A mildly disturbing story that makes me wish sometimes we could keep the world of sports / entertainment separate from the larger political world. From an ESPN article about my favorite baseball team’s All-Star right fielder and a loathsome, repressive dictator:
President Hugo Chavez came to the defense of Magglio Ordonez on Sunday, slamming Venezuelan baseball fans who booed the major leaguer at the World Baseball Classic.
Chavez lamented that his friendship with Ordonez prompted catcalls from the mostly Venezuelan crowd during the team’s 3-1 victory over the Netherlands in Miami on Saturday, saying the fans who booed the Detroit Tigers slugger “have no shame.”…
Ordonez, one of Venezuela’s biggest baseball stars, appeared in a television ad last month supporting a proposal by Chavez to eliminate term limits for the president and other elected officials through a constitutional amendment. Voters approved the proposal in a Feb. 15 referendum.
The outfielder also joined the socialist for a friendly softball game ahead of the vote….
Say it ain’t so, Magglio.
I could have gone on never reading that story, living instead in ignorant bliss. Three weeks ’till Opening Day.
Senate Bill 57, the school financial transparency bill, has defied anyone’s expectation and made it through one-half of the legislature. From the senate, it’s now on to the house.
Apparently, but not too surprisingly, the lobbyists for the education establishment are looking for a way to kill the bill without looking like they oppose transparency. The COST blog exposes the details.
School districts can use low-cost technology to place expenditures and revenues online in a searchable format; that excuse has been worn thin. So I guess it’s time to resort to other ineffective arguments, along with procedural tactics and other technicalities.
What about the people’s lobby? Will they turn out again to speak out for their right to see how their tax dollars are being spent? House Education Committee on Thursday, March 19 at 1:30 p.m.
Face The State follows up on a Complete Colorado lead about Democrat State Representative Dennis Apuan. He is the lead sponsor of a resolution honoring fallen soldiers (PDF), but he also has been arrested as an anti-war protester.
Jeff Crank, former Republican Congressional candidate and current Colorado Springs radio host, wants to know why Apuan is hiding from his 2003 arrest. The following response was fired back from the Democrats’ press office:
Statement from Rep. Dennis Apuan (D-El Paso)
Date: Fri, Mar 6, 2009
“Six years ago, long before I was an elected official, I participated in a peaceful prayer vigil at Peterson Air Force Base.
With a group of religious leaders, I peacefully expressed my opposition to the use of nuclear weapons. We had hoped to hand out prayer cards to soldiers and we chose to step over the line marking Peterson Air Force Base property. After just a few feet, four of us were arrested for trespassing. I was sentenced to 48 hours of community service, which I completed at my church teaching Sunday school.
I was peacefully exercising my first amendment rights to free speech.”
Crank tells Face The State: “He should come on my show and make a statement saying he stands by that decision or that it was a long time ago and dumb and now he supports the men and women in the military.”
Fair enough. I think Representative Apuan could put this issue to rest rather quickly by answering questions in the open, instead of hiding behind a prepared statement and sponsorship of a resolution. Maybe he still could be called “Boulder‘s own representative in El Paso County,” or maybe his views have changed.
Inquiring minds (especially the Fort Carson military personnel who live in his district) want to know.
Some of you may remember many months back when Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard gave national coverage to “The Colorado Model”. Certainly a fine piece in its own right, but you’ll find an even more detailed and insightful piece along the same lines in the new issue of National Review, written by my friend and former state representative Rob Witwer.
Check out “Rocky Ride”. By reading the piece, I learned that Rob and Adam Schrager of 9News (a Wolverine and a history major, a double-plus) are co-authoring a full-length book along the same lines titled The Blueprint: How Democrats Won the West (and Why Republicans Should Care).
I plan to read their book (apparently scheduled to be released in 2010) after I get caught up and read Schrager’s first book The Principled Politician.
When Democrat Michael Bennet was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, I knew we would have our healthy share of policy disagreements. But not so much on education reform:
Fifty-eight U.S. Senators – including Colorado’s own Michael Bennet and Mark Udall – have decided to spend billions on wasteful pork projects, but can’t spare anything to keep 1,700 students from exercising the choice to enroll in a better school.
What am I talking about? Bennet voted against an amendment to save the modest D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program from funding extinction. To be fair, so did most other Democrats: except interestingly, Robert Byrd and John Warner, along with independent Joe Lieberman.
Only two days ago Bennet’s office released a statement saying “If we want to have a real impact on education, we need a bold, new approach, particularly for poor children.” Apparently, that boldness ends at providing meaningful school choice options.
Is Michael Bennet – who once skillfully challenged the unions to advance education reform in Denver Public Schools – now fishing for political support from unions? This might give us insight into an impending decision from the newly selected senator on the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act.
It’s kind of surreal to find these two headlines in the same edition of the Denver Post:
- Colo. jobless at 21-year high: “The unemployment rate hasn’t been this high since April 1988, when it was at 6.7 percent. It is also higher than the 6.3 percent rate reached during the depths of the dot-com bust from 2001 to 2003.”
- Doubling FasTracks sales tax gets nod: “On Wednesday, a majority of the Metro Mayors Caucus tentatively approved a plan to salvage FasTracks by asking voters for another 0.4 percent sales tax. The mayors, hoping to see the entire $6.9 billion expansion finished by 2017, are gambling that voters will maintain support for the project despite higher costs and some of the weakest economic conditions in the past half-century.”
The weak economy is the most striking source of irony here, but it’s not the only reason for metro Denver area voters to be skeptical of the proposed tax increase. As land use and transportation expert Randal O’Toole so ably points out in a new Independence Institute report, the 16 deceptions in RTD’s FasTracks proposal (PDF) include disproven claims about the light-rail plan’s costs, benefits, alternatives, and more.
So, sorry, Metro Mayors Caucus. The painful (and laughable) timing of the tax hike announcement is only the tip of the iceberg. A lot more will have to be done to steer the project clear of a Titanic-like collision. After all, there is much, much more you would have to overcome before voters should be convinced to support the expensive, overpriced, inefficient, unclean encroachment known as FasTracks.
Too much good stuff out there, too little time. Here’s a quick Wednesday morning roundup of the best from the Colorado blogs (in no particular order):
The Colorado blogosphere is certainly on a roll… and then some. I’m sure I’ve missed other good entries, but this is probably more than enough to keep you busy for awhile.
An interesting tidbit from Cherry Creek Schools:
Jana Frieler, principal of Overland High School in the Cherry Creek School District since 2005, was voted president-elect of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) at the organization’s national conference in San Diego February 27, 2009.
Frieler will lead the 30,000- member organization in 2010-2011. Frieler has been active in principal leadership through national-level committee work and service on the NASSP Board of Directors.
Congrats to Jana Frieler on her new position. What’s the big deal with this announcement, you say? You may remember Frieler as the principal who during her first year was thrown into the fire of national controversy over teacher Jay Bennish’s outrageous and fact-challenged tirade against then-President George Bush and capitalism that was recorded by a student in his geography class.
At a press conference in March 2006, Frieler welcomed back Bennish as “a member of our Blazer family”. Well, it was precisely about this time three years ago that the controversy was brewing, and even though he still is listed as a faculty member, we haven’t heard a lick from Jay Bennish since. That very well may be due in part to Frieler’s effective leadership.
Reading the news on the Cherry Creek website was like a blast from the media frenzy past. Any connection of significance or relevance? Probably not – it just seemed like an opportunity for a quaint, provincial version of “Where Are They Now?” And to dredge up a link to one of my past writings: Because, after all, I still think the Bennish controversy makes the case for school choice.
And what about the academic record? Interestingly, Overland High’s School Accountability Report (SARs) for the past few years have earned an “Average” rating, while the new academic growth model shows Overland making above-average progress in reading, below-average progress in writing, and mixed results in math.
Tune in starting at 8:30 PM local Mountain Time this evening for the 17th edition of Rocky Mountain Alliance Blog Talk Radio. From 8:45 to 9:15, Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams joins us to discuss the upcoming state officer elections and what can be done to turn the party’s fortunes around.
Starting at 9:30 we’ll talk with Hassan Daioleslam about what the Iranian mullahs’ lobby is up to in the United States, as well as the mounting nuclear crisis in his native country.
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.
This morning you can read the Denver Post‘s glowing “DeGette relishes stem-cell research triumph” by Michael Riley – in which the only dilemma is not the ethics of harvesting cells from dead unborn babies (or now, thanks to President Obama, spending taxpayer money to do so) but to what extent Denver’s liberal Congresswoman will have a successful political career now that her pet issue has been passed into law.
Or, if you actually want a thoughtful and critical approach to the issue, you can go back and refresh yourself with Yuval Levin’s masterful deconstruction of Diana DeGette’s book Sex, Science, and Stem Cells (H/T David Harsanyi).
I hope that the Post isn’t trying to imply from Riley’s article today that the ethical debate concerning embryonic stem-cell research is over (especially given the breakthroughs with adult stem cells), any more than many among the media, political and cultural elite are trying to tell us that the debate over anthropogenic global warming is over.
Update (3/10): Mike Reitz weighs in with an observation some of my readers may have a hard time believing: “Public policy wonks are real people, too.”
Here’s a U.S. Supreme Court decision that may have flown past your radar – Ysursa v Pocatello Education Association. The ruling ensures states (like Idaho and Utah already have done) can regulate the use of government payroll systems to prevent the collection of political contributions.
As Mike Reitz from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation explained to me in a new iVoices podcast, it’s a victory for clean government, taxpayers and orderly state labor relations:
A lot of the money funneled through government payroll systems goes to support the removal of the secret ballot and job growth stifling that come with the poorly-named Employee Free Choice Act.
Which Congress incidentally starts debating tomorrow.
Amendment 49 lost last year, but might the Ethical Standards idea be worth resurrecting?
(One final note: Star Wars fans will have to tell me what they think of the analogy I invoke near the middle of the 7-minute podcast.)
Yes, I pointed out to you the Democrat shell game (with your tax dollars, transportation projects, and social welfare spending) taking place at the State Capitol. But leave it to Mark Hillman to explain it more eloquently, and with greater depth and context.
Here’s the key section:
If it sounds like Democrats are talking out of both sides of their mouths, it’s because they are – at least, so far. One day, they say our roads and bridges are unsafe and demand more money from Colorado drivers. The next day, they take a hatchet to transportation funding.
Any sane person can be excused for wondering what they’re drinking or smoking at the state capitol.
Sadly this is nothing new. Dating back to former Gov. Roy Romer, Democrats’ favorite tactic has been to grow social welfare spending and leave transportation with scraps. Romer’s approach was to tell voters that if they wanted more money for transportation, they should vote for higher taxes.
In 1997, Romer and Republicans reached a compromise that guaranteed the aforementioned bonus source of highway funding and limited general fund spending increases to no more than six percent per year.
Republican Gov. Bill Owens staunchly defended that compromise and worked out a similar agreement with Democrats in 2002.
Now that Democrats hold a monopoly at the state capitol, they seem intent upon smashing those agreements in order to boost social welfare spending.
This is what Colorado gets when we have one-party rule under the Golden Dome, and that party is the Democrats: a disregard for the taxpayer, a willingness to play fast and loose with your money.
Welcome back to Monday.
Perhaps I’m making this post in more of a sleep-deprived than clear-thinking state, but can’t we just end the “daylight saving” twice-a-year-time-switch madness? My personal preference would me to put us on daylight saving time all year long, but you can make your voice heard on an online petition. There’s also a group on Facebook.
As the weekend in which the late great news commentator Paul Harvey will be memorialized and laid in his final resting place, I wanted to offer a tiny tribute.
Like anyone who turned on an AM radio in recent decades, Paul Harvey’s news and “Rest of the Story” segments were almost always irresistible. I didn’t get to see him speak in person until he delivered the commencement address at Hillsdale College in 2000, when I watched some of my friends graduate. About that same time, he began singing the praises of my alma mater on his radio program. Subscriptions to Hillsdale’s free speech digest Imprimis have soared.
Many people I’ve met in recent years, people of various ages and backgrounds, the only connection they have to Hillsdale is they remember Paul Harvey talking about it. It’s just one small example of the tremendous reach of his influence and the widespread appreciation for his work.
Very few (if any) remaining figures of public stature are so quintessentially American and down-to-earth as Mr. Harvey was. A reassuring, friendly voice heard on radio stations across the country – and on mine – who by all accounts was genuinely genial both on the microphone and off.
Paul Harvey’s warm personality, folksy charm, and trademark vocal delivery will be greatly missed. Condolences to his family and loved ones.
Good day! RIP, Paul Harvey (1918-2009)
From Michelle Malkin and Right Wing News (take your pick):
The Obamessiah meets one of the more well represented figures on all-time “most annoying TV characters” lists.
The first person who can accurately identify the reference in the title of the post, please leave a comment below to win the prize …
… of a satisfying job well done.
Win or lose, here’s hoping you enjoy the humor and smile today.
