Category: Politics

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Just no! The Denver Post is off base in wanting to get rid of the electoral college

The Denver Post is just wrong in wanting to change how the election of the President is conducted. Instead of using the electoral college, they want to use the national vote.

This is just wrong. It seems to me that they have forgotten the civics and American government classes.

The electoral college was set up to lessen the influence of big states and cities. And lessen the influence of political parties. It has raised the importance of rural communities and smaller states.

As close as the elections have become, the importance of the smaller states has become important. For example, Colorado has become a battleground state and it has brought all of the presidential candidates to campaign here and not only in the Denver metro area.

Finally, they are totally inaccurate when they say millions of votes aren’t counted. They are all counted and important. The elections are too close and too important for people not to vote.

www.denverpost.com/2019/02/01/colorado-electoral-college-popular-vote/

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Disappointed by governments blindly canceling commercial fireworks in Colorado

I am extremely disappointed that local governments are blindly canceling commercial firework programs in Colorado this year because of the dry conditions. While being prudent is always good, it could have been handled in a more systematic manner.
For example, Sheriff Ted Mink of Jefferson County canceled all the commercial fireworks displays in his county. I think this was short-sighted and a political move to appease some of the mountain communities. It was an easy way out.

Sheriff Mink probably should have reviewed each of the commercial programs individually.  This is more a risk-based approach and would have fit the largest county in the state of Colorado. One that encompasses the western metro Denver area up into the mountains.

One commercial firework display that was a casualty that probably shouldn’t have been is the city of Westminster. It is located within the northern suburbs of Denver and completely surrounded by a community. It is set off at a park. The fire danger is low and the potential of spread is low. In fact, if you move that display less than one-quarter of a mile it wouldn’t be in Jefferson County.

Now I agree that displays in the foothills and mountains should have been canceled this year, it is just too dry. But displays that are in the metro area being canceled for the reason that they just fall within Jefferson County is just plain short-sighted.

I found that it interesting that people wanted the Colorado Rockies to cancel their fireworks display this year. This display is in the middle of downtown. It had no chance of starting a wildfire. None at all. But thankfully the Denver Fire Chief and Colorado Rockies used good reason.

Thankfully and finally people are not using personal fireworks and these have been banned. These should be permanently banned in Colorado. These devices cause more injuries and damage than any commercial fireworks could do in a lifetime. I urge the Colorado legislature to permanently ban them.

We need to be prudent and safer this summer. It’s extremely dry and there have been many fires around the state because of this drought. But we need to use common sense and a risk-based approach in the future. To have a blanket restriction on commercial shows is not a good way to manage a county or state.

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The Flagship University in Idaho is THE University of Idaho

The Idaho State Board of Education opened up a can of worms yesterday when they required the University of Idaho to remove flagship from its mission.
For those of you who don’t know, the University of Idaho was established before the state of Idaho became a state. It is even written into the state constitution. Not only that, Idaho is the land-grant institution, operating in 42 of the 44 counties. According to Dr. Duane Nellis, the University of Idaho President, the University of Idaho touches 400,000 people through its extension programs. No other college or university in Idaho comes close.

Building upon that, the University of Idaho contributes nearly $1 billion to the state of Idaho economy, that is 1.9 percent of the Idaho economy. That is a tremendous amount of money for a state like Idaho. Continue reading “The Flagship University in Idaho is THE University of Idaho”

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Vote!

Today is November 2, 2010 and it’s election day in the United States.
One thing that you need to do is vote. There is nothing more American than getting out and exercising your right to vote.

I’ve voted, have you?

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Homeowner’s Association’s are just nuts

I am in a crazy homeowner’s association. It is not like the rules are crazy against me as a property owner or my neighbors.
It is the quorum that is required to change the bylaws. For quorum, we need 60% of the homeowner’s. That is 188 homes. We also must be unanimous. If one person votes no, then it is dead.

We are trying to change it, but there are many that don’t care. We barely got over 100 households tonight.

Hopefully the changes and future votes will allow us to manage our homeowner’s association. But the way it’s going now, we can’t even change the board members.

This is one big mess-up. Neumann Homes messes it up for us again.

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Denver May Be Pot Capital USA

As dispensaries pop up, Denver may be Pot Capital, U.S.A. – The Denver Post
The Denver City Council should regulate the medical pot industry and restrict where dispensaries can locate. It’s there duty.

The medical marijuana industry should have to do what any other business has to do and abide by the laws of the citizens.

I find it pretty ridiculous that there are more marijuana dispensaries in the city than there are liquor stores, Starbucks coffee shops, or public schools. I find it ridiculous especially since it is for a “medicine” that has no regulation by the FDA which manages all of our medicines.

The city of Denver must do what it can to protect all of the citizens of Denver.

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Breckenridge’s wildfire-safety law, residents should be held responsible

Breckenridge’s wildfire-safety law rescinded – The Denver Post
Recently the homeowner’s in Breckenridge rolled back a law that is meant to protect homes, residents, and firefighters during a wildfire. This is plain stupid and ignorant.

Breckenridge and most mountain towns are having a big problem with homes moving out into the forest. But if there is a wildfire, there needs to be defensible space around that house to protect the home, homeowners, and specifically the firefighters who will be there trying to defend that space.

Well if homeowner’s don’t clear and thin the trees around their house, there will be no defensible space.

What Breckenridge was trying to do was put in an ordinance that required homeowners to do this so their would be defensible space. It was ground-breaking in Colorado.

Breckenridge is one of the mountain towns that has a lot of homes moving up into the trees. They are also having a big problem with the pine beetle, killing many of the trees that these homeowners are trying to protect.

But homeowners, many who live out-of-state, didn’t want to touch their beautiful trees. They felt the government was over-stepping their bounds. Well not me. Continue reading “Breckenridge’s wildfire-safety law, residents should be held responsible”

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Littwin: Polis and his “new media” can’t gloat

Littwin: Polis and his “new media” can’t gloat – The Denver Post
This is a great column by Mike Littwin in response to Jared Polis stating that “new media” killed the Rocky Mountain News.

Littwin had a good seat to see what happened at the Rocky and it wasn’t new media.

I think he summarized things well at the end of his column when he stated, “Whatever Polis thinks, he had absolutely nothing to do with the death of the Rocky. He took his best shot, but I’d say all he hit was his foot.”

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The 44 Presidents

This is a pretty cool video showing the 44 Presidents in under four minutes. The photos morph from one to the next in order.