From Coloradoan editor Bob Moore’s blog:

The first debate among Northern Colorado’s four congressional candidates is coming up Feb. 4, and we’re asking voters to submit some of the questions.

The debate will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at Windsor High School. The public is welcome to attend but if you can’t make it, the debate will be livestreamed on coloradoan.com and 9News.com.

Is there a question you’d like to see asked in the debate? If so, e-mail it to me at bmoore@coloradoan.com by Tuesday. I’ll forward the questions to Adam Schrager at 9 News, who will be the moderator of the debate.

We have just a couple of guidelines for the questions. Phrase the question so it can be asked of all four candidates, and include your name and hometown in the e-mail. We want to give proper credit to questions submitted by voters.

The four candidates appearing at the debate are Loveland businessman Dean Madere, University of Colorado Regent Tom Lucero, former Fort Collins City Council memberDiggs Brown and state Rep. Cory Gardner.

Also, KFKA will be airing the debate live. 

Not really.  My son plays varsity baseball for the University Bulldogs in arguably the most difficult league — the Patriot League in Northern Colorado.  I am no fan of the Eaton Fightin’ Reds because they win all the time.  They are like the New York Yankees. But I’ll be darned if I am going to let a bunch of yahoos at the state capitol try to destroy legislatively a tradition, a culture, an icon of Northern Colorado. 

Typically, I’d simply laugh off SB 107 “Concerning the Use of American Indian Mascots By Public High Schools.”  But this ridiculous bill is dangerous.  It intends to legislate political correctness by requiring any public high school or charter school that

uses an American Indian mascot to either cease using the American Indian mascot or obtain approval for the continued use of the American Indian mascot or another American Indian mascot from the Colorado commission of Indian affairs…

If a public school doesn’t comply, the state will fine the school district $1000 each month.  The money goes into the state education fund.

The bill’s primary sponsor in the Senate is Suzanne Williams, who claims to be one quarter Comanche. Williams told the Denver Post  that 

she’s concerned with American Indian mascots that are caricatures — ‘with a funny nose or something’ — and wants communities to have a ‘healthy dialogue about their heritage.

What Williams and the other misguided legislators sponsoring this bill (see list below) don’t know is that the Fightin’ Reds mascot, described as “an Indian with a misshapen nose, eagle feather and loincloth” is a symbol of pride and instills fear in the hearts of their opponents.  Yes Eaton is that good.

The legislators sponsoring this legislation should be ashamed of themselves.  First, the state faces much more pressing issues such as how to close a billion dollar budget shortfall.  State Senator Scott Renfroe, a former Eaton School Board member and an Eaton Red himself, explained ”It’s such an overreach in a year when we are faced with budget challenges.”

This bill is a classic example of why legislators should not be granted five bill titles.  It’s a waste of time.  Legislators look ridiculous spending time arguing high school mascots when our state unemployment rate just increased six-tenths of one percent to 7.5 percent. 

Second, legislating morality and political correctness are non-starters and divisive.  Third, the school district mascot is something the Eaton community should decide.  SB 107 abuses local control. 

My suspicion is that this ridiculous piece of legislation at least will pass out of the Senate Education committee, where it has been assigned, because four of the Senate sponsors are members of the committee.

As long as legislators threaten one of our own in Northern Colorado, I will be a Fightin’ Red. Consider joining me or join one of the several other rural Colorado high schools – Yuma, Lamar, Montrose — caught up in Denver’s moral righteousness.

But come baseball season, I hope my Bulldogs rip the Reds to pieces!  Go Bulldogs!

Sponsors of SB 107 and their contact information:

Senator Bob Bacon, 303-866-4841, bob.bacon.senate@state.co.us

Senator Rollie Heath, 303-866-4872, rollie.heath.senate@state.co.us

Senator Nancy Spence, 303-866-4883, nancyspence@qwest.net

Senator Pat Steadman, 303-866-4861, sen.steadman@comcast.net

Senator Abel Tapia, 303-866-4878, abel.tapia.senate@state.co.us

Senator Suzanne Williams, 303-866-3432, suzanne.williams.senate@state.co.us

Representative Mike Merrifield, 303-866-2932, michael.merrifield.house@state.co.us

Representative Su Ryden, 303-866-2942, su.ryden.house@state.co.us

Representative Sue Schafer, 303-866-5522, sue.schafer.house@state.co.us

Representative Judy Solano, 303-866-2918, judy.solano.house@state.co.us

Representative Nancy Todd, 303-866-2919, nancy.todd.house@state.co.us

My friend and fellow blogger Randy Ketner, a.k.a.  Night Twister, did an extensive (and very good) analysis of Colorado’s political landscape for 2010.   Check it out at RedState.com.  For an analysis of Colorado’s state house and state senate visit my friend Ben DeGrow at Mount Virtus.  Both are must reads!

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.

The Joint Budget Committee, which is responsible for drafting the infamous “long bill” or appropriations bill, has a new member.  The Denver Post reports that staunch TABOR supporter and principled fiscal conservative Kent Lambert, representative from Colorado Springs, replaces TABOR critic Don Marostica.  

The Colorado Union of Taxpayers awarded Lambert a 100 percent rating for the 2009 legislative session, making him the highest rated Colorado House member and a great friend to taxpayers.  In comparison, Marostica consistently has been one of the lowest scoring Republicans in the House.

Two things about House Minority Leader Mike May’s pick:  First, Northern Colorado will no longer have an elected official on the JBC for the first time in a long time.  Both Senator Steve Johnson and Representative Dale Hall  preceeded Marostica on the JBC.  Second, the JBC’s long standing tradition of consensus on the long bill is in jeopardy.  My guess is that Representative Lambert won’t tow the JBC line just because it’s tradition to do so.

The JBC may be fun to watch this year!

During testimony in front of the Long Term Fiscal Stability Commission on which I sit, one gentleman predicted that July 2009 may mark the end of the “Great Recession“.  A headline in the Denver Post Sunday Business section (print edition) screams: “Optimism taking hold”…

…unless you are in Northern Colorado and have even as much as a dozen degrees of separation between you and New Frontier Bank.   According to the Greeley Tribune:

Iron Mountain is now the second domino to fall after the closure of New Frontier Bank in April, which many say artificially propped up Greeley’s economy with its liberal lending practices.

Iron Mountain, for example, owed about $6.75 million to New Frontier, now being liquidated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

‘What I’m hearing is that we’re not through the full ramifications of the New Frontier closure yet,’ said Larry Burkhardt, president of Upstate Colorado Economic Development. ‘I don’t know what else to anticipate, but I keep hearing that we’re going to see more consequences of that bank failure down the road.’

We are all hearing the same thing.  Last May I posted the following on my blog:

A land developer told me that the impending implosion of the commercial real estate market will make the recent devaluation in the residential market look like a “day at Disneyland.”

What I didn’t report (but maybe should have), is that the same land developer followed up that statement with a prediction that Iron Mountain Autoplex and John Chamberlain would be the first to go.  Even if it is someone else’s opinion, I admit to being a bit leery of naming specific businesses that may be in serious financial trouble without substantial financial data to back up the claim. Maybe it was wishful thinking — hoping it would not happen.

Not a week goes by that I don’t hear from a business owner worried about losing his or her livelihood.  That’s one of the things I hate about the bailouts.  Washington D.C. decides winners and losers, and No CO has been tagged with loser while having to pay for the bailouts of the winners.  No bailouts for small business nor community banks.  Note holders await the sale of their loans and hope the new buyers will work with them.   Some, formerly strung along by the FDIC, are now being strung along by the SBA (Small Business Administration).

Add the ugliness of NFB to Weld County’s unemployment rate of 8.6%, third highest in Colorado and a full percentage point above the state average, and optimism may be a little harder to find around here.

Funny note: In an earlier post, I predicted that the collapse of NFB would be the biggest issue of the 2010 election cycle.  I may be wrong.  I underestimated the passion of opposition to Obama Care.

Health care rally participants have been described as swastika-carrying, well-dressed, astroturf mobs.  You decide for yourself.  Check out Ari Armstrong’s (FreeColorado.com) video for the Longmont rally and Jerry Long’s photos from the Greeley rally.

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.

It was so cold at the Greeley Independence Stampede on Saturday night, July 4, 2009, that a woman ferrying guests about in a golf cart was forced to wear earmuffs to fend off the chill.   After a rain storm delayed the start of the Bucky Covington/Blake Shelton concert, the temperature dropped.  I was wrapped up in a sweatshirt and two coats.

The cold, damp weather isn’t unique to Northern Colorado.  According to the National Weather Service, Central Park in New York City suffered through one of the coldest, wettest Junes in history.  Some interesting Central Park June weather facts:

THIS JUNE IS TIED FOR THE 8TH COOLEST ON RECORD. THE AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE WAS 67.5…3.7 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL…WHICH ALSO
OCCURRED IN 1897.

CENTRAL PARK HAS NOT HIT 85 DEGREES IN THE MONTH OF JUNE THIS YEAR.
THE LAST TIME THIS OCCURRED WAS BACK IN 1916. THIS HAS ONLY OCCURRED
2 OTHER TIMES…1903 AND 1886.

The latest global averaged satellite temperature shows that Al Gore’s “fever” diagnosis for planet earth is just plain wrong! According to Climate Depot, “the Earth has cooled .74°F since former Vice President Al Gore released “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2006.”  And it’s part of an 8 year trend.  It seems the truth is inconvenient for the Goracle.

UPDATE:  Al Gore is  insane — bats in the belfry!  Today the London Times Online reports that Al Gore, the high priest of global warming hysteria, likens his fight over global warming to the free world’s battle against Nazis — genocidal, facist Nazis.

The mystery is over.  Congresswoman Betsy Markey paid back her environmental leftist supporters such as the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund voting yes on the country’s largest tax increase in history.  The massive cap and tax global warming bill rammed through by Speaker Pelosi will cost the average 4th CD family of four nearly $4000. 

Markey’s spokesman Ben Marter told the Denver Post that the Congresswoman would do what was right for the 4th CD.  She’s got some explaining to do.