In the recent Rasmussen poll there were several polling results that were not made public and were only available to subscribers. One of the most interesting was Gov. Bill Ritter's dismal job approval rating:
Ritter as Gov. (3/5)
Approve: 34%
Disapprove: 63%
Ouch, no wonder he decided not to run for re-election.
Amazon.com sent out the following notice to small businesspeople using their online-affilliate program last night:
Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:
We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to "voluntarily" collect Colorado sales tax -- a course we won't take.
We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.
There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.
You may express your views of Colorado's new law to members of the General Assembly and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.
Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.
We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.
Best Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team
( - promoted by Rocky Mountain Right - )
What an amazing year for Politics in the U.S.A. On March 6, 2010, the 912 project and tea party groups combined to host a Candidate Search 2010 Forum at the Douglas County, CO Events Center. The events center was divided in half for the event. One side had tables for candidates and other sponsors, kind of like a trade show. The other half held a stage and seating for the crowd to hear the candidates. The event lasted all afternoon.
For the Colorado Governor's race, both of the GOP announced candidates, Scott McInnis and Dan Maes, appeared. Mr. Hickenlooper was a no-show. For the Colorado U.S. Senate race, candidates Steve Barton, Jane Norton, CleveTidwell, Ken Buck, and Tom Wiens appeared. Our current sitting Senator Bennett and Andrew Romanoff were no-shows.The area reserved for candidate tables had a lot of Independent candidates as well as Republicans. Hats off to Diane Bailey, a Democrat candidate for County Treasurer for having the courage, as the lone Dem, to appear. Its too bad that Hickenlooper, Bennet and Romanoff are in full bunker mentality.Independents are the biggest set of voters in Colorado. When all of the major Democrat Candidates are afraid of the biggest voter group, you have a true mess on the Obama side. You can see a compilation video of the Senate Candidates here.
Mike Robinson is Sr. Partner at Robinson & Henry P.C., a Castle Rock Law Firm.
As Ed Perlmutter suddenly finds himself at a cash disadvantage, he is turning to the time-honored tradition among endangered Congresscritters of franking. Nothing like gouging the taxpayer to push out some free mailings (complete with a union print shop bug) to the entire district.
(Click for larger versions)
The mailing itself appears to be preying on individuals who have had problems with excessive credit card debt and would logically be more amicable to Obama and Perlmutter's driving up of the national debt.
( - Promoted by Heston's Ghost - )
Despite a severe economic downturn and reduced government revenues, local school districts continued spending on “perks” and non-education related spending. In Sunday’s The Denver Post, reporters uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in non-education related spending. This included purchases from Starbuck’s, various restaurants and out-of-state conferences.
The arrogance of the education community, as evidenced in this article, is astounding. As legislators continue to say there is nothing left to cut, I hope they find it at these school districts. Unfortunately, the fat cats in administration won’t suffer the financial pushback, our kids will.
( - promoted by Rocky Mountain Right - )
Here we are, just over a year since the Democrats took over virtual control of the Federal government. And what has changed about those issues they were screaming about running up to the election?
We still have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the protesters in the real world, and the anti-war posters in the virtual one seem to have vanished. The weekly protest that took place at Acacia Park here in Colorado Springs are gone, as are the hand made signs that were hung up on utility poles around town. Online, the left seems to be embracing the war, this post from the Daily Kos making the point that civilian deaths are "justifiable" and that the Afghani government should shut up about them.
The administration is made up of almost entirely of those who were adamant in their opposition to the war. They called it a failure and unwinnable. Now they are claiming credit for it's victory.
When the Patriot Act was passed, the left went into outrage overdrive. They called it the end of democracy the the start of government tyranny. But when the President signed the renewal, crickets chirping would have drowned out the response from the left.
So what has changed? You can probably find the answer under "H", for hypocracy.
( - promoted by Rocky Mountain Right - )
During my years at the Denver Post and Denver Newspaper Agency, I repeatedly admonished the powers that be that it was not the speed of the internet that was driving their slow death. Instead I argued that it was the ability of anyone with an internet connection to go directly to source documents and refute their interpretation of the biased interpretation that AP, LAT or NYT had already applied to a story.
For example, while their local scribes were rehashing sob story NYT articles on the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill, I simply went on line and downloaded the bill. After ten pages and an upset stomach I fired off an e-mail to Temple and Miller suggesting that they base their stories on easily available source documents.
That is the distinction between posters at RMR, the conservative blogesphere and Old Line Media sources. Bloggers generally are able to bring personal industry or live experiences on a subject to the table as well as a perpensity in their search for the truth to drive deep toward source documents. Those that don't quickly become laughing stock as they ruminate with obvious flaws in their logic and conclusions and begin to look just like the graduates of Journalism school on a misssion to change the world instead of report on it.
Upon retirement, I've slowly ventured into the direction that I believe dead tree media will eventually move. It started with building a simple personal home page that I could use as a vehicle to quickly access those 20 trusted web pages I seemed to go to a dozen times a day from any computer I might be near.
More and more friends asked for the URL and the number of unique hits has continued to evolve. That is the origin of Right On Colorado.com . It is artistically crude as I focussed on content more than looks. Accordingly it has nearly 150 rss feeds and nearly 1,000 video or still picture links most of whom are drawn on randomly evey time you open a page.
The site provides perpetual links to the many contributors to RMR, PPC and RMAB. As the site continues to evolve, your comments, criticism and suggestions are welcome. Particularly plese notify me if you see anything on the site that fails to provide propper atribution for creative and analytical work.
Thanks again for each of your contributions as intelligent, informed writers.
Merlin
merlin@rightoncolorado.com
Yesterday J.J. Ament released an impressive list of endorsements from many current and former statewide and local officials across Colorado. The names include two former U.S. Senators, one former Governor, two former Deputy Treasurers, a majority of the Republican General Assembly members and several county elected officials.
This leaves nearly all of Mike May’s caucus at odds with him on their support in the State Treasurer’s race. May was Ali Hasan’s first endorsement in the race, later followed by Newt Gingrich. This begs the question of whether or not Walker Stapleton has any support within the elected officials at the Capitol or in any other communities. Stapleton released an early endorsement list of business and community leaders in the Front Range, but the list hasn’t grown since.
It will be interesting to see what influence this has at the State Assembly in May. Statewide and local elected officials can play a powerful role in influencing votes at an assembly.
( - promoted by Rocky Mountain Right - )
Liberal State Rep. Jack Pommer (D), fresh on the heels of a meltdown last week in a house committee, has now gone "off message" once again. In a rare moment of honesty, Pommer says what he really thinks about businesses - they are all out to swindle hard-working Coloradans and flee the state.
When the proletariat rise up against the capitalist pigs you can bet that Jack Pommer will be right there, AK-47 and bowie knife in hand, leading the glorious charge.
Brief U.S. Senate candidate and libertarian-leaning Republican Luke Korkowski has announced he will be running for State House in the district currently held by Rep. Kathleen Curry (D/I/U/?):
Crested Butte, CO - Luke Korkowski seeks to return Colorado to a sound financial footing and to bring jobs back to our state.
“The economic downturn has hurt Colorado’s working families, and Governor Ritter’s tax hikes haven’t helped,” Korkowski said. He continued, “Though Colorado’s unique Constitution limits the General Assembly’s powers, I believe that, if we’re willing to restructure how we conduct business at the Capitol, we can return prosperity to our State.”
On Korkowski’s agenda are tax reform, facilitating the growth of small businesses, promoting responsible energy exploration, and education reform.
Korkowski previously ran a campaign for U.S. Senate. “I thought I was done with politics for a while,” Korkowski said, “but some persistent friends convinced me that we needed solid conservative leadership right here close to home.” Korkowski concluded, “I’m happy they were so tenacious, as I’ve come to believe they’re right. We’ve got to get our state back on the right track, and I look forward to serving at the State Capitol.”
Korkowski is a business consultant and transactional attorney in Crested Butte. He is married and has two young children.
More information will be available at Korkowski’s website, www.luke2010.com, which is set to launch within a week.
Luke would make an excellent Representative and will bring a unique perspective to the State House.
( - promoted by Rocky Mountain Right - )
John Hickenlooper's view on a variety of major issues are suddenly shifting now that he's a declared candidate for Governor. While far-left 527s might want to make hay about Scott McInnis' "makeover" (AKA 'a shave'), they are simply attempting to distract from John Hickenlooper's makeover on the issues. Several days ago, "bi-partisan gubernatorial candidate" Hickenlooper declared to a crowd of oil and mining executives that he believes there is no consensus on global warming and that it might not be that severe (if it exists at all):
“I don’t think that the scientific community has decided with certainty that climate change is as catastrophic as so many people think,” said Hickenlooper, a former geologist in the energy industry.
He likened the discussion over climate change to when the scientific community as a whole turned on the issue of plate tectonics in the 1960s.
“Suddenly what was the standard accepted dogma of the field, was suddenly discredited,” he said. “So, my thinking with climate change is I can’t tell you, I don’t think anyone can tell you for sure if the climate is changing that fast, and certainly, in a snow storm like this, you have to look at it with a little bit of skepticism.” (Denver Daily News)
Contrast that statement with liberal Democrat Mayor Hickenlooper's statements only a few months ago while attending the Copenhagan conference on climate change:
Global warming skeptics out there, take note: Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is looking to change your mind.
The city's chief executive is in Copenhagen, Denmark this week for the world's climate change conference and says the evidence he's seen from scientists across the world is "shocking."
"It's pretty compelling," the mayor said by phone on Tuesday morning. "It really does make you say, 'Gosh, I know it's going to be hard. It's going to be unpopular [to change].' My takeaway is I want to come back to Denver and sit down with every skeptic I can find and just walk them through all the evidence." (9 News)
You can't have it both ways, John.
( - promoted by Rocky Mountain Right - )
You should never annoy a cop. As a working lawyer in the suburbs with a criminal docket, it has been my sad experience over the years to have clients who insist on going to trial for a misdemeanor crime. At trial, it is my guy’s word against the cop’s. The jury hears the defendant’s pitch and then hears from the cop. The cop is simply doing his duty. He isn’t out to get anyone. The client wants to get off of the rap for the crime he has committed. The party’s motives come into play.
My experience is that the Jury always believes the cop if its one word against the other. And it’s no surprise. For juries, cops are usually seen as the good guys.
If you are a cop, you can be in trouble every time you approach someone you pulled over. Even in small towns. Even in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. In 2006, the most recent year with public crime records for Glenwood, seven women were raped, 61burglaries occurred, 43 cars were stolen and one armed robbery occurred.
In little old Glenwood Springs. Fortunately no cops got killed.
Scott McInnis was a Glenwood Springs cop. As if that weren’t enough, he also volunteered with the fire department. He later went to law school and became a lawyer in the same town he patrolled as a police officer. He demonstrates to this day that he never forgot his oath of office.
McInnis ran and was elected as member of the Colorado State Assembly, our state version of congress. The other Assembly members eventually made him Majority Leader. He ran for U.S. Congress and became Colorado’s congressman for the Western Slope.
McInnis got us two national parks as a congressman and he always fought to shrink the size and scope of government as a simple point of principal. He went to Washington for 12 years and then came home.
He got work here as a private lawyer and watched the same events transpire in Colorado over the past four years that we all have. The Democrats became the majority in Colorado government and their new Governor named Ritter brought Labor Unions into the government work force. The Colorado State Government ran out of money but somehow couldn’t shrink its taxpayer-paid work force to match our smaller state revenue stream. We got into the hole and the dems tried to raise taxes instead of shrinking the government machinery.
The majority Democrats passed increased taxes on natural gas production and the oil and gas jobs somehow ended up in Pennsylvania of all places. Our only local airline got swallowed up by a Midwest concern and all those jobs moved to the Midwest because of tax decisions, including the ludicrous idea to tax software used in making an airline reservation. The dems have engineered a train wreck since they took over our state government. It’s enough to annoy a cop. It’s enough to annoy a jury. It’s enough to annoy anyone. Including Scott McInnis. So he has decided to do something about it.
Scott McInnis is running to be Governor for the State of Colorado. He knows this place. It is his home and the home of his family going back four generations. Right now, it appears that if anybody in Colorado is ready to get us out of the hole we are in, it’s McInnis.
Last week, Mr. McInnis spoke to the Parker, CO Republicans. He gave out the sobering statistic that each day 275 more Coloradans lose their job. He thinks the Dems in charge at the state Capital are "job cremators, not job creators". His empathy for these workers is real and profound.
Addressing jobs in the area of natural gas production, he talked eloquently about the blue collar jobs that have left the state. "Roughneck jobs are great jobs. These are some of the good jobs that have left our state. Grand Junction is now Number One in the Nation in job losses and energy is the reason. Gov. Ritter put in the toughest anti-drilling legislation in the U.S. Conoco-Phillips stopped all exploration when the new regulations became law."
Bill Ritter wisely chose not to seek reelection as our governor. The Dems have put up Denver Mayor and saloon keeper John Hickenlooper as his replacement after an emergency phone call from Dem President Barack Obama. I expect Hickenlooper, after his long tenure as a bartender, to carry the Lower Downtown of Denver by a healthy margin. That leaves the rest of Colorado for him to reach. McInnis’ opinion - "The Denver Mayor seems to think that Colorado begins and ends at the Denver City Limits." McInnis doesn’t think Hickenlooper gets it. At the Parker meeting he was most incensed by a recent Hickenlooper quote that "the recession is really caused by people’s mental state". Spoken like a true bartender.
McInnis told the Parker crowd that he will dedicate himself to restoring jobs. He used the issue of Fort Carson as an example of what to do and what not to do. According to McInnis, both Ritter and Hickenlooper are against Fr. Carson’s expansion. After they made their views public, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchins visited with the Secretary of the Army and got a commitment for the new Cyber Command to move to San Antonio. This ought to have helped out our "mental state" a lot.
McInnis’ first promise, if elected, is to sign an executive order rolling back the unionization of state agencies. So long Andy Stern and the SEIU. Then to rewrite the job-killing oil and gas regulations and get oil companies to come back to Colorado.
In 2006, this writer had the opportunity to see Bill Ritter and Bob Beauprez at a joint appearance late in the campaign. It appeared that Bill Ritter was ready and prepared to be governor and that Beaurprez wasn’t. The 2006 election reflected this readiness. What we didn’t know at the time was that apparently Ritter had made his "deal with the devil" with the SEIU and other labor unions that culminated in a late-night executive order unionizing Colorado State workers shortly after his election.
McInnis has promised to reverse that. He appears ready to lead and is prepared to be a strong governor. He promises to fix many of the problems we face in our state and his promise appears real.
Who are you going to trust with your life, liberty and property, a bartender or a cop?
Mike Robinson is Sr. Partner at Robinson & Henry P.C., a Castle Rock Law Firm.
As of today, there are still no major party challengers to Rep. Diana DeGette or Rep. Doug Lamborn. While these races are obviously lost causes for the party out of power, both parties should realize that failing to make any sort of showing in rival strongholds will erode their statewide candidates. Federal candidates will be at the top of the ballot and it could be fatal to McInnis or Hickenlooper in a close race if their party has no one running for these congressional offices. Republicans can't afford further erosion in Denver County and the Democrats should realize that holding down Republican numbers as much as possible outside of Denver is key to their victory.
More troubling, voters deserve the chance to have a choice in these races. Even if there is no chance of defeating Diana DeGette, Republican voters in the district should be able to cast a ballot to make their voices heard and, yes, Democrats living in Colorado Springs should be afforded the opportunity.
Step forward, folks. There are three Republican candidates lined up to run against Jared Polis and there was a brief but spirited debate over the Democratic nomination in CD-6. Someone can run in CD-1 and CD-5.
Q4 2009 Fundraising Totals (Incumbent in Bold)
Michael Bennet - 1,149,091
Tom Wiens - 725,000
Jane Norton - 550,605
Ken Buck - 39,850
John Salazar - 187,160
Scott Tipton - 109,981
Bob McConnell - 12,471
Betsy Markey - 227,442
Cory Gardner - 197,553
Diggs Brown - 61,174
Tom Lucero - 25,824
Ryan Frazier - 218,824
Ed Perlmutter - 215,201
Lang Sias - 30,931
U.S. Senate
Michael Bennet's fundraising continues at a monumental pace and it is starting to look as if he will have a massive advantage no matter who the Republican nominee may be. Jane Norton once again posted strong numbers, though many observers found it troublesome she did not improve much over the last quarter's take.
Though the Wiens campaign is declining to say how much of the $725,000 they are claiming to have brought in came from the candidate himself, it appears safe to assume that Wiens followed through on his previous statement that he would be investing $500,000 of his money into his campaign. Regardless of where the money came from, this means Wiens now has a very well-financed primary campaign.
Ken Buck had an extremely disappointing quarter. The sole consolation here is the massive ad buy by the Campaign for Liberty that can free up some money that may have been allocated by the Buck campaign for media and divert it into organizational costs.
CD-3
Scott Tipton had a strong showing for his first month in the race. If he is able to keep up the pace he should be able to place the seat into play.
CD-4
Cory Gardner had another strong fundraising quarter. Despite being outraised by Makey, CD-4's Republican voter registration advantage means that Makey would have to be raising even more than she is to make it up. Gardner is strongly positioning himself as the leading candidate in both the primary and general elections.
At $61,174, Diggs Brown has enough money to mount a primary challenge, even if it is a long-shot. He will at least be able to afford a working campaign organization, which is more than what most other underdog candidates in these Republican primaries can say.
Tom Lucero again had a lackluster quarter, but even more damaging to his prospects than his low fundraising haul is his astounding 200% burn rate. When a campaign spends twice what they raised in a given quarter, it is a sure sign it is on it's last legs.
CD-7
Ryan Frazier had a strong fundraising quarter and stands as the only Colorado Republican challenger for federal office to outraise the Democratic incumbent. While a narrow victory, Frazier's take places what was expected to be a safe Democratic seat into play.
Ex-Democrat and Mark Udall supporter Lang Sias, despite starting fundraising at the beginning of November and having most of the quarter to fundraise, came in with a dismal $30,931. Nearly half of his money came from Washington DC, as opposed to Frazier who blew him out of the water and raised funds mostly from in-state, and $5,000 of that came from John McCain's PAC. While Sias gave the illusion of being a strong candidate with his McCain backing and much-touted Washington connections, after raising only $30,391 it is hard to see how he is even remotely serious. Sias' funding problems will become even more severe as he is rumored to be planning to bypass the grassroots by running a costly petition campaign in the coming months.
( - Promoted by Hestons Ghost - )
The other day a friend of mine was joking that come March, she was going to struggle with only a three-day weekend, instead of the monthly four-day weekends she’s been enjoying thus far. She’s a Colorado state employee whose mandated furlough days have been falling once a month coupled with holidays. For instance, she had the Friday before the MLK Day holiday off and will have the Friday before the President’s Day weekend off.
Most Americans will understand if parks are closed for a day, if the IRS doesn’t answer phone calls for a day, if Congressional staffers don’t send news releases for a day or if the federal courts are closed for a day. It’s called sacrifice and it’s sorely needed. Could you imagine the savings created by dropping the 2% pay increase and furloughing the more than 2.7 million civilian workers? Colorado’s furloughs save the state tens of millions of dollars. Imagine what the federal government could save?
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