Artist Vance Kirkland depicted in outdoor mural, 1291 Pearl St., Denver at a former 7-11 store. Created by Gamma Acosta. (Info courtesy Kirkland Museum, just across 13th Avenue, 2009 July 2.)

The Presidential limo outside Mammoth Gardens (Fillmore Auditorium), Denver, Feb. 18/photo: CAN

Mr. Obama's appearance brought a packed house of paying supporters who shelled out 25 bucks per head toward the campaign of Michael F. Bennet seeking to be elected to his seat in the United States Senate where he was appointed by Gov. Ritter to replace Ken Salazar in 2009. However, the Bennet campaign was still trying to sell some empty $250 forward seats at show time and people were balking at the price. These Obama worshippers and occasional people who actually know Bennet from beans, were lined up circling the entire block. The line stretched past the stately house along 16th Avenue once owned by an uncle of Jacqueline Lee Bouvier before she became a Kennedy.

Personally I am deeply disappointed that Congress (the House and Senate) has royally squandered any sure chance of accomplishing Obama's health care reform package. The recent death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who had struggled to bring us health care reform, opened the door for a Republican from Ohio to steal the critical 60 vote Senate Dem majority needed to prevent Republican fart-busters, aka "filibusters". My terminology reflects my belief that government is filled with noxious gases. And to date, the Republicans are clearly stalemating every move the Democrats make. It's as if they refuse to recognize Obama. Their propagandish tone has reduced our President to a fringe liberal who they say is responsible for America's deficit, which is bigger than Captain Ahab's whale. But get this, it's mostly their Bush-legacy deficit. Thus, I might remind these ignorant gaseous Watergate types that there were no nukes found in Iraq. And that war, along with Reagan-appointed former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan and his worship of Ayn Rand, has brought America to its financial knees. Not Obama. Our beloved savior, who has a golden heart perhaps rivalling that of Presidents Kennedy and Carter combined, is still fighting to be taken seriously.

Our reporter, suffering a miserable cold, showed up in the frigid snow outside Mammoth two hours before the President's arrival, seeking access to the press pool. A twenty-something young sprout named "Mike" (possibly "Michael Aragon" by some reports) came outside, declining to recognize CAN as a legit journalistic endeavor. Mike cited that our ace was not a member of Colorado Press Association and further stated that if he did it for us, he'd have to do it for everyone. There were in fact zero reporters , none, zilch, attempting to gain entry to the event, beyond the two dozen or so who had obtained approval in advance and were already inside. When this was politely mentioned, the young whippersnapper from the Bennet campaign accused our bearded salt and pepper reporter of "sarcasm". Another thing they notice at these events is the size of your Canon. Our reporter brought his DSLR and a bag of gear. But he left his broken 350mm, f-11 lens at home. Normally when he brings this monstrosity attached to the DSLR along with a big paparazzi flash, he can gain access to a Monika Lewinski party in the Bill Clinton bedroom. He once caught the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin coming out of a hotel bar in Denver with bloodshot eyes. That was the G8 Summit. He has in fact shot many presidents and celebrities since he was a teenager in the 60s, beginning with Ladybird Johnson. But thanks to young Mike of the Bennet campaign, we have no pictures.

"The GOP is on a mission to reclaim power by coming to work at taxpayer expense and sitting on their asses, defeating every Obama initiative as an insurgent partisan strategy."

Being the raving Obama lovers that we are, we had planned to write up a glorious page of photos, links, Obama quotes and bytes in a total misappropriation of our arts-focused purpose. It's not that we give a damn about the Democrats, it's just that America needs this pathetic party if we are to have any hope of giving Obama's intelligent agendas any chance of success. Without Obama, the Dems are stale as old Billy Carter jokes. All we got to photograph was the Prez limo leaving the Mammoth dumpster area and then speeding past Kitty's porno parlor on East Colfax Avenue. After such a stinging failure of journalism, we feel impotent, and ready to swallow the whole bottle of 36 hour Cialis and Viagra. But ironically, the theme of impotence makes our point precisely.

"The Dems.... have our best interest at heart. But they are inferior at holding onto the masses."

We have a two party system in America, And notwithstanding the unprecedented evangelism and wholesome substance of our beloved and beleaguered President, we need 5 or 10 parties, not two. The Democrats, other than Obama and Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and many others, are essentially impotent as a whole and too slow to seize their own advantage. The Dems are ineffectual. Thus, I have great admiration for the gall and sheer wickedness of the "dirty rotten Republicans", as my late father always called them. My father was born almost a century ago, so he may have known something. I despise GOP values. But I find that their ability to hoodwink America is vastly superior to the charm of donkey Democrats. The GOP has a modus operandi of speaking with euphemisms, something akin to fascist rock and roll. They are genuine storm troopers with real anti-humanist values.... proud Musollini types who don't care about anything but money. Their whole "conservatism" is a euphemism for the worst of early America and the later Jim Crow years. It is a deliberate punch in the gut, to the current and vital theme of "change". They have successfully defeated health care reform just by being asses. This alone should make them the enemy of the poor and disenfranchised and the lower middle classes forever, as health care costs are still skyrocketing ever higher in early 2010.

My favorite Republican is Joe Lieberman who skillfully infiltrated the Democrats like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Lieberman slowed the health care reform effort to a stall. And I also recall the time he referred to Palestinians as "terrorists" on the whole, much the same way that pale-faces once called native Americans "savages" during America's shameful ethnic cleansing. At one time, I was a great admirer of Republican John McCain for his POW experience, until I witnessed the racist undertone of his views about Obama. Upon his defeat in the 2008 Presidential election, I distinctly recall how McCain, with thick and sour-puss sarcasm, labeled the Obama win a victory for Black Americans. This is the old GOP euphemistic skill. Essentially McCain was saying that Obama's win had nothing to offer beyond the paper-thin novelty of civil rights history. In other words, McCain did not have the grace or wisdom to honor the intelligence and unprecedented sincerity of a populist President who puts all Republicans and most Democrats to shame. McCain would deny his racism. It is obviously "separate but equal" to his other face. This attitude is the epitome of Republican values.

The GOP is on a mission to reclaim power by coming to work at taxpayer expense and sitting on their asses, defeating every Obama initiative as an insurgent partisan strategy to sabotage the hard work of Democrats to move America forward. Our health care system is a drug-pushing money-robbing shambles. Our largely-GOP appointed Supreme Court has opened the floodgates for corporate funding of elections in 2010. We have a shamefully crumbling infrastructure of broken highways, slow Internet and no fast trains. The Bush EPA left our environmental initiatives scrambling to recover precious momentum. And all those rivers of blood and ethnic cleansing that have swept Iraq have drained the American treasury. Wake up America! This nation is headed for a train wreck. And while the GOP has fed us crap and lies, the Dems have failed in their oratory ability to rightfully claim the higher moral ground. The Dems, in other words, have our best interest at heart. But they are inferior at holding onto the masses. The so-called "tea party" revolts must be addressed. And the GOP insurgency must be stopped in 2010.

"Senator Bennet is currently Colorado's best hope for stopping the rising mountain of elephant dung from the undead and resurgent Republican Party"

What we value in Obama is a leader who is honest, forthright, intelligent and sincerely devoted to truth, open government and e pluribus unum, ("out of many, one") the whole broad swipe of American humanity and the world's peoples. But you gotta admire the GOP propaganda machine for reducing this revolutionary President to "the black people's choice" or a "one term" liberal already on his way out. Here in America, we have bipartisan politics, not poly-partisan democracy. We are stuck with two parties that monopolize us. As an independent who consistently votes Democrat, I deplore our need to support a Democrat party always on its knees to Republican values, or lack of them. The Democrats are wimps who need to kick some Republican ass.

Despite the encounter of our graying reporter with a rude Bennet campaign youngster who defines press credentialing in a way that coldly snubs non-corporate community journalism, Senator Bennet is currently Colorado's best hope for stopping the rising mountain of elephant dung from the undead and resurgent Republican Party.

- Vincent Vin (2010 February 19th and 20th)

See also the following links on Senator Bennet:

• White House page on Bennet visit <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-reception-senator-bennet> -
  
  
• Michael F. Bennet, US Senate page <http://bennet.senate.gov> -
  
  
• Michael Bennet on Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bennet> -

Colorado Arts Net is NOT affilliated with the apparent copycat web site of Denver resident Fredric Wiebe. His site is known by the identical name of "Colorado-Arts.net" and appears to mimic our site by offering arts listings with phrases similar to our menu. Furthermore, the poseur site also links to seedy porn sites, something not provided on the genuine original Colorado Arts Net. (Click here to see Fred's site). The latter site has, in our opinion, been infringing upon and damaging our directory's name and goodwill to the arts community for many years. Fred's home page is titled the same as ours. But Fred's web address has a dash in the URL and ours does not. Fred's web site links a substantial amount of adult themed content including "outcall services" and "hot housewives" and "topless nightclubs" along with other non-arts generalities including house cleaning and pool parlors. All of this is listed on Google as "Colorado-Arts.net" (with dash). Thus Fred appears to be plagiarizing our good name to promote his crap. It thereby confuses audiences and distorts and degrades our name through search engine visibility.

The real Colorado Arts Net has been online since 1996 and has been registered as the domain name ColoradoArts.net since year 2000. The Internet whois registry indicates that Fredric Wiebe (pronounced "wee-bee") did not register the domain name "Colorado-Arts.net" (with dash) until 2004. By that time, our name "Colorado Arts Net" had been widely known and publicized since 1997, a period of seven years.

We are curious to learn more about Fredric Wiebe and wish to know if anyone may have had any problem similar to ours. We are also seeking to determine if this is the same person as Fredric Wiebe (DOB 8/8/1946) who, according to 1991 Denver Court records, was arrested for Colorado criminal code "18-3-405" (aka: sex assault on a child by one in a position of trust). No verdict is shown on the online version of the court record. Colorado Arts Net makes no claim regarding Fred's guilt or innocence in the matter at this time. We also do not make any judgment against legitmate adult web content or links. Such content has its rightful place (for adult viewers). But please don't call it "Colorado-Arts.net".

The genuine original Colorado Arts Net (without the dash) is a link directory intended to network regional arts as a goodwill venture benefitting all ages including children (with parental guidance recommended). We do not publish links of prurient or pornographic interest in this web site. We might link bellydancers and the occasional art nude photographer or erotic artist in the genuine context of arts. But we don't link "hot housewives" or outcall services because they are not "arts" in our view and are not suitable for our target audience.

See"History of CAN" for more details about the evolution of Colorado Arts Net.

Once again, we are asking Fredric Wiebe and anyone else concerned, to immediately cease and desist usage of the Colorado-Arts.net domain name (with dash) and not use any name essentially identical to ours, for any purpose that might be wrongful. Anyone with info on Fredric Wiebe, please contact (the real) Colorado Arts Net, right here.