Mount Virtus

"Happy to come back to Michigan, but I miss the mountains!"

Ben on Social Media

Home Archives for Ben

By 2 Comments

Memo to National GOP: Wake Up and FIGHT the Obama Care Travesty

Over at Red State, Erick Erickson outlines what Senate Republicans should be doing right now and in the coming days to slow down the anti-liberty Obama Care beast opposed by most Americans. Among many others, Erick makes this salient point:If the Republicans want the news media to cover what they are doing to educate the American people even further about the atrociousness of this bill, they have to create drama on the floor of the Senate. The national Republican party is flirting dangerously with proving itself an entirely ineffectual ally of liberty and limited government. If they can't fight the government health care takeover with all they have now, how can they be trusted in any meaningful way as fellow Guards of our future … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Thanks to Recovery.Gov, Time to Learn about Connecticut’s Fighting 42nd CD

It's Friday, time to lighten up ... Remember all those extra phantom congressional districts on the $18 million federal government boondoggle Recovery.gov? Well, apparently they provide a fabulous educational opportunity. Compliments of the Franklin Center and the Colbert Report, here's your chance to learn about Connecticut's "Fighting" 42nd Congressional District. Prepare to laugh: … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

State Supremes’ ID Theft Ruling Lifts Case for Clear The Bench Colorado

One of the most tireless conservative grassroots organizers I know today received a small but certainly plum reward for his hard work. I'm talking about Matt Arnold from Clear the Bench Colorado, and the plug he received in a Valerie Richardson Washington Times article about another controversial Colorado Supreme Court decision: … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

The Substance Missing from Obama’s Afghanistan Speech at West Point

I listened carefully to Barack Obama's West Point speech yesterday evening -- at least as best I could while indulging the important concerns of the two Little Virtuses and ultimately having to turn off the radio to sit down for dinner. By that point I could tell the speech had dragged on too long for the relatively small amount of substance it contained. I don't need to go into great depth: Powerline's Paul Mirengoff and Red State's Erick Erickson offer excellent analyses of the politics, policies and rhetoric. (And Don Johnson asks where Colorado Republican Senatorial hopefuls Jane Norton, Ken Buck and Tom Wiens come down on Afghanistan.) Meanwhile, if you want to find the depth of substance on the military challenges we face, and … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Climate Change Fanatics Growing More Open about Anti-Liberty Agenda

Update, 10:15 AM: Good luck getting someone like Mr. Tidwell to confront the fallout from Climategate, including this revelation from one of the lead authors of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who said: "The process is so flawed that the result is tantamount to fraud. As an authority, the IPCC should be consigned to the scrapheap without delay." In the wake of the telling Climategate revelations, it's very interesting to see the mask come off the fanatical climate change crowd. The Denver Post ran a Sunday opinion piece by Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network that ought to make your skin crawl. See what I mean -- Tidwell writes:Instead of continuing our faddish and counterproductive emphasis … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Celebrating the Independence Institute’s Silver Anniversary This Evening

This evening the Independence Institute celebrates its 25th anniversary with a sold-out Founders' Night dinner featuring keynote speaker P.J. O'Rourke. It should be a good family reunion of sorts. Count me as one of the crazy, freedom-fighting cousins. No one in the area is better at leveraging the media spotlight than my boss Jon Caldara. Witness today's perfect-pitch feature by the Denver Post's Jessica Fender:Asked what has allowed Colorado's free-market think tank, the Independence Institute, to live long enough for a 25th-anniversary celebration tonight, the organization's famously bawdy president offers a joke. "Embezzlement," says Jon Caldara. "Embezzlement and glossy black-and-white photographs of politicians in compromising … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

“Strange Method” of Cashiers Check Deposit Raises Questions for Stephanie Villafuerte, Ritter Inaugural Fund

You thought Governor Bill Ritter's ethical troubles with his inaugural fund were old news? You thought the saga of Ritter staffer and Obama US Attorney nominee Stephanie Villafuerte would only make one headline today? Well, my friends, things may have grown much more intriguing with the revelation in a new investigation from my Independence Institute colleague Todd Shepherd: … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Friday PM Quick Hits

A devastating story for the scaremongering "climate change" religionists breaks today because of illegal hacking activity: Climate Audit, "Mike's nature trick" Ed Morrissey, Hot Air, "Do hacked e-mails show global warming fraud?" Paul Chesser, American Spectator, "Get that hacker a pimp coat" On a different note, George Will has a great column about the power of states to nullify a coercive Obama Care law -- a Plan B I hope we can keep in mothballs. … [Read more...]