Regarding minorities (of which I am NOT one), I believe in equality of opportunity. It's sad to think that in this day and age, there are some classes of folks who don't have the same access to education, etc. but its true.

Equality of opportunity is not the same as equality of results (which is socialism). What you do with your opportunity is up to you if you can get access to that education.

So, there is a need for a certain sized welfare net and we can certainly afford to pay for it.

In civility thou seem'st so empty.

First of all, have you ever heard of a thing called farm subsidies?

The government has been paying farmers for years to not grow crops so that prices can remain stable...or bailing them out when time are bad.

Don't get me wrong. I fully recognize the importance of American farmers and support programs that assist them when they are unable to deliver their products to the market due to conditions beyond their control, like weather.

And no party has ever included discrimination against farmers in their platform or tried to write it into the constitution. No party or politician has ever worked to deny farmers equality.

And for future reference, Skyrokhet..this is the way preference is spelled and preference implies CHOICE. If you believe that sexuality is just a simple choice, I invite you to proove it by becoming gay yourself. Not for a single sexual interaction because that's not what it's about. Become gay for long enough to fully experience the feeling of exclusion, of being scapegoated. Maybe when you've walked a mile in other people's shoes, you'll get off your high horse and show a little compassion for others.

I'll let someone of color explain to you what something like profiling feels like for them.

Colorado was originally settled,, by European Americans at least, who came here for gold and silver.

When the mines dried up, agriculture did become the state's major industry.

For approximately, the last half century, however, the state's primary industry is tourism.

The point is that times change.

In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated Colorado's population at approximately 4.7 million people. Of that, approximately 2.6 million of them live in the six country Denver/Boulder metro area.

The people who live in these six counties pay the lion's share of taxes collected in the state each year which benefit the entire state.

Yes, the people who live in Denver and Boulder are paying more to pay to pave the roads on the western slope, the eastern plains, etc than the people who live there. Their contributing more toward the salaries of the state troopers, CDOT workers, etc than the others.

I know you don't speak for all the people who live outside the metro area but I've heard similar gripes before and they don't hold water. I've always said, if these towns and counties think they're getting less than a fair shake when it comes to representation - maybe all the state taxes collected should be spent only in the counties where the residents who pay them live.

Then they'd be speaking out of the other of their mouths.

In Wayne Allard, we had a senator that met the criteria you listed..he wasn't from the Denver metro area and did NOT represent the majority of the people who live in it...and he was a miserable failure.

Ken Salazar is not from Denver either, for that matter. So, Skyrokhet, contrary to what you say, it's high time the people of Denver...without whom the rest of this state could not survive financially, deserve one of their own in the senate!

Allard had the lowest legislative output of any senator and voted with his party nearly 100% of the time.

The only major piece of legislation he sponsored was the gay marriage ban amendment to the constitution.

There is a war going on, hundreds of people, American and Iraqi are dying everyday over there. Katrina wiped out an entire American city. The average media income fell by about $3000 while the richest Americans (those earning more than $300K) were socking away more money thanks to tax cuts that favor them....and Allard could get worked up about was gay marriage.