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Hefley Still Refuses. . .

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Friday, September 08, 2006 2:17:36 PM
Hefley still refuses to endorse Lamborn and claims it won't hurt the party statewide.

A friend and I were discussing the impact of party splits on other historic elections.  He suggested that I look at the 1912 down ticket effects of Teddy Roosevelt's run for the Presidency against Taft and Wilson.  Republican losses that year in the Senate and House were catastrophic.

Hefley's decision will hurt Beauprez, if it stands. 

We Republicans are training voters that it is ok to go to the polls and not vote races because this party leader or that party leader is unhappy with the outcome of a primary.  Eventually, we will teach them not to bother to vote at all.
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Finally, Some Sanity

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Friday, September 08, 2006 9:29:37 AM
It is not my intent to make this blog an echo chamber for any set of ideas.  Echo chambers add very little value.  Yet, today, I discovered Michael Medved's column "Message to Death Wish Republicans:  You can't win by losing." 

I am a fan of short blog posts because I think people read them.  Medved's article is a bit too long for my taste, but it makes exactly the points I have been trying to make since this blog began.  Medved is speaking to a national audience.  My value added is that  over the next few days, I intend to take Medved's points and try to apply them to our state.

For now, please take the time to read Medved's article.  I'd suggest you read it now, and come back to it and read it again tomorrow.  It is that good, that important.
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Campaign Tip-Rude Hang Ups

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Friday, September 08, 2006 12:02:20 AM
***Note:  When I am giving "tips," these will be things I have learned as personal life's experiences.  While I am using them in the Beauprez campaign, I brought them to the campaign, the campaign didn't bring them to me.

I like to make campaign phone calls, and I am moderately good at it.  Someone new to the campaign heard my telephone technique today and asked if I had ever been in sales.  Well, I have been.  I have written about my Southwestern Co. experience. 

In addition to that, I spent three years as a ROTC enrollment officer, which is a fancy term for recruiter.  I was successful enough at that that I didn't get fired.  Actually, my job was safe as I was the only officer willing to make phone calls.

Anyway, back to the tip:  Everyone who makes phone calls gets hung up on, sometimes politely, but sometimes rudely.  If you think about it, a person who hangs up rudely is trying to pass judgement on the caller, trying to shake him.  I handle this by simply writing "rude hang up" on my call sheet.  That is not really useful information to the campaign, but it does allow me to pass judgement on the caller, and be the last to pass judgement on the event.  By the time I start dialing the next call, I have put the whole thing out of my mind.

This also works for walking precincts.  Just write down what happened, and you are passing judgement on the person who was rude to you.
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Dem 527s and Other Tricks

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Thursday, September 07, 2006 10:31:43 PM
Dem big donors aren't so big this year, except in Colorado. 

In an earlier post, which due to a bug that no longer exists, is black on blue I mentioned these millionaires, and Colorado's campaign finance reform which is not designed to get money out of politics, but to get Republican money out of politics.

Over the next couple of days, I will be researching the fundraising addresses of the targeted campaigns and posting them on this blog.  If the Dems can hold the legislature, expect Colorado to lose 3-4 Republican Congressional districts to Gerrymandering in 2012.  Also, expect them to try to redirect some electorial college electors to the Democrats.

If what is going on in Colorado isn't on the national Republican party's radar, it should be.
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Useful Rules

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:29:10 PM
Some years ago, as I was getting ready to retire from the Army and leave SDIO, I spent about six months trying to distill some of the things I had learned into what I called "Useful Rules."  I thought of them tonight as I was writing the last post.  For what it is worth, here they are:

Sell the Product-Show and Tell-Audience/Time/Message/KISS

Think Security-Convenience Doesn't Equal Smart

Quit While Ahead-The Best is the Enemy of the Good

Think Ahead-Tomorrow/Next Week/Next Year

Work Together-Cooperate or . . .

Customer Driven-Desire/Use/Afford

Sense of Humor-Keep it . . . or Lose it

These seem to apply even in politics.  They were never copyrighted.  Use them as you wish.
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Gotta Love Chafee

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Thursday, September 07, 2006 7:36:08 PM
Not even 24 hours passed before Chafee embarrassed me.  Even so, the point I was trying to make stands.

Chafee's actions allow me to make another point.  If party discipline had held behind Coors two years ago, Republicans wouldn't need Chafee.  Now, instead of being able to rely on Coors and ignore Chafee, we may find the Senate being pulled to the left, not only by Chafee, if he survives, but by three, four, or five new Dem Senators.

There is an old saying with many versions:  "Don't let the best be the enemy of good enough."  Coors was good enough, and certainly far better than Salazar, as many who sat on their hands two years ago may soon discover.
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I Almost Got Killed in Nevada

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Thursday, September 07, 2006 6:58:00 PM
As you get older, you think back to the dumb things that might have prevented you from getting older.  I'm talking about terminal stuff, of course.

In 1970 to 1971, a bunch of highway workers came close to getting me killed in Nevada.  I was driving east through the state, and came upon a work zone and slowed down.  It was well marked, but empty of workers.  The next work zone was well marked as well, but equally empty of workers.  The third work zone was likewise well marked but with no one to be seen.

By the time I came upon the fourth or fifth such zone, I had decided that there was no real reason to slow down.  Sure enough, that last one not only had men working, it had the traffic stopped dead.  I was going fast enough that I had to go off the road to avoid rear ending the last guy in line.  I don't remember that my car had seat belts or if I was wearing them, so I might very well have died, or killed someone--all because workers who want to be protected from traffic don't realize how dangerous it is to leave signage up when they are not in the zone.

I bring this up because on northbound I-25 at mile 167, there has been a 60 mph sign and two fines doubled signs all summer.  The traffic totally ignores these signs. 
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Why I'd Vote for Chafee

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Thursday, September 07, 2006 12:00:49 AM
I knew that would get your attention!  But, I would.

Let's face it, Lincoln Chafee is as close to being a Rockefeller Republican (them's fight'n words) as anyone since Rockefeller.  If I lived in RI, though, I'd vote for Chafee in a heartbeat against any conservative primary opponent.  That doesn't make me a lover of Chafee.  I doubt that we have much in common.  What it does make me is a practical Republican.

Some Republicans love to carry around big butcher knives, ready at a moment's notice to cut off their nose to spite their face.  Instead of being content with control of the Senate with the help of an occasional Republican like Chafee, they'd much rather give it up to the Democrats by forcing Chafee off the ballot.  It is a matter of pride to them.

Control of a 50-49-1 Senate is not unimportant.  The controlling party names committee chairmen and it gets two extra members on each committee, including Judiciary.  Chafee might never vote for a single conservative judge, but his presence in the Republican Caucus makes it much more likely that conservative judges will make it to the floor for a vote if four other Republicans bite the dust this fall.

Practical Republicans who want more conservative judges, as I do, wouldn't be cheering on an unknown RI coservative who has no chance to win in the general election.  I disagree with the Powerline folks on this one.

Would I vote for Chafee in a primary if he moved to Colorado?  Are you kidding?

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Slow on the Posting Tonight

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 10:56:30 PM

Now that I've realized that some folks might not have been able to find my blog, I've spent some time going back to make sure that people who I have expected might criticize my blog postings actually saw them.

My biggest concern is with the chairperson of the judicial district retention commission, who ought to have a chance to respond if that is desired.  I have dispatched the following email:

Dear

It turns out that I needed to include http// in the address to my blog.  It is: http//collandp.townhall.com.

If you haven't been following it, I think you might find it reasonably well written and totally lacking in anger.  It is critical of your commission's decision on the judge, but I hope objectively critical.

I am betting that a retention commission will not soon again take public input as damaging as the input I provided you and summarily dismiss it.

You are free to comment on any posting on my blog, and I want you to do so if I have misrepresented any of my input.

I will be posting this letter on my blog without our names.

/signed/

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http// REQUIRED

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 10:43:12 PM
I've been working with Josue of townhall.com to try to figure out why some folks (including me with one of my computers) couldn't go directly to my blog simply by typing the address into my browser's address box.

It turns out that some browsers drop the collandp part of collandp.townhall.com if "http//" doesn't preceed it.  This sends the computer to the index page of townhall.com.  It is possible to get to this blog from there, but it is not obvious.

If you have told a friend about this blog, please go back to him/her and have them put http//collandp.townhall.com in their browser's address line.

DO NOT USE "www" in the address line.

Thanks much Josue!
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Slowing Down a Bit

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 10:01:01 AM
I'll not be posting as often as I have been.  I have found a glitch in the system that makes it very hard for new readers to get to my blog. 

Unfortunately, this means that I can no longer be confident that the reason that the chairman of the retention commission, for example, failed to comment was because she had no comments, or because she couldn't figure out how to get to my blog.  One would think that if she didn't find my blog, she would have shot me an email, which she has not done.

Legal ethics and enforcement isn't just a Colorado issue.  To my knowledge, no one else is blogging or regularly commenting on it.  People who are unhappy with Kelo, or Roe, for example, are unhappy because the legal ethics system broke down.  They may not realize it, because no one else has ever put it in those terms.  I intend to put the issue in just those terms.  

Getting these issues in front of the public is the first step to getting them fixed.  I intend not only to identify the problems, but, as I did with CRS 13-5-136, suggest solutions.  Unfortunately, I'll have no impact if people can't use routine internet addressing schemes to get to my blog.

I'll still post, but it won't be five or six posts a day.
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You Meet the Most Interesting People PART 1

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Tuesday, September 05, 2006 11:12:44 PM
I have found that being involved in a campaign is both interesting and rewarding in so many ways.  I had the pleasure of walking with Kevan Worley in the Fountain parade.  We both wore Beauprez Blue.  Kevan lead the cheers for Bob and for Ed Jones, and rousing cheers they were!

I didn't take my notebook, so I don't have a lot of information to share, but Kevan is blind and has been since birth.  While many of us would think that a handicap, I doubt Kevan does.  It certainly hasn't stopped, or even slowed him down in the business world.  I do not believe that I have met a more positive, more energetic, more outgoing, or more enjoyable person to be around. 

Kevan is the President of the National Association of Blind Merchants, and is a very successful businessman in his own right.

If the G-T wanted to do a story on Kevan, I'd be an avid reader.  He has much to offer the rest of us.  I hope he won't mind me making that suggestion.
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Fixing CRS 13-5-136

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Tuesday, September 05, 2006 9:15:01 PM
I'm not going to rewrite the statute.  That's not my job.  If it gets rewritten as the public interest demands, it should address the following issues:

1.  Litigants must be informed that CRS 13-5-136 exists by the judges in their litigation, not by attorneys, and not through attorneys.  The beauty of requiring judges to inform their own litigants is that it almost ensures that there will be no more late decisions.

2.  If a litigant makes a complaint to the Commission on Judicial Discipline alleging a violation but fails to invoke this law, then the Commission must ascertain from the litigant in writing whether he/she wishes to invoke the law before proceeding.

3.  The litigant should be required to itemize all damages in the complaint, including compensation for the time the litigant himself lost.  Any funds collected from the judge are to go to damaged litigants, to the limit of their damages, with the excess going  into the state treasury.

4.  The Commission on Judicial Discipline should be required to report annually in aggregate the total number of judges fined, the total damages claimed, the total salary forfeited, the total damages paid, and the excess funds returned to the treasury.  This report should be accessible on the internet.

5.  A provision requiring judges to pay the penalty even if they have resigned or retired.

6.  The current statute has no statute of limitations.  If one were placed on the new version of the law, it could force damaged litigants to make a complaint before their litigation was finalized.

Currently, there is no mechanism for a litigant who is damaged by a judge to be made whole.  This is a partial fix to that problem.

Yes, I am aware of the secrecy requirements of the Constitution.  I will be discussing their approprietness in later posts, and not favorably.
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I Trust Bob Beauprez to . . .

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Tuesday, September 05, 2006 10:40:32 AM
Beauprez will nominate men and women of the quality of Judge Shakes to to state supreme court.

The Trial Lawyers, on the other hand, want Liberal Lawyer Bill Ritter to put the same kind of openly partisan liberal hacks on the bench that Lawyer Roemer and Lawyer Lamm did.  

Trial Lawyers vote with their checkbooks, and overwhelmingly support Ritter, but is what they want good for Colorado?
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Judge Shakes, Part 3

Posted by NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Tuesday, September 05, 2006 10:23:31 AM
The G-T finished its three part series on Judge Shakes.  I have never met Judge Shakes, nor have I met any of the other judges who have served in the 4th Judicial District.

I am a fan of judges who have extensive experience as military judges, and would like to see Judge Shakes eventually serve on the state supreme court.  Here's why:

1.  Without doubt, the US has the best military in the world.  A significant reason for that fact is that military officers, unlike much of the rest of society, consider their word their bond.  Officers who fail this test are eliminated early in their career.  Unethical officers simply don't have a career.  A Colonel, and Shakes is a Colonel, has met and passed this test many times in his career.

2.  Army Colonels, even members of the Judge Advocate General's Corps, don't brook nonsense.  They are both hard nosed and fair at the same time.  In a volunteer army, soldiers don't willingly follow officers who aren't considered fair, or if they do, their morale suffers.  (If there is one thread through this blog, it is that my judge has not only been oblivious to the nonsense being pulled by the defense attorney, he has been studiously oblivious-yet he thinks highly enough of his own qualifications that he apparently applied to fill the last supreme court vacancy!)

3.  One of the qualities I want in all judges is the ability to put aside partisan politics and judge each controversy solely on the constitutions, the law, and the facts.  The current state supreme court majority is made up of the most unapologetically partisan individuals I can imagine being promoted to that high office.  Contrast that with a judge who has training as a military judge.  Most Americans would be hard pressed to identify any military officer who does not suppress his political opinions.  Regulations require it, and they are enforced. 

4.  We actually have a very good set of judicial ethics rules and lawyer ethics rules on paper.  The problem is that no one, not the lawyers, not the judges, and especially not me believes they will be enforced.  This wouldn't be a problem if the supreme court had justices of the quality of Judge Shakes.  It doesn't.
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