When it was announced that Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones was going to debate Gov. John Hickenlooper on the issue of fracking, we weren’t sure what to expect. To be honest, we were afraid that the debate might turn out to be more of a conversation among friends who just sort of disagree on a few things. We were worried for no reason. Elise Jones kicked the governor’s butt.
During the debate, Jones cleverly deployed the same strategy over and over again, namely, she used actual facts to explain to the governor why his current positions on fracking and natural gas in general are wrong, shortsighted and out of step with the citizens of Colorado.
Jones did her homework, and the final result was embarrassing for Hickenlooper. While it was great to see Jones operate, it was actually alarming, make that angering, to listen to the governor of Colorado try to defend his enthusiasm for oil and gas extraction and fracking.
Hick put to rest any notion that he has carefully thought about these issues or has even vaguely acquainted himself with the current research. During the debate, the governor often rambled about things like becoming an oil and gas geologist because he loved to walk in the mountains. He looked befuddled when confronted with such realities as the fact that we are exporting gas because we have a glut, and that some recent research indicates that leaking methane from wells may actually make natural gas worse for global warming than coal.
It was pathetic and telling. Jones won the debate by a landslide, and in so doing, demonstrated that Gov. Hickenlooper has not arrived at his enthusiasm for oil and gas extraction and fracking by way of careful analysis of the available research. The man was pretty clueless. We’ll leave it to the voters’ imagination to consider what Hickenlooper’s true motive for blindly supporting the oil and gas industry might be.
Young’s apology more telling than racist remark
Don Young has been Alaska’s at-large district Republican representative for 40 years. He recently went on a live radio show in his home state to talk about agriculture. During the program, Young was recounting his youth when he said, “My father had a ranch — we used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes.”
What the heck is up with Alaskan politicians and their inability to control their mouths, or their brains, for that matter? Between this old fart and Sarah Palin it kind of makes you wonder if they have some kind of secret inbreeding program for political nut-jobs hidden away in the Yukon.
It’s bad enough Young said what he did about Hispanic migrant workers, but when John Boehner and the rest of the high-ranking Republican posse in Washington demanded that he apologize, the situation just got worse.
Rep. Young said he didn’t mean to say anything offensive, he was just using what was the proper terminology in the old days.
No you stupid, racist a-hole, it was always a mean, disgusting thing to say. You can be made to apologize ’til the cows come home by your embarrassed Republican colleagues, but the truth is in your apology. You really don’t understand what all the hoopla is about. It is shameful that our broken system of campaign finance makes it possible for relics like Rep. Young — ancient white men so disconnected from modern culture that they still view the time before the civil rights movement as the good old days — to remain in power.
And we apologize for calling you a racist a-hole. We’re pretty sure that back in the day it was a term of endearment.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
