Boulder is a Stoopid Place

Rachel takes on the Brit’s again as only she can.

about George Lucas’ political opinion. Apparently I’m not alone. Found the poll over at Newmark’s Door.

Looking the other way from the buffalo, at the northwestern edge or Table Mountain…

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Near Table Mountain, west of Longmont on Nelson road.

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Make sure and zoom in, the buffalo are on the ridge in the background.

The WSJ just sent me a news release …

The U.S. Senate Wednesday voted to approve final passage of legislation overhauling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, ending one of the most hotly disputed issues in the current session of Congress.

The bill would renew the legal backing for the federal government’s warrantless surveillance program, allowing the National Security Agency to listen in to Americans’ phone calls to people abroad and read emails sent to people overseas.

Emphasis and italics are mine, simply to make the point that it requires communication outside the United States. Liberals seem to conveniently forget this fact.

Thanks to the Democrats for caving in…

Ultimately, the Democrats caved in, agreeing that a district court judge would be able to review the written authorizations provided to the companies by the government to participate in the program. The judge wouldn’t be permitted to conduct a more wide-ranging review of the legality of the phone companies’ participation.

One wonders how the Democratic leadership and Presidential contenders voted? Well here’s the answer…

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as his chief lieutenants Sens. Richard Durbin and Charles Schumer, voted against final passage of the bill.

Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who had long been an opponent of granting immunity, in the end voted in favor of the legislation. His campaign issued a statement recently saying the senator recognized the bill was the best resolution that lawmakers were able to reach.

His defeated opponent for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, voted against the bill.

Thank you!

Mutual fund manager John Templeton passed away on this Tuesday. The Wall Street journal has a nice writeup on his life, and an article today titled “Maximum Optimist”. Both are must reads for long term investors.

Sir John Templeton, the legendary mutual-fund manager who was a pioneer of international investing and later committed much of his fortune to scientific and religious causes, died Tuesday. He was 95.

Over the course of a Wall Street career that began in 1937 and spanned more than five decades, Sir John earned a reputation for prescient, bargain-minded stock selection that consistently rewarded shareholders in his Templeton Funds family.

Like many successful investors he took the road less traveled…

Early in his investing career, Sir John showed that he was willing to take roads less traveled. He extolled the wisdom of buying superior stocks at what he called points of “maximum pessimism” in order to take advantage of temporarily low prices. He applied that strategy to countries, industries and companies, displaying a rare ability among investment professionals to avoid following the crowd.

Investors who get caught up in the day to day gyrations of the market, or who wake up every day getting out of the wrong side of the bed, like local curmudgeon RC Lloyd would be well served to read about John Templeton, the optimist.

I hope this proposal makes it to the November election simply so it is “revealed” to the legal citizens of Boulder that their elected officials to City Council are out of touch with their values.

A controversial measure to allow non-citizens to serve on Boulder city commissions joined a half-dozen measures Tuesday that could end up on this fall’s ballot.

The City Council approved those measures on first reading, but they will have to be approved again in early August if they’re going to go before voters — and some may not make it all the way to the November ballot.

The City Council decided to change the measure concerning boards and commissions to remove the citizenship requirement entirely, and instead make anyone who’s lived in the city for one year eligible to serve.

According to this new Daily Camera non-scientfic, hot off the press poll, the ballot issues doesn’t stand a chance. I can only hope it’s true. I’ll update the poll at the end of the day as this seems awfully lopsided for Boulder.

Interestingly enough..

Several members of the council noted that Boulder County only requires residency, not citizenship.

“The county doesn’t have these rules, and somehow the world has survived for all these years, and hopefully they’ve gotten representation from a more diverse segment of the community,” City Councilman Matt Appelbaum said.

The poor Congressional approval rating that is. Don Surber brings us the highlights…

Rasmussen reported that under the leadership of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, most people hate Congress.

It is not even close.

The congressional job approval is 9%.

Disapproval, 52%.

You can’t make this stuff up. Who needs to, when you can blame it all on the President. Do the Democrats realize that excuse will soon go away?