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February 01, 2010 04:46 PM UTC

Monday Open Thread

  • 54 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.”

–Horace

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54 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread”

  1. Do we need to see if he is okay?  Or just let sleeping dogs lie?

    Anyway.  Talk radio update:  My guess is that the teaparty crowd is going to use upcoming Congressional recess for town halls or demonstration to attack elected officials on illegal immigration.  Talk radio is already stirring up the crowd.  

    Challenge:  I challenge any of you to listen to ten minutes of any of the 80 hours a week of local Republican talk radio and try to call in and disagree with the host….and then report back what happened…

      1. Don’t listen. Just turn it off.  If you turn it off, talk radio goes silent all over.  It is called “sympathetic magic”….the belief that you can control what happens with actions which don’t logically have anything to do with what you want to control.

        The radio public airwaves are dominated by the Republican party, locally and nationally.  They have used this control to effectively render impotent the democratic majority elected by the people in 2008.

        good god. jbly…..this is my country and I am not about to go silent.  

        the problem with putting your head in the sand is your ears get plugged up,

  2. A big week for opponents and supporters of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

    On Tuesday, in the first Congressional hearing on the issue in 17 years, Mr. Gates and Admiral Mullen will unveil the Pentagon’s initial plans for carrying out a repeal, which requires an act of Congress. Gay rights leaders say they expect Mr. Gates to announce in the interim that the Defense Department will not take action to discharge service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners, one of the most onerous aspects of the law. Pentagon officials had no comment.

    Gay rights groups are calling the hearing historic even as they question how quickly the administration is prepared to act. But Republicans are already signaling that they are not eager to take up the issue.

    “In the middle of two wars and in the middle of this giant security threat,” Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said Sunday on “Meet the Press” on NBC, “why would we want to get into this debate?”

    Still, it is undeniable that a variety of 21st-century forces – a new generation in the military, a change in climate at the top levels of the Pentagon, pressure on the president from a critical interest group, even Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand’s anticipated Democratic primary battle in New York – converged to begin repeal of a 1993 law that has led to the discharge of more than 13,000 gay men and lesbians, including desperately needed Arabic translators.

    As Mr. Gates told Mr. Obama last year, it was no longer a question of if the ban would be repealed, but when, said the meeting participant, who declined to be named to discuss internal White House deliberations.

    NYT Forces Pushing Obama on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

    A big part of this conversation involves this week’s DoD QDR report and budget talks. You can follow today’s presser live at http://www.pentagonchannel.com starting at 11.

    2. The reason that this policy will work is that the majority of junior enlisted and officers have grown up in a more tolerant society prior to joining the military.

      The people opposing this change are all the older, senior enlisted and officers. Their mores and values were based on American Society in the 80’s and 90’s when basing “teh gayz” was still acceptable and even downright promoted.

      When I talk to the Vets getting out right now, most of them knew gay/lesbian soldiers where in their units, deployed with them to The Suck. And in terms or risky promiscuous behavior, it was the straights who were boffing every chance they got, not the queers.

      It seems the idea of openly queer troops scares the crap out of Generals and Sergeant Majors sitting in their posh Iraqi palaces and VOQs on Air Force Bases.

    3. “In the middle of two wars and in the middle of this giant security threat,” Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said Sunday on “Meet the Press” on NBC, “why would we want to get into this debate?”

      Isn’t that the exact reason?

      We should avail ourselves of the talents of all patriotic Americans who want to serve.  His rhetorical question only makes a valid point if you think gay servicemembers detract from combat readiness.  You could make a better argument on that basis against letting heterosexual issues complicate troop morale, but that genie’s out of the bottle and not going back.

    1. The Jackie Mason impersonation is a cute anti-Semitic touch, little bit of dogwhistle there.

      But if Marilyn Musgrave ever runs for Congress again, she knows who to call.

      1. One funny ad.

        Certainly it is over the top to compare a Coroner to Dr. Frankenstein. It was over the top to depict Marilyn Musgrave robbing a coffin as was done in 2004 but that’s the point

  5. I have heard various things about what this will do and how it might change going forward so… Here’s my $0.02 worth – and this will directly impact my company.

    First, it needs to be on software sold to companies in Colorado, not sold by companies in Colorado. Over half our business is outside the U.S. and 98% is outside Colorado. If we tell a company in China they need to pay Colorado sales tax – they’ll tell us no way.

    Second, for sales in Colorado, I doubt adding sales tax will lose us a single sale. So our only concern is the hassle. Please set it to be a state-wide rate that we pay to the state. We can give you the address if you want to pass some on to the county/city – but keep us out of that.

    Why is this so important? A) Figuring out the sales tax by address is a giant PITA. I have a friend that when he bought a car, they called him up 2 weeks later to tell him his sales tax payment was wrong – and car dealerships do this every day. B) If we have to pay to a locality, we then have to get a sales tax license and file regularly – for what is probably going to be a total of one sale a year.

    Third, please set it that OEMs pay on their sale but we do not pay to sell to an OEM. We have one OEM in Colorado but they then take our software, tie it in to theirs, and then sell it outside of Colorado. So it’s not in use in Colorado. If you tax our sale to them, they then have to pay sales tax on part of each product even if it’s sold outside the state.

    Also keep in mind a key issue. Any software company (or anyone else who sells over the web) can just move “the company” outside of Colorado and the Colorado operation becomes a subsidiary that handles everything except the official sale.

    Moving doesn’t avoid sales to businesses in Colorado – but it would eliminate taxing sales from Colorado. So you want to stick with what you actually can tax.

    Again, happy to tax sales to Colorado – that’s reasonable & fair. But please make it easy for us to determine & pay the tax.

    1. 1.  The commerce clause and Colorado law exempt sales a Colorado company ships out of state from sales tax.

      2.  The bad news is you’re in Colorado.  This isn’t bad if you only have one location in Colorado.  Assuming you only have one location within the city limits of Boulder what you have to collect can be understood by thinking of a dart board.  In the inner most circle is the City of Boulder.  If you sell to anyone here you have to collect and remit state, RTD, SCFD, FD and Boulder County sales tax.  You send your return and money for the state, RTD, SCFD, FD and Boulder County to the state and a separate return to the City of Boulder.  In the next circle is Boulder County.  If the sale is to someone in Boulder County but not in the city limits of Boulder you would collect all of the above except the City of Boulder.  You would still have be required to send a return to the City of Boulder even if you had no sales within the city limits.  This process continues out to the RTD, then the state then out of state.  You would only collect what you and the customer have in common.  That is assuming that you are shipping to your customer’s location.  If they pick it up at your shop then they have to pay all of the sales taxes at your shop’s location.  This gets a lot more complex if you have more than one location in Colorado.

      3.  By statute the consumer is liable for the sales tax, but the vendor is also liable to collect and remit and if they don’t then they can be assessed the tax due.

      4.  Under National Geographic v. Franchise Tax Board (CA) the USSC decided that if your business has a location within a state even if they are not involved in making any sales you are required to collect that state’s tax.

      I told you it was fun stuff.  You are in the 2nd or 3rd most complex state in the union for sales tax.  We’ll discuss use tax another day.

      1. We actually have a City of Boulder sales tax license – you have to get one even if you never sell in the City (no idea why).

        But here’s an interesting question – we don’t ship to people, they download over the net. We don’t mail an invoice or receipt to them, we email it. They pay us by wiring us the funds, paying by check, or paying with a credit card.

        So we have to ask them where they’re located. And what happens when (this is a true case for one of our customers) Avaya has an individual in New Jersey get our software, paid from their office in Illinois(?), but the department this person works for is here in metro Denver.

        I think (not sure) our software was first used on a system in New Jersey, and then put on servers here in Denver.

        In another case (also a customer), the customer is here in Colorado, but the software – half goes on systems in China and half on servers in another state. And the end customer of our customer is a state government.

        Who do we contact in the state government to find out what tax we should charge in these cases?

        And if someone tells us they’re located in Canada but it turns out they’re in Denver – are we responsible?

        Sales tax was not designed for setups like ours…

        1. shipping using trons you are using something to deliver your product to a location other than yours.  In your Avaya question I would say that you “delivered” to NJ.  It would be Avaya’s problem if they then brought the program back to Denver.  

          A state government’s exemption does not flow through to a contractor for materials and tools that remain in the contractors hands.  It would be exempt if the program ended up in the government’s hands.

          As far as your Canada – Denver, document the hell out of it.  In event of an audit if you get assessed the tax you can legally go after the customer for the tax.

    1. The initial summary is being promoted now by the WH.  Details are trickling out.

      There’s a page of fact sheets, some analysis, and other stuff going up on that page.

      Gitmo closure fund ($350m) is in there as part of a 2010 Afghanistan supplemental.  That includes purchase of the Thompson SuperMax facility.

      Anything specific you’re looking for?

  7. Hi;

    I thought it was ok to text when pulled off the road? I had a friend pulled over by a cop for speeding, his engine was off, and he was sending an email when the cop came up and the cop said he could write him a ticket for doing that. Is that correct?

    Also, is it no texting or no emailing/web browsing also? And what about using the GPS on your phone?

    thanks – dave

    2. Here’s the bill as prepared for signature (PDF).

      The original House bill was stricter, but the Senate amendment states, “‘OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE’ MEANS DRIVING A MOTOR VEHICLE ON A PUBLIC HIGHWAY, BUT ‘OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE’ SHALL NOT MEAN MAINTAINING THE INSTRUMENTS OF CONTROL WHILE THE MOTOR VEHICLE IS AT REST IN A SHOULDER LANE OR LAWFULLY PARKED.” (Sorry for caps, it’s copypasta.)

      Sounds like the cop was just trying to scare him.

  8. This is pretty damn cool.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

    HADDONFIELD, N.J. – A traffic reporter in a small plane put himself in the thick of a rush-hour tie-up when his aircraft had to make an emergency landing Monday on the New Jersey Turnpike.

    …

    “This was pretty much a non-incident in terms of what the outcome was like,” said New Jersey Turnpike Authority spokesman Joseph Orlando. “The plane landed, he taxied it over into the shoulder. We can’t even get motorists to do that when they break down.”

    Good way to get out of paying tolls. The NJ Turnpike has gotten expensive lately.

  9. The Telegraph (UK)

    Scientists have spent decades chasing the dream of fusion power, which holds out the promise of producing unlimited amounts of clean energy from hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe. Scientists in the US are preparing for the dramatic moment when the world’s most powerful laser unleashes the nuclear force that lights up the sun and achieves ”ignition”. At that moment, 192 laser beams housed in a building the size of three football pitches will focus on a target the size of a peppercorn to trigger a self-sustaining fusion reaction. If all goes according to plan, this could be achieved in October. Although no more than a test of the technology, it could mark the start of a revolution that will change the science and politics of energy for ever.

        1. didn’t seem to work too well for McCain and Palin.  Or was that con fusion?

          “Three or four years from now, we’re not going to have a conversation about jobs and all of that kind of stuff.”  -Scott McInnis

      2. Just a few more years and we’ll have our home fusion units 😉

        Seriously, though, we aren’t exactly close to sustained ignition fusion.  

        Here is a link to the top 10 most promising projects and none seem to be very close to being practical for base load power generation within the next decade.

  10. This via the Fix today.

    New data out of Gallup shows that Democratic party affiliation has shrunk in 39 states over the past year but the party still retains a considerable edge in the overall partisan makeup of the country.

    http://voices.washingtonpost.c…

    Interesting that Colorado is still listed as leaning blue.

  11. from the Gazette

    At hearing Tuesday in Denver, a General Assembly committee will debate a plan by a Colorado Springs Republican to plow the state’s savings account into buying gold, silver and platinum.

    If the U.S. currency collapses then having gold in a safe at the state capitol isn’t going to help much – it’s not edible.

  12. Turns out it was the emergency exit light fixture. So the device in the building to make us safer in case of a fire – caused the fire.

    Boulder definitely has a good fire response – 4 fire trucks, 1 fire car, and 2 police cars. (They send that much because when you call in smoke and can’t find the fire – it can be a bad situation with the fire inside the walls.)

  13. E-Mail Letter to Editor, GJ Sentinel

    Obama’s goal is total control

    Suppose that Obama and his congressional buddies decide, for whatever reason, that having an armed population is not good for them and they decide to confiscate all firearms from citizens.  Is that against the Bill of Rights?  Yes, but that does not matter because of the threat that lingers over him and his buddies. Besides, the Bill of Rights is outdated and can be ignored, as he and his buddies have already demonstrated.

    As commander in chief of the armed forces, he decides to begin the confiscation process, say in Grand Junction. To occupy and control the town, he sends in a battalion of infantry, 1,000 soldiers along with some armored vehicles. A house-to-house search is conducted for weapons, repeating this scenario throughout the United States until we have a totally disarmed citizenry.

    Is this a fairy tale, it will never happen?

    I was sergeant in the Indiana National Guard in the mid-’50s. Though the motivation and outcome were different than the above scenario, our company was called upon by the governor to occupy Hagerstown, Indiana. Deadly violence occurred during a union strike against a Perfect Circle plant. Other towns were also occupied for several weeks.

    Armored half-tracks with quad .50 machine guns were placed strategically around the town; soldiers carried weapons and were issued live ammunition; curfew was enforced from 6 pm-6 am; during daylight hours, groups no larger than 3 people were permitted on the streets; vehicles entering/leaving town were inspected at roadblocks.

    Am I an alarmist? Perhaps so, but I have been around for many years and am astounded by what has occurred in our country during this past year.

    Obama’s is determined to make good his promise: “bring about fundamental change within the USA.” His goal is total control and it will happen, if we allow it!

    PETE ROSS

    http://gjsentinel.com/opinion/…

    2. A Republican governor in Indiana suppressed a strike by force 50 years ago!

      That must mean our blackosocialist President is comin fer the guns! Imma gonna runnoft!

      Part of me thinks maybe Obama should just send in the National Guard to put these morons out of their misery. But then I remember I’m not a Republican.

        1. prints such garbage.  I know of people who submitted letters to the DS critical of Bush, far less loony than this letter, but were not printed.  I’ve noticed a hard right turn, once again, as election season nears, from the uberCons at the Daily Sentinel.  They are far worse than they were under Orbanek.

          “Three or four years from now, we’re not going to have a conversation about jobs and all of that kind of stuff.”  -Scott McInnis

          Got Grecian?  

    3. The Sentinel shut down their community blog because of far right-wing loons spewing their hate.  But now they just print it in the LTE’s.

      “Three or four years from now, we’re not going to have a conversation about jobs and all of that kind of stuff.”  -Scott McInnis

      Got Grecian?

  14. Paid for by outside groups, something about a conversative questionnaire?  The commercial didn’t say what Buck is running for.

    Anyway, apparently Buck has been a “leader” in opposing Obama’s health care takeover (as DA)!  Well, I’ll be damned….

    1. The ad does say he’s “Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck” at the beginning.

      Here’s the ad, for those who missed the discussion last week, or haven’t seen it on the TV yet:

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