Month: July 2023

(Colorado Peak Politics)

A Democrat recruiting and training organization devoted to getting women elected has closed their Colorado branch and cut ties with the lady who led it — Lisa Calderón.

That’s three strikes for the failed Denver mayoral candidate and former chief of staff to recently defeated Denver City Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca.

Colorado Public Radio reports Emerge America cut ties after an extensive investigation into multiple complaints that resulted in vague language for such an extreme response.

Principles were violated, values weren’t upheld, the environment wasn’t supportive … blah, blah, blah

But CPR reports:

Colorado’s Emerge chapter has been embroiled in drama for a while. Opponents of Calderón accused her of mismanagement and unfairly using her position to benefit her recent campaign for Denver mayor, though a campaign finance complaint that she used Emerge polling for her own gain was dismissed.

Cringe.

Meanwhile, an out-of-work Calderón accused the Democrat organization of a “hostile takeover” of the Colorado chapter and is still holding the group’s 10th anniversary fundraising gala at which Secretary of State Jena Griswold is the keynote speaker, CPR reports.

We’re shocked Griswold would still participate in a fundraising event for a political chapter that was eighty-sixed by its parent national organization.

Is it even legal to raise money for a non-profit after one has been summarily fired from the job?

A Secretary of State ought to know better.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Lorie Smith and her attorneys are liars, according to Colorado Sun columnist Diane Carman. What is her evidence for this? Well, she doesn’t have any. But why let a niggling thing like evidence get in the way of self-righteous fury?

Smith, you may recall, is the owner of 303 Creative, the graphic-design business at the center of a recent Supreme Court case that carved out some narrow exceptions to public-accommodation laws where made-to-order, expressive goods and services are concerned. We’re talking about a small fraction of what’s available in the marketplace. I think it was the right decision that protects the right to freedom of speech; Carman hates it

Doing Carman’s research for her

True, someone lied. But there’s no evidence that the liars are Smith or her lawyers. Smith and her lawyers claimed 303 Creative got an inquiry about doing work for a gay wedding for “Stewart and Mike.” But when the left-leaning New Republic contacted Stewart, he said he never made any such inquiry. It’s an important piece of journalism. If Carman had read it carefully, she might have noticed that the author of the piece, Melissa Gira Grant, concedes Smith and her lawyers “perhaps unwittingly” took the inquiry at face-value. Apparently they were tricked.

Or Carman might have turned to commentary by attorney Adam Unikowsky, who points out, “There is no evidence whatsoever that either 303 Creative or ADF (its counsel) [the Alliance Defending Freedom] fabricated the fake request.” ADF states,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Colorado’s governor and legislature made their point; they have no intention of protecting their constituents from the financial consequences of Bidenomics, namely the Bidenflation that wildly spiked our property tax bills.

Therefore, voters are taking matters into their own hands by getting a measure on the ballot in November to cap future property tax increase.

The measure can’t stop the coming spike, but it will make sure we never see 40% tax hikes again by capping increases to 4%, said Michael Fields of Advance Colorado Action, which is leading the charge to collect ballot signatures.

Sign Initiative #50 outside your grocery store!!

Join all the other Coloradans who want to cap our property taxes and stop the government from skyrocketing our costs and constantly taking more of our hard-earned $$$. #copolitics https://t.co/uPs7p96wjv

— Kristi Burton Brown (@KBBColorado) July 16, 2023

Amen, sister.

From Colorado Politics:

Because it’s a proposed amendment to the state constitution, the measure would need 55% of the vote to pass. Its sponsors also must gather a certain number of signatures from every state Senate district in order to make the ballot — potentially an expensive hurdle.

They have less than six months to collect 124,000 signatures.

The Democrat-controlled legislature and Gov. Polis refuse to call a special session and deal with the problem they helped create.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Our system for the selection and retention of state court judges in Colorado was created in 1966 by an initiated constitutional amendment known as the “Missouri Plan.” Colorado has gone through significant changes in the last 67 years. Our population has grown dramatically and gotten younger. The expectation of Coloradans for our judicial system has changed as well. Calls for increased transparency and responsiveness by the judicial system are being heard all over the state. I believe that it is time to review our current system of selection and retention of state judges and ask some hard questions.

The current system

By way of background, the Colorado state courts as established by Article VI of the Colorado Constitution and statute, consist of the following:

• Colorado Supreme Court

• Colorado Court of Appeals

• Colorado District Courts

• Colorado County Courts

• Colorado Water Courts

• Municipal Courts

All of these courts, with the exception of the municipal courts and Denver’s County Court, are part of the state court system. Federal courts are not part of this system.

Generally speaking, courts are either courts of general jurisdiction or limited jurisdiction. For example, the Colorado Supreme Court and the district courts are courts of general jurisdiction, including civil cases, criminal cases, domestic relations, family law, juvenile delinquency, paternity actions, probate and mental health. Courts that have limited jurisdiction include county courts which handle misdemeanor cases,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, whose three-term tenure was marked by ethical issues, exited office this week under a newly formed ethical cloud.

Denver 9’s Kyle Clark hasn’t reported on it yet, but it appears he’s done a thorough check on it before firing off a threat of tweets.

NEW: Outgoing Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration produced a taxpayer-paid, feature-length film extolling his greatness. A city spokesman confirmed that the film’s copyright is held by Hancock himself, not the city. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/QISz29RYlJ

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) July 13, 2023

Taxpayers footed the bill for this 94-minute political commercial disguised as a feature-length documentary that Clark describes as extolling the greatness of Hancock and his reign as told by his political buddies and now-former employees.

Not only did taxpayers pay for it, but city employees produced most of it, allegedly on their own time, and it aired on city-owned Denver 8 after Hancock’s farewell speech on Wednesday.

Yet the city won’t tell us how much it all cost taxpayers.

But wait, there’s more.

Hancock holds the copyright.

We haven’t seen the propaganda film, yet we’re willing to bet its purpose is to springboard Hancock to higher pollical ambitions, most likely in a race against Jared Polis.

Either for the governor’s seat, or in a presidential run.

Beltway Democrats are already abuzz that Joe Biden’s days are done in the White House,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

In the wake of FBI Director Christopher Wray’s disastrous, no good, very bad day testifying before Congress this week, Colorado U.S. Rep. Ken Buck is sounding the alarm to revise a controversial law abused by some in the agency to spy on Americans.

Millions of searches have been conducted by the agency under the auspice of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act including hundreds of thousands of illegal searches that weren’t authorized.

The searches included surveillance of those present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, which included family of friends of lawmakers being sworn in that day, as well protestors involved in the George Floyd riots.

An unsealed ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last year revealed nearly 280,000 unauthorized searches.

The FBI should not be conducting warrantless surveillance of American citizens. Period.

We must revise FISA to protect Americans’ constitutional right to privacy. pic.twitter.com/LQsV9cNEHq

— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) July 12, 2023

Indeed. A great many things need to be revised at the FBI, including agency priorities that should not be infringing on our most basic constitutional rights, primarily freedom of speech, religion, and right to assemble.

For those living under a rock who missed Wray’s jaw-dropping revelations, here are some of our favorite highlights.

🚨BREAKING: FBI Director Wray confirms Joe Biden is under criminal investigation for Ukrainian bribes by the US Attorney in Delaware then tries to backpedal after realizing what he disclosed

How is this not front page news?!

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

LAKEWOOD — The Jefferson County Republican Party has sent out an email to its membership encouraging them to step up and run for one of numerous open local government seats this year, with the promise of financial support.

“We need to have strong conservative voices on all of these boards below,” the email begins. “Don’t let people tell you that Republicans can’t win these elections because we can.”

The email is one of the ongoing examples statewide where county Republican groups are actively seeking, and supporting candidates in what are legally classified as “non-partisan” races, such as city council and school board elections.

Despite party affiliation not appearing on the ballot, political parties can still support those candidates. There are reporting rules if parties want to donate money, and the party must notify the Secretary of State’s office prior to spending any money on a non-partisan race.

In 2021 the Larimer County Republicans bought billboard space for candidates running for school board. And earlier this year, the Weld County Republican Chairman put out a newsletter to his group encouraging support for a slate of candidates in the Greeley-Evans School District 6 Board of Education race.

“I have spoken so much about the need to support conservative candidates and the local government level,” Scott James said in his newsletter. “There are no more critical races than the school boards, town boards, and town and city councils.”

James then listed three registered Republicans who have declared their candidacy for the office with links to any available websites.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

People concerned about water levels in the West’s reservoirs should be able to cheer up now. The U.S. Drought Monitor system has removed drought status from the entire Western Slope and nearly all of California. Snowpack this winter was well above average for the entire Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, and nearly 50 percent above average in the Colorado Rockies.

That should prompt a sigh of relief regarding the reservoirs. Colorado’s largest lake, Blue Mesa Reservoir, was unceremoniously drained by the Bureau of Reclamation last year, but its level has risen over 50 feet, now just 30 feet below full capacity. The U.S. Geological Survey says stream flows are at least 90 percent of average along the entire West Coast, and the Colorado River is overflowing its banks. Federal officials estimate runoff into the Colorado River reservoirs this year will be 149 percent of average.

Don’t celebrate yet. The Bureau has the gates at Blue Mesa wide open and will drain it again as fast as it can fill, in order to move the water to Lake Powell to recover some of its electric generating capacity, and especially so it can be sent downstream to Lake Mead to supply California. The agency has an apparent blind spot for California that colors its judgment about reservoir management, resulting in unfair allocations that violate the spirit of the Interstate Compact.

Years of sustained drought should remind everyone of the purpose of these reservoirs.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Remember when employees cared about their jobs and cared about the company for which they worked? We call it a work ethic. It meant that an employee felt like he, too, was part of the company.

One of the reasons we see such poor work ethic today, such reluctance to get back to work after COVID, and such complacency to be on the dole is that companies give employees little autonomy and force them to become soulless robots.

When you punish workers for showing any initiative, why would you be surprised when they show none?

Here’s a perfect story. On Father’s Day at the King Soopers in Centennial, three brazen thieves loaded up a shopping cart with scented laundry detergent (laundry detergent, really?) and rolled it out to their car to load it up and speed away.

King Soopers employee Santino Burrola was there to witness it. Trained not to physically intervene in any theft, he pulled out his phone to video the event.

His color commentary was priceless. As the idiots were frantically shoving laundry detergent into their car he mused to them, “Really bros, you gotta resort to this? The economy is not that bad.” As they speed off Burrola peeled off the aluminum foil they had covering their license plate, getting that on video as well.

After posting his video on social media, which was shared by many including rapper Snoop Dogg, the police arrested the driver who (surprise) had multiple felonies but wasn’t behind bars ( Yeah,

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