Weekend Open Thread

96
  by: Colorado Pols Sat September 8, 2012 at 3:03 PM MDT

“Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.”

–Lyndon B. Johnson


Full story: Weekend Open Thread

96 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. PitaPita says:
    Sat September 8, 2012 at 3:34 PM MDT

    …and a fine day it is to donate a little time to the political campaign in your neighborhood.  

  2. Gadfly says:
    Sat September 8, 2012 at 5:09 PM MDT

    It will be interesting to see how much Joe Miklosi and Sal Pace have raised.  

      • Lurker19 says:
        Sun September 9, 2012 at 2:38 PM MDT

        that the ads are in the can.  And that they are well made.  But only time will tell, of course.

        • BlueCat says:
          Sun September 9, 2012 at 11:46 PM MDT

          unfortunately I just talked to somebody who has volunteered for him and says when he comes into the office he doesn’t even bother to say hello to volunteers. Ignores them. Several were pretty miffed. She’s too staunch a Dem to consider not voting for him but she probably won’t be doing much more volunteering for him. Of course this is just one person’s view.

          If anyone on his team is reading this please let him know that you need engaged enthusiastic volunteers and that means showing your appreciation. Maybe he’s shy or was very preoccupied. Maybe other volunteers have had a  different experience. But, word to the wise,  volunteers don’t get paid in money so the least you can do is give them some recognition. Even if you’re busy and not having a great day.

  3. dwyer says:
    Sat September 8, 2012 at 5:16 PM MDT

    The jobs report was disappointing.  I want the President to find out why and report to the American people the reason and what he is going to do about it.

    For example, Hurricane Issac shut down oil rigs in the Gulf and shut down tourism.  What impact did this have

    on unemployment?

    Why did so many people leave the employment area and stop looking for work?

    These are legitimate questions.

    • MADCO says:
      Sun September 9, 2012 at 12:38 AM MDT

      Not invade Iran.

      Not invade Syria.

      Not invade N. Korea, Libya or any place else that doesn’t present an imminent threat.

      Then- I’d like to see them win the election.

      Then, I want Justice Bader Ginsburg step down.

      And then I’d like to see team 2013-2016 and then the inauguration.  

      And next year- I’d like to see President Obama at Wrigley in the a 3rd base box for Game 1 of the Series.

    • GalapagoLarryGalapagoLarry says:
      Sun September 9, 2012 at 6:51 AM MDT

      Mr. President: Why don’t more Americans pay attention to the fact that you were unable to pass a bigger stimulus package because of political obstruction, to the fact that you’ve proposed a Jobs Act that was torpedoed in the House, to the fact that Congress failed to pass your infrastructure spending request, to the fact that…? In brief, Mr. President, why don’t more Americans pay attention? And, please, send your reply to dwyer.

      • parsingreality says:
        Sun September 9, 2012 at 3:42 PM MDT

        …..is that it sounds too much like whining, regardless of the truth(s).

        I’ve wondered the same thing.  To that, I’ll add, why not a bit of history?  How FDR and Keynesian economics “solved” the First Republican Great Depression.  And that I, Obama, stand on actual, like, you know, historical facts instead of One Percenter Wet Dreams.

        But then, OFA hasn’t asked me.

        • MADCO says:
          Sun September 9, 2012 at 5:10 PM MDT

          There’s a famous Chinese author who described it better than I can, but when your opponent decides the battlefield, and chooses the weapons and the timing – the kingdom is doomed.

          • dwyer says:
            Sun September 9, 2012 at 7:26 PM MDT

            See, I think there are legitimate questions that need to be asked and answered.  I do not believe that the PResident is dumb or incapable of answering these questions.  I think that they should be answered.

            In the last fifty years, MADCO, I voted democratic in every election. My first election was 1964 and I did not get to vote because my absentee ballot arrived by surface mail, overseas, too late for the election.  Carter, Clinton and Obama won. Humphrey, McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Dukacis, and Gore all lost.  I think I know something about Democratic losers.

            But that is not the point.  It is the inability on this blog for Democrats to discuss campaign strategy or criticize the lockstep mentality of “shut up and dial.”  I am not scared of questions. I am very scared of the “worker bee” mentality that says “Do not think, because your voice and your opinion does not count.”

            I was extremely encouraged by the wealth of intelligent elected officials at the Democratic convention.  What was so impressive about Clinton was that he answered the Republican questions. So, I posed the questions that we all should be asking.  In response, a deluge of nonsense.

            The Democratic party had a “way to win” in MA, in the 2010 mid-term elections and “Wisconsin.”….only it didn’t work.

            • MADCO says:
              Mon September 10, 2012 at 3:03 AM MDT

              Of course your opinion counts.

              It counts a lot less when your candidate loses.

              Focus on winning.  And if we gotta win this talking about 8.3% unemployment or how dysfunctional Congress has become – we lose.

              I wasn’t in MA or WI in 2010.  I was here in Colorado,  where unfortunately we got Senator Buck.  Oh, wait…

              • dwyer says:
                Mon September 10, 2012 at 6:07 AM MDT

                I don’t believe that a focus on winning and an explanation of where and why employment numbers are lower than expected are mutually exclusive.  They are not.  

                What Clinton did that everyone applauded and rightly so, was to explain the last four years.  That is all.

                Democrats did win in Colorado in 2010.  We did not win down ticket; we just won the Senate and Governorship.

                No small feat.  

                BUT, the Republican party absolutely imploded.  Don’t you remember? Could the Democrats have won if the Republicans had run a normal race….like the down ticket candidates did?  I don’t know, but I don’t think so.

                Buck’s embarrassing meltdown on Meet the PRess helped.  HIs remark about rape being “buyer’s remorse” helped.  Dan Maes and the fact that Tom Tancredo took upwards of 300,000 votes from the republicans HELPED.  

                That was all republican stupidity, the democrats merely exploited it.

                So, I think that there is a rational explanation for the low job creation in August and I don’t think it is inconsistent with the Obama’s administration’s economic policy.  I just think that we need to hear why.  

            • BlueCat says:
              Wed September 12, 2012 at 5:01 AM MDT

              It is the inability on this blog for Democrats to discuss campaign strategy or criticize the lockstep mentality of “shut up and dial.”  I am not scared of questions. I am very scared of the “worker bee” mentality that says “Do not think, because your voice and your opinion does not count.”

              More straw dog crap.  The Dems “on this bog” to whom you are referring must be sitting in that chair Clint was using. Since they are imaginary, no reason why they can’t all fit in the one chair or on the head of a pin, for that matter. 99% of what you say about “all” the Dems on this blog is unrecognizable to the actual Dems on this blog. It’s why Dywer resonates.  

        • BlueCat says:
          Mon September 10, 2012 at 6:28 PM MDT

          and he’s doing a bang up job of it.  

    • VanDammerVanDammer says:
      Mon September 10, 2012 at 5:40 AM MDT

      For example, Hurricane Issac shut down oil rigs in the Gulf and shut down tourism. В What impact did this have on unemployment?

      Issac (sic) didn’t make landfall ’til Aug 28, so any workers evac’d from rigs would be back to work within the week (to short to invoke unemployment) and the Gulf lost more tourism jobs because friggin’ school started and summer is over than Hurricane Isaac.  BTW, the report says we added 96,000 jobs so just WTF is your glitch?

      Dwyer Downer posts again and nothing new to offer but retreads of disatisfaction and doom.

      • dwyer says:
        Mon September 10, 2012 at 6:15 AM MDT

        The oil rigs were evacuated the weekend before the hurricane.  You don’t evacuate oil rigs in the middle of a hurricane.  Gas prices went up because of the shut down.  Did it have a further impact?

        Labor Day weekend is one of the biggest tourist days on the Gulf Coast. Isaac cut into that tourism.

        Let me direct you to my statement that you so carefully quoted.  Notice that there is a question mark at the end of the question?  That means that I am ASKING if there were an impact. The number of jobs created was below expectations.  At least 125,000 jobs have to be created to keep up with population growth.

        What are you so scared about?  Facts don’t disappear if you just ignore them or attack me for asking a gd question.  

        Oh hell, I do not have the game on.  I bet the Broncos are losing. I bet that is what is going on.

      • dwyer says:
        Mon September 10, 2012 at 11:17 PM MDT

        On the Bill Press radio show this am, there was an economist who said that one of the factors in the number of people leaving the labor force was the aging baby boomers who were reaching retirement age.  He expected that that number would continue to increase and that should be factored into the lower number of people seeking work.

        You have confused two different labor statistics. One is the unemployment rate and the other is the number of private sector jobs created.  It is the latter that was below expectations.  I still don’t know if Isaac was a factor.  You are right that it occurred late in the month.

        If it was a factor in the fewer number of jobs created, then we can expect September’s numbers to be down, also.

        And, if Isaac caused people to become unemployed because of the delay in reactivating the oil rigs and disruption caused by the prolonged and wide spread power outrages, then one can assume that the September numbers on unemployment will go up.

        Isaac was a act of nature.  It is nobody’s fault.  

  4. parsingreality says:
    Sat September 8, 2012 at 5:39 PM MDT

    ….the presidential race, doesn’t it?

    Rmoney, the destroyer of corporations and lives vs. Obama, the builder of the economic barn that GW kicked down.  

  5. DaftPunkDaftPunk says:
    Sat September 8, 2012 at 7:01 PM MDT

    The portion of the documentary in question covers Mitt Romney’s stint as a door-to-door Mormon recruiter in 1968 France, a duty which helped him to avoid military service in Vietnam. Earlier in the doc, narrator and interviewer Gloria Borger glossed over the fact that Romney sought, and received, four deferments during the Vietnam War (and later lied about it), instead saying simply that he was “exempt as a student, and with a high draft number.”

    The doc also notes, as an example of Romney “becoming his own man,” that he protested in favor of the draft that he so skillfully avoided, before moving on to the time he spent in France, a time that Romney once described as “tough” because the French were “not happy to see Americans, because we were in Vietnam at the time.”

    Yes, you heard that right. Not only did Mitt Romney protest in favor of sending other people’s children to die in Vietnam, even as he avoided service himself, he then complained about how those dying Americans made it “tough” for him while he was in France avoiding service.

    Perhaps to avoid charges of bias, the documentary steers clear of these contradictions, but then takes the whitewashing to blindingly absurd levels by introducing the next segment with the aforementioned most ridiculous statement I’ve ever seen on television. “In 1968, France was a dangerous place to be for a 21-year-old American,” Borger says, “but Mitt Romney was right in the middle of it.”

    That’s right, in 1968, the year in which the highest number of American deaths in Vietnam were reported (16,592), France was a dangerous place to be for a 21-year-old American who was avoiding service in Vietnam. Aside from the constant danger of having one’s eye put out by an errant baguette, what hardships did Mitt Romney face while he was “in country?”

    Well, all those dying Americans were causing protests in France, and as a result, says fellow Romney missionary Mike Bush, “There was no train service, there were no buses, no newspapers. The electricity would go off from time-to-time.”

    The electricity would go off from time-to-time? Mon Dieu. Think of the horrific flashbacks to rudely-interrupted Gilligan’s Island reruns and spoiled escargot. But the horrors of Vietnam-era France didn’t end there.

    “There were no letters from home,” Bush continues. “The money at the time came via check. That was our lifeline was getting letters from home.”

    So, CNN’s story is that Mitt Romney had it tough during Vietnam because the protests in France made it hard for his dad to send him money.

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn…

  6. DaftPunkDaftPunk says:
    Sat September 8, 2012 at 7:15 PM MDT

    “I find it inconceivable that one of your players, Mr. Brendon Ayanbadejo would publicly endorse Same-Sex marriage, specifically as a Raven Football player,” Burns wrote in the letter that was first obtained by WBAL. “Many of my constituents and your football supporters are appalled and aghast that a member of the Ravens Football Team would step into this controversial divide and try to sway public opinion one way or the other.

    “Many of your fans are opposed to such a view and feel it has no place in a sport that is strictly for pride, entertainment and excitement,” Burns continued. “I believe Mr. Ayanbadejo should concentrate on football and steer clear of dividing the fan base.

    “I am requesting that you take the necessary action, as a National Football League Owner, to inhibit such expressions from your employees and that he be ordered to cease and desist such injurious actions,”

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/sp…

    • Phoenix RisingPhoenix Rising says:
      Sun September 9, 2012 at 7:08 PM MDT

      From Chris Kluwe, kicker for the Vikings, at Deadspin (read the whole thing at the link – it’s worth every second):

      I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won’t come into your house and steal your children. They won’t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won’t even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population-rights like Social Security benefits, child care tax credits, Family and Medical Leave to take care of loved ones, and COBRA healthcare for spouses and children. You know what having these rights will make gays? Full-fledged American citizens just like everyone else, with the freedom to pursue happiness and all that entails. Do the civil-rights struggles of the past 200 years mean absolutely nothing to you?

      In closing, I would like to say that I hope this letter, in some small way, causes you to reflect upon the magnitude of the colossal foot in mouth clusterfuck you so brazenly unleashed on a man whose only crime was speaking out for something he believed in. Best of luck in the next election; I’m fairly certain you might need it.

  8. Barron X says:
    Sun September 9, 2012 at 6:17 AM MDT

    since it is an established fact at CoPols that anyone who criticizes, or even makes a joke about Prez Obama is a racist,

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/…  

  9. harrydobyharrydoby says:
    Sun September 9, 2012 at 6:19 AM MDT

    http://www.virtual-history.com…

    So does anyone else think that Romney and Ryan resemble Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen as Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox?

  10. parsingreality says:
    Sun September 9, 2012 at 3:56 PM MDT

    Seems that Lyin’ Ryan voted for the package that included reduced military spending recently.  Now he is against it.  Sound familiar, ca. 2004?

    Rmoney has moved into full blown chickenhawk mode.  He’s been hammering on how the military is much smaller than once upon a time. You know, the one he fled to Paris to avoid.

    The harder, less politically effective question should be, “What size military do we need?”  But, of course, that requires facty-thingies and brain power to process, not mere PAC money.  

  11. parsingreality says:
    Sun September 9, 2012 at 4:12 PM MDT

    As late as this (Sunday) AM, the news keeps getting better and better for Obama.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

    What is especially encouraging, and this is only just starting, is that the Dems are suddenly interested and involved.  Speaks well for that mythological “base.”

    In his account of the results, (Libertad’s much beloved and ballyhooed) pollster Scott Rasmussen noted that for the first time in his survey, Democrats were now following the campaign as closely as Republican voters, a measure that often predicts turnout.

    As the story points out, GW kept his bounce into the election.  OFA is apparently studying how he did it.

    • MADCO says:
      Sun September 9, 2012 at 5:15 PM MDT

      Well- except for one, 58 days away. (28 days to early voting)  

      • parsingreality says:
        Sun September 9, 2012 at 5:32 PM MDT

        And I do get so tired of the breathless minute by minute pollings.  ”He’s up!”  ”He’s down!”  But I think polling serves two perceived needs.  The first is so that campaigns can strategize and make effective decisions.

        The second is just old human nature, we want to know how things are going.  Heck, it’s just like those Christian prophesies, we want to know the future!

        • Barron X says:
          Sun September 9, 2012 at 6:08 PM MDT

          sure, this is the 12th time I’ve posted this,

          but the bottom line is that most folks who vote will not vote for some one who is LDS.  

          Expect Dem-friendly PAC’s to run ads in October hammering this point home.  They won’t be subtle.  

          Everyone here will say that’s below the belt.

          But it clinches the election.  

          • parsingreality says:
            Sun September 9, 2012 at 7:46 PM MDT

            …than being anti-LDS.  Holding one’s nose with one hand whilst pulling the lever with the other.

            And with no serious third party movement this year, those anti-LDS folks will vote for Rmoney.  

            • BlueCat says:
              Mon September 10, 2012 at 6:40 PM MDT

              They voted third party in 2008 and will again, by God. Then it was because McCain is so liberal. This time because, while Romney not being conservative enough for them may be a contributing factor, they would never, ever vote for a Mormon no matter how far right.  

          • MADCO says:
            Mon September 10, 2012 at 3:29 AM MDT

            teaching me most of what I learned.

            And in my school Sister Marie made  it clear she thought it was fine, and we should too, that not all our classmates were Christian.  That the world had Catholics and Protestants were ok.

            When  it was pointed out that some classmate were Jewish, she replied- “That’s just another way of being protestant.”

            But later, when it was pointed out there was a mormon classmate, she said something like “Non Christians need education and prayers too.”

            Yes- the nuns in my school were old school. As was the Chicago Archdiocese.  (Vatican II was still not quite accepted completely accepted 10 years after. And  that was two Popes (and several other future Popes in attendance)).

          • raymond1 says:
            Mon September 10, 2012 at 3:47 AM MDT

            But racism isn’t a factor in U.S. presidential voting?

            Yes, it’s so much harder to be Mormon than Black today.

  12. Duke Coxdukeco1 says:
    Sun September 9, 2012 at 4:29 PM MDT

    On Candy Crowleys’ CNN show just a couple of minutes ago, the Newtster sez…Obamas’ convention bounce was 80% Clinton / 20% everything else…

    funny how the Antichrist became a respected former president. Even Candy Crowley was laughing at the Newt.  

    • MADCO says:
      Sun September 9, 2012 at 5:17 PM MDT

      If he had been let loose in 99/2000, we would have elected Gore.

      But the campaign geniuses had a different plan- the wrong plan as it happened. But at least the D”s didn’t have to spend the year talking about blue dresses and trailer park girls.

  13. harrydobyharrydoby says:
    Sun September 9, 2012 at 7:19 PM MDT

    In order to fund Romney’s proposed $400 billion in annual tax cuts, the GOP campaign is bravely leaving the choice of how to pay for it to a post-election “Public Debate”.

    According to budget whiz Paul Ryan:

    When Stephanopoulos asked him why he has refused to be more specific about which loopholes he would plug, Ryan suggested that it’s because he and Romney don’t yet know.

    Privately, Romney has floated a couple of ideas that might cover 10% of the cuts:

    He has been more specific about his budget in private talks with donors, announcing at a fundraiser in April he would “eliminate the second-home mortgage interest deduction” as well as deductions for state income and property taxes. But those deductions would only put a $40 billion-per-year dent in the $400 billion worth of tax cuts per year that Romney has proposed, according to The New York Times

    Obviously, by having a blank slate for a platform, Romney is cleverly leaving himself maximum maneuvering room so that his administration can do anything they damn well please once they are in office.

    Pure political genius!

    • Gray in Mountains says:
      Sun September 9, 2012 at 7:40 PM MDT

      will have a giant impact on the middle class which Rmoney says he is going to avoid. Claiming both sides of an issue is getting to be old hat for this dude.

      Rmoney knows EXACTLY what he would propose and knows well that if he put that forward he would lose so he says the voters can discern from his principles what he would do.

      • harrydobyharrydoby says:
        Sun September 9, 2012 at 9:21 PM MDT

        … more deficits as far as the eye can see to buy things we neither need nor can afford (e.g. excess military hardware and tax subsidies for wealthy individuals and profitable corporations).

        Oh, and let healthcare costs resume their wildly out of control upward path — just eliminate the government’s responsibility to pay for the care of seniors, the disabled, the unemployed, veterans, etc.  You know — anyone that might actually need help.

        And use the standard GOP practice of letting the next Prez try to deal with it after Romney leaves office.

  14. ClubTwittyClubTwitty says:
    Mon September 10, 2012 at 12:14 AM MDT

    I think I found were some of our trolls go for info. http://www.examiner.com/articl…

    The map above shows little change since the last GOP2112 analysis of the race of August 15, 2012 which showed Romney leading with 359 electoral votes.

    • parsingreality says:
      Mon September 10, 2012 at 1:52 AM MDT

      And, the data is pre-any-convention.

      • Duke Coxdukeco1 says:
        Mon September 10, 2012 at 4:50 AM MDT

        I went there once…took me a week to get my brain disinfected. Ugh..

        • ClubTwittyClubTwitty says:
          Mon September 10, 2012 at 2:56 PM MDT

          at The Hill and various such, where the thread goes something like

          All the Polls are rigged!  No one……AND I MEAN NO ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! that I talk to likes Oblam-a-lama.  Romney BLOW OUT!

          • Duke Coxdukeco1 says:
            Wed September 12, 2012 at 12:34 PM MDT

            I don’t get around the interwebs as much as some. I did, however, spend a few minutes this morning checking out Redstate. The link was to a front page item of theirs which says you will get banned from there if you link to a “fact-checking” organization, as it seems all such organizations have a “liberal bias”.

            …..

            well, I hate to admit it, but it’s true. Facts DO have a liberal bias.  

    • Phoenix RisingPhoenix Rising says:
      Mon September 10, 2012 at 8:36 AM MDT

      Last I checked, the accepted poll averages put Obama ahead in the EC by a significant margin.  Romney’s campaign even admits they’re down in Ohio by high single digits, and if they’re down in OH, they’re close to 100% screwed.

      Late night poll results, BTW: PPP in Ohio – Obama 50, Romney 45.  (50 is the magic number – not good for Romney.)  And in North Carolina, Obama 49, Romney 48.  This is also ungood for Romney, who has been leading in the Tarheel State for a while.

    • sxp151 says:
      Wed September 12, 2012 at 12:34 AM MDT

      Maybe that’s their prediction for the election in 100 years, when Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Romney does fairly well. Of course by then we might annex Canada and 359 electoral votes may no longer be enough to win. Hard to see, the future is.

  15. GalapagoLarryGalapagoLarry says:
    Mon September 10, 2012 at 7:22 AM MDT

    As much as I admire James Carville, Mark Twain and Jim Hightower for their down-home turns of phrase, once in a while comes our way a shitstirrer from a surprisingly different quarter who is laugh-out-loud crude but, more importantly, spot-on in his analysis. Highly recommended, but not for the faint of heart is Minnissota Viking Chris Kluwe’s response to a Maryland politician/preacher (wouldn’t you know) re: gay marriage and freedom of speech.

    Here’s the link to copy and paste (sorry, but I’m as backward as a Colorado teapartyer when it comes to linking).

    http://deadspin.com/5941348/they-wont-magically-turn-you-into-a-lustful-cockmonster-chris-kluwe-explains-gay-marriage-to-the-politician-who-is-offended-by-an-nfl-player-supporting-it

    The link reveals only a glimmer of the flavor. For the first time since I was in high school I’ve got a crush on a football player. Be still, my laughing heart.

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