U.S. Senate See Full Big Line

(D) J. Hickenlooper*

(R) Janak Joshi

80%

20%

Governor See Full Big Line
(D) Michael Bennet

(D) Phil Weiser

60%↑

50%↓

Att. General See Full Big Line

(D) Jena Griswold

(D) M. Dougherty

(D) David Seligman

50%

40%

30%

Sec. of State See Full Big Line
(D) J. Danielson (D) A. Gonzalez (R) Sheri Davis
50%↑ 40%↓ 30%
State Treasurer See Full Big Line

(D) Brianna Titone

(D) Jeff Bridges

(R) Kevin Grantham

40%

40%

30%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(D) Milat Kiros

90%

10%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd*

(R) H. Scheppelman

(D) Alex Kelloff

70%

30%

10%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert*

(D) Trisha Calvarese

(D) Eileen Laubacher

90%

20%

20%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank*

(D) Jessica Killin

70%

30%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(R) Gabe Evans*

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(D) Manny Rutinel

(D) Shannon Bird

45%↓

30%

30%

30%

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
April 20, 2009 03:35 PM UTC

Monday Open Thread

  • 75 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Government is the people’s business and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid.”

–Ronald Reagan

Tweet
Share

Comments

75 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread”

    1. Darn, I thought it was because we were born here or became citizens.  How silly of me.

      OTOH, maybe he’s right.  Those who pay lots of taxes or should pay lots of taxes seem to have a lot of influence in our government.  

  2. On a serious note please go to http://www.safercolorado.org/ and find out why the legalizing of marijuana laws is a civil rights issue.

    More men of color are prosecuted each year for the use and selling of pot than any other group. The laws surrounding pot and alcohol are just silly.  Cindy McCain and the Kennedy’s have made their fortunes on what was once an illegal drug.

    1. My brother has re-met a class mate from HS who is visiting from Mendocino. She is professional, being a nurse practitioner.  And she grows pot.  Every three months, $20K.

      Shouldn’t the government have its fingers in this till, just like the moonshiners?  

    2. See the t-shirt with Ralphie the Buffalo smoking out:

      http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04…

      Still, pro-marijuana groups have applauded recent remarks by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who suggested that federal law enforcement resources would not be used to pursue legitimate medical marijuana users and outlets in California and a dozen other states that allow medical use of the drug. Court battles are also percolating. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments last Tuesday in San Francisco in a 2007 lawsuit challenging the government’s official skepticism about medical uses of the drug.

      But Allen F. St. Pierre, the executive director of Norml, said he had cautioned supporters that any legal changes that might occur would probably be incremental.

      “The balancing act this year is trying to get our most active, most vocal supporters to be more realistic in their expectations in what the Obama administration is going to do,” Mr. St. Pierre said.

      Other informational sites worth checking out:

      NORML:

      http://norml.org/

      MPP:

      http://www.mpp.org/

  3. http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…

    Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

    Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

    In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

    Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

    1. Ever since the Pollack case, I’ve not liked the Israeli’s.  The government, not the citizens.  That little nation has us naked with a spiked collar on a leash bending us over at its whim.  We do not control them (despite billions in aid), they control us.  

      A side story: I was in Israeli in 1983 and my host, Yakov and I were driving past the Dead Sea. On the other side of the road was triple barbed wire barriers and signs in numerous languages hinting you might wind up dead if you don’t stay on the right side of the fence.  Yakov said to me, “That’s the place where we don’t do nuclear research.”  A few years later the Israelis fessed up after years of denial, you may recall.

      Oh yes, Republicans, listen up.  If she did wrong, we want her gone.  And maybe convicted of something.  That’s the Democratic way.  

      2. .

        Unless you mean the US Navy civilian crypto tech, Jonathan Pollard.  

        What he did was outrageous, spying for Israel, but I think we could release him, now that 20 years have passed.  

        Holding onto him in a not-so-awful cell acts as a sort of false symbol of toughness against Israeli spying.

        Then, after releasing him, we could put him on trial for his spying for China, which caused the USA far more harm, and send him to Alcatraz.  In the hole for 20 years.  

        And to clarify for other readers, Parsing and Jakov were well south and west of the Dead Sea, out in the Negev, when they didn’t drive past -Natanz= Dimona.  

        .

        As for the woman who married into the Harmon-Kardon fortune, this anecdote suggests high crimes.  She deserves a fair trial, but this doesn’t look good for her.  She ought to step down until she is cleared.  

        Maybe if we let Pollard out of the country club prisson, there will be a comfortable place for her to wait until her trial ?

        .

        1. You know, after almost thirty years, the exact latitude and longitude of events in life gets a bit blurry.  You are probably correct, we had been in the Negev and then went to the Dead Sea.  A bit of geographic conflation, I presume.  

          1. .

            I was there recently.  

            That’s the only way I know.  

            Well, that, and the fact I just did an unclassified graphic for the Secretary of Defense that showed the location.  

            I love Israel.  I love the people.  I love the land.

            Not only because I have Jewish blood relatives (nephews) and friends, whom I also love, but because they introduced God to the rest of us.    

            I’m not too keen on the anti-semitic racism, though, that some of the adherents of Eretz Israel preach.    

            Palestinians are Semitic, as are Sephardim Jews.  

            Pushy European (Ashkenazi/quasi-ethnically-semitic) Jews who do not personally believe in, or fear, God,

            but who justify the taking of land on the bequeath of Said non-existent God,

            I’m not as keen on them – or rather, their explanations and rationalizations for dehumanizing beings I consider human, children of that same God.    

            I have more in common religiously with the Hashidim who refuse to serve in the IDF –

            because they prefer to put their hope in the Lord God,

            and because they do not equate the modern secular state of Israel with the “people of Israel” in the Bible –

            than with a lot of Christians who have a very different take on the book of Revelations, and who support the modern secular state as a way to hasten their sought-after Armageddon.

            .

            1. I was there in 1983, I think.  After a number of days being schlepped around by Yakov, there was something inside bothering me.  Then it hit me.  I had seen this all before, growing up in the Deep South.  The Palestinians were Israel’s niggers, and yes, that’s the only word that can convey that institutional disdain of “the other.”  Not so blatant, but the Palestinians better know their place.  

              Revelations almost didn’t make it into the canon.  Too hallucinogenic, you know?  But the whole book is moot, what does it say in 1:1?  “The events which will soon take place…..”

              One thousand, nine hundred years and counting……….

    2. NSA can routinely wiretap members of Congress without a warrent???  And, then release that information?

      WTF happened to the Constitution and the separation of powers???

      Or, does NSA routinely wiretap all incoming calls to Congress from overseas?  Is this was a bribe or otherwise indicated an illegal act, why wasn’t the tape turned over to the Bush Justice Department for investigation??

      OR, are remments of the Bush administration going to use NSA tapes to blackmail and/or discredit serving members of Congress. And, of course we know the tape is authentic because?????

      This is real serious.  Not a joke.

          1. If Harman had gone to lunch with you, would you still be saying that about her?

            Harman’s done good things and bad things, like many Congresspeople.

            1. In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi

              Actually several crimes. Yes Harman has done good things. Nixon did a lot of good things too. But there are actions that are totally unacceptable in an elected official. This is one of them.

              1. If someone says, “I’ll try to find ways to help your software company get contracts,” and then closes the conversation with “I hope I can count on your support,” that’s not illegal.

                It’s legal for foreign countries to lobby the American government. It’s legal for Congresspeople to do favors for constituents, and Harman’s constituents are very pro-Israel.

                Now if you do it secretly instead of openly, it’s somewhat problematic, but most lobbying of this sort (a Congressperson trying to get a favor from another Congressperson) is not done on the Sunday TV shows.

                I’m no supporter of Harman generally, but this case sounds very much like something she was singled out for because Gonzales wanted to blackmail her. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what the evidence says to me right now.

                1. The news reports now say that the person she talked to may be a U.S. Citizen. That is a totally different case. But if the person does turn out to be an Israeli citizen, and not a registered foreign agent – then this is very very wrong.

                  1. Regardless of Harmon’s actions being right or wrong, I do think the Bush administration recording this is questionable at best. And their sitting on it because they found Harmon’s support useful is very very wrong.

      2. But I bet the alleged tap was on the foreign intelligence agent, not the member of congress.  Now if a member of congress happens to receive a call or make a call to a foreign intelligence agent…

    3. Harman’s a big proponent of warrantless wiretapping, then she gets busted by a NSA wiretap.  Talk about falling on your own damn sword.

      1. she supported warrantless wiretapping after this, precisely because the Bush administration was holding this over her. So it’s not as ironic as it sounds.

    4. My husband and I were traveling on Amtrak between Denver and Glenwood, and shared the lunch table with someone who said he had retired from the NSA.  He didn’t say much about his work there, but seemed a little crazed – of course we didn’t know if that was a result of his NSA work, or a condition he’d always had.  He said he didn’t have a home – spent his time traveling on Amtrak and staying with friends and relatives at various places around the country.  My (gregarious) husband encouraged him to look us up when he was back in Colorado.  Perhaps fortunately, he never did.  I wonder if someone or something eventually caught up with him.

    5. Ok, SXP got me thinking about this again. A lot of this goes to Jane Harman’s state of mind. Was this her realizing this conversation had gone over the line into unethical and so her comment was “this conversation doesn’t exist” was wanting to undo it? Or was this said in a Rod Blagoivich kind of way?

      And we have the giant question of was this other person an American citizen? Or if they were not, were they a registered foreign agent? Or were they a plain old foreign citizen, and if so, a known employee of a foreign government.

      All of this plays in to this. One thing though. If after this happened she reported this to the ethics committee and then called the person back up and explained that because of the conversation, she needed to carefully do nothing on the AIPAC case – that would be a giant item in her favor. On the flip side, if she did actively lobby on that case – that would be bad.

      What I would like to see is Jane come out and lay out everything that occured on this that she is aware of. But for now I take back my judgement of her actions until we learn more. SXP was right, I should not have jumped to a conclusion.

        1. My initial question remains unanswered….was this a warrentless wiretap????  And, who was being wiretapped?

          US Citizens can register to lobby for foreign countries.

          The whole thing is a mess.  

  4. Obscure issue here, but lots of money at stake.

    The developer of Loveland’s Centerra retail zone has the majority of the Loveland city council in its pocket. (This is the place where tons of farmlands was declared urban blight so that these guys got $350 million in tax breaks.) So McWhinney Corp., the Centerra boys, got the council to rewrite their contract to let them off the hook for millions of dollars in transportation improvements.

    Who’s money is filling the gap? American taxpayin’ stimulus money is! All with CDOT’s seal of approval.

    Evern uber-Republican, pro-developer Greeley has had enough, and is telling Loveland to go fuck itself:

    http://www.coloradoan.com/arti…

      1. to think that the 2009 RTD 2nd Fastracks Tax Hike will be financed by the developers of TODs, sellers of LTR infrastructure, those having their homes & businesses taken, and RTD’s 3% paycut workforce

        1. Want to explain a bit?

          Addressing what I think you’re saying, I think there’s a huge difference between condemning property for a public (or public/private partnership) highway or rail system – or government building – and condemning property so that another private entity can use the property.  And it stretches the imagination to condemn farm land as “urban blight”.

          I thought Kelo was decided correctly, but I also think there needs to be serious eminent domain reform in this country.  The situation with Centerra exemplifies the possible abuse of that power, as did Kelo.

  5. On Saturday, for purely social reasons and to try to win a really nice rifle, I attended our local NRA banquet. As usual I was rather distrubed by some of the public comments of the NRA organizer and others about what our administration is doing and how much we need the NRA.

    This morning I was watching the news and Ed Rendell was talking about the need for gun control.

    I really hope the administration doesn’t go there. It is a sure loser for the Democrats for the next decade or more. CO will turn red again as will the entire West.

    I think any effort to meaningfully address guns must begin with a constitutional amendment as difficult as that process is.

      1. I can remember as little as ten years ago their youth firearms safety classes were a showcase of targeted, useful instruction. I also remember in 1995, prior to our return to the US from Germany, my wife taken an excellent self defense for women course, also taught by the NRA.

        But, as the nutjobs have staged a coup and taken over the nuthouse, they’re more interested in being the GOP’s bitch, among other things.

        For a group that was founded in 1871, to “promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis,” they’re now proud of the fact their (according to Bill Powers, their former PAO) “job isn’t to put out fires; it’s to help start them.”

        1. was at Boy Scout summer camp with an NRA certified instructor.  Later on I got my Safe Hunter certificate, although I’ve never been hunting.

          Certainly some of the rabidity comes from the gun control laws that came into being about the same time my youth did.  But they are soooooo overboard.  The callousness of Charleton Heston after Columbine was a good example of how little they care except for their fantasy penis’.  

      1. Most of the development team has gone their own direction, and there are now multiple distributions reflecting the various splits in the group.  Oracle already owned InnoDB, so it’s not like this new purchase is much more of a death blow…

        I think this will solidify the “community” fork of MySQL, unless Oracle makes more than token noises toward keeping the project going.

        1. I’m not sure they would have been too thrilled to have MySQL and the fossil DB2 product line competing with one another.

          I’ve mentally tugging at myself to give up the MySQL security blanket and do more in PostgreSQL anyway.  The PostGIS spatial extensions are much more powerful than MySQL spatial.  Maybe now’s the time.

          1. I think Oracle might actually do good by MySql. I think they’ll figure that for those that aren’t going to use Oracle, better MySql than anything else. And it’s rare a dev team is considering Oracle vs MySql as they are such different beasts.

            As to PostgreSQL – be careful. The support network is piss-poor compared to MySql.

            1. I am a big fan of MySQL.  But these days my needs are in GIS.  PostGIS is much more capable in this area.

              It’s really hard to turn away from MySQL.  I’ve been running it for years.  Long enough that I don’t require support.  It’s much easier to administer.

  7. http://www.bizjournals.com/alb…

    Gov. David Paterson’s standing among New York voters has sunk to a new low for his 13 months in office.

    That’s the upshot of a new poll released Monday by the Siena Research Institute, part of Siena College in Loudonville.

    The poll says 27 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of Paterson, while 63 percent have an unfavorable opinion (10 percent said they did not know or had no opinion).

    New Yorkers in general are an upstanding crowd, but you know something is wrong when they favor the former over the current.

    Any lines of the former or current NYC mayors relocating to the north due to the electorates stifling choice of a suspected felon vs tax crazed manager some would call a socialist?

  8. I am just sure there is a reason for this…

    House  #1: A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400 per month.. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern ‘snow belt’ area. It’s in the South.

    ——————————————————————————–

    House  #2: Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every ‘green’ feature current home construction can provide.. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground..

    The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.  The heating/cooling system is so efficient that initial plans to install solar panels were canceled.

    http://www.snopes.com/politics…

    1. The house bit is anecdotal when comparing what the two men have done for the environment.

      Al Gore’s house (though ridiculously inefficient) does not represent what he’s done to contribute to awareness about climate change. His movie was more of a wake up call than anything Washington has done in the last 35 years on this issue. He’s basically single-handedly brought this “green” movement into popularity.

      George Bush’s house (while very efficient) does not represent the chaos his presidency wreaked on the environment. His refusal to even acknowledge, up until the very end of his administration, the very existence of climate change, did more to undermine the cause thasn any president has done in the past 35 years. He gave the Republicans an excuse to ignore science, and basically gave you, and all the other climate change deniers, the ammo they needed to continue to deceive people into believing that this is not something we need to be working on.

      Which brings me to my final point. Since you have repeatedly denied the existence of said phenomenon, what the hell do you care if Al Gore’s house is horribly inefficient? Everything I’ve ever seen you write on this has been that science is wrong, and it’s all just a liberal, fear-mongering, conspiracy.

      So, once again, I must ask: how’s that wide stance working out for you Libertine?

      2. I don’t believe global warming is a problem because Al Gore told me to. Gore’s movie was effective because it presented evidence, like from science and stuff, not because Gore’s personality is terribly compelling nor because he’s terribly respected for that awesome campaign he ran in 2000.

        By contrast most people who deny global warming do so because right-wing TV hosts told them to. You hear a lot more “Rush is right” than “Gore is right,” despite the fact that more people respect Gore’s opinions. And Rush’s arguments frequently sound like, “It’s just crazy to believe that! And plus life’ll suck if that’s true!” Which is different from evidence.

        So yeah, good for Bush for having a cool house, and shame on Gore for not having one. But why should that affect anyone’s opinion about the actual issue?

        Unless you arrive at your political views by deciding who’s your hero and how you can be more like him. But that’s kind of sad.

        1. However, putting these cost on the backs of energy users upfront is ridiculous. We should pursue cutting a deal with the generators to deregulate.

                1. Beg to differ. Responsible people (before Obama saved their job) got into loans they could meet.

                  You know 3x pay for a max value and 10-20% down.

                  1. You do realize Obama’s only been President for three months, right? Not eight years? That was another guy.

                    For a long time it was considered irresponsible not to invest in these sorts of things; why pay more as a mortgage payment when you could use it to pay for your kid’s college? It went all the way up too. Pension fund managers were legally obligated by the state to pursue the riskiest strategies since those were paying so much more.

                    Good to hear openly what a Republican thinks of normal people’s problems.

                    3. This is why nobody takes you seriously.

                      Well, I mean, that and the fact that you’re not very bright.

      3. Well I’m glad you asked. After all these years of consuming fossil fuels and driving up the prices we pay I would have expected VP Gore to take action, install geothermal.

        2. .

          yes, bush owns the house in question.  Technically, it was his primary privately owned home.  

          But all the time he owned it, he lived either in the Texas Governor’s Mansion, the White House, or his new digs in Dallas.  

          He used it for his occasional vacations, that’s all.

          And on that property are several other buildings.  Why aren’t they mentioned ?

          Why aren’t the energy costs of those buildings included in the comparison ?

          And, the energy efficiency technology in the Bush Potemkin home cost more than the home itself.  

          Where’s Paul Harvey when you really need him ?  

          .

  10. http://www.coloradodaily.com/n…

    BOULDER, Colo. – Phil DiStefano is the sole finalist to become chancellor of the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus, a job he’s been doing on an interim basis since last month.

    CU President Bruce Benson made the announcement Monday afternoon, following an internal search announced in mid-March. DiStefano, 62, will meet with students, alumni and faculty and staff members over the next two weeks to interview for the campus’s top job.

    Really? Yet another search committee manages to find only one candidate? Kind of pathetic. Anyone know when the last time CU had a competitive search for an administrative position?

    1. how about when we yanked, now former chancellor, Bud Peterson from Upstate NY to become chancellor all of three years ago?  And CU Denver’s search for a chancellor last freakin’ year? Soooo tough to remember, eh?

      There were two candidates when Peterson was hired. IIRC, Betty Capaldi was the other.  Obviously, Peterson won.

      DiStephano is a quality guy…and did a good job as interim chancellor after Richard Bynny left.  In a sense, he deserves the job.  No reason to have a huge search when you have a more than capable guy already sitting on the bench, is there?

      But hey, why pass on a chance to knock CU…

      Seriously, I’m not trying to be an ass, but you’re complaining about absolutely nothing here…

      1. I’ve only been in Boulder 3 years, which is why I asked the question. You’re weirdly defensive.

        I’m not concerned about whether DiStefano is good or not for the job. Maybe if there were five finalists, DiStefano would still be viewed as the best. Great.

        What I’m wondering is why do the search if you’re not genuinely interested in finding any other candidates?

        Keep trying not to be an ass, though, the effort is much appreciated.

        1. and I use “we” because I worked with the Board of Regents during the Peterson, Benson, and Rod Nairn (CU Denver’s Chancellor) “searches,” is because a lot of other candidates don’t want their names floated around only to be rejected.  

          Betty Capaldi was an exception.  She was fine with flying out here from NY, doing a round of interviews with students, and then losing to Peterson (who was the odds on favorite to win in the first place).

          There were more than two folks the BoR and President Brown considered before Peterson was hired, but only Peterson and Capaldi agreed to be named “finalists.”

          The same was the case when Benson was hired.  The BoR looked at other people, obviously wanting Benson from the start, but none of them were willing to be publically named as a finalist for something they had little to no shot at getting.  

          And so, back to DiStefano, CU could “search” all they want, but naming five finalists was never going to happen.  As far as I know, this “internal search” really only looked at CU Law Dean David Getches and A&S Dean Todd Gleeson.  That made DiStefano an easy choice…and a choice that’s not going to leave for greener pastures 2 or 3 years from now.  

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Gabe Evans
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

185 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!

Colorado Pols