Featured in Money

by Ari Armstrong | 6:33 pm, June 22, 2009

Money magazine features a short write-up about Jennifer and me pertaining to our Health Savings Account. See page 80 of the July issue.

The upshot is that we pay $148 per month for health insurance (for the two of us) for a high-deductible plan, then use our HSA (which is pre-tax money) for all our health care.

I thought this was a good quote from me: “We are thinking all the time about how our behavior is affecting our health. We eat the right foods. We exercise.”

And, by the way, I just scheduled a doctor’s visit for myself (my wife sees a different doctor in the Fall) and dental visits for both of us.

The photo in the magazine shows us standing on the dam of Ketner Lake (reservoir actually) in Westminster.

Socrates and the State

by The Constitutional Reporter | 5:24 pm, June 22, 2009

by Kirk Barbera, staff writer for The Constitutional ReporterOn Socrates’ reasoningFirst of all, I must commend Socrates for his effective use of logic. Socrates has succinctly used and or created logical discussion. He first defends himself from Cri…

Watch This and You’ll Want to Meet Him

by Jon Caldara | 4:11 pm, June 22, 2009

At the time of this writing, about 2.4 million people have seen Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan of the UK Parliament rip Prime Minister Gordon Brown a new one. That’s right, I’m talking about this now infamous speech made during session, with Daniel ending the fire and brimstone by calling Gordon Brown a “devalued Prime [...]

Sotomayor Contributed to Mortgage Crisis

by Ari Armstrong | 1:06 pm, June 22, 2009

I continue my comments on Sonia Sotomayor today by pointing to an article about Sotomayor’s role in the mortgage meltdown (thanks again to Jim Pfaff.)

John Carney writes:

Sonia Sotomayor… served on the board of a New York State agency charged with providing discounted mortgages to middle and low income homebuyers from 1987 to 1992. During the time, she was a consistent advocate of pushing the agency to provide more mortgages to low-income home buyers. In short, she advocated the kind of aggressive lending practices that helped create the mortgage meltdown. …

The agency, which is called SONYMA, is a local version of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It initially provided mortgage insurance to first time homebuyers, mostly on middle-income housing. It expanded into lower-income homebuyers and then into directly buying mortgages in an attempt to push down mortgage rates. During her time on the agency’s board, Sotomayor was a consistent critic of its activities, according to this story in the New York Times. And her critique was always the same: not enough loans were being insured on homes for lower-income and minority buyers.

As Carney notes, while Sotomayor’s participation preceded the major bubble, the sorts of policies she (and many others) advocated led directly to the mortgage crisis.

For a more complete account of how federal policies created the mortgage bubble and subsequent bust, read Thomas Sowell’s The Housing Boom and Bust.

134 billion dollar bond smuggling story full of inconsistencies

by Mr. Bob | 12:40 pm, June 22, 2009

If you’ve been following this story (and you should be) the lack of good journalism on it is quite alarming. We’ve been told the bonds were fakes, but as you will see, it’s hard to know what to believe right now.

“The Big List”: 2010 State House And Senate Races

by elpresidente | 11:01 am, June 22, 2009

Jeremy Pelzer (formerly of PolitickerCO and 5280) has a complete rundown of announced, projected, and speculative candidates for Colorado House and Senate in 2010 (to be continuously updated):

2010 House Candidates

2010 Senate Candidates

Jeremy’s blog Mile High Politics is sure to be a key source for political news for 2010, so be sure to bookmark it and check back frequently.

Bill Ritter’s Chance to Jump On Board Union Transparency Bandwagon

by Ben DeGrow | 8:11 am, June 22, 2009

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter screwed up with his handling of the Senate Bill 180 veto. Stumbling across a good public policy decision, he provoked the wrath of labor union special interests.
Since Bill Ritter has found himself on this sensible path, perhaps he could continue a little longer and throw his weight behind an idea [...]

Liberty on the Rocks Red Rocks A Veritable Who’s Who of Local Politics

by Ben DeGrow | 7:51 am, June 22, 2009

I go out of town for a week, miss an edition of Liberty on the Rocks – Red Rocks, and organizer Jeff Sacco outdoes himself. Face The State reported on the growing political heft that attended last Monday’s meeting. If you live on the west side of the Denver metro area, and you haven’t dropped [...]

Obama right to stay relatively quiet about Iran

by Rossputin | 1:38 am, June 22, 2009

Many people, particularly on the right, are calling for Barack Obama to make a forceful statement in support of the Iranian protesters and against the ruling regime. They complain that his statements so far have been too passive and weak and not offering enough support to the brave people who are truly risking their lives in search of something approaching democracy, or at least a real election vote count, in one of the most repressive, autocratic nations on earth. It is neither an accident nor an exaggeration for Iran to have been named as a, or maybe the, key member of the “axis of evil.”

As much as I don’t enjoy saying it, I think Obama’s current stance is the right one. The last thing the Iranian public needs is for Obama to give Khameni and the Guardian Council a way to divert the attention away from themselves and towards American “meddling” or “imperialism.”

Yes, the regime will probably blame us for meddling anyway, but it will be a hard argument to make if Obama essentially limits his statements to support for basic human and political rights. (I don’t think resolutions of Congress have nearly the weight of a public statement by our president.)

The other potential problem with Obama making more forceful statements in support of the would-be revolutionaries is that the US has absolutely no leverage in the situation and no real way to help them. It’s one thing if we could credibly promise to arm the street protesters or otherwise pose a threat to the mullahs. But we can’t. We have no way to deliver anything significant into Iran and no way to have troops on the ground there even if such a thing were desirable (which it obviously isn’t.) So any chest-thumping talk will make us look like even more of a paper tiger than the Muslim world already believes the US to be (particularly under a president so eager to embrace America-hating murderous dictators.)

This Second Iranian Revolution, if it happens, must be ONLY about Iran and the freedom of its people. Foreigners should do everything they can to help, but nothing that makes the issue be about anything other than what it’s about. Part of what’s happening here, even if the ruling regime isn’t soon toppled, is the destruction of its legitimacy. Having a foreign foil is an extremely powerful tool with which to control a domestic population. Obama is right not to provide that foil.

[Update: As if to prove my point, see this CNN story discussing Iran’s trying to blame Britain for its troubles, and the British Foreign Secretary saying that the Iranian regime “was trying to turn an internal dispute into a battle between Iran and other countries.” (That’s a quote from the article, but maybe not a word-for-word quote from the Foreign Secretary himself.)]

As far as how the domestic politics plays, while I’m generally happy about anything that damages Barack Obama’s popularity – which his soft stance on Iran probably does because so much of the public wants John Wayne or Dirty Harry as president from time to time – I appreciate that he’s making the wiser decision for Iran even though he knows it’s probably hurting his poll ratings marginally.

In the future, what will be particularly interesting is whether the Obama Administration keeps trying a strategy of “engagement” with Iran if those he’d be engaging with are still part of the Khameni/Ahmadinejad regime. He’s painted himself into a no-win situation. If he does try to continue the strategy, he will be rightly pilloried for working with what many people (most relevantly many people in Iran) see as a fanatical, thuggish regime who stole an election to keep as much power as possible. (Not that such behavior is new in Iran.) If he stops engaging with them, he’ll hear the “I told you so” from many corners, where people (again rightly) told him that his “they just need not to feel misunderstood” strategy was naive and dangerous. I’m sure Obama’s spin room is furiously thinking about the rhetoric to deal with any outcome in Iran.

If the regime of the mullahs falls, which is unlikely in the short term but not absolutely impossible, we’ll see the left saying that it was Obama’s Cairo speech which inspired the protesters. I doubt the American public will buy it, but I guarantee we’ll hear it on every major network news channel except Fox News. And if the regime falls, it will be interesting to see just what replaces it. Iran has been non-democratic for so long that its institutions really aren’t ready to suddenly handle being a free country. Still, if it were possible for the country to be something like free sooner rather than later, that’s obviously better than what they have now.

Finally, in the unlikely event that Moussavi becomes the new President of Iran, it will be interesting to see if he’s still the evil murderous bastard he was when he worked for Khomeni, or whether he’s had some sort of epiphany. Don’t forget, this guy was a candidate approved by the mullahs which means he’s not our friend, not Israel’s friend, and most likely not a friend of the Iranian people – although in comparison to President Iminajihad, he probably looks very appealing (both figuratively and literally.) That said, what’s happening in Iran is not about Moussavi. It’s about an election the people believe was stolen and about a very young population (reportedly 60% or more under the age of 30) which has no vested interest in living in a repressive Islamic state. Moussavi could have been almost anybody – he’s a symbol of change, even if a very flawed one. And don’t we know something in the US about electing extremely flawed symbols of hope and change? Let’s hope it works out better for Iran than it is for us so far.

Congress & gov’t employees would be exempt from new insurance mandates

by Brian Schwartz | 1:30 am, June 22, 2009

Quoting Donald Boudreaux: “Lies.  Special privileges. Par for the course.”
From the Wall Street Journal:
Last September Sen. Barack Obama promised that under his health-care proposal “you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves.” On Monday, President Obama repeated that promise in a speech to the American Medical Association. [...]

Colorado Supreme Court “Dares to trash TABOR”

by CTBC Director | 11:00 am, June 21, 2009

In an otherwise excellent article in today’s Denver Post Perspective section, columnist Vince Carroll, decrying legislators and others who play the “Blaming TABOR” game as an excuse for failing to balance the state budget, makes one glaring error.  He correctly calls Colorado Springs Democrat John Morse to account for getting it wrong on possible approaches [...]

Independence Institute 7th Annual ATF Party

by T.L. James | 10:03 am, June 21, 2009

As the joke goes, ”alcohol, tobacco, and firearms” is a lousy idea for an overbearing government regulatory agency but a great idea for a convenience store.   While we Americans are saddled with the former and prohibited (for our own good, of course) from having the latter, that doesn’t stop the Independence Institute from having an annual fundraiser where they enjoyment [...]

Sunday Funnies: Barack Obama – Superhero?

by Ikonoclast | 6:14 am, June 21, 2009

The sad thing is that some of the cult of the Messiah don’t realize that this is satire…  Watch the video:

Colorado’s Iranian community protests regime

by RMR | 2:02 pm, June 20, 2009

Colorado’s Iranian community and supporters of their cause turned out at the state capitol this morning to protest the Khamenei regime and the fraudulent Iranian presidential elections results. Here are a few photos from the rally:

Twitter Feed

by Ari Armstrong | 10:46 am, June 20, 2009

Readers may notice a new feature on this web page: a Twitter feed for links to Colorado news of interest to free-market activists. I’ll also post a few links to national stories. I’m devoting my Twitter account exclusively to such posts. I’ve also started tagging my Twitter entries with a single all-caps word to help categorize the issue.

Follow me on Twitter!

Update on Suitcase with 134 billion

by Mr. Bob | 2:13 pm, June 19, 2009

#tcot #bonds #hhrs

Mob Counterfeit.

The Financial Times

Whether the men are really Japanese, as their passports declare, is unclear but Italian and US secret services working together soon concluded that the bills and accompanying bank documents were most probably counterfeit, the latest handiwork of the Italian Mafia.

Few details have been revealed beyond a June 4 statement by the Italian finance police announcing the seizure of 249 US Treasury bills, each of $500m, and 10 “Kennedy” bonds, used as intergovernment payments, of $1bn each. The men were apparently tailed by the Italian authorities.

The mystery deepened on Thursday as an Italian blog quoted Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Como provincial finance police as saying the two men had been released. The colonel and police headquarters in Rome both declined to respond to questions from the Financial Times.

“They are all fraudulent, it’s obvious. We don’t even have paper securities outstanding for that value,’’ said Mckayla Braden, senior adviser for public affairs at the Bureau of Public Debt at the US Treasury department. “This type of scam has been going on for years.’’

The Treasury has not issued physical Treasury bonds since the 1980s – they are handled electronically – though they still issue savings bonds in paper format.

READ THE REST

Dripping Narcissism, Queen Senator Babs Shows Contempt and Ingnorance to General

by Mr. Bob | 1:52 pm, June 19, 2009

#tcot #boxer #military #hhrs

I am sure you’ve heard the story by now, but to get the full effect…watch the video.

Walsh surely meant no disrespect, as military protocol advises that officers may use “sir” or “ma’am” when addressing anybody higher than them on the chain of command.

“Military personnel including Generals would call them ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am’ or ‘senator such-and-such’,” Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nathan Banks said. Any of those terms would be “appropriate” when addressing a senator.

Just not Babs. Mizz Boxer will never win any prize for being the smartest person in Washington, but you can see from this that she earned her nicknames honestly…particularly dumber than a box of rocks Boxer….and yes that is disrespectful.

Steven Crowder Weekly Comedic Take

by Mr. Bob | 11:46 am, June 19, 2009

Crazy Pete is back, and this time he’s slashing prices on Embryonic Stem Cells.

PETA glorifies murderer Che Guevara, defends flies.

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 10:20 am, June 19, 2009

PETA has employed Che Guevara’s granddaughter, Lydia Guevara, to a appear in a series of print ads themed “The Vegetarian Revolution.”

Iran communicates with the world

by Mr. Bob | 9:15 am, June 19, 2009

#iran #tcot

Iran is a country with a repressive regime but access to all the modern technologies. Although the government tries to control them…it can’t. Here are some good resources coming out of Iran.

Tehran Broadcast aims to bridge the gap between English and Persian news makers, media, bloggers, twitters, etc. In particular, we try to bring first-hand news from Iran and present them in English. The entries of this website are written by people from Iran and translated by some 300 translators. Please send Persian news material for translation to “submit [at] balatarin [dot] com”.

The liberal online newspaper The Nation has a list of bloggers from Iran today…good stuff.

Good pictures of protest HERE

Obama 40-50 somethings and Generation Jones

by Mr. Bob | 8:24 am, June 19, 2009

#hhrs #tcot #boomer #jones
I always knew I was not a boomer and way too old to be an X-er, but people kept lumping me in with them. Now we have a name…Generation Jones. I feel so much more complete now that I can be labeled more correctly and pandered to more effectively.

Here is a whole page dedicated to Generation Jones.

Ted Nugent: I don’t like repeat offenders; I like dead offenders

by Rossputin | 1:59 am, June 19, 2009

Thanks to Mike F. for sending this along. It’s over a year old, but I don’t think it’s gotten the attention it deserves…

If you can’t see the video in your browser just below these words, you can click HERE for the direct YouTube link.

Thursday Health Care Extravaganza

by Jon Caldara | 3:07 pm, June 18, 2009

***Linda Gorman debunks the Institute of Medicine numbers on medical errors, and gets a full post on PointofLaw.com for her efforts!
***Evidently in the debunking mood again, Linda for the millionth time, destroys Families USA in this John Goodman blog post aptly titled, “Families USA Makes Strong Bid for Worst Study of the Year Award.” Ouch.
***Michelle [...]

Fiery MEP Daniel Hannan In Denver

by elpresidente | 2:37 pm, June 18, 2009

The Honor of Your Presence is Requested for a Special Evening With
MEP Daniel Hannan
Friday, June 26, 2009
Cocktail reception 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Grant-Humphreys Mansion
770 Pennsylvania Street, Denver, CO 80203

Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He has written eight books on European policy, speaks French and Spanish and is author of The Plan: Twelve months to renew Britain

Hannan has recently risen to fame in the U.S. after his fiery speech addressing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the European Parliament (“The devalued prime minister of a devalued government.”)

RSVP REQUIRED!

Hannan skewers Brown:

Who called the NY Times?

by Rossputin | 2:11 pm, June 18, 2009

I just heard Rush Limbaugh say that the NY Times changed a headline to make it sound less anti-Obama and with a little homework, I was able to verify what he was talking about.

This web site links to the NY Times article with the headline “In Poll, Obama Is Seen as Ineffective on the Economy” but when you get to the NYT web site, the article is now entitled “Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care.“

The original headline is not only more accurate, but actually still generous as the Times story actually says that Obama’s issue ratings are lower than his personal ratings not just on the economy, but also on health care, the auto industry, and Guantanamo: “A majority of people said his policies have had either no effect yet on improving the economy or had made it worse, underscoring how his political strength still rests on faith in his leadership rather than concrete results.”

Don’t you wonder who called the NY Times to push them into using a gentler headline when offering less than praise for The One?

Yes, Senator Boxer, it’s all about you

by Rossputin | 11:04 am, June 18, 2009

This speaks for itself…

Cuffy Geithner

by Ari Armstrong | 10:21 am, June 18, 2009

I’m re-reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged right now, and this story sounds like it comes straight out of the novel:

Core Reforms Held Firm As Much Else Fell Away
In Triage Mode, Economic Team’s Goal To Expand Fed’s Power Trumped Others
By David Cho and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 18, 2009

… Fresh from meeting with Obama, [Treasury Secretary Timothy F.] Geithner asked the lobbyists what they were up to. When they explained they preferred that a council of regulators, rather than the central bank, safeguard the financial markets, Geithner silenced the discussion with a string of obscenities, according to people who were present.

“I don’t believe in rule by committee,” he said. …

Apparently, in Geithner’s world the only alternative to “rule by committee” is rule by a strong man.

Are you paying attention, friends?

Suitcase With $134 Billion Puts Dollar on Edge

by Mr. Bob | 9:19 am, June 18, 2009

#tcot #gop #japan #market #hhrs

UNBELIEVABLE story. Write your congressman, We must find out why these two Japanese “Businessmen” were carrying the equivalent of the gross domestic product of a medium sized country in their suitcases!

UPDATED BELOW

Here are some excerpts from Bloomberg;

Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland.

The implications of the securities being legitimate would be bigger than investors may realize. At a minimum, it would suggest that the U.S. risks losing control over its monetary supply on a massive scale.

Think about it: These two guys were carrying the gross domestic product of New Zealand or enough for three Beijing Olympics. If economies were for sale, the men could buy Slovakia and Croatia and have plenty left over for Mongolia or Cambodia.

Let’s assume for a moment that these U.S. bonds are real. That would make a mockery of Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano’s “absolutely unshakable” confidence in the credibility of the U.S. dollar.

Counterfeit $100 bills are one thing; two guys with undeclared bonds including 249 certificates worth $500 million and 10 “Kennedy bonds” of $1 billion each is quite another.

In the absence of clear explanations coming from the Treasury, conspiracy theories are filling the void.

On his blog, the Market Ticker, Karl Denninger wonders if the Treasury “has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say, Japan, as a means of financing deficits that someone didn’t want reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years.” Adds Denninger: “Let’s hope we get those answers, and this isn’t one of those ‘funny things’ that just disappears into the night.”

This is still a story with far more questions than answers. It’s odd, though, that it’s not garnering more media attention. Interest is likely to grow.

duh..yes, interest is likely to grow READ THE REPORT AT BLOOMBERG.

UPDATED – Bills are counterfeit – see Financial Times

Colorado Democrats’ Taxpayer-Funded Arrogance on Full Display Now

by Ben DeGrow | 9:03 am, June 18, 2009

Colorado Democrats … arrogant? Can’t exactly say I’m shocked. But the brazenness of using taxpayer dollars for a Democrats-only team-building retreat only heightens my desire to make Brandon Shaffer’s term as state senate president as short as possible.
The least we can hope for (and work for) is divided government. Republicans should have their sights set [...]

Five Ways to Help the People of Iran

by Mr. Bob | 8:24 am, June 18, 2009

#tcot #hhrs

Hat tip to CollegeRepublicans.com

Written by Zach Howell on Wed, 06/17/2009 – 12:20pm

With the Iranian protests in their fifth day, the Iranian regime cracking down, and the protesters showing no intention of giving up – now is the time to stand with the Iranian people in solidarity as they strive for freedom.

As a great deal of the resistance online is taking place on the micro-blogging site Twitter, a lot of ways you can help are there. But even you if you’re not on Twitter – you can be active!

Here are five ways you can immediately take action to help the Iranian protesters as they fight for freedom.

1. Follow the latest news from Iran live on Twitter by tracking the hashtags #IranElection and #gr88.

2. Help conceal Iranian activists on Twitter by changing your location to “Tehran, Iran,” your timezone to Tehran (GMT +3:30) and making your bio something related to the protests.

3. Show solidarity with the protesters by changing your Facebook and Twitter profiles to green. Here are simple instructions on how to do so.

4. Make a monetary donation to support the efforts of a non-profit actively training and working with the protesters in Iran.

5. For the tech-savvy activist: you can create a proxy server so that Iranian protesters can gain unrestricted access to the Internet. Instructions on how to set one up here.

var disqus_title = “5 Ways to Help the Iranian People”;var disqus_message = ” With the Iranian protests in their fifth day, the Iranian regime cracking down, and the protesters showing no intention of giving up – now is the time to stand with the Iranian people in solidarity as they strive for freedom. “;

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