NAACP Leader Sent to Prison for Voter Fraud

by Randall Smith | 11:16 pm, December 31, 2011

Here’s something to keep in mind the next time some one claims that voter ID laws are unnecessary.

In a story ignored by the national media, in April a Tunica County, Miss., jury convicted NAACP official Lessadolla Sowers on 10 counts of fraudulentl…

Seeing Stars: Back from Vacation

by Randall Smith | 7:00 am, December 31, 2011

I’m back from taking some time off for the holidays and other than a brief medical problem with a member of my family it was a nice, quiet week. It seems like it’s going to be quiet on the news front as well.

Colorado

People are upset about Xcel’s…

Finally some outrage over the New Energy Economy

by amy | 7:03 pm, December 30, 2011

I may have underestimated the outrage over two recent Xcel Energy rate increase requests.
The first, an attempt to recover the final $16.5 million in cost for Boulder’s Smart Grid City program. Ratepayers are not thrilled about paying for a Boulder project with massive cost overruns.
Check out these comments:
From Phil Carson, editor of the online energy [...]

On Havel, Hitchens and Kim

by Kelly Sloan | 2:13 pm, December 30, 2011

I had intended a couple of weeks ago to write a column reflecting on the newly-late Christopher Hitchens – out of respect for him as a writer, if in no particular admiration for what he wrote – when I was confronted with the news of the death of Vaclav Havel, the hero of the Czechs. [...]

Senator Tom Coburn’s Annual “Wastebook” Released

by Bob Adelmann | 12:52 pm, December 30, 2011

Senator Tom Coburn sports a very weak conservative rating, having voted for some of these wasteful measures and then criticizing them in his “wastebook.” Isn’t that the definition of hypocrite? Well, yes.

The Blue Collar Intellectual

by Mr. Bob | 11:47 am, December 30, 2011

Paul-Johnson 2012: The Libertarians’ Best-Case Scenario

by Ari Armstrong | 11:28 am, December 30, 2011

Now that I’ve dismissed the idea of Gary Johnson having much success as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, another possibility occurs to me. It seems to me that, if you’re an LP supporter, the best-case scenario is that Ron Paul runs as th…

Political Year In Review On Devil’s Advocate Tonight

by Mike Krause | 10:23 am, December 30, 2011

Were you too busy having a social life this year to follow political goings on in Colorado? Then catch up by tuning in to the Independence Institute’s public affairs television show Devil’s Advocate tonight as Denver Business Journal reporter Ed Sealover and Colorado Public Television’s Dominic Dezzutti join host Jon Caldara for the [...]

The Delusional Gary Johnson

by Ari Armstrong | 10:09 am, December 30, 2011

I will write about the ideological problems with supporting Gary Johnson’s run with the Libertarian Party elsewhere. Here, I concern myself with an easy question: does supporting Johnson’s LP run make strategic sense even on the basic level of partisa…

Obama: No friend of the middle class

by Rossputin | 7:03 am, December 30, 2011

It’s not surprising that President Obama’s re-election strategy is to “cast himself as a middle class warrior.” What is surprising is that he thinks he can get away with it. The fact that he actually might says less about Obama than about Americans’ understanding of economics and the Republicans’ particular skill at turning smart policy into stupid politics.

The obvious question when a politician wants to run as a champion of any particular group is “what has he done for that group?” So, let’s think about what Obama has done for, or – more precisely – to, the middle class.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/12/30/no-friend-of-the-middle-class

Each Chevy Volt Costs Taxpayers $250,000

by Bob Adelmann | 5:52 am, December 30, 2011

One may question his math (as some of my more critical readers have done), but the point remains: People spending their own money are making decisions NOT to buy the Chevy Volt, but rather the Prius. Isn’t that something? People – not government – are making the best decisions for themselves when they use their own money. What a concept.

PPC’s Top Colorado Political Stories of 2011

by elpresidente | 5:40 am, December 30, 2011

Last week, People’s Press Collective put out a call on Facebook for our readers’ suggestions for top political stories in the state of Colorado for 2011. Several dozen stories were crowdsourced, and I took the additional editorial step of combining similar stories into single entries, such as our first place story for 2011, the decennial [...]

Christmas Redux: Americans Live Better for Less Thanks to Market Innovation

by Bob Adelmann | 5:53 pm, December 29, 2011

This article didn’t start out to talk about Sears’ problems, but it was a perfect fit to illustrate the “creative destruction” of the market economy and its impact on companies including big and once-successful stores like Sears.

EP’s 2011 Recap: Part 6, Having Fun on the Campaign Trail

by elpresidente | 1:00 pm, December 29, 2011

Part of the residual effect of having been a professional journalist and blogger is the credibility and the credentials to hit the campaign trail and cover prospective candidates. It just so happened that several candidates for the highest office in the land managed to traipse their way through Colorado in 2011, stumping and picking up [...]

“The Economist” Rewrites History

by Bob Adelmann | 12:51 pm, December 29, 2011

The staff reporters from The Economist really had to work hard on this article to keep it on track and away from the real story: the beauty and the power of the internet consists not in its ability to “connect” but in its ability to tell the truth.

EP’s 2011 Recap: Part 5, A Fistful of Pace

by elpresidente | 12:00 pm, December 29, 2011

This one is more of a peering-into-2012 story. If this doesn’t end up as a campaign ad, our side will be negligent in their duties. Aspiring 3rd Congressional District Democratic candidate, former House Minority Leader Rep. Sal Pace (D-Pueblo) had some strong words for those who might oppose unions and their Big Labor agenda way [...]

EP’s 2011 Recap: Part 4, Driving a Stake Into Prop 103

by elpresidente | 11:00 am, December 29, 2011

Conventional wisdom be damned. When you have the opportunity to really kill a tax increase, GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT. Given the Colorado Model and the mixed results of what should have been a great year in the 2010 midterms, nothing should be taken for granted in this state. Probable defeat by dougle-digits? Make it [...]

EP’s 2011 Recap: Part 3, The Battle of BlogCon11

by elpresidente | 10:00 am, December 29, 2011

MIC CHECK!!! Turning briefly from straight-out investigative reporting or blogging, one of the highlights of my year was working with the fabulous Tabitha Hale, formerly New Media director at FreedomWorks, to put together a panel on ‘Building a State Blog Network’ for the group’s BlogCon11 conference held fortuitously in Denver in November. Simply being listed [...]

EP’s 2011 Recap: Part 2, Exploding The Myth of Green Jobs

by elpresidente | 9:00 am, December 29, 2011

Challenging the myth of former Gov. Bill Ritter’s fabled “New Energy Economy” was no small task, but thankfully this endeavor paid off more than its fair share of earned media dividends, and cemented my collaborative efforts with one of my favorite writers and mentors, Amy Oliver. Way back in February, a hot tip was passed [...]

Radio schedule today (Dec 29)

by Rossputin | 8:29 am, December 29, 2011

Today (Thursday, Dec 29), I’ll be in with Tom Tancredo on the Caplis & Silverman Show on 630 KHOW (http://khow.com) from 3 PM to 6 PM Mountain Time.

And then I’ll be in on a late version of the Michael Brown Show on NewsRadio 850 KOA (http://850koa.com) from 9 PM to 1 AM.

Please listen in and join the conversation!

EP’s 2011 Recap: Part 1, Surging Independents

by elpresidente | 8:00 am, December 29, 2011

It has been a long year. Rather than an exhaustive recap, allow me, if you will, to take a quick look back on the top stories that came across my virtual workdesk in 2011–stories of original research, investigation, or reporting that I published on the pages of People’s Press Collective, Independence Institute/Townhall, National Review Online, [...]

The Tragedy of Fatal Hazards for Children

by Ari Armstrong | 6:13 pm, December 28, 2011

A single death due to an unintentional firearm discharge is one too many. When the victim is a child, the heartbreak can run especially deep.But is the death of a child due to an unintentional firearm discharge any less tragic than the death of a child…

Joey Bunch Misstates Gun Statistics in Denver Post

by Ari Armstrong | 12:06 pm, December 28, 2011

In their article for today’s Denver Post, Joey Bunch and Kieran Nicholson claim, “More than 500 children in the United States die in gun accidents each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a 2007 report, which estim…

Expensive but the government will buy it

by Rossputin | 8:07 am, December 28, 2011

H/T Mike R.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFSR4bCyzkA

The left segregates the poor into inferior socialist programs while others enjoy semi-free markets

by Brian T. Schwartz | 6:30 am, December 28, 2011

The left’s entire approach to poverty is to segregate the poor into inferior public provision, while the rest of society enjoys the benefits of quasi-private provision. It’s as though the left wing in American politics wants socialism for the poor and capitalism for everyone else. Continue reading →

An 89.5 percent increase since 2004

by amy | 9:51 pm, December 27, 2011

Ho hum, Xcel Energy wants another $142 million rate increase, and it wants to recover another $16.5 million for its Boulder smart grid project. And in other news, dog bites man. If the Public Utilities Commission denied the rate increases, that would be a news story.
This is all part of Colorado’s New Energy Economy. Rates [...]

30 percent higher average electric rates in states with RPS

by amy | 5:32 pm, December 27, 2011

The average residential electric rate in states with a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is nearly 30 percent higher than states without an RPS. An RPS is a state based policy that requires electric power “providers to supply a specified minimum amount of customer load with electricity from eligible renewable energy sources,” such as wind or [...]

Shawn Smith on Psychology and Mark Ferrandino on 2012

by Jon Caldara | 3:23 pm, December 27, 2011

First up, psychologist Shawn Smith talks about his new book, “The Users Guide to the Human Mind” and helps me figure out which voice in my head I should listen to…

Then House minority leader Mark Ferrandino joins me to talk about the…

Corruption is easy.

by David K Williams Jr | 10:39 am, December 27, 2011

Step one: raise lots of money for winning presidential candidate.Step two: get lots of tax money back from winning presidential candidate.Real life example: George Kaiser is a billionaire and campaign donation bundler for Obama; his “family foundation”…

State Education Board joins Governor Hickenlooper in bipartisan appeal of Denver judge’s ruling on Lobato school-funding lawsuit

by CTBC Director | 10:27 am, December 27, 2011

Colorado’s State Board of Education voted 4-3 Tuesday morning to appeal Denver District Court Judge Sheila Rappaport’s ruling against the state in the Lobato school funding lawsuit.  Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper had officially announced last Wednesday* that the state would appeal Denver District Court Judge Sheila Rappaport’s ruling that the state’s education funding is not “thorough and uniform” as referenced [...]

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