El Presidente has some potentially earth-shaking news (for active lovers of liberty and the handful of Colorado political insiders who are paying attention at this point, that is): Despite the weak and transparent efforts of the liberal Dead Governors to marginalize his campaign with ridicule, Aurora city councilman Ryan Frazier not only won but dominated the competition in a U.S. Senate straw poll among the conservative Douglas County GOP faithful (complete with video of Frazier’s Saturday speech at the Douglas County Lincoln Day dinner).

Other names in the straw poll included former Congressman Bob Beauprez, popular radio talk show host Dan Caplis, Weld County district attorney Ken Buck, and businessman Cleve Tidwell.

This result follows on the heels of Rocky Mountain Right’s February straw poll in which Ryan Frazier edged Mark Hillman (now officially a non-candidate) as Colorado Republican insiders’ favorite for the U.S. Senate nomination.

How do you spell Momentum?

As national pundits look to 2010 and one of the hottest U.S. Senate races on the political radar, it will become difficult from now on to talk about the race against selected Senator Michael Bennet without prominently mentioning the name Ryan Frazier.

My big regret from a low-key weekend? That I somehow forgot to celebrate Human Achievement Hour. Kudos to all those who did, and made a statement for liberty.

It’s most interesting to me that this weekend’s events closely follow the discovery that the infamous solar panels on the Denver Museum of Nature and Science likely won’t come close to paying for themselves while state lawmakers seek to induce school districts into installing cost-inefficient “new” “green” energy.

Speaking of higher taxes and energy prices for consumers like you and me, Paul Chesser takes on the cap-and-trade folly in the new American Spectator.

At least here in the Denver area our big snow has all but melted away … for now.

My name is Ryan Morgan and, at the kind request of Ben, I will be guest posting from time to time on this blog. 

A 21-year-old resident of Arvada, I was home educated and have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (focus in general management) from Thomas Edison State College.  I am a developer at a small software firm.

I am a Bible-believing Christian, not associated with any particular denomination, but with an experiential belief in forgiveness of sin solely through faith in Jesus Christ’s blood atonement at Calvary and His resurrection from the dead.

I am a conservative first and a Republican second.  I believe in limited, effective government; adequate (strong) national defense; and laws based on Biblically moral principles.

Through my participation in this blog and the discussion that grows from it, I hope both your and my understanding of the truth will be increased.  As Winston Churchill said:

“Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the end; there it is.”

The true goal of our discussion must be to learn and teach it.

After more than five years at Mount Virtus, I’ve finally grown secure enough to include the occasional postings of a guest-blogger on my site. I just wanted to give my regular readers the heads-up, and to let you know:

• The guest-blogger’s first posting should occur very soon
• The thoughts, opinions, and observations of the posts on this site belong to their respective authors
• If unsure, you can find the identity of the author on the second line under the post heading where it says “Written by…”
• I will let the new guest-blogger identify himself, and leave you in suspense until then

I believe we can only benefit by having more thoughtful conservative voices in the Colorado blogosphere. A new era begins?

It’s been a full week since the establishment education lobby and Democrats on the House Education Committee teamed up to kill the spending transparency in Colorado’s Senate Bill 57.

Amazingly, this little bill that (almost) could in our Colorado state legislature is still making national waves. From an essay written by Paul Miller and published today by American Thinker:

This past week in Colorado, Senate Bill 57, also called the Public School Financial Transparency Act, which simply require public school districts to put their spending online, died in committee. How could any responsible public official forbid parents from seeing how their tax-dollars are spent educating their children?

The answer to that question is simple: Taxpayer-funded lobbying associations and National Education Association.

Thank you, Paul, for keeping the spirit of this important fight alive. And same to Colorado’s own Ben Hummel — who came out today with another one of his brilliant cartoons, lampooning the politicians who told the taxpayers to take a hike on school spending transparency.

Transparency lives on….

For the record, it is worth noting that the National Education Association’s state affiliate, the Colorado Education Association (CEA), took an officially neutral position on SB 57. Its lobbyists did not provide testimony in favor or in opposition to the bill. However, the Colorado Spending Transparency blog has pointed out the link between the House Education Committee members who voted No on transparency and thousands of dollars in CEA campaign contributions received.

So Democrats have moved the bill to destroy the Electoral College (HB 1299) to the floor of the state senate. Time for a last-ditch effort to make your voices heard and stop this legislation. Via Amy Oliver, Rossputin has posted this excellent and timely information explaining why it would be such a terrible idea. If you care about the Republic, follow the link and take action: contact your state senator and Governor Bill Ritter.

Colorado Ethics Watch’s Chantell Taylor has filed an especially frivolous complaint, reports Face The State.

While a frustrating annoyance, it’s also a badge of honor for Fort Collins city council candidate Andrew Boucher, who is running a tireless and effective pro-liberty campaign.

The uncanny timing and sheer desperation of this complaint makes me wonder if Colorado Ethics Watch has been watching what happened to their state sister Media Matters (after all, they have the same rich Lefty sugar daddies as part of their common affiliation with the Colorado Democracy Alliance), and whether the group has observed the right lesson from its demise.

Does Ethics Watch believe that the plug was pulled on Media Matters because the phony watchdogs weren’t active enough, so Taylor felt impelled to do something to justify her organization’s existence? Or is the liberal “ethics” group trying to pick up the slack for the recently-departed Media Matters – which had become known as the butt of many jokes for its theater of the absurd?

Just curious….

Update, 5:00 PM: Snowfall has lightened up, visibility has improved to nearly normal, heavy gusts of wind are far less frequent. We have just under a feet of snow, which indicates that the heaviest precipitation occurred this morning. But it hasn’t stopped. And with a layer of ice under much of the snow, it will be awhile before travel is back to normal.

Today is suitable for a little random weather blogging here in central Arvada … Snow started falling at sometime around 6 AM. I’ve spent the morning working inside, but ventured outside at high noon.

Observations: Blowing snow (heavy at times), visibility is about 100 feet or so (occasionally much less than that), the nearby side streets are barely passable for standard 2-wheel drive vehicles, traffic is exceptionally light and generally slow-going. Outside our house we have 8 inches of snow on the ground, with a few drifts over a foot deep. No sign of letting up. I’m happy to be inside today.

As bad as this storm is, so far it pales in the inevitable comparisons to the December 2006 blizzard and especially to the March 2003 monster snow (we had more than 50 inches outside our Golden apartment).

Mr. Bob has some downtown Denver snow pics from this morning … nothing too substantial yet.

It’s hard to say enough good things about the Leadership Program of the Rockies. El Presidente recaps the recent LPR Retreat at the Broadmoor in a thorough photo essay (including Michelle Malkin, Jonah Goldberg, and many more), including comments about the retreat and the LPR program from current and former class members (including yours truly).

Check it out. And follow my advice:

LPR is the premiere place for Colorado’s future leaders to learn the value of liberty and for Colorado’s lovers of liberty to learn to be effective leaders. If you get the opportunity to join LPR, to meet like-minded leaders, and to understand more deeply the principles that make this nation great, don’t pass it up.

It’s encouraging news that the Colorado state senate keeps putting off a vote on Senate Bill 180. The Democrats would seem not to have confidence in the votes to override local control, impose collective bargaining, raise the cost of government services, and threaten the rights of our state’s police officers and firefighters.

If you need more reason to understand why SB 180 is a bad idea, and why you should keep the pressure on and tell your state senator to vote against it, you should listen to this new iVoices podcast I recorded with Stan Greer from the National Institute of Labor Relations Research:

What might seem on the surface like a nice thing to do for our public safety employees is really bad public policy when you take a closer look. Special labor interests running amok at the State Capitol. Your tax dollars in play.

Forty-one days until the legislative session ends. It can’t come soon enough.

I was looking forward to visiting my parents this summer near Grand Rapids, Michigan — maybe catching some minor league baseball action. Now I know there’s a genuinely tempting challenge involved, I’ll have to make a point of going to Fifth Third Ballpark.

4,800 calories? Methinks it’s not on the Weight Watchers plan. But a reason to miss the state of my birth? Perhaps.

Starting sometime after 2 PM this afternoon (pending a preceding hearing on another bill) I will be keeping tabs on the vital state senate committee testimony on HB 1299 – which statehouse Democrats are proposing to destroy the electoral college and render Colorado politically impotent.

You can follow me on Twitter. You also can listen online here (click on Senate Committee Room 353).

A day late, hopefully not too many dollars short … If you missed last night’s edition (the 19th) of Rocky Mountain Alliance Blog Talk Radio, go check it out. Guests for this week are Scott Starin – former Congressional candidate and current chairman of the Boulder County Republican Party – and Dave Williams – co-founder of the Gadsden Society.

You can go back and download the podcast, or just use the handy widget on my sidebar to listen directly from Mount Virtus.

Big Labor is really bummed out today with the news that U.S. Senator Arlen Specter won’t be backing their Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) (you can watch his floor speech here) — at least for this year. No Republican votes (and many shaky Democrats) means union officials won’t be able to invoke the 60 votes needed for cloture to take away workers’ rights to the secret ballot and impose costly binding arbitration.

This has got to spell a little relief for Colorado’s newly selected U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. EFCA has put Bennet in a bind, but if the political signals are clear that the legislation won’t pass he might have the cover he needs. At this point, my guess is Bennet will take the path of least resistance within his own party and vote for the Big Labor boondoggle while trying to reassure moderate business leaders that his vote cannot do any actual damage.

The likely result? Michael Bennet should be able to preclude a costly primary in 2010, but he will speedily enhance his status as a high-profile target for a slate of top-notch Republican challengers to take on. Whether it’s Bob Beauprez or Ryan Frazier or someone else, next year’s U.S. Senate race figures to be THE Colorado political campaign to watch.

From Gateway Pundit, more evidence of the kind of “change” in diplomacy we voted for: Barack Obama writes to FORMER president of France Jacques Chirac saying he looks forward to working together “in the coming four years” — while altogether snubbing current president Nicolas Sarkozy. More at EuroPumas.

(Here’s the original Le Figaro story, in case you’re interested. It’s not every day I get to link to something en Francais.)

Way to go. Just one more in a string of diplomatic embarrassments emanating from the Oval Office. But keep on laughing, Mr. President.