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“Dread Pirate Ritter” and the Scurvy Senate raid Pinnacol

by Ikonoclast | 12:10 am, April 15, 2009

Piracy has been very much in the news of late, with the much-publicized hijacking of an American-flagged ship (the Maersk Alabama) and subsequent rescue of the heroic captain (who had volunteered to be the sole hostage in order to free his crew) by Navy Special Warfare operators (my most heartfelt and solemn thanks and congratulations to them and to all of our heroes in the fight overseas).

However, there’s a much-less remarked-upon bit of piracy happening much closer to home: the raid by our rogue state government, led by “Dread Pirate Ritter” and his scurvy crew from the Colorado State Senate, on $500 million in assets held by a private company, Pinnacol Assurance.

This bald-faced theft – yes, theft, for the state has NO RIGHT to steal this money from an independent, private institution – is “stunning in its audacity and brazen in its goal“:

“Pinnacol is not a state agency and is to be run as a mutual insurance company for the benefit of its policyholders. Pinnacol receives absolutely no funding from the state and is required to be self-sustaining. The law expressly prohibits any transfer of Pinnacol’s assets to the state’s general fund.”

The Dread Pirate Ritter himself, appearing on the Mike Rosen show on Monday 13 April, confronted with the plain text of the statute (CRS8-45-102) and Attorney General John Suthers’ statement that the Ritter raid is “unconstitutional and impossible to defend in court” responded in characteristically mealy-mouthed fashion by refusing to address the question directly (skirting the issue of legality and constitutionality – and thus ignoring his oath as governor to uphold the law) and referring to “discussions” with Pinnacol – “conducted in good faith” as to “whether or not they can be part of  a resolution to this budget deficit.”

Of course, anyone not born yesterday knows exactly what that means: “Backdoor Bill” is attempting to extort or pressure Pinnacol into “voluntarily” coughing up the $500 million.

Contact Pinnacol Assurance and urge them to stand firm!  No caving, no compromise - and no negotiations with pirates.

Deep-Six this illegal, unconstitutional seizure – or who knows who could be next.

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Comments

  1.   travis
      April 15th, 2009 @ 7:52 am

    It’s really a shame that impeachment has been given such a black eye over the past ten years – first with the Clinton impeachment (for lying under oath, suborning perjury, obstructing justice, and other actual violations of the law) getting tarred as a purely partisan persecution that was “all about sex”, and then through eight years of lefties wanting to impeach Bush in retaliation, and gussying up that pure partisanship with allegations of war crimes, stealing the election, taking away all our Constitutional rights, screwing up/causing Katrina, pronouncing “nuclear” the wrong way, etc.

    Impeachment has become an unusable tool, just when we need it the most.

    On the other hand, maybe Rod Blagojevich has reset the meter on impeachment, or at least restored its utility at the state level. If Ritter is behind this outright theft, violating the law willingly after *being warned by the AG that the move was explicitly against the law*, it’s a textbook situation where impeachment applies.

    Let’s start a drive to impeach Ritter. The time has come!

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