Here's a great quick read to get you back into the routine following a long holiday weekend ... Ari Armstrong's Sunday guest column in the Colorado Daily makes a point I have seen seldom argued in the debate over so-called credit card reform -- namely, that Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall's bill protects the irresponsible and punishes the responsible. With those kind of incentives, the biggest surprise is that nearly 70 members of Congress actually voted against it. … [Read more...]
Colorado Democrats, Journalists Duped by Fraudulent Vet “Rick Duncan”
From 9News:Sure, he stuttered on occasion. He said strange things from time to time. But Rick Duncan was passionate about veterans in the state of Colorado. He told anyone who wanted to listen that he had served in Iraq on three occasions. That gave him an unofficial license to talk to journalists, politicians, and civilians about the war. So, many people simply ate it all up. The only problem was that Duncan wasn't actually a Marine, a Naval Academy graduate, or a wounded Iraq War Veteran, according to those who have looked into his background. His name, according to the Denver Sheriff's Department, isn't even Rick Duncan. It's Rick Strandlof, and as of Thursday afternoon, Strandlof remained inside a Denver County Jail cell. He … [Read more...]
Stand Up Today Against Government Health Care Takeover Attempt
Over at We Stand FIRM, Dr. Paul Hsieh brings attention to an attempt by Washington D.C. Democrats to fast-track a major expansion of government control of health care. If you've been looking for a chance to speak out for liberty, or you are just enraged by the political tactics, as well as the harmful and costly end-game on health care policy, Hsieh provides some great evidence and a couple sample letters you can use to formulate your own letter to Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet. The time to stand up is today ... not tomorrow, not next week. Make your voice heard for individual freedom, personal responsibility, and affordable, free market health care! … [Read more...]
Democrat Numbers Show Door Wide Open for Challenge to Michael Bennet
The results are out: newly selected U.S. Senator Michael Bennet is not doing so great. That's the message from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) -- which commissioned the survey. Politico says Bennet is "off to a slow start". And apparently dissatisfied with the results, the Democrat Dead Governors' blog for the first time features a front-page critique of PPP as "notorious" for its unreliability. From the few previous mentions on their site, PPP polling substantiated Mark Udall's lead in last year's Senate race -- Obama, too. Now, though, we just can't trust them. It's not as if the results are spectacular for the Republican field looking to challenge Michael Bennet. The public is simply not in any way engaged with the … [Read more...]
How Many Coloradans Know about Michael Bennet – and Which Republican Should Challenge Him?
Politics West points out a newly-released survey from a Democratic polling firm finds that support among Coloradans for both Barack Obama and "senior" U.S. Senator Mark Udall is slipping. The Public Policy Polling firm is slated to release results today for newly selected Senator Michael Bennet, up for re-election in 2010. What I'll be looking for first is not the favorable-unfavorable rating but the percentage of Colorado voters who know enough about Bennet even to form an opinion, and whether they ironically might view the man as indecisive. Face The State also has an online poll to see your preference for a Republican opponent for Bennet: Bob Beauprez, Ken Buck, Dan Caplis, Ryan Frazier, or (the write-in campaign for) Cleve … [Read more...]
Michael Bennet Votes to Nix D.C. School Choice – Bidding for Union Support?
When Democrat Michael Bennet was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, I knew we would have our healthy share of policy disagreements. But not so much on education reform:Fifty-eight U.S. Senators - including Colorado’s own Michael Bennet and Mark Udall - have decided to spend billions on wasteful pork projects, but can’t spare anything to keep 1,700 students from exercising the choice to enroll in a better school. What am I talking about? Bennet voted against an amendment to save the modest D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program from funding extinction. To be fair, so did most other Democrats: except interestingly, Robert Byrd and John Warner, along with independent Joe Lieberman. Only two days ago … [Read more...]
Michael Bennet Can’t Be Counted On to Challenge Obama’s Wasteful Spending
Colorado's newly selected U.S. Senator Michael Bennet is seeing his chances to stand up as an independent-minded, moderate Democrat slipping away. Even a group of 14 Senate Democrats (including Indiana's Evan Bayh) now have emerged to say "enough is enough" with Barack Obama's destructive massive intervention in the U.S. economy - his pork-laden, wild spending spree. Michael Bennet is not among the 14 Democrats showing a shred of fiscal sanity. The Denver Post's Chuck Plunkett - hardly a right-wing fanatic - asks the question on Colorado's mind: "Where are our moderates?" While Michael Bennet remains dazzled by the Obama glow, his "senior" Senate colleague Mark Udall shows what a farce his campaign as a centrist really was. Udall … [Read more...]
Will Colorado Democrats Really Line Up and Bow to Big Labor on Card-Check?
Is Colorado's Democratic Congressional delegation really going to play Pavlov's dog to Big Labor officials? News came out earlier today that Colorado Democratic Congresswoman Betsy Markey has agreed to co-sponsor - just as U.S. Senator and former Congressman Mark Udall did in the recent past - the poorly-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) -- aka card-check. Or as my colleague and fellow blogger Amy Oliver put it: "Markey pays back labor unions". If not for the money, why else would Markey leap into action as an EFCA co-sponsor? As policy, it's terrible for business and the rights of workers. As 4th Congressional politics goes, it's equally bad - opening the door wide for a strong, credible, business-backed challenge in 2010. At … [Read more...]
Poetic License: A Lefty Blogger’s Dilemma, the Week in Review
With too much time on my hands, here's a fun set of rhyming couplets to recapitulate the week just passed from the perspective of a hypothetical Lefty Colorado blogger:Do I write about Marostica, Or the dude with the Swastika? A Republican lawmaker mocking his peers, Or some guy to abuse for a few Josh Penry jeers? I must blog on one or the other, 'Cause what is there really to say about Suthers? Do I write about Marostica, Or the dude with the Swastika? One gives our free-spending values that bipartisan glow, The other had fun stealing Michelle Malkin's show. … [Read more...]
Markets Don’t Like What Obama and Dems Are Inflicting on Economy
Rossputin has the in-depth commentary on the markets' reaction to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and points to two polls showing the American people want more tax cuts, less federal spending. Are Colorado's U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall even paying attention? Polipundit has the telling visual about Geithner's negative impact on the markets. What's so funny? I guess you had to be there. Finally, Michael at Best Destiny says it's time to start tagging this as "the Reid/Pelosi/Obama economy". I agree: they can have it. If it only didn't hurt so many of the rest of us in the process. Things do look bleak - you can't blame investors for their reactions. The President isn't the Savior. Here's a start: sign the No … [Read more...]