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July 02, 2015 10:59 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (July 2)

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

MoreSmarterLogo-300x218Happy day after Canada Day! It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Republican presidential primary campaigns in Colorado are setting up shop:

Campaign season, no doubt, is officially here, as Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul announced state campaign leaders to oversee their quest for votes for president in what’s likely to be a key swing state next year.

Fiorina’s picks are state Rep. Perry Buck of Windsor and businesswoman Heidi Ganahl of Boulder. Paul chose former state Sen. Scott Renfroe from Greeley and state Sen. Owen Hill from Colorado Springs.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is in Aspen mouthing scary foreign policy slogans:

“I think [Iran’s leaders] are religious Nazis with an end-of-days view of their religion, and they’re dangerous as hell,” Graham said, adding a nuclear-armed Iran is far more dangerous than the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, although he has a plan for dealing with ISIS as well.

Rawr!

Department of Veterans Affairs officials are now saying there may never be a detailed account of why the troubled Aurora VA hospital project is more than a billion dollars over budget. You’d think we could ask the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, Mike Coffman about this, but he was apparently unavailable to grandstand comment for today’s story.

► The U.S. Supreme Court has sent a lawsuit challenging the 1992 Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights back to district court for reconsideration–the latest maneuver in a long fight to determine if the constitutional requirement to establish a small-r republican form of government has been usurped by convicted felon tax evader Doug Bruce’s labyrinthine creation.

► Former GOP congressional candidate and radio host Jeff Crank says it’s time to investigate Cynthia Coffman’s role in the alleged blackmailing of state GOP chairman Steve House:

Now, I just say this. If this happened, Cynthia Coffman, the Attorney General, needs to resign. She’s a Republican, and she needs to resign. Because if this happened, she either at worst, participated in it, and at best, was a witness to it, in her office – in your office, in the Attorney General’s office of the state of Colorado. It’s uh — this is what needs to be investigated. Not whether Steve House did this, that, or the other thing.

► Almost everyone agrees that Colorado needs more federal judges, and sooner not later.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► 19 new laws from this year’s legislative session took effect yesterday, including a law making it a felony to process hash oil in your home with explosive chemicals. Sounds pretty straightforward to us.

► A report this week from Environment Colorado says our state is well-positioned to take on climate change….

► …Unless we start growing so much weed indoors that we use up all our electricity.

► A CU Boulder study says some chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas pose a risk for groundwater contamination. And you probably shouldn’t drink shots of it either.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock shakes up his administration heading into his second term–but the Colorado Independent’s Susan Greene says not in the one place that matters:

The bubble in which Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration operates became all too apparent at a forum Tuesday when a member of the public wanted to know if the city has put anyone from the community on its team to implement hundreds of much-needed reforms to its woefully dysfunctional sheriff’s department.

► The mayor of the small town of Calhan has resigned as an investigation into the alleged theft of millions of gallons of water from the town’s municipal wells continues.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Student groups at CU-Boulder are facing big cuts in funding.

Colorado Bureau of Investigation director Ron Sloan, a strong voice in defense of the 2013 gun safety bills, is retiring.

ICYMI

► Rep. Jared Polis finally gets his celebrity makeover, and GQ announces he is no longer the worst-dressed member of Congress in history. We’re glad that’s over.

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

Comments

12 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Thursday (July 2)

    1. Jeff Crank never goes out of style. I remember back in 2006 when he warned everyone what would happen if the Republicans nominated Stillborn in CD 5 and what an embarrassment it would be. You know what……Crank was right.

  1. Serious question, why would "libertarian" Rand Paul choose two total religious right fundies to chair his campaign? Renfroe and Hill don't exactly scream live and let live.

    1. Broadening his base. He figures he has the libertarians secured so now he needs to reach out to the other end of wacko wing of the GOP. Whether he can hold both ends together is the big question.

      Someone should ask Renfroe if he agrees with Paul's position that the government should get out of licensing marriages – opposite or same sex.

      I’m not sure that would play all that well in the Church of the Poisoned Mind.

    2. Perfectly comfortable with them because he's a conservative religious rightie, anti-choicer himself. Not a libertarian. Isolationist, yes. Libertarian, no.

      1. Rand is libertarian when it comes to ammosexuality and the Second Amendent. And federal land management (Cliven Bundy and his ilk).

        Not so much on reproductive rights, or separation of church and state.

  2. Re "CU Boulder study says some chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas pose a risk for groundwater contamination. And you probably shouldn’t drink shots of it either."

    I would never drink shots of it either. But the findings of the study, funded largely by the NSF, concluded that toxins could not be found and would never(?) be found more than 300 feet away from the well bore.

    Just one study of many more to come (we can hope) but is it also subject to the limited sampling that was mainly provided by the industry itself? That is unclear from the article which states "data obtained from more than 50,000 wells in Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas since 2011."

    1. Yes, didn't Webb also come to the defense of the Stars and Bars a few days ago as a warmup to his announcement. Don't be surprised if Cooter, Bo and Daisy Duke fire up the General Lee to join Webb's bandwagon.

      Oh well, the more the merrier.

  3. It's hard to figure out his thinking. His remarks about the Confederate flag were hardly endearing. Hillary is raising the dough and Bernie is speachifying to the lefties. I don't see room for Webb.

  4. “It's hard to figure out his thinking.”

    Maybe he is just doing what half the Republican candidates are doing…raising money for his personal use. Modern campaign financing seems to allow a candidate to raise enormous sums of money with very little actual oversight and accountability (see..Steve King (R) CO.)

    If you are always campaigning, everything you do is a "campaign expense"…and when you lose, you get to keep what is left. To my knowledge, there is no law that says a candidate must return any campaign funds to anyone.

    It is a hell of a money maker and raises your name recognition for future campaigns. And…it looks good on your resume when you are chatting with Jamie Dimon about…things….

     

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