Denver Direct: November 2013
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Friday, November 29, 2013
NEWS MEDIA NEGLIGENT, PUBLIC UNINFORMED ABOUT TREATY SCHEME
Commentary by Dave Felice
Dave Felice |
Coloradans who get their news from local media won’t know much about the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a so-called international trade agreement. Only Denver Direct is carrying news and comment about the TPP.
Daily newspapers ignore or dismiss news coverage. The story is too profound for broadcast media. Community newspapers have not yet realized how a treaty with Pacific nations can devastate local government and the local economy.
For example, most Coloradans don’t know that members of the state’s Congressional delegation declined to join 194 House members, Democrats and Republicans, in signing joint letters against the treaty.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette made a weak statement about opposing the “Fast Track” approval process. Rep. Ed Perlmutter said the bipartisan letters had “too many adjectives,” and composed a tepid letter on his own. Congressman Jared Polis issued an unpublished statement about “transparency and balance” in the negotiations. The Republicans from Colorado stayed silent.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership could destroy a just-launched state program to boost Colorado exports, especially agricultural products.
In another instance, Colorado residents who care about how and where food is produced would be shocked to learn that TPP promotes importation of products from Vietnam, a totalitarian nation with substandard health requirements and no limits on child labor. TPP also eliminates “country of origin” labeling.
Because the Fourth Estate has betrayed the public by ignoring the story, I have set up two online petitions: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/denver-post-dont-ignore
These petitions are similar. One is a “short” version and the other is slightly longer. Anyone can sign both petitions. Both petitions demand better news and commentary about TPP.
Sign one or both petitions. It’s one way to make your voice heard in opposition to the unbalanced secrecy surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Some 600 corporate “advisers” have online access to the TPP text, while members of Congress must sit in a locked room somewhere in the Capitol building to read it, with a
guard stationed outside. And because the text is classified “secret,” it is kept completely from the American people. The public is considered a “trade barrier” by the U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Michael Froman. Media that once scrupulously guarded the public trust by publishing The Pentagon Papers and reporting almost non-stop about Watergate are not only negligent, but complicit in keeping the story away from the public. Some newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times, add insult to injury by giving valuable space to commentary from Secretary of State John Kerry, whose “insights” about trade amount to nothing more than love letters to the TPP. At the same time, the paper slices well-crafted rebuttals from TPP opponents, such as Sierra Club’s Michael Brune, down to a few paltry lines. The daily publication in Denver, however, can’t even manage to do that much. The Denver Post has rejected independent commentary which included links to substantiating data. Daily newspapers all over the country and other mainstream media – with few exceptions – have done a terrible job of covering this story. The public has a right and a need to know that TPP has very little to do with trade. It’s simply a convenient end-run around pesky regulations – “barriers to trade” in corporate parlance – that keep multi-national corporations in check. TPP would encourage sending more “middle class” American jobs overseas and undermine nearly every regulation protecting workers, consumers, public health, and the environment. TPP would further deregulate banks on a global level, help drug companies extend patents indefinitely, and turn our Internet service providers into the thought police. In short, it’s a terrible deal for everyone except a few heads of state and the collection of multinational corporations who stand to profit, and handsomely, if it passes. And sadly, the whole nasty scheme is supported by President Barack Obama, a Democrat elected as a champion of populism.
Join the campaign to demand that news media do their job and cover the TPP story. Sign the petitions now.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
THE SHRINKING OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
From the INC President, Larry Ambrose
Larry Ambrose, INC President |
For better or worse, I came to INC after years of involvement with many neighborhood zoning and open space skirmishes. In recent years, however, it seems that the public has become used to -- even numbed to -- Mayors and City Councils who seem to have become uncompromising cheerleaders for powerful development interests. If you are fortunate enough to live in a stable neighborhood not overrun by the stampede toward density, you probably don't live in the inner city.
There seem to be a number of reasons why people now perceive development interests to have carte blanche in Denver. Most obvious is the tradition of “courtesy zoning” about which I have written before. Despite Council's quasi-judicial responsibility, this is the very real, but unwritten rule, that a large majority of Council members will support and vote on site-specific zoning matters according to the wishes of the Council member whose District is effected. As a result, developers have learned that it takes only one vote to get a zoning change in Denver. Perhaps the most notorious example of Council's allegiance to courtesy zoning was the Lowry Vista rezoning in 2009. Despite the fact that the subject of the rezoning was an unmitigated, toxic waste dump, and that opponents stayed until 2 a.m. to voice objections to it being developed, the Council overwhelmingly (12-1) followed then Councilwoman Marcia Johnson's lead to approve a massive 400,000 sq. ft. commercial mixed-use development.
WE WAS "ROBB"ED
Also from Westword - As seen in the fotochop illustration above, City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb, who has confessed to pot smoking during a public hearing of medical marijuana dispensaries, could be featured as The Chronic Woman. |
Councilwoman Jeanne Robb now has an amendment named after her - The Robb Amendment. This amendment redefines "public", when it comes to smoking cannabis, to be anything that can be seen from a public space, e.g. your front yard, your back yard if you don't have a privacy fence, and even the inside of your house if it can be seen through a window from a sidewalk or street.
Moreover, the draft defines "openly" and "publicly" as, respectively, "occurring or existing in a manner that is unconcealed, undisguised or obvious" and "occurring or existing in a public place; or occurring or existing in any outdoor location where the consumption of marijuana is clearly observable from a public place," with the latter including but not limited to "streets and highways, transportation facilities, schools, places of amusement, parks, playgrounds and the common areas of public and private buildings or facilities."
As usual, go to Westword for the whole story. Denver Post coverage here.
Monday, November 25, 2013
THC NEWSLETTER UPDATE from JESSICA LEROUX - November 25, 2013
I hate the DEA... I blame the MMED for us seeing them.
I wanna state something on my posotion on last week's raids...
It enrages me that local regulatory incompetence has brought us to the problems faced in other states with federal scrutiny...
I personally have no problem with who was targeted. long time readers of my newsletter know I warned about the target being somebody to avoid repeatedly... as i have watched these guys cut a swath of destruction across many good clients of my business. many of us have been waiting and hoping the $$$ paid to the STATE regulatory agency in good faith would be used to clear out this cancer from our industry... I am positive of at least a dozen formal complaints about Lazlo Baggi filed with the MMED going back to early 2012... In my one on one meeting with then new director Laura Harris in Feb of 2012 I was questioned about his business practices and told the truth of what I knew... YET we must wait over 20 months and two directors of the STATE agency with NO action taken or proof any investigation ever happened, and its a jewelery bust and some damn guns that finally take the dirtbag down??? SO basically the do nothing MMED allows this fuck with dozens of complaints of flagrant violations of regulations to swallow up a dozen honest mom and pop operators for over a year, and their incompetence brings in the FEDs instead of the proper regulatory agency doing their job using their funds to clean up the ranks and protecting local industry from Federal scrutiny... BTW Vertical integration is what lead to this guy (with the big ass yucky buggy grow of weed too nasty to sell instate) stealing businesses from the orginal owners... And the fuck Lazlo didnt even get arrested...
Saturday, November 23, 2013
GOOSE POOP IN THE LOOP? Bright blue plastic tubing doesn't belong in City Park
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Friday, November 22, 2013
Twenty story buildings - Sloans Lake
► Help pass out flyers door to door. You may pick up packets Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday November 25, 26 and 27. During that time, you will be able to pick them up from the home of Cam and Lynn Cornish at 1941 Lowell Blvd. (720-375-0888). Please feel free to knock, however, should no one be at home, the packets will be left in a box in a conspicuous location near the door. Packets of 30 flyers, along with a script and map of the blocks households to contact will be made available. Also, rather than asking that you pass them out at a specific time, you may chose to pass them out at any convenient time between Monday, November 25 and Sunday, November 31. Please feel free call 720- 490-1991 or email LDA@earthnet.net if you have any questions. (Copy of Flyer attached)
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Bad Breaking News
While I was giving an interview on Skype regarding Cannabis in Colorado, the DEA, IRS and local gendarmes were Pounding the Plant (tm) at as many as 20 local dispensaries in Denver. As usual WESTWORD has it covered here. Be certain to read the comments.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
MORE LOOPY CITY PARK PLAN
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
In memory of Edward F. Trumbule - born Nov. 13, 1913
Edward F. Trumbule at 18 |
Monday, November 11, 2013
THC NEWSLETTER by Jessica LeRoux - November 11, 2013
Hey Now!
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Congressional oversight of foreign trade is essential
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
DMV NEWS
WE ARE DENVER
FORMER CITY OFFICIAL FILES ETHICS CHARGE AGAINST PAST PLANNING BOARD CHAIR
Monday, November 4, 2013
Denver International Airport Opens 10 Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in Parking Garages
MILLION MASK MARCH - November 5, 2013
Million Mask March (Denver)
Created By : American Revolution: Colorado Springs
Editor's note.
BLOG ARCHIVE
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2013 (346)-
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November (23)- NEWS MEDIA NEGLIGENT, PUBLIC UNINFORMED ABOUT TREA...
- THE SHRINKING OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
- WE WAS "ROBB"ED
- THC NEWSLETTER UPDATE from JESSICA LEROUX - Novemb...
- THE MYTH OF PUBLIC INPUT: ONE HOUR COURTESY PUBLIC...
- GOOSE POOP IN THE LOOP? Bright blue plastic tubing...
- Twenty story buildings - Sloans Lake
- Bad Breaking News
- STOP THE UGLY!
- THE SUNSHINE FOOD PROJECT - IN OUR 'HOOD
- Don't forget - Large Item Pickup is only once ever...
- MORE LOOPY CITY PARK PLAN
- In memory of Edward F. Trumbule - born Nov. 13, 19...
- LOOPY HANCOCK PLAN FOR CITY PARK
- THC NEWSLETTER by Jessica LeRoux - November 11, 20...
- Congressional oversight of foreign trade is essent...
- DMV NEWS
- CLASS: GROWING MEDICINE UNDER ANY CONDITIONS
- WE ARE DENVER
- FORMER CITY OFFICIAL FILES ETHICS CHARGE AGAINST P...
- PERLMUTTER ON TPP
- Denver International Airport Opens 10 Electric Veh...
- MILLION MASK MARCH - November 5, 2013
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