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August 20, 2014 06:26 AM UTC

Wednesday Open Thread

  • 33 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

"The feeble soul merely whines and complains."

–Taylor Caldwell

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33 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

    3. at least he refrained from giving us the Tom Delay psycho grin.  Maybe the Travis County Sheriff's Office could give the negatives to the state archivist for when they hang Perry's picture in the state capitol with all of the other govs.

  2. Story behind paywall, this is the 'public portion.'  Was sometthing posted on this last week already?  I thought I saw something?

     

    Food for thought on gas

    North Fork Valley growers, brewers unite over threat of fracking

    082014_ww_PAONIA_wine3

    WILLIAM WOODY/Special to the Sentinel—Brent Helleckson, shown in his vineyard at Stone Cottage Cellars in Paonia, has joined the fledgling advocacy group Colorado Farm and Food Alliance, one of several statewide groups that are calling for restrictions on oil and gas development, particularly the practice of fracking.

    By Charles Ashby 
    Tuesday, August 19, 2014

    Hoping to build on efforts to block oil and gas lease sales in the North Fork Valley, farmers, ranchers, brewers and restaurant owners have teamed up.

    And they’re looking to go statewide.

    2. Paonia is beautiful and in recent years has been transforming into a little paradise of vineyards, wineries, B&Bs, breweries, organic farms, remaining old family ranches, orchards, some quite notable restaurants, including the Flying Fork (worth the trip all by itself) taking advantage of local produce, at least one really special brew pub (also featuring great cherry soda made from local cherries), a lovely arts center, a vibrant music scene featuring local musicians in small venues. 

      A few years back a professor published a book describing the region as very similar to Provence in France and excellent for producing fine wine. The climate in the valley is protected and milder than you'd expect with a nice growing season. We've been there when all the trees here in Denver metro have lost most of their leaves and Paonia is still a blaze of fall color. They are working hard on their budding wine industry, producing better wine and wine tourist tasting tours and such all the time. But new operations can be fragile and need a nurturing environment.

      It's a kind of round about and time consuming place to get to compared to other destinations so, even though locals want to attract more well deserved tourism, it promises to remain a relaxing, charming destination unlike the more easily accessible, busy towns right off 70 and 82 in the Aspen area, an area I would now avoid like the plague if we didn't have some good friends to visit on their old home place up on Missouri Heights where you can ignore what once sleepy Carbondale has become. Oof! Used to live there. Makes me so sad to see it now. More than a few have moved from Carbondale to Paonia to find the kind of living they used to be able to find in Carbondale. 

      I can see why the people of Paonia are so concerned. This is a town that could become and remain a nearly year round destination for the domestic and international tourist looking for a setting more away from it all combining the charms of Provence and the American West. 

      Sacrificing what Paonia has the potential to be throughout the foreseeable future for the sake of grabbing a bigger piece of the latest boom that we all know can only end in another bust is just nuts. Paonia needs to be protected from the kind of short sighted greed that could leave it just another broken down, used up old mountain town in the not very distant future.

      2. Yep…the North Fork valley is quintessentially an expression of the principle that there are places that are just too special and too fragile to allow the oily boys to trash it for their personal gain. If this country had the political will, we could, in short order, remove any pressure for growth in the petroleum industry.

         

  3. Thanks for the shout out.  No diary yet.  We are on our way to the Farmers Market in Carbondale today, should be down in Durango this weekend!  we will be posting some things on our blog.

    Come get a picture with our FARMER ACTION ART ('carnival cut-out) and lend your support.  If you are a farmer, restaurant owner, brewer, winemaker, or otherwise in the agricultural, food, drink business (or represent an organization in that same vein) stop by the website and show your support to our ‘What We Support’ Statement, which is simply this-

    Colorado Farm & Food Alliance Position Statement

    Healthy Lands and Clean Water Protect Colorado’s farms, food and drink.  

    Colorado’s homegrown food, award-winning wines and craft beers depend on healthy land and a reliable supply of clean water. Our pure water is a key ingredient in Colorado’s famous beers and wine.

    We must be smart about the needs of Colorado communities and our entire landscape by finding places to drill that do not harm our farms and ranchland or our water. These lands and resources are incredibly important to the Colorado economy.

    Protecting our land and water depends on a responsible approach to energy development.  Some places are too important to frack and drill for oil and gas. Where we do develop, we have to get it right.

    When energy development is balanced with protection of our healthy land and water, our farms, food production, world-class dining and local wine and craft beer will also thrive.

    Follow us on Twitter too @ColoFarmFood 

  6. Terrorist plot revealed (otherwise known as the GOP is at it again):

    In an interview with Politico, the Minority Leader pledged that if Republicans took control of the Senate after the 2014 election, he would attach policy riders to spending bills that would either encumber or fully restrict the president’s bureaucratic leeway. These riders could come in different forms and scopes, from abortion policy to the implementation of health care reform. So it’s impossible to know just how confrontational McConnell wants to be. But Politico’s report suggests he would be willing to see the standoff all the way to a shutdown.

     

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/20/mcconnell-government-shut_n_5694560.html

     

    The stakes for Dems holding the Senate just got higher.

    1.  Minority Leader pledged that if Republicans took control of the Senate after the 2014 election, he would attach policy riders to spending bills that would either encumber or fully restrict the president’s bureaucratic leeway.

       

      This is very much like the treatment of Nelson Mandela by the DeKlerk government in South Africa. We must not lose the Senate.

      BTW…I am one of a small group joining  Senator Udall for coffee in about an hour. I will let you all know how that conversation goes.

      1. and I am joining Don Quick at an even smaller coffee gathering in less than an hour. I will post as well. I plan to ask him, after his election, to try to educate sherrifs on how to enforce our new gun laws

  7. From latest likely voter poll. If I were AC I'd say this was trend. I'm not. I'll just say it's better than a sharp stick in the eye for Dems and probably not what AC would prefer to see.

    CBS News/NYT/YouGov

    7/5 – 7/24

    LV

    3.0

    51

    47

    Udall +4

    1. This didn't work well. It should show Udall at 51, Gardner at 47, though it does correctly show +4 for Udall. I used source and everything. The 3.0 is margin of error.

  8. BTW it's been days now since I've had any trouble getting on or posting.  Does that mean site problems have been fixed and nefarious attacks prevented? 

    1. Shhh!  You're gonna ruin Tom Tancredo's whole business model for his retirement income!

      This article is about the hijacking of a movement that started in 2009 by the modern equivalent of the “Old West Snake Oil Salesman.” Slick, fast-talking, and capable of whipping a crowd into a frenzy, they travel from town to town peddling their promises of “change.’

      Funny also was the mention of The Tea Party Express blowing $200k on Owen Hill's aborted (ooh, can I say that about a Republican?) campaign against Cory Gardner.

  11. Just spent an hour and a half with Don Quick. Like him a lot. Pro choice. Pro equality. Created after school program when DA in Adams. Took him on a handshaking tour of our downtown and intorduced him to approximately 35 of our voters. He is now being interviewed by our local newspaper.

    1. I di raise the issue of eduating sheriffs re enforceability of gun laws. He agrees though it is so hot button he may not campaign on it-my suggestion

      1. Good suggestion but just wondering. Why is AG a big rightie hero for enforcing a law against the wishes of  the majority and after several overturns in court but Sheriffs are big heroes for refusing to enforce a law that hasn't been overturned by a single court just because they don't like it? Seems like all the arguments for why AG is right to stick with the law until there is a final (Supremes?) decision should apply even more so to the Sheriffs. If the clerks are the ones who are wrong here (and they are according to the right) then aren't the sheriffs even more wrong? Why don't we here "the law is the law" from the right in both cases?

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