| |
|
Thursday, August 4, 2005
|
|
Legal Pot?
Dropping the City ordinance against possesion of marijuana will have little effect on enforcement according to the Rocky Mountain News [August 4, 2005, "Denver pot vote mostly symbolic"]. From the article, "Members of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, which gathered signatures to put the issue on the ballot, maintained at a news conference Thursday that marijuana is much less of a societal problem than alcohol. 'We are not encouraging the use of marijuana,' said Mason Tvert, the group's executive director. 'We are defending the right of every adult in this city to make a rational choice about how they choose to relax and recreate.' It still would be illegal to grow or distribute marijuana, or drive under its influence, Tvert added. Denver police denounced the measure, which comes on the heels of two controversial citizen-initiated Denver ballot issues, one that would have banned circuses featuring exotic animals and another that would have required the city to promote peace and tranquility. Both attracted international attention and failed."
Here's the coverage from the Denver Post [August 4, 2005, "Measure on pot may not matter"]. From the article, "SAFER says people would choose marijuana over alcohol if it were legal for private use and that crimes related to alcohol abuse - such as domestic abuse, sexual assault and driving under the influence - would decrease. Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said no city the size of Denver has voted to decriminalize marijuana, although a handful of smaller college towns such as Ann Arbor, Mich.; Berkeley, Calif.; and Amherst, Mass., have. On Tuesday, Telluride's town council voted to make prosecuting adults for small amounts of marijuana the town's 'lowest enforcement priority.' Similar measures have passed in Seattle and Oakland, Calif."
From the Denver Post, "The City Council held a public hearing Wednesday on a proposed charter amendment to eliminate the three-member Election Commission and replace it with an elected clerk and recorder. Only a handful of people turned out, some of whom opposed the proposal on the grounds that there was no oversight board to watch over an elected clerk. Those same people said they feared that having one person rather than three in charge might make the position ripe for political influence. The council is continuing to make changes to the charter amendment and is expected to initially vote on it in two weeks. If approved, the issue will go to voters in November."
Category: Denver November 2005 Election
6:11:14 AM 
|
|
? for President
The Moderate Voice: "A new Gallup poll taking the pulse of voters on the 2008 race has good news for Republican candidates in general and very bad news for Democrat John Kerry in particular."
Here's a short article about immigration and Tom Tancredo's attempt to stoke the fires of conversation from the Rocky Mountain News [August 4, 2005, "Tancredo tour sows national seeds"]. From the article, "State to state, small town to small town, he's spreading the seeds for a national grass-roots movement. The question is whether he can make it grow beyond a core of die-hard local activists so that immigration issues - and maybe Tancredo himself - become serious factors in the 2008 presidential contest."
Westword has a short interview with Jackie Tancredo. From the article: "Q: Has immigration always been a hot-button issue?
"A: When he was in the Statehouse, it was bilingual education. As teachers, both of us believe that the most important thing the government can do is provide the best possibilities for children, and we saw bilingual education as being harmful to them because they were not learning English and getting the fruits of the American society. That was the precursor to immigration. It wasn't a new issue to him; he's always been on the forefront of issues. He started the immigration caucus when he first got to Congress. At that point, there were thirty or forty people. Then 9/11 happened, and it all changed. At that point, everyone started saying we have to re-evaluate immigration."
Political Wire: "A Democracy Corps strategy memo says that despite the defection of many Hispanic voters to President Bush last year -- up 5% from the 2000 election -- they 'remain instinctively very Democratic, but more important than that, they hold values, views of society, the economy and the role of government, as well as issue priorities and hopes for America, that put them deep inside the Democratic world. The Democrats will stem the erosion of the Hispanic vote, not by chasing the defectors or waving the partisan banner, but by rediscovering their own values and beliefs. The route to a national Democratic majority goes right through the Hispanic community, where Democrats will find the themes that best define the modern Democratic Party.'"
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
5:58:58 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/14/09; 7:42:29 PM.
|
|
|
