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January 14, 2015 06:29 AM UTC

Wednesday Open Thread

  • 44 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious.
Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.

–Zhuang Zhou

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44 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

  1. N.Y. Times is reporting that Willard Mittens Romney's noises about a possible third try in '16 is going over in the GOP with mixed reviews. Amongst other problems cited was Romney's inability to connect with voters. Moody, AC…..care to comment?

      1. In related news, the House GOP leadership is reportedly planning to introduce legislation that declares 47% of this country's inhabitants non-citizens and seeks to have them self-deport. 

        1. taterheaptom: your comment is not useful.

          I agree with Andrew on this. A fresh Republican face would be a good idea. What I don't want is another inexperienced one-term US Senator running (Cruz, Rubio, Paul). We elected an inexperienced one-term Senator in 2008 and the results have not been stellar.

          I would lean towards Chris Christie or Scott Walker as the Republican nominee. I don't care for Bobby Jindal becuause he's too heavy into the religious right gigs. 

          Really good choices for both parties could be Walker or Christie as the Repub. nominee; former Senator Jim Webb as the Dem nominee.

          Happy hump day.    C.H.B.

              1. There was more than one RINO comment on the thread.  You get the sense the only thing that would make them happy would be a picture of Cory's hands around Senator Bennet's neck. 

          3. Well they certainly were more stellar than the "achievements" of the Bush years by pretty much any and all objective measures you care to reference. A low bar, I'll grant you but it's very hard to imagine that we wouldn't have been much worse off with the policies of either McCain or Romney or any other trickle down true believer.

            1. Worry not – AC will surely post some of his usual schtick soon, and you'll be free to insult him without pushback.Actually,you, like any user on here, is free to post damn near anything, anytime.

              For the full repression experience, try  posting anything remotely critical of a Republican on Redstate.  

      2. Assuming Romney runs, the reports are that he will try to run to the right of Jeb Bush.  I'd look forward to seeing that tried by the former Governor of Massachusetts who used to be pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-gun control, and (my personal favorite) the man who introduced Obamacare to Massachusetts.  Romney is also saying that Jeb's business dealings will make him a vulnerable candidate!  (WTF)

        If I were a Republican, I too would be hoping for someone new.  But if GOP tradition continues for the last half century, you guys will nominate whoever's turn it is next (meaning someone who ran last time or the time before that).

        2. Frank, I would put Bush up there with Romney of folks I would not be excited about.  The last choice the country needs is a regurgitated Bush vs. a regurgitated Clinton.  That would be depressing.

          2. BTW AC.  Remember how much you used to be in love with RCP?  Even with all the flack (well deserved  IMHO) over the US being a no show (a mere ambassador doesn't cut it and Eric Holder was already right their but didn't attend, for God's sake) at the historic the Paris rally, Obama's RCP average approval continues it's modest but study rise. Today's was the best yet.

            Poll

            Date

            Sample

            Approve

            Disapprove

            Spread

            RCP Average

            1/3 – 1/13

            —

            44.7

            50.1

            -5.4

            1. oops. But you get the picture. During the election it was rarely much above 41.  And it's not bouncing around much, either. So, while the average is hardly stellar, it certainly does not show public reaction against anything he's done since his executive action on immigration.

              1. BC, I think in part it is a return to normal.  He no longer has both sides of the aisle throwing things at him 24X7 in the media.  It may also be the holiday spirit.  45% approval, 50% disapproval is still not very good.

                1. If by normal you mean more in alignment with policies that that get majority approval in polls then, yes. Unfortunately most people have no idea that the policies they approve of in polls are those Obama and Dems are for and Rs are against. Lucky for you guys Dems, staring with Obama are so afraid of strong messaging.

                  And BTW once again I do agree with you at least in part. I do think Obama's previous 15 minutes as a Senator is a contributing factor to why he hasn't been very good at working with his own party in congress, especially initially when they were in control, to push his agenda. He started out by offering your side 90% of what they wanted as an initial bargaining position on health care reform in the first place and, until after this last election, the last of his presidency, he's pretty much stuck with dissing his own and senselessly beating his head against the wall in the name of let's hold hands and sing bipartisanship, despite constant and consistent rejection by the party that pledged to destroy him before his first inauguration. A more experienced pol would have known better.

            2. One more thing. If you were expecting an RCP average bounce in congressional approval now that Rs have both houses? It's a whopping 14 average approval rate. So maybe some basic assumptions need to be reexamined by both parties. Including assumptions as basic as the coronation of yet another Bush on your side and another Clinton on ours.

  2. Whackjob Wayne Williams picking up right where Scott Gessler left off on voter ID:

    Wayne Williams (R) was sworn in this week as Colorado’s Secretary of State, and has already begun pushing for laws to make voters show photo identification before they can cast a ballot. “I think most Coloradans are honest and law-abiding and follow the rules, but I think it’s important to have the processes in place to protect the election system so that people have confidence in it,” Williams told Colorado Public Radio in an interview over the weekend.

    …

    Studies show such a law targeting same-day registration would disproportionately impact voters who are younger, lower income, non-white, and newly naturalized.

    …

    Williams’ campaign centered on his reputation as a “champion of access and transparency in government” and his promise to “ensure voter access to the polls” — though he did express support for voter ID laws during his run for office. He also often touted his record of making voting more convenient as a county clerk: “We have worked with all parties and groups to ensure that our polling locations are located in easy to reach locations and we’ve exceeded legal requirements by opening more locations and opening them for longer hours. As a result of these efforts, more citizens have voted than ever before in my county.”

    After winning the race, he flipped on this point as well, telling Colorado Public Radio that too many polling locations were open for too many hours in this past election. “That’s not really a very cost-effective way and there certainly wasn’t a demand for it,” he said, adding that he hopes to give counties “flexibility at the local level” to decide when and where polling locations should be available.

    …

    Still, Williams plans to carry on Gessler’s crusade, saying that while he can’t point to any evidence that fraud exists in the state, “Making sure that process is secure is the top priority.”

    Let's get some guys on our side to call out Williams' lies and to make sure his top priority is that as many eligible Coloradans as there are can vote.

    Democracy is worth the cost of a polling station being open…..and most are staffed by volunteers, so his cost concern is rather feeble. 

    1. So if Williams manages to get Senators to sponsor a voter ID requirement, it gets past the House and the Governor signs it (unlikely in the extreme), I can see one positive development:

      Jon Caldara would only be able to vote with the address shown on his driver's license. I don't know that preventing Caldara from committing election fraud would be worth disenfranchising thousands of voters, but it's a nice dream. 

  3. Jared Polis votes for House bill that removes consumer protections of Dodd-Frank. Did he have to? No. 

    DEMOCRATIC

    1. Not surprised. Except for things like fracking in his back yard and social issues that affect gay people like himself, he's always been our most pro-corporate, rightie Dem Rep.

  4. Some great news out of the Capitol Hill today: the two Democratic Senators from Oregon, Wyden and Merkley, have teamed up with the two Republican Senators from Kentucky, McConnell and Paul, to introduce Senate Bill 134, the "Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015". 

    “The U.S. ban on hemp farming is an outrageous restriction on free enterprise and does nothing but hurt economic growth and job creation,” Sen. Wyden said. “Our bipartisan, common-sense bill is pro-environment, pro-business, and pro-farmer. Congress must act to empower farmers and boost economic activity across the country.  As I’ve always said, if you can buy it in Oregon, you should be able to grow it in Oregon.”

    2. I was amazed when I saw this! It does make sense, though. And who knows? Maybe it'll set an example to  help Congress start acting more like representatives of the same country and less like balkanized warlords.

      1. Perhaps the oldest known cultivated plant in the world – one that needs little or no pesticides or herbicides grow – will bring Congress together!  The United States is the largest consumer market in the world for hemp-based products, yet we remain the only industrialized nation to prohibit its farmers from cultivation.  We're so star-spangled smart that it's on DEA Schedule 1 – right up there with cocaine and heroin.  Stupid is as stupid does. 

        Kudo's to McConnell and Rand for carrying the Republican torch on this important issue; also a shout-out to the 55% of our electorate who passed Amendment 64 in 2012 (the initiative also legalized industrial hemp), the Governor for his evolution – and to Jared Polis, who has been our Congressional Warrior on this issue, 

        It's worth noting that the head of the DEA, Michele Leonhart, is on record stating that the worst day of her entire 33-year career at DEA was when she woke up last July 4 and realized a hemp flag, just like the one Betsy Ross would have constructed, was flying over our nation's Capitol building.  We have a lot of willful ignorance yet to overcome – but we're making progress. 

        1. That says something: It's obvious that McConnell wouldn't be on board if a majority of Kentucky farmers weren't already backing it. The farmers have the facts–and a whole history of hemp cultivation within their own state–to back them up. Good thing they don't need slave labor to make it profitable any longer, due to modern technology.

          1. In the 1862 census, we had over 16 million acres in cultivation.  That was thanks to, in large part, the access to slave labor.  Today's harvesting and decortication techniques are highly mechanized.  If you're an equipment buff, here is a John Deere combine doing what  once took hundreds of workers:  (otherwise known as hemp-farmer porn) 

      1. Here's another lawsuit about to happen in the same vein. 

        http://www.businessweek.com/…/saks-and-company-in-legal-fig… I can't decide whether to be angry with Saks for doing this or to laugh at them for how badly they're going to lose and how awful they're going to look doing it.. Because http://verdict.justia.com/…/the-eeoc-rules-that-transgender… Just a heads-up for any of my friends with the money to shop there. Do you really want to?

         

         

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