December 02, 2015 11:13 AM UTC
Get More Smarter on Wednesday (Dec. 2)
13 Comments- by: Colorado Pols
Remember, kids, it’s never a good idea to add a “but” at the end of a definitive statement. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missedsomething important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).
TOP OF MIND TODAY…
► State Rep. JoAnn “Violence is Never the Answer, But…” Windholz (R-Commerce City) is really making a (bad) name for herself, garnering national media attention for her ridiculous comments on the Planned Parenthood terrorist attack in which she blames…Planned Parenthood. Windholz spoke out on Facebook and in a statement to the Colorado Independent, and her disgusting commentary quickly gained national attention. The editorial board of the Denver Post sums up the Windholz reaction thusly:
Rep. JoAnn Windholz, R-Commerce City, ought to be ashamed. Her statement on Facebook regarding Friday’s attack on the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs is stunningly crude, callous and incendiary.
“Violence is never the answer, but we must start pointing out who is the real culprit,” her statement says. “The true instigator of this violence and all violence at any pph [Planned Parenthood] facility is [Planned Parenthood] themselves.”
The last line is almost chilling in its implicit acceptance — as opposed to a forthright condemnation — of any future assaults on a similar facility…
…Of course, that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate outrageous rhetoric from elected officials. And Windholz is up for election in 2016. [Pols emphasis]
Windholz was narrowly elected to the legislature in 2014 in a close race against incumbent Democratic Rep. Jenise May, and her odds of retaining her seat in 2016 just plummeted.
► Windholz’s absurd comments on Friday’s attack at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs served as a prime example of the kind of overheated, dangerous rhetoric that progressive groups such as ProgressNow and NARAL Pro Choice Colorado sought to call out during a press conference on Tuesday. The Douglas County Republican Party unintentionally echoed those sentiments with its own sickening social media posts. As Joey Bunch of the Denver Post reports:
“No one should have to fear for their lives when they’re just out just being in their communities, when they’re going to the grocery store, when they’re going to the doctor, accessing health care,” ProgressNow Colorado’s executive director Amy Runyon-Harms said at a the press conference.
She called out a list of Colorado Republicans who have spoken against Planned Parenthood with language she characterized as hostile.
Colorado Republicans, such as Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) are growing increasingly nervous about the clear line between their dangerous rhetoric and the violence it seems to breed.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…
► We’re learning more about the accused terrorist responsible for the Planned Parenthood attack; profiles of Robert Dear paint a picture of a violent man whose motives are becoming clear. From the Associated Press:
An ex-wife of the man charged with killing three people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic said Tuesday that he has targeted the reproductive health organization before.
In an interview with NBC News from South Carolina, Barbara Mescher Michaux said Robert Dear Jr. put glue in the locks of another Planned Parenthood clinic when they were married more than 20 years ago. She characterized him in an affidavit she filed to divorce him in 1993 and in her Tuesday interview as a violent, isolated man, matching the descriptions of others who knew the 57-year-old.
Some have speculated that Dear was not motivated by opposition to abortion rights.
But Michaux said it seemed clear what drove Dear there. “For him to plan this and go there, he meant to go there,” she said. “There is no doubt in my mind.”
The New York Times paints an equally chilling portrait of Robert Dear. Anyone who is still clinging to the idea that Dear’s shooting spree was unrelated to Planned Parenthood should probably go ahead and retire that theory:
In a sworn affidavit as part of her divorce case, Ms. Micheau described Mr. Dear as a serial philanderer and a problem gambler, a man who kicked her, beat her head against the floor and fathered two children with other women while they were together. He found excuses for his transgressions, she said, in his idiosyncratic views on Christian eschatology and the nature of salvation.
“He claims to be a Christian and is extremely evangelistic, but does not follow the Bible in his actions,” Ms. Micheau said in the court document. “He says that as long as he believes he will be saved, he can do whatever he pleases. He is obsessed with the world coming to an end.”…
…One person who spoke with him extensively about his religious views said Mr. Dear, who is 57, had praised people who attacked abortion providers, saying they were doing “God’s work.”
► Congressional Democrats are seeking to put an end to a sham “investigative panel” on Planned Parenthood that House Republicans continue to promote. As the Denver Post reports, Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver) is speaking out forcefully:
Pointing to Friday’s shooting in Colorado Springs, congressional Democrats on Tuesday urged Republican leaders to disband a panel created just weeks ago to investigate Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
In a press conference attended by the six U.S. House Democrats assigned to the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, the lawmakers drew a line between the rhetoric used by anti-abortion legislators and Friday’s attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, in which three people were killed and 12 injured.
“Since July, the phrase ‘baby parts’ or similar phrases have been used by the eight (Republican) member of this committee — just those eight members — 33 times,” said Diana DeGette of Denver, one of the Democrats on the panel.
“And isn’t it interesting that this lone shooter used that same phrase,” DeGette said.
► Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is one of the sponsors of a bipartisan piece of legislation that seeks to increase the “capture and storage” of carbon dioxide.
► The Boulder City Council is wading into the debate over Syrian refugees in the most Boulder-ish way possible. From the Daily Camera newspaper:
The Boulder City Council supported a request from Mayor Suzanne Jones late Tuesday that the city issue a declaration in support of inclusivity for disenfranchised populations, including immigrants, refugees and transgender people.
However, several City Council members said they don’t want to set a precedent of Boulder weighing in on national issues on a regular basis, while others said the city needs to back up the declaration with actions to be the welcoming community it purports to be.
The declaration likely would mirror a declaration that the Boulder County commissioners are preparing. The language of the declaration hasn’t been finalized yet, and the City Council’s action, a “nod of five,” simply gives direction for city staff to work on the matter.
“A declaration of support of inclusivity for disenfranchised populations…” This is not a criticism of Boulder, but let’s be honest: If we had shown you that sentence and asked you to guess which Colorado city is considering enacting said language, there’s no way you wouldn’t have guessed “Boulder” first.
► Famous rich person Donald Trump has spent less than 1 percent of the amount of money that rival Jeb! Bush has spent on advertising in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2016.
► Tuesday marked the 28th annual “World AIDS Day,” and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper added his signature to a new initiative aiming to end the AIDS epidemic by the year 2030. From 9News:
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is working with Governor John Hickenlooper and the City and County of Denver in their efforts.
Gov. Hickenlooper’s World AIDS Day Proclamation endorses the Initiative, also known as the 90-90-90 Paris Declaration.
Denver became the fourth North American city to sign the Initiative.
► There is widespread concern about air and water pollution caused by fracking and other oil and gas development in Colorado, and you can add another complaint to the list: Denver-area residents are concerned about the accident risk from an increase in tanker trains carrying crude oil and other flammable liquids.
► Susana Cordova will serve as acting chief of the Denver School District when superintendent Tom Boasberg takes a 6-month unpaid leave of absence beginning in January.
► A new report from the Center for Western Priorities shows the cost of cleaning up the 100,000 abandoned mines in the Western U.S., and the price tag is staggering: $21 billion.
OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK
► The science advisory board of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is questioning the results of a study on fracking conducted by…the Environmental Protection Agency.
► Republicans are growing increasingly uneasy about the prospect of Donald Trump as the GOP nominee for President, but they don’t really know what to do about it. Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz continues his slow creep upward in the polls.
ICYMI
► “Inflammatory rhetoric inflames.”
► Ted Cruz says the overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats. Actual “facts” show that Cruz is full of shit.
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Beautiful, richly deserved beat-down of the GOP and its dirty, filthy, cowardly minions' weak, lame, utterly failed attempts to get out from under their direct, blood-soaked culpability for the CS PP shootings:
The Planned Parenthood Shooting Is Terrorism We Tolerate – US News
That about covers it.
And lookie here, yet another possible mass shooting. Won't the GOP and the RMGO be so proud and elated!
Sheriff: Active Shooter Reported In San Bernardino
When will you finally put a stop to this utter madness, America?
When the right finally comes to the realization that when the Framers said "well regulated militia," this is not at all what they meant.
The NRA and their right wing friends must be so proud http://www.politicususa.com/2015/12/02/shooting-death-womens-center-texas.html
Going for the Daily Trifecta — notice this addition at the bottom of the linked article:
I wonder if the motive for the shooting at the San Bernardino Inland Regional Center was to take out "welfare cheats".
Give some nut a gun and pump them up on bogus self-righteousness, and this is what you get.
The cost of cleaning up all the abandoned mines in the western US is referred to as a "staggering" $21 billion (which would have to be spread over the many years it would take to complete the work).
The US defense budget for FY 2015 is well over $600 billion.
Perspective. Priorities. Choices.
So for less money than it cost the US economy for shutting down the federal gov't we could have cleaned up all the abandoned wells in the western US? Who'd have thunk? Obviously not the guy ginning up the rhetoric about our defunct government?
Yeah so who needs terrorists? We can just conveniently poison future generations. And who cares about addressing climate catastrophe? Just speeds up end times. It's all good. If you're a lunatic.
recall http://www.aurorasentinel.com/news/aurora-state-rep-windholz-now-faced-with-recall-after-saying-planned-parenthood-responsible-for-deadly-shooting/#.Vl_KPJZ-bgw.facebook
This is a case where I don't really support a recall. She's dumb, she's hateful, but she hasn't stopped doing her job. No corruption that we know of, not even dereliction. The district elected her, and the district can boot her out next election.
You're probably right . . .
. . . still, it's not like ignorant and hateful GOPers are at any risk of being underrepresented anytime soon . . ,