According to a scientist from NASA, we will have proof of alien life in less than 20 years; make your own joke. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).
TOP OF MIND TODAY…
► The State House will likely take a final vote on Colorado’s $25-26 billion proposed budget.
► Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul announced his campaign for President on Tuesday. As the Washington Post reports, things went downhill from there:
In a series of interviews after the freshman senator from Kentucky declared his candidacy on Tuesday, Paul turned prickly — briskly sidestepping tough foreign policy questions from one journalist, lecturing another on how to conduct an interview, and testily declining to clarify his position on abortion…
…the rocky media rollout of his presidential effort highlighted a key question facing him now: whether the same tough approach that has made him a favorite among tea party activists and libertarians might be limiting in a national campaign, as he looks to build a broader coalition rich with voters from beyond his base.
At least Paul still has hope that he can change Kentucky laws to allow him to simultaneously run for re-election to the U.S. Senate.
► Senate Republicans voted to kill a bill that would have stopped “Pray the Gay Away” pseudo-therapy sessions for kids in Colorado. Yesterday, President Obama denounced the idea of “gay conversion.”
Get even more smarter after the jump…
SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…
► Republican Rep. Mike Coffman claims to have already made a charitable donation of $20,000 worth of campaign contributions from former Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock.
► Former gun dealer pawn shop owner Gregory Golyansky is thankful that Sen. Laura Waters Woods is sponsoring legislation to change procedures for court-appointed receivers. This is a terrible idea, of course, which is how Sen. Woods got involved.
► Attorney General Cynthia Coffman issued an opinion on Wednesday that says parents are not required to be notified by schools prior to taking a health and behavior survey. That sound you hear is Sen. Tim Neville’s head exploding.
► A federal banking official will meet with Colorado pot shop owners to discuss…banking stuff.
► Kentucky Republican Rand Paul leads Democrat Hillary Clinton in a new Presidential poll of Colorado voters. Don’t get too excited either way — this was a Quinnipiac University poll, after all.
► You may soon have to stop using explosive gases to make hash oil at home if legislation being heard in the State House advances. Frankly, you should consider not using explosive gases in your home in general.
► Republican-aligned business groups in Colorado are mad that legislators are considering a couple of new bills that would benefit workers.
OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK
► Alamosa County is the first Colorado county with more brown people than white people…or what researchers maddeningly call “majority minority populations.” Or is it “minority majority?”
► Ft. Collins saw record voter turnout for Tuesday’s municipal elections. That’s what happens when lots of outside money starts pouring into local races.
► Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry weighs in on potential rate increases for RTD:
The problem is finding a way to pay for and improve mass transit in the metro area while keeping it cheap enough to lure riders, and keep the public service affordable to people who really need it, rather than choose it…
…Foolish mass-transit naysayers — and I mean you, Jon Caldera, formerly an RTD director, currently of the libertarian-ish Independence Institute in Golden and, I suspect, still hunting for John Galt — believe that if we must have lumbering buses on public roads, make just the people that ride them pay the cost.
ICYMI
► Frontier Airlines had the most complaints of any U.S. airline in February — and it wasn’t even close. In response, Frontier plans to come up with more animal paintings for its airplanes (okay, not really).
► Stop reading and go eat an avocado.
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Michael Bennet: Iran Hawk, Fiscal Austerian, against Unions and a health care Public Option, expert press manipulator. Always for Michael Bennet.
He’s all the worst of the New Democrats and I will most likely never support a thing he does. What a poor choice he was for which I will never forgive Bill Ritter.
He and Udall triangulated against Obama as a derelict duo in ’09. He’s doing it again to win favor from Schumer, Wall Street, the Washington War Machine (aka Military Industrial Complex) and probably any hawks on Hillary’s team.
He’s a soulless, mindless, greedy politician of the worst order who completely betrays anything represented by Colorado.
I agree with every word, Zap…especially the last sentence.
I had, and continue to have, a great deal of respect for Gov. Ritter for his handling of O&G legislation during his term. His appointment of Harris Sherman to the DNR was perhaps his best move, but he must have been drunk the night he chose Bennet. I would not be at all surprised if that choice followed a phone call from the Obama campaign. It was his worst political decision, in my view.
But that is done, and no amount of venting about it here will accomplish a damned thing except, perhaps, lower my blood pressure. What we, as progressive Democrats have to do is to convince one of our incredibly competent female legislators ( Morgan Carroll or Cary Kennedy, to name a couple) to call him out and run a vigorous primary against him. Not only to unseat “Thurston”, but it is high time Colorado had a few more ladies speaking on our behalf…and more importantly…voting on our behalf.
If either of those two should choose to take on “Senator Thurston Moneybags III”, I will volunteer and work tirelessly to support her.
Remember that Arvada City Council meeting where they selected Jerry Marks by secret ballot to replace Rachel Zensinger?
Freedom of Information Act says they can’t do stuff like that. Our fellow Polster, Elliot Fladen, successfully argued for the plaintiff to have standing to sue. So kudos to him on a win.
So what will the political consequences be? This could have some ugly ramifications for subsequent votes of the Arvada City Council, if the votes were close.
Good on Fladen! Truly!
Well done, counselor!
I’m not familiar with the case law around open meetings and home rule, but I’d be fascinated to know how Arvada thinks its home rule election system is going to trump the Open Meetings Law when the legislature specifically indicated the issue a matter of state concern and secret voting is one of the fundamental activities that it seeks to prevent.
Credit where credit is due.
Are you suffering from a Chapped news feed? Well, Dr. Chaps can’t get enough of himself – and he believes that the world deserves more of Gordon Klingenschmitt “praying the news”, too.
In spite of his pledge to suspend his “television preaching ministry for six weeks”, he simply went to a new medium – radio.
Klingenschmitt’s @savechaps twitter channel has several brand new posts on the Bible News Radio network, including a new one on the failure of the “Born Alive Protection Act”, postponed indefinitely on March 3, 2015.
In his reporting on the story of the assault on Longmont mother-to-be Michelle Wilkins, “Chaps” recounts the assault in gruesome detail, (at about 12 minutes into the broadcast) while exploiting the incident to promote his failed “Born Alive” legislation.
He then doubles down on the offensive Scriptural quotation about how the assault is an example of “God’s Judgement on America”. (at about 17:30 minutes in). If anything, this version is even more disgusting. It’s about the Sumerians, and he quotes, “Their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.” “They’re bearing this sin because they have rebelled against their god.” “This is the curse of God upon America for our sin of not protecting innocent children in the womb.” So there you go.
So much for the apology, and the pledge to suspend his ministry.
“And, keep those cards and letters tax-deductible donations coming . . . “
To be clear…the only reason I see for Rep. Klingenschmitt to harp on his failed bill of a month ago is to imply that if only his bill had passed and become law, that baby Aurora Wilkins would not have been “dashed against the ground”. If you think I’misreading it, you explain the repetition of the bill alongside the account of the assault on Wilkins. And that, using his private religious radio pulpit to rehash public arena legislative business, is an outrageous transgression of church/state boundaries.