Rand’s ‘We the Living’ Opposes Tyranny

by Ari Armstrong | 12:15 am, December 18, 2011

Hannah Krening reviewed the anti-totalitarian theme of Ayn Rand’s novel We the Living, as well as its literary qualities. This was a December 17 talk for Liberty Toastmasters.

Government Dependency Reaches Pandemic Levels

by Bob Adelmann | 10:53 pm, December 17, 2011

Freedom or security? That is usually the way it’s phrased. Benjamin Franklin put it a little differently: He who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security will wind up with neither.

Tim Tebow: Fans should thank home school equal access laws

by Brian T. Schwartz | 5:10 pm, December 17, 2011

This article was printed in the Boulder Daily Camera on December 17, 2011. No one would be talking about Tim Tebow’s football excellence had the Florida legislature acted differently when Tebow was nine years old. In 1996 the legislature allowed … Continue reading →

Neither tort reform nor the "War on Drugs" trump the Tenth Amendment

by David K Williams Jr | 12:49 pm, December 17, 2011

It is de rigueur for some politicians to declare themselves believers in constitutionally limited government.It seems this belief is limited, all too often, when the principles of constitutionally limited government conflict with something th…

Neither tort reform nor the "War on Drugs" trump the Tenth Amendment

by David K Williams Jr | 12:49 pm, December 17, 2011

It is de rigueur for some politicians to declare themselves believers in constitutionally limited government.It seems this belief is limited, all too often, when the principles of constitutionally limited government conflict with something th…

Gresham’s Law: Pennies and Nickels Are Disappearing

by Bob Adelmann | 7:52 am, December 17, 2011

Gresham’s Law is a LAW, which means there are no exceptions to it. When government intervenes, it starts an inevitable process with predictable, certain results every time.

Seeing Stars: Colorado PUC Says "No Energy for You"

by Randall Smith | 7:00 am, December 17, 2011

Sorry about missing Seeing Stars yesterday. It was just one of those days when I just wasn’t home long enough to get anything up. Today and tonight look to be busy as well. Just one more hazard of Christmas season.

On to the links.

Colorado

Ari …

Morse: Complying with Campaign Laws "Really Does Take a Lawyer"

by Ari Armstrong | 1:58 am, December 17, 2011

On December 15, 2011, Colorado State Senator John Morse spoke about the state’s campaign finance laws at a Secretary of State hearing.He said, “What we were selling there, if you will, was that people will comply with the law, and there won’t be many f…

Morse: Complying with Campaign Laws "Really Does Take a Lawyer"

by Ari Armstrong | 1:58 am, December 17, 2011

On December 15, 2011, Colorado State Senator John Morse spoke about the state’s campaign finance laws at a Secretary of State hearing.He said, “What we were selling there, if you will, was that people will comply with the law, and there won’t be many f…

Some Perspective on the GOP Candidates

by Kelly Sloan | 6:11 pm, December 16, 2011

For all the hand-wringing, soul searching, and despair evident among some conservative Republicans contemplating the 2012 GOP Presidential slate, the lineup is really a testimony to the success of the conservative movement over the last 60 years. Though we may squabble over the relative merits or apostasies of one candidate or another, it is helpful [...]

SEC Charges Ex-Fannie, Freddie CEOs With Fraud

by Mr. Bob | 4:38 pm, December 16, 2011

#fannie #freddie #tcot #teapartyWASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled the government and taxpayers about risky subprime m…

SEC Charges Ex-Fannie, Freddie CEOs With Fraud

by Mr. Bob | 4:38 pm, December 16, 2011

#fannie #freddie #tcot #teapartyWASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled the government and taxpayers about risky subprime m…

Friday Funnies: This Time, the Joke’s on all of You – Colorado’s Congressional and State Legislative District Maps

by CTBC Director | 4:11 pm, December 16, 2011

The long saga of Colorado’s Congressional redistricting and state legislative district reapportionment has been decided for the next decade by the Colorado Supreme Court in a pair of recent rulings (ruling to uphold Denver District Court Judge Robert Hyatt’s ruling on Congressional Redistricting December 5th, then ruling to uphold the Colorado Reapportionment Commission’s resubmitted state legislative district [...]

The Paranoid Style in Obama’s Politics

by Eileen McGuire-Mahony | 10:05 am, December 16, 2011

Yet again demonstrating his staggering lack of self awareness, our esteemed President is soliciting a dwindling fan base to send in the contact information of their Republican pals.  In the last two days, this story has gone around the world.  It seems that part of Obama’s ploy for a second term is…to….er….well…damn. Alright, so the [...]

SEC suing former Fannie, Freddie execs

by Rossputin | 9:25 am, December 16, 2011

The SEC is suing the former CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for misrepresenting the percentages of those firms investment portfolios which were held in sub-prime loans. While Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron are being named individually, the firms will have to indemnify them, which is to day defend them with taxpayer money, until and unless they are convicted of a criminal act. Other Fannie and Freddie former executives are also likely to be named as targets of SEC enforcement actions. Now if they could only name Barney Frank and Chris “Countrywide” Dodd…

The real sleeping giant

by Rossputin | 7:33 am, December 16, 2011

RealClearPolitics.com has picked up my American Spectator article today:
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/12/16/the-real-sleeping-giant

During the heady days of the 2009 protests against the “Porkulus” bill, Obamacare, and big government in general, many people spoke of the rise of the Tea Party movement as the result of Presidents Obama and Bush having “woken the sleeping giant” of pro-liberty America.

But that giant may turn out to be a pygmy when compared to what Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Occupy Wall Street have awoken with their incessant and intensifying class warfare.

Americans who consider themselves Tea Partiers are a minority of the country, even if a significant and motivated one. The real majority, one which Democrats are foolishly antagonizing, are those of us who refuse to accept the left’s claims that Americans of one economic class are the enemy of those in another economic class.

A recent poll by Gallup shows that the efforts of Obama and the Occupiers may be backfiring against the beggar-thy-neighbor Alinskyite left.

Please read the entirety of my article here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/12/16/the-real-sleeping-giant

Thoughts on Thursday’s debate

by Rossputin | 6:38 am, December 16, 2011

I’m not going to do a lot of blogging about Thursday evening’s debate, but here are a few thoughts, jotted down as I was watching:

Michele Bachmann attacked Newt Gingrich aggressively regarding his income from Freddie Mac. While Gingrich repeatedly said that Bachmann’s charges were “factually untrue”, it reminds me of Bob Schaffer’s maxim that “if you’re explaining, you’re losing.”

Newt Gingrich gave Mitt Romney a substantial compliment regarding Medicare reform. It is perhaps the best thing that could have happened to Romney in the sense of giving people who are looking to Gingrich for “big ideas” reason to believe that Romney could also be the source of big ideas.

Perry’s repeated calls for a Congress that works every other year seems silly even though I understand the motivation. Like it or not, this nation is not Texas.

I really enjoyed Gingrich, Bachmann and others talking about how legislatures and citizens need to take power back from courts.

I’m so sick of Ron Paul’s passivism in the face of Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Great to hear Rick Santorum – whom I’m not a big fan of – lay out the right approach to Iran. And then Bachmann said, properly, that Ron Paul’s view is “dangerous.”

Gingrich said he would propose ending all federal aid to a “sanctuary city”, an interesting statement from a guy who’s recently staked out a semi-dovish immigration position.

Overall, it was a fairly tame debate. No knockout punches, probably not much changed. In general, I thought that Mitt Romney probably won the debate, basically because he didn’t have any important bad moments.

Thursday morning’s Rasmussen Poll results showing Romney ahead in Iowa for the first time crushed Gingrich’s betting odds, continuing a slower sell-off that had begun a couple of days earlier, which all together dropped Gingrich from around 35 percent down to the mid-teens.

It will be very interesting to see what happens in the Iowa Caucuses on January 3rd. At this point, any prediction would be nothing more than a wild guess, so I won’t make one.

Tebow Time and Founding Era Fallacies

by Jon Caldara | 3:33 pm, December 15, 2011

It’s Tebow Time on Devil’s Advocate public affairs television this Friday night as KHOW radio host Dan Caplis sits down with me to talk about Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and the passion and controversy the mixing of faith and football generates. Then constitutional scholar Rob Natelson swings by to explain how mainstream national media (Time [...]

Denver Innovation Schools Report Does Little to Resolve Policy Debate

by Eddie | 1:03 pm, December 15, 2011

Back in the warm summertime, which seems so long ago, I brought attention to a thoughtful essay that called into question the success of the Innovation Schools Act. My thoughts on the matter really haven’t changed since then — I still believe despite the clear limitations there is a place for innovation schools, though not [...]

Teachers: Act NOW To Get Your Political Refund

by Jon Caldara | 12:27 pm, December 15, 2011

Today is the last day that Colorado teachers can get their political union dues back through the “every member option” mechanism. We got word that the CEA refund website was down earlier today, but that it is now back up again. (If you can’t access the electronic form, please send an email to Linda Lutz [...]

The Silver Lining

by ColoradoPeakPolitics | 10:18 am, December 15, 2011

Fellow elephants, let me assure you: Things are not as bad as they seem. After a couple of very predictable losses at the State Supreme Court, suddenly people think that Colorado Republicans are headed back to the gallows of perpetual minority. It’s th…

Rapidly shifting political winds

by Rossputin | 8:15 am, December 15, 2011

In recent weeks, political reports have been all aflutter with stories like “Political winds shift to Democrats” suggesting that somehow Barack Obama and congressional Democrats had, yet again, used an issue – this time the payroll tax cut extension – to best Republicans.

It’s not that the story is unbelievable; the GOP historically finds ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But the current political debate is being held on quicksand, not on terra firma, and no one issue-based “shift” is likely to be sustained.

Thus it’s interesting to see the debate swing toward the GOP with the House of Representatives introducing a spending bill to ensure the government does not run out of money later this week. The reaction by President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been, well, almost no action at all.

Instead, they refused to vote on on a bipartisan spending agreement, reached by congressional appropriators on Monday, in order to try to force Republicans’ hands on extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits prior to their holiday break.

Suddenly, the Republicans look the adults in the room, getting some bipartisan compromise and backing off from certain provisions in the bill which conservatives wanted, including taking on the overzealous, job-killing EPA.

At this pace, it’s going to be hard for Obama to run against a do-nothing Congress since the do-nothing part is the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Also, it’s being reported that Democrats are backing away from their proposal to cover the cost of a payroll tax cut with a surtax on millionaires.

The GOP is winning the war of ideas and politics this week. But they should not get overconfident. In order to beat Barack Obama, Republicans need to demonstrate principle and intelligence – the latter even more difficult for them than the former – consistently for the next year.

In the meantime, our best ally is probably Barack Obama’s remarkably tin political ear.

Seeing Stars: Another One Bites the Dust

by Randall Smith | 7:00 am, December 15, 2011

Candidates are dropping like flies in the wake of Democrats’ reapportionment tricks. Happy reading.

Colorado

Another one bites the dust. Rep. Keith Swerdfeger won’t see reelection since he got redistricted into a heavily Democrat district with a D…

European Union Agreement: Too Little, Too Late

by Bob Adelmann | 5:26 am, December 15, 2011

The meeting did generate the acceleration of the “permanent fix:” the ESM, the European Stability Mechanism, to be implemented in June. Funny so few in the mainstream media even thought it was worthy of comment. It’s the whole point, isn’t it?

Comments Regarding the Secretary of State’s Dec. 15 Campaign Finance Rule Hearing

by Ari Armstrong | 9:20 pm, December 14, 2011

I submitted the following comments to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office prior to a December 15 meeting regarding campaign finance rules.Dear Secretary of State Gessler,Thank you for holding a public hearing regarding the Secretary of State’s rul…

Comments Regarding the Secretary of State’s Dec. 15 Campaign Finance Rule Hearing

by Ari Armstrong | 9:20 pm, December 14, 2011

I submitted the following comments to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office prior to a December 15 meeting regarding campaign finance rules.Dear Secretary of State Gessler,Thank you for holding a public hearing regarding the Secretary of State’s rul…

Stupid is as stupid does

by amy | 4:22 pm, December 14, 2011

Colorado MoveOn member Kyle Elston sent the following email asking Colorado’s anti-fossil fuel, kool-aid drinking community to electronically sign a petition telling Routt County Commissioners to put a moratorium on “all future oil and gas exploration permits until” — you’ve probably guessed it already — more stringent rules and regulations are in place. Read the [...]

More bad news Abound

by amy | 3:36 pm, December 14, 2011

With prices tanking along with sales, First Solar, the world’s largest manufacturer of thin-filmed solar panels, “slashed its profit and sales forecast today and said it will fire about 100 employees, most of them at a Santa Clara, California, research center, the Tempe, Arizona-based company said today in a filing,” Bloomberg reports.
In addition, First Solar is [...]

Back-Door Bank Runs in Europe Have Started

by Bob Adelmann | 12:37 pm, December 14, 2011

This is why the powers that be in the euro-zone are so anxious to put in place a permanent mechanism to save the banks: they’re being bled to death by investors who want their money.

Share News of Dec. 15 Teachers Union Political Refund Deadline for the Holidays!

by Eddie | 12:00 pm, December 14, 2011

Little Eddie is learning to be generous during the holiday season. That’s why I’m helping my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow with one of his favorite charities: informing and reminding Colorado teachers of their membership options. It’s especially important this time of year, because tomorrow (December 15) is the deadline for members of the [...]

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