Diggs Brown formally announced his candidacy for the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado at the Best Western Hotel in Loveland Colorado on Saturday, Nov. 16th. Many in the district have been waiting for Diggs to return from his tour in the Army and announce his candidacy. There was a good turnout at the event to welcome Diggs home and cheer him on into the race for CD-4.

I had a chance to sit down with Diggs yesterday for a short meet & greet. Diggs has finished his commitment to the military and is ready now to fight in Washington for the people of Colorado. He’s been reading the daily intelligence reports and is concerned for the safety of our nation. He’s also concerned with the government takeover of industry that’s happened in the past year, and how much we and our children will have to be taxed to pay for the out-of-control spending that’s going on.

I will have a more in-depth interview with Diggs in a month or two, as well as the other candidates for CD-4 that are running. Check out Diggs’ new website to see the issues that are important to him and Coloradans.

Cross posted at Night Twister

It’s Time for the November survey of Colorado’s Political Temperature. Ben Degrow and El Presidente have already completed two of these surveys, and they’ve just released another one.

Click here to take the November 2009 Colorado online political survey

One thing I noticed about the previous surveys is the rest of Colorado outside of the Denver Metro area was significantly under-represented. I strongly encourage everyone to go fill out the survey. The more people that do this, the better idea we can have of what’s going on in the mind of voters everywhere in Colorado.

There is an alarming situation occurring in the Education Industry right now that is causing great concern. I am of course referring to the obscene salaries that are currently drawn by University Presidents across the country which has turned a record number of them into millionaires. Even as the government continues bail out these institutions year after year, the compensation packages for their executives continues to increase. The time has come to hold these people accountable and stop the theft of taxpayer money. The American people are outraged at having to subsidize the obscene amounts of money these executives are taking in, while many of their less fortunate counterparts at smaller schools are left out in the cold.

In addition to the government money pouring into these universities, private contributions continue to increase even in a downturn economy. Even our own Governor, the unethical Bill Ritter, realizes the importance of education and has been increasing the amount of money going to our universities here in Colorado by hiring more and more state employees at the universities during a hiring freeze. This is happening even as our local universities continue to fail. While the rich get richer, the poor are held down without any real opportunity to improve their lot.

There must be a czar or two in Obama’s Administration that can put a stop to this travesty. It simply isn’t right that those who do the work aren’t rewarded while the Executives pull down huge salaries while benefiting from their hard work. I call on President Obama to cut the salaries of these executives that continue to fail their institution while continuing to pull in billions of taxpayer bailout dollars.

Crossposted at Night Twister

Jon Stewart takes on the new GOP.com website. He’s always been better when taking on both sides of the aisle as he has been doing recently, and this is a good one.

I especially liked the Future Leaders of the Republican Party page. Rather appropriate right now, don’t you think? I like Michael Sandoval’s take on this. You should have consulted the Peoples Press Collective.

Crossposted at Night Twister

Congressman Darrell Issa (R, CA), ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee pushed for a vote to subpoena records on the Countrywide VIP loan program which benefited several Democrats in Washington. The response of the Democrats on the Committee was to run from their seats to avoid the vote. Democrats claim they canceled the meeting, citing a conflict with another committee. Unfortunately for them, it was recorded.

In response to the release of the video, Oversight Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns, (D, NY) had the locks on the Republican entrance changed on Tuesday. Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella told Foxnews.com,

They say we will have access to the hearing room when the general public does. I’m embarrassed for them.

Bardella said his boss won’t stop bringing up the Countrywide issue.

We’re going to bring this up at every opportunity possible until we have an up-or-down vote.

To the Republicans in Congress, I have just four words: More of this, please.

Update: Mount Virtus, People’s Press Collective, and Rocky Mountain Right weigh in on this story.

I was part of a conference call last night hosted by Laura Goode, spokeswoman for Ryan Frazier. Ben Degrow and T.L. James were also on the call. Goode immediately confirmed the rumors that Frazier was dropping out of the U.S. Senate race to run for the U.S. House seat in Colorado District 7 currently held by Ed Perlmutter(D). Ryan is making a public announcement regarding this today at Brighton Ford in Brighton, CO at 10:00am MDT.

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From Jon Caldera at The Independence Institute

Night Twister

A Christina School District student in Newark, Delaware was apprehended today before he was able to turn his weapon on his fellow students. The quick-acting faculty of his school noticed right away when he pulled out his dangerous weapon in the school lunchroom. They immediately confiscated the weapon and proceeded to properly discipline the miscreant.

Zachary obtained his weapon as a member of a sinister paramilitary hate group, as will soon be determined by our nation’s Attorney General. The student had also been training in a dangerous form of hand-to-hand combat techniques which would likely have made him difficult to stop in his devious plan to take over his school.

School officials were quick to mete out his just punishment. He was immediately suspended from school and will spend 45 days in the district’s re-education camp where his instructors will help him unlearn his violent ways. The school district, in a statement, said rules are rules and defended its decision to suspend the boy.

We don’t have the capacity to interpret the rules handed down to us from on high. Our only course of action was to follow the letter of the rule, unable to even consider the circumstances of the incident.

For the actual story, go here. Aren’t you glad these folks are teaching your children?

Crossposted at Night Twister

That is, if HR2647 passes. This bill originally passed the House without the Hate Crimes legislation included, but it was added as an amendment in the Senate. The text of the legislation gives the Attorney General, currently Eric H. Holder, Jr., the right to determine if a group is “associated with hate-related violence against groups or persons or the United States Government”. From the legislative text,

(2) DEFINITION OF HATE GROUP.—In this subsection, the terms ‘group associated with hate-related violence’ or ‘hate group’ mean the following:
(A) Groups or organizations that espouse or engage in acts of violence against other groups or minorities based on ideals of hate, ethnic supremacies, white supremacies, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, or other bigotry ideologies. [emphasis mine]

It gets worse as we go:

(G) Other groups or organizations that are determined by the Attorney General to be of a violent, extremist nature. [emphasis mine]

If you think Tea Party activists and bloggers are safe from this legislation, think again.

(3) EVIDENCE OF ASSOCIATION OR AFFILATION WITH HATE GROUP.—The following shall constitute evidence that a person is associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence:
(A) Individuals possessing tattoos or other body markings indicating association or affiliation with a hate group.
(B) Individuals known to have attended meetings, rallies, conferences, or other activities sponsored by a hate group.
(C) Individuals known to be involved in online activities with a hate group, including being engaged in online discussion groups or blog or other postings that support, encourage, or affirm the group’s extremist or violent views and goals.
(D) Individuals who are known to have in their possession photographs, written testimonials (including diaries or journals), propaganda, or other materials indicating involvement or affiliation with a hate group. Such materials can include photographs, written materials relating to or referring to extreme hatred that are clearly not of an academic nature, possession of objects that venerate or glorify hateinspired violence, and related materials, as determined by the Attorney General. [emphasis mine]

Congress has decided to give the Administration the ability to silence its critics. All that needs to be done is to have the Attorney General define their organization as a hate group. It’s clear that Obama plans to attack his critics. This legislation would appear to be a violation of due process, but with Obama stacking the courts with his appointees, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ruled otherwise.

As if the legislation itself weren’t bad enough, the Congress, in cowardly fashion, has attached it to an urgently needed military spending bill in an effort to force Republicans to vote for it. Once again the progressives in Congress are attempting to sneak something in through the back door. Mike Coffman (R, CO-06) had this to say,

I voted against the NDAA final conference report because of the Democrats’ decision to attach a completely unrelated measure to our defense funding bill. The Senate-passed version of the “Hate Crimes” legislation placed in the final conference report will have chilling effects on religious freedoms and free speech. I strongly oppose including the measure in a bill that is designed to provide resources for our soldiers whose job it is to protect the very freedoms this provision will erode.

The 111th Congress is giving this Administration more and more power. Unless their intent is to create a North American Hugo Chavez, they should reconsider their current strategy. If they don’t, they could end up being even less significant than they currently are. The 912 Project has more on this important legislation.

Crossposted at Night Twister

I don’t really understand those credit card disclosure thingies either.

Senator Tom Carper (D, DE) schools us on why we don’t need to read the actual legislative language of the health care bill being proposed in the Senate.

A few of my favorite quotes:

Reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever read in my life.

Quite understated there, I think.

…plain English…I think most of us can understand most of that.

Does that include you, Senator Carper? I have my doubts. Here’s an interesting statement,

…read the legislative language. Anyone who says that they can do that and actually get something out of it is, I think, trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

Pot, meet kettle. And to sum it up,

Why would you insist on reading something that’s incomprehensible? It’s beyond me.

Yes Senator, I have no doubt that it is.

It still amazes me that people will continually vote for a government representative that treats them like toddlers. It would be one thing if he was their intellectual superior, but then, with videos like this it’s clear this is simply not the case.

Night Twister

I actually thought they were getting smart enough not to get caught doing this.

I got nuthin’

Yeah, they’re important. No, I don’t expect most people at RedState will care much about who’s running for School Board in the Poudre School District in the larger Fort Collins area. It is, however, important to me because I have three kids in school here and a newborn grandson that will probably be going here in a few years.

We are blessed to have a lot of good programs and choices for school here in Colorado. Bob Schaffer worked for years in support of Charter Schools. We now have a good, strong candidate running for School Board that needs our support. His name is Patrick Albright. Patrick wrote an article that was published today in the local newspaper, The Coloradoan. Here’s an excerpt,

We need to hold our students to the highest standards and make certain that those standards are met before students are allowed to progress. Our children must be proficient in their skills if they are going to be problem solvers, innovators, creative thinkers and successfully compete in the global economy.

Patrick understands the importance of preparing our kids to meet the challenges of the 21st Century workplace. He also understands the importance of transparency and accountability.

Transparency in conducting the business of the district is also something I support. Everyone in the community has a stake in our children’s education: Parents, teachers, local businesses and taxpayers. These stakeholders must be able to provide their input and easily see how their tax dollars are spent. Transparency goes far beyond principles of community oversight. It can be a tool to build trust between those underwriting our children’s education and those providing it, so that when the district staff identify needs requiring additional funding, they will gain community support.

School Board elections are every bit as important as State and National elections. I can guarantee you that Bob Bacon and his ilk will be working hard to elect someone that wants to remove choice and transparency from our educational system. We need to make sure we elect good candidates to the Board that will fight for our students, not for a bunch of educators working to protect their goals of the liberal indoctrination of our children.

For those of you in the area, it would be great if you could visit the article at the Coloradoan and leave a comment [registration required]. And if you aren’t in the area, leave a comment anyway. Local elections are important, and we can increase our voice by supporting each other in this way.

Night Twister

Colorado bloggers Ben Degrow of Mount Virtus and Michael Sandoval (a.k.a. El Presidente) of Slapstick Politics have completed their second survey to measure the Colorado’s Political Temperature.  Here are some of the highlights:

• The biggest winner, making significant gains in both support and perceived strength since our July survey, is gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry
• The larger shifting field of the U.S. Senate race gives a less clear picture, with Ryan Frazier edging out Ken Buck for most support, and Jane Norton beating Frazier by a similarly narrow margin for perceived strength
• The heavily Right-leaning crowd definitely shows more respect for Andrew Romanoff as a Democratic rival in the race than for appointed incumbent Michael Bennet
• Among the other races, treasurer candidate J.J. Ament made the biggest gains, while Scott Gessler (Secretary of State) and Cory Gardner (4th Congressional) widened their respective leads
• Demographically speaking, the group of participants in this poll was slightly more Republican, older, female, married, educated and non-white than the July sample
• Overall, those surveyed are more confident that Democrat policies in Washington will harm elected Democrats’ chances in the 2010 election, and believe that Bennet, Bill Ritter, and Betsy Markey are more vulnerable than two months ago.

Details can be found here. A more detailed analysis of the survey will be forthcoming later this week.

Night Twister

A pro-life student at Owosso High School in Owosso, Michigan was shot and killed this morning. Flint News reports that the shooting occurred around 7:30 a.m., after most students were off the buses and safely inside the building. The school is currently in lockdown, even though the shooting did not happen on school grounds.

It’ll be interesting to see how the nutroots handles this incident, but my guess is they won’t be nearly as hard on this shooter as they were on the one who killed Dr. George Tiller.

Details are still coming in. They arrested someone at their home, but have not yet released the name of the victim or the shooter.

Night Twister

My daughter decided to skip President Obama’s address to students in school today, as expected. She got up to leave just before the speech was to start, and her classmates asked her where she was going. She told them that she had no interest in hearing the speech, and was going to The Commons where students were told to go if they weren’t staying in class to hear the speech.

Later, in the halls she saw a few of her friends, and they made the following comments.

Obama is an idiot.
Obama is a ****ing idiot.
Obama is a moron.
I hate Obama.

Now you’re thinking (and so was I) that these things were uttered by her conservative friends. But that wasn’t the case. These statements were made by her very liberal friends who fervently supported Obama during the election.

I mean, a poll of likely voters at Rasmussen or even adults elsewhere is one thing, but seriously, if you can’t keep the liberal high school vote, you’ve got some serious issues with your base…

…just sayin’

Laura Stansbury is a new contributor at Night Twister. This article is posted here with permission.

This coming Tuesday, President Barack Obama will stand before a televised audience, an audience not the American Voter. Not yet that is. On Tuesday, September 8th, the President will collectively address our nation’s children on what will serve for most as their first day of school. His speech is expected to include such noble reminders as the importance of education and the virtues of working hard. In many respects, the idea of a Presidential Address to our children seems a reasonable means for educating our students in civic awareness. In fact, much of the anticipated content is in perfect keeping with many of our most basic Conservative principals. Why then the public outrage?

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Somehow, I don’t think this is what people had in mind when Obama said he would be creating jobs. According to an article by the Associated Press reported at Yahoo News, the European Union is up in arms about a new proposed fee for tourists to the United States from people in countries who are not required to obtain a visa to enter the country*.

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The AARP has worked hard recently to deny it’s non-endorsement endorsement of the Health Care Bill HR3200. Behind the scenes they have been working hard to convince their members that this bill is in their best interest, regardless of questions by members and a declining membership. In an obvious attempt to try to reverse the trend, they have finally made mention of the Republican health care proposals. A careful read will show the AARP can’t get away from their bias even in this article.

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Via Peoples Press Collective. Yup, that’s what we Republicans are. Selfish.

YAF/Hot Air TV correspondent Jason Mattera undercover at an ObamaCare rally outside Democrat Rep. Jim Moran’s town hall. The comment is early in the video, but the entire thing is well worth watching and quite enlightening. A misunderstanding about the selfish people comment almost turned into a scuffle. These people have really short fuses these days.

Night Twister

Derec at Live Free Colorado has the story.

At an Obama care rally that passed through Denver on Aug. 28th at North High School, Congressman Ed Perlmutter (D, CO-7) asked the audience, with their ocean of pre-printed Health Care Now signs, if they’d heard of the 14th Amendment. From the article by Derec,

Yep, according to Ed Perlmutter, the 14th Amendment gives equal protection and people denied care and coverage don’t have equal access to health care so the existing system must be unconstitutional. I’m not sure if he was also going to expand that to include housing, food, and clothing. On that note, this guy down the street got a bigger loan for a BMW so I should also get one since the Constitution guarantees equal protection.

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