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November 24, 2015 01:30 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Nov. 24)

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

MoreSmarter-ThanksgivingWe’re planning out our tryptophan coma dreams early this year. 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…

► Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is in Colorado today, making stops in Denver and Boulder as part of a trip that involves both raising money and “mobilizing” Colorado Democrats.

► But if you attend a Donald Trump rally, you may be taking your life into your own hands.

► Speaking of Trump, he may be in danger of losing his so-far lead in the upcoming Iowa caucuses to Sen. Ted Cruz. Might Iowa change the course of Cruz’s also-ran campaign, or make itself irrelevant? Cruz says it’s the former, with feeling.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► There may be no solution in more need of an actual problem than Republican fears of “voter fraud” in Colorado. State Rep. Don “Quixote” Coram is pushing yet another plan to require voter ID at polling places in Colorado. As Colorado Pols wrote on Monday:

Ever since [Scott] Gessler first made his bold accusations in 2011, County Clerks from across Colorado have repeatedly denied that there were any known cases of voter fraud in their counties. Ever. At all. Undeterred, Gessler convinced his patsy, Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, to press forward with criminal charges that resulted in finding one person who was (knowingly) illegally registered to vote but likely never actually cast a ballot. Thank goodness we put a stop to that!

Colorado has spent an absurd amount of time and money over the last couple of years in an effort to discover this illegally-voting Bigfoot character, and at every turn Colorado has uncovered a whole bucket full of nothin’. Rep. Coram isn’t going to go out on another limb by throwing out new numbers attributed to illegal voters, so instead, he just says, “how much is enough?”

We were thinking the exact same thing, Rep. Coram. How much is enough indeed?

Great work, Rep. Coram. When you get bored of chasing your tail on this issue, maybe you could focus on curing Polio in Colorado!

► After a months-long campaign of Environmental Protection Agency demonization by Republicans and their energy industry allies over the accidental minewater pollution spill into the Animas River in August, San Juan County and Silverton have voted unanimously to accept the EPA’s once-dreaded “Superfund” status to deal with the longstanding problems with water quality caused by old mines in the area.

► State Sen. Larry Crowder (R-Alamosa) is leading with his conscience, rather than blindly following his fear-mongering Republican brethren, in discussing how Colorado and the United States should deal with Syrian refugees.

► An eighth congressional district for Colorado’s burgeoning population? Don’t rule it out says a new study.

Denver City Council voted 12-1 to pass a construction defects ordinance that takes away some rights from condo owners to sue over shoddy workmanship. After being stopped cold in the legislature this year, lobbyists for builders are chipping away at the resolve to protect homeowners one city council at a time.

We’ll have more to say about this.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Democratic candidate recruitment group Emerge Colorado wants Gov. John Hickenlooper to appoint a woman to replace outgoing Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia.

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

Comments

12 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Nov. 24)

  1. Why won't media use the "L" word?

    Most, but not all, media seems to be having a problem calling Donald Trump a liar. I'm sure that it's against their editorial standards to call anyone a liar, but that's what he is, a dirty, nasty, bigoted, fascist liar.

    Rachel Maddow came the closest anyone has gotten to calling his latest claims a lie on her show Monday.

    And this, from Benjy Sarlin, would be perfect if only he had used the word "LIE" instead of "falsehood."

    The last few days have been dizzying. On Saturday, Trump told a crowd in Alabama that “thousands and thousands of people were cheering” on 9/11 in Arab neighborhoods in Jersey City as the World Trade Center came down. There is no evidence this ever happened; the mayor, the police, locals, researchers who have investigated the claims, and officials in nearby cities like Paterson, with large Arab and Muslim communities, say it’s a phony rumor that’s hung around for years lie.

    (See? Easy. -ed)

    The closest approximation The Washington Post could dig up was one academic researcher who found unconfirmed reports of a handful of teens shouting in front of a South Paterson library. Presented with evidence on ABC News contradicting his claim, Trump responded that he had personally seen it happen on television. “People over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down,” he said.

    On the other hand, CNN twisted itself into a pretzel to avoid calling Trump the lying fascist that he is.

    This is the biggest weakest of our biggest media: the inability to call a lie what it is. It's true you can't know what's in someone's heart or mind, but you can know when they double down on something instead of retracting it. I'll call Michael Bennet out for his lies, and they should call Trump, and anyone else out as well,

      1. CHB,Bennet needs to be called out on his terrible votes, like his vote for the TPA. Criticism of Bennet doesn't equal a vote for Neville by any stretch of the imagination.

        Zap's correct – the media , including the liberal media, has been very weak-kneed in calling a lie a lie. Donald Trump has decided to mine the very worst of American paranoid bigotry, and has abandoned "spin" in the service of blatant,easily disproved Big Lies. Bennet's not in Trump's league, yet, but the human costs of Bennet's Lil' White Lies ("the TPA will be good for American jobs") are not materially different from Trump's Big Lies.

         

        1. Or from Obama's where TPA is concerned, isn't that right? You must also disagree with Obama on this but you don't seem to hate him at all over TPA, his baby, or for saying it will be great for American jobs but you do hate Bennet with a purple passion for…wait for it…. supporting Obama on TPA.  Bennet must be called out for supporting something you aren't demanding we all call Obama out over? See, this is where your logic escapes me.

          I oppose TPA. Therefore I oppose both Bennet and Obama in their stands on TPA. I think they're both wrong about the alleged job creation. I don't, however, think either of them is the devil. If I thought one of them was because of TPA then I'd have to think the other was too because there is no difference in their positions on TPA.

          1. Oh, Bluecat. I've written to and about  Obama on TPA, and I don't support his support of TPA, or a number of other issues which I'm not going to enumerate here. I don't "hate" either Bennet OR Obama, or even Trump for that matter, or think that they are the devil.

            I happen to generally approve of many of Obama's positions and accomplishments, and I don't at all regret helping in his campaigns. Doesn't mean he's now suddenly perfect and above critique. For example, we could have had a much better single payer health system if he, with Bennet's help, hadn't torpedoed that in the ACA negotiations.

            You of all people should know that criticism of political positions does not = personal love or hate. Matter of fact, I think you mentioned that you worked on Obama's campaigns yourself,  somehow managing to overcome your own disagreements with his centrist policies.

            Or maybe not,since as soon as anyone criticizes Bennet on anything, you feel compelled to chime in with "But, What about Obama??" It's predictable, does nothing except irritate people, and doesn't really deflect any criticism of Bennet onto Obama,if that is your goal.

            Now, I might be carrying a large anti-Bennet chip on my shoulder because of  Bennet's decisions as Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, which directly impacted my welfare and finances, but that's just blood under the bridge. Bennet is a corporate clone who will always act in accordance with his paymasters- most of us get that now. It's unfortunate that anyone thought that he should be in charge of a large urban school system, much less a Senate district, but that happened – is still happening.

            Please don't assume that you know anything about what I feel or think, unless I choose to share it in writing here.  When you  paint every Bennet critic as somehow irrational or illogical because they don't immediately criticize Obama to the same degree, it's insulting.  We get nuances and qualified support. You are not the only Polster capable of balanced thinking.

            1. The large chip would help explain it because you know if you generally agree with Obama's positions, they're pretty much identical to Bennet's so that puts you in general agreement with Bennt's too.  I do know that your feelings for the two are nonetheless dramatically different, even if I've exaggerated the degree, not from heart or mind reading but from reading what you write.

              Interesting, though, that the main reason Bennet was team Obama's fave for that appointment in the first place was because they loved what he was doing as Super here. And BTW I don't regret supporting Obama in both of his elections either. Nor do I regret supporting Bennet over the clearly unelectable ( and since demonstrably) Romanoff back then or since, since the alternative has always been an R who would definitely not support any of Obama's agenda including all the good stuff, much less very nearly all of it. 

              As for being irritating, BlueCat doesn't mind. In fact freedom from concern about being pleasant and diplomatic is the main reason for BlueCat's existence devil. And you can't possibly find BlueCat more irritating than BlueCat finds the constant bitter attacks on Bennet for the very same stands Obama takes with no similar degree of offense taken with Obama. The irritation is entirely mutual. We're not here to be ditto heads, after all.

              1. I'm in good company – any gathering of Denver Public Schools teachers who were around during Bennet's tenure will feature prominent shoulder chips about the Bennet education resume. 

                Bennet's resegregation and promoton of policies creating greater inequities in schools explains it. So does his "exotic financing" of the DPS/ PERA retirement merger, which has exacerbated debt that PERA is still in the hole for.

                He pioneered the undermining of union policies that rewarded experienced and well-educated teachers, for dubious merit pay for test score improvement. Even though I benefited from the merit pay,  any veteran teacher will tell you that test score improvement is a crapshoot – too many variables and factors besides teacher quality.

                Bennet was the poster boy for education "reform" corporate style – pay millions to curriculum and test publishers, cut funds from classrooms. It's a racket.

                And yes, Obama was a willing promoter of that racket, which manifests today in districts across the country.

                So I've earned my skepticism of Bennet – his waffling and promotion of corporate-friendly policies such as Keystone XL, his positions against reinstating Glass-Steagal, and too many others only reinforce that. It's politics and lived experience, not personality.

                You persist in seeing it as all personality, all love/hate/ villain / hero,  and I have no control over that. 

                I'll continue calling out Bennet when he screws up, and I'm sure you will chime in with, "What about Obama?!!" every single damned time. Whatever floats your boat.

                1. Without any rational basis, nothing based on any significant difference between the two on stands taken, policies promoted, what else can it be but personality? Sorry you find rationality so irritating….. not reallydevil!

                  Have  a very Happy Thanksgiving. I won't have any more time to irritate you until Friday at the soonest starting at …. 3…2…1… Bu-Bye!

      1. In the pursuit of ratings and readers, old media has forfeited much of their credibility (looking at you, Denver Post), substituting infotainment for experienced reportage and sober, reasoned commentary.  The NYTimes may be one of the last defenders of traditional media evoking the halcyon days of Murrow, Cronkite and Sevaried.

        Good to see them own up to their responsibility to carry the torch of truth and honor by calling out the depravity that Trump has embraced in his megalomaniacal desire for ego gratification.

        1. Unfortunately a huge segment just dismisses anything from the "main stream media" as lies, documents as forged, evidence as fabricated. Rove's dream of created reality triumphing over facts has largely been realized within the Republican base. To them, the fact that the NYT says it is pretty much taken as the best proof possible that it can't be true. In their reality Obama was born in Kenya, he's ruined the economy, probably on purpose, there's been a huge cover up of criminal activity concerning Benghazi, thousands and thousands of Muslims danced in the streets of Jersey after 9/11, no one is ever treated unfairly because of race, Christians are being persecuted by being subjected to plastic cups without snowflakes, we are in grave danger of being subjected to Sharia law and the NYT is lying if they claim Trump is lying.

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