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February 03, 2011 01:44 PM UTC

Lamborn to face public today

  • 17 Comments
  • by: Barron X

(A rare event indeed – promoted by redstateblues)

If you live in CD-05, you may not know who your US Congressman is.  It’s Republican Doug Lamborn.

You can be forgiven for not knowing.

As a rule, he does not allow the public to see him or ask him questions.  

Now in his third term, this is only the third time since he was elected in 2006 where he will attend an event that is open to the public, is announced in advance, and where he will take questions from the public.  

But, if you hurry, you can see him this morning:

The Woodland Park town hall meeting will be held tomorrow, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Woodland Park Council Chambers, on 220 West South Avenue, 80863.

The venue holds about 30, and he will have over 10 staffers there, so get there early.  The location is hard to find, so use MapQuest or something.

http://coloradopolitics.freedo…  

.

.

Actually, he goes out in public more often than that, but he does not announce those appearances in advance.  

Who or what is he afraid of ?  

This appearance was announced publicly at 5:52 PM last night, less than 17 hours before the event.  

I’m sure his supporters were given more notice than that.  

There is a second appearance, Saturday, in Colorado Springs, but it looks like he is crowding the dais with other GOP politicians to avoid answering questions:

The Colorado Springs town hall meeting will be held Saturday, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the Classical Academy East Campus Auditorium, at Pikes Peak Community College, 12201 Cross Peak View, 80921.

Also attending the Colorado Springs town hall meeting will be a number of local Republican state lawmakers. Those include state House of Representatives Majority Leader Amy Stephens, of Monument, and Colorado Springs legislators Sen. Kent Lambert, Rep. Larry Liston, Rep. Bob Gardner, and Rep. Janak Joshi.

Shame on those state legislators for helping him hide from the public.

.

Democracy only works if voters hold officials accountable.  

Usually, the only accountability Mr. Lamborn faces is the election.  

This is a rare opportunity to tell him what you think of the job he is doing.  

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Note to Polsters:

whether you support Lamborn or support accountable government,

if you attend this event, look me up – yes, I’ll be there – and I’ll buy you lunch.

.  

Comments

17 thoughts on “Lamborn to face public today

  1. .

    I asked Google Maps to show me where 220 West South Avenue was, and it pointed to

    220 EAST South Avenue, not 220 WEST South Avenue.

    Council Chambers are on West South Avenue, between North Center Street and North Pine Street, WEST of City Park and WEST of the Lake in City Park.

    MapQuest got it right.

    .  

      1. .

        From the comments at the site where I found out about this, folks seem to think there’s no point to challenging him.  They feel powerless.  

        Well, if they never get the chance to ask him a question, because they found out about these rare appearances too late, then they really have been deprived of their voice.  

        You guyz, and Pols, are empowering.

        Now let’s get out there and show the Congressman that we haven’t yet given up.

        .

    1. Colorado Springs

      Date:February 5, 2011 – Saturday

      The Colorado Springs town hall meeting will be held Saturday, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the Classical Academy East Campus Auditorium, at Pikes Peak Community College, 12201 Cross Peak View, 80921.

      Google can’t find 12201 Cross Peak View, and MapQuest places it near Research Pkwy and Powers Blvd (although it labels no street with that name), which is a couple of miles away from PPCC Rampart Campus.

      Lamborn’s website says:

      Time:9:30-11:30 am MT

      Location:Pikes Peak Community College – Rampart Range Campus, 11195 Colorado 83, Colorado Springs, CO, Classical Academy Auditorium.

      Participants:State Senator Kent Lambert, State Representative Amy Stephens.

      Note:All meetings will have sheriff or police presence.

      I suspect this is correct, because I think The Classical Academy has an arrangement for space at that campus, but….does seem a bit like playing hide and seek.

      But we will be safe if we can find it!

      BTW:

      Shame on those state legislators for helping him hide from the public.

      Those state legislators are also hiding by grouping up. Most appearances by R legislators here in El Paso County are these group affairs.

    2. Their maps were much better before they started allowing people to redefine places and before they decided people were too stupid to know what they were searching for. Feature bloat and autocorrect have made their maps much harder to use, at least for me.  

  2. this is only the third time since he was elected in 2006 where he will attend an event that is open to the public

    Unbelievable. Compare that with an elected representative like Sen. Morgan Carroll. She hosts both a Town Hall meeting every month and also a monthly morning coffee with anyone who wants to attend, in addition to other events she attends.

    Openness and accountability aren’t partisan issues. They are essential elements of a functioning democracy.  

    1. .

      he contacted the local paper, the Gazette, to say that his staff was having to adjust how he interacted with the public, to ensure his safety.

      Huh ?

      He sometimes conducts what he calls “telephone town hall meetings,” where his vendor randomly dials home phone numbers, then invites us to listen in on an ongoing discussion.  

      He screens the questions, and he controls every other aspect of the discussion.  Golly, he isn’t even in the state when he does them; he’s in DC.  

      What is he afraid of ?  A disgruntled voter sending an electric shock through the phone line ?

      .

  3. Lehman (the owners of that paper for almost forever) recently sold to the same group that owns the primary daily in Denver.  So, maybe I’d better not link unless Pols tells me otherwise.

    Lamborn made an appearance in Canon City (very conservative) on Monday, and it was written up in the (very conservative) daily newspaper by an ultra-rightwing reporter who is known for poor writing and factual errors.  Aside from all that, I loved the lead topic of the article – Lamborn said he walked out of the State of the Union speech because it was boring.  Exciting orator Doug Lamborn said the President’s speech was “boring” – can’t top that.  Lamborn says it was uninspiring and flat as a speech and “even Democrats were saying that.”

    Some other Lamborn themes during his appearance, according to the article:

      * Need to cut health care or environmental regulations because “those are big sources of things that hurt jobs and hurts our economy”

      * “The books were cooked [on the health care bill] in so many ways, it’s not funny.”

      * Renewable energy:  “. . . getting 80 percent of our energy from a renewable standard is simply not feasible. It’s not realistic. It’s a dangerous proposition because it would cripple our economy. These standards are not good for the economy or for jobs because the technology is simply not there.” He also said using solar powered electricity is about 10 times more expensive than getting it from coal.  Hmmm.

  4. …can we get a similar article if and when we get a DeGette sighting?

    Again, an event that us normal folks of her district can attend, and not the high-powered, $2K-to-get-in-the-door events.

    1. So there’ll be six more weeks of spooking the world financial markets about raising the debt ceiling.

      As for this freakin’ winter, you’ll have to check with Al Gore, the one who cancelled winter — how’s that going for you, Al?

  5. .

    Well, most importantly, nobody came up to me, asking me to buy them lunch.  What’s up with you Polsters ?

    The room was much bigger than I remembered.  There were at least 70 chairs set out, and all of them filled up, plus some.  I think there were over 80 people in attendance.  

    At the tail end, a TV crew showed up in the back.  

    AGE:

    nearly 60, I was one of the youngest in the room.  

    There was a small contingent, maybe 8 folks, pushing HR-412, which has something to do with allowing the sale of repair parts for youth-sized ATV’s & motorcycles, current versions of which apparently cannot run on unleaded gasoline.  A couple pre-teens and their parents had a couple of signs and a large poster in the back of the room.  

    MOOD:

    How refreshing.  Nary a whiff of Christian charity, nor of family values.  Wall-to-wall, it was an hour of “I, me, my.”  

    I use “refreshing” sarcastically, because I spend a lot of my time with very religious people, people who have just as much innate selfishness, but who see it as something to overcome, rather than as something to celebrate.  

    These folks see themselves as rugged individualists, self-reliant, who neither give quarter nor ask it.  

    AGENDA:

    Congressman Lamborn started at 10:35 with about 15 minutes of updates on the current status of various pieces of legislation.

    CONTINUING RES, BUDGET, NATIONAL DEBT — The Republicans are going to cut the FY11 Budget by $74 Billion, even though there are only 7 months left.  With the Spending Reduction Act, they’ll cut $2.5T over 10 years.  Under Obama, Defense is being cut, while everything else has grown by 24% in 2 years.  

    ENERGY — he likes alternative energy, as a concept, but the technology just isn’t ready.  He opposes the government subsidizing the development of energy alternatives.  He is skeptical that global warming is man-made.  Bottom Line: taking action to stop Global Warming will add costs to everything we do, and he doesn’t want to pay those costs, adding drag to an already slowed economy.  We should increase hydrocarbon production on public lands.  Of 40,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico, only 1 failed.  

    HEALTHCARE — took partial credit for helping repeal the onerous 1099 requirement for anything over $600, which would have meant more fees to fund ObamaCare.  Will fight for full repeal, because it interferes with the relationship between patients and physicians.  

    NATIONAL DEFENSE — this is Constitutionally the #1 responsibility of the federal government.  Doesn’t want any cuts in defense, but Obama and Gates are cutting $78B.  

    FOREIGN RELATIONS — nobody knows how Egypt will turn out, but Obama is missing a chance to steer the course of history.  He flubbed an historic opportunity to affect the outcome in Iran 2 years ago.  

    At 10:50 he opened it up to Q&A.

    Reporters from the Mountain Jackpot and the Pikes Peak Courier View should have stories up by today.

    .

    1. .

      Q.  What if EPA goes around Congress and imposes Cap and Trade on us by regulation ?

      A.  Ken Salazar and “they” are bad for America.

      Q.  Hickenlooper, Bennet and Sanctuary City Denver. Illegal immigrants.

      Tuition rates.

      A.  Bad.

      Q.  Hard for Vets to get in for care.

      A.  Backlog is terrible, but once a vet gets in, care is pretty good.

      Q.  Agent Orange Equity Act.  Navy and Air Force people who were outside of Vietnam, but supporting airstrikes into the country, in order to file a claim related to Agent Orange poisoning, have to prove that they handled the stuff.  Whereas, Army folks on the ground in-country have a presumption of poisoning.  It ain’t fair.

      A.  I (Lamborn) think that it’s good that you have to prove a connection.  We can’t just give away free care for things that aren’t covered.  (I thought it was a good answer to someone asking for more freebies, based on service in the armed forces.)

      Q.  No COLA for Seniors.  We can’t make ends meet.  

      A.  

      Q.  Audit the Fed & Fort Knox.  Drill the gold bricks to see if they’re real gold.  

      A.  I’m a co-sponsor with Ron Paul.

      Q.  Close the border.  

      A.  build a fence.

      Q.  Cut TSA and groping.  Use profiling like the Israelis.  

      A.  Rah, rah, rah.

      Q.  Limit the size of government.

      A.  The Government does not create one single job.  

      Q.  (Barron X)  6 months ago, in this very room, during the campaign, I asked if you would face your opponents in a debate, and you said you would.  But you didn’t.

      A.  There was no public demand for debates.  People didn’t want debates.  Voters were happy with my representation.  If, in the future, the people ask for debates, I’ll be happy to participate.

      Q. (anon rabble rouser) What are you doing to create jobs.

      A.  Lower taxes, reduce regulation, get government out of the way of business, who creates jobs and prosperity.

      Q. (persisting)  Yeah, but what are you doing to get industry to come into CD-05 ?

      A.  Not my job, man.

      Q.  My son just graduated from college.  Can’t find a job.  So he joined the COARNG.  If the National Guard is sent to protect the border, let them have guns.

      A.  

      Q.  Will you vote to extend the debt limit ?

      A.  If it is tied to something like the Udall Balanced Budget Amendment.

      Q.  Shut down the border.

      A.  Build a fence, go after employers.  Guest worker program with no path to citizenship.

      Q.  Unintended consequences of increasing non-hydrocarbon energy usage – how will we dispose of millions of cadmium and lithium car batteries ?

      A.  Oppose subsidies to new energy.

      Q.  Why do we need a Department of Education ?  Why don’t you start a Constitutional Caucus ?

      A.  I already belong to a couple Constitutional Caucuses, including Mike Coffman’s, and Michelle Bachmann is starting another one.  

      Q.  Sovereignty – UN makes us sacrifice our sovereignty.

      A.  I belong to the Sovereignty Caucus, where we discuss this stuff.

      Q.  Living Constitution.

      A.  Liberal judges, reinterpreting.

      Q.  ATV’s and leaded gas.  The only things my kids will do with me are video games and camping and ATV-riding.

      A.  I WILL co-sponsor HR-412.  

      There was an impassioned plea from someone recently widowed for the federal government to do more for widows.

      I didn’t take notes on a couple of requests for personal assistance.

      The first “Question” was from someone who Lamborn had invited to serve on his panel, screening applicants for service academy nominations.  Besides the yada, yada, yada about what a great guy the Congressman was, this guy, a military retiree, said that we needed to cut the bloated military, contrary to what Lamborn had just said.  

      There were also some comments about earmarks that I didn’t quite understand.  In the past, while denying he ever was involved with earmarks, Lamborn had sponsored a bunch.  When that was outed, he explained that “earmarks” in support of National Defense weren’t really earmarks.  Someone said something about earmarks being for things that DoD didn’t actually  want, but that line of discussion petered out.  

      ………….

      This is my recollection.  I took notes, but they’re sketchy.  If someone attended and challenges this account, fire away.

      .

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