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September 28, 2011 03:50 PM UTC

Wednesday Open Thread

  • 60 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.”

–Jean-Paul Sartre  

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60 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

  1. I hope everyone has a lovely Wednesday.

    Denver Young Democrats chair Chris Laughlin will be on CNN (Newsroom w/Kyra Phillips) at 8:10 AM Mountain, along with the chair of the Denver Metro Young Republicans, discussing the President’s visit. If anyone tunes in, let me know how it is–I don’t have a TV so I’ll be waiting for him to post the clip on Facebook 🙂

  2. But wait a second, even a generic Republican can’t get out of a statistical tie. The source? You guessed it: Rassy.

    http://www.rasmussenreports.co…

    The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds the generic Republican earning 46% support, while the president picks up 43% of the vote.  Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

    ..sniparoo

    Although the president has trailed a generic Republican candidate for nearly three months now, for his job currently in the race [sic] except for one. Obama leads Texas Governor Rick Perry 44% to 38,  and holds a 44% to 34% lead over Texas Congressman Ron Paul.  But the president and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney remain essentially tied.

    Rassy didn’t want to show you what “essentially tied” meant, but it’s Obama 44%, Romney 41%.

    Just a little something to go with your morning patchouli you filthy stinking commie libs.

            1. that I just got from Splendid Kitchen because I am a ham lover. Hmmm, maybe you are onto something with the Parma perfume thing, after all. I love prosciutto (smuggled a pound of it back from Italy last November in my boot.)


              Wine: Look for a light but ripe Italian red, like a Valpolicella Ripasso from the Veneto.

              4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or unsalted butter

              2 large garlic cloves, halved

              1 large onion, minced

              3 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

              4 to 5 ounces prosciutto di Parma or Iowa’s La Quercia or good-quality salami, thin sliced and cut into thin strips

              1 pound freshly cooked tagliatelle or fettuccine pasta, well drained

              1 tablespoon unsalted butter

              3 to 4 good-tasting ripe tomatoes (about 2 pounds), diced, or 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes and a little of their liquid

              Salt and freshly ground black pepper

              1-1/2 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

              1. In a 12-inch sautГ© pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, pressing it down in the oil, for 1 minute, or until slightly softened and pale golden. Do not burn. Pull the garlic from the pan and keep it handy.

              2. Add the onion and parsley to the pan, cover, and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, or until the onion is soft and clear. At this point the pan could be set aside off the heat until shortly before serving.

              3. When ready to eat, return the pan to the stove and raise the heat to medium. Stir in one fourth of the prosciutto and cook for about 2 minutes. The onion should just start to color. Add the reserved garlic and toss in the cooked pasta, butter, and tomatoes and the rest of the prosciutto. Toss over medium heat to thoroughly combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.

              4. Turn the pasta into a serving bowl. Pass the cheese separately, but be certain to use it, as it is the final seasoning of the dish.

              1. had a button to post recipes to. How will I ever find this when I can afford a ham? I’ll have to hope I can remember that MotR posted it and search her posts.

                FPEs that first promoted the thread could be responsible to post recipes within that thread to the button.

                A cookbood could even be accumulated and sold to pay for therapy for ‘tad, BJ, Mark etc. Or something more likely to be used, support for food banks

                  1. but when it gets pretty frosty ouside…

                    I just read a recipe for clam chowder that made me salivate.

                    Last weekend I made some chili with bear that a hunter gave me and smoked about 20 lbs (most given to our local community meal program). The chili was great and this w/e I am going to make some stroganoff with some more bear.

                    1. Last week I smoked a pork shoulder for about 20 hrs with mesquite chips, and I pulled apples right off the tree and cut them in half threw them in too for good flavor.  I also make homemade BBQ sauce too with an awesome North Carolina recipe when I have time.  Awesome stuff.

                      Never had bear though !

                    2. Smoke throughout the year, taking advantage of those mild 60ish days that come along throughout winter. I mainly smoke ribs, both pork and beef (obviously not a terribly observant Jew and the good beef ribs are hard to find without specific request to butcher), and whole chickens. My husband prefers my dry rub, sauce on the side if you want it Q to any of the metro area joints and even to joints he frequented when he lived in Texas. We kid that I should open up a Q joint with an obviously Jewish name like “Ma Goldberg’s BBQ”.  

                    3. 2 electric, 2 propane, charcoal and coal. I use all of those fuels. Don’t usually like mesquite except with chicken. When I get to the midwest I bring back lots of hickory, cherry and apple and a friend in TX sends some pecan wood to me.

                      My friend in TX is an R but has not been able to find a TX R to vote for. He just likes being on the outside when he goes to a meeting. Says shaking his head from side to side keeps vertebra healthy.

                    5. or spiritual feelings

                      I can’t smoke as much in the winter. We don’t have those 60 degree days up here. But, if it is above 40 then I am likely to smoke a bird or ham several times during the winter. Have to special order a ham that has not been cooked AT ALL and pay more for it. One of my winter coats just reeks so I can’t even store it in the house. It is in the garage.

                    6. I am able to feel spiritual. One is BBQ and smoking. The other will not be named here.

                      We don’t have 60 degree days up here in the winter. But, if it is over 40 I am likely smoking a bird or a ham that must be special ordered so it has not been cooked IN ANY WAY. My winter smoking coat has to be kept in the garage because it reeks

                    7. Not last year but for several years running I had a streak of 60 on my January birthday and sunny 50s are common. So the smoker generally gets used a couple times a month throughout the winter. When it’s cold and we’re desperate we hit Big Papa’s. Used to ahve a really sweet local family owned and run Q joint in downtown Littleton, Blest BBQ, but it closed.  Guess what moved in down the street from them and does fine… a Dickies.  How anyone could prefer that fake crap to our old Blest is beyond comprehension.

                    8. My friend smokes them and they’re awesome!

                      He get’s them at a Russian butcher somewhere in Aurora.  I can track it down for you if you’re interested.

                    10. My third-to-oldest brother bagged a bear back in the early 50’s. Wish Mom knew about smoking and BBQing. We ate it regular style: chops, steaks, roasts an burger. Jeez, was it greasy and sweet. But we ate it. Just like horse. There was a spell when horsemeat was available for poor people. Dad brought some home from the local locker plant, but the entire family rebelled. It was just too sweet. And we had horses, for plowing and riding and hunting. So Mom went back to beans and rice.

                      Nope. I’ll never try bear again.

                    11. removes most of the grease and this one did not taste at all sweet. The pieces I browned for the chili tasted like a less expensive cut of beef, like round steak.

    4. Every governor since John Love is on record saying that I was “all wet.”  What better crentials for water?  I’ll take the million, hire Rolly Fischer to do the real work for $100,000 and keep the balance as my ten percent cut.

       (OK, my expertise is water, not math.)

  4. a brief mention of protesters at Obama speech with no numbers so I’m assuming the number of rightie and leftie protesters was undramatic.  Anyone who was there care to give impression of respective protester numbers?

    1. with all of John H Kennedy’s leadership skills, charisma and organizational talent I am really surprised half the state didn’t show up in a massive grassroots movement.

  5. The rule limits the ability of candidates to win large numbers of delegates in early primaries and caucuses – those held before April – because delegates must be awarded in proportion to the votes a candidate receives.

    Many Republican state parties like to hold winner-take-all primaries because they create buzz and put a premium on candidates finishing first. Those states, however, will have to wait until April, at the earliest, to hold their nominating contests.

    “The top two or three candidates have a real chance now to go deep into March and maybe early April,” said Bob Bennett, a member of the Republican National Committee from Ohio. “I could see it going deep into April with a two-man contest.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

  6. Sarah Palin: ‘Is a Title and Campaign Too Shackle-y?’

    “Is a title worth it?” she asked, rhetorically. “Does a title shackle a person? Are they someone like me who’s maverick? I do go rogue and I call it like I see it and I don’t mind stirring it up in order to get people to think and debate aggressively.”

    “Is a title and a campaign too shackle-y?,” she continued. “Does that prohibit me from being out there, out of a box, not allowing handlers to shape me and to force my message to be what donors or what contributors or what pundits want it to be? Does a title take away my freedom to call it like I see it and to affect positive change that we need in this country? That’s the biggest contemplation piece in my process.”

    “I do,” she replied, when Susteren asked if she could win over the current president. “I wouldn’t have gone this far in my thinking about whether to run or not had I not had the confidence to believe that Americans are ready for someone out of the box.”

    Palin also assessed the existing Republican field. She called the current coverage of the GOP race a “quasi reality show” and chalked up the speculation surrounding New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s presidential ambitions to a game of “who’s going to be the next flavor of the week?”

    1. This should put an official end to any further considertaion  of Palin as anything other than a carnie side show. Gee you wouldn’t want to be all shackled up with a “title” like Governor or President or Senator when you can just run around getting paid to shoot off your mouth, would you?  How can a celeb “effect change” with one of those shackle-y titles? Not that those are “titles”.  Titles are more like the King of this, the Duke of that, etc.  But we get her gist.

      1. I think her “blood libel” comment cut through the haze with everyone who still inexplicably thought she was a credible candidate up to that point*. (Personally, I knew she was finished in elected politics the day she resigned the governorship, but I guess it takes a while for hype that that’s fevered to cool off.)

        *Die hards excluded, of course. They’re going to be the new Larouchies.

        1. the self professed non-quitter quit being Governor. But maybe now the last hold out pundit will make it official and admit she’s just a celeb, not any kind of vaguely serious contender.

  8. A little known secret bank appears to have been discovered by KPMG auditors working on behalf of the U.S. Treasury Department’s investigation of Solyndra.

    This little-known government bank, the Federal Financing Bank [FFB], had a zero balance in 2008 for green energy projects, but now, with little Congressional oversight, it is giving out billions of dollars in loans to White House pet projects often at dirt-cheap interest rates below 1%.

    http://www.foxbusiness.com/mar…

    In July alone, the government bank, which had $61 billion in assets, lent nearly three quarters of a billion dollars in taxpayer funds with no Congressional checks and balances.

    Plus the bank is funding the insolvent U.S. Post Office; the White House’s expensive green car projects at Ford Motor, Nissan and Tesla Motors; a $485 million loan to an expensive solar project that’s lost $160 million over the last three years that’s backed by Google, BP and Chevron; plus the FFB is funding the teetering HOPE housing bailout program, which gives delinquent mortgage borrowers breaks on their loans.

    And according to KPMG’s audit report of the bank, the FFB is losing billions of dollars in taxpayer money because it is forgoing collecting interest costs on already inexpensive loans that are financing projects at agencies like the Agriculture Dept.

    What’s scary for taxpayers is this: The FFB can borrow unlimited amounts of taxpayer money from the Treasury for these kinds of political pet projects. Under the 1973 “FFB Act, the bank may, with the approval of the Secretary, borrow without limit from the Treasury,” says the bank’s audited statements from KPMG.

    The Treasury Department’s inspector general is now investigating the bank over its $528 million loan to Solyndra. FFB’s chairman of the board is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and the bank’s board executives are Treasury officials.

    Who is getting the FFB’s green energy money? As the White House and Democrats in Congress rail against tax breaks for oil companies, the FFB gave taxpayer loans to green companies with high cash burn that were spilling red ink.

    For instance, Solyndra was still getting loans from the FFB up until it filed for bankruptcy. It got $3 million in loans at a 0.89% rate just a month and a half before it filed for bankruptcy protection.

    The FFB is also giving loans to risky solar companies as well as to a money-losing solar energy outfit backed by companies such as Google, Morgan Stanley, Chevron and BP that has spilled $160 million in red ink for the last three years.

    In the month of July alone, the FFB gave a $12.5 million loan to Abound Solar; 60% of Abound’s balance sheet will come from federal taxpayers, or $400 million in guaranteed federal loans.

    FFB also gave a $117,330 loan to the struggling Kahuku Wind Power and more than $77 million to the Solar Partners companies, whose parent company is due $485 million in White House approved loans.

    The Solar Partners companies are units of BrightSource Energy, which is building a massive solar-powered energy plant near the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino, California.В 

    BrightSource lost $45 million in 2008, $44 million in 2009, and $72 million in 2010, even though it has rich backers that include Google, Chevron, Morgan Stanley and BP, among others, says FOX News analyst James Farrell.

    Besides the green energy projects, the FFB provides a backdoor government bailout of the US Post Office, which has been spilling red ink. The FFB has lent the US Post Office so far $12.6 billion. The Post Office faces an estimated $10 billion shortfall this year, as the Internet, companies like FedEx and UPS, and high retiree health-benefit costs slice into its bottom line.

    And the government bank gave loans to car and car parts manufacturers to retrofit their plants to make green cars. The FFB lent Ford Motor $163 million for its green car programs. The FFB is now financing projects at Fisker Automotive, Nissan North America and Tesla Motors, with $528.6 million, $1.4 billion and $465 million in federal loans, respectively.

    1. I just know that the gist of this post is absolutely wrong. I just know it. How? Because every time you post something, you’re wrong. It’s really that simple.

      1. Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act would create thousands of jobs and would expand the economy, economists surveyed by Bloomberg News found, in a report released Wednesday. The plan, they said, would push down the jobless rate in 2012, possibly boosting Obama’s reelection bid with the potential job growth.

        The median estimate in the survey of 34 economists shows that Obama’s legislation would likely increase gross domestic product by 0.6 percent and add or keep 275,000 jobs next year. In 2013, his plan would add 13,000 jobs, bringing the total over two years to 288,000 jobs created.

        http://www.politico.com/news/s…

        The first stimulus did save jobs and probably prevented an even deeper recession but it didn’t go far enough.  Should have been bigger.  This  plan should probably go bigger too (we need more jobs than that but more is better than none) but since the GO(T)P will kill it anyway I guess it’s the thought that counts. Except with the GO(T)P. They don’t care what economists think.  

    2. Passed by law through Congress in the 1970s to combat high interest rates being paid by various Federal agencies (yes, the agencies each have to find their own financing to back some things Congress tells them to do in the budget bill every year; the FFB provides that service to them).

      All of FFB’s loans are at the direction of Federal agencies, and are pretty much a result of the Congressional budget.

      As usual, ‘tad has obtained information from someone writing as a partisan and has misrepresented the facts.

      KPMG is the FFB’s official auditor (at least it was in 2010) and has not found anything new or different than it already knew.  Solyndra’s loan details were approved as part of Congressional action and not some secret plot by Sec. Geithner and Pres. Obama.

      The real reason for the tempest in a teapot over the FFB is more likely the ongoing use of FFB in supporting Federal Student Loans or some other pet peeve of movement conservatives (or bankers looking to get their greedy mitts on the interest revenues from servicing $60 billion in Congressionally authorized Federal debt).

  9. this morning in GJ. I’m always humbled by the accomplishments, the characters, and the conversation. It was great to meet Ardy, Ellie and “old” friends:-)

    Wish I could have stayed longer!

  10. Just got a robo call in favor of prop 103. It was awful. It doesn’t even try to be persuasive and the tone is that of a lecture about what’s good for you.

    It’s so blah that I think most will hang up in 10 seconds. For those that listen, I doubt any will be convinced of anything.

    2. I press the appropriate numbers.  That should be it. I should be off the list.  But no. Iget called again.  And again with the same message. I no longer answer but see it on caller ID several times a day.  It must be at least 8 times by now.  So I try to call the number on caller ID to tell them something is amiss.  They shouldn’t be wasting these calls on people who have already responded. Also I want the calls to stop.  What do I get at the number? The same robocall.  There is apparently no way to get back to these people and tell them to stop it already.

  11. Shana Tova, that is.  May all have a sweet, healthy, prosperous coming year. Please forgive me if I have offended as I forgive you.  And call your mother, why don’t you?

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