Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

I started getting aggravated at professional sports when the whole politically correct crap regarding team names started getting big.....and then when they went full politics with the kneeling crap I stopped watching pro football ever. Started watching golf and have had some of the best naps of my life as a result lol

One thing I have learned since we started up the custom outdoor kitchens business is that pellets grills are the bomb and when it comes to pellet grills this company https://www.recteq.com/RT-700-Wood-Pellet-Grill is the last word in pellet grills. If you want the best look no further.

Well, time for an update.  I really was truly and totally infatuated with the RecTeqs - except for one thing.  They need power, and my grill/smoker is situated where I would either have to do a huge trenching and cable burying project, or use a big extension cord from the house.  Yuck. 

So, in view of the fabulous looking ribs on Jim M's facebook page - smoked on a Big Green Egg, I started doing some research into Kamado Oven type grills.  I ended up with a Kamado Joe - basically a red egg.  Yumm!  I've got a couple of game hens on it right now - can't wait.  I've smoked one Boston Butt, and it was great.  The routine and not so routine grilling and roasting has been superb.  Can't wait to try a pizza at 700 degrees!

The table is my own - Ipe wood.  It weights a ton, since a wind storm destroyed  my last grill, and I am not going to let that happen again!  It matches our deck, which is behind me.

Bon appétit!  

Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

A return to the previous hours for voting is now at the "option" of a county to do so. I don't believe the Republicans in charge are going to exercise that "option". Do you?
Additional, here's today's interchange between a Fox news "reporter" and Psaki on the comparo between Georgia and Colorado “Is the White House concerned that Major League baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?” Doocy asked Psaki.

“Well, let me just refute the first point you made,” Psaki responded. “First, let me say, on Colorado, Colorado allows you to register on Election Day. Colorado has voting by mail where they send, to 100 percent of people in the state who are eligible, applications to vote by mail."

“Ninety-four percent of people in Colorado voted by mail in the 2020 election, and they also allow for a range of materials to provide, even if they vote on Election Day, for the limited number of people who vote on Election Day,” she added.

Yep. but guess what - straight from our true-blue D Secretary of State's FAQ...

(How is this different than GA?)

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/FAQs/VoterRegistrationFAQ.html

Originally Posted by James Lacey

One key difference is that in CO, once you register for mail-in voting with an ID, you don't need it again. From there on out, it's a signature verification system. You mentioned exactly this in a previous comment.

There are quite a few key differences between the CO system and what will now become the GA system. In my humble opinion, it's false that the GA system is no worse than the CO system or somehow equivalent. Several journalists have detailed the differences, and you can easily find the articles if you are interested.

Here is a non-comprehensive list of some of the differences:

1. For in-person voting, CO allows non-photo IDs such as birth certificate, recent bill or bank statement, etc.
2. For mail-in voting, CO sends a ballot to every active registered voter. In GA, the voter must ask for them, and state officials are banned from sending applications to anyone.
3. CO allows same-day voter registration on election day even. In GA, the deadline is the fifth Monday before the election day.

It's fine to debate how good or bad the GA law is; I think it's bad and disenfranchises, mostly the poor and minorities. However, let's be honest. If the GA law passed laws that truly did make it equivalent to CO, then no one would be complaining.

Hi James:

I disagree with your last sentence, although your post is accurate.  I think the press and Ds would be upset if GA passed CO's voting rules word for word, because CO requires ID to register and signature matches.  An ID is also required to change your mail-to address, which probably happens every cycle for most lower income voters.  Where is the outrage?

Although you point out subtle distinctions between the two state's laws, it is being reported this morning that many liberal bastions, like NY, have even more restrictive laws than either GA or CO.  This is all about making a wedge issue to spin up the respective bases.

That said, I like CO's system a lot for its convenience.  We do have high turnout each year, and incidence of fraud is tiny.  I probably mentioned that fact ad nauseum in the debates here before the election.... 

Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Colorado does not require identification for mail voting once a person is registered. Instead, the state mails a ballot to the person’s home, and then matches their signature against a database when the ballot is returned.

True, but woefully incomplete.  ID is required to make a change of address.  People move a lot in the election cycle timeframe.  If you want to do a change of address on line, I believe the only acceptable IDs are drivers license and state ID card.  Otherwise you have to go "downtown" and according to our activist friends you are therefore disenfranchised.

See my earlier link to the SOS FAQ.  

Jim

Originally Posted by James Lacey

One key difference is that in CO, once you register for mail-in voting with an ID, you don't need it again. 

Hi James,

I'm not picking on you and I know that I am being redundant.  But the above is true only until you move to a new mailing address.  I am re-posting this observation because it strikes me as important and no one is mentioning this feature of CO law in the news stories I've read.

Here is an interesting tid-bit.  In Colorado we vote on all sorts of state and local ballot initiatives, amendments to the state Constitution, the retention of judges, tax increases (mandatory to vote on those) and so on.  The ballot comes with a newsprint booklet (called the blue book) with the text of all of the initiatives and amendments, plus pro and con arguments.  Check it out:   http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/blue_book_english_for_web_2020_1.pdf  

The state booklet ran 97 pages last time, before local stuff gets tacked on!  

If we did not have universal mail-in/drop off voting, our system would collapse.  It takes at least 1/2 hour to sit around the table and complete the ballot with plenty of advance study.  Waiting in line for someone to read all the initiatives "cold" would take forever. 

So, necessity invented the CO system.   I know that the following sentiment is elitist and would be easily miscast as racist, but I am personally uneasy making voting too painless.  I know many kids, including my own, who vote on poorly worded ballot initiatives without really understanding the issues.  

Do you remember when CO was branded as the "hate state" almost 30 years ago?  We banned gay marriage through a double-negative intentionally mis-worded ballot initiative.  Necessity fixed that kind of ballot initiative chicanery too - now a "yes" vote is a vote to change the status quo.  Being conservative in the basic sense of the word, my rule of thumb is to vote "no" on everything, unless I have studied it and have a reason to vote "yes".

Bottom line, I like the CO system, and it is entirely necessary given our complicated ballots, but it might not be necessary for states with short traditional ballots.

Jim

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

That is a great setup and a great view Jim...... and I dont blame you a bit on avoiding the power issue. We just delivered and installed this one today.....Customer planned ahead and and had water, drain, gas and power all stubbed out for us on this one. He also just got his RecTec 590 but didnt have room for it and a 36" griddle as well so he kept the RecTeq on its own cart. He is considering having us build a matching cart for the RecTec alone now that we delivered this one though. He plans to give the treated wood about 30 days to dry and then stain it a darker brown color to match the fence on his property......

Thanks for the compliments Jim, Greg, and Steven.  Greg, your "cart" is more like an entire outdoor kitchen! Very nice.  I like the corrugated metal accents a lot.  

Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"First-time Colorado voters who are voting by mail or dropping off their ballot may have to include a photocopy of a form of identification if they didn’t register using an ID."

An ID requirement!    

My goodness - I'm surprised you will even dialog with a resident of a racist-bastard haven like Colorado.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

In actuality, Colorado allows you to vote without an ID. One can cast a provisional ballot and it then becomes the responsibility of an election official, and not the voter,  to verify its authenticity.

I did not know that.  Lost in all of this conversation is any discussion of the magnitude of the problem.  How many people who want to vote actually do not have some sort of ID?  I'd guess it is a vanishingly small number.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

No, he was talking about defenses, like walls...

I suspect Patton was talking about German tanks skirting the French Maginot Line, but military history is not my strength.  

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Let them eat Ubers!
Talk about being tone death...that'll cost him some votes.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/547034-georgia-governor-says-voters-in-line-can-order-ubereats

Context is everything, but I agree - if Kemp said what he allegedly said, it was completely tone deaf.  The Marie Antoinette analogies write themselves.