Some local street artists -- I'm told they go by "Jher451" and "el mac" -- had the audacity to paint this totally Obama-less mural on the side of the La Boheme strip club this week. It seems the portrait artist, el mac, was all Obama'd out.
OK, fine. But could we at least paint an Obama pin on her? We need more Obama imagery in this city! -- Joe Tone
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What did Alaska do to piss off the DNC? Its delegation has worse seats at the Pepsi Center than Guam, which, for those of you who started skipping geography in first grade, isn't even a state -- and it's a helluva lot smaller besides. Before the convention is over, I predict a rumble. -- Michael Roberts
Water stations have been placed at several locations around the Pepsi Center during DNC week -- the idea being that delegates can refill their bottle rather than pitching it and opening up another one. Also included: hand sanitizer mounted on the side -- because shaking hands with dozens upon dozens of strangers is perfectly safe, but turning on a faucet is a quick route to disease and death. I'm gonna stop showering immediately. -- Michael Roberts
A couple of blocks from the downtown Denver Public Library, they’re already shutting down and removing the mailboxes outside of the 14th Avenue post office because of “security concerns” during the upcoming DNC. They’re putting special locks on fire hydrants, too, and getting ready for the inevitable herding and prodding of livestock -- er, protesters. It’s enough to make you yearn for the grand old days of a century ago, when Denver was a true cowtown and Democrats were greeted a bit more hospitably.
To return to that era, you need wander no further than the seventh floor of the DPL, where a fabulous exhibit of photos, maps and text evokes the 1908 convention much better than any of the inevitable retrospectives offered by the dailies.
You civic-minded types out there have no doubt heard by now that the 2008 Colorado ballot could be the largest in the state's history. But hearing about it and seeing an approximation of what we could be facing in the voting booth in November are two very different things.
Ballotpedia.org, which describes itself as a "free, collaborative online encyclopedia" that "focuses on ballots, ballot measures, ballot access for initiatives and candidates, petition drives, the supporters and opponents of initiatives and, in general, all things ballot," provides a glimpse into what could be a very daunting future.
Colorado hosts two graduations with major policy speeches today: one by a current president looking back and one by a (possible) future president looking forward.
Barack Obama will host an invitation-only town hall meeting at 11:30 a.m. at Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts (MESA) in Thornton, where he is expected to address high school renewal programs, citing Mapleton as an example. Obama will speak with the school’s 44 graduating seniors, all of whom are heading to college. On the campaign trail, Obama has said repeatedly that educational reform, particularly for urban school districts, will be a primary goal of his time in the White House. Mapleton principal Mike Johnston has been advising the Obama campaign on education issues for more than a year, though the Denver Post quotes Johnston saying that today he is just “the principal” on the visit and joking that he tried to discourage Obama from visiting his particular school.
Contrast that with President George W. Bush’s speech to Air Force Academy graduates in Colorado Springs this morning at 10 a.m., when his prepared remarks will draw connections between the conflict in Iraq and World War II, wire services report:
For all the talk about John McCain being too old to run for president, the guy sure seems to stay up awfully late. No four-thirty dinners at Furr's Cafeteria for this guy—that is, unless he's planning on supplementing that diet with a 1 a.m. "fourthmeal" from Taco Bell. This is a guy on the go. And all over late-night TV.
Of course, given the time off that the prolonged Democratic Primary has provided him, it's not like the guy has to spend much time fending off attacks from his opponents. He's just kicking back for now, kissing a few hands, shaking a few babies, and making fun of himself—and contemporary politics in general—on “the TEE-vee” as his generation likes to call it. Some say that McCain has a serious advantage, going into the fall with fresh legs, but then, the same thing was said last season after the Rockies swept the D-backs to head to the World Series early … and, well, we all know how well that turned out.
This has been a groundbreaking and altogether interesting election process, but the music, as per usual, is bland – do presidential candidates listen to music? Do we really want to elect someone without knowing their tastes? You could all win my vote if you switched some things up.
On Monday, the Supreme Court voted to uphold an Indiana law that requires voters to show a photo ID to cast a ballot. The ACLU and Indiana Democrats had challenged the state law, passed along party lines in 2005 by a GOP-controlled legislature, which opened the debate on increasingly restrictive voter registrations and identifications in the highest court in the land.
Indiana Republicans and their national colleagues, seen by many to benefit from low voter turnouts, particularly amongst demographics they fare poorly with—minorities, elderly and poor voters—argued that without photo IDs, elections were imminently susceptible to fraud. Detractors, including state and national Democrats, civil rights groups and the ACLU, believed that photo IDs place an unnecessary burden on vulnerable voting groups that could lead to systematic disenfranchisement. Indiana’s law is of particular national interest as is seen as the most restrictive in the country, stating that the photo ID, though provided free of charge, must be government-issued.
Thanks, Bob Schaffer, for not condemning the contemptuous ad campaign done by a 527 out of Virginia (who better to know about Colorado politics, after all?) that uses the pride that kids have for their school to make them into shills for your political aspirations, based on a record that they know nothing about, nor should they be expected to understand.
Thanks, Bob, for not asking to have that ad campaign stopped even after its approach was denounced by local newspapers, and revealed to have been released without identifying who paid the almost half-million for the ads, as required by Federal Election law.
