Pueblog USa
Saturday, August 15, 2009
A GREAT Idea!
If my Congressperson, John Salazar, doesn’t host a town hall this August….
....I recommend that whomever is planning to run against him for the Colorado Third Congressional District do THIS!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
On Pinion Canyon — 1
Thoughts on training areas and eminent domain.
I’ve been quiet on this particular issue. And, based on an inspiration of a bumper sticker I saw on a station-wagon at Hobby Lobby lasts weekend, I think it’s time I came out on this matter.
Who the HECK are these people? And WHY are they so short sighted?
These are the simple questions I’d like to understand better about this matter of expanding the training area afforded the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized).
Additionally, why do they think their property is any more or less at risk than my own house in light of Kelo v. New London? That they should think their home is more important than national defense?
I’ll have more thoughts on that last item in the near future. [Note: Oddly enough, the fellow walking into Hobby Lobby looked like he had a son that could well be impacted, if not a casualty of war, if this matter were resolved in the wrong manner…..
Monday, July 14, 2008
Governor’s Commission on Community Service (GCCS)
A chance to speak your mind.
This week—Wednesday, Thursday and Friday—there will be representatives from our friends in Denver, i.e., the Governor’s office, asking us what we think needs to be done to help Pueblo.
The meetings are to be held:
Place: First Nazarene Church
Date/Time:
- Wednesday, 16 Jul, 12:00 - 1:30
- Thursday, 17 Jul, 10:30 - 12:00
- Thursday, 17 Jul, 12:00 - 1:30
- Thursday, 17 Jul, 2:30 - 4:00
- Friday, 18 Jul, 9:00 - 10:30
- Friday, 18 Jul, 1:30 - 3:00
All are invited to attend one of the forums, at your convenience.
Please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), stating the date and time you’ll be attending. I think they’re offering lunch for certain forums.
Personally?
I’m intending to go and tell them that in order for Pueblo and the rest of the state of Colorado to get what they need, on a par with what Denver needs, we need to return to the balance of legislative power we enjoyed before the Supreme Court overthrew our state constitution; Reynolds v. Simms (1964). The place where the state senate was elected based on geographic areas instead of population, as the state house of representatives is. As it is now, the state senate is just an over-paid version of the state house of representatives. And Denver controls the most votes in both.
As it is right now, the Denver metroplex holds 17 of the 35 state senate seats. This is an egregious concentration of power that allows the Denver area to dominate state law-making and the appointment of judges and commissioners.
Until that balance, as we enjoy at the Federal level, is restored, Denver rules Colorado.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Pueblo Springs Ranch — Part 1
Why?
Ever since the suggestion that Pueblo annex a large chunk of land north of the CSU-P campus and east of I-25, people have been making comments, questioning the ‘why’ of this effort.
Sitting on the City Planning and Zoning Commission, ALL of the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of the issue intrigue me. Therefore, I open this thread to solicit the opinions of anyone who cares to comment about the project.
I’ll provide more information, from my perspective, on this effort as time goes on. But after touring the area of the proposed annex I think it’s time we began serious public discussion of this idea.
All you need to do is click on the word “Comments”, in the block below, and enter what you think. You don’t need to be registered. You don’t even need to use your REAL name. But we would like to hear from you if you live in Pueblo or El Paso counties. And…maybe…if you live in the Denver metroplex, as it is impacting on this matter as well, vis-a-vis water.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
The ‘Virtue’ of Unintended Consequences
Selling one’s ‘birthright’ to Aurora.
Interesting report in the Chieftain today.
It seems that the recent fire out in Ordway—the one that claimed the lives of firefighters and destroyed a number of buildings—it appears that one of the contributing factors was that some farmers and/or ranchers had been selling their water to Aurora. Raking in the the cash while their fields withered from lack of water.
Then…some how a fire started and raced through the parched land causing the loss of property and life.
I hope these farmers are on good terms with forgiving neighbors.
However, I’ve seen a larger problem looming on the horizon….
Monday, February 04, 2008
Is It Just ME?
Or who else….
....is aware that the County Clerk/Recorder’s on-line Voter Registration Search system is DOWN????!?
I stumbled upon this odd freak of information management systems by virtue of the fact that I’m co-chair of my party’s county precinct.
We were looking for a back-up system to validate attendees at tomorrow nights state-wide county caucus….if they showed up at our door and their name was NOT on the print-out list provided by Mr. Ortiz on/or-about December 19, 2007.
Oddly enough the Colorado Secretary of State’s Election Division says the data should be based on a point in time 28 days prior to the ‘event’; in this case the caucus of February 5, 2008.
That would make the data on the printout considerably older than the Colorado Revised Statutes require.
So….WHY the change-over to a new system—blacking out the current system—over the time-frame of the County Caucuses?
Is someone ‘stupid’ or what? And if the former….or the latter….or, worse, BOTH….why the heck are they holding office?
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Something I Was Curious About
A Public Notice in the newspaper announced a hearing on a liquor license at the local university.
So I went to the web, found a phone number, and called up the State Liquor Enforcement office to find out what was going on.
A nice lady explained that the State was handling the license because the CSU-P is state-owned property and the local government (City of Pueblo) had decided to opt out of licensing liquor serving on state property. Which makes sense when you realize that includes the State Fair grounds and the local liquor board would be inundated every year with requests for special licenses, along with complaints from folks who didn’t get theirs because they didn’t apply in time. Anyway, she said she would have preferred to have had the hearing in Pueblo. It is scheduled for the state office in Lakewood.
Apparently someone wants to open a cafe on the campus, and serve alcohol.
Anyway, the nice lady explained the hearing process and said that the applicant would have to present a “need” for the liquor license in the neighborhood.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Well, That Was Easy
I finally got off my duff…
and sigend up with the Colorado No Call List. I always hesitate over these things because it seems like they always ask a lot of unexpected and intrusive questions.
Nope. Phone number and zip code. That’s it. They also ask for your e-mail, but that’s optional. So you can go to your local library and do it on one of their internet computers even if you don’t have e-mail.
I can hardly wait until July 31 when the mortgage/siding/insurance/whatever calls will stop.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
The Killing of HB1352
The joys of political machinations in the Colorado State Senate.
Everyone can turn off their television between January and mi-May and enjoy the intrigues of the Colorado State General Assembly, a.k.a. Legislature. It’s better than any prime-time soap opera and much more educational.
Take, for instance, the farcical actions on the part of our elected officials with regards to killing any idea of clean water in the state of Colorado….
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Conduit III
A better idea.
Based on what I’ve read in the Pueblo Chieftain, I think State Representative McFayden (D-Pueblo West) is on the right track.
Her bill, HB1352 on considering water quality in water court decisions, passed a major hurtle, a House committee. This over the obvious objections from our friends in Colorado Springs.
The real test will come on the floors of the House and Senate, where, thanks to the Warren Supreme Court, places like Colorado Springs and Denver, have an inordinate amount of legislative authority.
My money is on the bill dying because the large metropolitan districts do NOT want to have to be held responsible for what they’ve done to water. There’s more to this than most people realized.
More on that later…..
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Conduit II
Additional thoughts on the proposed conduit to give good water to the Lower Arkansas; as if they didn’t have any such stuff at THIS time.
You may have guessed….
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Conduit
Thoughts on the interesting necessity of providing a conduit for good water to get to the lower Arkansas.
According to the Pueblo Chieftain the Salazar boys are suddenly demanding action on the proposed conduit.
And I’m reminded that politics is a lot like a good game of chess….
Thursday, February 23, 2006
A Train Wreck In the Making
Most politicans don’t think beyond their term limitations. And most people all to often rely on them to do the long-term thinking.
As an old adage about politicans goes…
They only hope that their world should last just beyond their departure from it.
That seems to me to be an accurate report, from what I’ve seen of history. And it seems to be the sort of mentality behind HB 1124, Water Judge Approve Fallowing Contracts [HODGE—OWEN]. This bill will, as I understand it, allow people who own water rights to lease those rights to another individual or entity for an agreed period of time.
I’m not exactly sure WHAT the current state of affairs is with respect to water rights and non-useage of such is. I’m not a water lawyer. However, based on what this bill proposes, I get the distinct impression that the current state of affairs is that the holders of water-rights can either use them or sell them. No leasing is allowed. With that understanding, allow me to go into why I think this bill is a VERY BAD IDEA….
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Stopping Kelo v. New London In Colorado
This will be interesting to watch.
The Pueblo Chieftain reports that there is a movement inside the state legislature to prevent what happened in New London from happening in Colorado.
For those not aware of the Kelo v. New London case, a city seized private property and converted it to commercial with the sole justification that it would improve the city’s tax revenues to have the land used for commercial purposes instead of residential. This ruling on the part of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) put EVERYONE’S home in jeapordy. This is the epitome of judicial activism at its worst. Why? Because the Constitution of the United States reads that such actions, under the auspices of “eminent domain” can be done for “public use”. It says nothing about commercial use. And here, the SCOTUS overstepped it’s authority, vis-a-vis the Constitution.
Now, legislatures across the nation are moving to block local governments from doing the same in their own area. This is a good first move. I would think that a good second move would be to impeach the justices of the SCOTUS who voted in favor of New London. But I’ve yet to see Congress do anything so couragous as to do their duty and remove a federal judge that has ruled against the Constitution.
I’m curious where OUR Congressional delegation stands on Kelo v. New London. I’ll probably report on THAT later….
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
On the Other Hand….
....this is interesting.
Just got off the phone from talking with Congressman Salazar’s office ‘help’.
They were of no help whatsoever.
I was alerted by an item from Glenn ‘the Blogfather’ Reynolds that the House of Representatives was to vote on turning over control of the interent to the UN TONIGHT.
Almost, but not completely, stunned by this report, I called Congressman Salazar’s offices in Pueblo to (1) ask of them his position on this matter and (2) give him my opinion of this [not ‘no’, but ‘h—- no!’].
Unfortunately, none of the multitude of sweet-young-feminine-things I wound up talking to, either local or long-distance had ANY CLUE as to what our John was thinking on this matter. Not to mention how he would vote. Indeed, one individual, who was indirectly presented as John’s Chief of Staff in his DC offices, tender years that she bore, thought the vote was not tonight. This contrary to a realiable source of information.
So, I gave the sweet-young-thing my opinon of turning over control of the internet to a bunch of rapcious, nefarious, bribe-taking, brothel running bureaucrats. I tried to be ‘polite’. I think I succeeded as the distaff did not beat me about the head and shoulders, afterwards. Indeed, she added her support to the position. To the sweet-young-thing, too.
The first question I have of MY Congressman is, “Are you a sexist? Are there any ‘men’ on your staff?”
The next question is, “Why doesn’t anyone other than YOU know what’s going on?”
I await your reply to my questions. And, I’m looking forward to see how you voted on this, issue. As well as on others.