Happy Independence Day 2010

I was thinking about what to write for our 4th of July celebration, mulling over why we Declared our Independence. Things that sound eerily familiar drove the founders to take this most dangerous step. Such as, taxation without representation, oppressive rules, interference in commerce. I happened to be cleaning up the driveway on Thursday when Sharon Ryan stopped and we started discussing the sorry state of our country and how the people in power today are marching us headlong to socialism and spending us into 2 or 3 generations of servitude. Sharon then told me a story of an experience she had when she and her husband witnessed a very serious accident at Rocky Mountain Airport. Her story is an allegory about what is happening to our country. I suggested she write it up. She did and here it is – THANK YOU SHARON.

Headed for the Fence

I had an interesting experience the other day. My husband and I just happened to be among the 8 or 10 spectators present at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport when that P2-Neptune air tanker angled off the end of the taxiway and crashed through a chain link fence, coming to rest with its nose in the ground on the far side of 120th Avenue. The event was pretty spectacular, even making national news, but most intriguing to me are the thoughts I’ve had since then regarding the nature of danger and the mechanics of how our minds take its measure; insights that perhaps help explain why people perceive danger so differently, even that of the political kind.

After noting that tankers were flying fire fighting missions between the airport and Rocky Mountain National Park, my husband and I drove out to observe the activity. We were watching a tanker move off the tarmac and down the taxiway with a fresh load of fire retardant when one of the spectators looked to the western sky and said something about catching part of a radio transmission indicating a possible emergency involving the tanker coming in. At about this time we noticed that the newly loaded plane had ceased moving entirely, and we became aware of the faint sound of sirens coming from that direction. We continued to watch the incoming plane as it passed overhead, flew to the far end of the strip, and turned to come in for a landing. When its wheels hit the runway I saw a billow of smoke or dust or tire debris – I wasn’t sure what. Turning off the runway, it continued down the taxiway at a good clip and my curiosity began to turn toward concern. I wondered if it might go straight off the end of the pavement, but aware of my lack of experience piloting a plane, I continued to keep my reservations at bay. Suddenly it angled off onto the grassy median separating the taxiway from the tarmac area. This was definitely something I had never seen before and again I thought something might be wrong, but my explanation at this point became, “Well, maybe the pilot’s just taking a shortcut to the area where the fire retardant is loaded and he’ll change course once he’s on the tarmac.” It was only when the plane was halfway across the tarmac, had not slowed down, had not turned, and contact with the fence was inevitable, that the situation became unequivocally incongruent for me. I could then banish from my mind all alternative explanations for what I was witnessing and finally conclude that something was truly wrong.

I have considered at what earlier points along the way others may have reached the same conclusion. I asked my husband when he knew for certain something was amiss. His longtime interest in aviation, coupled with his experience piloting small aircraft gave him an edge – the plane crossing onto the median was the conclusive piece of evidence for him. Obviously the pilot and copilot knew there was a problem well before that, reportedly a loss of hydraulic fluid, as did the control tower dispatchers, privy to communication with the pilot, but at what point did they each know the extent of the danger, that the plane was going to crash through the fence and that anything was game beyond that? The firefighters, too, had warning of trouble, and the pilot of the waiting aircraft had contact with the tower, but when did those who load the retardant know for certain? What did they clue into? And me – why did it take so long for me to put the pieces together? And what finally, for my mind, made the conclusive piece of evidence conclusive? Besides a suspension of belief attributable to the rarity of this kind of event, I have no experience piloting planes, virtually no experience seeing them in trouble, virtually no experience assessing clues relative to their status, and certainly these factors contributed to my slow response. But I also have an inherent, abstract faith in “pilots”, similar to what I have in “doctors” or “good people”; I simply assume they know what they are doing, have their situation under control, and direct reasonable actions toward reasonable outcomes. It is this faith, especially, which kept my interpretation in check, which kept me from tumbling to the seriousness of the situation. I gave the pilot the benefit of every doubt – I invested him with authority, competence. I recognized trouble only when my own critical mass of incongruity was reached, and it was reached only when I was certain the plane was going through the fence. At that moment I recognized the event as a crisis; at that moment the event became spectacular.

Perhaps you can see where I am going with this relative to the political danger that many of us perceive our country to be in today. Many of us feel we have seen enough to conclude that, unless we change course, the plane will crash through the fence. We see, for example, the relentless centralization of power and the concurrent curtailing of individual and economic freedoms. We are aghast at the copious amounts of money being spent and with no glimmer of restraint in sight. We perceive the antagonism directed toward big business and the ongoing denial of the value big business provides to our society. We see disdain for individual empowerment, the bedrock endowment of this nation. We see the inability of our current leaders to objectively evaluate reality and deal with it effectively. We see our prosperity being squandered.

We see these signs and more and can only wonder what additional evidence others can possibly need to likewise see that the plane is headed for the fence. But, like me watching events unfold at the airport, they simply don’t sense the danger yet. They do not attribute significance to the above concerns. They have faith in the pilot. They believe he must know what he is doing and that his actions must be directed toward desirable, attainable outcomes. They have not yet been faced with their unequivocal incongruity. Spectacular simply hasn’t happened yet.

Sharon Ryan
Broomfield, CO
July 3, 2010

Wow! What an Assembly (Photos at FLICKR)

May 22, 2010.

Pictures on FLICKR:
State GOP Central Committee Meeting 21 May 2010 HERE.
HD33 Assembly 21 May 2010 HERE.
CD2 Assembly 21 May 2010 HERE.
BBQ 21 May 2010 HERE.

The Main Event – Our 2010 Assembly HERE.

The last two days were the most fun I’ve had in a long time. And, we sure had some great results. How ’bout Ken Buck, JJ, and Dan Maes? The roof came off the Budweiser Event Center today. I’ll bet the papers will be very interesting tomorrow and given that I saw Lynn Bartels there, I expect some fair coverage. Don Beezley will be on the primary ballot for HD33; Stephen Bailey and Bob Brancato for CD2. One thing is for sure, it ain’t the same old Republican party and the new folks that have joined us have shown that hard work pays off. I knew all of you newbies would be great for our party — THANKS so much for your leadership!

Results – (over 3500 ballots cast):

U.S. SENATE
Robert Greenheck: 2%
Cleve Tidwell: 15%
Steve Barton: 1%
Ken Buck: 77%
(Jane Norton and Tom Wiens are petitioning onto the ballot.)

GOVERNOR
Dan Maes: 49.35%
Scott McInnis: 48.89%
Yoon Joon Mager: 1%
(Candidate Joe Gschwendtner is petitioning on the ballot.)

TREASURER
J.J. Ament: 79%
Ali Hasan: 20%
(Walker Stapleton is petitioning onto the ballot).

Candidates need to get 30 percent of the delegate vote to get on the primary ballot outright. If they get between 10 and 30 percent, they can petition on to the ballot.

Thank you so much to all the Delegates and Alternates that stepped forward and did the work to make it all happen and to our County Officers and helpers. We only had 3 delegate no-shows today and were able to promote alternates to vote 42 of our 43 allocated ballots (one person had to leave for an emergency after the cutoff time).

Let’s get some rest and then launch the next phase to our big WIN in November. We are off to the races.

Erich

Successful Lincoln Dinner

A great time was had by all who attended our annual Lincoln Dinner on Saturday night April 24th. We heard from our Master of Ceremonies, Mike Holler, author if “The Constitution Made Easy”, Jon Caldara, who gave an emotional speech about this countries’ wonderful healthcare system, Stephen Green, Editor of PJTV, who told us to redouble our efforts to save the country and Tom Tancredo who talked about guns and our freedom. It was a great venue with a very nice and comfortable setting at the Omni Interlocken Resort Hotel. Thanks to all who turned out to support our party. Your donations to our party are important, especially this year, to ensure we win and stop the move away from Constitutional governance. And, a special thanks to Joan Griep who put together a great event.

UPDATE 5/6 – I received Ryan Springers photos this afternoon and they are now added to Rick’s photos – see Flickr HERE.

Erich Feigel, Chairman

Broomfield At the Tea Party

The Tea Party at the Capitol today was well attended. My estimate is 2500-3000 there and nice day at that. Broomfield was very visible with Francesca working the program, Shawn Mitchell giving his usual rousing speech and Jason Worley giving a great speech as well. I ran into many from Broomfield including Joanie, Tom, Mark, Steve Bosley (who was due to speak as I had to leave) and others. Of course, John Caldera fired up the crowd and we listened to some great singing from the Capitol steps.It was a good, well behaved crowd with lots of entertaining signs. If there were infiltrators I didn’t notice them (I had my arrow sign that said “Infiltrator” but I didn’t use it) — we were having too much fun soaking up the event and feeling like we are all of one mind about taking our country back. A good day and a perfect day for a motorcycle ride.

Thank you to all Broomfielders that helped put on this event.

Erich

Stay Mad !! – Lest We Forget -

Update 6/29/2010 - “Lest We Forget” was the name of an Algebra textbook I remember from High School. Constant reminders of what we learned yesterday cement the learning (I hated that book). I’ve left this post here because we need to remember what this administration and the congress did to this country with the Healthcare debacle. Unfortunately, the public has a short memory, so it is up to us to remind our friends and neighbors what awaits us as this government takeover of our Healthcare unfolds.

03/22/2010 – Last night was a spectacle that will live in my memory for a long time and in the history books of my children and grandchildren. This Congress, in the form of 219 people has foisted on the American people an insult to our founders. Not only will this take our country even more in the red than we already are, we have told the American people, in a big way, that personal responsibility is no longer required — nanny will care for you. In addition, we can only imagine the back room deals that were made to pass this monstrosity. In the coming days and months I am sure we’ll find out who was paid with our money. What would Thomas Jefferson think of the process that we witnessed last night? The people were not listened to; the arrogance was and is astounding.

So, I am sure you are very mad, I am! What we have to do is continue to work our plan to get Republicans elected at all levels of government and in November make a sea change to arrest this juggernaut. My advice is we re-double our efforts and above all STAY MAD until November 2nd. Don’t let down — I won’t!

Erich Feigel
Chairman

County Assembly

Thanks to all who participated and were promoted and Ratified by the County Assembly to go on to State, HD33 and CD2 Assemblies representing Broomfield. We have some great candidates and heard form many them and/or their representative. John Suthers got a fantastic reception/ovation because everyone knows what he is doing to make sure the Constitutionality of Obamacare is settled. We filled all of our Delegate slots for State (43), CD2 (43) and HD33 (43).

All Resolutions passed with the exception of the one that had to do with women serving in combat (42).

Thanks to all that came and a special thanks to all that helped manage the event.

Next stop – the State, HD33 and CD2 Assemblies in May.

Erich

What Does a PCP Do?

Lifted with Permission from Christa Huff’s BLOG.
Christa was instrumental in training many many activists and injecting lots of energy into the whole caucus process.
Her work is appreciated by many.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010
What Does a Republican Precinct Committee Person Do?
The role of Precinct Committee Person (precinct chairman, precinct leader, etc.) is a self-styled creative marketing role for the local Republican Party. You can acquire computerized access to precinct voter lists from your County’s Republican Executive Committee (or your District Captain).

You can think up different ways and different reasons to contact local voters. Until you start gathering email addresses, this will mostly be by phone, or door-to-door.

At your leisure, spend 5 – 60 minutes here and there contacting local voters and finding out which political topics and volunteerism they’re interested in. You can offer them:

…invitations to conservative/GOP events, meetings, rallies, debates, protests…
…hand out flyers re: such events or issues (e.g. healthcare, TABOR, guns…)….
…hand out pocket Constitutions….
…plug people into political campaigns…
…make introductions between the voters and candidates, legislators or group leaders…
…ask them to march in parades….

etc.

Collect email addresses and take notes on the people you meet. Find an organized way to keep track of these people on your computer. Send them a relevant email every two-four weeks.

One key aspect of this role is that you want to find a way to stay in touch with the people you meet. Otherwise, your first contact with them is almost pointless.

I took down email addresses and notes, and started a newsletter. That was exactly two years ago. I now have 800 names on my mailing list and sort of became famous just by opening my mouth and saying stuff to this audience. Crazy, huh? If you don’t know what to say to your new audience, always offer a short variety of information. You can invite them to the next monthly GOP meeting, invite them to a political event, forward something interesting from a political email, and ask for a specific type of volunteer. People will slowly start to respond after each newsletter goes out.

The folks who respond will become your precinct volunteers. They’ll help you when it’s time to go door-to-door and make phone calls for a specific purpose.

Call later when you’re ready for more ideas, and also add me to your brand new political mailing list.

Good luck!

Crista Huff
District 6 Captain
Douglas County Republicans

303-683-0783

Erich Talks to George Brauchler 850KOA

I had a chance to call in to George Brauchler who was sitting in for Michael Brown on 850KOA about the Caucus on Wednesday night the 17th. I was responding to some negative comments on the turnout and wanted to leave a more positive impression over the airwaves.. HERE

Young Republicans

I attended the monthly meeting of the Denver Metro Young Republicans (DMYR) last night (Tuesday the 26th). As always, we non-young Republicans are well received by the next generation of our party leaders and it’s always a fun time to network with like-minded activists. Their leader, Brett Moore, runs a tight ship. We heard from many candidates and I was privileged to be on a panel with 6 other county chairs. We discussed what is happening in our respective counties and took questions from the audience. The venue is Hamburger Marys on 17th Ave — check it out (the Link is on the LINKS column – DMYR). Our own David Pigott was there representing Broomfield. A new Broomfielder was there as well, volunteered and is anxious to get to work.

More at BusinessWord BLOG.

Erich

Conservative Values Win in MA

There can be no doubt. After the Scott Brown win in MA, it is clear that the American people want limited government, fiscal responsibility and elected officials that listen to us. Our values, as described on this website and all over the Republican Party are the values that will carry us to victory in 2010. Congratulations to Scott Brown and to all the American people who helped make noise to get him elected and to make “them” hear us. Shout our values loudly!

Erich

Next Page »