Longmont Advocate

http://longmontadvocate.blogspot.com/

"I prefer to mainly focus on Longmont and the surrounding area. Why? Because there’s plenty of voices out there already talking about all of those other issues, most have done it longer and better, and it’s their main career. To put it bluntly, I’d rather be a bigger fish in a small pond than a little fish in a big ocean. But the main reason has always been what I’ve always considered the lack of enough local coverage, which leads to less interest of people to their community. But sometimes you have to throw in with the bigger fish. I don’t carry water for any political party or ideology. I sometimes get told what I am, but mostly I’m not even sure what that is, and the labels aren’t that important anyway. But I know what I’m not. And as time goes by, and events unfold, I’m convinced even more of not only what I’m not, but never want to be."

Guest Editorial: Rich Yale on the antics of Sean McCoy

August 22, 2009

"Dear Councilman McCoy,

More insults from Longmont City Council's "educator"

August 19, 2009

"You'd think it would be a good thing that we have an (endlessly self-described) "educator" on our city council. A learned person to bring enlightenment and civility to our weekly proceedings. Well, in Longmont's case, you'd be dead wrong.

Case in point: Councilmember Sean McCoy, vocation: educator, apparently."

Longmont group part of White House screwup

August 18, 2009

"Sometimes guilt by association is a necessary part of politics. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm no fan of hero worship when it comes to politicians. All one has to do is look to past examples where this has gone really, really bad. I'm also not a fan of jumping on political bandwagons and avoid it as much as possible, even if it's a cause, position, or person I may personally agree with. I tend to look differently at that particular cause, position, or person when it/they try to get this cult of personality thing going for them.

Transparency and honesty tough for some

August 11, 2009

"It's always amusing for me to take a national topic and apply it to things right here in Longmont. Today I'm going to do the opposite.

Longmont breaks rules for Councilwoman Karen Benker's non-profit

August 7, 2009

"City rules are city rules...but sometimes suspicious exceptions are made.

The city of Longmont supposedly has strict application deadlines each year for non-profits seeking city funds. But on rare occasions the rules are waived. Longmont city staff made one of these suspicious adjustments two years ago when it let a several-month-old non-profit called Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement (HOPE) bid for city funds after missing the application deadline. The question is, did Councilwoman Karen Benker's membership as a HOPE board member influence the decision?"

Longmont councilmember's mistatement of facts

August 20, 2009

"Longmont City Councilmember Sean McCoy is either telling a bold faced lie, has been misled, or is trying to mislead in his statements about the amount of Executive Sessions this current council has held. Just so no one's being taken out of context or misquoted, watch this video."

Local content, global reach

August 19, 2009

"Just a quick note about a comment Longmont Councilmember Karen Benker made about "bloggers" a few months back. She complained about (supposed) businesses outside of Longmont considering not coming here because of the content on some local blogs. What she and others on council should be concerned with isn't so much the flow of information (that pesky Freedom of Speech again), but not handing out so much fodder to anyone paying the slightest attention."

Primer for upcoming Longmont elections

August 17, 2009

"I get asked all the time things like "how do we get rid of these losers"? and "I want to recall councilmember X", and "when's the next chance to vote them all out"? So, in an ongoing series I'll try to break down the current makeup of Longmont City Council and who's up for re-election and who's not. The recall issue, that's a little more complicated, but I'll get to that later."

Neighborhood liars, thugs and brownshirts

August 9, 2009

"Woah, now that's a title, right? Well, bear with me and see how what you've seen in the news in the last week over the healthcare issue is playing out right here in Longmont.

As you've no doubt heard by now, if one of President Obama's little minions even gets the whiff of someone writing anything negative about his healthcare plan, they should turn you in, using a special email address at the White House. I wish I was making this up, but I'm not."

It's on! Longmont Times-Call sues Longmont City Council

August 6, 2009

"My jaw about hit the ground when I saw this headline on the Times-Call website:

Times-Call sues City Council
Lawsuit seeks tapes of closed meeting

After catching my breath, I really wasn't surprised at all. Just a quick glance at some recent posts on this website should have been a warning to this council. (The lawsuit is over Longmont's appeal to the Firestone lawsuit, and how they possibly abused the Open Meetings/Records law)"

Face the State