On Saturday, Coloradans northof I-70 continued to show their displeasure with Obama Care.  According to Complete Colorado:

One day after Congressman Jared Polis was “mobbed”at a Boulder coffee shop by constituents wanting to talk health care issues, between two andthree hundred people showed up for a similar “Q & A” session with Representative Ed Perlmutter. Perlmutter held his meeting outside the King Soopers grocery store on Bromley Lane in Brighton.

Polis and Perlmutter are Democrats respectively representing the 2nd and 7th congressional districts. 

Residents of the 4th congressional district may wonder where their representative is during this August recess.   According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, Congresswoman Betsy Markey is in Israel on a “fact-finding trip.”  After her return, residents anxious to speak with her will get their chance.

Markey’s office is finalizing plans for “Congress on Your Corner” events in August in Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley, Fort Morgan, Sterling and southeast Colorado. She also plans two town-hall style forums during the recess, one in Greeley focusing on the impact of health-care reform on Medicare and another on the Eastern Plains focusing on agriculture issues.

Face the State reports that Markey’s office is citing “’security concerns’ before setting any firm plans.’” That may explain why 4thCD residents don’t have any firm dates to meet with their congresswoman.  There is no question that No CO residents have been loud and clear about “hands off my health care,” and that Markey will face tough questions on the issue.

A note about press coverage on Markey and the 4th CD (and politics in general).  For good reporting, check out Coloradoan editor Bob Moore’s blog.  He does a thorough job with his research, is unafraid to admit when he has made a mistake and gets criticism and praise from all sides.  Agree or disagree, his blog is worth reading.

For the second time in as many weeks, opponents of ObamaCare rallied in Fort Collins.  The Loveland 9-12 Project and Tea Party of Northern Colorado organized the protest that saw some more 400 attendees according to the Coloradoan.   That’s an incredible number of people for a protest on a Wednesday afternoon that was organized in just a few days.

The rallies are meant as a very strong message to freshman Democrat Congresswoman Betsy Markey, who I already think is going to have a difficult time getting re-elected due to her horrific vote on the Waxman-Markey bill (a.k.a. Cap and Trade).

What’s funny is how the left is potraying these grassroots protest.  Michael Huttner of ProgressNow, in a press release available on Face the State, called the rally “about as grassroots as Kim Jong Il’s last birthday party.”  I give him credit for being humorous, but he’s also arrogant and misinformed.   A warning to the arrogant Left, you ridicule this movement at your own peril.  The Left, with all its money and power, has become the establishment, and now they must protect their turf.  They underestimate the passion and organization of the limited government movement.

Check out listener and photographer Jerry Long’s photos of the rally.  You’ll see men and women, old and young.  This is “hands off my health care No CO style.”

BTW — I was in Denver for the Hands Off My Health Care rally at the Capitol.  About 500 to 600 people attended.

The horrific piece of legislation known as “Cap and Trade” is also referred to as the Waxman-Markey bill, named for its sponsors Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-California) and Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts).   Despite a strong majority in the House, the bill narrowly passed with only a seven vote margin on Friday, June 26.  Forty-four House Democrats opposed the legislation including Colorado’s 3rd CD Representative John Salazar.

Congresswoman Betsy Markey voted yes.  Markey gave her reasons  during an interview on my show last week citing “green jobs” and protections for agriculture.  One thing she didn’t cite, a $2000 campaign contribution from Waxman on Thursday, June 25, the day before her yes vote on his legislation.  She also received $2000 from Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina), House Whip, on June 24.

As I have done for the previous four years, my Independence Day started  with a  broadcast of the Greeley Stampede Independence Day Parade.    I do this each year with  George Gray from AM Colorado on News Talk 1310 KFKA.  As usual, I have a couple of observations about the parade.

First, it’s boring.  There are very few “floats.”  Most are entries that include people riding in an classic car or a truck pulling a flat bed trailer full of people or people walking with a banner.  That’s it.  It’s tough to call a boring parade.  It’s even harder to make it sound exciting for listeners.

The parade participants can’t throw candy or give out literature.  It’s one dimensional with almost no interaction between parade participants and the audience.  Stop with the nannyism.  The Stampede needs to bring back the fun.  Bring back candy and water gun fights. 

The other observation involves our Congresswoman Betsy Markey.  First, her carbon footprint for July 4th was much larger than mine because I rode my bike while she rode in a very cool but not very eco-friendly corvette.  Also, when she went by there was awkward silence.  No booing. No cheering.  Nothing.  The street sweepers got more reaction.   I don’t know how she did along the rest of the parade route but when she passed my position in front of Cache Bank and Trust, she got  no response what so ever.   It seems that she has not connected with Weld County.

Markey has to win Weld County to win re-election in 2010.  She beat incumbent Republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave in Weld County by a margin of 53-47 percent but a look at the vote totals tells an interesting story.  Weld County didn’t suddenly shift to the left. 

According to the Denver Post,  in Weld County Markey received 44,790 votes to Musgrave’s 39,056.  Obama and Udall both got more votes than Markey (46,644 and 44,948 respectively) but lost the county.  John McCain received 55,913 votes.  Do the math.  That means 16,857 McCain voters did not vote for Musgrave and 11,123 didn’t vote for Markey.  If the next GOP contender wins those nearly 17,000 votes back and makes a slightly better showing in Larimer County where Markey got almost 61 percent of the vote, then the GOP candidate can win.  The other counties in the 4th CD all favored Musgrave by large percentages, and I don’t see that changing.  I realize this sounds like a very big “if” but from someone who lives in the 4th CD, it’s really not.

Congressional Quarterly  reports that Markey votes with her party a mere 92 percent of the time and with the President 88 percent.  I guess that is supposed to indicate Markey’s “independent” streak.  Problem is she votes with her party and Obama  when it’s important to them despite the wishes of her constiuents.  Markey’s yes vote on cap and trade proves that.

Congresswoman Betsy Markey told KUSA’s  Adam Schrager that she read the cap and trade bill.  In fact her approach to any legislation is to “read the bill. I talk to my staff.  I talk to people on the committee.  And then I go out and talk to my constiuents and hear what they have to say.”   The final version ended up being 1428 pages long with some 276,000 words.   At an average rate of 250 words per minute, it would have taken her 18 hours to read the cap and trade bill assuming she did nothing else — not sleep, not eat, and took it with her to the bathroom.

Color me skeptical.  Americans for Tax Reform reports that not one member of the House of Representatives read the whole bill. 

If she didn’t read the bill (even though she says she did), this wouldn’t be the first time she hasn’t read a piece of very expensive legislation before voting yes.  Last February, Markey confirmed to me in an interview available at Audio on Demand on News Talk 1310 that she didn’t read the stimulus bill.  Furthermore, she wasn’t concerned about approving an $800 billion that she didn’t read completely.  She also didn’t seem bothered that President Barak Obama broke a campaign pledge to be more transparent and allow for five days worth of public comment before signing legislation.

But assuming that Congresswoman Markey likes to read lengthy pieces of fiction, I hope she’ll pick a better one next time.   I would be happy to lend her my copy of  Atlas Shrugged.