The Representatives We Deserve
To the Editor:
On the Martha Quillen article (October 2010): Years ago when I lived in Jefferson County, I supported Don Brotzman. At one event I went to in the late 60s or early 70s, he said studies have shown an electorate gets the kind of government it deserves. Obviously he said this in a kidding manner, but I think there’s a little more truth to it than I first thought. For a long time I’ve thought if the people of Colorado spent half as much time paying attention to what their elected representatives were doing and holding their feet to the fire to do what’s right as they do following professional sports (recently described as “magnificent meaninglessness”), we’d have the kind of government we could be proud of. Originally I felt I was getting my money’s worth from the Colorado State Legislature, but over time it has evolved to the point it is only representing itself. I think we could in general describe it as a 100-member organization with a collective IQ approaching the same number as freezing. Martha’s conclusion can be summed up in a quotation attributed to Pogo, but I also think was in the Li’l Abner musical from General Jubilation T. Cornpone, and that is “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Here’s an idea, maybe as soon as someone gets elected, all of the supporters should work at getting him out.
Jeff Donlan’s article on Proposition 101 and Amendments 60 and 61 was very well done. My feeling is this has all the earmarks of Doug Bruce’s work. Whom, I think is more interested in reducing local government to the point where he can pursue his slumlord ways without fear of anyone coming after him. I voted for TABOR the first two times it was on the ballot in hopes the state legislature would wake up and fight it or do more to promote what it was doing was not out of control. I knew it was bad business to put it into what we laughingly call the Colorado State Constitution. It ceased to be constitutional a long time ago with all the stupid citizen-initiated amendments which got voted in by an electorate which let itself be misled into thinking this was a good thing to do. I’m reminded of a comment made in a series of novels about a Berlin Police detective during the Depression and through WWII, which stated the Nazis got into power in Germany because the German people didn’t give a poop (my word) about its government. Hopefully, these three pieces of garbage and others will fail at the polls.
Enough of the soapbox for now.
Peter Bulkeley, Denver CO
Re: Farmer Far Afield
To the Editor:
What a delight to read John Mattingly’s article in the October Colorado Central “How bad can it be?”
I especially relate to the flagship example in # 7-Churches.
Nowhere can you find a business that is so protected from taxes and only has a small investment in raw material, and never needs a real product change. It’s amazing that folks continue to attend church and toss money year after year at that hope in the sky thing.
Dennis Olmstead, Montrose, CO
Who is Really to Blame?
To the Editor:
As we approach the upcoming midterm elections the pundits are predicting a big defeat for the Democrats, a reflection of dissatisfaction with President Obama’s first two years in office. Apparently at the top of Obama’s failures is the new healthcare bill, which Republicans are saying they will work to overturn. Will they overturn the part where you can’t be denied a policy because you have a pre-existing condition? Because that part of the bill is directly responsible for a friend right here in Coaldale finally getting insured and receiving cancer surgery. How many other American lives have been saved or extended by this bill? Will they work to repeal the part where insurance companies could drop you when you got sick? Or the part where they could just stop paying when your medical bills reached their “cap”? Maybe it’s the part that allows kids to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26 that people want to get rid of. Or maybe it’s insisting that everyone be insured, so the rest of us won’t have to continue paying an average of $1,100 per year for uninsured people going to the emergency room as their last resort. Maybe we just don’t like telling insurance companies that they have to use 85% of their premium dollars for actual health care rather than exorbitant salaries.
Or, maybe it is Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill in the Gulf that has people so up in arms and ready to put the more corporate-friendly Republicans back in control of things. He secured $20 billion for Gulf residents right off the bat from BP, rather than allowing them to drag it out in the courts for decades as Exxon did after the Valdez, finally settling for half a billion dollars. How could he treat this poor oil giant so unfairly? At least one Republican actually apologized to BP for Obama’s “shakedown.”
Or, is it the Lily Ledbetter Act? Maybe 2010 is too early to expect equal pay for equal work and we need the more misogynistic Republicans to make sure there is an uneven playing field in the workplace.
Maybe people are upset with Obama doing an end-run around Republican obstructionism and appointing Elizabeth Warren to create and head a consumer watchdog agency, designed to crack down on unfair mortgage and credit card practices. Speaking of credit cards, maybe the Credit Card Reform Act of 2010 was Obama’s downfall. After all, do we really need to hold credit card companies to higher standards? Weren’t things just fine when they could raise your interest rates without warning, even on your current balance? Wasn’t it just hunky-dory for them to mass market credit cards to kids barely out of high school? Do we really want to hold these upstanding credit card companies to standards which require clear, easy to understand language?
Or maybe some people are upset with Obama’s standing up for our military veterans with the Veterans Benefit Act of 2010, touted by veteran’s groups across the board. Michelle Obama has also taken on improving veteran’s programs as her own personal agenda.
Is it the stimulus package that has people pissed off, which even after being watered down by Republicans still saved an estimated three million jobs? Every credible economist agrees that when banks aren’t lending and people aren’t spending, the government has to infuse federal dollars into the economy to get things moving again. And our economy IS moving in the right direction, as indicated by every metric there is. We have now had nine consecutive months of private sector job growth. But hey, it’s been nearly two years and we’re still at 9.5% unemployment, so let’s find out who created this mess and put them back in charge. Sounds sane to me.
President Bush’s Wall Street bailout, followed by Pres. Obama’s stimulus package averted a major economic collapse, according to every reputable economist, who agree that federal spending is the only way to prevent the downward spiral of a major recession from becoming a major depression. No one, including Obama, liked seeing the giant Wall Sttreet firms using our money for multimillion dollar bonuses but this bailout occurred under President Bush and came with no strings attached and no restrictions on how it was to be used. So the Wall Street bankers put it into their pockets rather than use it to extend credit and get businesses lending and borrowing again. This naturally caused a lot of anger, but to direct this anger at Obama is misdirected. I lay the blame on the lack of regulation and the few regulators we did have being asleep at the switch. This lack of effective federal regulation is also what allowed the BP oil disaster to happen, as well as the West Virginia mine explosion last April which killed 29 miners. These same Wall Street millionaires who pocketed federal bailout money now paint Obama as “anti-business” when he calls for tougher regulations to prevent failing banks from dragging the rest of us down with them again, or oil rigs dumping millions of barrels of oil into our waters rather than spend a few million dollars on blowout preventers that work. They label Obama “anti-business” even though the Dow Jones average has gone from under 8,000 in November of 2008, when he was elected, to over 11,000 today. Someone must be doing pretty well under our “anti-business” president.
Considering the depth of the crisis we were in when Obama entered the White House, most people would have thought that the people we elected to lead our government would manage to put partisanship aside, at least until the economy was out of the ditch. But every one of Obama’s victories has come over the lock-step opposition of the Republicans. They spent eight years rewarding corporations for shipping our jobs overseas and now complain that Obama isn’t reducing the unemployment numbers fast enough. Manufacturing jobs in America fell from over 17 million to under 12 million under Bush’s presidency. President Bush oversaw the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind with his tax cuts for the already wealthy in 2001 and 2003. Any kind of tax cut during wartime was unprecedented and Bush had to use reconciliation to get them through, which meant they’d expire in 10 years. Now that the 10 years are about to be up, and the tax cuts are scheduled to expire, this expiration is being labeled as a “tax increase.” All we hear from the Republicans is how these tax cuts for millionaires are necessary to create jobs. They didn’t create jobs during the last 10 years, why would they suddenly start now? Notice that you don’t hear any Republican mentioning the word “deficit” when they’re discussing these ridiculous tax cuts. The main complaint against Obama’s attempts to get us out of the mess he found us in was deficit spending. People who never raised one objection to Bush’s taking us from a $128 billion surplus when he entered office to a $1.2 trillion deficit when he left were now wringing their hands over Obama burdening their poor grandchildren with our debt. It has become very clear that hardly anyone in the country, on either side, objects to federal deficit spending, it just depends on whom the money is being spent. Tax cuts for the super-rich are fine by some, but don’t even think about extending unemployment benefits to those who have lost their job in these tough times. The Republicans’ main fear right now is losing the tax cut for the wealthy that Bush gave them. Since they propose no way to pay for this $2 trillion gift, they have suddenly stopped talking about deficit spending and have changed the argument to social issues, attacking everything from the 1964 Civil Rights Act to Social Security and Medicare.
With the Supreme Court’s democracy-killing decision in the Citizens United case, we are now seeing huge amounts of corporate cash being poured into our political process, mainly on behalf of Republican candidates, who can be counted on to repay their corporate sponsors once they get into office. For as long as I can remember, the candidate who could outspend his opponent had a huge advantage in our political system and we’re seeing literally hundreds of millions of corporate dollars being dumped into campaigns. Right here in Colorado, shadowy, out of state special interest groups including Karl Rove’s American Crossroads are dumping tens of millions into ads attacking Senator Bennet on behalf of Ken Buck. And it works. Despite taking extreme stances including opposing Medicare, wanting to keep the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the military, opposing abortion even in cases of rape and incest, wanting to repeal healthcare reform, saying on March 9 that he is against a government-run Social Security, and other extreme positions that the majority of Coloradoans oppose, he is neck and neck with Senator Bennet. If the Tea Partiers were in fact concerned with democracy or the principles this country was founded on, they’d be as outraged as the rest of us at this Supreme Court decision that threatens our very political system. The inequality in America is fast becoming an issue not of right vs. left, Republican vs. Democrat, but rather one of corporate ownership of our political system vs. the American citizen. Everyone, including Tea Partiers and Republicans, should be worried if this decision isn’t overturned with a constitutional amendment. How much of this money is coming from foreign countries that have a lot to gain from having our manufacturing jobs shipped to them? How much of this money is aimed at trade agreements designed to lower the standard of living of American workers to that of our third world “trading partners”? You can bet on one thing: if China or India or anyone else spends enough money to swing an election, they’re going to want something for their money. We are witnessing right now, in these 2010 midterm campaigns, the direct effects of this truly un-American Supreme Court decision.
The common wisdom two years ago was that the upcoming presidential election would be the most important election of our lifetimes. And it very well may have been, at least up until then. But with the rapidly rising power of corporations to buy our elections, this upcoming midterm election is just as important as the 2008 one. Regardless of which side of the aisle you’re on, every one of us needs to stay informed, use your natural intelligence to question what you hear, and most importantly, to vote and encourage your family and friends to do the same.
Dick Carney
Coaldale, CO
More Kudos for Mattingly
To the Editor:
I especially enjoyed John Mattingly’s article in the October 2010 issue. I would like to add to Mr. Mattingly’s comments covered under his Item #1, on page 34. One positive aspect to watching “other people hit, kick, bounce, or throw various sized balls” is that, unlike what went on in the ancient Roman Coliseum, we no longer kill Christians, which, in my opinion, is a major step forward for mankind … everything else, however, is pretty much the same.
Dick Stacy, Montrose, CO
Where are you, America?
To the Editor:
The American vote. What a wonderful and ominous thing to own. We The People used to own our right to vote. But beware, “sheeple” out there are having the wool pulled over their eyes. Most of us were brought up to know the truth is what we seek. But what we are seeing is unprecedented attacks with out and out lies. Honor has been destroyed by the stolen GOP as they hurry to discredit anything done by the legally elected President of the United States of America. Sounds like a set-up to me. I can’t believe that anyone can still believe that the mess the U.S. is in wasn’t caused by the attempted (and ongoing) NeoCon theft of our country. When Ronald Reagan sidestepped the energy warning and gave our country to his corporate base, that expensive corporate oil began to flow through our freshly-printed money right back to his base.
Funny thing about that … someday someone has to pay and pay and pay for that. Here ya go kids, you’re being treated worse than Bonzo the chump. Never mind that President Jimmy Carter had given us the truth about our energy woes and began moving America toward renewable energy sources. After Reagan lied for and bought the vote, he took the solar panels off our White House, poo-pooing the obvious existence of poisonous and global warming clouds of pollutants in our air. Gettin’ hot isn’t it? Reagan also sold out our country’s media by flooding the radio dial with too many stations that couldn’t maintain employees because of the resulting deflated advertising dollar. He sold our airwaves to foreign ownership, something that was illegal prior to his deregulation of the once respected Federal Communications Commission. Can you say “Agenda”? Now we have FOX News owned by an Australian and Saudi, doing everything in its power to overthrow common sense. The new corporate/NeoCon/Republican owners next installed the mindless/machines to play and say what the NeoCons dictated. Many people don’t realize that most radio is “canned” now, with very little live programming. The music, news, and people are no longer accountable to the citizens of this once great nation. Now the corporate owners dictate the news that you hear. Guess which party the majority of new station owners back? Most back the corporate lobby which buys GOP or weak Democrat politicians.
You know, it is ironic that when elections roll around, the media makes a ton of $ from political ads. Is it any wonder they want controversy? (MJB is smiling big-time lately.) It is like a monster feeding itself with the corpses of those it has destroyed. Warmongers have made a killing with their investments in the NeoCon’s military industrial complex. Hey, they can’t make any money unless they unleash the killing machines. Private prisons can’t make any money unless we continue America’s dubious honor of having the most incarcerated citizens. Insurance moguls won’t get that yacht if they can’t control your life and death. You aren’t surprised are you? The religious right horrify me, too, with their indoctrinated single issue votes.
Never mind the thousands and thousands of innocent viable lives that are wasted by myopic corporate greed. Networks have been noticeably devoid of any real news of lies and deceit by those on the radical right, instead feeding the frenzy of anger with more and more corpses of the honest hard-working people of this country. Here is where we, the real owners of this country stand to fight … here is where Fascism is found out and stopped before it destroys the U.S. For those of you who don’t know what Fascism is, study the politics of Mussolini and Franco … see how they manipulated and duped gullible people into slavery. Open your eyes, America. Stop being blinded by lies. The sad thing is, there are lots of good Republicans out there, but because of the rip W and Cheney left in the fabric of America, I am leery of them. Where are you good citizens of our country? Where are you when your fellow citizens are hurt by greed in all its forms? Where are you when your neighbors are losing their homes due to usury? Where are you when a simple injury or illness devastates their lives? Where are you when our jobs are being outsourced? Where are you when your CEOs walk off with all the chips while the game is still underway? Where are you religious right-wing zealots when Jesus gave us the directions for our salvation through charity and love? Where are you America?
My prayers, with hope and love,
Patrick Lee Hawkins, Coaldale, CO
Say No to Christo
To the Editor:
With all due consideration for the safety and convenience of the public and in the best interests of our wildlife, I believe the Christo “Over the River” art display should be brought to a screeching halt before any permit approvals are issued.
Numerous agencies have been asked to review and comment on details of the overall proposal as submitted by Christo and his advisors. It is my understanding that the public comment period deadline was set for a date in September 2010. In reviewing the gist of the comments, many of which seemed to be legitimate concerns, I could find no mention about the possible effects of “Wind Power” on this suspended fabric art display.
In an editorial letter, published in the Mountain Mail on 1 October 2010, I pointed this out in some detail (with a copy to the local BLM office). Responses from the public so far indicate surprise and disappointment that this vibration problem seems to have not been given more serious consideration.
The unpredictable winds in the Arkansas River canyon have the potential to cause stress failures in any objects which can be affected by moving air (wind). Sudden microbursts (downdrafts) and random vibrations create a recipe for disaster. All three components, the cables, the anchors and the fabric, will be vulnerable. It is also conceivable that one single component failure could crate a domino effect and cause adjacent component failures.
For all the given and referenced reasons, I conclude that this entire proposed project, should it be approved, is too risky and dangerous; and any blood shed before, during or after it is over will be not only on Christo’s hands.
Bill Sustrich, Maysville, CO
