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October 10, 2014 11:29 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 97 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."

–Franklin D. Roosevelt

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97 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

        1. Don't be sure sure, MB- I think, on some level, they are thinking….way, way, back in their little reptilian brains…

          …"YAY!! Finally, a good reason to be afraid of people from Africa!" 

  2. An increasingly skeptical public sees the folly of our failed War on Drugs.  In 2012, 1,383,139 Coloradans took a bold step and voted to end the prohibition of cannabis.  Two years later we see a robust, regulated industry that is employing more than 10,000 of our fellow citizens and we're enjoying the bounty of revenue attached to the once-back alley transaction. 

    Yet today, in this election season, we're still suffering the messaging of the candidates from both major parties challenging the wisdom of the voters.  Beauprez talks of a full repeal, believing that going back to the failed policies, one where a vastly disproportionate number of minorities are jailed and warehoused in our private prison system; head-first in to a cycle of poverty and societal challenges for the possession of a plant. The Governor is taking a slightly less-draconian approach, walking back his 'reckless' remark and now calling it 'risky'.

    Neither statement accurately reflects the wisdom of Colorado voters to end this scourge on society.

    This article won't surprise anyone.  It's why we have an increasing distrust of our government.  A failed war; and today, some 150 years after the Civil War we have more men of color in prison and on probation and parole than we had slaves in 1862.  America, a country with 2% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prison population.

    Welcome to the land of the free.

    I didn't support A64 because I was a regular cannabis user; I joined this fight because it is a fight for the soul of our country.  And a government  and Drug Enforcement Agency run amok.  It's about social justice – and economics.

    We will end this failed War on Drugs with or without the standard-fare politician we've come to expect.

    1. We will end this failed War on Drugs with or without the standard-fare politician we've come to expect.

      It will have to be without, I suspect, Michael. Too many people have bought the lies for too long, and are unlikely to lose their fear and ignorance. To some degree, I can almost forgive those myopic souls…almost.

      The profiteers, preying on the poor and minorities to fill their prisons or fatten their non-profit salaries, are loathsome creatures who win my undying enmity.

    2. Neither statement accurately reflects the wisdom of Colorado voters to end this scourge on society.

      In re-reading your thoughtful post, Michael, the above statement jumped out at me. I can't really describe the hilarity with which fills my mind, thinking of either of these guys believing the voters could possibly know best…cheeky

      1. If you haven't done so, read Methland.  It details the corruption within the Reagan Administration on the 'Drug War'.  Congress was within inches of regulating the components of meth when Big Pharma made a call to the Reagan White House and killed it.  Simultaneously, the Mexican cartels carved up our country in to five zones where they each had their own turf and built superlabs to produce Ice.  We know where they are – and to no one's surprise, we aren't bombing them. It would no doubt interrupt the flow of money to our very own DEA.

        It's hard to put one's arms around all of this.  While our current DEA executive Michele Leonhart publicly laments that the worst day in her 33-year career at DEA was the morning she awoke and realized that Jared Polis and I had flown a US flag over the Captiol building made from industrial hemp fibers – we read about stories like this. 

        No politician who continues to be a mouthpiece for this failed war will ever have my vote again.  American exceptionalism, indeed.

  3. Dem Triage – National Party cuts off Colorado Dems 

    If you want to know how things are happening, follow the money.

    Mark Udall's media buy from Harry Reid's slush fund was canceled $289K set to run between October 10-14.

    Andrew Romanoff's media by from the DCCC was canceled, $1.4 million set to run in the last two weeks of the campaign.

     

    1. Things could not get any worse for Udall, right?

      ​Behind in the polls? Check.

      Campaign mocked by the moderator of a debate as Mark Uterus?  Check.

      State's largest newspaper endorses opponent?  Check.

      National Party cancels media buy?  Check.

      So how could things get any worse for Udall this week?

      NRSC just dropped another $1.5 million ad buy in Colorado for the last three weeks of the campaign.

      In addition to a $1 million buy in South Dakota reported by POLITICO earlier Friday evening, the NRSC is increasing its buys by $1 million in Alaska, $1.5 million in Colorado, $1.45 million in Georgia, $1.25 million in Iowa and $1.2 million in New Hampshire.

      http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/nrsc-hikes-tv-ad-buys-in-6-states-111803.html

      Nice.

      1. A laughable, amateurish, transparent and ultimately failed attempt to administer what TrollScum learned in his Koch/GOTP bootcamp class, "Teabagger PsyOps 101," intended to depress, demoralize and dampen the spirits of we Dems.

        I strongly suggest everyone completely ignore this piece of shit and his dimwitted little companion, and pledge, as I have, no longer to respond to them in ay way, under any circumstances, at least until after we've beaten this foul enemy we face, and their filthy little bedbugs sent here to disrupt us.

        All eyes on the prize, dammit! If you're not already working to GOTV and defeat the evil enemy, then get started! This is war, people — to your battle stations, all hands on deck!

        1. And think about bringing some home cooked food into the offices.  These kids are working like crazy (our staffer arrived home after 1 am last night and left again at 8 this morning while apologizing for sleeping late.)  Campaigns, like armies, march on their stomachs.

    2. Maybe the $1.4M can be used to help other Dems when Romanoff's victory guaranteed thanks to Coffman's ignorance of death.

      Romanoff is doing fine, and does not really need DCCC's help. Coffmann's days are just numbered….. 

       

    3. A laughable, amateurish, transparent and ultimately failed attempt to administer what TrollScum learned in his Koch/GOTP bootcamp class, "Teabagger PsyOps 101," intended to depress, demoralize and dampen the spirits of we Dems.

      I strongly suggest everyone completely ignore this piece of shit and his dimwitted little companion, and pledge, as I have, no longer to respond to them in any way, under any circumstances, at least until after we've beaten this foul enemy we face, and their filthy little bedbugs sent here to disrupt us.

      All eyes on the prize, dammit! If you're not already working to GOTV and defeat the evil enemy, then get started! This is war, people — to your battle stations, all hands on deck!

    1. Tiny, good point.

      I am sure Udall and Romanoff are both turning away money because they don't want any more coming down the stretch.

      Maybe they both called up their masters in DC and said we don't want any more money?

       

  5. Both Ways: Not putting someone in prison for possessing a plant?  Too much liberty.

    Requiring that a highly industrial activity utilizing toxic chemicals at high pressure in an activity with a propensity to leak and spill and involving VOCs move back a little further from a K-6 Elementary School?   TOO MUCH REGULATIN' DAMMIT!

     

      1. Beauprez on Freedom:

         FREEDOM IS –Blasting rock apart with a secret sauce of guar and Glutaraldehyde and God (doesn't even) Know what else next to a bunch of Kindergartners? 

        FREEDOM IS NOT -An adult eating a marijuana cookie. <<<<< LIBRULism and SECULAR democratishness run AMOK!!!  

         

         

        1. They have a strangely-defined set of "ethics" —

          Guns good

          Lying good

          Destruction of the environment and human health for fossil fuel development good

          Alcohol good

          Marijuana bad

          Reproductive freedom bad

          Public schools bad

          Freedom to marry bad

          Small government good, except when you need big government to regulate reproductive freedom, marijuana, marriage, etc, etc

      2. Two great segments on "All In" this week on the clean energy revolution – both exposing the fallacy that we'll be energizing a 21st-century economy with dinosaur poop:

         

        1. OK, that post clearly didn't manifest itself in the way I had intended.  Alva, feel free to delete the second video (it is a repeat of the first). 

        1. I think this may be the second one you meant to post (they've all been the same for me).  Love Chris Hayes, his web folks could come up with a less crappy embedding function, though.  Viva solar!

           

          1. That's it!  Thx wink  If you have time it's worth it to watch the entire series.  Lots of relevant data and political opining.  McConnell's "War on Coal" is a geologic war, not a political one as he wants to frame it.  In Colorado today we have somewhere between 100x – 200x more people who work in the wind industry than would be permanent employees of the KeystoneXL that BothWays Bob (and Gardner) just love to talk about.

            If you have time to watch Chris' entire series from this topic, it's well worth the time.

  6. Oh no, Turnout problems too:

    A Gallup poll last week found that voters are less engaged in this year's midterms than they were in 2010 and 2006. Only 33 percent of respondents said they were giving at least “some” thought to the upcoming midterms, compared to 46 percent in 2010 and 42 percent in 2006. Even more troubling for Democrats, Republicans held a 12-point advantage  when those paying “some” attention were broken down by party.

    Historically, the core Democratic constituencies of young people, minorities and single women are more likely to skip voting in midterm elections. The current projections suggest that months of effort by the Democratic Party to engage those groups on issues such as the minimum wage and women's pay may have been in vain.



    ADVERTISEMENT

     

    If the numbers hold, it could mean a rout for Democrats similar to the 2010 "shellacking" — President Obama’s description — that swept away their House majority.

    "We cannot have 2010 turnout. If we have 2010 turnout among our key constituencies, we're going to have 2010 all over again. It's math," said Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher, who served as a pollster for President Obama's election campaigns.

    http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/220469-turnout-fears-mount-for-democrats

    3. A laughable, amateurish, transparent and ultimately failed attempt to administer what TrollScum learned in his Koch/GOTP bootcamp class, "Teabagger PsyOps 101," intended to depress, demoralize and dampen the spirits of we Dems.

      I strongly suggest everyone completely ignore this piece of shit and his dimwitted little companion, and pledge, as I have, no longer to respond to them in ay way, under any circumstances, at least until after we've beaten this foul enemy we face, and their filthy little bedbugs sent here to disrupt us.

      All eyes on the prize, dammit! If you're not already working to GOTV and defeat the evil enemy, then get started! This is war, people — to your battle stations, all hands on deck!

    1. A laughable, amateurish, transparent and ultimately failed attempt to administer what TrollScum learned in his Koch/GOTP bootcamp class, "Teabagger PsyOps 101," intended to depress, demoralize and dampen the spirits of we Dems.

      I strongly suggest everyone completely ignore this piece of shit and his dimwitted little companion, and pledge, as I have, no longer to respond to them in ay way, under any circumstances, at least until after we've beaten this foul enemy we face, and their filthy little bedbugs sent here to disrupt us.

      All eyes on the prize, dammit! If you're not already working to GOTV and defeat the evil enemy, then get started! This is war, people — to your battle stations, all hands on deck!

  9. Apparently our Great Plains Watermelon Hunter, has learned to send e-mail . . .

    Marine vs Pelosi type

    October 10 2014 at 1:08 pm

    Let me give you 3 reasons to scroll to the bottom of this email and contribute to Mike Coffman.

    1- Coffman is a conservative. His opponent is a "hyperliberal" (the Colorado Springs Gazette's description, not mine) with a long record of raising taxes.  I served with Andrew in the legislature.  The man loves him some higher taxes.

    2 – Coffman opposed and opposes Obamacare. Andrew Romanoff believes that Obamacare didn't go far enough in the direction of single payer government-run, European-style health insurance. Andrew Romanoff – so, so wrong on Obamacare.

    3- Mike Coffman is a Marine (drink Lynn Bartels). Andrew Romanoff is a career politician with a long history of smearing Republicans, Democrats and pretty much anyone else who dares challenge him for political office.  Michael Bennet's campaign once called him a "dishonest career politician."

    Need more convincing?  One more reason – Nancy Pelosi is spending millions of dollars smearing Coffman in hopes of making Romanoff her own little Colorado congressman.  

    As they say in the courtroom, case closed.

    Give here.

    http://greg-brophy.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0f1c054a41&id=e9c607ead5&e=b77ba2ea7d

    Go Coffman, Beat Romanoff.

    Greg Brophy

    1. Yes, and the little watermelon hunter who promised us after his gubernatorial primary shellacking that he was "just going to go back to Wray" once again, 'lied'.  His house is for sale and he'll stay on his 'professional career path' as a politico operative in some form.  Perhaps he and our WIF should coordinate their (confusing) messages.

      Of course, this is the man who stood as an 'Army of One' when the Colorado legislature, under the leadership of Romanoff, took on the divestment issue for companies operating in Darfur.  The final vote of the combined chambers was 99:1.  Yes, our little man standing tall, defending the slaughter, saying that it wasn't governments business to tell business how to operate.

      See how that works?  If you're a fetus on American soil we must protect you.  If you are a black man, woman or child who happens to be in the path of the Chinese who want the oil under your feet, well….too damned bad.  Your life is worth nothing.

      He is the fakest of the fake in the fake pro-life movement.

        1. Like our little watermelon hunter is going to sway any votes…

          Romanoff did more for the little schitt's House and then-Senate districts than he ever accomplished.  Ask anyone on the eastern plains to name one legacy piece of legislation carried by him and they can't do it.  On the other hand, thousands of rural school kids (not only in eastern Colorado, but the entire state) are benefiting from new school structures thanks to Andrew's vision in creating the BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) legislation.  (legislation that Brophy….wait….opposed).   The little man also opposed Amendment 37 and subsequent increases in our renewable portfolio standards – the sole reason we have $6 billion in wind investments in the districts he once represented. 

          Vision isn't one of his strong suits.

    1. A laughable, amateurish, transparent and ultimately failed attempt to administer what TrollScum learned in his Koch/GOTP bootcamp class, "Teabagger PsyOps 101," intended to depress, demoralize and dampen the spirits of we Dems.

      I strongly suggest everyone completely ignore this piece of shit and his dimwitted little companion, and pledge, as I have, no longer to respond to them in ay way, under any circumstances, at least until after we've beaten this foul enemy we face, and their filthy little bedbugs sent here to disrupt us.

      All eyes on the prize, dammit! If you're not already working to GOTV and defeat the evil enemy, then get started! This is war, people — to your battle stations, all hands on deck!

    1. A laughable, amateurish, transparent and ultimately failed attempt to administer what TrollScum learned in his Koch/GOTP bootcamp class, "Teabagger PsyOps 101," intended to depress, demoralize and dampen the spirits of we Dems.

      I strongly suggest everyone completely ignore this piece of shit and his dimwitted little companion, and pledge, as I have, no longer to respond to them in ay way, under any circumstances, at least until after we've beaten this foul enemy we face, and their filthy little bedbugs sent here to disrupt us.

      All eyes on the prize, dammit! If you're not already working to GOTV and defeat the evil enemy, then get started! This is war, people — to your battle stations, all hands on deck!

  12. Yo guvs,

    I've never had the issues BC does, but a constant irritant is watching the number of posts go up on a thread, but not seeing the new ones highlighted or tagged as new. Doesn't matter if I open it in a new tab or window, or just click straight through, IE or Chrome.  The only way to know what's new is looking at the time stamp.

  13. Somebody must have given ACHole chocolate brownies made with Ex-Lax.  That's the worst case of diarrhea I've seen from him in a long time.

    Much more and they'll be able to bury his remains in a shoebox.

    1. A laughable, amateurish, transparent and ultimately failed attempt to administer what TrollScum learned in his Koch/GOTP bootcamp class, "Teabagger PsyOps 101," intended to depress, demoralize and dampen the spirits of we Dems.

      I strongly suggest everyone completely ignore this piece of shit and his dimwitted little companion, and pledge, as I have, no longer to respond to them in ay way, under any circumstances, at least until after we've beaten this foul enemy we face, and their filthy little bedbugs sent here to disrupt us.

      All eyes on the prize, dammit! If you're not already working to GOTV and defeat the evil enemy, then get started! This is war, people — to your battle stations, all hands on deck!

      2. I'm doing something else to piss the AChole off…

        I'm referring ACHole as a zoophile who's in love with sheeps…..

        Work with me, DP…. work with me… we DP's need to get AChole so mad he'll implode..

        1. DP,

          I am happy.

          Udall, or should we say Mark Uterus, is losing and his DC masters have pulled the plug on funding his losing campaign.

          Romanoff, whose funding by his DC masters "has been redistributed to other races" and who has less than half of Coffman's available funds coming down the stretch, is losing.

          Obama's approval rating per Gallup is below 40% again.

          Things are looking good, just not for DP.

          How is the Dems are going to take back the house prediction of yours looking?  Ahem.  Polling has them losing another 5-10 seats, not gaining seats.

          1. You do *realize* polls no longer matter in this state?

            Mail-in ballots starts tomorrow. And there is also GOTV efforts. 

            You should be crying by the time Tuesday night rolls around when your beloved Ratpublican Party starts its massive losses starting with Florida

            1. puppy,

              Mail in ballots drop to voters on Wednesday the 14. Dropping off of ballots begins on the 20th.

              Polls matter, if only to give us a snapshot of what certain voters are thinking at a certain time.This can and does change.

              GOTV is critical; Dems are still the best at it, but…. The GOP is getting better. They are heavily relying on paid staff and canvassers in the state and Federal races. Some of their people aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer.

              Plus, their data kind of sucks, so they do things like send voters out to an entire precinct and tell them to randomly knock doors (no targeting). They don't have the benefit of a database going back to 2008 which tracked voter enthusiasm and support.

              But the fear factor is kicking in. With another active ebola case today, look to the GOP to try to scare people to the Republican side – even though the GOP were the ones to cut 300 million from CDC funding. 

              Best thing you can do, puppy, is to help GOTV any way you can. Drop literature? Staff a voter reg table? I don't know.

              1. Voter suppression in Colorado? There are reports of billboards in Commerce City and other working class neighborhoods, falsely stating that people who turn in mail ballots will be immediately arrested as felons if they have any criminal record.

                This particular billboard,

                shown as an example, was put up by Clear Channel in Cleveland in 2012. If you see anything like that in your neighborhood, please call election protection at 1-866-OUR-VOTE

          2. Mark Uterus… that's cute.    

            And you wonder why females hate you nasty, misogynistic scum?   maybe you can make some knee-slappin' racial jokes, next.  wink

              1. As you understand it? From CoPeak, or from a fwd:fwd:fwd email? 

                You're one of those guys who whines that rappers use certain words you can't, aren't you? 

    2. I love reading critiques of military strategy from the right wing librarian. Shouldn't you, Rumsfeld and Shawn Hannity be in Tikrit looking for WMDs?

  16. Watching college football on the watch ESPN app on my IPad, and they keep running the Con-Man's ad attacking Senator Udall on ISIL,  Some commercial breaks it's 2 out of 3 ads.  Is there something in my browsing to suggest I'm persuadable? 

    1. CT, Great point.  

      They should have endorsed Mark "Veritas" Udall.  If you like your (fill in the blank), you can keep your (fill in the blank).

      What the world needs more of are self-entitled career politicians that will say anything to the country bumpkins at home and vote for their masters back in DC 99% of the time.

       

        1. What has Rep. Cory Gardner been doing since leaving daddy's gig as a used car tractor salesman again?

          this..

           say anything to the country bumpkins at home .

          and…

           

          vote for their masters back in DC 99% of the time.

           

           

          1. Reading the Tipton endorsement and the Gardner endorsement side-by-side is a lesson in pretzel logic.  Tipton does very little and things the Sentinel hates, but he's already there so why change now.  Gardner lies and is a worm, Udall has done a decent job, but we need to drastically switch directions in this nation–so Gardner's the man.

            You would think with all that oily cash Schwenke could afford better writers.

            1. There are better writers at the Sentinel, but they have some dignity. Lucky for Schwenke, the majority are hacks who will gladly rubber-stamp any press release that the Chamber of Commerce sends them. 

      2. Probably just as well, huh? Note that Udall is now pledging to defeat ISIS. 

        Little history lesson. ISIS used to be Al Qaeda in Iraq. They got a whole bunch of guns when L. Paul Bremer (Bush's genius in Iraq) disbanded the Iraqi Army and let everyone take their weapons home with them. (At which point, 72 hours later, to be precise, the weapons were used on American troops.) 

        The "de-Baathification" program, also thought up by Republican geniuses, has sent many former Iraqi Army officers into the arms of ISIS. 

        So that's what happened in Iraq. Back at home, Bush, was more concerned about implementing Karl Rove's tax plan (quoting Rove: "to shift the tax burden from the upper to the middle class"), fretting about gay marriage, who created the universe (you know, instead of what), and whether or not fetuses are real people, instead of, like, catching bin Laden. The US had to wait until a Democrat was elected president in order to focus on important stuff, like catching terrorists. 

         

  18. Regarding the supposed pulling of ad money from the Udall race, I am surprised that no one has pointed out that Senator Michael Bennet is the head of the DSCC, run by his right hand guy, Guy Cecil.  I can't imagine Bennet allowing this to happen if Udall was in real trouble.

        1. Tiny, It is Bennet with one t.

          Bennet reads the same polls, endorsements, and financial information that I do and you could if you were up to it.  

          That information is only capable of being understood as Udall is in trouble.

          You can ignore it, but Bennet can't.

          1. Maybe Udall is in trouble. I'm not a Democrat, so I wouldn't know.

            The question is, why would he be in trouble? Republicans displayed stunning incompetence in Iraq, even more stunning economic incompetence, so why would anyone elect a Republican? Aside from voting against their own interests, that is. 

             

          2. Thanks for the correction…

            that doesn't mean you know what the senator thinks. You don't…you are full of shit…the following;

            Bennet reads the same polls, endorsements, and financial information that I do and you could if you were up to it.

            That information is only capable of being understood as Udall is in trouble.

            is simply drivel, meaning nothing…it is only what you think… and no one cares what you think.

      2. No, pervert, you need to be looking for a sheep, not looking at Peak Politics or Fox News. It rots your brain and makes you look incredibly dumb. Even Gardner is smarter than you, and he's a friggin moron!

  19. Joey Bunch at The Post is reporting that Both Ways will unveil his much awaited economic recovery plan for Colorado tomorrow at an event surrounded by car dealers.  I'm guessing neither Obamacare (locally known in Colorado as AmyCare) and Nathan Dunlap haven't given Bob what he needs to close the deal.

     

        1. I loved my Pacer. Turning radius was super tight and driving around in a fish bowl affords pretty much 360 degree visibility. But yeah. I bought it used and the problems started mounting pretty quickly.

      1. Little brown, black, or red children appear to be of no interest to Smilin' Bob. He probably has an interest in the well being of the white ones, as long as their parents are members of his church and have enough money to send them to private school.

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