rights

1/5/2015 By Ben Leave a Comment

How to Train Your Politician: Conservative Ed Hanks Urges Intentional Voting

On December 20, 2014, I chatted by phone with Ed Hanks about his new book How to Train Your Politician: Intentional Voting as a Path to Tea Party and Constitutional Victory. Hanks, an acquaintance and Jefferson County conservative activist who has been one of Colorado's leading voices for Personhood, graciously shared a Kindle copy of his book for me to read prior our conversation. We talked in the wake of the lame-duck Congress passing the corporatists' dream bill, known as Cromnibus, fueling the fires of populist conservative discontent (including yours truly). A mounting frustration definitely brings a growing interest in the strategy Hanks endorses. Yet what I find most appealing about the book and its author is his historical … [Read more...]

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...]

4/13/2009 By Ben 2 Comments

Denver Tax Day Tea Party vs. Democrats’ Overreach on State Budget

It's almost time for the Tax Day Tea Party at the State Capitol in Denver (with a great idea for an official logo, compliments of Ben Hummel). Here's where it gets good: While we citizens will be standing outside, protesting government overreach and proclaiming our rights, inside the members of the state house will be wrestling with the tough decisions of a budget vote. Funny thing is, the decisions wouldn't be nearly so tough if the Democrat-led legislature had voted three years ago to create a rainy day fund (PDF) proposed by Representative Cory Gardner and Senator Josh Penry. Instead, the same day as the Tea Party takes place, the Democrats will be trying to avoid tough decisions by raiding hundreds of millions of dollars from the … [Read more...]

3/26/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

More Reasons to Make Sure Senate Bill 180 Doesn’t Simply Stall, But Dies

It's encouraging news that the Colorado state senate keeps putting off a vote on Senate Bill 180. The Democrats would seem not to have confidence in the votes to override local control, impose collective bargaining, raise the cost of government services, and threaten the rights of our state's police officers and firefighters. If you need more reason to understand why SB 180 is a bad idea, and why you should keep the pressure on and tell your state senator to vote against it, you should listen to this new iVoices podcast I recorded with Stan Greer from the National Institute of Labor Relations Research: What might seem on the surface like a nice thing to do for our public safety employees is really bad public policy when you take a … [Read more...]

3/24/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Card Check Bill’s Fading Prospects a Relief for Colorado’s Michael Bennet

Big Labor is really bummed out today with the news that U.S. Senator Arlen Specter won't be backing their Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) (you can watch his floor speech here) -- at least for this year. No Republican votes (and many shaky Democrats) means union officials won't be able to invoke the 60 votes needed for cloture to take away workers' rights to the secret ballot and impose costly binding arbitration. This has got to spell a little relief for Colorado's newly selected U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. EFCA has put Bennet in a bind, but if the political signals are clear that the legislation won't pass he might have the cover he needs. At this point, my guess is Bennet will take the path of least resistance within … [Read more...]

3/5/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Study: Union Card-Check Could Cost Thousands of American Jobs

A new study released gives you one more reason to write your Congressman and Senators to tell them to vote No on the poorly-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Economist Anne Layne-Farrar's quantitative analysis finds that "for every 3 percentage points gained in union membership through card checks and mandatory arbitration, the following year's unemployment rate is predicted to increase by 1 percentage point and job creation is predicted to fall by around 1.5 million jobs." Let's simplify: EFCA (or union card-check legislation, if you prefer) will keep many, many Americans from a productive job and a paycheck - an especially devastating effect in the midst of our current economic turmoil. … [Read more...]