Don’t Let The Bedbugs Bite

by Joshua Sharf | 3:09 pm, January 6, 2011

No, really. And the Denver Post doesn’t seem to have any answers.  In a 760-word article about the problem, insecticides, the one thing that actually killed the bugs, are dismissed because the bugs seem to have mutated around them.  And we are told, “get over it,” rather than invent new pesticides. Bedbugs are easy.  The [...]

School Passports: Another Great Idea to Expand Choice and Save Money

by Eddie | 2:45 pm, January 6, 2011

I’m pretty young and haven’t had the chance to visit a lot of places. Still, I think of passports as pieces of paper that allow you to travel to other countries. The Foundation for Educational Choice offers a different and thought-provoking twist, though, with a new report called “School Passports: Making the Stimulus Pay Off [...]

Donald Berwick’s America

by Joshua Sharf | 2:37 pm, January 6, 2011

As we all know, President Obama’s choice to head Medicare and Medicaid, Donald Berwick, is a big fan of the British National Health Service. Powerline has made a practice of chronicling the NHS’s success, from dead babies, lack of basic diagnostic equipment, patients texting their own neglect, others not being able to do so, and [...]

James Reflects on People’s Press Collective

by Ari Armstrong | 10:04 am, January 6, 2011

People’s Press Collective, which aggregates conservative and free market writings in Colorado (and on which this post will appear), started with the idea of covering the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Thomas James, a cofounder of the project, rev…

My letter to my Congressman and Senators about health care

by Rossputin | 9:29 am, January 6, 2011

A letter I received from my health insurance company with my new and not-so-improved premiums for 2011 inspired me to write to my Congress People.  Here’s that letter:

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/01/06/an-open-letter-to-my-congress

De facto death panels: all four pieces in place

by Brian Schwartz | 6:00 am, January 6, 2011

All 4 pieces are in place for gov’t to deny life-saving medicine: Health Info. Technology to track doctors, comparative effectiveness research to decide what works, Accountable Care Orgs. to control doctors’ practice, & end-of-life counseling to inform patients. Greg Scandlen explains.

Founders: Words Have Meaning

by Jon Caldara | 3:23 pm, January 5, 2011

How prescient we must be at the Independence Institute. Yesterday our Constitutional law expert and Senior Fellow Professor Rob Natelson did a podcast on how to interpret the constitution that was based on his most recent blogpost at our Constitution Studies website. The podcast explained how our constitution is a legal document written mostly by [...]

Founders: Words Have Meaning

by Jon Caldara | 3:23 pm, January 5, 2011

How prescient we must be at the Independence Institute. Yesterday our Constitutional law expert and Senior Fellow Professor Rob Natelson did a podcast on how to interpret the constitution that was based on his most recent blogpost at our Constitution Studies website. The podcast explained how our constitution is a legal document written mostly by [...]

Well, There’s Unions, And Then There’s Unions

by Joshua Sharf | 2:14 pm, January 5, 2011

When John Hickenlooper was running for Governor, he touted his business experience, and sold himself as a socially-liberal, fiscally-conservative, pro-business candidate.  If true, even in an environment favorable to Republicans, with a viable candidate, that package is an appealing one.  Unfortunately, as many of us predicted, it’s not true. Governor-Elect Hickenlooper’s choice of political-labor activist [...]

Millard South School Shooting in Omaha

by wesley | 1:01 pm, January 5, 2011

Reports are coming in of a shooting at Millard South High School outside of Omaha. Specifics are limited at this point, but the Omaha World-Herald has some details and so does KETV Omaha. Sounds like the criminal is a senior who entered the school, shot the principal and one other victim, and then fled. The [...]

Breaking: John Boehner elected Speaker of the House

by Rossputin | 12:39 pm, January 5, 2011

Vote: 241 for Boehner, 173 for Pelosi, 11 for Heath Shuler, and a handful of other representatives receiving one or two votes.

Boehner received a well-deserved standing ovation following the official tally and announcement.

Petrilli’s Prognostications and Public School Productivity in Colorado

by Eddie | 12:34 pm, January 5, 2011

What’s in store in the world of K-12 education for 2011? I’m too young and naive to make any worthwhile predictions myself, but I invite you to check out the “7 for 11″ prophetic musings of Fordham’s Mike Petrilli. In about 360 days or so we can fully judge how accurate his educated guesses prove [...]

Tobin Spratte Reviews Goals of Liberty Ink Journal

by Ari Armstrong | 9:56 am, January 5, 2011

Tobin Spratte, the new managing editor of Liberty Ink Journal, describes the publication and its goals. “We’re a free market, liberty-oriented publication,” he says.

Breaking: Robert Gibbs resigning

by Rossputin | 9:24 am, January 5, 2011

CNBC is reporting that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is resigning, effective after the January 25th State of the Union Address, and will become an “outside political advisor.”  If Gibbs’ effectiveness in that role is as solid as the competency he has displayed as Press Secretary, a future Republican challenger to Barack Obama should be quietly smiling at this news.

Personally, I can’t recall a Press Secretary with a fraction of Gibbs’ smugness or superciliousness, or his tendency to talk down to reporters and the American people.

Don’t let the door hit you in the *** on the way out, Robert…

Nick Gillespie’s ATF Speech

by Jon Caldara | 8:29 am, January 5, 2011

The Independence Institute’s annual Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Party is becoming a Colorado institution. If you haven’t heard about our annual ATF Party yet, welcome to Colorado, we’re glad to have you. This past year was perhaps our greatest ATF party ever. I think we had more booze and cigars this year or something. We [...]

Joan Henneberry & Colorado’s health insurance exchange

by Brian Schwartz | 7:00 am, January 5, 2011

John Hickenlooper has appointed Joan Henneberry to head the creation of Colorado’s health insurance exchange. Gregg Girvan of the Heritage Foundation has spoken highly of Utah’s apparently market-friendly exchange. But John Graham of the Pacific Research Institute warns against this: “If Obamacare persists, exchanges will become bloated administrative nightmares.”

From the mouths of babes

by Rossputin | 6:49 am, January 5, 2011

Two conversations with my children on Monday night.

With my 3-year old son who is sitting in the back seat of the car as I drive him home from preschool:

Son: Dad, I have a big bugger.
Me:  What are you going to do with it?
Son: I want to wipe it on your pants.
Me: That’s gross.  Wipe it on your own pants.
Son: No, it’s gross to wipe it on my own pants.
Son (15 seconds later): It’s gone.
Me: Where is it?
Son: It’s on the window.
Me: (Groan)
Son (2 minutes later): I have another one.
Son (15 seconds later): It’s gone. I wiped it on my chair.
Me: (Groan)

 

And with my 5-year old daughter just before bedtime as I was telling her a story:

Daughter: Dad, are you a little bit sick because your breath smells bad.

Upcoming vote to repeal Obamacare could set tone for next two years

by Rossputin | 6:03 am, January 5, 2011

The imminent faux-battle to repeal Obamacare (faux because with this president in office, it is unrepealable) will say a lot, or rather the public reaction to it will say a lot, with the rhetoric heating up on both sides.

In short, it comes down to this:  When it relates to Obamacare, does anybody other than committed liberal Democrats believe anything that the Democrats in Congress have to say about it?

Nancy Pelosi is arguing that repealing it will increase the deficit because of the CBO’s rigged report that Obamacare will cut the deficit by about $140 billion over ten years.  First of all, that number is a joke.  Second, the only reason they can claim anything of the sort is because it includes a decade of taxes to cover much less than a decade of spending.  The head of the CBO said, in as courageous a note as one can expect from someone in that position, that the assumptions underlying the economic analysis of the law were quite unlikely to be realistic.

The Democrats are calling the Republican’s plan to repeal the law “NoCare”.  It’s a rhetorical tactic which might have worked some years ago but which I think will fall on deaf ears now as people focus on the trillion-plus dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.

The Republicans will bring forward a simple bill to repeal the whole law, without allowing for amendments and debate.  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) says that people already know what’s in Obamacare and that it’s been debated enough.  Democrats, in a bit of hypocrisy rather remarkable even for them, are complaining about the quick vote, saying they want more time to explain to people what the “benefits” of the legislation are.  You’d think that if there were benefits, they would have figured out before the November election how to explain them to voters…

In addition to economic aspects of the bill, Democrats are demonizing the repeal move as likely to “deny care to women, children, and seniors.”  Again, will the public buy it?  Probably not, though the same groups that spent tens of millions of dollars to support the destruction of the world’s best (even if far from perfect) health care system will certainly throw millions more into misleading advertising to protect their “investments”.

The repeal bill is likely to pass the House but fail in the Senate.  Nevertheless, if it gets to a vote in the Senate and if some Democrats side with what should be a unanimous Republican caucus, it will send an extremely strong message to the White House and to the American electorate.

If the public reacts to the war of words by believing the continuation of lies and misinformation coming from Nancy Pelosi botox-numbed face (the only way she can tell such incredible whoppers without grinning), then, to put it succinctly, this nation is lost.

If the public generally stays with the government-cutting mentality championed by the Tea Party and many or most just-elected Republicans, if the public can be convinced after decades of behaving like candy-grubbing children, that government “benefits” are unaffordable and that they destroy our liberty, then maybe the 2010 elections will be the start in a sustainable (for perhaps a decade) move to limit the power and cost of government.

I believe that the public’s reaction to this vote will determine the winner of the presidential election in 2012.  If there is even a semblance of bipartsian support to repeal Obamacare but Obama vetoes a repeal or the Senate can’t quite pass it, House Republicans will keep the issue on the front burner for 22 solid months and make Democrats run on their support of Obamacare.  It didn’t work for Democrats in 2010 and it won’t work for them in 2012.

For the pro-liberty movement, then, the key is to make sure that House Republicans get repeated injections of backbone over the next two years, that they know we appreciate their continued attempt to free the nation from the grip of Obama’s signature socialist legislation, and that they know that we’ll work to help the reelection efforts of those elected officials who don’t back away from this most important fight.

Penn Pfiffner on the Citizens’ Budget

by Jon Caldara | 3:26 pm, January 4, 2011

Kelly Maher of the great website WhoSaidYouSaid came into the office the other day to speak to Penn Pfiffner about our Citizens’ Budget project. As you might already know, Penn was the lead guy on the project. He wrote a lot of it, edited much of it, and kept the project on task the whole [...]

Weld County School District Bargaining Dispute Starts Getting National Spotlight

by Eddie | 1:11 pm, January 4, 2011

I’m still catching up on stories and commentaries I may have missed while on break at the end of the year. A few months ago I brought your attention to a growing dispute in Weld County’s Valley Re-1 School District, from the local teachers association that claimed its collective bargaining privileges were being stripped away [...]

When governments turn to piracy

by Rossputin | 12:27 pm, January 4, 2011

H/T Mike R.

In perhaps the first major gaffe I’m aware of by Chris Christie, the fire-breathing budget-cutting Republican Governor of New Jersey, or more precisely by his administration, the state’s Treasurer has announced that the state will appeal a court ruling striking down a new law which allows the government to steal private property in order to help balance its budget.

In particular, the law allows the state to seize the unused value on gift cards two years after their purchase as well as the unused value of any travelers checks not cashed or spent within three years after purchase.

A news story on the judge’s injunction, which was originally handed down in November, says that “consumers can still redeem the gift cards after the state takes the money” which is a concept that only a bureaucrat could think is sensible.  This would imply that the state would have some unknown liability, probably actuarially determined at some percentage of the total amount seized.

But even with that fig leaf of consumer “protection”, New Jersey’s proposal is an act of piracy on the open seas of commerce.

The New Jersey Retail Merchants Association, the New Jersey Food Council and American Express each sued to block the law, and Judge Freda Wolfson agreed with them, at least for now.

It’s fairly reprehensible that the state of New Jersey sees fit to appeal a law blocking their ability to steal money – and make no mistake, that’s what this is – regardless of how bad the state’s budget deficit is.

After all, a mugger’s budget probably isn’t all that great, but if he took your gift card or traveler’s check, he’d rightfully go to prison.

My Interview with Sam Adams Alliance

by Ari Armstrong | 10:58 am, January 4, 2011

As my regular readers may recall, I received a Sam Adams Alliance award in 2009. In anticipation of this year’s contest, Nic Hall of the Alliance interviewed past winners, including me.The entry deadline for this year’s contest is January 28; I strongl…

Feds reward Colorado Medicaid for increasing gov’t dependency

by Brian Schwartz | 6:00 am, January 4, 2011

The federal gov’t gave the CO state gov’t $14 million in tax dollars for expanding eligibility for its state-run health plan for kids. This health plan encourages parents to drop private insurance & punishes their career advancement.

Hickenlooper Names Union Hack, Progressive Activist to Head Colorado Department of Labor

by PerlStalker | 12:36 am, January 4, 2011

Isn’t that just lovely.

Ellen Golombek, who worked for 14 years with the Service Employees International Union and Colorado AFL-CIO, is Democratic Gov.-Elect John Hickenlooper’s choice as head of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, su…

New Florida Governor Rick Scott Weighs Some Bold Education Reforms

by Eddie | 2:27 pm, January 3, 2011

Twenty-eleven is here, and I’m back with my youthful optimism looking toward a better, freer education future. While a lot of states — including Colorado — look forward to convening their legislatures with a focus on tackling budget problems, truly bold education reform is at the forefront of conversation in at least one place: Florida.
Education [...]

9NEWS.com | Denver | Colorado’s Online News Leader | US Navy to probe lewd videos shown to carrier crew

by Mr. Bob | 1:41 pm, January 3, 2011

#navy #BigEI was on board the big E during this time and remember then Commander Honor’s videos to be quite crude at times, and got worse as the cruise went along. I was an E5 and never been on ship before so did not know this was not the norm. Heck he…

How to Get Fired: Mothers Against Debt Takes On Unemployment Benefits

by Ben DeGrow | 11:57 am, January 3, 2011

A preeminent challenge lying ahead for our elected Congress to tackle is the mounting debt and out-of-control spending that grew under Republican leadership and accelerated in the past few years with Democrats in charge. No one is better prepared to help equip you to do your citizen’s part in taking on this challenge than my [...]

Twenty-Eleven Means I’m Back

by Ben DeGrow | 11:44 am, January 3, 2011

The New Year has arrived, and my long hiatus from serious blogging is over. For any blogger, a long hiatus can be a dangerous proposition — threatening the already tenuously small readership and helping people to forget about you. Look, many of you already were going to forget about me anyway over the Christmas / [...]

Atwood Pitches Approval Voting

by Ari Armstrong | 8:55 am, January 3, 2011

Frank Atwood promoted “approval voting” at a recent Liberty On the Rocks event:While I was skeptical of approval voting at first, Atwood convinced me that it’s a good idea — even better than the “instant runoff voting” I’ve previously praised.What is …

Sunday news stories foreshadow contentious new Congress

by Rossputin | 6:38 am, January 3, 2011

Sunday’s headlines from major news outlets contain thinly-veiled warnings by each political party to the other: “We will make sure you suffer politically if you don’t play ball.”

As I’ve been suggesting for weeks and continue to believe, we’re in for the political equivalent of bumper cars in the weeks coming soon with the Democrats daring Republicans not to vote to raise the debt ceiling and Republicans planning early-and-often votes on repealing all, and then parts, of Obamacare.

From the NY Times: “G.O.P. Vows to Cut Spending and Roll Back Health Care Bill” quotes Fred Upton (R-MI) who will be Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee – and who has a LOT to prove to the Tea Party movement and fiscal conservatives generally – as saying the House will bring up a vote to repeal Obamacare before the president’s State Of The Union address at the end of this month.  And further, “If we pass this bill with a sizable vote, and I think that we will, it will put enormous pressure on the Senate to do perhaps the same thing,” he said. “But then, after that, we’re going to go after this bill piece by piece.”

And from Fox News: “White House Warns Failure to Raise Debt Ceiling Would Mean Economic ‘Crisis’” quotes the Chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors as saying that “This is not a game.” Further, “He suggested that if the vote collapses, ‘that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.’ “

This reminds me of a Redskins-Cowboys game, or a Broncos-Raiders game, i.e. a game in an old, intense rivalry played by people who would just as soon see the other guys hit by a bus.  It’s going to be some of the best political theater of the past generation.

The current wisdom is that Republicans will demand substantial spending cuts in order to agree to raise the debt ceiling.  The real question will be whether House Republicans will insist on cuts in current spending or simply accept promises of future spending cuts – promises such as we’ve heard all too often, with all too little emphasis by Republicans to make those promises good.  If the GOP does not demand and get current cuts which are more than just window dressing, they’ll hear about it from the Tea Party and other pro-liberty and pro-limited government activists.

As for those activists, they need to keep the pressure on any and all Republicans who seem to be weakening in their resolve to attack government spending, particularly by making it clear that they’re willing and able to support and fund primary challengers to Republicans who continue to behave as Republicans did for most of the past decade.  Also, as you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, I’d encourage activists to contact Representatives and Senators with whom they are pleased and let them know to keep doing the right thing.  Finally, with Fred Upton as a great example, as we go into this new Congress, we should be willing to give Republicans who have been in Congress more than a term or two the opportunity to prove to us that they’ve learned and absorbed the lesson of the 2010 election.  If a politician has been less than great in the past, let’s give him (or her) the opportunity to show that he’s turned over a new leaf and is now supportive of the liberty movement.  When judging these people, it’s OK to look at what they say, but it’s critical to pay attention to how they vote.  Fred Upton, we’ll be watching you…

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