AUGUST 2011 $10/year

THE NAYSAYER Box 18026; Denver 80218

Stock Show Droppings

24:2 WN 278

The Naysayer of the Month

rchbishop Charles Chaput has been a typical carpetbagger. Unashamedly a Vatican agent, he arrived in Denver at the behest of Rome in 1997 to take charge of the archdiocese. Since then, he has readily intervened in the regions politics, trying to impose theocratic rule. He has highly publicized some Vatican views, especially against abortion, while he has been virtually silent about the popes opposition to the death penalty. He has been missing in loud criticisms of Washingtons violent foreign policy initiatives compared to the pious statements of the pope. Nor has he said much about the obligation of the wealthy to make sure their system does not too severely exploit the poor. Instead of bothering with such issues of social Catholicism, he has eagerly worked to create a semi-secret society within the church, Opus Dei, to assure that political and theological reaction has a free hand. Time and again, Chaput has declared himself a champion of religious freedom. As his views on social and theological questions have made clear, the only freedom he is really interested in is the freedom of the Vatican to operate as an untrammeled dictatorship. Far from respecting the personal conscience, liberty, and decisions of the population, he has sought to impose coercive laws telling them what they cannot do with their bodies and in their bedrooms. As is typical of a dictatorial organization, with no consultation of area Catholics and at the direct orders of the hierarchy, Chaput has announced his departure from Denver to take over the scandal-filled archdiocese of Philadelphia. For leaving the region, he is the Naysayer of the Month. In 2006, with virtually no public debate, John Hickenlooper, with the blatant support of the Sierra Club, foisted a new 20-year franchise on the people of Denver whereby Xcel maintained its complete control of the citys heating and lighting systems. Opposed to this, the Boulder city council has rejected giving the monopoly a free pass on the expiration of the utilitys franchise in the college town. Boulder officials are ready to place on the November ballot the option of a municipally controlled power company. While this is 99 percent bluster, it is an amazing breakthrough in light of the unquestioned belief that giving the private sector everything it wants is the essence of good government. For at least making a few feeble gestures against Xcel, Boulder is the associate Naysayer of the Month.

No Hope, No Change

he Michael Hancock administration is set to be the fourth term of Wellington Webb. Like his mentor, the new mayor has vowed his loyalty to 17th Street. Toward this end, he tabbed the head of Colorado Concern, Janice Sinden, as his chief of staff. This is a secretive, elite corporate cabal founded by Larry Mizel in 1985 in face of the disaster stemming from corporate Colorados embrace of the oil and real estate boom. Besides the usual suspects associated with Brownstein Hyatt, it has included such key players as Joe Blake, Tim Gill, Barry Hirschfeld, Leo Kiely of Coors, Dean Singleton of the Denver Post, and Daniel Ritchie. The organization has been endlessly on the side of those demanding handouts to the rich while screaming about government regulation
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he reason the city had to build a new convention center, politicians explained in the 1980s, was because it would stimulate downtown business. It would especially aid the big hotels and fancy restaurants. No sooner was the new convention center open, often virtually empty, than the city asserted this was because downtown lacked a thousand-room hotel. This led to massive subsidies for such a structure. When it opened and the convention center continued to fail to deliver, the argument was that the new center was actually too small. After a massive expansion, the city then announced it had to subsidize yet another thousandroom hotel. Amidst such endless giveaways, the citys finances have suffered. Aurora, wanting to prove that it can be a great city like Denver, has shown it is ready to fork over its resources in the hope of luring outside investors. In particular, it has announced it will help pay for Gaylord Entertainment to build a massive convention complex near Denver International Airport. The project is designed to arise in the middle of nowhere adjacent to E-470, a spectacularly unsuccessful toll road effort. Having the complex there may well be a means of generating increased revenue for the private highway. Denver officials are at one with Aurora in seeking to bribe Gaylord. At the same time officials are ready to give immense sums to the out-of-state corporation, they are also ready to dump on the poor. They not only want to force the stock show out of its historic quarters, they are also eager to destroy much of the residential base of the adjacent Elyria neighborhood to the north of Interstate 70 near York Street. Here they have advocated building a new 10-lane superhighway requiring the destruction of most of the existing houses. Added to this are plans for a light rail station. The goal, seemingly, is to get rid of current residents and the stock show as part of transforming the area into yet another yuppie village. The effort to move the stock show also illustrates how DIA is a disaster that keeps taking. Since it opened, there have been endless schemes to redress its false promises including a subsidized superexpensive hotel and installing a most costly light rail line. Even more, the Gaylord proposal is indicative of how the subsidy and bribe racket work. Since the 1980s, the stock show has been threatening to move if Denver did not upgrade its facilities. Voters have responded by passing bond issues to give it what it has asked. The more they have done so, the greater have been its demands. Added to all this is a product of the 2009 Democratic-controlled legislature, the Colorado Regional Tourism Act. It stemmed from a pie-in-the-sky scheme to have a super NASCAR race track in Aurora or Commerce City. When the effort collapsed as a completely infeasible project fueled by hot air and foolish illusions, the General Assembly responded by offering numerous tax breaks and incentives to those willing to accept handouts for comparable proposals. Among its sponsors were Jennifer Veiga and Joe Rice. The former soon quit the legislature, moving to Australia, apparently to get away from the havoc she had wreaked. The latter has preferred to serve as an imperialist soldier in Iraq to dealing with the impact of the Tourism Act at home. Cause and effect are beyond advocates of welfare for the rich. They fully live in a fantasy land. Gaylord Entertainment has specialcontinued on the top of p. 2

The Naysayers next meet on Saturday, August 6, Enzos Pizza, 3424 Colfax (between Cook and Madison) 5:30 PM

THE NAYSAYER, AUGUST 2011, p. 2 Stock Show Droppings ........................................................................................ continued from p. 1
ized in creating such a world, constructing isolated centers for corporate conferences. The whole purpose, it explains, is to have everything under one roof. As such, its patrons never have to leave the convention/hotel complex. Despite such an admission that there will be no spin-offs from its taxpayer-backed effort, the giveaway crowd has shown itself ready to throw concessions at the out-of-state operator. Among those ready to give money to Gaylord to build in Aurora are Denver officeholders. In part, this is an instinctive reaction of those who celebrate the public/private partnership: that the government exists to enhance the interests of private enterprise. The private sector, in turn, provides guidance and leadership of public functions. This has been the preferred ideology of the likes of Federico Pea, Bill Clinton, and John Hickenlooper. Subsidies to Gaylord and Aurora are also necessary in the name of metropolitan cooperation. This is another buzzword. It is much like the Barack Obama version of bipartisanship: the Democrats should work with the Republicans and give away everything to the Republicans. Standing up for principle, in contrast, is condemned as selfish and narrow-minded. The Republicans echo this view when they condemn the Democrats for failing completely to capitulate to the GOP agenda. So it is that Denver has repeatedly given away its power to the suburbs through junking its residency requirement while allowing cultural institutions, primarily funded by Denver taxpayers, to operate as virtually autonomous entities through the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District. Many are ready to junk the citys control of the library in the name of metropolitan cooperation. Denver politicians favoring the giveaways to Aurora has made zero mentions of extracting such a basic concession as junking the Poundstone Amendment, a 1974 measure drastically restricting the citys powers to annex land. In exchange for giving Aurora what it wants, Denver will get more Gaylord-like projects: islands of make-believe sophistication and wealth isolated from the city which embody the worst of sprawl while accentuating a skewered tax and financial policy assured to keep public services hurting while rewarding those with great fortunes. This is the great city of Pea and the dupes of the Gaylord plan.

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and Andrew Romanoff, she failed to impress voters by her work as of business designed to protect the poor. Sinden, a former staffer for Wayne Allard and a shill for various state treasurer when they rejected her re-election bid last November businesses, is a registered Republican who has never lived in Denver. for an unashamed member of the ruling class, Walker Stapleton. Her presence in city hall not only reflects that the Denver Democratic Kennedy was an active supporter of Chris Romer for mayor. Her Party is actually a branch of the Republican Party in disguise, but is labor credentials include chairing a lifeless union rally last April in indicative of the pro-business orientation that has been the quintes- solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin. At it, speakers repeatedly sence of Hancocks career. She is precisely the kind of corporate ripped Wall Streets war on wage earners. But they said nothing about operative favored by the likes of Chris Romer. A prime reason that the role of the labor-backed Barack Obama in the attack on everyday Hancock, rather than Romer, named her is because guilty liberals laborers. On the contrary, they called for a renewed commitment to landed up flocking to Hancock as a seeming alternative to Romer the Democrats over independent union action. As with their acceptance of Sinden as the woman to run Hancocks they lack the wit, backbone, or vision to say no to two rotten office, Kennedy is the personification of the dead end of working candidates when only evils are on the ballot. By appointing Sinden, at least Hancock has shown he will not within the system and having labor sell its heart and soul to such attempt to deceive the populace la Federico Pea and Wellington Democrats as Obama and Bill Ritter. It assures that the unions will Webb with faux populist gestures while being at one with big money. continue their role as a rearguard leading their ranks from retreat to Nor has organized labor screamed about Sindens appointment. retreat. Labor fakers (heads of unions who forever embrace capitalism) explain that they can negotiate with her. In other words, instead of Right after his election, Hancock was barraged by charges that he committing themselves to an aggressive counterattack in the war big might have patronized a call girl service. If the man had any principle, business has waged on them, they simply want a tiny share of the gumption, or desire to prevent any other figure from being so spoils of public policy. smeared, he could have made this a point in his inaugural address. A They have gotten this with Cary Kennedy, Hancocks choice as the politician with vision wanting to give the city new bearings would citys chief financial officer. This is a bloated bureaucratic position have mentioned it was high time to redress the repressive puritan laws created by John Hickenlooper to emasculate the role of the indepen- that seek to control the private lives of individuals. This would not dently elected auditor, adding a new layer of bureaucracy to the city only address the hypocritical attacks on prostitution, but would also government. Amidst a financial crisis, it is a prime position that should question the black hole of the war on drugs. be chopped away along with the bloated posts of chief performance Hancocks silence is indicative of the new mayor, someone who officer and chief projects officer. Hancock further has a power to name has never challenged anything that mattered. The best that can be said a director of the yet-to-be implemented Denver education compact, a of his inaugural is that he confirmed he is no Barack Obama. There position giving the mayor power over the independently elected school was no message of hope or change associated with his campaign. On board. Simultaneously, thanks to Hickenlooper and other business the contrary, the only thing he truthfully promised the people of practices at city hall, the Career Service Authority has become highly Denver is that his administration with be painful for a lot of folks suspect in its performance, being more a cloak for management favor- with the cutting of services assisting everyday people. A mention of itism than agency guaranteeing the city has a skilled, professional tax reform or investigation of the real causes of the citys budget workforce. All the while, though the period between the election and the shortfall was completely absent. Only individuals inured to defeat, inauguration has been considerably extended, Hancock has been absent betrayal, and an unquestioning acceptance of the status quo can have in providing leadership on anything. the slightest enthusiasm for him and the phony, hypocritical world he Given this, he needs Kennedy. She is a former hack for Roy Romer represents. Phil Goodstein will talk about why he sold out by having Dennis Gallagher write the foreword to his new book, North Side Story, at the Colfax Tattered Cover on Monday, August 22, 7:30 PM