Congresswoman Betsy Markey has time to play  UPS union member and get some TV face time:

But she has no time to answer constituent questions or questions from me.  Questions that I have posed to Markey’s office that have gone unanswered:

• Before the Cap and Trade vote I sent several emails asking which way she was voting. Neither she nor her office ever responded, but apparently she did speak with Denver Post columnist Susan Greene.
• After her yes vote on ObamaCare, I asked her to come on my show to explain her vote.  Her spokesperson Ben Marter responded once but never with any available times for an interview.
• Immediately after Mexican President Calderon’s address to Congress I sent an email to Marter asking if Congresswoman Markey stood and applauded when Calderon criticized the new Arizona law on illegal immigration.  I also asked if she supported his characterization of Mexico’s violent crime being traced to the US and the sunset of the “assault weapons ban.”
• On Saturday, I sent an email asking her position on legislation requiring states to allow collective bargaining for first responders, especially considering that both Fort Collins and Weld County voters have rejected such measures.

Markey delivers for UPS but not answers for voters.  Thanks to WhoSaidYouSaid for keeping an eye on Betsy Markey.

I am a proud graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism but I am disgusted at the current state of my chosen major. Nothing should be more appalling to any journalist, or any U.S. citizen for that matter, then the prospect of more government involvement in the news business.

Consider the Federal Trade Commission’s “Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism.” A government agency suggesting the “reinvention” of news should frighten everyone. Freedom of the press is under attack.  Under the false premise of wanting to help journalism find a sustainable business model, the FTC actually wants more control over news gathering and dissemination including:

• industry “licensing” with “government’s help and support”
• “creation of government fostered pilot programs” to explore new business models
• a journalism division of Americorps
• more funding for public broadcasting
• grants to universities for “investigative journalism”

One big question comes to mind.  When government is controls the funding for journalism, who will be left to investigate government? What a disappointment we must be to our Founders.

There is no way to overreact to this “Discussion Draft.” As someone with a deep love for the First Amendment, I can only hope that the citizenry will muscle some collective outrage and bring a halt to the nationalization of information.

Colorado Democrat State Party Chair Pat Waak is simply glowing over the new jobs report that caused the stock market to tank today.  In the press release posted below, Waak claims that hundreds of thousands of mothers and fathers “here in Colorado and across the county were able to return to the workplace after a period of unemployment.”

Perhaps she missed the memo that most of the 431,000 jobs created were temporary Census Bureau jobs. But everyone else read it.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 323 points, suffering its third largest decline this year and closing below 10,000. And at 9.7 percent, the unemployment rate is still well above the stimulus projected rate of 8 percent. Chances are it will go up again once the census jobs are complete.

She goes on to urge Republicans to join Democrats as they continue to expand government payrolls at the expense of the private sector. I doubt she will get many takers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:

Grace Lopez Ramirez
(303) 623-4762 x112 Office
(303) 877-8173 Cell
glramirez@coloradodems.org

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Waak’s Statement on May Job Numbers

DENVER — Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the May jobs report.  In that report, the Bureau announced that 431,000 jobs were created last month, including 41,000 private-sector jobs.  As a result of that job creation, the unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent.  As those numbers illustrate, national job growth is now a continuing trend, stemming in large part from bold Administration actions including the Recovery Act, tax credits for working Americans, extended unemployment benefits, and hiring incentives.  Those actions are putting money into the pockets of middle-class Americans and fueling economic recovery and job growth.  Over the next several weeks and months, President Obama and Democrats in Congress will seek to build on those efforts with additional recovery legislation, including by extending unemployment benefits for several more months, providing critical assistance to states, and expanding job-creating tax credits.

In response to the news on May’s jobs numbers, Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak issued the following statement:

“Today’s job numbers tell the story of the good news that echoed last month through hundreds of thousands of American households as mothers and fathers here in Colorado and across the country were able to return to the workplace after a period of unemployment.  Although our national unemployment rate remains far too high, we are beginning to emerge from the catastrophic recession of the last two years.  Even as we do, President Obama and Democrats remain committed to doing everything possible to promote continued economic growth and job creation.

“It is simply not possible to replace the 8 million jobs lost in the economic fall-out of the recession overnight.  However, today’s numbers illustrate that our country is now moving in the right direction, in large part due to the decisive actions taken by President Obama and Democrats in Congress to promote economic recovery.  We have come a long way from one year ago, and our economy continues to improve.  Gov. Ritter is taking aggressive steps to help Colorado regain economic health and restore economic growth and opportunity throughout Colorado. Companies continue to relocate to and expand in Colorado.

“In the coming weeks and months, Democrats in Washington will work to solidify that improvement.  I hope that Republicans in Congress can finally be counted on to put away their destructive economic policies of the past and join with Democrats in cementing positive growth.”

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A little noticed article in the Fort Collins Coloradoan raises some big questions.  The newspaper reports that bills introduced into both the House and Senate would provide tax cuts for small breweries such as the Fort Collins Brewery and New Belgium Brewing Company.  The purpose of both pieces of legislation is too make the breweries more competitive with larger breweries and to create jobs:

Paul Gatza, director of the Boulder-based Brewers Association, said research conducted at Harvard indicates that the bill would create 2,700 jobs in the first 12 to 18 months and an additional 375 for the next four years for the nation’s breweries.

‘A company the size of New Belgium could save around 12 percent on its annual federal excise bill every year,’ Gatza said. ‘For everyone else in the Fort Collins region, it would mean a 50 percent cut on federal excise tax.’

Congresswoman Betsy Markey, whose district includes both the Fort Collins Brewery and New Belgium Brewing Company , is a co-sponsor of the House bill.

Now for the rest of the story…

Does Markey’s support for tax cuts signal a change in economic and political philosophy?  Could the woman who voted yes on Cap and Trade and ObamaCare, two enormous tax increases, suddenly realize that tax cuts actually spur economic activity and create jobs? Color me skeptical.

Or could her support for the tax cuts be for a different purpose?  According to the Federal Election Commission, New Belgium founder Jeff Lebesch and CEO Kim Jordan donated $4800 each to her campaign. I’ll let you decide, but at least now you know the rest of the story.

In video captured by Who Said You Said, Congresswoman Betsy Markey asks “since when did hope and change become a bad thing?”

I’ll answer that. When the national debt exploded and now is over $13 trillion, more than $42,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. And if they have the nerve to be taxpayers, then their share of the debt is more than $117,000. Throw in ObamaCare, “stimulus,” nearly 10 percent unemployment, cash for clunkers, card check,  cap and tax and other reckless spending, and I can honestly say that under this Congress and the Obama administration, hope and change are horrible things.

Liberal Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Democrat candidate for Governor, claims a Republican Governors Association ad stating Denver has lost 39,000 jobs under his tenure is costing the state more jobs because the ad didn’t praise him. Seriously.  The Denver Business Journal reports:

The Denver mayor said the ads did not note that Denver had done better in retaining jobs than many other large cities in 2009. And he added that they are causing companies considering relocating to Colorado to think twice when they hear that Denver has lost 39,000 jobs, as the ads claim.

Hickenlooper, who is trailing GOP front runner Scott McInnis in the latest Rasmussen poll, then employed the universal mom-ism — “If you can’t say something nice about someone then don’t say anything”:

Hickenlooper urged that the gubernatorial campaign be one free of negative ads, saying that doing so will convince companies that they want to come to a state like that and will become “its own form of economic development.”

I guess in Hick’s world, the RGA ad would have said: Yeah we lost jobs but, hey, we aren’t Detroit.

Cash-strapped Colorado school districts have ponied up nearly $245,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund a class action lawsuit to sue taxpayers for more money for K-12 education according to a recent Face the State article.

The Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB) and the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE) are championing the suit, Lobato v. Colorado. In January of this year a letter signed by both organizations (and linked to on Face the State) urged every school district to donate $1 per student to pay for legal expenses.

Greeley Evans School District 6, which suffered an electoral shellacking last November when it asked voters for an enormous mill levy override, acquiesced and gave $17,856 to the cause of demanding more from taxpayers.

The letter also reveals the true intent of the lawsuit: to get rid of the popular Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).  Talking points that accompanied the letter stated:

…this lawsuit is a powerful lever to move forward fixing the constitutional restrictions that prevent Colorado from adequately funding its public schools. This will be the catalyst for funding reform that has been needed for years.

“Constitutional restrictions” is a code phrase for TABOR.  What the education/industrial complex and those who make their living off it find most annoying is having to ask taxpayers for more money. They would rather just lobby the legislature, where they enjoy a lot of influence, to raise taxes.

Learn more on Monday, when Brad Jones, managing editor of Face the State joins me at 9:30 am on the Amy Oliver Show on News Talk 1310 KFKA.

Governor Bill Ritter spent more than $200,000 on TV, photographs and videos of himself, an Associated Press investigation revealed.   According to AP, “taxpayers paid that amount for photos of the Democratic governor signing bills and attending a lavish production for the state film commission.”

Evan Dreyer, the Governor’s spokesman, says Ritter is simply “meeting increased demand” from social networking sites such as facebook and twitter as well as Web sites that are demanding better quality.  As a result:

Ritter’s official state Web page features 31 pages of photos of the governor, and he invites people to download them as well as videos from his galleries. Some were taken by state employees, while others were paid for by taxpayers. Among them: A video of Ritter at the National Western Stock Show that cost $375, and $200 in taxpayer-paid photos of Ritter signing a job creation bill in May.

Is this expenditure going to bankrupt the state? No, but as my boss at the Independence Institute Jon Caldara said, “this shows an arrogance on Ritter’s part that it’s OK to do self-promotion at taxpayer expense.”

It’s been a while since I’ve written about  the economic “fiasco” we’ve come to know as New Frontier Bank.  The Denver Post published a lengthy, two-part investigative piece on the billion dollar failed bank.  (Part 1 and Part 2)

The Post investigation found:

• With government inspections looming, the bank’s loan officers rewrote terms of delinquent loans, disguising steady asset deterioration, according to a former board member and records.

• New Frontier Bank executives staved off an effort by the bank’s federal regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., to ban one of its high-performing loan officers accused of fraud at a previous bank. Later, that officer was convicted of theft for stealing deposits at New Frontier.

• The bank’s board authorized a $400,000 payment to one of its members whose used-car business was in financial trouble, sources said, despite a state law barring preferential treatment for bank insiders.

• After regulators told New Frontier in 2008 it needed to raise cash, bankers issued loans to at least a dozen borrowers who in turn agreed to buy stock in the bank. Such transactions can be illegal if coercion is proved.

Perhaps most important is this line:  “A federal probe into potential fraud at New Frontier is underway by the Justice Department.”  This is good news.  Taxpayers, northern Colorado residents and small businesses would like to know if we are the only ones who will have to pay the price for Colorado’s largest bank failure.