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James Peabody

[Spam comments deleted]

I suppose you think that's terribly clever.

ashby reader

Charles Ashby today has a nice round up of political banter. He's one of the finer political journalists in Colorado, in my opinion. Except that here he's really just recapping what he read on coloradopols.com.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3918097,00.html

Interesting buzz about Isgar. We all read something similar in Blake's column back in May. Wonder if there's any truth to it.

candyraver

In Today's RMN:

Speakout: Deputy's widow supports Beauprez
By Teri March
July 11, 2005

As the widow of Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff David March, slain in April of 2002, I fully support U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez's bill to cut off funds to any country, including Mexico, until it fully cooperates in the extradition of alleged cop killers. I believe the common goal would not be to hamper international relations, but to find proper justice. Perhaps a financial hardship would provide the incentive for opening a dialogue that has been long needed.

My husband's alleged killer lives freely and openly today in his native Mexico, where he fled after the murder of my husband, taking advantage of a loophole our government does not address. Unless we agree not to seek death or life in prison, only then will Mexico consider an extradition. This is difficult to comprehend, considering the crime happened here in the United States. What about the victim's rights? We desire a fair and reasonable solution, but it's been more than three years!

Until the author of the July 5 Rocky Mountain News editorial, "Demagoguery won't help in Young case," has lived through this kind of nightmare, I think criticizing any efforts while sitting on the sidelines is an easy thing to do. I support Beauprez's amendment and hope it will finally open respectful diplomatic discussions addressing fugitives at large.

Beauprez and I have spoken in great detail. I called him to thank him for standing his ground on this very sensitive issue.

In the past I have spoken with many politicians and nothing substantial has been done to date that I'm aware of. Finally, someone is doing something to put pressure on both governments to act.

The amendment's passage by a vote of 327 to 98 suggests we have a serious problem in need of proper attention that Congress can't ignore.

I am saddened that another brave officer, Denver police Detective Donald Young, died on May 8. Justice for his alleged killer, Raul Gomez-Garcia, has been compromised because he was able to flee to the sanctuary of Mexico. Mexican officials are now considering extraditing Gomez-Garcia to face trial in the U.S., but only after Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey filed reduced charges against him. Meanwhile, while Mexico defends its citizen - believing cold-blooded killers should be rehabilitated - the family of officer Young will never have another hug, laugh or a chance to say goodbye to their husband and father.

I feel Beauprez's measure is the only leverage to find common ground. We should be thanking the congressman for doing the job he was elected to do - addressing the safety of American citizens. Others have avoided applying pressure for political posturing, trade, votes and various other reasons. That's shameful, and that should be the topic of News editorials.

Teri March is a resident of Valencia, Calif.

neo

SOUNDS LIKE SHE WANTS BEAUPREZ TO STAY IN CONGRESS

candyraver

EVERYTHING SOUNDS LOUDER IN CAPS - EVEN IMAGINARY STUFF.

Where exactly do you see that Neo? Too much time in the Matrix for you, methinks...

ziik

can somedoby link to Ashby again. That link didn't work.

Thomas M. Patterson

I feel compelled to respond to the recent string of messages concerning the First C.D. It is amazing how people will attempt to start rumors through downright fabrications.

Recently, somone claimed that Diana DeGette was in political trouble because her Chief of Staff was looking for a new position. This is not true. (My information comes straight from DeGette's office and not from the rumor mill.) DeGette's Chief of Staff recently returned from maternity leave and has no plans to leave DeGette's office. And why should she? DeGette is not only in the House leadership (Chief Deputy Whip for the Democrats) and on one of the top Committees (Energy and Commerce), but, having passed her stem cell bill through the House, is one of the rising stars in Washington. She is the only House Dem who took on the White House, Focus on the Family, Tom DeLay, and the Vatican and won.

Moreover, it was hilarious to see one of the commentators spouting Ramona Martinez's line that DeGette is weak on constituent service and is infrequently in the District. DeGette's constituent service is second to none, and she is in Denver on average three or four days a week. Martinez was a credible candidate, with the Teamsters and the UFCW behind her. DeGette trounced her 3-to-1. It would be political suicide for anyone to challenge DeGette.

DeGette will hold the 1st C.D. seat as long as she likes. If she retires at Sandra Day O'Connor's age, she will be in office until 2032.

Vladimir

Hey I see where the Catholic Church is changing its view and is now against evolution -- reversing their previous position that scientific facts are irrefutable -- I guess that altar boy running for the Democratic Nomination should now announce that we will have Scopes style trials here if he wins

candyraver

What the Cardinal (not the Vatican) actually said was that evolution is possible but only as part of a 'divine design' and not simply a random series of events or 'natural selection.' As positions and issues go I don't think it's really that big a deal, I do however think it makes this person appear a bit out of touch. I'm also not sure why this Cardinal felt it was necessary to take this position right now? It seems like the sort of thing that has much more potential to hurt the image of the Church than help.

Phoenix Rising

Actually, I believe Vladimir was referring to a statement that the Pope actually made recently, not a Cardinal. He backtracked on John Paul II's statement that "evolution is more than just a hypothesis" (I think that was the wording...).

Now on to the other side: I thought attacking a particular candidate for belonging to a particular faith without understanding their actual positions went out with a certain Presidential race in 1960. Glad to see vladimir proving me wrong.

Phoenix Rising

So I ask myself: why does it take Beauprez a month to come up with some police widow who supports his cause? You'd have thought this story was relegated to the back-burner of armchair analysis by now, and here's the RMN trying to keep Beauprez alive by finding someone in California to back up their Colorado Representative!?

Lame. I grieve for these families and hope the killers are caught and returned to the U.S. for prosecution, but this isn't much better than ambulance-chasing.

candyraver

I assumed Vladamir was referring to the story in Sunday's paper regarding recent statements on evolution by an Austrian cardinal.

Phoenix Rising

Regarding the whole evolution thing, who is to say that natural selection isn't God's design? God can't be caged by painting him with Human-like acts; His will is beyond our comprehension.

The real problem Literal Bible scholars have with evolution isn't natural selection vs. "intelligent design", it's that, taken to its logical conclusion, it disproves the literal age of the Earth. "Liberal" Chrisitans don't read a literal Bible, they see the truth in interpretation; this is a fundamental difference between the fundamentalists and "my" side of Christianity.

Vladimir

Hey Bill Ritter has made it clear -- he takes his direction on all things be it religious or secular from the Church he belongs to -- his choice -- his right -- now that the Church wants to join the Pentecostals what will Ritter do? My guess is that he will toe the Church's line -- but I do think it is a legit question to ask him. Also legit is will Ritter commit to support the Democratic nominee for Governor without equivocation?

Vladimir

Gee, the Dems are great messengers -- I see that Joan Fitz-Gerald's top flack is also the falck for Cop Murderer Lisl Auman -- yes, a jury found after less than two hours of deliberation that she was a Cop Murderer -- why does Joan tolerate her full time staff working part time for cop killers? Is this indicative of the type of staff supervision she will provide as Governor should she choose to run? A total disgrace.

Defero Veritas

So I realize it's a little late in the day to bring this up, but here's some more evidence that Marc Holtzman may be dropping out of the race for Governor. The Denver Biz Journal's site says that Holtzman has joined the board for a private dot-com company as an "outside director."

Don't people resign from boards when they pursue public office, not join them?

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2005/07/11/daily4.html

Ter Ducken

I think you have it exactly backwards. Joining the board only boosts his profile in the Springs and helps his resume. There's no downside. It's pretty obvious to me that this is a political move.

DeferoOppoResearch

Quite obviously - Defero must bo doing ongoing oppo research. I agree with Ter - this is just one more thing to put on his resume. And since he's no longer DU President, it's easy to understand why he may not have been able to join until now.

Defero Veritas

No oppo, just throwing it out there for discussion, since it is such an unusual action to take for someone who is in a race "for the long haul..."

Becky

What was the news on Isgar? I missed it.

Mother Blogger

um. . .the Ritter "takes his direction on all things be it religious or secular from the Church he belongs to" statement from Vladimir. . .where's the evidence for that statement? Is that in a clipping somewhere? That's akin to the "80% of the media are self-identifying liberals" BS that Rush spouts off, with no back-up.

tony

Sniff no more! I agree with Defero: it must be a political movement.

tony

Sniff no more! I agree with Defero: it must be a political movement.

T.J. Dillon

101 Psalm

I will sing of loyalty and of justice; to thee, O Lord, I will sing.
I will give heed to the way that is blameless.
Oh when wilt thou come to me?

I will walk with integrity of heart within my house;
I will not set before my eyes anything that is base.

I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cleave to me.
Perverseness of heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.

Him who slanders his neighbor secretly; I will destroy.
The man of haughty looks and arrogant heart, I will not endure.

I will look with favor on the faithful in the land. That they may dwell with me.
He that walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.

No man who practices deceit shall dwell in my house;
No man who utters lies shall continue in my presence.

Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.

Enlightenment

One thing that struck me as odd in the days after 9/11 was Bush saying "We will not tolerate conspiracy theories [regarding 9/11]". Sure enough there have been some wacky conspiracy theories surrounding the events of that day. The most far-fetched and patently ridiculous one that I've ever heard goes like this: Nineteen hijackers who claimed to be devout Muslims but yet were so un-Muslim as to be getting drunk all the time, doing cocaine and frequenting strip clubs decided to hijack four airliners and fly them into buildings in the northeastern U.S., the area of the country that is the most thick with fighter bases. After leaving a Koran on a barstool at a strip bar after getting shitfaced drunk on the night before, then writing a suicide note/inspirational letter that sounded like it was written by someone with next to no knowledge of Islam, they went to bed and got up the next morning hung over and carried out their devious plan. Nevermind the fact that of the four "pilots" among them there was not a one that could handle a Cessna or a Piper Cub let alone fly a jumbo jet, and the one assigned the most difficult task of all, Hani Hanjour, was so laughably incompetent that he was the worst fake "pilot" of the bunch. Nevermind the fact that they received very rudimentary flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station, making them more likely to have been C.I.A. assets than Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. So on to the airports. These "hijackers" somehow managed to board all four airliners with their tickets, yet not even ONE got his name on any of the flight manifests. So they hijack all four airliners and at this time passengers on United 93 start making a bunch of cell phone calls from 35,000 feet in the air to tell people what was going on. Nevermind the fact that cell phones wouldn't work very well above 4,000 feet, and wouldn't work at ALL above 8,000 feet. But the conspiracy theorists won't let that fact get in the way of a good fantasy. That is one of the little things you "aren't supposed to think about". Nevermind that one of the callers called his mom and said his first and last name, more like he was reading from a list than calling his own mom. Anyway, when these airliners each deviated from their flight plan and didn't respond to ground control, NORAD would any other time have followed standard operating procedure (and did NOT have to be told by F.A.A. that there were hijackings because they were watching the same events unfold on their own radar) which means fighter jets would be scrambled from the nearest base where they were available on standby within a few minutes, just like every other time when airliners stray off course. But of course on 9/11 this didn't happen, not even close. Somehow these "hijackers" must have used magical powers to cause NORAD to stand down, as ridiculous as this sounds because total inaction from the most high-tech and professional Air Force in the world would be necessary to carry out their tasks. So on the most important day in its history the Air Force was totally worthless. Then they had to make one of the airliners look like a smaller plane, because unknown to them the Naudet brothers had a videocamera to capture the only known footage of the North Tower crash, and this footage shows something that is not at all like a jumbo jet, but didn't have to bother with the South Tower jet disguising itself because that was the one we were "supposed to see". Anyway, as for the Pentagon they had to have Hani Hanjour fly his airliner like it was a fighter plane, making a high G-force corkscrew turn that no real airliner can do, in making its descent to strike the Pentagon. But these "hijackers" wanted to make sure Rumsfeld survived so they went out of their way to hit the farthest point in the building from where Rumsfeld and the top brass are located. And this worked out rather well for the military personnel in the Pentagon, since the side that was hit was the part that was under renovation at the time with few military personnel present compared to construction workers. Still more fortuitous for the Pentagon, the side that was hit had just before 9/11 been structurally reinforced to prevent a large fire there from spreading elsewhere in the building. Awful nice of them to pick that part to hit, huh? Then the airliner vaporized itself into nothing but tiny unidentifiable pieces no bigger than a fist, unlike the crash of a real airliner when you will be able to see at least some identifiable parts, like crumpled wings, broken tail section etc. Why, Hani Hanjour the terrible pilot flew that airliner so good that even though he hit the Pentagon on the ground floor the engines didn't even drag the ground!! Imagine that!! Though the airliner vaporized itself on impact it only made a tiny 16 foot hole in the building. Amazing. Meanwhile, though the planes hitting the Twin Towers caused fires small enough for the firefighters to be heard on their radios saying "We just need 2 hoses and we can knock this fire down" attesting to the small size of it, somehow they must have used magical powers from beyond the grave to make this morph into a raging inferno capable of making the steel on all forty-seven main support columns (not to mention the over 100 smaller support columns) soften and buckle, then all fail at once. Hmmm. Then still more magic was used to make the building totally defy physics as well as common sense in having the uppermost floors pass through the remainder of the building as quickly, meaning as effortlessly, as falling through air, a feat that without magic could only be done with explosives. Then exactly 30 minutes later the North Tower collapses in precisely the same freefall physics-defying manner. Incredible. Not to mention the fact that both collapsed at a uniform rate too, not slowing down, which also defies physics because as the uppermost floors crash into and through each successive floor beneath them they would shed more and more energy each time, thus slowing itself down. Common sense tells you this is not possible without either the hijackers' magical powers or explosives. To emphasize their telekinetic prowess, later in the day they made a third building, WTC # 7, collapse also at freefall rate though no plane or any major debris hit it. Amazing guys these magical hijackers. But we know it had to be "Muslim hijackers" the conspiracy theorist will tell you because (now don't laugh) one of their passports was "found" a couple days later near Ground Zero, miraculously "surviving" the fire that we were told incinerated planes, passengers and black boxes, and also "survived" the collapse of the building it was in. When common sense tells you if that were true then they should start making buildings and airliners out of heavy paper and plastic so as to be "indestructable" like that magic passport. The hijackers even used their magical powers to bring at least seven of their number back to life, to appear at american embassies outraged at being blamed for 9/11!! BBC reported on that and it is still online. Nevertheless, they also used magical powers to make the american government look like it was covering something up in the aftermath of this, what with the hasty removal of the steel debris and having it driven to ports in trucks with GPS locators on them, to be shipped overseas to China and India to be melted down. When common sense again tells you that this is paradoxical in that if the steel was so unimportant that they didn't bother saving some for analysis but so important as to require GPS locators on the trucks with one driver losing his job because he stopped to get lunch. Hmmmm. Yes, this whole story smacks of the utmost idiocy and fantastical far-fetched lying, but it is amazingly enough what some people believe. Even now, five years later, the provably false fairy tale of the "nineteen hijackers" is heard repeated again and again, and is accepted without question by so many Americans. Which is itself a testament to the innate psychological cowardice of the American sheeple, i mean people, and their abject willingness to believe something, ANYTHING, no matter how ridiculous in order to avoid facing a scary uncomfortable truth. Time to wake up America.

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