Open Line Friday!

56
  by: Colorado Pols Fri September 7, 2012 at 3:35 PM MDT

“I have to warn you about something. The August unemployment numbers are gonna be announced tomorrow…the government is in charge of the numbers.”

–Rush Limbaugh, yesterday


Full story: Open Line Friday!

56 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  2. JeffcoBlueJeffcoBlue says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 3:53 PM MDT

    I liked the first Dagny Taggart much better.

  3. parsingreality says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 4:27 PM MDT

    Maybe the fact that I was listening to the convention on a radio only lent to my time travel.  

    For the first time in Obama’s tenure, I heard confrontation of the us/them variety.  Clear distinctions for you, Americans, to make.  Much like FDR did.  I heard fire in his belly.  I heard excellent voice control (Has he been taking lessons?)  

    I heard the president of the United States of America, 2009-2017.

    He’s been getting some good advice.  I like how he took his 2008 theme of “hope” and hammered it home last night BUT with the change that now HE has hope, hope in the American people.  Brilliant.

    VP Biden was also an excellent speaker.  He and his wife mentioned the military and the vets many times more than the ‘Pubs. Wait, since they didn’t mention them at all, the ratio is infinity.

    I can’t wait for the debates.

  4. dwyer says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 4:39 PM MDT

    The job report was disappointing.  The unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% and the Department of Labor said this was due to 250,000 dropping out of the labor market.

    My question:  August is a big month for birthdays.  Baby Boomers are not just reaching 65 and collecting social security, but BBs reaching 62 can begin collecting social security, albeit at a lower rate. How many people began collecting Social Security in August?

    For the record, if one begins to  collect unemployment insurance and is also collecting social security, the unemployment check is reduced by a certain percentage. So, collecting social security is not a disincentive to looking for work.

    Next question:  On one of the talk radio shows, it was reported that “Romney was ‘under the weather.’ That makes sense to me.  The idea that he would stop campaigning after the RNC in order to work on the debate, that is a month away, did not make sense.

    I repeat: Romney needs to release his medical records.

    i am five years older than Romney.  Sixty-five is NOT fifty.  Sixty-five is OLD.  

  5. parsingreality says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 4:42 PM MDT

    At 66, I’ve never felt younger.  Hey, why is my nose growing???????

  6. Libertad says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 4:57 PM MDT

    Healthcare entitlement spending is set to double++, from almost $830B this year to over $1.8T (yes thats TRILLION) in 2022. Under Barack Obama’s plan healthcare spending will rise above discretionary government spending (core government functions) in 2016 – Barack’s last year in office.

    Recent CBO projections of Barack’s “budget” find that Medicare spending will increase from $550B (2012)  to over $1T (yes that’s TRILLION) in 2022, additionally Medicaid would double++ from about $250B to nearly $600B.

    Yes this is why under Barack’s plan we need massive infusions of national debt and tax hikes….with Obamacare CBO projections show that health care spending will exceed all national discretionary spending by 2016.

    Lastly, new exchanges and subsidies under Obamacare will increase mandatory healthcare costs from over $25B to abut $180B by 2022.

    However the CBO has stated that the projected costs under Obamacare could be even higher than initial estimates as true unemployment sensitivities are factored and unknown reactions from private employers such as further deminishes employer sponsored healthcare plans develop.

    Excessive and new regulations won’t solve this, although they did creat it (Obamacare); and removing regulations (save terminating Obamacare) won’t solve these requirements for massive new debt and/or tax hikes.

    So if you’re happy and you know and you really want to show it, clap your hands!!

    • Phoenix RisingPhoenix Rising says:
      Fri September 7, 2012 at 5:05 PM MDT

      The government gets to shrink and rich people can keep more of their money because we’ve cut off medical care for older people who no longer have job income and who get sick more.

      The CBO acknowledges what we all should be accepting and trying to fix: the economy, running under the lowest taxes in half a century, isn’t being driven by what Republicans term “job creators” whose cash stash could restore the country to prosperity if they spent it.

      Obama had it right: for some people, “take two tax cuts, remove some regulations and call me in the morning” is the prescription for all ills, and on good days, too.

    • parsingreality says:
      Fri September 7, 2012 at 5:37 PM MDT

      But not to implement because of the Republicans and their moneyed overlords.

      To “save’ Social Security forever and ever, remove the earnings contribution cap, keep the benefits cap.  Like every other country that does similarly.

      To find other coins behind the couch cushions, cut the military budget.  There is NO need to have one as big as ours, except the “justification” that as empire, we need it. Whether you go by percent of GDP, or compare it to other major military powers, or what its mission should be, our military is bloated.

      And the Rmoney/Lyin’ Ryan budget would increase military spending yet MORE, beyond what even the DOF says it wants!  All to be paid for out of the pockets of the disabled, disadvantaged, and seniors.

      Fuck that.

      • Libertad says:
        Sat September 8, 2012 at 2:21 AM MDT

        Your comments fail to address the funding for Obamacare/Mediscare.

        Come now Parsing, why won’t you agree with me that trillions in new national debt and tax hikes are required to fund these critical Oama priorities?

        Obama has your back, why won’t you take his back?

        • parsingreality says:
          Sat September 8, 2012 at 7:12 AM MDT

          the independent GAO come up with the exact opposite conclusion.  Obamacare will save money in the long term. Costs are already starting to come down, despite vastly greater coverages.

          I do give you cred for an dialogue posting, not a cut ‘n paste.

          • Libertad says:
            Mon September 10, 2012 at 11:15 PM MDT

            Healthcare entitlement spending is set to double++, from almost $830B this year to over $1.8T (yes thats TRILLION) in 2022.

            Under Obamacare, healthcare spending will rise above discretionary government spending (core government functions) in 2016 – Barack’s last year in office.

            CBO projections of Barack’s “budget” find that Medicare spending will increase from $550B (2012)  to over $1T (yes that’s TRILLION) in 2022, additionally Medicaid would double++ from about $250B to nearly $600B.

            Yes this is why under Barack’s plan we need massive infusions of national debt and tax hikes….with Obamacare CBO projections show that health care spending will exceed all national discretionary spending by 2016.

            Lastly, new exchanges and subsidies under Obamacare will increase mandatory healthcare costs from over $25B to abut $180B by 2022.

            However the CBO has stated that the projected costs under Obamacare could be even higher than initial estimates as true unemployment sensitivities are factored and unknown reactions from private employers such as further deminished employer sponsored healthcare developments.

            Excessive and new regulations won’t solve this, although they did create it (Obamacare); and removing regulations (save terminating Obamacare) won’t solve these requirements for massive new debt and/or tax hikes.

            So if you’re happy and you know and you really want to show it, clap your hands!!

  7. Libertad says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 4:57 PM MDT

    Healthcare entitlement spending is set to double++, from almost $830B this year to over $1.8T (yes thats TRILLION) in 2022. Under Barack Obama’s plan healthcare spending will rise above discretionary government spending (core government functions) in 2016 – Barack’s last year in office.

    Recent CBO projections of Barack’s “budget” find that Medicare spending will increase from $550B (2012)  to over $1T (yes that’s TRILLION) in 2022, additionally Medicaid would double++ from about $250B to nearly $600B.

    Yes this is why under Barack’s plan we need massive infusions of national debt and tax hikes….with Obamacare CBO projections show that health care spending will exceed all national discretionary spending by 2016.

    Lastly, new exchanges and subsidies under Obamacare will increase mandatory healthcare costs from over $25B to abut $180B by 2022.

    However the CBO has stated that the projected costs under Obamacare could be even higher than initial estimates as true unemployment sensitivities are factored and unknown reactions from private employers such as further deminishes employer sponsored healthcare plans develop.

    Excessive and new regulations won’t solve this, although they did creat it (Obamacare); and removing regulations (save terminating Obamacare) won’t solve these requirements for massive new debt and/or tax hikes.

    So if you’re happy and you know and you really want to show it, clap your hands!!

  8. ClubTwittyClubTwitty says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 5:56 PM MDT

    Water goes down, down, down…and up comes (in addition to profit)…

    Wells hydraulically fractured in the Niobrara shale formation emit a toxic brew that includes methane, toluene and benzene, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

    Thanks to the oil boom, these sources emitted 15,975 tons of pollutants last year, up from about 9,372 tons of pollutants in 2008, according to department estimates.

    http://www.ncbr.com/article/20…

  9. ClubTwittyClubTwitty says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 6:24 PM MDT

    The article would not agree, but I say, “Yea Blanca!”

    http://washingtonexaminer.com/…

    Abortion is also a big topic with convention goers, especially those who supported Sandra Fluke, the former college student whose congressional testimony supporting government backing of contraception was hit by conservative talker Rush Limbaugh.

    Aspen, Colorado delegate Blanca O’Leary, for example, sported a “Sluts Vote,” button, a reference to the word Limbaugh used to describe Fluke. Said O’Leary, “All women should have the right to birth control.”

  10. Barron X says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 6:37 PM MDT

    I’m walking around downtown right now with a sandwich board with that message.

    I can even predict the specific date that the World ends: 27 Houle 3430.  (By that time we will have different names for the months.)

    So, what prompted this ?

    Well, I have to give Oral Roberts some credit.

    Plus, at national and international news sites, I’m reading lots of predictions that the US-initiated and funded war in Syria is a harbinger of Armageddon.  

    So I want to counter those false prophesies.

    The Book of Revelations in the Catholic Bible is NOT about predicting the future.  Sorry, Tim LaHaye.

    It is about explaining the current world, cicra 100 AD, especially the role of Imperial Rome, to the early Christians in Asia Minor, but in a cryptic way so that the author isn’t tracked down and executed.  

    The author is chastising and guiding the early Church.  

    He also injects a dose of “Hope and Change.”(TM)

    So, anyway, you’ve got plenty of time.  Or not.

    _____________”No one knows about that day or hour,

    _____________not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,

    _____________but only the Father.”

    attributed to Jesus by Matthew and Mark  

    • BlueCat says:
      Sat September 8, 2012 at 8:01 AM MDT

      so what?  There are plenty of other ancient religious writings, myths and fairy tails to choose from and your particular choice doesn’t mean a thing to the millions and millions of the world’s population who couldn’t care less what some old Christian religious writings say or don’t say about the end of the world. My advice to grown ups would be not take any of it, from Mayan to biblical, too seriously.

      • parsingreality says:
        Sat September 8, 2012 at 5:37 PM MDT

        What would a Vulcan anthropologist think of religion as a human phenomena?  I’m sure they would find it all very perplexing and amusing.  That otherwise pretty rational creatures live and die for a bunch of fairy tales taken as, pardon the pun, gospel truth.

        As one who has dabbled, one who got a masters degree in theology, I finally arrived at the only answer that doesn’t insult my intelligence: atheism.  Still room for a spirit led life, but no god, no religion.

  11. Libertad says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 7:08 PM MDT

    The Democrats new platform language calls for an Internet that is “secure and reliable and that is respectful of U.S. intellectual property, [the] free flow of information, and privacy.”

    This is probably not the best use of phrases to put in your platform. The Democrat platoform specificlly avoids talking about net neutrality, even though they support it (FCC, Obama, members) whole hog.

    Although the Republican Platform correctly identifies the Obama administrations “frozen in the past” policies in the Internet and Communications arenas, they fail to call out the Obama administrations/Democrats nearly $8B (yep Billion) in drunken and unaccounted for stimulus orgy. Some of which was rightly refused by principled Governors (WI and others).

    Starting at the top of the food chain, the Obama administration has conducted no wireless spectrum auctions, has not given carriers any rulings or incentives for investment (Dish/EchoStar’s desire to invest), and has embraced the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality rule, which tries to “micromanage telecom as if it were a railroad network”.

    Destroying it from the bottom in Colorado. The Obama Democrats have a $100M+ federal stimulus project run out of a quiet intergovernmental affiliate called “Eaglenet” (who used the foreign corporation G4S of London Olympic fame as its general contractor).

    Eaglenet is raising the ire of local communications providers and the customers it purports to target. Locals say the effort is backfiring, diminishing private investment, lowering private payrolls and squandering public dollars to duplicate what the private sector already has built.

    Worse they are abusing local school districts, hospitals and governments by twisting their arms to “get on the network” or risk not connecting per the DC program directive. As icing on the cake, Eaglenet was so poorly run that it fired its CEO and other top “managers” just recently. Coloradoans should be asking for accountability.

    Only DC politicians could have developed this type of a program. Eaglenet, formed in 2007, is described on its website as “a cost-sharing cooperative that will deliver a carrier quality broadband network to more than 170 communities across the state.” In 2010, EAGLE-Net was awarded a $100.6 million grant through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

    By Wehe’s estimate, his company has invested more than $5 million so far – borrowed from the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service loan program – laying a fiber-optic line from Walsenburg on the Front Range to Monte Vista in the western San Luis Valley. Now, an EAGLE-Net contractor is laying another fiber-optic line alongside it. Wehe says such “overbuilding” has become standard operating procedure for EAGLE-Net statewide.

    For their part, EAGLE-Net execs say they’re simply trying to hew to their mandate and follow federal specifications, for which they broadened their focus to qualify for the stimulus funding.

    “Our intent is to bring a new network into town,” said EAGLE-Net communications chief Gretchen Dirks. The organization’s head of business development, Chip White, said EAGLE-Net is “not trying to cut the local providers out,” but he added, “This is change and a new way of doing things.”

    http://watchdog.org/51484/co-c…

    …snip…

    While the providers say EAGLE-Net is overstepping its original parameters and even violating state statute by overbuilding and going head to head with the private sector, the agency’s leadership says it is squarely within its mandate and consistent with state and federal law for it to build a statewide rural network it believes is superior to what the private sector can offer. They stress they aren’t competing to provide phone service, only a data network, and that they are barred from serving anything other than public entities. EAGLE-Net also insists it wants to work with, not against, the local providers.

    “We have an open door with them,” said EAGLE-Net’s Dirks.” We’re always willing to talk to (the rural providers) on the issues.”

    Dirks and White say they are open to using existing fiber-optic lines of private providers who wish to participate. Yet, when they publicized their request for proposals to help bridge the gap over La Veta Pass, for example, they said Wehe’s Blanca Telephone Co. never responded. Only contractors seeking to lay new fiber expressed interest.

    …snip…Wehe said EAGLE-Net isn’t a free-market option but rather a boondoggle all taxpayers are forced to underwrite. He said such a project might have been applauded years ago – before the private sector stepped in and bridged rural Colorado’s digital divide. Now, he said, it’s just another government program that has missed its mark and is attempting to justify its colossal cost.

    “They’re 20 years too late,” he said, adding, “I don’t think they care. I think they have to spend the money to fulfill the grant.”

    Where is the accountability, where are the priorities? What portion of these tax dollars could be used to fund local education?

    It could be worse, Eaglenet could be pissing away fiber builds in places such as Denver where many, many competitors exist to serve schools, hospitals, local governments ….  

    • SSG_Dan says:
      Fri September 7, 2012 at 7:24 PM MDT

      Meanwhile, let’s actually present what you pretended to start out doing – the DNC’s platform on wireless spectrum, internet and technology (All from a tech website):

      The 2012 Democratic platform: Internet good; Republicans, IP theft bad

      http://thenextweb.com/2012/09/…

      and from the Grumpy Old People:

      The 2012 Republican platform: Internet good, FCC and Net Neutrality bad

      http://thenextweb.com/us/2012/…

    • ClubTwittyClubTwitty says:
      Fri September 7, 2012 at 8:21 PM MDT

      Here are some of your peeps I found while I was surfing around to try and understand how your ilk think and what their priorities are.

      http://www.knowthelies.com/nod…


      The official GOP platform approved at the Republican National Convention in Tampa included tough language rejecting the United Nations “sustainability” scheme known as Agenda 21 for the threat it represents to national sovereignty, drawing praise from conservative and Tea Party leaders across the country.

      And here they are:

    • Libertad says:
      Sat September 8, 2012 at 2:16 AM MDT

      Therefore without a challenge, my point on Accountability in Colorado stands.

      Colorado reporters should investigate. State and Federal oversight committees should inquire.

      This billion dollar drunken spending orgy has done nothing to deliver the “Internet for all for free” promises that leftists would have you believe is reasonable, attainable and desirable for every home throughout the rural of rural America.

      So will reporters investigate and will leftists demand accountability for the diversion of billions to Internet dreams when 23 million are unemployed and 50 million are on foodstamps?  

  12. caroman says:
    Fri September 7, 2012 at 8:36 PM MDT

    Sarah Palin on Fox Business News:

    I think he (Senator John Kerry) diminished himself by even mentioning my name.

    I guess I’ve diminished myself by mentioning her name.  Touche’

    • Diogenesdemar says:
      Fri September 7, 2012 at 9:15 PM MDT

      Sean Hannity has begun an investigation into Paul Ryan’s claims earlier this morning that Al Gore got his ideas for the Internet from having viewed Ryan’s second grade science fair project.  

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