First of all, the "Big 3", who named them such? They are claiming they need Billions of tax dollars to remain open. Well while that's maybe a possibility. I, like all other Americans just need money to keep a roof over our head, or the utilites kept on. I've always thought that governement was and is for the people. Which people? The alledged big industry, or the average working or in this case not working American?

From the UNC wire...

Effort Organized to Help Little Owl Family

Director of Native American Student Services Solomon Little Owl and his
family have been displaced by a Thanksgiving evening fire in their home that
caused $60,000 in damage. Although none of the family, which includes
Solomon¹s wife, Kacy, and children Uriah, 9, and Maya, 7, was injured, they
were left with only the clothing they were wearing that night. Any members
of the university community wishing to donate clothing, furniture, kitchen
supplies, gift cards at local department stores or money can bring them to
the Student Activities Office in the University Center as part of a support
effort organized by the Dean of Students Office. If you have items too large
to drop off, call Solomon at (970) 301-6071.

Mr. Otto said, "You can help the local economy and the city budget by buying in Greeley. Every dollar you spend within our city limits supports local businesses and jobs, helps maintain our infrastructure and improves our quality of life. Please shop locally."

How can we "shop locally", when Greeley businesses large and small. K-Mart, Dillards, The Bread Board, The Red Roaster and Hallmark have joined The Finest in closing their doors. What is being done to retain businesses here and attract new business? It appears, the answer is nothing. Seemingly, we have money for ballot initatives for special elections. We spend resources and wasting time signing "intergovernmental agreements, and annexing other property" while stores are on a mass exdous from our town. I feel this systemic problem lies squarely on the present leadership in town.

I tracked down the Weld County statement of votes cast and have been doing a bit of analysis to answer my main question following the election. I've been hampered by the fact that the document is a PDF and moving the data to a more usable format involves a lot of technical (shall I say?) acumen. But the document is taking shape and I can now offer a few thoughts about what happened.

I've said before that I felt any celebration by county democrats was unjustified, and the numbers bear that out, except in the case of Rep. Jim Riesberg (D-50), but, again, I'm not sure that the county party can take credit for much of Rep. Riesberg's win (though County Chair David Delgado is a stalwart volunteer for Jim).

Though I am loathe to send the traffic to my (am I so bold as to own this?) arch-blogging-nemesis, GreeleyReport.com, some of the folks behind some nasty, cowardly-anonymous attacks on Tom Selders last year, I think it's important to point a blog post out.

Greeley Report suggests that the Dems make an effort to move some RINOs over to our side. Personally, I think that's a fantastic idea. Let's help the Republicans purge everyone who is not ideologically pure.

"First we came for those who support sex education..."

First of all, I'm sure we all remember the Flintstones, right? So if Fred Flintstone realized a full rack of ribs would've turned his car over, would he have ordered only a half a rack? I suppose, it's something to think about.

Do you know what really burns my butt?. A flame on a candle about 4 feet high. Our tax money is being sent to those financial institutions who claim to be going under. They receive HUGE amounts of money, I believe it's about 140 BILLION. Then it's reported they are throwing extravegant parties, how's this permitted? Where is the accountability?

I am beside myself after reading this article from The Tribune. A party breaks out at the Weld Democrats' First Friday Lunch? Are you kidding me? What do the Weld Dems have to justify a public party?

I, for one am pleased and extremely happy this election is finally over. Finally now, I can retreive my paper shredder from my mailbox post. I've never seen so many cam"PAIN" articles in my life. To be perfectly honest I'm scared about our economy, troops overseas, and the challenges presently facing "OUR COUNTRY". Admittedly, I have some concerns that Barack Obama doesn't share my all of my views. However, in the grand scheme of things, I feel he'll be the best President since JFK.

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Note: Check the updates above for the most recent information, but we'll try to keep these current throughout the day!

David Sirota (a friend of the show), posted a great column this week. In it he discusses several national races to watch and what we can learn about the rising progressive/populist tide from these results. Catch the column here.