Three months ago, Denver Mayor and Colorado gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper (D) helped start an ambitious bike share program that has already attracted 14,000 memberships and been a big success. As TP reports, one of Hickenlooper’s opponents in the Governor’s race sees something sinister lurking behind the mayor’s policies:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are “converting Denver into a United Nations community.”
“This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed,” Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial.
Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor’s efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes “that’s exactly the attitude they want you to have.”
“This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms,” Maes said.
Maes, a Tea Party favorite, said that he was referring to “Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international association that promotes sustainable development and has attracted the membership of more than 1,200 communities, 600 of which are in the United States.” Denver has been a member of the group since 1992, 11 years before Hickenlooper became Mayor. Just last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood “” a former Republican member of Congress “” visited Denver, strapped on a helmet to take a bike ride through town, and called the bicycle-sharing program “a model for America.” (HT: Atrios)
- Charlie Eisenhood in a Think Progress cross-post.
JR: And here’s the really scary part of the Denver Post piece, “Bike agenda spins cities toward U.N. control, Maes warns“:
Polls show that Maes, a Tea Party favorite, has pulled ahead of former Congressman Scott McInnis, the early frontrunner in the Aug. 10 primary for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Maes acknowledged that some might find his theories “kooky”….
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And if that happens, it may deprive the fossil fuel industry from destroying the planet.
So goes life in the fast lane.
Please let him win the Republican primary. I think Colorado has enough sane voters to beat him in the general. The more the wingnuts talk the more deep crazy will come out for all to see.
Jeez! Where is the tea party digging these guys up?
I’m honestly expecting USAF Brigadier General Jack D. “precious bodily fluids” Ripper (Dr Strangelove) to pop up in the news at any moment.
Maes is incredible. Last week he told KCFR interviewer Ryan Warner that he couldn’t remember Amendment 37, the ballot measure that gave Colorado its first renewable electricity standard. A37 passed 53-47 after a noisy campaign in 2004, and where was Maes? See
http://ases.org/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=A-short-memory-for-voter-preference.html&Itemid=27
China designs busses that straddle two lanes of traffic. Solutions are out there, mankind just needs to apply itself within the constraints of sustainability.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/669166
A dispassionate evaluator would have to conclude that this Maes is psychotic. But paranoid delusions are the new normal, it seems.
Stuart says:
August 4, 2010 at 12:21 pm
“Please let him win the Republican primary. I think Colorado has enough sane voters to beat him in the general. The more the wingnuts talk the more deep crazy will come out for all to see.”
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Unfortunately, Stuart, they will be more powerful if they don’t win the primary. They will then be able to use their influence on “mainstream” Republicans to get some of what they want.
If the sources I’ve heard are correct, those who share their ideology are at least 30 million. More than enough to throw an election.
The Republicans probably can’t win the governor’s office in Colorado this year. Nativist Tom Tancredo has joined the race and will split the right-wing vote. That give Denver’s Democratic Mayor John Hickenlooper a pretty clean shot.
The U.S. Senate race will be another matter.
Wow. I’d LOVE to know what “logic-string” this nitwit used to come to the conclusion that a wide acceptance of bike sharing programs would somehow lead us all to fall under the control of the United Nations… Last I checked, the U.N was a multi-national body, INCLUDING the membership of the U.S. Uh, the best clue is in the very NAME, ya idjit. Wow, that’s all I can really say to this one. If he fears “control” from the U.N., maybe it’s tea-bagger-speak for “control from our ‘gub’mint’”?
The only other thing I can conclude is that he’s making some kind of veiled allusion to the Third World (and this supposed U.N. presence/control), their poverty and well… their teeming millions of “brown people”. Racist? Ya THINK?
Not like the Tea-Party hasn’t faced THAT particular accusation before…
And I have to ask, where the HELL does this fool get the idea that the U.N. is BAD?! I just don’t get that one at ALL. O___o
Yep as I sit here with a big Mac in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and of course the six pack sitting next to me, I sure am glad someone is standing up for a person like me. I don’t blame the people though, I think its those commie companies that build bikes that are behind the conspiracy. Then we need to go after people that jog and the companies that make running shoes. Its just a plot to make people think exercise and doing small parts to save the world are good things.
Leif says:
August 4, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Solutions are out there, mankind just needs to apply itself within the constraints of sustainability.
************************************************************************
Behold, the car of the future!
http://www.rhoadescar.com/rcar/0/jumpshow.htm
Leif… That’s totally brilliant! Who knows if it’ll ever be used but the really interesting thing is… The Chinese are starting to innovate! That’s our bread and butter, so watch out!
Hum. Oh dear. Sigh. Goodness me. You couldn’t make it up etc etc.
Let me try and make a positive suggestion: if ALL US environment NGOs, supportive organisations, concerned citizens, Hollywood celebrity greenies and the influential Dr Romms of this world formed a, let’s not mince words, “Get Maes” campaign that’s well focused and funded, he would be “got”!
He would be, wouldn’t he? Time to stop wibbly-wobbly web-based hand-wringing. Let’s “Get Maes”. You heard it here first!
Regards
Jeff Gazzard
My God!
Cheers – John
villabola, imagine the peddle cars powered with an electric motor assist for hills, and a good battery. Electric cars don’t really need to be so big as a Prius. It’s only because there are SUVs and Pickups on the roads that electric cars need to be as large and heavy as they are.
Rob,@ 11: Will it be built? China has 115 miles of track slated for construction starting the end of the year.
Makes me wonder. Is the tea party just a reincarnation of the John birch society. And seems to me one of the founding members of the birch society was a person by the name of Koch. In the 80′s the birch society was considered to be part of the old right wing. Now it seems to be the new right wing.
Terrakian says:
August 4, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Wow. I’d LOVE to know what “logic-string” this nitwit used to come to the conclusion that a wide acceptance of bike sharing programs would somehow lead us all to fall under the control of the United Nations…
[--SNIP--]
And I have to ask, where the HELL does this fool get the idea that the U.N. is BAD?! I just don’t get that one at ALL. O___o
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:-( “Logic-string”? You may be sorry you asked. :-( I suggest buckling up and taking a barf bag. Here goes:
It all goes back to the days of the John Birch Society, in 1958*. They thought that the United Nations was a Communist scheme to create a one world government.
Once you have that mentality, the next step is to conflate Communism with Environmentalism, a hold over from the hippie dippy days of the 1960s. Therefore, anything that is environmental, such as bike riding, is Communistic, thus under the shadow of the U.N..
———————————————————————
*The John Birch Society was co-founded by Frederick Koch (pronounced ‘Coke’), the little known oil tycoon who started his family’s fortune by building oil refineries in the Soviet Union. This family owned business is the largest contributor to anti Global Warming institutions. David Koch, grandson of Frederick Koch, founded Americans for Prosperity which in turn puppeteers the Tea Party marionette dolls.
Oh what a tangled web we weave . . .
catman306 says:
August 4, 2010 at 1:33 pm
villabola, imagine the peddle cars powered with an electric motor assist for hills, and a good battery.
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Catman, the Rhoades Car does come with an electric motor as an extra. It goes about 20 mph without pedal assist. With several batteries it could have a range of about 100 miles.
It’s just past 10 PM in Moscow the current conditions -
87.1 F degrees
Smoke
Winds calm
Check out the 5 day forecast :
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=moscow%20,%20russia&wuSelect=WEATHER
Maes: Whack. Job.
Just what do they put in their Tea. No … now i’m ‘a thinken’ it’s just more of the Republicon thingy! First we all trade our EVs into bikes and then get switched over to monocycles! Oh Sarah, where is she on this communist agenda gambit!
Colorado Bob says:
August 4, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Check out the 5 day forecast :
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At least the nights will be cooler. It is nights that don’t get below 90 degrees F. that can be a real killer.
Leif… Crap! I didn’t read the last part.
The contrast laid out here is amazing. On one hand we have Maes claiming that bicycles are some UN commie plot and the Chinese forging ahead with innovative ideas for transportation.
It is an understatement to say that I have deep concerns about the future of my country.
Record floods hit China’s north-east as death toll mounts
Beijing – The worst floods for up to 100 years have brought misery to hundreds of thousands of people near north-eastern China’s border with North Korea, state media reported on Wednesday, as the government said some 1,700 were dead or missing from summer floods nationwide ……….. Meanwhile, in the far-western region of Xinjiang, rescuers were trying to reach 420 miners trapped in high mountains by floods for six days.
The rescue work in Xinjiang’s remote Ruoqiang county was hampered by melting snow and high winds, but the miners had enough supplies to last another three days, reports said.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/337957,north-east-death-toll-mounts.html
—————
I believe these are “new” areas of flooding , and not part of what has been going on for the past 2 months in other parts of China.
Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean that there isn’t someone out to get you. And he probably rides a bicycle.
villabolo -
That may be true , but we have yet to see one word on deaths from heat stoke in Russia. Not drownings, and those burnt up running from fire, which now stands at 48 people, but old people, and those with compromised lungs.
The Russians aren’t like the people of Kuwait, or Atlanta, I got to think they’re dropping like flies, in small apartments, alone.
I know that we are getting off topic here but the heat wave in Russia does have my interest. Maybe its my age but I wouldn’t trust Russia to put out accurate numbers on the death toll. I have read somewhere estimates dying this year because of the heat to be from 100k to 200k. Now that’s the size of Boulder or Green Bay. I know we make risk/reward choices every day but I would like to see someone that says GW is a good thing explain it to the families of the deceased.
Everyone knows that bike sharing is a Commie pinko sort of thing- remember- the word “share” isn’t allowed in the neo-con vocabulary.
Except of course, when we’re all made to share the responsibility for the failures on Wall Street.
It’s great that these are the kinds of idiots the “Tea Party” runs for office. Heaven forbid they run someone who makes sense.
I would love to see Dan Maes debate anyone who lives in the real world.
What’s disturbing isn’t so much that there are idiots who make comments like that, but that some of those idiots are still competitive in their political races. Are people really not paying attention?
Dear Dan Maes,
I too like personal liberty — a lot.
So please go ahead and choose the personal liberty associated with forcing people into bumper to bumper traffic, burning fuel they couldn’t make enough of themselves, in vehicles that they need to hire an expert to repair and whose parts are made in a variety of countries around the world (all UN-members, don’t worry).
I’ll choose instead the liberty of helping people have true options, including that of zipping by your car window while its stopped in traffic in vehicles they power themselves*, that are repairable with only a little training, and a good fraction of which are made entirely in the USA.
CW
* If they’re true granolas they even eat only good ol’ local, American food. How’s that for patriotism?!
And people wonder why the ‘Tea-baggers’ are made fun of and get NO respect???…..
Wow.
Maes is a serious bicyclist and is pissed that he just spent $4500 on his latest ride, and all these socialist hippies are just riding around without spending a dime.
LOL Republicans just can’t help their stupidity.
We sure have a too large supply of these morAns running here in Washington state. All 3 of the leading Repukes for Senator are AGW deniers.From today’s Seattle Times about a panel discussion involving the three.
Clint Didier:’I don’t believe in this global warming,’Didier said, adding that ‘we’ve got to have faith in the environment.’ (I guess he means that no matter what we dump on it, it won’t collapse on our heads)
Paul Akers (who is a business man and inventor from Bellingham):”Akers said the last ice age ended 13,00 years ago. ‘So I always want to ask people what caused the melting of the ice 13,000 years ago? Was there an industrial revolution that occurred back then?’”
(Could you show me where on this site this particular “gem” is shredded? I want to copy it for ready study and access. Thanks)
Dan Maes ==> Mad/Sane?
I question and have written the Denver Post to check out whether Dan Maes comments are somehow tied in with a failed effort earlier this spring by a woman named Stacey Lynne to recall Fort Collins councilwoman Lisa Poppaw – HERE IS A CUT AND PASTE FROM A DENVER POST ONLINE ARTICLE:
Recall organizer Stacey Lynne couldn’t be reached for comment. She contended that Poppaw’s support for environmental sustainability — which included creating parking spaces for fuel-efficient vehicles — and the promotion of the U.N. Climate Action Plan put her in league with the United Nations.
“She violated her oath (as representing Fort Collins) by voting for the policies and goals of foreign organizations, which are in direct opposition to the U.S. Constitution,” Lynne said in a guest editorial in the Fort Collins Coloradoan.
SOUNDS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME THING AS MAES SAID? IS THERE A TIE BETWEEN THE TWO????