Getting caught up in the intense, day-to-day political and policy battles over the health care reform debate, it can be helpful from time to time to step back and take a look at the big picture. Not that I have time myself, but I can point you to two excellent pieces that do just that. First, National Review's Ivan Kenneally identifies evidence of a disturbing trend emerging in the current political showdown. Key quote to whet your appetite:Unfortunately, the contempt for public debate is one of the hallmarks of Obama’s technocratic approach to politics — in place of a healthy and democratic deference to public opinion, we get the assurance of expertise that comes with a bevy of special-issue czars. Meanwhile, the always … [Read more...]
Complete Colorado: 200-300 Show Up to Ed Perlmutter Townhall Meeting
Update, 10:30 PM: People's Press Collective has released its first coverage (with plenty of telling photos) of the meeting in Brighton: Perlmutter "immediately went into a roped-off area of the portico, announced he’d be there for two hours, and then retreated to the even more isolated alcove with a half-dozen (apparent) constituents and bodyguards. At which point he was taunted by the non-Democrats in the crowd for being a coward for hiding in the portico — and yes, it was blatantly obvious that that is what he was doing: isolating himself in a controllable space so as to avoid having to interact with the crowd directly. While the crowd was vocal (on both sides) for the first 45 minutes or so, there were no obvious altercations, nor … [Read more...]
More Beautiful All the Time
(H/T Vodkapundit) The Daily Mail reports on a study that says women are getting more attractive. Ain't nothing wrong with that! But then it contains this gem:Researchers demonstrated that beautiful people are 36 per cent more likely to have a daughter than a son as their first born child. That's the lovely Mrs. Virtus I'm talking about. … [Read more...]
Time to Tell Mark Udall and Michael Bennet ‘No’ on Hate Crime Bill S.909
A couple of the questions on our survey of Colorado's political temperature (still open through Friday, July 17, at 5 PM) relate to the concept of hate crimes legislation currently before Congress. Well, I guess it's not a mystery where I stand on the issue. With the Sotomayor confirmation hearings eating up what little media oxygen exists for national political issues, these days, S.909 can be easily overlooked. But as Carter Clews explains at Net Right Nation, it shouldn't be:That's right, S. 909 -- aka, the "hate crimes bill" -- being pushed through by the Obama Administration as one of its highest legislative priorities would make it a federal crime to commit a violent act against anyone based on race or gender orientation -- unless … [Read more...]
Josh Penry Hits the Stump: A Promising GOP Candidate for Governor Emerges
Earlier this evening I got the opportunity briefly to attend a Josh Penry for Governor meet-and-greet session in Broomfield. The campaign is just out of the gate, and the Grand Junction native is busily plowing his way around Colorado. No doubt he's been on a hectic schedule, but Penry demonstrated a good stump speech delivery, staying on message. I am pleased to see him make no bones about the national Republican Party's failure to govern according to fiscally conservative principles, and his clear decision to run against that failing as well as against incumbent Bill Ritter's weak leadership, misguided philosophy, and misplaced priorities. … [Read more...]
New Gallup Poll Provides Clear Road Map for Republican Themes in 2010
Gallup yesterday posted the results of a very interesting poll that shows far more Americans self-identifying in a conservative direction than in a liberal direction. Brian Faughnan at Red State has it about right concerning the broad message of the poll:I think it’s a growing distrust of what they view as the liberal agenda of this Congress and this president. At the same time, when you break down the poll on an issue-by-issue basis, Rossputin makes a great case that on most issues Americans are tending to move in a libertarian direction. It's hard to say how much the broad shift against environmental policies that harm the economy and against restrictive immigration policies are the result of our current economic situation versus a … [Read more...]
Really Wanting to Know More About Why Mr. Curtis Left the Colorado GOP
Congratulations appear to be in order for Jeremy Pelzer, who has landed some sort of gig at the new online Rocky Mountain Independent. Jeremy's fairly long feature today is the latest Colorado GOP postmortem piece, with the standard news hook of a lifelong moderate Republican switching parties in disgust:The Colorado Republican Party has had few supporters more loyal than Brandon Curtis. The 32-year-old sales marketer from Denver had voted straight Republican in every election since he first cast a ballot in 1996. Last year, he was a delegate for John McCain in the Republican presidential caucus. But in the general election last November, Curtis voted Democratic for the first time in his life, picking Barack Obama and Mark Udall for … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Rebukes Sotomayor’s Dismissive Approach to Basic Fairness
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: … [Read more...]
Mark Steyn: Burst Bubbles of Big Government and Political Soap Operas
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. … [Read more...]
UNCRC – Imminent Threat
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 … [Read more...]
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