Mount Virtus

From an email received this morning:

The David Horowitz Freedom Center announced that it will distribute a Declaration Against Genocide and ask individuals and groups, particularly those on American college campuses, to sign it. The Declaration notes that the Sudanese and other Africans have been victims of a slow motion genocide, and that Islamo fascists in the Middle East are preparing a new genocide against the Jews and can be found here.

In describing the objectives of this new initiative, David Horowitz, President of the Freedom Center, said: “We are asking all campus groups to repudiate the genocidal passage in the Islamic Hadith which reads: “The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: ‘The time [of judgment] will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!’”

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Maybe some of you get a paid holiday from work to celebrate the likes of Martin Van Buren, Franklin Pierce, Benjamin Harrison, Warren G. Harding, and Gerald Ford, but not this think-tank scribbler. Yet even though it’ll be like a normal day of work for me, that won’t stop me from wishing you all a very low-key, lukewarm, and laid-back Presidents Day. Happy Monday to the rest of us.

The story behind Gov. Ritter’s Climate Action Plan? A Face the State report today says there’s more than meets the eye. Here’s the heart of it:

[Climate Strategies Watch director Paul] Chesser said his research has shown that a CCS-created template ends up pushing the same costly policy agenda in most or all the different states in which it has operated. Its prescriptions regularly include carbon taxes, cap-and-trade regulations, and renewable energy mandates.“The whole stakeholder process has been granted a credibility that it does not deserve,” he said. “It’s a fixed process created, controlled, and run by CCS, and funded by global warming alarmist advocates, which calls everything it does into question.”

In addition to questioning funders of the commission, Chesser is now also vocalizing concerns about the funding arrangements behind University of Colorado professor Heidi Van Genderen’s appointment as the governor’s climate change adviser. He uncovered the fact that Van Genderen is being paid by the left-leaning William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to serve in her official capacity.

Like a watcher and Bob Agard (Get Well Soon!), I was privileged to sit down to dinner Tuesday night with Mr. Chesser. The story he shared demonstrates a major blind spot in Colorado’s MSM: one might call it fear of challenging the Eco-Orthodoxy. But you don’t have to take Chesser at his word to cast a critical eye on the whole situation.

At the very least, Ritter’s Climate Action Plan needs to be vetted by a much more thorough and realistic cost-benefit analysis.

A new video produced by the National Republican Senatorial Committee raises questions about the Congressional Democrats and their priorities:

Notice not only the radicals’ self-absorbed, boorish behavior but the local law enforcement’s capitulation. If Berkeley insists on boycotting the U.S. Marines, the proposed solution of withdrawing federal earmark subsidies only makes sense.

Then maybe down the road we can consider voting to let Berkeley secede from the union and from our military protection.

But seriously, given his recent troubles with Far Left anti-war activists, how will Mark Udall vote? Or will he beg Nancy Pelosi to keep the proposal off the floor?

Cross posted at Schaffer v Udall

Baseball is right around the corner. This morning, spring training begins for Detroit Tigers pitchers and catchers. In all my life, I’ve never looked forward to a season with such anticipation. After a couple spectacular offseason maneuvers, the Tigers sport an absolutely fearsome lineup and a starting rotation that will be the envy of most of Major League Baseball.

Don’t believe me? How about ESPN’s Jayson Stark?

Beware of Tigers: How many runs will the 2008 Tigers score, anyway? A thousand? Two thousand? More than the rest of their division combined? That will be one question we’ll explore this spring, now that Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria have pulled into Motown. But there’s just enough uncertainty about issues like (A) Joel Zumaya’s future and (B) the dependability of the rotation that it isn’t safe to pencil in this team for 110 wins. Yet.

The 2008 season can’t start soon enough. Now if I can keep from driving the lovely Mrs. Virtus nuts with my sure-to-come summer of baseball obsession, it should be a great year!

The Denver Post reports today:

A watchdog group filed a complaint with the state’s Independent Ethics Committee against Secretary of State Mike Coffman on Wednesday.

The complaint is the first one filed with the committee since voters created it in 2006, said Colorado Ethics Watch director Chantell Taylor. It is also the latest complaint Ethics Watch, generally seen as left-leaning, has lodged with various agencies about Coffman, a Republican. [emphasis added]

“Generally seen as left-leaning”? It’s more apparent than just “generally seen,” as this well qualifies as a partisan, politically-motivated attack. The only thing that’s changed is the name of Taylor’s group - from Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government to Colorado Ethics Watch. But the same “left-leaning” agenda is there.

But credit to the Post for at least acknowledging a basic observation it overlooked not too long ago, when it used to treat long-time Democratic activist Chantell Taylor as an unbiased, nonpartisan watchdog. Perhaps non-MSM reporting like this and this has begun to sink in.

Taylor’s allegations against Coffman lose a lot of luster when you come to this realization. Let the facts guide our judgments in this case, but let’s not give Taylor and Colorado Ethics Watch any undue credence.

In his column today, Quin Hilyer at American Spectator lays out a blueprint (and a very good one at that) of the qualifications for John McCain’s ideal running mate. By the time you near the end of the article, you may be wondering if there is anyone who matches all of the specifications.

Hilyer concludes:

So there you have it: McCain needs a solidly “full-spectrum” conservative, reformist, youngish, cool, well-rounded, brainy, all-media-respected, articulate, telegenic, border-state/constituency-challenging, non-party-weakening, executive-experienced, running mate who can handle the presidency at a moment’s notice.

Good luck to McCain in finding such a candidate. The good news, amazingly enough, is that there are several potential running mates who fit the bill. I’ll save their identities for another occasion.

Can any of you political junkies out there think of someone who fits the bill? I’ll be mulling it over, too.

Thought-provoking read for the day: Selwyn Duke at American Thinker questions where adhering to “conservatism” has gotten us and whether we need to re-assess our approach:

I don’t want to preserve the cultural status quo, I want to overthrow it. Then we can pull the statist weeds up by the roots and burn them in freedom’s fire, just like our Founding Fathers did. Do you think they were conservatives? Conservatives don’t start revolutions; they simply make sure their shackles are made no heavier.

Political victory rests on cultural victory, and changing the culture starts with changing our mentality. We have only two choices: We can be revolutionary.

Or we can be wrong.

Read the whole thing.

Coloradans: Have you always wanted to learn more about the history, the moral philosophy, and the sound economic principles that undergird our liberty through free-market capitalism? Then you’ll want to sign up for the next edition of the Free People, Free Markets class, which starts this Saturday, February 16. It’s not too late to sign up.

From the Independence Institute website:

You have a strong love of freedom. It’s a natural part of being human. But too few people were taught the fundamentals of a free society. We have a wonderful seminar to offer you. It pulls together the basic principles of liberty and a free market, showing you that these cohesive fundamentals allow society to work well,and to honor the individual. The course material springs from the great thinkers and achievers who shaped America. It is designed for business and community leaders and the general public, and it is also available for college credit.

The course makes the moral and philosophic case for free-market capitalism. It will be more than worth your time.

Classes meet once a week for five weeks, and the course costs only $75. A scholarship for one course registration is available.

For more information contact Penn Pfiffner at 303-233-7731 or email Penn Pfiffner.

Sign Up Today!

I personally recommend this course to business and community leaders, professional educators, homeschoolers, political activists, and anyone seeking to be a better-informed, better-enriched citizen. Please give the class some serious consideration - if you decide to take it, I think you’ll be glad you did.

There’s something in the course for nearly everyone, from the uninitiated to the well-versed. Years ago, I was privileged to receive a Hillsdale College liberal arts education in American history, political science, and free market economics, but I appreciated the refresher provided through the excellent reading material and discussions.

I could keep writing, but what are you waiting for?

I’ve been especially hard on the Denver teachers union (DCTA) lately, but when they do something (mostly) right it would be petty and disingenuous of me not to give credit where due. The Rocky Mountain News reports today that DCTA has decided to acquiesce to the requests of Bruce Randolph and Manual High School for autonomy from school district red-tape and negotiated work rules: Read the rest of this entry »

Are you tired of the give-and-take of Presidential primary politics?

Are you a conservative Republican who needs to step back and take some time to consider whether or not you want to jump on the John McCain bandwagon?

Do you want to help the Republican Party down ticket by supporting a candidate with integrity and independent conservative principles?

Well, then…

How about celebrating the 199th anniversary of Republican forefather Abraham Lincoln’s birthday by giving a tangible contribution to Old Abe’s legacy?

How about showing support for a superb Colorado Republican while you let the national party work on getting back its conservative bearings?

How about getting behind sending a candidate to Washington, DC, who represents Colorado and mainstream Colorado values?

Please consider a donation to the Bob Schaffer for U.S. Senate campaign.

Face the State has the latest on the court case requesting a vote of the people on Gov. Bill Ritter’s statewide property tax increase:

The State Board of Education, claiming that CDE is the wrong agency to be targeted, has asked the court to be removed as a defendant. Meanwhile, Ritter has sought to intervene as defendant. A Denver District Court hearing has been set for May 5.

State Board of Education member Bob Schaffer, R-Fort Collins, believes Ritter has a lot at stake in the courts’ pending decision, having approved a property tax hike over the objections of the state’s attorney general.

“He has a clear interest in proving the attorney general wrong,” said Schaffer. “While the massive tax increase bill was passing, the legislature and governor understood that they were likely in violation of the law and the constitution.”

I know, I know. The money from the property tax increase is supposed to be “for the children.” Clearly, since I want to honor the state constitution and have the people of Colorado vote first, this makes me very cold and heartless person.
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My first op-ed for the Boulder-based Colorado Daily appears in today’s edition. The topic is the school autonomy movement growing out of events at Bruce Randolph School. I’ve pasted the entire op-ed below, for fear that the link provided soon will be broken: Read the rest of this entry »

One of Saturday’s three Republican presidential caucuses stirred up some controversy, an unfortunate occurrence that needlessly poured fuel onto the Huckabee campaign’s conspiratorial fire, with his chairman reviving memories of Al Gore in Florida 2000:

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is crying foul after John McCain’s apparent victory in the Washington caucuses on Saturday.

Huckabee’s campaign released a statement Sunday saying it will be exploring all available legal options regarding the ”dubious final results.” Arizona Sen. McCain was announced as the victor in the caucuses with 26 percent of the vote to Huckabee’s 24 percent.

But Huckabee’s campaign chairman, Ed Rollins, said Luke Esser, Washington’s Republican Party chairman, chose to call the race too quickly for McCain.

Rollins said Huckabee was losing by 242 votes with 87 percent of the vote counted. He said there were another 1,500 or so votes that were apparently not counted.

”That is an outrage,” Rollins said.

Rollins said the Huckabee campaign’s lawyers will be on the ground in Washington soon to see why the count took so long, and why the vote-counting was stopped prematurely.

But as Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters this morning follows up to show the results not changing:

With 94% of the precincts now reporting, McCain still leads by about the same percentage.

And as Pudge at Sound Politics reports from the ground in Washington State, here’s how much the presidential preference results even mean:

Nothing.

People from all over the media, from Josh Marshall to Tim Russert, and Mike Huckabee, are talking about the party declaring a winner, whether it was too soon, and so on. But what the party said about the results literally means nothing at all….

For Huckabee to be talking about legal challenges to a completely meaningless result shows that either he has no idea what the results actually mean (nothing), or he is just doing this for show.

My guess is the latter. The former Arkansas governor has had a better run for the nomination than most analysts would have predicted, but the media oxygen is escaping from his campaign. You don’t have to be a “math major” to see he cannot win the nomination, though maybe his continued presence in the race will have some effect of sending a conservative message to the GOP’s impending nominee, John McCain.

Meanwhile, the effects of Washington state’s real election scandal of 2004 live on.

Over at the Corner, Victor Davis Hanson spells out why conservatives should support McCain over the Democrat alternatives, and what the Arizona Senator can do to close the deal.
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Well, Mitt Romney’s candidacy is over (but his political future may not be done). Not much more I can say that hasn’t been repeated across the blogosphere in the past 20 hours or so. I have to say it’s quite jarring to witness an overwhelming Romney win at my local caucus, and in the state of Colorado as a whole, and less than 48 hours later to see his campaign come to an end.

But the former Massachusetts governor’s withdrawal speech at CPAC only confirmed my confidence in him. The speech was full of class and grace and poise, but also resounded on the pre-eminent theme of victory in the GWOT. Though initially disappointed to see the result of Romney’s Super Tuesday performance, hopefully we will look back in months to come and probably agree with these observations made by Colorado Republican leaders, who have shifted allegiances quickly to frontrunner Sen. John McCain:

In interviews with former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, University of Colorado president Hank Brown, state Rep. Victor Mitchell of Castle Rock, Colorado Springs Rep. Doug Lam born and U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, as well as Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a clear theme emerged: By dropping out of the race now, Romney allows time for Republicans to unite behind McCain.

“There will be time for Republican wounds to heal,” Allard said.

Iraq will unify Republican voters, the senator from Loveland said. But McCain also needs to cultivate support [in] the West, Allard said.

We can either get in the game and exert our conservative influence or sit on the sidelines and let the other team win. Politics is almost never a choice between the best and the worst. The time to fight for one presidential candidate over another within the Republican Party is over now, for all intents and purposes. (Sorry, Steven, do the math. And Michael at Best Destiny has gritted his teeth to institute a no-McCain-bashing policy.) Romney is right: Victory matters too much.
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My creative (and apparently not-too-busy) colleagues at the Independence Institute put together this fun little (less than 2-minute) YouTube video to highlight some recent revelations following Gov. Ritter’s executive order:

How accurate is this parody? You can find the original story here.

Yesterday, immediately following his successful Super Tuesday showing, I wrote that McCain needs to woo conservatives. A few hours later, we got this:

Republican John McCain, buoyed by Super Tuesday wins that pushed him closer to the nomination, told his conservative critics Wednesday to dial back the animosity and focus on issues where they agree.

”I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there’s areas we can agree on,” McCain said at a news conference in a Phoenix airport hangar. [emphasis added]

Not exactly a great start. In fact, it sounds a lot like the same old patronizing bit conservatives are used to hearing from Sen. McCain. Read the rest of this entry »