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September 26, 2014 06:26 AM UTC

Friday Open Thread

  • 82 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

"The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery."

–Harold Wilson

 

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82 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

    2. And yet our Dem candidates aren't saying boo about the clear demonstration of the emptiness of the promises of Republican trickle down/austerity economic and tax policies as clearly demonstrated right next door in Kansas as contrasted with the strong success we're experiencing here in Colorado with a Dem Governor and Dem majority legislature. They just keep letting the Rs get away with promising that they have the answers to a stronger economy and job creation. It's very frustrating to the boots on the ground volunteers. Many of us long timers, as opposed to what the young imported pro ops think, have been around the block a few times and know WTF we're talking about.  We know our neighbors. 

      Promising to work across the aisle and hold hands and sing bipartisan songs is all well and good to a point but not when it prevents a strong message from our Dem candidates that they have the the better economic plan and the Republicans are just pushing the same failed policies. WhyTF aren't they using this? It's perfect.

  2. Suggestion for a 3rd party group supporting Udall. Run ads supporting Gardner from the perspective of an anti-abortion perspective. Not tongue in cheek. And not crazy out on the fringe. Just a very sincere "Cory has always strongly supported stopping all abortions and we need him in office because he can be the vote that flips the Supreme Court balance."

    Those that support Gardner for this are already going to vote. But for those in the middle, seeing it as Cory is running to outlaw abortion – that will be killer.

    1. I would love to see this realized. I suspect Senator Udall and his supportive PACs are each already teeing up some brutal new anti-Cory ads on a variety of topics. I hope something like what you suggest will be among them. It would/will be devastating.

      1. While they're at it produce one thank him for signing the "Koch Climate Pledge" (promising Congressional inaction on climate legislation and for "standing strong against the scientific community" 

          1. Rove's Crossroads ads just running are super lame. He had to suck $10 Million from Sheldon Adelson to get them running:

            Democratic candidates themselves have vastly outraised their Republican opponents on every race of consequence (AK, AR, CO, IA, LA, NC), and will have far more resources in the stretch run than their opponents (now lacking air cover from the  Kochs).

            This is why Karl Rove recently squeezed Sheldon Adelson for $10 million, desperate to fill the gap left by the Koch retreat. But any new ad reservations at this point will cost up to five times as much as what candidates pay, meaning that already marginally effective ads become even less so.

        2.  Weasel Fest -Eli Stokols interviews Cory Gardner Sunday at 9:00AM on 31 for a half an hr.( taped) Cory "there is no fed personhood amendment".  pure  & uncut for junkies.. repeat of Atty Gen debate Monday @ 2PM(Coffman vs. Quick) lastly Balence of power ch 9 I think Sat @6pm repeat on ch 20 Sunday at ?maybe 10:AM Sorry 'bout cutting in line… there is no climate debate regarding acidication of Oceans, cascading effects regarding the CO2 being dissolved into oceans.

          .

      2. Medicare, Udall has started.  I just saw one.  Cory has one on …..guns.

        All guns, more guns, all the time for Cory Gardner.  Government might want to come in and, oh say, maybe protect your flood plane, fix your roads, help fight your forest fires, hunt down your serial killers.  Things like that,  verwy scawey.  

    2. Not a bad idea but there have been plenty of abortion ads. We need economic side ads, too. I go door to door. I talk to lots of middle of the road low info married women, still a pretty good voter group for Rs, who are beginning to think the Dem candidates only care about abortion and are more extreme on it than they are. They aren't hearing about Dem economic success, as opposed to R economic failure, and the policies that will help their high school and college age kids have a brighter economic future. That's a huge concern to  middle income moms (and all parents) launching children into adulthood after all these years of economic struggle.

    2. And an interesting tidbit from the Votemaster's posting today:

      "Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS has not reserved a penny's worth of airtime in the final two weeks of the Colorado Senate race, which is essentially a tossup."

          1. Without being able to look into their clever but twisted minds, it's impossible to say. But the greatest likelihood is that they're simply running out of money, because their benefactors detest lousy returns on their investments (which they're received almost exclsuively from the GOTP groups in recent elections), and also because Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry reid has done such a superb job shining a piercing, revelatory light on the Kochs and their sinster, anti-democratic agenda/practices. Other GOTP oligarchs have decided they don't wish to share Senator Reid's relentless "spotlight."

          2. Rove's internals on Gardner must be dismal….

            And every R's polling should be extremely dismal.

            People use their landlines less and less, and the numbers are always skewed.

            So, the revolution will not be televised, because they don't deserve a damn iota of airtime.

             

            1. You may be right on all counts, but still I think the greater likelihood is that the GOTP dark money groups are simply running out of money. (Too bad they never run out of darkness.)

              What we should all remember is that almost no one actually likes or respects the GOTP anymore — including their biggest donors. The fat cats very likely detest these louses with whom they've been forced mercenarily to share a political bed, but they are not dumb — they know how vile and loathsome their partners in this self-serving, self-perpetuating economic dance have become.

              Some of the rank-and-file "true believers" still think these loud-mouthed, ham-handed oafs are all that, but I suspect many people who donate to the GOTP and/or vote for them do so holding their noses and running afterward for the nearest shower.

            1. Aslo, even with that Adelson infusion, it may be too late. Current and near-term TV advert slots were purchased months ago, I doubt there's much — if any — remaining time to be bought.

              2. I am sure they have slots between 3;22am and 3:23am on some obscure Public Access channel that no-one watches, except for 3 "confirmed" views daily. The two being ignored, as they are for internal/external feed checking, and the other being aired in a locked room with no-one in particular but terrified insects in a research room somewhere, that no-one has the key for, and no-one cared because the volume is all the way down. Yes, that channel will probably want 10mil for a 30 second ad.

                1. The worst I can remember ad wise was for a very nice woman but terrible candidate – Dorothy Hores – She lived in Littleton and I don't remember what CD that was at the time – this was middle to late 70"s. She was supposed to be another Pat Schroeder – she lost big time. To make it worse, Christmas eve I was watching TV and her ad came on the TV asking for peoples votes.

  4. David, The abortion issue is going to decide this election has already played out.  That is what Udall and his friends have been pushing for months.  The polling shows that is not working.  The polling per 538:

    silver_CO_sen_update

    Nate goes on to note:

    In this case, however, there’s a credible hypothesis to explain the trend toward Gardner. Whereas a few weeks ago, Udall had a heavy advertising advantage in Colorado, more recent ad placements have been almost even, according to data from Echelon Insights, a Republican analytics and consulting firm. Advertising blasts can sometimes produce temporary bounces in the polls; perhaps Udall had one a few weeks ago.

    The troublesome implication for Udall is that race may slightly favor Gardner when ad spending is even.

    http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/senate-update-a-troubling-trend-for-democrats-in-colorado/

     

    1. This was my favorite part :The silver lining for Udall is that perhaps he’ll be able to regain an advertising advantage when it matters most, in the closing days of the campaign. As of June 30, Udall had $5.7 million in cash on hand compared to Gardner’s $3.4 million, according to the Federal Election Commission. Also – a great article that supports DP's post http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/26/1332345/-Senate-Dems-have-more-money-because-Citizens-United-is-killing-Republicans

    2. R2R2, your facts continue to be wrong. Nate Silver continues to be wrong. 538 is no longer a reliable polling source. Sam Wang has it correctly and Senate stays in Democratic hands, and the House is finally Democratic, with tons of ethic committees actively removing the remainder of the criminal Republicans out of the House and billed $24 billion for the government shutdown last year.

      You remember that? Sure, sure, you forgot about it. Here's a reminder. Your pal, Cruz, orchestrated a shutdown that costs us taxpayers $24 billion, along with the House of Monkeys who are unable to represent their constitutents….

       

      2. DP,  Et tu Sam Wang?

         

        Sam Wang @SamWangPhD

        Follow

        In CO-Sen, three good polls in a row for Gardner (R). That must have been some debate http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2014-colorado-senate-gardner-vs-udall …

        11:55 AM – 22 Sep 2014

         

        Brief update

        September 26th, 2014, 8:45am by Sam Wang

        In current polling conditions, the Senate Meta-Margin has left Democratic territory for the first time since mid-August. Not much to say about that for now, except that the sharp movement was driven by fresh polls in Alaska and Colorado. If you  have questions, read about Meta-Margins here.

      3. Sam Wang @SamWangPhD

        Follow

        In CO-Sen, three good polls in a row for Gardner (R). That must have been some debate http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2014-colorado-senate-gardner-vs-udall …

        11:55 AM – 22 Sep 2014

        In current polling conditions, the Senate Meta-Margin has left Democratic territory for the first time since mid-August. Not much to say about that for now, except that the sharp movement was driven by fresh polls in Alaska and Colorado. 

        1. Oh, so NOW you suddenly put stock in what Wang says? You people are nothing if not transparent and laughably dissembling.

          And the sole reason he's tipped infinitesimally in favor of the GOTP today for a brief moment?

          That's right — last week's phony, debunked, discredited Quinnipiac outlire polls, showing Con Man up +10, and Iowa GOTP pig castrator Joni Ernst up +6 — both of which everybody up to and including GOTP analysts agrees is bullsh-t.

          Nice try. The Borg still needs to upgrade your weak and faltering spin module.

          1. And for those of your unfamiliar with Wang's superb methodology, unlike Skippy's cheating GOTP pollsters, Sam doesn't discard polls whose results he doesn't like, nor put his "thumb on the scale" for those partisan findings he supports. Unlike them he is intellectually honest and ethical.

            Wang knows full well that the two crap Quinnipiac polls are worthless, but he retains them nonetheless, knowing that in time, as more legitmate, honest polling comes in, it will naturally "smooth out" the partisan con jobs and the gross, misleading outliers, whether by design or incompetence.

            Skippy knows in the pit of his churning stomach that his party's senatorial dreams for these midterms are increasingly likely to go unfulfilled. So let him grasp at straws for now, while he thinks he still can. HIs crushing disappointment later wheen the GOTP fails to take control of the senate will be that much sweeter for us.

            1. Like the PPP poll that had Gardner up 2 and polled more D's than R's?

              It must really hurt when the only polster in the last few weeks to have the Dems ahead has thrown in the towel.

               

                1. And also, blockhead, that +2 is staistically nearly meaningless.

                  Despite all of your slef-serving lies and spin, you cretins do have at least a tiny understanding of how real-world polling actually works, don't you?

              2. Yup. It must sting more when your friends at Redstate , refuse to call victoryt for Colorado, and insist that it will be a hard fight which can go either way. 

                It must sting when they refuse to acknowledge the latest Quinnipiac as legit, even though it has the GOP candida with the big up. 

                Do they make you guys sign a pledge only to tell the truth when talking amongst yourselves? Or does trolling have its own set of rules, such as "Whatever gets people riled up and gives me material to post onto my own blog is OK". 

  5. (Billionaire) Americans for (the) Prosperity (of their fellow Billionaires) lying and passing false info to NC voters.

    One resident even received a voter registration form addressed to her cat, he said.

    “The phone calls have consistently been all day, every day,” Lawson said.

    Adam C. Nicholson, a spokesman for Americans for Prosperity, declined to say how many people were sent the forms, how the group obtained the voter lists or how the mistakes occurred.

    1. The Brothers Koch are the embodiment of the term "fascist." They are devoutly un-American, and relentlessly pro-Billionaire Oligarchy. Their politcal agenda is simply going to have to be crushed, at all costs.

      1. They're like Birchers.  They may still be Birchers.  It's still around and their dad was a founding member.  Be vewy afwaid.  The socialists want to take over the country and institute sharia law.

  6. Opening a new subject, just found a new opposites error in another Bartels co-written story in the Post. This one is about the protesting Jeffco students. Remember this from a past error in an article about Tom Ready's tinfoil hat theory on Sandy Hook?  

    SUNDAY UPDATE #2: The Denver Post's story on Tom Ready's comments was corrected late this morning, though their 180-degree misquote of what he said is unfortunately what their print subscribers are reading today:

    *Editor's note: The article has been edited to correct the statement "There is still question about whether it really happened, Sal." The previous edit stated 'no question.' Lynn Bartels will follow up with a print correction in a future edition.

    – See more at: http://coloradopols.com/diary/62672/sister-of-sandy-hook-victim-demands-accountability-from-gardner-beauprez#sthash.eLCuayAQ.dpuf

    Well now we have another Bartels co-authored article saying the students are protesting a call for teaching positive aspects of US  history and "avoiding or condoning  (my emphasis) 'civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.' "

    Neither the word "condoning" nor anything vaguely like it can be found in the board's statement of recommendations in reference to teaching about civil disorder etc. and, once again, it is exactly the opposite of what the board's statement does say. I can't think of any student, parent, teacher or board member quoted as saying anything about the board condoning the teaching of those things. The word just appears as if by magic, conjured out of nothing.

    That's two recent mistakes that would be minor if they didn't change the meaning of the referenced statements to entirely opposite meanings. Seems like an odd coincidence. Simple sloppiness or type-os shouldn't all result in exactly the same kind of errors getting by editing, should they?

      2. Hmm.. a political family who knows what's best for the state of Colorado and other states (like NM) vs a tractor family with a moron kid that the family won't even appear on camera to say that he's the best person… in other words, no-one in his family are supporting his insane run.

         

  9. Did people notice that Governor George Romney's scion and heir is coming to Colorado to stump for Cory Garder and blast political dynasties.  I hear Jeb, yes another Bush, great grand son of Trading-with-the_enemy alum Prescott, cousin of Pres Dubya, son of the at-least-I-wast-a-disaster like Jr, GW might also drop by, you know to blast political dynasties.  

  11. Another new Friday subject:

    Poll after poll indicates that the vast majority of Americans believe the minimum wage isn't high enough. Apparently, a lot of U.S. employers agree.

    A national survey of 2,000 human resource and hiring managers done for the job search site CareerBuilder found that most of those managers think the minimum wage in their state should be at least $10 per hour. No state currently has a minimum wage of $10, although many have a higher wage floor than the federal level of $7.25.

    According to results released by CareerBuilder Thursday, more than 60 percent of the employers surveyed, including 58 percent of senior-level managers, said their state minimum wage should be increased to some degree. The survey was performed by the market research firm Harris Poll.

    "Among employers who want an increase in their state, improving the standard of living of workers led all business-related reasons for their support," CareerBuilder said in a breakdown of the survey. "A majority say a higher minimum wage helps the economy and helps them retain employees." (My emphasis)

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/25/minimum-wage-survey-employers_n_5878252.html?utm_hp_ref=business

    So when do they start voting for Dems?

      1. I have a feeling there will be a shift in thinking.  Dependence on 19th century economics will become increasingly untenable, and belief in the  uber rich job creators will be lost in the dustbins of history.  It's that or the economy will implode.  Then the Nordic democracies will be looking our way and collectively shaking their heads, saying now look what you've done.   And then we might get it.  19th and early 20th century economic theories do not work in modern economies.  They just don't.

        1. Spot on. I would give most anything to see the U.S. adopt a form of government and a social culture more resembling those of my beloved Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, et al).

          But alas, we still have far too many gun freaks, rednecks, hillbillies, regressives, revisionits, racists, drugstore "rugged individualists" and selfish, greedy, power-mad billionaires for that to happen in our lifetimes…

          But such an enlightened form of governance WILL come to America, inevitably, just as single-payer/Medicare for All health care will. And there's not a thing the GOTP and its dying, backward base can do to stop it ultimately.

            1. It really is all about tipping points. Look at gay marriage. Who would have thought as recently as a decade ago that we'd be where we are now on that? How about five years ago? It's aways go slow, go slow, go slow until, bam, you reach a tipping point. 

        2. How many more decades of the insane theory that the "makers" will create a big fat middle class load of well paying jobs while slashing wages for the 90% to the bone demonstrating its inherent craziness is it going to take? 

          Obviously you can't have middle class prosperity without a middle class majority composed of average people making decent livings at average jobs. The success stories of people rising from poverty to wealth are all fine but the majority aren't going to rise from poverty to the top 10% or 1%. It's called basic arithmetic. The majority will always need a boatload of jobs that pay a living wage unless we want to revert to an era of mass poverty, a small "middle" class serving the elite and a tiny elite concentrating spectacular wealth among themselves. In the absence of strong unions in a strong industrial making stuff economy, we need a minimum wage that's a real living wage and lots of jobs that pay the kind of good money the shrinking American middle class, which essentially hasn't had a real dollar, real buying power raise since the 70s, used to make. And there will still be plenty of opportunity for those up from the boot straps success stories. In fact, more room.

          Businesses who like, you know, paying costumers, ought to be all for creating more of them. They certainly don't want to pay higher taxes and the government is already stretched subsidizing companies who need tax dollar help for their workers to survive on non-living wages. 

          I'm sure the reason so many are on board is because nobody wants to be the only one paying a decent wage in competition with those who are subsidized to pay inadequate wages.  A living wage minimum wage takes care of that problem.  No wonder 60% of employers see it as a win/win.

          1. Economic collapse is where we are heading, if we don't mend our ways.  And we will take the world with us.  On a beter note, i just saw a new Udall ad on Gardner not being good for medicare.  I knew Dodie Udall would pull through.

            cool

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