CU is currently developing a $9 million program which will bring nationally recognized conservative scholars to teach on the Boulder campus. The program will allow CU to create an endowment for a visiting chair in conservative thought.
What exactly is the push for this crazy idea? It all arises from the Republican penchant for self-victimization. The whole world is out to get every singe Con-servative, according to them. The push is coming from entities like the American Enterprise Institute and the Independence Institute who have conducted “studies” demonstrating how crazy liberal every public college in America is. What doesn’t get related by the corporate media is AEI and II are funded exclusively by conservatives. Their “studies” are slanted from the start to show what they want them to show. Because they’re so well funded and organized, they can push things like hiring a “chair of con-servative thought”. How then, you might ask, could a place like CU in “ultra-liberal” Boulder even consider such a thing? This is what happens when a partisan like Bruce Benson is hired as University President. I haven’t read any stories about how CU is suddenly swimming in cash due to Benson’s superior fundraising abilities. But CU is suddenly getting a chair in conservative thought. Gee, I wonder how that happened. Can you imagine the screams from the Cons if CU were to hire a chair in progressive thought?
[Update 11:50p]: Likely my last update tonight. I have another all-day meeting tomorrow that will be brutal to sit through if I stay up any longer. I’m watching a couple of numbers: IN, OH, VA, NC, FL Presidential numbers. The vote differential in these states (O-M) at this time stand at: 23,000 (IN), 160,000 (OH w/ 83% precincts reporting), 121,000 (VA), 12,000 (NC), 200,000 (FL). If these differentials don’t change, that’s an additional 25 electoral votes (IN & NC); OH, VA, FL have been called already. But these are small vote differentials. The fact that these five states have likely voted for Obama is amazing. A whole lot of blue has been painted over the country tonight.
[Update 11:30P]:
A clear trend has emerged: Coloradans don’t want to amend their Constitution.
A46: 50%-49% (N-Y)
A47: 55%-44% (N-Y)
A48: 73%-26% (N-Y)
A49: 60%-39% (N-Y)
A50: 58%-41% (N-Y)
A51: 62%-37% (N-Y)
A52: 63%-36% (N-Y)
A54: 48%-51% (N-Y) the only one so far
A58: 57%-42% (N-Y)
A59: 55%-44% (N-Y)
[Update 11:15P]: The b.s. spin by Cons has begun on CNN. This election did not bring in a new set of conservative Democrats to Congress. It brought in a set of Democrats that are proud of being Democrats; proud of being liberal. America is a more liberal country than it is a conservative country. The corporate media has, unfortunately, spun a very different story to the American people for too long. Americans want solutions to the climate crisis, the occupation of Iraq, the economic crisis, the health care crisis, etc. Americans tonight quite clearly rejected the failed Con policies of the past 30 years. They want to move in a very different direction. That means that Obama doesn’t need to cater to the right-wing extremists that have taken over the Republican party. He should interact honestly with moderate and liberal Republicans, because they more accurately represent more Americans. The pundits will try their darndest to move Obama to the right over the next four years. It is up to the 3 million+ donors to Obama’s campaign and his 55 million voters (so far) to ensure he stays true to what he ran on during this election.
[Update 10:45P]: President-elect Obama had another outstanding speech. America did not vote for fear or anger this year. America voted for opportunity and equality. I didn’t keep good track of the state-by-state electoral vote calculations, but Obama has 338 to McCain’s 156 right now. Again, Obama has garnered more electoral college votes than Bush did the past two elections. Obama has also taken the lead in Indiana, which has 11 electoral college votes as well as North Carolina, which has 15 electoral college votes. Obama is behind in Missouri currently, which also has 11 electoral votes. I don’t expect final results from Missouri for quite some time – tomorrow at the earliest. They have some repressive voting rules, unfortunately. Obama currently leads in Montana, which only has 3 votes, but would represent a major political coup if he can win there.
Senator-elect Udall’s lead is 53%-43%.
Polis’ lead is 60%-36%.
Markey’s lead is 56%-43%. Post calls it for Markey.
Republican’s ceilings in Colorado seems to be 43-45%.
Unfortunately, Amendment 58 didn’t get passed. If it passed, oil and gas corporations would have paid the taxes they owe to the state, instead of using a loophole to avoid doing so.
[Update 9:00P]: CNN just called the race for Obama nationally. I cannot believe what I’m hearing. I’ve waited 8 long years to see a Democratic President elected. I hope this result holds. CNN has projected 297 electoral votes for Obama, 139 for McCain. Those 297 are more than Bush received in 2004 or 2000. Let’s start talking about mandates, shall we?
[Update 8:25P]: Obama is up in Colorado 55%-42% with 16% of precincts reporting. Mark Udall is up by a similar margin: 55%-40%.
[Update 7:45P]: Dropping down into Colorado, Mark Udall is performing well in early returns versus Bob Schaffer: Udall is up 50%-39% with 8% of precincts reporting. Betsy Markey is ahead of Marilyn Musgrave 61%-39% with 31% of precincts reporting for CO-04. So far, it’s about 93,989 votes to 61,041 votes. In CO-02, a race I worked on this year, Democrat Jared Polis is leading his wing-nut Republican opponent 67%-30% with 9% of precincts reporting. So far, the vote totals are 36,554-16,117. Jared is going to make an awesome Representative.
CNN has called LA and KS for McCain. No surprises. Still no path toward success with PA and OH being called for Obama.
[Update 7:15P MST]: A number of states have been called. I’ve been tooling around on interactive sites so far tonight while watching CNN, which is doing a pretty good job overall. A couple of early calls, in my opinion, which I’ll get into later. I’ll start with states called for each candidate. Obama has: ME, NH, VT, RI, CT, MA, NJ, MD, DE, NY, NJ, IL and PA. I can’t believe they’ve called PA already. I expect Obama to win it eventually, but I’d like more actual votes to come in. Oh well. McCain has: SC, KY, TN, OK. That’s it.
Obama has had some additional states called: MI, WI, MN, and DC. No surprises there. McCain got some more also: AL, AK, and WY. Right now, Obama’s electoral vote lead is 175-52. Obama needs 95 more votes.
CNN gave McCain ND. I wouldn’t have done that. Obama was polling very well in ND for a Democrat, coming up with right around 50% of the vote in a traditionally deep-red state. It’s not going to make much difference in the electoral collage, but it’s a big swath of red that could change blue. We won’t know until all the votes are counted.
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I’ll update this as the afternoon shifts to evening. Polls likely just closed in portions of IN & KY. A number of states’ polls could close within the hour. I haven’t yet heard of any news reports of polls being ordered to stay open later. I’m also not aware of any long lines in the eastern states. If you haven’t voted yet, get out there and get it done! Nothing is set in stone until you make your own voice heard. I voted early.
There was a lot of news and commentary this weekend after Bush’s Bailout was passed and Sarah Palin demonstrated just how unknowledgable she is about important domestic and foreign policies. The economy has been bad for average Americans for years and this election is critical. So I’m going to stay on top of both issues by pointing to aspects of news and commentary I found. I’ll update this post throughout the day due to the volume of material I want to cover.
1. Democratic Rep. Mark Udall and Republican Bob Schaffer were profiled in the Rocky Mountain News. Here’s a short bio on both: Rep. Udall has spent a good portion of his career trying to improve our energy policies – in Colorado first, and then nationally. There is a long road to walk until we have a renewable energy-based society, which is needed for a healthy climate and national securtiy. Mark Udall will make a decent Senator (note I didn’t say good or great. I have real problems with his centrist approach in general and his recent vote to retroactively immunize telecom corporations who illegally wiretapped domestic traffic). Bob Schaffer used to be a Jack Abramoff yes-man. His actions tell us he is in favor of forced abortions, sweatshops and fossil fuels. His past is well-paved with corruption and Colorado can’t afford to have a 20th century fringe CONservative blocking work to move forward in the 111th Congress.
2. Bush admitted on Friday as he signed his Bailout that the legislation is just “the beginning”. Really? The beginning of what, exactly? The beginning of more taxpayers Bailouts of immoral corporate gambling? Overall, Americans recognized this Bailout is just that. There is no part of the legislation that addresses the actual problems in the economy. No homeowner assitance. No path towards more jobs. No increase in income. The Bush administration will not prosecute the fools that set up this economic collapse. The bottom line: trickle-down (voodoo) economics does not work. Dumping larger sums of money at the top will not make any more fall to the bottom.
3.The Bailout passed because of the tax breaks attached to it. There are many reasons why that fact is odious, but I’ll focus on one for now: all of them already exist. That’s correct: the tax breaks were merely extensions! Entities like the Denver Post, in fact, spent more time opining about the tax breaks than they did about the underlying Bailout. The Senate hadn’t extended any of the tax breaks all year, but managed to stick it on the Bailout so it would pass. Oh, the corporate media also hasn’t reported the reason those extensions hadn’t passed all year: a CONservative Senator from Oklahoma issued a record number of filibuster threats this Congress. One person alone managed to hold up about 100 necessary bills. All so the CONS could run ads saying Congress didn’t do anything all year. CONS put all their focus on elections and none of their focus on governing.
