Vail 9-12 Hosts Overview of Colorado Election and Caucus Process

by T.L. James | 6:00 am, January 12, 2010

PPC drove up to Avon this morning (through unexpectedly heavy ski traffic) to attend an overview of the election schedule and caucus process, hosted by the Vail 9-12 group and presented by R Block Party’s Lori Horn and GOP grassroots activist Christa Huff. If you are a registered Republican in Colorado and want to have some [...]

“Disproportionate” discipline of minority students not likely to be racist

by Rossputin | 5:35 am, January 12, 2010

The tone of the Denver Post editorial – and the tone of people quoted in it – about “racial disparity in student discipline” implies a strong suspicion that racism is an important factor in minority students being “disproportionately more likely to be disciplined than their white peers.”  However, we should remind ourselves of Mark Twain’s quip that “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.”

The fact that black students get disciplined more often than white students could be – and I would suggest is likely to be – primarily due to their being disproportionately likely to behave in a way to demand that discipline.

There are plenty of statistics, not least about birth to unwed mothers (nearly three times as common among black women as white women), which would lead one to understand how black students might have discipline issues in larger proportion than white students.

It is not racist to observe the lack of strong two-parent families among black Americans nor to recognize that a child growing up without a father is more likely to have discipline problems than a child growing up in a more stable two-parent household. In 2004, 69.3% of births to black women were to black unmarried women. (This compares to 24.5% of non-Hispanic whites and 46.4% of Hispanics.)

And while some people might argue that “the system is racist”, it can’t be simply racism that accounts for over 35% of American prison population being black males, even though blacks overall make up only 12.8% of the population overall.

There are deep structural and behavioral problems in much of urban black America. Trying to pretend otherwise is not just flawed thinking, but actively works to prevent the community from addressing those problems, offering blame everywhere other than where it most likely belongs.

School districts which implement “equity training” are assuming that there is racism involved in “disproportionate” discipline of blacks and Hispanics. The only possible outcome of such politically correct mush is that fear of being called a racist will cause teachers and administrators to avoid disciplining minority students who earned (and truly need) discipline or to discipline white students for lesser infractions, just to keep their apparent discipline ratio low enough to avoid criticism by race-baiters.

I do not assume that racism in the imposition of discipline, suspensions, etc., in schools is impossible. Indeed, it would be surprising if there were not a racist teacher or administrator in any given large school district. However, they are likely to be a very small factor in these statistics which look at large numbers of students in large school districts.

Therefore, rather than reflexively assuming there is systemic racism in our schools, the Denver Post and school administrators should have the courage to ask what’s wrong within our minority communities which cause their children to require so much more discipline than average.

Insurance “exchanges”: government-run insurance w/o a “public option”

by Brian Schwartz | 1:30 am, January 12, 2010

The Wall Street Journal editorial board explains how so-called insurance exchanges of the House and Senate health care bills are government-run insurance:
Both bills [House and Senate] blow up the individual and small-business insurance markets, to be replaced with new “exchanges” in which people can buy heavily subsidized coverage and insurers will be told what rates [...]

Why I’m MAD (Mothers Against Debt)

by Amy Oliver | 9:20 pm, January 11, 2010

Just about the time I think pompous members of Congress and other elected officials at the state level have done everything possible to infuriate me, I read something like from the CBS News: “Copenhagen Summit Turned Junket?”  
Fifteen Democrat and six Republican members of Congress, their staff and their families spent hundreds of thousands of our dollars going to Copenhagen, [...]

Go on take a free ride!

by Amy Oliver | 8:07 pm, January 11, 2010

State Representative and Joint Budget Committee member Kent Lambert provides a tremendous amount of information about the state budget and spending on his Web site. 
COST enjoyed digging through a database on state government vehicles.  According to the database, taxpayers have purchased 5534 vehicles over the course of many years.  What’s interesting is that in the [...]

Petition to Pres. Obama and Congress: Let the Cameras In

by Brian Schwartz | 7:50 pm, January 11, 2010

From Americans for Prosperity:
With back-room dealing and political payoffs at a fever pitch on the attempted Washington, D.C. health care takeover, we must remind President Obama of his promises to the American people to bring genuine “transparency” to this whole sordid process.
So, I’m asking you to sign a petition to President Obama and Congress demanding that [...]

Pick Your Dem Guv Nominee: Hickenlooper? Romanoff? Kennedy?

by Ben DeGrow | 6:08 pm, January 11, 2010

Who can keep up with the rumors flying around Colorado as far as which Democrats will step up to the plate to run for governor? If this National Journal posting by Erin McPike is to be believed, we’re down to the possibilities of:

Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, everyone’s odds-on favorite at this point to actually get [...]

GOP Candidate Ryan Frazier to Report Strong 4th Quarter Fundraising

by Ben DeGrow | 3:32 pm, January 11, 2010

If nothing else, Democratic Congressman Ed Perlmutter’s timing is pretty good. He officially pulled the plug on rumors that he might step up and run for governor, so he can focus on a tough race to keep his seat.
Today word has leaked to Mount Virtus that Perlmutter’s top Republican challenger Ryan Frazier had a strong [...]

Ryan Frazier: “Reid’s ‘Disturbing’ Diatribe”

by elpresidente | 2:33 pm, January 11, 2010

Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier, challenger to Rep. Ed Perlmutter in CD 7, responded to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comments about President Barack Obama in the National Review: “When someone like Reid can insinuate that one group of Americans has a substandard dialect in comparison to the rest of the country, that’s alarming and, [...]

Tea Party Activists Unite – Make the RINO an endangered species

by Mr. Bob | 2:14 pm, January 11, 2010

#tcot #RINO #teaparty #PatHughes
With the primaries right around the corner some conservative candidates are popping up as viable and they need our support. RedState highlights this one from the land if Lincoln.

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Monday, January 11th at 12:00PM EST 32

February 2, 2010 is the Illinois Republican Primary. Less than one month away. Patrick Hughes is running an upstart campaign against the would be Republican nominee, Mark Kirk. Patrick Hughes is as far right as Kirk is as far left.

Patrick Hughes aims to harness the conservatives and tea party activists in Illinois who feel marginalized by Kirk and the Democrats further to the left of him. On Friday, Mark Levin endorsed Patrick Hughes and urged conservatives to rally to Patrick Hughes in this last month before the primary.

It makes a compelling case to see just how rapid a response the tea party activists and conservatives can make in a Republican Primary. Should Patrick Hughes win the GOP primary, it would send shock waves across the nation and severely shake the foundations of the GOP establishment.

Read more at REDSTATE and send your support to Mr. Hughes.

MA Senate Moneybomb for Scott Brown

by elpresidente | 2:09 pm, January 11, 2010

From an email: If any of you are so inclined, please consider making a contribution. Consider the ROI on a $25.00 check; thousands of dollars in reduced taxes and the preservation of Capitalism. This is a special election in Mass. to replace the late Senator Ted Kennedy. There is a very REAL chance Scott could [...]

Come to Defend Colorado from Obama Care Rally on Tuesday, January 19

by Ben DeGrow | 1:44 pm, January 11, 2010

There are multiple fronts in which to fight the increasingly unpopular Obama Care legislation being hammered out behind closed doors in Washington, D.C. One is still somewhat of a longshot: to win a 41st vote in the Senate in the January 19 Massachusetts special election. On the same day, Coloradans can help fight Obama Care [...]

Perlmutter won’t run for governor

by Rossputin | 12:39 pm, January 11, 2010

The Denver Post is reporting that Ed Perlmutter has announced he will not run for Governor of Colorado and will instead seek re-election in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District.

This is no surprise to me, although some others seemed to think he would run.  Immediately after Bill Ritter announced he would not seek a second term, I wrote this about Perlmutter:

As for Perlmutter, he’s been an undistinguished Congressman at best.  He has a hint of corruption about him regarding his ownership in a “green” bank. And he will be strongly encouraged by the DCCC to run for re-election since a Republican such as Ryan Frazier would have an easier time taking that seat (Colorado’s 7th Congressional District) for the GOP if he were running against someone other than the incumbent.  Switching races wouldn’t help Perlmutter’s popularity and I would expect he’ll realize he has a better (even if not great) chance of staying on the government payroll by running for reelection in the 7th.  As someone who wants the GOP to win the governorship, I hope Perlmutter runs to replace Ritter.

Scott Brown “Massachusetts Miracle” Could Spell Doom for Michael Bennet

by Ben DeGrow | 9:50 am, January 11, 2010

So I take a weekend away from blogging, and the national political landscape quaked with a Democrat-sponsored poll showing Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown in a statistical dead heat with Democrat Martha Coakley. Yes: in Massachusetts! Now let’s be honest: odds are still against a GOP win in the Bay State, but the fact that victory [...]

The Inevitable Result of Feigning Fiscal Conservatism

by Night Twister | 9:29 am, January 11, 2010

Betsy Markey (D, CO-4) has been working hard lately to convince the voters in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District that she is a fiscal conservative. So hard, in fact, that she claimed to have voted against the TARP funding bill even before she took office (listen here for yourself).
Umm, I voted against the TARP funding, umm, [...]

A more realistic estimate of the costs of the Senate Health Care bill

by Rossputin | 8:03 am, January 11, 2010

On Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is the gov’t agency that runs those programs, put out their estimate of the cost of the Senate health care bill.  They said the bill will add about $280 billion over its first 10 years to the deficit.  While that number is certainly closer to accurate than the CBO’s ridiculous estimate that the bill will cut the deficit, that’s not the only important thing about the CMS report: in addition to its headline estimate, the report casts down (and almost scorn) on the Democrats’ assumptions of the money they will “save” by cutting medicare payments, as well as other items of fantasy in the bill.

Please read more in my Human Events article today:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35142

As you do, please also keep in mind that polls consistently show that Americans care most about curbing health care costs, not about providing universal coverage or anything like it.  Yes, the far left wants everything for everyone for free, but the broader American electorate is NOT willing to suffer higher prices and taxes to extend free or subsidized health care to others.

CNN commentator slams Dems for lack of transparency and honesty

by Rossputin | 6:23 am, January 11, 2010

H/T Mike F.

When the Democrats are taking a pounding like this from CNN, you know they have some serious (and well-deserved) problems facing them in 2010.  It’s the strongest anti-Pelosi, anti-Obama statement I have yet heard from any of the standard liberal media outlets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pO1oJPps1I

Thermopylae for Health Care

by Rossputin | 4:17 am, January 11, 2010

Over at the American Spectator’s web site, Spectator.org, Quinn Hillyer has written one of the most passionate pieces against Obamacare that I’ve seen. It’s entitled “Thermopylae for Health Care“. It’s the kind of thing which reminds me of Thomas Paine or Jefferson.  Well, maybe not quite that inspiring, but pretty close considering the generally much lower level of political passion which we have in modern times.  In a way, Hillyer’s article makes me wish we had a few more true revolutionaries around – not necessarily in the sense of people who want to use weapons to change government, although one or two members of Congress who talked that way in public could be interesting – but in the sense of someone who is willing to risk just about everything to save this nation from tyranny.

And make no mistake, the Obama Administration, the Reid Senate and the Pelosi House represent pure, unadulterated, fascist tyranny.

I don’t want to quote so much of Hillyer’s article that you don’t go read it.  You need to read it.  But I’m going to quote in its entirety one paragraph which should be plastered on web sites across the country and sent to every member of Congress:

The truth is that Obamacare is a care rationing, proxy death-paneling, taxpayer-abortion-funding, unconstitutionally individual-mandating, vast-bureaucracy creating, incredibly high taxing, free enterprise hobbling, doctor-patient-relationship interfering, medical-device denying, flexible savings-account destroying, trial-lawyer gift-wrapping, union-boss mollycoddling, medical price-increasing, job-killing, sinister power-grabbing, American republic-undermining mound of legislative plutonium.

Hallelujah, brother Quinn!

 

Michael Bennet: “free preventive care for everyone”! Not.

by Brian Schwartz | 1:20 am, January 11, 2010

Writes Vince Carroll in the Denver Post:
If the Senate health care bill becomes law, your preventive care will become “free.” … We have the word of Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet that the bill guarantees “free preventive care for everyone.” …
What the senator actually meant, of course — and would eventually get around to explaining in [...]

Farmers: cap and trade “misguided, activist driven regulation”

by Amy Oliver | 4:38 pm, January 10, 2010

Congresswoman Betsy Markey’s pivotal yes vote on the controversial cap and trade legislation may come back to haunt her as she seeks re-election  to represent Colorado’s 4th congressional district.
Within Markey’s district is Weld County, the country’s  eighth largest producing agricultural county in the United States.  Reuters just reported that  Bob Stallman, head of the American Farm [...]

There is no pendulum.

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 10:20 am, January 10, 2010

There is no pendulum.

Will health “reform” kill HSAs & high-deductible insurance plans?

by Brian Schwartz | 1:30 am, January 10, 2010

By attacking Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), Democrats want use tax policy to punish people who prefer to buy medical care directly, rather than through insurance.  Sounds like they favor the insurance industry, no?
On January 9, the AP reported that:
House Democrats want to require insurers to spend a minimum amount of [...]

Value freedom? Watch The Singing Revolution

by Brian T. Schwartz | 12:34 am, January 10, 2010

The documentary’s trailer:

Interview with one of the directors giving background and summary:

For a couple more videos and background, see Reason.tv’s page on Estonia and the Singing Revolution and the documentary’s website.

Value freedom? Watch The Singing Revolution

by Brian T. Schwartz | 12:24 am, January 10, 2010

The documentary’s trailer:

Interview with one of the directors giving background and summary:

For a couple more videos and background, see Reason.tv’s page on Estonia and the Singing Revolution and the documentary’s website.

Where Have All the Protestors Gone?

by T.L. James | 9:54 pm, January 9, 2010

It seems the Women in Black Silent Vigil For Peace (who I last observed observing something less than a moment of silence) have given up their first-Saturday protest outside Colorado Mills in Golden… Did President Obama end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and neglect to tell anyone (except the Women in Black, apparently)?  (The [...]

Seng Center 12/17 – Part Two: The Morality of the Free Market as the Solution to Healthcare

by Jimmy Sengenberger | 3:00 pm, January 9, 2010

Part Two of the December 17th edition of the Seng Center college radio show, in which host Jimmy Sengenberger provides a lengthy but definitive case for the free market as the moral solution to America’s healthcare woes.  In addition, Jimmy explains why healthcare is not a right, mandating insurance coverage for preexisting conditions is not the particularly ethical thing to do, and what the real moral quandaries are with our current system – and how to ethically fix them.

Direct Link
48.49 MB Download

Comments are more than welcome!  E-mailed Jimmy at http://mailto:jimmy@sengcenter.com/ or post on the site!  As always, please be respectful in your remarks.

Tune in LIVE to Seng Center every Thursday night from 6-8pm MTN online at krcx.org, official website of KRCX 93.9 Regis University.

Seng Center 12/17 – Part One: Clear the Bench Colorado and Bill Nye the Science Guy

by Jimmy Sengenberger | 3:00 pm, January 9, 2010

Part One of the December 17th edition of the Seng Center college radio show, starting with our third interview with Matt Arnold, Director of Clear the Bench Colorado, on the national news of his effort to oust the four Colorado Supreme Court justices up for retention in 2010!

Then host Jimmy Sengenberger pokes fun at Bill Nye the Science Guy, the Reverend Al Gore, Head Potentate and Grand Prophet of the Church of Climate Change of Latter-Day Liberals, and Copenhagen in a discussion of Climategate, global warming exaggerations, and the risks involved in massive anti-climate change policies.

For more information about Clear the Bench Colorado‘s effort to motivate Coloradans to vote NO on retaining the four inJustices on the Colorado Supreme Court who are up for retention in 2010, visit CTBC online at ClearTheBenchColorado.org.

Direct Link
58.91 MB Download

Comments are more than welcome!  E-mailed Jimmy at http://mailto:jimmy@sengcenter.com/ or post on the site!  As always, please be respectful in your remarks.

Tune in LIVE to Seng Center every Thursday night from 6-8pm MTN online at krcx.org, official website of KRCX 93.9 Regis University.

A friend’s thoughts about Colorado’s governor’s race

by Rossputin | 5:54 am, January 9, 2010

A politically active and astute friend of mine offers these thoughts, partially in response to my initial analysis of the governor’s race situation following Governor Ritter’s decision not to seek re-election:

Ross, your analysis of the potential gov’s race leaves too many people out – this could well be a wide open deal.  Also, you way undervalue Romanoff and overvalue Hick.

The potential players:

Likely candidate (conventional wisdom):

Romanoff – a very strong candidate, much stronger than you give him credit for.  This was his natural race, I don’t know why he chose Senate in the first place.  He knows state issues as well as anyone, certainly better than McI.  Your argument about being a lefty doesn’t hold water – it is a + in the demo primary, and if it energizes discouraged lefties in the general it’s probably  a plus (given that any demo nominee will be pretty left).  Pols says he’s having a presser today…

Names in the CW rumor mill, but I don’t think they run:

Hick – don’t see him doing it.  He could have done it in 2006, when the climate was good, but didn’t pull the trigger.  I don’t think he’s as strong in a statewide race as you do, anyway.

Ed P – don’t see him doing it.  However, Congressmen have a very good fundraising ability…

Ken S – don’t see him doing it.  Folks go from governor’s mansions to the cabinet, not the other way around.  Probably the strongest candidate if he runs, though.  Only reason for him to run would be to position for WH in 2016 if he is thinking that way…

Potential players whose names are not being bandied about much:

John Salazar – This could be the big surprise… Popular, non-Denver, Salazar family, moderate Dem, great fundraising ability, very tough to beat if he gets in.  Also, rumors are that he’s tired of DC and wants to come back to Colo.

Cary Kennedy – most knowledgeable about state issues (next to Romanoff).  Well loved in the Dem party, everyone thought she was ’14 nominee.  2 of last 3 govs have been treasurers.   If she stays Treasurer, would have a tough road to move up:  if dem wins gov, she can’t challenge, if Scott wins, must challenge incumbent.  She was a protégé of Romanoff, and if he doesn’t get in could be the front-runner.

Peter Groff – well-loved former Senate President, would probably only get in if Romanoff does not, but could more easily leave O-admin than Ken…

Extreme long shots:

Jared (only if he hates DC, really doesn’t want to serve in minority and thinks that could happen, he’s on the speakers shitlist for his numerous transgressions, and Romanoff – a friend – stays out)

Betsy (if her polling says she loses 4CD, she could roll the dice)

Morgan Carroll

Some other senator – Rollie again, Linda Newell, Abe Tapia, Maryanne Keller, Terrance Carroll

My speculation:

1. Ken S stays out.  If I’m wrong and he’s in, he clears the primary field, and you would have to give him a 5% edge in the general.

2. Hick stays out.

3. The primary has 3 main players:

Someone from the current/former legislature taking a shot. (90% there will be someone…)

4. I put John S as a 20% in the race guy.

5. Romanoff wins primary in a squeaker, and trails Scott McInnis by 3 on Labor Day.

Win 20k for blogging, reporting and being active

by Mr. Bob | 11:42 pm, January 8, 2010

#tcot #redco #teaparty

2010 Colorado Governor prediction

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 10:59 pm, January 8, 2010

If Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper decides to run for Colorado Governor, Scott McInnis and the Republicans will lose.

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