Archive for October, 2006
By now, it's no secret of the Aspen Daily News' pro-Braudis Bias--a bias, in fact, so extreme that it is compromising the paper's integrity as a so-called news source. During this election, the paper has eliminated the firewall between news and editorial in relentlessly attacking Magnuson in purported "news stories" (e.g., the performance art); fighting Magnuson's statistics and calls for change with rhetoric (but no substantiation); and publishing push polls on its website seeking not insight but influence; while failing to challenge Braudis' claims (whether it be DUI arrests, violent crime statistics, etc.) or putting a fraction of the scrutiny of Braudis' past behavior or record.
Today's Daily News endorsement of Braudis thus is anti-climatic. Even its condescending, at times nasty tone is not surprising. But what the editorial points out--aside from reinforcing its bias--is just how much the paper lags in quality from its cross-town rival. We are rapidly shifting from a two-newspaper to a one-newspaper town. For instance, statements like "voters here don't fall for Magnuson's rhetoric and fuzzy math, which he's managed to paint with a sweeping brush that would have been best left in his studio" reinforce the paper's pro-Braudis themes of the campaign, including its own tired rhetoric of Magnuson running for performance art. Seriously, this performance art theme is so tired, even a Red Bull followed by a doppio espresso wouldn't wake it up.
On the contrary, The Aspen Times's recent endorsement for Braudis gives a fair and balanced take on the campaign. It credits Rick for running an "aggressive campaign" but says "we feel we already have a solid, upstanding sheriff with a deep understanding of Pitkin County". It moved well beyond the "art" theme by saying "At first many Aspenites thought Magnuson's bid a joke, given his part-time occupation as an artist. But Magnuson took the race seriously."
Let's compare the two endorsements.
Continue Reading October 31st, 2006
"Fiddler on the Roof" tells the story of Tevye the Dairyman, whose hold on tradition in the fictional czarist Russian town of Anatevka is tested by the successive marriages of his three oldest daughters. What began as classic Yiddish literature has developed into a universal story about the dissolution of the Old World in the face of modern complexities.
Continue Reading October 31st, 2006
Rich in historical and ethnic detail, Fiddler on the Roof has touched audiences around the world with its humor, warmth and honesty. Its universal theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion, leaving audiences crying tears of laughter, joy, and sadness.
Continue Reading October 30th, 2006
The West has finally won out.
How else to explain what I was feeling as I looked out the tenth floor window of the JW Marriott Denver at Cherry Creek, with the carpet of the Rocky Mountains stretched out along the horizon like a sentinel. In the days and weeks just past, I had returned to my past--to New York, Boston, and Vermont--I had gone East, my friends, and found that there was nothing left back there for me.
Continue Reading October 29th, 2006
Did director of investigations Joe DiSalvo of the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office violate the law when he failed to arrest a repeat drug dealer in Aspen Village in 2004? Not everyone was convinced by the post by Michael Conniff, AKA the Con Man.
“Con Man could, however, get proactive,” writes PastorMustard. “Shave his head, get a neck tattoo, strap on a wire, and write, ‘NARC FOR RENT’ on his t-shirt. Get something big on this guy whom con man and alphoid [Alpha 6] are dead certain was dealing.”
Continue Reading October 29th, 2006
I don't care if you are Red or Blue. I don't give a flying flip if you are Republican or Democrat. I could care less if you are a Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, etc, etc. Why can't we just all agree that we have a very real opportunity here to tap into the scientific options on the table. Via science, we have the opportunity to turn the tide on incurable diseases.
Continue Reading October 27th, 2006
I have a lot of contempt for the Grand Oil Party composed of miscreant masters and mental midget rank and file sheeple, as a general rule, and on the national scale. There is not a single Republican in any state I would vote to send to the House or Senate. I hope my registered Republican friends will vote their conscience, and not their party. I consider the RNC and electoral leadership nothing short of insidious evil and political cancer. Their rank and file sheeple are mainly Taliban Christianites, cheering for death and hate, with a Bible used as the blunt force traumatising instrument. Honest to God, (no pun intended) short of death by natural causes, I don't think anything can be done with this party, just get them out.
Continue Reading October 27th, 2006
With all the hype surrounding the Pitkin County Sheriff’s race, I thought it would be entertaining to take a look back at the last time Aspen politics stole the national media spotlight, the 1970 race between Carrol D. Whitmire and Freak Party candidate Hunter S. Thompson.
Continue Reading October 27th, 2006
There is no better place to deal drugs than Pitkin County, if a report filed by Pitkin County Sheriff's Office's Director of Investigations Joe DiSalvo in September 2004 is any indication. This latest information, obtained by Aspen Post, also answers the charge of local columnist Jeremy Madden, a Braudis apologist.
"There have been shifty and spineless attacks on the Sheriff that have mede allusions he is is not enforcing the laws," Madden wrote in the Aspen Daily News. "If someone has actual proof of this then it should be brought forth.... Just because he's not gung-ho to have is people spying on their fellow citizens does not mean he's not enformcing the laws."
Here, then, is actual proof that the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office does not enforce the law against dealers of hard drugs, as gleaned from official Pitkin County records--the horse's mouth, if you will.
Continue Reading October 27th, 2006
The much-maligned media is no longer in media res--Latin for literally in the middle of things-- because the center can no longer hold.
But in the place of the media comes something far more powerful and profound: you.
That's right: you are the media now.
Continue Reading October 26th, 2006
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