Rachel Norwood, M.D., of Denver writes:

Well, I’m officially done worrying about my son’s performance on the CSAPs. On Thursday morning he was so weary (half way through his four days of testing), but I watched as he physically collected himself and got ready to go again. That’s when it hit me...
The test I took to get into medical school, intended to test the cumulative education of all my public education (12 years), college, plus pre-med work lasted just under 8 hours and was done in a day.
At the end of medical school to test the science and clinical training of four years of medical school, that would allow me to assist with surgery and deliver babies took three days, six hours each.
At the end of residency my specialty boards, designed to test four years training, was tested to the satisfaction of the National Board in about 7 hours over the course of a single day.
Now, here’s my 5th grade son digging into his strength and character reserves because some organization has done such a dismal job of designing a test it takes them four days to assess how a fifth grader is doing in school. As an academic physician that tells me that either their validity scores suck, or they have to collect so much data because they’re trying to test too many details. In either case it’s a shame to have our kids bear the burden. It’s time to re-think this entire process.

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Leonard Muniz of Broomfield writes:

I have been receiving many e-mails, supposedly from soldiers claiming to be in Iraq. They support the war and George Bush. I believe they are Republican strategists who write for the soldiers and they want people to believe we are doing the right thing in Iraq. What they don’t realize is they are placing their own brothers lives at stake. Do they really believe risking their lives is worth attempting to bring a democracy to a country ruled by religious sects? Did they really believe there were WMDs, nuclear and Al Qeada in Iraq? They are being propagandized to fight in Iraq. They MUST believe it and they don’t dare criticize their leaders. After all, who wants to believe they are fighting for a President’s ego? If they all knew the real truth they would all go AOL. Somewhat like their Commander in Chief did in the Vietnam war. The strategists are doing this because the 2008 election for President is coming up and they want another Republican. Regardless of the cost of American soldiers lives (Now over 3,200) in the meantime in Iraq.
In WWII the soldiers in the US, Japan and Germany were propagandized against each other. Japan and Germany were our enemies and we had to destroy them.
They indeed attacked us and our allies. Americans all joined together, sacrificed fought and we won.
Iraq is different. Iraq was never a threat to America, had nothing to do with 9/11 and the Iraq war has only caused recruitment for more insurgents. I has created hate and anger towards the US by all the middle east and most of the world.

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Aimee Pemberton of Aurora writes:

You got my vote on this one Rep. Garcia!
At the stakeholder meeting to discuss Rep. Garcia’s resolution for an interim committee some professionals proposed that another Department of Humans Services Division for Developmental Disabilities internal committee might be the answer to this problem or only more money would solve the crisis. But, I say in the words of Sir William Osler “A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient.” As a parent of a child with developmental disabilities and the Board President of an Advocacy Association supporting people with developmental disabilities, I know with all sincerity if we as professionals and parents could have solved this crisis alone we already would have.
The human tragedy grows and the money isn’t ever enough. The system is drowning in crisis. Rep. Garcia’s interim committee concept offers the General Assembly the opportunity to take leadership and responsibility of this crisis on behalf of the citizens of Colorado. The General Assembly needs to understand what is and is not being done to give best possible solution. For 40 plus years we have used the same old system. We need fresh eyes and ideas via a public dialogue and that is what this interim committee can offer!

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Irwin MacLeod of Colorado Springs writes:

There are three reasons we have to close the two thousand miles of open border between the United States and Mexico. No. 1 there is no doubt that Al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalists will cross the border and could cost lives of thousands of Americans No. 2: Mexico is he largest point of entry for drugs and are killing our children thru overdoses and car accidents, crippling the minds of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Drug cartels sell over twenty billion dollars worth of drugs every year to the U.S. Close the borders. No. 3: There are over a milliion crossing the border every year. We have 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants here now. ICE arrests and deports a few hundred a month and 80 to 90 thousand illegals come across the border, so you can see this won’t work. Close the borders. We need six thousand National Guard that are already at the border to have the right to arrest and detain. If we add to that another four thousand national guard it would make it 5 to the mile , and with the border patrol it would make it make it 8 to the mile. This is less than two percent of the National Guard. During Katrina we sent five times that to Louisiana With 80 to 90 thousand immigrants crossing the border every month. and they will not stop coming until there tweleve million more. there is only way to stop this to put boots on the ground. With the ten thousand the National Guard and thousands of border patrol. YOU CAN CLOSE THE BORDERS. It is in the National interest that safety of the American people that this border is closed now.

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John C. Flemming of Littleton writes:

Since the neo-cons have consistently treated the US Constitution as a problem and not as the sacred heart of America, it came as little surprise that one of our senior Colorado conservative has fallen into line and is working to undermine the First Amendment. His self-serving article (Saturday 3-17) supporting tax money for religiously based education, especially for his own Colorado Christian University, seems reckless and very short sighted. And his citation of support from the now very politicized Department of Justice will strike most of us as bizarre, especially as it is led by the chief architect of attacks on the Constitution, Alberto Gonzalez.
I wonder if Bill gave even a fleeting moment of thought to the various religious groups that might be thrilled to receive tax money even if tax payers are outraged. How many Americans want to pay taxes to support Wahabbist schools teaching young Muslims hatred of Western culture? How many war-loving right wingers want our tax money to support a Quaker education teaching pacifism? Imagine my outrage if I heard that CCU was using my tax money to teach creationist nonsense instead of science.
The founding fathers got it right by separating church and state. Religion is much too divisive for government to be taking sides.
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Karen Shaw of Westminster writes:

I just finished reading Mike Rosen’s column lauding the fact that Utah just passed a school voucher program. I don’t find this too surprising considering that Utah has 62.4% of their population and 80% of their state legislature sharing the Mormon religion. This will be a windfall for their church schools.
Mr. Rosen also takes this opportunity to denigrate teacher’s unions. Well Mike, in this state I don’t think the teachers were the only ones who voted against the vouchers—-a vote which you would like to see ignored or overturned.
I assume you must think those of us who voted against vouchers are just not as enlightened as you. I will be happy to vote for vouchers when the private schools have to meet the same requirements as the public schools——having the same accountability to the CSAP scores, providing an education for all children no matter what their educational needs or behavioral problems and meeting the same standards for terminating uninterested and uninvolved students that the public schools have to meet.
It is easy to blame the public school teachers (and their union) for problems over which they sometimes have little control while failing to hold parents or society in general accountable for the problems which public schools face today.

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Robert Schroeder of Aurora writes:

How many citizens realize there is a preamble to the Bill of Rights? See www.archives.gov. Our founding fathers in their infinite wisdom wrote the following. “The Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution,expressed a desire,in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers,that the further DECLARATORY and RESTRICTIVE clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government,will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.”

In layman’s terms,the Bill of Rights are restrictions on the government, not on the citizens of the United States. Therefore,any restrictions limiting freedom of religion,speech,the press or the right of individuals to keep and bear arms are not granted to the government.

Space limitations won’t allow me to grieve the unjust powers given to the police in the “War on Drugs,” which ravages Amendment IV and V and VIII. Citizens, take time to read and know your rights. Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (61) | TrackBack

‘Jared’s Ad’

Jim Schwartz of Centennial writes:

First, there was Jared’s Law (Amendment 41). Next, Jared’s Tax — the potential for loss of scholarship or potential taxation of scholarships per Amendment 41 via the criteria of other (non- scholastic) considerations. And now, the hit piece ad on Senate President, and just coincidentally potential rival for the 2nd Congressional District, Joan Fitz-Gerald, with Jared’s Ad (“Ad takes aim at Senate president,” March 22). “Jared” — a misgivings greeting card — a “Contract on Colorado?” Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Pathetic parade

James H. Quinn of Arvada writes:

The Marines pulled out of the St. Patrick’s Day parade because of their relegation immediately behind the llamas (“Marine vets do about-face on parade,” March 14). It could have been worse. They could have been behind the three-block parade of pickup trucks advertising a local credit union or immedately behind the people in green shirts pushing baby strollers. Of course, a place in front of the politicans would have spruced up that void. No, they were lucky. This parade was pathetic. Lucky Marines! Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

Evaluating 'Everyday Math'

Alexander Givental of the University of California, Berkeley, writes:

I'd like to use this occasion to thank Linda Seebach for alerting the readers of her column to Kiselev's Geometry and Ron Aharoni's Arithmetic for Parents (published by Sumizdat.org) and for passing on my opinion about math curricula.

One of her readers, a 3rd grade teacher, asked me by email about Everyday Mathematics, a program that used to be popular in California and is still in broad use elsewhere. I'd like to summarize here my observations made several years ago while studying some "EM" materials for grades K, 3 and 5.

"EM" is quite ambitious: it touches upon many math topics far beyond the grade level. One problem is that it does so falsely. E.g.: 3rd grade teachers are served with regular polyhedra defined incorrectly, and Venn diagrams used mistakenly. Deep topics are usually handled superficially, i.e. with the focus on notation at the expense of content -- something a mathematician would never do!

Another problem is the size: Elementary school teachers, whose time is scheduled by the minute, and whose attention is divided between several subjects and the task of watching the kids, are to follow manuals of inhumane complexity and volume.

By this measure, Aharoni's Arithmetic seems 40 times more efficient!

The students of "EM," on the contrary, are not entitled to have textbooks. They are to take part in numerous activities, often decoupled from the math at hand. In the workbooks, the order of topics is intentionally chaotic, as if to instill the common misconception that math is a zoo of unrelated "strategies," facts and algorithms.

This letter is not a place for a thorough review, but in essence my message is the same as with Saxon Math: I can't think of a reason to use "EM," when Singapore Math is available.

Alexander Givental is the founder of Sumizdat.org

_______________________

Sterling Greenwood of Aspen writes:

I’m disappointed that both Mick Ireland and Tim Semrau are running for mayor of Aspen. They will split the straight-shot vote; then Councilman Torre, God forbid, a small town entrance proponent, could carry the day.
With both Tim and Mick wanting to be mayor, neither may win and we risk losing a huge new entrance development ie the “straight-shot” at the edge of town.
And sadly, too, I fear there are precious few straight-shot votes to split.
In the last entrance election three or four years ago, despite valliant efforts by both Mick and Tim to sell us the straight-shot, only some twenty percent of registered Aspen voters came out for the thing.
Even county voters balked at the new straight-shot entrance proposal, preferring to retain those silly s-curves.
And the s-curvers weren’t gracious in victory either.
Some got ugly about it all, yelling out quotes from the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson like “THERE IS SOME S—-T WE JUST WON’T EAT.” But, worst of all, Colorado construction interests missed a $60-$80 million public money gravy train.
Just think how glum Haliburton would feel financially now if we hadn’t gone to Iraq and they’d missed their bonanza — then figure that’s akin to how the big road construction concerns did feel when they were poised to build us that spiffy new grownup entrance into Aspen with tunnels under water and all and then we went and voted the whole mess down, sinking the straight-shot like a led zeppelin. We’ve got to get real in Aspen, wake up and smell the coffee! The curves must go. There must be another election.
With our puny s-curves entrance, Aspen will never actualize its potential to bloom into an industrialized city like Denver, that is our destiny! You ever see a giant tractor-trailer rig struggle to negotiate our s-curves? It takes the poor thing fifteen to twenty minutes to shudder and screech and lurch through. Plus a driver with the patience of Job.
And cops have to halt traffic in both directions during this truck opera because when the big rigs turn through the curves they need room to veer into oncoming lanes.
Reminds me of my aunt Mozelle trying to twist into her girdle, rest her soul.
Anyway, I love my new “S-CURVES SUCK” bumper sticker. And here’s a motto suggestion for all of us who want the straight-shot: “There is some s—t we MUST eat.” C’mon, guys, let’s do it for Mick and Tim — win a new entrance for Aspen, I mean.
No matter if neither gets to be mayor.

John Graczyk of Monument writes:

As everyone out there is well aware, our country is trying to resolve the dilemma of health insurance and the large amount of Americans that are uninsured. What you may not be aware of is that we may be at risk for increasing that number dramatically. 17% of all Medicare enrollees are enrolled in Medicare Advantage programs which might be in jeopardy. That’s right close to 20% of currently insured seniors and disabled Americans could lose their current health care plans.
Medicare Advantage Plans are private health plans that take part in the Medicare program. If this program is discontinued then it will have a great impact on citizens’ right here in Colorado; as well as nationwide.
Over 150,000 Coloradoans are currently enrolled in Medicare Advantage programs. If cancelled, it would cause them to end up with huge out of pocket expenses. Many seniors already struggle to pay their expenses being on a fixed income. Is it fair that we ask them to continue to pay increasingly high prescription costs, utilities and then slam them with more out of pocket costs because some people in Congress want to take away their current health care plans?
This could be extremely damaging to our fellow citizens. Citizens who have worked their whole lives to make Colorado the place we know and love. What happened to respecting our elders? I encourage you to contact your elected officials and ask them to support the Medicare Advantage plans. Even if not for yourself, do it for a parent or a grandparent.

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Brian Stuckey of Denver writes:

The Senate resolution, S.J. Res. 9, is just another Democratic ploy to undermine our mission in Iraq. As Sen. Mitch McConnell rightly asserted, “this is the memo our enemies have been waiting for.” While the Senate is engaged in such defeatist schemes, the enemy is merely waiting for our forces to leave. Such tactics do nothing but embolden the enemy and undermine our troops on the field. The enemy is not having this debate. Does anyone not wonder why?

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Charles King of Boulder writes:

It is increasingly clear that what sank the Republicans in the mid-term Congressional election was not so much President Bush’s conduct of the war in Iraq as his flagrant failure to recognize, and honestly seek to solve, our grave immigration problems. Bush was joined in his failure to secure our borders by Republican Senators McCain-AZ and Spector-PA, who, with most of their Republican colleagues, voted with Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy for the Senate’s “Comprehensive Immigration Control Act.” Fortunately, the House of Representatives had the good sense to refuse to vote on the offensive Bill. From press reports of Bush’s recent three-hour meeting with Mexico’s new president, Felipe Calderon, it is clear, as Associated Press Tom Raum (Denver Post, , 2A, March 15) writes, that: “Bush’s long-languishing immigration proposals are closer to those favored by Kennedy and many other Democrats than to those of his own party.” And despite the fact that polls of American citizens for years have shown that the vast majority of us want our borders closed, and no amnesty , Bush’s view is scarcely distinguishable from that of Senator Kennedy! Does Bush still not know that American citizens overwhelmingly insist, that we remain a nation under law? And that we demand that our immigration laws be strictly enforced, no hemming and hawing about it (period)?
Unless the Republicans in both houses of Congress, and especially in the Senate, get off their duffs soon, and vote to secure our borders and seriously pursue and punish all, repeat, all who knowingly employ illegal immigrants, the Party will at the national level suffer a greater defeat in 2008 than it did in 2006.
How dumb can Bush and Republican Congressmen get! Abe Lincoln, the first Republican president, must be turning over in his grave!

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Cheri Bettini of Lakewood writes:

I am sorry to hear that letter writer Alan Phillips of Georgetown wants to seize the cars of uninsured drivers (“Seize cars of those without insurance,” March 1).
I am sure that, living up in his mountain getaway, Phillips is surrounded by people who don’t have to worry about such things as paying the mortgage, putting food on the table, paying the high Xcel bills, water bills and day-care expenses, all on $5-$7 per hour.
Phillips says liability insurance doesn’t cost that much. Well $100 per month is a lot to some people. I am not talking just about young people — when a person turns 75, for example, their insurance goes up quite a bit just because of their age. Most senior citizens are on a fixed income, and I am sure that does not include the insurance rate hike.
I am not saying people should drive without insurance, but many don’t really have a choice when it comes to making a choice between food on the table or car insurance.
What is really needed is a good overhaul of the insurance industry. Years back, when Colorado made insurance mandatory, they didn’t take into consideration just how high the rates were going to skyrocket. I am sorry I don’t get the pleasure of living in a mountain community with fresh air and no noise, but let me assure you my insurance rates are quite high also.

Jordan Von Bokern of Louisville writes:

The Democrats’ pledge of fiscal responsibility during the 2006 midterm election was a welcome change from their typical “tax-and-spend” mentality, but the war funding bill just reinforces our cynicism because, apparently, it’s still politics as usual.

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Lieutenant Steve Schultz, USNR (Ret), of Idaho Springs writes:

In your March 15th issue Ron Tupa asserts, “more troops will not help the United States win in Iraq". Sen. Ken Gordon raises the ante and declares the war is costing too much and may reduce funding for Headstart and low income-energy assistance. How typical, our democrat Senators are whining that the cost of freedom for 25 million people is probably impossible and not worth it if their pet social programs lose some funding.
For the record we won the war in Iraq as it was defined in 2003. Saddam is gone, along with his murderous regime. General Petraeus was recently confirmed overwhelmingly in the U.S. Senate to lead us out of what we didn’t see coming. As a retired Navy officer I’m sure General Petraues’s bathwater has more military and counter-insurgency experience than Tupa and Gordon put together. Statistics show that the surge is already working; bomb deaths down 30 percent, execution slayings down nearly half, shoppers back in outdoor markets, etc. The military knows it will take time to win in Iraq, that’s why they call it “The Long War”
Our Legislators shouldn’t spout disingenuous tripe about honoring the troops, then assert the troops can’t win anyway so let’s get out.
The democrats have never been strong on logic, just emotion. An electrician doesn’t hook a black wire to a red wire because it makes him feel good or because it looks nice, or not to offend the white wire. He does it because it works. War is a very logical business. The other side is made up of folks who are always thinking and tactics and goals change. If we want the land of two rivers to have a stable government that is not hostile to the U.S. or it’s neighbors we have to finish the job.

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Charles James, Northglenn

Let me get this straight — someone named Ignacio Ramirez of the Immigrant Families of Southwest Denver waltzes into our country uninvited, crowds our emergency rooms with sniffling kids, rips off taxpayers by attending our schools all the while demanding to be taught in Spanish, waves Mexican flags from cars declaring their allegiance to a foreign country, and now he wants to organize a boycott of the host country because he says his group is vital to America (“Activists call for statewide boycott/Weeklong action meant to spotlight work of illegals,” March 9).
Give me a break! Send in the National Guard and get these bums out of here.

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Philip Faustin of Denver writes:

I live in the City of Denver. I used to live in Lakewood. There are many differences between the cities. Denver picks up the trash as a city service. We had to pay separately in Lakewood although in Denver we do pay through taxes — probably more. The police are less responsive in Denver.
We always appreciated the quick, caring response in Lakewood. Denver cleans up graffiti for free. In Lakewood, neighbors organized to keep neighborhoods clean.
A few months ago, there was a big meeting in Denver about what to do about the graffiti problem. The City spends about $1 million annually to clean it up and that is increasing. A committee formed after the meeting is now recommending that the City quit doing the cleanup and make home and business owners do it within two to three days.
I am not in favor of government doing things for us that we should do for ourselves. It may be a good idea for each home and business owner to be responsible to take care of their own area and you may have to force the lazy ones to do it. So, I can’t really oppose this new idea.
But here is what bugs me. It seems like a copout on the City’s part. They call a meeting to figure out what to do and then announce that they are getting out of the business and are going to put more pressure on the little guy. Thanks a lot.
There is a nice white fence down the street from me. It looked good when it was installed. Now it has become a favorite target of paint vandals. I feel sorry for the owners. I wonder if they now regret their choice of material.
It seems that as soon as they clean up one mess, another appears.
From what I read awhile back, gangs are doing most of the graffiti and they use violence to protect their marks. They will go after another group who covers their tags. I hope that the homeowner will not become a target as well.
It seems what was left out of the committee recommendation was more enforcement by the police. As I said before, the Denver Police are not very responsive. If you look out the window and see a crime being committed don’t expect them to come running. Now there are times they will turn on the lights and siren but small crimes are a low priority. If they show up, it may be 20 to 30 minutes later, long after the criminal is gone.
If the attitude of enforcement was changed then maybe the graffiti problem could be curbed. It also does no good if once someone is caught they are allowed to breeze through the system with little consequence. These are two areas that government can do something where the average citizen can’t. I hope they will.

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Tim Levins of Monument writes:

Letter writer Keith Brady ("Don't disturb park's elk population," March 2) states that reintroducing wolves to Rocky Mountain National Park would be unnatural because they are a non-native species. In fact, wolves are natural to Colorado and were eradicated from the state in the 20th century.

I am a hunter, but I value the experience of using my camera to capture how wolves interact naturally in reducing the elk populations in Yellowstone National Park, a completely natural predator-prey ecosystem at work.

Rocky Mountain National Park without the presence of wolves is creating an unnatural state. The key benefits to reintroducing wolves to the park are disease control and reducing overpopulation in elk and mule deer.

An unexpected bonus for the park would be increased tourism revenue, similar to what Yellowstone enjoys. Let Rocky Mountain National Park return to a natural ecosystem and let nature run its course. Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Respect people's vote

Rafael Millet of Highlands Ranch writes:

Last November we the people of Colorado voted "No" on Referendum I, which sought to legalize partnerships and adoption by gay couples. We also approved Amendment 43, which defines marriage as a union only between one man and one woman. Elected officials must honor the people who elected them. No to House Bill 1330! Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (59) | TrackBack

Vets get short shrift in medical treatment

Nick A. Adlon of Sheridan writes:

Soldiers wounded in action face conditions unbecoming their sacrifice. These men and women deserve much better and much more. What is worse is the simple reality that those who violate U.S. laws are given better treatment than these soldiers.

Illegals are given free emergency medical treatment at any hospital without question. While they are receiving this, men and women who fought for this country are subjected to mold-infested rooms and subhuman care - even Gitmo detainees are treated better.

Congress had better do better for these vets, and for all of us vets who served this country. We earned in the sweat we gave, the tears fallen for our fellows and the blood we shed. We have earned it, we earned better than this.

Take the money that is given to the detainee facilities and illegals and help those who have earned the care.

Walter Reed is only the tip of the iceberg - Congress should look in all veterans hospitals not just there. All vet hospitals are below par while illegals are treated much better. All are suffering while detainees, by comparison, live pampered lives. Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Senate Iraq debate

Jackie O'Brien of Lakewood writes:

Great photo coverage of the Colorado Senate debate hearings regarding Iraq (March 15). Especially expressive was the photo on page News 24 showing 22-year-old veteran Don Ottoway after his touching testimony about his personal war experiences in Iraq and how the resolution sends the wrong message. The look on Ottoway's face as Democratic Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon places his hand on Don's back says it all. It appears that Gordon may have a knife firmly placed in Don's back at the same time his mouth is spewing the Democratic Party rhetoric of supporting the troops, blah, blah, blather. I can imagine the young soldier couldn't wait to get home to take a shower. Sen. Ron Tupa's and Gordon's political futures depend on our failure in Iraq; they prefer to declare war on the Republicans and our president rather than Islamic terrorists. Are you proud, Colorado? Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

Focus on the state

Mark Sear of Lakewood writes:

When I voted on my state representative, I was under the impression that state problems were to be the focus. There is no shortage of them, from education funding to road repair. If legislators don't have enough work to do with our homegrown problems, maybe they should just go home.

There is no reason for them to be debating Iraq policy, as that is the job of our federal representatives. Please, those of you in the Statehouse, do the job that you were sent to do and leave policy that you have no authority over alone.

There are plenty of ways for those who want to make their positions known to those who have the authority to deal with Iraq policy.

Richard L. Wilde of Elizabeth writes:

What would be your response under the following circumstances? You are the boss. One of your employees comes to you and states; I am going to look for a new job. It is going to take me about two years to find this job. In the meantime, I would like to keep my current job. I will not be able to spend much time or give it much effort during the next two years. However, I would like you to continue to pay me my full salary. In addition, I want to maintain full benefits and perks, including retirement and medical plan, office space and full use of the phones, staff and mail room to assist me in looking for my new job. If I cannot find the job I want, I want your assurance that I can keep the job I have.

Sound preposterous? How many congressmen and senators and governors are getting this wonderful treatment from us taxpayers while they attempt to get elected president?

I think you, as the boss, just might say no to this absurd proposal. Correct response should be: If you want a new job, resign from your current job. Shouldn't this common-sense rule apply to our politicians? Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Inane editorial

Jack J. Woehr of Golden writes:

The editorial on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confessions ("'KSM' a reminder of the heart of darkness, March 16) was exceedingly inane. If American civilization has declined to the point where journalists take seriously the government's gloating over confessions extracted by torture, I don't know what to think. Whatever happened to your newspaper's blathering on about "Give the people light," etc.? Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

Life becomes 'taxing'

Bob Zwiezen of Centennial writes:

Last November, when Bill Ritter and the critters gained control of the governorship and the state legislature, I made the comment that life in Colorado was going to become very taxing. And sure enough, here they came with all the tax-raising and wealth-transfer schemes ever conceived by devious political minds. The crowning touch so far has been Senate Bill 22 ("Taxation by regulation," editorial, March 18) allowing a private company to do their dirty work for them. I'll give them their due. They are among the most creative OPM (Other People's Money) addicted politicians in the U.S. I can hardly wait to see what they come up with next (just kidding). Enjoy folks, it's only going to get more taxing from here. Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Cleaning up graffiti

Ron Rutterof Littleton writes:

In order to reduce the graffiti problems ("Graffiti a growing headache for city," March 17), it would behoove the enforcement agencies in the metro area to require the parents of arrested juveniles and the juveniles themselves to do the cleanup work. I guarantee it would reduce the problem if the parents realized they would be forced to do this work without exception or excuse.

M.A. "Pete" Kinnamanof Los Animas writes:

After reading of the planned expansion of Piñon Canyon and the unnecessary, illegal taking of private property - which happens to be the last true ranching area of our state - it occurred to me that President Bush's Islamic fundamentalists are not the only fascists in our world! Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Boundary dispute

Barbara St. Johnof Wheat Ridge writes:

Thank you for the article "Barbed ire: Flap over land turns ranch life prickly," (March 3), which airs a dispute involving 100-year-old property rights. The question seems to be whether old (1886) government survey lines between two ranches near Creede are still valid, even though current technology finds some errors. If boundaries have been accepted well over 100 years, I do not see that it makes sense to re-survey all the back yards, property lines and ranches in Mineral County to see if they are indeed different. Besides going against past law, this could cause unnecessary dislocations and ill will. We have enjoyed staying at Soward Ranch over many years and find this a great imposition on the Lamb family, whose forebears homesteaded the land. I'm sure that if Herbert B. Story Jr. has paid taxes on a few acres needlessly, he could be reimbursed. Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

City name change is frivolous

Patti Swanson of Milwaukee, WI, and Commerce City writes:

Two articles have come to my attention recently regarding the upcoming vote to change the name of Commerce City- ‘Costly name change considered to alter Commerce City’s image’ (Charley Able) and ‘Don’t give up on city name’. I cannot vote on this issue because I am a registered voter in the state of Wisconsin; however, I do have a vested interest in the outcome of the vote as the owner of a lovely home in “old” Commerce City. A member of my family lives in my second home and handles its maintenance.
At least twice a year I look forward to spending time at my ‘home away from home.’ I consider the whole idea of the name change as frivolous. The financial impact on the city and its citizens must be the deciding factor in favor of retaining the name Commerce City. Mayor Ford is right on target concerning this impact. Who is in a better position than he-a life long resident and elected official-to know what is best for our community? I am appealing to Commerce City voters; Please vote to keep the name-Commerce City!
Commerce City is fortunate to have retained its industrial base unlike the community where I presently live. The loss of industry here has shifted the tax burden to homeowners resulting in property taxes that are four times greater than what I pay for my home in Commerce City. Embrace the contributions of factories and businesses in Commerce City and spend taxpayer money on pollution control, public school and park maintenance, and roads and infrastructure in Commerce City’s “aging neighborhoods.”
Please don’t waste taxpayer money on changing our community’s name!

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Donna Harrison of Centennial writes:

During the week George Bush was bragging about how much financial help the United States gives South American countries a story appeared in the paper about the Office of Management and Budget’s rule change which would save money by cutting those pesky Medicaid payments to certain public hospitals. I didn’t think the Bush administration could sink any lower, but I was wrong. Financing aid for foreign countries, the unconscionable war in Iraq, and sustaining the egregious tax cuts for the wealthy is made possible by increasing the misery of the old and poor. The devastating effects Medicaid cuts would have in health care for the poor and to the hospitals which provide that care is nothing short of criminal. Does Mr. Bush intend for people who depend on Medicaid and Medicare to simply die if they have no health care possibilities? If Denver Health, University of Colorado Hospital and others have to cut back services or close their doors due to Medicaid payment cuts thousands of people will lose health services, even those with Medicare. As an additional slap in the face, the OMB is also asking for cuts in the graduate Medical Education Program. Perhaps Mr. Bush thinks fewer doctors will be needed if all the superfluous poor folks die. This rule change must die before human beings die.

Judith Lorraine of Denver writes:
We do not belong on foreign soil — in any aggresive manner! This is treasonous actions on these flim-flam leaders we have — they are raping and pillaging America! They are giving it away to Mexico. When was Bush elected president of Mexico? They are trashing our precious Constitution and Bill of Rights daily! with the internationalization of corporations — who is going to pay all these taxes for all these countries we are subsidizing? One world order — One world government — it is the killing of America!

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Ken Bonetti of Boulder writes:

I have learned to my dismay that immigration enforcers are treating illegal immigrants like criminals rather than violators of civil law.
This is a vile tactic. Such despicable official behavior ignores the realities poor immigrants face and the great contributions they make to our economy and nation.
One reality is that the poor in Latin America are in part victims of self-serving US trade policies that further impoverish and impel some to seek work in this country to survive. The contributions immigrants make to the US economy are obvious, as Colorado officials are considering yet another morally reprehensible action, the use of slave prison labor to pick next season’s food crops in the absence of immigrant labor. These disgusting policies simply waste valuable public resources, drive immigrants to other crossing points at great economic and human cost, and morally taint our country.
If those poor immigrants were white and blond, would we allow our government to treat them like common criminals? These policies do nothing to solve problems, real or perceived. They simply waste valuable resources, forestall effective solutions and create the impression around the world that Americans are hateful and cruel racists.

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Russell Brunecz of Aurora writes:

According to the following post http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17702224/ President Bush is accusing Democrats of “partisan fishing". “Calling the Democratic response to the firing of eight federal prosecutors a partisan fishing expedition". The Democrats in both the House and the Senate are only doing their job in providing justice and truth for the American people in their public official’s actions. Providing the checks and balances described by the founding fathers of this nation. Yet, it is the President who is attempting to politicize the investigation into the firing of Republican Attorneys, who he himself appointed to the Department of Justice. Democrats in the House and Senate are coming to the aid of Republican US Attorneys who may have been released unlawfully. Justice is simply taking its rightful course. The President is grandstanding at best. To think he will be able to prevent the subpoenas of those within the White House for example, Karl Rove, Harriet Myers etc., etc. from public testimony into the firings is ludicrous. To attempt a Nixonian course of action into a lawful investigation is without a doubt an attempt to cover up. The words of former President Nixon come to mind, “If the President does it, then, it is not illegal". This investigation should proceed post haste in the interest of the American people who’s vote counts in this nation.

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George Lilly of Denver writes:

As Mike Littwin gushes over Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, while mocking Tom Tancredo and excoriating the Republicans, is there any doubt what his political bias is? Yes, unfortunately! Therefore why doesn’t he just come out and say publicly in his column that he’s a hard-left Democrat? The reason is simple. If he did that, he would set a precedent for the rest of the columnists, and then we’d all see just how left wing the media really is!
We don’t want that now do we?

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Baxter Pharr of Silverthorne writes:

While the majority of scientists and an increasing number of citizens are recognizing the growing threat of global warming, it seems that some of our politicians are still stuck in the dark ages. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut has sponsored a bill called The Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 which aims to reduce the U.S. emissions of greenhouse gasses by 50% by 2050. It appears that Colorado Senator Ken Salazar will support this bill and work to get it enacted into law. Colorado Senator Wayne Allard, however, has responded to the bill by stating: “Due to the global nature of the spread of greenhouse gasses, the US should not implement arbitrary restrictions that will drive industry and jobs to countries that do not have similar restrictions. Until science surrounding global climate is clear, I am unwilling to commit the United States to damaging economic hardships and substantial reductions in our quality of life.”
With only 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. emits about 30% of the world’s greenhouse gasses. While over 150 nations have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, only two industrialized nations (the U.S. and Australia) have refused to do so. While fuel mileage standards have not increased in the last 20 years in the U.S., standards in China and European nations are almost twice as high as ours. In fact, American automakers can’t sell their vehicles to China because we don’t meet their fuel standards! Carbon dioxide concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere are at the highest level (over 300 ppm) in the last 650,000 years. Ten of the hottest years on record (going back to the 1860s) have occurred in the last 12 years. 2006 was the hottest year ever recorded in the U.S. If this isn’t convincing evidence, wait to see the results from the new IPCC report. Please e-mail your elected representative at his website www.allard.senate.gov and tell him to wake up to the reality of global warming. Remind him that politicians who remain dinosaurs are heading for extinction.

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Brian Stuckey of Denver writes:

Navy Captain Paul Sherbo has it right in his Speakout column. It is indeed encouraging to hear our veterans speaking out in defense of our troops in Iraq, especially when the mainstream media is invested in their defeat. It is veterans like Don Ottaway and Diggs Brown, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, who know the real story. If more Americans were listening to the troops instead of the mainstream media, there would be less screaming and more dedication to the task at hand. The enemy is not having this debate. Should Americans be any less dedicated?

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James Lewis of Denver writes:

While working a real-estate deal last month I found out exactly what one parking ticket means. It can mean $5,000.00 or more. See, to collect unpaid revenues from non-moving violations Denver sells the debt to collection agencies, which can then list these unpaid violations as defaulted or excessively delinquent on a credit report, effectively lowering a credit score by up to 100 points. That’s enough to easily lower good credit to fair and fair credit to poor. My best estimate is that the city of Denver gets $10 to $20 for each ticket collected. That seems like great news for the city, but it’s also a perfect example of false economy. Poor credit and higher interest rates lead to lower buying power which leads to significantly lower purchase prices on large items such as houses and vehicles. With Denver’s generous tax rates the tax on a price delta of just a few hundred dollars offsets that collection.
I’m not suggesting that not paying parking tickets is not wrong. Tickets are an effective method for enforcing much needed parking regulations, and I pay a few every year. But Denver is taking punitive measures that are disproportionately extreme and in the end, benefit nobody but credit and lending institutions. A city that leads the country in foreclosures, can’t keep polls open during elections, and can’t get its streets plowed for two months doesn’t seem to need another reason for residents to disparage their home town.

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Richard Colwell of Parker writes:

In uncovering the media’s bias against U.S. involvement in Iraq, one only has to look at the source of the conflict. So much attention was given to Weapons of Mass Destruction (or lack there of), leading one to believe that it was the only excuse for going to war with Iraq. The fact is, there were 17 U.N. Security Council resolutions supporting this decision, including the mass torture of civilians and repeated attacks on U.S. aircraft over the no-fly-zone.
Now I’ve recently learned of a book, called “Saddam’s Secrets", that insists these weapons DID exist in Iraq just prior to the 2003 invasion. The author is a former Iraqi general, Georges Sada, who served as Vice Air Marshall under Saddam Hussein. In the book, he describes in detail how Saddam’s regime “transferred chemical agents from Iraq to Syria” by converting two Iraqi Airways Boeings into cargo planes. The 56 flights, according to Mr. Sada, attracted little attention because they were thought to be providing relief to Syria after a dam collapse in 2002.
Of course, without physical evidence, Sada’s book would have drawn its own critics — assuming it were ever brought out for debate. So then why is it that a former Iraqi general’s claims of WMD received such scant coverage (if any) from ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN, while leftist millionaire Michael Moore and his so-called documentary about 9/11 enjoyed more attention than it deserved? There’s your bias.

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Mark Krautler, Broomfield

Justifying an illegal war Rightly or wrongly, wars are waged by civilian leadership. The military obeys the orders of the President and the Congress. By necessity, the military must act with all force and decisiveness to maximize mission success and minimize casualties. We cannot ask soldiers to debate the war when hot searing led and metal are flying their way. I support our military, where ever they may serve. These are our nation’s sons and daughters, mothers and fathers thrust into harms way. But, if a war is born on the wings of a lie, as I believe the Iraq war was, I cannot support the war itself. There is no ambiguity here (Paul Sherbo, Iraq: running away screaming – “if the people who do the fighting support the effort, how in the world do their opponents justify their opposition?”). I justify my opposition quite simply. President Bush illegally lied his way into this war with no thought to those who would fight it or pay the price for it. I cannot and will not support that. It’s been demonstrated Iraq had no connection to 911 (Bush said this himself!), no weapons of mass destruction, did not attack us and was not an imminent threat to our homeland. Saddam Hussein, one of many brutal dictators, was contained. He, himself, was containing the factions, Sunni and Shia. Inspectors were on the ground doing their work. Intelligence, patience and political cooperation could have taken Saddam out eventually, without the gross destruction we have wrought. And yet, after billions of tax dollars spent, the master mind of 911 still roams free. If what you start is tainted to begin with, how can continuing it be right? We have broken plenty and have plenty to fix. This will not happen militarily. Think a never ending arcade game of Whak-A-Mole. Despite the fact we should never have invaded a sovereign nation, we must now do what we ought to have done when Bush claimed “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended”, redeploy the military and empower the Iraqis to rebuild their own country. Electricity anyone? Yes, we “broke” the lid off the box, more like Pandora’s box. We did not go to Iraq to solve thousands of years of faction infighting. The ongoing civil war is not ours to stop. It is folly to try. Go ask the Brits!

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Joey Hemminger of Denver writes:

I am so sick and tired of having the religious agenda crammed down my throat each and everyday I read the news.
Today, March 16, 2007, I read Republican candidate Sam Brokeback, I mean Brownback, is verbally spouting his support for our Pentagon’s top general, Peter Race, in labeling homosexual acts as immoral.
I don’t see how this exactly coincides with serving our country? Sam Brownback states, “I’m a Catholic, and the church has clear teachings on this.” Well Mr. Brownback, I am not Catholic and I really don’t care what your perception of church teachings are. I don’t believe I am the only one in this country who feels this way either.
Homosexuals are everywhere whether you like it or not.
You can’t stop nature.
We are postal workers, construction workers, lawyers, politicians, pastors, UPS workers, newspaper carriers, doctors, editors, athletes, accountants, truck drivers, counselors, volunteers, policeman, soldiers, VOTERS…….the list goes on and on.
You have offended a great many of people and I am disgusted and will continue to be disgusted every time I hear about you and YOUR closeted, one-sided, religiously directed agenda.

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Kathleen Day of Idaho Falls, ID, writes:

I would like to comment on this bill that was voted down for banning smoking in the Casinos in Colorado.
I was a Casino worker in Blackhawk and Central City, Co in 1992-1997. I was affected by the second hand smoke and the coin dust. I was a supervisor of the cashier cage, then a lead cashier, and finally just a cashier. I got really sick and was diagnosed with Asthma as a result of these two situations.
There was only one satellite cage that I could worked in that didn’t affect me, because it didn’t have the piped in air. Which in the end, the reason why it affected me was because I worked there at that casino from December 1993-Feb. 1997 and they never cleaned or replaced the air filters in their recycled air system. In the end I had to quit as they said they could not just let me work one cage, as it was not fair to the other cashiers, even though I had a doctors note stating for me to just work in the one cashier cage because of my asthma. So I was forced to quit. Later about a year or two later, I heard that there were customers at that Casino that got really sick from there, it was investigated and found out that the air filter was the cause of making them sick, and they were ordered to take care of the problem. So now I can’t go anywhere, where there is smoking, or a fireplace, or wood stove, because it flares up my asthma. Plus the filters was recycling the old used air, in which the coin dust stayed in the cages also causing people to get sick.
So I know what it is like working and playing around a smoking environment.

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In Colorado, jails and prisons have become de facto psychiatric treatment programs for individuals with serious mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders. Most of these individuals are not violent criminals but rather have been charged or convicted of minor, nonviolent offenses directly linked to the symptoms of their untreated illnesses.
Gov. Bill Ritter’s proposal to invest $8 million in mental health and substance abuse treatment to reduce the numbers of repeat offenders represents a welcome step forward in addressing the tragic and unnecessary criminalization of people with serious mental illness.
In the long term, this investment in vital services will benefit all Colorado citizens by enhancing public safety and reserving jails and prison cells for true criminals.
Lacey Berumen, Denver executive director, National Alliance for the Mentally Colorado

Since 1982, when the 16th Street Mall was opened with the free “Mall Shuttle,” we at the Regional Transportation District have been excited about the positive changes in the downtown area, or at least most of the changes. While much has been done over the years to make downtown Denver a great destination for metro residents and visitors, it is becoming apparent that there are areas that do need a major face-lift. The 16th and California streets area, from the Convention Center to 17th Street, is one that needs immediate attention.
With the Democratic Convention coming in about 16 months, the time is now to commit the resources needed to updating this area. There is much that can be done in the short term to improve the image that we all would like to convey, and it would be a great beginning to jump-start a major upgrading of the mall and the nearby area.
Bill Elfenbein, RTD Director, Denver

I believe I still live in America, but I’m beginning to wonder.
I’m told I don’t know what I vote for when I vote. I’m forced to wear a seatbelt and I’m told second-hand smoke will kill me.
I am not a smoker, but I do not feel it’s right for politicians to take our rights away.
Organizations such as VFW, American Legion and the Elks have boards of directors who know what’s best for their organization. The VFW and American Legion are made up of veterans who served this country to protect our freedom of choice. I’m a veteran and was proud to serve my country.
Give the vets and business owners a break. They pay taxes, too.
Robert Thomas, Arvada

Kudos to Mike Rosen for hitting the nail on the head with an excellently written column (“Public school bondage,” March 16) on the inadequate, inept, hypocritical, destructive government school system and the blessing of choice the liberals offer only when it comes to abortion.
George Lilly, Denver

Why is Sen. Ron Tupa so fixated on opposing fees at park-n-rides (“RTD park-n-ride fee for some gets initial Senate OK,” March 17)? He cites that taxpayers already paid for those park-n-rides. However, taxpayers have committed a lot more money for a functioning Regional Transportation District and a FasTracks program. Seems like if we want to be fair to taxpayers, we should charge the people using the RTD system who don’t pay taxes toward the district. I’ve heard of not seeing the forest through the trees, but this is an example of not seeing the forest through the blade of grass.
Mark Najarian, Denver

Your letters section seems to be filled with whiny Republicans who are complaining about the Dems gaining control of the state legislature and dang nab it, those tax-and-spend socialists are doing nothing but raising taxes.
These disgruntled cheapskates should stop complaining and move to a low-tax state like Mississippi or Alabama which take turns ranking 49th and 50th in every measure of human quality of life there is. I’m sure they would be a lot happier living off the magnanimous trickle-down prosperity promised by the GOP.
The Colorado legislature and our governor already know that much of that trickle-down in fact, trickles up and out. Bill Ritter you’re doing a heckuva job!
Lynn Highland, Morrison

My family and I have known Acen Phillips and his family since the early ’60s. He baptized me in the Little Church on the west side. He has always been there when our family needed him and I know he has a good heart. I pray that God will bless him and his family during these trying times (“Lawsuit alleges fraud by Rev. Acen Phillips,” March 14).
]Peggy Cook, Brighton

Americans should start connecting the dots. The dots in question are the number of corporations that are now involved in public sector activities and are profiting enormously but providing shoddy or inflated costs for their work.
The scandal at Walter Reed has occurred because some of the maintenance and other work is being done by the private sector. The private sector has profited by its contract work in Iraq. Halliburton has shown its true patriotism by it will move its headquarters to Dubai.
This administration would love to hand over the running of the most successful program ever — Social Security — to the private sector. Money held in Social Security accounts should receive more than a 1 percent return of interest. Contributions to the system end at the $90,000-a-year level. Change this to a higher cap and our perceived problem with Social Security would be fixed.
Introducing the private sector into the public arena assures that corporations will make a profit, not that the work will be done more efficiently, timely, or better than it is being done at present.
Susan A. Schiller, Denver

Eat healthy, exercise, don’t smoke, don't drink. ...but you will die. Statistics may show that you can extend your life by x number of years by following the above listed edicts — thank you very much!
Just what I hope for ...more years in a nursing home, more years of arthritic pain, loss of hearing, loss of vision and loneliness! Smoking may be hazardous to your health, but so is aging.
I am appalled at the amount of time, money and energy that is being expended on the smoking law by our legislature. If they must develop a political stance -- there must be more pressing issues... In fact, that goes for all of us! Let's worry about Iraq, terrorism, global warming, gun control, gay marriages, racism, abortion, even Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. Smoking pales in comparison, yet seems to be the easiest thing to control and take issue with for the do-gooders.
The answer to this seemingly important issue is so simple! Abolish the smoking law, which never should have been enacted in the first place. If there is a need for “law,” let it be one of choice. Let smokers smoke and non-smokers stay away from it.
There are enough places for both! Now, wasn’t that easy?
M. Andersen, Brighton

Councilman-at-large Doug Linkhart’s remarks regarding graffiti show that he is truly a racist. What do baggy pants have to do with crime or graffiti?
He states that kids with saggy, baggy pants all over the place make people feel fearful. I live on the East side of town in the Clayton neighborhood and a lot of people wear baggy pants, but I do not fear them because they are my neighbors and friends. Perhaps Linkhart does not best represent the interests of Denver neighborhoods, since he is so willing to stereotype and label people because of their style of dress.
Denver residents should not tolerate his intolerance.
Taylor Critchell, Denver

I am very disturbed by the plan to pull out of Iraq. Liberals are very fast to point out the similarities between Iraq and Vietnam. Perhaps we should learn from that debacle.
When the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam over, more than a million Vietnamese people were slaughtered for their support of the U.S. It would seem to me that Iraq holds the potential of being worse than Vietnam.
I don’t remember Jane Fonda or Sen. John Kerry apologizing for the million people who died because of their agenda. Will those in favor of withdrawal from Iraq be willing to accept responsibility for a potentially large number of deaths of Iraqis who support us?
Donald D. Vogt, Morrison

On a death march from Anzing, Germany, to the Austrian Alps in April 1945, my father, a Jewish prisoner at a subcamp of Dachau, was barely alive. The bedraggled marchers were dying from exhaustion, lack of food and water, when they were intercepted enroute by the American liberators at Tutzing, Germany.
Were it not for Brig. Gen. Felix Sparks and his American forces, my father surely would have perished (“Display of mettle,” March 10). He was hospitalized for months to regain his health. There were those for whom it was too late, but many others were saved.
After he recovered, my father returned to Lithuania and retrieved me, his youngest child; I was all he had left. We came to the United States on June 3, 1949.
In 2004, at the International Conference of Holocaust Child Survivors and Second Generation held in Denver, we honored Brig. Gen. Sparks.
On behalf of our group, I want to express gratitude to liberator Sparks and support his being honored with the Distinguished Service Cross.
My appreciation to the Rocky’s Jim Sheeler for writing an outstanding article.
Rosalyn Kirkel, Denver>
President, Colorado Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust

Global warming sure has been a hot topic lately, with some predicting catastrophe in the coming years while others brush it off as no big deal.
Global temperature increases and melting icecaps could be nothing more than a natural progression of the Earth. What I don’t understand is why we need to tie pollution to global warming in order to do something about it.
When Denver goes through an inversion, the pollution accumulated over a couple of days poisons the air. Eventually, the wind blows the pollution out of the valley and we start all over again.
That pollution has to go somewhere. And if cities all over the world are pumping out clouds of toxins day after day, year after year, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that it’s not good for the environment. Any measures we can apply to protect our air should be taken. I, for one, don’t like to see the air I breathe.
Vince Rozmiarek, Indian Hills

The mouse found in a bag of potato chips by a Lewis Palmer Middle School student in Monument (“Chewing seen as likely,” March 20), which a Frito-Lay spokeswoman said chewed its way into the bag after it was delivered, leaves an even more disturbing question. What, in the bag, killed the mouse?
Robert D. Finnell, Centennial

In response to the recent Speakout column by Bill Blomberg on the Electoral College and taxation (“Electoral balancing act, by the numbers”), it should be pointed out that there is, at best, a tenuous connection between the Electoral College and taxes.
If the president of the United States could levy taxes by decree, there might be some validity to Blomberg’s argument. However, tax legislation can be initiated only in the House of Representatives where California holds a 53-to-1 advantage over Wyoming.
The Electoral College was established to limit, to some degree, the tyranny of the majority in presidential elections — i.e., the more populated states vs. the less populated states. It would make as much sense to allow the popular vote in the 10 most populous (54 percent of the total population) to select the president. At least the candidates would only have to campaign in 10 states and thus make better use of their money.
Personally, I do not believe that the residents of the state of Wyoming want their state to become a colony of California.

John Ewing, Fort Lupton

Denver City Council has passed a measure for the May 1 ballot seeking voter approval to increase the term limit for the Denver district attorney from two terms to three. My sense is that a district attorney, in order to make the office nonpolitical, should have not have a limit on terms. Yet, I support this proposal in order to equalize it with the terms for other elected officials in Denver.
City Council members, the mayor and auditor can serve three terms of four years, but the district attorney serves only two terms.
As a member of the Denver Community Corrections Board, I see how complex the criminal justice system is and that experience is everything. By the time a district attorney has hit his stride, a two-term limit ends that public service. Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, an expert on solving crimes with DNA, has done a great job so far, and, if eligible under this proposed law, should be returned for two more terms.

Paul B. Rosenthal, Denver

In 2005, I spent a month in South Africa researching the so-called claim of elephant overpopulation (“Elephant woes,” Globe, March 1). The local conservationists I worked with had developed a successful contraception for the elephants on their reserve. When they offered it to the South African officials, they were asked “What’s in it for us?”
Many South Africans see elephants as economic commodities rather than the highly evolved sentient beings that they are. South Africa’s Environmental Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk represents South Africa’s desire to make money off of elephant ivory, skin and meat.
But Cynthia Moss, in Kenya, who has conducted the world’s longest ongoing observation of an elephant herd (over 35 years), told me: “Elephants will not eat themselves out of house and home.” Rather, they will pull back on their birth rate.
South Africa is on a propaganda campaign to get the world to support the slaughter of thousands of their Kruger Park elephants. Elephants are a rare treasure that belong to the world community. Unless we are content to accept a world for our grandchildren where the only elephant they will see is in a picture book, none of us should buy van Schalkwyk’s justifications.

Kristal Parks, Denver
Director, Pachyderm Power

DUI scofflaws — those who insist on driving after their license has been revoked — have been allowed to snub their noses too long. Why are we allowing them to drive to court the second time, and then drive away again? Let’s put some teeth into this safety issue — impound their vehicles on the second offense. And then, let’s take it one more step: If a friend or relative lends them a vehicle while their license is revoked, that friend or relative loses his or her license as well. Need to get to work? Use public transportation, walk, bike or hitch a ride with a friend or relative.
I’ll bet we will not be seeing them at the judge’s bench as often, and perhaps we will read less about killing or crippling innocent people. Lawmakers, citizens, neighbors — it is time to toughen up!

Wayne Peterson, Aurora

I just wanted to know why, if we can provide reparations to the American Indians in the form of all the freebies they get, we can’t do the same for descendants of slaves in this country? The slave labor used to build this country was invaluable as every businessperson would agree.
And if we can’t do that, why not do away with the special benefits the American Indian has, i.e., the massive reservations, special casino deals, mineral rights, even with a major part of that population lacking a pure bloodline, etc. After all, that was many years ago and we need to be one United States.
Let Congress give the American Indians their homes and businesses as a final thank you, then turn the rest of the land over to the Bureau of Land Management for all of us to enjoy equally.

Jason Miles, Denver

I’d like to thank Jefferson County Commissioners for saving metro Denver TV viewers millions of dollars. After six years of questionable debate, the Lookout Mountain HDTV tower providing “free” over-the-air HDTV is a reality (“Lukewarm approval for TV tower,” March 13). The commissioners' rezoning approval will save us all $70-plus a month (cable and satellite HDTV charges).
No doubt this six-year delay has caused a financial hardship for all metro Denver low- and middle-income citizens. The only lesson to be learned from this needless six-year delay is that, in the future, we need to consider the total impact on all parties involved and not just special-interest and factional government groups. This late decision affected the total metro Front Range but was totally driven by the Canyon Area Residents for the Environment and the city of Golden. Thanks again, commissioners.

Richard Schneider, Arvada

The piece from Slate about the proposed Iraq hydrocarbon law in the Rocky’s March 13 Editorial and Opinion section exhibits a stunning degree of naivete and shortsightedness (“Hurrah for new Iraqi oil policy”).
Who is Christopher Hitchens and why did he get so many column inches in the Rocky?
I’d suggest that the least the Rocky could do is make its readers aware of a very different viewpoint on the matter by Antonia Juhasz, “Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?” as published the same day in the New York Times (see nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13juhasz.html?r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin).

Amy Durfee, Denver

How hilarious is that? Rocky media critic Jason Salzman whines about all the bad stuff being reported about Boulder (“Coverage of Boulder woes is often condescending,” On the Media, March 17). Maybe it’s a quagmire? If you take his article and replace “Boulder” with “Iraq” and replace Salzman’s picture with Bill O’Reilly’s ... Think about it! Maybe we should withdraw — from Boulder.

Pete Abbott, Littleton

The West was settled by pioneering, self-reliant people who nevertheless knew how to look out for each other and when to speak up for their communities. It’s time to speak up for downtown Denver.
Most of us are mighty proud of our hometown, and with good reason. Denver is rising to new heights, with thoughtful planning, inviting attractions and stunning architecture that bring millions of tourism, convention and investment dollars to our economy.
That’s why it’s so disappointing to see the gateway to our community blotted with vacant buildings and dilapidated storefronts, raising concerns about public safety and our quality of life, not to mention the overall impact to downtown business.
Some of these buildings have been in disrepair for decades. Is it possible that these owners have not seen what their neighbors have been up to? How we’ve been improving, renovating and revitalizing this great city, block-by-block? I think they need to hear from each of us who deeply cares about Denver and its future.
As co-chairman of the Downtown Denver Partnership task force to revitalize the city’s core, I can assure you we are ready to work with anyone who shares our pride and our vision for a better community. We’re looking for those pioneers who are ready to step up and get it done — now.

Leo Kiely, Denver
CEO, Molson Coors Brewing Co.

Colorado politics is a violent thing. At least, according to the Rocky Mountain News, it is.
Like an enthusiastic fisherman who claims he once caught a fish this big, the Rocky might have slightly exaggerated its coverage of Colorado politics.
In its March 12 editions, the Rocky reports on “fierce battles yet to come at Capitol” and how — although “political veterans” are bored now — there are “ ... some of the fiercest battles ... yet to be fought.”
We are warned that “the biggest fight of all could happen Wednesday ... ” And, as if written by Homer himself, we are told of a defeated party that “has wrung its hands, lamenting the damage done by the other side of the aisle.”
We even learn of a legislative bill that, believe it or not, “blew up.”
Who needs C-SPAN with political reporting like that?

John Patrick Ritter, Highlands Ranch

Rocky media critic Dave Kopel correctly identifies Paul Campos and Ann Coulter as two of a kind (“Coulter and Campos: Two sides of the same coin,” On the Media, March 10), but Campos enjoys quite an advantage locally since the Rocky publishes his political baloney once a week, while it seldom — if ever — runs any Coulter commentary or anything similar.
With leftist liberals such as Campos and entertainer Garrison Keillor (whose snide political remarks hitting on conservatives are so unnecessary) taking over the Rocky opinion pages, any hope that the joint-operating agreement would result in preserving two politically independent major newspapers in the Denver market seems dim indeed.

Percy Conarroe, Longmont

Rocky reader Rusty Campos (“Drop ‘Prickly City,’” Talk Back to the Media, March 3) needs to step back and take another look at artist Scott Stantis’ Carmen and the Coyote. He has to keep in mind that Stantis is a conservative. This is a person who sees Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter as intellectuals, George Bush as a war hero, Condoleezza Rice as a diplomat and Dick Cheney as a senior statesman.
With this view of the world, and the performance of this crew, it’s a wonder he even cracks a smile at all, let alone tries to brighten someone else’s day.
Lighten up. If you really want to see a sorry sense of humor, go over to The Denver Post and take a look at Bruce Tinsley’s duck (Mallard Fillmore). Sometimes Stantis is even funny.

Sam Domenico, Golden

I am an avid reader of the Rocky Mountain News Spotlight comics section.
There are two strips I would like to see removed: Diesel Sweeties and Lio. I am a big fan of Mark Tatulli’s Heart of the City strip, but not Lio.

Tom Guidera, Littleton

In the interest of full disclosure, Rocky Mountain News editor and publisher John Temple should have revealed in his March 11 column, “View from Mile High not so down,” that Time magazine reporter Bob Diddlebock, whose reporting on Denver Temple criticizes, used to be a reporter for the Rocky.
In the interest of full disclosure, I know this because when Diddlebock worked there I, too, worked at the Rocky.

Brad Thompson, McMinnville, Ore.

I want to thank Rocky Mountain News writer Gary Massaro for his article highlighting the work of Excelsior Youth Center (“Teenage girl with troubled past cooks up new approach to life,” March 1).
I was especially touched by Javier Manzano’s picture of Kiki Lewis. That beautiful face made my day! I wish that young lady all the blessings and luck this world can offer her.
Thank you, Massaro, Manzano and the Rocky Mountain News, for showing us the good in this community.
And please, please be brave enough to continue with these types of features. There is more good out there than most papers and magazines care to acknowledge.

Ellen Busch, Parker

Several weeks ago, after the initial release in Denver, I saw The Departed. Several people of all age groups walked out before the end of the picture. I am guessing they wanted to escape the violence, the murders and, above all, the saturation of the F-word.
And yet, this film won (over better-acted films such as The Queen) the coveted Academy Award as Best Picture of 2006.
What message does this send to millions of moviegoers across the world? Is it that we, as a nation, are what we are.
Wrong award for the wrong film.

Art Knott, Denver

I was disappointed that the Rocky’s recent coverage of the Academy Awards made no mention of Sherry Lansing, the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. She is a great humanitarian and gave a very moving and gracious acceptance speech.
June Jones Paulding, Lakewood

In reference to “Lukewarm approval for TV tower,” the March 13 HDTV tower article in the Rocky — I believe that the Canyon Area Residents for the Environment would gain more support in their opposition to the HDTV tower being built if they would explain how it is more hazardous or dangerous to replace the existing four towers with one.
The article also mentions that the group is concerned about the future HDTV “structure’s potential collapse.” It would help CARE’s cause if we knew how likely this is, why this potential collapse might occur and how this danger is different from any other structure being considered?
Deb Carney, an attorney for CARE, stated “Lake Cedar won today. History will judge this very harshly.” It would be helpful if she could explain the basis for that statement, with undisputable facts, so that we might support their cause.

Tom Wycoff, Westminster

Our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to our democratic principles by signing the Declaration of Independence.
George Bush will have his “victory” in Iraq the day the Baathists, the Kurds, the Sunnis, the Shiites, et al., put aside their centuries of grudges and conflict, and make similar commitments to Bush’s vision for their country and oil. A few thousand more American troops ought to do the trick, you think? Perhaps before a president presumes to transform a country that doesn’t pose a threat, he should read a book about the people who live there. God save us from this madman.

Andrew R. Lewis, Englewood

Thanks to Mike Rosen for helping desanctify “Father Abraham” Lincoln (as some call him to this day). He was indeed one of our worst presidents for the reasons Rosen gives, and many more (“Let’s impeach ... Lincoln,” March 9). Unless ... As a “limited government” conservative, Rosen couldn’t actually approve of Lincoln’s despicable and unconstitutional actions (and the similar ones by George Bush), could he?

John Mosby, Limon

Dean Benjamin of Federal Heights writes:

Let me respond to Mr. Frederick’s letter of March 20 (Electoral college? Aye).
He mentions “. . . the possibility of populous states’ minorities overriding the majority votes of less populous states.” “(???)” He did not address the matter that, as I pointed out in my original letter, a candidate needs to carry only the 11 (eleven) most populous states (California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina) for a total of 271 Electoral votes - enough to get a candidate elected - no matter if he did not get the majority of popular votes in the other 39 states.
Therefore, the most populous states can, indeed, override the wishes of the majority of the voters.

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Charles Buchanan of Denver writes:

Thank you for printing the letter by D.W. Griffith of Denver (March 18th, 2007)in which he lectures us not to “get all weak kneed” over Iraq just because “several hundred brave Americans lost their lives". His thoughts are a great example of how classic warmongering works.
First, you undercount and minimize the dead -"several hundred” have died instead of several thousand- while reciting irrelevant factoids like “In 2006, almost 2,600 people were murdered in California,” as though murders in California somehow justify the carnage in Iraq.
Then you claim that Iraq is part of the “broader fight in the war on terror", conveniently forgetting that Al Qaeda wasn’t in Iraq before we invaded, and that they’re only responsible for a tiny fraction of the violence there now.
Finally, you end by saying that (opposing the Iraq war) “is the ultimate dishonor to our Americans in uniform who risk it all for the stupidity of others.” Equating dissent with treason and cheerleading for war with patriotism are among the favored rhetorical tricks of warmongers.
But the letter writer does get one thing right. The brave men and women fighting in Iraq are dying “for the stupidity of others". They’re dying for George W. Bush and his ignorance; dying for the rubber-stamp Congress that followed him off of a cliff; and dying for the likes of D.W. Griffith, whose callous letter provides a great example of how easily a warmonger can discount the sacrifice of others in order to take political potshots from the safety of his keyboard.

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James J. Tenant of Centennial writes:

My 3/17 MOAA newsletter (legislative update), stated the VA has 209 Veterans Service Centers up and running nationwide with various services, that aids our returning combat veterans in their transition back to civilian life. I was floored when I read the VA is giving these vets employment counseling, guidance, and referrals. This statement by the VA flies in the face of reality. Vets federal 5/10 point hiring preferences with all federal agencies, state and local government agencies, and their corrupt contractors, has been vaporized.
On more than one occasion I’ve been told by Denver VA rehabilitation and employment counselors, President Bush expressly prohibited them from aiding vets in getting federal government career civil service employment positions. I was also told by these employment counselors that the only employment assistance they could give to vets was resume writing preparations. Worse yet, despite federal law (CFR Part 211 and FPM chapter 211), all federal agencies in the Bush administration have thumbed their collective noses at employment preferences for disabled vets’ spouses and natural mothers.
Former Colorado Gov. Owens had even more stringent anti-vets employment rules in place. The State of Colorado Veterans & Military Affairs agency, was also expressly prohibited from aiding vets in getting federal funded ($14 billion) state jobs and contracts (CBMS, T-REX, Fas Tracks, and Stapleton/Fitzsimons redevelopment projects). Gov. Ritter has been in office for more than 60 days and those same federal wrongful appropriation rules are still in effect. He is also allowing the state personnel director to have multiple and differing hiring practices at all state agencies.
The traditional state agencies have their own process and state universities and water treatment facilities have system that is also mutual exclusive. These activities are trap-doors, IED’s, WMD, snipers, etc. for vets seeking jobs. 30 days ago, I discovered Metro State College had out-sourced its hiring function to a foreign Hindu-Indian owned executive search firm. I spoke face-to-face with this people concerning a Metro vice-president vacancy. Their employees could barely speak English and they were totally ignorant of federal hiring preferences, for disabled military vets. Gov. Ritter doesn’t understand, he can’t delegate his accountability, responsibility, and fiduciary duties, with regards to federal fraud, waste, and abuse of scarce taxpayer funds. Where are Speaker Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Reid when you need’em?

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Anthony Garcia of Castle Rock writes:

As a union member I personally feel that what Gov. Ritter did was the right thing to do. We should put more scrutiny on our unions and make them work to get us and work for us, and not be held captive to the notion that we are to all be unionized just because a group of lawmakers that the unions had in their pockets passed a law requiring the workers to pay dues even when they felt the unions were doing nothing for them. I personally would love to see Colorado become a right to work state as Wyoming and several other states are, when the workers have a choice to be a part of something it is always better for both the union and the workers because the members that belong actually want to contribute. I worked in Wyoming and was a member of the CWA and we had a stronger union local that only had 30 members in it than the local 7777 for CWA in Denver with 3000 members because when you strongly believe in what you are a part of, it is a passion that is relayed though your actions. Sadly our local under its current leadership is failing and it is shameful and disgusting, we have given back to the company on every contract for the last 20 yrs. So what is our union really doing for us? I still feel that a union is a viable part of corporate America and we need one, however several of my fellow brothers and sisters at the last meeting turned in papers to see if we could get a different union to represent us because it seems that our union has given up and is letting the company win.

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Ramsey A. Fahel of Arvada writes:

US Postal Service won’t let you refuse mail.
If the US Postal Service would abide by its own rule, each homeowner could easily stop junk mail from getting into their mailbox by putting a written notice on their mailbox expressing their preference.
The US Postal Services practices are supposed to be according to the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM). The DMM contains provision 508.1.1.2 that says, “Refusal at Delivery: The addressee may refuse to accept a mailpiece when it is offered for delivery.” I interpret this rule to mean that if a homeowner wants to refuse an unwanted mailpiece (i.e. junk mail), the homeowner can do so when the mailpiece is offered for delivery. More to the point – refuse it before it is put into the mailbox!
In practical application, since the postal carrier comes to homes at different times each day, the homeowner cannot be waiting at the mailbox to dialogue with the mail carrier about each mailpiece. The only realistic way to interpret 508.1.1.2 therefore is that the homeowner should post a notice on the mailbox telling the postal carrier about the homeowner’s preference. The notice to the postal service must be specific and unambiguous. For instance, a homeowner should certainly be able to write, “No mail that is not addressed to the Jones” because that does not require the postal carrier to make a subjective judgment. On the other hand, it would not be acceptable to write “no junk mail” because the definition of “junk mail” is subjective and the mail carrier cannot decide.
Unfortunately, the US Postal Service has written to me that they will NOT honor a notice refusing mail, not matter how specifically it is worded, because the postal carrier does not have time to sort through the mail at my mailbox to pick out the pieces that are not addressed to me. Therefore, the US Postal Service is passing their sorting and disposing task onto me by putting all the mail they want into my mailbox, even though this seemingly violates 508.1.1.2.
Since the U.S. Postal Service will not abide by 508.1.1.2, homeowners need to stop unwanted mail at the source (i.e. by blocking the sender from sending it). We need a nationwide “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes.

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David Cook of Loveland writes:

In this time of Democrat war protesters getting massive press for being against the war in Iraq, one wonders why we should believe Democrats want peace. For almost 100 years it is they, not the Republicans who have been the real war mongers.
Wilson, a Democrat, got us into WW I. Roosevelt, a Democrat, got us into WW II, Truman, a Democrat, got us into Korea. Kennedy, a Democrat, got us into Viet Nam, Johnson, a Democrat, escalated it. Nixon, a Republican, got us out of Viet Nam. If you call the spat in Grenada a war, we Republicans take responsibility with Regan. Buish 1, a Republican, in and out of Kiwait and Iraq. Clinton, a Democrat, got us into the Balkans. Clinton also got us into the lead up this war in Iraq. It was he and the present Democrat leadership that called for this war and said they would fight it, not Bush. Bush is just finishing it, like Nixon did for Kennedy. In addition, many of the Democrats above were elected on a no war platform. In essence, they lied about their intentions, just like they are doing now!
You are concerned about 3500 casualties. So much so that it is on the news and in the mouths of protestors every day.
Wilson’s war killed 180,000 Americans. Roosevelt - 480,000, Truman - 53,000, Kennedy - 58,000, Regan - 5 or 6, Bush 1 - 10 or 20, Clinton, counting the attacks he would not respond to and the WTC which came from it, and this war as the result? Well, you figure it out.
Now, if this makes you mad because I am telling truth about Democrats, then you and I both know you do not care a wit about ending wars or the deaths, this is all politics against Bush and Republicans. You are just using the war. If this opens your eyes to the reality of Democrat bloodlust and their lies about it (and the press not telling you about this truth) then welcome to the peaceful, truthful, low war death, Republican Party.

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Dave Bufalo of Denver writes:

RE: FasTracks Budget Deficit
For background information, I have had a forty year career involved in various phases of the design and construction of buildings and public works projects as a professional engineer. I have directly managed large projects as well as supervised a staff of mult-disciplined professionals for multiple projects totaling over a billion dollars. I have also managed the final construction and operational readiness program, except for the baggage handling system, to open Denver International Airport in February 1995. While working in Alaska, I had a peripheral association with the construction of the Alaska pipeline.
Now, given the magnitude of the budget deficit for the proposed FasTracks project, there are only two solutions: Either get more money or drastically reduce the scope of the project - period.
Design - build - operate - maintain contracts will do nothing to make up the deficit. It only means that costs will be spread out over the contract life which will include the cost of the budget shortfall AND the cost of financing the debt as well as associated management fees. RTD ridership and the taxpayers will still be paying for the budget shortfall.
Private sector contractors will not take on risk without some type of compensation for assuming that risk. Yes, on a design- build contracts the design build - contractor has more control, but within the contract, the contractor will have a contingency amount to cover risk and other unknowns, which may or not be made evident to the owner.
Further, I do not see leasing existing facilities as a vehicle to create new money. It is not much different than getting a second mortage on your house. You still have to pay it off and you still have to pay the interest on the loan. Here again, the ridership and the taxpayers wiil be footing the bill.
There is no easy solution for this dilemma and there is no magic cure for a project that starts out underfunded. Any proposed solution should be approved by a vote of the taxpayers. The budget deficit and the potential scope reductions are just too large to do otherwise.

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Stephanie Boddiger (no hometown provided) writes:

This year the St. Vrain Valley School District decided to have a late start day every month. These days were designed as teacher work days. As a student at Skyline High School I think these days are pointless and a waste of time. The class periods are shortened from 50 minutes to 30 minutes. With the class periods being shorter there is not enough time to accomplish important class work. When the bell rings and the teacher finally starts class they basically take attendance and have a small lecture. There really is not enough time to get involved in that particular days assignment. I feel as a student that my time is not being used appropriately. I don’t really accomplish anything during these late start days. Is there really a point in going? NO! Another reason that late start days are pointless is students don’t always show up to class. Students know that there classes are shortened and know that these days are essentially free days for them. Why would they bother going to class? I know that more students stay up later because they know that they can sleep in longer. I know this because I am one of those students. When there is a late start day I will stay up late the night before because I know that there will not be a whole lot going on during class. I don’t have to be 100 percent.
The teachers only have a short amount of time to get things done during the late start days. So, why not give the students the entire day off? This would give the teachers plenty of time to accomplish what they need to get done. Maybe by having the whole day there would not be a need to have a late start day once a month.

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Laurie Bell of Denver writes:

Once again, here’s Mike Rosen providing us with the insight that can only come from someone who has not set foot inside a classroom in decades (“Public School Bondage”). Yes, the Utah teachers’ union is going to fight this. Since teachers ARE in the classrooms of our public schools every day, they have the means of understanding the problems with school vouchers. Here’s the thing: you can’t compare schools to businesses and think that if you wave the almighty dollar in front of their noses they are magically going to “compete” for it by turning out nothing but top-of-the-line “products.” Our educational system is different from that of other countries because our philosophy is to attempt to educate every student to the best of our abilities. Private schools are able to look superior because of their advantages: specially selected students with interested, involved parents, lower class sizes, enough money not just for extras like technology but for paper to make copies, and a complete lack of people like Rosen constantly picking them apart and holding them responsible for the world’s ills.
It’s not competition between schools that will make them better—many of our teachers are already working harder than Rosen could possibly imagine against incredible odds with students who come to them woefully behind in their education. What makes the difference is competition inside a school’s walls and the possibility for lower-achieving students to learn alongside students who have higher goals and for whom learning is a priority. If school vouchers become a reality, that type of competition will disappear and we will further widen the great divide between the “haves” and the “have nots.”

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It’s four years now since the Iraq war began. We’ve seen nearly 3,200 troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. According to a recent Washington Post poll, two-thirds of Americans disapprove of President Bush’s handling of the war and 56 percent want the troops out, even if civil order is not restored there.
So what is our Congress, including the Democrats, doing to represent our views? Mostly it is going along with the administration’s war. Although they sometimes mouth mild disagreements with tactics or talk about withdrawal well in the future, they appear ready to vote for another $93 billion in war funding. Continued funding will only prolong the war. It will make our country and our troops less — not more — safe, worsen conditions in Iraq and cost us a small fortune we don’t have. Meanwhile more troops are dying every day and those returning are receiving substandard medical care.
The power to declare war falls on Congress, not the president. Yet Bush is now poised to attack Iran and Congress is again doing nothing about it.
A Congress that continues funding the Iraq war, does not stop a war on Iran, and does nothing to impeach a war criminal president is complicit in what’s happening. They will earn titles for themselves as war criminals and lose our votes next election.

Nancy Sullo, Boulder

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s deadline for the withdrawal of American soldiers has the potential to suck the lifeblood of morale out of American soldiers fighting for freedom in Iraq. Someone needs to drive a stake in the heart of this scary idea that gives our enemies another weapon to demoralize our cause in the war against terrorism.
America will not be protected from terrorism by a retreat from Iraq. The war against terrorism erupted on 9/11 when America was attacked within its borders. One of the rallying cries after 9/11 was “Different Century, Different Enemy, Same American Resolve.” Pelosi’s proposal makes this statement ring hollow. Like the Romans of old, Americans have lost their will to fight for their freedom. Pelosi’s demand only confirms Saddam’s earlier statement that America was a paper tiger.
There are ignorant critics who liken the war in Iraq to another Vietnam. One lesson Americans should have learned from the Vietnam War is the utter stupidity of sending troops in harm’s way while revealing contradictory public strategies that undermine the success of our armed forces by undermining their morale.
We need to prove both Pelosi and Saddam wrong by being steadfast in our cause and so that those who already paid the ultimate price for freedom did not do so in vain.

Michael C. Coon, Lakewood

In response to Gen. Peter Pace’s statement on Tuesday that homosexuality is immoral, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “We don’t need moral judgment from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.”
Since when do we not need moral judgment from our leaders? Where would we be without the courageous moral leadership of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and others to overturn slavery and fight for civil rights for blacks in the United States?
In his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” the Rev. King wrote, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”
Pace is drawing the same kind of moral conclusion as King when, it appears, he looks to God’s moral law for guidance. We need this kind of leadership in a society where it is becoming far more common to follow our passions, rather than an established moral anchor.
I am thankful for leaders like Pace. If we succumb to Pelosi’s call to abandon moral judgment, we will only drift steadily toward the tyranny of what feels good at the moment — in other words, anarchy.

John Hannah, Centennial

Survival of the fittest — it’s been part of evolution from the beginning.
Should this credo apply to the marketplace of health care? When factoring in all modest expenses and medical insurance, and then adding the prescription my doctor says gives me the best chance of continued survival in the long run, I would be operating at a deficit each month of about $800: one prescription, with insurance, $520.
Of course, the point of the Bush manner of dealing with health care is “personal responsibility” and don’t get sick; why should other people pay for another’s mistakes or unhealthy living? I acquired a disease before anyone really knew what it was, much less how to prevent it. I am tired of not being able to afford to pay for my own health care, and even if I could, I would be turned down for pre-existing conditions. My employer is wonderful, but it is a small company and it cannot afford to provide health care. I have pared to the bone my expenses and can no longer afford to live. This is America?
Should it instead be “survival of the richest”?

Brett Rosenberg, Aurora

Once again, Vincent Carroll misses the point. Whether or not introducing the profit motive into the incarceration of human beings is “immoral” (as the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition claims), there is no doubt that doing so is bad public policy (“The oversight gap,” On Point, March 8).
The profit motive gives the private prison industry a huge incentive to “keep its beds filled” (thus it lobbies aggressively for tough sentencing laws like the “three-strike rule”) and very little incentive to provide rehabilitation services (such as education, job training and drug/alcohol treatment). Is it any surprise that, with a profit-driven penal system, the U.S. now has more people behind bars (2 million) than any other nation on Earth?
Carroll may be loath to admit it, but there are some aspects of government that are just too important to be turned over to the private sector. The prison system is one of them.

Steve Justino, Centennial

For those who would like to understand what’s behind global warrming — science and politics — Google Video has the recent British Channel 4 broadcast, The Global Warming Swindle at video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831
&q=global+warming+swindle.
It’s about an hour and a quarter long, with no commercials. Catch it before some politically correct bureaucrat suppresses it.

Richard Savage, Franktown

I overheard a group of Middle Schoolers refering to World War II as “that short war.” Kind of sad isn’t it, but interesting how historical perspectives change for different generations.

David Ferlic, Wheat Ridge

Steve Thrapp of Fort Collins writes:

In likening George W. Bush to Abraham Lincoln, and the debacle in Iraq to the American Civil War (“Let’s impeach ... Lincoln,” March 9), Rocky columnist Mike Rosen has revealed himself to be not only a “right-wing nutjob,” but one that has finally flown off the bolt.

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Dale Thorup of Cañon City writes:

The Colorado Supreme Court Attorney Regulation Counsel and Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline do not serve to protect the public from corrupt attorneys, magistrates, and judges. Instead they serve to screen those individuals from the complaints of an otherwise defenseless public.
Obviously they seek to hold those corrupt individuals to a lower standard than that prescribed by law and to which they would hold the citizenry, they purport to serve, accountable.

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Gil Martinez of Brighton writes:

Mike you forgot to include me in the IMPEACH Bush and Cheney project. I am 72 years old and honorably discharged from my time in the service, which is more than these two guys can say. These two are an embarrassment to this country, around the world. President Bush isn’t smart enough to know that VP Cheney is using him. Look how many of our young people have lost their lives and are maimed for life from the lies these two promoted. This dosen’t even come close to the Iraqi civilians who have died or are maimed. I remember the saying “I did it for Daddy” do you? How many have to die for Daddy?
Also no pardon for Libby, since this President won’t even pardon the two Border Agents who were protecting our country from a drug carring Mexican. They did more for this country that Scooter Libby has ever done.

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Jay Lea of Denver writes:

Todays story about the FEDS trying to cut aid to Cold War Veterans who were suffering the effects of radioactive contamination should be a wake-up call to anyone who believes the Federal government has the best interest of American citizens in mind when it comes to fulfilling their obligations. Absolute control of money is the only thing that seems to matter to those in the Federal goverenment. They take money away from Veterans hospitals to spend on other less pressing issues .
They do their best, secretly, to deny promised benefits to Veterans and others who served their country and ended up sick and dying because of it. We all should realize that Federal promises mean nothing anymore. If they go as far as the documents show they did in this endeavor to deny deserving people their benefits, how many other things have the Feds blatantly lied to the American public about? If an investigation is warranted in this matter, what about the Oklahoma City bombing? What about TWA800? What about 9/11? What about the proposed North American Union that the mainstream media refuses to expose? How much longer will the States allow the Federal government to run roughshod over citizens rights? Please citizens, wake up and get involved with what is happening in the USA, before it won’t matter anymore.

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Lawrence Jones of Conifer writes:

In his March 9th opinion column (On Point: A common-sense bill) Vincent Carroll bemoans the cost to tax payers of government subsidies for ethanol.
But what is the cost to taxpayers in dollars and lives to fight wars in the Middle East to protect the flow of oil? We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the Iraq War, sacrificed the lives of over 3,000 American troops, and seen tens of thousands more wounded. And that’s without even mentioning the human costs on the Iraqi side which one report in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated at well over 600,000. Is our precious oil really worth such costs?

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Thor Johnson of Arvada writes:

I agree with Dieter Zerressen, we Christians should not be threatened by a TV special called “The Tomb of Jesus.” To begin with, true believers know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus couldn’t be in a tomb. Mark 16:6 tells us “He has risen; He is not here.” This is a statement of faith that all believers hold dear. But, since scriptural proof will not convince the unbeliever, let’s look at rational proof. The TV special claimed that the bones of Jesus family was also found in the tomb. Since Jesus family lived in Galilee, in a town called Nazareth, in Northern Israel, why would their bones be found in a tomb in Jerusalem? If archaeologists want to find the bones of Jesus family, I suggest they look around Nazareth. If anyone wants to find out what really happened to Jesus body, I suggest they read the biblical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

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Meghan Horrell of Wheat Ridge writes:

I am sending you an e-mail with regard to my opposition to HB 07-1330. As a Catholic, I am in agreement with the Colorado Catholic Conference on this issue. The statement that follows is from the Conference’s website: http://www.cocatholicconference.org/content/view/81/1/ Public policy in Colorado regarding adoption must be crafted within the framework of marriage and the traditional family structure. The Colorado Catholic Conference believes the presence of a married mother and father is the optimal setting for the education and growth of a child. We believe the primary role of the Government is to promote the common good which includes the promotion of legislation and policy that is in the best interest of the child. House Bill 1330 does not meet this criterion and for the reasons stated above the Conference does not support this legislation.

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Fran Cassidy of Tabernash writes:

Global warming is real and has tradgic consequences. I am a witness. I have stood on what was once the sandy shore of Saint Augustine Lake in central New Mexico and I could only try to visualize the natural beauty that must have existed. I walked down into what was the lake bottom where only a few pitiful springs remain and now home to numerous rattlesnakes. A rock shelter called Bat Cave has protected the shore line sands which prove the lake was over 165 feet deep and many miles lonog.
What a pity it was destroyed by global warmiing—eight to ten thousand years ago! Duh!! (Sources: American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 3, Jan. 1949, and my participation in the Harvard/ U of New Mexico archaeological excavatioon of Bat Cave, 1948).

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Terrie Barrie (no hometown provided) writes:

Once again, please accept our deepest appreciation for publishing the latest article on the fiasco of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. Ann Imse and Laura Frank did an excellent job reviewing the 800 plus emails posted on the House Judiciary website and capturing the level of “backroom negotiations” that place the cost of the program over science and the law.
I had sent this article to quite a few Congressional staffers and they were appalled. This article might just be what the sick workers needed to energize Congress to reform this program.

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History shows that the United States has an unequalled record in freeing nations and people who have been brutalized by invaders or powerful dictators.
We have twice freed the Philippines. We were among the leaders of the Allies in two world wars where France and many nations in Europe were occupied or invaded. Now they are free and self-governed. A dozen or so countries. Twice. Many nations in Asia were freed and helped.
During World War II, when the Army landed my outfit in France, I was happy to say to displaced persons from several countries, “Lafayette, we are here.” We Allies picked them up, put them on their feet and helped them to be free people again. Our heart is in the right place.
The world is not perfect, but we have a track record on freedom and help that no nation has approached. Let’s quit being sorry for not being perfect and get back to the important work of doing the right thing as best we can.
“Lafayette, nous sommes ici.” “World, we are here.” With heart.

Nate Bushnell, Centennial

It was bad enough that Halliburton allegedly ripped off U.S. taxpayers for $2.7 billion for waste and overcharges in Iraq. Now they are moving their corporate offices to the tax haven of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It’s a cheap shot at taxpayers in the U.S. We will have to make up the taxes Halliburton will not pay on its $13 billion in Mideast oil revenues and pay for their Iraq mistakes.
And Vice President Cheney thinks Democrats are unpatriotic.

Jerry Michals, Aurora

It just amazes me that so many people think global warming is a fallacy. As a resident of Colorado for 48 years, I have witnessed the change in the weather. I remember when I was a child, summer days would include a short rain shower in the late afternoons, winters were so cold that snow stayed on the roads for months, and the higher-elevation mountains had snow on them all year long.
In 1993, my brother and I were hiking on the Continental Divide near Berthoud Pass when he explained to me what watershed meant. Then he sadly told me the snowfields — where rivers receive their source of water — were melting.
The Colorado we loved so dearly was changing for the worse.
Whether people believe in global warming or not, please conserve water for future generations. It is a precious resource that doesn’t begin at your water faucet.

Cindy Allen, Aurora

The Rocky article of March 9, “Coalition calls for boycott,” states that a coalition of groups dedicated to defending the rights of illegal immigrants is calling for a boycott of Colorado businesses, presumably by illegals and their supporters.
Perhaps the groups calling for this boycott could suggest the illegals also boycott the emergency rooms, schools and so forth that provide many of the services that are intended for legal residents and citizens.
While they are at it, they should also boycott those who supply the phony documents that are used to gain employment and contribute to the problems of identity theft and the depression of the wages paid to Americans.

Thomas Johnson, Aurora

Our state senators and representatives took an oath to uphold the Colorado Constitution. So why are they bad-mouthing and tinkering with Amendment 41?

Robert R. Tiernan, Denver

Robert D. Tonsing of Morrison writes:

I just read an article in the Rocky about another skier dying on the slopes. As with every other skier death I have read about, this skier died on an intermediate trail, which is typically groomed. Some fault for these deaths should be put on the ski areas, which seem to take pride in creating artificially smooth, carpet-like ski surfaces, which encourages skiers and boarders to go faster than their ability level should allow.
If skiers had to learn to ski on natural powder, chopped up and chunky snow, moguls and uneven conditions, they would ski slower, and with more skill, and wouldn’t crash every time they encounter something different on the snow. Ski areas should stop enabling people who are not skiing in control, by creating artificial snow conditions.

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Brian Stuckey of Denver writes:

Over six months have passed since the unprovoked abduction of the three Israeli soldiers. Yet, their families have heard nothing from them. Why do we not hear any demands for their release? We hope the White House and the Congress will act promptly to hold their captors accountable for this flagrant violation of human rights.

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Brian Stuckey of Denver writes:

The Iraq debate at the State Capitol is nothing more than a call for defeat. It would seem that a resolution for winning would be more appropriate. If the liberal Democrats were truly desirous of ending the war, they would be supporting the troops instead of undermining their mission. Yet, it would appear that the resolution is merely a slapdash attempt to castigate the Bush administration, and nothing more. Rep. Mike May’s refusal to participate in this defeatist scheme is not a “childish game,” as Sen. Ken Gordon would have it. We hope that other conservatives will show their heartfelt support for our valiant troops. They deserve better.

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Scott Snyder of Denver writes:

I hear desperate faux conservatives saying that Mrs. Wilson was not covert. The CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate who had leaked her identity. THEY are the ones who classify and know who their classified agents are. No one else. If the CIA says she was a covert agent, and ask for an investigation into who blew her cover, that is the end of it; Only the CIA knows who their secret agents are. If they say that information was classified, it was classified. They are the deciders.
Also, regarding the same action that exposed Valerie Plame also exposed the cover agency of Brewster Jennings, an international company who was ostensibly an environmental studies company, but was in reality a cover company enabling our country to develop contacts, spies all over the world, in places like Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Syria and other countries that we have legitimate concerns and justification to spy on. Brewster Jennings was actually spying on nuclear proliferation. And every one of our contacts, spys that Valerie Wilson developed, has now been placed under exposure and possible death. And now, we do not fully know the nuclear capabilities of these dangerous countries. A nuclear bomb could possibly detonate in a major American city because of Valerie Wilsons exposure.
Serious.
Threatening.
Treasonous.
Robert Novak should be in a cage in Guantanamo.
And all to hide the fact that our president used misleading statements to terrorize our fellow Americans to justify a war on Iraq, using documents that our CIA had already determined to be clumsy forgeries. Comprising our safety to hide immoral and lying motives. It’s a huge trangression, much bigger than critics have been saying. They hide the truth and compromise our safety for political power. Valerie Plame was to remain undercover for the rest of her life, to guarantee the safety of the contacts she had established. And now the “hate America,and cover up for their party” sleazy critics are free to spue their insane justifications for a pardon for Libby. And the CIA, because of the extreme sensitivity of the truth, cannot refute officially the lies and distortions. They cannot officially SAY what Valerie Plame Wilson did. It’s too sensitive.
What a setup for immoral partisans! A freebie!
No chance of having their vile propaganda disputed!
How sick and irresponsible have some of us become! How truly unpatriotic! What immoral fakes and phonies! What whores for political power. Shame.

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Patricia Smith of Thornton writes:

Tina Griego fails to address how overcrowed our schools are and how they are affected by the influx of illegal immigrants.Maybe if the illegals realized there was no hope of citizenship even after schooling they wouldn’t subject their children to the trials of border crossing.Educating the children [GRADES1-12]is fine but without legal papers it is a dead end for their future. The parents need to take responsibilty and realize illegal =unlawful.Strive to make Mexico a better place with your skills and the free education we give you.

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K.A. Skala of Denver writes:

Your caption translates “ninGun Ser Humano es ILEGAL” in the picture of a kid protesting our laws (3/9/07, pg.8 of NEWS) as “No human being is illegal".
Close, but it does not say that. It says “Being human is no way illegal” (by the way, it should be “ningún"). That is not the issue. They should not teach the kid demagogy. What IS the issue: it is crashing the border that is illegal. Tell the kid: Ningún ser humano es ilegal. Es verdad. Pero invadir sin papeles un país ajeno es.

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Laurie Sirotkin of Longmont writes:

As a participant in Project Occupation, a nationwide effort by average citizens to ensure elected representatives listen to constituents and end the war in Iraq, I must comment on remarks cited in the March 9th article “Anti-War Push.”
I have been present twice in Representative Udall’s and Senator Salazar’s offices, both alone and with others committed to bringing our troops safely home. Those affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center went through nonviolent training in preparation for this effort. The ethic of the Center and participants is nonviolent action, including our language.
U.S. citizens may not realize that they have the constitutional right to make known their disagreement with votes cast by their elected officials.
They have the right to do this in person, by telephone, letter or e-mail.
This is what democracy is about, the same democracy we espouse to create elsewhere. With billions spent on a war based on the false premise of WMD, instead of here, elected officials should hardly be surprised that constituents are unhappy and convey this unhappiness.
In Representative Udall’s office, protestors did not insult the staff. We were as friendly as possible, and with the exception of those who chose to remain in quiet acts of civil disobedience, we left when asked to leave.
More than 3,100 American soldiers have died, with many more Iraqi civilian deaths, and Iraq is less stable now than a year ago. Mr. Pacheco is naïve if he underestimates public sentiment against the war, and he is in error if he equates the proper expression of those feelings with personal insults.

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J.M. Schell of Arvada writes:

Not so fast, Dave (Dave Chandler, Letters, 3/12/07). Yes, for the public schools, CSAP testing is all about the money. But know all the facts before holding your kids out of CSAP.
This is our 9th grade daughter’s first year in a public school. We knew from the first week that she was at least a year ahead of her classmates in math and science, and 2-3 years ahead of them in English and history. At second semester we tried to have her moved to Honors classes. Care to guess what scores from what series of tests in the 8th grade, a public high school demands you have in order to qualify for Honors and Advanced Placement classes, and probably for International Baccalaureate studies? And you’ll need them from 5th grade for middle school Honors classes, too.
Remember being told that these tests would never be used this way? Remember being told about a jolly fat man who brings children presents on December 24th? True, they can’t force your kids to take the tests. But before opting out, remember what they say about paybacks, and remember that since the schools can’t do anything to you for costing them these thousands, they are very happy to take their pound of flesh from your children. And that pound of flesh will very likely negatively impact their college chances and choices and very probably the rest of their lives.

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John Ruckman of Lakewood writes:

Dick Cheney came out of his high security den again this week and made one of his now patented statements to a conservative group, telling them that Democrats are harming our troops when they don’t totally back the administration’s policies. Does this man ever think of anything other than, nasty hate filled remarks against the opposition party? Does he have any thoughts at all that deal with human beings rather than right wing policy? What is his motive in his constant harangues against the Democrats—and all others who don’t agree with him and his neocons? I am beginning to agree with those who have been publicly saying that Cheney may have a mental problem. He certainly acts like it, and that is far more dangerous for our country than opposition pols questioning policy moves that may not be in the best interest of our country and our troops.

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John Ruckman of Lakewood writes:

So Newt Gingrich has become a “born again Christian"? He seemsto be just one of a long line of pols who somehow “find Jesus” at the most appropriate moments. People don’t just find Jesus, this is a lifetime thing, not onewhere you wake up one morning and are totallytransformed into a wonderful person. Gingrich has been one of the most underhanded and whoremongering pols in Washington for many years. To say that he is now a new, and lovingperson is to stretch credibility farther than it can sensibly be expected to go, and for the TV “christian leaders” like Dobson and Fallwell to immediately take him under their wing is even worse.

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Franki Rader of Thornton writes:

Bush has decided to cut Medicare and Medicaid to help pay for his war. Seniors have paid into this all their working lives. After they retire, they have to take Medicare as their Primary Insurance, their Company Insurance is Secondary.
Medicare cuts the bill down then pays 80%; the Company Insurance pays 80% of the 20% . After you are drawing Social Security, they deduct payments for Medicare part B.
There are a lot of things Medicare won’t approve. If Medicare won’;t approve then your Secondary won’t pay anything.
Your Social Security is taxed as earned income. It should be free of taxes and treated as Insurance.
The Feds are taking money out of Social Security and Fica for their pet projects.
Seniors paid into it with the idea that it was Insurance. Some say S.S. is going broke because more people are retiring than are paying into it.
Some refer to it as Welfare, some as the Government giving it to you...Neither is true, we are entitled to it.
Bush is bankrupting the Government with his war. I guess, so that “They” can install the New World Order or One World Government that Bush Senior talked about when he was Pres.
Young working people should wake up and make their voices heard., otherwise they will be paying into it for nothing.

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Fred Pulver of Carbondale writes:

As Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” points out, as the Earth’s ice caps melt due to global warming, more of the sun’s energy is absorbed by the ocean and less is reflected back into space. Polar melting then accelerates due to the increased area of water that can then absorb the sun’s energy.
The rest of the Earth then experiences increasing temperatures, more water evaporating and rising into the atmosphere, and accelerated desertification of areas where vegetation has been reduced by grazing and farming practices that leave the earth exposed to the sun’s direct rays.
Greater amounts of water condensing in the upper atmosphere then increase the destructiveness of deluges such as experienced during Hurricane Katrina.
To stop this one-way trip to global catastrophe, we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically. As “Inconvenient Truth” truth points out, the reductions required can be accomplished simply by enlisting everyone’s help by burning cleaner fuels, car-pooling, turning down thermostats, sealing homes from heat loss during winter, installing thermo-pane windows, using lower-wattage, energy-saving light bulbs, turning off lights when we leave the room, etc. We must tighten governmental restrictions on industrial pollution, but we must all do our part too.
As Bill Becker pointed out in his article “Going Nuclear on Warming” in Sunday’s Rocky Mountain News, we have around 10 years to save the Earth from the worst environmental disaster in recorded history. Like the movie “The Perfect Storm", we could otherwise face the intersection of several trends that could make life impossible for most of the Earth’s inhabitants.
The little things we do or don’t do could make all the difference in the world. We will either hang together or survive together.

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Michael Pravica, assistant professor of physics at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, writes:

As a participant in the American Physical Society’s March Meeting in Denver this past week, I would like to thank the residents of Denver for their hospitality and for your newspaper’s positive coverage of the meeting ("Love your groovy gizmos? You can thank a physicist,” Wed. March 7, News page 6).
Physics is the most fundamental and most difficult field of human endeavor because it deals with the root mechanisms that put our Universe together (energy and matter). Beyond simple electronic gizmos, physicists such as Nikola Tesla gave us the 21st Century, electrifying our world and enabling humans to tap into and generate enormous sources of energy such as hydroelectric power, and transmit that energy via alternating current and wirelessly. We all benefit from the hardwork and brilliance of physicists. In today’s energy-starved and warming world, we will need yet again to turn to them to solve our impending problems.
We as a society should celebrate their priceless achievements and support their efforts.

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David O’Shea-Dawkins of Denver writes:

Irish-American Heritage Month is here. In just two months we will celebrate Cinco de Mayo, although I never understood how Cinco de Mayo replaced Mexican Independence Day, Diez y Seis de Septiembre, as Denver’s primary Mexican-American cultural celebration.
I was thinking that, except for geography, the Irish-American and Mexican-American cultures have a lot in common. Predominately, we are Catholic and live in countries that have been fought over and occupied by foreign countries. All of our songs are about loves sought and lost, or battles we have fought and won, but ultimately lost the “war” (Vinegar Hill and Cinco de Mayo come to mind). Irish poteen is much like Mexico’s tequila, and our pubs and cantinas keep the confessionals busy on Saturdays.
The literary world is blessed with great authors from both countries, and so often their written words flow so quietly that sleep is the only reason we stop reading. A more contemporary literary comparison of the two cultures similarities can be read in Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes,” and Victor Villasenor’s, “Rain of Gold.”
Now, I must admit, there is that part of our cultures that is not equal. There are no corn beef and cabbage burritos. There should never be corn beef and cabbage burritos. I can survive without colcannon, but not without a red tamal from La Casita.
Mexican cuisine is far better than Irish cuisine. In fact, in many parts of Ireland the words food and cuisine do not appear together.
Therefore, as we celebrate our cultures heritage I will raise a pint of Guinness to your bottle of Negra Modelo with a celebratory cry of Salinte and Salud, to your health. to our Days of Celebration.

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Leroy M. Martinez of Denver writes:

After reading in the RMN about the US Government secretly schemed to limit payouts for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers, including thousands from Rocky Flats. I am not surprised by this info. This is our government at it best. Always throwing a wrench into the works.

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Leroy M. Martinez of Denver writes:

So now a laptop containing the SS#, birthdays and home addresses of the National Guard troops deployed to the US-Mexico border has come up missing. This is not the first time I have read in the paper or TV. Why do companies and government continue to have sensitive info on portable laptops. Social Services, Banks, Government offices, ect. I tired of getting letters in the mail stating that my info has been compromised. Keep this info only on large computers and not protable ones.

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Tina Martin of Denver writes:

I am a single mother of two children. My son has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). He is speech delayed and he has a slight learning delay. I have chosen to send him to parochial school here in Denver. At the beginning of the school year, I was told that they were unable to provide any services beyond Title I, which helps with basic skills (letter name and identification, writing skills, etc...) because Denver Public Schools did not have the resources to help. Fortunately, I was able to get him some speech therapy through Denver Health, however, his teacher feels that he would benefit from in-school speech therapy on top to give him more of the help that he needs.
In January, my school principal invited me to an open meeting with DPS Special Education Department. At that meeting, they pretty much advised us that this school year was a lost cause. Apparently, there are no certified people to work with our children. We were told that the money is there, there is just no one to do the job.
I want to let the parents of children in private and parochial schools in Denver know that their voices are needed to get the attention of DPS to provide special needs services to our children. We need to find some way to unite to make our concerns known. If DPS refuses to listen to the concerns of the many principals and staff from our schools, maybe they will be forced to listen to parents and community.

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Rex Loesby of the Sierra Minerals Corp. writes:

Governor Ritter:
Early this decade, Governor Bill Owens put together a task force to work with our universities to establish Colorado as a high-tech center that would attract new business. Owens wanted to establish a new university focussed on computer technology. It was an ambitious plan that would have required substantial private sector funding. It foundered when the dot-com crash hit in 2001.
It seems to me that the initiative, while well intentioned, missed the mark.
Owens wanted to duplicate the high-tech success stories centered in San Jose, Austin, and Boston. And while Colorado is a second tier technology center, a better approach would be an effort that takes advantage of Colorado’s strengths and focusses on the critical issues facing our planet.
The Colorado School of Mines is one of the best earth sciences universities in the world. It could serve as the focus of a program that brings in the atmospheric expertise at NOAA and CU, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, and the agricultural programs at Colorado State. Colorado could become the world center for advanced research in energy production and environmental studies.
I work in the private sector as a mining engineer, so I am no expert in how to accomplish this. But it seems to me that just announcing that Colorado intends to go in this direction might get the ball rolling. Minor additional or refocused funding for the schools involved would help.
This kind of initiative could make your tenure as governor one of the most productive and beneficial Colorado has ever seen.

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D.J. Damien La Goy of Denver writes:

Having been a victim of a predator when I was young, I can assure you that what ever your thoughts on creating a special license plate to identify them, pro or con, it is all moot.
A predator is a very driven. I truthfully think it will make no difference if they get the urge to fulfill their (albeit, sick) desires. With this type of behavior that has almost no recovery rate, it borders on instinctual drive. Think of what animals in the wild will do to follow their instincts, be it food, sex, migration. Nothing will stop them. Even the most seemingly unintelligent creature will perform acts of genius to achieve their end.
The predator is no different. In fact the law may have the unintended consequence of making it even harder to track and catch them. Ever hear of a rental car? Throw that into the equation and they will be even harder to find because now you’ve taken the vehicle’s description out of the game. They can rent a different model from the multitude of car-rental lots available to them, many of whom run shady operations that routinely rent to drug dealers. Some of these predators spend unreal amounts of money to build “play-rooms” filled with expensive toys. Slapping down a wad of cash for an untracable car would be nothing to them, especially if it helps them to continue their demented practice with more secrecy and success.
The problem with politicians, and often citizen driven initiatives, is they are written and passed with very little study. I don’t have a degree to come up with the scenerio I just gave you above, but I’m sure an expert on child predators could have would have told the the same thing.

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Theresa Jacobs of Denver writes:

The DREAM Act would allow undocumented high school graduates who have resided in the state for five years, an opportunity to build their future and contribute to society through the promise of affordable and reasonable in-state tuition. Colorado struggles with one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the nation, one that has continued to decline slowly, over the last decade. In addition, a smaller percentage of high school graduates goes on to enroll in college compared to other states, leaving us more reliant on recruiting qualified workers from outside Colorado.
The DREAM act can only help our state by providing an incentive for more young people to complete high school, avoid crime, and meet the challenges of a workforce that requires increasingly technical skills.
Colorado should not fall behind other states that give all their children a chance for an education, including California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma, and Kansas. A disproportionate number of students of undocumented parents have excelled in our schools, and they are poised to repay our investment in their elementary and secondary education.
Undocumented students deserve the same chance to achieve success as any other student who has grown up here, worked hard, contributed to society, and has potential to fulfill. A well-educated citizenry is good for Colorado!

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Mike Hogan of Lakewood writes:

Letter writer Doug Leek is upset with TV documentaries purporting to find physical evidence of Jesus’ physical body.
Certainly Leek is entitled to his opinion and that is what makes the Rocky’s Letters such a favorite of mine, colorful opinions. However, when the Rocky’s editors allow Leek to misstate history, they should also allow others to point this out.
Leek writes, “The historical evidence of the existence of Jesus is well developed… Many atheistic scholars are in agreement that this man existed, angered the religious and political establishments of the day, and suffered the “extreme penalty” of Roman crucifixion.” No, Leek, non-Christian historians know that Jesus was not a historic, but a mythical person. And that is not my opinion it is a fact. Go the public library, not your church, and check it out. And there is no, none, noda shred of historical evidence that the Romans ever went looking without finding Jesus’ body. Again, that is not my opinion it is a fact. And to name-drop the Jewish historian Josephus (38-107 CE) and the Roman historian Tacitus (55-117 CE) as attesting to the historic existence of Jesus is disingenuous at best. While each has a very, very short entry as to a Jesus that existed in history, non-Christian historians recognize each as a forgery, and have for centuries. To his credit, Leek challenges us to “study the evidence for Jesus themselves.” I agree wholeheartedly, just do it at your public library, not a church.

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Lynn Highland of Morrison writes:

Mike Rosen’s outrageous comparisons of America’s Civil War with the War in Iraq is astounding at so many levels; not in the least, his comparison of the leadership of Abraham Lincoln with the absent leadership of George W.
Bush.
First of all Lincoln could speak the English Language, unlike the inarticulate Bush. Lincoln rose from poverty, through the ranks of soldier (in the Black Hawk War), to steamboat worker, to clerk, to lawyer, to the presidency. Bush is what Lincoln would have referred to in the vernacular of his time, as a “shirker” —one who runs away from military obligations.
Bush, accustomed to wealth and privilege, and legacy admissions to college “was born on 3rd base and thought he hit a triple” to quote the late Ann Richardson.
LIncoln’s first born son was an officer in the Union army and served with distinction. Bush’s two offspring can barely stay out of the bars, much less, serve their country.
Lincoln always had a clear mission during the Civil War, and the mission has been long ago lost in the Iraq war—if there even was one to begin with.
To compare a war of choice, based on lies, and one that is so mismanaged as to be laughable if it weren’t so sad, denigrates the efforts of the abolitionists and the brave soldiers who sought to keep a nation together during America’s civil war- they did not seek to destroy a sovereign nation asunder, as is the case with the Iraq war.
Surely you Bush supporters can find a better comparison - like Napoleon arriving in Moscow - now there’s an apt comparison.

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Frank Galmish of Denver writes:

I am a Catholic of half Irish ancestry. I also am an Army vet of the Viet Nam era. I was shocked to see the treatment of our honorable Marine vets by the organizers of the Parade and I am appalled at Parade President Larry E. Lawler. Even though he can say that the placement of the position of the Marine vets wasn’t meant as an act of disrespect-it still is an act of disrespect. I used to love the parade and when our children were small we used to take them. I was intending to take our grandchildren but not now and I doubt I’ll even watch it on TV either. I find it especially shocking that this is done at a time when young Marines are very much in harm’s way while our great country is in a very real war. The Marines have ALWAYS been there for us and this is the way we treat them. How shameful! Shakespeare once wrote that an ungrateful child is worse than a serpent’s tooth and he was correct. If we cannot show better gratitude to our vets who are our great benefactors, then the expression Shakespeare use applies also to those who forget what we owe these heroes. The Marines have a beautiful motto: “Semper Fi". Too bad we cannot say the same. I served in a different branch of the service but I will never forget the great men and women of our Marines.

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Dr. Walter Figel Jr. of Castle Rock writes:

Amendment 41 is doing exactly what the taxpayers wanted. That is to shut down the seemingly endless flow of money, gifts, tickets, dinners, and lunches provided to the elected officials and employees of the State of Colorado by lobbyists. Obviously, the politicians and senior civil servants do not like it one bit as evidenced by the constant whining over the law’s unintended consequences. The law was never intended to stop scholarships to children who have worked hard to earn them and awarded on a competitive basis. It was designed to shut down unearned scholarships to children of politicians that lobbyists would like to influence. The most recent whining was from our Governor regarding not being able to accept an all expense paid vacation from Lufthansa. It is not only the ticket, but the hotel, food, and entertainment that they would doubt also supply to him and another twelve persons to commemorate their nonstop flights to Munich.
In addition, I would assume that he would not be taking personal vacation days for this excursion to Germany. I do understand that this new service will have a large economic impact on Denver and the State of Colorado according to your paper. If that is true, then the Governor should go and PAY his way with taxpayers funds that could be justified based on the increase in economic activity. That would be a reasonable expense that we as taxpayers should be willing to fund. However, there is no circumstance conceivable where he should accept thousands of dollars for a business trip from a private foreign corporation much less a personal trip. The strong message presented in Amendment 41 is that no one in the public trust should accept anything of value from businesses or people whose profession it is to influence the outcome of decisions and votes of elected officials. They must remain at arm’s length at all times and never give the appearance of impropriety. It is really that simple, get over it, abide by the intentions of the law, and stop the whining - it’s unprofessional and makes Colorado look bad.

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Cheryl Redmond Doyle of Littleton writes:

Although I admit that the only facts that I have are what I have read in the newspaper, I would like to know how the situation of the relationship between a mother, Linda Damm, and her fifteen year old daughter got to the point that the daughter felt that she had no other options than murder. Ms. Damm’s family’s admission that the mother was a “functioning alcoholic” and admission that the relationship between mother and daughter was very strained shows knowledge by family members of a serious problem and the lack of intervention. Did the school have knowledge of the situation? Why was the child not removed and living with another family? Just what is a “functioning alcoholic"? Other than the prosecutorial reason that the “nature of the crime is serious,” why are we charging the daughter as an adult? What happened to the term “juvenile law"? Is there no redeeming value to this child of a “functioning alcoholic"? What exactly went on the Damm house between mother and daughter that caused so much anger to lead to murder? The situation is tragic for four young lives and the deceased.

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Hank Curtis of Fort Collins writes:

There’s no shortage of hypocrisy in Washington within both parties, but of late, the Republicans have been serving it up like a “Super Size Me” fast food chain. It’s hard to feel too much sympathy for Scooter Libby when Republicans were relishing charges against President Clinton for the very same crime – lying to a Grand Jury.
But Scooter wasn’t simply lying about sexual indiscretions like Clinton, but rather was successfully “throwing sand” in the eyes of the prosecution to hide the orchestrated campaign by his boss Vice President Cheney and his boss President Bush in choking off any dissent from war critics like Ambassador Joe Wilson – even if that meant smearing Wilson and probably outing his CIA wife Valerie Plame.
What makes it worse is that Bush and his inner circle already knew the uranium claim that Wilson questioned was bogus – their own intelligence people warned them the evidence documents were likely forged – yet they continued to use the claim in their pre-war rhetoric and the famous 16 words in the President’s State of the Union speech in 2003.
Now granted Scooter has become the scapegoat, but assuredly Bush will eventually pardon him. A president who regards the Geneva Conventions as a nonbinding technicality and habeas corpus an outdated concept like last year’s fashions, isn’t going to start playing by the rules now.

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Father Bill Carmody of Colorado Springs writes:

Alice Madden sponsor of HB 1330 admits that the gold standard for raising children is one mother one father. She recognizes that children with one mother and one father are the most socially adjusted , do better in school, and have a better chance of succeeding in life. Yet, she claims that the gold standard can not be met in every case. Thus, we must allow adoption of children to single people, and unmarried couples both gay and straight.
Her premise is wrong. Colorado can meet the gold standard for adoption of children. Approximately, one in seven married couples in the State of Colorado struggle with fertity . We have several couples waiting to adopt a child and willing to sacrifice for a child. They wait patiently for a child. After all, a child is a gift; not a right. Just because you want a child, doesn’t mean you will get one. There have been several couples who yearned for a child and no child was available and/or the birth mother picked another couple. It is a silent cross that many childless couples carry.
Yet, adoption services are not in the business of giving childless couples a child. No, adoption services are in the business of finding parents for children who need parents. The focus is always on the best needs of the child; not the wishes of a childless couple. Our children deserve the gold standard, our children deserve to have the best chance at success. Our children should have a mother and a father.

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Jimi Bernath of Englewood writes:

Why haven’t I heard any of the Democrats vocalizing about the war bring up what seems to me a central issue: the 14 permanent U.S. bases planned for Iraq, and the monumental fortress U.S. Embassy being built in Baghdad? What the real mission was and is, beyond the financial spoils, should be focus of the debate, after how to spare the Iraqis any more misery.

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Richard P. Beck of Colorado Springs writes:

I have been hearing a lot about the unscientifically proven global warming and its consequences. Some say it will effect people a few generations from now and others say it may not occur for one or two thousand years. So I’m not overly concerned about global warming.
However, I’m deeply concerned about the ocean drying up and I have personal scientific facts to prove my statement. I am not beholden to or funded by any special interest group, nor do I not make any money traveling around the country preaching my conclusions.
How, you ask. To better illustrate my study, consider this fact. When you are a patient in a hospital, they maintain an “Intake/output” chart to monitor your consumption and discharge of liquids. Strangely enough, the output never equals the intake. That means the body uses or consumes liquids. So, believing I am an average individual, I kept track of my personal intake and output. I consume on the average, 10 glasses of water based liquids such as water, coffee, tea, soda, juice or other beverages each day. I estimate my output at about 5 glasses each day. That leaves about 5 glasses of liquids unaccounted for. I must have consumed or somehow used those 5 glasses of liquids.
I hear the earth’s population is somewhere near 6 billion people. Multiply 5 glasses by 6 billion average inhabitants, and that equals 30 billion glasses of water that seems to be disappearing each day. Since I am unable to equate the volume of the ocean to a glass full of water, I can only estimate that in 1 or 2 million years, the earth’s oceans will be dry. Perhaps this is what happened to the Martians and how they caused their planet to dry up.
Now this really concerns me.

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Mark Benner of Anton writes:

Before leaving on his trip to South America George W. Bush was asked about his “War on Drugs” policy as it related to Colombia and President Alvaro Uribe. The President said Uribe “was a man of peace.” He also emphasized the need to continue U.S. aid to Colombia in the “War on Drugs”. Sunday in Colombia Bush called Uribe a friend, and ally in the War on Drugs.
At the same time the president spoke these words, Uribe’s integrity as a man of peace and as a reliable agent of the “War on Drugs” was being undermined by arrests in Colombia of Department of Administrative Security director Jorge Noguera, and the resignation of Foreign minister Consuelo Araujo. Araujo’s resignation comes in response to the arrests of her brother and father and other members of Colombia’s Congress, all of whom are close “friends” of Uribe. The resignations and arrests are the result of connections to Colombia’s notorious right wing death squads, which not only visit violence and murder on Colombia’s population caught up in the civil war, they like the rebel groups they oppose are also part of the illegal drug trafficking network. It appears U.S. aid in the “War on Drugs” is being funneled to drug trafficking and inflicting terror. Perhaps the president should choose his friends and where he spends U.S. tax dollars with more discretion.

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Keith Maranville of Aurora writes:

As I read Marguerite King’s letter to the web about guns in cars I cant help but laugh. Ms king, do you really think the “scum” you refer to really care if a law is passed to ban guns in cars?? If they are the real scum they could care less about your silly law.
Hence, when there is a problem of road rage the only person armed is going to be the scum you refer to and the law obiding citizen who gave up their gun because of your law will be dead. Please remove your rose colored glasses and see the world for what it is, law obiding citizens should not be disarmed by law because the criminals and “scum” don’t follow the laws anyway.
When the good lord made this earth he made one huge mistake, instead of resting on the 7th day he should have been busy making ignorance painful and rested on the 8th.

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George Lilly of Denver writes:

As in the past, the candidates don’t want too hot a spotlight on them. That is to say, they want, as John McCain said, to have “their record and their ambition for the future” as the criteria by which they are judged. Now Newt Gingrich is coming out of the closet with his miscreant behavior and getting it laundered through the inimitable James Dobson so the “Christian” community will find him palatable.
The one question that no one can seem to answer is, if a candidate is an immoral hypocrite in his/her personal life, what will make them any better in their public life?

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Jeff Kocsis of Littleton writes:

I see the International Association of Fire Fighters has seen fit to come out of the woodwork, Anita Hill-style, to attack Rudy Giuliani now that it looks like he just might create problems for their Democrat candidates in the 2008 presidential election. Never let it be said that our labor unions are politicized. I’d be curious to hear what the rank-and-file New York fire fighters think of this decision by their dues-sucking leaders. In the mean time, Rudy has my support, and unions have my contempt, now more so than ever.

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Pete Jabs of Englewood writes:

9/11 was an inside job caused by the George W.Bush administration and the republicans. Those two planes didn’t bring the World Trade Center down; carefully set explosive charges set weeks before by the FBI brought those buildings down. This was one of the only ways to get our militery into a costly war with Iraq and Afganastan. A lot of people and corporations made billions of dollars off of this scam. The u.s. is just trying to get control of the middle east because this is where all the oil and money is. By the way, we dont’t even need oil or coal. We can get 100 MPH on four ounces of water( using hydrogen fuel cells). We can also power the entire planets energy needs for the next 300 years with one foot of “zero-point energy;” which our scientists and engineers have known about for over 100 years.

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Irene Hoe of Singapore writes:

I visited the Denver Botanic gardens this afternoon and happened to read your story afterwards.
It hasn’t been so long since it was snowing in Denver, so I wasn’t expecting much.
Still, I was quite dismayed by the current state of the gardens. It was not helped by preparations for the Bugs installation.
Of course, it was summer the last time I visited the gardens a few years ago. Not only were the place wonderfully verdant but it was also filled with wonderful African sculptures at the time.
The contrast between then and now could not have been greater.
At about 4pm yesterday, when I sought to have a drink and snack at the cafeteria, it was already closed, an hour before closing time. So I got a soda from the vending machine and the gardens did not earn the $10 I would have spent.
Any new CEO can always do with more revenue. So I would suggest that he attend first to what is often a reliable moneyspinner for museums and other visitor attractions - catering. A good restaurant and cafeteria can have importan knock-on effects, such as drawing more business to the excellent gift shop.
The gulf between the gardens’ summer and winter incarnations leads me to think the place earns its keep for only half a year, and hibernates in cold weather.
In retail, this would make the difference between being open for half a day and operating around the clock.
If the gardens hopes to draw more members, what will it have to offer them on a regular basis - excluding the holidays - during the cold weather? It does not even appear designed or constructed to function when it dips below 60 degrees F.
I think it is wonderful that there are so many benches and other seating throughout the gardens, But I cannot imagine many would want to use them when it is cold.
Another thing: I love the tropical house but, inexplicably, nothing seems to have been improved since I was last there.
I do love the gardens and hope to find them revitalized, thriving and, dare I say it, profitable, when next I visit Denver.

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Jan Herron of Evergreen writes:

No one is more realistic about his chances of becoming President than Rep. Tancredo. He understands the consequences of being labeled a “single-issue” candidate because of his dedicated leadership on illegal immigration. What’s interesting is that this enormously important issue is one that most other presidential candidates appear to be avoiding at all costs. The issue of illegal immigration is the umbrella of multiple issues facing voters, especially in 2008.
Tancredo’s 98 out of 100 rating by the American Conservative Union should light the fire of those rightwingers left in the dark who are discouraged by McCain and Giuliani, or suspicious of Romney. Whatever the eventual general election choices are, Congressman Tancredo is deserving of careful consideration by Republicans seeking a genuine conservative option.

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Ronald B. Gamino of Denver writes:

So now we are well into the year 2007 and here we sit in many of the same predicaments. Seems to me like we are still asking the same questions with regards to our energy crisis ... How can we get our alternative energy sources more affordable and readily available for consumers? How are we going to become less dependent on foreign oil? Will taxing Big Oil have the likely cause and effect of consumers then paying more?
It is all very complicated when you look at it as a whole. I know one thing that is not that complicated… My costs for my printing company have been on the rise for a few years now, with little help out there for the small businessman.
Taxing is not the cure-all answer. Moving everything over to wind energy is our single solution. Altering the daylight savings time 3 weeks might be helpful but doesn’t touch the large picture here. Unfortunately we are so deep in this energy crisis that a solution is far from simple. Does that mean we don’t proceed forward and try to make life better for us all? Absolutely not. We need to question what is going on in Congress. We need to be proactive. We need to ask our elected officials to fight for a better America.
Sure, we all want our wallets to stop taking the hit; we all want our kids and grandkids to grow up in a healthy environment and see the spectacular natural wonders of the world. We don’t want species to continue to be added onto the endangered species list. As I see it, if I want to see this stop, then I need to take action and be heard. I am writing to local elected officials and letting them know how I feel and urge you to do the same. We all know it’s broke, now go out and support what you believe and fix it!

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Robert E. Forman of Lakewood writes:

In a recent letter (Rocky Mountain News, Tuesday, 3/13/07), Robbie Garland was just the latest to repeat a blatant misconception when he wrote that “There is no reference to a deity in our Constitution.” Apparently people who think that thought have never read the Constitution to verify whether or not that statement is true — because it is not.
The date the Constitution was signed is as much a part of the Constitution itself as is any other word or signature the Constitution contains. The date is a part of the Constitution — and nothing can ever change that fact. The Constitution is a legal document and, as is the case with most legal documents, the date the legal document was dated and signed is just as much a vital part of the legal document as is any other part of it.
And anybody who has a copy of the Constitution or can take a couple minutes to find it online (type in ‘US Constitution’ and hit ‘search;’ it took me about a minute) can look at how this legal document was dated: It reads: “Seventeenth day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.”
There are two key words to focus on: our and Lord. In the context of the date, the “Lord” referred to can only refer to one Lord to the absolute exclusion of all others: Jesus Christ. No one but a complete fool can or will dispute that.
The other key word “our” refers to who? It refers to, specifically, the signers of the Constitution who signatures follows. But it can refer to, in general, to the nation and/or the people of the nation for whom the Constitution was created, written and signed.
There is therefore one absolutely indisputable fact: The Constitution of the United States — the “supposed” Supreme Law of our nation — absolutely and positively makes a direct reference to a “deity;” but not just to any old deity; but to the one and only one the signers ever considered to be “our Lord": Jesus Christ — because the phrase “in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven” refers to Jesus Christ alone to the absolute exclusion of all others.

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Dr. T.J. Dillon of Denver writes:

I have been reading several sources of information on the lack of citizen participation and interest in State and Local Government.
It occurred to me that this might be corrected, at no cost to the Governments, if all citizens were allowed to participate in direct investment of the Municipal Bonds issued by the several entities. They would pay the same price as the awarded bid price. The amount would be small compared to the number of bonds which the bidding brokers would acquire.
This would avoid the citizens need to pay the excessive rates charged by the bond brokers. Citizens would have a very vested interest.
It would be stipulated that no one could own more than [X]thousand dollars and must be carried to the predetermined funding date.
It would be very similar to the U.S. Treasury Department’s program.

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Darren Clemenhagen of Nederland writes:

Ever since the announcement of the Scooter Libby conviction right-wing apologists like Jay Ambrose have been attempting to rationalize the actions of the Bush administration. I am writing to express my outrage and disgust at Ambrose’s column that appeared in the Friday edition of the Rocky Mountain News.
When the Bush administration decided to go after Joseph Wilson by exposing his wife, Valerie Plame, they did not stop there. Robert Novak, in his column about Plame, also revealed the name of an active CIA operation, Brewster-Jennings.
Brewster-Jennings operated under the pretense of being an energy consulting firm; this front gave the company cover to actually investigate issues related to weapons proliferation. Why would the administration knowingly engage in a campaign that exposed an active CIA operation? What possible justification could the administration have to do so?
I ask the reader to think critically for a moment: What do you think happened when the name Brewster-Jennings appeared in print? When the identity of this CIA operation became public knowledge, any CIA operative or foreign national who had ever associated with Brewster-Jennings found their cover compromised. Hostile governments and terrorist organizations knew instantly who had been either a spy or an informant. What possible good could have come from this revelation?
The Bush administration constantly harps on the need to support the troops. People such as Valerie Plame and the other operatives associated with our intelligence community serve on the front lines of this war, risking their lives in the pursuit of vital intelligence. How can this entire affair be considered anything other than a serious breach of national security and an act of treason? How can Republican supporters continue to defend the indefensible with respect to this betrayal?

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Allen Campbell of Colorado Springs writes:

I Get so tired of Ken Gordon and his misinformation about second hand smoke. I can’t accept that he’s oblivious of the National Cancer Institute, OSHA, DOT and now the new Stanford studies that clearly say that second hand smoke is Not the cause of cancer. Either he can’t read, doesn’t read, or chooses not to read anything that disagrees with his ignorant, zealous and just plain wrong, (I hesitate to say opinion because opinion requires, at the very least, some investigation as to the facts of a particular issue), understanding of what is so and not so. As a representative of the people he should not fail to explore the truth of an issue and should care if his public statements are accurate and truthfully tell the people the reality of an issue. He is not alone in this failure, many of our elected officials allow personal preferences to hold sway over the truth of a matter. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs but, beliefs are often wrong and should never be allowed to become more important than proven facts.

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Sister Antonia Anthony of Denver writes:

The “Leahy Law” prohibits U.S. military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity. This law should be applied to Mexico, a U.S. trading partner and certainly the recipient of U.S. military aid. This week I received from Mexico the notice that Diego Arcos Meneses, a Ch’ol Indigenous health promoter and catechist of Nuevo Tila, Chiapas, in the Lacandon jungle region, was unjustly detained, beaten, jailed, put at the disposition of a judge who gave no consideration to the testimony of witnesses, and now is real danger of a lengthy prison sentence. His crime: as health promoter he went to aid neighbors of Viejo Velasco who had been subjected the previous day to a massacre in which some of the attackers were dressed in military attire. He was detained by police and is the scapegoat for a crime motivated by an old land problem with high governmental responsibility. This human rights abuse does not stand alone. Cases of human rights abuses in Oaxaca this year also have been documented. Let us demand that the United states hold the government of Mexico to accountability for the human rights of its people.

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In 2003, Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines told a concert audience that she was ashamed that President Bush hailed from her home state of Texas.
Conservatives responded to this very innocuous remark by rabidly boycotting the band’s concerts and records and demanding that radio stations not play their songs.
Unless conservatives are nothing less than self-serving hypocrites, they will now do the same to Ann Coulter.
Coulter, obviously unable to speak intelligently about Edwards’ qualifications, instead resorted to personally attacking John Edwards with a offensive and derogatory slur.
If conservatives have any integrity they should demand that major bookstores stop selling her books.
They should boycott her appearances and refuse to support any candidate or cause that hires her services.
Of course, I know this will never happen because “do as we say, not as we do, let them eat cake” conservatives will ignore Coulter’s latest shameless act of self-gratifying provocation with their usual sheepish fervor.
Instead, they will, as always, blithely follow the treacherous wolves that lead them toward their own demise, bleating their support for them all the while.

Thomas Mannion, Denver

According to an Associated Press news item (“Hillary Clinton woos gay voters,” March 6), neither Hillary Clinton’s “campaign nor her Senate office made any announcement” that she would be making a keynote speech to the “nation’s leading gay rights group,” the Human Rights Campaign.
“Asked twice at a Monday campaign stop in Iowa why she did not publicize her speech to the group,” the report went on, “Clinton said: ‘You’ll have to ask my campaign.’”
And yet Clinton supposedly told the group, “I am proud to stand by your side.”
Where? In the closet?
Neither she nor her campaign nor her Senate office publicized her appearance. Why? Was she embarrassed? Was she concerned about how her reaching out to the gay community would affect her reaching out to Christians, Jews and Muslims who frown on homosexuality? Was she or they or someone hoping for a better offer on where to be that night?
She may have said that she was “proud” to appear before the gay-rights group, but everything else seems to indicate that she really was not-so-proud to be there or to be associated with them.

Robert E. Forman, Lakewood

As reported in the March 3 story, “Rove, Pelosi both in Denver to rally party loyalists,” White House political adviser Karl Rove asked, “How can you say you support the troops and yet you want to deny the funds necessary to do the job and protect them in battle?”
Just eight years ago, on May 19, 1999, 40 Republican senators actually voted to withdraw funding from 5,600 American troops in the field in Kosovo.
So I suggest that Rove ask this question of his fellow Republicans, and, while he’s at it, he can also ask them how they reconcile “supporting the troops” with the disgraceful treatment of troops at Walter Reed Hospital, which is a direct result of the Republican administration’s budget policies and incompetent management.

Dan Danbom, Denver

I looked at the Rocky’s time line of events ranging from President Bush’s Jan. 28, 2003, State of the Union address to the Oct. 28, 2005, indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and couldn’t help but notice that the Rocky forgot to mention the 9/11 commission’s findings in early 2004 that debunked Joe Wilson’s self-serving and partisan claim that there were no dealings between Saddam Hussein and the Nigerien government to buy uranium.
Actually, pretty much the entire news media conveniently missed that little tidbit. I guess it wasn’t important — not when you’re trying desperately to bring down a president you don’t like.
Well, there was never a crime committed in the first place, but a special prosecutor has to hang somebody for something, so I guess Libby is as good a scapegoat as anyone.
It’s such a pleasure watching the machinations of our injustice system.
Do you suppose the Democrats will now be satisfied that they finally got to retaliate for that other Kafkaesque absurdity, the Clinton impeachment? I wouldn’t bet on it.
(Of course that was payback for Iran-contra.)

Jeff Kocsis, Littleton

It is time — past time, really — to retire a certain catchphrase that is heard in every phase of our lives, from sports to business to government and beyond. A phrase that is meaningless, explains nothing, adds no value to any discussion and yet is uttered almost as often as the word “like,” most often by someone just trying to fill the silence or attempting to baffle the audience with their self-perceived educated elocution. Which catchphrase is blathered entirely too often?
“It is what it is.”
Let’s briefly examine this redundant pearl of wisdom a bit further. If, for example, it isn’t what it is, then what is it? Why not enlighten the masses with the corollary, “It’s not what it’s not”? Perhaps we could get philosophical: It is what it is, unless it is what it’s not, and then it is what it’s not. We could go on forever. Instead, let’s vow to never utter this idiocy again. Like, you know, dude — whatever!

Jim Waechter, Highlands Ranch

The answer to letter writer Carrie McKoy’s question of March 1 (“Brrr!) — “Where did ... ‘global warming’ go?” — is that it is already here. Unusual, out-of-control weather all over the United States including our own state’s horrific snowstorms for 10 weeks on end and Europe’s everlasting fall and now already spring and no snow there.
Read the weather reports. Get a clue. Bush has not paid any attention to it either for six years as “our king.”

Mathilde Morris, Denver

The March 5 Rocky Mountain News story, “Housefuls of the faithful and barrels full of laughs,” contained this comment from Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, describing the new chief of the state Republican Party, Dick Wadhams:
“A leader who is resourceful enough to know that when life gives you macaca, you turn it into majorities.”
Her comment may have been intended as humor, but the word macaca is offensive and is a slur no matter how used or for what purpose.
Personally, I believe the slur was intentional and was referring to the recent election loss of Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen, largely attributable to his racist views.
Spence deserves the same fate for her hurtful and callous “humor.”
And I’m disappointed with the Rocky for seeming to think her comment was witty and giving it undeserved attention in that sidebar with her picture.
I will not vote for someone who uses terms like that and I won’t subscribe to a newspaper that condones its use and even seems to think it’s funny.

William “Jerry” Andersen, Littleton

After reading the recent letter by Dorie Werner regarding colorectal cancer (“Colorectal cancer is a quiet killer,” March 8), I have to ask: Why are so many otherwise intelligent people refusing to have the screening for colon cancer? I was screened recently and this is the sequence of events: I spent the previous day drinking a liquid diet and a liquid laxative. The next day I had the procedure. I felt nothing throughout and had no lingering effects. What’s so difficult about that?
Come on, people — don’t be stupid. Talk to your doctor about scheduling a screening if you are over 50 — it could save your life!

Wendy Grudin, Clifton

The killing off of Captain America parallels the downward spiral our country is in. The patriotism that used to mean love of flag and country is quickly disappearing. But have no fear, this heroic Marvel character will be back ... this time as Captain Americana!

H. Janell McElwain, Aurora

I just read in the Rocky about a proposed boycott of business to “bring attention to the economic contributions of illegal immigrants” (“Activists call for statewide boycott/Weeklong action meant to spotlight work of illegals,” March 9).
They must be joking, right? I call on all Coloradans to purchase as many goods, visit as many establishments, and show your support for the rights of citizens, and the power of our economic contributions by paying taxes, and using our buying power to overwhelm this proposed boycott.
This is not about the plight of the immigrant, nor is it about support for closing the border, or amnesty for that matter. This is about showing support for businesses that follow current law. The boycott, according to the story, will be from March 21 to April 1. Let’s show our support for current laws as written, and support our businesses that follow the law in hiring practices.

Dan Dane, Thornton

The requirement for proficiency in English will become more of an issue as time goes by. A certificate (diploma) that indicates adequate educational skills for a given country logically should include the ability to “understand and communicate” in that country’s language.
Instead of making it a requirement for graduation, make it an added “self-esteem” item. A doctor goes through his education and gets a diploma. If he goes further in his learning he gets an addition to the original piece of paper.
Why not put “English Proficient” on qualified high school diplomas? This might make some students work harder. It would not put down those who didn’t get the added achievement, but it could be earned at a later date.

Jim Reid, Denver

I’d like to thank Colorado lawmakers for showing the public that they have no concern for any of the important issues that are facing the state. By recommending a second state song (“Friends ’round the podium pick ‘Rocky Mountain High,’” March 13), we will have something to sing while our homes are in foreclosure, our jobs are sent to China and India, and our water is sold to the highest bidder. Thanks a lot!

Raygina Kohlmeier, Fort Collins

John Wren of Denver writes:

It’s being suggested that we have a Presidential primary election in 2008, followed by our neighborhood caucuses across the state a few weeks later.
This is a bad idea. In Iowa Presidential candidates spend about $40 per caucus attendee, it would similar here in Colorado if our caucus system was given the same TLC the Iowa system receives from the Iowa media, civic leaders, and the major political parties. Instead, we get a stream of these efforts at reform where none is needed.
Nothing would weaken our caucus system more than splitting it off from the Presidential race. People who are against this misguided change should speak out now.

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Jean Wall of Denver writes:

The short answer to Mr. Suttie’s question “does history repeat itself?”(letter 3/5 /07) would be yes,but not in this particular comparison. While there are always lessons to be drawn from historical parallels,there needs be common ground between the two.Suttie’s equation of the Vallandigham peace plank with objection to the Iraqi situation is a desperately poor comparison. Consider: secession vs. foreign invasion, preservation of the union vs. overthrow of a foreign government , resort to force necessitated by circumstances vs. invasion based on redoubtable and ultimately dead wrong intelligence about WMD ( remember the weapons inspector Hans Blix confirmed this PRIOR to the invasion and we proceeded despite that confirmation.) Then there’s the execution of this ill-begotten adventure. The White House and Pentagon (headed up by people who had scrupulously avoided combat and /or any military experience whatsoever) pursued a pet theory of prosecuting a war with a light, efficient force despite the advice of experts that the approach was untenable . The result was an under manned, under supplied over stretched force that was sent on a fools errand. The Administration kept insisting that “Mission Impossible” was “Mission Accomplished” and that their strategy was working despite what was evident , that after years of not working that it simply needed time to work In the mean time, the nature of the conflict and the relevance of American troops in that conflict has shifted substantially. The loss of “coalition” support didn’t bring about a reassessment, the rise of sectarian militias didn’t bring about a reassessment, the loss of American lives and the slaughter of civilians didn’t bring about a reassessment .The loss of a Republican majority in the midterms finally brought a change in leadership at the Pentagon .You do the math.
Then there is the issue of the billions of dollars that have been siphoned off through waste , fraud and theft while soldiers “make do” with hillbilly armor and rely on their families to supply them with body armor and other personal safety equipment. In the waning days of the last (Republican dominated)Congress, the office that oversees these expenditures and seeks accountability was defunded and dismantled. Then the White house pursued a troop surge and will ask for another 90 billion dollars in funding with only fewer safeguards against misappropriation than before and more troops in harm’s way without adequate equipment.
I’m insulted intellectually and personally at the suggestion that objection to this war is based on an anti- Bush vendetta or mere knee-jerk pacifism . Given all the factors, Mr. Suttie could not remotely make the case that this Administration has the best interest of “ the country -or the world “,or that this is a rerun of 1864. Yes, Mr. Suttie, where are the history students?

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Emory Walker of Denver writes:

Hooray! We get to pay more for stamps.

We can solve the dilemma of postal rates in an instant but it will never happen. The USPS should simply eliminate 3rd class mail. Everything should be 1st class which would mean little or no junk mail. The post office would probably have to give us refunds because of all the expense they would not have.

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Andy Vanous of Durango writes:

This letter is in response to the Regulatory Overkill editorial that appeared on March 2, 2007. With regard to senate bill 24, perhaps some education on what Certified Athletic Trainers (ATC’s) actually do would be in order, because it is a far cry from “spotting a workout buddy in the gym who pays you for the service,” as your editorial so ignorantly stated. By the sounds of it, you have athletic trainers and personal trainers mixed up. I agree that regulating a spotter in the gym would be excessive, and overkill by the state, however the job of an ATC is vastly different. As an ATC employed in the collegiate setting, I find the editorial and its ignorance insulting. I can count on my hands the number of times I have acted as a spotter for someone in the gym as part of my job.
ATC’s are responsible for the health care of physically active individuals in a variety of different settings. A large part of an ATC’s job is working with injured people to return them to activity.
This includes injury prevention, evaluation and diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and reconditioning of injuries, along with several other duties. ATC’s have rigorous educational training, with myself and many of my colleagues having post-graduate degrees related to athletic training. The state puts regulation on people who have much less impact on an individual than a health care provider, so why would it be overkill to regulate individuals who may be dealing with athletes in a life and death situation? There have been plenty of incidents when people who were not qualified to do so were practicing athletic training duties and harm was done as a result.
ATC’s are employed in a variety of settings, including: clinics, high schools, colleges and universities, professional sports, physician’s offices, industry, military, law enforcement, and others. The athletes I work with on a daily basis show nothing but appreciation for myself and the rest of our athletic training staff. ATC’s play an integral role in athletics, and I would be willing to bet that if you asked individuals who actually know what an athletic trainer is and what our job entails, I would imagine that you would find more credibility and validity to the proposed licensure. A prime example of this appeared in your newspaper on December 16, 2006 in the article, The Tale of the Tape, where the relationship between Steve Antonopulos and John Elway was mentioned, and how much Denver’s beloved Hall of Fame quarterback appreciated the work that “Greek” did for him throughout his career. I can guarantee you it was much different then spotting # 7 as he lifted.
Like nearly every other ATC, I take great pride in my job and wouldn’t trade what I do for a living. I think it is unfortunate that a portion of the population does not understand the profession that we are so passionate about. Not only are a majority of ATC’s overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated, but we struggle to fight the misconceptions of the public with regards to our job duties and responsibilities. Education is critical, and it is my hope that the opinion expressed on SB 24 would be different if the background of the bill and who is affected by it was better understood.

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Student athletic trainer Kolin Tomlinson of Durango writes:

In response to Editorial “Regulatory overkill”
I was very disappointed to read the opposition to SB 24, especially given the authors lack of knowledge surround Athletic Trainers and their profession. To quote the articles opinion of SB 24, “You need a note from the state to spot a workout buddy in the gym who pays you for the service?” is very ignorant and reflects poorly on whomever wrote it. I suggest the author take some time to understand the differences between a personal trainer and an athletic trainer before coming to a conclusion on SB 24. Although they are both “trainers” in title, Athletic Trainers have a much different and, in many ways, a much more demanding education (4 year undergraduate degree), certification (NATABOC), and job requirements then that of a personal trainer.
The Athletic Training profession has grown rapidly as a close and constant contact to athletic teams at the high school, college, professional, and possibly middle school levels. Knowledge in injury prevention, assessment, and rehabilitation makes Athletic Trainers an essential part of any sports medicine team. There is a large amount of responsibility and trust placed on Athletic Trainers as they are in close contact with the adolescent and adult athletes. While I respect the right of the author to his opinion, an uneducated or misinformed opinion reflects poorly on the author.

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Jeff Tokarsky of Parker writes:

Scooter Libby is “guilty” of “lying” to a grand jury investigating a crime that never happened. Your tax dollars at work. Makes me proud of American jurisprudence.
The real story is the Niger trip. Joe Wilson, a career State Department bureaucrat, was sent by the his wife and the CIA to Niger. A boy was sent to do a man’s job. Investigate that. The Ambassador was not required to sign a confidentiality agreement and wrote more about his trip to the NYT than to the CIA. His “report” has subsequently been investigated by Congress, its content refuted. Again ... your tax dollars at work.

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Steve Thrapp of Fort Collins writes:

Ironic that Sue Marquardt’s letter (RMN 3/8/07) was titled “A poor analogy,” as it was indeed a poor analogy.
First off, her numbers are incorrect. Marquardt claims that “When they landed on the beaches of Normandy, there were more men that died in that first hour than the 3,000 casualties that we’ve had so far in Iraq. In fact, according the D-Day Museum’s official site, the total number of allied dead for the entire first day was 2,500, of which 1,465 were Americans. And in Iraq, the number of Americans dead currently stands at 3,188.
Second, as is often the case in these arguments, Marquardt ignores the 23,000 other American casualties in this war. Thanks to advances in armor and medical care, the ratio of wounded to dead is about 8 to 1 in Iraq, compared to around 3 to 1 in World War II, so their numbers are far more significant than in that conflict. And because the bulk of injuries are caused by IED’s, many of these survivors have lost limbs or suffered horrible brain injuries, or both. Discounting their sacrifice does them great disservice.
Finally, Marquardt seems to intimate that her faulty figures somehow make the war in Iraq more palatable. Our reasons for engaging in World War II were far different than the excuses for unjustiably invading Iraq and continuing to occupy it.

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Cathy Swartwood of Morrison writes:

Re: Italian Heritage license tag proposal (Sons of Italy want License plate to honor their Italian Heritage)
What planet have the opponents of this measure been living on? They say that the state has no business promoting one ethnic group over another. Every time I make a phone call to a business I am forced to choose between Spanish and English, my cable company has a Spanish tier of programming, the forms I use at work are both in Spanish and English. There are MANY Spanish-speaking TV and radio programs. I have heard announcements at SEARS made in Spanish (I felt like I wasn’t in the States) and the list goes ON and ON. There has been a promotion of one ethnic group over all others for years and years. I can’t believe the opponents even made that remark or are we all just numb to it by now?

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Brian Stuckey of Denver writes:

According to the National Review, “there should have been no referral, no special counsel, no indictments, and no trial.” I could not agree more. The conviction of Lewis “Scooter” Libby is nothing less than a criminalization of conservatism, pure and simple. It is, in essence, a blatant leftist attack on the Bush administration in a case where no underlying crime was even committed. The fact that the real culprits in this drama were not even questioned tells us all we need to know. In short, justice demands that the President pardon Libby. He deserves no less.

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Henri E. Stetter of Steamboat Springs writes:

The recent debate in the US Government on the Iraq policy and troops surge left out one very important human subject: the daily destruction of modern Iraqi society by the reckless war.
The deaths, misery and suffering that Americans have brought upon these poor people, by far outweighs all the politics and debate about what is best for US troops. The US has the full moral responsibility for the tens of thousands of deaths and injuries of Iraqi citizens.
Imagine one moment American cities suffering these kinds of daily bombing and mass murders, while some other nation debates the finer point of their troops levels. Would we be outraged?
Does anyone still wonder why hatred of America is growing exponentially in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.
Because of this misery, an estimated 2.5 million Iraqis have fled their country, mostly to Jordan and Syria and 40.000 to 50.000 more attempt to follow them every month.
The real news is what is happening in Iraq to normal families, children. They live in constant fear. People can not any more walk in their own neighborhood without real worry of attacks.
Imagine yourself living in these conditions, while the dark suited and prosperous politicians of a foreign country debate how to proceed.

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Dick Snyder of Denver writes:

In his March 9 column, Bush apologist Mike Rosen attempts to defend President Bush’s handling of the Iraq war with a fallacious set of analogies submitted by “Phil Rogers of Golden.” The idea is to show how Bush’s conduct of the Iraq War is in many ways analogous to Lincoln’s leadership during the American Civil War.
The argument works only if the assumptions behind the analogies are correct. In this case, none are.
The Confederate States of America was not a sovereign nation. It was an attempt by rebellious slaveholders to set up a separate nation on U.S. territory. With the exception of one tiny principality, no foreign power recognized the CSA as being sovereign.
Secession posed a critical threat to our country. Had the secessionists succeeded there would be no United States of America as we know it today.
Lincoln was not an abolitionist. The Emancipation Proclamation did not abolish slavery.
Lincoln’s was not the only president to revoke civil liberties in wartime. Unlike the USA Patriot Act and the Guantanamo incarcerations, Lincoln did not intend his actions to proceed indefinitely.
Lincoln may not have been properly sensitive to southern cultural differences. Since when are slavery and white supremacy defendable values, especially when a minority of southern slaveholders attempted to impose them on the rest of the country? Were ideas of racial equality foolish for the time? If Rosen were to read the Lincoln’s speech delivered at Gettysburg, PA in November 1863, he would learn that the idea of racial equality is fundamental to our nation’s being.
The claim of “military mismanagement” shows the ignorance of those who level the claim. Starting with a standing military of less than 20,000, Lincoln quickly mobilized and equipped a force that at any one time would number more than 500,000.
In two years Union forces seized the entire rebel coastline, partitioned West Virginia and took most of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee out of the war. The only theater the Union couldn’t dominate before 1864 was Northern Virginia.
The charge that Lincoln rejected the counsel of commanders is without foundation. He did reject the counsel of bad commanders, namely the cowardly and derelict George McClellan.
It is sacrilege compare the cheap influence peddler currently sitting in the Oval Office with our greatest President. If Rosen needs to defend this man, let him look elsewhere for his analogies.

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Jim Slotnick of Arvada writes:

I’d like to praise the Colorado House of Representatives for stepping up to rescind the unfair smoking restriction exemption that was granted last year to casino operators. There was no defensible argument for granting the exemption. The well healed casino lobby somehow managed to convince our lawmakers that profits (and the associated tax revenue) were more important than people’s health. All Colorado employees are entitled to a hazard free working environment. Non-smoking casino patrons (a significant majority) should not be forced to breath noxious fumes to enjoy limited stakes gambling. HB 1269, currently being considered by the Colorado Senate, will level the playing field for all businesses in the state. I hope that our elected officials will ignore the casino lobby and do the right thing this time.

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Dave Shanks of Highlands Ranch writes:

Your article on February 22, 2007 entitled “CU teacher catches flak for essay on supremacy", raised some continuing questions on the hiring practices at CU. While I support Joshua McNair’s freedom of speech under the First Amendment, I cannot understand why CU would select an instructor that supported lies about racial supremacy - especially in today’s times, where our society seeks tolerance and acceptance. Instead, CU chooses to spend our children’s tuition and tax dollars on someone influencing the next generation with incredibly stilted views. The article further stated that while he was an undergraduate, Mr. McNair sponsored a speech by a Holocaust denier. Again, I am offended that CU would allow such a speech to occur on the campus AND then go on to HIRE someone so irresponsible with truth and a follower of these twisted ideologies. With two children about to enter college, I cannot even consider sending either one to CU - Boulder for fear of what false teachings and influence in their lives might take place. I love Colorado and the life we lead in this beautiful state. However, I am deeply disappointed that our “top scholastic institution” employs the likes of Ward Churchill and Joshua McNair that espouse ignorance, hatred and violence over knowledge and truth. When will the CU administration take a firm stance and uphold a commitment to teachings that enhance our children’s education and development of positive values they carry into society? After all, they are our future. If we fail to lead and teach them well today, we will all pay the price later on.

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Alex Schatz of Lafayette writes:

The Rocky Mountain News failed to do its homework when it categorized a legislative proposal to regulated landscape architects as “pointless oversight of working Coloradans.” The Rocky’s March 2nd editorial ("Regulatory Overkill") asserts that the proposed legislation targets “miscreant landscapers” who perpetrate “landscaping fraud.” Nothing could be farther from the truth.
For starters, no one is proposing to regulate landscape contractors or any other entrepreneur “landscaper.” A broad swath of supporters in the construction industry understands that working landscape architects are design professionals, with training and professional activities similar to architects and engineers. Certification of this profession, landscape architecture, is based on a test that covers critical public health and safety skills in outdoor construction design. A landscape architect cannot be certified without a state-issued license.
Fortunately, the bill’s supporters have done their homework. For example, there is an extensive list of cases of physical harm, property damage, and financial injury associated with incompetent landscape architecture. It is undisputed by those who have reviewed this evidence that improperly designed or constructed landscape features can cause harm, including both financial loss and loss of life.
As with architecture and engineering, recognizing landscape architects in statute allows consumers to rely on standards of professional competence as they make decisions about major investments in design and construction. The Governor will need to look no farther than the first page of this legislation, to the list of sponsors and co-sponsors, to understand that the creation of a landscape architect credential in Colorado, like the same credential that already exists in 48 other states, is the result of strong, well-informed bipartisan support.

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Linda Sanders of Littleton writes:

Don’t allow criticism of your reporting the Manzanares story stop you. I’m sick of the double standard evident between “the People” and the “above-the-law” judges. This story shows that Manzanares’ had the gall to to be in possession of stolen merchandize with the confidence of immunity because he had friends in high places. His attitude is not a rare condition among “elitist” judges who have contempt for the law - he was just too sloppy for his “friends in high places” to thoroughly protect him - even though they did circle the wagons around him.
I base my opinion on the fact that I have worked closely with certain Judicial Review Committee members and discovered that there are too many judges who consider the law their personal property - to enforce or ignore as they deem appropriate (to the detriment of the party who relied on published law. Oh right - these are just “disgruntled litigants"). The majority of those on the Judicial Review Committee have professional conflicts (e.g., their careers as lawyers & ex-judges require they maintain the status quo) rendering their “review” of judges ineffective. (They turn a blind eye to complaints against judges who are disloyal to the law). Senator John Andrews has (unsuccessfully) tried to address this, and a recently introduced bill (by Mr. Sommers) to reform “judicial review” methods died in Committee last month, allegedly because judges are just too good and we don’t need reforms. You need to expose a few more stories like this Manzanares story. Maybe then, judges will be embarrassed into operating with integrity.

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Lisa Pummel of Centennial writes:

The hype and panic around prairie dogs reads like a scene from a science fiction movie. “The maniacal alien dogs are taking over our planet! Everybody run for your lives! I know, let’s poison them! No, let’s blow them up!”
Okay, movie lovers, put down the popcorn and get out your science book.
Did you know that prairie dog tunnel systems are believed to help channel rainwater into the water table to prevent runoff and erosion, and also can serve to change the composition of the soil in a region by reversing soil compaction that can be a result of cattle grazing?
Did you know that prairie dogs are known to control the populations of several weed species, such as mesquite, which has been found to overrun some lands where prairie dogs are no longer found?
The prairie dog is a recognized keystone (or integral) species of the short -grass prairie ecosystem. They contribute to the lives of other mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects of the prairie, by providing habitat and food. Abandoned prairie dog burrows are frequently used as homes by burrowing owls, white-tailed rabbits, badgers, weasels, snakes, and even foxes. As a prey base, the prairie dog supports a wide variety of species including the swift fox, the coyote, weasels, snakes, hawks, eagles, and the endangered black-footed ferret.
Before we blast or poison an important species off the planet, let’s educate ourselves about the bigger picture of the balanced ecosystem that supports life at all levels. Perhaps the “teachable moment” before us is that when man has historically taken a careless shot at nature, he has often reaped pollution, disease, global warming and other unexpected consequences. In the name of what’s “best” for man, we’ve hurt the planet we need to survive.
There is no doubt that prairie dogs can be a nuisance. There is proof that prairie dog towns can be destructive to the land. But is it wise to destroy the environmental house to exterminate the bugs? Let’s not allow science fiction to answer that question.
For more information, contact Rocky Mountain Animal Defense at www.rmad.org

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Richard Postma of Littleton writes:

There is an interesting analogy between the perjury conviction of Lewis Libby and the perjury impeachment (but no criminal trial) of Bill Clinton, which led to acquittal by the senate.
Clinton’s defenders pointed out that perjury is seldom prosecuted, but it was also pointed out by others that usually perjury is prosecuted if the perjury contributed to an acquittal for a related crime! It is dropped if discovered in time to convict in the criminal case.
Now consider the two cases, where things worked out backwards. Libby was prosecuted and convicted of perjury during the investigation of a matter that turned out to not be a crime. That is, no related crime, no prosecution or trial, let alone an acquittal!
On the other hand, Clinton committed perjury during a trial for sexual abuse for which he was acquitted, before the perjury was proven. If it could have been established that Clinton made a habit of using subordinates (Monica Lewinski, et al) for his sexual gratifications, it would have been much more likely that Paula Jones could have obtained a conviction for Clinton’s attempt to use her. So under the conditions stated above, Clinton should have been prosecuted, but Libby should not!
Now I wonder if Sandy “Burglar” will be prosecuted for theft of classified documents and lying about it!

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Howard Morton, executive director of Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, writes:

Attorney General John Suthers partisan attack on the House Judiciary Committee is unbecoming to the statewide office he has been accorded by Colorado voters. We are particularly offended by his remarks that “folks there are not as interested as Republicans in your public safety” with reference to the committee’s vote in favor of House Bill 1094 which proposed the abolition of the death penalty with the savings invested in resources to solve Colorado’s 1200 unsolved murders.
First of all, the vote in favor of HB 1094 was a bipartisan 9 to 4.
Secondly, Mr. Suthers testified against the bill but offered no alternative for funding the assets needed to track down the killers walking among us, the murderers living in our neighborhoods.
The Attorney General and the Governor (both former District Attorneys) have turned their back on this problem: In Colorado, three out of ten killers are never prosecuted for their heinous acts. Of the 4000 Colorado murders committed in the past quarter century, one person has been executed. The cost to taxpayers: $4,000,000 per year.
I believe most Coloradans would agree that this money would be better spent investigating cold murder cases than paying for those kinds of results. As for the families of these victims, we don’t appreciate having our issue cast as a political football. Most of us are willing to exchange vengeance for justice.

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Liz Morse of Denver writes:

i am writing this email in response to an article i read in today’s paper called ‘music may ignite mayhem’. i am an avid ICP fan and have been for many years. i have not beaten, stabbed, shot, axed, or committed any kind of violent act against ANYBODY before or since i have been listening to the music. i am actually convinced that the message behind their music has pulled me out of a serious rut. what is the message i’m talking about? WE ARE NOT ALONE. ICP is positive about god, family, and close friends.
i have listend to ICP for quite some time, and so far, i have turned out fine. i am successful in school, and am starting college early by the way. the point i’m making is people who listen to the Insane Clown Posse or any other group signed to the label are not deranged maniacs who randomly go out and kill people. we’re fans of music. since when is that a crime? and for the media (you) to go and broadcast this image of us as some violent sub human culture is wrong and extremely offensive. the image the outside world projects of us makes it difficult to get jobs, go to school, and even walk down the street. the police hassle us, teachers and people in positions of authority treat us like a cancer that they have to keep isolated before we infect the other kids in school or on the street. it’s crap.
also, i noticed there were some lyrics printed by the article from two CDs that ICP has put out. i’d like to add on to these with some lyrics i feel are better to represent the juggalo community. they go like this: “Truth is we follow GOD, We’ve always been behind him, The carnival is GOD and may all juggalos find him...”
-Thy Unveiling; The Wraith Shangri-La in conclusion i’m an extremely offended by this article, and i’m sure i’m not the only one. small minded people fear what they don’t understand, and now i know just how small minded my community is.

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Beverly Morrisey of Littleton writes:

Each day I read letters in the RMN from so many of you whose thoughts and beliefs are also mine. You recognize an ignorance and disregard of morality and social issues in our country. You love America and want to keep it safe. How can we all join to form a voice? Hopefully the RMN will print this but there’s no guarantee.

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Kyle Miller of Boulder writes:

The recent controversy over the new energy drink, Spike Shooter, has unleashed a damning and destructive image for all energy drinks on the market. Media outlets do not understand what ramifications a headline like, high school bans energy drink, can have on an entire industry when really only one reckless company is to blame. It is the classic childhood case of someone ruining things for the rest of us.
First of all, Spike Shooter should not be granted the privilege of being called an energy drink. A caffeine supplement would be a more appropriate title given the 300 mg of caffeine per 8.4 ounce serving. Other popular energy drinks such as Red Bull and Rockstar only contain 80 mg per 8.4 ounce serving. In addition, Red Bull and Rockstar are ripe with vitamins, taurine and other components that produce energy. Spike Shooter is deficient in those ingredients, but is abundant (1,057 mg) in the mysterious Spike Shooter Formula as listed on the can’s nutrition facts. Spike even has to carry a warning to its consumers telling those under the age of eighteen to avoid the drink entirely, but even those who are of age should begin by drinking half the can. I have never heard of a company that asks you to waste half of their product to fully enjoy it, have you?
Most energy drinks are not dangerous and do not send customers straight to the hospital. In fact energy drinks are a great way of achieving that quick pick-up when the midday drowse plagues your afternoon and they make an awesome study aid for students. So don’t let Spike Shooter’s image ruin energy drinks for everybody and next time you visit a convenience store consider a Red Bull or a Rockstar or a Monster; they are all still friendly to the body.

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Leroy M. Martinez of Denver writes:

So the Lafayette family and the young girl that is accused of killing her mother want to be let out to attend her mother’s funeral. This is so she may grieve like any other young person. I say that any other young person does not plot or take any actions in killing their parents.

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David A. Lien of Colorado Springs writes:

As a lifelong outdoorsmen and a former Air Force officer, I’m concerned about the few remaining wild places and wide open spaces (i.e., roadless areas) in Colorado. A recent roadless areas editorial from a Front Range paper said, in part, that Governor Ritter’s hesitation in adopting former Governor Owen’s roadless petition is “an attempt to overturn the apple cart on behalf of those who didn’t get everything their way on the roadless issue.”
First, public backing for protecting all of Colorado’s roadless areas was demonstrated unequivocally by the outpouring of support for the 2001 Roadless Rule and in public comments documented by the 2006 Roadless Area Review Task Force (RARTF): In both cases, over 90 percent of Coloradans requested the complete protection of all roadless areas in the state.
So, most Coloradans were taken by surprise when they found out that in the Owen’s Roadless Petition fine print, low and behold, there were some juicy special interest giveaways inserted at the last minute: nearly 400,000 acres of industry concessions, primarily ski areas and coal mines. Now that the Owen’s give-away language has seen the light of day, the public does not support it. Even our own Division of Wildlife (DOW) doesn’t support it!
Along with the good folks at DOW, we hunters and anglers are simply trying to protect the last public lands outside of wilderness where we can walk away from the ugliness of development and the noise of OHVs to find undisturbed, high-quality hunting and fishing habitat. Yes, as the editorial in question clearly stated, this is about “access.” As our public lands backcountry becomes increasingly overrun with oil and gas fields, clear-cut logging, and more new roads and trails, illegal as well as legal, we who are traditional, muscle-powered, quiet-use recreationists are having our access stolen. We are not fighting for ideals, but for survival and our fair share of the public lands pie.

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Mark Lewis of Colorado Springs writes:

On the issue of the bill to stop the expansion of the Army’s Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS) in southeastern Colorado, I would like to add some points.
I believe the Army’s analysis.
The analysis from the “After Action Report” on the invasion of Iraq: “The roots of the (3rd Mech) division’s successful attack on Baghdad are found on the training fields of Fort Stewart, Fort Irwin, and Kuwait.”
They further conclude, “The division owned and influenced 16,100 square kilometer battle space (230x70km),” AND “the National Training Center (Fort Irwin, 642,000 acres) rotations produced a seasoned fighting force that was trained and ready to fight and win on any battlefield.”
This analysis from the Army makes some very important points. There is NO mention of the PCMS for training needs, as the existing training grounds were, in the Army’s opinion, perfectly sufficient.
Their analysis not only makes the point that it is NOT necessary to train on 16,100 square kilometers, to be prepared to fight on 16,100 square kilometers, but in the Army’s opinion, the training they got on the existing training grounds prepared them to fight “on ANY battlefield".
I believe the Army’s analysis.
The failures in Iraq have been political, diplomatic, and ideological, not military. Training for the urban warfare of the present conflict doesn’t need vast amounts of space, especially, in the case of the PCMS expansion, an area from Colorado Springs to Denver (65 miles) and as wide as the distance from Colorado Springs to Kit Carson (130 miles). This is 8,800 square miles they want to take by Eminent Domain! The 418,577 acres commonly quoted, is ONLY phase 1 of the seizure. The 18 year plan is for 5.5 million square acres!
I Believe the Army’s analysis.
I think they have admitted they don’t need to expand the PCMS to be trained sufficiently, in fact there is no indication they need the existing PCMS, they already took by Eminent Domain, at all.

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Doug Leek of Arvada writes:

I am amazed at the hypocrisy of conservatives and liberals alike, who have put on the false front of righteousness in their attack on Ann Coulter.
Liberals are gleeful today that they have the opportunity to defame a popular conservative figure even though a recent comment by a liberal Bill Maher, that a Dick Cheney assassination would’ve been beneficial, has slipped under their radar. Conservatives, on the other hand, are bowing to the political correctness that has enveloped our society and are merely engaging in political pandering. Half of them probably laughed hysterically when they first heard what Coulter said, as I did. Well, I for one think it’s ridiculous to even give Coulter’s remarks a second thought. Should she have spoken this word? No. It’s not a nice thing to say. Get over it! Should I have laughed? No, but I’m human and it was funny. Get over it! If you’re in your thirties or forties, you remember being called this word a thousand times in school. If you went home crying to mama, she probably told you to get over it. If she pandered to your insecurities, then she was doing you no favor. Let’s not pander to silly insecurities and focus on the weightier matters of life.

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James Kottenstette of Denver writes:

Whenever I see a number like 16,203 reported in the newspaper, I stop to see if the story is about something that was actually “countable.” When I find that the count is really a guess, then I wonder what is the matter with the reporters and editors.
What’s the agenda? Why do they permit guesses to be reported as facts...particularly when a State Agency is the source of the guess? Why am I hassling you? You know darn well that 2981 homeless persons, included in the precise total of 16,203 persons, were not counted at all. You led your readers to believe that 2981 homeless persons, persons that could not be found for the survey, should be included and conclusions drawn as presented in your article.
The real story here is that 18.4% uncounted maybe a good guess, or a terrible guess. What I am saying is that you needed to know something about the confidence level attached to this guess and how the missing people were apportioned into the different Colorado regions in order to bring this story into sharp focus.
Better yet, report the actual distribution of 13,222 persons surveyed last August, and then tell the reader if an error in the experts’ WAG of +18.4% additional homeless persons would impact public policy in hitherto unsuspected ways. You know, is a better guess 4,000 or is it 1,000 homeless people left uncounted, and so what.

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Denis Gessing of Denver writes:

Regarding Ms. Marjorie Brown’s Letter ("Print too small, light") Could not agree with you more, Ms. Brown. Could hardly get through the best story of the day, regarding those young folks who, along with ACLU have taken on the Bush administration for denying them admission to a public meeting.
But I can barely get through other stories of less interest. The reason being that the harder it is for me to read the print, the quicker I loose interest. I think I’ve given the new format a fair shake, but as a life long newspaper reader, I feel more than a little ignored by the Rocky.
I know, I know you guys are a big company and need to figure out how to stay competitive. But ask your marketing boys to take another demographic look. I just can’t imagine that this type of newspaper or any type of newspaper is going to appeal to that coveted 18 to 26 year old consumer who is too young and technology hooked to appreciate the pleasures of reading the morning paper.

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It looks as if the new congressional Democratic majority is going to roll over for Bush’s war. The president, after all, is such a compelling political opponent, with less than 30 percent public approval.
And he’s a lame duck, or have we forgotten already?
Our debonair 2nd District representative, Mark Udall, seems quite concerned that the GOP smear machine will charge that he’s soft on defense and lacks proper respect for the troops (“Split on splitting from Iraq,” March 9).
Heavens! That scurrilous charge could sour Udall’s irresistible opportunity to become a U.S. senator next year.
Nobody wants to see Udall’s chance for such a coveted and comfortable seat spoiled in such an unfair manner, certainly not Udall himself. So, he shall vote to fund the Iraq occupation as long as the president wants — forever if need be.
Covering his political rear end while soldiers are killed in a misbegotten war he initially voted against is just the style Udall’s advisers say he needs to credibly compete against his likely contender, the scintillating former 3rd District congressman, Scott McInnis.
Everyone’s looking forward to the debates, for sure.

Cord MacGuire, Boulder

The American people have it all wrong. We won the Iraq war. We fought it to defeat Saddam Hussein. He’s dead. Mission accomplished. Now, we’re involved in the broader fight in the war on terrorism.
Lyndon Johnson started fighting poverty 40 years and $4 trillion ago, and the same people who call Iraq a quagmire would bristle at the suggestion that we admit defeat and quit in that “war.” They are the same people who tell us that poverty is worse than ever.
In 2006, almost 2,600 people were murdered in California. Six hundred were murdered in New York City alone. Seven thousand people died from accidental prescription errors and 100,000 died from medical errors in U.S. hospitals. Let’s not get all weak-kneed because several hundred brave Americans lost their lives so that those same people can practice their particular brand of hypocrisy. That is the ultimate dishonor to our Americans in uniform who risk it all for the stupidity of others.

D.W. Griffith, Denver

Shame on the Rocky Mountain News for calling HB 1011, which would have extended the same legal protections to victims of violent intruders in the workplace as in the home, a “gun bill” (“Gun bill dies in committee,” Feb. 27).
This bill, which was endorsed by the Rocky, had nothing to do with firearms and everything to do with the inalienable right of self-defense.
One can only guess why the Rocky chose to purposely misidentify the essence of this important legislation, which was defeated by the Democratic majority of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.
And one can only guess why the Democratic leadership of the Colorado Senate purposely sent a bill focusing on criminal procedure that was approved by the House and its Judiciary Committee to a committee that has nothing to do with judicial matters.

Anthony J. Fabian, Aurora
President, Colorado State Shooting Association

As most Coloradans know, the elk population in Rocky Mountain National Park has exploded recently, creating a massive problem for the park.
I am a hunter and I believe that a monitored and closely enforced hunt should be allowed, because a hunt would be of greater benefit then culling the herd. People would be using the meat, and might donate it to a homeless shelter or a starving-child fund. This might require a federal law to be changed but, in the end, it would be the most sound and beneficial way to control the population.
Culling would introduce a large number of scavengers to the area, and might have unforeseen aftereffects. A hunt could be as controlled as a culling, and could be raffled, with the proceeds donated and used for the greater good.

Nate Gautier, Aurora

David Pimental of Cornell University has estimated the energy cost of corn production and its conversion into ethanol as 131,000 BTUs per gallon. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of 77,000 BTUs per gallon. Therefore, there is a net loss of 54,000 BTUs per gallon of energy when ethanol is burned in gasoline or via some other method. This loss of energy is wasted except for sending 54,000 BTUs per gallon into the atmosphere and, consequently, global warming.

George G. Risley, Lakewood

I’m so glad we weren’t present when Jorge the jaguar, while protecting his territory at the Denver Zoo, attacked and killed zookeeper Ashlee Pfaff when she entered his cage.
Third in size to the tiger and lion and with the most powerful jaw of all the big cats, who would expect otherwise from such a wild animal?
This tragedy was compounded when a zoo guard shot and killed Jorge. All of this occurred in front of zoo spectators.
Zoo president Clayton Freiheit reportedly said, “We are deeply saddened by this loss ... a part of our family ... one of our own.” Mayor John Hickenlooper said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened at the loss of a city team member and send our condolences to everyone in our community who is grieving this loss.”
What about condolences and grief for the unnecessary death of a magnificent, endangered, captive animal of the zoo?
We are sorry that what apparently was a careless mistake resulted in a human tragedy. But, there are those of us who are grieving for the loss of Jorge, too.

Eve and Judy Reed, Centennial

Thank you, Walker S. “Buddy” Smith Jr., for your level-headed article about delisting gray wolves in the West (“Delisting of gray wolves a good prospect,” Speakout, March 2).
Montana and Idaho have written smart, science-based management plans for their wolf populations. Wyoming, in keeping with its dismal record of politics-based wildlife management, will likely have no say about its wolves for years to come.
Wolves can affect elk populations.
But they also make elk act like elk instead of cows, keeping herd size small and limiting overgrazing in riparian zones. (In areas of Yellowstone, we’re seeing the first regeneration of aspen and willow in 50 years.)
It’s time to let Idaho and Montana manage their wolves as promised, and to join Smith (listen up, Wyoming!) in protecting elk from the real threat to their survival: habitat loss.

Melissa McKibben, Centennial