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October 27, 2014 06:32 AM UTC

Monday Open Thread

  • 108 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it."

–Blaise Pascal

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108 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread”

    1. My favorite parts 

      In its endorsement, the Courier-Journal's editorial board praised Grimes' stance on issues like the minimum wage and early childhood education, while accusing McConnell of "lacking a vision for Kentucky."

       

      "[McConnell] lost his way to the point where he now is identified largely as the master of obstruction and gridlock in Washington," reads the endorsement. "Kentucky needs a U.S. senator who sees a higher calling than personal ambition and a greater goal than self-aggrandizement.

      And  

      The Lexington Herald-Leader's endorsement strongly rebukes McConnell, who the editorial board says has "repeatedly hurt the country to advance his political strategy."

      "The Senate may never recover from the bitter paralysis McConnell has inflicted through record filibusters that allow his minority to rule by obstruction," reads the editorial. "He poses as a champion of the right to criticize the government, but it's really his rich buddies' right to buy the government that he champions."

      1. Two common sense, fact filled editorials taking a reasonable stand against obstruction and standing up for the little guy……….would it have been so difficult, Denver Post?

        1. Kim Kardashian has had more husbands than people who have contracted Ebola.  I'm at the parental unit this morning for Faux News is on – there is a full air assault on POTUS (re:Ebola) while giving Governor Donuts cover for his Ebola quarantine he put in place to protect the good people of NJ.  The "Fox News expert" ended the segment with, "when we look back we'll probably find that none of this was necessary, but the Governor is just protecting his party, err, people". 

    2. Let me ask you this, David. If every business associate you have, and half of your employees were doing everything they could to make your business fail, how successful would you be now?

      Where is your cartoon depicting the complete and utter sabotage of Obamas' presidency by every fucking Republican in the country? I always thought you were a bit more level-headed and fair than this cheap shot indicates..I guess I was wrong about that.

      1. Always amazing how many people think running government is like running a business. Hah!

        Imagine what we could do if President Obama could hand-pick all members of Congress.

      1. Telling truth to power

        What the fuck are you talking about? Davids' cheap shot cartoon is truth?…being told to power?..Coloradopols is power..?

        What a moron….

        2. Perhaps he's confusing incompetence with compassionate conservatism (you  now, like Bob "send those damn kids back" Boopray.

          (BTW WIF, in the time elapsed since you first puked on the page this morning, another 4 kids have died from epileptic seizures – more than have died from Ebola on our soil.  These are deaths that could largely be avoided if Congress would do their job and get over their love affair with our War on Drugs).

        1. I would also characterize a society(Singapore's) in which the antique practice of caning is still routine for a multitude of offenses as unusually conservative as compared to, say, most of the European segment of the international community. In fact, Obama, while not at his peak of international popularity, still is viewed in a largely positive light  in Europe and elsewhere.

          http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/16/how-the-world-sees-obama/

    5. Yes, the international view is that the GOP fear mongering, chicken-shit cowards, (ie, those with the panic stricken looks in the cartoon) should STFU, grow a pair, and stop wetting their pants. 

      Chris Christie seems to have gotten the memo that suggesting travel bans makes him look like a chicken shit coward, but more importantly, don't help solve the problem. 

  3. Udall campaign in the news:

     

    "The hits have kept coming. Colorado’s Senator Mark Udall has served primarily as a salutary reminder that too much of a good thing can be fatal, his obsessive reliance on the “war on women” set piece having provoked friends and critics alike to christen him “Mark Uterus,” and the usually left-leaning Denver Post to have not only endorsed his opponent, Cory Gardner, but to have accused the “obnoxious” Udall of lying, of “trying to frighten voters,” and of running a campaign that represents “an insult to those he seeks to convince.” His supporters have done little better. A hit-job on Gardner put out by the sports website Deadspin in October was quickly picked up by an array of progressive journalists and Democratic power players, all of whom were forced to eat crow just a few hours later when the dispatch was discovered to be downright false. Michelle Obama’s trip to Colorado, meanwhile, was not a great deal more successful than her foray into Iowa. Stumping for Udall, the first lady described the Democrat as a “fifth-generation Coloradan,” and explained to the crowd that this gave him a particular insight into the state. Alas, Obama had mixed up Udall with his opponent. Udall is from Arizona, went to college in Massachusetts, and moved to Colorado as an adult; Gardner’s family, by contrast, has lived in Colorado since 1886. The flub was evidently contagious. Yesterday, Udall told his supporters that, in America “at our best, we judge people by the content of their color.” Gardner is now winning byfour points."

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/391116/democrats-disarray-charles-c-w-cooke

    1. Yes and con man cory proposed seceeding from the state – what a true Coloradan – not. And you link to a right wing rag that has no value in context or truth. achole your rash has messed with your already tiny nonfunctioning  pea brain. Enjoy watching con man cory lose.

    2. Haa-ha,huh,hub-haa-hee …. he said "Uterus" … gotta love the Bevis and Butthead mentality of Gardner supporters who don't realize each time they call Udall, Mark "Uterus" it is not only demeaning to the very women they hope to woo, but also calls attention to the very issue they want to avoid – the fact that Cory Gardner supports birth control bans and abortion bans in the case of rape and incest.

      It also reminds voters or Todd Akin who quibbled about the definition of rape – is it forcible rape?

      Does Cory Gardner believe there is such a thing as forcible rape, like Todd Akin does?

      1. Insulting and alienating women, or acting like a bunch of giggling, slack-jawed fourth-graders with their first nudie magazine — hmm…which approach will the puerile pricks (who constitute the majority of GOTPers) choose?

        1. Wow, you don't say – Cory Gardner and Todd Akin basically believe the same thing about rape, incest and abortion?

          That's crazy! 

          Cory Gardner is as extreme and out there as Todd Akin – wow, I never thought Colorado voters could be bamboozled because they are fairly smart and sophisticated, but Gardner is such a charismatic guy with a great smile and hair, I guess anything is possible.

          I just hope everyone takes a good, long look at just exactly who and what Cory Gardner is and who he represents – behind that "Teddy Bear" charm, is a record as extreme as Todd Akin's. 

            1. From The Greeley Tribune

              Lastly, there are the concerns about his voting record. By most accounts, he’s among the most partisan in Congress, which puts him in the company of firebrands like Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. No one doubts Gardner’s conservative credentials, but his lock-step voting record raises real questions about how committed he is to his campaign rhetoric about working together.

              "We’ll be interested to see which Cory Gardner we get as a senator."

              Just follow the money boys, follow the money.  You'll find the answer to your "which Gardner?" lurking near the Koch 'pot-o-gold'…

              1. Yep.

                But the most insulting and disqualifying thing about Gardner isn't about his core beliefs and voting record, it is the way he has conducting himself in this campaign.

                His record is certainly an issue, but because he has openly and brazenly lied about his record, an equally problematic issue is his character, or lack thereof. 

                And, the moment that might go down as the one that lost him the election isn't the Big Lie about personhood he tells, but the small, white lie he told about being a Democrat – ie, he says he has never, ever, voted for a Democrat. 

                That is clearly not true because he was a registered Democrat and campaigned for Democrats for some 8 years in the 1990s. 

                Why lie about that? Is it that he is so ambitious, so driven by the desire to make himself a U.S. Senator that he will even lie about his very makeup as a person – who he is? 

                Is he lying because he is so fused with the right wing and the issue of personhood that he is willing to do and say anything to win and get personhood to be the law of the land, fulfilling a core principle?

                Who can really know unless he gets to the Senate and has to vote?

                And this is where the issue really becomes a problem for Gardner. Behind all his cutsey "Cory the Teddy Bear" ads, there is the question that all voters who are respected by a candidate want answered – who are you and how will you vote?

                To try to deceive voters by saying on the one hand you were a Democrat, but on the other hand, you never voted for Democrats, and to deceive voters by on the one hand taking your name of a state personhood bill but with the other hand keeping your name on a federal personhood bill not only insults voters, but says to them, "I don't care about you. I only care about what I want – whether that is to fulfill my personal ambition to be a U.S. Senator, or that is to fulfill a personal commitment to personhood – you are only a means to that end," is the ultimately display of contempt.

                Gardner should let  conservative and liberal voters exactly where he stands on personhood, anything less should be disqualifying.

                1. Spot. On.  I have a lot of friends who are arch-conservative avowed pro-lifers.  They are unapologetic, and I can respect their position when they align their personal lives with their beliefs.  To your point, this is where I've lost my respect for Gardner.  He was one of the most conservative members of the House…own it, Congressman. 

                  The secondary problem with all of this 'personhood posturing' is that the pro-life community (I use that description loosely) knows he's lying about his position and they're OK with that: they know this is the only way to roll the Trojan Horse through the gates of the Senate chamber.  There is a real Rocky Mountain Heist afoot, and it isn't the one featuring anchor baby Michelle Malkin. 

          2. Con Man Gardner and that other whack-job Teabagger con artist Joni Ernst in Iowa are virtual carbon copies of one another — right down to sharing the identical, word-for-word fraudulent BS about their undying love of and support for each state's Personhood amendment being simply a "philosophical statement" rather than a legislative goal.

            I expect much more of generally intelligent and informed CO and IA voters than to let these two scurrilous, snake-oily liars anywhere near the levers of federal political power.

      3. Also, Sam Wang, whom TrollScum alternately loves/hates and believes/disregards depending upon the chances Sam ascribes to the GOTP day to day, has Con Man Cory Gardner up a mere 1.5%, even after all the crap partisan polls created to make Con Man appear to be running away with the election!

        Our superior Dem ground game can top an alleged, piddling 1.5% Con Man "lead" relatively easily.

          1. It appears your 'wave' is suffering from premature ejerkulation.  Friday's performance was down 73% from the day before.  With this trajectory you'll be lucky to achieve the 100,000 mark by weeks-end.

            3. What the fucking asshole troll fails to mention is that we've clipped the enemy's shrinking lead from 12% to 10.4% in roughly a day.

              Hmm…I wonder why….

              1. I can smell his desperation from Yuma County – and that's over the stench of the Five Rivers Feedlot that's creeping in to east Yuma County with the cold front that hit about two hours ago. 

                1. These arrogant, obnoxious, dissembling creeps are just going to have to sit and watch their early advantage slip away, more and more, day after day, until their richly deserved defeat.

                  And then I will laugh and sing, and dance on their political graves.

                  2. Notice what recognized itself when I said "arrogant, obnoxious, dissembling creep"?

                    And — notice that it still fails to acknowledge our steady trimming of its evil enterprise's margin?

                    1. Their "wave" diminished 73% between Thursday and Friday's reported numbers.  They need to get to the +100,000 range to even be inside an MOE by election day.  With this trajectory (which has been decreasing steadily since Oct. 22 and nearly flamed out in the last two days) – that number probably isn't achievable.

          1. Perhaps you missed that little quirk in our state law that one wins a statewide race by counting the ballots from 64 counties?  But since we're playing that game, here are are the numbers from three of  Arap and JeffCo's adjoining counties (with approximately the same number of votes cast)…

            Denver County (Total: 83,301)

            D: 37,296 (44.8%)

            U: 15,909 (19.1%)

            R:  15,408 (18.5%)

            Boulder County (Total: 39,529)

            D: 18,512 (46.8%)

            U: 10,778 (27.3%)

            R:  10,239 (25.9%)

            Adams County (Total: 35,008)

            D: 13,643 (39%)

            U: 9,057 (25.9%)

            R: 12,308 (35.1%)

             

              1. …and that math gives D's a +14,827 advantage in those five counties (Jefferson, Boulder, Denver, Arapahoe, Adams) with five more days of early voting to go.

                Add in the Unaffiliated's and 'happydance' isn't a word that comes to mind.

                So much for 'the Repubican wave'…

    1. achole – did you even bother to read your own post? You dimwitted jackass. You going to post more incorrect returns leaving out the unaffiliated voters? You sad pathetic excuse for a human being. How's the rash?

    2. Is that a Mercedes Benz those American for Prosperity canvassers are driving? Or is it a Lexus. 

      I guess it doesn't matter.

      You gotta hand it to the Kochs – they get their 1% supporters out knocking on doors in style. 

      1. Yup, that's a late model Mercedes C-Class sedan.  It's favored by the "I'm not quite in the 1% yet, but if I kiss enough Kochass, I'll get there one day" groupies.

        3. My maternal grandfather was a life-long dairy farmer and Minnesota Democrat.  He raised 13 children on a half-section of land and a small herd of cows.  He spent the last of his years in a very modest home and relied on the federal safety net to live a quiet and dignified life until his death.  To our WIF, who couldn' imagine there being any redeeming human value to being 'poor', I'd like to offer a few choice words; in honor of the memory of Granddad, who rarely spoke an ill word about anyone, I'll just offer my condolences for your cold, empty soul.

    1. you cowardly asswipe . If you are so worried about Ebola or ISIS , why not get off your ass and go volunteer to help – oh I forgot like a true right wing freak you are all mouth and nothing else. Why do people like you hate America has your rash made you mentally unstable?

      2. If the rash has gone away, the brain damage is underway.  We will be getting sheer hysterics followed by dementia. From these posts I fear it is already too late.   Shhh… don't tell him they have lost the war.  He will only start ranting again.

    2. Why not have a gun ban? They kill 30K each year, including hundreds of children whose parents recklessly leave loaded guns out in the house where kids can find them and fire them. Or who make them available and kids take them to school … 

      Gotta love the hypocrisy of the GOP – EBOLLAAAAAAA!!!!!!

      Gun deaths? Not so much. 

      1. Because sacrifices must be made for the gratification of the ammosexuals. Think of those dead children as soldiers giving their lives for Tim Neville and Dudley Brown’s cause.

    3. Ah, I see you are modestly refraining from the title "M.D."–perhaps because you lack  such a degree (or in fact any medical or scientific expertise whatsoever)?

      No worries.  I'm sure you and Dr. Chris Christie will have a bevy of patients lining up for treatment at your new "expert" clinics…

      1. … you forgot to include the part about returned ballots tracking the same as 2010 and 2012, ie, older republicans who have voted for 40+ years know the drill, are task masters and send in their ballots earlier than Dems in EVERY year … then they get passed up as election day nears and the procrastinators are forced to drop off their ballots before the deadline. 

         

          1. The Republican 'wave' appears to have hit its high-mark on Oct. 22; after a 28,061 advantage reported on that day, the return ballots have trickled to a 5,862 advantage as of Friday (a 73% drop from the previous day' reporting), putting the party yet some 32,000 votes short of their 2010 performance.

            Three words:  Bannock. Street. Project.

              1. He didn't put his response in size 48 font so I can't take him seriously.

                In other news I've been water-boarded by FauxNews today in Yuma County.  Seriously, (I don't watch TV so this is always entertaining for me) it has been non-stop Ebola since early this morning.  It's hilarious.  Be afraid sheeple, be very, very afraid. 

                 

                1. Why are they afraid out Wray-way?  Nothing bad is ever gonna' happen as long as there's that diminutive water-melon-hunter militia guarding our frontier, right?

                    1. I'm reminded suddenly of a line from the old Clint Eastwood movie, Pale Rider (1985):

                      "You know which end of that thing the bullet comes out, Gossage?"

                    3. Is it my imagination or does that haircut Brophy has look a lot like Adolf Hitler's hairstyle?

                2. Somehow I don't imagine that the thousands of Faux News health experts will be advocating for more mail-in ballot elections as a way to help combat the spread of this dread and menacing threat to our national security?

  8.  

    Future of Fracking Not Nearly as Bright as Forecasted

    Steve Horn, DeSmogBlog |

    Post Carbon Institute has published a report calling into question the production statistics touted by promoters of hydraulic fracturing or fracking. By calculating the production numbers on a well-by-well basis for shale gas and tight oil fields throughout the U.S., Post Carbon concludes that the future of fracking is not nearly as bright as industry cheerleaders suggest.

    drillingdeeper

    The report, Drilling Deeper: A Reality Check on U.S. Government Forecasts for a Lasting Tight Oil & Shale Gas Boom, authored by Post Carbon fellow J. David Hughes, updates an earlier report he authored for Post Carbon in 2012.

    Hughes analyzed the production stats for seven tight oil basins and seven gas basins, which account for 88 percent and 89 percent of current shale gas production.

    Among the key findings:

    • By 2040, production rates from the Bakken Shale and Eagle Ford Shale will be less than a tenth of that projected by the Energy Department. For the top three shale gas fields—the Marcellus Shale, Eagle Ford and Bakken—production rates from these plays will be about a third of the U.S. Energy Infromation Administration (EIA) forecast.
    • The three year average well decline rates for the seven shale oil basins measured for the report range from an astounding 60 percent to 91 percent. That means over those three years, the amount of oil coming out of the wells decreases by that percentage. This translates to 43 percent to 64 percent of their estimated ultimate recovery dug out during the first three years of the well’s existence.
    • Four of the seven shale gas basins are already in terminal decline in terms of their well productivity: the Haynesville Shale, Fayetteville Shale, Woodford Shale and Barnett Shale.
    • The three year average well decline rates for the seven shale gas basins measured for the report ranges between 74 percent to 82 percent.
    • The average annual decline rates in the seven shale gas basins examined equals between 23 percent and 49 percent. Translation: between one-quarter and one-half of all production in each basin must be replaced annually just to keep running at the same pace on the drilling treadmill and keep getting the same amount of gas out of the earth.

    The report’s findings differ vastly from the forward-looking projections published by the EIA, a statistical sub-unit of the U.S.Department of Energy (DOE).

    The findings also come just days after Houston Chronicle reporter Jennifer Dlouhy reported that in a briefing over the summer, EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski told her it was EIA’s job to “tell the industry story” about tight oil and shale gas production.

    “We want to be able to tell, in a sense, the industry story,”

    http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/27/fracking-forecast-post-carbon/

     

             ————————————————————————————–

     

    The rapidly declining production numbers require ever more intense drilling to keep supplies at current levels. This is a genuine Ponzi scheme, and as oil and gas prices continue to slide, there are going to be a lot of pissed off investors.

     

    1. Hey Duke,

      A couple of questions…(and pardon my ignorace)…

      Can a well be fracked more than once, without new drilling?
      Is that reflected in these stats? 
      It would seem that with horizontal drilling it would be easy to "saturate" the well density in an area. It also seems that it would be really difficult to re-frack an area, unless it was somehow isolated from any previously fracked boreholes. 

      I guess I'm just looking for some context for the numbers above.

      1. Yes, ajb, a well can be fracked many times and the average number of fracks per well is steadily increasing.

        I admit a gap in my knowledge of what is possible in directional drilling, but… A frack can occur and is generally profitable in any zone bearing gas, If you are tunneling straight down the seam of shale, as they now do, it would stand to reason that you can frack many, many times. I hear tell of Exon and Chevron now getting up to a hundred fracks per well.

         How this affects the production curves, I do not know.

    2. Duke – I trust you've seen this?  From TNTSNBN:

      Dead Babies Near Oil Drilling Sites Raise Questions for Researchers

      "Scads of medical studies have concluded that air pollution can harm embryos. Drilling is a documented contributor to that pollution. It is a given that some of the harmful chemicals released in drilling, like benzene, toluene and xylenes, can cross the placental barrier and cause heart, brain and spinal defects."

      1. This phenomenon was first observed in Garfield county when herds of goats and cows were affected by multiple still births and unusually high occurrences of deformities in livestock.

        Many observers believe it kills humans, too. Even fully grown ones like Chris Mobaldi.

    3. The Niobrara basin isn't mentioned much in the excellent linked article, but I gather it, too, is declining in production.

      Oil and gas is supposed to be the lifeblood of Weld County, and it is the biggest moneymaker, by far…Some analysts are saying there is another 20-30 years of big production in it, some not so much. Who's telling the truth?

      But in terms of actual jobs, the medical and insurance records businesses, traditional meat processing and agriculture, and manufacture of wind turbines actually create more jobs here. Mining and extraction jobs are less than 10% of all jobs, although the energy production sector, including wind turbine blade manufacturing with the 2 Vestas plants, pumps 385 million into the economy.   And business is booming.

      I'm just trying to get a feel for my new environment here, but it does seem as though oil and gas production makes a few people very rich, but doesn't do that much for the average job seeker.

      So if oil and gas production becomes less efficient, they will get more desperate in terms of finding new locations to drill, and want even less regulation than they have now, but won't do as much for the economy as some of the other sectors I mentioned. It would seem to be the smarter course to develop renewables in parallel with the oil and gas, since the effects on air and water are much more benign.

      So if I'm a newbie here and can figure that out, why do we still hear endless propaganda about how any regulation or limitation on fracking is a "job killer"?

      Hint: "Can we buy the world?": The Kochs

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