User talk:Sethant/Archive:2008-Winter

John Kefalas GA on hold
I have left notes on the talk page. Best, Happyme22 (talk) 20:17, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I've promoted it. Great job! Happyme22 (talk) 22:17, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Don Marostica page
The original article on Wikipedia did refer to the tax liens and other issues (not posted or linked by me originally) and I noticed you later revised his biography with misleading information from his campaign. Are you working for Don Marostica? - that is OK I just want to make sure there is full disclosure. I simply went back and tried to place the facts back in the article especially regarding his IRS problems since the explanation provided was a misleading campaign spin instead of the facts.


 * I am not working for Don Marostica; I'm simply trying to adhere to to Wikipedia's own policies which state that controversial allegations about living persons should be appropriately cited by supporting evidence. I think you'll agree that a Wikipedia article shouldn't go about making potentially damaging claims without being able to back up the assertions with facts and documentation.


 * Among the unsubstantiated claims that you inserted into the article (see for a full accounting of the changes):


 * "claiming to be a Vietnam veteran but records indicate his active service started two years after the end of the Vietnam war" -
 * he taught at RMHS, "where he became involved in a scandal where he was found to be dating a former student"
 * Blaine is "Carol's from a previous marriage and who uses the surname of his real father"
 * Marostica "has beliefs closer to Democrats than his fellow Republicans"
 * the Loveland Guiliani fundraiser raised "much less" than $60,000 and was "poorly planned" (not an objective statement)
 * "Giuliani nor his campaign have returned a number of phone calls from Marostica to apologize for the inability to raise money promised or protect the presidential candidate from Marostica's angry Democratic friends"

Furthermore, one of your changes &mdash; the claim that HB07-1117 would have required "everyone" to wear motorcycle helmets is contradicted both by the source cited in the article and by the text of the actual bill.

He has never denied the tax liens (because the court records are public domain) but has created a false spin that was repeated on you revised bio. Look at the last paragraph of this [[Coloradoan article]http://www.coloradoan.com/news/coloradoanpublishing/election2006/102306_house51.html]

The revised page follows his own spin that the bankruptcy, liens and tax problems were connected. They are not. He bankrupted a number of companies and had many judgements and liens against him in the early eighties when a horse race track (Windsor Downs)he was trying to develop went under. This is a very different issue from the IRS tax liens. When he later became successful in real estate and was apparently making significant income the IRS (in five different years)took him to court (as late as 1997) even going so far as to putting a lien on his many properties before he finally paid the taxes (he didn't deny the tax lien problems in the article cited earlier - the validity of these documents, that are on file at the Larimer County Court House, has never been in question. As you will see, in one year the IRS claimed he failed to pay $70,000 in taxes on income earned - hardly a "bad" year for him in real estate as your version implies.


 * Can you provide evidence (newspaper articles, original documentation, websites) substantiating this? If so, it would be entirely appropriate to include this information in the article.

There are a number of other factual errors, but I won't detail all of them here.


 * Please list the factual errors; I want the article to be as accurate and complete as possible, however, as I mentioned before, they must be cited to reputable sources. I can't make changes without knowing what needs to be changed.

The reference that "critics alleged" regarding him voting for projects on his own company leaves the reader with a false impression. The City Council actually voted to WAIVE conflict of interest rules for the city so he could vote on his own project - "A Resolution Granting Mayor Pro Tem Don Marostica an Exception Pursuant to Loveland Municipal Code Section 2.14.015 D. for North Boise, L.L.C., to Enter Into a Development Agreement and Oversizing Reimbursement Agreements With the City of Loveland" you can [see the memo] http://www.lovelandpolitics.com/memowaiv or reference the City of Loveland Council Meeting online archive of the meeting from the same date.


 * The impression is not false; critics did allege that he voted for projects to benefit his own company, and that is a fact. I could not state it any more strongly without substantiating evidence, which I could not find when I wrote the article. Since you provided a link to a reputable source, this can now be stated more clearly and factually in the article.

He resigned when the City Attorney told him Federal Law prevented him from voting on another project because federal money was involved and those laws couldn't be waived the Loveland laws were.


 * Do you have a source for this information? If you do, I can include it.

The comment he is considered moderate by both parties is absurd. The Colorado Taxpayer groups regularly rate his voting on tax issues closer to a liberal Democrat than Republican. In addition, he was among the few break-away Republicans who voted to remove citizenship document requirements for illegals aliens which the Democrat Governor Ritter vetoed.


 * Can you provide evidence (newspaper articles, original documentation, websites) substantiating this? If so, it would be entirely appropriate to include this information in the article.

Lastly, the most important biographical fact about his election I couldn't find anywhere in the article. He spent over $100,000 (I don't remember the exact figures) of his own money to get elected and I believe was the most expensive House District race in Colorado History as reported by Colorado Confidential and other blogs that researched this on the Sec. of State's website.


 * Actually, the original article reported that he spent over $180,000 of his own money on his own campaign, but your edits removed this information.

Please take a little time to review this information and see if there can be a more balanced and factual article on Wikipedia instead of making Wikipedia just a copy of his campaing website bio.


 * I've reviewed the information you've provided, and the items that are backed up by supporting evidence have been revised. If you can provide evidence for your other claims, we can work together to revise the article appropriately. -- Sethant (talk) 21:26, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Guchwale (talk • contribs) 19:15, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Here is the information you requested:

Regarding the previous judgments, liens and other legal trouble, much of it is listed by the recorded documents at the Larimer County website for public data. A simple search of his name on their database will turn these up for review. Each one has to be reviewed individually to know the whole story but the sheer volume is noteworthy for any individual.

Below are the items you raised. They are not all verifiable without additional resources and time. I will let you decide which merit mention in the biography.

1. Vietnam Vet Issue

His claims of having fought in Vietnam are well known to many (including a County official who just asked me about it yesterday) but he has not put this claim in writing. Therefore, all I can reference is his own biography that shows he graduated college and entered the military after the war which ended in 1974. The fact he isn’t a combat veteran is news to many who have heard him speak so just mentioning he joined AFTER the war would help to inform people of the facts.

2. Scandal With Student

The student scandal is well known to long-time Ft. Collins residents who informed me but since those articles are on microfish I really can’t give you an easy reference online. He and his wife apparently separated during the scandal but I don’t know the exact timeframe and haven’t tried to verify all the facts regarding the episode.

3. Is Blaine Really His Son?

The Loveland Reporter-Herald campaign bio of Marostica http://www.reporterherald.com/election/candidate.asp?candidateID=19 does mention Blaine’s real last name, Rappe. Also, you can see this on their company website for Loveland Commercial where Blaine Rappe’s bio is provided. The Larimer County website provides the 1977 marriage certificate for Carol Rappe to Donald Willis Marostica in 1977 (reception number is 220159 or search by date 11-01-1977 showing Rappe is her maiden name and Blaine was born before she married Marostica. You might think this to be petty but since Blaine doesn’t represent himself as a Marostica and identifies someone else as his father, Marostica’s claims apparently bother the real father since Marostica needed a family image for the campaign and incorporated Blaine and his children as “grandchildren” for his campaign.  Despite what the biography infers, Carol and Don never had any children together.

4. Is He a “Liberal” or “Moderate” Republican?

The Colorado Union of Taxpayers (a longtime established conservative group in Colorado) ranks Marostica’s voting record as the 6th lowest of any Republican for 2007 in the State House at 43.48% while “moderate” Republicans scored at least over 60% voting record and “conservatives” in the 90-100% range.

http://www.coloradotaxpayer.org/New/CUT-Brochure-2007.pdf

In addition, the two Democrats running in the primary for the House 51st District seat both said he told them during a radio interview (off-air) that he is more Democrat than Republican but ran as a Republican given the registration numbers in Loveland. Their names are Jodi Radke and I forget the other. Sorry, I don’t have any media reference for you since they mentioned over the radio but you might contact Radke for confirmation. In addition, he funded former Loveland Mayor’s run for State Senate as a Democrat (Kathy Gilliland) by contributing $1,500. Secretary of State website will confirm the contribution by his company Loveland Commercial to Gilliland and other Democrat campaigns.

5. Were There Problems With Giuliani Visit and Fundraiser?

The disturbances and national news regarding Presidential candidate Giuliani’s visit to Loveland (hosted by Marostica) were well known and reported across the media so I assume you don’t need specific references. Marostica’s claim to have raised $60,000 is not reflected on the FEC website reporting the contributions because it doesn’t have it yet since the reporting periods haven’t yet passed. But how can someone “disprove” such a claim for lack of evidence. Instead, you should accurately report that he claimed to have raised this money until there is some evidence they actually met the target. The other information regarding the visit was reported to me by members of the Larimer County Republican Central Committee and I cannot substantiate it so I understand your reasons for removing it from the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Guchwale (talk • contribs) 01:20, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

An article which you started, or significantly expanded, Joe Rice, was selected for DYK!
Thanks for your contributions! Nishkid64 (talk) 16:34, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Replaceable fair use Image:CharlesWAlbertson.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:CharlesWAlbertson.jpg. I noticed the description page specifies that the media is being used under a claim of fair use, but its use in Wikipedia articles fails our first non-free content criterion in that it illustrates a subject for which a freely licensed media could reasonably be found or created that provides substantially the same information. If you believe this media is not replaceable, please:


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DYK!
 Majorly  (talk) 15:52, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Colorado legislators
I just wanted to commend you for the truly outstanding work you've done on articles about members of the Colorado General Assembly. The standard of these articles is excellent, with interesting, detailed and well-referenced content now the norm. Your labor is appreciated. Thank you. -- Lincolnite (talk) 05:11, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Image:TXMap-doton-Rice.PNG
RE: Image:TXMap-doton-Rice.PNG

There are TWO red dots...

WikiDon (talk) 02:11, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Bellevue High School & IP address
Hello Sethant! I noticed you are an admin and a member of wikiproject schools. I am having trouble communicating with an editor who uses the IP address 24.22.140.84. To start off, I have been removing unsourced info from a lot of pages, such as Bellevue High School (Bellevue, Washington). Unfortunately, this IP address removed sources and relevant text from the page. I revert a lot of vandalism that I see on my watchlist, so I decided to restore what he/she/it removed and even improve on the IP's new edits by clarifying dates, but he/she/it has reverted my edits. I dont want to revert any more because that would probably constitute an edit war, but this IP address either needs to be blocked or the page protected. The IP edits are very similar to that of User:Bellevuecommonsense, who I gather was warned about edit warring on his/her/its talk page before. I don't think they understand how a talk page works, and is getting really personal about stuff on the talk page. This page has never really had an editor take the time to clean it up. I happen to wikignome on a lot of high school pages and try to hold editors accountable for informaion, removing non-notable information. Im coming to you because I see you are an administrator and I have not run into this problem before. What should I do when an IP address is removing sources and reverting to a version with bad grammar? And one who accuses me of a lot of unconstructive things? For the record, I never attended this school or a rival of it. But it is a notable school in an area that I sometimes live. Thanks --DerRichter (talk) 08:05, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Peer review
I just wanted to remind you about the peer review you requested for Douglas Bruce. I reviewed the article about a week ago. The peer review can be found here.  Psych  less   23:17, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Bot activity
I was going over the list of bots and noticed that has not edited in a very long time. Is this bot still active and if not, would you object to it being de-flagged? Please post your comments to Wikipedia_talk:Bots/Requests_for_approval since this is a rather widely-posted message.  MBisanz  talk 01:50, 14 March 2008 (UTC)