2012 Primary Election Day Open Thread

36
  by: Colorado Pols Tue June 26, 2012 at 3:37 PM MDT

“Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.”

–James Russell Lowell


Full story: 2012 Primary Election Day Open Thread

36 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. Libertad says:
    Tue June 26, 2012 at 3:52 PM MDT

    Ouch folks!

    Intensity of support or opposition can have an impact on campaigns. Currently, 23% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove, giving him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trends).

    Source http://www.rassmussenreports.com

  2. Libertad says:
    Tue June 26, 2012 at 4:10 PM MDT

    Missouri has been a bellwether state for more than 100 years, with presidential candidates lavishing attention on Show-Me State voters and spending millions on field operations, glossy campaign mailers, and TV ads. But this election? Not so much.

    Roy Blunt’s 13 percentage-point victory in a U.S. Senate race led a strong Republican wave in Missouri in 2010.

    This year, Missouri isn’t on the list of top swing states – those vote-rich battlegrounds that political experts and campaign strategists say will determine who wins the White House on Nov. 6. Most political handicappers instead have Missouri in the “leans Republican” column.

    So even though Barack Obama lost Missouri by fewer than 4,000 votes in 2008, the president’s re-election campaign isn’t expected to make a major investment in Missouri this time around. And Mitt Romney probably won’t be tromping through the state for a bevy of big rallies or small meet-and-greets, either.

    “We used to look to Missouri,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “We don’t anymore.”

    Is there anyway Missouri can get its swing state status back …. you know because Barrack really needs more options.

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/p…

  3. DavidThi808DavidThi808 says:
    Tue June 26, 2012 at 5:15 PM MDT

    Interesting read – A Conversation With Bill Gates About the Future of Higher Education

    ps – As always, the fact that I post something does not mean I agree with it. There’s some really good points in this (ie I agree with them), some things worth thinking about, and some points I think he’s wrong on.

  4. BlueCat says:
    Tue June 26, 2012 at 5:52 PM MDT

    this clown really ought to be impeached.  Excerpts from Michael Tomasky’s piece on, Scalia, the hyper-partisan pol in judge’s clothing:

    It has been widely assumed-including by yours truly-that calling Supreme Court justices “politicians in robes,” as I did just last week counts as an insult. But as of Monday-almost surely before, but without any question as of Monday-Nino Scalia wants precisely to be thought of as a politician in a robe. No other reasonable conclusion can be drawn from his churlish and self-aggrandizing and probably unethical tirade against President Obama’s recently announced immigration policy. And while the court majority’s ruling (from which Scalia of course dissented) represents a pretty solid victory for the Justice Department, the narrow win for the state of Arizona on the controversial “where are your papers” part of the law makes it quite possible that these very issues will come to the court again, after Scalia has taken his political position. Just as Zola famously said “J’Accuse!,” I hope the liberal legal groups are already practicing saying “Recuse!”

    Scalia wrote the main dissent, which you can read at the above link. Why shouldn’t Arizona enforce whatever immigration laws it wants, he asked, when the federal government won’t enforce federal laws? This would be news to the roughly 1.2 million illegal aliens the Obama administration has deported, but that of course wasn’t the number Scalia had in mind.

    That would be the number affected by Obama’s recent directive to halt deportations of young people who meet certain criteria.

    As a rule, Supreme Court justices never comment on matters that they have reason to think might come before them.

    Even conservative blogger Ed Morrissey flagged this as problematic. Some GOP members of Congress have threatened to sue the administration over this directive. If Obama is reelected, they almost surely will, and the case may well get to the Supremes. Imagine, Morrissey wrote, that Ruth Bader Ginsburg inserted support for Obama’s directive into an opinion: “You can bet that conservatives would be screaming for a recusal if/when a challenge to it came before the Supreme Court, and we’d be right to do so.”

    This is hardly the first time Scalia has chosen to blatantly inject naked politics into his pronouncements. Between this kind of thing and his refusing to recuse himself on occasions when any Justice with an ounce of integrity would do so, his relations with Cheney, Koch brothers and Co. etc., he is nothing but a not even thinly disguised political hack and insult to the dignity of the Court.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/a…

    • Albert J. Nock says:
      Tue June 26, 2012 at 6:52 PM MDT

      Those pesky humans do love their false idols.

    • parsingreality says:
      Tue June 26, 2012 at 7:02 PM MDT

      ….people are Republicans.

      Both take immense amounts of cognitive dissonance to prevent mental conflict. (The medical term is “head exploding.”) The facts, as understood are supreme over facts of history, math, and science.

      Both do not appreciate people questioning the faith.  Both have fear as the underlying emotion. Fear of God, fear of change.

      I have spent years studying religion, have a Masters of Theology degree.  I could have spent time studying conservatives and Republicans just as well as Buddhism and Luther.

      (I find the same elements in radical dietary movements, especially veganism.)

    • BlueCat says:
      Tue June 26, 2012 at 7:51 PM MDT

      the Supreme Court that will be appointed during his administration will put paid to anything like the American way of life and government as we’ve known it. After a the next few decades it will be a little late to ever get it back.  

      In another generation text books will have erased all that facty stuff about Reagan (my twit state Rep Conti refused to believe that St. Reagan raised taxes at all when we spoke at the beginning of her term.  After that conversation it was clear I might as well be talking to a piece of toast) just as some red states are already trying to erase embarrassing facts about our founding history, including inconvenient facts about the founding fathers in relation to slavery, from school curricula and trying to legislate misinformation be given to women wanting abortions, such as that it increases the chances of breast cancer.

      All their yammering about how they hate socialism/communism is just a cover for their intent to create a one party, authoritarian, socialism for the elite regime including that old commie fave… rewriting history and creating their own facts (nod to Rove as well as the usual commie dictator suspects on that one). One big difference: While the old style commies forbade religion, as if religion being the opiate of the masses was a bad thing, these guys fully embrace it as a way of getting the little people to hand them all the power without a fight.

      So what if your wealth has dipped 40% while the elite’s grows exponentially. We are saving you from the gays!

      And by the way, SSG, you are one of the three I voted for.  Congrats.

  6. VanDammerVanDammer says:
    Tue June 26, 2012 at 7:36 PM MDT

    The court declined to reconsider its decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which granted corporations personhood, with First Amendment rights. We’re stealing from a site called “Create Real Democracy” to sum up our disdain for this decision. Here’s an excerpt:

    “We’ll believe a corporation is a person when:

    - Arizona deports one.

    - Texas executes one.

    - Massachusetts marries two of them.

    - The U.S. government issues one a Social Security number.

    - The CIA extradites one to Guantanamo.

    - One sacrifices its life in military service.”

    Also props to Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) and Lt. Governor John Bohlinger(R) for standing together to fight this lunacy with Stand with Montanans.  I have a hard time figuring out when the GOP is for state’s rights and when they’re against them.  Truly seems like it follows the flow of money, don’t it?

  7. SSG_Dan says:
    Tue June 26, 2012 at 8:59 PM MDT

    ….can I assume everyone knows the timeline for WWI? The Austria-Hungary mobilizes it’s troops so it can threaten Serbia, which causes Russia to mobilize their troops to protect Serbia, which causes Germany to mobilize their troops to protect Austria-Hungary….

    I was hoping that we could avoid all this over the summer. CRAP.

    Turkey Says It May Target Any Syrian Forces Nearing Border

    ISTANBUL – Buoyed by support from his country’s NATO allies, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Syrian forces on Tuesday to stay clear of their troubled border or face a Turkish military response to any perceived threat, following the disputed downing of a Turkish warplane.

    The Turkish leader’s bellicose tone came as ambassadors from the NATO alliance, seeking to avoid a wider conflict, held emergency talks in Brussels at Turkey’s behest. After the meeting, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the alliance considered Syria’s actions in shooting down a Turkish warplane last Friday “unacceptable.”

    In a unanimous statement, the NATO allies called the episode “another example of the Syrian authorities’ disregard for international norms, peace and security, and human life.” Turkey is a member of the alliance.

    “I would certainly expect that such an incident won’t happen again,” Mr. Rasmussen said at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He added that the alliance would closely follow developments and “if necessary, consult and discuss what else could be done.”

    In Ankara, Mr. Erdogan said Turkey had revised its military rules of engagement toward Syria.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06…

    • VanDammerVanDammer says:
      Tue June 26, 2012 at 9:53 PM MDT

      it was a major league family fight with every country involved showing off their new killing gadgets and strategies.  It ended up just setting the stage for WWII.  Syria has nowhere nears the presence or importance.  

      What is the upside for China & Russia to support Syria?  They’re on record as not against Assad stepping down but they oppose  external interference to make that happen.  Syria doesn’t offer any resources but it likes weapons, especially Russian & Chinese weapons (estimated to be worth 1/8th one-eighth of Russia’s portfolio of arms orders).  Syria also provides Russia (and China to a lesser degree) their best instance of international mediation to counter the US hegemony.  

      As for China — their support is more a diversion to make sure they can get away with future Tianenmens.  They view the Syrian response to the uprising as “a demonstration of state power against a dissident group meant to illustrate the absolute authority of the state and the utter marginalization of the protesters.”  It’s also a bit of a poke in the eye to the US to keep our noses out of  unaligned countries.

      Assad will fall.  He has fewer friends than  Qaddafi with a welfare country and little to no economy.  Anyone wanting to keep him in power will have to pony up money and it’s just not worth it.  Sellers are smart enough to know that selling bullets on credit doesn’t make sense when the customer stops payment due to death.      

      • Car 31 says:
        Tue June 26, 2012 at 11:10 PM MDT

        There are about fifty things that need to happen prior to a war between Turkey and Syria, let alone a world war. Russia wants to flex her muscles but not enter into war with the West – neither does China.

        It wouldn’t be good for either country as they would become instant pariahs on the international scene. I suppose, Russia, North Korea, Syria and China could all cooperate and open a can of whoopass, but it isn’t likely.

        Angry rhetoric and diplomatic positioning to further isolate an isolated regime.

        • AristotleAristotle says:
          Wed June 27, 2012 at 1:45 AM MDT

          … as noted elsewhere, WWI happened after 10 years of similar diplomatic crises. I can’t remember the details, but there were at least four crises which preceded the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, and that one took five weeks to become a war. Europe really wanted to fight, and finally took a flimsy excuse to do it.

  8. ProgressiveCowgirlProgressiveCowgirl says:
    Wed June 27, 2012 at 12:28 AM MDT

    Hoping to see a young Democrat with fresh ideas and a unique perspective as the Democratic candidate this year. Nothing against Mr. Todd, but Jovan is the better candidate.

  10. AristotleAristotle says:
    Wed June 27, 2012 at 1:46 AM MDT

    on your selection to the Hockey Hall of Fame. (See any sports site’s hockey section for more details.)

  11. VanDammerVanDammer says:
    Wed June 27, 2012 at 4:08 AM MDT

    thre are a few fellw Polsters within or adjacent to the Boulder proper — let’s hope they are safe from the fire.  Bison is just up one mountain over from a good chunk of South Boulder.

    UCAR’s Table Mesa complex voluntarily evac’d, surprised that NIST/NOAA and the rest didn’t.  All of Table Mesa is watching pretty closely.

    There are very dry gusty winds are blowing thru right now and that’s just gonna fan the flames.  Stay safe SoBo.

  12. notachanceatall says:
    Wed June 27, 2012 at 5:15 AM MDT

    The Waldo Canyan fire has counted the Flying W Ranch among its most recent casualties. The fire has taken a very sad and tragic turn today. So far 25 homes have been burned along with the Flying W and many more are burning now as I watch the news.

    http://www.gazette.com/news/ra…

    • parsingreality says:
      Wed June 27, 2012 at 6:46 AM MDT

      Colorado is burning, I’m dealing with Debby for a week now.  I’ve not seen my dock or seawall for a week, storm surge.  

      “Can’t we all just average this out?”  Rodney King

  13. Phoenix RisingPhoenix Rising says:
    Wed June 27, 2012 at 7:57 AM MDT

    Everyone in the line of these fires, and the rest of the state, too.  Let’s pray for rain and safekeeping.

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