Wayne Laugesen Schools Tax Hikers In Economic Reality

by Mike Krause | 9:11 pm, February 28, 2011

As the Denver Post reports, Colorado State Senator Rollie Heath is proposing to ask Coloradans to approve a three-year, $1.63 billion income and sales tax increase.
In response, the Colorado Springs Gazette’s reliably pro-free market, pro-liberty editorial page editor Wayne Laugesen patiently schools advocates for higher taxes in some economic reality:
A tax is a price on [...]

Mrs. Obama Serves Governors a 2,200 Calorie Meal

by Mr. Bob | 1:16 pm, February 28, 2011

#letsmove #peoplespress #tcot #teapartyAs is usual in the Nanny State we now live in government officials and law makers feel they have the right to tell us what to eat and buy, tell us how to live, raise our children and how to act, what’s good for th…

Innovation Alert: Glenwood Springs Schools and Students “Moving On” Up?

by Eddie | 12:07 pm, February 28, 2011

I’ve been to Glenwood Springs before with my parents. It’s a neat place, with the caves and the rides and, of course, the hot springs. But this has got to be the first time I’ve blogged about it here. The local Post Independent reports that the Roaring Fork School District looks like they are about [...]

Weekend Wrap: Independence Institute Writers In The News

by Mike Krause | 11:30 am, February 28, 2011

From progressive income taxes to pre-existing conditions and from public sector unions to health care freedom, Independence Institute writers have been a busy bunch as of late. Let’s get to it.
In the Sunday Denver Post perspective page, Independence Institute president Jon Caldara goes toe to toe with Carol Hedges from the Colorado Fiscal Policy [...]

Union Critics Counter-Protest

by Ari Armstrong | 8:59 am, February 28, 2011

Critics of collective bargaining by political-sector unions rallied in Denver February 22; here Kathy Welch, State Senator Shawn Mitchell, Jeff Crank, and Patti Reynertson share their thoughts.See also:Walker’s Discriminatory TaxesCO Union Supporters S…

Sen. Mark Udall Reborn As Fiscal Hawk?

by PerlStalker | 8:31 am, February 28, 2011

I’ve given Senator Mark Udall a lot of flack over the years over fiscal issues. He earned most of it, too. In 2010, after being in office for two years, Citizens Against Government Waste and National Taxpayers Union gave Udall horrendous scores on tax …

Public-sector unions: Two wolves & a sheep vote on what’s for lunch

by Brian T. Schwartz | 10:54 pm, February 27, 2011

“Two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” James Bovard’s critique of democracy also applies to public-sector unions. Unions and union-backed politicians are the wolves. Taxpayers are the sheep. Public-sector union representatives “will often be on … Continue reading →

State unions already here, but what about fed employees?

by completecolorado | 6:41 pm, February 27, 2011

Great article in the Wall Street Journal asking President Obama, if unionized state workers are so important, why not the same privileges for fed workers?
Money quote:
Washington politicians may not know much, but they know power—in particular, the art of keeping it. Even Carter Democrats understood the difference between being in electoral debt to the unions, [...]

Ghosts of Constitutional Debates Past – Part IV

by Joshua Sharf | 2:38 pm, February 27, 2011

Continuing to work my way through the Debates on the Constitution, at a languid pace, I came to this letter from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson was, at the time, Minister to France, so had no direct role in drafting the Constitution.  Madison’s main concern in the letter is federalism, and the division of [...]

Fun email of the day…

by completecolorado | 12:50 pm, February 27, 2011

…sent to CompleteColorado, subject line: “WHAT A JOKE”
Your site takes too long to load, you have too much useless and worthless crap tacked on it, you don’t know how to do basic web design, and your egotism and arrogance will sentence it to oblivion.
Signed,
James C. H###
Hmmm. James, if you have helpful suggestions, we’d love to hear [...]

March 7th, Deputy AG Blue at I.I.!

by redrocks | 11:36 am, February 27, 2011

Liberty On The Rocks (Red Rocks) March 7th Happy Hour featuring Geoff Blue – On Deck at I.I.!

“Litigation, Litigation, Litigation”

This meetup only, we are unable to meet at Old Chicago, so we will be meeting at the Independence Institute (see address below). So grab a sandwich or pack a treat, bring a beverage (adult or [...]

Union Protesters Gang up on Tea Partier

by Al Maurer | 10:14 am, February 27, 2011

The unions try to shout down liberty activist Elliot Fladen–and fail.

PPC Exclusive: GOP Leadership Forum Videos 2

by elpresidente | 10:00 am, February 27, 2011

Backbone Radio, February 27, 2011

by Rossputin | 8:55 am, February 27, 2011

Audio archives for this show:

Segment 1 -Intro with Joshua Sharf in studio. Dr. Wayne Brough, the Vice President for Research and Chief Economist at FreedomWorks on  impact of federal, state and local
Segment 2 – More with Dr. Wayne Brough
Segment 3 – Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute on the labor scene here in Colorado and in particular the teacher union’s power and influence.
Segment 4 – Charcie Russell and Pam Mazanec of the Great Choice Douglas County foundation, on Douglas County’s innovative school choice proposal
Segment 5 – Continued with Russell and Mazanec. Eric O’Keefe, CEO of the Sam Adams Alliance on Health Care Compact Alliance.
Segment 6 – More with Eric O’Keefe; wrap-up

Please join Krista Kafer, sitting in for Ross Kaminsky on this week’s Backbone Radio. We have a full lineup of fascinating guests and intriguing topics.

We’ll talk with Dr. Wayne Brough, the Vice President for Research and Chief Economist at FreedomWorks about the impact of collective bargaining by state employees on state budgets and taxpayers’ pocketbooks.

Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute will talk to us about the labor scene here in Colorado and in particular the teacher union’s power and influence.

Charcie Russell and Pam Mazanec of the Great Choice Douglas County foundation, no strangers to union obstruction of good ideas, will speak about the Douglas County’s innovative school choice proposal.

An analyst at the Health Care Compact Alliance will fill us in about state health care compacts. With the pernicious costs of Obamacare to health care freedoms looming on the horizon, will state compacts provide a way out?  We’ll get the details.

In between hearing from these experts, we’ll find some time to talk about turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, the perils of mounting US government debt, and my take on the sure-to-be-exciting Leadership Program of the Rockies annual retreat.

Please join us by listening to (and calling in to) this week’s Backbone Radio program from 5 PM to 8 PM on 710 AM KNUS in Denver and 1460 AM KZNT in Colorado Springs.

If you’re not in range of the radio waves, you should be able to listen to the show online by clicking HERE.

I hope you’ll actively participate in the conversation with me: Call the studio at 303 696 1971.

An Oldie But Goodie

by Joshua Sharf | 1:45 am, February 27, 2011

With the Denver Mayoral race starting to heat up, and with Chris Romer trying to position himself as a ‘pro-business’ candidate, it’s good to revisit exactly what he means by that. ProBusinessRomer.mp3 This comes from a conversation he had with the DaVita CEO who remarked that Coloradoans don’t know what investment means.  Apparently, aside from [...]

No public money to subsidize the ski industry.

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 9:09 pm, February 26, 2011

Because of all the weekend skiers heading home, it can take 3 to 4 hours or more to travel east from Summit County back to the front range on a Sunday afternoon in the winter.This Sunday afternoon congestion headed east on I-70 has been the source of m…

Walker’s Discriminatory Taxes

by Ari Armstrong | 6:07 pm, February 26, 2011

I have a hard enough time tracking Colorado politics; I spend very little time tracking the politics of other state. However, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has become the subject of national controversy because of his proposal to limit collective bar…

The face of evil at the NEA

by Rossputin | 6:43 am, February 26, 2011

H/T Keith D.

Although this video is two years old, its message is perhaps more important today than ever and highlights how the National Education Association is truly the enemy of this nation’s children, a wolf in sheep’s clothing using our boys and girls as human shields while seeking money and power above all else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=-piPkgAUo0w

Freaky Unintended Consequences

by Ari Armstrong | 9:02 pm, February 25, 2011

I’m a fan of the Freakonomics books, though I don’t always agree with them. (I’ve written about them a couple times before.) The documentary of the same name includes some material not found in the books.I enjoyed this line: “You can teach a kid just a…

The coming PERA disaster

by completecolorado | 4:05 pm, February 25, 2011

Kudos to Mike Rosen.  Talking about pensions isn’t exactly what you’d call “sexy” talk radio.  But as long as I’ve been in Colorado, Rosen has always dedicated ample time to talking about this looming fiscal disaster for Coloradans.
And kudos to State Treasurer Walker Stapleton for telling it like it is: namely, the unfunded liability is [...]

Special thanks to the two Democrats that voted for HB 1205

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 3:20 pm, February 25, 2011

Rep. Chris Holbert’s HB-1205 “Concerning the authority of a law-abiding person to carry a concealed handgun without a permit,” passed the House Judiciary Committee with an 8-3 vote yesterday. All six Republican members of the committee voted for it, an…

Would Merit Pay Work Better If More Schools Didn’t See It Like Brussel Sprouts?

by Eddie | 11:17 am, February 25, 2011

It’s Friday, so allow me to tease you a bit. Na na nanny boo boo. No, not like that. I mean “tease,” as in the broadcast media lingo for giving you just a little bit of info and a heads-up, while making you wait for the real deal.
But first, my own curiosity was drawn [...]

CO Union Supporters Speak Out

by Ari Armstrong | 10:22 am, February 25, 2011

Even though I think unions often get their way illegitimately through political force, I wanted to give the union supporters who rallied in Denver February 22 an opportunity to share their views.As noted, not all of the union supporters were particular…

How to Insure Americans who have Pre-Existing Conditions

by Brian Schwartz | 8:30 am, February 25, 2011

People with pre-existing conditions deserve better than ObamaCare’s price controls. Free market reforms can provide it. Like a hammer that sees every problem as a nail, many politicians think the solution to every problem is legislation that erodes our liberties.

The totalitarian nature of mandatory insurance & ObamaCare

by Brian Schwartz | 6:30 am, February 25, 2011

The latest district court ruling by Judge Gladys Kessler reveals the totalitarian nature of mandatory insurance. If the Commerce Clause empowers the Federal Government can prohibit your choice not to act in a certain way, it can do anything.

Remember who our friends are

by Rossputin | 6:24 am, February 25, 2011

I was reminded by Tuesday’s insightful comment by “The Freak” about sticking with our friends (and interests) of an interview I heard almost two weeks ago on BBC News.  I’ve been trying to find it on their web site and sent the BBC an e-mail which has gone unanswered asking if the interview was available online.  I’ll do my best to describe it since I can’t find the actual source material for you.

The interview was of two young Lebanese adults, one being Elie Hajj whose father, General Francois Hajj, was assassinated in 2007, and the other being one of the two daughters of Sammir Qassir, a Christian journalist who was best known for his anti-Syrian views.

The discussion was ostensibly about two different Lebanese views about the UN’s Special Tribunal for Lebanon, with Mr. Hajj saying that his skepticism of the tribunal’s accuracy and effectiveness is too strong to change and Ms. Qassir saying that the tribunal remains the best hope for justice for her father and Mr. Hajj’s.

What began as a rational sounding discussion soon degenerated into something else with Mr. Hajj saying that Hezbollah is innocent of the murder and that he’s seen evidence about certain cell phones which tie his father’s murder to Israel.

Ms. Qassir then went on a mini-rant about how everyone knows that Israel is the enemy and that it’s so obviously and permanently true that Mr. Hajj need not keep repeating it.  She said that the Lebanese would fight Israel when it could, and forever until the last drop of blood, but that the focus should temporarily be on getting justice for their parents and stabilizing the government of Lebanon.  As sexist as this might sound, her hateful and paranoid rhetoric was that much more disturbing coming from a woman.

It was a stunning interview to hear – two relatively upper-class, well educated, young adult Lebanese whose hatred for Israel is permanently etched on their psyches.  These are people who can never and will never be turned into friends or even into neutral parties when it comes to Israel, and it’s hard to imagine that the rest of the country feels any less beligerence not least when the most aggressive rhetoric in the interview came from a Christian daughter of a journalist.

Both General Hajj’s murder and that of Mr. Qassir would seem to be tied to Syria. But Syria always responds by blaming Israel and minds addled by years of being indoctrinated with hatred are susceptible to such lunacy as thinking that Israel would want to kill an anti-Syrian journalist or even an army general who had fought Israel, given that Lebanese instability would likely lead to greater influence by Hezbollah.  (This article at the time of Hajj’s assassination quotes many people offering theories of why Hajj would have been targeted, and none of them has to do with Israel but rather with fomenting instability and a power vacuum in Lebanon, something that Israel’s enemies would want.)

Overall, my reaction to the interview was a stunned sense of fatalism and recognition that Israel is and will for a long time be surrounded by true mortal enemies, even among the educated elite, and that these enemies will only be kept at bay by fear of overwhelming military defeat should conflict arise.

The interview also reinforced my view that Barack Obama is not just a foreign affairs idiot, but that his idiocy is extremely dangerous.  From his “apology tour” to his administration’s recent reprehensible near-abandonment of Israel at the UN, this is a man living in a foreign affairs 1984 where friends are the problem and bloodthirsty enemies just need a rhetorical (or maybe actual) hug. Obama projects naïveté and weakness, emboldening our enemies to do things like Iran’s running warships through the Suez Canal (and Egypt’s allowing that passage), a move which can only harm America’s friends and interests in the Middle East.  Just like the capture and release of the hostages in Iran, one has to wonder whether this provocation would have happened had George Bush (or Ronald Reagan) been president.

But I digress…

The BBC interview was a stark reminder that Israel can never relax and that the US should remain equally vigilant in support of its only true friend and ally in one of the world’s most strategically important regions.  Israel’s enemies are intractable and hateful. Just as with Hitler’s overt hatred of Jews, I take these Arabs at their word: they hate Israel and want it destroyed.  This must not be permitted; indeed the perception of the possibility of that outcome must not be permitted, even if it means a pre-emptive attack by Israel on the most serious imminent threates.  It’s an attack that must have aggressive US support, both in its operation and in public statements.

Temporary good behavior by one’s enemies does not make them friends.  Just ask Neville Chamberlain, a man who offered one of the most important and obvious lessons in history. Unfortunately, our president is too stupid, cloistered, and anti-Semitic to learn that lesson.  If the Mideast survives without major conflagration until we have a president with the sense and courage to rein in Israel’s enemies, with unsubtle threats if necessary, it will be good luck, not skill, and in spite of rather than because of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and our other leading incompetents.

Even Without COF, SB 126 Subsidizes Illegals

by PerlStalker | 8:11 pm, February 24, 2011

So, the Colorado Assembly is debating a bill that would give illegal immigrants in-state tuition. In theory, the proposed bill doesn’t subsidize the illegals because they don’t get money from the College Opportunity Fund. The question is whether or not…

Tuesday Rally Highlights

by elpresidente | 7:25 pm, February 24, 2011

Debates on gun control with Adam Winkler and John Donohue

by David Kopel | 6:26 pm, February 24, 2011

(David Kopel) Last month, I participated in a discussion about gun control on the Legal Talk Network with Adam Winkler of UCLA. It’s 35 minutes, and available here. As usual, Winkler was well-informed, amicable, and eager to engage in constructive dialogue. I also participated in a debate on WHYY, Philadelphia, with Stanford’s John Donohue. It’s 49 minutes, and [...]

Confessions of a Former Koch Fellow

by Ari Armstrong | 5:05 pm, February 24, 2011

Union supporters protested the Koch Industries offices today, as David Weigel noted on Twitter. A couple of days ago numerous union supporters in Denver sported signage demonizing the Kochs. So what’s this all about?

keep looking »

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