(A home in Malibu) was practically the only one on the street left untouched."Maybe it was because of the Ben Franklin plaque I had on my garage," (the owner) said in jest. Several years ago, (he) bought the antique plaque; a colonial-era sign that indicated residents had paid into a fireman's fund of the time.

"Ben Franklin pioneered the idea of a public fire department," (the owner) said. "In those days, if your house caught fire, they would send a fire truck to put it out if you had one of these plaques on your door."

From the 1976 movie Network:

Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

Howard Beale: [shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
[shouting]

Howard Beale: 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:

Howard Beale: [screaming at the top of his lungs] "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

Denver voters: Just vote NO on A thru I!!!
Where to drop off your ballot?
See bottom of this entry.

It's not enough to just vote NO. Many discourage voters are not returning their ballots. Send emails and make phone calls to your friends, encouraging them to vote, and to just vote NO. This election may be closer than is generally thought, taking a couple of hours of your time now could make the difference.

Read over my posts here the last few weeks, then take action TODAY!!!
Here's a recap of some points you might want to make in your emails and phone calls:

1) THE MAYOR IS NOT MEETING DIRECTLY WITH VOTERS TO ANSWER THE MANY QUESTIONS.

It wasn't a face-to-face town-hall meeting, but a 21st century "virtual" version in which Mayor John Hickenlooper fielded voters' questions about his plan to create "a better Denver" by raising property taxes.
A week before Election Day, Hickenlooper connected with more than 2,000 voters Tuesday in a conference call.

"It's much more difficult than talking to a room of 300 people," Hickenlooper said of his third such event in recent weeks.

I wasn't invited to this, were you? Is the Mayor afraid of a live face-to-face meeting with the voters? He says it's more difficult online, then why not call an open meeting to answer questions?

We've invited the Mayor to the Denver Grassroots Rally, but he's declined.
http://cocacop.meetup.com/2

2) THE LOCAL MEDIA IS SPINNING TO STORY, NOT REPORTING IT FAIRLY

Click here: Rocky Mountain News series on A thur I

My letters to the editor put online, never printed in the paper:

Vote no on A through I
John Wren of Denver writes:

Denver voters should send a clear message with the ballots now being received in the mail.

Just like the hippies put women & kids up front in confrontations with the police in demonstrations in the 60’s, Mayor J-Hic forms , staffs, and then marches behind “citizen committees” which stifle any organized opposition from forming.
Preschool kids, the arts, Denver teachers, a new jail, have all been subject to J-Hic’s “women & children up front” campaigning. Is Denver better? No.

How well has J-Hic’s “citizen committee” worked with the homeless problem in Denver? Take a walk through civic center park and decide for yourself.

$1 million has been amassed from those who will get the $550 million from what has been called by one concerned leader, “an alphabet soup grab for cash.” The million dollars is being called “a good investment.” This is an end-run around representative democracy. It is Enron-style politics.

Wake up Denver! Stop the insanity! Just vote no on A thru I.

This letter has not been edited.
Posted by denver-admin at 02:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

And this, which I'd sent as an individual, the News added
the GOP info, clearly to try and minimize the impact:

Anti-bond issues comments diluted

Did the city pay for the series the Rocky Mountain News ran about the upcoming Denver election — what Denver GOP chair Mary Smith has told reporters is “an alphabet-soup grab for cash”?

I spoke with a reporter several times and made it clear that the election should be seen as a referendum on Mayor John Hickenlooper’s poor performance and people should just vote “no” and that perhaps it was time to Kick Hick.

My comments were watered down dramatically (“A backlog of upkeep/Mayor says mill levy hike offers ongoing fix, but foe questions past maintenance efforts,” Sept. 29), and Smith’s comments were not reported at all!

What has happened to the idea that our newspapers are watchdogs on city government? Ever since the Rocky-Post joint operating agreement came into being, it has become just one dysfunctional family — the newspapers, Denver city government and the bonding companies, contractors and others who end up with the cash.

Denver voters who want to send a message should just vote no.
John Wren
House District 5
Republican chairman
Denver
Posted by denver-admin at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack


There were no comments to my letters BECAUSE COMMENTS WERE NOT ALLOWED!!! And neither letter was actually printed in the paper. The search engine on the Rocky Mountain News website doesn’t bring up the letters when searching on DENVER ELECTIONS or any other term I try. The News is clearly using their website to further spin the story in favor of the mayor.

3) BALLOTS NEED TO BE RETURNED NOW, AND A FEW VOTES COULD MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

Click here: Reasons to vote NO on A thur I.

Denver voters can now drop their ballots off at one of 16 drop-off sites.
The drop-off locations below will be open:
Through Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 (10 a.m. to 7 p.m.)
Monday, Nov. 5, 2007 (10 a.m. to 7 p.m.)
Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007 (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.)

1. Athmar Recreation Center, 2680 W. Mexico Ave.
2. Barnum Recreation Center, 360 Hooker St.
3. District 3 Police Station, 1625 S. University Blvd.
4. Eisenhower Recreation Center, 4300 E. Dartmouth Ave.
5. Glenarm Recreation Center, 2800 Glenarm Pl.
6. Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center, 4890 Argonne Way
7. Harvey Park Recreation Center, 2120 S. Tennyson St.
8. Hiawatha Davis Recreation Center, 3334 Holly St.
9. Montbello Recreation Center, 15555 E. 53rd Ave.
10. Montclair Recreation Center, 729 Ulster Way
11. Scheitler Recreation Center, 5031 W. 46th Ave.
12. Tattered Cover BookStore, 1628 16th St.
13. Tattered Cover Book Store, 2526 E. Colfax Ave.
14. Wellington Webb Municipal Office Building, 201 W. Colfax Ave.
15. Westerly Creek Elementary School, 8800 E. 28th Ave.
16. Elections Division Office Lobby 303 W. Colfax Ave. (Colfax & Court Place)
(The Elections Division Office will be open at 8 a.m. on the above dates and drive-thru ballot drop-off is available beginning at 7 a.m. on Election Day on Court Place between Colfax and 14th St.)

Is the Denver GOP dead?

Sunday (Oct 28) I sent out an email to hundreds of political activists and GOP leaders encouraging them to go to the Denver Post endorsement of A thru I, make a comment there, and then email their friends in Colorado encouraging them to do the same. (See copy of my email on Oct 28 posted here below.)

How many did it? None. There were NO additional comments on the Post website this morning.

I sent a personal email to one of my most politically active friends, encouraging him to join the fight against A thru I. The result? He sent out an email this morning supporting Ron Paul.

Long time GOP activist friends of mine refuse to put up a “Vote No on A thru I” yard sign when I tried to give it to them. “Of course we voted no, but this is a sensitive issue with our neighbors.”

I sent out 200 letters thru the mail asking for help and got 2 volunteers.
Based on all this, I predict a big, big victory for J-Hic’s A thru I. Denver looses again.

WAKE UP DENVER!!! YOUR EMAIL NOW TO YOUR FRIENDS ON A THRU I WILL ENCOURAGE THEM TO VOTE NO AND RETURN THEIR BALLOTS!!! Go to the Post endorsement at http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_7153084, post your comment there, and then email your friends encouraging them to do the same!

Maybe the Denver GOP is not dead, but just in need of a good nap!

The evidence is mounting that a short afternoon nap, for an otherwise well-rested, healthy person, is good for the heart.
A recent large study of 23,000 people in Greece, published in the Feb. 12 Archives of Internal Medicine, showed a 37 percent reduction in heart attacks among people who napped at least three times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes. That study was the first to weed out sick and sedentary nappers and control for physical activity and diet, which might have colored results of other studies showing no benefit.

"I love to nap," says Dr. Robert Downey III, chief of sleep medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Southern California. "I recommend napping."
But he cautions that for a nap to result in increased alertness, it probably should last 20 to 30 minutes.

"With a light nap, you get that soothing, biological benefit, but you don't have to fight your way back to consciousness," he says.

Since 1994? I've been holding a weekly meeting I now call the Denver IDEA Cafe for people who want help as they start a new career, a new project, a new campaign or a new business. It's not meant to become a weekly habit for anyone, just a boost when looking for a new direction.

I just sent this to Denver the media in Denver, so if you want to be at the brainstorming table (the first 12 to RSVP each week sit at the "inner circle" and brainstorm) RSVP now!

November 2, 2 p.m. Denver IDEA Café_ Jim Saylor www.YellowHatMarketing.com and Mary Jo Claussen, Las Brisas de Mexico will speak. Meeting is free and open to those starting a new career, a new project, a new business, or a new campaign. Startup experience is shared and there is brainstorming. RSVP at http://ideacafe.meetup.com/1 or (303)861-1447.

Location: Panera Bread, 1350 Grant St., Denver, in the community room.

Many, many Denver voters will be casting their ballot after taking a look at the today's daily newspapers. Your email to your friends could make a difference.

Go to the Denver Post endorsement, post YOUR comment, then forward it to your friends, like I'm forwarding this to you right now!

Then Just Vote NO on A thur I!

They brought down the Soviet Union with fax messages, surely we can defeat A thru I with emails!

John Wren