Taxed Enough Already | Apr2010

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From the Editors

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free…and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned—this is the sum of good government.

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“April is the cruelest month.” When T. S. Eliot wrote these words, I’m sure that income taxes

were not even remotely on his mind. The annual April ritual for most Americans is a dreaded chore. We grind our way through the complicated IRS forms. If we make a mistake, we hope we can get off as easily as Secretary of the Treasury Timo-thy Geithner did! And don’t forget Charlie Rangel (D-NY), who wrote the tax laws as head of the House Ways and Means Com-mittee, yet cheated on his taxes. But for most of us, we just pay up.

For many of our fellow citizens, fill-ing out the tax return is simply a matter of getting a refund, and they are happy to have it. They don’t give much thought to how much was withheld and where their tax money goes.

Most Americans don’t mind paying taxes for legitimate services by the gov-ernment, such as national defense and roads. However, if we consider how much of our hard-earned income is confiscated for wasteful spending, pork-barrel proj-ects, and massive bureaucracies, we have

The definition of a hero varies based on personal perspective. To me a hero is someone who sacrifices

selflessly for the betterment and well be-ing of others. I believe the ultimate heroes are our veterans who have risked their lives for the sake of our country and our constitutional rights.

As the great niece of five valiant men who fought in World War II, I deeply ad-mire and respect our combat veterans. My great uncles were proud to defend our na-tion, and never for one second complained or regretted the sacrifices they made.

One of my great uncles was a Navy diver. He was sent to Pearl Harbor just after the attack where he was given the gruesome task of recovering bodies from the water. While diving near the wreck-age he could hear men trapped inside the ships banging SOS messages on the pipes. Eventually, they were silent. My uncle was tormented for the rest of his life by night-mares of those he could not save.

Another great uncle was a Navy avia-tion radioman. On Dec. 28, 1943 his plane crashed in England when returning from a mission. The whole crew perished. He is buried at Cambridge American Cem-etery in England. None of his family, to include his wife, son, parents, 6 brothers and 3 sisters, were able to visit his grave. In 2001, I was on a trip to England and made a point of going to his gravesite. I never knew him but I was there on behalf of my grandmother, his sister. I could not believe how deeply it affected me to see the final resting place of someone I never knew but had heard many stories about.

Four of my five great uncles are de-ceased but they will always be my heroes. Colorado Springs is blessed to have hun-dreds of veteran-heroes. I am honored and privileged to meet some of them, and share their stories with our readers. It’s impera-tive that we capture their accounts so that current and future generations will under-stand and appreciate the sacrifices these heroic people made to ensure our liberty and constitutional rights. We should never take their sacrifices for granted.

As I sit here on the day that will go down in histo-ry, all I can think about is those who came before us, laying out the blueprints

for this great country. Those who fought for her, those who died for her and now those who absolutely want to hurt her de-liberately. I never thought I would see the day that my beautiful country would turn into a socialist, government-controlled land that she has become. This adminis-tration, this congress and those people have readily made her unrecognizable.

We must stop them, we must work tirelessly to make sure that our children and grandchildren are not subjected to their relentless ways. We must step out of our comfort-zone and GET INVOLVED! (See our list on pg. 9.) I’m not asking, I’m simply pleading to all Americans to get informed, understand the visions of this great land and to help us in this fight to repeal the monstrosities that lie ahead in the coming months.

I will make a solemn vow to all of you-I will not stop, I will not give-up and most importantly I will not waiver in this movement. Please help us win this battle, the battle for freedom and liberty and help us restore our values and principles which made our America great.

Vote those out that have made poli-tics their “sole purpose” in life. The career politician’s that continue to trample on our beloved Constitution, together WE THE PEOPLE can and will make a differ-ence. In order to vote and participate in the up-coming primaries on August 10, I’m begging all of you to get affiliated with a party by July 9. Believe me, I know and understand that some of you are upset and have given up on the Republican Par-ty, but we can fix it. We can work through it and restore the values and principles it once had. Let’s fight together…let’s win our America back!

Join me and ALL Americans on April 15 at 11am, as we launch the voice of the people at our El Paso County Tea Party at Acacia Park in downtown Colo-rado Springs.

About Our Content:The Constitutionalist Today pro-

vides a voice for freedom-loving Americans who share many common values, yet have differing opinions on certain subjects. This paper’s staff and writers possess worldviews rang-ing from Biblical to secular, conser-vative to libertarian, and everything in-between.

Our founding fathers were a diverse group. Some, such as John Adams and Patrick Henry, were de-vout Christians. Others, like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, were more secular even as they ac-knowledged that our rights are given by our Creator. While they had their differences, all those who established the greatest free nation on earth were united in their love of liberty and re-sistance to tyranny.

Likewise, we are united in our love of America’s founding ideals, our love of freedom and our distrust of big intrusive government. Our aim is to educate our fellow citizens about our nation’s founding principles and documents, to inform about current events, and to motivate Americans to action. That said, the opinions of the writers are not necessarily those of the staff of The Constitutionalist Today.

a lot to be steamed about. Add Social Se-curity withholding, which is spent imme-diately and likely won’t be there when we retire. Our Medicaid taxes won’t help us when we need it, due to the healthcare bill that just passed. How can we expect ben-efits from it when millions of people are added to the program, while $500 billion is being cut?

Income taxes are a huge burden fi-nancially on the middle and upper-middle classes, but that is only part of the equa-tion. The only way the IRS can collect in-come taxes is by invading our privacy and looking into every aspect of our finances and businesses.

With the power to tax comes the power to regulate and control our lives. Big government feeds on our tax dollars and dictates what we can and cannot do.

Our founding fathers rallied to “No taxation without representation!” Some-one has said that taxation WITH repre-sentation isn’t so great either! In this elec-tion year, it is time for a real change. If we want our children and grandchildren to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities we have had, we need to elect representatives who are dedicated to limited government, responsible spending and lower taxes. What will you do to make it happen?

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2 | The Constitutionalist Today

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Letters to the Editor

Thank you for this breath of fresh air at a time when it’s getting really hard to come by. I will do my best to spend my hard earned money with anyone who advertises in your publication. Keep up the good work.

—Randy Pierce, Colorado Springs

I recently picked up your rag at an [sic] cof-fee shop and I was wondering if you could improve it for me. The size of this rag works well lining a bird cage but I need it bigger to line a puppies [sic] kennel. It does work well wrapping fish or cat box liner [sic]. I am also glad to see all those Colorado Springs business [sic] paying for ads. The next time I pass thru the Springs I won’t spend one dime in this community. Have a tin hat kinda of [sic] a day and pray for me!

—G. Wiley

Ed. reply: It’s easy to use our papers for your “puppies [sic] kennel.” Simply overlap the papers until they fill the space! How hard is that? And we will pray for you, that your eyes might be opened.

I’m new to this. I’ve never written to a pa-per before. I just heard about your paper on the news the other night, so I thought I’d send you a question that I’ve been ask-ing myself for awhile now. The question is: How long do you think it will take the Republicans to adopt the true conservative stand? Michael Steele seems to be reluctant to publicly, move to the conservative stand. Anyway, keep up the good work. I look for-ward to reading your paper.

—Charles R. Glaze, Trinidad

Congratulations! I am so impressed with your paper, the articles and your attitude! I read the ads too! There is a tremendous ‘buzz’ around this town about your paper. I picked up your first issue at the Pikes Peak Economic Club and your second edition last night at Amanda’s Fonda Mexican Res-taurant on West Colorado Avenue. This could be a good year for conservatives and you are going to be a big part of that. “To-gether we stand!”

—John Dunker, Colorado Springs

What a pleasure it is to see a publication that prints and shares my values. We, ev-eryone within our country’s border, are truly blessed to have the prosperity which has graced generations before us. But a big whoa to everything now. How a socialist can obtain the highest office in this coun-try has eluded my reasoning. If the conser-vatives had a clue in the last election my children might have had a future in this great country called the U.S.A. I am a small business owner. We survived the Clinton actions, but we have not been able to with-stand or prosper during this first year of debauchery that is taking place now. I can now enter my name on a long list of casual-ties caused by the current administration. I fear a lot more casualties are in the future. I also fear for my son’s future. Thanks again for believing in this great country called the U.S.A.

—Mark Heine

Mr. Holler’s article (The Constitution Made Easy, Seven Deadly Myths, March 2010) provides the standard critique of the idea of

a living Constitution. The Constitution was drafted when we were a tiny population of independent farmers and shop owners. It was on the other side of the industrial rev-olution, the Louisiana Purchase, and mod-ern medicine & science…The issue is how changes should happen: through the for-mal amendment process or through uni-lateral judicial and executive actions.

Conservatives claim to demand a strict application of the original meaning of the text. Under a strict reading of the Constitution, the Iraq War was unconsti-tutional. There was no declaration of war by Congress. But who were among the war’s biggest supporters? “Conservatives.”

While I tend to oppose judicial and executive activism as much as the next conservative, there have been times where [it was] needed. Brown v. Board of Educa-tion was wrongly decided—on strict le-gal grounds. Blacks had fought bravely in World War II only to come home to legally sanctioned discrimination. Thankfully, the Supreme Court did something about it.

—Rich Wood, Colorado Springs

Mike Holler responds: The writer does not address the central thesis of my column which is that the people who say they want The Constitution to be living really want it dead so they can have a big central govern-ment. I am against unconstitutional wars. I would have favored an amendment to stop discrimination, and the Constitution would still be intact. The rule of law would still be in effect. Technology and industry do not change an agreement, or the nature of a distributed government. The principle that man will try to dominate his fellow man has been unchanged throughout history. The Constitution was written as a barrier to that domination.

It’s no surprise that we are in a bad reces-sion. Here is the drastic action I suggest we take:

U.S. Senators and Representatives have a base pay of $174,000 plus expenses and perks. Senator Mark Udall’s office said other government employees got a 2% pay raise in 2009, so nearly everybody is im-pacted by the recession except federal em-ployees. I recommend giving a 10% reduc-tion in salary to every federal employee, including Senators, Representatives and the president but excluding everyone in the military. The reduction should be in effect until the war and recession are over.

In addition to the pay cuts, there should be a cessation of any pork spending (earmarks). Legislators like to justify them by saying their little million dollar earmark won’t really hurt. But last year one of the appropriation bills had thousands of them in it. Earmarks have been totaling about $30 billion a year. That is outrageous waste, and stupid! Most Americans live our lives very frugally, but when people get elected to Congress, frugality goes out the window.

Government will have to cut spending at every opportunity, including small ex-penditures that aren’t absolutely necessary, to prevent the U.S. from going bankrupt. The only alternative is to continue printing excessive money which would cause run-away inflation.

—Earl Asbury, Colorado Springs

The March 18 edition of the Gazette ran a piece by Tom Roeder entitled “Bennet, McInnis High on Wish Lists” discussing the “results” of the caucus straw polls. Un-fortunately the article failed to tell readers that only voters registered as Democrats and Republicans as of January 19, 2010 could take part in the caucuses. I was par-ticularly puzzled by comments attributed to El Paso County Commissioner Sallie

LETTERS on page 4

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Seven Deadly Myths, #2 of 7 The Constitution Made Easy

Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Con-stitution was made to safeguard the people against the dangers of good in-tentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good mas-ters, but they mean to be masters.

—Daniel Webster

A second deadly myth destroying liberty in America is the naïve notion that govern-ment is good, and that the people in power can be trusted. Not one of our founders believed this, and they

were informed by compelling evidence from history and human nature. The wis-dom of the ages was theirs.

Our first President said that govern-ment is essentially force, and “Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful mas-ter.” Our second President added, “There is danger from all men… trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” And this from the third President, “even under the best forms of govern-ment those entrusted with power have… perverted it into tyranny.” And from the fourth, “The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”

In fact, the quotes of the founders to the effect that power corrupts, and that governments all become tyrannical, would fill not just this column, but many more pages. The number of times they suggested that power was easily managed, and that people should simply trust their

Mike Holler, Featured Writerelected officials to do the right thing are exactly zero.

Benjamin Franklin gave an inspiring speech at the close of the Constitutional Convention. He urged the delegates to “act heartily and unanimously in recommend-ing this Constitution…” and urged every member to put his name to it. Seldom noted is his prediction earlier in the same speech, “that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any oth-er.”

So here we are, face to face in this very moment with the good doctor’s prophecy: a majority of Americans may have actu-ally become incapable of anything better. By “corrupt” Mr. Franklin meant the op-posite of virtuous, something closer in our vocabulary to “lazy” or “dependent.” Our current predicament surely has as much to do with the laziness with which we have approached our understanding of history, human nature and civics as anything done to us by the selfish opportunists we have elected.

When Jay Leno goes “Jay-walking” he gets big hoots by asking people on the street to name the home country of the Panama Canal or the Great Wall of China. We laugh until our sides hurt when they

can’t name the first President, or guess that freedom of speech is one of the Ten Commandments. We are amused because we think he searched long and hard to find his victims. Sadly, his job is easier than we thought.

Just under half of the 1,000 adults surveyed in 2008 by Intercollegiate Stud-ies Institute could name the three branch-

es of the gov-ernment that they want to let run their lives. And the situation is worse than the num-bers indicate:

it was a multiple choice test! …and the right answer was “A!” Fifty-one per cent shot past the right answer to find a wrong one. An anonymous blogger addressing the present crisis said it would “be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to an electorate willing to have such a man for their president.”

Not surprisingly, the same people who cannot name the Vice-President want bigger government. Citizens who cannot perform simple math think that the gov-ernment creates wealth and permits us to share in it. How would such an electorate ever see through the “fuzzy math” being presented to them by the trillions? Only 21% of those surveyed know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lin-coln’s Gettysburg Address, but 56% knew

that Paula Abdul was a judge on Ameri-can Idol. Even fewer, one might conclude, would consider the preservation of free-dom as their highest duty, or know the meaning or purpose of vigilance.

Freedom lovers have their work cut out for them. The good news is that the more people learn about history and civ-ics, the less gullible they become. The same organization that conducted the survey on civic knowledge also found that civic literacy can be taught, and that the higher people scored on the civic literacy test, the more likely they would believe in the importance of our founding docu-ments, the value of having free markets, and the danger of big government.

Our founders were great advocates of education. Some of the universities they proposed or founded still stand today. But they believed that the highest purpose of education was to prepare future leaders who understood the virtues upon which liberty and our founding are based. If the corrosive effect of great power is the prob-lem, an informed and militant citizenry may be the answer. If we are to save this country as a land of freedom and oppor-tunity for the next generation, education is the best and least disruptive solution and we must give it our all. Reading and then sharing the United States Constitu-tion is where I suggest beginning.

Mike Holler writes and speaks about free-dom and the United States Constitution, is a frequent guest on talk radio, and travels with the Tea Party Express. Next month he will continue this series, “Seven Deadly Myths.” Contact Mike or view his recent book at: TheConstitutionMadeEasy.com

The number of times [the founders] suggested that power was easily managed, and that people should simply trust their elected officials to do the right thing are exactly zero.

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LETTERS continued from page 2Clark who, per the article is campaigning for Republican gubernatorial hopeful Scott McInnis. She was attributed as saying the turnout of Republicans energized by the conservative tea-party and 9-12 move-ments Uh, hello, Ms. Clark! Most of us in the grassroots conservative movements are not card-carrying Republicans able to take part in the caucuses! We are disen-franchised Democrats, Independents, Lib-ertarians and disenfranchised Republicans who left the party and became unaffiliated because we are sick and tired of the old-line, entrenched parties’ power bases and business as usual approach to governing. We became convinced that Sallie and her ilk do not get it and are totally out of touch with us. We are for real change like Dan Maes offers, not just the same old song and dance with a new face and name!

—Chuck Graybill, Colorado Springs

I found your wonderful paper at the com-pany where I buy feed for my pets just out-side of Eaton, CO. Thank you for having the intestinal fortitude to publish it. I have for years tried to educate people about our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Feder-alist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers and the Founding Fathers: John Jay, first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Alex-ander Hamilton, first secretary of the trea-sury, and James Madison, fourth president of the United States. Why, you may ask, did I choose these three men, aside from their positions in the history of this great repub-lic? Because these are also the three men who wrote the Federalist Papers and James Madison is the acknowledged father of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Madi-son was also the chairman of the commit-tee that put the Bill of Rights into the basic concept that we today know, with some stylistic changes by the Senate. God bless the United States of America!

—C. W. Bryant, Cheyenne, WY

“The really lucky people are the ones who lived full productive lives and then died five years ago. They didn’t have to watch the country they built, lived in, and loved be torn apart by their own government.” “We handed our kids the best of all possible worlds and they are throwing it all away.” These two quotes have kept me awake at night here recently. They grab me right in the gut and won’t let loose. A good feeling about them is that they have let me see I am not the only one thinking these thoughts. I thought maybe this kind of thinking came from the age related paranoia of my 77 years but apparently they are not just that. I was among the many volunteers at GOP headquarters helping take in and organize the results of the recent caucuses. Another of the volunteers, a lady not nearly as old as I am but one who hasn’t been in a youth group for awhile made the first statement during a lull in our efforts. The second quote came from a lifelong friend a few years ago. I’m glad its not just me but sad that anyone has to have such thoughts. Equally sad was the low turnout at the cau-cuses. Are only us older people able to see that our country is in the direst danger it has been in since World War II? Please pre-pare yourselves to vote in the coming elec-tions to stop this madness. We elders can’t do it alone.

—Gerald Kachel

Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinners are typically a venue in which all Republicans can gather and fellowship together as a united party. I can say that without a doubt,

the keynote speaker for this year’s dinner, Josh Penry, made no attempt to bring Re-publicans together. Although his message was that we must all gather and fight for Republican conservative principles to take back control of our republic and state; Josh sacrificed his political future by stating right at the start that he was supporting Scott McInnis for governor.

I’m not sure why Penry would not fol-low protocol and respect all Republicans in attendance, other than he was upset at his own ill advised decision to get out of the governor’s race. Dan Maes, the only true contender to McInnis, pulled 40% of the straw poll at the caucuses and was in atten-dance having to tolerate Penry’s disrespect in front of a captive audience. Penry went on to answer a question from a member of the dinner guests as to whom he was sup-porting for U.S. Senate. Again, Josh could have easily followed protocol and chosen not to answer the question to the whole group. But he made another poor decision and said he supported Jane Norton.

After Penry’s speech, Bob Balink managed to acknowledge Maes as being a great candidate even though the damage was done and the room full of Republicans was visibly trying to understand why Penry was so disrespectful.

The true question is why did the El Paso County Republican Party leadership select Penry to be the keynote speaker knowing that he had stepped out of the race and was supporting McInnis? There is no shortage of excellent speakers who could have delivered an inspiring speech and been respectful to all of the candidates and their supporters. I can only gather that the Republican Party remains a house divided.

—David L. Kelly, Colorado Springs

It’s that time of the year again; April 15 is fast approaching. As I sit here wading through my shoebox of receipts, W-2s, lottery winnings, mortgage interest state-ments, W-9s, savings interest statements and every other source of income for the year, I wonder, is there a better way?

The American tax code consists of over 67,000 pages of unreadable babble and every year we have to try to conform to it. Have you ever tried to call the IRS with a question? Don’t worry if you don’t understand or don’t like the answer. Just call them again the next day. You’ll most likely get a different answer. Not even the IRS can keep track of the income tax code monstrosity.

For over 12 years a better code has been sitting in the dusty shelves of Con-gress. It is called the Fair Tax Act. The Fair Tax is a consumption (sales) tax that re-places the current tax system. Please note I said replaces, not adds to. The Fair Tax Act removes all forms of income tax, Social Se-curity tax, Medicare tax, pay roll tax, and others.

With the Fair Tax, we would no longer need to fill out mountains of paper work each year. We would pay our taxes when we purchase new goods or services. Imag-ine being able to take home all of your pay-check! And the cost of goods and services would remain pretty much the same.

I encourage everyone to get informed about the Fair Tax. The best way is to go to www.fairtax.org. Two books I’ve found helpful: The FairTax Book and FairTax: The Truth. You can find them at both bn.com and amazon.com.

As you sit down and pour through your financial life this year, think what it would be like if April 15 was just another spring day.

—Shawn Mullen

Corrections & ClarificationsIn our Premier Edition (Feb. 2010), the article “Gun Rights Hang in the Balance” incor-rectly stated that Supreme Court Justice David Souter voted with the majority favoring individual rights to own guns in the District of Columbia v. Heller case. Instead, Souter dissented from the majority opinion.

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I am a father, husband, converted Catholic and a veteran of the United States Navy. I am concerned about the direction our country is taking. You took an oath to up-hold and defend the Constitution of the United States, not a political party. The federal government has a role that is set out in the Constitution that you swore to defend.

The most valuable assets we have are the Constitution and the values of Amer-ica. We have the God-given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is not the responsibility of the government to manage all aspects of our lives from birth until death. It is the responsibility of the people to protect a civil society from an over reaching government.

We are a free, resourceful and intel-ligent people. When the government steps out of the way the people of America will amaze the world. We deserve to prosper for ourselves and to provide for our fami-lies. We have the right to personal proper-ty. It is our money, not the government’s.

Taxes are necessary to provide for our government that:• Is limited in scope. (As set forth in our

Constitution)• Preserves and guarantees the rights of

the states and the American people (As stated in the Constitution)

• Believes that the free market and capital-ism are our heritage and our future

• Trusts free markets to always make bet-ter policy than the government

• Realizes and accepts we are a nation un-der God and a nation of faith

• Has at its core a respect for natural law and the American citizen

• Provides for our national defense• Remembers that the Constitution is not a

“living” document

A Letter to CongressTroy Kimble, Guest Writer

• Recognizes that America is exceptional and that Americans have given their lives to preserve our great nation

• Stands up and defends our national in-terests

• Respects human lifeHow can people keep the freedom

that comes to us from God if the only rea-son that elected officials are in office is to stay there? If our elected officials do not serve our freedom or the Constitution and the preservation of our rights, they are tyrants that do not deserve to serve us and should never be reelected.

Have an honest debate, say what you mean and mean what you say. Do not lie to the American people. We deserve the truth from our leaders. The American people are tolerant and not easy to rouse but once we are awake we will not stand to see our country continue to commit to a path that can only end in the same tyran-ny that it escaped at its founding. We will hold our politicians accountable.

You are entrusted with the future of our society and our great country. Do not betray what you have sworn to defend and uphold. I demand that you REJECT anything that increases the reach of gov-ernment. STOP the increase in spending and regulation. STOP the special interests that corrupt our government. REDUCE the size of government and return it to its rightful scope and power. STOP the pro-fane waste of our hard-earned money. RE-TURN the future to our children and do not make them pay for the out-of-control spending that we have today. Return our founding principles to their rightful place. Restore the rights that are given to us from God back to where they belong, into our capable hands.

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Preachin’ HateMichelle Morin, Featured WriterI had the privilege of serving as a panel-ist and speaker at the March 9 Candidate Debate 2010 in Colorado Springs where Republican candidates running for U.S. Senate, Colorado governor, and state trea-surer met for a spirited contest.

Colorado Springs’ KVOR 740am talk show host Richard Randall was also one of the ten debate panelists. Local liberal “Steve” is a regular caller into Randall’s daily conservative show. On air, Randall invited Steve to attend the debate, offer-ing him a paid ticket at the door. The next morning, Steve called into Randall’s show to share his insights on the debate. He had some interesting feedback, specifically about my speech. Here’s some of what Steve said: “…her speech reminded me of Sinclair Lewis’s book ‘It Can’t Happen Here’…and it talked about how fascism takes over America because during her speech she continually said that the left was the evil part of America. And that the left hates America, and that only the right loves the Constitution or freedom. That is very dangerous…Fortunately the rest of the thing was not even close to as hateful as her speech, and all the candidates were fairly moderate…But it was not good for America the type of thing she was say-ing…what she said is that the left does not love the Constitution; the left does not love freedom.”

So my words were, “hateful…very dangerous…not good for America.” Hmmm…think Steve felt a bit uneasy?

To his credit, I sincerely applaud and thank Steve for attending. I think I under-stand his anxiety. As a liberal, he willingly entered a sold-out, standing-room only, conservative event. It was packed full of 1,200 energized, passionate, freedom-lov-ing Americans ready to take effective ac-tion. For the record, this was not an event funded or coordinated by an established organization. It was organized completely by the people (and only a handful at that), of the people, and for the people.

In my speech, I pointed out that there are some who continually try to find a center of gravity for the force empower-ing the room that evening. They want to box and label it in hopes of managing, controlling, or even destroying it. But the profound truth is that no center of gravity exists. This is a movement of ordinary (or should I say extraordinary?) Americans, driven and fueled by that inner spark of freedom and liberty burning within every human heart.

I posed the question, “Can freedom be boxed?” Answer that and you have an understanding of this movement. The

real center of gravity is the United States Constitution, and the principles held by our Founding Fathers that shaped it. If the spirit that went into our nation’s founding can’t be smothered or boxed, then neither can the momentum propelling today’s freedom revival.

I stated the goal clearly: Coloradans are starting an avalanche for freedom that will wipe out the liberal agenda, both in our state and nationwide. I made it clear we won’t let anyone or anything get in our way. My main call to action: keep our eyes on the ball, and win the prize for freedom. Based on the crowd’s response, my words echoed their sentiments.

It was clear that conservatives are on the offensive. Just as a football team must play tenaciously and stay focused on the ball to win, conservatives must stay a team whose vision is focused on the prize for freedom. This season’s winning team will determine freedom’s destiny in America. Once lost, freedom may never again be found. That was the gist of my speech, now back to Steve.

He experienced something histori-cal firsthand,—the likes of which I haven’t seen in my lifetime. It was definitely a powerful testimony to what ordinary, free-dom-loving Americans can achieve. Steve put himself in the midst of something that can’t be grasped, boxed or stopped. The event was a huge success, and it was pow-erful! No wonder Steve was uneasy.

His reaction is understandable. Without a proper understanding of what it really took to birth this nation, and to someone who holds a “progressive” view of the world, it’s easy to imagine why Steve perceived his experience as danger-ous. He and his progressive friends can no longer hack freedom on the chopping block, sight unseen. The spirit of America is awake, energized, and mobilized to de-fend her.

Steve, my “dangerous” words should threaten your progressive vision of Amer-ica. They are simply a reflection of the momentum you experienced in the room that evening. I’m glad you attended the debate, and I personally welcome you to future freedom-loving events. I would like to believe that you are open to “see the light” as you meet more Americans in this movement. Now you know you can’t stop the avalanche called freedom.

To see both the transcript of Randall’s on-air conversation with Steve and a vid-eo of my entire speech online, go to www.Mom4Freedom.com and click on the en-try “Hateful…Dangerous…Not Good for America.”

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City WatchLynda Jones, Senior Staff Writer

Council Wrestles PILT DiscrepanciesAmidst confusion about procedures the Colorado Springs City Council consid-ered a general fund write-off of $3,935,333 and agreed to write off $794,262 of that amount. The issue of how to handle the other $3,141,071 remained unsolved at the end of the March 9 meeting.

The nearly $4 million figure is the result of a discrepancy in how Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) and the city au-ditor calculated CSU’s 2008 and 2009 Payments-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT). The discrepancy was not brought to the city council’s attention until last June. The city auditor’s findings were completed in De-cember. The city auditor reported then that the volumetric rate used by CSU and included in its rates should have been ad-justed along with base rates, in accordance with Resolution 205-00.

If CSU had made payments with the adjusted rates, they would have paid $27,704,554 in 2009 and $26,551,768 in 2008. Instead, CSU paid $24,563,483 in PILT to the city’s general fund in 2009 (subject to final audit adjustments) and $25,757,505 in 2008. Council members agreed to write off the 2008 discrepancy, but not the 2009 discrepancy.

Vice Mayor Larry Small said both parties (CSU and City of Colorado Springs) are the city, and the matter at most would be an inter-department trans-fer in the private sector. “This isn’t our problem as a council. This is not a policy problem. This is a management problem,” Small said, “I’d just as soon management fix their own problems.”

CSU officials said if the city coun-cil requires CSU to pay the disputed PILT amounts, they would ultimately have to raise electric and gas rates. Mayor Lionel Ri-vera stated CSU would need to reduce their operating costs, not raise residential rates.

Councilmember Jan Martin ex-pressed frustration that the CEO for CSU and the city manager did not bring this to the council sooner. She said the situation exemplifies the problem of city council also serving as board members for CSU.

The resolution to write off the 2009 PILT discrepancy failed with a 4-5 vote. Council Members Martin, Purvis, Herpin and Paige voted for the measure. Mayor Rivera, Vice Mayor Small, and Council Members Glenn, Gallagher and Hente voted against the measure. The city man-ager was absent from this meeting.

Tight Purse Strings Threaten CSFD MoraleIt was a narrow miss, but no firefight-ers lost their jobs to the 2010 Colorado Springs budget cuts. However, the Colo-rado Springs Fire Department has not hired any new firefighters in the past three years. The 2011 city budget process is an alarm Chief Steven Cox and his team hear loud and clear.

Cox prepared 22 firefighters to be laid off. That scenario did not come to fruition, but now there is a lot of fear among the ranks. Cox and Deputy Chief Rich Brown are both quick to describe CSFD firefight-ers as committed and dedicated. Still, Cox expresses concern about morale, emotional stamina, and stress among the firefighters. He worries about firefighters and the com-munity being at risk in the future.

“For 2010, no personnel or program reductions were made. A fund balance draw should permit keeping all PSST (Public Safety Sales Tax) funded person-nel through 2010. However, in 2011, it is

anticipated that budget reductions could result in the elimination of positions and a reduction in operating expenses,” Cox said.

Since Jan. 1, 2008, 19 vacant fire-fighter positions and 11 vacant promoted uniformed positions were eliminated. Eight vacant paramedic positions were reclassified to firefighter and two vacant uniformed investigator positions were eliminated. Seven civilian positions were eliminated. Overtime costs were reduced by $200,000 and operating costs were re-duced by $12,318.

Regarding equipment, Cox said, “Right now we’re in good shape. We have excellent staff and maintenance.” Long before the city’s current budget crunch, the CSFD implemented a conservation program for its trucks. A new fire truck currently costs about $350,000. Cox ex-plained that if the department spends $160,000 to rebuild an old truck, the old truck gains another 10 years of usable life.

The CSFD currently has 20 fire sta-tions, and that number is not expected to change in the foreseeable future. A reduc-tion of $829,000 in the CSFD PSST budget was required after Jan. 1, 2009, according to figures supplied by Cox. The funds re-moved had been allocated to payments on Certificates of Participation (COPs) to build Fire Station 21 and rebuild Fire Sta-tion 1. Fire station 21 would serve the area developing east of Powers Boulevard and north of Stetson Hill Boulevard. “Effec-tively, these projects have been eliminated unless another funding source is found,” Cox reported.

Original plans to remodel Fire Sta-tion 1 to improve air quality and make the building functional for today’s demands were scrapped. The age of the building made the remodel impractical. Now there are plans to incorporate the old building into the design of a new structure. How-ever, current market conditions and the decline in PSST revenues has resulted in postponement of issuing COPs and con-structing the station. The project is on hold until PSST revenues recover or an-other funding source is found.

City Council Codifies Issue 300It was with a 6-3 vote that the Colorado Springs City Council passed an ordinance codifying Issue 300 in late February. The issue’s author, Douglas Bruce, argued against the ordinance. Council Members Sean Paige, Tom Gallagher, and Darryl Webb voted against the measure.

Issue 300 was approved by voters last November. The issue consists of two sen-tences: “Excluding sales and use taxes for-warded from enterprise customers, all en-terprise payments by the city shall phase out in eight or fewer equal yearly steps starting in January 2010, with all yearly savings passed on as reductions to each customer bill in dollar amounts as equal as possible. Hereafter, all loans, gifts, and subsidies between an enterprise and the city or another enterprise are prohibited.”

A six and a half page ordinance emerged from the city attorney’s office. Ordinance 10 of chapter 14 of the city code is deemed essential to implementing the voter-mandated Issue 300 in a manner consistent with the city code, according to the city attorneys.

Due to the complex nature of the mat-ter, the City of Colorado Springs retained the legal counsel of Mark Grueskin, a Denver at-torney who served as lead Colorado counsel for Obama’s campaign. Grueskin predicted the courts will find “this (Ordinance 10) is anappropriate way to breathe life into Issue 300.”

CITY on page 8

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Question: Do you think you pay enough taxes? Is our tax money to the federal government going to good use? If the rich pay more taxes, will that help everyone?

Compiled by Mary Coran, Contributing WriterAre You Being Heard?

Kim Barker: We absolutely pay too much. Not all of the federal government’s use of our tax money is necessarily poorly allocated, but we shouldn’t be funding abortion or anything that is against constitutional law. If it’s for good causes that would promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then that’s the way it should be. Our taxes should not be sent to the National

Endowment of the Arts or other waste like the Bridge to Nowhere and other pork projects. If the rich pay more in taxes, that wouldn’t help anyone. Everyone should abide by the same percentage of taxing, not punish people making more money. The rich pay more taxes than everyone else already. They shouldn’t have to support the people who don’t.

David Deheve: I think I pay more than enough, and I do not think our money is managed properly. Right now, our tax money is not being put to good use. The federal government is using our tax money to infringe on the sovereign rights of the states by meddling in affairs they shouldn’t. The number one thing the federal government should be doing is keeping our land safe.

Taxing the rich won’t help everyone. It removes the incentive for people to work harder and better themselves. You create a “why bother?” attitude when you penalize people for making more money. Thank God people are standing up forming Tea Parties. They’re called radical but they’re getting the truth out.

Becky Sarpy: Yeah, I’m sure we pay more than we should pay in taxes. No, our tax money is not being put to good use at this moment. Everyone has their little pork projects that they slip in. Unfortunately, it’s out of control. I’m glad some people are getting help, but here we are, hardworking people having to pay for everything.

Mike Keiley: In general, yes, we do pay enough taxes. Tax money supports a lot of public functions. Some things you cannot do without. Just look at Copenhagen. $4,400 a night to send one congressman, and we sent 160? Spending $200 a night is reasonable, but $4,400 is way too much. There are good uses but there are abuses as well. I’m not against taxes, and I’m not against

government. There needs to be an upper limit to close the gap between what the rich pay and what the poor pay.

Donald Grubbs: I think we pay too much in taxes. What’s been strange for me over the years is that as soon as our kids were gone out of the house, we haven’t gotten a tax refund since. We’re being taxed to death. I’m retired and still paying taxes! I think some of our tax money goes to good use like our military but there’s a lot of waste. I’ve seen it when I worked for the government.

They can cut in a lot more places. Instead of looking at taxes, get the waste under control. Stop penalizing the wealthy. When we tax the wealthy, it just spreads their money around. They worked hard and earned it. They chose to make a living for themselves, others did not.

Mike and Christine Carbajal: Yes, we definitely pay enough taxes. No, we don’t buy into the [line] that our tax money to the federal government going to good use. We shouldn’t have to support people that don’t want to do anything. We would really like the taxes to go where they are

most needed, and that’s the school system. I work in the school system and they cut our budget by over three million! There is so much waste with our tax money. Less for special interests and more for the education system.

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CITY continued from page 7Bruce accused the city council of

violating chapter 12-10d of the city code which says the council can’t repeal or amend any voter-approved ordinance without voter approval.

Bruce promised he will go to court to obtain documents he requested but did not receive from the city attorney.

Bruce said he is pleased that the city is taking steps to eliminate PILTs (payment in lieu of taxes). He also acknowledged that the city is eliminating the Stormwater Enterprise fees.

Council Member Bernie Herpin said it makes common sense in these tight eco-nomic times for agencies and enterprises to share resources.

Council Member Sean Paige opposes Ordinance 10, saying the interpretation from the city attorney’s office is more con-voluted than the language of Issue 300. Paige said he believes the city should live with the language on the ballot of Issue 300 as it was approved by voters and work out the kinks along the way.

Council Member Tom Gallagher said the city should adopt Issue 300. He agreed that the language of Issue 300 is not crystal clear. “But the fact of the mat-ter is,” Gallagher said, “under our form of government, citizens have the right to pe-tition government, and when citizens suc-cessfully petition government, they win, debate stops. The people have spoken.”

Mayor Lionel Rivera supported pas-sage of Ordinance 10 which codifies Is-sue 300, “The city attorney’s office has done their best to provide an interpreta-tion of 300 that allows (us) to implement those parts that are initiated ordinances that we can, but at the same time protect the charter.”

Mayor Encourages Innovative Approaches While Facing Reali-ties of Economic TimesThe most significant change Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera has seen in the city since his first election to the city council in 1997 is “the dramatic drop in revenue on a per capita basis.” This reduc-tion of revenue has resulted in a cut-back of city services, the mayor said during an interview about the city’s financial condi-tion.

When asked what the biggest chal-lenge faced by the city today is Rivera said, “We have to right-size the government to

fit the budget.” He said there are city ser-vices that are nice to have, such as parks and recreation, and there are services that are necessary for public safety, such as police and fire protection and roads. “We have to balance the two,” Rivera said.

When asked how he believes the city council should approach this challenge, Rivera said, “The way we’re doing it.” The mayor thinks it is important to provide a different way of funding, such as forming partnerships with community non-profit and faith-based groups. One such group Rivera cited is the Friends of the Pioneers Museum. Rivera said by the end of the year, the Pioneers Museum should be self-sufficient.

Concerning across-the-board pay cuts for city employees, the mayor said, “I think we have to look at it a little bit smarter than that.” Rivera is looking at po-lice and firefighter pension plans, which would be a form of pay cut. About $6 mil-lion dollars would be saved if the police and fire departments move into the state-managed Public Employees Retirement Account (PERA), Rivera said.

Pension plans for the police and fire departments are expensive, the mayor said. The employer contribution for police officers is up to 21 percent of their salaries and the contribution for members of the fire department is slightly more than 13 percent. “My preference (instead of across the board pay cuts) would be to fix that,” said Rivera.

Rivera explained that City of Colo-rado Springs employees, except the police officers and firefighters, already receive re-tirement benefits through PERA. Employ-ers generally contribute a smaller percent-age of employee wages to PERA than what Colorado Springs contributes to police and firefighter pension accounts.

With regards to the city’s hefty in-vestment in the Olympic Training Center, while the city is laying people off and mak-ing other budget cuts, the mayor believes the investment is necessary to protect the economic future of Colorado Springs. He said economic studies indicate $3.4 mil-lion per year in sales taxes should be gen-erated by the OTC. Rivera said that with-out the OTC, he believes the city budget would take a much bigger hit.

What direction does the mayor think the city should take toward privatizing certain enterprises, such as the cemeter-ies and golf courses? “It really would not

CITY on page 10

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Can I make a difference? What can I do? How can I get involved? Which organization fits me best? These are the questions we hear most often from our readers, so we want to make sure it’s clearly answered online and in every issue. What follows is a partial list of liberty-loving groups and organizations in our area; a complete list is available at www.theconstitutionalisttoday.com, and www.libertyevents.org offers a calendar of upcoming events. Sign up, step up, speak up!Americans for Prosperity, Colorado [email protected]•www.americansforprosperity.org•719-494-0797Americans for Prosperity™ (AFP) is an organization of grassroots leaders committed to educating, engaging and mobilizing citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state and federal levels. The grassroots members of AFP advocate for public policies that champion the principles of entrepreneurship and fiscal and regulatory restraint.Clear the Bench [email protected]•www.clearthebenchcolorado.orgClear The Bench Colorado is a grassroots movement to hold Colorado’s Supreme Court justices accountable to the Colorado Constitution and to the people of Colorado. The four justices subject to retention by voters in the 2010 election, Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, and Nancy Rice, have repeatedly violated their oath to uphold our Constitution and the rights of the citizens of Colorado in favor of imposing their partisan politcal will. Colorado can do better—NEEDS better—and it is time for them to go.Coalition for a Conservative [email protected]•www.ccm-cos.com•719-351-6057Meets the first Tuesday of every month at Cordera Community Center, 11894 Grand Lawn Cir., Colorado Springs. (As meetings are subject to change, please visit our website for the latest schedule.) The word “conser-vative” was purposely, and in no uncertain terms, incorporated into our organization’s name to avoid any ambiguity or uncertainty as to the values and foundation that drive us. We unapologetically espouse the na-tion-shaping values embodied in the Constitution and detailed by the philosophies of our Founding Fathers.9-12 Pikes Peak [email protected]•www.freeandunited.comMeets every month on the 4th Saturday, 9am-11am at the Stetson Hills Police Station, and the 2nd Wednesday, 6:30pm at CSCS auditorium. The Colorado District 5 9-12 Project/We Surround Them group is an organization for like-minded Americans who believe in 9 principles and 12 values as they apply to our government and in our own lives. In conjunction with national, state, and local 9-12 Project groups, we provide members with the platform and resources to pursue any project or cause of their choosing: from education and discussion to community activities or action.Pikes Peak Firearms [email protected]•www.ppfc.org•719-596-3921Meets the second Thursday of each month, 7pm at VFW Post 4051, 430 E. Pikes Peak Ave, Colorado Springs. A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed. —Amendment II, US ConstitutionLiberty on the Rocks, Colorado Springs [email protected]•www.libertyontherocks.org•719-237-4598Meets the second and 4th Tuesdays of the month at The Dublin House, 1850 Dominion Way, Colorado Springs. Tavern-style politics in the tradition of our Founding Fathers! Liberty on the Rocks is a grass-roots organization whose goal is to provide a social environment to unite liberty-minded individuals not only with one another, but also with the freedom-based organizations in their local communities. This social environment provides a place for individuals to meet and network with

each other, gain and disseminate knowledge on the importance of limited government, free mar-kets and individual rights and to learn more about what is going on in their local communities to enhance individual freedoms.El Paso Republican [email protected]•www.gopelpaso.com•719-578-0022The Republican Party is the party of the open door, the party of liberty, the party of equality of opportuni-ty for all and favoritism for none. It is the more socially conservative and economically libertarian of the two major parties, generally supporting lower taxes, limited government and more economic freedom.Pikes Peak Young Professional [email protected]•www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=57376722019•719-213-3428Meets fourth Thursday of every month at GOP Headquarters, 205 Sutton Lane, Colorado Springs. Network with other young professionals with the same goals and aspirations. Ages 20-40, please come and join us!Sunrise Republican [email protected]•www.coloradosrw.com•719-598-1305Meets third Saturday of each month at Falcon police station. All ages are welcome! We promote an informed public through political education and activity, and increase the effectiveness of women for the causes of good government. We support Republican objectives and policies and work for the election of Republican nomineesColorado Springs Republican [email protected]•719-260-0283Meets the third Tuesday of each month at GOP Headquarters, 205 Sutton Lane, Colorado Springs. This group wants to educate and inform all Americans about the principles and values in which make the Republican Party what it is. Please join us as we move ahead in 2010 for liberty and free-dom! Men are welcome as associate members.UCCS College Republicans 719-251-7765Teller Tea [email protected]•www.tellerteaparty.comThe Teller Tea Party is a local movement of non-partisan American patriots who uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. We are dedicated to protecting FREEDOM for all, promoting TRUTH, limiting taxes and government, and preserving our INALIENABLE RIGHTS.Southern Colorado Tea Partywww.socoteaparty.comWe the People of the Southern Colorado Tea Party are committed in restoring our state and our federal Constitutions to our Founders’ original intent. We will be diligent in our restoration and preservation of our freedom. We will hold our elected officials accountable to their oath of office.El Paso County Tea [email protected]•www.elpasocountyteaparty.com•719-260-7776Join us April 15th, 11am at Acacia Park, corner of Bijou and Tejon. Bring your flags, signs and neighbors. Let’s show those in Washington that WE THE PEOPLE want our freedom restored!Pikes Peak Economics Clubwww.pikespeakeconomicsclub.comMeets the first Tuesday of each month at the Vanguard School Library, 1605D South Corona Ave, Colorado Springs. Our mission is educational: to promote economic and civic literacy. It is our contention that you cannot have a controlled economy and maintain a free society.

Compiled by Lana Fore-Warkocz, Publisher

Local Groups and Organizations Get involved and BE the difference!


CITY continued from page 8help,” Rivera said, “because these enti-ties do not receive any general fund or tax subsidies.” He explained they are run independently of the city’s general fund, and, until recently, were paying only a little into the fund.

Rivera described the Memorial Hos-pital system as an extremely valuable as-set owned by the city’s citizens. There is a newly appointed 11-member commission exploring the viability of alternative own-ership options for the system. Any change of ownership would require voter approv-al, Rivera said.

The mayor also addressed $2.1 mil-lion spent in outside legal counsel last year. He said the money was not paid to one particular attorney. Attorneys with a variety of backgrounds (e.g. medical, gas) were hired according to their specialties to assist the two city attorneys as needed.

Rivera confirmed that two groups of business professionals are delving into the financial books of the city. However, no staff time or financial resources are allocated for these independent investi-gations. One group consists of certified public accountants from the Biggs-Kof-ford firm (Jerry Biggs and Karl Kofford of Colorado Springs) and is funded by the Nor’wood Development Company (Da-vid Jenkins, CEO). The second group con-sists of chief executive officers organized by Steve Bartolin, CEO of the Broadmoor Resorts. Rivera said he and the city coun-cil are interested in learning about any in-efficiency these two groups may find.

A misreported change of services recently drew the attention of National Public Radio. Rivera asked an NPR rep-resentative why the station was interested in Colorado Springs. The reply was “the mowers.” According to Rivera, someone at NPR read a newspaper story that claimed the city is encouraging Colorado Springs

residents to take their mowers to the parks and do the maintenance themselves. Rive-ra clarified the situation, saying the city is mowing less frequently but still mowing.

“We’re not different than any other city across the country, and I think we’re handling it (economic downturn and sub-sequent loss of revenue) much better,” the mayor said.

Proposed Aviation Standards May Cause Flight of Local Businesses

Proposed new Minimum Standards for General Aviation at the Colorado Springs Airport (COS) may permanently ground some aviation businesses, or send them flying out of town. Ironically, John McGinley, assistant aviation director at

COS, said one goal of the proposed stan-dards is to “create a level playing field for all aeronautical service providers.”

These proposed standards go beyond general safety and insurance issues. The city proposes hours of operation, staffing requirements, and specific measurements for public waiting areas and office space. They also stipulate a minimum number of aircraft in service.

Will Sanders of Colorado Vertical said he has no problem with safety and insurance compliance. However, he said other requirements in the proposed stan-dards are business decisions for business owners, not the government. Small avia-tion businesses would love to have admin-istrative personnel on duty from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., six days a week, and two full-time flight instructors available for the same

times, as specified in the proposed mini-mum standards. However, it is just not economically feasible, he said.

In addition to the sluggish economy, aviation business has been hurt by secu-rity regulations imposed after 9-11. Sand-ers said his company likes its current lo-cation, but is already considering a move to Meadowlake Airport. Such action, he said, “Would have an economic impact on the Jet Center (we rent and buy fuel from them) and the city revenue since it (Mead-owlake) is outside the city limits,” Sanders said. “We will do all we can to stay in the Jet Center.”

Local aviators questioned why the city is creating this document. As an air-port that receives federal grant funds, COS must comply with certain federal condi-tions. One such grant COS received was $6,740,778 in Economic Recovery Funds for rehabilitation of taxiways in 2009.

McGinley cited recommendations in FAA Advisory Circulars as a source. The recommendations are established to pro-vide baseline requirements for running an airport, he said. FAA AC 150/5190-7 addresses the development of minimum standards. The FAA instructs sponsors (the city) to make practical considerations, and to avoid economic discrimination.

The first draft of the COS minimum standards is posted on the city’s website. Public comment is invited until April 2. The city will incorporate comments from the initial review period into the document and post it on the COS website, www.fly-cos.com, for an additional period of two weeks for a final round of comments.

The Minimum Standards for General Aviation is not an issue for a City Coun-cil vote. The final approval, McGinley said, will come from Director of Aviation, Mark Earle.

Proposed Minimum Standards for General Aviation has Mike Short concerned about the prospect of government interference (beyond safety and security issues) in his business. Short is director of operations for Colorado

Vertical, a Colorado Springs-based business which specializes in helicopter tours and flight instruction.

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Firefighters Battle Various Fires“Providing the highest quality problem solving and emergency service to our community since 1894,” is the mission statement of the Colorado Springs Fire Department. It is a mission the CSFD takes seriously. In spite of tight budget purse strings, the CSFD firefighters serve the City of Colorado Springs in a myriad of ways.

Evidence of the Colorado Springs Fire Department’s impact on citizens with cardiac emergencies was apparent at the annual Celebration of Life in February (American Heart Month). Deputy Chief Rich Brown said 11 of approximately 22 cardiac arrest survivors attended the event and met the firefighters who saved their lives in the past year. The key to their survival is a system called the “Chain of Survival.”

The Chain of Survival involves early activation of the 9-1-1 system, quick ex-ecution of bystander CPR, early defibrilla-tion, and advanced life support (ALS) care. The advanced life support care procedures firefighters/paramedics are prepared to ex-tend includes intubation, IVs, and cardiac drugs. The ALS equipment and trained Emergency Medical Technicians/Para-medics are why firefighters answer medical emergency calls as well as fires.

One of the 2009 ALS survivors is a middle school teacher in Harrison School District 2. She experienced a sudden car-diac arrest at the YMCA. The YMCA staff acted promptly. The fire crew from CSFD Engine 1 arrived on the scene in less than four minutes from the time the dispatcher received the 9-1-1 call. The Chain of Sur-vival was successful and the teacher is back at school. CITY on page 11

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We just celebrated the first anniversary of the 9-12 Project. On March 16, 2009 mil-lions of people from all across the nation gathered in homes, theaters, and busi-nesses as complete strangers to hear what we could do to begin to Re-found Amer-ica. In Colorado Springs, by the many hundreds, we came together in places across the community. Most of us were stunned as we had watched first hand, the near complete collapse of our nation’s values and principles. If we were honest, many of us thought there was nothing that could be done to stop it.

On that day, I was in a hockey rink snack bar standing with 300 complete strangers. I watched as three men handed out Tea Party cards and led us in the Pledge of Al-legiance. Without knowing it, we had just taken the first steps in securing America’s future. In various ways, millions of oth-ers around the country were taking those same first steps.

Two weeks later on a beautiful Colora-do Saturday morning, the 9-12 Project Dis-trict 5 met for the first time with one hun-dred and twenty people packed into a local community room. Many who came were angry, wanting to fight back, but just not sure how. We knew we could lay respon-sibility at nobody’s feet but our own for the state our country was in. Nevertheless, many felt lost and were desperately look-ing for an answer. We didn’t know it, but the answer was right there in that confer-ence room, in homes and meeting halls all across the country. The answer was in us.

Recently, I sat in a living room with eight American Patriots who had come together to give thanks to God and to pray for our country. It made me see clearly

9-12 Project Fights to Re-Found AmericaDon Rodgers, Featured Writer

how lucky I am to be given the opportu-nity to be in this movement. To a stranger, there was nothing outwardly special about any of those there, but real power was on display. It made me think of every 9-12er, members of like-minded groups and indi-viduals who have dedicated themselves to restoring freedom. These are people with real lives and real problems who have put that all aside to do what they can for each

other and America.How far has the

9-12 movement come in one year? In that time, we have seen the entire Progressive agenda in America nearly grind to a halt. From exposing a health

care scheme designed to control every as-pect of our lives to the complete discredit-ing of the climate change hoax, your efforts have impacted America. While they did finally ram through health care, it had to be done with bribery and coercion that all of America saw as a corrupt process on full display.

In Colorado alone, we have seen 9-12 groups grow to twelve chapters from Fort Collins to Grand Junction. We have seen the partnership of like-minded groups coming together and grow in power under the banner of freedom. We have seen The Constitutionalist Today grow from an idea to a powerful vehicle to carry the voice for conservative values to many tens of thou-sands. We have come very far in one year.

The fight is not over and in many ways it has just begun, but we are no lon-ger lost or wondering what we can do. We are on the offensive. America is waking up and “we the people” have made it so.

Don Rodgers is a 9/12 District 5 Organizer for the Pikes Peak Region.

The fight is not over and in many ways it has just begun, but we are no longer lost or wondering what we can do.

CITY continued from page 10Brown beamed as he told how the

Chain of Survival saved one of CSFD’s own, Greg Schawe. Schawe was rescued by the crew from Engine 6 in 2007. In 2009, Schawe was a link in the Chain of Survival for another Colorado Springs citizen, sav-ing that person’s life.

A few other services CSFD provides include rock rescue at Garden of the Gods and Rock Ledge Ranch, SCUBA (res-cue and body search), Specialized Urban Wildfire teams, and Tactical Emergency Medical Units.

Brown said the Specialized Urban Wildfire teams are important because Colorado Springs is at risk for the types of wildfires that plague California. He said one cigarette tossed out on a dry July day, with certain wind conditions, could burn everything along the Front Range on the west side of I-25 from Cheyenne Moun-tain to the Air Force Academy (28,000 acres, 3,200 homes). The CSFD receives matching federal funds for the Specialized Urban Wildfire program. Brown indicat-ed the threat of such a fire is a constant worry for CSFD firefighters who want to be prepared for any emergency.

The average citizen may not know about the Tactical Emergency Medical Unit. Brown explained that anytime a po-lice SWAT unit goes into a building, the Tactical Emergency Medical Unit goes in, too. Firefighters in the Tactical Medi-cal Unit dress in ballistic vests and gear to

provide emergency medical support for anyone who gets shot during the event.

A proactive service provided by the CSFD is checking smoke alarms. Fire-fighters check the smoke alarms in homes where they respond to medical emergen-cies. If there is no smoke alarm and if the family meets certain economic criteria, the firefighters install a smoke alarm. Brown said the smoke alarms installed by the CSFD are donated for that purpose. He said several fires were reported quickly at residences where CSFD had previously installed alarms, reducing fire damage and risk to residents. The CSFD is also planning to inspect apartment complexes throughout the city for code enforcement compliance.

The Fallen Firefighters’ Wall of Hon-or in Memorial Park serves as a reminder of the dangers firefighters face each time they board a fire truck. The Fallen Fire-fighters’ Memorial is funded and main-tained by current and former firefighters (IAFF Local 5). Lt. Mike Smaldino orga-nizes a memorial service that is held on the third Saturday of September each year. This year, the service will be held on Sept. 11. Cox said, “It’s the commitment of the individual employees that makes this a great organization.”

To see other ways the firefighters of Colora-do Springs contribute to the community, go to: www.theconstitutionalisttoday.com/ff1 and http://www.iafflocal5.com.

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City Hall Sausage Factory

Colorado Springs Debate Draws Record Crowd

Doug Bruce, Guest Writer

Brad Kerstetter, Senior Staff Writer

German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once joked, “Laws are like sausages; it is better not to see them being made.” That warning also applies to the Colorado Springs City Council wienies.

November’s Issue 300 ended the illegal storm water tax and phased out secret util-ity taxes and other payments to the city. The council first claimed 300 did not apply to the storm water tax. Public uproar followed. The council offered to end the tax in 2017, despite its plain statement that enterprise gifts to the city (paying city bills and repairing city prop-erty) were “Hereafter...prohibited “ (See City-Reforms.com).

The council found one dictionary that defined “hereafter” as “some day.” I replied for the voters who passed it, giving 117 defi-nitions of “hereafter,” as an adverb meaning “from now on; immediately.” I cited two legal dictionaries, 19 other dictionaries, 66 uses in state laws, six in the charter, and 24 in the state Constitution. The council retreated, say-ing, “How about two years and six weeks?”

I again said, “No.” They finally ended the rain tax six weeks after 300 took effect (No-vember 16). They still wrongly assert a right to collect back taxes and 2009 taxes after their repeal.

So the city council kept the storm wa-ter enterprise alive. They violated the will of voters by giving $13 million in storm water funds to the city. They still use enterprise ve-hicles bought illegally. That money belongs to those who paid the illegal tax, because the enterprise can no longer make “gifts or subsi-dies” to the city.

The council is slowly phasing out one illegal utility payment, as 300 requires. But they just passed an anti-Issue 300 law to cheat us out of about $10 million yearly. Their ordi-nance tries to override 300, though the char-ter says only voters may amend or repeal 300.

With one specific exception, the first sentence of 300 says, “...all enterprise pay-ments to the city shall phase out in eight or fewer equal years steps starting in January 2010...” The council says that is vague. They offer a multi-page substitute for the two-sentence Issue 300. This latest evasion “inter-

It was standing room only as nearly 1,000 spectators packed the room at the Can-didate Debate 2010 in Colorado Springs March 9 at the Mr. Biggs Event Center. The political races heated up with the ap-proach of the Republican caucuses and the gloves came off. The debate focused on the U.S. senatorial, Colorado guberna-torial and Colorado state treasurer races.

The event kicked off with a speech from Michelle Morin, from Coalition for a Conservative Majority (CCM) Colorado. “I know, some of [the candidates] may not embrace every issue that you embrace, or they may not embrace issues the way you want them to, but I guarantee you this…ev-ery candidate here loves freedom,” she said.

The panelists represented various conservative grass roots organizations and local talk show hosts. Mike Holler, author of The Constitution Made Easy, emceed the event. “From this field of can-didates will emerge three champions. We will fight to get you into office, and then hold you accountable,” he said.

The senatorial candidates debated first. They included Ken Buck, Jane Norton, Cleve Tidwell, Tom Wiens and Steve Bar-ton. Question from the senatorial debate covered health care, immigration, national security, federal program cuts and earmarks.

When speaking about illegal immi-gration, Wiens pointed out the impor-tance of secure borders. “We cannot allow selective enforcement of law in the consti-tution,” he said.

Buck fielded a question on cutting unconstitutional government programs. “The idea that the federal government

prets” the phrase “all enterprise payments” to mean “some enterprise payments.”

The city council’s goal is to continue to control politically operations of enterprises, defined by the charter and constitution as “government-owned businesses.” A business picks its own lawyer, auditor, and accountant, and operates like a business. Here, the city forces its puppets to fork over $10 million yearly for incompetent city “services.”

The city auditor “forgot” $4 million due the city, yet an enterprise must use his ser-vices? The city attorney—the highest paid in the state (over twice the governor’s salary)—bungled the illegal $53+ million Olympics handout and debt, the illegal storm water and street light enterprises, the failed crimi-nal prosecution of me for collecting petition signatures on 300 and enterprises. Why must we hire her for more bad advice?

Colorado Springs Utilities pays $106,000 for a cop in its customer service lobby, but they can’t hire a security guard instead for $26,000? All these payments are buried in your enterprise bills. The money enters the city general fund and becomes taxes, not fees, just like the storm water “fee” and secret utility “fee.” They are taxes because they are diverted from an individual benefit, like vol-untary utility consumption charges, to gen-eral benefits, like public works.

Issue 300 says those payments must phase out in eight or fewer years, “with all yearly savings passed on as reductions to each customer bill.” So the council cheats us of $10 million in yearly savings on enterprise bills, like your utility bills.

What can you do? Tell the council what you think of their sleazy and illegal tactics. Tell them their childish and punitive retali-ation against voters will not intimidate you. Their $385 million budget can pay for park mowing, watering, and trash removal, among other visible service cuts designed to make you regret passing 300 and defeating 2-C.

Douglas Bruce is a former county commission-er, state legislator, and the author of the Tax-payer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) and Issue 300. Volunteer to help him at [email protected].

should be running health care or [Social Security] is fundamentally against what I believe, which is that the private sector runs programs like that far better,” he said.

A question on national defense led Barton to point out, “National defense needs to be the number one concern of the federal government…”

When the subject of earmarks came up, Norton said, “I am proud to say that I was the first candidate running for the senate that signed the no earmarks pledge. I will not seek or support any earmarks.”

Candidates were also asked to differ-entiate themselves from the other oppo-nents. Tidwell said, “…I am tired of watch-ing [politicians] take away our money and send it to Washington. It is time they let us keep it and it put it in our pockets and do the things we need to do on a local basis and get government out of our lives.”

No punches were held in the Colo-rado Treasurer’s race between J.J. Ament and Ali Hasan. Ament pointed out that he would be the first treasurer in more than 40 years to have a professional financial back-ground. “I respect my opponent but his background is filmmaking,” Ament said.

Hasan fired back, “My opponent says he has experience advising the treasury. This is the roster of the treasury as of a year ago, and his name is not on it.”

The third candidate for state trea-surer, Walker Stapleton, was not able to attend so he sent a surrogate.

The gubernatorial debate between Dan Maes and Scott McInnis was the headliner of the evening. Maes’ plan to boost the economy was to repeal regula-

tions and encourage the oil and gas in-dustries to come back to Colorado. “Our job is to create an environment where the free-enterprise system thrives,” Maes said.

McInnis explained his commitment to the Second Amendment, “Any attempt to dilute our Second Amendment rights will be vetoed…”

Despite a few harsh words, the gu-bernatorial candidates kept the dialogue civil and shook hands at the end of their debates.

Patrick Shaffner was one of the hundreds of spectators at the debates. “I thought Maes and Buck answered the

panel’s questions the most directly while other candidates skirted some of the ques-tions, typical of most politicians,” he said. “That is really all we see now from Wash-ington.”

Another spectator, Donna Burkhead, knew before attending the debates where she stood on most of the candidates, but it gave her an opportunity to hear some of them for the first time. “I liked how Ken Buck answered the questions concisely yet thoroughly and from his heart. That is what I am looking for in a candidate,” Burkhead said.

The Mr. Bigg’s Event Center was filled to capacity with citizens eager to hear the candidates.

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In 1936 James Fore was an 11-year-old carefree boy flying solo over his parent’s farm in Arkansas. He never could have imagined that in eight years he would be flying bombing missions in World War II and would become a German POW.

Fore was always intrigued with air-planes and flying. In 1942, at the tender age of 17, he quit high school and left his family farm near Little Rock to join the Army Air Corps. By age 19 Fore had his pilot’s wings. He was sent to England in April, 1944 to join the 91st Bomb Group, 1st Wing, 1st Division as a B17 bomber pilot.

Disaster struck Fore’s crew on their 28th mission, July 8, 1944 over Dreux, France. “The Allies were stuck and we were try-ing to knock out about 23,000 German tanks,” Fore said. “All of a sud-den another pilot radi-oed me and said I had a hole in my left wing. My plane was on fire! We were fatally hit,” he said. Fore told his crew to bail out. He pulled out of formation then abandoned the burn-ing plane. He landed in a field where a French farmer was working nearby. The farmer sig-naled for him to run to the woods. He brought civilian clothes to Fore and hid him at his mother’s house. The next day the Maquis (French under-ground) collected Fore and drove him to their head-quarters in Paris. “Twenty-six Al-lied airmen were there in civilian clothes waiting to go back to England. I had a premonition that something bad was going to hap-pen,” he said.

On July 11 Fore’s premonition came true. The men were loaded into trucks and taken to Gestapo headquar-ters where they were beaten and inter-rogated. Fore was the youngest of all the POWs, just 19 years old. He spent four weeks in soli-tary confinement. “I could hear them shooting people at all hours of the day. I knew they were the ones who had tried to help us,” he said.

When the Al-lies advanced on Paris the Germans packed the men into cattle car trains with standing room only and a bucket for a toilet. “It was hot and the stench was terrible! So many men were still suf-fering from wounds. We spent five days and five nights on that train. It was a trip of horror!” Fore said. The train stopped at the infamous Buchenwald concen-tration camp near Weimar, Germany.

Hometown Heroes WWII POWJulie Ayers, Managing Editor

“When we got there I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was a slave labor camp where people were being worked and starved to death,” Fore said. “They made us strip naked, shaved all the hair off our bodies and sprayed us with DDT to kill the lice.

We had to sleep out-side and were fed one bowl of watery soup a day. The ‘Beast of Buchenwald’ (camp commandant’s wife) had dogs she would let loose on the pris-oners. I couldn’t be-

lieve what I saw there! I wanted to resign from the human race.”

One day a Luftwaffe officer came to the camp and asked Fore if he was an Al-lied airman to which Fore replied, “Yes, sir.” The officer told Fore he didn’t belong

there. Fore said, “No one belongs here.”

The airmen were moved to a POW camp at Stalag Luft 3. “The Luftwaffe treated us wonderful. The POW camp was like being at a resort compared to Buchenwald. We were able to shower, shave and brush our teeth for the first time in four months.”

In January 1945 just after Fore celebrat-ed his 20th birthday, the POWs could hear the Russian guns near-by. “The Russians were

getting close so they had to move us. On January 27 they marched all 15,000 of us

to Nuremberg. It was a two-week trip. We went part of the way by train,” Fore said. A few months later as the American forces approached the

POWs’ hopes rose. “On April 29, 1945 General Patton came riding into our camp standing in a Jeep,” Fore said. “He shook our hands. We were free!”

James Fore, a true American pa-triot, has published his memoirs in a book called Tragedy and Triumph: A

Pilot’s Life Through War and Peace. In the summary Fore wrote, “The expe-riences of my life include growing up in the Great De-pression and near starvation in the Holocaust. …I re-member the pov-erty of my youth and wonder about the future of my g r a n d c h i l d r e n . We’ve bankrupted our country with excessive spend-ing…” Fore goes on to quote Senator Fullbright, “In a de-mocracy, dissent is an act of faith and

to criticize one’s country is to do it a ser-vice. Criticism, in short, is more than a right, it’s an act of patriotism…My ques-tion is whether America can overcome the fatal arrogance of power.”

“… another pilot radioed me and said I had a hole in my left wing. My plane was on fire. We were fatally hit.”

“…I remember the poverty of my youth and wonder about the future of my grandchildren. We’ve bankrupted our country with excessive spending…”

James Fore with his pilot wings at age 19 in 1944.

James Fore, today, age 85

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You might be thinking so what if small businesses fail? It doesn’t affect me. Wrong! Directly, or indirectly, small businesses affect employment. Small businesses arguably employ up to 70% of working Americans. Since America’s recovery from the Great Depression, the engine of our economy and capitalism is small business. Small businesses sup-port your big business with purchases or sales, or support your government unit with tax dollars.

How many of you have been down-sized or laid off from one job or more? What to do? Should you file unemploy-ment and use up your severance package while wandering aimlessly or searching with pinpoint accuracy for a new job? Should you use your unique skills to start your own business? Yes, you can become an entrepreneur and be your own boss. No, that option is not disappearing with your ability to get a conventional loan.

In the previous issue I explained that experienced operators can’t get a loan. What makes you think you will get one without a proven track record? Even if ex-perienced small business operators could get loans, most with whom I have spoken would not take on any more debt because they think city, state and federal political environments are too unstable and uncer-tain. So, if they won’t commit to expan-sion or even major program maintenance, they will continue to cut costs and jobs to the bare bones as they hunker down and shift into survival mode. They don’t want to do that but they cannot afford to do otherwise without customers. They can-not afford to look out for anyone other than their minimum key employees and themselves given all the current political uncertainty and lack of sales. Small busi-nesses used much of their reserved capital in 2009 just to keep staff employed. Moth-er Hubbard’s cupboard is bare and so are your pockets.

Again, you may be saying, but Presi-dent Obama plans to stimulate small busi-nesses with tax credits and incentives. He has tax credits ready to go and superflu-ous, lame gimmicks to convince you he

Entrepreneurs Succeed Despite Difficult EconomyChuck Graybill, Contributing Writer

understands and cares about small busi-nesses but he doesn’t and his proposed stimulus tactics prove it. Small businesses need the equivalent of “butts in seats and dollars in their tills.” Tax credits and accel-erated purchase write-offs are irrelevant if there are no profits. With no profit they have no capital. With no capital they can-not buy equipment and inventory, cannot advertise, cannot entertain prospective clients or to reward staff, and cannot offer benefits or match investments. But, they will still cut wages and employee hours out of necessity, trim insurance cover-ages, slice product lines and offerings and eliminate discretionary spending wher-ever possible. As they cut their offerings to try to stay alive they cut your options and ability to have products now. Even if you only shop at Wal-Mart you know you have fewer options than in previous years when they carried more and wider prod-uct lines.

Yes, small businesses out of necessity will take part in a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will offer less because they must and you will get upset and shop elsewhere. So, as they cut to stay in business they cut themselves out of business and you out of choices. Eventually, as the quality and quantity of their offerings and your choic-es diminish, prices will inevitably rise and with less custom work, craftsman will dis-appear as products homogenize.

As small businesses shrink them-selves out of business, tax dollars plum-met. Did you know that small businesses are the second largest contributors of tax dollars behind individuals? Big businesses pay very few taxes so taxes, fees, duties, tariffs or whatever the government calls their method of taking your money and making it theirs will have to rise. Yes, gov-ernment is growing with Obama initia-tives to grow jobs. Small business tax pay-ments are falling faster than my hair in the shower. So, who do you think will have to pick up the tax paying slack? YOU! It will not be big business because their tax people are better than the government’s and there are far too many loopholes for them to hide behind.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

—Thomas Jefferson

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Nic Gray was born to be an entrepreneur. At age 10 he started his own lawn mow-ing business complete with cards that read, “Be there in the nic of time!” To-day, Gray has traded in his lawn mower for a global company that helps veterans, and others, become entrepreneurs.

In March 2008 after serving four years in the Army and one tour in Iraq, Gray left military life behind and started NG Enterprises, a franchise brokerage firm. Gray said the transition to the ci-vilian world was dif-ficult because there’s very little help for veterans who want to start a business. “I had the idea for a program to assist them,” Gray said. His brainchild is Operation Warrior Entre-preneur (OWE), a branch of NG En-terprises formed in October 2009 that focuses on helping veterans become business owners through franchises.

Veterans can get a 10-30% discount off the initial franchise fee through OWE if they qualify and meet all the criteria. “They have to be a good fit for a franchise,” Gray said. “We look at their skills, goals, finances, and hours they want to work then we determine what they are best qualified to do.”

Gray said some veterans come to them with ideas for a business. “We ask them why they want to do that and make sure it matches their goals and interests. We bounce ideas then introduce them to a franchisor, educate them on the [fran-chise] process and help them with fund-ing,” he said.

Gray’s company works with 350 franchises in 45 different industries.

Army Vet Turns EntrepreneurJulie Ayers, Managing Editor

Over 1,000 veterans worldwide have approached OWE for assistance. “Our goal is to help everyone, not just vets, but my passion is veterans,” Gray said. Three veterans are starting franchises in Colorado Springs: Knockouts (hair cuts for men), Maui Wowi (Hawaiian coffee), and a senior home health care business.

At a time when many small busi-nesses are failing due to the economy Gray encourages people to become entrepre-neurs and not rely on the government for help. “Our mot-to is ‘Recession is a choice. What do you choose?’ We need to get America back on track. America was built on entrepre-neurship. We have

declared a war on socialism, in a sense. We welcome the fight, the challenge!”

NG Enterprises is also branching out into other areas, locally and glob-ally. “We are opening an office in Chi-na, developing a software company and starting a business college that will be headquartered here and compete with University of Phoenix and DeVry Insti-tute,” Gray said.

Gray and his partners, Dan Stepel, Darrell Williams and Rick Robinson, have high aspirations for the future. “Our ultimate goal is to be a Fortune 500 com-pany and be on all major continents with an office in every major city,” he said. “We’ll do that by empowering American citizens with entrepreneurship.”

For more information on NG Enterpris-es, or to contact Nic Gray, go to www.ngenter.com.

On Colorado caucus night, March 16, reg-istered voters reported to their respective venues across the state. I visited eight pre-cincts in Colorado Springs to determine the trend. The results: low turnout.

Colorado citizens have a chance to participate in caucuses, an opportunity few other U. S. citizens receive. The caucus provides a chance to directly contribute to the delegation of individuals who will rep-resent the voice of the people. Overall, in precincts across Colorado voters did show up, but the demographic demonstrated the same trend: males over 50 years. Accord-ing to Colorado State University student, Jamal Kamandy, in the college town of Fort Collins more than 50 voters attended, but only one young voter came to the cau-cus held closest to the CSU campus.

As a young, ideological college stu-dent, I envision the caucus as a patriotic demonstration of the elements of gov-ernment that make the United States of America unique. The citizens in atten-dance predominantly represented a gen-eration three to four decades older than me. I saw one person within a decade of my age group. Why do so few registered voters participate in this form of democ-racy and where are the young people?

The Republican headquarters of El Paso County anticipated a high turnout based on the number of calls received during the day. However, Lisa Czelat-dko, precinct chairperson district 219,

Colorado Caucus 2010 A Chance to Catalyze ChangeCourtney Stuard, Contributing Writer

expressed disappointment in the low at-tendance. Perhaps relocation of precincts caused low turnouts.

Attorney General John Suthers says, “In politics, like anything else, the world belongs to those who show up.” Suthers advocates the importance of attendance to elect delegates to represent the voice of their precinct for the county and state as-sembly. The caucus forecasts which candi-date owns voter support.

The results of caucus 2010 straw polls show Scott McInnis leading the race for nomination as the Republican candidate for Colorado governor with over 60 per-cent of the votes. According to the GOP of Colorado, Republican candidate Ken Buck leads Jane Norton by a mere 0.12 percent. Denver mayor, John Hicken-looper, leads uncontested as the Demo-cratic nomination for Colorado governor. Andrew Romanoff leads the Democratic polls with over 50 percent of the votes for Senate candidate over incumbent Michael Bennet.

If “we the people” want to catalyze change and determine our government’s future, we must make the effort to par-ticipate in opportunities like the caucus. Young people of Colorado, attend and be heard! I am a Colorado State University journalism and political science student seeking to motivate young citizens to par-ticipate in government.

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The effects of the Dirty Doz-en Tax Bills are already being felt. Amazon will stop finan-cial incentives to affiliates that sell its products

in Colorado due to the method used to col-lect taxes on online sales. Rep. Amy Ste-phens said, ““When you pursue tax policy that punishes, this is an outcome of it.”

TCT: Recently the Colorado state legisla-ture passed what is called the “Dirty Doz-en Tax Bills” aimed at increasing taxes on the poor and small business. What do you think will be the effect on small business?

Richard: Well, first of all you called them tax increases. We’re not creating a tax, we are repealing the exemptions. The public says, “I had this money and now I don’t have this money.” If every time when we got a real paycheck we had to fill out a check to the federal or state governments, people would be livid about taxes in short order. I want taxes to be as small on ev-ery level as they can be and still provide enough funding to provide essential ser-vices such as national security or local safety.

Jarred: When you talk about the “Dirty Dozen,” you’re talking about the “sin” taxes that seem to hurt the ones they are supposed to be helping. Taxing candy will not make the public stop eating candy. Democrats don’t actually want consump-tion to stop; they just want to be able to get the revenue from it. They don’t say, “We’re increasing taxes because we want more money.” They play games when they say, “Oh, it’s for the public good or we care so much we just want you to live healthier.” Why not be honest and say, “We’re hard up for cash and we’re raising taxes on goods.” Democrats know people don’t like taxes and calling it something different is so dishonest.

Richard: It’s all so simple. You don’t need to increase taxes if you would cut back on spending.

Jarred: Democrats use taxation as a net to protect their free spending. They actually generate less revenue than if they just cut taxes. The government generated more revenue under Ronald Reagan than Jim-my Carter. The economy rebounded; sup-ply-side economics brought more revenue than from just raising taxes. If you cut taxes you generally cut them across the

board. Democrats don’t raise taxes across the board which is why they don’t gener-ate revenue. They know it is unpopular so they do it piece meal.

TCT: Politicians often threaten to cut es-sential services like police and firefight-ers in order to raise taxes. Could there be a separate fund so their pay is never in question?

Richard: Yes, it could be a line item on a budget that would never be negotiable. But they want to be able to scare us and say that we are going to lose a particular service so they hold public safety over our heads.

Jarred: The idea that you have something you can’t touch − like entitlement spend-ing at the state or the federal level which is the ‘third rail,’ meaning if you touch it you will be zapped, i.e. Social Security or Medicaid—is absurd. You’re exactly right, Richard. They want it as political leverage.

Richard: Democrats focus more on public welfare and they feel they can score more political points with that. You don’t get to any of these other arguments such as abortion, social issues, guns, jobs, etc., if you don’t have a free and well-defended country.

Jarred: The biggest problem people have with taxes is that when they open their pay stub they see what went to Social Se-curity or Medicaid. But when you look at FICA it’s like a general fund that you have no idea where the money went. What ir-ritates people most is not having control over where their money goes.

Richard: Government does a very poor job of explaining where the money goes and they are terrible on being accountable at every level in terms of how the money is spent.

Jarred: I view it as an accountability issue not a spending issue. Look what happened a few months ago to the Ref C issue [in Colorado Springs] when they said, “Oh look we found four million dollars!”

Richard: If you lost four million dollars, you would have a credibility issue. When it comes to taxes and ballot initiatives the public doesn’t trust government and we expect to be able to trust them.

The Richard Randall show airs weekdays in Colorado Springs from 8:30am to 10:00am on KVOR radio, 740 AM.

The Jarred Rego show airs Sundays in Colo-rado Springs from 9:00pm to 11:00pm on KVOR radio, 740 AM.

Just ask Randall & Rego!The Dirty Dozen Tax BillsCompiled by Cindy Lyons, Senior Staff Writer

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Gertrude’sFeaturing nightly seafood & steak or game specials, Colorado rack of lamb, pastas, salads, homemade soups and much more! Fine dining at a reasonable price. Keep us in mind for your private party needs! 2625 West Colorado Ave, 471-0887

Heart of JerusalemAuthentic Middle Eastern cuisine. Homemade Falafel, fresh lamb, chicken and beef Gyro & Baklava. Two locations: 718 Manitou Ave, Manitou Springs, 685-1325; 4587 Austin Bluffs, 685-9554, www.heartofjerusalem.com.

Jake and telly’sWe offer an array of traditional and family recipes such as lamb dishes, casseroles and mezzedakias (appetizers) and world-class wines. Locat-ed in Old Colorado City, in 26th block of Colorado Ave. Hours: 11am to 10pm, 7 days a week.

Joey’s PIZZaFrom pizza by the slice, specialty pizzas, calzones, stromboli, subs, sal-ads and more, there will be a taste of New York in every bite. 1829 Briargate Blvd (Across from Chapel Hills Mall), 265-6922

lanna tHaIAll dishes prepared with the fresh ingredients. Try the famous Pad Thai or Pa-nang curry. Best Thai beer selection in town. Located at 8810 N. Union in the Albertson’s Shopping Center in Briargate. Open Mon – Sat. Call for hours, 282-0474.

maGGIe mae’s restaurant and PubHomemade from scratch! Biscuits and gravy, mouth-watering soups, hand-cut steaks and prime rib, hand-formed burgers, hot beef sand-wiches, awesome French dips, and the best green chili this side of heav-en. 2405 Pikes Peak Ave., Call for hours: 475-1623

tHe mason JarAmerican comfort food served in a casual Colorado lodge atmosphere with full service bar. Two locations: 2925 West Colorado Ave, 632-4820; 5905 Corporate Dr. and I-25 (Exit 148). Call for hours, 260-6555.

mCCabe’s taVernTraditional Irish pub with some of the best Irish fare in town. We broadcast soccer games from the MLS to the English Premier League on our big screen TVs, 520 South Tejon. Call for hours, 633-3300.

meadow muffInsWe are famous for our hamburgers and chicken wings. The atmosphere is decorated with old movie artifacts with many items from Gone with the Wind, Superman, fans from Casablanca and many more. 2432 West Colorado Ave., 633-0583

noCon’s GelatorIaItalian Gelato is a healthy treat! Our fruit flavors are gluten and lactose free and our cream based flavors are gluten free. Located at 8816 N. Union Blvd, 282-3135. Open Monday-Saturday, Noon to 8pm.

olIVer’s delICatessenThis cozy neighborhood deli located in the Rockrimmon area is the place to be anytime Monday through Saturday for breakfast and lunch. 6602-A Delmonico Dr., Hours: M-F 6am-4pm and Sat., 8am-2pm, 599-9411

ParaVICInI’sParavicini’s Italian Bistro offers hearty Italian favorites along with Chef Franco Pisani’s creative specialties. Paravicini translates to “for the neighborhood.” Prices are reasonable, portions are large. 2802 W. Colorado Ave,.471-8200

Patsy’s CandIesWe believe the best confections start with the best ingredients: real butter, pure chocolate, real cream, no additives, or preservatives. Most candied popcorn is made with burnt sugar. Patsy’s is made with pure butterscotch. 1540 S 21st Street, 633-7215

PIZZa rustICaAuthentic Neapolitan pizzeria in Old Colorado City. Superb salads, antipasti, and wood-fired pizzas with unique wines and brews. Lo-cal farm produce year-round and house-made mozzarella. 2527 West Colorado Ave, 632-8121

roCCo’s ItalIan restaurantItalian restaurant with fresh pastas, home-made lasagna, mouth-water-ing charbroiled steaks and seafood. Full bar and banquet room. Lo-cated at 3878 Maizeland. Call for hours: 574-1426.

soutH Jersey subsWant a real sub with only the finest deli meats, cheeses and toppings? Our subs are loaded with goodness in every bite. Your mouth will be watering and you’ll come back for more! Located at 1726 Brookwood. Call for hours, 531-5100.

steaksmItH Now serving our sunset dinner menu, 4-5pm, Sun-Thurs. Up to five entrees offered, includes salad, starch, vegetable and drink. Cost $12-$17. Reservations recommended. 3802 Maizeland Rd. Call or visit our website for hours: 596-9300, www.steaksmith.com

tHunder and buttonsGourmet pub fare featuring elk chili, buffalo burgers, and more. Serv-ing Colorado beers on tap. Entertainment nightly, karaoke, live bands, comedy and more! 2415 W. Colorado Ave. For hours and entertain-ment info: 447-9888, www.thunderandbuttons.com

VIetnamese GardenWe serve authentic Vietnamese cuisine made from scratch, no MSG, gluten free meals and take out available. Military discount. 3043 W. Pikes Peak Avenue. Hours are 11am-8pm Tues-Sun, closed Mondays. 520-9299, www.vietnamesegarden.net

tHe aIrPlane restaurantOur centerpiece is a Boeing KC-97 where passengers can eat. Our menu features burgers, pastas, salads, fresh fish and steaks. We also have a full bar. Located near the intersection of Fountain Blvd. and Powers Blvd. Just look for the plane! 570-7656

aunt nellIe’sAunt Nellie’s uses the finest ingredients to create delicious products. We use real butter, pure vanilla, quality chocolate and natural ingre-dients like nuts and dried fruit. 5901 Delmonico Dr., 531-5170, www.auntnellie.com.

blaCk bear dInerOur founders’ concept sprang from a desire to bring home-style cook-ing and personal service back to the dining experience. Our entire menu is available to go, 314-3616. Located on the SE corner of Acad-emy and Galley, 975-A N. Academy Blvd.

blaCk forest bIsonDirect from the ranch sales. All natural/organic, 100% grass fed bison meat, “Gourmet to Go” heat and eat bison dinners, award winning bi-son jerky, farm fresh eggs & local raw honey. 1234 E. Woodmen Rd., 488-3898, www.BlackForestBison.com

blaCkJaCk PIZZaPIZZA IS OUR PASSION! Four locations in Colorado Springs: Acad-emy & Hancock; Centennial & Garden of the Gods; Kelly Johnson & Academy; Unitah & 19th. Visit our website www.blackjackpizza.com for coupons and hours.

brook’s Custom CakesI have over 10 years baking experience. I can help you celebrate some-thing so simple yet so important like a birthday or something extrava-gant like a wedding! Call me at 533-0990 and let me help make your special occasion wonderful.

buffalo wIld wInGsAward-winning wings, 14 signature sauces, full bar, 39 HDTVs to watch your favorite sports, free wi-fi. Hours: Mon-Thur, 11am-1am; Fri & Sat, 11am- 2am; Sunday 11am- 12am, 7425 N. Academy Blvd., 594-WING

CaPtaIn d’sCome in and enjoy our delicious seasoned tilapia, flaky wild Alaskan salmon and classic 2-piece fish dinner. Sit down quality food at a price that won’t break the bank. Five locations in Southern Colorado. (See our ad on page 23.)

CasPIan CaféStep through the entrance of Caspian Café and be transported to an exotic land where a variety of beautifully prepared and incredibly deli-cious culinary creations tantalize your senses. East of I-25, south of Garden of the Gods Rd., 4375 Sinton Rd., 528-1155.

Coffee and tea ZoneThe best in coffee, bubble tea, pink berry frozen yogurt, smoothie’s, ice cream, free wi-fi. Try our Internet Café with 4-hi tech computers. Three locations: Rockrimmon/Delmonico (599-8841), Voyager Pkwy (488-8893) and downtown on Tejon (632-3887).

CoPPer Creek CoffeeYour conservative coffee shop with free Wi-Fi! Home of the “Palin Mo-cha” and the “Butter Rumsfeld.” We serve baked muffins, smoothies, pastries, and breakfast “Breggos.” 3315 W. Carefree Cir. Hours: Mon-Fri 7am-6pm, Sat 7am-2pm, 597-4189

dat’s ItalIan!Family recipe cuisine that’s been passed down four generations. You’ll enjoy delicious affordable meals with a warm and friendly atmosphere. Located at 2514 West Colorado Avenue, Old Colorado City. Call for hours, 632-3287.

erIC’s monument GrIlleOur casual American menu offers flavorful food cooked to order in a timely manner at a reasonable price. Enjoy murals of Colorado while you eat. We offer an extensive kids’ menu. 1455 Cipriani Loop, Monu-ment, 594-4300

extreme PIZZaHandmade the way it should be: fresh cut vegetables – not canned, dough made in our store – not frozen. We deliver honestly good tast-ing pizza loaded with toppings. Delivery, pickup, or dine in. 7340 N. Academy Blvd. For more info: Extremepizza.com, 522-1515

faIrway GrIll & PubMenu includes burgers and guilt-free fries, stacks, wraps, soups, salads, pizza and more! Our food is always fresh, never fried. Open 7 days a week. Sand Creek Golf Course, 6865 Galley Road. Call for hours: 597-5489.

fIx-a-feastWe prepare quality “Take & Bake” Meals. Just call ahead and we will have them ready for you. ALL NATURAL meats, fish & poultry, amaz-ing DELI and CATERING for all your office/private party needs. 5901 Delmonico Drive, 531-5170.

frankIe’s sPorts bar & GrIllThis casual neighborhood sports tavern and grill offers delicious food, good service, big screens & pool tables. Two locations: Powers & Galley in Colorado Springs, 574-4881; Woodman & Meridian in Falcon 495-8707, www.FrankiesBarGrill.com

front ranGe bbQSouthern-style slow smoked BBQ & home cooked meals from scratch. Two locations: 2330 W. Colorado, 632-2596; 4935 Templeton Gap Rd., 598-8895. Visit our website for menus, catering, live music & events schedule: WWW.FRBBQ.COM

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The Colorado Car Tax passed last year (SB108, the so-called “faster” bill) is quite possibly the most unpop-ular tax increase in Colorado his-tory. It was all the more repug-

nant by how it became law—evading the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) require-ment to receive prior voter approval for any new or increased taxes.

The deeply unpopular Car Tax has al-ready contributed to the demise of the po-litical careers of the bill’s main advocates: Governor Bill Ritter, who signed the bill into law, has chosen not to seek re-election rather than suffer the fate of governors in other states. New Jersey, Virginia, and Ar-kansas governors (yes, Bill Clinton suffered his first big electoral defeat after passing a car tax increase his first term) passed simi-lar taxes on vehicle registration and own-ership. State Senator Dan Gibbs (D-SD16), the bill’s Senate sponsor, has likewise de-cided not to seek re-election. Only House sponsor Rep. Joe Rice (D-HD38) remains. He is facing a tough re-election fight in his Republican-leaning district of Littleton against challenger Kathleen Conti, who is sure to use the car tax against him.

The Car Tax has also highlighted the role of the Colorado Supreme Court in aid-ing and abetting increases in taxes and other “fees” thanks to several rulings against the clear letter of the Colorado Constitution in recent years. Due to Article X, Section 20 (TABOR) the political careers of four of the state Supreme Court justices who ruled to enable this tax increase may also be coming to an end, as they come up for re-election this November.

So why is the Car Tax (“vehicle regis-tration fee”) increase so deeply, and deserv-edly unpopular?

One reason is the deeply regressive nature of the “fee” increase—which hurts most those least able to afford it especially those with lower or fixed incomes, such as blue-collar workers, students, and retired or unemployed individuals. The vehicle registration fee portion of the newly in-creased tax—which will increase not just once, but each year through 2012—may not seem like much to the latte-sipping Pri-us-driving set, but makes up a significant portion of the total bill for anyone driving an older, heavier vehicle.

Actually, it gets worse. The faster bill—the Colorado Car Tax—didn’t just increase the fee. It also imposed two new fees: a road safety surcharge fee and a bridge fund fee

Colorado Car Tax: Is It an Illegal Fee?Matt Arnold, Guest Writer

that will increase in each of the next two years. The new law also imposes a new vehicle rental fee of $2 a day—with an exemption for politically-correct vehicle sharing arrangements, such as were insti-tuted in Boulder and other trendy spots. Both fees add up to as much or more than the vehicle registration fee portion of the increase but have been ignored in much of the reporting about the impact of the Car Tax on most citizens.

Road Safety Surcharge (includes trailers and other non-motorized vehicles):• $16 Vehicles<=2,000lbs• $23 Vehicles 2,000—5,000 lbs• $28 Vehicles 5,000—10,000 lbs• $37 Vehicles 10,000—16,000 lbs• $39 Vehicles 16,000+ lbs

Bridge Fund Fee Rate Schedule (50% 1st year; 75% 2nd year; 100% 3rd year and be-yond):• $13 Vehicles<=2,000lbs• $18 Vehicles 2,000—5,000 lbs• $23 Vehicles 5,000—10,000 lbs• $29 Vehicles 10,000—16,000 lbs• $32 Vehicles 16,000+ lbs

And of course there are the late fees. “A late registration penalty of $25 for each month or portion of a month that a vehicle is not registered after the one month grace period, not to exceed $100, will be charged beginning June 1, 2009. Expired temporary permit registrations are also included in the $25 penalty. There is no grace period for permits.” Late fees are now mandatory. The Car Tax bill removed existing language allowing clerks to exercise discretion: “The department or the authorized agent regis-tering the vehicle may waive the late fee.”

Adding insult to injury, the Car Tax bill also creates entirely new bureaucracies, complete with new staff,: the “Bridge Enter-prise” and the “Transportation Enterprise” both of which “operate as a government-owned business” within the Department of Transportation. These government-owned businesses not only have “exclusive author-ity to budget and approve the expenditure of moneys” collected by the Car Tax, but also have the authority to issue/re-issue bonds and contract for loans or grants. The enterprises were also added as entities au-thorized to use eminent domain to seize private property.

Despite all of these revenue-generating and spending powers, the bill’s language explicitly states that both enterprises “shall not be subject to any provisions of Section 20 of Article X of the state Constitution” (i.e. TABOR). They are not constrained or accountable.

All of this is necessary to preserve our crumbling transportation infrastructure, right? That was the justification cited in

passing the bill—along with claims that any and all fees collected “shall be used exclu-sively for the construction, maintenance, and supervision of the public highways of the state.” It says so in the legislative lan-guage (43-4-810), so it must be true.

The dirty little secret of the faster bill is that many of the taxes collected don’t go toward the construc-tion or maintenance of roads or bridges at all, but for “multi-modal and demand-side transportation solutions” such as the desire of certain state Senators for streetcars in Den-ver—justified by other language in a fol-lowing section (43-4-812):

43-4-812. Use of user fees for transit—leg-islative declaration. (2) THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY HEREBY FINDS AND DE-CLARES THAT THE FUNDING OF TRANSIT-RELATED PROJECTS AU-THORIZED BY SUBSECTION (1) OF THIS SECTION CONSTITUTES MAIN-TENANCE AND SUPERVISION OF STATE HIGHWAYS BECAUSE IT WILL HELP TO REDUCE TRAFFIC ON STATE HIGHWAYS AND THEREBY REDUCE WEAR AND TEAR ON STATE HIGH-WAYS AND BRIDGES AND INCREASE THEIR RELIABILITY, SAFETY, AND EX-PECTED USEFUL LIFE.

In fact, the bill mandates state spend-ing of $10 million per year on “transit-re-lated projects.” It’s an outrageous semantic shell game and a blatant violation of your constitutional rights.

To sum it up, the faster car tax increase raised vehicle registration fees: $22.50-55 per vehicle, plus a road safety surcharge

fee of $16-$39 per vehicle, a bridge fund fee of $13-$32 per vehicle (halved the first year—so it’s $6.50-$16 this year) for a to-tal increase of $45-$110 per vehicle in the first year alone (with two more years of tax increases to come). Add on late fees of $25/month (up to $100) for all vehicles including trailers barely even worth that

much. All while cre-ating two new state bureaucracies with the power to spend, borrow, and seize private property unconstrained by the TABOR and not accountable to the people. Also it will

increase mandatory spending by over $10 million per year on purposes other than roads, bridges, or other transportation in-frastructure used by those paying the fees.

If anything, the angry crowds at De-partment of Motor Vehicle offices last summer may have been a mild reaction, although the anger was misdirected at the hapless county clerks. I recommend every-one vote against the ones who actually did this to you—the legislators, the executive (well, you can’t vote out the governor, he quit first) and most importantly the four Colorado Supreme Court justices who en-abled this type of sham legislation in the first place.

Matt Arnold is the founder of Clear the Bench Colorado. You can exercise your right to vote “NO” on the Mullarkey Majority (Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) who need YOUR approval to continue tak-ing away your constitutional rights. For more information, visit clearthebenchcolo rado.org.

The dirty little secret of the faster bill is that many of the taxes collected don’t go toward the construction or maintenance of roads or bridges at all…

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From the Archives, 1995

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Wrangler jeans and boots mingled with khakis and dress shoes during a meeting between Lincoln County residents and the Colorado Department of Transpor-tation (CDOT). The February 5 meet-ing at the county courthouse near Hugo, Colorado covered the controversial Rail Relocations for Colorado Communities (R2C2) study, which is strongly opposed by Citizens Against Railroad Relocation (CARR) that represents residents of the county and their interests.

The R2C2 study was performed to look at the potential benefits of shifting some of the rail-traffic from the Front Range to the Eastern Plains of Colorado, according to the CDOT website. While the study shows there are benefits to the Front Range communities and parts of northeastern Colorado, CARR states that the relocation would cause problems for eastern plains farmers and ranchers.

A graphic on the CDOT website shows they planned to include the towns and counties affected by the proposed move. Despite this, CARR Vice Chairman Scott Ravenkamp said the study was only half complete by the time Lincoln County farmers heard about it.

At the meeting, CARR board mem-bers said they believed the study was flawed because the county’s farmers and ranchers had never been consulted about the impact on the community of a new rail line.

Among CARR’s chief concerns were the hidden costs to the farmers and ranch-ers that would be near the rail line. In par-ticular, the possibility of accidental trans-portation of noxious weeds to the area could cost the county money and time, said Kenny Yoder, CARR treasurer. While the county has an aggressive program for dealing with weeds, an increase in noxious plants would hurt the county financially.

Land owners could lose up to $700 for every half mile of track that runs across their land, Ravenkamp explained. If the line went straight through his operation, he could lose just over seven acres of us-able land because of the railroad and turn roads that would be needed to continue production. “… If you add that up over the roughly 70 to 100 miles [that the rail-road] would go through Lincoln County, that gets to be a pretty substantial amount of money that the producers are going to lose,” Ravenkamp said.

Ravenkamp also pointed out that the railroad crossings the study suggested were inadequate for modern farm equip-ment. He said the crossings need to be 30 to 40 feet wide to accommodate modern machinery, rather than the two-track crossing he saw in the study. “There were a lot of hidden costs that were not ad-dressed,” he said.

Travis Taylor, CARR chairman, said property values will suffer because of the proposed railroad and because there is no sunset clause causing the study to expire. If the owner wants to sell the property, they have to disclose that the proposed railroad might come through their land which would cause the value of the land to decrease.

CARR brought up safety concerns as well. The railroad could cause problems for emergency services responding to life-threatening situations. In particular, ambulances would have to go out of their way to find railroad crossings, meaning it would take longer to respond to emergen-cies, Yoder said.

Harry Dale, chairman of the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority, also attended

Lincoln County Fights Eminent DomainBrad Kerstetter, Senior Staff Writer

the meeting. He advised CDOT not to act on the information that has been gath-ered because Colorado does not have a state rail plan yet. Dale said the Federal Railroad Administration mandates that the state create a state rail plan. “Through the Obama administration high speed rail program, $400,000 will be given to CDOT as a 50 percent grant match to complete the state rail-study. That study should start, hopefully, this summer,” he said.

Dale said a state rail plan would put forth a long-term vision for Colorado’s passenger and freight rails and where they might go in the future, create an imple-mentation plan for public investment, and outline the necessary steps to build new railroads. “It would make sense for the [state rail plan] to occur first, before we prioritize a rail relocation, or any other project,” Dale said.

CDOT Executive Director Russell George gave CDOT’s reasoning for not coordinating with locals during the study. “Not including the public in the first in-quiry probably made the study quicker and cheaper, but it turns out not to have been the best judgment,” George admitted. He said nothing has resulted from the study that ties the ranchers’ hands in any way.

In defense of R2C2, George said the study was a preliminary look at alternative rail routes and they were not planning on acting on the data gathered anytime soon. He said that many of the questions CARR brought up could not be answered at that time because R2C2 was a brief overview study and not meant to be an in-depth ex-amination.

“Nothing would have happened in your community until all of these ques-tions had been sorted out,” George said.

Despite this, CARR and the citizens of Lincoln County fear the study could be used in the future, regardless of the flaws, as a way for CDOT to save money in the future. “Families have spent generations putting these operations together and [CDOT] can come in here with the stroke of a pen and separate it,” said County Commissioner Ted Lyons.

For more information on R2C2 and CARR visit CoCARR.com and the Colorado De-partment of Transportation’s website.

The American Stewards of Liberty (ASL) began working in local com-munities in 1992 to protect “the prin-ciples of liberty our nation was founded upon,” according to the ASL website. They are the product of a merging be-tween the American Land Foundation and Stewards of the Range. According to the ASL website there are four major projects they focus on:1. Standing Ground: A publication that

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For more information on ASL and how they can help your community, visit Stewards.us.

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Kitchen Table Politics Juicy Tid-Bits from DenverLeah Hotchkiss, Contributing WriterThe Colorado state senate agenda is off and running. With the passage of the “Dirty Dozen” tax bills and a class action lawsuit filed on PERA adjustment bills, the legislature has started off as expected. Education bills top the list with about 20 bills passed so far. Bills covering every-thing from $5 million to pay private con-servation groups to keep up the good fight against developers (SN10-098), to adjust-ments in the Fire Fighter and Police Pen-sion fund (SN10-021 to 024), bring the passed bills tally to 91 out of 180.

The following are on what I like to call the Ridiculous List.

SN10-008 funds a study to evaluate the feasibility of a system to determine pupil enrollment for the purpose of Pub-lic School Finance Act of 1994 based on average daily membership of pupils in a school district. The state already has a way to determine pupil enrollment and allo-cate money: count the kids enrolled on Oct. 1 of any given fiscal year. This bill will pay a group of people to see IF we should count pupils on a daily basis in schools and recommend IF it might be better to allocate monies according to daily totals, not yearly totals. Why not simply make sure schools, which grow throughout the year, get correct funding by taking the highest total from the previous year and base allocations on that?

SN10-010 allows the Department of Human Services to contract for an outside group to conduct an independent evalua-tion of the Statewide Strategic Use Fund to identify if it complies with the Colorado Works program and other programs to ascertain their effectiveness. The money for this evaluation will be funded with 2 percent of the SSUF. I can tell you right now that it is a waste of at least 2 percent of the SSUF.

SN10-006 prohibits charging some-one for identification documents, such as drivers licenses and birth certificates, if the person obtains an appropriate note from the Department of Human Ser-vices or has been out of the Department of Corrections for less than 6 months. It also grants name changes for felons. Wait, what?

SN10-028 grants unemployment compensation to employees who were not fired but have had their work hours re-duced. We are now giving unemployment benefits to the employed. I could make a joke, but how can you improve on the joke that is this senate bill?

SN10-009 creates a Poverty Reduc-tion Task Force. It is not as cool as it

sounds. I checked. They will not get any battle gear. This task force will try to cre-ate a fluid model to assess the progress to-ward reducing poverty for the evaluation of the effectiveness of certain government programs and policies. They will then be required to report to the general assembly on the model. Note that it is not a report on a program’s effectiveness. It is a report on the creation of the model for determin-ing effectiveness.

SN10-081 creates another task force. This task force, without the aid of battle gear, will create a Farm-to-School Healthy Kids Program, and develop a program policy. Michelle Obama’s eating healthy campaign hits Colorado.

SN10-068 streamlines the Colorado Works eligibility guidelines. After reading further I discovered the word “streamline” means, among other things, getting rid of guidelines that assess the tangible assets of individuals who receive assistance from the Colorado Works program. The Colo-rado Works program Web page can be found at www.stateboard.cdhs.state.co.us, and I will give a cookie to anyone who can navigate this horribly unorganized page and explain to me exactly what it is they do other than hand out cash.

And finally, SN10-158 creates a Cre-ative Industries Division within the Colo-rado Office of Economic Development. Apparently things like public art instal-lation are now an industry. So kudos to the senate for creating new staff positions at the economic development office. Our legislature just proved that they are seri-ous about creating jobs. So serious that they imagined a whole new division and gave it a staff.

In the interest of fairness, there are a few reasonable and worthwhile bills. SN10-129 allows families with autistic de-pendants to obtain better support services. Money was allocated to actual school dis-tricts, for real reasons. Another bill states that collectable military vehicles that have historical value must bear a license plate. And then there’s the one that adds animals and pets to the list of “people” protected by a restraining order. It used to be that only the person who requested the order, their children, a disabled dependant rela-tive, or an elderly parent were protected by a restraining order. Hamsters of Colorado rejoice. You have achieved equality with children, elderly parents and disabled de-pendants! Wait, those last two bills should have been on the Ridiculous List. Oh well, I tried.

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Delegates Determine Candidates for PrimariesLeah Hotchkiss, Contributing WriterCandidates running for county and state offices are placed on the August primary ballot in two ways: the caucus/assembly process or by petition. There are separate rules governing both processes. A suc-cessful candidate, in either process, will gain a place on the primary ballot. The August primary determines the Republi-can party candidate for each office.

Precinct leaders, and delegate/alter-nates for county, state and 5th congressio-nal assemblies were elected at the March 16 caucus or through their post caucus division meetings. Precinct leader is a two-year elected position, beginning and end-ing at caucus. Leaders attend GOP Central Committee meetings, elect El Paso County Central Committee members, and may also hold delegate positions to any assem-bly. At the Central Committee meetings resolutions presented by voters at caucus will be reviewed and voted on.

Each caucus is allocated a specific number of county delegates determined by the number of people who attended the previous caucus. County delegates are eligible to fill vacant positions at the state and 5th congressional assemblies. They will attend their county assemblies this month to vote for Republican primary candidates running for office. The El Paso

County Assembly is April 10 at Univer-sity of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Their votes determine if the candidates will be on the August primary ballot. Primaries will be August 10, 2010. All registered Re-publicans may vote. Open county offices this election cycle are: state Senate dis-tricts 9 and 11; state House districts 14-21; county commissioner districts 1 and 5; county assessor; clerk and recorder; coroner; sheriff; surveyor; and treasurer.

The 5th congressional and/or state delegates will attend their assemblies May 21-22 at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland. The delegates will vote on Re-publican primary candidates for: U.S. Senate, Congressional District 5, gover-nor, attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state, CU Regent, and Colorado State Board of Education. If the candidates win enough votes at these assemblies, they will be placed on the August primary ballot.

Delegate vacancies for higher assem-blies are due to nonparticipation in the March 16 caucus. To be eligible to fill a vacancy a person must have been elected as a county delegate, or elected as an alter-nate delegate to state or 5th congressional assembly. For a list of all county and state candidates, go to www.gopelpaso.com.

If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.

—Samuel Adams, 1776


Gasoline: $7 per Gallon Very PossibleJay Cadillac, Guest WriterSeven bucks for a gallon of gas? It may be in our near future.

Don’t think that President Obama is against the idea of Americans spending $100 to $150 to fill-up at the gas station. It’s but one of many of the dreams of the liber-als who are Obama’s base. Euro-class fuel prices don’t presently rank up there with, say, Obamacare, but they clearly sit well with an administration that hopes to be as transformational as FDR’s or LBJ’s.

According to a recent Harvard study, highlighted promi-nently in the New York Times, Obama’s newly transformed Envi-ronmental Protection Agency hopes to reach its goal of cutting car-bon dioxide emissions 14 percent by 2020, causing the cost of driving to skyrocket.

The New York Times report on the Harvard study calls $7 a gallon for gasoline “a sobering reality.” Without a draconian fuel tax hike, the researchers concluded, people are simply not going to cut the num-ber of miles they drive. Greenhouses gases will continue to build, the globe will contin-ue to warm, the seas will rise and the polar bears will drown.

Elite Harvard researchers tell us we must drive much less or face environmen-tal catastrophe. But as Americans are find-ing out, elite Harvard researchers care a lot less about a supposedly warming planet than they do about controlling the behav-

ior of the lowly proletariat they are forced to share the continent with. It’s becoming increasingly clear—as “Climategate” and other scandals discredit the “science” of man-caused climate change—that the ever-ambitious left has simply latched onto en-vironmental causes to further their aspira-tions of control.

President Obama—who is a Harvard grad and unlikely to disagree with a Har-

vard study—said dur-ing the campaign that he wasn’t really that worried about then $4-plus gas prices, just that the price shot up a bit too quickly. He knows it would be politically risky to see prices climb right now in this ailing economy, but he’s bid-

ing his time. Liberals, you see, much more so than other forms of life, simply delight in telling others how they should live.

Why does the left feel it needs to con-trol us uppity Americans? It is indeed dif-ficult to precisely understand why liberals want to make us drive less; why they require wasteful and harmful ethanol be added to our automotive fuel; why they order adults to buckle their seat belts; why they order kids to wear a helmet when they scooter along a sidewalk; why they mandate we buy government-controlled health insurance; and why they tell us what kind of light bulbs to buy.

Conservatives instinctively seem to know that a free-market-capitalist political

and economic system, which is sometimes wild and seemingly cruelly capricious, is in the long run the greatest guarantor of hu-man liberty ever devised by man. The free-dom to choose, as economist Milton Fried-man skillfully pointed out, is a freedom we must fight savagely never to lose. Human history has show time and time again that freedoms are safer and prosperity is more common when men and women are al-lowed to freely make choices unbothered by regulations dreamed up by bureaucrats in a distant capital.

President Reagan knew this, and his policies (admittedly only partly enacted) brought America a quarter-century of nearly uninterrupted boom. FDR (and Herbert Hoover, before him) did not know this and his Obama-style policies helped to turn what was a bad recession into a de-cade-long depression.

Even “moderates,” those gelatinous voters who sway left, then right, then left again from election to election, seem to in-stinctively see the virtues of a relative free market too—– sometimes. It’s the left that resolutely refuses to abandon the ancient dream of “progressives,” which holds that mankind is perfectible and that to reach Utopia we simply delegate an elite band of like-minded rulers to tell us all how to live.

Hence, we may quite possibly see $7-a-gallon gasoline before Obama’s first term is up, even though OPEC states typically spend no more than $2 to pump a barrel of oil and even though there are vast supplies of domestic oil we could tap into but that the enviro lobby has made off-limits.

Timid animals that will soon bleat appreciatively, the left believes, as we spend $7 to splash a gallon of gasoline into our cars.

Liberals have never really been com-fortable with individuals motoring across the country whenever they please and wher-ever they choose to go. They would prefer that the American people live in dense cit-ies where they can ride a subway or bus, or pedal along a network of bicycle trails.

It’s a puzzle, to rational minds, why ex-actly Obama and his allies in Congress, aca-demia, and the media are so eager to push us in the European-socialist direction. So-cialism has without exception failed, some-times staggeringly so. (Anyone anxious to emigrate to Cuba or Venezuela today? Any-one want to travel to Canada or Britain for a major medical operation?)

More than a century ago Alexis de Tocqueville warned against the kind of quiet despotism that the left is pushing us toward today. A self-governing citizenry, he wrote, could seductively be persuaded to become “nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the gov-ernment is the shepherd.”

Timid animals that will soon bleat ap-preciatively, the left believes, as we spend $7 to splash a gallon of gasoline into our cars.

But is this all inevitable? No, it isn’t. Polls, recent elections, and a tempest of Tea Parties all show a newly awakened America angry at what the liberal elites are trying to do to their country. Recall that the malaise that was the Jimmy Carter administration was followed by Ronald Reagan. Don’t count America out. Not yet.

Problems Infiltrate Military Housing PrivatizationHelen Sabin, Contributing Writer

The Military Housing Privatization Initia-tive (MHPI) was established in 1996. A Department of Defense 2003 housing in-ventory report revealed that 60% of mili-tary housing was inadequate for troops to live in. Whether MHPI has been a failure or success is up for debate.

Military retiree Phil Stuckwisch be-lieves MHPI is far from being a success. “[MHPI] is failing our military,” he said. “The DOD isn’t following its own rules and regulations. This initiative is a joke!”

Lynn Rivera, wife of Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera and com-munity manager at Ft. Carson Housing Office, said MHPI is working well. “All 1,823 older homes at the base have been renovated, and other new building includ-ing 841 new homes were constructed for ranks from E-1 (enlisted) through O-5 (officers),” Rivera said.

Maybe Fort Carson housing is in bet-ter shape than other posts. Reports from around the country tell a different story.

Dave Hemmingsen, who started a Facebook site called “Our Military Troops Deserve Better!!!! MHPI,” disagrees about MHPI being a boon to military families. “I fell to my knees and cried when I saw the horrible condition of my son-in—law’s house at Ft. Stewart (Georgia),” said Hemmingsen. Pictures and stories posted on his Facebook page show the horror that many military families face concern-ing housing.

Balfour Beatty Construction (BBC) is a British company that manages many military housing complexes. They reported a 7% pre-tax profit in 2009 and said in an email, “…Over three million dollars went into the Ft. Bliss homes to renovate them.”

According to a letter written by Ma-jor General Howard Bromberg at Ft. Bliss, Texas, “Any report of black mold is a se-

rious complaint and one we do not take lightly. … To date, we have identified one set of quarters that has a broken founda-tion with a serious mold issue and relo-cated that family.”

Many families and spouses are frus-trated with the issues and the response to their concerns. Melinda, a military wife who lives with the problems daily said, “BBC has offered to move some of us from one house to another with the same prob-lems. Does that make sense?”

The wife of a retired Air Force colonel who lived in similar housing at Ft. McAr-thur, California said such offers are pal-liative in nature and not meant to provide a complete and total remedy to the prob-lem. “Where is the help for these families? Why is their commanding officer and Congress not doing an investigation into the practices of the BBC and the MHPI?” she asked. “The MHPI was supposed to help, not hurt, military families.”

“Nobody helps us,” Melinda said, “…not the general, not Governor Rick Per-ry’s office who says it’s not his problem, not the BBC, not Congress—[Senators] Hutchinson’s and Cornyn’s offices are ig-noring information we sent … not even the CDC (Center for Disease Control)!”

“All molds should be treated the same with respect to potential health risks and removal,” according to the CDC website. However, the CDC said in an email re-sponse that they are not the organization to help the families.

“Get me in front of Congress and I will help them,” Stuckwisch said. He is asking everyone to write Congress about this matter. “This is a travesty” he said, as tears of anger welled up in his eyes. Mili-tary families who are living in housing which is detrimental to their well-being say it affects their motivation to serve in the military.

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Illegal immigration may not be in the current political spotlight, but it is still a hot-button issue. It is just what its name implies—illegal. There are legal pathways open to becoming an American citizen, and many people choose those paths ev-ery year. Illegal immigrants instead sneak into the country and many learn to live at taxpayers’ expense.

The federal E-Verify program is used by participating employers to conduct a background check on prospective em-ployees for immigration status and iden-tity theft. Punishments are imposed for those who knowingly and repeatedly hire illegal aliens. Cur-rently, participation is entirely voluntary. About 5,800 business-es in Colorado, and 175,000 nationwide, are enrolled in the program, which translates to about one in four new hires being processed through the system. In 2006, E-Verify participa-tion was made mandatory in Colorado for any business involved with the state gov-ernment.

The current financial problems of the nation are exacerbated by illegal immigra-tion, which is a constant drain on money resources, and time. Illegal immigrants have been able to receive welfare benefits, tax breaks and refunds and medical care from the American government for years. While no one can legally be denied emer-gency care, illegal immigrants tend to use emergency rooms for all medical services, tying up services that could be used treat-ing people with real medical emergencies. Many illegal immigrants utilize identity

E-Verify: Halts Illegal Immigrant HiringJM Peterson, Contributing Writer

theft in order to file Medicare claims. Oth-ers use identity theft to collect tax refunds and to commit other crimes.

A recent Rasmussen poll showed that 67 percent of voters agree that illegal im-migration is a major drain on the U. S. budget. The same poll also showed that some 68 percent of Americans also prefer border control over amnesty solutions.

Illegal immigration is closely cor-related with criminal activity, including identity theft, drug trafficking, kidnap-ping, assault, and murder. In Colorado alone, a major illegal immigrant raid in

Greeley in 2006 re-vealed that some 300 workers employed at a meat-packing plant were using sto-len identities. Not only are illegal im-migrants and their families harmed by

such schemes, but legal immigrants must also face the backlash. And the American citizens whose identities were stolen were left to clean up the aftermath.

Existing laws provide many protec-tions for illegal aliens. For example, birth-right citizenship, i.e. “anchor baby” legis-lation, gives American citizenship to any children born in the United States, even if their parents were here illegally. This gives many illegal immigrants an easy way to stay in the country and adds to the burden already on the healthcare system. The possibility of giving in-state college tuition, funded by taxpayers, to illegal im-migrants was introduced by Democrats in the Colorado legislature. After public out-cry in opposition, it appears to be “on ice.”

Looming on the horizon is a national amnesty bill that would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the U.S. Many liberal politicians believe that this will give them a substantial Hispanic voting bloc. This especially flies in the face of those immigrants who went through the legal channels to become American citizens. Some moderate Republicans, such as Sen. John McCain, support the measure even though his state of Arizona has the highest rate of kidnappings in the country due to drug wars along the Mex-ico-U.S. border. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been helping Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) write the amnesty bill in the Senate.

State Senator Dave Schultheis of Colorado Springs introduced a new E-Verify bill (SB33) in the Colorado Senate in January. It would have made participa-tion mandatory for all non-governmental

businesses. However, Democrats once again relegated the bill to “postponed in-definitely” status on March 3, as they have done for the last five years. This has led to a shift in strategy for proponents, who are preparing to put the initiative to a ballot vote in order to let Colorado citizens de-cide for themselves.

A new bill has been introduced in the U.S. Congress with 110 bi-partisan sup-porters. The Secure America through Ver-ification and Enforcement Act (S.A.V.E. Act) would add teeth to the E-verify pro-gram. As reported on the Numbers USA website, it would secure the borders with 6,000 new border patrol agents and with new technology. It would also increase interior enforcement and make E-Verify mandatory for all employers. The S.A.V.E. Act will be one to watch.

Looming on the horizon is a national amnesty bill that would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the U.S.

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Endowed by Their CreatorDave Skiver, Guest Writer

In the A&E version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic, The Lost World, there is a dinner scene that features a heated debate over creation versus evolution. After most of the people had departed, the main char-acter, Professor George Challenger, turned to his obstinate colleague and, even while expressing doubt in the existence of God, said something quite profound regarding the state of humanity, “I don’t know if there is a God, but I do know that man is no sub-stitute if there isn’t.”

Deep down, most Americans today also know that man is no substitute for God. Take, for instance a June 24, 2008 Washington Post article, which reported that the Pew Research Center found that 92% of the 36,000 adults polled have some be-lief in God. Though ev-eryone’s view of God is not the same, this could very well explain why so many Americans have a growing uneasiness, even outright fear, of the God-usurping talk, decisions, and actions com-ing from Washington D.C. today.

Likewise, freedom-loving Americans absolutely reject the idea that a ruling party or class is the source of their rights. We still hold to the self-evident truths proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence that people “are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain un-alienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.—That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

America’s founders also understood that man is no substitute for God and if left to their own devices, the ruling elites would take upon themselves power and authority reserved only to God. Benjamin Franklin rightly observed, “There is scarce a king in a hundred, who would not, if he could, follow the example of pharaoh—get first all the people’s money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever.” (By the way, the pharaohs consid-ered themselves to be gods.) If Americans are to protect their Creator-endowed rights, there is only one answer, as Thomas Jef-ferson made clear, “... let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Consti-tution.”

Freedom-loving Americans are fear-ful today because elites at all levels of gov-ernment are finding increasingly devious

ways to throw off the “chains of the Con-stitution.” Progressives love to talk about a living Constitution. After all, who doesn’t want something that is alive, especially if the alternative is something dead? But that is a false choice. The option isn’t between a living and a dead Constitution, but rather between an America that is governed by the rule of law or by the whims of man.

The founders wisely understood that the Constitution would need to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, which is why we have the amendment process. But they also knew that this process must be very delib-erate, open, and have overwhelming sup-port—not something done by a few elite power brokers behind closed doors. That is why it takes two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and three-fourths of the states to

amend the Constitution. For progressives

seeking to remake Amer-ica in their own image, this process just won’t do. Freedom-loving Ameri-cans do not buy their agenda when honestly and openly debated, so

progressives bypass the amendment pro-cess. They stack the courts with activist judges who push their agenda. Colorado saw this recently when the Colorado Su-preme Court circumvented taxpayers’ con-stitutional protections under TABOR.

Regulation is another weapon in the progressives’ arsenal. For example, when the people’s representatives don’t do the progressives’ bidding by passing Cap and Trade, the usurpers turn to the EPA. Or they simply ignore the Constitution, like trying to dictate that all Americans buy health insurance under threat of fine and/or imprisonment.

If Americans are to retain the unalien-able rights endowed to us by our Creator, we must again affirm the truth that man is no substitute for God. We must ardently reaf-firm our commitment to the rule of law and the constitutional boundaries placed upon our elected officials. And, we must actively support and elect leaders who embrace the Constitution’s “chains.” Though it isn’t po-litically correct to talk about America’s spir-itual heritage these days, an honest look at our history would reveal that America has been far better served by leaders who feared God than by those who would play God.

Dave Skiver is a retired AF officer, and cur-rently a pastor, adjunct professor with Lib-erty University’s online Communications program, and freelance writer/editor.

America has been far better served by leaders who feared God than by those who would play God.

Government is not reason, it is not eloquent—it is force! Like a fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

—George Washington

I see creeping fascism in America, just as in Germany, a drip at a time: a law here, a law there, all supposedly passed to protect the public. The German people really believed that only hoodlums owned such (unregistered) guns. What fools we were. It truly frightens me to see how the government, media, and some police groups in America are pushing for the same mindset.

—Theodore Haas, survivor of Dachau and the Holocaust28 | The Constitutionalist Today

New EPA Regs to Cost Homeowners A Navy SEAL’s FateRyan Unseth, Contributing Writer Eli Thomas, Contributing WriterThe cost of home improvements for many El Paso County homeowners are about to increase. On April 22, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule (RRP) is set to take ef-fect. The RRP regulations will require all contractors who receive compensation for their services to perform lead paint tests on all homes, apartments, childcare facilities, and schools built prior to 1978. If lead paint is found to be present, cer-tified contractors will have to follow the stringent new regulations.

Homeowners who perform their own renovations and contractors who are disturbing less than 6 square feet of painted surface per interior room or less than 20 square feet of painted surface on exterior renovations are not required to follow the new regulations.

The basis of the new regulations is centered around health concerns for workers and residents, especially chil-dren 6 years old and younger. Inhalation and ingestion of lead paint dust and paint chips has been shown to be toxic and may lead to brain damage and behavioral problems in certain instances.

The side effects of the RRP regula-tions will be significant, both to the con-tractor and the homeowners. If a dwell-ing is found to have lead paint, in order for a contractor to perform any renova-tion, repair, or painting under the EPA guidelines, the property will have to be cordoned off with signs at entry points to the property warning people of the type of work being conducted and to remain outside the work area. Contractors will be required to staff the project with cer-tified workers who will be outfitted with safety suits and special respirators during the entire project. Perimeters will need to be fully covered by plastic to catch dust and debris, and interior projects will require complete removal or wrap-ping of all furniture, all flooring covered, and each interior room being worked in will have to be encapsulated with plastic sheeting at all entry points. Upon com-pletion of all work, the cleanup process is intense and requires certified tests to determine whether any lead compounds remain in the area.

Most professional contractors are aware of the new regulations and are in the process of receiving their RRP cer-tifications. The costs can be excessive for many contractors, especially in this slower economy. Firm certification is priced at $300 and certification classes cost around $200 per employee desig-

nated to work on these projects. Also, the additional material and labor costs to follow the regulations can be substantial. As a result, these additional costs will no doubt be added to all quotes and be passed on to the homeowner. For con-tractors who are caught skirting the reg-ulations, the ramifications will be large fines by the EPA.

If you ask most reputable contractors about lead paint, they will tell you they have been aware of the purported dangers of lead poisoning and have handled these instances in the past with care. Many feel the new regulations are not only heavy handed, but will put another burden on an already struggling industry. With the state of the economy, many contractors have had a difficult time competing and finding work, and the cost burden for the companies who follow the new reg-ulations will put them at a competitive disadvantage when bidding against the sketchy contractors who have no plans on following the RRP rule.

And what about the homeowners of pre-1978 homes with lead paint? The cost of most home improvements will be increasing substantially, possibly creat-ing a situation in which some homeown-ers will be unable to pay for their homes to be improved. Many will be forced to tackle the projects in their home them-selves, re-work budgets to offset the price increases, or not complete the improve-ments altogether. Property value of these homes may be decreased as well. Will potential home buyers want to purchase a home which has lead paint when they understand that most home improve-ments will cost more than the home up the street which does not have lead paint?

The new EPA regulations have quick-ly become a hot issue within the contract-ing community. Most homeowners are not yet familiar with the new law and the ramifications it may have on their home values and budgets. As with many gov-ernmental regulations such as the RRP rule, the lines are sometimes blurred and answers are not always black and white. However, all owners of homes built prior to 1978 should research and become ac-quainted with the new law. This is defi-nitely an issue which will affect contrac-tors and homeowners alike.

For more info, contact Ryan at 719-550-0445 or www.safeobjectives.com. Ryan Unseth is co-owner of Greg Unseth Paint-ing & Windows.

It’s an interesting puzzle with three major pieces.

Part one: In March 2004, Scott Hel-venston, Wesley Batalona, Jerry Zovko and Michael Teague were ambushed and killed by terrorists in Fallujah, Iraq. They were U.S. citizens working for security firm Blackwater. After their deaths their bodies were burned, horrible mutilated, dragged through the streets and two were hung from a bridge. The brutal image is seared into the collective memory of Americans.

Part Two: In 2006 an Al Qaeda ter-rorist training manual was captured in Manchester, England. The revealing doc-ument tells detained terrorists to accuse their captors of abuse and torture.

Part Three: In September 2009, U.S. Navy SEALs captured Ahmed Hashim Abed, the accused mastermind of the grisly Fallujah attack. Shortly after he was handed over to Iraqi forces he accused the Ameri-cans of punching him in the stomach and giving him a bloody lip during his capture.

We could stop telling the story right here and most people would be able to put the puzzle to-gether. However, the story doesn’t end here. The careers and reputations of three American heroes are on the line. Once they were in American custody the allegation of abuse was passed up the chain of command. Naval Petty Officers Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas and Jona-than O’Keefe, all members of an elite Navy SEAL team, were brought up on charges for a Navy non-judicial punishment called “Admiral’s Mast” because of the alleged abuse. The three SEALs refused the non-judicial punishment and have demanded trial by court martial.

The court martial of Huertas and O’Keefe will take place in Iraq in April.

Defense attorneys requested that the two SEALs be allowed to face their accuser and their trial was moved from Virginia to Iraq costing thousands of dollars to transport witnesses to Baghdad. McCabe will be tried in Virginia in May. Several congressmen are appealing to the mili-tary to have all charges against the SEALs dropped.

So let’s assume for just a minute that the essential charges of the case are true. Let’s assume that during the operation to capture the man responsible for the bru-tal murder of four U.S. citizens that he got roughed up a little bit, got a bloody lip and was punched in the stomach…SO WHAT? This was a combat operation car-ried out by lethal warriors, not a police ac-tion by a police force.

It seems that the military has become so gun-shy after Abu Ghraib that it’s will-ing to hang out to dry three American he-roes. Mind you, Abed isn’t claiming that he was water-boarded; he’s not claiming that he was humiliated; he’s not claim-

ing that he was starved and de-prived of sleep; he’s not claiming he was tortured in any way what-soever. Abed is claiming he got

punched in the stomach and received a bloody lip.

Political correctness is running ram-pant in the war on terror. Restrictive rules of engagement put our soldiers in harm’s way in Afghanistan; panty bombers are given and then read their rights and lawyer up; the justice department is attempting to bring self-proclaimed terror masterminds such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed into a civilian court at great expense rather than using the military tribunals appropriate for the case. It’s time for common sense to take over in the war on terror.

Political correctness is running rampant in the war on terror. Restrictive rules of engagement put our soldiers in harm’s way…

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Second Amendment Perspective ACLU Gets Blown Away in Gun Rights Debate

The End of the Tea Party A Perspective from the Young Republicans

Bruce Nozolino, Contributing Writer

Eli Bremer, Contributing Writer

I occasionally encounter a conservative friend reading a liberal book. When I en-quire why they reading it, the normal re-sponse is that there are advantages in learn-ing how the other side thinks. I had the opportunity to learn how the other side thinks at a Second Amendment Forum con-ducted at the Penrose Library.

The speakers at the forum were Bill Derwin, Paul Paradise, and Bill Hoffman. Derwin is a local attorney and ACLU board member. Paradise is a former president of the Pikes Peak Firearms Coalition and has a list of other pro-Second Amendment cre-dentials. Hoffman is a retired Colorado Col-lege professor who discussed the societal implications of firearms.

Derwin’s presentation outlined the his-tory of the Second Amendment. One of his opening comments related back to 1966 when he was in the Virginia state legisla-ture. He introduced legislation that would prohibit children, felons, and mentally ill persons from possessing firearms. He said the legislation did not pass. In his opinion, if it would have passed, it would have pre-vented the Virginia Tech massacre. Derwin said that no such prohibitions exist to this

day in Virginia. (Federal law currently ad-dresses these issues in all 50 states.)

Derwin reviewed a paper he had writ-ten titled, “The Original Meaning, Context, and Current Interpretation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” In the paper Derwin argued that the Second Amendment has always been a collective right until the recent Heller case. The land-mark U.S. Supreme Court Heller decision ruled the Second Amendment is an indi-vidual right. Derwin says this decision re-defined the Second Amendment from a col-lective right to an individual right. However, Derwin argues, no right is absolute, as the entire Bill of Rights is subject to regulation.

Paradise pointed out that even though the Heller case was technically a victory for the pro-gun community, it’s split 5—4 deci-sion was too close to call it an absolute vic-tory. Paradise said there are constitutional scholars who argue that the Second Amend-ment was an individual right even before the Heller decision. However, he acknowl-edged that no right is absolute, citing the classic argument that the First Amendment does not give one the right to shout “fire” in a crowded theater. He predicted that future

rulings will inevitably result in some restric-tions on firearms for gun owners.

Paradise gave insights from his per-sonal work in the public defenders office. He cited that one-third of the shootings he sees are from accidental shootings. Another third are self defense cases and the last third are the result of truly bad folks doing harm to others. Paradise concluded that it is the good people with guns that stop these bad people.

Hoffman, who self-described himself as a “liberal bleeding heart professor,” began by proudly displaying his personal civil war musket. Hoffman, WW II veteran, became a defender of life when returned from the war. In his opinion, every day killings in a country awash with guns during peace time is a tragedy. Hoffman then cited statistic af-ter statistic about the proliferation of guns and the resulting deaths caused by those guns. He talked about the costs incurred by society because of guns. I found it extremely interesting that there was never any distinc-tion between good and bad uses of a gun. A death by a gun was a death by a gun, even if it was for the protection of innocent victims.

Hoffman was quick to attack the NRA and other pro-gun groups for supporting

firearms use beyond the normal self-de-fense, sport, and hunting purposes. He cited the rapid firing semi-auto firearms that are readily available today, as well as bullets ca-pable of piercing body armor.

Paradise told Hoffman that any deer hunting rifle would easily pierce body armor designed for police use. Hoffman brought up the “gun show loophole” whereby in-dividuals can sell their guns at gun shows without a background check, and “straw” (third party) purchases that allow guns to be obtained by persons who would not be able to pass a firearms background check. Again, Paradise pointed out that Colorado law ad-dresses both these issues.

I found it ironic that Hoffman later quoted the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre in talking about “damn lies and statistics” by gun con-trol groups. It was clear that Hoffman was not very well versed in his arguments and statistics for gun control, and was merely re-peating information from other sources.

Bruce Nozolino is a retired engineer. He spends his time focused on hunting and shooting sports, charity events, Toastmasters, and politics.

Last summer, the liberal leadership and the “mainstream” media tried to pawn off the Tea Party movement as a few op-portunistic and disenchanted Republicans trying to make noise. Now that the 2010 election is in full swing, politicians and the media are acknowl-edging that the Tea Par-ty movement will likely have a major impact on the upcoming election. Some opportunistic leaders in the move-ment openly question if this is the start of a new party. Some sug-gest it will be the end of the Republican Party. But what will be the legacy of this movement? I predict the Tea Party as we know it will have its impact and then come to an end on November 2, 2010. Here is why.

Picture a travel company selling the ultimate vacation package to a group of vacationers. Few details are given, just that it will be a fantastic trip. With breath-less anticipation, the vacationers wait for a grand experience as their imaginations run wild with possibilities. Finally the day

comes, and they are dropped off at a small motel in the middle of Kansas.

Bewildered at first and wondering if they missed something, the vacation-ers quickly become disgruntled. The group bands together around their new-

found hatred of the travel company. They hire a lawyer, sue the travel company, and are awarded a group vacation anywhere in the world. After much rejoicing, the group meets to discuss where they will go; but talks quickly break down.

Some want to go to Alaska, some Hawaii, some Europe. The unity enjoyed while fighting the common enemy, turns into infighting.

Barack Obama promised us the ulti-mate vacation package in the 2008 elec-tion. His would be a post-partisan presi-dency with jobs magically appearing and the world suddenly falling in love with America. Then he and the Democratic leadership dropped us all off at the prover-bial motel in the middle of Kansas. Now Americans are unifying around a singular

idea: we don’t like where this administra-tion has taken us and we want our day in court (the 2010 elections). This is the core of the Tea Party movement, but unfortu-nately, the story does not end there.

My wife and I recently attended a po-litical function where I was accosted by an angry woman. She jabbed her finger in my chest and exclaimed “You are not a true conservative!” This was the first time in my life anyone has ever said that about me, so I was fairly taken aback. Ei-ther out of shear morbid curiosity or my innate love to debate politics, I asked her to expand on her premise. It turns out that this woman is adamantly opposed to free trade and believes the government should heavily regulate big business to prevent them from taking over America. Because I am pro-free trade and anti-substantial government regulation, to her I was not a real conservative or patriot. This was an eye opening experience for me. As I reflected on it afterward, I began to understand the phenomenon of the Tea Party movement and its likely life cycle.

The Tea Party has become a big tent composed of individuals who are against abortion, gay rights, taxation, isolation-ism, government regulation, the gold

standard… and the list goes on and on. While the Tea Party will have a large im-pact on the upcoming election, it would be a mistake to believe it is a long-term political force. The movement is a coali-tion of individuals who do not agree on much but have banded together to fight a common enemy: the explosive growth of government.

Two hundred years ago, the Boston Tea Party also served to rally Americans against a common enemy. It was a spark that ignited the flame of freedom in the colonies. But after coalescing around a common cause, the colonies fought against each other on a myriad of issues. Much like the Boston Tea Party, the Tea Party has reincarnated to unite Americans against the common enemy of big govern-ment. It is a worthwhile cause that we all should fight for; but as with the Boston Tea Party, its day will come and go.

Eli Bremer was a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic modern pentathlon team and is Chair of the Pikes Peak Young Professional Republicans.

While the Tea Party will have a large impact on the upcoming election, it would be a mistake to believe it is a long-term political force.

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In 2008 America elected a “community organizer” to the presidency. Most vot-ers had no idea what that really meant. When I was a kid, community organizers improved the community—a new base-ball diamond for the youth leagues; a city beautification project; etc. Organizers, Alinsky style, aren’t devoted to improv-ing the community—or America.

Before the election, conservative voices tried to point out the real impli-cations of being a community organizer. Whenever they raised concerns about Obama’s connections to Chicago-area radicals, ACORN, and other far-left or-ganizations, the main-stream media pro-vided covering fire, ridiculing any critics. Now regular Ameri-cans are stuck with the costs and conse-quences of the media not doing its job and of an ill-informed electorate buying the packaging without understanding the contents.

To understand Obama as a commu-nity organizer, one needs to learn about a premier Chicago radi-cal and his teachings that have shaped the present-day left in America. From extensive information available on the internet, I concluded that Saul Alinsky was a smart, dedicated Marxist organiz-er. He recognized that Americans would have to be seduced, not forced, into so-cialism. In the 1930s he started among destitute neighborhoods near the stock-yards. His battle strategy was to organize the Have Nots so they could take power from the Haves.

Think Change! Think income redis-tribution, taking from those who earned it and giving to those who want it.

He evolved to setting national goals and needing better organizers to com-bine many single-issue groups into mass organizations. Alinsky set up training and rules for organizers/agitators to work within the system and to target the larger white middle class where he con-cluded the real power was.

Think of organizing educators, me-dia, lawyers and other groups far re-moved from the Have Nots. These peo-ple over the years would make socialism sound more reasonable for America de-spite socialism’s failures worldwide.

What did Alinsky look for in good candidates for community organizers? Once you understand, ask yourself why trained successors to Alinsky believed Obama would be such a good fit.

Some traits Alinsky sought are com-mon in good leaders: imagination, sense of humor, curiosity, and an organized per-sonality. Nothing sinister there, but Alin-sky wants organizers to use these charac-teristics to undermine civil society and provide an opening for more socialism.

Imagination helps the organizer identify with the people being organized.

Sounds like empathy. But Alinsky wants an imagination that can “... anticipate the probable reactions of the enemy,” because the organizer works to provoke reactions that can be used against the “enemy.”

Sense of humor? I think immedi-ately of Reagan and how effectively he used wit to illustrate the folly of oppo-nents. Alinsky valued humor in an orga-nizer because he recognized ridicule and satire as being such potent weapons. He labeled ridicule as “man’s most potent weapon.” Mix that with Alinsky’s key te-net that for the organizer, truth is relative

and changing, and you see where many of the false attacks on conser-vatives begin.

Irreverence doesn’t characterize leaders I have admired. Alinsky promoted irreverence in community orga-nizers so they would be “challenging, insult-ing, agitating, discred-iting.” Here we gain insight into the lack of civility of the Alinsky method—and of Alin-sky-ites trained in such incivility during recent decades.

Alinsky valued ego, which he stressed is strong confidence as opposed to egotism. Supreme confidence lets an organizer keep pressing on despite op-position his/her actions generate. This helps explain why Obama keeps ignor-ing warnings about the damage his push for the power grab of Obamacare is do-ing to the Democrat Party and will do to America.

An Alinsky organizer can be most effective if capable of completely polar-izing an issue—the organizer’s position is 100% right and the opposition is 100% “on the side of the devil.” That’s why there is no truth or substance in Obama’s fre-quent calls for bipartisanship.

So when you elect an Alinsky-ite community organizer, you don’t get someone just looking to level the playing field. Instead of promoting the American sense of fair play, the Alinsky model tries to tilt the playing field forever to gain ad-vantages that can’t be reversed.

Think ACORN’s massive voter-reg-istration fraud attempts. Think hundreds of billions of unaccountable “stimulus” dollars that produced no real jobs. In-stead it became a slush fund to convert your tax money into payoffs for Alinsky-ite supporters such as unions, ACORN, and other far-left organizations—and will bankroll election payoffs in 2010.

Nevertheless, Alinsky-ites aren’t infallible. We must continue the fight by learning their rules of the game and turning those rules in our favor.

Think Tea Parties, 9-12, Constitu-tionalists, The Heritage Foundation, etc., and millions of regular American citi-zens on the counterattack with the 2010 elections the next big target.

Community Organizers, Alinksky-style The second in a series on Alinsky’s Rules for RadicalsAn American Patriot, Contributing Writer

[W]hen you elect an Alinsky-ite community organizer, you don’t get someone just looking to level the playing field. Instead of promoting the American sense of fair play, the Alinsky model tries to tilt the playing field forever to gain advantages that can’t be reversed.

We need to stand up and say we’re Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.

—Hillary Clinton, during the Bush Administration

Year

GLOBAL TEMPERATURESAND CO2 LEVELS

‐0.6

‐0.4

‐0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Tempe

rature Ano

maly C

250

270

290

310

330

350

370

390

CO2 Levels

CO2 Level

Average Temperature

THE INFAMOUS “HOCKEY STICK”

SHOWED EARTH’S TEMPERATURE WAS

RISING QUICKLY

THE RISE WAS ASSOCIATED WITH

MAN-MADE CARBON DIOXIDE

POLITICIANS TELL US THAT TO SAVE THE PLANET WE MUST GIVE AWAY OUR PROSPERITY

AND STRICTLY LIMIT OUR LIVES.

TWOPROBLEMS

THE DATAWAS FUDGED

100 YEARS OF DATA ISN’TLONG ENOUGH TO

PREDICT ANYTHINGAND

THE “HOCKEY STICK” TOLD US WE ARE DESTROYING THE PLANET

Source: NOAA Paleoclimatology Program

LET’S STEP BACK AND TAKE THE LONG VIEW OF GLOBAL CLIMATE

AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE

HOT HOUSE EARTH

SNOW BALL EARTHICE AGES

Dinosaursroam the

earth

The oceans freeze over

You are here

Polar ice caps melt

THE CLIMATE HAS BEENCHANGING FOREVER !

WE ARE NOW IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ICE AGE

ICE AGES OCCUR EVERY 140 MILLION YEARS

TODAYMILLIONS OF YEARS AGO

-500 -400 -300 -200 -100

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE

Source: Adapted from N.J. Shaviv, et al, “Celestial Driver of Phanerozoic Climate”

WHAT CAUSES THESE MASSIVE CHANGES?(HINT: IT’S NOT CARBON DIOXIDE)

AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE

HOT HOUSE EARTH

SNOW BALL EARTH

TODAY

GALACTIC COSMIC RAY BOMBARDMENT

WHEN COSMIC RAY INTENSITY IS

HIGH,THE EARTH

COOLS

COSMIC RAYS CAUSE 67% OF ALL GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO-500 -400 -300 -200 -100

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE

Source: Adapted from N.J. Shaviv, et al, “Celestial Driver of Phanerozoic Climate”


We must understand the actual science behind climate change to defend ourselves from loss of liberty and wealth that will be forced upon us by the global warming advocates. Anyone who comes into con-tact with our visible geology in Colorado understands intuitively that dramatic cli-mate changes have occurred ever since the earth had enough atmosphere to create a climate. Many people have suggested one

The Sky is Falling! The Earth is Warming! At Last, Here is the Real Science Behind Global Climate Change in an Easy-to-Understand Format!

Mistakes Imperil Americans

Dave Doll, Guest Contributor

Jimmie H. Butler, Colonel, USAF, Retired, Contributing Writer

cause or another for climate change. This is the first presentation to bring together all of the causes for global climate change and show how they work together to pro-duce the world we experience.

David Doll has a master’s degree in mechan-ical engineering. He became interested in the climate change debate several years ago and began his own investigation on the subject.

Having spent nearly half my life in military service, I am concerned about our eroding defenses against terrorism under the current Washington leadership. The mainstream media plays down each bad de-cision’s potential for disaster. When grouped together, however, a pattern is obvious.

Here’s my top-10 list of dangerous changes/actions since the November 2008 election. My ranking is open to debate, and other mistakes deserve consideration. Most mistakes are closely interrelated and part of broader policies that reduce our safety. See if you agree that the risk of many innocent Americans being mur-dered in terrorist attacks has increased.

10. Insertion of political correctness into the fight against terrorism: The new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary spoke of “man-caused disasters” instead of terrorism in her nomination hearing. Ten weeks later, DHS’s report on Rightwing Extremism warned of the po-tential of returning American veterans be-coming part of “terrorist groups.” This is typical hypocrisy of political correctness.

9. Announced closing of Guanta-namo: Sped up releases of dangerous ter-rorists back to the battlefields and a push to move prisoners to prisons in America. Gave them trials in civilian courts—and will likely give terrorists the same rights as American citizens. Enemy combatants are entitled to fewer rights than uniformed soldiers.

8. Fort Hood shooting: The shooter shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire and murdering 13 American soldiers. The DHS secretary avoided calling the murders terrorism for 15 weeks. DHS and FBI had not raised concerns about the shooter being in contact with a radical imam connected to other terrorist attacks including 9-11. Political correctness con-tributed to Americans being murdered.

7. Christmas day bomber: Two days into his presidency, Obama revoked Bush’s Executive Order that put the CIA in charge of terrorist interrogations. Eleven months and three days later, the President hadn’t set up a replacement interrogation struc-ture. Thus after 50 minutes of questioning, the suspected Christmas Day Bomber was read Miranda rights and stopped giving potentially life-saving intelligence. Ignor-ing reports about the suspect’s terrorist training in Yemen, the president initially responded that the suspect apparently was “an isolated extremist.” In contrast, a 12-year-old American boy whose name matched one on the Terrorist Watch List was questioned for hours.

6. Push to treat terrorist attacks as criminal offenses: The decision to hold terrorist trials in New York City was pure politics. This administration suspended

military tribunals and ignored guilty pleas of the 9-11 terrorists. The attorney gen-eral decided instead to put America and the Bush administration on trial before the world with 9-11 terrorists making the Obama administration’s case. Mr. Holder showed total indifference to increasing dangers for New York City residents.

5. Undercutting America’s ability to gain useful intelligence: Reminiscent of the Church Committee’s restrictions on the CIA in the mid-70s, AG Holder initi-ated a “witch hunt” to investigate lawyers who had written briefs approving inter-rogation tactics under President Bush. In February 2010, Democrats tried to slip language into the Patriot Act renewal or-dering up to life in prison for interroga-tors not being nice to enemy combatants. Mix in Miranda rights on the battlefield and for terrorist bombers after less than an hour of interrogation, and we are all less safe.

4. Weakness with Iran: The adminis-tration’s naive approach has let Iran—one of the world’s primary exporters of terror-ism—get much closer to having nuclear weapons. A nuclear-arms race in the mid-East increases danger to everyone.

3. Hiring Eric Holder and Janet Na-politano: Holder had championed clem-ency for Puerto Rican FALN terrorist bombers during the Clinton administra-tion. Holder’s obviously more concerned with courting the ACLU than keeping us safe. Napolitano was unqualified to effec-tively lead the DHS. Her unwillingness to call terrorism, “terrorism,” was the first clue. Saying in March 2009 that “... cross-ing the border is not a crime per se” sug-gests she is an extremely poor choice to be in charge of guarding our nation’s borders.

2. Not firing Holder and Napolitano: Holder’s decision for 9-11 terrorist trials in NYC, hiring terrorists’ defense lawyers in the DOJ, and the quick cut off of ques-tioning of the suspected Christmas Day Bomber show Holder is too dangerous to be attorney general. Napolitano’s declara-tion that the system worked on Christmas Day and her weak leadership justify her firing. Holder and Napolitano are more devoted to protecting the administration’s weakened policies on terrorism than to protecting the American people from ter-rorism.

1. Poor presidential leadership in the war against terrorism: As command-er-in-chief and head of the executive branch bureaucracy, the president sets the tone. The stakes are too high for the presi-dent to put Chicago-style power politics ahead of the national security of America and its people. I fear that will continue un-til the next big terrorist attack kills thou-sands of innocent Americans.

What follows is the beginning of a Powerpoint presentation in the style of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. The remaining twelve slides may be viewed on our website atwww.theconstitutionalisttoday.com/sky.

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In a recent issue of the New York Times (“We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change,” February 28, 2010), former-vice presi-dent and environmental celebrity Al Gore argued that the discovery of er-rors in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) data places no doubt on his overall conclusion that the planet is warming, man is responsible, and prompt, radical action is required to save us all from doom.

It’s not clear how he comes to this conclusion. Error should lead to a healthy doubt, no matter what sub-ject you are talking about. We should harbor even more doubt when Mr. Gore blatantly states as fact, observations which are contra-dicted by data. In his op-ed, Mr. Gore claims that warmer temperatures have increased evaporation and moisture in the air. Yet in a January 2010 article in Scientific American, Alan Reynolds, Senior Fellow with the Cato Institute, said “A mysterious drop in wa-ter vapor in the lower stratosphere might be slowing climate change.” Which is it, Mr. Gore?

But let us grant Al Gore the benefit of the doubt which he denies us. Even if the IPCC accurately describes what is happening, the solutions provided by the environmentalists take no account of risk and economic impact. President Obama’s Cap-and-Trade legislation and the pend-ing EPA power-grab, which would regu-late carbon emissions across the country, are economic disasters.

These “solutions” would also have so little effect on global temperatures as to make them incalculable. One global warming scientist infamously said it would take 30 Kyoto-style cap-and-trade programs to affect global temperatures. If the American people recoil at the first steps of this process, can you image the control over our lives that the 20th or 30th step would entail?

This country cannot afford to take huge economic actions based on the idea

that climate is possibly changing and that human activity is possibly the source of the majority of that change.

I take Al Gore at his word that he is afraid of a future which renders the Earth unlivable. Then why can’t he take me and millions of other Americans seriously when we say we are afraid of losing our jobs, our homes, and our incomes? Al Gore has no sense of risk or proportion.

According to the Heritage Founda-tion, by 2035 the Cap-and-Trade bill would have raised gasoline prices by 58

percent, and raised electricity prices by 90 percent. A fam-ily of four would have seen energy costs rise by $1,241. Including taxes, a family of four would have paid an ad-ditional $4,609 per

year. Job losses would have been nearly 2.5 million. Most damaging of all, the national debt could have risen by an ad-ditional $5 trillion or $12,803 per person. This is not an unintended consequence of these policies; it is the goal.

Al Gore’s conceited certainty isn’t stopping with the legislative defeat of Cap-and-Trade. The EPA is on the verge of overreaching its authority and declar-ing greenhouse gases subject to Clean Air Act regulation. Everyone, every machine, and every process produces some amount of greenhouse gases. What the EPA has proposed is total regulatory control of the economy without recourse to our elect-ed representatives. All because Al Gore doesn’t think error should result in doubt and because he has no sense of risk.

Say what you will about President Clinton and his policies, he at least made an effort to “feel your pain.” Al Gore ignores your economic pain and your desire to not be regulated by unelected bureaucrats. Congress can still stop Gore and the EPA. Call them today and tell them to stop the EPA power grab.

Jeff Crank is the Colorado State Director for Americans for Prosperity and the President of the Pikes Peak Firearms Coalition.

Al Gore’s Climate Changes

A Broken Window and the Fed

Jeff Crank, Featured Writer

Bob Adelmann, Featured Writer

What the EPA has proposed is total regulatory control of the economy without recourse to our elected representatives.

…most people can’t see…the activities and economic transactions that don’t take place as a result of your smashed windshield.

You go out tomorrow morning to get in your car and drive to work. You discover that during the windstorm last night a tree branch broke off and smashed your wind-shield so badly you can’t see. Once you’ve gotten past the ex-asperation, a friend kindly says to you, “Well, at least you’re going to give the windshield replace-ment company some business that they otherwise wouldn’t have gotten. Isn’t that a good thing?”

Another friend suggests that the ad-ditional business for the windshield repair company will translate into some work for the replacement tech who will replace your windshield. A third friend jumps in to say that will allow the replacement guy to take his wife to dinner tonight and the restaurant will benefit. Their dinner will translate into a tip that the waitress wouldn’t have received which allows her to enjoy a movie that she otherwise would have missed. The popcorn vendor at the theater will sell another pail of popcorn. And so on and so on. Finally, along comes a Washington economist who says, “Yes, your broken windshield will actually help our local economy, and that’s a good thing!”

With apologies to Henry Hazlitt this is the broken window fallacy that suggests by looking at only part of the economics of a given transaction, incomplete and in-accurate conclusions will be drawn. The fallacy consists of looking only at the im-

mediate and visible results from having to replace your windshield and not looking at the total picture.

If the replacement windshield costs you $200 (ignoring the aggravation and

lost time from work) that leaves you with $200 less in your checkbook. You were planning on spending that $200 on a new iPod, but now you can’t. That’s one less iPod that won’t be purchased,

one sale at Best Buy that won’t take place and one commission that won’t be paid to the salesman. Once you have a new wind-shield, you’re out the $200.

The fallacy of the broken window is that most people can’t see, and therefore don’t take into account, the activities and economic transactions that don’t take place as a result of your smashed wind-shield.

Prior to the beginning of the Great Recession, interest rates were held at close to zero in order to extend the benefits of home ownership to people who otherwise couldn’t afford a home. This would be good for the economy. It would provide jobs to construction workers and lumber companies, and other suppliers to the in-dustry.

Pressure was put on lending banks to loosen their lending rules. Promises were made that if the loans went bad, the U.S. taxpayer would make the bank whole again. After all, what could happen? Over time, people purchased homes they

couldn’t afford, obtaining mortgages that were priced too low, backed by the gov-ernment in case they defaulted.

Let’s look at a specific situation. In 2004, a loan for $465,000 was granted to a family in California, backed by a house that was appraised at $510,000. The hom-eowner took advantage of some govern-ment programs to allow him to make the down payment, and so their net invest-ment in the home was almost zero. It was a 30-year loan. But by using an Option A loan, the homeowner was able to set his initial mortgage payment at just over $500 a month. This was less than the interest on the loan, and the negative amortization was added to the balance of the mortgage. The mortgage had a three-year period before the payment would be adjusted upwards. By that time, the family figured that the house would be worth upwards of $600,000, and refinancing or flipping the house to someone else would be a reason-able alternative.

When the reset kicked in the mort-gage balance had increased to almost $500,000, their payment jumped to over $1,800 a month, and the house was esti-mated to be worth about $350,000 (except

that there weren’t any buyers, only sellers, in his neighborhood). The family hired a furniture mover and left in the middle of the night. Who pays for that broken win-dow?

The homeowner had some costs, of course, and the default will be on his cred-it record for at least seven years. The bank had some costs, too, as it had to hire a con-tractor to refurbish the home for sale, and to hire a realtor to try to sell it. The bank would have had a “nonperforming loan” on its books, except that it sold the mort-gage to Fannie Mae and at the time of this writing the home is still for sale. Is there anyone else involved here?

The mortgage was packaged as part of a CDS (Collateralized Debt Security) which was sold to a pension plan in New Jersey. The pension plan has written off the loss on that investment, which reduced the value of the retirement plans of individuals investing their money with the plan.

So, if a branch falls on the windshield of your car tonight, don’t think of it as good for the economy. Recognize it for what it is: a loss for you and the econo-my no matter what the economist from Washington tells you.

TV Talk Show…Of the People, For the People, By the People…

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In the spirit of “The Constitutionalist Today”, now there is a half hour TV show starting this Spring called “The Great American Panel” that will report only the facts! Tune in and watch the truth unravel like you have never seen it before in front of millions, as hosts Lana Fore-Warkocz (The Constitutionalist Today), Jarred Rego (The Jarred Rego Show) and a qualifi ed panel address world news, politics, critical issues, education and those issues that impact “We the People” the most! You will hear the voice from our “Main Street”, which means your voice within our own community, the way our founding fathers intended it to be, as we fi ght together to keep America strong and free with less government and more freedom!

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In the spirit of “The Constitutionalist Today”, now there is a half hour TV show starting this Spring called “The Great American Panel” that will report only the facts! Tune in and watch the truth unravel like you have never seen it before in front of millions, as hosts Lana Fore-Warkocz (The Constitutionalist Today), Jarred Rego (The Jarred Rego Show) and a qualifi ed panel address world news, politics, critical issues, education and those issues that impact “We the People” the most! You will hear the voice from our “Main Street”, which means your voice within our own community, the way our founding fathers intended it to be, as we fi ght together to keep America strong and free with less government and more freedom!

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EL PASO COUNTY TEA PARTY

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All Americans are Invited!Emcee: Richard Randall, from “The Richard Randall Show”Invocation: Pastor Mel WatersGuest Speakers: All Patriotic, All the time…You’ll see…Musician: Kenny Giordano, www.kennygiordano.com

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On the Lighter Side

Ellis in WonderlandBig Spending and Deep Debt—A Cock-a-Doodle-Don’tor, Big Spending and Deep Debt Nothing to Crow About

Liberals Say the Darndest Things!

White House Fowl Mouth: All you lowly representatives of the press will be glad you came today, because we have a real treat for you. Cock of the Walk has flown down from on high to grace us with his presence today. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you his Chief Roosterness, President Cock of the Walk. (Scattered applause)

C. of the W.: (Looks down from his ex-alted perch before he focuses on his two RoosterPrompters) Thank you, thank you very much. First, I want to be perfectly clear: Bush fouled all our nests and took away everybody’s nest eggs. But that’s over now, because we won and I, His Chief Roosterness, President Cock of the Walk, am in control. Any questions?

Peacock Reporter: Chicken Little says that if the Cap and Trade bill is passed and signed, it will skyrocket energy costs and make another big hole through the global warming hoax, then punch through the $14.2 Trillion debt ceiling and make the sky fall. Considering what the increased energy costs would be for families and for small egg producers, what can your ad-ministration do to assure citizens they can hope things change for the best?

C. of the W.: I’m glad you asked that ques-tion. Let me be perfectly clear. When you take the number of eggs produced over ten years and divide it by the square root of the number of members in my new Debt Reduction Commission, and factor in how many Green Jobs I have proposed in Feathery Reid’s state, then multiply that by the number of eggs each hen produces over a lifetime, I think everyone will agree

that I will be out of office and taking Air Force One with me before anybody fig-ures out that I have absolutely no notion of what I’m talking about. Next question.

Eye in the Sky Reporter: The First Hen has proposed a 9 Billion egg budget to fight chick obesity. Couldn’t that money be better spent on pre-school sex educa-tion?

C. of the W.: Eggzactly! (Silent pause) Hey, that was a Big Rooster in the Barn-yard joke. Everybody better get to cack-lin’. (Silent pause) Let me be clear, no-body wants a bunch of fuzzy bodied, tubby little chicks running around do-ing who-knows-what to each other without protection. We can do both. The fu-ture of our nation is at stake. Next question.

Alphabet Reporter: There are reports that Tea Party organizers are gaining strength with their rallies all across the country. Do you believe they will clip the wings of con-gressional members of your party in the elections next November?

C. of the W.: Let me be perfectly clear. You have ME now. And to paraphrase a famous pig of my acquaintance, “Who’s afraid of a Big Bad Tea Party.” Hah, Hah. That’s an-other joke, son. Sorry. No more questions. My RoosterPrompter tells me it’s time to go to a fund raiser for the Head Hen of the House. Everybody stay cool now.

FOX Noose Reporter: That’s all the news from here. Back to you in New York, Chick.

by Ellis Posey, Contributing Writer

Readers Recommend

Any book whose chapter titles be-gin with “On…” is a must-read for me. It reminds me, of course, of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty as I expect it is meant to do. Through-out the book, Levin contrasts

the arguments of the conservative—the classic liberal of John Locke and John Stu-art Mill—with the statist position of the modern liberals. “Statists” is simply a term he uses for any and all belief systems that advocate the massive power of the gov-ernment over that of the individual. It is a good term to encompass liberals, socialists, communists, national socialists, fascists, theocrats or dictators. A classic liberal in America who advocates for liberty and the rights of the individual stands against all of these.

The first two chapters present op-posing pairs: liberty and tyranny, pru-dence and progress; I think that from a philosophical perspective they’re the best chapters. They emphasize the dignity of the individual, that our rights come from God, not government, and that govern-ment governs with the consent of the gov-erned—the essence of the social contract. Liberals claim the Constitution is out-dated. Which of these principles falls into that category?

The next four chapters discuss what America was meant to be about: the found-

ing, the Constitution, federalism and the free market. This is all good reading and puts you in mind of the ideal of America. The Constitution, Levin reminds us, was designed to safeguard our natural, God-given rights. Recognizing that people and their governments are both imperfect, fed-eralism diffuses power between the federal government and the states and people who created it. The free market is where we ex-ercise our constitutional rights to property, yet Levin describes how the statist seeks to take your property for its own purposes.

Levin discusses the things happen-ing currently that work against those ide-als: the welfare state, enviro-statism and immigration. He shows that we’ve been going wrong for a long time. The chapter entitled “Self-Preservation” is pretty much about America’s place in the world. In fact, self-preservation is the national interest of every country in the world and it should be ours as well. The final chapter “A Conserva-tive Manifesto” is fairly short and is actually titled “Epilogue.” Having gone this far, one has a good idea of what needs to change in order to bring America back to the path the founders put it on, but Levin summarizes ten specific areas and actions that need to be taken. It is a tall order.

The book is a really good read and pretty fast for 200 pages. It was on Ama-zon’s best seller list for a long time and when I wrote this review it was still #8. The liberal press really doesn’t want to give to publicity—yet it has sold over 1.2 million copies. I highly recommend this book.

Liberty and TyrannyA Conservative Manifestoby Mark R. Levin

State of Fearby Michael Crichton

Reviewed by Alfred C. Maurer, Featured Writer

Reviewed by Helen Sabin, Contributing Writer

4 Star Rating

5 Star Rating

State Of Fear, the fourteenth novel by Michael Crichton, is one of the best books he has ever written. Although it first was published in 2008, it is more relevant today than two years ago when

it first came out. The book deals with a topic that is important today: global warming, or climate change.

Crichton skillfully interweaves facts with a storyline that will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat. It is a thriller of a story with characters you are going to love! State of Fear is one of those books you take to the coffee shop and stay there for three hours or more reading. It is also one of those books that so angered a radi-cal environmental group they protested its truth by burning down a housing area in Maryland the week the book made its pre-mier! Coincidence?

Crichton tears to shreds the theories about global warming, the greenhouse ef-fect and the horror stories we hear daily about glaciers melting and islands such as Vanuatu, the lowest lying island in the Pa-cific being destroyed by rising sea waters.

(It isn’t. I called realtors there to check!) But he does so in such an enter-taining fact-filled way that you are not go-ing to want to put the book down. With the facts published in the book, you can

go online and check to see if climate change is real or not. You make up your own mind!

The story begins with a number of strange events occurring in different cit-ies around the world. They quickly come together centered on an evil radical en-vironmentalist group called the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF). Like many global warming groups to-day, they are respectable on the outside but evil on the inside – with hidden agendas. Helping them promote their evil agenda is an attorney, Peter Evans, who not only represents NERF but is also one of its major financial backers. He soon finds his environmental beliefs challenged, however, by an interesting man named John Kenner, who works for the Center for Risk Analysis. Kenner is a likeable but irritating man who has the bad habit of disputing, with facts, Evans’ opinions on global warming. Evans, be-ing an intelligent man and an attorney, is at first bothered and really irritated by Kenner. But gradually, because he can’t dispute the facts Kenner throws at him, comes to realize that NERF IS changing and distorting global warming data for its own self serving, nefarious ends. (Sound familiar?) Evans soon finds himself aiding Kenner in his attempts to sabotage a se-ries of man-made events which will cause a deadly catastrophe to happen!

How does the book end? You have to read it. Don’t miss this great book.

…if I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than [the Democratically-controlled] Congress has created in the last six months. —Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), after announcing his retirement from office

A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. —Barack ObamaI have not said that I was a single payer supporter… —Barack ObamaI would probably go with a single-payer system… —Barack Obama

…the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama. —Rev. Al Sharpton

…when you’re going to pass legislation that will cover 300 [million] American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people. —Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), longest-serving member of the House

But we have to pass the (healthcare) bill so everyone can, uh, find out what’s in it. —Nancy Pelosi

The Tea Party is just a right-wing movement to make it look like we’re socialist. —Jesse Ventura

Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn. He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. —Former Congressman Eric Massa (D-NY)

(the Constitution is) an imperfect document…a document that reflects some deep flaws…(and) an enormous blind spot…The Framers had that same blind spot. —Barack Obama

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