GOP presidential race 2012

      Recognizing how early it is I am willing to make two predictions about the Republican race right now.  The first is that Mitt Romney is the best candidate to defeat Barack Obama.  The second is that in spite of his name recognition and well financed campaign he is the least likely to be nominated.  The problem he faces is that the tea party voters have a strong influence in the nominating process.

Mitt Romney was responsible for bringing a government based health care system to Massachusetts.  The second problem he faces is that he is a fiscally responsible conservative.  He recognizes that sometimes raising taxes is a good idea, and that tax cuts for the rich does not fix our economy.  The last reason he will not be nominated is that social conservatives simply will not vote a mormon.  That means that he loses six or seven southern states.
     

Moderate leadership in Colorado

      Republican leaders in Colorado, Speaker of the House Amy Stephens and Senate Minority Leader Frank McNulty are being criticized by members of their own party.  The usual  label RINO has been pulled out.  Republican In Name Only.  Maybe the two are not as conservative as people thought.  Maybe they recognize that Democrats have a governor and a chamber. 
      Republicans can tack hard right and score points with their voters.  They would achhieve gridlock and not much else.   The other approach is to take a moderate approach and actually govern. 

Book Review

For those  who like to follow Colorado politics, I would reccomendd a book called The Blueprint by Adam Scraeger and Rob Witwer.  The book lays out in detail how the Democratic party took control of Colorado politics between 1998-2008 through the development of independent groups. 

State Troopers in action?

Hey the Remembe Governor Walker issued arrest warrants for the Democrats of the Wisconsin house for leaving the state and preventing a quorum.  Basicly they all took some time off for a while. I know he is on the verge of issuing arrest warrants for himself and anybody else who just participated in this farce violating the open meeting laws in order to pass an anti union bill.  Perhaps members of the police union shouold issue official warnings stating that future violations will result in arrest.

Recruiting Nascar Style

       Yes we are payinng millions of dollars to recruit rednecks to our military.  We are targeting them with what they hold most dear NASCAR.  The approximate sponsorship totals are $20 million dollars to Dale Earnhardt Jr. from the National Gaurd.  The U.S. Army pays $7.4 million to Ryan Newman, while the Air Force sponsors A.J. Allmendinger with $1.6 million.  I guess the Air Force undervalues vehicles that don't fly.

       The House of Representatives has voted to renew these sponsorship contracts.  Approximately $28 million worth of military recruiting is spent so white people can watch cars drive around the track.  If we want our armed forces to be more diverse we should keep recruiting away from NASCAR.

Protest Then and now

In 1967 70,000 came, a giant rally was held at at the Lincoln Memorial.  Some 50,000 of them went to the Pentagon, a few hundred tried to rush the stairs and the rest remained outside chanting in order to levitate the Pentagon.  The idea being when it levitated and turned oarnge the evil within would be gone.  The link below has further details.  Flowers were placed in the gun barrels of capital police.  Apparently there were arrests for picking flowers in a public park.

http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/Pentagon67.html

Recently a gasline at the home of a congressman's brother was cut when the health care bill was up for debate.  A number of other death threats were made as well.  Over the last few years people began showing up with guns at rallies.  Congressman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot along with several of her constituents. 

This was an event that was both unthinkable and predictable.  Rhetoric on Left and Right has moved towards encouraging violence.

Lame Duck Session 2010, Flying Straight

I have followed politics for quite some time and as lame duck congresses go, this one stepped up and got things done like few before.  Among its accomplishments a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.  A 911 health fund law.  Don't Ask Don't Tell was repealed.  a food safety bill got passed.  Finally a temporary economic fix to renew tax breaks and unemployment benefits.

Don't Ask Don't Tell

Opponents of DADT are running  out of justification for opposing repeal of this policy.  First we were told we need to wait and follow the lead of our generals.  The head of the joint chiefs has said that congress should repeal DADT.  Then we were told it might be disruptive to the troops and we should wait for the results of a survey.  %70 of our military believes that repealing DADT will have little negative effect or no effect at all on troop readiness and morale.  No word yet on what the next excuse for not repealing DADT will be, but you can bet there will be another one soon enough.

Post Election

It is time for the last phase of any election,  explanations, recriminations, and blame.  We as a nation have been too impatient with Democrats expecting two years to be enough time to fix the damage caused during the previous eight.  Moderates have provided a second chance for republicans to fix the economy.  Apparrently the slogan, this time we won't mess up resonates better than we need more time to clean up the mess the last guy gave us.  Either that or the American Public wants gridlock to maintain the status quo.

Nov 1 Predictions

November 1st, the first Monday of November.  GOTV will be in effect until 7:00 P.M. tomorrow when the polls close.  I will make a few predictions for the election.  First of all, the GOP takes control of the house, but not the Senate.  D-Senator Michael Bennet beats R-Ken Buck in Colorado by less than 2%.  Ken Buck might have been able to win but over the course of the campaign developed a serious case of foot in mouth disease.   Within the last two weeks of the election with early voting in progress.  Ken Buck compared homosexuality to alcoholism and stated that "global warming is a hoax."  Comments like this have forced Buck to play defense. 

Colorado's CD-3 D-John Salazar will beat Scott Tipton by 5%

CD-4 D-Betsy Markey and R-Cory Gardner are coming down to the wire.  Markey and Gardner are fighting to the end.  American Constitution AC-Doug Aden and I-K. Waszkicz could draw conservatives from Cory Gardner.  Too close to call.  A further prediction...if Betsy Markey wins so does Michael Bennet

In the Colorado Gubernatorial race D-Mayor John Hickenlooper defeats AC-Tom Tancredo and R-Dan Maes does not get 10% forceing the Republicans into minority party status.

CD-6 R-Mike Coffman represents what may be the most conservative CD in the country.  D-John Flerage's campaign did not even try to raise money.  His campaign will be a useful survey of likely Democrats when 2012 comes around.

CD-7 D-Incumbent Ed Perlmutter has had to work for it but his campaign will win by 5% minimum

State Treasurer D-Cary Kennedy has had the ability to raise massive amounts of money.  Her opponent R-W.R. Stapleton is banking on people voting for his name.  His grandfather was Benjamin Franklin Stapleton who served five terms as Denver's Mayor.  Kennedy has managed Colorado's money well and will win.

Att. General R-John Suthers will win against Boulder District Attorney D-Stan Garnett.  Garnett may have had a chance but got into the race a little too late.  Suthers by 7%

Incumbent Sec. State D-Bernie Buescher has increased transparency and increased ease of voting.  R-Scott Gessler has little record to run on. Secretary Buescher will win by 10%

Karl Rove is back!

As much as Republicans are fond of accusing Democratic groups of interfering in local elections, they will not object to Karl Rove's American Crossroads or Senator Jim Demint's Americans for Job Security.  American Crossroads all by itself has raised 8 million dollars and has spent roughly one million dollars to defeat Senator Bennet in Colorado.

Moving the community center

     The Reverend Terry Jones of World Outreach Center in Florida who has a congregation of approximately 50 people has agreed to call off his planned burn a Quran day on September 11th because he claims that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has agreed to move the New York Islam community center Park 51.  This news has not been confirmed.  Donald Trump has asked that the community center be built at least 5 blocks away from the community center and seems to have made an offer for the Park 51 property at 25% above price.
     The smart move for Imam Abdul Rauf and the Park 51 developer is to hold firm on staying at their current location.  If it becomes apparrent that proposed mosques and community centers can be blackmailed out of their preferred locations than that will be a recruiting bonanza for terrorists.  This truly would be a message that there is a war on Islam in the United States and that would place American citizens around the world in danger.
    

who should pick the Senate

Ken Buck supports having the state legislature pick U.S. Senators.  Truthfully this is not a revolutionary idea.  Originally in Colorado, Senate seats were voted on by the legislature.  The legislature gave away seats to well behaved  millionaires.  This is why Horace Tabor never became a Senator.  He was rich but he stepped out publicly on his wife.

Colorado Senate Race is all about the money

Ken Buck the tea party candidate may face a severe handicap if his campaign cannot raise money all by itself.  He owes his primary victory in large part to a 527 group that ran ads on his behalf.  There does come a time when you have to do things for yourself.  Michael Bennet after his primary has approximately one and a half million dollars to spend.  Senator Bennet also has the advantage of top fundraisers Steve Farber and Norm Brrownstein working upon his behalf.  Money will flow to this Senate race on a massive scale both locally and nationally.

Primary Night

Colorado August 10th the primary is over!  In the U.S. Senate races Michael Bennet won in his race against Andrew Romannoff in the Democratic Primary.  Ken Buck beat Jane  Norton running as the underdog in the Republican Senate PrimaryIn the Governor Race, John Hickenlooper faced no primary for the Democrats.  After a near dead heat that ran well into the night, Dan Maes beat Scott McInnis in the Republican primary.


 

NY Times DPS Financing

I was very disappointed upon reading Gretchen Morgenson's misleading article about the transaction used by Michael Bennet to finance the DPS pension fund. Ms. Morgenson should have known that this would be a hot button issue in the Democratic primary and that her source Jeane Kaplan is a supporter of Andrew Romanoff who maxed out her contributions for his campaign. She also should have mentioned that other school board members who are not Romanoff supporters have not publicly stated that they did not have all the facts. Two more relevant facts that she could have mentioned are that Andrew Romanoff sponsored the legislation that made this deal possible and that DPS board meetings have become little more Senate debates. Ms. Morgenson allowed herself to be used as a source for a negative campaign ad.  Her article was just plain lazy and some basic background research could have provided her with the facts I mentioned above.  

A Charmed Race

Hickenlooper could not lose the race for Governor if he tried.  John Hickenlooper has had a charmed race so far.  Early in the race when Bill Ritter decided not to run.  John Hickenlooper announced his canidacy and faced no challenger for a primary.

Scott Mcinnis had his plagiarism scandal.  McCinnis accepted $300,000 to plagiarize someone's work and then blamed his 82 year old researcher.  Dan Maes accepted a $17,000 fine for campaign finance violations.  Dan Maes also has decided to expose Hickenlooper's nefarious Bicycle United Nations plot.  Also Tom Tancredo has jumped into this race for the American Constitution Party.  No word yet on whether these three candidates will vote for John Hickenlooper.  They have all been so generous thus far there is no reasone to stop when it comes to their votes.

The Bicycle Conspiracy

Dan Maes has uncovered a United Nations plot. Apparrently Mayor Hickenlooper's B-Cycle bike sharing program is a plot by the UN to deny us our rights, and take away our cars. Another aspect of this conspiracy is encouraging businesses to have showers at work so that employees can take showers after cycling to work. Dan Maes said there is a lot more of this conspiracy to be uncovered. Does anyone else sense a spy thriller here?

Some possible titles might be A Spy on Two Wheels, Final Flight for Cervelo, or perhaps Specialized Man.

Tancredo For Governor

Tom Tancredo issued an ultimatum last week. Scott McCinnis and Dan Maes must announce that they will drop out of the race if they are polling behind John Hickenlooper after the primary August 10th or Tancredo will run for governor as the candidate for the American Constitution Party.

Can the Democrats be that lucky? Tancredo will split the party base, but moderate Republicans and the Independents would sooner vote for John Hickenlooper than for Tom Tancredo. In Colorado Independents are the keys to the kingdom in a statewide race.

Scott McCinnis will have to drop out at some point and maybe Dan Maes as well. When the Republican votes are counted August 11th a vacancy committee must be convened to pick a replacement candidate. No word yet on this will be.

Is there a war on terror

It is time to stop pretending that we are fighting a war against terror. We have always opposed terror and we should continue to do so. George W. Bush and his cronies told us we were fighting a war on terror. They realized that if we were fighting a war against terror, we could label someone a terrorist and violate our own laws, the laws of other countries, and International Treaties that we had signed and most people would be okay with it because we were at war.

We had interrogators in secret prisons committing war crimes. Yes waterboarding is a war crime. It became a war crime when the United States tried two japanese officers for war crimes because they engaged in water boarding. We set the legal precedent and we need to live with it. By the way the punishment was a minimum of fifteen years in a hard labor camp.