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Home 2009 Archives for May 2009

Archives for May 2009

5/25/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Memorial Day: “Remembering”

Click here to watch a Complete Colorado video commemorating Memorial Day with a local flavor. Also, The National Moment of Remembrance recommends taking a special respectful moment of silence at 3 PM local time in honor of all the brave American servicemen and women who have fallen in wars past and present. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Commemorative, General, liberty, PPC Tagged With: American, brave, Complete Colorado, Memorial Day, moment of silence, National Moment of Remembrance, past, present, Remembering, servicemen, servicewomen, video, wars

5/25/2009 By Ben 1 Comment

Memorial Day Reflections: Audie Murphy & A Moment for Silent Reflection

On this Memorial Day, I can't think to do any better than point you back to last year's remembrance:O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine. Today, pay your respects to a fallen soldier, sailor, airman, Marine - and to their loved ones still with us. And don’t forget to thank the troops you meet for their service to us all. Happy Memorial Day! Otherwise, I defer to this Saturday Wall Street Journal column by Peggy Noonan (H/T Steve Meyer) on the need to renew American fascination with the military hero. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Commemorative, General, History, liberty, My Life, Random and Miscellaneous Tagged With: airman, Alvin York, America, America the Beautiful, Arlington Cemetery, Audie Murphy, audience, blogger, Business Executives for National Security, Chuck Boyd, column, defer, ephemera, fallen, fascination, father, government, grave, high schooler, last year, life, loved ones, lovely, Marine, Memorial Day, military hero, Mrs. Virtus, nation's capital, Oh, Peggy Noonan, plain GI headstone, podium, POW, psyche, public library, reflection, remembrance, renew, respectful, sailor, service, silence, soldier, thank, troops, veteran, Vietnam, Wall Street Journal, warriors, Washington DC, World War Two

5/23/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

FTS Weekend Edition: Listen to Me Talk Teacher Sick-Out, Contract Impasses

For the handful of you out there who aren't tired of hearing me talk about teachers unions, contract impasses, and sick-outs this week, you can listen to a new interview with Brad Jones on the most recent Face The State weekend edition (Segment 3). You also can hear an interview with U.S. Senate candidate Cleve Tidwell and discussions on some of Face The State's big Colorado stories from the week that just passed. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, Education, General, Labor, My Life, National Politics, PPC Tagged With: Brad Jones, candidate, Cleve Tidwell, Colorado, contract impasses, discussions, Face the State, interview, just passed, listen, sick-outs, stories, teachers unions, U.S. Senate, week, weekend edition

5/22/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Send the NRSC a Message: Send Senate Candidate Marco Rubio $10

Angry about the NRSC's endorsement of Arlen Specter-like Charlie Crist over fiscal conservative Marco Rubio in the Florida open primary, and want to do more about it than gripe or even sign a petition? Then please join me in contributing $10 to Marco Rubio's campaign. As Red State's Erick Erickson correctly points out in his email appeal:The NRSC endorsement has everything to do with making Rubio not viable by cutting off his access to money. Show the NRSC you're not going to stand for its unnecessary and harmful meddling in Florida's open Senate primary. Fill out the form below and give what you can to Rubio's campaign. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fiscal Policy, General, National Politics

5/22/2009 By Ben 4 Comments

Not Exactly the 1984 Detroit Tigers, But Well Ahead of the Cleveland Indians

It's been a couple weeks since my last update on the baseball season for Civil Sense. A great piece in yesterday's Detroit News recounts the amazing feat of the 1984 Tigers' 35-5 start. A quarter century later, this year's Detroit squad is nowhere near the caliber of dominance of the franchise's last world champions. But the Tigers -- winners of six straight -- are like their 1984 predecessors in that they are in first place at the 40-game mark of the season. In this case, 8.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians. Happy Friday! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: My Life, Random and Miscellaneous, Sports and Leisure Tagged With: 1984, 40-game mark, ahead of, baseball season, caliber, Civil Sense, Cleveland Indians, Detroit News, Detroit Tigers, dominance, first place, franchise, predecessors, season, squad, world champions

5/22/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Big Labor Ramps Up Pro-EFCA Efforts with Biased Report, Religious Lobbyists

Update, 10:00 AM: Labor Pains' Justin Wilson has a more thorough refutation of Big Labor's new report here. In an effort to ramp up their efforts to pass the Employee Forced Choice Act (EFCA), Big Labor is touting a new report that suggests employers are rampantly breaking the law (PDF) during union organizing elections. The problem? The report's data all are based on interviews with union organizers -- hardly an unbiased source. But anything goes. While Big Labor appeals to EFCA apologists who need rational cover with impressive-sounding reports, it seems they also think they must appeal to the populist masses of religious believers. So they have sent clergy member lobbyists to Washington, DC, to insist that card-check legislation is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, Labor, liberty, National Politics, PPC Tagged With: advocacy, aligned, American, apologists, appeal, appointed, balance, believers, Big Labor, binding arbitration, breaking the law, card-check, chances, clergy member, coercion, Colorado, Democrat, deprive, economy, EFCA, efforts, elections, emerge, Employee Forced Choice Act, Employer Advantage, employers, expensive, George McGovern, God, Heritage Foundation, impressive-sounding, interviews, intimidation, jobs, labor law, legislation, liberal icon, lobbyists, mandatory, manufactured, masses, Michael Bennet, moral imperative, myth, nation's capital, new report, opposes, payouts, phenomenon, political desperation, populist, pro-union, procedures, protect, ramp up, rational cover, religious, Religious Left, secret ballot, skewing, social justice, source, stars, struggling, tactics, teetering, thousands, transparent, twin, U.S. Senator, unbiased, union, union organizers, union organizing, Washington DC, weak, weeks, workers, workplace

5/21/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Best Destiny’s Michael Co-Authors Book to Help You Find Your Best Destiny

It's always great to see someone you know hit the market with a book published under their name. In this case, it's Michael Alcorn -- one of Colorado's most veteran conservative bloggers and a charter member of the Rocky Mountain Alliance of Blogs. You may know him better as the man behind Best Destiny. Michael has co-authored Get It: Wake Up NOW(!) to Build Your Perfect Life:Get It is a Book / program designed to help YOU design your perfect life. While this book targets young adults ages 16 - 24, the book and program is helpful to people of all ages who simply want to get it. The way we view things, the world is broken down into those people who "Get It" and those who "Don't Get It". "Get what?" you might ask. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Tagged With: adults, advice, all ages, Best Destiny, bloggers, book, broken down, charter member, co-authored, Colorado, conservative, copy, Get It, graduation, learned, life lessons, looking for, market, Michael Alcorn, name, online, people, present, published, Rocky Mountain Alliance, solicited, surveyed, thoughts, valuable, veteran, world, years, young adults

5/20/2009 By Ben 11 Comments

Memo to NRSC: Stay out of Colorado’s Republican Senate Primary

Update, 5/20: John Hawkins at Right Wing News has posted the following petition to the NRSC (to which I have added my name at the end):Dear Senator Cornyn, We the undersigned believe that the National Republican Senatorial Committee should be committed to serving ALL the members of the Republican Party. Additionally, the NRSC should be focused on defeating Democrats, not Republicans. Towards that end, we believe it was completely inappropriate for the NRSC to endorse a candidate in the Florida primary race. Therefore, we request that both you and the NRSC alter your position on the Florida Senate race, maintain neutrality, and promise to spend no money directly or indirectly in that race. Sincerely yours, Ben DeGrow Mount … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, National Politics, PPC Tagged With: announcement, candidates, chairman, Charlie Crist, Colorado, decide, developing, endorsement, Florida, foolish, friendly memo, Jim Geraghty, John Cornyn, Mario Rubio, National Republican Senatorial Committee, NRSC, open primary, race, Republicans, skeptical

5/20/2009 By Ben 1 Comment

Look at Both Gallup Polls: Republicans Have an Opportunity, If They’ll Take It

Two Gallup polls, released on the same day: Monday, May 18. Wildly different headlines. Part of a bigger story, but some can only seem to latch on to one or the other. Those who trumpeted the results of the survey showing across-the-board demographic losses for the Republican Party since 2001 (conducted from January to April of this year) might also want to note the results of the survey showing Republican-leaning support matching Democrat-leaning support for the first time in nearly four years. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, liberty, National Politics, PPC Tagged With: across the board, administration, advantage, Barack Obama, Big Government, bigger, blob, brand, business as usual, California, coalition, Congress, dealings, Deep Blue, Democrats, demographic, depth, different, election cycles, election time, fade away, fiscally conservative, gaffes, Gallup, generation, genuine alternative, George Bush, GOP, headlines, hint, interesting times, interpretation, irrelevance, leaning, losses, majority, majority status, Nancy Pelosi, opportunity, overwhelming, policies, politicians, polls, profligate, program, regain, rejection, Republican Party, results, serious, skirts, solutions-oriented, squandering, story, support, survey, tax-and-spend, voters

5/19/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Talking to Mike Rosen about the Boulder Teacher “Sickout” & Other Labor Issues

Feeling ill because of the teacher sickout in Boulder Valley School District? Another 269 teachers came down with the phantom cough today. Few things can drive people as crazy as trying to figure out the ins-and-outs of Colorado labor laws and policies, and how they apply to teachers and possible teacher strikes. So Mike Rosen had me on his show this morning (check May 19, 9 AM hour ... I come on during the second half of the hour) to give the lowdown and shed some more light on the goings-on in Boulder. If you're bored, or maybe sick at home with the blue flu, please take time to listen and let me know what you think. Thanks also to Complete Colorado for the kind link. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Education, Fiscal Policy, General, Labor, liberty, My Life, PPC Tagged With: blue flu, Boulder Valley School District, Colorado, Complete Colorado, crazy, ill, kind, labor laws, link, listen, Mike Rosen, phantom cough, show, sickout, teacher, teacher strikes, this morning

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About Me

Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

Recent Posts

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To Contact Me:
bendegrow-at-gmail.com

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