Extremists punish establishment candidates in Tuesday’s primaries

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 10:13 pm, May 18, 2010

While many pundits are saying the establishment and incumbent candidates took a beating in Tuesday’s primaries, the real story is that extremists in both parties sent messages to Washington: “Toe the line or we’ll take you down!”
In Kentucky, Rand Paul beat the establishment candidate endorsed by GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel.
In Pennsylvania, former Republican Arlen Spector was roundly defeated by a left-wing former admiral and Pelosi Democrat, Joe Sestak. It’s hard to use this primary election to support the case that incumbents are in trouble even though they are. Specter simply changed parties one time too many, and Democrats don’t trust him. They shouldn’t.
Liberal Arkansas Democrat Senator Blanche Lincoln isn’t enough of an Obama Democrat for the government employees’ unions, which supported Bill Halter who forced Lincoln into a June 8 runoff primary election. Halter would be a rubber stamp for the unions, and his election would effectively give government employees another vote for them instead of for voters and taxpayers.
So Tuesday’s primary voters sent mixed messages. The most important message was that if you aren’t a strict party line voter, you’re not a real Republican or Democrat. Next, voters showed their disdain for incumbents and candidates backed by the establishment. And finally, voters showed they would oust anyone they didn’t trust, which could be a big problem for a lot of incumbents and their challengers. 

Is Denver Post doing John Hickenlooper’s dirty work?

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 10:00 pm, May 18, 2010

In his autobiography, Karl Rove says that smears and personal attacks seldom change election outcomes, but if you’re going to attack your opponent, it helps to use the opponent’s own words against him.
That’s apparently what the Denver Post is doing to Scott McInnis in an editorial that questions his veracity and propensity to tell white lies. The attack won’t do McInnis’ GOP primary opponent, Dan Maes much good, and, given Democrat Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s own foot-in-mouth disease, it may not do the Democrat much good, either. But it sure won’t help McInnis, either.
Is the Post doing Hickenlooper’s dirty work or just trying to keep McInnis honest?

Ken Buck backs off his attack on Sarah Palin and Jane Norton for being ‘rude’ and stealing his show

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 9:45 pm, May 18, 2010

Ever since Republican Jane Norton decided to petition on to the primary ballot for U.S. Senate, her leading opponent, Ken Buck, has been counting on claiming a big victory at the GOP’s state convention in Loveland on May 22. It’s hard to lose when you have no real opponents at the convention, which for this year’s Senate race, has been reduced to a meaningless contest. This is because both Norton and Tom Wiens have decided to not go the convention route.
A couple of days ago, it was announced that Sara Palin will speak to a GOP meeting Saturday night, after Buck wins his convention vote. Buck immediately assumed he’d been out-smarted by the Norton campaign. There are strong indications Palin will endorse Norton as a strong woman running for the Senate. So Buck assumed that Palin and Norton were pulling a fast one and attempting to steal “his day.” 
But some reporting by the Denver Post found that the Palin event has been planned for months and that it’s only a coincidence that her appearance will be on the day of the state’s convention.
Buck has backed off his charge that Palin and Norton were being rude for holding their event on the same day as his convention. But the damage has been done. He’s helped publicize Palin’s appearance via the AP and the Denver Post’s The Spot, and he’s made himself look silly. Imagine being rudely upstaged by a political opponent!

Dan Maes says he hasn’t been reimbursed for all of his travel expenses

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 9:39 pm, May 18, 2010

Dan Maes said he made a mistake when he told his campaign manager to reimburse him $5,000 a month for travel expenses, and he said he hasn’t been reimbursed for all of the 70,000 miles of driving he’s done during his campaign, according to Steven K. Paulson of the AP. Impact graphs in a story that will appear in many of Colorado’s newspapers Wednesday:
According to campaign finance reports filed with the Secretary of State’s office, Maes claimed $5,000 in February, March and April to cover mileage reimbursement, and $9,460 in January. Maes said he doesn’t remember why he claimed an extra $4,460 that month.
Since last July, Maes has collected $25,800, according to his reports.
Christopher Klitzke of Grand Junction filed a lawsuit against Maes and his campaign on May 5, citing campaign finance irregularities in Maes’ report for the last quarter of last year, including a claim that Maes accepted prohibited corporate contributions totaling $570. 
A hearing May 20 was postponed and Maes said he is asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
Maes said he and his campaign staff drove an estimated 70,000 miles without reimbursement and he asked his campaign manager to reimburse him whenever contributions totaled $5,000 or more.
At the current federal rate of 50 cents a mile, Maes said he is still owed money.

Colorado Freedom of Choice in Health Care

by Al Maurer | 9:38 pm, May 18, 2010

Everyone in America with a pulse knows by now that the Democrats rammed their health care bill down the throats of an unwilling American public. (Never, never, never give Democrats this much power again–but that’s another story.) Fortunately we live in a federal republic–the first of its kind. The thirteen states that founded the federal [...]

Ryan Frazier posts hard hitting attack on Obama

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 9:13 pm, May 18, 2010

Ryan Frazier goes after Obama and the Democrats in a new attack ad posted on his web site.

Hick’s defense: we aren’t Detroit

by Amy Oliver | 8:34 pm, May 18, 2010

Liberal Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Democrat candidate for Governor, claims a Republican Governors Association ad stating Denver has lost 39,000 jobs under his tenure is costing the state more jobs because the ad didn’t praise him. Seriously.  The Denver Business Journal reports:
The Denver mayor said the ads did not note that Denver had done better [...]

Republicans have slim chance to take over Colorado House

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 8:25 pm, May 18, 2010

Ben DeGrow says Republicans have a slim chance to take over Colorado’s House, but, he warns, a lot can change between now and the election.

Should The FCC Regulate Broadband?

by Mike Krause | 5:27 pm, May 18, 2010

The Independence Institute will host a panel discussion and luncheon on the issue of ‘Network Neutrality’ on Wednesday, May 26th at the Pinnacle Club in Denver.  Panelists and speakers include Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Atwell Baker from the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) and Chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission [...]

Hickenlooper pro-TABOR? Shhhh – it’s a secret!

by Mary Smith | 4:00 pm, May 18, 2010

How could Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper have kept such an important fact a secret? Here’s how…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEWcV00MLFU”One of the real reasons that I’m a believer in TABOR, right…I think if you put issues before the public, they’…

“Candy and Soda Tax” enabled by Colorado Supreme Court harms consumers and businesses

by CTBC Director | 3:03 pm, May 18, 2010

“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” — Mark Twain (1866)
Although the 2010 legislative session is now (happily) concluded and part of the history of Colorado Politics, the effects of the bills passed this session are becoming more evident with each passing day (perhaps it was necessary for [...]

Chapter Closes on Central Falls Saga with Slow, Painful Obama Reform Win

by Eddie | 12:09 pm, May 18, 2010

Nearly three months ago Rhode Island’s Central Falls High School made the national news when Superintendent Fran Gallo fired teachers and other employees en masse when the union refused to make some concessions aimed at helping to turn around the low-performing school. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan weighed in with supporting comments, and [...]

Chris Matthew’s Thinks China’s Policy of Executing Executives Is To Be Envied

by Mr. Bob | 10:59 am, May 18, 2010

#peoplespress #teaparty #tcot
Matthews is falling hard off the deep end. I agree with his frustration in the slow, or lack of any real response from the administration but to turn that into a Chavez, or rather MAO like response to this is unAmerican, it is sick. To blame Capitalism..is rediculous.

MATTHEWS: Really? You know, I have a suspicion I’ll go back to it again. I don’t think they’re doing their best. I don’t think the government is doing its best. Why doesn’t the President go in there, nationalize an industry and get the job done for the people? There’s a national interest in this, not just a BP interest. We’re letting BP fix a national problem.
…
MATTHEWS OVER VIDEO OF OIL SPILL: In China, it’s a more brutal society, a more brutal society, Kate, but they execute people for this. Major industrial leaders that commit crimes like this. Failure like this. This is a serious, serious problem. It is not over. It continues to destroy a part of our planet basically. Part of our habitat, our American habitat. And everybody just sits and watches television every night. “And so that’s interesting.” And you see guys are still drawing their paychecks, still making their profits. The oil industry has been ballooning in profits this year and nobody is doing anything about it except – what are we Vatican observers now? We just watch? It is maddening that our government is – Everybody says “Capitalism is great. Unbridled free enterprise is great.” Look at it! This is great, isn’t it?!Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2010/05/17/matthews-obama-needs-nationalize-oil-industry#ixzz0oIkcdKaR

Time to Draw Mohammed

by Ari Armstrong | 9:56 am, May 18, 2010

“Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” is May 20. I have already published my entry and explained my reasons for participating. I have also explained why critics of the campaign are full of hot air.I am pleased that other prominent organizations also are promot…

Heartland Institute 4th Int’l Conference on Climate Change

by Rossputin | 5:19 am, May 18, 2010

I’m keeping this very short because I’m busy attending “breakout sessions” at the Heartland Institute Climate Change conference in Chicago. It’s a who’s who of the realist side of the climate debate, with a list of speakers including Richard Lindzen, Steve McIntyre, Pat Michaels, Fred Singer, Joe D’Aleo, Lord Christopher Monckton, and many others.

It’s been a fascinating couple of days so far and I’m sure today, the last day, will be equally great. I’ll be writing up a longer article (probably) for Human Events in the next day or so.

Allow me to just share with you a couple of great thoughts and quotes:

Nils-Axel Morner: If sea level were rising, earth rotation would be slowing, but it’s not…because sea levels are not rising, QED.

Bob Carter: “In using IPCC advice to set their policies, national governments are negligent and fail utterly to do their duty to their people.”

Don Easterbrook: “We have begun global cooling which I predicted in 1998.”

Richard Lindzen: “The claims that earth has been warming and that man’s activities have contributed to warming are trivially true and essentially meaningless in terms of alarm.”

Denver Post misleads readers about government insurance

by Brian Schwartz | 1:30 am, May 18, 2010

I submitted the following letter in response to the Post’s article by Jennifer Brown that had the headline New Colorado law to help insure 67,500 more:
Government insurance programs steal customers from private insurers.  By not mentioning this, the Post misleads readers about how Colorado’s so-called “Health Care Affordability Act” expands coverage. The [...]

May Survey of Colorado’s Political Temperature: Same Winners Emerge

by Ben DeGrow | 10:39 pm, May 17, 2010

For those who are interested, the results of the May survey of Colorado’s political temperature are posted on Facebook. For a variety of reasons, including the transition to a new setting, participation in the survey is down significantly — leaving perhaps the most dedicated and passionate 117 conservative Colorado political Facebookers (half of whom say [...]

The GOP Establishment needs a clue

by Al Maurer | 9:50 pm, May 17, 2010

A year ago on May 1, 2009 a Rasmussen poll reported that 69% of GOP voters thought the party was out of touch with their base. The report stated that the number had changed little from a survey just after election day 2008. On October 22, 2009, it was 73%. When is the party going [...]

NRA Convention report

by David Kopel | 5:07 pm, May 17, 2010

(David Kopel) The NRA’s annual members meeting was held last weekend, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since I’ve been going to these events for the last two decades, I’d like to offer a report on how the Convention has changed over the years, and some thoughts about the NRA’s past and present.
First of all, the annual meeting grown [...]

Watermelon Man plots against talk show hosts

by Mr. Bob | 2:09 pm, May 17, 2010

#watermelonman #teaparty #glennbeck

The Politically Correct (local) University

by Jon Caldara | 11:56 am, May 17, 2010

Check out this cool little supplement to our last Independent Thinking show with Bob Maranto. Associate producer Drew McCullough digs deeper into the “politically correct university” by speaking with some students at couple local universities.

This is about Liberty

by Al Maurer | 11:50 am, May 17, 2010

I’ve said it before, and I will continue to speak and write it until they impose “net neutrality” and shut down this blog…and then I’ll go samizdat. This fall is a referendum on liberty. The left has most notoriously shoved health care legislation down our throats, but they have done much more besides. Most of [...]

District 50 Standards-Based Education Tour Raises Hopes of Success (With Patience)

by Eddie | 11:48 am, May 17, 2010

On Friday my Education Policy Center friends took in the presentation and tour of new Standards-Based Education (SBE) system in the local Adams School District 50 (Westminster). It’s the largest school district in the nation to have taken such a bold departure from the traditional system of age-based grade levels and familiar letter grades.
Under the [...]

Donald Berwick: Obama’s health care socializer-in-chief?

by Rossputin | 5:57 am, May 17, 2010

Over at RedState.com, Ben Domenech has done a great job putting together a brief introduction to Barack Obama’s nominee to be the new head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services.  His name is Donald Berwick, and he is the archetypal Progressive, thinking that government is better and more efficient than the private sector and that people are too stupid to make their own choices, especially about important things.

Domenech’s piece is a must-read and must-share:

See “Obama Nominee Donald Berwick’s Radical Agenda“, Ben Domenech, RedState.com, 5/12/2010

I’d like to add a little commentary of my own in response to Berwick’s statement that “Any health care funding plan that is just equitable civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is by definition redistributional.”

Mr. Berwick: If that’s true, why stop there?  Why not do the same with food and houses and cars and vacations?  Let’s tax the “rich” until the “poor” can afford to eat at Le Cirque!  Oh, wait, if we do that nobody will be able to afford to eat at Le Cirque and it will go out of business while we watch our national productivity and standard of living go into the sewer.

People like Mr. Berwick and Barack Obama have one particularly noticeable character trait: an ego so large that it’s hard to breathe in the same room with them.  They know more than you, know better than you, and demand your subservience to their Harvard degrees.  The other thing they have in common is that the citizenry’s liberty and finances would be better off if they were removed to a deserted island somewhere where their damaging and anti-American ideas can only damage themselves.

Redistributing speech; rethinking Kagan

by Rossputin | 5:37 am, May 17, 2010

A few days ago, I wrote a note for these pages basically saying that the Senate should approve Elena Kagan after Republicans use the opportunity of the nomination to explain to the the American people just what “elections have consequences” really means.  But as more information comes out regarding Kagan’s views on the First Amendment, I’m changing my opinion: Kagan cannot honestly swear to protect and defend the Constitution and therefore, I would argue, is unfit – even ineligible – to sit on our highest court.

Please read my article on the topic for Human Events here:

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37018

Colorado State House Breakdown: Majority Up for Grabs, Tiny GOP Edge

by Ben DeGrow | 3:59 pm, May 16, 2010

On Thursday I updated the rankings of Colorado’s competitive state senate seats. After 15 weeks it’s also time to update the Colorado state house rankings.
A quick overview: There are 65 seats in the Colorado state house, and all of them are up for re-election every two years. State representatives are limited to four two-year terms [...]

The Green Party platform can be summed up with a “nifty hat”

by Kelly Maher | 2:23 pm, May 16, 2010

The Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Colorado, Bob Kinsey, can describe the Green Party platform with his nifty hat. If only all complex political ideas could be conveyed with the proper headgear. . .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVThLL_LLC8″I…

Nearly 50% of Coloradans say state has gone off track in recent years

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 7:16 am, May 16, 2010

Nearly half of Coloradans think the state has gone off track and nearly two thirds think the country has in recent years, according to a Colorado College poll. Of course, Democrats have ruled both Colorado and the country “in recent years.”
The most important finding, as usual, is that voters think elites make the big decisions for the state and the country, and that elected officials aren’t listening to voters. Anyone who testifies before Colorado’s General Assembly or Congress without the backing of the Democrats’ union bosses knows this is true.
No wonder, then, that more Coloradans are calling themselves conservatives than liberals, who make up about 20% of the national electorate by some accounts; in recent elections, more than 50% of Coloradans voted liberal, and Colorado is a Blue state until proven otherwise in next fall’s elections.
Indeed, a slight majority say they want Democrats to control Congress after next fall’s elections. 
 

Which government waste do you most want to cut?

by Rossputin | 7:11 am, May 16, 2010

You can give House Republican Whip Eric Cantor your answer here:

http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold discusses Colorado Supreme Court on the John Caldara Show May 12th

by CTBC Director | 4:11 pm, May 15, 2010

Need more reasons why voting “NO” on the four Colorado Supreme Court justices up for re-election this year are the MOST important votes you can cast in this very important year for Colorado Politics?
Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold discussed the impact of Colorado Supreme Court rulings leading to a massive expansion of government power [...]

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