CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
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60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
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State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
October 30, 2011 05:28 AM UTC
60 Comments
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I cannot tell you how impressed I was with Congressman Ed Perlmutter at the demonstration. That guy has chutzpah like I’ve never seen before, trying to mediate a potential riot. Five and a half feet of raw courage. Seriously. I think knowing he was there gave both sides a little hope. Bravo, Congressman!
I also heard Senator Carroll went down after the Women’s Summit and personally talked to some of the protesters. If all of our legislators were like these two, people wouldn’t need to riot in the streets. (I can’t wait until the first GOP legislator joins them.)
Your participation and presence are very much appreciated.
Should it be so difficult to arrest two people out of the hundreds without the mace and bullets? Really, crowd control doesn’t need to turn into violence. Isolate the crazy bastards quickly, and my guess is that the huge majority of folks will continue on with their peaceful protest.
The government you’re longing for isn’t reality however. Who has more influence over the press, the government, the police? I don’t think it’s the 99%’s.
Check out Wade’s diary, too. He has some fantastic photos.
You put most of the news media to shame with your on the ground prospective.
Kudos to Perlmutter and Carroll. I hope they embarrass their colleagues in the statehouse, city hall and congress into paying attention.
The paper paper quotes him here: http://www.denverpost.com/brea…
For those who don’t know John, he is the new Chair of Arapahoe County Democrats. He has been donating his work as an attorney to the movement, as well as helping when needed in the crowd as a former (20 year)paramedic. John was the guy who helped a woman who passed out from heat exhaustion at the Obama event a couple months back. No sooner than she fell, he called for a stretcher and put her on it. Great guy. Proud to call him “friend”.
on Occupy. Is there some insider status that could be jeopordized? Is it just another fleeting issue distracting from fundraising numbers and redistricting?
Well, at least they’ll promote good reports like Nancy’s.
Obviously, Pols promoting this post is a headfake to further their goal of helping The Man crush Occupy Denver.
Wankers.
So soon after media coverage highlighted Denver police and their comparatively calm responses to protests. They just HAD to prove that they can still shoot unarmed protesters with rubber bullets, I guess!
Today the Occupy Denver Facebook admins have started a discussion about the importance of non-violence. The protesters are concerned that there may be agent provocateurs trying to pass as occupiers and calling for violent reactions to this confrontation. Kudos to Occupy for, as a movement with very little defined leadership, managing nonetheless to show strong leadership here. It must be very challenging to keep a group calm that now has to fear outright violence from police. Occupy is securing its place in history not just by occupying public spaces, but by the reactions they provoke from government.
I am not sure that they were agent provocateurs. I have not been to the protests, but the protests have come to me in the form of two protesters shoplifting from a store I was working at. One of them was extremely provocative. It seems to me that the protests have attracted some people who think the way to fix things is to smash capitalism and the way for that to happen is to provoke the police or other agents of “corporate fascists” like me into doing something stupid. The officer who showed up to ticket them bent over backwards trying not to take them to jail and did manage to get the right information to let them go with just a citation and a court date.
They could be plants, certainly, but I suspect they are not. When there is a big diverse crowd of people there is going to be a variety of opinions about things like non-violence.
Also, while this seems new, it sounds exactly like the sort of thing I would overhear from people on the bus in Boulder 15 years ago. All corporations are evil, modern society, steal from them to destroy the system, etc, etc.
You will see that they are not at all like that. Yes they deeply mistrust the economic system, and there are a few anarchists in the group (who the organizers told me had been met with a lot of reticence by people who felt they would taint the group’s message, but then had won support by being calm, kind, and nonviolent) but overall they are not at all “smash everything” types. There are certainly people piggybacking on the movement to justify bad acting (as in the Tea Party) but the people committed to being out there every day and participating in the organization and democratic (small d) leadership are not violent or hateful. They are angry, but they are channeling it productively.
I expected a lot less organization and a lot more inarticulate anger. When I went down there, I was pleasantly surprised.
Wasn’t there yesterday, but my family has been a part of a couple of the Saturday protests. We’re an average middle class family of a mom, dad and two kids. One Saturday we made a “date” with a couple and their 11 year old to go down there together. We gave our bench standing spot to two elderly couples in their 70’s or maybe 80’s so they could sit. We saw people of all ages (babies, kids, teens, college students, adults and seniors), different races/ethnicities, all economic strata from homeless to the Lexus drivers honking with thumbs up and yes, a small handful of folks who seem like they’re looking for trouble, but they are the 1% of the crowd – 99% are a really broad representation of Denver residents.
Admittedly I was not there earlier when the guy was apparently shot out of a tree with rubber bullets (and I heard tear gas used), but when I got there it was basically a mix of regular people who were basically standing there fairly quietly with a few signs. The crowd consisted of some students, some professionals, some unemployed people, some homeless people. An NLG observer told me that the riot team came in after about 9 tents were erected (no one living in them or staying overnight) but instead used to display political messages such as “we are the 99%”. Given that I think illegal municipal camping is essentially a $50 fine, I am unsure why it triggered such a bevy of police presence. They were lined up in rows as far as the eye could see with plastic shields and riot gear. I think at minimum this is a poor use of public resources and may have crossed into active intimidation of people trying to exercise their 1st Amendment rights.
Trust you to say what you saw without spin or …hype.
do not show some interest in the reasons for the Occupy protests, and do not show some interest and ability to engage in a dialogue about those issues, it will smack them in the face in the long run. (I wasn’t going to use this imagery, but law enforcement has already smacked a number of people in the face with rubber bullets, so why not.)
There may not be any way (yet) to determine if the Occupiers are being purposefully sabotaged, or if it’s just some individual crazies who are trying to provoke violence. However, most of us would not be at all surprised if we learn there is sabotage occurring.
I continue to be amazed that so few elected officials (state legislators, members of Congress, and others) have the guts to speak up on the issue of our economic disaster, poverty, homelessness, the disappearing middle class. I know my state Rep and state Senator have been totally silent as far as I can determine. Senator Carroll and Congressman Perlmutter are hugely appreciated for their interest and involvement. If there are others, we’d like to know who they are.
The west’s Bernie Sanders. (Morgan, I hope you don’t mind me making that comparison.)
The west’s Bernie Sanders. (Morgan, I hope you don’t mind me making that comparison.)
Sen. Carroll,
You probably have more of the Governor’s and Mayor’s ear than most… Other cities have reacted to the Occupy movement with actual understanding and co-operation, deploying porta-potties instead of riot police. If the city and state spent the time making sure the protest encampment was clean and orderly rather than kicking it out, they’d save money and perhaps learn something about why the crowds remain there…
Instead, I have to say going to these weekly rallies and seeing squads of riot police makes the protesters feel they’re in a hostile environment – it drives up the edginess of the crowd and shuts down dialog.
I was thinking the same thing yesterday — the exaggerated para-military feeling just made formerly calm protestors anxious. Combine that with the fact many of them are unemployed men in their twenties, and the state is deliberately creating a very volatile situation.
Hickenlooper needs advisors with social work degrees rather than poli sci or business degrees, IMHO. He doesn’t seem to know how to respond to any of this publicly, so he doesn’t. Violence on either side makes this situation potentially more dangerous.
“Hickenlooper needs advisors with social work degrees rather than poli sci or business degrees, IMHO. He doesn’t seem to know how to respond to any of this publicly, so he doesn’t. Violence on either side makes this situation potentially more dangerous.”
Does the Guv have zero understanding of human behavior, group dynamics, on top of his lack of understanding of the issues?
If nothing else the Guv is missing a giant opportunity to be a standout leader – I assume because he just doesn’t get it.
to peaceably assemble for all our citizens.
Our police seem to have forgotten who they are protecting.
🙂
Perhaps you are thinking of Terrance Carroll, former Speaker of the House?
My admiration for you continues unabated.
Even before today I held Ed Perlmutter and Morgan Carroll in the highest regard. And this adds to my respect for both.
But they are very rare examples. The majority of Democrats we’ve elected are doing their damnedest to continue business as usual. Most of the funds shoveled to Wall St. was done so under a Democratic administration and Congress. It’s a Democratic administration that has not prosecuted the law-breaking there.
Electing Democrats is not the answer. We did that in ’08 and what changed? Yes the Dems we’ve elected suck less, but they still suck pretty bad and they’re not going to address the fundamental problems we face.
ps – And to the Denver Police – you had to take someone out of a tree by shooting him repeatedly? I guess that’s why they call the fire department instead of you when a cat is stuck in a tree.
The reason we are where we are is because every time we elected Republicans, they moved to the Right, and Democrats moved to the Right to match.
Since our system punishes third party support unless it’s immediately overwhelming, the best bet really is to elect more Democrats, and then better Democrats. Push the Overton Window back toward the vital center where it used to be by moving the Democratic Party back toward the Left, until we wind up more or less in the center of the political spectrum again, because at present this country’s political “center” seems to be to the right of Ronald Reagan. At this the Republicans have been brilliant.
That our democracy is no longer capable of representing all of us. And they have a valid argument. If tis is the case then electing democrats that are equally owned by Wall St isn’t going to fix anything.
I think between the tea party and OWS we may see some fundamental change forced upon the system. And this may be the only way because the existing system is so corrupted by bundled campaign donations that it is not going to reform itself.
The media exaggerated their numbers. I know, I’ve been to most of the rallies in the last five years. (Check out my hundred+ facebook photo albums of Colorado rallies. I don’t want to buy a photo site membership so I use fb.)
We have a Federal election coming up in just over a year. Do you think OWS can come up with experienced pols who know how to run a campaign, for enough races to really shake up Congress and/or the White House in one year?
Like the Tea Party, OWS may best be able to influence the current political scheme but in the opposite direction. The chances of it finding enough leaders with enough polish to impress voters and take over Congress are IMHO somewhere between slim and none.
doesn’t have leaders. On the other hand, their issues are not very hard to articulate and when they say they speak for the 99%, that’s not much of an exaggeration. I think we’re going to see candidates pop up all over the country that take their direction from OWS instead of the DLC.
Hell, it wouldn’t be surprising to see city council races mobbed by people walking directly from an Occupy General Assembly to clerks offices to register as candidates.
But, of course, switching to IRV requires a couple of things… First, you need to get either the various state legislatures or the Congress on board; the major parties (probably Republicans more than Democrats) don’t want a system that could potentially disrupt their positions. Second, because of HAVA, you need to have a certified electronic balloting system that supports IRV; last time I think anyone looked, there weren’t any.
BTW, thanks for reminding me. By law, SOS Gessler was supposed to produce a report on any statewide implementation of IRV or other ranked choice voting systems. I believe it was supposed to be produced back in February. Anyone know if it’s been published? If not, I think I might call up his office and find out about it. (As background, the state under Dem majority actually did pass a law stating that local elections could be run via IRV, but unless I’m mistaken only Aspen tried it, and they reversed course.)
Democracy is hard work.
n/t
If we elect the Democrats that will refuse to dwell in the hip pocket of Wall Street…but we can also elect Independents and Capital R Republicans, as long as they refuse to dance the Wall Street Shuffle.
You have heard of Buddy Roemer…yes?
I’m grateful to Ernest Luning who left the Women’s Summit to check on the Occupy rally, prompting a bunch of us to follow him (including Rep. Perlmutter).
If you don’t know Ernest, you should. He knows what’s going on everywhere… on both sides of the aisle.
Between elected officials and the public. We had dozens of bills at the local level that could have and would have made a difference on the very issues central to the protest, but people don’t have an easy way of finding out what we are working on — or when and how a particular bill may be connected to the larger themes of protecting people from unchecked greed; or trying to make lives a little easier during tough economic times. I believe very few to none of those bills were ever covered in the mainstream press. And of course most reform-oriented bills die without significant public support at the capitol.
The “banks” (aka Wall Street, the street, etc) blew it all up – and we saved them. Or the big ones anyway. No indictments. No clawback. No consequence.
What did they do for us? Well, not gratitude. Instead, they went right back to overleveraging any investment opportunity they could find, starting with the least risky- borrowing at 0% and buying US Treasuries at 4%. Now, a 4% spread doesn’t sound that great, but when you can leverage it 10x or 20X (or 60x like the mortgage secondary market did) all of sudden 40% or 80% sound pretty good. Not to mention 600%.
How about this:
100% of residential mortgage loans originated in Colorado must be serviced and held by the closing funder for 60 months.
Initially, the largest (TBTF) players would leave, and we’d all have to turn to the credit unions and community banks. (Oh, and btw, good for local jobs.) The playuhs would return when they realized it was still profitable – 40% or 50% is still attractive.
Sure the free market pretenders would wail and howl. But they’re not serious about a free market – or there would have been no bailouts.
Economic times are always tough.
And, solutions are mostly always the same.
Or at least they gaurante the loan.
I don’t think it kicks the TBTF lenders out, though – it just removes all the secondary players whose job it seems to be to issue a mortgage and then sell it out to the TBTF guys as soon as the ink is dry.
Oh – and it takes MERS out of the picture for 5 years, which can only be a Good Thing.
IRV is a good idea. It scares people though. Also, as you said, the complexities between HAVA, state law (DREs) and availability of certified machines makes it unlikely IRV will be showing up anytime soon.
This was a reply to your earlier thoughts on IRV.
I’m used to untangling the complexities of software code not necessarily well arranged; mentally relocating a response isn’t too taxing…
While much of banking law is federal there are some state policies pertaining to banks, credit unions, and mortgage practices which are clearly implicated here. Good ideas.
Also, Phoenix makes a good point about Gov & Mayor hearing from other elected officials and reminding people that there have been and are far better examples about how to treat the protestors as a whole and reserve police reaction for those who actually violate a law or jeopardize public safety.
I think the first questions you should ask them is why weren’t they out there? It’s their police after all.
last evening, and Hickenlooper was paying tribute to a fallen soldier in LaJunta (not confirmed). The dance was a fundraiser for Denver’s Cleo Parker Robinson dance studio. Cleo teaches dance and offers mentoring and inspiration to kids in Five Points and all over Denver.
Both noble activities. But today, they should be addressing this issue.
MADCO’s right
MADCO’s right
MADCO’s right
MADCO’s right?
I mean- good writing just works on so many levels.
It’s why you have to aim for the origination, closing and the real estate itself.
How is it that Texas can restrict cash out refinance?
Or Montgomery County MD can impose all their restrictions on mortgage lending? PA? HI? the list goes on – they cannot regulate the federally chartered banks, they grab some other piece of the transaction.
(See for example, CO title insurance providers and a former insurance commissioner who went after them.)
I am so impressed to hear about Ed… he is one of the best public servants I have had the pleasure to get to know. Not holding my breath for any Repubs to head over.
This has moved beyond what the protestors are protesting to the right to protest itself.
Watching the police shoot a cameraman out of a tree with a weapon of some type, run down a protestor in a police vehicle (and then charge him with assaulting a police officer) and using overhand strikes to the head of a protestor(which is considered deadly force), I am deeply disturbed.
Some of the protestors are a little edgy, the vast majority are not and a show of force pushes a crowd toward the edgier element.
Poor leadership from the Governor, Mayor and their public safety teams.
I think most of the police were using restraint too. You get 1000 emotional people together, and there will be a few crazies on either side — it doesn’t matter much what caused them to gather.
We need experienced, older, calmer, activists to come down and teach the kids who are staying overnight different non-violent techniques. More Ghandi, less Guerrilla.
peter “hard on for the police” boyles is all over the confrontation on Saturday; saying that the occupiers pushed over the motorcycle cop and that led to the police response.
What is to note, here, is that boyles is citing “violence” from the occupiers all over the country…suggesting that this is a
coordinated effort and provoking the cops was deliberate.
My prediction: This will be the theme from rosen to limbaugh all day on talk radio…. Attention: Jason
What I find frightening is the possibility that the police moving in on occupiers all over the country is the “coordinated” effort.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opi…
Don’t think it can happen in Denver?
but I do think many more homeless people are joining the ranks, and some of them are “colorful” characters, to say the least. I mean no disrespect to them — it makes sense for them to go where there are other people around who may let them warm up a little in a tent, and people are dropping off free pizzas and water bottles. I have found the people who stay overnight every night to be a much different crowd than the two thousand people who drive in from the suburbs for noon marches on Saturdays. What everyone shares is a sense that they have followed the rules and still feel “screwed” by the system.
Perlmutter: “Please stop embarrassing us Democrats! We need you to counter the Tea Party, not crap on the grass and knock cops off motorcycles!”
For more on Occupy Denver, see http://twitter.com/RickStrandlof – their spokesman. Did you notice that people have tried to warn your precious anarchists about Strandlof, and now they defend him?
Circling the drain…
He was when he was Coffman’s Favorite Important Vet poser, and he was when he tagged along after Democrats. He was mentally ill when he pretended to be a Rabbinic scholar, and he still is now that he is posing as an activist.
Aside from picking on the mentally ill, taking away Social Security and Medicare from the most vulunerable people in our community, and taking food and books away from school children, don’t you Republicans have anything fun to do on Halloween, AGOP?
Look, the guy rubs me the wrong way on Twitter, too. He doesn’t take responsibility for his past actions and accuses anyone who brings them up of bullying. He takes refuge in religion to put his own critics on a lower moral ground, since how can one question God’s forgiveness without seeming like a shithead? He’s a jerk.
But he’s a jerk who is obviously severely mentally ill, to the point where he may not even understand why people mistrust him or why his past actions were wrong. I am not a psychologist and won’t attempt to diagnose him, but I agree with Nancy that there is something deeply and obviously wrong with him that is apparent in a single conversation. I’ve had multiple interactions with him in which I didn’t know his history (one before he was exposed, one as “Rick S.” after he was exposed) and there is an apparent detachment from reality that is very indicative of mental illness in the context of his history and choices.
One can judge a person by how he treats those he has every reason to despise. There is, in fact, every reason to despise Rick Strandlof. He has done appalling things, deceived everyone who ever tried to help him in his “veteran” persona, and taken support and funding away from legitimate veterans’ causes. However, just like every other person with mental illness, he deserves better than to be used as your political pawn. He is ill and likely has no access to comprehensive psychiatric care. Pray that you never find yourself in the same position–I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It is shameful that you continue to hammer on this imagined “spokesperson” point when your chosen straw man has identified himself voluntarily, in writing, as mentally ill.
I have a first cousin close to me who has suffered from mental illness her whole life. And I think she is a wonderful person.
But among many other things, I do not take political advice from her. Strandlof, on the other hand, not only fancies himself as a big player in this Occupy “insurrection,” but a significant number of his fellow Occupiers apparently reward, encourage and defend that. That’s like supporting my cousin to run for president. I love her, but that would be a catastrophe, for her and also for my reputation.
In short, the Occupiers have no control over their message or their composition, and so it has become a refuse of the lowest common denominator. I pity people who don’t have the sense to find a toilet or go inside when it’s 20 degrees and they don’t have a coat. I pity my cousin and, although I find what he represents repugnant, I pity Rick Strandlof.
I trust none of them to run this country.
They don’t need your damned pity…they need your help.
I don’t understand your words, “your precious anarchists”. Who exactly are you referring to? Anarchists do not belong to either party, in fact, those I have met say they reject both major parties.