The Colorado Index

Where are the Republican Sugar Daddys?

Republicans used to be the party of the wealthy.  That is no longer the case.  They are at best the party of the moderately wealthy.

Think about the news of the past few days.  Media Matters went after a paper for including a quote from a Republican, as though that were a crime.

ProgressNowAction, which someone once called PlagerismNowAction because they appeared to have lifted three paragraphs directly from Wikipedia and to have loosely copied a fourth for one of their articles, went after Bob Schaffer.

Of Course, Mark Udall gets the benefit of this little ploy but at the same time gets to deplore this kind of politics.

Both of these organizations are financed by lefties, and probably the term should have been "a lefty" with unlimited resources.  They get quoted in the papers because that financing gives them credibility.  Where are the corresponding Republican organizations and Republican sugar daddys?

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And a note about PNA.  Their public defense was to make a claim that they had sent out an earlier email with the same verbiage and that they were the (willing) victims of plagerism by Wikipedia.  Because the Wikipedia "editor" was a European and thus unavailable to respond, it was at the least a clever claim. It might have been true.  When asked for a copy of the email, they ignored the request.  That suggested that no such email existed.  Others may have a different take.

Just to satisfy our curiosity at the time, we did a thirty minute google search to see if a European could have come up with the four paragraphs independently of PNA.  He could have.  The European was a prolific writer for Wikipedia, which again suggested, but did not prove, that PNA was careless about its ethics.

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Added  The comment appended by Bill Menezes is answered in detail in a post entitled "Stop Hyperventilating Bill, Please."

July 31, 2007 Sweep

Schaffer v Udall  The 700,000 Club  So, what was Carolyn Bninski and her allies doing at the offices of Mark Udall that got them in so much trouble?

Slapstick Politics  On The Abolition Of Tenure, Ward Churchill Edition  Replacing tenure, however, would not eliminate the type of wackademic frauds that typically find their way into places of higher learning,

Slapstick Politics  Blogs for Borders Blogburst 

Slapstick Politics  Churchill Fallout Continued  Links

Face the State  No Charges for Broomfield Official in Cocaine Case  Despite the availability of witnesses to confirm the fact that county auditor Vickie Brown had cocaine on her desk at work, corroborated by Brown’s own confession,

Policy Media Media Matters: No More Quotes  Colorado Media Matters, an offshoot of the DC-based liberal complaint department, today attacked the Rocky Mountain News for quoting someone in an article

Daily Blogster  Progress in Iraq Causing Long Faces Among Dems  Sick. Just sick

Daily Blogster  Men Like These  Marine Cpl. Gareth Hawkins extended his enlistment to go on a third deployment to Iraq so his battalion would not be left in the hands of rookies.

Daily Blogster  A war we just might win   And importantly, he's back on board because he has recently visited Iraq and seen tangible progress there.

Exvigilare  Ramping Up This is also the time of year that home- and charterschool parents have to brush up on the same arguments we hear every year

Mount Virtus  Selective Phony Outrage of Colorado's Left:  Part CXXVII  The highly-paid propaganda organs of Colorado’s Left make a living off incidents of phony selective outrage,

Colorado Charter Schools  Charter Shopping  It's that time of year again when parents "shop" for schools, much like their child's back-to-school clothes

Gang of Four  Richardson Starting to Flail  Campaigning in Iowa last week, Bill Richardson argued — attempting to keep a straight face — that they belong among the top ten terrorist-targeted states for homeland security grants, something that he as president would take care of.

Best Destiny  Just to Clarify My Position   I still think it would be a good idea for the GOP candidates to take part in the CNN/YouTube debate.

A Line of Sight  The White Flag Primary   I watched with interest the Democrats YouTube presidential debate this week. It looks like the biggest point of contention among the candidates is to see who can declare defeat in Iraq and run for the border the fastest.

Colorado Senate News  Guv draws rebuke for trying to torpedo energy exploration in West Slope county  A veteran senator whose district includes Colorado's gas-rich Vermillion Basin chided the Ritter administration today for second-guessing a years-long effort by local, state and federal officials to plan for energy exploration in the area.

Comment:   

Admitting We've Been Had

It is important, when one writes about a subject or an individual, not to be negative all of the time.  We've applied that to Mark Udall in our writings about him.  When we could find something to praise, we have done so.

This past week, we have praised him and his staff for standing up to Green Party peace activist Carolyn Bninski's unlawful actions to the point where Ms. Bninski was sentenced to jail.

It looks like we were had.  Here is something we wrote for another blog:

After writing for several days that Mark Udall's staff was justified in calling the cops after a three week protest, more information is coming out that suggests that they operated on a hair trigger. If the latest report is true, it makes Udall, his staff, and the MSM doing the reporting look two-faced.

The demonstration was coordinated with Udall's staff, and for three weeks the demonstrators followed rules that both agreed to:

Bninski, a coordinator at the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, met with Udall's chief of staff in February to facilitate a three-week protest in which constituents entered the congressman's office, filed a complaint about the war, and left within 10 minutes...

Democracy can sometimes be inconvenient. The First Amendment guarantees the right to petition the government but doesn't require those doing the petitioning to do more than behave themselves. This report makes it sound as though the demonstrators went out of their way to behave themselves while presenting their grievances.

On the final day of the protest, March 8, Bninski and five others declined to leave Udall's office after 10 minutes. As the group sat on the floor, Bninski read the names of the 42 (now 49) soldiers from Colorado who've died in the war, and the 700,000 Iraqi civilians who've died in the war...

Just after noon, Bninski informed Bristol that the last group would commit civil disobedience. The press and the members of the CopWatch organization flooded inside. After 10 minutes passed, Bristol called the police.

So, these folks were out of compliance with their agreement for only a minute or perhaps less before John Bristol called the cops, not the three weeks the MSM led us to believe. (Actually, the MSM failed to report that there was an agreement) That doesn't show the amount of tolerance a reasonable person would expect of well paid Federal employees to show.

Two members of Udall's staff testified the protest disrupted the daily functions of their office.

“There had been people coming by every day for weeks,” said John Bristol, a staff assistant for Udall's office. The morning of March 8 “was a very intense three hours” in which the only work he accomplished was recording Iraq-war complaints from about 50 people, he said.

This is not a case that Mark Udall, his staff, or the prosecutor can be proud of pursuing. The judge who sentenced this woman to 30 days in jail for being out of compliance with her agreement so short a time has very little respect for the Constitution.

If the information provided by the Colorado Daily News is accurate, this whole thing has the smell of a Sister Souljah set up with one difference: Sister Souljah didn't go to jail.

July 30, 2007 Sweep

Schaffer v Udall  Fun with blog post titles  The Greens assume that Republicans will have them thrown in jail, but this is unjustified paranoia. Only Democrat politicians try to criminalize politics.

Slapstick Politics  Illegal Immigration Traffic In Colorado Decreasing  But if the numbers these businesses cite are accurate or reflective of even state-wide trends (anecdotal evidence is always sketchy), then the market for such advertising should actually be shrinking.

Slapstick Politics  Bob Beauprez Back In The Political Saddle?  Things don't look so good for the GOP these days, so Beauprez would be wise to take some more time off

Slapstick Politics  Rocky Mountain Jihadis?  Vigilance does not equal vigilantism. But just don't let CAIR know about you, John or Jane Doe.

Slapstick Politics  Lie Detector Test Confirms Fired 7-Eleven Clerk's Story  Kirchenwitz alleges that his firing came as a result of his political views on illegal immigration (he is himself a legal immigrant), a charge 7-Eleven officials flatly deny

Daily Blogster  They Deserve It  Today their national soccer team beat Saudi Arabia to win the Asian Cup

Backbone America  Video: Patton's Iraq Speech   

Best Destiny  Continuation of Revising and Extending   My brother, who is very smart, disagreed with me on a few points from last nights post. His complete remarks are in the comments, but I thought it worth the time to answer a few of his remarks.

Comment:   

A Bit of Sanity From the Left

Today, while looking for something useful to write at the other blog we contribute to, we ran across a very sane paragraph by a guy who writes as "Liberal and Loving It:"

Democracy requires, absolutely requires, that while we campaign and lobby and persuade, that we then accept the results. And if it's important enough, we continue to campaign and lobby and persuade to try and change things. But refusing to accept the result, to demand that your wishes override those of all others - that is totalitarianism.

This guy is a minority in his own party, unfortunately. 

Is he consistent, though?  We wonder what he thought and would have written about the 2000 election.  It isn't obvious that any Democrat ever excepted the results of that election, even after liberal newspapers funded a "recount" and couldn't justify the "Bush was selected, not elected" mantra we have heard since.

We wonder if he sees the irony of his words when four Democrat Senators stand together demanding that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate the Attorney General for perjury.  These four also stood together to justify and vote to validate Clinton's perjury.

We would be better off as a society if every Democrat shared this writer's views and if he held them consistently in all instances.  Perhaps he does.

Should he choose to look at this blog because of the link, he might be surprised to discover that we agree that both Mark Udall and the prosecutor acted properly and correctly in this matter.

July 28-29, 2007 Sweep

Schaffer v Udall  Carolyn Bninski:  30 Days, $500 The Green Party's three week occupation of Mark Udall's office has finally been resolved.

Daily Blogster  Executive Privilege and Pat Lehey  The Democrats don’t have a chance of winning this fight, especially when...

Mount Virtus  More Americans Taking Notice of Progress in Iraq  Far from the Left’s loudly-touted “mandate” to the new Democratic Congress to get our troops out of there right now, only 20 percent of Americans favor this approach.

Mount Virtus  Memo to those who have yet to join the digital world  The critics are wrong: It shouldn’t be the government’s job. It is indeed in the interest of broadcast corporations to notify consumers.

Mount Virtus  Democrats Attempt to Deceive About Tax Hike Scheme 

Mount Virtus  How to Pay Teachers  An op-ed I penned for the Independence Institute about the misleading Colorado Education Association “Professional Pay”

Gang of Four  Diagnosis:  News Deprivation  but it was probably a strain of drug-resistant DB (deprivation of bulletins). Obviously at my age, when you fall off the news cycle, it’s not easy to get back on and resume riding the darn thing.

Colorado Conservative Project  Romney Wrong on Guns AGAIN 

Best Destiny  Permission to Revise and Extend  The point is, this would both be a bold move that engages the public, and it directly challenges the media's bias throughout the early stages of the campaign.

Best Destiny  Why Don't Liberals Want a Debate?  trying to intimidate companies into dropping their ads on FOX News

Best Destiny  I Understand Pork Spending  They're just like my 6-year old spending somebody else's money.

Colorado Senate News  GOP reaffirms plan to tap natural gas windfall for higher ed  "So let me see if I understand: 4 percent of America’s total natural gas reserve is supposed to draw a scant $11 million during this period of unprecedented demand for natural gas?"

Comment:  That far left blog, Junction Daily Blog, that we follow because it sometimes has an occasional jewel has one today.  Bloggers and anyone interested in starting a blog may want to read it and more importantly, follow the link.

A Local Announcement

(BBRayburn) We received the following flyer which we have edited in one way.  We don't know if the email address on it has ever been published on the internet.  (@msn.com)  If it hasn't, we didn't want to be the first without making it difficult for the robots that look for such things to find it. 

If you are interested in the event promoted, simply put the two items in parenthesis above together and drop the parenthesis to get a usable email.

             SUMMER 2007            

EL PASO COUNTY REPUBLICAN

YOUTH CONFERENCE

High School Seniors and Juniors!  You are Invited to a

A One Day Conference on the Constitution, our Free Market Economy and Leadership

For:  High School Juniors and Seniors

When:  Saturday, August 11^th, 2007

-        Start time:  9:00 AM

-        End time:  3:00 PM

Where:  UCCS Campus

-        Specific Room number yet to be determined

Cost:  $10.00.  Price includes lunch.

The Faculty:

-        The Constitution:  Mr. Mike Holler, Constitutional Scholar

-        Free Market Economics:  Dr. Paul Prentice, Professor of Economics, UCCS

-        Leadership:  Major General Bentley Rayburn, USAF (Retired)

Limited space, get your reservations soon!

For reservations, contact:  Bentley Rayburn

-        (719) 200-6206

-       @msn.com

-        Or e-mail the attached Reservation Form and return electronically

Sponsored by

The El Paso County Republican Party

and the UCCS College Republicans

REGISTRATION FORM:

                UCCS College Republicans and               

The El Paso County Republican Party

Summer 2007 Youth Conference on

The Constitution, Free Markets and Leadership

Application/Registration Form

Name:  ______________________________________________

Age/School Year:  _____/________________________________

Address:   ____________________________________________

City:    __________________   State :  ______  Zip:  ____________

e-mail:  ______________________________________________

Telephone:   __________________________________________

Return your completed registration form electronically to:

          @msn.com

Or, by mail to:

          Summer 2007 Youth Conference

          c/o Maj Gen Bentley Rayburn

          1866 Wildwood Pass Drive

          Colorado Springs , CO   80921

Due to limited space, applications will be confirmed by return e-mail or phone. 

Conference cost is $10.00.  The conference fee helps defray the cost of lunch, light snacks and the UCCS room rental fee.  Conference fee is payable at the door by check (made out to the El Paso County Republican Party) or cash.

The Most Irresponsible Industry

One of the dangers of writing an essay with a title like "The Most Irresponsible Industry" is that someone will always, perhaps correctly, come up with a different nominee.

With that in mind, today's nominee is the Automobile industry.  Both management and labor.  Nobody gets a pass.

There was a time, in the 1920's when Automobile management was very responsible.  Henry Ford offered the first wage that allowed his workers to buy his product at a time when management in other industries was trying to starve its work force.

Ford saw his action as self serving.  He was trying to cut down on labor turnover.  There isn't much that is more destructive to the bottom line than excessive training costs. 

Mismanagement of the industry began in the days immediately after the war in the days of wage and price controls.  It couldn't offer higher wages, so it introduced medical benefits.  Of course, the union fought for both higher wages and better benefits.  Management thought that it had a product for which the public would pay any price and didn't resist higher and higher wages.

Management also did not object when union members took advantage of vacation time and sick leave to work only three or four days a week.  That practice meant that fully qualified workers were on the production line in the middle of the work.  No one wanted a lemon built on a Monday or a Friday.

Now the industry has reached the point where it can't afford to pay its line workers $150,000 a year and keep up with its medical benefit obligations. 

So, what is its solution?  Both management and labor are going to be lobbying for universal health care.  They want to continue to pay and receive outrageously high wages and shove their health care problems off on people who make a third what automobile workers make. 

The Democrat party is quite happy about this, but one wonders how many of their constituents will be once they learn what is going to happen to them, their own wages, and their employers. 

Thanks to the Gazette for pointing this out.

There Ought to be a Law

The claim by the Democrat party in Colorado that their scheme to raise taxes without a vote of the people did not violate TABOR is a lie, and a lie that will cost Colorado Taxpayers Billions.

This lie got new legs this past week when it was discovered that a political mailing was sent to the voters in Senate District 28, a seat currently held by state Senator Suzanne Williams, (D) Aurora. 

Let's let Face the State take it from here:   

The mailing makes several false claims about the tax increase plan, including that it “does not raise taxes” and “does not violate TABOR.” Both are patently false: Any action that causes government to collect more revenue than it otherwise would is, by definition, a tax increase. Additionally, Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, commonly known as TABOR, prohibits government from taking action that would result in higher revenues without approval from voters. The plan’s sponsors, overwhelmingly democrats, claim the property tax increase plan does not require such a vote.

Why do we allow politicians and their allies to make fraudulent claims to the public without penalty?  Yes, the First Amendment might protect this kind of fraudulent speech, but it might not.  No other segment of society is allowed to make false claims or falsely advertise without being subject to criminal and or civil litigation.  When civil litigation is involved, the penalties are almost always tripled.  If the First Amendment doesn't protect commercial fraud, why should it protect political fraud?

July 27, 2007 Sweep

Schaffer v Udall Salazar No Favorite of The Gazette  What they didn't say is that Mark Udall is Salazar's close ally on these extremist environmentalist issues.

Slapstick Politics  Telluride Moonbats Vote For Impeachment  Not every moonbat is displeased, with one declaring, “Let ‘em go to Vail."

Slapstick Politics  DNC Opens Office In Denver  Must have been a slow news day.

Slapstick Politics  Colorado Climate Headline Of The Day  Lemme see, July 26th, eh? How about SUMMER--and that big shiny thing in the sky--as the primary cause of the heat wave?

Slapstick Politics  Hank Brown--Upholding CU's Integrity; Vincent Caroll On The Nature Of Adolf Eichmann Which is why Churchill's commentary on the 9/11 victims continues to be an outrageous defamation, and illustrates the anti-American nature of Churchill's quackery.

Slapstick Politics  Churchill Dismissal Commentary 

Colorado Conservative Project  Lemonade Stand Robbed   Have we truly sunk this low?

Best Destiny  Caution: Venting Zone Ahead  Which makes us complicit in our own defeat.

A Line of Sight  In Case You Missed It:  Ward Churchill Fired  “freedom isn’t free.” It requires among other things responsibility, accountability, and a willingness to defend right and condemn wrong.

Comment: