Democratic National Convention in Denver

If you read my blog, I’m sure you have figured out I am a conservative, Christian Republican… Right now, the leadership of the Democratic Party is very liberal, and they align with the extreme left. If you don’t know what that means and why it matters, read a book by Michael Savage called “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.”

I’m not going to go into anything about the DNC being in Denver, except how it has directly affected me. I dropped my sister off at the Denver airport Sunday morning. The city is struggling with revenue to support the convention, and I was the proud winner of one speeding ticket at the airport. I drove into the terminals on a road about six lanes wide, going the same speed as everyone else. A cop pulled up behind me at the terminal and gave me a ticket for $130 for speeding. I never saw him anywhere, nor did I see any signs noting a 35mph limit. I hate to waste $130 for anything, but I especially hate to see my hard earned money go up in smoke to pay for a bunch of Denver decorations, signs, and banners strung all over the city to welcome the DNC. I have ordered banners for Nemo’s before, so I know how much they cost. I literally saw tens of thousands of dollars worth of “DNC Welcome to Denver” banners. It really bugs me to think that my $130 is going to pay for that… Or, maybe my $130 paid for some of the homeless population’s free haircuts or movie tickets. The city provided free haircuts to the homeless in an attempt to ‘disguise’ them during the convention. The city also offered them free tickets to the Denver Zoo, area museums, and area movie theaters, as well as free bus tokens, just to get them off the streets and away from the convention area. Maybe I helped pay to send a group of meth addict, unemployed vagrants to the zoo. I hope they are having a good time.
We had plans to go to Elitches Gardens (an amusement park in Denver) after taking JoRenda to the airport. Unfortunately, Elitches is right next to the convention center. I called in advance to insure they would be open, and they were (I had pre-purchased tickets early when I was still at Intel, so changing dates was not feasible). I also checked on road closures, since they will be closing I-25 and the major streets around the convention this week. I was told that no street closures were to occur on Sunday. We arrived at Elitches around 8:30am, only to find out they do not open until 10:00am. We left and found a bagel place and hung out there for an hour, then went back to Elitches. The police were out in force, and there was a sign stating that the left lane was closed on Speers Blvd. No problem… the entry into Elitches is a right turn anyway. Lots of traffic slowly merged into one lane, the right lane, and when I got one block from the Elitches entrance, I was shocked to see road cones closing Speers! The cones were forcing everyone onto I-25 North to Ft Collins, Colorado. We had no plans to go to Ft Collins. I stopped, rolled down my window, and asked one of the officers how I can get to Elitches. He said it was closed and for me to go home. I told him it is open, and that we had already been there once this morning, and my turn is just one block ahead. He said to go home. I told him we live in the Springs (1 ½ hour drive) and that we had pre-purchased Elitches tickets. He said if I didn’t like it to call the mayor. Well, the mayor of Denver is a total idiot, so I have no desire to talk to him (he formally requested a one week waiver on marijuana laws during the week of the DNC convention--- can you believe that? ---don’t forget, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder). By this time, I had approximately 150 cars backed up behind me honking. I told the officer I was not going home, that I’m not familiar with Denver streets, and that I just need some simple directions on how to go another way to get to the street I needed. He said to go home and forget about Elitches. By now Josh, Jonah, and Ethan were getting very worried that we were not going to the amusement park. We had been planning this for over a month, and we could see the roller coasters from where we sat. We could also see hundreds of cars streaming into Elitches from the north. The officer came over to my car, reached into his pocket, and gave me all of his money. He said that was to offset the cost of the tickets, and for me to just go home. He wouldn’t take his money back, and he told me to move and stop blocking traffic. I got on the Interstate, then got back off again right away and found a place to park. Me and the kids had a 30 minute walk to get to Elitches. On the way, we went by the same intersection, and the same officer was there. I tried to give him is money ($39) and he still would not take it. I ended up leaving it on top of an orange traffic cone for him. I hope he got it…
While waiting in line for our first ride at Elitches, a girl in front of us was really upset and talking about how her and 400 others in an organization were going to protest Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field (where the Denver Broncos play). This caught my attention, because she was young, and most young people I know support Obama. I listened to her story and she and 400 other people were promised tickets to the speech if they help with the campaign. After logging over 2500 hours of campaign work in their group, they were denied tickets to the speech. When they reminded Obama’s campaign people of their promise, they still did not provide the tickets. Apparently, they are angry enough to protest at his speech, and I am assuming they are no longer going to vote for Obama. There was a story on the local AM radio station recently about how 80,000 people in Colorado registered for tickets for Obama’s speech. They were all told that if they campaign for Obama, they would get tickets. When it came time to distribute tickets, only 30,000 were allotted to locals. That means there are 50,000 people out there who got stiffed by the Obama people, after volunteering hours for the campaign. Interesting…

I haven’t been affected anymore since we left Denver that day. I don’t really expect any more direct impacts from the convention.

As for Nemo’s, we had strong sales last week, and we beat our break even budget by $500. I would be incredibly happy to continue doing that week in and week out. I hear one report that the housing industry fallout is only beginning, and then I see another report that the worst is over. I see a report about consumer confidence rising with recent drops in gas prices, but common sense tells me energy prices are still a huge problem. Going from $4 a gallon to $3.60 a gallon is not a resolution to the problem. It is still very bad. The OPEC nations, Russia, China, and Venezuela have all positioned themselves to control oil in the future, and Western Civilizations are and will continue to be at their mercy. Iran has stated that they will cut off oil flow in their gulf if they are attacked by us or Israel over their nuclear ambitions. That would push oil prices up to $200 per barrel. Meanwhile, we have a bunch of politicians arguing over a major power grab, and pushing a socialist agenda. Why don’t we have ANY politicians working on a plan to alleviate energy prices, which are benefiting all of our enemies? Russia is big trouble coming in the near future. They invaded Georgia over what they call support for two independent states that are pro-Russia. The real truth is that the two rogue states are part of Georgia and it was none of Russia’s business. Russia has now fortified their positions in the very important Georgian port city. There are also deep dredge operations going on in Syria, which would allow the porting and operation of large Russian naval vessels there. The Russia military has just realigned their naval fleet commands to reorganize their operating structure in the Mediterranean and Middle East areas. The Chinese have just completed secret bases that are built into the side of a mountain (underground) that can support a number of aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. The North Koreans have announced today that they are no longer suspending their nuclear weapons programs and intend to start them up again (just weeks after we lifted sanctions for this very reason). Russia is speaking of installing missile systems again in Cuba, in retaliation of our missile defense deal with Poland. There are two main differences, though. The missile defense system in Poland is to protect Western Europe from missile launches from aggressive Middle Eastern countries like Iran and Syria. The Russians intend to put missiles intended for an offensive strike in Cuba. Syria is in talks to purchase modern armaments from Russia, which is very unnerving to Israel. There are so many things going on in the world, and each individual thing doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. It is not as big of a deal to the average American as getting a big screen TV, or a new car, or a Harley, or whatever else… But, if you look at what is going on and put it all together, our enemies are aligning themselves with each other, and bad things are coming. We need a government that is on top of it, that recognizes the threat, and has a plan of action to respond. The few things that I know about are just the tip of the iceberg, I’m sure. How many things are going on in the world that our government knows about that is not common knowledge??? I have had a feeling for about a year or more that things on the world stage are moving in a direction that is very bad for us… Everyday I see bits and pieces of news that supports those thoughts. Hopefully, I am wrong, but I know that is not the case. We need strong leadership in our country now more than ever. Let’s hope enough of America recognizes that need and votes accordingly in November…

Well, that is probably enough mindless rambling about mostly non-coffee related topics. Welcome to the whirlwind of my mind…

Take care,
JD