”An unimaginative failure. That’s the best way to describe the results of the Long Term Fiscal Stability Commission. Instead of courageous, outside-the-box thinking that would improve state government and provide fiscal stability, the commission indulged the same tired argument that government has to tax and spend more.”

That’s how State Rep Cheri Gerou, Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway and I begin our opinion editorial about our experience on the Long Term Fiscal Stability Commission.  After 11 full days of meetings, the message was we must grow government nearly $1900 per year for every Coloradan.  Read the full text at the Independence Institute Web site.

There seems to be a lack of creative, outside the box thinking from our elected officials and leaders and taxpayers foot the bill.  The fiscal note for the commission was more than $27,000.

Hotair.com published emails that seem to expose the fraud of global warming.  The correspondence indicates that some scientists either hid or deleted data that did not support their theory of global warming or they simply wonder where’s the warming.

One of the recent emails came from Kevin Trenberth of NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) in Boulder. Trenberth ponders the question that many rational people ask when considering the consequences of cap and trade legislation, which is supposed to curb the warming that isn’t happening.

From: Kevin Trenberth
To: Michael Mann
Subject: Re: BBC U-turn on climate
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:57:37 -0600
Cc: Stephen H Schneider , Myles Allen , peter stott , “Philip D. Jones” , Benjamin Santer , Tom Wigley , Thomas R Karl , Gavin Schmidt , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer

Hi all

Well I have my own article on where the heck is global warming ? We are asking that here in Boulder where we have broken records the past two days for the coldest days on record. We had 4 inches of snow. The high the last 2 days was below 30F and the normal is 69F, and it smashed the previous records for these days by 10F. The low was about 18F and also a record low, well below the previous record low.

This is January weather (see the Rockies baseball playoff game was canceled on saturday and then played last night in below freezing weather).

Trenberth, K. E., 2009: An imperative for climate change planning: tracking Earth’s global energy. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 1, 19-27, doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2009.06.001. [1][PDF] (A PDF of the published version can be obtained from the author

I asked the same question back on the 4th of July when I saw a woman wearing ear muffs because it was so cold.  So I’ll ask all the eco-totalitarian, global warming alarmists, where has the warming gone?

More bad news for Governor Bill Ritter and democrats in the state legislature. Under their leadership, Colorado is losing its competitive edge according to a report from the Metro Denver Economic Corporation.

Yet one company is looking to expand in Colorado. You might think that our Governor would welcome this development.   You would be wrong.  In fact, just the opposite is true for Colorado’s $23 billion oil and gas industry.  

Anadarko, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, is prepared to invest $100 million in the Wattenburg Field.  What’s the hold up?  According to an article in the Denver Post, it’s the permitting process and the length of time it takes to get a permit approval, which has nearly doubled under Governor Ritter’s administration.  

Since his election in 2006, Colorado’s oil and gas industry has been in Ritter’s line of site.  Burdensome regualtions already have resulted in layoffs around the state.  Senator Greg Brophy said his hometown of Wray, Colorado, an agricultural town on the Eastern Plains, has lost some 250 good-paying, oil and gas jobs.

This is not the time to be making it more difficult for companies to do business in Colorado.  Capital investment, like oil and gas, is fluid.  It will leave. Perhaps it’s time to remind everyone, including Governor Ritter, of the KFKA Players and their performance of Andrew Ripemoff’s “When your goose is cooked.”

Voters stood up to school bullies with a resounding NO VOTE on 3A, the massive, forever property tax increase.  The results: 66 percent NO; 34 percent YES. 

Taxpayers sent a strong message to the big spending school bullies.  Live within your means like the rest of Colorado working families, and show taxpayers some respect by opening your books.  Be transparent.  Colorado Spending Transparency predicted the tax increase would be a tough sell without it.

Despite the bullies’ establishment support and the ridiculous amount of money they raised, Citizens Against School Bullies and taxpayers beat them!  Bullies raised over $90,000 (monetary and in-kind) in contributions.  We raised $1100.  Bullies spent $55,000.  We spent $900.

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who supported us.

I just reviewed the campaign finance reports for the school bullies, a.k.a. Yes on 3A.  The largest single contributor to the campaign for 3A, the massive, forever property tax increase — the Greeley Tribune.  Our local newspaper donated $20,000 in advertising.  I wonder if they included all the opinion editorials posing as “news” stories on the front page of the paper.

Other contributors to school bullies include:

Wells Fargo: $5,000
RR Donley: $5,000
Phelps-Tointon: $10,000
Realtor Issues Political Action Committee: $7,000
Ernie Martin: $1,000
Hensel-Phelps: $7,500
Flood & Peterson: $7,500
Conquest Holdings: $1,000
Cache Bank: $7,500
Bank of Choice: $7,500
Holly Ehrlich: $2,500

Readers are welcome to see how Citizens Against School Bullies, the opposition to 3A, spent its money.  On the Colorado Secretary of State’s Web site, you’ll see we raised $1100 total, and have spent about $900.  We were out raised almost 90 to 1, outspent 55 to 1, and they still stole our signs.  We’ll find out on Tuesday, who had a better message.