GOLD DOME DRAW: The Sister-Kissers Of The 2013 Legislative Session

Published on May 13, 2013 by

Navy football coach Eddie Erdelatz once described a scoreless tie as being equivalent to “kissing your sister.” The folks in this category are the legislative equivalent — neither winning nor losing, often to a frustrating degree.

We’re not sure whether sister-kissing will be included in the comprehensive sex education for kindergarteners passed by Democrats this year, but here are our nominees for the scoreless ties of the 2013 legislative session.

(Check out our picks for 2013 legislative session Winners here)
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ATTENTION GREENIES: Pay Attention To Your Governor

Published on December 12, 2012 by

Credit: CO Springs No Fracking Zone Facebook Page

Environmental weenies, take notice. Your good governor has some lessons for you about energy realities that don’t quite comport with your hysterical rantings about ending fossil fuel usage yesterday.

Per the Durango Herald’s Joe Hanel:

Jeff Neuman-Lee of Fossil Fuel Free Denver criticized Hickenlooper’s stance.

“What the world needs, and what Colorado needs, is ways of moving beyond fossil fuels,” Neuman-Lee said.

“Sure,” Hickenlooper said. “No argument. What are you going to do in the meantime?”

When others in the audience said the public would soon be ready to fully accept renewable energy and abandon fossil fuels, Hickenlooper replied in an urgent tone, citing melting permafrost and other ills of climate change.

“We don’t have any time,” he said. “I’m willing to push the political reality as hard as I can, but I think it’s morally reckless to not embrace something like natural gas as a short-term transition fuel.”

It wasn’t so long ago that the paragon of environmentalism — the Sierra Club — was a bona fide believer in natural gas. Then, all of the sudden, their stark raving mad membership pushed them to become anti-fracking and anti-natural gas, eventually earning the group the derision of the left-wing Denver Post editorial board. But not before they took $26 million in donations from the natural gas industry.

The Sierra Club’s biggest challenge, like the broader environmentalist movement, is reality.

If wind, solar and unicorns can’t provide the energy needed to power the economy, where the hell do they intend on getting it?

 

NANNY STATE: Hickenlooper Comes Out In Support Of Mayor Bloomberg’s Attempt To Ban Large Sodas

Published on June 7, 2012 by

Earlier this week at the Aspen Institute’s Global Spa and Wellness Summit, Governor John Hickenlooper endorsed Mayor Bloomberg’s “war on soda." It is days like this we really wish former Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi was still living in Colorado. After all, he wrote a book on the "Food Fascists" of the Nanny State. 

From Hickenlooper's comments per Health Policy Solutions:

While conceding that he’s reluctant to mandate healthier behavior, Hickenlooper said he sees few other options to fight the costly obesity epidemic.  

“You run the risk if you’re in elected office of saying we need to all do this and pull together and take care of ourselves. That’s allegedly one step away from the nanny state,” Hickenlooper said.  

“And yet, I’m not sure what else is going to happen. Right? I don’t see any other way.  

“Every atom of my being resists this notion of some of the things that Mayor Bloomberg was trying to push in New York around these large helpings of super sweetened soft drinks. And yet, if we don’t begin looking at certain things like that, the costs are going to be enormous,” the Colorado governor said.

Per Hickenlooper's penchant for never taking a clear stance on anything that polls below 60%, the Governor wouldn't say exactly what actions he would take back home, but he doesn't see any other option other than setting laws that dictate the size of sodas that can be sold.  

He doesn't want to do it, in fact he resists the idea with "every atom in [his] being," but there is just no other way.

In New York that way is a law that bans any soda more than 16 oz in the city's restaurants, delis, food trucks, movie theaters and sports arenas. Regular soda and sports drinks would be affected, but diet sodas (and all of the controversial aspartame associated with diet soda) would not be included in the ban. That's because Diet Coke is healthier for you than Gatorade, at least according to Bloomberg's worldview.

Hickenlooper’s embrace of food dictates is a bit strange, considering he announced his Gubernatorial campaign's "Job Creation Roadmap" at the home of the Rocky Mountain Soda Company.

We wonder what the owners of Rocky Mountain Soda would have to say about Hickenlooper's sudden embrace of a position wholly opposed by their industry.  

 

DITCHING DIFFICULT DUTY: Congressional Candidate Sal Pace Dodging Oil And Gas Issues

Published on February 23, 2012 by

Lynn Bartels of The Denver Post picked up on an important theme in today's dead wood edition, looking at state Representative and Congressional candidate Sal Pace's (D-Urination) multiple absences from his taxpayer funded day job at the state Capitol. This right wing digital rag even earned a mention for our criticism of Pace's absence.

Ditching votes and avoiding tough issues is becoming a trend for Pace, who has to figure out a way to placate his left wing enviro base and not screw the oil and gas industry, which employs much of the 3rd Congressional district's voters. 

Rather than pick a side in the enviro vs. oil and gas divide this week, Pace decided to avoid the issue altogether and skip the vote in favor of a campaign fundraiser.

Reports Bartels:

Republicans blistered state Rep. Sal Pace for missing an oil-and-gas vote this week, saying he's more interested in campaigning for Congress than representing his constituents.  

…Pace left the Local Government Committee Monday to attend a fundraiser in Edwards, an event he said he had RSVP'd to more than six weeks ago.

…Pace pointed out his vote wouldn't have changed the outcome, but the conservative blog ColoradoPeakPolitics took the Democrat to task.  

"Rep. Pace: Was this an unimportant vote?" the blog asked.  

Chuck Poplstein, executive director of the Colorado Republican Party, said Pace likely benefited from his absence.  

"Skipping a vote on oil-and-gas allowed Pace to save face with two important but conflicting entities in his district: environmentalists and the oil-and-gas interests," Poplstein said.

Chuck has it exactly right. Pace is still trying to figure out how to thread the needle between standing against energy development, as environmentalists want, and creating jobs through tapping into Colorado's expansive energy reserves.

Let's make it easy for you, Sal. You can't. 

Governor Hickenlooper has tried to balance enviros against oil and gas, but mostly he's earned the enmity of environmentalists. He even bragged to Politico about annoying and "irritating" environmentalists in Colorado. 

Ditching votes to avoid the difficult duty of picking sides isn't earning Pace any plaudits from either side.

Not only is Pace avoiding policy positions, but he's been avoiding the job he was hired to do by the people of Pueblo altogether. This week marks the second time the state's flagship newspaper has called him out for skipping votes to attend campaign fundraisers.

In January, Pace missed two days of votes in the House to attend Barack Obama's State of the Union and raise money from DC lobbyists. 

We know Pace badly wants to be a Member of Congress, but voters don't generally promote politicians who are failing in their current duties. Showing up and picking sides is half the battle in politics. In that regard, Pace has a long way to go before he can start measuring the drapes for his Capitol Hill office. 


 

Introducing AFP Colorado’s “Monkey Wrenching America” Website

Published on January 26, 2012 by

By Kelly Sloan

AFP Western Slope Coordinator

One of the characteristics of an election year, apart from a steady draught of absurdity, is a natural proclivity towards focusing all of our attention on candidates, races, and the attendant drama. And quite properly so; we have all seen what happens when eyes are too long deflected off the candidates.

However, such a preoccupation with things electoral has a tendency to divert our attention from the less flashy, background activities which make up the practical side of politics. Radical environmentalists attempting to throw a spike belt in the path of any energy development project that doesn’t involve the sun, wind, or duck-urine infused hemp leaves blessed by a pagan dance-offering to Gaea herself, for instance.

While the rest of us political junkies are are poring over the latest analysis of the candidates offered up by the punditry, settling in to watch the umpteenth debate of the month, placing illegal bets on who will bow out next, and filling up online comment sections with animadversions against a particular candidate, groups like Wild Earth Guardians, Earth Justice, and others are busy imposing their Luddite view of the world on everyone else, mainly through litigation – for which they are generally awarded court costs. Nice.

Fortunately, Americans For Prosperity Colorado (for whom, for the sake of disclosure, I serve as Western Slope Coordinator) has recently initiated a project to help keep a spotlight on such goings-on. Last week, AFP Colorado announced the launch of a new website, Monkey Wrenching America its stated raison d’etre:

to document the danger professional green extremists pose to America’s economy, limited government ideals and freedom-oriented way of life. The economic, fiscal, judicial and human costs of green monkey-wrenching activities aren’t as well-documented as they should be, because the establishment media becomes an unabashed cheerleader where the environmental movement is concerned. This website, and the stories and reports it hosts, will help document these excesses and bring some balance and reason to the public debate about environmental issues.

(From the website.)

For its inaugural feature, monkeywrenchingamerica.com offers a bit piece by yours truly, reporting on the issue of the Piñon Ridge uranium mill (the first one to be built in the U.S.A. in over 30 years), and how the posh, Hollywood-liberal-playground town of Telluride – smugly nestled over 60 miles away from the proposed mill and the economically desperate towns near where it is to built – is using its Darryl Hannah et al supplied dollars to hire a lefty Washington DC litigation firm, Public Justice, to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the issuance of the mills permit. I shall make you go to the website for the details, but suffice to say that the inhabitants of the old-economy towns who are virtually begging (were they the type of people to beg, which they are not) for the jobs that the mill would provide, are less than thrilled with Telluride’s overbearing, dictatorial imposition of their political views from their little green, ski-lift equipped Kremlin.

This is the type of outrage that occurs on a nearly daily basis throughout America, particularly in the west, and on which AFP and MonkeyWrenchingAmerica.com will endeavor to bring to light. With any luck, before we are litigated back to horse, buggy, and torch-light.

 
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