A GOP friend of mine asked me if I will step down as GOP District Captain if I were to campaign for the non-GOP candidate for Governor of Colorado, former Congressman Tom Tancredo. Here was my response:
"If I were to campaign for Tancredo and also a variety of Republicans....well, I would just do it. If somebody wanted to bring me up on charges of breaking by-laws, then they would just do it. Then the Central Committee would vote for or against me. Most of them would make a personal assessment as to whether I brought much value to the Party or not. Some of them would vote along the lines of whether they liked me or didn't like me. Others would vote based on which candidate they had preferred, e.g., was I helping their guy win. For me, it would be a crapshoot.
I'm trying to help save our country by electing people who can pull it back from the brink of socialism. I need to elect people who seem capable of doing that, and avoid the others. My country's future is more important than this local issue. I'm not wavering at all from my original intention when I got into politics, after the illegal alien attack. I realized that nobody was going to do anything about illegal immigration until we elected Presidents and Governors who were adamantly against it. I have achieved much toward that goal. I helped launch the entire Tea Party movement in CO....I helped put enough pressure on Ritter to step down....I helped teach the masses how to have their voices be heard...and if I campaign for Tancredo, I will be campaigning for the very man who gave me hope in the first place.
If I campaign for Tancredo, I will be doing exactly what I've been doing since becoming a District Captain in October 2007. If I campaign for Maes, who the hell would I be? My children would be ashamed of me. They know what happened to me. One of them saw it. (No, it wasn't rape.) All of them lost me for two years. I need to stick to my plan.
I respect everybody else's choice(s) on this, but they've got to respect mine, too."
Friday, September 3, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Republican Calendar of Events in Colorado
September 11 Lest We Forget Picnic in Idaho Springs, in honor of those fallen on 9-11. Info on Facebook.
September 13, Monday We Are The People rally for the Constitution, 11:00 AM on the west steps of the Denver Capitol. Details on Facebook.
October 9 & 10 Youth Leadership School -- Denver. Conservative political activist training. Details on Facebook or http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/.
Nov. 2, Tuesday General Election in Colorado.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Why Are We Giving Money To Countries That Hate the United States?
(These statistics came from an email I received, and can be verified on Snopes.)
How they vote in the United Nations:
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the U.S. State Department and United Nations records:
Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time.
Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time.
Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time.
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
U.S. Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in U.S. Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in U.S. Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States and receives $6,721,000 annually in U.S. Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States and receives $143,699,000 annually.
How they vote in the United Nations:
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the U.S. State Department and United Nations records:
Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time.
Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time.
Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time.
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
U.S. Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in U.S. Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in U.S. Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States and receives $6,721,000 annually in U.S. Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States and receives $143,699,000 annually.
What is the Difference Between the Characters of a Conservative and a Liberal?
from an email I received:
"If a Conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn’t buy one. If a Liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a Conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a Liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a Conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A Liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a Conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.
If a Conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A Liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
If a Conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A Liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.
If a Conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh. A Liberal will delete it because he's "offended"."
"If a Conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn’t buy one. If a Liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a Conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a Liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a Conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A Liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a Conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.
If a Conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A Liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
If a Conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A Liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.
If a Conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh. A Liberal will delete it because he's "offended"."
Friday, April 16, 2010
The Pursuit of Happiness
Today I was speaking with a friend about happiness amidst our boisterous laughter.
You might think of happiness as a characteristic that's borne of an Ozzie and Harriet-style upbringing, but I think happiness is more of a decision borne of the horror of tragedy. Ofttimes we don't appreciate something until we lose it for an extended period of time--money, joy, love, a good job, a dog. Then, when we finally regain it again, we're perhaps more careful to keep it, tend to it, savor it.
I didn't have happiness as a child. And when I reached adulthood, I decided that being happy would be a worthy goal. Well, that backfired, and I'm not going to get into all the gruesome details, back happiness is not a product, it's a byproduct. You've got to have loftier, more altruistic goals, and upon reaching them, a peace settles in that can lead you to happiness.
So I changed my goals around; stopped reaching for happiness and instead began reaching for knowledge, charity, self-improvement, caretaking and community. Finally, I achieved happiness.
Then one day, I was arrested by the local Sheriff Department. And as I stood on my front porch, surrounded by officers and not knowing what was going on, who'd accused me of a crime, and what exactly the accusation was, you would think that I would have been panicked about being set up and going to jail. But no, even though I knew I'd been set up to be arrested, I still had an inherent trust in the officers that they were not going to harm me. (Okay, maybe that was naive, but that was my state of mind at the time.)
The horror entered the picture as, standing on my porch with the dawning realization that I was truly about to be arrested, a dreaded thought crossed my mind, "There goes my joy." I can't begin to explain the finality of that thought. How did I instinctively know the extent that I would be terrorized for the next two years? Why did I focus on the impending loss of joy -- as opposed to focusing on the legalities, the financial cost, my children, my reputation, my loss of freedom?
And sure enough, my constant friendliness and laughter disappeared as if accidentally dropped down the garbage disposal and demolished. Oh, come back! Please!
It was gone. And I was left to despair.
The next two years were a complete waste of a formerly productive life. But I lived. My old life is gone; sent through the wood chipper. The only thing to do was to forge ahead in prayer and hope that whatever came next would somehow fill my days. The Lord was kind enough to send some interesting projects my way--nothing that I could have anticipated, but fulfilling nonetheless.
Now that I have my happiness back, I fight harder to keep it. People wonder about my intensity, but I'll tell you, I know what I had and I know what I lost and I know that it could happen to my neighbor tomorrow. As far as it's within my power, I will jealously guard my neighbor's happiness and defend him against any forces that would steal it from him.
You are my neighbor.
You might think of happiness as a characteristic that's borne of an Ozzie and Harriet-style upbringing, but I think happiness is more of a decision borne of the horror of tragedy. Ofttimes we don't appreciate something until we lose it for an extended period of time--money, joy, love, a good job, a dog. Then, when we finally regain it again, we're perhaps more careful to keep it, tend to it, savor it.
I didn't have happiness as a child. And when I reached adulthood, I decided that being happy would be a worthy goal. Well, that backfired, and I'm not going to get into all the gruesome details, back happiness is not a product, it's a byproduct. You've got to have loftier, more altruistic goals, and upon reaching them, a peace settles in that can lead you to happiness.
So I changed my goals around; stopped reaching for happiness and instead began reaching for knowledge, charity, self-improvement, caretaking and community. Finally, I achieved happiness.
Then one day, I was arrested by the local Sheriff Department. And as I stood on my front porch, surrounded by officers and not knowing what was going on, who'd accused me of a crime, and what exactly the accusation was, you would think that I would have been panicked about being set up and going to jail. But no, even though I knew I'd been set up to be arrested, I still had an inherent trust in the officers that they were not going to harm me. (Okay, maybe that was naive, but that was my state of mind at the time.)
The horror entered the picture as, standing on my porch with the dawning realization that I was truly about to be arrested, a dreaded thought crossed my mind, "There goes my joy." I can't begin to explain the finality of that thought. How did I instinctively know the extent that I would be terrorized for the next two years? Why did I focus on the impending loss of joy -- as opposed to focusing on the legalities, the financial cost, my children, my reputation, my loss of freedom?
And sure enough, my constant friendliness and laughter disappeared as if accidentally dropped down the garbage disposal and demolished. Oh, come back! Please!
It was gone. And I was left to despair.
The next two years were a complete waste of a formerly productive life. But I lived. My old life is gone; sent through the wood chipper. The only thing to do was to forge ahead in prayer and hope that whatever came next would somehow fill my days. The Lord was kind enough to send some interesting projects my way--nothing that I could have anticipated, but fulfilling nonetheless.
Now that I have my happiness back, I fight harder to keep it. People wonder about my intensity, but I'll tell you, I know what I had and I know what I lost and I know that it could happen to my neighbor tomorrow. As far as it's within my power, I will jealously guard my neighbor's happiness and defend him against any forces that would steal it from him.
You are my neighbor.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Review of a Recent Douglas County Town Hall Meeting
(written by Pauline Olvera)
Two 9.12ers and I accidently stumbled on an impromptu town hall meeting in Douglas County Saturday, February 27th hosted by State Representative Carole Murray (R) District 45 and State Senator Mark Scheffel (R) District 4.
They talked a lot about how taxes and fees were burdening our small businesses and driving them out of business and/or driving businesses out of the state. They talked about how they were attempting to fight those taxes and trying to make it easier for small businesses to continue driving our economy and creating jobs.
When asked about the Medical Marijuana issue, most constituents in the room were extremely upset about the passage of this law.
There was some debate regarding whether we should fight to repeal the law, make the laws stricter etc… When someone suggested the idea that we should “tax this business out of our state or out of business", Sheffel answered (and Murray agreed) something to the effect that we should be careful in taxing these business because taxing marijuana distributors could legitimize their business.
Education was a subject that was discussed as well. Carole Murray mentioned that both President Obama and our state Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll (D-HD7) were both in favor of Charter Schools. I asked for clarification and she reiterated that “Yes. President Obama and Terrance Carroll were both in favor of and supported Charter Schools.”
I had a brief discussion with Carole Murray after the event.
I mentioned to her that I believed health care costs were rising partly because of non-tax paying people with no insurance that use the ER’s for basic, non-emergency health care, (i.e. sore throats, etc…) An idea I offered was possibly retracting state law that mandates ER’s to treat these non-emergency patients. To this she responded, “that would be inhumane and no one would agree to that.”
A follow-up idea offered by another 9.12er was to give emergency rooms the authority to guide NON-emergency patients to urgent care clinics for treatment whereby they could be charged a fee based on a sliding scale and she answered, “that’s an idea I might look into.”
Two 9.12ers and I accidently stumbled on an impromptu town hall meeting in Douglas County Saturday, February 27th hosted by State Representative Carole Murray (R) District 45 and State Senator Mark Scheffel (R) District 4.
They talked a lot about how taxes and fees were burdening our small businesses and driving them out of business and/or driving businesses out of the state. They talked about how they were attempting to fight those taxes and trying to make it easier for small businesses to continue driving our economy and creating jobs.
When asked about the Medical Marijuana issue, most constituents in the room were extremely upset about the passage of this law.
There was some debate regarding whether we should fight to repeal the law, make the laws stricter etc… When someone suggested the idea that we should “tax this business out of our state or out of business", Sheffel answered (and Murray agreed) something to the effect that we should be careful in taxing these business because taxing marijuana distributors could legitimize their business.
Education was a subject that was discussed as well. Carole Murray mentioned that both President Obama and our state Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll (D-HD7) were both in favor of Charter Schools. I asked for clarification and she reiterated that “Yes. President Obama and Terrance Carroll were both in favor of and supported Charter Schools.”
I had a brief discussion with Carole Murray after the event.
I mentioned to her that I believed health care costs were rising partly because of non-tax paying people with no insurance that use the ER’s for basic, non-emergency health care, (i.e. sore throats, etc…) An idea I offered was possibly retracting state law that mandates ER’s to treat these non-emergency patients. To this she responded, “that would be inhumane and no one would agree to that.”
A follow-up idea offered by another 9.12er was to give emergency rooms the authority to guide NON-emergency patients to urgent care clinics for treatment whereby they could be charged a fee based on a sliding scale and she answered, “that’s an idea I might look into.”
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Another Jane Norton "Moment in Political Folly"
as witnessed and written by Steve Crites....
We were at our precinct caucus meeting at Hope United Methodist on Dayton at Belleview and Jane Norton (who lives in the next precinct south) came by to address our group. She stated that she is conservative in her stump speech to us, where she explained that she was a "fiscal conservative" based on her time in the state office and was a "right to life conservative and didn't support abortions."
She was then asked to address her "conservatism" by a constituent. He asked "Are you a conservative like Michelle Bachmann?" Jane looked puzzled and was a little taken back by the question. But the citizen asked her again, "Are you a Michelle Bachman Conservative though?", to which she replied "I don't know who that is. Please tell me who you are talking about?"
We all looked at her aghast, not quite believing that she was this disconnected, especially after she had just told us that she relates to the movement out here, but she never used the terms "grass roots" or "tea party" though - which I thought was interesting. We all were waiting for the punch line to follow like "Well of course I'm a Michelle Bachman Conservative. I love her. Speak to her regularly. Loved her speech at the convention and on the Capitol steps" But it never came. People started chiding her, asking if she ever watched Fox News and why she didn't know who Bachmann was -- considering she is a top Republican Congresswoman and is on Fox News and radio often.
Norton was definitely on her heels and then just started to back away, getting her stuff together, and was escorted out by a man, who I believe was her husband. Many of us sat there stunned in disbelief that this was a "chosen one" by the Republican Party and that she is so disconnected to what is being promoted out here at the grass roots level. Unbelievable...I just wish we were better on our game to really nail her down on this moment in political folly, but I think we were truly too stunned as to what we had just witnessed.
This woman is truly scary: should she get elected, it would be a sad day for our country, even if she is "electable" in terms of how the establishment Republicans see her.
We were at our precinct caucus meeting at Hope United Methodist on Dayton at Belleview and Jane Norton (who lives in the next precinct south) came by to address our group. She stated that she is conservative in her stump speech to us, where she explained that she was a "fiscal conservative" based on her time in the state office and was a "right to life conservative and didn't support abortions."
She was then asked to address her "conservatism" by a constituent. He asked "Are you a conservative like Michelle Bachmann?" Jane looked puzzled and was a little taken back by the question. But the citizen asked her again, "Are you a Michelle Bachman Conservative though?", to which she replied "I don't know who that is. Please tell me who you are talking about?"
We all looked at her aghast, not quite believing that she was this disconnected, especially after she had just told us that she relates to the movement out here, but she never used the terms "grass roots" or "tea party" though - which I thought was interesting. We all were waiting for the punch line to follow like "Well of course I'm a Michelle Bachman Conservative. I love her. Speak to her regularly. Loved her speech at the convention and on the Capitol steps" But it never came. People started chiding her, asking if she ever watched Fox News and why she didn't know who Bachmann was -- considering she is a top Republican Congresswoman and is on Fox News and radio often.
Norton was definitely on her heels and then just started to back away, getting her stuff together, and was escorted out by a man, who I believe was her husband. Many of us sat there stunned in disbelief that this was a "chosen one" by the Republican Party and that she is so disconnected to what is being promoted out here at the grass roots level. Unbelievable...I just wish we were better on our game to really nail her down on this moment in political folly, but I think we were truly too stunned as to what we had just witnessed.
This woman is truly scary: should she get elected, it would be a sad day for our country, even if she is "electable" in terms of how the establishment Republicans see her.
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