. Baby horses are foals. A girl one is a filly. A boy one is a colt. So a baby miniature horse would be a miniature horse foal or a miniature horse filly or miniature horse colt. A pony foal would be, say, a Shetland Pony filly or a Connemara colt.

                    A pony is any horse under 14.2 hand in height at the withers (top of the shoulder, a hand is 4″) EXCEPT for certain breeds considered horses at any size, such as the Miniature Horse or the Icelandic Horse.

                    1. See, you provide a valuable service here on Pols, no matter what they say.

                      So the miniature horse foals can attend sxp’s classes. And he can teach the whole hand thing, which the children will find fascinating.

  13. For women seeking an abortion, finding a doctor willing to offer the procedure is easier said than done.

    Ninety-seven percent of obstetrician-gynecologists have encountered patients wanting an abortion, but only 14 percent performed them, according to a study published today in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

    Access to abortion has become more limited over the past few decades, according to the article. Another recent study found that in 2008, 87 percent of U.S. counties where 35 percent of reproductive-aged women live did not have a single abortion provider. Since 1996, however, all ob-gyn residents have been required to learn how to perform the procedure…

    Religion also turns out to be a good indicator of whether a doctor will provide abortions.

    40.2 percent of Jewish doctors say yes, compared with

    1.2 percent of Evangelical Protestants

    9 percent of Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox

    10.1 percent of Non-Evangelical Protestants

    20 percent of Hindus

    26.5 percent of doctors who said they had no religious affiliation

    http://capsules.kaiserhealthne…

  14. Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful?

    Finland’s 62,000 educators in 3,500 schools from Lapland to Turku-professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education.

    …

    Not until sixth grade will kids have the option to sit for a district-wide exam, and then only if the classroom teacher agrees to participate. Most do, out of curiosity. Results are not publicized.

    Interesting article and it does lay out the big differences with our system, and the greater success they have seen. But nothing about what makes it so successful.

  15. It is no coincided that in the “year of the political woman,” as many decreed 2010, Susan B. Anthony List sprung into the limelight with their mission to support women who believe in the rights of a fetus at all points of conception over the rights of women.  At the same time, once the election dust settled, there were less women in Congress after an election than prior to it for the first time in decades.

    Susan B. Anthony List didn’t just bring anti-choice women into the political arena – it also pit Republican men against Democratic women, and even a Republican man against an anti-choice Democratic woman.  Their mission creep as they targeted anti-choice Democrats with even more anti-choice Republicans made it clear that women were the facade, and growing a GOP majority was the real cause.

    http://www.care2.com/causes/su…

  16. by Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check

    To begin with, Perry did show some sign of willingness to separate church and state while governor, when he issued an executive order requiring girls in Texas entering the 6th grade to be vaccinated against HPV. This is how it should be.  Regardless of one’s personal religious convictions about female sexuality, when you’re the governor, your job is not setting the religious dogma for the state, but prioritizing the public’s health.  HPV is a public health issue (just because you personally may feel contracting HPV is just desserts for having sex, the people you pass it to may not be burdened with such anti-sex superstitions) and Perry acted like an executive handling this public health issue, and not a theocrat foisting his own sexual judgments on his citizens.

    Of course he had to take it all back, claiming it was all a mistake and that he should have left the decision to the legislature, knowing full well the fundamentalist-heavy state legislature would have killed the requirement.  The fact that Perry feels he has to apologize for putting the health of Texas girls ahead of fundamentalist over-the-top hatred of female sexuality–hatred that now runs so deep that they support letting 4,000 women a year die of cervical cancer rather than do anything that could be construed as accepting that sex happens—is just one example of how much the theocrats have taken control of our political process.

    1. Separating church and state?  Pshah.

      Texas money politics as usual?   Yeeehaaa!

      The girls will have to get Merck & Co.’s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer.

      Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass laws in state legislatures across the country mandating it Gardasil vaccine for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.

      Details of the order were not immediately available, but the governor’s office confirmed to The Associated Press that he was signing the order and he would comment Friday afternoon.

      Perry has several ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company’s three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, his former chief of staff. His current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.

      http://www.kbtx.com/home/headl…

        1. I don’t know what the patent laws are regarding vaccines, and when a generic can be released.

          There is a competitor which covers fewer strains of HPV, but I don’t think it’s significantly cheaper, and being later to the game, long term data on persistence of immunity lags.

          DDM is right though, this had nothing to do with anybody’s health, it’s about chits for Perry’s Gucci loafer wearing buddy.

          The more salient point is the right-wing notion that vaccinating teens against a sexually transmitted disease will, to paraphrase MOTR’s sig line, turn young girls into wanton harlots with insatiable sexual appetites.  After all, seatbelts and airbags only encourage car accidents, right?

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