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6/9/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

RMA Blog Talk Radio Tonight at 8:30: Dan Maes and More

Tune in tonight at 8:30 PM local Mountain time for the 30th edition of Rocky Mountain Alliance Blog Talk Radio. Our (re)scheduled guest is Evergreen businessman Dan Maes to talk about his grassroots campaign for Colorado's Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2010. If all goes as planned, another guest should be in the works as well. If you miss the live show, you can go back and download the podcast, or just use the handy widget on my sidebar to listen directly from Mount Virtus. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General

6/8/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Learning from Bill Ritter’s Four Mistakes (so far) in the Senate Bill 180 Veto

I asked before if Bill Ritter called the bluff of Big Labor with his veto of Senate Bill 180. If we're to judge by last Friday's union-organized rally, then Ritter made a mistake. To see what I mean, take a step over to Face The State's slideshow, and see signs like "Why does Ritter hate fire fighters?" and "Ritter lied to my dad" (or just Senator Lois Tochtrop's angry expression). Of course, Ritter didn't make a mistake from the standpoint of choosing good policy over bad policy. But he has made four mistakes surrounding this issue: Don't make promises you don't intend to keep. Backroom campaign promises can come back to burn you. As observed at ColoradoPols and demonstrated by the little girl's "Ritter lied to my dad" sign, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: blogging, clean government, Colorado Politics, General, Labor, PPC Tagged With: angry, apparently, astroturfing, backroom, bad policy, Big Labor, Bill Ritter, blogosphere, bluff, bulk, burn, called, campaign, chief executive, ColoradoPols, compared, conveyed, damaging, decision, Democrat, Denver Post, enjoy, expression, Face the State, feet, fire fighters, fires, forced, good policy, harping, hide, intend, judge, keep, kill, labor bills, lied, Lois Tochtrop, media, minor, mistake, news conference, observed, offense, Party, politically, promises, prop, public, rally, Rocky Mountain Right, save, SB 180, Senate Bill 180, senator, show, sign, sit back, slideshow, standpoint, state house, state senate, stoked, support, threefold, traction, union-organized, veto, whoops

6/6/2009 By Ben 1 Comment

D-Day Plus 65 Years

Last night I watched again the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan. It's hard to put such moving sacrifice into perspective, on this the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion to begin the liberation of Europe. But I leave you with portions of two relevant addresses -- one contemporaneous and one retrospective. First, from General Dwight D. Eisenhower on the eve of invasion:You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Commemorative, General, History, liberty, Movie Reviews, PPC Tagged With: 65th anniversary, 67th anniversary, achievement, addresses, Allies, American, appreciation, Army Rangers, Battle of Midway, behalf, belief, boys, brave, cliffs, conquest, countries, country, D-Day invasion, democracy, Dwight Eisenhower, dying, dying for, Europe, faith, fitting, force, forget, France, free people, generation, German, Great Crusade, humanity, ideals, liberation, liberty-loving people, listen, loyalty, men, moral difference, Nazi tyranny, never, Normanday, opening scenes, oppressed peoples, Pacific, perspective, Pointe du Hoc, profound, reflect, Ronald Reagan, sacrifice, Saving Private Ryan, Second World War, serving, show, tide, tremendous, trenches, turned, ultimately, veterans, war, war machine

6/5/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Is Bill Ritter’s SB 180 Veto a Dare to Big Labor to Challenge His Office?

Update, 9:30 AM: AFL-CIO press release in response to Ritter's SB 180 veto pasted below the fold. Also, Amy Oliver notes that several legislators from northern Colorado went against the will of the people in voting for SB 180 -- having benefited from thousands in labor campaign contributions. Yesterday I gave Governor Bill Ritter kudos for the veto of SB 180. Today's Denver Post follow-up by Lynn Bartels is headlined with the statement that Rep. Edward Casso and organized labor interests see the decision as a "tipping point". It could be my imagination, but I got the impression from reading the story that Ritter essentially is saying something like this to the unions:So yeah, I have this penchant of making a wide spectrum of different … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, Labor, PPC Tagged With: bad policy, Big Labor, Bill Ritter, Chamber of Commerce, change his mind, dare, decision, Democrat, Denver Post, different, Edward Casso, follow-up, good policy, Governor, groups, imagination, impression, indecisive, intentions, interests, issue, known, kudos, labor unions, last minute, Lynn Bartels, mad, motivation, Municipal League, open enemy, organized labor, penchant, politics, prevented, primary, SB 180, story, string along, tipping point, Unions, veto, wait

6/4/2009 By Ben 1 Comment

Kudos to Bill Ritter for SB 180 Veto: Good Public Policy Beats Out Politics

It's not often I laud Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, but he is to be commended today for choosing good public policy over political pressures by vetoing Senate Bill 180 -- the firefighter collective bargaining legislation. While Ritter's official statement put the matter more diplomatically than I have, he didn't buy the phony argument about firefighter safety:Third, the debate on this bill raised important issues about firefighter safety, but there are better ways to address these issues than mandatory collective bargaining in certain communities. We must address firefighter safety at the state level. Doing so ensures that all areas of Colorado can benefit. Under this bill, however, the safety issues would only be addressed in the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, Labor, PPC Tagged With: announcement, argument, Big Labor, Bill Ritter, choosing, Collective Bargaining, Colorado, Colorado Municipal League, commended, decision, Democrats, diplomatically, escalate, fire chiefs, firefighters, gain, good, Governor, how long, incumbent, intra-party, jurisdictions, laud, legislation, LIAR, mandatory, official, often, open fire, phony, political pressures, politically, public policy, question, safety, Senate Bill 180, sparing, standard, state level, statement, statewide, today, veto, warfare, wrath

6/4/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Ritter, Kennedy, and Morse Loosening Fiscal Knot for Taxpayers’ Necks

Today's Denver Post news story on Governor Bill Ritter's signing of Senate Bill 228 offers the generous headline: "Colorado's fiscal knot loosens". I've taken the liberty to complete the thought with my own sub-headline: "Noose nearly large enough to fit around taxpayers' necks". The article is correct insofar as it points out that the impact of this bill in repealing limits on the growth of discretionary government spending likely won't be felt for a couple years. But that provides little solace, especially when you listen to the righteous confusion coming from the Democratic cast of characters behind this anti-taxpayer legislation. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, liberty, media bias, PPC Tagged With: 10-point margin, 2010, Amendment 59, another dimension, battle plan, Bill Ritter, black, California, Cary Kennedy, caucus, Colorado, complete, conflicting, crystal clear, Democratic, Democrats, Denver Post, disaster, discretionary, down, expounds, Face the State, fight, fiscal knot, fiscal troubles, fitting, generous, Gordian knot, government, government spending, Governor, growth, headline, heaping, heart, increase, John Morse, liberty, limits, majority leader, measures, memo, mess, message, multi-billion dollar, necks, news, noose, November, offers, old-fashioned, prudent, rainy day fund, raise, reasonable, recipe, repeal, repealing, righteous, Rod Serling, sacred, Senate Bill 228, shell game, shooting down, signing, simple, soul, spending, stake, state budget, state senate, state treasurer, step, story, sub-headline, TABOR, tax dollars, tax-and-spend, taxes, taxpayers, thought, trip, up, vote, voters, white, work

6/3/2009 By Ben 2 Comments

Continuing the Tiller & Long Discussion

Update, 6/4: Thanks to a comment left by Politically Correct Death author Francis Beckwith, I refer you to his newer and more relevant book Defending Life. I'll have to check it out myself very soon. Update, 9:30 PM: My final thought (for now) on the matter, from Doug Wilson: "The question is whether you would be willing to reduce a society to anarchy for the sake of saving that kid, when you (should) know that the anarchy you introduce is going to be responsible for the deaths of far more children than you managed to save." And for further edification, I will commend the thoughts of Dr. Albert Mohler as being squarely right on the matter. Thanks to one of the more thoughtful liberals I know, David Thielen, a link to this morning's … [Read more...]

Filed Under: blogging, Christianity and Faith, Colorado Politics, Cultural Conservatism, Fiscal Policy, Labor, liberty, My Life, World Events

6/3/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Lessons: Unparallel Treatment of George Tiller & William Long Murders

No two events are perfectly parallel, but seldom are two such similar and terrible stories juxtaposed for our edification. Within 24 hours and within 500 miles from each other, two notable murders occurred -- both evil acts perpetrated in public by two different men, but both for apparent ideological reasons, both sudden and horribly unexpected events for the families and loved ones of the victims, both suspects quickly brought into custody. That's where the parallels end. What's most informative is some of the prominent responses to the two incidents: … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christianity and Faith, Colorado Politics, Cultural Conservatism, General, History, liberty, National Politics, World Events Tagged With: abortionists, act, antebellum, anti-government, anti-military, attention, Barack Obama, bigger view, blog, brought, care, ColoradoPols, comment section, communicate, conclusion, context, couple, custody, death, definitions, deprived, destructive, diarist, disagreements, edification, enforced, events, evil acts, families, fanatical, Free Speech, fringe, George Tiller, Google News, greater, groups, hate crime, heinous, ideological, implications, individuals, informative, killed, language, larger, legal concept, liberal, likewise, lone nut, loved ones, military recruiter, Moonbattery, movement, murder, murders, Muslim convert, notable, nut, parallel, peaceful, people, perpetrated, politically correct, preliminary, President, private, pro-life, prominent, Quenton Ezeagwula, quickly, ratio, reasons, relevant, responses, rights, short-sighted, similar, slavery, Southern, speech codes, statement, states, suspects, terrible, terrorist, thought, threats, unjust, victims, White House, William Long, wounded

6/2/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

‘Noble Pride’ Lives On: A Principled Lesson for the ‘Hillsdale of the East’

Unbelievably, a few weeks ago I passed the 10th anniversary of my graduation from Hillsdale College with a bachelors degree. But the spirit of school pride lives on, and my heart smiled when today I read William McGurn's Wall Street Journal column "How Hillsdale Beats Harvard". After explaining how Hillsdale's principled stand of not accepting any federal funds fits right in with the school's warm welcome of military recruiters on campus, McGurn concludes:If Harvard believes that our Armed Forces are inconsistent with its values, surely the honest thing to do is to stand on principle and accept the funding consequences. The folks at Hillsdale would be glad to show the way. Back in the good old college days, there was a running quip … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Commemorative, Education, General, liberty, My Life, PPC Tagged With: accepting, alma mater, Armed Forces, bachelors degree, campus, column, consequences, East, federal funds, graduation, Harvard, heart, Hillsdale College, honest thing, inconsistent, lives on, Midwest, military recruiters, noble pride, principled stand, quip, right reasons, running, school pride, smiles, spirit, values, Wall Street Journal, warm welcome, William McGurn

6/2/2009 By Ben 2 Comments

Mystery Tidwell Volunter Steps Over the Line, Hopefully Astroturfing Stops

I am relieved to learn that U.S. Senate candidate Cleve Tidwell was not posting bizarre online comments himself. As Mr. Tidwell joins us for tonight's Blog Talk Radio show, I hope to hear what the campaign learned from this episode. I also hope today's revelation marks the end of the online astroturfing. Inquiring minds will be left to wonder who the campaign volunteer was who had access to Mr. Tidwell's private email address and "might have stepped over the line". … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, liberty, National Politics, PPC, Random and Miscellaneous Tagged With: astroturfing, bizarre, Blog Talk Radio, campaign, candidate, Cleve Tidwell, comments, episode, online, relieved, revelation, show, U.S. Senate

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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

  • AI-Enhanced Cyberbullying: The Dark Side of Teen Innovation
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