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May 06, 2009 03:31 PM UTC

Sine Die Open Thread

  • 62 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Quarrels end, but words once spoken never die.”

–African proverb

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62 thoughts on “Sine Die Open Thread”

  1. it will gradually become clear that the minority had a pretty good session, both in the house and the senate.  The squeaky wheels, particularly in the Senate, managed to accomplish much of their agenda and monkeywrench the majority on a great deal of theirs.  Often very very publicly.

    Kudos to Mike May and Josh Penry for doing a helluva job.

        1. anyone dust for finger prints at the site of the attempted Pinnacol burglary?

          anyone notice the bloated state salaries (I’m talkin management here) and their bloated PERA pensions. They come no where near those seen by private sector managers?

          ah, not to worry we have billions, I say billions, in bailout money headed to Colorado.

                  1. … “even with Pera perks” … brother you need to question just who and how many people (mid management to front line management) get 50-80% of their base pay at retirement when their salaries are no where near the states.

                    Comparing the Guv, AG, Treasurers salary to the top 100 Colorado executives would be a fair assessment.

                    Comparing low end managers to the top 100 is way off base.

                    In terms of your outrage for really wealthy people, you should support a general asset tax for anyone with more the $100 million in worldwide assets. I know that would catch hedge fund owners like Soros and billionaire offspring like Stryker … but think of the redistribution outcomes that could be achieved.

                    1. CDOT is a billion-dollar organization. In comparison to hospital directors or similarly-situated managers (in terms of assets and employees), their retirement base pay plus their organizational pay during their time in office doesn’t compare. Not even close.

                      My outrage for really wealthy people…haha. I actually support a strengthening of the estate tax that exempts farms worth up to $15 million.  I don’t have any problem with the wealthy like Warren Buffett, who built his own company. I don’t think that someone should be worth billions just because their sperm was the fastest.

                      Add a couple more levels to the progressive tax structure and you’ll have me on board. I do think that 95% of people should pay lower taxes. Remember when Coolidge increased the highest tax rate to 90% (on all income over 100 million, I believe). Drop taxes for those making under $50,000 a year to 3-4%. Eliminate deductions. Simplify the system.

                      Asset taxes discourage investment. You should know that. Your penchant for hyperbole just reinforces your hackery.  

            2. is not working out so well for Rs in DC or Denver. Opposing without offering substantial alternatives begins to sound too much like impotent whining and the voting public gets tired of it. So my advice, as a Dem:  Please stick with it.  

  2. Student-loan program on chopping block

    To save $94 billion

    the Obama administration wants to end a program that guarantees student loans, but its supporters are fighting back.

    Lenders and schools in Colorado are fighting to save a program that once accounted for more than 80 percent of federal student loans in the state.

    The Obama administration has put the Federal Family Education Loan Program on the chopping block in the upcoming federal budget.

    Eliminating the program, which guarantees student loans that banks, Sallie Mae and state-affiliated student lending arms such as CollegeInvest provided, could save taxpayers $94 billion over 10 years in lower costs and higher interest income, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. ……

    http://www.denverpost.com/ci_1…

    What say you posters? Screw it just terminate the Dept of Ed?

    Imagine the rage you’d see posted here if Bruce Benson, Tim Foster, Kay Norton or Joe Blake proposed terminating a subsidy like this?

    1. It’s not eliminate the loans, it’s have all the loans run directly through the federal government. The 94b is what is saved while providing the same level of loans to students.

      It’s a win-win-lose. The students win (more money for loans). The taxpayers win (94b saved). The private loan companies lose (no more guaranteed profit).

          1. Interestingly I didn’t see Benson’s name in the article, just some Colorado Department of Higher Ed person.

            Why won’t Secretary Skaggs come out of the closet on this, is he afraid to oppose Obama?

    2. Too many crazies.

      This might explain why some schools oppose it

      The student loan industry is ripe with greed, arrogance, and corruption. The Sallie Mae CEO has taken nearly a half billion dollars personally as a middleman. He now owns three mansioned estates (annapolis, MD / Harwood, MD / Naples, FL), one with a private 18 hole golf course – although an old photo and the golf course is still under construction, you can see where taxpayer subsidy dollars go via Google Maps at coordinates 38??51’38.52″N, 76??40’4.47″W

      Sallie Mae owns two private jets – they used to own three. The jets are tail numbered N50FD and N188AK.

      You can see these jets at the following links:

      http://www.airliners.net/photo… … 0523432/L/

      http://www.airliners.net/photo… … 0841982/M/

      That is where the taxpayer subsidies are going, private golf courses and private jets.

      When a FFELP loan defaults, the taxpayer pays nearly twice the amount of the loan. Sallie Mae is allowed to attach fees, penalties, and crank the interest rate up to above credit card rates. After a period, they capitalize those fees, penalties, and interests and put the loan to the taxpayer for payoff. So, a 20k loan becomes more than 40k cost to the taxpayer. In the direct program, the 40k might still be the receivable, but it does not effect cash flow as we see with the middlemen involved. Why are we funding this madness?

      Let’s not forget the corruption that the subsidies fund. The following student aid administrators got into more than a little hot water for taking kickbacks and other inducements from the student loan industry – most lost their jobs:

      Ellen Frishberg – Johns Hopkins

      Catherine Thomas – USC

      David Charlow – Columbia

      Lawrence Burt – University of Texas

      Walter Cathie – Widener University

      Tim Lehmann – Capella University

      Daniel Pinch – Emerson College

      In 2008, more than 100 Universities were under investigation for more than 90% of their FFELP loans going to one provider. The notion that there is competition in this “market” is ridiculous – the student loan companies pay or induce schools for preferred lender status resulting in nearly all loans at any one school going to one provider. In the above instances, those inducements were to the administrators themselves. From “School as Lender” to call centers to printing – the inducements to schools are great and the payoffs for the middlemen even greater.

      Of course, some in congress receive so much cash from the student loan industry, they will try to derail this improvement. Particularly, Buck McKeon and John Boehner receive the most from the student loan industry. Buck and Boehner have been the champions of the industry for years and are responsible for much of the elimination of competition and stripping of consumer protections for student loans – all to the benefit of the middlemen lenders. There are no student loan companies in Buck or Boehner’s districts and no meaningful employment by student lenders in those districts. This is pure pay for play.

  4. Thank goodness the GA doesn’t meet year round.

    Thank goodness its sine die!

    I’m drinking – beginning at lunch and not stopping until Elvis has left the building.

  5. “We are Mesa County, we aren’t the city of Mesa, and I believe in a bit more freedoms,” Meis said. “I’m just a conservative. I want government the hell out of my life.”

  6. .

    I think the new President has done a good job of laying out the challenges faced,

    and charting a course to fixing them:

    http://somalitalkradio.com/200…

    Whats more, I think he deserves our support.

    Did you like Bush’s war of choice in Iraq ?

    Well, if we act now, we won’t have to deal with a parallel situation in the Horn of Africa.

    Stay the course we’re currently on, and Obama too gets to campaign as a “War President.”

    .

      1. .

        you may be on the “carnivore” list,

        meaning that any of your attempts to contact suspicious sites is fed through a wiretapping process that can bog the transmission down.  Do you happen to be a right wing-nut extremist that DHS considers to be a terrorist threat ?

        The CIA funds a couple of radio stations in Somalia, but I don’t think this is one of them, so contacting this station would be suspicious.  

        Its a 19-page pdf, outlining the plans of the new president of Puntland, Farole, who was elected in January 2009.  

        Puntland is the “autonomous state” that most of the pirate attacks are launched from.  

        I can email it to you, but I don’t have your address.  I can be reached at Stabilize_Iraq @t yahoo.dot communist.

        While it is nominally addressed to the people of Puntland, it looks to be written for consumption by Americans and Europeans (are Japanese considered European ?)

        It makes a pretty good case for investing in development rather than increased militarization,

        and for investing in the parts of Somalia that are relatively stable (Puntland and Somaliland,) not just in the ungoverned expanses where the Islamists and warlords are duking it out.

        There was a donor conference in Brussels last month.  They raised Euro 200 M.  It is earmarked 66% for African Union troops to protect the imaginary “National Unity Government” (TFG) and 34% for training security forces for the same TFG.  

        With 1/3 of the population of Somalia proper (within the marked borders of the “country” Somalia) actually living in Puntland, and another 1/3 in Somaliland, these independent regions are trying to get a fair share of the booty.  

        .

        1. and gotten me off whatever list, as I am now able to view the document in question. I happen to have an interest in Puntland (“Fourth down and JO with 10 to go….”) so I shall read it with interest. Thanks.

          Meantime, my information–or misinformation, as the case may be– is that in 2002 the U.S. based about 800 troops at Camp Lemonier (aka Le Monier, or just Monier when you’re in a hurry) on the site of a former French base by the same name, comprising about 55 acres; and that in in 2006 the U.S. and Djibouti agreed to a five-year lease that expanded the base to almost 500 acres and doubled the number of U.S. troops stationed there. Nice income stream for a country most folks think is in the Newborns and Infants Department at Macy’s.

          But I believe you’re right that no one in East Africa is straining to jump to the head of the queue to get U.S. troops stationed on their territory first (though I suspect a few American Special Force accents can be found in Ethiopia).

          [Technicality of “lease” vs “base” not entirely material to the discussion, admittedly; suggest file under “Nah nah na nah nah”–OR under “JO got it wrong again” (thin file, I know, but…). One of those details, though, either way, that people later ask: “How come no one told us????”]

    2. Wouldn’t want ignorance of what you’re talking about prevent a comment, of course!

      Establishment of the Africa Command in 2007 didn’t seem to generate too much publicity at the time, nor did expansion of US base in Djibouti.

      It raises the question about the extent to which Obama is determined to steer U.S. foreign policy in a different direction post-Iraq, post-Cold War. Certainly I don’t get much sense of that from his SoS; and the fact that he stuck with Gates at the Pentagon might also be counted as evidence of a good deal more continuity that one would wish.

      Is there a Stealth Policy behind the Public Persona? I’d hate to sober up this early in the day.

      [Incidentally, you’re an asshole, a dick, diarrhetic vomitic, and a hunka nuthin’ if you’re tempted to criticize or disagree with anything I have said, am saying, or will say in the future–just to make that clear and get it out of the way at the outset.]

      1. .

        The US doesn’t really have a base in Djibouti.  We lease a portion of the base that the French Foreign Legion has at Camp Lemonier.  

        In fact, in 2006 – 07, the US military went asking our friends and allies in Africa for a piece of land upon which to build the headquarters for US Africa Command.  

        The official DoD position is that every nation we asked said NO, afraid of a return to the colonialism of the last century.  I suspect that some were willing, but we found the price (in terms of propping up tyrants) was too high.  

        AFRICOM is based, for the time being, in Stuttgart, Germany.  Well, at least that’s closer to its assigned AOR (Area of Responsibility) than Tampa-St. Pete is to Iran.  Central Command has its official headquarters at McDill AFB, Florida.  

        I’ve recently been in contact with AFRICOM officials, offering to help arrange a facility in the AOR, and they’ve asked me to butt out.  I’ll bet they’ve got a secret plan.  

        .

      2. .

        saying that he thought the Clintonesque triangulation on these unwinnable wars was coopting the far left war opponents, while bringing conservative war supporters into the fold.  

        Four more Wars !

        .

  7. Looks like Obama waffled again.  His administration is NOT going to go after Bush on criminal charges for torture.

    I as a multiple personality disorder person am outraged that we elected Obama to get even with these people and he is refusing to do so.

      1. What happened to your little blog?  Either your local paper kicked your link off of their site or you finally threw in the towel.  Which is it?  Did you get fired or did you quit?

            2. His local paper used to carry a link.  But they apparently decided carrying his link next to the dozen or so other blog links was in poor taste.

    2. Can you post a link to show that the Obama administration was going to

      going to go after Bush on criminal charges for torture.

      Ha ha ha ha.  Just kidding I know you can’t.

      You can’t back up anything you post.  

      1. Despite Obama’s earlier statements that “the administration” wants to put torture behind us (if only we could!), he lacks the authority to call the attorney general off any prosecutions. That’s what the Bush administration got into some trouble for, excessive interference in DOJ prosecutions by the White House. So in spite of the lies of Michael Dorsett, this is neither decided yet nor anything Obama can decide.

        1. Translation:  He passed the buck.  Obama couldn’t handle the heat so he did what he always does – passes it off on someone else because he can’t handle the heat.

          1. That is how the executive branch is set up.

            I know you’re not used to Presidents actually following the letter of the law, but you’ll eventually grow accustomed to it over the next 8 years.

              1. If you were, you would realize that CT’s name is actually a clever pun.

                I think it’s time to switch sock puppets again. This one is getting a little old.

                  1. from the part of the state with the resources but not the votes.  And those we have we squander on people like Laura Bradford and Craig Meis.  

              2. If you were really from Colorado, you would understand Club’s screen name and wouldn’t be making childish remarks about it. And yes, you don’t understand how the federal government works, but thanks for pretending to.

                1. I know how government is supposed to work under the constitution.  But, ok, under Obama I am among the millions that have no clue how it is going to work.  Perhaps you can enlighten us.  Or, maybe we have to look to Stalin to understand this “new” government.

                  Go figure.

  9. from CNN

    Rush Limbaugh fired back at Colin Powell for his critical comments earlier this week, saying Wednesday that the former secretary of state should join the Democratic Party.

    “What Colin Powell needs to do is close the loop and become a Democrat instead of claiming to be a Republican interested in reforming the Republican Party,” Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday.

    Apparently speaking ill of Rush is grounds for being kicked out of the party.

      1. …that makes him worse than H1N1 with the “real” Republican Party.

        I wonder if he thought he could restore some sanity to the Repubs….he’s probably thinking about taking the Fat Drug Addict’s advice.

      2. If his wife hadn’t been afraid he would be assassinated, he probably would have beat Bill Clinton.

        You could probably say the same thing about John McCain too, and he was the nominee.

  10. The group of people who state their religious preference as “none” historically has been very small — hovering between 5 percent and 10 percent. However, new survey [in link below] says the percentage of “nones” has now skyrocketed to between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans.

    The nones outnumber the nuns, evidently. Could yet another myth about Maine-stream thinking be biting the dusty trail, riding off into the sunset, or whatever? http://abcnews.go.com/Politics…

     

  11. Hi;

    Please do not answer after 7:00am 5/7 (Thursday morning).

    I’m interviewing the head of the SBA here tomorrow morning. Any suggested big picture questions for him?

    thanks – dave

    1. .

      One aspect of the SBA mission, not the only one, is federal contracts.  Maybe one of these piques your interest.  I don’t need an answer to any of these, but I thought this might help you prep.  

      I don’t know anything about their loan programs, having been laughed out of their office the only time I tried to apply.  But that might be the area most people are interested in.

      ……………

      In 2004-05, a rumor went around that there would be a new preference program for GLBT-owned small businesses.  Is that in the works ?  

      In 2005, there was a rumor that SBA was going to set government-wide goals for percent of business (dollars) awarded to Woman-owned small businesses.  There are percentage goals for Veteran-owned (3%,) 8(a) (5%,)and all Small Businesses (26%.)

      Those are based on the numbers of businesses owned by the different groups.  Well, women own something like 30% of all businesses.    Any new developments on that front ?

      In early 2009, DOD sent out a memo http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/po… saying to stop using race-based preferences for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  I’m not sure, but it may have also applied to “Small Disadvantaged Businesses,” which used to mean minority-owned small businesses.  This was based on a decision of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas.  Is that going to be applied to the rest of federal agencies ?

      With Ted Stevens gone, is there any chance of rolling back the scam where multi-billion dollar enterprises that are owned by Alaskan Native Corporations are allowed to get contracts set-aside for small business in the 8(a) program ?  

      SBA defines “small business” by some size standards published by the Department of Commerce.  As it now stands, in some industries, a company can have an annual turnover of $200 Million and still be considered small.  They can have 1500 employees and still be considered small.  

      The SBA mostly helps what I would consider mid-sized companies.

      Any chance of any new program specifically set up to help businesses that are actually small (what SBA has sometimes called “microbusinesses ?”)

      .

    2. Does he love his children?

      How many daughters does he have? If he doesn’t have three, does he wish he did?

      Is he really interested in his work?

      How dedicated is he to public service? Does he put in long hours?

      Does he believe small business fuels the economy?

      Does he follow political blogs? Has he read any of your other interviews?

      Is he grateful you’re taking the time to interview him? How grateful?

      Are there some things he really hopes to accomplish?

      If he were a tree, what kind would it be?

      3. Does he exclusively run free software written by volunteers in their spare time on his agency’s computer(s)? How about his personal computer at home?

        Does he rely on amateur volunteers to run his office? How long does will it be until he does so?

        Does he agree that a CEO can do any damn thing without training or practice, single-handedly?

        Does he prefer it when interviewers ask easy questions, or when they don’t ask any questions at all?

        Does he eat marshmallows right out of he bag, or melted on the end of a stick?

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