The Colorado Index

Boulder County Liberal Mark Udall Breaks A Promise

As noted here, Boulder County Liberal Mark Udall promised to vote against recessing Congress if it did not pass an energy bill. Today was put-up-or-shut-up day for Mark Udall, since Congress voted to recess with no energy bill. The following press release has the details:

 

WASHINGTON – Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), Chairman of the House Republican Conference, issued the following statement shortly after the House of Representatives voted 213-212 – with no Republicans voting in the affirmative – to adjourn for five weeks in August and September without taking action to lower gas prices and break our dependence on foreign oil:

 

"The Democratic Congress should be held in contempt for voting to skip town without dealing with America’s energy crisis.

“Democrats are out of touch, out of excuses, out of support and out of time. Americans are hurting. Independent polls show they overwhelmingly support House Republicans’ all-of-the-above energy solutions.

“It’s time Democrats put their boarding passes back in their pockets and get to work by voting on the American Energy Act.”

 

The official roll call votes list every vote. Mark Udall’s name is easy to find: scroll to the bottom under “Not Voting.”

 

One excuse Mark Udall cannot claim is that he was not in Washington for the vote. According to the House Clerk website, six total resolutions had votes today. Udall did not vote in four of them. However, Mark Udall had time to vote for the “Veterans Disability Benefits Claims Modernization Act” and a resolution “Calling on the Government of the People’s Republic of China to immediately end abuses of the human rights of its citizens, to cease repression of Tibetan and Uighur citizens, and to end its support for the Government of Sudan and Burma to ensure that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games take place in an atmosphere of freedom.” Both votes were taken within minutes of the adjournment resolution.

 

Apparently, any promise Mark Udall makes expires within two days. Udall did not have the courage to back up a statement he made just two days prior. Not only that, had Mark Udall followed through on his promise, the resolution would have tied, which at minimum would force additional parliamentary procedures before adjournment. It may even have forced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand to allow debate on an energy bill. If Udall cannot publicly take a stand that he promised to take, how on earth can Coloradans trust him in the United States Senate?

 

Boulder County Liberal Mark Udall publicly shirked his responsibility as a Congressman and broke his word to the public. Colorado voters deserve to know the reasons for his non-vote and broken promise. In any event, Udall's assistance to Nancy Pelosi in blocking votes on energy bills keeps this previously suggested campaign slogan accurate: “Vote Mark Udall for even higher energy prices.”

 

by Civil Sense

Tax Free Gas For Democratic National Convention Committee

While Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper claimed that no Denver money would pay for the convention, Democratic National Convention committee staffers have fueled vehicles tax-free at city-owned gas pumps since March (Hat Tip: Ben DeGrow at Mount Virtus).

 

The issue arose during the regular weekly meeting of [ Mayor John ] Hickenlooper and City Council members. Downs requested authorization for a contract so the Public Works Department could be reimbursed by the [ Democratic National Convention ] committee for use of "fueling facilities, fuel and car washes."

 

Downs said the contract with the host committee started in March and that $9,700 in fuel and services had been purchased from the city so far. But the committee has yet to be billed. The city anticipates $466,125 in total revenues from the contract, Downs said.

 

City Councilman Charlie Brown raised the question of whether the host committee would be paying fuel taxes, and Downs said it wouldn't.

 

This is rather outrageous. It is one thing for a private corporation such as Coors to donate fuel to the Democratic National Convention committee, but it is wrong to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize committee fuel costs. At the council meeting, Mayor John Hickenlooper tried to defend the practice by using the “but they also do it” defense.

 

Hickenlooper said the practice isn't unique to Denver.

 

"I do know for a fact that they're doing the same exact thing in Minneapolis," Hickenlooper said, referring to the city that along with St. Paul is hosting the Republican National Convention.

 

But Teresa McFarland, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee, said its members are getting their gas at public pumps.

 

"We're not getting a tax break on fuel," she said. "That's not the setup at this end."

 

While it is possible that Mayor John Hickenlooper made a simple mistake in his claim that the Republican National Committee gets the same benefits in Minnesota, it is more likely that Mayor Hickenlooper spoke off-the-cuff to deflect any potential criticism. Similar to the Rene Marie Star Spangled Banner “switcheroonie,” Mayor Hickenlooper attempted to escape criticism and then changed his political position once the political backlash grew larger.

 

The practice, which began four months ago, may have ended hours after its disclosure. An aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper released a statement Tuesday evening saying that Denver 2008 Host Committee members would pay market prices for fuel and would also be liable for all applicable taxes.

 

This is the right decision for the taxpayers in Denver. However, Mayor Hickenlooper’s deliberate obfuscation begs the question of what other surprises will arise between now and the end of the Democratic National Convention. The ham-handed response to the fuel controversy does not build confidence in the city’s ability to deal with the protestors and other general chaos during the convention in August.

 

by Civil Sense

Senator Salazar’s Speculation Silliness

The latest Democrat talking points on the oil prices is that additional drilling will not lower prices and that the “speculators” cause the high gas prices. Senator Ken Salazar released a statement this week parroting these points. Unfortunately, Democrat Senator Ken Salazar proves he knows nothing of markets or pricing mechanisms:

The President’s rhetoric this morning on oil shale showed that he is fundamentally out of touch with the realities of oil shale development and western communities. As energy companies, western governors, local communities, energy experts, and the BLM have all testified, the barriers to oil shale development are economic, technological, and environmental, not legal or regulatory. The current one-year moratorium on commercial oil shale leasing is certainly not the barrier to oil shale development. Even under the most optimistic circumstances, oil shale could not be developed until 2015, at the earliest. As the BLM has testified, the President’s proposal to have a fire-sale on commercial oil shale leases will not accelerate this process, nor will it have any impact on gas prices. The only thing it will do is place western Colorado’s land, water, and way of life at risk and invite the type of speculation that could cause yet another bust on oil shale. (snip)

I was also disappointed that the President did not pledge to take strong action to curb speculation in oil markets. Energy experts are testifying that a large portion of the recent spikes in oil prices are attributable to rampant speculation. He should urge regulatory agencies to take strong and smart action to curb this speculation.

Ken Salazar proves himself economically illiterate. Oil is a fungible commodity, traded on a worldwide market. “Speculators” are just investors. People who invest in oil (or any commodity) buy it at the market clearing price today with the belief that the price will increase in the future. Broadly, only two items affect the price of oil: demand projections and supply projections.

One example of speculation on the micro-level would be in the supermarket. Say canned tomatoes are on sale for $0.69 per can from the usual price of $0.99 per can. The savvy shopper realizes that said tomatoes will cost more the following week and purchases 10 cans instead of 2 or 3. Guess what? That shopper just speculated—he or she knows the price will increase in the future, and the shopper hedges his or her bet against said price increase. While simplistic, this model loosely translates to the oil and other commodity markets.

The worldwide demand for oil will not decrease in the foreseeable future. Even though US oil demand is slightly lower this year, the demand from India and China is exploding. Additional oil supply, therefore, is the only alternative. Allowing leasing and drilling in the areas currently off-limits will increase the future supply, lowering the future costs, and market prices will react accordingly. At minimum, it will allow for a greater supply of oil five to ten years down the road when demand and prices will be even higher.

The longer we delay the beginning of the leasing process, the longer it will be before the oil fields are online and producing. This only raises the cost today, and ensures more scarcity and higher prices in the future. Perhaps that scenario is Ken Salazar and the Democrats’ goal.

by Civil Sense

Bill Ritter To Bankrupt Colorado With Union State Workers

Democrat Governor Bill Ritter’s plan to expand state government expenditures came to fruition yesterday.  From the Post:

At least 22,500 secretaries, prison guards and other state employees will soon fall under a union contract following a vote tallied Wednesday, though the majority of eligible workers didn't cast a ballot. 

The number represents about a third of state employees. They will join the 711 employees of the Colorado State Patrol who have already unionized.

ColoradoWINS, the coalition of three unions behind the election, continues to pursue another 11,000 state workers who are eligible to unionize under Gov. Bill Ritter's controversial executive order that allowed state employees to unionize and collectively bargain for wages and work conditions. 

The worst part of Bill Ritter’s unionization is that a majority of state employees did not cast a ballot, yet they still will be represented by the union!

About 6,900 state workers from a pool of 22,500 who were eligible participated in the election, which gave them a choice between Colorado WINS or no union representation. Of those, 5,481 supported the union. 

In other words, only 24 percent of workers voted for the union, and only 31 percent of workers voted at all. This begs the question whether or not those employees who did not vote knew their silence was tacit acceptance of the union.

But, do not worry, Bill Ritter’s union friends promise to be friendly: 

But Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer pointed out that state workers do not have the right to strike for higher wages and said there are legislative checks to keep salary and benefits balanced.

"This is a partnership. This is not old-school union strong-arm tactics that the Republicans would have us believe," he said.

This is a red herring. How can there be a “partnership” when unions enjoin the workers practice class warfare against their employers?

Asking a union not to strike is similar to asking a dog not to bark. When one of these unions decides to strike, who will take action against them? Ronald Reagan fired the illegally striking air traffic controllers in 1981. But, President Reagan was a strong chief executive. Bill Ritter has proven to be the opposite in his tenure as Governor. 

by Civil Sense

Airbrushing B****** L****** [ Democratic Congressman ] Mark Udall

Mark Udall is a very liberal member of the US House of Representatives who happens to reside near Eldorado Springs in unincorporated Boulder County, Colorado and has a Boulder mailing address and ZIP code.

Was the previous sentence too wordy? Lynn Bartels of the Rocky Mountain News believed that this clarification was too long as of last Wednesday, as Jason Salzman reported. Ben DeGrow at Schaffer v. Udall deconstructed Bartels’ airbrushing of Dick Wadhams’ “Boulder Liberal Mark Udall” quote last Wednesday.

Today, Jason Salzman offers a correction to his previous story:

I should have made it clear that [ Lynn ] Bartels will not routinely delete “Boulder liberal” from [ Dick ] Wadhams’ quotations in which he refers to Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall of Eldorado Springs as “Boulder liberal Mark Udall.”

She will evaluate Wadhams quotes on a case-by-case basis.

It will be interesting to see how Lynn Bartels treats Dick Wadhams’ “Boulder Liberal Mark Udall” quotes in the future. However, it is amazing how much virtual and actual ink Jason Salzman and others waste on the argument that Udall is not really from Boulder. These verbal contortions are reminiscent of a previous Democrat President with a convoluted definition of “is.”

The oddest thing about the squawking about Mark Udall’s Boulder ties is that they are mostly irrelevant. Every time Udall’s supporters play geographical gymnastics, the moniker “liberal” goes unchallenged in every story. While it is well documented at The Colorado Index and Schaffer v Udall that Mark Udall holds positions to the left of most Coloradans, most of the media outlets do not try to obscure that fact.

The November election will turn on Udall’s liberal positions, not his ZIP code. However, Lynn Bartels, Jason Salzman, and their media friends are ensuring that the slogan “Boulder liberal Mark Udall” will be seared into the conscience of the electorate.

by Civil Sense

Two Newspaper Editorials in Saturday’s Opinion Section Paint Complete Picture of Illegal Tax Freeze

Governor Bill Ritter could not have asked for a better time for Denver District Court Judge Christina Habas to rule on Ritter’s illegal tax freeze. By releasing the ruling on Friday afternoon, Bill Ritter’s bad press occurred during the weekend nadir of the news cycle. As the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News combine their weekend papers, the ruling’s timing ensured there would be only negative headlines in one newspaper, not two.

The Saturday Rocky Mountain News does contain a small Denver Post opinion section.  This allowed both the Post and the News editorial staffs to opine on the illegal tax freeze.

First, the Rocky Mountain News meticulously follows the legal reasoning of the decision:

Look, we're not questioning, the good faith of the governor and the Democratic majority in the legislature. They weren't trying to deceive voters. But in their push to find additional tax revenue, they apparently convinced themselves that they were rectifying, in effect, an oversight of their predecessors. Wasn't it obvious, they concluded, that school districts already had earned the right to collect more property taxes because of "de-Brucing" elections (named after TABOR's author, Douglas Bruce) they'd held years before, mostly between 1996 and 1998?

Um, no - as [ Judge Christina ] Habas clearly explains in her ruling. The judge points to one authority after another, including the Legislative Council and two former directors of the School Finance Unit, who over the years concluded that school districts, even after de-Brucing, could not exploit rising property values to collect more tax revenue in the way envisioned by SB 199.

The Denver Post, a longtime cheerleader for the Bill Ritter’s illegal tax freeze, tries to shift the blame to the courts and restates the Governor’s original talking points about the freeze:

Gov. Bill Ritter's vision for Colorado was delivered another setback Friday.

This time, the damage was done by a district court judge. The governor's property-tax freeze, a cornerstone of his first year in office, was ruled unconstitutional by District Court Judge Christina Habas. 

We supported Ritter's tax freeze as a giant step toward reforming the state budget and preserving local control of our schools. The governor intended money from the freeze to go into the state education fund to help at-risk kids attend preschool and full-day kindergarten.

The Post contradicts itself four paragraphs later and states the actual purpose of the illegal tax freeze:

Lawmakers in 2007 approved that bill, which called for locking most school districts' property-tax rates at current levels, allowing local school districts to collect more tax money. The state, in return, can use the money it saves for other purposes.

 In other words, the so-called “Colorado Children’s Amendment” was never about the children. The schools get no more money under this bill. It is just a way to increase general fund play money for Bill Ritter and the legislature.

The Post reluctantly concludes its editorial urging the only legal way to increase state revenue.

We hope eventually voters themselves will give back to lawmakers the ability to budget our money without having to jump through all of these nettlesome and needless hoops.

The Post is half right. Voters, if asked, may approve more money for the schools. However, those “nettlesome and needless hoops” in TABOR protect the state’s taxpayers from Bill Ritter and the legislature’s bait-and-switch funding tactics.

by Civil Sense

Andrew Romanoff Churning The Big Blue Lie Machine

It appears that Andrew Romanoff has been caught pumping out a lie today.  He claims that the Republicans didn't negotiate in good faith in his efforts to get rid of TABOR.

Now, [ Andrew ] Romanoff said, he realizes they were just buying time to galvanize their caucus against the plan.

"I feel like I wasted time in what I thought were genuine policy negotiations that turned out to have been political stalling tactics," he said.

"And I'm embarrassed to admit that, because it makes me look like an idiot. I feel like an idiot, but that's the way it's played out. It's not a game, and it's not over yet."

The Rocky Mountain News is reporting:

House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said he and Romanoff have been playing a game of political chess as the speaker has tried to get at least four Republicans from each chamber on board with his plan.

But May rejected Romanoff's notion that Republicans were just playing politics. May said the truth is that Romanoff's plan was bad policy because it would gut TABOR.

If Social Security is the third rail of national politics, TABOR is the third rail in the Republican caucus in the Colorado Legislature.  If Andrew Romanoff wanted to do some horse trading, he needed to ensure that the horse he was trading wasn't close to death.  Amendment 23 is close to death without doing anything.

But, to hear Andrew Romanoff tell it through the Big Blue Lie Machine megaphone, the Republicans, were the ones acting in bad faith:

[ Mike ] May said he told Romanoff from the start he didn't care about the offer to strip Amendment 23 from the constitution, because the Democrats in charge of the legislature could put those K-12 spending provisions right back into law. Besides, he said, Amendment 23's requirement that the state increase spending on K-12 education by 1 percent per year was set to expire in two years anyway.

He said he agreed with [ Andrew ] Romanoff that the constitution had been balled up because it's one of the easiest in the country to amend. But he said any solution would need to retain spending limits of some sort.

[ Mike ] May said he offered to help [ Andrew ] Romanoff convene a bipartisan panel of lawmakers this summer to look at a long-term solution, but Romanoff said no.

Sounds like good faith to us.  That makes Andrew Romanoff a bald faced liar and just another Democrat churning furiously on the Big Blue Lie Machine.

Bill Ritter Cranking Hard on the Big Blue Lie Machine

The one place where politicians can tell bald faced lies, and hope not to be detected, is in campaign fund raising letters.  We've just seen one signed by Bill Ritter in favor of Mark Udall:

Mark has been an indispensable ally and partner for me in Congress. Mark has taken the lead in fighting the bark beetle infestation plaguing our forests.  He is working to secure $120 million in federal funds to preserve our forests, protect our communities, and provide tax credits and income exclusions for private thinning and treatment work.

The truth is that Mark Udall came to the fight against bark beetles so late that by the time he had arrived, the Forest Service had surrendered.  Mark Udall is still fighting the establishment of forest roads and the clear cutting that will allow the fire breaks that might prevent a catastrophic fire in the now dead and dying forest.

Bill Ritter:

I have joined with several other Western governors to urge federal action, and Mark Udall is working tirelessly to enact legislation that commits the entire nation to follow Colorado's lead and create a renewable electricity standard.  The House approved his measure late last year, but it ultimately failed by one vote in the U.S. Senate.   

Mark will be that one vote.

The house leadership first diluted and then traded away the standards that Mark Udall proposed.  It never came up for a vote in the Senate.

Now you can see why we call it the Big Blue Lie Machine.

Colorado's Big Blue Lie Machine

We write here and elsewhere on Colorado Politics.  Of late, not by design, but simply because they are in the news, we have been writing about Democrat politician's willingness to lie routinely about their record, their promises, and the impact of their promises on the public. 

One of our concerns about pointing out so many lies in so short a time is that we might get the same reputation that Colorado media matters has.  They claim to see everything a Republican says as a lie.  They came on this site once to claim that someone expressing an opinion was lying.  Good Grief! 

We don't put up with that kind of guff.  We handed Bill Menezes a rhetorical paper bag and told him to stop hyperventilating.  Of course, he didn't stop, he just turned his attention elsewhere, most recently to Christmas!  He is part of and is paid handsomely to promote the Big Blue Lie Machine.

Today, we see that the National Republican Senatorial Committee is exposing another recent lie by Mark Udall's campaign manager.  Politicians like Mark Udall should learn one thing in this Internet age.  They can lie about the weather (err, global warming), and maybe about which direction the sun comes up, but it is impossible to lie about one's record and not get caught.  Once a politician develops a reputation as willing to lie routinely, it is hard to shake.

The most blatant lies of the past week were told by Bill Ritter in his address to the nation.  Two paragraphs are quoted here, and both are full of lies:

"In Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain West, Democrats are succeeding because we provide moderate, common sense leadership on issues most important to American families," Ritter said. "Where Washington has failed to act, we are moving ahead on issues such as immigration, domestic-energy development, education and creating new jobs for hard-working Americans."

Immigration:  It is no secret that when Bill Ritter ran for Governor his record was as a Denver prosecutor who was willing to plea bargain illegal immigrant's felonies into "agricultural trespass" so that they could stay in the country.  Who knew that the city of Denver had so much agricultural land?

Domestic-Energy Development:  Bill Ritter has publicly opposed drilling on the Roan Plateau and in the Vermillion Basin here in Colorado.  We know of no domestic oil and gas production that he supports.  We know that he hates nuclear energy.  He promoted a splashy project to see that ethanol was being sold in gas stations throughout the state without admitting that the production of corn ethanol might damage Colorado's water supply.

Education:  Colorado has been a leader in the Charter School movement but once in power, the Democrats began to systematically dismantle Charter Schools.  Democrat Representative Michael Merrifield, the chairman of the Colorado House Education Committee went so far as to opine that there was a special place in hell for Charterizers.  Ritter loves education unions more than education to the detriment of Colorado children.

Creating New Jobs:  ????????????  Bill Ritter is a big taxer.  Taxes strip private enterprise of the ability to grow new jobs and help government to grow jobs that produce nothing but red tape.  A recent study (pdf) by CRA International shows that the energy bill that Bill Ritter went to Washington to promote would cut regional Gross Domestic Product and job creation dramaticly.  They even provide a state by state analysis with the Colorado impact on page 7.

"Democrats have put forward substantive policies that address our nation's broken health-care system," Ritter said. "At a time when concern about our economy is growing and American families are struggling with high energy costs, Democrats have proposed policies that will take advantage of renewable energy resources."

Health Care:  Bill Ritter and the Democrat legislature have proved to be really good at creating study groups on issues.  They fill these "blue ribbon panels" with stakeholders who want to grow Colorado government  10% at a time, a solution regular Colorado citizens won't buy and Ritter knows it.  The only thing "substantive" that Ritter has produced so far is a big stack of paper.

Renewable Energy:  This last sentence is so deceptive that it may be the biggest lie of all.  Renewable energy is much more expensive, at least in the short run, than oil and gas.  It is also much less flexible.  There may be reasons to "take advantage of renewable energy resources," but cost to the consumer is not one of them.  If he wants to control costs, let him freeze the price consumers pay for wind and solar to that which they pay for coal derived energy and take away their giant subsidies.

The Big Blue Lie Machine in Colorado is blowing so much smoke out so many vents that it is hard not to notice.