Peoples Press Collective

Missed this scene earlier today--free "Tofurkeys" distributed in Larimer Square in Downtown Denver:

Holding signs that read, "Don't Gobble Us--Go Vegetarian," two PETA members wearing turkey costumes will hand out free soy-based Tofurky roasts (generously donated by Turtle Island Foods) in Denver on Thursday. The action is part of the weary birds' multicity "Turkey Drive": To avoid ending up as someone's Thanksgiving dinner, the two feathered fugitives are heading for the border in the back of a chauffeured red convertible with a sign reading, "Mexico or Bust!" Their goal? To persuade as many people as possible to give birds a break this holiday by choosing a vegetarian meal.

Most of the 300 million turkeys who are killed in the U.S. every year--an astounding 40 million at Thanksgiving alone--endure debeaking and declawing without any pain relief. They are crammed by the tens of thousands into dark, stiflingly hot warehouses, where disease, smothering, and heart attacks are common. A recent PETA investigation at a turkey farm in West Virginia revealed that workers routinely kicked and punched animals and bludgeoned birds with metal pipes, pieces of wood, and other weapons. Workers were also caught intentionally breaking turkeys' necks and other bones and stomping on their heads.

"This Thanksgiving, we can all give turkeys something to be thankful for--by serving up delicious, healthy, and humane meatless feasts," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Holidays should be about a celebration of life, not a tortured dead bird in the middle of the table."

Mmmm--can't wait for my mother's dead bird turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes next Thursday. Yet another thing I am grateful for each year.

Each year, the same PETA stunts, with the same results: Americans love to eat turkey, especially on Thanksgiving. Tofurkey just doesn't cut it.

Sidenote--isn't the "run for the border" theme insensitive to the illegal immigrants "undocumented workers" that the left so treasures?

On a (somewhat) related note (Thanksgiving, not PETA nonsense)--fellow blogger Ben DeGrow has compiled a thoughtful and extensive list of blessings to be thankful for in the post-election holiday season.

Previous PETA moonbattery in Colorado.

Tags: Slapstick Politics, Syndicated

This week’s two prime examples of self-serving guns on the Right pointing inward? On the one hand, Kathleen Parker caricaturing and lambasting me and millions of evangelical Christians: To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

Last week I pondered in a Denver Post op-ed what the effect might be of the statehouse Democrats elevating pro-public school choice Rep. Terrance Carroll to Speaker of the House: Carroll is set to appoint fellow Democrats to the House Education Committee. In recent years, the committee, largely stacked with handpicked union favorites, has killed or [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

Via Face The State, judging by the plethora of applicants for Colorado’s Secretary of State job, perhaps I should have sent in a resume myself. I’ve never taught yoga, played lacrosse, or met Ross Perot, but what the heck? You can cast your own vote for which one of the 20 applicants is most deserving [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

Are you up for a little distracting whimsy? A former elected official, Boulder attorney and self-proclaimed “former Republican” (one of the more popular descriptors being bandied about these days) offers this (over) dose of elitist smugness, painful self-indulgence, overwrought rhetoric, and selective historical knowledge: I was a Republican for 28 years. Like so many others who [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

Breaking: The annual center-right blogger poll of “Least Favorite People on the Right” - brought to you by John Hawkins at Right Wing News - has been released. Each of the 46 center-right bloggers who participated submitted an unranked list of 12 nominees. The top 25 names - from “McCain staffers” to John McCain - [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

Lately I’ve struggled for the time and energy to put together some coherent thoughts about what the GOP needs to do to rebuild. Jim Manzi at The Corner said it almost perfectly for me. You need to read the whole post, but here is a key excerpt: While it is always possible to imagine some arbitrary [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

When this morning I wrote “Any effort to rebuild Colorado’s Republican Party that’s done in a strictly top-down fashion is destined to failure”, I hadn’t yet seen Patrick Ruffini’s post “Change Won’t Come from the Top Down”. Great minds think alike? Remotely possible. Anyway, if you share this point of view, and are a conservative interested [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

And, as usual, Ward Churchill brings a knife to the proverbial intellectual gun battle against Dinesh D'Souza:

Churchill began the debate by calling Western civilization a “synthesis of lies” and a “fraud” because it plagiarized and assimilated ideas from other cultures without giving due credit. He said that he “didn’t quite know what Western civilization is,” but that it was triumphalist and supremacist.

“There is no argument against Western civilization at all from Ward Churchill,” D’Souza responded. “His argument is against the narrative of Western civilization.”

D’Souza discussed how the world has progressed and benefited from the influences of Western civilization. According to D’Souza, Western civilization has humanized the world. He noted that while Western civilization participated in slavery, abolitionism is a uniquely Western concept.

“The Chinese had slaves, the Indians had slaves, even the American Indians had slaves before Columbus ever step foot on this continent. It is not slavery that is Western, it is abolition.”
. . .
“For me Western civilization isn’t just about a theory, it’s about a life lived in America. We’re debating whether the West has made life better, and it certainly has for me,” said D’Souza. “Ward Churchill is taking the tragic facts of history and ideologizing them into white oppression.”

Of course Churchill doesn't know what Western Civilization is--but he knows that he is against it, and uses the same anti-imperialist claptrap that has gained him such a following on the left.

However, it appears it must be time to fill the legal war chest, as it would have baffled even the casual observer of Churchill's typical MO of avoiding real debate while he was still a tenured professor. Either that or the election of Barack Obama has stolen away some of Churchill's coveted left-wing victimization and tinfoil-hat crowd.

In related tinfoil-hattedness news, Drunkablog keeps an eye on the progress of those arrested during the DNC--complete with ACLU-liciousness.

Tags: Slapstick Politics, Syndicated

Some former McCain campaign staffers have initiated a smear campaign against Sarah Palin. They are essentially trying to cover their own asses by scapegoating the election loss solely on Palin. This is a fairly easy claim to debunk by looking at the polling during the last several months of the election:

(Graph & poll averages from RealClearPolitics.com)

The jump in the polls resulting from the selection of Sarah Palin as running mate and her subsequent performance at the RNC was the only point at which McCain was ahead of Obama in the polls since Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination.

Obama's swing ahead of the McCain-Palin ticket wasn't because everyone suddenly turned against Sarah Palin, it corresponds exactly with the government bailout of A.I.G. and the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac buyout several days earlier. This was about the public being alienated by the Bush Administration's socialist-style economic policies.

Looking at the polls, it's clear that the public was wary of Republican rule after these initial bailouts. McCain was down but not out. Then, on September 22nd, McCain let slip that he would support the Bush Administration's $700 billion bailout plan. Look at the sharp drop in McCain's poll numbers in the following days while Obama's remained remarkably flat. McCain dug himself a hole he would not be able to get out of that day.

The October 15th debate that centered on "Joe the Plumber" gave McCain a 2-point bounce over the following days. Had McCain done the right thing and opposed the Bush bailout, he would not have experienced that precipitous drop starting on September 22nd and could have been in the 45-48% range following that debate.

John McCain's loss can be traced almost entirely to his failure to offer any alternatives to the Bush Administration's handling of the fiscal crisis. That is what ultimately did him in. Sarah Palin and "Joe the Plumber" were the only rays of hope in an otherwise bleak situation. The former McCain staffers engaging in a petty anonymous smear campaign against Pain should be ashamed of themselves.

Tags: Rocky Mountain Right, Syndicated

WTHR in Indianapolis offers us a preview of things to come. Because Barack Obama made so many promises during his campaign that he won't possibly be able to keep, you can expect to see a lot more scenes like this over the four years:

Lines were long and tempers flared Wednesday not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown to control the crowd.

The line was long and the crowd was angry at times.

"I want my money today! It's my money. I want it right now!" yelled one former campaign worker.

 

Tags: Rocky Mountain Right, Syndicated

Colorado soon will have a black Speaker of the House to go along with a black Senate President (Peter Groff). The Denver Post reports today that the Democratic caucus in the state house has thrown its support behind Denver’s Terrance Carroll to replace Andrew Romanoff in one of the state’s highest political positions. Moving beyond [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

It’s the morning after… El Presidente has some amusing video reactions to last night’s election results. Meanwhile, both Joshua Sharf (who ran a valiant race in an overwhelmingly Democratic district) and Rocky Mountain Right highlight the bright spots for Colorado conservatives. I concur with their lists, but let me add one more small bright spot in Colorado. [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

The news isn't all bad tonight. A few promising signs emerged in Colorado amongst the Democratic tsunami.

5. Commissioner Kevin McCaskey

Jefferson County Commissioner Bob McCaskey appears to have successfully fought off a challenge from Jason Bane. McCaskey was implicated in a series of Whitewater-style scandals perpetrated primarily by fellow Jefferson County Republicans. Bane is a primary author of ColoradoPols and a key player in the vaunted "Colorado strategy" by liberals to turn the state blue in part by using the internet, he was also a darling of the Colorado "netroots." Bane's apparent loss should make Republicans realize that there are limits to what the Democrats can do in this state.

4. Sen. Shawn Mitchell

A successful conservative legislator who served as a top surrogate for Bob Beauprez's 2006 gubernatorial campaign, Mitchell was considered a prime target for a liberal pick-off this year. Mitchell rebuffed his well-financed challenger and retained his seat. He is also now a prime candidate for higher office such as the 2nd Congressional District or Attorney General.

3. Rep.-elect Scott Tipton

Most expected Scott Tipton to succeed in his bid to replace Ray Rose. Few expected him to win in a landslide in a decidedly anti-Republican election year. Tipton's knockout punch against Democrat Noelle Hagan has all but guaranteed him his House seat as long as he wants. More importantly, Tipton proved his pull among independents and Reagan Democrats and has set himself up as the next "superstar" of the Western Slope.

2. Rep.-elect Laura Bradford

Bernie Buescher was next in line to succeed Andrew Romanoff as the Democratic Speaker of the House. Laura Bradford has put the kibosh on those dreams. Bradford remains slightly ahead of Buescher, although it appears likely that the race will be headed to a recount. With Anne McGihon, Andy Kerr, and Paul Weissman already being rumored to be jockeying for Speaker of the House; Bradford may have lurched the Colorado House Democrats to the left and out of the mainstream.

1. Bill Ritter's 2010 Opponent

Bill Ritter's reputation was already in shambles. The resounding rejection of Amendments 58 and 59 completely shattered it. Ritter had so much invested in Amendment 58 he even put forward "Colorado Promise Scholarships" named after his 2006 campaign theme. Granted that Republicans don't put up a pro-bailout Republican, the biggest winner tonight may have been Bill Ritter's eventual 2010 opponent.

Tags: Rocky Mountain Right, Syndicated

Most recent items at the top--scroll for earlier updates:

Colorado post-mortems:
Mount Virtus on a few bright spots
Joshua Sharf on the Colorado initiatives
Rocky Mountain Right's promising signs
The New Conservative's thoughts on the new socialism (same as the old) and the remaining bulwark against disaster in the Senate
Night Twister calls for finding a new voice
The Daily Blogster on bamboozling a center-right nation

Election 2008 initial reflections, movie clip edition!

9:58pm--Ben DeGrow, as always, has a measured and graceful response for an otherwise horrendous night for the GOP and conservatives in Colorado and across the country.

9:46pm--Turning to the Colorado races:

No surprises at the state level--Obama, Udall, and the other House races, including Markey over Musgrave. There isn't much sense in update numbers, as all the races at this level have been called.

Amendments and referenda--
46--Too bad, if anything belonged in the Colorado constitution, it was the elimination of discrimination.
47--Union money can buy a lot of things, and one of them is a no on 47.
48--Not at this time, not in this state, not in the Colorado constitution.
49--More of the same, money buys votes.
50--Looks like expanded gaming is the only true runaway measure, until liberals ban it, of course.
51--State sales tax measures, regardless of the intention, don't belong in the constitution.
54--The only measure of the heavily targeted campaign against 47/49/54 to still be passed, pending the final vote tally.
58--Coloradans said no to Ritter, a rare loss for the governor going in to 2010.
59--Funding for education is like pouring water through a sieve.
Ref L--No to lowering the age limit.
Ref O--Too close to call.

The interesting analysis will be a breakdown of Colorado at the local level--county-by-county tallies.

9:01pm--All Hail President Obama!

6:40pm--I'll be up against Bill Menezes of Colorado Media Matters!

4:20pm--My friends at Complete Colorado will be running a continuous election media roundup for all things Colorado

4:06pm--Encouraging (given the DNC and polls showing a swelling Obama lead), but not definitively positive news--Colorado GOP voters keep pace with Democrats in early voting turnout

4:02pm--Fellow blogger and candidate for Colorado House District 6--Joshua Sharf--has some preliminary numbers on early voting turnout in Denver.

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Early exit polls should emerge in the next few hours--stay tuned for coverage. Peoples Press Collective has live streaming video from around town, and will also carry comprehensive election roundups as the day progresses--Mr. Bob of The Daily Blogster has updates at his blog and PPC as well. I'll be adding links as they come in.

Reminder--Slapstick Politics will be joining CBS4 for live webcast election analysis at 7 pm.

Email election day tips to slapstickpolitics (at) gmail (dot) com.

Tags: Slapstick Politics, Syndicated

Conflicting emotions, but these famous clips sum up my mood, and are pretty self-explanatory (and NSFW):





Ignore the digital dog (WTF?):



I couldn't end it on a depressing note, now, could I?

Tomorrow, the fight begins. Not for 2010 or 2012, but for the future of the country. One chapter has closed, and another has opened.

I, for one, do not welcome our new socialist overlords . . .

Tags: Slapstick Politics, Syndicated

SP will be a featured blogger on CBS4's election night coverage, from 7-8pm.

Joining yours truly will be Brooke Wagner and Gloria Neal of CBS4. Click here for a preview of the webcast.

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The best coverage of Election 2008 in Colorado will come from my friends at the Rocky Mountain Alliance and Peoples Press Collective.

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Don't forget to vote, or turn in your mail-in ballot.

Questions about the 2008 ballot? Need a quick reference guide to take with you into the voting booth?
SP's ballot guide will take you through the state-level amendments and referenda, and Peoples Press Collective has assembled one as well. For thorough backgrounding and roundup of more links and other guides, Ben DeGrow has the most comprehensive roundup.

Tags: Slapstick Politics, Syndicated

The (Colorado Springs) Gazette brings us this fluff piece on volunteers out working for the McCain and Obama campaigns:

(Vivian) Weinstein, 66, who uses a cane, started canvassing for the Obama-Biden campaign six weeks ago. It's the first time she went door-to-door for a politician.

The mother of a military veteran says issues of war, foreign policy, education and the economy prompted her to take Barack action.

Interesting that Barack Obama would be the first politician to motivate her to go door-to-door. Weinstein is a regular contributor to the People's Weekly World, a newspaper associated with the Communist Party USA according to Wikipedia.

Tags: Rocky Mountain Right, Syndicated

Republicans in Colorado and nationally don’t have many bright spots to look forward to this Election Day (and conservatives have even fewer). But one silver lining that I hope for is the defeat of Pennsylvania Democrat Congressman John Murtha. If you have a little cash you are willing to play with to help someone at [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

Chronicling bias in the rarefied air of academia qualifies as a "dog bites man" type of story--we know the outcome, but the delight (or horror) is often found in the details.

CU Boulder has earned its reputation as a bastion of academic liberalism and extremism. Ward Churchill, anyone?

This year's election provided an opportunity to reexamine that bias via fundraising reports that would reveal, more than simple party registration or classroom indoctrination, how America's places of higher learning were treating the epic battle between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain in dollars and cents.

You guessed it--they really, really like Obama.

Using this donor list tool, you can search by candidate, name, employer, state, and zip code. We decided to see just how much "hope" there was for Obama versus McCain, and the results were a complete shock.

Not really.

The University of Colorado system saw its employees donate 21-1 for Obama. A quick check of two other schools--University of California (including Berkeley) and Harvard University--immediately reveals that CU is actually low in terms of per-candidate ratios.

University of Colorado: Obama--$112,386; McCain--$5,401

University of California: Obama--$355,242 (donations above $1,000 only); McCain--$17,620

Harvard University: Obama--$499,057; McCain--$17,046

Obama--the change he needs, courtesy (in part) of America's ivory towers of privilege.

How does your alma mater fare? Or your zip code?

Tags: Slapstick Politics, Syndicated

Update: Link added below First, there was the real-life absurd “Godzilla” flyer created by Protect Colorado’s Future. Then the Denver Metro Young Republicans fired back with the “Kittens for Amendments 47, 49, and 54″ ad - famously featured in the sidebar of today’s Rocky Mountain News print edition Rocky Mountain News Stump blog. To keep the spirit [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

Face The State reports on the poster child for Amendment 47: Ernest Duran, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, paid himself and two of his children combined salaries of over $430,000 in 2007. Duran collected a salary of $162,368 for 2007, according to records with the U.S. Department of Labor. Two of Duran’s [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

Laughable quote of the day from Democrat state senator Brandon Shaffer, as reported in Politicker: In state Senate District 19, Shaffer gave Democrat Evie Hudak the edge over Republican Libby Szabo, saying Szabo is “extraordinarily partisan.” “Eventually, there’s enough of a base there, enough unaffiliated voters who are looking for more of a collaborative approach to getting [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

I’d like to piggy back off my Sheriffs post yesterday and include another newspaper that got it right.  The Pueblo Chieftain ran a piece called, “Amendment 49 wording nothing new in Colorado.” They highlighted that 12 counties already have language similar to 49, which means that over half of Colorado’s population already lives under 49.  Thus, the claims that law enforcement and firefighters will be left out to dry is…. well, I’ll let Weld County Sheriff John Cooke speak for himself,

We’ve had (Amendment 49 wording) in Weld County, and we’ve had it for several years,” said Weld County Sheriff John Cook. “It does not affect our ability to provide good law enforcement. I think it’s ludicrous and insulting on some of these ads that say we can’t do as good a job if 49 passes.

Now, as far as Godzilla destroying Denver if Amendment 49 passes… No comment.

Tags: Syndicated, the cauldron

Yesterday we filed a complaint with the Secretary of State against the ridiculously named “Coloradans for Middle Class Relief.”  They are a registered group opposing only Amendment 47, however they have been floating print and radio ads against Amendments 49 and 54 as well (exactly how opposing these Amendments is “for middle class relief” is beyond me).  This is in direct violation of campaign laws.  Both the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post reported on our complaint this morning, with the Post citing,

The complaint alleges the issue committee violated a campaign-finance law, which could result in a penalty of $50 per day from the date of infraction.

$50 per day?  Wow!  I bet that’ll burn up the union coffers.  I wonder if they can afford such devastating fines, you know with having been given $3 million this month alone.

And that my friends, is their MO.  Break all the campaign finance laws you want, because in the end, you’ve got a never ending supply of money.  And by the time the story ever gets out, it’s past election day and no one cares.

Tags: Syndicated, the cauldron

The Rocky Mountain News reports on a complaint filed yesterday by Amendment 49 supporters: Backers of Amendment 49, which would prohibit union dues from being deducted from public payrolls, have filed a complaint with the Colorado secretary of state alleging that an opposing group failed to disclose its intention to campaign against them. Instead, Coloradans For Middle [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

The Rocky Mountain News today provides the most systematic deconstruction of the grossly misleading, multi-million dollar Protect Colorado’s Future campaign against 49: There’s no obligation for political campaigns to be fair, let alone balanced, but there are times when messages go beyond the pale. Case in point: the advertising, largely bankrolled by labor unions, to defeat Amendment [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

You’ve heard it before.  “Amendment 49 will deprive firefighers and police officers from obtaining adequate equipment.”  “Amendment 49 will silence workers’ voices.”  blah blah blah, etc etc.  These sorts of lies and distortions deserved a response, so we found some folks with the authority to debunk those claims as absolute nonsense.

Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County, Sheriff David Weaver of Douglas County, and Sheriff Ted Mink of Jefferson County held a press conference at the State Capitol yesterday to put to rest the false claims made against 49.  Three other sheriffs who could not attend the press conference signed on to the letter in support of 49.  Head over to Ben DeGrow’s blog to hear 5 audio clips from the press conference.  If you learn better visually, here is a highlight video from the press conference:

You might be wondering what gives these Sheriffs the authority to proclaim the allegations against 49 are, as Sheriff John Cooke said, “ludricris.”  Well, 5 of the 6 Sheriffs signed on represent counties that have already enacted Amendment 49’s language.  Therefore, when they get up there and say that it does not prevent law enforcement from doing their jobs, they are speaking from first hand experience.

It also appears that the Rocky Mountain News, one of the many papers that endorsed 49, is also fed up with the “smears.”  As evidenced by this sledge hammer of an editorial that ran today:

The foes of 49 haven’t taken a clean shot at it yet. They’ve run no ads attacking the measure on its own. Instead, they’ve lumped the three ballot issues together. Since each is different, the campaign against 49 has been especially misleading.

The Greeley Tribune, Rocky Mountain News, Boulder Daily Camera, and Denver Post all came out with articles today about the Sheriff’s press conference, most pulling some of the juciest quotes, like this one from Sheriff David Weaver,

There’s a lot of deception going on stating that police officers, deputy sheriffs are not going to receive their body armor, aren’t going to receive their vests,” Douglas County Sheriff David Weaver told the Ethical Standards Now group. “That is totally inaccurate.

And this from Sheriff John Cooke,

It’s ludicrous that some of these ads say we can’t do as good a job if Amendment 49 passes, Cooke said.

Finally, the ridiculous ads against 49 have been running non-stop on 850 KOA, which prompted my colleague Mike Rosen to respond on his morning show. He put it very succinctly this morning when he said, “Don’t be stupid.” Here is the audio of the horrifically absurd ad (if you can stomach it), with Mike Rosen’s hilarious response following right after: rosen10.30.mp3

Well put Mike.

Tags: Syndicated, the cauldron

Readers of this blog are now well familiar with the orchestrated deception by a group called Protect Colorado’s Future (PCF) against Amendment 49, the Ethical Standards initiative. In addition to numerous Colorado newspaper editorial boards, respected public figures like former U.S. Senator Hank Brown and former state treasurer Mark Hillman have refuted the lies. Many of [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated

(Face The State) Do you think maybe the sign stealing has gotten a bit out of hand? This kind of repeated vandalous behavior has all the trademarks of *union goon activity. Hey, union goons, don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Less than a week. Take a deep breath. It will all be [...]

Tags: Mount Virtus, Syndicated