(Satire Warning) Breaking news… El Presidente releases an important campaign-related announcement this morning: He is NOT running for the U.S. Senate in 2010. I heartily endorse El Presidente’s non-candidacy.

And for the three of my readers out there who might be wondering, yours truly is still carefully weighing the possibility of opening an exploratory committee to enter the six1,013,476-way GOP primary. Stay tuned….

After you go to the Hands Off My Health Care Bus Tour, don’t forget to show up to a townhall meeting with your Congressional Representative — Democrat or Republican — to share your views and ask the tough questions about Obama Care.

For those who like me live in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, there’s one scheduled meeting with Democrat Congressman Ed Perlmutter:

Aug 08, 2009
Time: 1:00PM
Title : Government in the Grocery (1:00-3:00pm)
King Soopers 500 Bromley Lane Brighton, CO 80601

That’s this Saturday in the remote outstretches of the gerrymandered district. Perhaps Perlmutter’s staff will agree to host meetings in Aurora and on the west side of Denver (Lakewood / Wheat Ridge / Arvada), too. At least we can hope for such a change.

Not sure what to ask? Mark Hillman points to five key questions brought forward by the Heritage Foundation. On the State Policy Network blog, King Banaian offers five more questions and suggests printing questions out and distributing them among friends at the townhall meeting of your choice.

So what are you waiting for?

From Red State, the uncut video showing what Obama wants to do to your private health insurance:

Does this qualify as “disinformation” from the President’s own lips? Someone should report him, or me, to the White House.

Makes you wonder if the White House is also going to start collecting reports of “disinformation” on the cap-and-trade energy tax issue, too. After all, the Washington Times reports that a new study from the U.S. Department of Energy refutes The One’s claims that cap-and-tax “holds the promise of millions of new jobs — jobs, by the way, that can’t be outsourced.”

… Is that something fishy I smell? Someone may have to report the U.S. Department of Energy, too.

So the White House wants to know if any of your friends or neighbors are resisting the party line on Obama Care:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Jon Henke follows up with the logical question: “What, exactly, does the White House plan to do with this information?” An excellent question that hopefully gets answered by supposedly the most transparent presidential administration ever.

A variety of other takes and responses are posted at Michelle Malkin, Right Wing News, Ace of Spades, Blue Collar Muse, Net Right Nation, Q and O, Publius Forum, Granite Grok, Stix Blog, Thurber’s Thoughts, and Living the Grand Life.

Personally, I like the idea one Next Right commenter had … fight silliness with silliness. So I just dashed off a similar email of my own to the address above: (more…)

Update: As Face The State’s revealing story today reminds us, another good venue to express your views is at a townhall meeting hosted by your representative. Here in the 7th Congressional, Democrat Ed Perlmutter is hosting but one such meeting during the summer recess, and it’s this Saturday …
Aug 08, 2009
Time: 1:00PM
Title : Government in the Grocery (1:00-3:00pm)
King Soopers 500 Bromley Lane Brighton, CO 80601

The Hands Off My Health Care Bus Tour is making its way around Colorado later this week. The tour provides the opportunity to build on the grassroots momentum generated by last week’s rallies along the Front Range.

Hope you can make it to a location near you to show your opposition to the Obama Care government takeover and your support for patient-friendly, free market reforms: (more…)

The rumors look as though they indeed are true: Politico talks to former Congressman Bob Beauprez and learns that he is “leaning towards running” for the seat held by appointed U.S. Senator Michael Bennet.

Looking back at the 2006 debacle that was the campaign for governor, Swing State Project raises the serious, fair, and open-ended question of whether Beauprez is the man to beat Bennet. Senate Watch over at Rocky Mountain Right offers similarly subtle sentiments.

My initial reaction? (more…)

Still have any lingering doubts that Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress plan to destroy — albeit gradually — private health insurance and bring about single-payer government health-care with the so-called “Public Option”? Then take two minutes and watch this:

Then realize either how completely ignorant or utterly disingenuous my Democratic Congressman Ed Perlmutter is when he responds to me with a letter that includes this brief paragraph:

Public Option- By introducing a public option, Americans will have more choices for their health care needs. If they like their current plan, they will be able to keep it, but this provides another choice in healthcare to those who don’t have it, or who can’t afford it.

Also, let’s add the Naked Emperor News contribution to the pantheon of must-see YouTube videos on the current debate over Obama Care:

• The problem with health insurance mandates and getting hit by a bus while bicycling
• Steven Crowder’s Canadian field trip and undercover expose
• The Health Administration Bureau in classic Newsreel style
• John Stossel of ABC News documents the dangers of government-run health care

Here’s some sobering news to end the weekend with — from the Times of London:

Iran has perfected the technology to create and detonate a nuclear warhead and is merely awaiting the word from its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to produce its first bomb, Western intelligence sources have told The Times.

The sources said that Iran completed a research programme to create weaponised uranium in the summer of 2003 and that it could feasibly make a bomb within a year of an order from its Supreme Leader.

The clock is ticking. It’s time for strong leadership. In the midst of serious debates about health care, energy, taxes, government spending, and Supreme Court nominees, the world remains a very dangerous place.

You haven’t heard of the Steamboat Institute? Well, neither had I, until recently. But it’s an organization co-founded by my Leadership Program of the Rockies classmate Jennifer Schubert-Akin, and it’s dedicated to five principles:

• Limited Government
• Lower Taxes
• Free Markets
• Strong National Defense
• Individual Rights and Responsibilities

The group is getting off to a strong start by hosting a conference on August 28 and 29 at the Steamboat Grand Hotel in beautiful Steamboat Springs, Colorado, featuring some big name champions of the free market, limited government, pro-liberty movement, including:

• Grover Norquist
• Congressman Mike Pence, Indiana
• Michael Reagan
• Former president John Adams ???

Hey, I think seeing a 270-year-old Founding Father in the flesh might be worth the price of admission by itself. And what about the excuse of getting to spend a weekend in God’s country? If you can do it, go for it!

If you can make it to this event, please plug my friend Matt Arnold, and let him know with a Facebook message that he encouraged you to sign up for the conference (because he encouraged me to write this post). But please do it today, if you can!!

Rather than take the time to write a substantial, coherent post on any one topic on this Friday, July 31 — the birthday of the late, great Milton Friedman — I offer you four quick hits to amuse, inspire, frustrate, and activate. Without further ado: (more…)

If things keep up, we soon may be unable to fit all of Colorado’s Republican candidates for U.S. Senate in a phone booth. (How long before the phone booth loses broad cultural recognition? Where does Clark Kent go to change his identity? But I digress….)

Already in the race are Ryan Frazier, Ken Buck, and Cleve Tidwell. I received an email announcement today that Crested Butte attorney Luke Korkowski is officially on board. Senate Watch at Rocky Mountain Right reports that Tom Wiens is about to enter the race. And I’m hearing rumors that former Congressman Bob Beauprez soon may throw his hat into the ring.

If it all develops, we may start needing some sort of official guide to keep track of who’s who and what’s what. Regardless, the race can’t credibly sustain more than a few candidates — who need both strong fundraising and grassroots volunteers to survive. Depending on the decisions of Wiens and Beauprez, we may see one or two of the lesser candidates soon fade further into the background and quietly off the radar screen.

Meanwhile, for the political observer, it has the potential to be fun. So pop up some popcorn and sit back. It could be a crazy ride.

Last week we released the results from our mid-summer survey of Colorado’s political temperature. In the meantime we’ve added some more analysis that suggests profiles of support for certain candidates. Without further ado, here’s our amateur cross-tab analysis that raises the question … Is there a 2010 Republican “youth” ticket emerging here in Colorado, and what are the implications? (click on the magnifying glass icon to zoom in, or on the top icon right for a full-screen view): (more…)

El Presidente at Slapstick Politics followed up Tuesday’s top-notch coverage of the anti-Obama Care rally in Denver with links to Wednesday’s action further north and south along Colorado’s Front Range.

Andrew Boucher has the lowdown on the Fort Collins showdown that saw more than three times as many activists out in opposition to the government health care takeover than their counterparts.

Another source tells me that about 1,200 people showed up to protest Obama Care in Colorado Springs. You can find pictures from the event posted here.

Makes you wonder if our elected officials are paying any heed.

Back from technology-imposed blogging exile, Joshua has christened the new-look View from a Height with a terrific catch of Democrat state senator Morgan Carroll on a “fact-finding” expedition to prep the next round of attacks on the state’s privately-funded Pinnacol Assurance. Both he and I find Carroll’s response less than persuasive. What say you?

Talk about betraying your ignorance in service of political posturing. Looking for a way to cling to the idea that Colorado ranks 49th in something and bash the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights over the head, the Dead Guvs jumped on one particular set of rankings in the latest U.S. Census Bureau school funding data — with an attempted one-two punch on supporters of government spending limitations and on the Southern states:

We like to imagine that it’s Mississippi, Alabama, or another stereotype Deep South state that saves Colorado every year from ranking dead-last in education spending as a percentage of income. Okay, Florida then. Close enough.

The problem is threefold, and bears out when you look at the actual rankings (PDF). First, measuring spending as a percentage of personal income punishes states with greater earning power — the best way to increase your ranking is to make less money. As a result, West Virginia ranks fourth, Georgia 10th, Arkansas 11th, Mississippi 13th, South Carolina 16th, Alabama 21st. Meanwhile, Connecticut ranks 33rd, Illinois 35th, Maryland 37th, Minnesota 42nd, and Washington state 48th.

Second, there is absolutely no correlation between funding as a percentage of personal income and any measurable outputs in education. Florida, the only state below Colorado on this particular ranking, has been one of the most remarkable success stories in achievement gains — especially among its poor and minority populations — due to its wide-ranging reforms that promote choice, accountability, and excellence … without a huge infusion of funding.

Third, and it’s a minor point, Colorado hasn’t even ranked 49th in this particular category for several years.

Besides, it all depends on how you measure per-pupil spending. And even the Denver Post knows enough to observe that “Spending should not be viewed in isolation.”

It’s sad to see the Dead Guvs stuck in a tired debate that has moved forward. Find another way to do your TABOR-bashing.