NoCoPolitics.com

Odds and Ends...

Summer Vacation?

Rebecca Boyle has a column in the Tribune covering the summer pastimes of Northern Colorado's legislators.  My hunch is that most people would be surprised at how much work state legislators do serving on interim committees when they're not in session.

Of course, I liked this line...

State Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, has spent much of his summer teaching organic chemistry.

Teaching organic chemistry and suffering from a heart attack?  Talk about a lousy summer.

From the Department of Double Standards:

From the Denver Post:

State Rep. Mike Cerbo hopes to become the next executive director of the troubled Colorado AFL- CIO. The union is currently under a national trusteeship after experiencing leadership problems.

Cerbo declined to speculate about rumors that he's a frontrunner but says if he gets the job, he hopes to keep his legislative seat.

So who will Cerbo represent, his constituents, or the union paying his salary?  Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth we'd be hearing from the other side of the aisle if the paid leader of CACI or the Colorado Association of Realtors were to simultaneously serve in the legislature?

The Socialized (oops, I mean "single payer") Health Care File

In England:

"A woman aged 108 has been told she must wait 18 months before the Health Service will give her the hearing aid she needs."

She said yesterday: 'I could be dead by then.'

17th Century Meets 21st

Last weekend I had the opportunity to meet with several soldiers that I served with in Afghanistan. They are in the final stages of preparation for deployment to Iraq. We had a few laughs, maybe a beer or two, and a chance to discuss their opinions regarding the situation in the Middle East. I wasn’t surprised to hear that, for the most part, everyone in the unit is eager to get on with the job.  These guys are professionals and I know they will accomplish great things.

Chaplain Andy, with whom I worked to rebuild a school in Pol-e-charkhi, Afghanistan, told me that recently he had received word that the school we rebuilt, basically from scratch, was now equipped with electricity and computers! In fact, one of the students qualified as the number two computer literate student in all of Afghanistan.  Now there is an accomplishment, going from nothing but a concrete shell of a building to computers. Wow! All in four years.

The 17^th Century has met the 21^st.

WiFi Bleg

I'm trying to get to the bottom of this WiFi story from the past two days in the Coloradoan.  By my reading, it seems like the simple version of the story is that Frii got permission from the city to use some existing infrastructure so they can then sell WiFi internet access to downtown customers. 

As someone who works downtown and utilizes WiFi in my office, if I signed up for this program, I'd drop my current provider and basically gain the ability to have service throughout downtown (instead of just in my office).   The rates that were listed in the Coloradoan were pretty much market rates for high speed access, so I'd just get more reach for (roughly) the same money.

Am I missing something?  Isn't this pretty much akin to a company asking if they can bury some cables in a right-of-way?  Or another analogy: letting a radio station put up a tower on the roof of a city-owned building?  Frii is still going to be charging customers for its service; it's not like the city is contracting with them to offer up free internet access.

I'm not sure I see the controversy here.  Is this going to cost the city money?  Will the city reap any benefits?   

Some Links...

A Profile of the Sheriffs

In her weekly Inside Politics column, Greeley Tribune reporter Rebecca Boyle profiles Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden. 

An Early Caucus for Colorado?

Both the Democrats and the Republicans are considering moving Colorado's presidential caucus date up to February 5, so called "Super-Duper Tuesday."  More than 20 other states are holding their primaries or caucuses on that date.  The Denver Post correctly notes that this won't have much of an effect on the relevance of the Colorado caucus when it comes to choosing the nominees. 

But what if February 5 doesn't anoint a clear winner?  Wouldn't that create a mad rush to organize in all of the "leftover" primary and caucus states?  It's an improbable scenario, but anything can happen.  Colorado is definitely irrelevant on February 5, but there's at least an outside chance to be relevant later in the process. 

Energy Politics and the Economy

OpenMarket.org has a link-rich post about the effect the new energy bill may have on the economy.  Linking to Forbes, the Financial Times and the Heritage Foundation, the post addresses what the legislation could mean for gas prices, car prices and food prices.

Local Government, National Issues

The Telluride Town Council passed a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.  Now the mayor is shocked to find that some people aren't thrilled with the move and are actually canceling reservations.

Not a Great Record

The growth of federal regulation in the last six years.

Server-Room Warming

IT meets an overly eco-conscious employee.  Servers need electricity-gobbling air conditioning?  Who knew? 

And Finally...

We watch the Tour de France pretty religiously at the Boucher household, and this year it's getting ridiculous.  Both pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov and yesterday's overall leader Michael Rasmussen have both withdrawn due to doping issues.  Makes you wonder if they should just take up the format of the classic Saturday Night Live "All Drug Olympics"  skit.

The RTA

Well, this certainly isn't good.  Greeley's out.

If there were any Questions...

Why there is a need for a group like the Greater Ft. Collins Young Republicans just read this email sent after we were covered in the Loveland Paper.

My name is Tyler and I live in Loveland. I am 19 years old. I saw a report in the Loveland Reporter Herald and I was quite interested, the notion that the word "republican" is, at least in the groups that I am around, referred to as a "bad-word." I have expressed my fear about my party affiliation to my closest friends and family for the last year or so. I have just finished my first year of college at Front Range, a wonderful school, but every day I find myself fearful of expressing my beliefs or thoughts on some "hot-button" topics. I am not a religious person, and there are certain things that anger me just as much about the "republican" side as the democratic, however, I believe that there are many things that the democratic party has blatantly wrong. I have been a republican since I was able to really form my own thoughts and do my own research and the entire time I have been fearful of expressing it. At school probably because I think I may get graded in an unfair way or that the professor will flunk me, I am also fearful of my well being if I were to express my views because I have seen some quite intimidating remarks and demonstrations made towards the republican party on the campus and in my personal life.

I would love to hear of more of the republican side in the younger generation and any information that is available I would much appreciate.

Thank You,

Tyler

This might be something for the Ft. Collins paper to consider in the future, given it's edict on no tolerance for a lack of tolerance editorial last year following other incidents of intimidation, considering they gave our group and two Rock Star Legislators in Rep. Cory Gardner and Senator Shawn Mitchell no coverage what-so-ever?!?!?!

One might even ask where the Ft. Collins Human Relations Board is on this one?

Urban Politics and Panhandling

Dan Haley had a column in the Denver Post about Denver's program to reduce panhandling:

As part of Hickenlooper's 10-year plan to end homelessness, the city approved tougher laws that prohibit beggars from sitting or lying down on downtown streets, stepping out into traffic or approaching diners at outdoor cafés.

The whole thing is here.

FCW Column (Nag Warning)

I just finished my column for the Fort Collins Weekly.   It includes the following passage:

When you don’t let your opinion be known, you can be sure that someone else’s views will take precedence. Someone is writing all of those letters. Someone is shaping public opinion. Someone is providing feedback to their elected representatives. Are you?

(I'd include "Someone is posting an opinion on a blog or web site.")

West Nile, Coda

They sprayed my street late last night.  Other than the hacking cough I woke up with and the kid's strange rash, all seems pretty normal.

Now I'm off to go clean up all of the dead neighborhood pets off the lawn.

Campaign Finance Reform - A Proven Failure

It seems the good people of Loveland are being asked by a citizen's initiative to limit their freedom, the freedom to give their hard-earned money to a city council candidate of their choice.

The idea is if we limit the amount a person can give a candidate, we'll take big money out of politics.  Problem is, the exact opposite is what happens.  Does anyone looking at our last few state-wide elections, run under this so-called idea of "campaign finance reform" really believe big money is out of politics?  In fact what we have is a mess, an unaccountable mess with millions going to so-called "issue committees" or "education committees" and 527s doing a lot more mudslinging than educating.  And no one can tell where their money came from.  Do you feel any better educated about candidates under "campaign finance reform?"  Are campaigns getting better?

Of course not, it has been a colossal failure. 

Makes one wonder what is the agenda for foisting such a charade on the people of Loveland?

Limiting our freedom is seldom the answer to anything.  Thank God our forefathers knew that.

Instead of taking away people's liberty and limiting their right of free speech, give them more information.  We should require instant and full reporting of every penny of contributions and expenditures on the Internet.  Then voters could really see where the money is coming from and cast an informed vote accordingly.