Are you a teacher or other employee in a Colorado public school? Is your friend or loved one? Then this post is especially for you….
Most Colorado public schools are back in session now. And with the school year underway, it’s time for teachers to be reminded of their professional membership options — in many cases, while they still have time to decide whether and how to spend their hard-earned money on dues.
Check out the new post on Ed Is Watching about the Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE) and, of course, the Independent Teachers website for all the information you need.
I can only imagine very few readers of Sunday’s Denver Post opinion page shrugged their shoulders with a ho-hum. All stacked together on good old page 3D of the Perspective section, the collection of pieces had to evoke some wholehearted assent, some serious disagreement, or both.
Let’s go with the bad news first, the lead fantasy-ridden editorial “Public option is critical to reform”:
Opponents also say the public option is a ruse meant to facilitate a government takeover of health care. On the contrary, we think it will give the insurance industry every incentive to innovate and find efficiencies, best treatment practices and ways to make their rates more attractive to businesses and policy holders.
Based on what, the wishful thinking of the Post‘s editors? My jaw almost hit the floor as I read this editorial. Whether or not they like the cheese shop sketch analogy, here’s one good place (or here, for that matter — written by a fellow journalist) they could start to dunk their heads in a dose of reality. If the Post wants to promote real “game-changing reform” of health care, here are some much more promising ideas friends of liberty need to be talking up. (more…)
First there was Caplis & Silverman. Then there was Colorado’s Morning News. Now we have a couple of strange Scott McInnis gems in writing (no transcripts, no audio) from his recent “InnerView” with the Colorado Statesman.
First, in regards to closing the budget gap:
You need to say, “Okay, here’s what we have.†The state Senator up there, Dan Marostica. He’s got some ideas, and he’s a numbers guy. That’s what you need. Frankly, the governor should have hired that guy the first day he was in office.
Those are the kind of people that I’m going to put in place.
No doubt gubernatorial candidate McInnis meant Representative (until recently) Don Marostica. Hey, mistakes on details like title and first name happen. But why bring Marostica up in the first place? (more…)
Yes, it appears that Colorado’s former lieutenant governor won’t need the full 30 days to make up her mind. I have received word from a reliable source or two that Jane Norton is definitely going to announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate. My guess is this will mean Bob Beauprez opts to stay out of a crowded phone booth field.
Initial reactions? Norton doesn’t bring Beauprez’s baggage of the disastrous 2006 campaign or firsthand experience with the fiscally profligate Republican Congress of the early-to-mid 2000s. She brings administrative experience in state government, whereas the current two frontrunners in the race Ryan Frazier and Ken Buck have experience in municipal or other local government. (more…)
Everything is out of whack with the story about the nameless black man toting a semi-automatic weapon around at an Arizona townhall meeting. Just everything.
One of the driving Lefty narratives about the nature of the townhall protests and the general popular opposition to Obama Care’s proposed government health care takeover is exemplified in this comment to the local Fox TV news affiliate:
“All the claims of Nazism and socialism are really racist attacks,” said David Sirota, one of many liberal columnists who define the growing conservative uprising as a “white backlash” — that of a dwindling white non urban America, aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind.
No matter that there’s nary an ounce of truth to the claims of Sirota — he makes a living as a liberal Democrat propagandist. I expect it from him. Not necessarily from a mainstream news network that until today carried at least a shred of credibility.
This story is almost too hard to believe, but the evidence is undeniable. As reported by Newsbusters (H/T Rossputin), MSNBC manipulated video footage first to imply that the man toting the AR-15 was white, not black, then to launch into a self-righteous on-air debate about racially motivated threats against the President. Talk about making news up to fit a preordained narrative. I’d like to think even Keith Olbermann would be ashamed to be so deceptive! (more…)
After I posted earlier this week about Scott McInnis’ bizarre interview with Caplis and Silverman, an anonymous source dropped me an email that read in part:
FYI, a week or so earlier McInnis had a similarly goofy, albeit not quite so bizarre, encounter with Stephen [sic] Tubbs on Colorado’s Morning News. I haven’t been able to chase down the audio, but thought you might be interested.
Special thanks to 850 KOA for providing this audio from a recent episode of Colorado’s Morning News as co-host Steffan Tubbs interviews Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis. Click the play button to hear the two-minute clip:
“Goofy, albeit not quite so bizarre.” I believe that’s a fair characterization.
Every time he goes off a bit like this, McInnis lends more credence to the narrative being built by the Left that his leadership style is Nixonian and temperamental. My preference for his primary rival Josh Penry is known. But others will have to listen to the two radio interview clips, do their research, and come to their own conclusions.
Earlier this week I was privileged to sit down in a one-on-one meeting with state senate minority leader and Republican gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry. I have to admit it’s a bit surreal to be in close contact with someone running for governor who is in my age bracket — Josh is less than a year older than I am. But the political times, they are a-changin’ … and many signs suggest the pro-liberty youth movement promises to better serve the GOP and its fiscally conservative wing in 2010.
At our 40-minute enclave Penry and I discussed policy issues, most specifically education, while he afforded me the opportunity to assess his strengths and weaknesses, and offer my 2.5 cents (inflation) worth of advice. As I told Josh directly, I was about 98 percent inclined to support his candidacy before we met. The one-on-one meeting — combined with recent revelations of rival Scott McInnis‘ temperament — cinched the deal for me. (more…)
Competent pro-free market voices like the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon and the editors of the Wall Street Journal (via Patient Power) have raised red flags about the so-called “co-op” idea that’s moving through the Senate and being floated by the administration as a fallback from the “public option”.
The Journal cleverly calls the co-op idea “Fannie Med”. Cannon writes:
The president’s approach to health care reform hasn’t changed at all. All he has done is tried to distract attention from how dangerous and unpopular his approach really is.
But that doesn’t mean President Obama could use the “co-op” rhetoric to smoothly shift political gears and pull government health care over the finish line in Congress any easier than before. In fact, it might make it even harder — if you can believe the poll numbers released today by Rasmussen: (more…)
Most readers probably don’t know that I am a contributing editor and regular writer for the Heartland Institute’s monthly publication School Reform News.
But the September issue just came out, in which I wrote two stories and was quoted in another. Without further ado here they are:
Happy school reform reading! For the 3 or 4 of you who actually care, I may start this as a regular feature.
Rossputin makes a great observation about the not-so-great surprise (I’m shocked!) that the Obama porkulus money is being spent at such a slow pace:
The “stimulus†bill was NEVER about stimulating the economy or fixing the infrastructure that needs fixing. That’s why it’s not being spent quickly and why many infrastructure projects are being undertaken where the bridge or road is not in very bad shape but happens to be in an important Democratic district.
Instead the “stimulus†bill is about stimulating the Democrats’ chances in the next election. The plan all along has been to save as much money as possible until mid-2010 and then spend like crazy, trying to buy as many votes as possible going into a mid-term election when the party in power tends to lose seats – and which is already looking worse than usual for the Democrats.
This type of taxpayer-funded patronage is hardly new. If you’ve read the magnificent book The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, you would know that Franklin D. Roosevelt similarly manufactured a lot of New Deal spending to his political advantage in the 1936 election — which proved to be landslide Democrat victory.
Obama and today’s Democrats have learned at least one lesson of history. But this time they aren’t working to produce a landslide as much as to stave one off on the other side.
So I hear that some wacko Lefties are trying to boycott Whole Foods because the company’s CEO wrote a widely read opinion-editorial for the Wall Street Journal explaining why Obama Care is bad medicine and offering a proven, constructive alternative.
I’m proud to say that the lovely Mrs. Virtus today went shopping at Whole Foods. It wasn’t the first time, and certainly not the last. We’re not overboard on the natural foods thing, but with some pretty serious food allergy issues in our household, the availability of some alternatives they offer is quite convenient. Being very cost-conscious consumers, we tend to purchase different types of groceries and necessities at different stores. So it’s not like we give Whole Foods a tremendous amount of business.
But today the shopping excursion took on a whole new meaning. I didn’t get to join in the fun, but I especially took joy in picturing the family grocery getter parked in the Whole Foods lot sporting a brand new “He’s Not My Doctor” bumper sticker on the back, compliments of the Independence Institute.
If you haven’t shopped at Whole Foods before, take the opportunity at least to check it out.
Some Blog Guy over at Rocky Mountain Right writes about an apparent surge of the Birther movement in Colorado:
We get it. You don’t like Obama. We don’t either. But please focus on stuff he’s actually done instead of fantasies.
Just wanted to take a moment and state that I second the motion. Anyone else with me? James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal offered a more in-depth analysis of this non-issue a few weeks ago — I commend that to you, too.
Glad to see that Mr. Bob also agrees.
Love how the Denver Post lends a hand to Barack Obama and appointed Senator Michael Bennet in the health care debate:
He acknowledged that the ire in town halls — in Colorado, and across the country — was mostly about fear of changing a system that hasn’t worked for years. [emphasis added]
Not “changing a system that he said hasn’t worked for years,” mind you. A stated opinion given cover with a straight news declaration of fact. Sigh. I’ll even give them the benefit of the doubt and suspect that the phrasing was an unintentional slip that reflects the newsroom’s own uninformed bias rather than some malicious attempt at partisan hackery.
I know of many personal friends and acquaintances who could tell stories — some of them rather compelling — that would cast doubt on the suggestion that the system “hasn’t worked for years.” But the plural of anecdote isn’t data. Time perhaps to check and see why 54 percent of Americans say no healthcare reform beats Obama Care and increased government intervention in the healthcare system (the public opposes the plan by a 53-42 margin).
Of course, the system is better than commonly portrayed — and the American people aren’t buying the lie. Are some changes needed? Yes, but not to the extent, and not in the direction, proposed.
So many good pieces are being produced during the course of the ongoing health reform debate, here are a few of the latest I recommend for your enlightenment:
As Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey reports, Democrats are backtracking on the “public option”. Even the media can’t roll the leaden monstrosity of Obama Care uphill anymore. Still, the next Democrat gambit may be to push a more subtle advance toward government health care or, as Morrissey suggests, slip it back in quietly during a conference committee.
His advice and mine? “This is no time to get complacent.”
I’ve been behind the times a bit, and am striving to catch up. The Scott McInnis teeth-and-claws interview (MP3) with Caplis & Silverman on 630 KHOW?
Simply bizarre. (more…)
Remain unconvinced that our government has way too much money to spend? Thanks to Martin Buchanan for pointing me to this article in today’s Denver Post:
At least six applications from Colorado, including one from the governor’s office, will be submitted during the first round of the $7.2 billion federal broadband funding program.
The state is asking for $3.8 million over two years. The money would be used to launch “an educational campaign on the merits of broadband and how it affects everyday activities,” said John Conley, executive director of the Statewide Internet Portal Authority, which is handling the bid on behalf of the governor’s office.
The campaign would create six full-time positions and include a “mobile vehicle” that could demonstrate the benefits of high-speed Internet access. At least 27 cities of varying sizes would be visited during the campaign’s first year, Conley said.
Say what? The Democrat-led Congress thinks that one of the leading problems for government bureaucrats to solve is the public’s lack of awareness that higher-speed Internet is a more convenient technology? Puh-lease.
More wasteful Porkulus funding — voted for by Michael Bennet, Ed Perlmutter, and Betsy Markey, and signed into law in our own backyard by Obama. And Bill Ritter is leeching on in an attempt to try to reel in some more greenbacks to grow our state bureaucracy.
What a joke — you can’t blame people for starting to stand up and complain.
Need something concrete to think about when focusing on the need for less government spending? You’ve got it now.
