Mount Virtus

John Ingold at the Denver Post reports, not surprisingly, that Governor Bill Ritter plans to sign SB 108 (aka FASTER) the Democrat bill in the state legislature to raise car fees by an average of $41 a year per vehicle. A reminder for Colorado: You put Democrats in charge, you pay more taxes for bigger government entitlement programs.

What, you say? The state has legitimate transportation needs that SB 108 is designed to fund. Those aren’t entitlement programs.

Except that the so-called “FASTER” bill is merely half of a liberal shell game. The other half is SB 228 – which would rip away limits on state appropriation increases and enable the Democrats to divert hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to the highway fund (PDF) for Democrats to spend on their favorite government programs in future years.

So while Bill Ritter and the Democrats are selling the fee increase as a way to pay for the state’s highways, it’s merely a way to backfill highway costs so government spending can grow in other areas. Don’t you feel just a bit violated?

For what it’s worth, at least the Republicans plan to filibuster SB 228.

Update, 2/28: Western Slope blogger Gene Kinsey has links to more Tea Party accounts from across the nation.

Update, 6 PM: My brother-in-law, an excellent photographer not usually inclined to attend politically-oriented rallies and events, had his pictures from today’s Denver Tea Party linked and featured by Instapundit. How cool is that?

More than 40 “Tea Party” rallies around the country today: Is there a revolution brewing? (Pun intended) Who knows? But the energy on display today can’t be left to simmer away in a lukewarm acceptance of wasteful government spending and mounting, endless debt.

Pictures of the Denver Tea Party are up at People’s Press Collective and Slapstick Politics (with video to come later).

Great pics from someone who attended the Chicago Tea Party – including a “Sam Adams” sighting. A couple hundred people showed up near the state capitol in my home state of Michigan for their own Tea Party – where the effects of a ravaged economy have been felt the longest and most severely. NBC has some bland coverage of events in Jacksonville, Florida.

Michelle Malkin also has a roundup of pictures from rallies all over the country, as well as pictures and video from the D.C. Tea Party she spoke at earlier today.

Today is absolutely the last day you can sign up to attend the annual Leadership Program of the Rockies retreat in Colorado Springs on March 6-7 – featuring speakers Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg, Michelle Malkin, Mike Rosen, Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ), and more.

What are you waiting for?

On March 21, Colorado Republicans convene to select party leadership for the next two years. Before today, it seemed the only real competition would be for party vice chair between Nathan Chambers incumbent Perry Buck [editorial correction based on updated information] and Leondray Gholston.

An official announcement today from former Eagle County commissioner Tom Stone means there also will be a challenge for Dick Wadhams’ position in the top spot. Here is the pledge Stone has posted on his site: (more…)

Do you still need more reason to understand why union bosses are so keen on taking away the secret ballot from workplace elections?

On the Colorado LOSES website, state employee Dave Ohmart gives an account of his experience trying to attend the Colorado WINS union’s rally / lobbying event at the State Capitol on Wednesday:

Ryan Webber, a union organizer, immediately came to me and asked, “You’re not going to say anything, are you Dave? I’ll have to toss you out of here if you do.” Another security-type person came over and stood behind me. Ryan then asked, “You’re not going to write more lies about me, are you Dave?” (Don’t think I ever have!) I assured him I was not there to make a scene.

Governor Ritter spoke about how pleased he was with the, “feedback from all of you” about the current economic condition. He then said something I didn’t fully understand. He told them that he was pleased that he used WINS to communicate to the state employees why there was a hiring freeze. Why would he use WINS for that when he has full access to us all via email?…

When he opened the floor for questions, Ryan leaned over to me again and said, “You’re not going to ask a question, are you Dave. I’ll walk you out of here if you do.”

(more…)

There’s lots of bad news out there, which put me in the mood for some timely levity. This must-see video is sure to elicit a laugh (or, at least a smile). From Right.org, the Bailout Prize Patrol visits everyday Americans, large corporate banks, and United States Senators with large checks, colorful balloons, and tacky noisemakers. Oh, come on, you know you want to watch it (H/T Real Debate Wisconsin): (more…)

Transparency (or the lack thereof) is the name of the game these days. After the Generational Theft Act got shoved down our throats in such a hurry – with Congress having a matter of only a few hours to read the mammoth bill – supporting this idea is the most basic sort of common sense we can ask for in our representative form of government.

So go ahead and sign the online petition at Read the Bill, a very simple process that will take you one minute or less (H/T Soren Dayton). Why?

• The Democrats in charge of Congress don’t want you to do it
• It might help the Republicans find a backbone and champion real reform on the issue
• It’s the right thing to do

For more on the government transparency movement (at least in Colorado), visit the COST website.

Update (3:15 PM): Here is a hot-off-the-presses iVoices podcast, with Jon Caldara and Dave Kopel discussing the end of the Rocky Mountain News era:

Only one more edition of a 150-year-old Denver journalistic institution before the axe falls. We knew the day was coming, but the sudden realization is still striking. More often than not, the Rocky‘s editors have provided a sensible, Rightward-leaning balance to the liberal Denver Post. That will be missed.

It’s a sad day for many good people – some of whom I have agreed with much more than others – who only have left the guarantee of one day of work and two months of pay. Here’s wishing them all the best in landing on their feet somewhere soon.

Even as we reflect back, the local media landscape is shifting rapidly. (How much longer will we even have the Post?) El Presidente reminds us of the opportunities before us in the wake of the Rocky‘s untimely demise.

Joshua Sharf also adds to the lament.

The observations made by the Denver’s archbishop are hardly anything new or unreasonable, but the Rocky Mountain News reports that his words are stirring up the blogs (which ones? not clear):

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput told a Canadian audience this week that some Catholics are treating President Barack Obama with a “spirit of adulation bordering on servility.”

“In democracies, we elect public servants, not messiahs,” he said. [link added]

And:

“Americans, including many Catholics, elected a gifted man to fix an economic crisis. That’s the mandate. They gave nobody a mandate to retool American culture on the issues of marriage and the family, sexuality, bioethics, religion in public life and abortion,” he said. [emphasis added]

As Rossputin ably points out this morning, Barack Obama is far from doing the job we apparently elected him to do. The economy isn’t being “fixed”; instead, investor confidence and consumer confidence have tanked at the inept and overwrought statist intervention in the economy.

If electoral success is to be in their near future, Republicans need to do a better job of offering some commonsense, freedom-based solutions and reforms. Saying “No” to the bailouts and Obama’s other economic plans — or tossing tea into the harbor near 14th and Grant (aka the “Denver Tea Party”) — is only the start.

Update (2/26): El Presidente weighs in, along with Rocky Mountain Right and David Harsanyi. A little good judgment, please? Perhaps an apology or two?

The list of Republican state legislators over the past week with foot in mouth reaches three:

• Don Marostica
• Scott Renfroe
• Dave Schultheis

There’s much I could say about Senator Schultheis’ comments and rationale, but for the sake of time I’ll limit it to this: The best way to expose the pro-abortion Democrats’ hypocrisy on the issue would be to cast a vote in favor of life, not in favor of a confused moral message.

There is much, much, much room for the Republican Party to be the conservative party, the predominantly pro-life party, to welcome and encourage social conservatives into the party, without honoring and elevating this sort of political rhetoric and behavior.

(Sigh.)

Of course, it might also be politically incorrect to note that the Lefty manipulators will continue to try to paint the whole Republican caucus and Republican Party with the Dave Schultheis brush on this one. They’ll look silly for trying, but that won’t stop them. Schultheis has every right to say and believe what he wants, but the party leadership can and should do its part to remind people this is by no means a dominant political view within the GOP.

Remember, the Democrats who want to spend more of your money are not an isolated minority. But getting that message out there has just been made a lot harder. I look forward to focusing on that once again.

Hey, who knew intimidating and badgering workers was a religious virtue? Or that God opposes the secret ballot in workplace elections? Well, apparently, so say “55 Colorado faith leaders” who signed a letter and sent it to Congress on behalf of the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act.

(Or maybe they haven’t actually read the bill to see what it does.)

I don’t deny the Religious Left’s right to petition the government. They just happen to be terribly wrong on this issue.

Denver Post columnist Al Knight has a fine piece today stating the arguments why the Colorado legislature should reject Senate Bill 88, the mandate to provide health-insurance benefits to same-sex couples: it embroils the state in legal battles, it violates the will of state voters, it has a negative impact on a tight budget, etc.

No, instead, Republican state senator Scott Renfroe opened his mouth during the SB 88 debate, and played right into the hands of the Left. (more…)

After spending nearly $200,000 in taxpayer funds to sue the state to stop students from attending state-authorized charter schools, and being ruled against twice, the Boulder Valley School Board meets tonight to decide whether to appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court and spend even more.

Aren’t there any more effective ways they could be using this money to … (I don’t know) … educate children? Read more at the Independence Institute’s new GoBash website.

When talking politics or economics, it’s usually a powerful rhetorical tactic to compare our own Colorado to California – especially these days. In that light, here’s a fitting and timely reminder from state senator Ted Harvey:

The lesson Colorado’s legislators must learn from this recession is clear: fiscal responsibility works. Even though the legislature collectively fell short of creating a rainy day fund, TABOR and the Arveschoug-Bird 6% spending cap forced Colorado legislators to keep spending low. Had the government enjoyed free rein in ramping up spending – which is a great temptation to many lawmakers tasked with spending other people’s money – Colorado’s budget crisis would be as serious as California’s. [emphasis added]

But many still haven’t learned the lesson. (more…)

Gloomy about the Obama administration’s intervention halting economic recovery and pushing the markets down so we can party like it’s 1997?

Then I have just the cure. Tune in starting at 8:30 PM local Mountain Time this evening for the 15th edition of Rocky Mountain Alliance Blog Talk Radio, with two very interesting guests. First is Evan Coyne-Maloney, creator of the film Indoctrinate U, which exposes and challenges political correctness run amok on our nation’s college campuses. His on-air discuss with the RMA crew comes two days before the movie’s showing at Liberty on Film Thursday evening in Denver’s LoDo.

With proposals to further socialize health care looming at the State Capitol, the second guest is the Fraser Institute’s Nadeem Esmail to talk about the dangers of single-payer health care. Esmail is a Canadian who has seen the shortcomings of that country’s system up close and personal, with warnings for us, his neighbors to the south. For more valuable reading on the topic, check out Dr. Paul Hsieh’s new D.C. Examiner column on sensible free-market health care reform alternatives, or the Independence Institute‘s Patient Power blog.

Don’t forget. If you miss the live broadcast of tonight’s show, you can go back and download the podcast, or just use the handy widget on my sidebar to listen directly from Mount Virtus.

Over at Slapstick Politics, El Presidente has more detail on past episodes and a video preview of Indoctrinate U.