Category: Politics

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Homeowners Association going to far, trying to force homeowner to remove American flag

Homeowners Associations have a place, but sometimes they go too far, including this one.
According to a story on the 9 News Website, HOA says mother of fallen soldier has to take down flag, the homeowners association at Strawberry I at HeatheRidge is forcing her to take down her American Flag. Their reasoning, it is on a common element.

Mary Sims is the person flying the flag and she refuses to take it down. She is flying it in honor of her son who was a military recruiter and was killed in an accident. Her husband is a civilian working in Iraq for the Department of the Defense.

According to Colorado state law, a person’s right to display the U.S flag shall not be infringed “anywhere on an individual’s personal or real property.” State law though, does make some exceptions when it comes to personal displays of the flag.

According to the law “an owners’ association, the state, or a political subdivision may adopt reasonable rules and regulations regarding the size, number, placement, manner of display, and lighting of the flag, and the location, size, and height of flagpoles.”

Sims says that if they force her to take down the flag, then everyone else needs to take down wind chimes, because they are in the common area.

To me this is ridiculous. The American Flag should be able to be flown when and where a homeowner wants to. No one should be able to tell Sims or anyone else where or how to fly her flag. She lost a son serving her country and her husband is serving his now.

I fly my flag everyday that I can.  My homeowners association does not care how much or where I fly it.  I am glad I don’t live where Sims lives.

9 news tried to contact the board members of the association and no one would return their calls.

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“Diamonds v. Pearls” Student Blasts CNN (Updated With CNN Response)

Marc Ambinder (November 16, 2007) – “Diamonds v. Pearls” Student Blasts CNN (Updated With CNN Response)
Well CNN is throwing softballs and controlling debates these days.  Not a good thing for a media company to be doing.  It seems to me that they are censuring or controlling questions that can be asked.

The media should be there to provoke thought and discussion, not control what people are going to ask.  This question is ridiculous and should never have been asked.

CNN should know better.  They are now trying to blame the college student.  Yeah she submitted the question and who is not going to turn down a chance to be on national television.

They should have thrown that question out.  They need the public to ask the hard questions so we can get to the real issues and stances of the Presidential candidates.

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Denver Screws up Voting…Again

The Denver Post – Shortages added up to slow vote tally
I am glad that I don’t live in the City and County of Denver. They can’t seem to get votes right, one of our most basic rights as a citizen of the United States.

Last year they had to keep voting locations open several hours longer because of computer problems. This year they are blaming it on a lack of people to count the votes, and those who were charged to count left and went home early.

In an article in the Denver Post, “The 30 workers in charge of preparing ballots to be run through vote- count machines went home around 8:30 p.m. instead of working to sometime between 10 p.m. and midnight as elections planners had expected.”

To help get the job done, they brought in police officers to help finish the count.

Continue reading “Denver Screws up Voting…Again”

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Musharraf Losing It, Places Bhutto Under Arrest

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has gone too far in this declaration of emergency rule and now has placed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto under house arrest.  Bhutto had been planning some large protests for Friday and this was probably an effort to stop those.
Musharraf had promised to step down from the military and take over as President after winning the election and hold parliamentary elections.  But as the time grew closer and people were challenging his election as President, he declared emergency rule.

Ever since the declaration, there have been protests in the streets and more arrests of opposition leaders.  It is just not right.

But the hands of the West are tied.   The West needs to condemn what Pakistan is doing and work to have Musharraf step back from his declaration of military rule.

They can’t push too hard because they need Pakistan’s help to go after Al Qaeda in the north.

This needs to come to a quick resolution, but it is looking more-and-more that it won’t.  The longer this goes on, the more that Musharraf will use the military to keep control of the country.  The people of Pakistan won’t put up with it.

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A Colorado promise broken

The Denver Post – A Colorado promise broken
The Denver Post editorial board has put out this wonderful editorial critical of Governor Ritter.  I couldn’t have said it any better.

This Governor had squelched public debate and collaborative decision-making to satisfy an ever increasing minority within this country.

Unions once had a important place in this country in protecting workers and ensuring that they were compensated fairly.  But that time has gone.

And unions in government are even worse.   They only serve to waste time and money while fighting over parking places and who gets a better office space.  Unions in government are worthless.  Managers have to spend a lot more time addressing union issues then communicating with their employees or doing business that we as taxpayers are paying them to do.

This is going to painful for Colorado and especially for taxpayers who will have to pay more to get the same amount of work done.  Businesses who want to do business here will be discouraged.  We may lose an opportunity at economic development.

Ritter has broken his promise to all of us.  We need to look seriously to see if we will want to keep him around as Governor.

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Day Light Savings Goes Away Until March

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back on Sunday morning at 2 A.M.  Day Light Savings ends and won’t show up again until March.
I am not quite understanding Congress’s reasoning behind moving DST back one week from the last Sunday in October until the first Sunday in November.  This week has been especially hard because the sun has been coming up so late that it has been hard to get motivated in the morning.

But the time has come to begin getting up in the dark and heading home in the dark.  Have I ever told you how I hate the winter?  I love May, June, & July when we have extremely long days and the sun is up for a long time.

I loved it when I was living in northern Idaho and the sun wouldn’t set until almost 10 P.M. or later in the summer.

Well I guess it will be time to get out and take walks at lunch now, otherwise I will never see the sun during the week.

See you in March DST.

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An Exit Toward Soul-Searching

An Exit Toward Soul-Searching – washingtonpost.com
This is a great article on the stress that employees of the White House go through on a 24 x 7 basis.

It is an incredibly stressful job.  I don’t think the American Public realizes how much work these public servants put into their jobs.  They are all good people just doing a job.

It will all change over here in just over a year and a new crop of people will go into the grinder.  It is sure a thankless job.

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Wilson to seek Senate seat in New Mexico

TheHill.com – Wilson to seek Senate seat
It is going to be an interesting election season in the mountain west.  This election in New Mexico is going to be closely followed and the Senate election in Colorado to fill Wayne Allard’s seat is going to be another one.

In New Mexico, like most of the west, is turning from a conservative state to a more balanced one, mainly due to the population growth in the Albuquerque area.  In the last election, Heather Wilson (R) survived a tough battle against Patricia Madrid (D) in the Albuquerque area.

But this is a state-wide election and I think that Heather Wilson brings name recognition throughout the state compared to the Democrats who are running and outside of Albuquerque, most of the state is conservative and votes Republican.

Plus Wilson will have Senator Domenici out on the campaign trail with her and he is revered in the state.

It is going to be an interesting election in New Mexico.

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We Need a Solution For Water

The Colorado Index: We Need a Solution For Water
This is an interesting look at water in Colorado and need to have something done.  This post looks at some of the political wrangling around water in the State of Colorado.

Something needs to be done, but most people want to talk about it, and not take any action.  If something is not done soon, we will be short of water and and that is something that we don’t need to be short of.