The Colorado Index

Mike Coffman Appeal for Funds

Hank Brown  United States Senator (R-CO), 1991-1997   Friends -   I am writing to you today to ask you to consider supporting Mike Coffman in his campaign to succeed Tom Tancredo as the Representative of Colorado's 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.   I have known Mike for many years, during his years in the Legislature, as State Treasurer and as Colorado's Secretary of State. He is a dedicated, hard-working and scrupulously honest public servant, as well as a successful businessman.   If Mike is elected to Congress on November 4th, he will become the first (and possibly the only) Republican House member who is a veteran of Iraq. That fact alone makes Mike an urgently needed addition to the Republican Party on Capitol Hill and it will also make Mike a very important source of advice and counsel to the next president!   In the world we live in today, we need people in Congress who have the unique perspective of having served in Iraq. We need congressmen and senators who have seen and fought international terrorism in its breeding ground. We need congressmen and senators who understand how the Pentagon bureaucracy works.   And this is very important: our returning veterans, especially those who have been wounded, need strong advocates on Capitol Hill. I know that Mike Coffman will make the needs and concerns of veterans a top priority in Congress!   Mike won the 6th District Republican nomination in a tough four-candidate primary. That primary campaign depleted Mike's campaign funds, and now he has to confront a serious Democratic candidate in the general election.   I hope you will give very serious consideration to making an online contribution to Mike's campaign today. Mike is the kind of Republican who can put our Party and our nation back on track. Thank you for taking the time to consider this letter. I hope you will cast a vote of confidence in our Party's future by making a contribution to help Mike Coffman win election to Congress on November 4th!   Sincerely,   Hank Brown  P.S. Obviously, Election Day is rapidly approaching! Please don't delay in clicking here to make your contribution today. Thank you again!

Mitt Romney in Colorado Springs November 1st

**BREAKING NEWS**

Governor Mitt Romney will be here tomorrow!

When:  Saturday, November 1st @ 5PM (doors open at 4:30PM)
Where: Mr. Biggs, 5825 Mark Dabling Blvd., Colorado Springs

This will be a free non-ticketed event open to the public. 

Come for the rally, then please plan to stay to help us make phone calls and/or walk your neighborhood.

Watch for these bulletins or check out our website at www.gopelpaso.com .  We will release more information as it becomes available. 

Call 719-578-0022 if you have any questions.

David Thinks Obama is a Duck, Too

As voters go to the polls on Tuesday, they would do well to recall that the media will insist that a big win for the Democrats is a “mandate” for making redistributional taxes the law of the land.

 

David Harsanyi borrowed a Civil Sense theme this morning.  While we know that other well known Coloradoans read this blog, we don't know if David does.  At the very least, David Harsanyi's use of that theme validates the work we do here.

El Paso County Honk & Waves

Friday, October 31, 2008: Honk-n-Wave at 6:30-8:30am -- Bob Schaffer rally,
Academy-Austin Bluffs

Friday, October 31, 2008: Honk-n-Wave at 1:30-4:30pm -- Kick-off rally,
Academy-Austin Bluffs, Powers-Constitution

Saturday, November 1, 2008: Honk-n-Wave at 1:30-4:30pm -- GOtV, Republican
candidates -- big push for 8th-Highway 24 location

Sunday, November 2, 2008: Honk-n-Wave at 4:30-6:30 - Outside CC Hockey Game;
meet at corner of Cheyenne Meadows and Venetucci

Monday, November 3, 2008: Honk-n-Wave at 7:00-9:00am, 11:30am-1:30pm,
4:00-6:00pm -- GOtV, Republican candidates.  Locations: Academy and Austin
Bluffs; Academy and Woodman; Union and Fillmore and Powers and Constitution.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008: Honk-n-Wave at 7:00-9:00am, 11:30am-1:30pm,
4:00-6:00pm -- GOtV, Republican candidates.  Locations: Academy and Austin
Bluffs; Academy and Woodman; Union and Fillmore and Powers and Constitution.

Locations:
Academy-Austin Bluffs
Academy-Woodman
Academy-Fountain
Powers-Constitution
Union-Fillmore
8th-Highway 24

Signs:

Signs for the honk and waves are available for pick up at the Victory
Headquarters (4525 Northpark Dr. Suite 200, 264-0914).  Please return these
signs there when finished with them.  You may also make your own, but please
keep them pro-Republican, pro-McCain/Palin and a reminder to vote.

To make this effective, we need strength in numbers, which means we need to
have at least eight people in each location at each time.  Please pass this
along and get as many people involved as possible!  I will contact everyone
at a location the day before if we do not have enough people attending it.
If you don't contact me a day in advance, I might not be able to inform you
of cancellations! 

Bread and Circuses

It should alarm those who know history that Barack Obama is openly trying to buy the election with "rebates" funded by higher taxes on a few.

His candidacy demeans democracy and plays to its weakness. 

Will every future race become an auction?  The financial foundation of our democracy is in peril if that happens.  It was what destroyed both Rome (not a democracy) and Athens.

There are so many things to despise about Obama's tactics.  This is just one.

Steal This Idea

Politicians, media personalities, and public figures count on voters having short memories, aided sometimes by the msm.  If the Denver Post and other outlets had any ounce of integrity, they would be embarrassed about their coverage of the Mark Udall Bob Schaffer race.

It was big news that Bob Schaffer’s son embarrassed his father with some not so smart Facebook comments.  It was no news that a Mark Udall of about the same age had his car confiscated for a drug offense.  Which was more relevant to the campaign?

The Denver Post made a big deal out of one campaign donation to Bob Schaffer but said not a word about Mark Udall appearing to sell his vote to the labor unions and the environmentalists on issues that have and will hurt Colorado.

In my opinion, one of the most biased editorial page writers is Bob Ewegen.  He tries to come off as folksy, good old boy in the Denver Post.  When he goes to Colorado Pols, he (or someone using his name) drops his thin mask of impartiality.

Yet, if someone tries to use Wikipedia to find out about him, there is no entry.

Google searches aren’t very useful unless one knows the right keywords to use.

In effect, Bob Ewegen can write anything he likes in the expectation that the public won’t recall the venom he spit out as long as he throws in an occasional “when I was a draftee” good old boy editorial.

What would happen if there were a “blog” whose purpose was to create a record of the dumb stuff that politicians, media personalities, and public figures do?

I’ve been thinking of doing just that kind of blog after the election.  Why would I telegraph what I was thinking of doing?  Someone might steal the idea, you say. 

There are enough public people doing dumb stuff that the state could support a dozen such blogs.  There are also a lot of good names for this kind of blog available.  Go ahead.  Steal this idea.

Edited to add Ben DeGrow notes that Tim Gill and Pat Stryker don't much mind paying to dirty reputations in ways that shouldn't be dirtied.  They would be prime candidates for this kind of thing.

Closing Comments on "UPDATE" Post

Not many political bloggers use Typepad.  I used to dislike it but now love it for reasons that aren’t important here.

It does have a few quirks.  One that I recently discovered is a limit on the number of comments that can be approved.  One of my posts has exceeded that limit.  Further, it has reverted to native HTML, making it difficult for me to put a notice up. 

I am closing comments on it, something I seldom do.

Make a Quick $1000

I chuckled as I wrote the title of this, thinking of all the comeons I have turned my nose up at.  This one allows you the chance to make $1000 and to protect your vote at the same time.

With ACORN in the news and the Democrats desparate to steal every election in sight, there will doubtless be many opportunities to win this Sam Adams Alliance contest.  Take your video camera to your polling place (but not into it without permission) or risk wishing you had.

Remember, the contest is looking for video.  Have fun, but be safe.

Odds and Ends - The Denver Post

Of late in the Denver Post:

Doug Bruce had an excellent editorial on "O" this week.  I didn't initially see who the author was and didn't look until I was half way through it.

Unfortunately, Doug Bruce has destroyed his ability to speak to the public on any subject.  He might have done more good to have had someone else publish it as theirs.  I consider it a shame.

Today, there is another excellent anti-"O" editorial in the Denver Post.  This one is by Ralph Shnelvar of Boulder.

And then last week Ed Quillen wrote an excellent editorial about a Colorado Judge ignoring the Constitution.  It happens all the time, but the newspapers seldom write about it.

Barack The Duck

Yesterday's 100,000 person rally in Civic Center Park is proof of Democrat Barack Obama's celebrity and drawing power.  Barack Obama kept repeating his prevarication that his tax plan will not hurt small businesses.

"If you make less than a quarter million dollars a year, which includes 98 percent of small-business owners and, by the way, 99.9 percent of plumbers," he said, eliciting a roar of laughter as he poked fun at McCain campaign favorite "Joe the Plumber," "then you won't see your tax rate increase a single dime. . . . That is my commitment to you."

From RealClearPolitics, Barack Obama's speech admits that his policies are going to cost Americans much more than the above statement implies (h/t Abe Greenwald at Contentions).

Now, make no mistake: the change we need won't come easy or without cost. We will all need to tighten our belts, we will all need to sacrifice and we will all need to pull our weight because now more than ever, we are all in this together.

This is collectivism, pure and simple.  As many small businesses are taxed at personal income rates, the purported $250,000 income limit (even liberal economist Paul Krugman disputes this amount) will hurt many small businesses, and, on the margin, force some to close or downsize.

After the Barack Obama lovefest, Denver radio station 850 KOA's reporter Jerry Bell interviewed the candidate.  It is an interesting listen.  Jerry Bell asked Obama his response to people who may think Obama is a socialist. 

Barack Obama's response was stunning.  First, he did his trademark dismissive giggle, as if this mannerism will magically refute the charge. 

Next, he denied that he was a socialist merely because Warren Buffet and Colin Powell support him.  Warren Buffet is a very rich Democrat.  He is plagued with guilt over his money and advocates for higher tax rates.  He could voluntarily write checks to the US treasury if he feels he is undertaxed.  However, by turning it into a collective action situation, losing some of his $62 billion net worth to taxes will hurt him far less than one making $250,000 by extra capital gains and other taxes.   It simply reduces the incentives for people at that level to work harder since these earnings will be punitatively taxed.

As for Colin Powell, he is a liberal Republican whose specialty was foreign affairs and the military.  Colin Powell never advocated for economic issues to my knowledge.

Also, Obama claimed he will "roll back the tax cuts [ i.e. raise taxes ] on the wealthiest Americans so that we can give tax cuts to 95 percent of working families."  As 40 percent of working families pay no federal income tax, one cannot cut income taxes on them.  This is simply an additional transfer of income i.e. socialism.  These socialistic policies walk like a duck and quack like a duck, so are they not a duck?

Barack Obama's collective action plan for the economy will harm the economy, not help it.  With increased taxes and penalties on capital, the "rich" will cut back on investment and find ways to shift money outside of the tax structure.  Tax collections will go down in the process.  While no one knows exactly what will happen in the future, Obama's "spread the wealth" policies could harm the American economy for years to come. 

by Civil Sense