Debate farce
Good for you [Joel Dyer] to reject the “press pass” for the GOP debate farce [Re: DyerTimes, “Why I refused my GOP debate credentials,” Oct. 29].
To accept the deal to watch the debate from a remote location would be to acquiesce to a managed deal. The Republican officials had already limited the audience to the GOP-faithful with only a handful of students allowed in, thus guaranteeing a staged event with likely no dissent from the crowd.
You are correct in your complaint that the controlled environment of another room would prevent you from commenting on the crowd’s reaction to statements of the speakers, as well as the demographics of the audience. Were they predominantly white, older males that represent the core of the Republican party? We won’t know, nor will we find out about the reactions of the debaters to others’ statements.
I watched the debate and longed for the moderators to have a kill switch to cut off the speakers who went over their allotted times. I just wish someone could have controlled the speakers who went way off topic.
And, yes, the moderators could have done a better job to prepare and challenge the purveyors of lies and BS. But then, again, the viewers are probably used to getting their news from Fox News with little regard for truth and facts.
Ken Singer/Lyons
GOP debacle
Thanks to Joel Dyer for describing his experiences with CU’s bureaucracy prior to the recent GOP “debate” [Re: DyerTimes, “Why I refused my GOP debate credentials,” Oct. 29]. Debacle would be a better descriptor for that contrived nonevent.
But, really, what could one expect from an event filtered through the bureaucratic artifices of an antediluvian such as President Bruce Benson and a bevy of regents, most of whom probably can trace their bloodlines back to the last Great Extinction some 65 million years ago.
Incidentally, the “debates” which we recently have been subjected to, and which will be foisted upon us in the coming months are not really debates in the traditional sense. They are moderated discussions in which the moderators’ thinly disguised opinions and penchants are as much in play as those of the candidates themselves.
I suggest that commercialized travesties such as those committed by Fox and CNBC be trashed in favor of discussions conducted under the auspices of the League of Women Voters. After all, we, the public, ultimately own the airways and cableways and we can determine the criteria under which such events are held. It is painfully obvious that the corporate media and their pliant hirelings are not to be trusted when it comes to hosting disinterested political discussion.
Dave Morton/Longmont
A word to the new Council
As the election season comes to a close, I’d like to urge the new City Council — both returning members and newly elected members — to stay the course on municipalization.
Xcel, in its recent paid advertisement in the business section, pats itself on the back for its work in reducing emissions. I’m grateful for what they have accomplished. But their power supply mix is still over 70 percent fossil fuel. And they remain committed to running their dirty coal plants for the next half a century.
Unfortunately climate change is not waiting for Xcel. Study after study shows that we need to leave most of the known reserves of fossil fuels in the ground. We’ve seen the effects of extreme weather here at home, and we look at the drought in California and begin to wonder where our food will be coming from (see: “California’s Drought Could Upend America’s Entire Food System” www.thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/05/3646965/california-drought-and-agriculture-explainer). We can’t wait for Xcel to see the light.
Furthermore, with the recent spate of coal company bankruptcies, Xcel’s commitment to coal is tying us to a risky economic future. Meanwhile, Boulder is home to nearly 30 clean tech start-up companies that could economically benefit the community by engaging with a municipal utility. A clean-energy municipal utility would lower our risk and support economic vitality.
The recent economic modeling of a municipal utility versus Xcel shows not only that a muni has a much higher probability of lower cost to customers, but also that emissions driving climate change are two to three times lower over 20 years for a muni (“Model shows muni benefits” Daily Camera, Oct. 4).
Until Xcel presents us with a clear plan to get to 100 percent clean energy in a reasonable period of time, I continue to believe that the muni is our best bet.
Amber Hess/Boulder
Washington School ‘co-housing’ status
In 2007 I got 500 signatures to oppose the developer’s rezoning of the former Washington School. This effort was in the interest of preserving neighborhood schools. If 300 had been passed then, we would not have had to get 7-8,000 signatures citywide, but only secured 10 percent of those in the neighborhood. Then it would have gone to the ballot. What’s more, the developer had a covenant with the School District (SD) that said that if the affordability of the units was decreased, the SD would receive a premium on each unit that did so. As a result of our petition drive the developer withdrew his rezoning proposal.
Therefore he upgraded some units, those fell into this higher expense category and the SD was able to extract their premium from the developer. Why didn’t the city receive this premium from the SD, when they were the ones to absorb the impacts of having less affordable housing stock and more traffic as a consequence of centralizing schools in Boulder? The SD is 500 square miles and the City of Boulder is 28 square miles in perimeter.
What’s more, the developer argued that co-housing presented a community benefit, but it appears that the signage on the building now suggests that high income senior housing has overcome the building of the commons house and this “community benefit” will never be realized. The protagonists of 300 would use this same argument to support their case against 300. Interesting.
Lynn Segal/Boulder
Debate deflate
Clearly Christmas came early for the Republican Party at the debate at the University of Colorado. In what was supposed to be a focus on economic issues, the bumbling incompetence of the CNBC moderators turned what was to be a substantive exploration of how Ronald Reagan’s small government/ supply-side/ trickle down/ “voodoo economics,” against all evidence, might work to bring prosperity to the middle and lower classes instead into a free-for-all bashing of the “liberal mainstream media.” And trust me, the vast spider web of conservative talk radio hosts across the country are falling all over themselves as they dance around the Christmas tree.
Robert Porath/Boulder
Hillary, Benghazi and abortion
Innocent Americans were killed during the terrorism that took place at Benghazi and there are those who point their fingers directly at Hillary Clinton, who was the Secretary of State at that time. Some think she has the blood of the murdered Americans on her hands. But let’s consider her blood-stained hands stemming from her support/promotion of abortion and how this deems her untrustworthy!
She believes it’s a “right” for a woman to hire another person to kill her unborn child. Oh, no, but she wouldn’t word it like that for that would reveal the evil that she really supports. She calls it a “woman’s right to choose.” Oh, how very deceitful is that satanically influenced nonsense!
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Yes, the devil is active in the wordplay used by Clinton and the pro-aborts. We need to consider how a pro-abortion mentality affects a person’s thinking.
We are talking about someone in Hillary Clinton who seemingly cannot differentiate between good and evil. So exactly how could I trust her? Killing an innocent child is always wrong for this is written on the human heart, and anyone who cannot see this, should be disqualified from all consideration for President of the United States!
Here are words of wisdom from Mother Teresa’s 1994 National Prayer Breakfast speech: “And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?
Yes, how can you, Hillary?
Michael Rachiele/Prairie Village, KS
The Lafayette flip flop; ethics out in Lafayette
Three years. I worked three years as a Lafayette city councilor to bring the city its own ambulance service, EMS today. The private service at the time was closing its doors. Now flooded with outside union money, the Fire Department with EMS wants to unionize. Public sector unions have been the financial bane of many cities and states. But that is for another day. Surely the Police Department will follow.
At first, the city council voted 6-1 against the proposal. A current Council candidate, Cliff Willmeng, wrote an LTE highly critical of the vote. Praising Ms. Mazza for voting for it, he neglected to mention she is his mother.
Then the Council put the proposal on the ballot. That avoided an intensive petition campaign, a boon to the FD and the outside union. Required Campaign Financial disclosures itemized some $16,000 of outside union cash now pouring into the campaign. Thousands of in kind contributions as well. Historically a massive amount of dollars. Mayor Berg and Councilor Lynch now support unionization, along with Willmeng and Walton. The union money is supporting the four.
I have done local campaign mailers and the cost to cover the city is quite high. Also a savvy campaign ruse is to wait until after October 15th to donate and spend more because the next reporting period is at the end of the month, too late to expose other major donations.
Tuesday night Berg and Lynch voted for a 65 percent pay raise which will reward them immediately if re-elected. Cliff Willmeng as well.
Lafayette’s Ethics Code was adopted to prevent city employees and the Council from personally benefiting from their positions in the city. City voters can determine what the Ethics are of Berg, Lynch, Mazza and Willmeng. Flip flop.
(Note: Voting for four not required.)
Kerry Bensman/Erie
