Ritter Announces Budget Cuts; Medicaid Rationing

by PerlStalker | 9:11 pm, October 22, 2010

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has announced his plan for dealing with a $262 million shortfall for this fiscal year. State Bill Colorado has more but I want to focus on a couple of items from the quoted press release.

Delaying by one month manag…

Gazette Sets Record Straight On Anti-Amendment 63 Fearmongering

by Mike Krause | 8:30 pm, October 22, 2010

Over at the Colorado Springs Gazette editorial page, Wayne Laugesen eviscerates one of the most reckless and desperate distortions being made against Amendment 63, the “Right to Health Care Choice” citizens’ amendment: that if Amendment 63 passes, the state “might” not be able to license doctors, or otherwise regulate health care services and providers. [...]

Tandredo Pulls Within One in Colorado

by PerlStalker | 8:30 pm, October 22, 2010

Tom Tancredo has pulled within one point of John Hickenlooper according to a recently released poll by Magellan Strategies. The poll has Hickenlooper at 44, Tancredo at 43 and biggest loser Dan Maes at nine. That’s right boys and girls, Dan Maes can’t …

Support Ryan Frazier in Colorado’s Seventh Congressional District

by Ben DeGrow | 3:09 pm, October 22, 2010

Editor’s note: This post is a guest contribution authored by U.S. Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R – CA). Every two years Americans hold their members of Congress accountable. If they have done a good job representing them they send them back to Washington, but if they fail to lead they can be replaced. The last few [...]

Hickenlooper thinks people in metropolitan areas are more enlightened…or smarter

by Mr. Bob | 3:05 pm, October 22, 2010

The People’s Press Collective is documenting Hickenlooper poopers. Ask any politician to continuiously talk for weeks at a time and eventually they will actually say something they think without going through the gate of careful political speak…somet…

Election Eve (11/1) with Editor, Greg Moore!

by redrocks | 1:06 pm, October 22, 2010

“Election Eve Editorial”

Join Greg Moore, editor of The Denver Post for our special Election Eve meetup!  Maybe we can exchange editorial views with Mr. Moore and be the inspiration for a future editorial post? As if Colorado’s political slugfest isn’t enough entertainment for you, there’s Monday Night Football (Texans vs. Colts) and the World Series [...]

Judicial Retention in Colorado

by Jon Caldara | 1:04 pm, October 22, 2010

On this Friday’s Devil’s Advocate, I sit down with Clear the Bench Colorado director Matt Arnold to discuss judicial selection and retention in Colorado. We’ll also discuss the three Colorado Supreme Court judges up for retention on the November ballot. Tune in the Friday at 8:30 PM on Colorado Public Television 12. Re-broadcast the following [...]

John Hickenlooper thinks you’re a small-minded redneck (if you don’t live in Denver)

by Rossputin | 10:33 am, October 22, 2010

Colorado’s own National Review Online columnist Michael Sandoval has done some remarkable research through the archives, finding a 2009 interview of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper by transgender reporter Eden Lane following the news that the Matthew Shepard Foundation was setting up offices in Colorado.  (In 1988, Shepard was tortured and beaten in Laramie, Wyoming, dying in a Colorado hospital a few days later, by two men who apparently committed the crime simply because Shepard was gay. The Foundation was started by Shepard’s parents in his honor.)

In the interview, John Hickenlooper makes this remarkable statement:

I think a couple things, I mean, you know, the tragic death of Matthew Shepard occurred in Wyoming. Colorado and Wyoming are very similar. We have some of the same, you know, backwards thinking in the kind of rural Western areas you see in, you know, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico.

If you don’t live in Denver or Boulder (and perhaps Fort Collins), John Hickenlooper thinks you’re a small-minded redneck rube.

Earlier today, Colorado Tea Party activist Lu Ann Busse, self-deprecatingly referring to herself as “country folk”, offered this comment on Hick’s remarks: “Hick calls us Hicks! I live in the rural foothills and have a master’s degree from Northwestern Univ.  I’d put my & my husband’s intelligence, education and right minded thinking up against a geologist turned beer joint owner turned inept big city mayor any day.”

I’ve said repeatedly that John Hickenlooper, with his love of Van Jones, his desire to force economic liberty to submit to a radical environmental agenda, his allergy to making government smaller, and his blank-slate nice-guy “moderate” persona covering up a left-wing approach to the world, make him, except for his pasty whiteness, Colorado’s very own Barack Obama.

Now, with Hickenlooper’s own version of Obama’s “bitter clingers” gaffe – well, it’s not actually a gaffe as much as an insight into how these men really think – we have one more piece of the Hickenlooper = Obama puzzle in place.

—————

A few further thoughts: Some people have asked how a guy who refused to support John McCain based on principle would be able to support Tom Tancredo.  I’ll give a few short answers, because much of this has already been debated among readers of these pages:

First, I believe Tancredo is much more principled than John McCain. I believe he’s a real conservative and, more importantly for me, I believe he has a libertarian streak in there somewhere.  While I’ve said repeatedly that I have a big problem with Tanc’s views on immigration, especially legal immigration, I’m hard pressed to find validity in the argument of some that I should not vote for Tancredo for an office which will have precisely zero impact on legal immigration policy, but which has huge impact on how the state of Colorado will spend its money and tax its citizens.

Second, I was OK not supporting McCain and knowing that was effectively a vote for Obama because my belief was that people need to learn what “Progressivism” really is, who “Progressives” really are – namely dictatorial haters of liberty who think that everyone but them is stupid – in order to finally rebel against it.  It was the “boiling the frog” story; McCain and Obama would both keep us on the path to big government, it’s just that Obama would drive the road so fast that it would scare the passengers whereas McCain would make our ride to our own economic death much more pleasant for the average American and therefore much more likely to be completed.

But Americans have learned that lesson (at least for a little while) and I don’t need a leftist Governor of Colorado to add an extra helping of watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside) to the shit sandwich that is our federal government.  There is no important additional valuable lesson to be learned by electing Hickenlooper.  There is only pain and damage for the state.

With every bit of new information on Hickenlooper, I am more and more convinced that any conservative who doesn’t vote for Tom Tancredo – indeed even any moderate who doesn’t want the state government to go down the road that the federal government is going down – will owe Coloradans a massive apology if Hickenlooper wins because these “conservatives” voted for Dan Maes, a man who can’t and shouldn’t win election to anything.  Perhaps if Hickenlooper wins because of Maes voters, those voters will volunteer to pay the extra taxes we’ll be saddled with due to their holier-than-thou obstinacy.

John Hickenlooper’s “Bitter Clinger” Moment? Colorado Voters Uninspired

by Ben DeGrow | 10:04 am, October 22, 2010

With less than two weeks to Election Day, the question lingers: Can liberal Democrat gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper really avoid all controversy until the election is over? National Review’s Michael Sandoval uncovers one controversy Hickenlooper might be unable to avoid, and it came straight from the mayor’s own lips in a 2009 interview: Denver Mayor [...]

National Doctors Group And Colorado Restaurant Association Endorse Amendment 63

by Mike Krause | 9:06 am, October 22, 2010

Both the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and the Colorado Restaurant Association (CRA) have signed on as endorsing organizations for Amendment 63, the “Right to Health Care Choice” citizens’ amendment.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has served as a voice for private physicians since 1943, and is actively engaged in fighting [...]

The Wisdom of Reagan versus the Failure of Progressives

by Rossputin | 7:15 am, October 22, 2010

Rather than my words, for today’s blog offering please listen to this dramatic comparison between Ronald Reagan and our ruling elite of today.

The difference is a sharp reminder of what our government is and what it could be…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aZGqiaVRpA

 

What part of "hoax" does Michael Bennet not understand

by Rossputin | 7:02 am, October 22, 2010

I got an e-mail (as did many thousands of others) from the Michael Bennet campaign yesterday containing the following message (fund-raising links edited out):

 

Dear Ross –

Global warming a hoax? Really?

In Fort Collins yesterday, Ken Buck told a crowd of his Tea Party supporters that, “Sen. Inhofe was the first person to stand up and say this global warming is the greatest hoax that has been perpetrated…The evidence just keeps supporting his view, and more and more people’s view, of what’s going on.”

Unbelievable.

I can’t imagine having Ken Buck make the decisions that will affect the water we drink and the air we breathe.

Michael knows we must address climate change and end our dangerous addiction to foreign oil. He believes we have a moral obligation to manage our natural resources responsibly so they can be enjoyed by the next generation.

And Michael knows Colorado can be a leader in the new energy economy. We’ve already seen thousands of new jobs created in Colorado thanks to our state’s investment in the cleaner energy economy.

But all this would be at risk if Ken Buck had his way.

This message is perhaps one of the best reasons to vote for Ken Buck.

Even if you don’t take the time to read the rest of my blog note, I urge you to read the two relatively short pieces linked at the end of this note.

Here’s the short note I sent back to the Bennet campaign:

Yes, Craig, “global warming” (or at least that it’s substantially caused by humans when it does happen) is a hoax.  What part of that don’t you understand?

What’s unbelievable is how you think that leftist schemes to control the economy with bogus scare tactics like “global warming” would continue unchallenged forever.

When people like Michael Bennet say they want to “use resources responsibly”, what they mean is that they want to massively increase energy costs.  No thanks.

This bears further elaboration.

Michael Bennet supports cap-and-trade, a Quixotic scheme to attack changes in climate which humans have vanishingly little influence over, at tremendous cost to economic growth and thus to Americans’ ability to find a job in an already horrendous job market – that also due primarily to disproven Keynesian economic policies supported by Obama and Michael Bennet, the Senator from Obama.

Ken Buck has consistently said that he “do(es)n’t think that man-made causes are the primary factor” of global warming, since renamed “climate change” by the environmental industry after a decade of the planet not warming.

Bennet and his ilk argue that not “doing something” about climate change is risky.  Their argument, while persuasive to the non-thinking (such as John McCain before he had a primary challenger) is not just wrong, but dangerously wrong.

What Bennet and other alarmists believe is that we must destroy our economy now because there’s some small chance that their bogeyman of climate change will impact our economy later.  It’s like saying we should cut off your foot because you might stub your toe later in life.

While cap-and-trade is probably dead for a while, it needs a stake through its heart, as does the political career of anyone who supports it.

Ken Buck was absolutely right that man-made global warming is a hoax.

For your own intellectual ammunition, here are two important summaries of the explanation of its hoax-ness:

“Pop Went the Climate Bubble” by Steven Milloy

The resignation of Hal Lewis from the American Physical Society (this one is a must-read)

 

Slaphappy Democrat Ed Perlmutter: LA Times Top 10 Weird Campaign Moment

by Ben DeGrow | 10:18 pm, October 21, 2010

In this weird political season, the Los Angeles Times political blog compiles the Top 10 weirdest moments of the 2010 political campaign. Coming in at number 10, from my own backyard: Only two of the top 10 moments came from U.S. House races, and my own Colorado 7th CD made the list. I’m not sure [...]

Promoting Amendment 63

by Brian Schwartz | 9:25 pm, October 21, 2010

Here’s the latest message from Jon Caldara on how to promote Amendment 63, complete with the logo: Dear Friends of Healthcare Choice, Don’t be afraid, be a part of the movement to bring health care freedom to Colorado! Voting on Amendment 63 is less than 2 weeks away. Voters are starting to pay attention to [...]

SD-34 Debate on Seng Center Radio Show TONIGHT at 6pm at krcx.org

by Jimmy Sengenberger | 3:27 pm, October 21, 2010

State Senate candidates Derec Shuler and Lucia Guzman to debate the day’s issues at 6pm Tonight at KRCX.org ————————— Tonight at 6pm online at krcx.org, PPC contributor and host of the Regis University Seng Center Radio Show, Jimmy Sengenberger, will be hosting a LIVE AUDIENCE DEBATE, between the two Senate District 34 candidates, Republican Derec [...]

Enthusiasm gap? Colorado’s would-be governor laments lack of crowds

by Kelly Maher | 2:36 pm, October 21, 2010

Hickenlooper: “You’ve got the mayor of Denver who’s running for governor; be the first, I don’t know if the first ever, but certainly the first mayor of Denver who’d be elected governor of Colorado in 75 or 100 years. No one’s . . . You know, I go around the state and I don’t get huge crowds wanting [to] take apart what I said, or challenge me on various issues.”

HBO, your taxes and George Soros funds anti-American film, glorifies domestic terrorists

by Mr. Bob | 2:11 pm, October 21, 2010

VIA Matthew Vadum at Big Hollywood Radical philanthropist George Soros is bankrolling a documentary that celebrates left-wing terrorists who plotted to napalm Republicans at the 2008 GOP convention in Minnesota. Even worse, you too are bankrolling the…

Soros puts a million dollar bounty on Glenn Beck

by Mr. Bob | 1:15 pm, October 21, 2010

#Glennnbeck #tcot #teapart #912projectAll Beck has done is connect the dots…..who funds what, where is the money coming from for all the socialist projects and propaganda we’ve been inundated with these last 30 years. Apparently Soros would rather we…

Juan Williams Responds to His Firing From NPR

by Mr. Bob | 12:37 pm, October 21, 2010

#tcot #muslim #islam #gwot #teapartyPolitical correctness demands that honesty be punished. Political correctness means pretending. Juan Williams Responds to His Firing From NPRMr. Bob is a contributing author at the People’s Press Collective. Your sou…

State Board of Education Transformers: A Colorado Election Season (After)Thought?

by Eddie | 10:46 am, October 21, 2010

‘Tis the political campaign season, fa la la la la…. Yesterday the Denver Post published its endorsements of Colorado State Board of Education candidates. This year 3 of the 7 seats are up for election — two open after Board members are retiring and one held by an appointed Board member who stepped in to [...]

The Real Impact of a Vote for Tancredo

by Elliot | 7:23 am, October 21, 2010

A good friend, Ross, has the following to say about me today: The arguments I’m hearing from my friends Joe and Elliot regarding why they won’t vote for Tom Tancredo strike me as wildly selfish holier-than-though illogical mental garbage designed to make them feel oh-so-principled at the expense of millions of residents of the state. . . [...]

The real impact of a vote for Dan Maes

by Rossputin | 6:46 am, October 21, 2010

On the radio yesterday morning, my friend Joe Harrington conceded, somewhat differently from the implication of his Facebook note which was picked up by the Denver Post, that nobody associated with the Tom Tancredo campaign did anything illegal regarding trying to secure a “deal” to get Dan Maes out of the race.

Further, Joe admitted that the push to look for such a deal was his idea, not mine and not Tancredo’s or anyone else’s tied to Tancredo.

I hope that issue is sufficiently put to bed.

Of particular interest to me was the conversation between Joe and radio talk show host George Brachler (sitting in for Peter Boyles) in which Brachler asked Joe about whether Dan should drop out or at least “release” his voters to support someone else.

After some verbal jousting, Brachler offered this summary statement-question to Joe: “What I hear you saying is: Yes, it’s better that Dan to stay in for a Governor Hickenlooper than it is for Dan to step down for a Governor Tancredo.”

Joe responded, after slight hesitation, “Yes…I believe so.”

It’s important to keep in mind here that Joe has repeatedly said that he would have supported Tom Tancredo if Tom had gone through the nomination process in a way that Joe approved of. In other words, Joe’s problem with voting for Tancredo is not because he dislikes Tancredo as a candidate (although Joe, like I, has a serious disagreement with Tancredo on the issue of legal immigration – an issue I have put aside in this election because a governor has zero influence on that subject.)

It’s one thing for a conservative or Republican to say “I’m going to vote for Dan Maes because I think he’d be a better governor than the other candidates” or “I’m going to vote for Maes because I dislike Tom Tancredo for a particular policy reason that’s relevant to the job of governor”. And I understand a libertarian who might choose to vote for Jaimes Brown or Jason Clark (although I think third party candidates will be very disappointed in their vote totals this year as people will not want to “waste their votes”; even while I disagree that such a vote is necessarily wasted, it is in this race.)

It’s another thing entirely to vote for Maes instead of Tancredo if you do think that Tancredo would be a good governor. Indeed, even if you for some reason thought that Dan Maes would be a slightly better governor than Tom Tancredo (the basis for which I’d love to hear from anyone), if you also thought that they’re both better than Hickenlooper then, given Maes polling at around 10%, you must – if the benefit of our state is your motivation – vote for Tancredo.

The arguments I’m hearing from my friends Joe and Elliot regarding why they won’t vote for Tom Tancredo strike me as wildly selfish holier-than-though illogical mental garbage designed to make them feel oh-so-principled at the expense of millions of residents of the state.

Look, I understand at least looking down that path.  I, quite publicly, did not support John McCain because in my view “if McCain represents winning then we’ve already lost.”  I said that I’d rather have Obama take us to socialism quickly than McCain take us their slowly because quickly is the only way people will recognize it, much like the “boiling the frog” analogy.

But Tancredo is far better than John McCain. Furthermore, the issue of illegal immigration, where there is the most contentiousness regarding Tancredo, is something where a governor has only limited influence.  And, regarding legal immigration, where I think Tancredo’s position is extremely wrong, is completely outside the province of a governor.  Furthermore, Tancredo and Maes are probably nearly identical on most policy issues that would come before a governor, not least because Maes changed his position on illegal immigration more-or-less to Tancredo’s after talking to Tancredo and friends of Tancredo.

The minor party issue is a red herring designed to try to keep people on board with Maes, but even Dick Wadhams, chairman of the state GOP has said it’s not a very big deal.  He’s right.

What is a big deal is redistricting.  If we have a Governor Hickenlooper and if he wants to get aggressive with redistricting rather than negotiate with a legislature at least partly controlled by Republicans, he’ll just refuse to cooperate and let the district lines be drawn by a judge…again.  And the GOP will be screwed in Congressional elections for a decade.

What is a big deal is the difference in the approach to government spending – and the taxes required to fund it – under a Governor Tancredo versus the leftist-in-moderate’s-clothing John Hickenlooper.

THESE AND ONLY THESE are the critical issues of this election.

Not immigration, not abortion, not marijuana, and not anybody else’s particular narrow pet peeve.  And I say this as someone who disagrees with Tom to a large extent about immigration and about abortion, so my money is where my mouth is, literally and figuratively.

This is about whether our state regains a competitive footing, about whether our citizens have good job opportunities, whether government increases its intrusiveness into our lives, and about whether our state can have a fair shot at sending non-leftists to represent us in Congress.

Talk by Republicans or conservatives or libertarians about “process” or “I don’t like the thinking behind his legal immigration position” while trying to justify implicit support for a leftist governor is nothing more than patting yourself on the back while forgetting that you are holding a long, sharp knife in your hand.

I urge all would-be Dan Maes supporters to think carefully about the choice they’re really making if they check the Dan Maes box on their ballots.  If Hickenlooper wins by a few votes, those people will have a lot of ’splainin’ to do, not so much to me or other voters, but to their children as they explain how Colorado could have gotten back on a path toward excellence…but didn’t, thanks to their egotistical stubbornness and that of their candidate.

Tambor Williams: If you don’t vote for Maes/Williams; you are stupid. Not a thinking person.

by ismith | 5:54 pm, October 20, 2010

I was in attendance on Saturday at the Southern Weld County Republican Breakfast in Fort Lupton to listen to Mark Hillman speak in additon to other candidates running for office.  The breakfast takes place on the third Saturday of each month at the Branding Iron in Fort Lupton.  The “surprise” candidates included: Cory Gardner, Weld County Sheriff [...]

Hickenlooper tries to sharpen dull knife against Tancredo

by Kelly Maher | 4:05 pm, October 20, 2010

John Hickenlooper’s commitment to run a “clean campaign” in his race for governor of Colorado may be under pressure less than two weeks before the Election Day. “…Saying he’s going to bomb Mecca, or that he’s, you know, some of these more outrageous…He tries to be flamboyant, which is really not what the state wants,” Hickenlooper said of Tancredo.

Amending the Constitution to Save It?

by Jon Caldara | 2:28 pm, October 20, 2010

It’s no secret the balance of power between the federal government, the states, and the people has been tipping more and more towards the feds. It seems that there isn’t enough power in the world to quench their thirst. What can the states and the people do to reclaim some of that power and [...]

Maes is His Biggest Expense

by PerlStalker | 7:27 am, October 20, 2010

Really, Dan? You’re your biggest expense? Now that I think about, we’ve known that all along.

The Evergreen businessman, who sold his credit-reporting company last year and has been running for office full time since March 2009, has been reimbursed …

Judge Blocks SEIU Request to Reinstate 6000 Voter Registrations

by PerlStalker | 7:15 am, October 20, 2010

Good call.

A federal judge declined to force the secretary of state to reactivate approximately 6,000 new voters whose registrations were canceled under Colorado’s 20-day rule.

In a decision issued Monday, Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane de…

The 2010 Colorado Governor’s race as enacted by Monty Python

by Rossputin | 7:11 am, October 20, 2010

I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed subtitling it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRZwrtwyu5Y

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Daily Caller: One Nation, Under Fraud

by Rossputin | 6:54 am, October 20, 2010

Thanks to Mike R. for sending the Daily Caller article along.

Every once in a while, a story comes along which reminds even die-hard libertarians, conservatives, and capitalists that there are some legitimate roles for government, that protecting property rights and prosecuting fraud and violations of property rights is among those roles, and that capitalism does not mean the right to do absolutely anything in pursuit of a profit.

Joseph Tauke’s must-read article examining foreclosure fraud around the nation is just such a story: a shocking wake-up call, a look beyond just one or two worst-case anecdotes into the disgusting behavior of banks and mortgage profiteers involved in home foreclosures.

For the rest of my article on this very important topic, please see my article for Human Events today
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39487

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold discusses judicial retention elections on TV – Your Show with Adam Schrager

by CTBC Director | 5:56 am, October 20, 2010

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold appeared on the Your Show with Adam Schrager (9News reporter) TV program this past Sunday, 17 October 2010 at (broadcast on KTVD at 10:30 AM), to discuss judicial retention elections and the drive to hold 3 incumbent Colorado Supreme Court justices (Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, and Nancy Rice) [...]

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