Nuke it!

Get a load of this moronic editorial in my local paper, the Daily Sentinel:

Throughout much of Thursday, so-called moderate senators of both parties were scrambling between each others’ offices, attempting to hammer out a last-minute compromise that would allow some of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees to proceed to floor votes while avoiding the so-called “nuclear option” to eliminate filibusters of judicial nominees.

To which we say, “Nuke it!”

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/opinion/stories/2005/05/20/5_20_nuke_edit.html

I'm sure they love to hear from some of the liberals here. I already sent them a letter.

What distorted ideas do you have about Denver?

It's in Grand Junction on the western slope. People here voted 2 to 1 for Bush.

...was liberal unfriendly and ultra militant in their attitudes, when in fact it is Colorado Springs that we liberals need to be careful about showing our identies in:

<snip>

Liberal Unfriendly Place: Colorado Springs, CO

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One can bet any amount of money that Colorado Springs is THE most conservative place in America. This city has become a mecca for the religious right, as many of these organizations are headquartered here. It was this city's evangelical religious (Focus on the Family) and conservative business leaders (Wil Perkins) that, in 1992, crafted their infamous and narrowminded Amendment Two, which was aimed at further eroding the equal rights of gay and lesbian citizens in Colorado. To help their amendment gain support, these so called moralists used lies, deceptions, and hate language to convince Colorado voters that gays and lesbians were evil, and that they should not be allowed to obtain "special rights", such as nondiscrimination in employment and housing. Sadly, the Amendment passed by a narrow margin, which started a long legal battle that was to end up in the US Supreme Court. It was during this time that Colorado became known as the "hate state", as many businesses and individuals boycotted the state. Luckily, the US Supreme Court upheld the Colorado Supreme Court decision that this Amendment was unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the religious right continues to influence our political system with vast amounts of money and ignorance.
...and another comment...

This conservative bastion is home to, not one, but TWO fundamentalist Christian activist groups, Focus on the Family and the Center for Family Values. The last one authored the pernicious anti-gay Amendment 2 here in Colorado that was struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. They cloaked the whole thing as preventing special rights for gays when it was actually designed to deprive them of civil rights. Voters in Colorado didn't look closely at the language and approved it. MCI moved their programming headquarters there from New York and promptly lost over half their staff because they quit. They found the atmosphere too homogenously white Anglo Republican super-Chrisitian. Lovely place, but full of VERY conservative people.

...and another comment...

You can carry concealed weapons in the Springs. This adds a dimension of the mythic wild west to CS.
<more>
<link> http://www.turnleft.com/places/colorado_springs.html

But DavidD, be honest now, would an out-of-state visitor to Denver be made to feel comfortable and welcome, if openly displaying bumper stickers with liberal slogans and democratic candidate's names and DU stickers in the rear window anywhere in Colorado, including Denver? Let us not forget The Adolph Coors Foundation and the long tenacles of the Coors family members in Colorado:

<snip>
Buying a Movement
Adolph Coors Foundation

The Coors family, beneficiaries of the Adolph Coors brewery company and family fortune, have been instrumental in funding conservative causes through individual, foundation and corporate donations.

The brewery was established in 1873 by Adolph Coors, Sr. in Colorado and has been a family operation since 1880.<189> It gained nationwide notoriety for its anti-union, anti-gay, anti-minority and anti-woman stance during a ten-year national boycott initiated by the AFL-CIO in 1977<190> in support of a Brewery, Bottling, Can and Allied Industrial Union local then negotiating with the company.<191> Coors ultimately broke the union by hiring hundreds of non-union workers who, along with employees who did not join the strike, voted to decertify the union in 1978.<192> A loose coalition of feminist, gay rights, minority rights, environmental, and student groups have also condemned Coors for its support of the Heritage Foundation, Free Congress Foundation, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum and STOP ERA campaign, the John Birch Society, the Nicaraguan Contras and other right-wing groups.<193>

Coors's image was further tarnished as a result of a 1984 William Coors speech to a Denver, Colorado minority business group, in which he reportedly told a largely African American audience that "one of the best things they did for you is to drag your ancestors over here in chains."<194> Later in the speech, he asserted that weakness in the Zimbabwe economy was due to black Africans' "ack of intellectual capacity -- that has got to be there."<195> Coors claims his remarks were taken out of context and threatened to sue the conservative newspaper that reported them, The Rocky Mountain News.<196>

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=2064

But DavidD, be honest now, would an out-of-state visitor to Denver be made to feel comfortable and welcome, if openly displaying bumper stickers with liberal slogans and democratic candidate's names and DU stickers in the rear window anywhere in Colorado, including Denver?

Absolutely. I still see lots of Kerry stickers, and I have a sign in my rear window saying "Defend America, Defeat Bush." Denver and Boulder and liberal strongholds.

Coors is in Golden, a more conservative suburb to the west of Denver. I drive through it every day on the way to and from work, and I see liberal bumper stickers on cars there, too.

Democrats took control of the state legislature in the 2004 election, and we have hopes of getting the governorship too, next time. The state has a history of being middle of the road, with some very liberal Democratic senators and governors in its past.

...that was completely out of line on my part to use a broad brush against an entire state like that. Please accept my apologies.

I live in a state that is ten times worse with ultra-conservative wackos, Florida and specifically Orlando. Our one and only newspaper is the Orlando Sentinel. Through the years I have referred to our local paper as the "Slantinel", mainly because of the extreme right positions taken by the editorial staff of the paper and their conservative bias in the stories they chose. I discontinued getting the local paper years ago. So when I saw this post thread quoting the Daily Sentinel, I had to look up where that was, thinking it might be somewhere close to me. When I saw that it was Denver, my knee-jerk reaction was the comment I made in my first post. It was a dumb thing to make such a sweeping generalization.

Having lived in Florida since 1971, I knew the state when the Democrats had control and there was more political tolerance and harmony it seemed. Not so today. The Bush cabal, the neo-conservative right wing and the religious fundamentalists have their collective fingers everywhere throughout the state it seems. If it were only a local problem I could leave and go where I could live out my twilight years in peace and serenity, but it is not. Everywhere, the fight needs to be sustained. I'm heartened to see that you have the courage to stand up for the party and your own convictions. Keep it up!

A lot of people have that impression of Colorado. Times are changing, I hope.

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there are at least 11 Senators that are "up for grabs" contact them and ask them not to "Nuke it" at http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/bububjones/