Thanksgiving Thoughts on the 2010 Election: Post-Election Gratitude
They said it couldn't be done. They said 2010 was going to be the anti-incumbent year, when conservatives would sweep the Senate and House races in every state, all over the nation. Together, we proved them wrong in CO. We not only elected a Democratic Senator, but a Democratic Governor. We retained some Democratic members of Congress, as well. Not every race was a win, and we did get out butts kicked in many local races, but still, we have much to celebrate.
The Bennet race was watched all over the nation, and will become one for the history books. Something magical happened in CO.
What a surprise. When the revelations about the rape case first came out, the newspapers told us that the call where the rapist admitted the rape couldn't be used in court. I challenged this assertion at the time http://www.coloradopols.com/sh...
Nobody wanted to believe me, the Buck apologists challenged me and the media didn't do its' job in checking this out.
Time and again, Ken Buck has sided with big business over Colorado families. Now, Buck argues that healthcare reform should be repealed and he has provided only vague details on keeping healthcare affordable for working families.
During the October 15 ABC/Chamber of Commerce debate, ABC news correspondent Jake Tapper pushed Buck to provide real details of his healthcare proposal. His response? Scary at best.
During the primary I was always clear I supported Andrew Romanoff. Frustrated as I was to see him lose to Michael Bennet I said I would vote for Bennet because we need to hold the seat. But as I watch more of his arrogance and identity crisis I'm rethinking whether I can vote for the guy. Would he be better than Buck on the issues I care about? If I believe what he said while being challenged in a primary, yes. If I watch what he did before and after that, I don't know. Way better on some critical issues, maybe not much different on a lot of others.
Is it better to have a Dem in office who will vote with the party most of the time (or at least when he thinks people are watching) but has shown he'll side with big banks and others to do their bidding and water down meaningful reform OR is it better to have a rightwing nut who will be in the minority and give us somebody to rally around defeating next go around. Somebody I think will sell out every progressive value once he has no more need for our support or somebody who is very public about opposing most of what I believe?
I'd like to hear from some of the other former Romanoff supporters about if you're voting for Bennet and why or why not.
I know this is not what liberals have come to expect from journalism or even more so rape survivors. However, I think we can all agree that Ken Buck has empowered this strong woman to attempt to make the best out of a terrible situation. This is the Ken Buck all of us in Weld County have come to learn and now fully support, not the one portrayed in the desperate nasty misleading attack ads.
Well at least the nasty Bennet attack ads have led to some good, Ms. Corban decided to come forward because she was so tired of seeing her hero falsely slandered.
Please check this out and spread the word of the true Ken Buck.
Despite his concerted effort to run from his supervillian alter ego "Rubberstamp Man" Michael Bennet's secret identity has finally been revealed by none other than the FLOTUS herself!
"We're going to need people like Michael" Bennet sayeth the FLOTUS.
Why would the appointed senator need a secret identity you ask? Well, it appears that he has learned during his tenure in Washington that the people of Colorado have buyers remorse over the Obama Presidency (see, Obama approval ratings in the State http://www.rasmussenreports.co...
In a state where we have 460,000 veterans, with 4 major military installations heavily involved in two major wars (including the Colorado National Guard) the GOP nominee has yet to put out a single substantive statement on where he stands on National Security and Veterans issues.
Buck STILL does not have any comprehensive National Security or Veterans issues posted on his website, or as a press release. It's not surprising, since he JUST formed a Veterans advisory committee (consisting of ONE Veteran) and is still casting about for support from the veterans community. His first "Meet and Greet" with Veterans was Monday. No announcement of policy was made at that event.
Well, let me clarify that - he did suck up to the Tea Party by stating that he would privatize the VA:
Buck: "Would a Veterans Administration hospital that is run by the private sector be better run then by the public sector? In my view, Yes."
Look, On Oct 1, our nation will begin fiscal year 2010. My predications, I could be wrong here, is that the House and Senate will get absolutely nothing done on the budget. I am not a pessimist but a realist, when I say and predict there will be no way Congress will have a budget in place by then. I seriously doubt that lame duck Senator Bennet or any of the Senate will have even the simplest of appropriations even completed.
My point is from past experience both Ken Buck n' Senator Michael Bennet haven't done too well with their responsible budgets. Whether, it is as Superintendent of Denver Pubic Schools or DA of Weld County. But that isn't really the point I am trying to make. I mean who am I to judge, right now my checking account I believe is overdrawn, so if you say give me ten bucks it may get to zero. When I say I am the "little guy" I mean it.
So, for me, I understand that sometimes throwing "good money after bad" doesn't help. As in what our current adminstration has done, thrown a trillion at a trillion worth of debt.
Now, here's the point I want to make. Has the Buck N' Bennet show offered any real means or methods of "Fixing the economic mess?" Is it just me, or is this one of the major issues facing both Colorado and the USA? In fact, as I see it, it's a world problem. Its number one.
Look, I worked in Banking during the S&L crisis and I really don't want to go over all of that, no matter how similar it relates to our current crisis. The reason is, none of those matters now. I know that but these two don't even have a clue to what's going on or how to fix this mess.
What are they going to say, when people realize that 2011 will be the year of a 3.7 trillion budget deficit, and a national debt approaching 16 Trillion to boot? Your nose bleeding yet?
For me, I believe we can not only balance the budget in four years but we can also reverse our economic downturn in the process and start reducing our national debt load. I will release this plan say after Oct 4th. So, before I offer my solution, I am still trying to figure what these guys are even saying.
Lets do a fast recap, correct me if I am wrong, since some people, cough cough, have been changing their positions more times than a football team on the losing end of salary caps.
The following comes from the Denver Post, 8/22/2010, "Senate candidates Bennet, Buck trade accusations on economy, education" by Allison Sherry.
For Buck, he was about a balance budget amendment.
For Bennet, he fancy names his thing, "Deficit Reduction Act that would do something similar, to cap deficit at 3 percent of GDP with real enforcement mechanisms to lower spending."
Katherine Ferguson, legislative aide to Michael Bennett, said the Agriculture Department is broken.
Ms. Ferguson was on the panel at yesterday's Agriculture, Conservation and Rural Development Forum in Greeley. There were 48 attendees; four were farmers (harvest time).
One farmer complained that his disaster payments (SURE) were more than a year behind. Jonathan Coppess, an administrator with the Farm Service Agency, explained that reimbursements are based on that year's crop prices, normally delaying reimbursements 12 to 18 months.
Another farmer complained that Federal loan programs are so inflexible that she prefers to work with private banks. The private bank her sons had worked with collapsed and the rest have less money to lend and stricter criteria; despite a strong application her sons could not borrow money.
An unidentified woman stood to tell the farmers to quit their bellyaching. The rest of the audience quietly agreed.
