K Street Blue Party Special on Betsy Markey

by Kelly Maher | 1:33 pm, June 18, 2010

Attention K Street shoppers! Today we have a Blue Party Special on a Colorado congresswoman in the left aisle. The faux-UPS worker from the Fourth Congressional District is reportedly getting a re-election makeover from big-time lobbyist/fundraiser Bri…

Union Astroturfing at Illegal Immigration March

by elpresidente | 12:28 pm, June 18, 2010

The Colorado Independent’s report on fourteen “reform activists” arrested Tuesday in Downtown Denver following a march for what the participants called “immigration reform” failed to note the extensive coordination and presence of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) astroturfing efforts seen in the video, and noted by CBS4Denver and the Denver Posts’s coverage: Mateos Alvarez, a [...]

Why are we doing this?

by Al Maurer | 12:23 pm, June 18, 2010

Earlier this week I read an editorial in the New York Times by a philosophy professor claiming to understand the Tea Party movement. He made some wrong assumptions and then went on to prove, using Hegel, how the movement was all screwed up and self-contradictory. Well, I understand the Hegelian dialectic as well as the [...]

Kudos to Denver Post for Calling Out Udall, Bennet on Big Labor Sop

by Ben DeGrow | 10:39 am, June 18, 2010

The Denver Post editorial board is on track today with a piece calling on Colorado’s sell-out U.S. Senators to come out and oppose a terrible piece of special interest payback legislation known as the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act: Insiders say Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is championing the measure, has as many as [...]

NRSC Vid Tracker Memo Warns Campaigns of What Not To Do

by elpresidente | 10:39 am, June 18, 2010

The NRSC memo (pdf) uses recent encounters between videographers and two Democrats, one an incumbent Congressman (Rep. Bob Etheridge) and the other Senate candidate from Illinois, as examples of WHAT NOT TO DO: After the second clip in a week hit the web showing a confrontation between a Democratic political campaign and a person shooting [...]

Astroturf Progressive Media Critic Bill Menezes Attacks Conservative Media as “Astroturf”

by elpresidente | 10:34 am, June 18, 2010

Last week, former Rocky Mountain News media critic and Colorado Independent contributor Jason Salzman profiled Bill Menezes, the former director of Colorado Media Matters. Salzman sought to elicit Menezes’ take on the current state of Colorado journalism–an ironic turn of events given that Menezes spent roughly three years beating up on traditional media outlets (and [...]

Milwaukee Union Says School Board is “Bargaining in Public”: Is That So Wrong?

by Eddie | 10:10 am, June 18, 2010

Budget times are tougher than usual for school district coffers all over. I get that. So what’s the solution? For some interest groups entrenched in the status quo (read: teachers unions), laying off teachers with less seniority is preferred to all teachers giving up their lavish health care plan for a more reasonable one.
At least [...]

BP oil spill shows how big governments are corrupt, inflexible, incompetent

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 10:01 am, June 18, 2010

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is turning Americans into haters of big, corrupt, inflexible and incompetent governments. This isn’t just about President Obama who is trying to use the disaster to make the government bigger, more corrupt, less flexible and more incompetent.
It is about almost 80 years of building a big, incompetent Federal government and destroying small, flexible, can do local governments. 
While only four or five states are directly experiencing the failures of our big, corrupt and incompetent federal government to deal with the oil spill crisis, every American is becoming more and more frustrated with the self-serving and competing federal agencies that don’t communicate with each other or local officials, contractors and victims of the disaster. 
“How can this be?” ask the gullible environmentalists, the spend and tax AARP lovers, the Corn Belt ethanol farmers, the millions of government workers and contractors and the politicians who’ve spent their careers buying votes with taxpayers’ money.
The answer is simple. The more environmental, OSHA and other regulations you have, the more conflicts you’ll find and the more incompetence you’ll experience. 
The current and former members of Congress and President Obama and his predecessors created this mess at the behest of our free lunch, do good and mooching voters. None of the culprits comprehend or will admit their complicity, and none are inclined to even pretend to want to fix it. 
If you’ve ever asked, “Why doesn’t the government. . . .”, you’re as complicit as any politician.
LINKS:
Trim the ‘experts,’ trust the locals. By David Brooks.

Afghan Military Officers AWOL from Lackland AFB, whereabouts unknown

by Mr. Bob | 8:09 am, June 18, 2010

#tcot #redco #GWOT #militaryThis is just great….perhaps someone should check flight schools. Perhaps they aren’t wannabe terrorists, perhaps they just want to be here because American is so much better than their home country…but who knows? Perhaps…

Thoughts on June options expiration

by Rossputin | 4:05 am, June 18, 2010

I’m taking the day off from political blogging because my brain is always fried on expiration Thursday and Friday and I need to keep what little mental capacity I have left to try to make a few bucks on what are usually the two busiest trading days of the month for me. (Expiration is the third Friday of a given month.)

For those who were paying attention to BP yesterday because of my blog note, today worked out OK, but I didn’t really take the position off so I need one more relatively quiet day in that stock tomorrow.  Actually, I sold more June 34 calls today (not covered with stock or other calls purchases.)

I’ve also sold some out-of-the-money index options, basically 5% out of the money puts in QQQQ, SPY, and SPX.  The SPX expire on the open tomorrow, the rest on the close tomorrow.  I’ve sold a few calls, too, but a little closer in, in strike terms. As an example, I’m short a few 1150 calls (and higher strikes) and 1060 puts (and lower strikes) in the SPX (the S&P 500 index) with the index closing around 1116.  So, if the market opens up less than about 300 points on the Dow or down less than about 450 or 500 points on the Dow, then I’ll collect the premium I was paid for those options.  If we do have an enormous opening move, then I do quite badly, almost certainly losing multiples of the amount I was trying to make.

It’s a dangerous game, definitely not for everyone, since “naked” option selling is something like selling insurance: you take in a limited amount of premium in return for taking on a nearly unlimited amount of risk with the idea being that the chances of having to pay out on the insurance are low enough that the entire trade has a positive expected value.

Still, and I don’t say this to sound egotistical, I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years and I want to reemphasize that the ability to defend oneself having sold naked options is something that not everyone can do a good job with. Therefore my trading style is not one I would recommend to people with low risk tolerance or who can’t spend most of a trading day watching the market and stomaching overnight risk.

I wish you all a safe June expiration.

Connections: Colorado’s Bob Schaffer Backs Pete Hoekstra for Michigan Guv

by Ben DeGrow | 11:25 pm, June 17, 2010

A connection of the state of nativity with my state of residence — the state where I cut my teeth on politics with the teeth the state where I’ve come more involved in politics than I ever imagined. Conservative leader Bob Schaffer, former Congressman and current chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education, publicly [...]

FCC Decrees That It Can Regulate The Internet

by PerlStalker | 11:13 pm, June 17, 2010

The FCC got slapped down hard a few months ago when they tried to claim the privilege of regulating the Internet. The FCC may only regulate telecommunication services which, based on the FCC’s earlier conclusions, does not included the Internet. So, to…

No fun being on XCEL’s P.R. team right now

by completecolorado | 10:54 pm, June 17, 2010

This is what it must be like to be a public relations manager or spokesperson for XCEL energy these days. When you’re not responding to media calls about a transformer exploding, or calls about the replacement transformer going down, then it seems like every time you turn on the radio or open the paper, someone’s [...]

Betsy Markey: “The Stimulus Has Gotten Us Out of Recession!…It Has Worked!”

by T.L. James | 10:36 pm, June 17, 2010

Betsy Markey (CD-4) extols the virtues of the stimulus bill, which has apparently succeeded in bringing us out of the recession. Who knew?

Colorado Hospitals Get a Taste of ObamaCare

by PerlStalker | 10:35 pm, June 17, 2010

Colorado doctors and hospitals are getting a taste of ObamaCare early.

Temporarily short on money, Colorado has declared a fiscal emergency and delayed payments to doctors and clinics taking care of the state’s neediest patients.

Under state law, …

Minimum wage destroys jobs, harms poor and minorities

by Brian T. Schwartz | 8:27 pm, June 17, 2010

From the Center for Freedom and Prosperity:

Also check out the chapter on minimum wage laws in Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson.
(via Reason.tv)

A citizen hero

by Amy Oliver | 7:00 pm, June 17, 2010

Natalie Menten is a hero (heroine to be accurate) to COST.  Her hobby is to make government accountable to the citizens it serves. On her Web site you will find numerous databases on government employees’ salaries, government credit card spending and fees.
She recently added Jeffco School District salaries. This is important information to have when [...]

Taxpayers blamed for state cash crunch

by Amy Oliver | 6:09 pm, June 17, 2010

The state cannot pay its bills and taxpayers get blamed. And no one asks where did the more than $18 billion in taxpayer dollars go.
The Denver Post reports:
Temporarily short on money, Colorado has declared a fiscal emergency and delayed payments to doctors and clinics taking care of the state’s neediest patients.
The usual suspects are providing [...]

Peak to Peak Climbs to 35th among Newsweek’s Top High Schools for 2010

by Eddie | 2:36 pm, June 17, 2010

(H/T Colorado Charters) Newsweek magazine has released its annual list of “America’s best high schools,” and Lafayette’s Peak to Peak Charter School tops the competition in the state with a 35th ranking nationally. The next closest from Colorado are Niwot High School at #180, Boulder’s Fairview High School at #201, and Lakewood High School at [...]

Views on Illegal Immigration

by Al Maurer | 11:59 am, June 17, 2010

My grandfather immigrated shortly before World War I from what was then the Austrian Empire. Although in the last decade or so of his life he liked to joke that he stowed away, in fact he arrived legally, became a citizen, and worked hard all his life including raising a family through the Great Depression. [...]

Notes from today’s House of Representatives hearings about BP

by Rossputin | 10:27 am, June 17, 2010

Please see my blog note for American Spectator discussing, among other things, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) apologizing to BP for the Obama “shakedown”.

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/06/17/the-law-of-obama

Scott McInnis 46%, John Hickenlooper 41%; Dan Maes 41%, Hickenlooper 41%

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 9:54 am, June 17, 2010

Without doing much if any advertising, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis leads his Democrat opponent, John Hickenlooper, 46% to 41%, according to Rasmussen Reports. Republican Dan Maes also hasn’t done any advertising and doesn’t have the money to compete with McInnis or Hickenlooper, and he is tied with Hickenlooper at 41% each.
Among the critical unaffiliated voters who will decide the election, both Republicans are tied with Hickenlooper who probably will have a big money advantage over the GOP nominee but will be swimming upstream against the anti-Obama Democrat tide. Polling the Republicans versus Hickenlooper is meaningless at this point, because the GOP candidate is yet to be decided, and Hickenlooper won’t start pouring money into advertising until after Labor Day.
In addition to his money advantage over the Republicans, Hickenlooper has a big advantage in the favorability readings, which Rasmussen calls more important than the headline polling results. Hickenlooper is viewed very favorably by 26% of voters and very unfavorably by only 18%. That his favorable and unfavorable numbers are higher than the Republicans’ suggests that his name recognition is higher even though McInnis beats him in the headline numbers. McInnis polls 16% very favorable and 14% very unfavorable. People don’t know Maes and only 9% have very favorable opinions of him and 8% have very unfavorable opinions of him.
With a +/- 4.5% percentage points margin of sample error at a 95% level of confidence, the latest polls seems to show that the Republicans are tied with Hickenlooper and that it doesn’t mean much for the GOP primary, which I expect McInnis to win pretty easily.
Over the last few weeks, McInnis has been making headlines and issuing press releases while Maes has been relatively invisible. That McInnis isn’t spending a lot of money on advertising yet suggests that he thinks he has the upper hand in the campaign. Voters will get their ballots on July 20 and 21, and some 60% to 65% will vote by mail and absentee ballots before the Aug. 10 primary.
Therefore, if either McInnis or Maes is going to wage an ad campaign, it should start pretty soon.
I think that if McInnis is the GOP nominee, Hickenlooper’s superior resources and campaigning skills might let him win 51% to 49%. McInnis is his own campaign manager, strategist and tactician, and that could kill his chances. And the more McInnis has to spend on his primary campaign against Maes, the weaker he’ll be in the general election campaign.
If Maes is the GOP candidate, I think Hickenlooper will get 55% to 60% of the votes. Maes would be this year’s Rollie Heath who in 2002 lost to incumbent Republican Govenor Bill Owns 63% to 34%.
 
 
 

Barack Obama: the most unpopular man in Britain? (how the mighy are fallen…)

by Mr. Bob | 9:41 am, June 17, 2010

#oilspill #tcot #britainConservative Outpost reports how O is not the Savior of the world in Britain right now…in fact it seems they just noticed the emperor has not been wearing any clothes lately.

Draft HHS report: half of employer plans illegal by 2013

by Brian Schwartz | 6:00 am, June 17, 2010

More illegal insurance resulting from HR 3590, the health control legislation. From Investor’s Business Daily:
Internal administration documents reveal that up to 51% of employers may have to relinquish their current health care coverage because of ObamaCare.
Small firms will be even likelier to lose existing plans.

Read the whole article: Keep Your Health Plan Under [...]

BP news and trading recap from Wednesday

by Rossputin | 5:16 am, June 17, 2010

I’ve been trading BP options lately.  I made a mistake yesterday by selling calls early in the day, essentially betting that the stock wouldn’t have a substantial move upwards.  Given that BP execs were going to meet with the president and that there was nearly a 100% chance that they’d agree to something “proposed” by Obama (proposed in the same way that Al Capone would have made a business proposal), it was obvious that there was room for an up move in the stock simply due to a little bit of uncertainty being removed from the situation, at least in the short term.

Anyway, I forgot about all that and sold calls only to have them blow up in my face as the stock jumped about $2 following the news which I had expected.

The stock rallied from down $1 to about up $1, and briefly, near the end of the day, to up $2 before backing off to up about 50 cents for the day.

So, here are the headlines from BP for the day:

• The company will contribute $5 billion a year for 4 years, a total of $20 billion to a fund to pay claims to people in the Gulf area who have lost income or have other “legitimate claims”
• This $20 billion is NOT a cap in their liability and in effect is likely to be a floor even though there is a provision for unspent money to be returned to BP
• The fund will be managed by Ken Feinberg, until recently Obama’s “Pay Czar”.  While the guy has a decent reputation overall, including having managed a fund to pay victims and victims’ families of the 9/11 attacks, the fact that he worked for Obama raises serious concern that the payout procedure and recipients will be politicized.
• The company is suspending its dividend for at least the rest of this year.  That will save the company nearly $5 billion per quarter in cash, easily covering their contribution to the fund.
• Penalties and fines will be paid separately, not from the fund, just an example of how BP’s liability is likely to be well above $20 billion.
• The CEO of the firm made what seemed like a heartfelt apology for the disaster.  He’s in an unenviable position given the bad shape the prior CEO, John Browne, left the firm in after he quit following allegations of paying for an apartment for a former young male lover.

One quick note on the dividend suspension:  BP bonds rallied on the news because the cash flow improvement increases the chances that BP will make its interest and principle payments on the bonds.  But aside from the green eyeshade financial market questions, the BP dividend suspension is a disaster for many retirees in the UK.  According to a talking head on CNBC today, £1 out of every £7 of dividends paid by British companies is paid by BP.  Many thousands of pensioners rely on these dividends to put food on the table.  Sure, there are big investors who own BP stock individually and can live just fine without the dividend for a few quarters.  But across the world, retirees who own BP stock directly or own funds which own BP stock for income will be suffering due to BP’s decision.  To be sure, BP had no choice (well, they could have possibly cut the dividend in half instead of cut it out entirely, I suppose).  But people should not think that the dividend issue is just about a bunch of millionaires or billionaires making a little less money.

My options positions expire at the end of the day on Friday.  I’m just going to try to defend myself against a big up move in the stock until then.  Unfortunately, the easiest defense is by buying some stock, which then opens me up to risk in the event of a big down move.  So, basically, I want the stock to trade in a relatively narrow range.  Given how much news there is in this stock, I can’t say I envy my current position.  If I get out of this with a small profit, I’ll be happy.

Rasmussen Welcomes Dan Maes to the Race in a 41-41 Tie with Hickenlooper

by Ben DeGrow | 9:27 pm, June 16, 2010

For the first time today, Rasmussen Reports released survey data on the Colorado gubernatorial race that included Dan Maes as a candidate. The result? A tie in the head-to-head matchup: Maes 41, Hickenlooper 41. At the same time, the presumed Republican frontrunner Scott McInnis leads Denver’s Democratic mayor 46-41 — a statistically consistent advantage over [...]

Contested Primaries

by Al Maurer | 12:02 pm, June 16, 2010

They think they’re wasting their money on primaries; they’re not.

DA Mark Hurlbert’s Failure To Make Colo. Republican State Senate Ballot Another Blow For Party Establishment

by Laura Victoria | 11:47 am, June 16, 2010

DA Mark Hurlbert failed to make the August 10, Colorado Republican primary ballot for state Senate District 16  after producing  only 394 valid petition signatures, the Secretary of State’s office announced.  Hurlbert submitted 1,118 signatures, but the Secretary’s office invalidated 724 – giving Hurlbert the distinction of  the largest  invalidation rate in Colorado memory.  Hurlbert, [...]

Jane Norton web ad: Win the War on Terror

by Rossputin | 10:37 am, June 16, 2010

The Jane Norton campaign has a new web ad out about the War on Terror, with Mrs. Norton noting dryly that Obama calls it an “Overseas Contingency Operation”.  I wonder how viewers will react to the dramatic 9/11 reference – surprisingly dramatic given what is shown on the screen.

According to campaign manager Josh Penry:

Jane’s determined to make this election about something, about ideas, about the direction of the country. And while spending and the economy are Jane’s top focus, we’re not going to give the party in power a free pass on their gross mismanagement of national security policy. It’s a fight we welcome – because Barack Obama, Andrew Romanoff and Michael Bennet are wrong, and conservatives like Jane Norton and you and me and the rest are right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urEYnpKSvqQ

One Pueblo 70 Union Contract Better than Two for Ending Unjust Opt-Out Policy?

by Eddie | 10:34 am, June 16, 2010

The Pueblo Chieftain reports that Pueblo County School District 70 has combined its two union bargaining agreements into one:
The district’s board on Tuesday night approved a single contract with the Pueblo County Teachers Association and the Association of Classified Employees.

In at least one respect the move makes sense, because the two contracts contain a similar [...]

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