2010 Elections - CO

Well, let's take a quick look at the state of Colorado's elections shall we?

CO-1: Diana DeGette (D) still running unopposed as far as I can tell.

CO-2: Jared Polis has 3 token Republicans trying to win the right to lose to one of Congress's least liked members. If any Dem dared to challenge Polis, he'd be out.

CO-3: Scott Tipton showed a strong fourth quarter fundraising making his effort against John Salazar somewhat interesting. This is a Republican district but Salazar is usually pretty popular but something in the polling made the Cook Political drop this from "Likely Democrat" to "Lean Democrat". Not a surge yet but something to keep an eye on.

CO-4: A slew of Republicans are chomping at the bit to knock off Betsy Markey but none of them is showing tons of political acumen. Still, Markey has to be worried that she doesn't have a bigger cash lead.

CO-5: Doug Lamborn still running unopposed.

CO-6: Somebody is running against Mike Coffman but it doesn't matter, Coffman rolls.

CO-7: Ryan Frazier is the clear Republican front runner now after outraising both McCain stooge Lang Sias and Democrat incumbent Ed Perlmutter. Perlmutter still has big cash advantage as he is popular with everyone outside of Colorado but Frazier has the momentum at this point.

Governor: Scott McInnis (R) is screaming jobs and taxes all over the state after the Democrat controlled state legislature is trying to raise taxes on everything. Fake "Aw-Schuckser" John Hickenlooper is in a bit of hot water for giving a speech on how global warming may not exist to a bunch of oil people just months after going to Copenhagen to try and get a worldwide global warming treaty signed. Hick is also being implicated in covering-up the racially motivated assaults in the Denver area where black gangs were targeting whites in the downtown area. Supposedly Hick knew that they were racially motivated months before announcing that fact to the public. There were numerous assaults during this time where a public warning may have prevented or minimized some of that damage. This is still brewing but the polls are close and law and order issues may benefit McInnis, a former police officer.

CO-Senate: Jane Norton is still leading both Bennett and Romanoff in the polls and she just did an ad buy on both TV and radio linking Bennett to Obama and slamming them both for the stimulus failure. Ken Buck still trails in the primary race, badly.

My Guess? 672 Million, +/- 100 Million, Either Way

More good news on the economic front!

It seems America's brightest over at the GAO have found that the 2010 census has already managed to waste unknown amounts of money that could reach as high as 2 billion by the time they manage to figure out how many people they can coerce into filling out their stupid form.

I for one will turn my nose up at the thought that all this waste is somehow tied to the census being run by liberal union types and say "Good Day!" to any who entertain the notion. The only thing more secure than union accounting practices is the mighty hand of providence itself.

*ahem*

But I do have one good idea.

Why don't we round up some of these goldbricking AFL-CIO types, march them over to the Treasury Department/Federal Reserve and see if they can do a census on where all our money is.

The idea that the institution that is only responsible for the money supply, value of said supply and the spender of bailout money is somehow beyond examination is absurd.

I frankly couldn't care less how many people are here. Those results are going to lie anyway, vastly undervaluing the impact of illegal immigrants and only serving as fuel for all the district gerrymandering and "exposing" how many people need more government help, so who cares.

The Fed on the other hand, I'm very interested in. The Euro is dropping off the edge of the world value wise, China is selling off U.S. Bonds so fast that Japan is now the number one debt holder and I think all Americans should know the answer to two questions:

1) How much money have you dumped into the system and exactly how much is in circulation today;

2) What is the Treasury spending all their money on. A full audit. Starting now.

So get after it census thugs! You can keep your count of los immigrantes, I can find them on my own, get cracking on that dinero, amigo.

Un Bon Dieu!

That was nice of the Saints to make my upset win prediction come true and then some. I guess we can put Peyton Manning in the same company as Elway as a QB who scored a quick 10 then got dominated. Not quite the same since the Skins beat the broncos 655-10 that year but the sentiment is the same.

The people who should really be heartbroken are in San Diego. I think we can all agree that the draft that landed them both Tomlinson and Brees was one of the greatest two round hauls in history. Nice that the they decided to blow that thing up so they could get Doug Flutie and Phil Rivers on the field for a few more snaps. How'd that work out for ya?

Honorable mention for sickest franchise? Miami Dolphins. They passed on Brees to get a good look at that Chad Pennington magic. Good times.

Another season is now in the books and the world is back where it belongs. Bourbon street probably looks like a scene out of The Libertine about now, Peyton Manning choked again and the Oakland Raiders are now back to .500 (o-o) and are still being screwed in HOF voting.

So . . . . . . when is the draft?

LAST THOUGHT: Watching the postgame interview with Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian, she mentioned something about quitting her job so they could focus on Reggie winning a Super Bowl every year, like they did this year. Two questions: 1) You have a job? Doing what exactly? 2) Where is the petition for me to sign?

There Are 2 Teams, Right?

It's hard to believe how much love the Colts are getting heading into this weekend's Super Bowl.

The refrain from nearly every pundit of note is that the Colts will win, fairly handily, because Peyton Manning is unstoppable. It seems as if they have no other reason to think so highly of the Colts because that's the only reason given.

I've actually been hearing comparisons between this years game and the Colts/Bears Super Bowl a few years ago, which is absurd. The Saints are far superior to that offensively bankrupt Bears team. Let us also not forget how Peyton Manning, just a few short years ago, was a guy who couldn't win outside when the had to go up to New England. manning got flustered and choked in the fresh air.

Also being forgotten by the media is the fact that the Saints are far better suited for playing on the grass. They are a better running team, have bigger receivers and have a defense that isn't completely reliant on speed. The Colts have almost no running game to speak of and receivers who seem to play much better on the fast track than they do on turf. They also have a small defense that gets smaller if Freeney isn't full speed.

It's as if people forget that the Saints were 13-0 at one point as well. I don't think the Saints should be the favorite or anything but the game is a pick-em, not a Colts -6 situation.

My pick Saints 28 Colts 24.

Well Okay Then

It seems former NBA'er and general world traveller/raconteur Paul Shirley wants to add advice columnist to his list of achievements, how else can we explain this essay on FlipCollective?

"Dear Haitians –

First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded.

As we prepare to assist you in this difficult time, a polite request: If it's possible, could you not re-build your island home in the image of its predecessor? Could you not resort to the creation of flimsy shanty- and shack-towns? And could some of you maybe use a condom once in a while?

Sincerely,

The Rest of the World"

Now, nobody enjoys a heartfelt "pick yourself up by the bootstraps" motivational speech more than me but I'm not sure I'd have the chutzpah to fire it up to a nation that is busy bulldozing at least 150,000 people into a mass grave.

Before we rightfully cast Mr. Shirley into public oblivion though, it should be noted that some of the points he made had merit.

1. Haiti was a mess before the earthquake. Fair point.
2. Sending them billions of dollars to reconstruct that same mess is idiotic. Very true.
3. Poor nations create a poverty cycle by having an accelerated birth rate due to lack of education and birth control. Very true, we see it in Africa all the time.

These facts are all very true. Had Paul decided to make these sociological observations in some kind of reflective brainstorming session on how to proceed constructively, perhaps something could have been made by them. By contextualizing them in one big "F@*! You!" love letter to the dead/dying people of Haiti and their supporters, I suspect this will become Shirley's version of John Rockers famous "Queer With Aids, Puerto Rican with 5 Kids" subway speech.

I guess he doesn't get to be the next Dan Majerle or the next Chuck Klosterman. Time to fire up plan C chief.

Is it November Yet?

Barak Obama's Carnival of the Damned continued to spin today as two relevant news items emerged from Washington. Most of the debate focused on which point of interest was most ridiculous. Hard to tell.

First, Obama broke out his new (phony) populist message that we can all be sure to get an earful of before the State of the Union address next week. His big plan to bring a sense of fiscal responsibility to the national government is to announce a freeze on all non-military discretionary spending. Boy that sounds great but what does it really mean?

Well it means that the billions we are spending on the military will not be changed, the stimulus package spending will not be changed, our massive entitlement programs will continue on unchanged and the smallest part of our government's budget, discretionary spending, will be frozen at the record breaking high levels they jumped to in 2009. Doesn't really sound like this will generate any actual savings and will in fact guarantee we go further into debt. This is a remarkable thing because usually liberals try and label deficit reducing measures as budget cuts when they are really just reductions in the rate of increase. Obama isn't even trying to be a smooth political operative anymore, he's now a political date rapist.

Second, we get word that Obama, Pelosi and Reid are going to try and get the full monty on healthcare by passing the Senate bill along with a promise by the Senate to add the socialist stuff in later. Now it isn't surprising that these Lenin wannabes are going to try and pull this risky, probably unconstitutional move. The surprise is that they are going to the mattresses for this crappy bill. As it stands now, the Senate bill is an abomination that screws the private sector, taxpayers and people without healthcare. It's just a hodgepodge of various bribes to constituent groups and unions that won't even guarantee bad coverage to people without. If they get all there wished thrown in later, it's still a bad bill. All of the bribes are still there, the private sector gets even more screwed, people with healthcare will be forced along with people without coverage into a public option that is ill conceived and destined to fail and cause prices to skyrocket which will cause the rationing and denial of coverage. It's a capitalist nightmare, it's a socialist nightmare, it's even a nightmare to those socialist democrats over in Western Europe and the dead red Chi-coms.

This bill cannot claim to hold to any set of ideological tenants. If the main goal is just to find a massive bill to bribe party loyalists, isn't there an easier way to do it than by outraging the public while doing so? Hell, the entire stimulus bill was one big, flexible ATM for liberal activists, why not just use that? This just proves what political and intellectual lightweights the Democratic leadership currently is. The have no real tact or skill for the issues or the public, they just chase leftist agenda's for the same reason dogs bury bones, pure dumb instinct. It's now apparent that no matter what happens in the news, polling, elections, etc. that they are just going to beat this thing until Congress caves in or the public does. I hope they manage to string this out all the way until November, the possibility for political carnage that is developing is a rare occurrence and I want to see just how much damage this mushroom cloud of stupidity can generate.

Beantown Beatdown in the Bay State

I must admit, I never once thought I'd see a Republican Senator in Massachusetts for the duration of my life. I kept that whimsical fantasy right next to my dreams of the Raiders winning the Super Bowl and scientists proclaiming cigar smoke, scotch, prime rib and copious amounts of sex to be the magic elixir for never eroding health.

Thanks to Scott Brown and the corpse of Martha Coakley, I can now check one of those bad boys of the list!

Even as the polls showed Brown gaining all the momentum, it was hard to feel good about it because if the Dems had decided to bite the unpleasant Coakley bullet and head to the polls, Brown would have been toast.

I could never contemplate a scenario where a significant number of Democrats would go to the booth and pulled the lever for a Republican. It's insane to think about but it seems to have happened and Scott Brown bashed her to the tune of 52-47.

That's an incredibly large margin considering the State and the voter registration disparity. All of those early charges of possible voter fraud and lawyers heading to Boston seem foolish in hindsight. Like a State that's 90% liberal could somehow be rigged by a conservative anyway.

Besides Coakley, the real loser is the Democratic Congress. They couldn't get anything passed with a filibuster proof majority in both houses. Tonight's result has put them in a hell of a bind. If they ram through legislation right now, they are actively defying the will of the people by not waiting for Brown to be seated. If they wait for Brown, he'll vote against it and the fragile coalition will fall apart as Reid looks for that elusive 60th vote. You can sure as hell bet that the so called Blue Dogs (I call them Red Cowards but whatever) Lincoln, Lieberman, Bayh, Landrieu and Nelson are now officially terrified. They may be looking for anyway out of this mess. In the House, Pelosi has indicated she's going to be even more hard line and leftist. She is completely nuts so her kamikaze dive to the far left might be too much for the skittish Senate and suddenly very vulnerable House libs to take. You might see a whole bunch of Representatives start withdrawing their votes based on crap issues like the cost or Stupak amendment. None of them care about those things but the do make a convenient excuse to back out.

Regardless of the long term outcome, tonight was a momentous occasion. One of those rare political nights where even the casual observer stands up to take notice of the fact that the people have decided to make a statement and a loud one at that.

I myself am just happy that the scientists can now get back to my list.




(photo from WashingtonPost.com)