Opinion

Emily’s List, an organization that was formed to support the election of pro-choice Democratic women, is named based upon what has become an increasingly true idiom of political campaigns. Emily stands for “Early money is like yeast.” Candidates’ ability to raise funds in the early stages of campaigns has something to do with how they will use that money in their campaigns, but has much more do to with how their campaigns are viewed by others.

The year 2010 is shaping up to be one of the most active primary seasons in recent Colorado history. In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet (who was appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter when Ken Salazar became secretary of the interior) faces a spirited challenge from within his own party from Andrew Romanoff, former speaker of the state House.

One of my dad’s favorite stories about me is when he took me to the Big Top to buy a kite when I was 5. We found everything we needed for 97 cents. I handed my dollar to the store clerk and waited for change. When I asked for it, he told me it was for the governor. I said I didn’t want to buy a governor. After my dad and the clerk explained that the governor was going to use my 3 cents for the road to get to the store and the school I would soon attend, I acquiesced and let him keep the change I had anticipated.

After the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy in 1968, his brother Ted ended a moving eulogy by saying, “My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world.”

When members of Congress left Washington to spend their August recess at home in their districts, pundits predicted they would be bombarded with constituent communication about President Obama’s health care reform proposal. Due partly to public interest in the issue and significantly more by sophisticated grassroots efforts by supporters and opponents of the initiative, the pundits have been right.

I’m one of those people who can’t help but shift into lecture mode whenever people complain about jury duty. I automatically launch into how jury duty is a privilege and that it and voting make living in our democratic society so special. Despite my civic pride, I hadn’t been called for jury duty since 1994 and hadn’t been on a jury since 1992.

By Hannah Hayes

For 30 years Iran has slowly been staging a rebellion. The recent election and demonstrations may be a turning point for those with legitimate grievances against the repressive mullahs. It is unclear to what degree there was voter fraud, yet students, women and the middle class have certainly raised profound issues while risking everything. Unfortunately, there is not yet a sufficient coalition present that unites these groups of revolutionaries with labor, military, ethnic groups and oil producers.

In Denver area ice hockey circles, he was known simply as “the goalie in the wheelchair.”

Kyle Stubbs and his chair stopped pucks for a lot of teams over the years: the Warthogs, the Grinders, Berserk, Spitfire, and Chimney Full of Squirrels, to name a few. And he frustrated the shooters of other teams too numerous to list.

On a recent Saturday, many of us who played with and against Kyle gathered at the Promenade in Westminster to say goodbye and to remember a man who refused to accept the limits that life imposed.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. SB 228 certainly proves that adage in Colorado. When Gov. Bill Ritter signed the bill last week, he characterized the bill as taking a big step toward modernizing Colorado’s state budget. At the same time, Josh Penry, the Senate minority leader and a possible challenger to Ritter in next year’s governor’s race, called the bill “California-style taxing and spending.”