Colorado Rockies shortshop Troy Tulowitzki won’t campaign for a final spot in the Major League Baseball All-Star game next week. Let’s 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…
► Recall petitions have been approved in Jefferson County for an effort to remove three right-wing Board of Education members who have accomplished little aside from angering the community since their election in November 2013. The petition drive for the recall of Ken Witt, Julie Williams, and John Newkirk formally kicks off tonight at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.
► A Colorado appeals court heard arguments Tuesday about whether or not bakers have the right to refuse to make cakes for same-sex weddings. From the Denver Business Journal:
Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based Christian legal nonprofit organization representing the cake shop, said a key point in the case is whether an artist should be compelled to create a product for something the artist finds offensive.
Judge Berger quizzed Tedesco about that point. Is it about a cake? Or a fancy wedding cake? Or is the case about same sex marriage?
It’s about being compelled to make a piece of art to celebrate something you don’t believe in, said Tedesco.
Many legal observers have another opinion here: Choosing whether or not to obey the law is not “freedom of expression.”
Get even more smarter after the jump…
IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…
► State Senator Morgan Carroll will challenge Rep. Mike Coffman in CD-6. The Cook Political Report quickly re-classified the Aurora district as a “toss-up” for 2016.
► If you had money on “6 days,” it looks like you can collect on your wager. Peter Marcus
of the Durango Herald has more on the same-sex marriage blowback:
Observers wondered how long it would take before some in Colorado would try to erode same-sex marriage, which was recently declared the law of the land by the nation’s high court. The answer: six days.
Two initiatives for the 2016 ballot were proposed July 2, both of which seek to limit same-sex marriages. Gay-rights advocates aren’t surprised. Even as they were celebrating the landmark June 26 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, they were preparing for battles in the wake of the decision.
The first initiative would redefine gay marriage in order to limit it to only a civil union. The second proposal would allow businesses providing wedding services to contract jobs to another business if same-sex marriage violates their principles.
Drafting language for ballot initiatives is harder than it looks. As ThinkProgress notes, these two proposed ballot measures could ultimately have the effect of preventing any marriages in Colorado — straight, gay, or otherwise.
► As the U.S. Army finalizes plans to cut some 40,000 soldiers, officials from Fort Carson near Colorado Springs are waiting to hear about the impact on Colorado’s largest military base.
► It’s probably a good thing that state Senator Ellen Roberts (R-Durango) decided against a run for U.S. Senate in 2016; you shouldn’t run for statewide office with onion-thin skin.
► La Plata County Surveyor Larry Connolly died on Monday of apparent natural causes.
► Congressional Republicans are crowing loudly about opposing President Obama’s nuclear containment agreement with Iran, but they don’t have the votes to do anything about it.
OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK
► Facts? We don’t need no stinking facts!
► The South Carolina legislature continues to debate whether to remove the Confederate Flag from the State Capitol grounds. The state Senate has approved a plan to remove the flag, though the state House is expected to put up a fight.
ICYMI
► Greek leaders are asking Europe for a new three-year bailout plan.
► Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, one of eight dozen or so Republicans running for President in 2016, works as his own political consultant.
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I'd missed this one, some shenanigans a few days ago.
Jefferson County "Students First," the pro-Board-Majority education "reformers" you'll remember from way back, have outdone themselves — hijacking the well-established anti-Board-Majority Twitter hashtag #standup4kids this past week to misrepresent themselves as being in favor of the recall, all in an effort to raise money:
Of course, clicking those two identical links takes one to their generic donation page, which is so generic it — surprise — doesn't mention their huge role in helping get the board majority elected. To say nothing of the fact that board member Julie Williams' father-in-law Tim Neville sat on the board of JeffCoSF.
The actual donation page to support the recall effort, as a few Twitter users point out, is https://fundly.com/jeffco-united-for-action
The current Bipartisan Consensus in Washington, DC is that:
1. Welfare for the poor should be very limited. By definition the poor are less worthy of "our" support and are "taking" from those who've created their own wealth. Further, the poor should also be punished for being poor and failing within our capitalist system.
This philosophy has come to be known as Neo-Liberalism. Some of its adherents, though they most likely won't say so publicly, are Obama, Clinton the First, Mark Udall, and Michael Bennet.
And this is where bipartisanship is critical.
2. Welfare for corporations and the rich is acceptable; the purpose of government is to facilitate that welfare through tax structures, business regulations, and the courts By definition the wealthy are more worthy of "our" support and deserve to keep as much of that earned wealth as possible. Further, they they shouldn't have to pay any more than the minimal taxes that might go to any of those poor slacker losers.
And here?
Zap,
I made it through the #1 section of the above thesis. The foreign policy stuff is pretty interesting, but it does not show that neo-liberals think that"Welfare for the poor should be very limited."
I'd like to think that Bill Clinton would not have privatized social security; but he did put TANF in place, kicking lots of families deeper into poverty when they"timed off" of their cash grants. While fiscal conservatives approved of this, the reality was that it takes more than 60 months to get trained for a job which pays enough to support a single parent and kids. And its almost impossible to find quality, affordable child care while being trained. And, of course, corporate welfare continued unchecked.
So maybe Big Bill would have betrayed the elderly poor the way he did the young working poor. I don't know. The article you linked to seems to say that Monica Lewinsky saved Social Security by distracting Bill and the nation with the subsequent "scandal". And maybe he was the first well-known "neo-liberal". I'm still skeptical of these claims.
From the Up Next At 11:00: Sun Rises in East department…
Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years
Brownback in Kansas has an especially evil pushback to the marriage equality decision. He issued an executive order that prohibits state action against religious organizations which discriminate against gays. In other words, its an "OK to discriminate" order.
So Brownback has wrecked Kansas' economy with austerity measures – and now he hopes Kansans will feel better about everything cause now they are free to hate on their LBGTQ neighbors? Something tells me this will not end well.
Does anyone know if we have refugee camps for our neighbors from the east?
Why should we take them in? They elected the dope governor, and that was after they’d seen him in action as a senator. Their only hope is to catch him in a scandal of some sort. Well, he is a Teavangelist, so there's probably a skeleton in some closet in his house.
Except it's usually the best and brightest that leave.
OK. But only If they swear they voted for Democrats, making them an oppressed minority. We don't need any more voters stupid enough to vote in that Governor and his pet legislative majorities. Somebody was doing that voting.
If those members of the Jefferson County School Board get recalled, I'd like to think, in this instance, it will be as a result of "Intelligent Design."