Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold discusses judicial accountability in Colorado on KFTM radio April 27th

by CTBC Director | 4:11 pm, April 30, 2011

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold discussed the judicial accountability movement in Colorado – from CTBC’s launch in April 2009 through the present – in a wide-ranging interview with Michael Schaus on KFTM Radio on 27 April 2011.
Topics include the formation of Clear The Bench Colorado, examples of how the Colorado Supreme Court violated the [...]

Students and the National Debt

by T.L. James | 1:12 pm, April 30, 2011

An illuminating man-on-the-street video in which students at Stanford and Berkeley are asked to sign a pledge to pay their $47,000 share of the national debt, and to offer their own alternatives to spending reductions for trimming the federal deficit.

2011 Energy Legislation, Xcel, and the PUC

by Jon Caldara | 8:55 am, April 30, 2011

Vote NO on Conifer Recreation District, May 3

by T.L. James | 9:52 pm, April 29, 2011

Some of my neighbors here in Conifer have come up with a pretty clever (or sneaky, if you prefer) way to create a new special district: promise that there won’t be any taxes associated with it so that it doesn’t require a full TABOR-process election, and once approved by a small, motivated group of voters, [...]

Thanks to the state Senators that voted for freedom and against the police state yesterday.

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 6:23 pm, April 29, 2011

Thank you to the seven state Senators on the Health and Human Services Committee that voted to protect individual freedom and against expanding the massively failed drug war yesterday.On a 7-2 vote, the committee killed Senate Bill 196, which would hav…

Public Pensions and Risk

by Joshua Sharf | 12:37 pm, April 29, 2011

In a couple of previous posts, I’ve discussed the folly of using a loophole in public pension accounting to increase the discount rate by taking on added risk. Naturally, that fear would be more justified if it turned out that public pensions were doing that. Herewith, the evidence. The Census Bureau does an annual survey [...]

Falcon 49 Takes Another Noteworthy Bold Step in Following Innovative Path

by Eddie | 11:19 am, April 29, 2011

About four weeks ago I raised the question about Falcon School District 49’s school buses at the State Capitol stunt: Are they serious about tough decisions ahead? Well, in a story reported this week by the Colorado Springs Gazette’s Kristina Iodice, the answer appears to be Yes:

A staffing plan that eliminates 143 jobs, including teaching [...]

Films Show Fight Against Tyranny: Atlas Shrugged, Harry Potter, King’s Speech

by Ari Armstrong | 10:18 am, April 29, 2011

The following article by Linn and Ari Armstrong originally was published April 29 by Grand Junction Free Press.The same day Atlas Shrugged Part I arrived in theaters, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I came out on disk. A few days later the Os…

The Birth Certificate: Now what

by Rossputin | 5:43 am, April 29, 2011

President Barack Obama released his birth certificate. Now what?

Some bloggers of the “birther” right are already questioning it, such as here and here.

Jerry Corsi, whose book “Where’s the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President ” is #50 on the Amazon bestseller list even though it hasn’t even been released yet, will have to find another way to challenge Obama and/or the birth certificate itself. After all, Obama’s birth cerfiticate revelation seems timed specifically to counteract the release of Corsi’s book in less than three weeks. Corsi and WorldNetDaily editor-in-chief Joe Farah make a good living with this issue. Beyond their own interests in keeping questions of Obama’s eligibility alive, my guess that they will sincerely not be convinced by the document which has been shown to us.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, has moved on to demand that Obama release his college and law school records. But are more than a few dozen people even listening to The Donald anymore? Obama’s birth certificate release will satisfy many of those – though certainly not all – who questioned whether he was actually born in Hawaii. By going from “show us the birth certificate” to “show us your grades” in a matter of moments after the first question seemed (at least in the eyes of most) to be answered makes Trump look much more like a professional gadfly than a serious candidate for anything (which he isn’t.)

As far as Obama’s school records go, Trump has seemed to go from a broad focus including admission records (which could have shown something interesting about who paid for Obama’s schooling or what country Obama claimed to be from) to a narrow focus on Obama’s grades, arguing that he’s heard that Obama was a bad student. But who cares? George Bush was not a great student. John Kerry was even worse (which is presumably why he also kept his grades hidden for so long). The issue is how these people behave as president, not how they behaved 30 years earlier. Trump may think that learning Obama got bad grades will make people feel worse about Obama than they do. I think that’s ridiculous. To flip it on its head, if I learned that Obama were a straight-A student in college, my disdain for the man and everything he believes would not change one bit.

So if there’s any good news from the release of Obama’s birth certificate, it’s that Trump’s chances of running for office have been diminished. You can’t rule out anything by one of the biggest egos in America, but despite his narcissism Donald Trump is not an idiot. He must know that a segment of independent and “moderate” Republican voters who were wondering about Obama’s eligibility are now wondering about Trump’s competency. Donald, when it comes to the GOP nomination quest, you’re fired.

It bears repeating that the American people don’t dislike Obama because they think he’s not technically American, but rather because his approach is un-American. He bows to foreign leaders, apologizes to dictators for the US, attacks Libya but goes out of his way to say we only did it because the Arab League asked us to – and then goes on to give up US control of the operation as rapidly as possible. In short, Americans don’t like Barack Obama because they (and I) believe that Michelle Obama meant it (and her husband agrees) when she said that the nomination of Barack Hussein Obama for the presidency of the United States was the first time she had been proud of her country.

I’ll be proud of my country if Americans are courageous enough to admit their mistake in 2012 and make Barack Obama like Jimmy Carter in yet another way by relieving the nation of his “leadership” after one term.

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Colo. Senate passes SB 11-200, would create politically-controlled health insurance exchange

by Brian T. Schwartz | 5:30 am, April 29, 2011

On April 27 the Colorado state Senate passed SB 11-200, which could establish a government-controlled health insurance exchange. Read up on why this is a bad idea.

Keeping the Higher Ed Bubble Inflated

by Joshua Sharf | 10:25 pm, April 28, 2011

UPDATE: I am advised that this was the closest vote in 20 years on a tuition increase: 5-4. I don’t have the names of those who had the courage to vote No, but kudos to them for doing so. Even though Regents are elected, it’s relatively easy for them to roll over to an appointed [...]

We Call It ‘Rationing,’ Obama Calls It ‘Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board’

by Brian T. Schwartz | 9:00 pm, April 28, 2011

Suppose Congress asked Americans: which government officials should decide what foods you would be allowed to eat and what prices you had to pay at the grocery store – Congress, or an unelected board of nutritional experts appointed by the president?

2011 Energy Policy, Xcel, and the PUC

by Jon Caldara | 5:19 pm, April 28, 2011

Tune into Devil’s Advocate this Friday as guest host Todd Shepherd is joined by the Independence Institute’s Amy Oliver Cooke and Polly Page from the Colorado Consumer Coalition to discuss the relationship between the Public Utilities Commission and Excel energy, the numerous energy-related bills in the Colorado legislature, and what these bills might mean for [...]

Walter Walker Opposed Grand Junction’s Socialists

by Ari Armstrong | 11:48 am, April 28, 2011

The following article by Linn and Ari Armstrong originally was published April 15 by Grand Junction Free Press.Back in the era when the Daily Sentinel was “published every day in the year, except Sunday,” and a monthly subscription cost just fifty cent…

You Can Take My Snuggie From My Cold, Dead Hands!

by Jon Caldara | 12:44 pm, April 27, 2011

I want to give a big thanks to Amy Oliver for keeping us up-to-date on what’s going on with Xcel’s stranglehold on the general assembly. She wrote last night of some great quotes coming out of the Senate floor debate regarding HB 1291 – Xcel’s fuel-switching paradise.
Here are some of the great quotes:
Senator Lois Tochtrop: [...]

Peak Freedom Fest 2011

by Jon Caldara | 12:32 pm, April 27, 2011

Our friends at the Limited Government Forum and The Center for the Study of Government and the Individual came together and are putting on a fantastic event next month. And I’m not just saying that because I’m one of the key speakers. They are hosting the Peak Freedom Festival down at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort [...]

Cincinnati Study, Step Up for Colorado, Bolster SB 191 Implementation Success

by Eddie | 11:44 am, April 27, 2011

There’s more to creating good policy than just passing a good law. This is especially true when it comes to big changes, like Colorado Senate Bill 191’s push to update how teachers are evaluated and retained. It wasn’t that long ago I expressed my concerns about the implementation.
A couple weeks ago the co-chairs of the [...]

Petraeus-Panetta Pavane Pensees

by Joshua Sharf | 10:01 am, April 27, 2011

My first reaction is that this is good for Obama, politically, bad for Afghanistan, as good for defense as can be expected, and bad for Petraeus. (The CIA being impervious to reform, hardly rates a good-bad mention.) Bad for Petraeus: He probably was exhausted after close to 10 years in the field, but he should [...]

DMYR @ The CELL

by Ryan Massfeller | 9:59 am, April 27, 2011

The DMYR is going to see the exhibit Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Understanding the Threat of Terrorism on Saturday May 7th, 11am at The Center for Empowered Living and Learning 99 West 12th Ave Denver, CO 80204 RSVP Here The Center for Empowered Living & Learning (The CELL) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution that aimsto educate, [...]

Obama Releases Long Form Birth Certificate

by PerlStalker | 7:30 am, April 27, 2011

It’s official. The White House has released President Obama’s long form birth certificate. You can download your own copy to paper your shrine to birtherism here or see a really small embedded version below.

President Obama's Long Form Birth Cer…

Obamacare’s Cruel and Inhumane Inflation-Indexed Vouchers

by Brian T. Schwartz | 5:30 am, April 27, 2011

For some prominent pundits, tax-funded vouchers for “private” insurance are OK when a Democrat proposes it, but not OK when a Republican does.

Brian Wesbury: The Greatest Speculators

by Rossputin | 5:29 am, April 27, 2011

My friend Brian Wesbury, in my view one of the best economists in America, offers this on-target analysis of “speculation” in oil markets:

http://www.ftportfolios.com/Commentary/EconomicResearch/2011/4/25/the-greatest-speculators

It’s as predictable as birds flying south in the winter. When gas prices rise, politicians (most recently, President Obama), feign outrage and then threaten to “investigate” the “speculators.” The irony is that these politicians are the real speculators – making a bet that they can use government to create wealth. No government in the history of the world has made it work, but they keep on trying – with other people’s money.

In one sense, this is all about economic and financial literacy. Of course there are investors who speculate on energy prices. Thank goodness.

Many people have reason to hedge their exposure to changes in energy prices, either up or down. These include energy companies that find, process, or wholesale energy products. Or manufacturers, airlines, railroads, farmers – anyone who uses energy to provide a product or service.

In an ideal world, hedgers worried about a price drop would exactly equal hedgers concerned about price increases. But the world doesn’t work that way. And so speculators – investors who take the other side of a trade even though they aren’t involved in an energy-related business – fill the gap and make these markets function.

One reason speculators show up is that the government makes markets inefficient. Today, in the US, there is an effective moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and a continued ban on oil drilling in northeast Alaska. At the same time strife in the Middle East and North Africa threatens oil production. So, supply problems exist at the same time the economy is recovering and the Fed is easy. Why investigate?

Or instead, maybe politicians would be better off investigating themselves. Government is playing the role of venture capitalist, particularly in the energy industry, picking winners among various competing technologies. When should the taxpayer expect a payoff from these tax breaks and subsidies? The government likes to call them investments, but they are using other people’s money to speculate. And the energy produced from these emergent technologies costs more than energy produced using carbon-based technologies.

This is nothing more than crony capitalism, with well connected former politicians appearing to be disproportionately represented among those companies on the receiving end of government “investments.”

Add to this the government’s “speculation” that deficit spending will create wealth. Politicians, using spurious economic arguments, believe deficit spending will create growth and jobs. But this strategy has never worked. Countries that have employed this strategy have always fallen behind in the economic growth and job creation statistics. Free markets create wealth, not governments.

Think what you want of speculators in the oil markets – and we are sure there are many – they are at least doing it with their own money. Ultimately the fundamentals in the oil markets will dictate who wins and who loses, and those who speculate the wrong way will have to transfer purchasing power to those who were right.

This is certainly not the case for those who speculate out of the public trough. Their track record is abysmal and the taxpayer is left footing the bill every time.

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Let The Narrative Define The Candidate

by Joshua Sharf | 12:15 am, April 27, 2011

Very quickly, the flagship Ricochet podcast has joined my favorite weekly listening. A couple of weeks ago, Pat Caddell was the guest, and as usual, the pragmatic, tell-it-like-he-sees it Democrat pollster was a font of helpful advice for Republicans, all of which is worth listening to. This particular bit stuck out: he suggested that the [...]

A sad day for Barack Obama

by Rossputin | 9:27 pm, April 26, 2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13204808

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Hickenlooper Appoints His Reapportionment Committee Members

by PerlStalker | 6:16 pm, April 26, 2011

Governor Hickenlooper has named is appointments to the reapportionment committee.

Hickenlooper’s three picks are: a former state legislator, Gayle A. Berry, a Republican from Grand Junction, from the 3rd Congressional District; former Mayor of Den…

One Way Ticket to Fuel-Switching Paradise

by Jon Caldara | 4:48 pm, April 26, 2011

The general assembly continues to do Xcel’s bidding and Amy Oliver continues to out them for it. Yesterday, two pro-consumer pieces of legislation that Xcel wanted buried were killed 3-2 in a Senate committee. Meanwhile, Xcel’s preferred plan is flying through the gold dome. The preferred fat cat plan, also known as HB 1291, will [...]

Reapportionment Commission takes shape with Governor’s picks – but Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Bender has last word with upcoming “final four” selections

by CTBC Director | 4:11 pm, April 26, 2011

The ongoing legislative battle over Congressional Redistricting remains the “hot” topic in the news – with an escalating “blame game” as to who “killed the bipartisan redistricting effort” and even disagreement on basic principles (“competitive” districts or communities of interest?). Hint – only one of those is mandated by law – Colorado Constitution Article [...]

Interview with Colorado Public Defender Doug Wilson on criminal justice bills in the legislature

by Mike Krause | 3:04 pm, April 26, 2011

Doug Wilson is Colorado’s State Public Defender and a voting member of the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ). In this ten minute podcast, we discuss several criminal justice related bills generated out of the work of the CCJJ that have passed the legislature and been signed into law already this year. One [...]

Is Momentum Growing for Open School Union Negotiations in Colorado?

by Eddie | 12:19 pm, April 26, 2011

Transparency. Good government. Conducting public business in the light of day. I happen to think these are more than trite phrases and ideas. If you’ve been following my coverage of the dispute over opening union bargaining sessions in Colorado Springs School District 11, you have an idea of what I mean.
Yesterday my Education Policy Center [...]

Don Boudreaux: Government supermarkets?

by Rossputin | 5:34 am, April 26, 2011

Don Boudreaux reframes the school choice debate in terms of food…

25 April 2011

Editor, The Wall Street Journal
1211 6th Ave.
New York, NY 10036

Dear Editor:

Randi Weingarten insists that “markets aren’t the education solution” (April 25). Let’s see. Suppose groceries were supplied in same way that K-12 education is supplied.

Property owners would pay taxes on their properties. Huge chunks of these tax receipts would be spent by government officials on building and operating supermarkets. Each household would be assigned to a particular supermarket, from which it would get its weekly allotment of groceries for “free.” (Department of Supermarket officials would determine the quantities and kinds of groceries that families of different types are entitled to receive.) Each family would be allowed to patronize only that “public” supermarket to which it is assigned.

Residents of wealthier counties would obviously have better-stocked supermarkets than would residents of poorer counties. Indeed, the quality of public supermarkets would play a major role in determining people’s choices of neighborhoods in which to live. And, thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, families would be free to shop at private supermarkets that charge directly for the groceries they offer. Private-supermarket families, however, would get no discounts on their property-tax bills.

When the quality of supermarkets becomes widely recognized to be dismal, calls for “supermarket choice” would be rejected by a coalition of “Progressives” and public-supermarket workers; “supermarket choice” would be ridiculed as a right-wing ploy to deny ordinary families the ability to eat. Such choice, it would be alleged, drains resources from public supermarkets whose (admittedly) poor performance testifies to the fact that these supermarkets are underfunded.

The handful of radicals who call for total separation between supermarket and state would be accused by nearly everyone as being devils who are indifferent to the malnutrition and starvation that would sweep the land if government does not at least distribute vouchers for shopping at supermarkets.

Does anyone believe that such a system for supplying groceries would work well? Surely not. So why do so many people continue to presume that government-supplied schooling (especially the way it is currently funded and supplied) is superior to market-supplied schooling?

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

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