by Joss Armstrong | 1:15 am, February 9, 2009
Sadly, it may be too late to do any good. Eight U.S. states are now declaring their soveriegnty as guaranteed by the ninth and tenth amendments of the constitution. I predict by the end of the week the press and the current “progressive” administration will be painting these lawmakers and states as wackjobs. When [...]
by Rossputin | 12:46 am, February 9, 2009
[Update: According to my favorite Pennsylvania journalist, Salena Zito, others (who matter more than I do) agree with me:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/papoliticsblog/show_comments.php?entry_id=3927]
Of what use is Arlen Specter?
Without his complicity, the Democrats would probably not be able to pass the “stimulus” bill which will likely prove ineffective at best and devastating to our children’s economic futures at worst.
Without his complicity, President Obama would probably not have been able to get Eric Holder, a self-dealing man of poor judgment, confirmed as Attorney General.
Specter’s sins go way behind these, but these are two biggies in just the last couple of weeks, and they’re the last straw.
I hope that conservative organizations and Pennsylvania Republicans encourage and support a primary challenge against our own Manchurian Candidate, a single-man sleeper cell murderer of not just conservative and libertarian principles but of good government.
If the stimulus passes with his vote, I will gladly do what I can to help any serious GOP challenger to RINO-in-Chief Arlen Specter.
by Ben DeGrow | 10:13 pm, February 8, 2009
You think the Nigerian email scammers are bad? Be wary if something like this shows up in your inbox. Well-timed and well-done comic relief from Big Hollywood’s Ernie Mannix. Check it out.
On a serious note, it isn’t too late to make your voice heard about the bloated waste and economic poison most commonly known as [...]
by Mr. Bob | 7:03 pm, February 8, 2009
by Ben DeGrow | 4:17 pm, February 8, 2009
Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams recently sat down with the Colorado Statesman for an extended interview. There isn’t much in the way of new information, but there is one passage worthy of comment.
Namely, it’s interesting to see whom Wadhams is talking up for the U.S. Senate race to challenge the newly-selected Michael Bennet:
Well, I [...]
by T.L. James | 11:29 am, February 8, 2009
If you had been at the DMYR happy hour on Friday like members Melinda and Michael, you might just have made it into the news:
Republicans said Obama has done an excellent job so far of using the Web to garner support and now they are trying to do the same.
“Obama definitely did that extremely successfully and [...]
by infinity3 | 3:16 pm, February 7, 2009
The nuances that weave throughout an interview are very similar to that of a first date….an awkward first date….a first date with no chance for blossoming romance. Which leads me to the question of why I don’t just get up and leave in the middle o…
by Rossputin | 1:27 am, February 7, 2009
It’s a few months old, but still right on target:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKc4XFK0iVY
by zombiehunter | 9:58 pm, February 6, 2009
Classical Liberals give me HOPE: I’m not exactly sure what Glenn’s up to, but here’s what he wants you to do. Step one: No matter where you are right now, I want you to take a picture of yourself. I want you to take a picture, and I ask you and you’ll understand as we [...]
by Rossputin | 9:44 pm, February 6, 2009
I’m not going to get the quotes exactly right, but close enough to exactly right that you’ll get the point…
A couple of hours ago, I saw Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) interviewed on Fox News by Greta Van Susteren. Greta asked the Senator how the numbers for each line item were arrived at to which the Senator replied “People can look at any line item in the bill and find something they don’t like.”
Now, I’m sure she didn’t mean it the way it sounded, i.e. that every line item was objectionable to almost everyone, but that probably is fairly close to the truth if you were to ask anyone other than Democrats in DC for his opinion. So how is it that such a disaster is likely to be passed in close to its current horrendous form?
It goes along with another answer given by Landrieu to a similar question. When asked again if the line items were carefully studied to come up with the amounts allocated to them, she said “It’s not that scientific.”
In other words, Senate Democrats are abdicating any pretense of responsibility to understand how they are burning future generations’ money. And they’re so cowed by the enormous sums (and who wouldn’t be) that they are intellectually unable to defend them or even to comprehend them. Furthermore, there must be a heck of a lot of “you leave my pork alone and I’ll leave yours alone.” Typically these things are a couple million dollars each. This time they’re a couple billion.
They say there are two things you never want to see made, laws and sausages. Right now I feel like I’m seeing both, as the Senate grinds our economic and political liberty to little bits in order to stuff it into a nasty skin of permanent expansion of government intrusiveness and cost.
Streaming under the Fox News interview were two excellent quotes.
First, from the always clear-thinking (at least on economics) Tom Coburn: “the economic stimulus bill represents one of the most egregious acts of generational theft in our nation’s history.”
And second, from the surprisingly on-target John McCain: “If this legislation is passed, it’ll be a very bad day for America. My goodness, it’s a moment in history of spending the likes of which this nation has never seen.”
It appears that the villains at the vote will be the RINOs Arlen Specter and Susan Collins. If true, I will do what I can to encourage and support a primary challenge to both, but especially to Specter. He’s worse than worthless.
If the bill passes the Senate by just one or two votes more than necessary to get past a filibuster, it will be a small political victory for the Republican Party but a huge loss of wealth and freedom for the nation.
One interesting thing to consider: I wrote quite a bit before the election about how politicians tend to believe that an electoral victory means the voters were voting for them whereas just as often they were simply voting against the other guys. When Obama and Pelosi argue “we won, so we’ll make the laws”, I believe they’re making that exact mistake. Their majorities are so large that they can probably get away with it for two years but I strongly believe that their distinctly partisan behavior dealing with the most important issue in decades will come back to haunt them. And again, as I’ve said many times, that prediction will only have a chance to come true if the Republican Party can offer a better alternative than simply “at least we’re not them.”
by Ben DeGrow | 5:13 pm, February 6, 2009
Good news heading into the weekend: School district financial transparency is still alive at the Colorado State Capitol.
Also, the Denver Post’s Jessica Fender highlighted my recent Independence Institute report (PDF) in an article on the topic today.
The fight led by citizens and state senator Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, for Senate Bill 57 (PDF) and shining [...]
by Ben DeGrow | 5:05 pm, February 6, 2009
Who’s in charge at the Colorado State Capitol these days? Big Labor:
A bill whose only aim was to make it easier for local school districts to get their new buildings inspected was blindsided today on the Senate floor by union-led opposition, with all but two of the chamber’s Democrats voting to kill the measure. Three [...]
by Mr. Bob | 4:17 pm, February 6, 2009
#tcot A delegation led by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, arrived in Iraq earlier today, and because of Rep. Peter Hoekstra , R-Mich., the entire world — or at least Twitter.com readers—now know they’re there.
“Just landed in Baghdad,” messaged Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, who is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets.
Not only did Hoekstra reveal the existence of the lawmakers’ trip, but included details about their itinerary in updates posted every few hours on his Twitter page, until he suddenly stopped, for some reason, on Friday morning.
Since it’s already a matter of public record, here are some of Hoekstra’s twitter dispatches, typos and all, delivered in just 140 characters or less:
“On the way to Andrews Air Force base.12 hour flight to mid east. Be back on Mon instead of tues. Votes mon. I’ll keep you posted,” he wrote on Feb. 4
In his last dispatch today, he wrote: “Moved into green zone by helicopter Iraqi flag now over palace. Headed to new US embassy Appears calmer less chaotic than previous here [sic].”
This may seem like a little slip of the mind, but anyone who holds a clearance just shouted “What a Moron”, if he were in the military he would lose his clearance and his job…but he is a politician…so nothing will happen. Hat tip Malkin
by Mr. Bob | 3:49 pm, February 6, 2009
#tcot The Barack Obama administration has dropped all charges against the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon’s senior judge overseeing terror trials at Guantanamo Bay dropped charges Thursday against an al-Qaida suspect in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, upholding President Barack Obama’s order to freeze military tribunals there.
The charges against suspected al-Qaida bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marked the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.
The legal move by Susan J. Crawford, the top legal authority for military trials at Guantanamo, brings all cases into compliance with Obama’s Jan. 22 executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
Seventeen US citizens were murdered in that bombing. HT LGF
Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold, the commanding officer of the Cole when it was bombed in Yemen in October 2000, said he will be among family members of Cole and 9/11 victims who are meeting with Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon.
“I was certainly disappointed with the decision to delay the military commissions process,” Lippold, now a defense adviser to Military Families United, said in an interview Thursday night. “We have already waited eight years. Justice delayed is justice denied. We must allow the military commission process to go forward.”
Last year, al-Nashiri said during a Guantanamo hearing that he confessed to helping plot the Cole bombing only because he was tortured by U.S. interrogators. The CIA has admitted he was among terrorist suspects subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, in 2002 and 2003 while being interrogated in secret CIA prisons.
Groups representing victims’ families were angered by Obama’s order, charging they had waited too long already to see the alleged attackers brought to court. GOOGLE AP
by Mr. Bob | 1:32 pm, February 6, 2009
#tcot All or any of these might be good causes for liberals, or liberal Republicans alike, but they do nothing to stimulate the economy …especially when the money is coming out of thin air….being borrowed…from our children. FROM NRO
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children program
$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
$6 billion for university building projects
$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24
$1 billion for community-development block grants
$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities” ACORN
$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”
$150 million for the Smithsonian
$34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters
$500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities
$44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters
$350 million for Agriculture Department computers
$88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building
$448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters
$600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
$450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”)
$600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”)
$1 billion for the Census Bureau
$89 billion for Medicaid
$30 billion for COBRA insurance extension
$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
$20 billion for food stamps
$4.5 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
$850 million for Amtrak
$87 million for a polar icebreaking ship
$1.7 billion for the National Park System
$55 million for Historic Preservation Fund
$7.6 billion for “rural community advancement programs”
$150 million for agricultural-commodity purchases
$150 million for “producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish”
$2 billion for renewable-energy research ($400 million for global-warming research)
$2 billion for a “clean coal” power plant in Illinois
$6.2 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program
$3.5 billion for energy-efficiency and conservation block grants
$3.4 billion for the State Energy Program
$200 million for state and local electric-transport projects
$300 million for energy-efficient-appliance rebate programs
$400 million for hybrid cars for state and local governments
$1 billion for the manufacturing of advanced batteries
$1.5 billion for green-technology loan guarantees
$8 billion for innovative-technology loan-guarantee program
$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
$4.5 billion for electricity grid
$79 billion for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (a fund to help states who could not responsibly balance their budgets…rewarding incompetency.)
READ THE ARTICLE
by Mr. Bob | 12:30 pm, February 6, 2009
#TCOT, love her or hate her, everyone should read THIS. It is somewhat lengthy and FAIR article but worth the read.
Major Hat tip to Bookworm Room.
by elpresidente | 11:35 am, February 6, 2009
Fellow Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0 blogger (and one of the members of the original alliance), Peoples Press Collective contributor, and good friend Ben DeGrow of Mount Virtus celebrates five years of taking it to the left in Colorado through his work on education, transparency in government, policy analysis and the promotion of lesser-known center-right bloggers in Colorado–myself included, way back in early 2006.
While five years in the blogosphere represents the equivalent of a digital eternity, Ben’s posts remain fresh, deeply informed, and widely appreciated.
Cheers to Ben!
by Ben DeGrow | 8:19 am, February 6, 2009
A must-read end-of-the-week Linkfest, in the midst of a critical national debate: American Thinker’s Randall Hoven strikes again, this time with a less controversial and heavily fact-laden piece – reviewing some of the abundant evidence that economic freedom promotes economic growth and the failed history of massive government so-called “stimulus” projects. It’s a worthy read.
(If [...]
by Rossputin | 7:22 am, February 6, 2009
[Update: I see that Charles Krauthammer has written an article in a similar vein: "The Fierce Urgency of Pork", WSJ, 2/6/09. Krauthammer is always good, but this one is particularly excellent.]
In at least three public appearances yesterday, Barack Obama cried that our economic troubles would turn into a catastrophe if we don’t pass his “stimulus” bill. Other Democrats are making the same pitch, including Nancy Pelosi’s statement that “500 million Americans will lose their jobs every month.”
On Friday morning, we received an employment report that was even worse than bad expectations. Payrolls were down by 598,000 jobs, the most in almost 35 years, and much worse than the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 540,000 jobs. The last two months’ employment numbers were also revised lower. The unemployment rate rose to 7.6%, the highest since 1992.
One of the only places which increased hiring was government. You know what that means: They’ll need to charge you more to cover their vote-buying schemes, even as you worry about whether you’ll have a job in a month. At least the US Postal Service is looking to cut its employment costs.
There is no doubt that the economy is in disastrous shape, and as I’ve argued recently I don’t think this recession will stop before becoming the worst since the depression. But that doesn’t mean the answer is a government spending binge that largely replicates the fiscal failure of the Bush Administration.
While running for election, Barack Obama and other Democrats rightly decried the increase in the deficit under so-called conservative George W. Bush. And now they want to nearly triple it with one piece of legislation. It’s true, the National Debt nearly doubled under George W. Bush, something for which he should be deeply ashamed. But the Democrats’ proposals for this year combined with lower tax revenue due to the recession will likely increase the debt by more than twice Bush’s worst year while making government permanently more expensive.
In fact, the Congressional Budget Office recently sent a letter to Senator Judd Gregg, with their analysis of the economic effect of the current Senate stimulus bill. Basically it says there would probably be a modest economic improvement from the bill starting in 2010 (not 2009!), dropping each year after, to the point that within a decade, “the Senate legislation would reduce output slightly in the long run, CBO estimates, as would other similar proposals…CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. H.R. 1, as passed by the House, would have similar long-run effects.” In other words, the Democrats are trying to sell us candy in the short term, forgetting about the rotting teeth we’ll then have for the rest of our lives. They’re trying to sell us a brief “artificial” bump in the economy in return for putting a wet blanket on the economy for who knows many many years in the future. (Even the least educated politician in DC should know that socialist economies have always underperformed our economy. OK, that’s far too generous to our politicians. But we know it, and we should make sure they’re reminded.)
(See more about the CBO letter at the end of this note.)
It was also helpful to hear this from The Chosen One, after hearing criticism that the “stimulus” bill was really just a spending bill: “What do you think a stimulus is? That’s the whole point.” In a Keynsian sense, he’s right, but it’s also a huge political loser for him, I believe, as the average American is woken up to realize that very fact. Most people probably believe government can wave a wand, change a rate, or perform some other feat of prestidigitation and change economic growth. When you make it clear to them that the proposal revolves around taking their money — or their children’s money — the picture begins to crystallize in their heads. And it’s not a pretty picture.
Recessions, especially deep ones like this, are a terrible thing. The only thing worse than letting the market sort it out and stabilize over time would be to pass a “stimulus” bill which not only hardly contains any “stimulus” (if you really believe you can stimulate the economy by draining money from the private sector) but it also contains many billions of dollars of pork and socialism, from unproven and inefficient alternative energy spending to a giant step toward socialized medicine.
It’s interesting to hear Obama’s other argument: “We won” so we’re going to do what we want to. He seems truly to believe that the “change” people voted for was to massively increase government spending even while it seems clear that people abandoned the GOP in large part because they didn’t curtail spending.
Some sort of stimulus bill will almost certainly be passed. The Senate Republicans in particular have two choices. One: “Work with” the Dems, tinkering around the edges. Two: Act like the House Republicans and “just say no” to the whole thing. It’s in part a political bet. If the economy improves (which would be in spite of, not because of, the “stimulus” and Republicans had nothing to do with the bill, they stand some real political risk. But, if as seems more likely to me, the economy doesn’t recover quickly, just as much of FDR’s New Deal prolonged the depression, the GOP would stand to gain much politically by trying to kill the whole bill, or forcing the Dems to start over and come back with something 1/3 of the size and mostly pork- and socialism-free. Beyond the political aspect, that is the best outcome for the nation among the things that might have some chance of happening.
Note: For those of you interested in more of the CBO’s comments, the letter to Senator Gregg is a good read. Here is a very important section:
In contrast to its positive near-term macroeconomic effects, the Senate legislation would reduce output slightly in the long run, CBO estimates, as would other similar proposals. The principal channel for this effect is that the legislation would result in an increase in government debt. To the extent that people hold their wealth as government bonds rather than in a form that can be used to finance private investment, the increased debt would tend to reduce the stock of productive capital. In economic parlance, the debt would “crowd out” private investment. (Crowding out is unlikely to occur in the short run under current conditions, because most firms are lowering investment in response to reduced demand, which stimulus can offset in part.) CBO’s basic assumption is that, in the long run, each dollar of additional debt crowds out about a third of a dollar’s worth of private domestic capital (with the remainder of the rise in debt offset by increases in private saving and inflows of foreign capital).
by Rossputin | 1:38 am, February 6, 2009
One of the truly excellent organizations I’m involved with, perhaps the most excellent, and one of the best investments I make each year since becoming involved is with the Leadership Program of the Rockies.
In addition to a fantastic 9-month course (one day per month, generally) full of tremendous speakers — real experts in areas from political communication to economics — LPR puts on an annual “Retreat” at the Broadmoor Hotel (in Colorado Springs) which brings both great speakers and a great audience (which gets quite involved with Q&A and other discussions with the speakers.)
Read on to learn more about it, and please consider attending. It really is a great event, especially for those of us who believe in such out-of-fashion concepts as liberty, limited government, and free markets. Sign-up information is here:
http://www.leadershipprogram.org/reservations
In recent years, keynote speakers have included Ann Coulter (admittedly not my favorite), Laura Ingraham, and last year, Mike Huckabee (who massively exceeded my expectations and was an excellent speaker, including being enjoyable to chat with at the VIP reception.) But it’s not just the keynote speakers who are great. Other speakers have included John Fund (WSJ political writer), Fred Barnes (Daily Standard), Jonathan Hoenig (“The Capitalist Pig”), Dr. Pat Michaels (Cato Institute, expert on “Global Warming”), Steve Moore (WSJ editorial board & economist), Frank Luntz (leading pollster and author of “Words that Work”) and lesser known speakers such as a fascinating women who was organizing women to participate in Iraq’s fledgling Democracy.
Beside the speakers, the Broadmoor is just a fabulous place. It has to be the best hotel in the state. My wife even loves to go to this event..and she’s no fan of politics…because she loves the hotel (and spa) so much. They have great baby-sitting services, which really helps us make the most of things.
This year is shaping up to be a GREAT one at the LPR retreat. It’s March 6th and 7th at the Broadmoor Hotel, and the few of the confirmed speakers so far are already tremendous:
Dinner keynote on the 6th will be Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and fixture on Fox News political discussions. More from Kristol’s bio: Before starting The Weekly Standard in 1995, Mr. Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican Congressional victory. Prior to that, Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff to vice president Dan Quayle during the Bush administration and to Secretary of Education William Bennett under President Reagan. Before coming to Washington in 1985, Mr. Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Lunch keynote will be Jonah Goldberg, editor of and writer for National Review Online, and author of “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning”
Michelle Malkin, who recently moved to Colorado, is also a confirmed “session speaker”, meaning during the day on Friday. Even though I don’t agree with her on everything, Michelle is by far my favorite of the many well-known female conservative pundits…and that was even before she had the good sense to move to our state.
There is a wide range of ticket packages and sponsorships available, including offering the ability to join us at the VIP cocktail hour with Bill Kristol. More info is available at the LPR Retreat page:
http://www.leadershipprogram.org/retreat
There’s also a usually-excellent silent auction (which you’re welcome to donate things to in order to help LPR raise money, and get a tax deduction for yourself at the same time since LPR is a non-profit organization.)
If you sign up soon, you should also be able to get the Leadership Program of the Rockies room rate at the Broadmoor, which is a big discount over their usual rates. (Ask for a room overlooking their lake when you get there!)
I haven’t missed the retreat any year since I’ve moved to Colorado and I’ll be there this year. I strongly urge you to come to the Broadmoor on March 6th and 7th (my wife and I always go a day earlier just to enjoy the place for another day and evening), for 24 hours of intellectual stimulation about liberty, free markets, and leadership. And the food is good, too!
Hotel and Retreat registration info can be found at:
http://www.leadershipprogram.org/reservations
I hope to see you there! (Even liberals are welcome, as long as you’re willing to learn!)
by Constructively Reasonable | 12:46 am, February 6, 2009
The Rocky Mountain News (soon to be a memory) reported what is a quite affront to property rights.
It seems that Denver’s 16th Street Mall is “at-risk.” Apparently, the Mall will start smoking weed and dropping out of high school– to hang out at the mall.
The self-appointed Historic Denver, Inc., and it’s kissing cousin Colorado Preservation, Inc., fret that the 16th Street Mall is in danger of destruction. For those who have lived or worked near the mall, we know that the RTD bus shuttles, while they may be eco-friendly, will damage the Mall’s granite tiles. Now Historic Denver, Inc. wants to stop any attempts by RTD to change the Mall’s pavement.
What is more disturbing in the file are these lines:
“Historic preservation is moving away from a lone iconic structure,” [Jonas Landes, coordinator of the Endangered Places program for Colorado Preservation, Inc.] said. “Our list is an example of where it is going, including a design landscape that is not even 30 years old but an important part of our recent history.”
So, instead of taking single buildings by regulation (i.e. putting such onerous restrictions that make a property unusable and therefore greatly devalued), now the “historic preservation” societies are taking entire neighborhoods? Remember, the Mall isn’t even 30 years old.
Note too that the restrictions would not only be on RTD but also the properties that line the 16th Street Mall. The “historic” status would make any renovation to the properties very expensive. Imagine if/when they turn their attention to “historic” neighborhoods like Highlands, Globeville, or even Highlands Ranch (hey, if a 30 year old mall, why not a suburb?).
Later in the story, the Rocky notes:
Meanwhile, far from this urban landmark…
* The Fourth Street Commercial District of the town of Saguache is really “main street,” but like other rural towns in the West, it is seeing stores shutter as population drops. Mayor Milton Jones, a fourth-generation resident of Saguache, says he wants his hometown to “become a place where people want to live again.”
How exactly will a designation which severely limits what an owner can do to a building “become a place where people want to live again”? If the problem for Saguache, Colorado is a troubled economic situation, then the last thing “main street” needs is for the historic preservation districts to make life difficult for any incoming entrepreneurs to bring business and jobs to the city though burdensome historic preservation codes.
We need to stand up and say, “No!” to the nannyists who worry more about a modern mall or decrepit old building than they do about bus carrier safety and business revitalization.
by Ben DeGrow | 9:52 pm, February 5, 2009
Courtesy of Hot Air, a great video exposing the hypocrisy and dubious logic behind Big Labor’s poorly-named Employee Free Choice Act:
Of course, the removal of the secret ballot process from workplace elections only presents the more sensational half of the problems posed by this legislation. Costly binding arbitration makes up the other half.
But if AFL-CIO [...]
by Mr. Bob | 12:49 pm, February 5, 2009
If only….If only the Republicans had the power to implement this. But they don’t because our former President was not conservative, he was a spender, and a big government guru. Yes he did some great things protecting us but he did not represent conservatism for the economy and when he did he was pummled by the world media. And as you know like his father, he didn’t defend himself or conservatism well, if at all.
by Mr. Bob | 12:31 pm, February 5, 2009
It doesn’t take long for people who don’t like charter schools to introduce legislation to whittle away at the key points that make charter schools successful. Newly elected state Senator Evie Hudak (D-Arvada) has introduced a bill, SB 90, to do just that. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Debbie Benefield (D-Westminster).
When Hudak served on the State Board of Education she didn’t like it that charter schools sought, and received, waiver from the School Advisory Council (accountability committee) law…….
Hudak’s bill specifically targets charter schools. It undermines the authority of the charter school governing board, which should alarm all 1,000 plus charter school board members in the state. The bill even goes so far as to say that if a charter school doesn’t have an accountability committee, that’s grounds for revocation! Notice the proposed legislation doesn’t take into account academic achievement as a means for keeping a charter school open, it simply states that not following a senseless state rule is grounds for revocation.
Read the entire post at Colorado Charter Schools
Contact Evie Hudak Here
by Ben DeGrow | 11:34 am, February 5, 2009
Yesterday morning I made a hit-and-run appearance on Colorado’s Morning News (850 KOA) to discuss a couple simple education reform ideas in the context of announced state budget cutbacks and the so-called federal “stimulus” bill. Thanks to producer Jason Borgmann, here’s the audio:
Not quite as delirious as I thought I sounded at 7:00 AM.
Clearly, this [...]
by John West | 8:40 am, February 5, 2009
Recent National Guard commercials have scenes from the Revolutionary War been re-enacted. The problem with showing this is that the Revolutionary War was fought by militia groups, not the National Guard. The National Guard is state sponsored, state trained, and answerable to the state. Militia groups are none of the above. Just remember, George Washington [...]
by Ben DeGrow | 8:09 am, February 5, 2009
Update, 8:50 PM: 19 Democrats voted for the taxes and tolls in the transportation bill. Lefties are in turmoil, with some angry that the Dems are responsible for passing a regressive tax.
Yesterday I asked if Colorado Democrats would try to overreach in sticking taxpayers for state transportation costs. It didn’t take long to see where [...]
by Rossputin | 7:19 am, February 5, 2009
The Rocky Mountain News was good enough to publish my letter to the editor about the theft of Mike Rosen’s savings by Bernie Madoff. It’s a much shorter version of a note I posted on the subject the other day, but I think it bears repetition in this form.
see “Liberal glee at plight of theft victim Rosen is typical”, Ross Kaminsky, RMN, 2/5/09
http://rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/05/liberal-glee-at-plight-of-theft-victim-rosen-is/
by Rossputin | 3:35 am, February 5, 2009
Dear Senators Udall and Bennett,
I am contacting you to urge you in the strongest possible way to oppose the current “stimulus” bill or anything vaguely resembling it.
The bill will not stimulate the economy. It will saddle my 3-year old daughter and 1-year old son with an even higher mountain of debt for the rest of their lives.
You and I would probably not agree on much in terms of economic policy. You probably enjoy the idea of the permanent enlargement of government which is the clear primary goal of this bill, despite it’s “stimulus” cover story.
But at a time of national economic crisis, you have a duty to Colorado and the nation to act in good faith for the economy and not for the benefit of your party, unions, or favored liberal industries and interest groups.
If you want to support all those things, do it later, in the clear and politically disinfecting light of day, not under cover of a so-called “stimulus” bill and during a time of substantial confusion among the electorate.
At the end of the day, supporting this bill by claiming it is “stimulus” is dishonest. And while I may not agree with you gentlemen frequently on policy matters, I do think you are honest men (all prejudices against politicians aside.)
On a purely political note, I believe any rational economist (which means not Robert Reich or Paul Krugman) will tell you that this bill is simply burning money, at least in economic terms. (I realize that it may buy a lot of votes in political terms.) When it fails, at it must, to stimulate the economy, the Democrats’ losses will reverse most or all of your gains in the last two elections, particularly if the Senate Republicans are smart enough to leave Senate Democrats holding the bag as the House Republicans did to Nancy Pelosi and friends. (Sadly, I don’t think Senate Republicans are as smart as House Republicans.)
For the sake of my children’s economic future, and in order to maintain some hope that they can reach a higher standard of living than I have, just as we reached higher than our parents, I urge you to oppose S. 1 and anything like it that might come out of a conference.
by Rossputin | 1:51 am, February 5, 2009
Thanks to Ben DeGrow for bringing Randall Hoven’s article to my attention.
Over at The American Thinker, Randall Hoven suggests that our current recession is not an unprecedented crisis, and that economic statistics so far during this downturn are little different from other post-WW II recessions.
I disagree.
The first statistic Mr. Hoven mentions is the recently-reported -3.8% GDP growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2008. However, the only reason the drop wasn’t closer to the consensus forecast drop of over 5% was a huge build-up of inventories…inventories which I can’t imagine will be sold anytime soon. As Brian Wesbury noted, “That leaves two alternatives: either the inventory increase will be revised away in future reports (reducing Q4 real GDP growth) or the inventory correction in the first half of 2009 will be extremely sharp, meaning real GDP in Q1 may be even weaker than in Q4.”
It also bears pointing out, as Wesbury does, that “The weakest components of real GDP were personal consumption, which fell at the consensus expected 3.5% annual rate, and business investment in equipment and software, which dropped at a 27.8% rate. Home building fell at a 23.6% rate.”
It is hard to imagine more likely leading indicators for the economic times we’re about to live in than huge drops in consumer spending, business investment, and home prices.
What else? In December, new single-family home sales hit their lowest level since records starting being kept. Not only were fewer houses being sold, but what was sold went at far lower prices, with the median price down over 9% from a year ago and the average price down over 13%. Considering what a huge percentage of consumer spending in recent years came from mortgage equity withdrawals, this bodes extremely poorly for the overall economy, and it’s something very different from any prior post-WW II recessions.
The Rasmussen Employment Index fell to a record low for the fourth straight month. Their consumer and investor indexes aren’t much better.
Also different from those recessions is the truly massive de-leveraging cycle we’re in now. In no other recession were financial and other institutions cutting back from leverage levels frequently as high as 30:1. While most Americans pay attention to the stock market, the real life blood of the economy is the debt market. And today there is no money being loaned out…not that there is much demand to borrow any. This de-leveraging will make this recession deeper and longer than others.
I’d also point out that most of the horrible economic numbers we get lately end up being revised to even worse numbers at the next report. This is true of consumer sentiment, manufacturing indices, productivity measures, etc.
In terms of employment, I think the uptick in unemployment, with 7.2% reported for December, is just the beginning. Mr. Hoven makes some strange arguments trying to show that “payroll shrinkage”, “GDP shrinkage” and other measures of economic (in)activity are about average in comparison to prior recessions. But those comparisons are worthless because they are with completed recessions…we’re already “average” in comparison and our recession feels like it’s just getting up to speed.
I do not believe this will end up being a “typical recession” by any stretch.
And, as I’ve written about frequently in recent weeks, another enormous difference between the current recession and prior ones is that we now have a government which aims to “fix” the problem by destroying attacking capitalists and capitalism, by socializing medicine, by pandering to the cult of Algore and his global warming hoax, and by turning the majority of Americans into wards of the state.
The Democrats’ medicine will be worse than our current illness, and will turn what should have been a moderately annoying case of the fiscal flu into a devastating economic pneumonia.
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