10 March 2010, 12:10 am
Yesterday, Amazon cancelled its affiliate relationships here in Colorado, in response to HB10-1193, which will subject Internet purchases – even those through companies with no physical presence in Colorado – to the state’s 2.9% sales tax.
I personally was an Amazon affiliate, although over the course of several years I’d be surprised if I made more than $150 from it. But many larger affiliates got blindsided by this move. It was particularly surprising, given that the State Senate had amended the bill – under an intense lobbying campaign from affiliates.
Nevertheless, the posturing on this borders on the ridiculous. The House – District 6’s Lois Court included – was willing to vote to create an unenforceable tax that will raise virtually no money and makes the state look absurd in the process. And they were willing to put the screws to the very affiliates that they now profess to have sympathy for. Amazon apparently warned the legislature that this was going to happen, and they paid no heed.
In the long run, the state will be better served by looking for ways to cut unnecesary programs than by engaging in this sort of budgetary legerdemain.
Further thoughts on this bill here.
2 March 2010, 7:30 pm
It’s almost Caucus Time! Caucuses are where precinct committeepeople are elected for the next two years, but it’s also where delegates to the County Assembly are elected. Those delegates will ultimately choose our candidates for House District 6. But they are key link in the chain to the State Convention, whose delegates will designate our candidates for Senate and Governor. This is the place where you, as a Republican, can have the greatest effect on the nomination process, in helping to choose who our candidates in the call will be. When electing delegates to County, be sure to ask those who are running whom they support, and what they stand for.
It’s your party, and this is where you can make sure it represents your ideas!
Denver District 6 will hold its caucuses in the following locations:
Central Christian Church (For Precincts West of Colorado)
3690 Cherry Creek South Drive
Denver, CO 80209-3501
Windsor Gardens (For Precincts East of Colorado)
595 S. Clinton – Meeting Room
Denver, CO 80247-1601
A full list of Denver Republican caucus locations can be found here.
In addition, the Arapahoe County portion of District 6 (Precincts 129 & 130), will hold their caucuses at:
Holly Ridge Elementary School
3301 S Monaco Pkwy
Denver, CO 80222
I will be at all three District 6 caucuses, and look forward to meeting as many of you as I possibly can, to introduce myself personally, and to ask personally for the support and help we’ll need to succeed in the fall.
16 February 2010, 5:47 pm
I wrote about car recharging stations being developed in Israel and being deployed there and in Denmark. Now, the company, which has secured a $350 million investment led by HSBC, plans to launch a network of charging stations in Israel by next year. They’ve partnered with a local gas station chain to host the recharging stations, and with Renault to modify their cars to take the electric batteries. Better Place claims that the batteries have a first-run life of 300-400,000 kilometers (that’s about 180-240,000 miles in real units), and then can be reconditioned to get that amount again on their second run.
New technologies often have the problem of being dependent on parallel developments to work. In the 1860s and 1870s, railroads weren’t going to build without a population to support; the people couldn’t get there without the railroads, so the government heavily subsidized western track-building. In this case, it was clear that the recharging stations wouldn’t work without cars to service, and it’s been clear to me for some time that electric cars weren’t going anywhere if they were only good for runs to the supermarket. Better Place has managed to broker the deals necessary to get the technology moving, and one assumes that Israel’s electrical grid is up to the task.
It’s unclear where the initial R&D funding came from, but the fact is that the market has supported the development of these grids and these cars. Agassi claims that the cars will be cheaper than the gas equivalents, and cheaper to “refill” per mile than the gas equivalent. Their range is advertised at 350 miles, which is about what an average tank of gas gets, and about 50 miles farther than my Jeep gets on one tank. Assuming that the car’s performance is adequate, the market already exists. It means that I don’t have to believe in anthropogenic global warming or peak oil or anything else to buy one. I just have to want to save money.
The question for the USA, as always, is where we’re going to get the electricity from. If individuals want to recharge their batteries, they’ll probably do so overnight, which means baseload capacity that wind and solar can’t provide. So hopefully, those of us who want to see both nuclear and electric cars can persuade both ends to make it easier for the middle.
Tonight, I’ll be helping to host the Windsor Gardens Republican Club’s caucus training. Thursday night, I’ll be at HD-6’s official training for precinct committeepeople.
14 February 2010, 5:03 pm
I’ll be on Backbone Radio this evening, with Ross Kaminsky and Matt Dunn. Listen to 710 KNUS from 5-8 to hear us.
27 January 2010, 4:15 pm
I’ll be live-blogging the SOTU from the South Denver Liberty on the Rocks meeting this evening. Come join us as we hear the speech, the response, and Ryan Frazier’s impressions afterwards.
