TNDP Chairman Talks Voter ID on This Week with Bob Mueller
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011Chairman Chip Forrester talks about the new voter ID law and the GOP primary on This Week with Bob Mueller.
Posts Tagged ‘talks’
Redistricting talks may have come to an end without agreement
Monday, April 25th, 2011Senator Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, said today that he would likely introduce two redistricting map bills into the Senate after committee talks broke down on redistricting. Heath said there was no reason for further conversations with Republicans, who he said did not have authority to negotiate.
Though bipartisan cooperation on redrawing congressional lines was heralded by Republican and Democratic leadership at the start of the session, those talks appear to have now failed.
Heath said that co-chair Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, had been sincere in the creation of his maps. He went on to say that it was equally clear to him that Republicans had not been given the authority to negotiate with Democrats.
“When you don’t have authority, there is no place to start talking,” Heath said. “That group had no authority to negotiate with us–that became clear.”
Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, said he would be willing to return to the tables if progress seemed likely, but from what he had seen so far, he said progress was unlikely. He said he had given Heath late bill authority to introduce the redistricting maps.
Republicans have continued to call for Democrats to return to the table and have said they wanted to throw the old maps out and start drawing all new maps.
Talks broke down after Republican maps paid little heed to competitive districts and Democratic maps radically reshaped districts in order to make them more competitive.
Heath said there needed to be a foundation to create a compromise. He said he hoped his bills would start that process.
Heath appeared to have no more interest in continuing discussions in the redistricting committee.
Heath said his bills will be introduced later this week, but told the Colorado Independent that he did not want to say yet whether he had incorporated Republican ideas into his map.
Video: Gay activist Lt. Dan Choi talks DADT at CU
Saturday, December 4th, 2010BOULDER – Prominent gay rights activist Lt. Dan Choi delivered an impassioned speech to hundreds of CU students on Thursday, offering his personal story on the military’s “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” gays in the military policy.
“The transition from a military leader to a gay activist leader is not something everyone gets to experience,” said Choi. “Although my journey has not been easy, I have never felt more free than I am now.”
One month after Choi publicly announced his homosexuality on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009, the military began formal discharge proceedings against him, resulting in his expulsion from the military in June.
Choi is a West Point graduate who is fluent in both Arabic and Korean. Choi is one of 59 Arabic translators who have been discharged from the military under DADT from 2004 to 2009, according to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
“We could sit here all day and talk about the numbers, 13,000 that have been kicked out, and so many more who leave each year because they can’t deal with lying. We could talk about .3 billion dollars,” said Choi. “We could talk about the entire waste of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell but I think it’s a little boring to talk about numbers.”
The majority of Choi’s speech centered not on politics or numbers but rather on the key events in his life that landed him where he is today.
CU Cultural Event Board Chair Caroline Clark helped coordinate the event in order to “raise awareness on campus and provide an educational forum so that students can form their own opinions.”
After speaking to audience, Choi held a Q & A with students in which he criticized both major parties and prominent politicians for not repealing DADT.
Sen. John McCain received strict condemnation from Choi for his shifting positions in blocking repeal.
“McCain is dishonoring our country,” said Choi.
The event came as the repeal of DADT is picking up steam in the Senate after a Pentagon report concluded that allowing gays to serve in the military presents a low risk to military effectiveness.
Today Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., became the second Republican to announce his support for the conditional language in the defense budget bill legislation that would repeal DADT.
Openly gay Colorado Representative Jared Polis who has been a strong supporter of repeal, went on the Ed Show Thursday to criticize McCain and other GOP senators opposing repeal.
“I hope we can get this thing done and I hope McCain doesn’t stand in the way,” Polis said. “This is just a stigma that maybe just a few old white senators have but the men and women of the military are long past this.”
At the event, Choi also spoke to the wave of homophobic bullying that has resulted in suicides during the past year and connected them to DADT.
“Our courage is the only thing that can stop these suicides from happening and that courage is saying something.”