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Of Capitalism and Safe Meat: Happy Meal Vouchers for Poor Students?

Ever the libertarian wit, Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi highlights some "lessons in capitalism" based on a new USA Today investigation that finds safer meat at your local fast-food restaurant than in the government's National School Lunch Program for poorer students. "Doesn’t the USDA care about the children?" Harsanyi asks with more than a hint of sarcasm. Seeing his thoughts in writing made me think: Perhaps we should be giving poorer students vouchers to buy Happy Meals for school lunches? I don't know about the value of such an idea as a practical policy prescription. However, the mere fact I'm bringing it up might make some heads spin in the USDA office on the floor below the Independence Institute where I work. Let's … [Read more...]

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Listen to Colorado Loses’ Podcast Update: AFSCME’s Mass Mail Screwup

Last Saturday I reported that thousands of Colorado state employees who never signed up to join a union were barraged with membership cards from the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) -- one of the union partners in the "Colorado WINS" coalition brought to life by Governor Bill Ritter's 2007 executive order. Well, apparently, AFSCME somehow reversed their membership and non-membership lists, and in the process annoyed a lot of state workers and wasted tons of paper. As to where they found the home addresses, the State of Colorado says it didn't hand them out. And I guess AFSCME isn't telling. Click the play button below (or follow this link) to hear a 10-minute podcast as state employee and "The … [Read more...]

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Unified Behind the Notion that GOP Primaries and Unity CAN Co-Exist

Rocky Mountain Right brings our attention to an important story from another part of Colorado that sharply undermines one of the prevailing pieces of accepted wisdom among certain Republican elites in our state. From the Steamboat Pilot and Today, about the three-way Republican primary in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District:“You may not actually, for the most part, be able to slip a piece of paper between what any of us are going to be standing for, with the Republican candidates,” [state Rep. Scott] Tipton said last week. “I will not delineate differences between myself and them. … I’m not running against them, I’m running against John Salazar, and we’ll let the voters decide who should carry the banner.” [Bob] McConnell echoed that … [Read more...]

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Someone Doesn’t Like Senator Mark Udall’s Autoreply Form Letters

This was forwarded to me a little while ago. Someone named Kathy from Evergreen apparently (and doubtless with good reason) is not happy with the responsiveness of Congress to her concerns about Obama Care and a rapidly growing and spending federal government. She took a mechanical form letter from Colorado Democrat U.S. Senator Mark Udall's office and interjected her own thoughts in italics. I gathered a screenshot and pasted it below (click "fullscreen" and use the "Zoom" for greater reading ease): … [Read more...]

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One More Reason to Oppose Latest Obama Care, Attend Code Red Rally

So you're not convinced that the new Harry Reid Senate health care "compromise" is bad news for your health care freedom and the nation's fiscal sanity? Need a reason to show up during lunchtime next Tuesday, December 15, at the Code Red Health Care rally in your city, and speak your mind to our U.S. Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet? How about the fact that, as Red State's Brian Faughnan reports, the "compromise" was crafted by none other than Howard Dean with the belief that it will strengthen bureaucracy and lead more people into single-payer government health care? Yeah, I thought that would wake you up -- if you're not already. Meanwhile, Michael Barone breaks down what it will take for the Democrats to cram through a bill … [Read more...]

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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...]

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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...]

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Ryan Frazier Touts Endorsements from Wide Range of “Influential Coloradans”

As Don at Business Word notes, the Ryan Frazier campaign yesterday touted a list of endorsements from "nearly one hundred influential Coloradans" in his bid to be the next Congressman from the 7th District. Yes, the list contains the names of some heavy-hitters -- including Phil Anschutz, Pete Coors, Attorney General John Suthers, and former Governor Bill Owens. But at least as telling to me is that Ryan Frazier has earned the support from both my friends Jessica Corry and Libby Szabo, the last two Republican candidates for state senate District 19. Why so significant? Jessica is a young up-and-comer from the more libertarian wing of the party. Libby is more of a traditional conservative and a longtime activist well known in Jefferson … [Read more...]

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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...]