Does Doug Bruce hold himself above the law?

Douglas Bruce famous for being the author of TABOR (Taxpayers Bill Of Rights) has been subpoened to testify in a campaign finance case. He may have been involved in authoring, consulting and financing three issues that could appear on this years ballot. They are Proposition 101, and Ammendments 60 and 61. Proposition 101 would eliminate taxes on rental cars and car leases, limits title charges to $10 per year and sets the state tax rate at 4.5%. Ammendment 60 would cut mill levies. Ammendment 61 would require voter approval to borrow and require repayment within 10 years. Doug Bruce would swear that he has nothing to do with any of these if he bothered to respond to one of the 29 subpoenas compelling him to testify. No word yet on whether he will be cited with contempt of court charges.

The politics of tipping

Conservatives tend to believe in individual individual responsibility. They tend to think that all should be left to themselves to prosper or not. Democrats believe in a social contract. We believe that we have a shared responsibility to care for our fellow man. The Democratic philosophy is one that lends itself towards tipping.

Tipping is like karma it comes back to you and you are rewarded in kind. If you get a reputation for being a bad tipper you will get bad service and vice versa.

Tea Party in the Deep South

Rand Paul the Republican from Kentucky was nominated by the Republicans in the race for U.S. Senate. The Tea Party contingent was overjoyed for a solid day. Then Rand Paul opened his mouth. On national television Rand Paul defended a restaurant owners right to serve or refuse to serve an individual based on the color of their skin, or their religion.

Then after shoving one foot down his throat on the issue of Civil Rights the topic turned to the BP Deepwater Horizon Rig gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Rand Paul said that the Obama Administration is being to hard on BP because "accidents happen." When I spill coffee on my rug that is an accident. When millions, even billions of gallons of raw crude goes gushing into the Gulf endangering the economy of five states for at least one year that is an extreme F*ck Up.

Perhaps what Mark Twain said was true "Better to be thought of as stupid than to open your mouth and prove people correct.

Pro-Abstinence Philandering

Republican Congressman Mark Souder of Indiana is in the news. The eight term congressman is an evangelical Christian and outspoken proponent of premarital abstinence. He even saw fit to make a pro-abstinence video with a female staffer. He was also sleeping around on his wife with this same staffer.

Personally, It does not trouble me if politicians of either gender have multiple affairs. Just don't be a hypocrite and preach about family values and fidelity. Especially, don't choose as your mistress your co-star in the Christian family values premarital abstinence video. Aside from ending your political career, it usually means you don't appear in the sequel.

Mcinnis on Water!

Gubernatorial Candidate Scott McInnis got paid $150,000, to write a series of articles on Colorado Water by the Hasan Family Foundation. No expert on Colorado water has heard of such a series of articles. This is not a subject that you can research, write, and publish in a stealth manner. Entire volumes have been written about Colorado Water. Did Scott McInnis earn his money or is this series of articles on a to do list somewhere?

Primaries

Arlen Specter is out in Pennsylvania. The Dems have nominated Joe Sestak. Mark Critz replaces John Murtha. The Republicans nominated a Tea Party backed candidate. Anti incumbent swing is in effect. Senator Bob Bennett Republican of Utah is out.

Here in Colorado we will soon be graced with the presence of Sarah Palin. She is expected to endorse Jane Norton at the Republican State Convention. Ken Buck is not amused. As for me I don't think Sarah Palin should provide this endorsement at their convention. Jane Norton's campaign is skipping the process.

Truly though Sarah Palin scares me, I thought that I had seen and heard it all. Then I saw Sarah Palin joke about shooting Bambi's Mother while talking to the NRA.

Wanting to be homeless

Colorado Springs Mayor Rivera has said that some foreclosure victims want to be homeless. This establishes some serious conservative credentials. Ronald Reagan himself who the Republicans think of as a step below Jesus Christ, once said homelessness is a matter of choice. How is it the traditional Christian family values party manages to say such unchristian things.

Arizona keeps taking hits

Arizona's brand new immigration law, has brought financial wrath upon itself. The Denver Public Schools has cancelled all business trips to Arizona. Los Angeles has pulled 8 million dollars worth of contracts and fifty million worth of investments from Arizona. Also the RNC has chosen Tampa over Phoenix for their 2012 convention. This decision has nothing to do with the the immigration law really. And we all know that you can never win the Presidency by holding a convention in the Rocky Mountain West. Oh wait didn't the Dems just do that.

The truth is the RNC holding a convention in Florida is like preaching to the choir. The West is up for grabs on a regular basis. What the Republicans are accomplishing by snubbing Arizona and going to Florida is proving to Hispanics in Florida that they really do deserve their votes.

Don't Ask Don't Tell...Dont Wait

Those opposed to to revoking make a series of arguements, none of them very good.

We are frequently told that it would be bad for troop morale and that we need to be sensetive to the feelings of the troops. Both of these arguements were made when the issue of alllowing black soldiers came to the fore.

If your morale is so easily damaged you have no place fighting in a war zone anyway. The old saying good players adjust comes into play here. Soldiers are old enough to carry guns they will deal with it.

As for being sensitive to what the troops want, if they wanted people to be sensitive to their feelings and respectful of their beliefs and ideoligies they should not have joined the military. The military is not a democracy. It is a top down organization with ranks where people are given orders and the President of the United States is also the Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces.

As for the final arguement that a gay soldier might see a straight soldier naked. So what? Do people really think that gays only joined the military after Don't Ask Don't Tell? Do we think that Gays and straights have not seen each other naked. The fact that anyone can make this arguement with a straight face simply proves they are a biggot.

Let me close with a quote from that great conservative icon Barry Goldwater "It doesn't matter if they are straight, it matters if they can shoot straight."

Apply Early

Josh Penry says that he will be the Chief of Staff for Governor Scott McCinnis. Apparrently this is a reward for dropping out of the race. This is just me but before announcing that he has the job, he should wait until he knows which candidate will be hiring. I really don't think John Hickenlooper will hire him even for a volunteer position. The election is still four months away and Hickenlooper is running strong

I did not know that!

Jane Norton finally realized that Democrats use trackers at Republican events. She has worked in politics how long and she had not figured this out. This is especially unusual because Republicans play this game too. It is a very old and effective game.

We really can stop the oil!

BP thinks they have a new idea to stop the oil leak. Apparrently they may be able to stop it up with either rubber or cement. This idea has two possible outcomes. It could be successful, or it could cause a complete blowout as opposed to the leak we have now. I don't know how desperate you have to be to consider a fix that may prove so disastrous, but so far that have tried their robot submersibles, their dome got clogged with natural gas crystals. Meanwhile Louisiana is talking about dredging the Mississippi to build barrier islands, as if dredging will have no negative impacts on the river.
Fishing, shrimping, and oyster collection is probably dead for at least two years. Honestly, the Gulf Coast is just lucky it does not get a Hurricane while the oil slick continues to grow. Maybe we should all buy stock in dawn hand soap. They will be selling a lot of product to wash the oil from the wildlife down on the coast.

Happy Mothers Day

I think that even if we may disagree on other issues, we should all take the time to wish a Happy Mother's Day to our mothers and mothers everywhere. So atleast for today let us thank mom for putting up with all the grief we caused her over the years. So to my mom, I wish you a happyMother's Day.

Miles to go

Currently, training for a bike ride, 62 miles long to be exact. I am a little familiar with course. I have done the race before. A lot of up and down and around Robin Hood's Barn besides. Today for training purposes I cycled fifty-eight miles up to Red Rocks Park. Overcame some monster uphills on this ride. However, when comparing myself to anyone who did not work out today, I feel a supreme sense of virtuousness and perhaps just a tad superior as well. The race is the first weekend of June. More on my riding later!

Foriegn Policy and Terrorism

In the aftermath of the attempted bombing of Times Square there are two very important lessons to be learned. The would be bomber said that the reason he was motivated to try to set off a bomb is because the U.S. is killing civilians in Pakistan with our unmanned Predator drones. We need to accept that our foriegn policy may in fact manufacture terrorists.

A second lesson to be learned is that we can give people Miranda Rights and still gather useful information. Faisal Shahzad is a United States Citizen and when arrested as the law dictates he was read his Miranda Rights. He has been cooperative and has provided useful information related to terrorist cells. Because this information was obtained lawfully it will be admissable in court as evidence.

Scamming the troops!

Nothing says I support the troops like scamming a veteran out of large sums of money. A few years ago Seargent Don Malarkey and a few others loaned $20,000 to the Oregon Republican Party. Why is the Republican Party borrowing large sums of money from individuals like this? This is what large donor committees are for. Apparrently the Republican Party cannot afford to pay back this loan to Seargent Marlarkey who is also waiting to undergo open heart surgery. To their credit the Oregon Republican Party is accepting donations from supporters to pay off this loan. Can they just cut a check and be done with it? They don't have $20,000 lying around really?

And They say Police Don't Profile

Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois was arrested at an immigration protest. Personally, I think it is fabulous that he was arrested. It just goes to show that police are arresting dark skinned people and that some of them are citizens with high ranking respected jobs. Put it another way, although all those Mexicans may look alike, not all of them are illegals picking crops, scrubbing toilets, and mopping floors. Does anybody really believe a Congressman Joe Smith with alabaster skin would have been arrested?