Mount Virtus

I wasn’t planning to blog on politics at all over the long weekend, but the very recent news emerging that Alaska governor Sarah Palin not only won’t run for re-election in 2010 but also is stepping down later this month has changed my mind.

Right now, speculation is running rampant why Palin has chosen to take this course of action. John Hawkins at Right Wing News has taken a break from his vacation to offer up four likely scenarios: (more…)

The chronic inability of Colorado’s appointed U.S. Senator Michael Bennet to take a position on the union card check bill (also known as EFCA) has moved deep into the realm of bizarre self-parody. It’s a political joke that has lasted so long that the label of “Both Ways Bennet” has been branded permanently on his (hopefully brief) career.

A member of the Denver Post editorial board, Chuck Plunkett observes that the long-awaited seating of Al Franken as Minnesota’s U.S. Senator has once again ratcheted up the pressure that EFCA could come to a vote and force Michael Bennet into the uncomfortable position of, well, having to take one:

I’ve asked Bennet’s office whether he wants to come on with his position on card check. (We oppose it.)

As observers are aware, he’s been more than coy on the question, and our board is among those who’d love to know where Bennet, who faces re-election in 2010, stands on this important question.

Update: Bennet’s office says the senator isn’t prepared to comment at this time. So we’ll keep waiting.

Then again, Michael Bennet still isn’t quite ready. It’s been nearly six months we’ve waited thus far. What’s a few weeks more at this point? In honor of the never-ending saga, here’s a quick trip down memory lane 2009 for Mount Virtus readers: (more…)

The Ryan Frazier for U.S. Senate campaign is drawing more attention inside the Beltway — this time as noted on the “Washington Whispers” blog of U.S. News and World Report’s Paul Bedard:

We’re hearing lots of buzz about another Republican who plans to challenge Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, named just this year to replace Ken Salazar, who was plucked from the Senate by President Obama to run the Interior Department. The word is that this potential candidate, Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier, is part Obama, part Reagan.

That would be the charisma of Obama, the philosophy of Reagan. Not a bad combination.

As Bedard goes on to point out, Frazier’s “New Way Forward” video is helping to introduce more Coloradans to this rising political star.

More important than the fact that Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s appellate ruling simply was overturned yesterday was that her ruling was that she treated the meritorious (and ultimately victorious) claims of the New Haven fire fighters so dismissively.

It seems that in Sotomayor’s world race-neutral, merit-based promotion systems are scarcely even worthy of consideration as legal and legitimate. For her, a subjective standard of judicial “empathy” trumps not only basic fairness but also the need to give basic fairness any serious consideration.

Below the fold is a video response from the Colorado Judicial Network: (more…)

With his usual eloquence and wit, the venerable Mark Steyn on National Review Online makes a terrific point about the connection between centralized state spending & power and bizarre behavior by politicians:

The real bubble is a consequence of big government. The more the citizenry expect from the state, the more our political class will depend on ever more swollen Gulf Emir–sized retinues of staffers hovering at the elbow to steer you from one corner of the fishbowl to another 24/7. “Why are politicians so weird?” a reader asked me after the Sanford press conference. But the majority of people willing to live like this will, almost by definition, be deeply weird. So big government more or less guarantees rule by creeps and misfits. It’s just a question of how well they disguise it. Writing about Michael Jackson a few years ago, I suggested that today’s A-list celebs were the equivalent of Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria or the loopier Ottoman sultans, the ones it wasn’t safe to leave alone with sharp implements. But, as Christopher Hitchens says, politics is showbusiness for ugly people. And a celebrified political culture will inevitably throw up its share of tatty karaoke versions of Britney and Jacko.

After this past week, it’s easy to be reminded that Americans have gotten a raw deal, one they unfortunately all too often continue to enable. I like Steyn’s solution: “Burst the Bubble” of big government.

Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, declared last week that the Obama administration is looking for ways to ratify the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child).

The Obama administration’s operational strategy is to appeal to peer pressure.  We are embarrassed to be the only nation besides Somalia that hasn’t ratified the treaty, aren’t we?  No.

The mistaken focus is on the means, rather than the end.  If there are facts about how American and Somalian children are poorly treated due to the countries not ratifying this treaty, please come out with them. Otherwise, this argument doesn’t explain why we should ratify this treaty.  (And by the way, ParentalRights.org explains that Somalia doesn’t really have a formal government that can ratify the treaty anyway).

Why should we ratify? Has the treaty made a difference elsewhere? (more…)

Earlier today Representative Ed Perlmutter responded to my letter urging him to vote against the Waxman-Markey massive energy “cap and tax” (no doubt with boilerplate language):

As you may know, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 is important legislation to help build a new clean energy economy. This bill will create millions of clean energy jobs, put America on a path to energy independence, and help limit carbon emissions which contribute to global warming. As a supporter of green energy initiatives, I am fortunate for the opportunity to represent Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, which is home to the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) located in Golden. I am a proponent of wind and solar energy as well as other forms of renewable energy and will continue to do all I can to work toward the advancement of a sustainable energy policy to meet our nation’s growing energy demands. It is essential to collectively move in the direction of energy sustainability.

Pleasant words unencumbered by economic realities. A Heritage Foundation analysis released today finds that Colorado’s 7th Congressional District — represented by Perlmutter, where I live — would be in for a major economic shock if Waxman-Markey is enacted. (more…)

Lovers of liberty, it’s not time to be resigned or downtrodden. It’s time to stand up and be heard. This week the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the massive energy tax sometimes known as the Waxman-Markey bill or “Cap and Trade”.

FreedomWorks not only tells you why this bill is bad but provides easy links for you to take action and contact your representative. I already contacted Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s office.

(Of course, we also have the problem of an already very long piece of legislation that has suddenly added several hundred pages. Unlike the stimulus bill, will our Congressman be able to read it all in time? Consider me skeptical.)

As it turns out, the timing of the House vote is proving to be quite ironic. At American Thinker, Larrey Anderson explains how the tide has turned against global warming mythology. There also appears to be more anti-climate hysteria evidence being conveniently covered up by the Environmental Protection Agency.

More specifically, Robert Tracinski and Tom Minchin write over at Real Clear Politics that Australia is getting ready to sink its own proposed “Emission Trading Scheme” — thanks in large part to the scientific work of Ian Plimer.

But even if you accept the “climate change” mantra, the Waxman-Markey bill would do very little (if anything) to stop it at a devastatingly high cost to our economy. Now is the time to stand up.

Update, 1:00 PM: Not surprisingly, as Politico reports, there is more to the story: With news of the affair and bizarre cover-up, down goes Sanford. Very sad.

Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford did what? For eccentricity’s sake, I almost want to hear someone uncover more to the story than the governor of a state dashing off to South America on a whim without telling anyone.

Or maybe we’re just left to wonder why his staff told the media he really was hiking along the Appalachian trail (and may have “flat out lied” about the Argentina story).

To think, just last week I was musing about a possible presidential candidate to support for 2012, and Mark Sanford by default rose to the top of the unofficial and utterly inconsequential list. Now, perhaps, not so much. I’m not exactly sure what the public’s threshold for strange behavior in a potential commander-in-chief is.

When Democrat Colorado Governor Bill Ritter takes week-long international jaunts, he does so during crucial budget debates or travels first class on the taxpayers’ dime. But at least Ritter let people know where he was going.

Simply weird.

El Presidente has posted the slick new video from the Ryan Frazier for U.S. Senate campaign. Check it out. It’s really worth the 2+ minutes to view. Kudos both to the person(s) who recorded the raw video footage of Ryan’s speech and to the person(s) who edited it into a high-quality product.

It looks like “A New Way Forward” is going to be the theme for the Frazier campaign, and if continued to be presented as in this video, it will be effective. After all, who can deny that the Republican Party needs to forge a new way forward?

On a side note, this afternoon only 20 minutes after I received the Frazier campaign email announcing the release of the video I received a fundraising “personal message” from another Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Ken Buck.

Two different fundraising messages from two different Colorado Republican candidates for U.S. Senate in the span of 20 minutes. It’s what … 400-some odd days until the primary?

I’m just saying, the game has changed….

Say what? The Washington Examiner reports that Democrats are proposing to exempt unionized workers from the massive tax hike needed to fund government health care:

With cost estimates already as high as $1.6 trillion, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has proposed paying for the bill in part by taxing health care benefits for workers who earn more than $100,000, or $200,000 for married couples, according to those familiar with the discussions.

Baucus is also weighing a tax based on the value of health care benefits that exceed a yet-to-be determined cap. A tax on benefits that exceed the cap by a mere $3,000 could amount to $750 in taxes annually for a worker who earns as little as $34,000, say experts.

But those union members serving under collective bargaining agreements would not be subjected to the tax, according to proposals under discussion.

Talk about adding insult to injury. Bad for liberty, bad for the economy, bad for health care, bad for taxpayers. And now this? (more…)

I (Ryan, not Ben) haven’t had too much time to write up political thoughts recently, but here are a couple musings:

Nutshell argument against the “public option” being touted by President Obama in the area of health care reform:

As Hugh Hewitt and Congressman John Campbell were explaining as I drove home from work on Friday, if the “public option” is cheaper to corporate and government employers (though not to taxpayers), then employers will largely switch over to it.  At this point, the government will be paying for health care, money will run out, and care will be denied.  (But smile – you will still be insured, along with all the others who can’t get care!)

Our Congressmen and Senators must not enact this “public option.”  With political risks increasing on every side, will Colorado Dems listen to common sense, or walk off the cliff (financially and politically) with fellow party members?

Government Of, For and By the People:

I have been reading Scotland: The Story of a Nation, by Magnus Magnuson.  It is amazing how violent times have been under monarchical government.  Of the first three King James (they reigned in the 1400s), the first and last were killed maliciously and the second accidentally.  There were bloody, treacherous power struggles among the nobles for dominance, influence, and the physical captivity of the young kings as they grew up.

We are blessed to be living in a land of the people, by the people, and for the people — where the peaceful transfer of power is expected as a matter of course.

Cronyism (think pork barrel spending and government larger than its proper scope), unfair elections, loss of an objective moral compass (biblical), and the slow growth of government power over the people (as in health care) are some of the greatest current long-term risks to continued enjoyment of the blessings we now have.

Remember all the pomp and circumstance of four months ago when President Barack Obama flew out here to Denver to sign the “stimulus” bill? The legislation that had to be rushed through? The legislation that was supposed to prevent “irreversible decline” in our economy?

While anyone with decent sense knew the “stimulus” was long-term poison, I can’t say I anticipated how badly it would flounder even in the short-term. The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Hans Bader put together a well-documented Open Market blog post noting that public opinion clearly favors canceling the $787 billion spending spree.

How many of them have watched this unforgettable video?

A few days ago, Mr. Bob posted up the now well-circulated graphic showing how doing nothing would have been better for our nation’s employment situation than the so-called “stimulus”. Yet the Obama administration and fellow Democrat leaders steering the ship of state are convinced the problem is that government isn’t spending the money quickly enough.

God save us. Stand strong, sons of liberty. Get off the sidelines, and get involved.

So some of y’all must be thinkin’ … Whatever happened to that thar’ swine flu thing? Apparently, the World Health Organization is set to issue an alert for a “level 6 pandemic” — the first such designation in 40 years.

Before you start stampeding through the streets in panic, take note:

The declaration of a global epidemic was expected Thursday as WHO officials huddled in an emergency session in Geneva in the wake of 141 swine flu deaths worldwide, including 12 in New York City….

If WHO moves from level 5 to level 6 on its pandemic alert scale, it would be the first flu pandemic declared since the Hong Kong flu killed an estimated 1 million people in 1968.

On Wednesday, WHO reported 27,737 cases worldwide, most of them mild and requiring no treatment.

Are you scratching your head, too? How can a mostly mild H1N1 strain that affects about one-fortieth the number who were killed by the Hong Kong flu evoke the same designation and any meaningful comparison between the two? (more…)

Update: It’s also worth noting that EFCA supporters have engaged in a full-fledged campaign of deception. Someone should ask Senator Michael Bennet if he’s buying it.

We know the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (aka card-check):

• Deprives workers of a secret ballot in workplace elections, exposing them to intimidation
• Imposes costly government bureaucratic intervention in private workplace negotiations
• Threatens to cost our fragile national economy and hard-working Americans of many thousands of jobs

Now, thanks to a new report released by the Workforce Fairness Institute, we see more clearly and concretely the real beneficiaries of this three-headed monster legislation: (more…)

Update, 6/11, 10:30 AM: Impressively, HR 1207 now has 208 Congressional co-sponsors. But only two from Colorado: Republican Doug Lamborn and Democrat Ed Perlmutter. Open government is an important non-partisan issue.

I recently brought readers’ attention to the need to persuade Republican Congressman Mike Coffman to sign on in support of transparency for the nation’s Federal Reserve bank. It’s good to see Face The State join the cause and raise the stakes by urging members of Colorado’s delegation across the political spectrum to back HR 1207.

No two events are perfectly parallel, but seldom are two such similar and terrible stories juxtaposed for our edification. Within 24 hours and within 500 miles from each other, two notable murders occurred — both evil acts perpetrated in public by two different men, but both for apparent ideological reasons, both sudden and horribly unexpected events for the families and loved ones of the victims, both suspects quickly brought into custody.

That’s where the parallels end. What’s most informative is some of the prominent responses to the two incidents: (more…)

I am relieved to learn that U.S. Senate candidate Cleve Tidwell was not posting bizarre online comments himself.

As Mr. Tidwell joins us for tonight’s Blog Talk Radio show, I hope to hear what the campaign learned from this episode. I also hope today’s revelation marks the end of the online astroturfing.

Inquiring minds will be left to wonder who the campaign volunteer was who had access to Mr. Tidwell’s private email address and “might have stepped over the line”.