EVEN-HANDED: Will Sen. Bennet Scrutinize Liberal 501(c)(4)s?

Published on May 17, 2013 by

Earlier this week, we reported that Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet was one of six signers to a letter urging the Internal Revenue Service to crack down on non-profit groups with a potentially political side.  He even went so far in his press release to suggest that the IRS take a look at groups like Karl Rove’s conservative group.  Now, critics are calling for Bennet to treat liberal groups with the same scrutiny, but will he?

Our view – probably not.

Bennet’s job as the head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is, simply, to elect Democratic candidates.  C4s and the other nonprofit operations that give advantages to Democrats have been part of their playbook for nearly a decade, particularly here in Colorado.

Let’s put this in perspective.  One of the left’s most generous C4s is the League of Conservation voters.  Does anyone doubt they are a liberal front group?  In case you’re doubting, take a look at their spending habits in the 2012 election:

Out of the nearly $11 million that LCV spent nationwide in the 2012 election, not one penny went toward Republican candidates.  We would bet that the $500,000+ that went against Democrats was the group playing in primaries.  Further, why would Bennet bite the hand that feeds him?  That’s right, Bennet, himself, was the recipient of help from a C4 to the tune of over $850,000 in his scorched earth campaign against Republican Ken Buck.

Again, from Open Secrets:

 

Of course, the most recognizable “social welfare organization” would be OFA – once Obama for America, turned into Organizing for Action – which some believe will be filed as a C4.  According to U.S. News and World Reports, OFA’s web site claims:  “In carrying its work, OFA will operate as a ‘social welfare’ organization within the meaning of section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.”

Seems like a pretty clear indication that the group plans to file for C4 status.

So, again, will Bennet – who has been helped tremendously by liberal C4s and is the head of the DSCC – denounce both conservative and liberal C4s?  Of course not, that doesn’t benefit him or his party.  His letter was simply about trying to crush the competition, and his protests are hollow.

 

BIG GUNS ARRIVE FOR RECALL: NRA Joining Effort To Oust Senate President John Morse

Published on May 17, 2013 by

CNN’s Jake Tapper is reporting that the NRA has decided to throw its considerable heft into the recall effort against Senate President John Morse.

This is not a good sign for Morse.

In a mailer obtained by CNN, the NRA Political Victory fund wrote to a “Second Amendment Supporter” in Colorado that “your NRA is coordinating a recall effort with the Basic Freedom Defense Fund to put Senator Morse on the ballot for a special election and vote him out of office.” (Emphasis theirs.)

You can see both sides of the mailer here and here.

Writes the NRA: “State Senator Morse led the charge to pass extreme and onerous anti-gun state legislation in Denver earlier this year. Responsible gun owners and sportsmen will be forever burdened by his misguided leadership in the Colorado Senate.”

The NRA mailing sends recipients to the website of the Basic Freedom Defense Fund and urges them to find a local petition signing location where, it’s suggested, they go to sign the petition to hold a recall election. The petition drive has a June 3 deadline; 7,178 signatures are needed to mandate a recall election.

Morse was on CNN this afternoon, telling the cable news channel that he thinks the recall campaign will be going ahead. What was once derided as a doomed-to-fail-effort at gathering signatures is very much in the realm of the possible and probable at this point.

With a recent poll showing a majority support for recalling the Senate President once voters become aware of the “crazy…absolutely nuts” gun manufacturer liability bill he authored, the prospect of a political powerhouse like the NRA getting involved has got to make Morse sweat bullets.

 

COWARDS: 10 Colorado Sheriffs Who Won’t Stand Up For Second Amendment Rights

Published on May 17, 2013 by

UPDATE: According to Kopel, Grand County Sheriff Rodney Johnson has now joined the effort.

 

Some Sheriffs would rather stand with Obama and Bloomberg, rather than for their constituents’ 2nd Amendment rights

Earlier today we reported on 54 County Sheriffs in Colorado who had signed onto a lawsuit against Mayor Bloomberg’s extreme gun control legislation.

With 64 Sheriffs in Colorado, that left 10 who refused to stand up for gun rights. (All Sheriffs are elected, except for those in Denver and Broomfield counties, which are appointed)

Unsurprisingly, many of these Sheriffs are from the hardest left bastions of the state, like Aspen and Boulder.

Contact info for each of these cowards can be found on the County Sheriffs of Colorado’s website.

Here they are:

Rodney Johnson, Sheriff of Grand County

Joseph Hoy, Sheriff of Eagle County

Kirk Taylor, Sheriff of Pueblo County

William Palmer, Jr, Sheriff of Chaffee County

Robert Gurule, Sheriff of Conejos County

Bill Masters, Sheriff of San Miguel County

Joseph Pelle, Sheriff of Boulder County

Joe Disalvo, Sheriff of Pitkin County

Tom Deland, Sheriff of Broomfield County

Gary Wilson, Sheriff of Denver County

UPDATE: It’s worth noting that all 64 Sheriffs signed onto a white paper opposing the gun bills when they were working their way through the legislature. These 10, for whatever reason, decided not to step up to the plate and fight the laws once they were passed.

 

HEROES: List Of 54 Colorado Sheriffs Suing Over Gun Control Legislation

Published on May 17, 2013 by

UPDATE: According to Kopel, Grand County Sheriff Rodney Johnson has now joined the effort.

 

The Independence Institute, along with 54 of Colorado’s County Sheriffs, has filed suit against the extreme gun control legislation pushed through the legislature this year by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s lobbyist.

From their press release:

DENVER, Colo — On Friday, May 17, fifty-four Colorado Sheriffs are filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against two bills passed by the Colorado legislature in March. The suit is being filed in Federal District Court in Denver.

Joining the 54 Sheriffs in the civil rights lawsuit are disabled individuals, Outdoor Buddies (a charitable organization for disabled individuals), licensed firearms dealers, Magpul, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Colorado State Shooting Association, the Colorado Outfitters Association, Colorado Youth Outdoors, and Women for Concealed Carry.

Below are the heroes who joined the lawsuit. Make sure to thank them next time you see them.

You can read the full formal complaint here.

54 SHERIFFS:

continue…

 

PeakFeed: A Budding Bromance Between Senate President John Morse And NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg?

Published on May 17, 2013 by

Revealing Politics spoofs the relationship between Senate President John Morse, who is being recalled for his “crazy…absolutely nuts” gun legislation, and anti-gun New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

As KDVR‘s Eli Stokols reported yesterday about the funding of the pro-Morse front group:

Much of the group’s funding is also coming from an outside group, America Votes, which is funded largely with contributions from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose group Mayors Against Illegal Guns lobbied hard to pass the gun control bills in Colorado.

 

PeakFeed: Hickenlooper Takes On A Sal Pace-like Posture In Bumper Sticker

Published on May 17, 2013 by

Spotted by a reader in Eastern Colorado. Looking kind of Sal Pace-like we might add.

 

ASKING FOR IT? Did Denver DA Mitch Morrissey Hint That It’s Women’s Fault if They Were Raped?

Published on May 17, 2013 by

Yesterday, we reported that Denver DA Mitch Morrissey’s office had an unacceptably high rate of refusal to prosecute both felonies and felony sexual assault.  We saw the so-called “ambush” of Morrissey outside his office by Channel 7 news in Denver.  Morrissey’s office agreed to an off-camera interview in which Channel 7 couldn’t tape it, but the DA’s office did.

Then, something amazing happened.  Channel 7 filed a Colorado Open Records Act request with the DA’s office to obtain that tape, which they did.  What Morrissey says on this tape is, quite frankly, career ending (starts at about the 6-minute mark):

DA Morrisey:  Denver is a lot different than a lot of parts of this country.  Certainly different than places in this state.  So the fact that our numbers are different, does not surprise me at all.

Channel 7:  So when you say that they’re “different,” what do you mean?

DA Morrisey:  There’s no LoDo in most towns in – Denver – Colorado.  That’s a significant difference.

Channel 7:  What does that mean?

DA Morrisey:  There’s no Lower Downtown where you have a large population of young people drinking and engaging in what goes down in LoDo.  You don’t find that in Greeley.  You don’t find that in La Junta.  You don’t find that kind of situation there.

If we’re interpreting this correctly, Morrissey is saying that rape happens because of drinking in LoDo?  [Buzzer sounds]  WRONG.  Rape is a violent violation of women.  Period.  It is not a “situation”.

What’s truly terrible is that this isn’t some idiot politician saying something ignorant about rape.  This is the man in charge of prosecuting rape saying something idiotic about rape and why it happens.

 

WHITEWASH: Nathan Dunlap’s Murder-Night Mug Shot Seldom Used By Local Media

Published on May 16, 2013 by

A picture is worth a thousand words. No wonder Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap’s lawyers have tried to shine up the mass murderer’s visual appeal. A couple weeks back they released a video of a kinder, gentler Dunlap (inexplicably laughing) and pleading for the governor to act “humanely”, commuting his death sentence. In the courtroom also, Dunlap dresses the part of reformed wonder boy.

Local media has shown a seeming reticence to using the photo of Dunlap from the night of his gruesome crime, instead often publishing a more recent image of the killer beaming at the camera or dressed up for court.

But that image of reformed choir boy is wholly inconsistent with the truth about Dunlap, even in the years since he was convicted.

As The Colorado Observer‘s Valerie Richardson reported today:

That sympathetic portrait of Dunlap is being countered by those who knew Dunlap when he committed the murders at age 19 and witnessed him after his arrest. Certainly Dunlap showed no remorse initially, infamously telling authorities that shooting his former co-workers was “better than sex.” 

His callous behavior continued in prison. A December 2008 article in 5280 magazine recounts how former Arapahoe County prosecutors described that while Dunlap was awaiting trial, “he had torn a leg off a metal desk, sharpened it, and began to scrape away at the window ledge in his cell. They took pictures of Dunlap’s new jailhouse tattoos: One was ‘Crazy Horse,’ the new nickname he’d embraced; the other was a smoking handgun with the phrase ‘By Any Means Necessary.’”

Reporters have a duty to deal with this issue head up – both visually and in writing. An essential part of that is not hiding the shocking images of the stone cold killer on the night he brutally slayed four Coloradans.

 

REAL WAR ON WOMEN: Denver DA Declines to Prosecute Rape

Published on May 16, 2013 by

Channel 7 finally catches up to Denver DA Mitch Morrissey after five months of interview requests about his office’s high percentage of refusals to prosecute felonies and felony sexual assault.

Denver’s Channel 7 investigative reporters recently released an explosive report that Democrat Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey has declined to prosecute the majority of sexual assault cases that are brought to his office.  According to the report, Morrissey and the office he oversees declines to prosecute 36% of all felonies and 71% of sexual assaults in his jurisdiction.  According to the analysis:

“Those rates are substantially higher than the refusal rates of seven other Front Range judicial districts and several similar jurisdictions around the United States that the CALL7 Investigators surveyed.”

The left’s dishonest messaging that there is a war on women from the right crescendo’d in 2010 with the U.S. Senate candidacy of Republican Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck when a rape victim came forward and claimed that he had declined to prosecute her case.  It might surprise Peak Nation™ to learn that Weld County had the lowest rate of refusal to prosecute overall felonies at just 2%.  So, who is waging a war on women, again?

But, this isn’t the first time that Democrats have put criminals before victims.  Earlier this year, Democrats refused to pass Jessica’s Law, leaving Colorado one of just five states that has no minimum sentencing for sexual crimes against children.  And, then, there was Democratic Rep. Pete Lee’s restorative justice legislation that had the potential to re-victimize victims by forcing them to face their perpetrators. And, then, there was a bill this session to repeal the death penalty.

Unfortunately, this isn’t likely to be the last time Democrats do this either.  Colorado’s Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper is rumored to be considering sparing the life of convicted “Chuck E. Cheese killler” Nathan Dunlap, despite requests from a victim’s family asking Hickenlooper to not go that route.  Statement from the mother of shooting victim Benjamin Grant:

“Sandi Rogers begs Governor to ‘sit back, make no decision, allow the one that 12 people made after listening to all the evidence 17 years ago stand. I wish you could have met my son, listened to all of the things said about him after this act of planned murder, the amount of love that flowed. I honestly think if (you) had been there you would have no doubt the decision for death.’”

Should Coloradans be surprised by any of these actions by these radical Democrats?  Of course not.  This is all just a part of the liberal platform – grabbing guns, raising taxes, and coddling criminals.

 

CHICAGO COMES TO COLORADO: National Liberal Media Group Places Ad Buy For Pro-Morse Group

Published on May 16, 2013 by

A Chicago-based liberal media group has placed $15,000 worth of ads on the Colorado Springs-area TV station KOAA on behalf of the pro-Senate President John Morse front group, a media tracking source tells the Peak.

The ads were placed for the group “A Whole Lot of People for John Morse” by Chicago-based Adelstein Liston, and are running from May 3-19.

Adelstein Liston’s client list reads like a who’s who of left-wing politicians and special interest groups including President Obama, Senator Harry Reid and America Votes partners such as Emily’s List and the AFL-CIO.

They’ve also done work for Senator Michael Bennet on behalf of the public employee union AFSCME.

It’s a client list that doesn’t seem to line up with the values of conservative-leaning Colorado Springs residents — you know, the ones that a leader of the pro-Morse group called “right-wing, religious whack-jobs” on his bio on the Denver Democratic Party’s website.

The fact that media buys are coming out of Chicago further underscores the role of out-of-state actors in the pro-Morse effort. On Tuesday, The Denver Post reported most of the pro-Morse money was coming from a national liberal group, America Votes, while the anti-Morse cash came from local Colorado Springs-based I Am Created Equal.

Despite the crush of national cash flooding the pro-Morse group’s coffers, it’s the votes from Senate District 11 residents that will ultimately make the biggest difference. And, as we reported earlier today, they seem apt to chuck him from office.

 

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