Kudos to Boulder Weekly for embodying Gandhi’s Satyagraha, “insistence on truth.” Without BW we wouldn’t have learned this summer that DA Stan Garnett and City Attorney Tom Carr both lied to disguise how they covered for council members who don’t make mandatory income disclosures, and that City Manager Jane Brautigam won’t make them disclose their income, as required by the City Charter.
Now BW has shown that County Clerk Hillary Hall lied to blame her refusal to allow the canvass board to watch ballot printing on the printing contractor (“Records indicate Hall made call on refusing election activists,” News, Oct. 11.)
I’ve said for years that the only thing worse than a two-party system is a one-party system. With Boulder dominated by Democrats there is functionally no other party to check and balance how “power corrupts.”
These exposed liars have become so used to not having independent media watching them that they don’t realize that phone companies keep records of phone calls, and that the public, who pay for the calls, is entitled to the records. The Daily Camera and Colorado Daily used to hold officials accountable here when they were independent. But now, along with The Denver Post and Longmont Times-Call among 56 dailies in 12 states, they are owned by Media News Group, kind of a wannabe Murdoch empire, not so interested in truth as money and power.
Boulder and the U.S. are pretty used to such “cover-your-ass” lying and cheating by “our” representatives. I wonder how Boulder feels about City Council lying to justify playing Russian Roulette with the lives of everyone on earth by OK-ing a highway through the most plutonium-contaminated part of Rocky Flats? (http://spryeye.blogspot.com/2011/12/boulders-big-black-lie.html)
Evan Ravitz/Boulder
Oops
Just noticing that whomever wrote the admittedly significant piece in your Oct. 18 [issue] (“Killer’s ‘awareness space’ may lead to clues,” cover story) about this heinous crime needs to better understand the meanings of certain words and to use them appropriately.
The use of “gambit” when the writer meant “gamut” is disappointing and lowers the reader’s opinion of that person’s intellect, not to mention that of the proofreader — if in fact you have one. This was a glaring error that should have been caught prior to publication.
Judson Rhodes/Rio Rancho, N.M.
Easier choice
In your Oct. 4 endorsements, you noted Singer vs. Hilliard as a tough choice. (“Vote 2012,” cover story.) Today it became much easier for us; we received a mailed Hilliard flyer smearing Singer as “two-faced.” For all her pro-stuff-we-like positions, she’s still apparently a GOP attack dog at heart.
Her attack on Singer is based on his supporting McCain in 2000 but shifting to supporting Kucinich in 2004. It may seem like a radical change, and it can be painted as such for the purpose of a nasty political ad, but it’s easily understood: In 2000, McCain hewed to conservative ideals as always, but was a man of high principle and adherence to the Constitution. Then the GOP party machinery turned him into a monster, as the whole Republican party descended into Gingrich-style attacks and lies. Dennis Kucinich, for all that he seems radical, is a man of high principle; his sometimes-unusual positions are based on common sense, science and adherence to the Constitution. If that’s what Singer is trying to follow, it suits me fine — it means he’s placing principles above political affiliation. (Radical concept.) Finally, isn’t it strange that Hilliard would criticize Singer for changing parties when she herself has switched from Democrat to Republican? And as she describes herself as Libertarian, is her Republican affiliation merely a way to appear mainstream enough to win?
Dick Dunn/Hygiene
Someone agrees with Danish
I suppose that hell has frozen over because I find myself in total agreement with Mr. Danish when it comes to his stance on Colorado Amendment 64. (“The wrong marijuana message,” Danish Plan, Oct. 4.)
I have previously written about his unhealthy love of corporations and the free market. But I have to give credit where credit is due — and his stance on 64 is dead on and medically accurate.
I am a retired emergency medicine physician that spent years in inner-city hospitals in Detroit, Chicago and San Francisco. I never had to admit anyone to the hospital due to marijuana toxicity, nor was there ever a reason to due so. On average, 70 percent of my nighttime workload involved dealing with violent, abusive patients that chose alcohol, methamphetamine or heroin as their substances of choice. The DEA decision to include marijuana as Category 1 with hard drugs is a political decision, not a scientific one. Its purpose was to limit money and research into the benefits of TCH and their related metabolites — and to sustain the bogus and unethical war on drugs.
Wolfie Clarke/Thornton
Demon seed
Lawrence Pearlman’s Sept. 13 letter (“Monsanto hits below the belt”) claiming that Monsanto bio-engineered seeds don’t require large amounts of pesticide is totally wrong. The seeds are designed to withstand massive doses of pesticide, far above what normally would be used, in an effort to totally eradicate pests. But inevitably those pests develop resistance to the Roundup weed killer, and so Monsanto must go back to the drawing board to redesign yet higher levels of pesticide resistance in its seed stock.
Thus the farmer can never be guaranteed a steady supply of dependable seed, but rather becomes dependent on the lab technicians of Monsanto. He also is forced to purchase hugely expensive quantities of pesticides to inundate his fields.
Monsanto provides a high-tech solution that avoids environmental harmony and sustainability, while of course maximizing its profits at the expense of the farmer and consumer … and Mother Nature above all.
Menachem Mevashir/via Internet
Oil-soaked leadership
In your Aug. 23 edition, Jim Hightower exposed the greed and lengths of dishonesty that ExxonMobile, Halliburton et. al. will go to in order to defend fracking by the fossil fuel industry (“A fracking conflict of interest,” The Highroad).
Mitt Romney, after accepting $10 million from Texas oil billionaires, chose the very next day to declare that besides fracking, he would approve the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline over America’s Ogallala aquifer (that uses foreign-made materials and pipeline with a history of failure), increase offshore drilling, open up public lands, (including ANWR in Alaska) to oil extraction and repeal President Obama’s alternative and renewable energy R&D.
America deserves more vision and forward-thinking action than the oilsoaked leadership the Republican Party has shown by its acceptance of the fossil-fueled status quo.
Tommy Holeman/Niwot
People vs. prairie dogs
After attending the Boulder County Commissioners’ land use public forum on Sept. 24, it struck me how such strong regulations and penalties have been passed to protect the well-being of prairie dogs in Boulder, yet when it comes to the health of Boulder residents and our environment, the county staff promotes as little regulation as possible.
Our homes and schools could be encircled within 500 feet of fracking wells running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while prairie dogs romp freely over hill and dale, living carefree lives that would be the envy of Boulder citizens. Meanwhile, our cares will focus on friends and family members with asthma, cancer and neurological diseases contracted through polluted air and water. Therefore, I propose the county ban fracking within a mile of every prairie dog colony, consequently safeguarding the seemingly inconsequential lives of local residents. It’s all about the prairie dogs, after all — not closing the Halliburton loophole which exempts the oil and gas industry from the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts or protecting public health or property values. It’s a clear case of profits over people, even in the Republic of Boulder.
Viva la Prairie Dog!
Joscelyn Blumenthal/via Internet
