Free Republic

A scene from the recent Colorado senate debate. The man reading from the resolution is Republican Bob Schaffer, the man standing to his left and looking uncomfortable is Democrat Mark Udall. Given the state of public opinion, I’m not sure how smart it is to remind voters that your opponent eventually came around to seeing the war as a mistake while you never did, but as a bit of political theater, I dig it. A lot.

<p>At the stroke of midnight July 8, the Denver Water Board closed the road over Dillon Dam in Summit County, Colorado, citing security concerns. The board’s decision, which was implemented without advance notice to local governments and citizens, has not been well-received. It has sparked protests by enraged residents and has even prompted officials from Summit County, three affected towns nearby and the local fire and rescue department to file suit in state district court in a bid to force Denver Water to reopen the road.</p>

Five members of the “Rainbow Family” — a loose-knit band of hippies that preaches love, tolerance and peace and is best known for its large gatherings every July — were arrested Tuesday night by Boulder County sheriff’s deputies after a violent brawl broke out at the group’s campsite near Ward. at a fight had broken out among a group of a dozen people camping out in the area of Ruby Gulch, located on state Forest Service property ... When deputies arrived, witnesses reported that one man, a Nederland resident aged 34 or 35, was hit in the back of the...

Standards aren’t about generating revenue. Motorcycle officers in Colorado Springs should each be writing a minimum of 11 tickets a day, and their counterparts in patrol cars should issue at least one... But these aren't quotas, Police Chief Richard Myers said. During an impromptu media briefing Friday, Myers described them as guidelines that help supervisors keep track of their officers' job performance ... Ticket quotas - feared and despised by drivers everywhere - demand that officers meet goals or face mandatory discipline, Myers told reporters. That's not the case here, he said. "Police officers are paid for by taxpayers, and...

This should be an easy year for Democrats. A record percentage of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction -- and after years of mostly Republican rule, that should help Democrats. Meanwhile, the media hype surrounding Democratic nominee-to-be Barack Obama is unprecedented and often unquestioning. National media have set him up as some sort of messiah. And after a pitched primary battle in which he emerged victorious, you would think Obama would appear unbeatable by now. By contrast, after an anti-climactic fizzle of a Republican primary, John McCain has sort of stumbled out of the gate for...

Hundreds of Denver's homeless could be cooling their heels in a movie theater or museum while the Democratic National Convention is in town next month. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless plans to get 500 movie tickets as well as passes to the Denver Zoo, Denver Museum of Nature and Science and other cultural facilities for the people it helps. Many day shelters will have expanded hours during the convention, and big screen TVs are being donated to some shelters so patrons can watch convention goings-on without being caught up in the mayhem. A two-day voter registration drive is also...

Hundreds of Denver's homeless could be cooling their heels in a movie theater or museum while the Democratic National Convention is in town next month. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless plans to get 500 movie tickets as well as passes to the Denver Zoo, Denver Museum of Nature and Science and other cultural facilities for the people it helps.

At least 900 officers are being brought into Denver to help at next month's Democratic National Convention. Suburban Aurora will send the largest contingent, 300 police officers, or half the force. The Wyoming National Guard will send 22 members who are trained to detect nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. At least 582 officers have been committed from Lakewood, Littleton, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Englewood, Jefferson County, Arapahoe County and Adams County. More are expected from Douglas County, Brighton, Broomfield and Arvada. Some will go on routine patrols with Denver police to free up the city's officers for convention work. Denver police...

On Election Day in November, voters in Colorado will be asked to clarify when human life begins. According to the Washington Post, the Human Life Amendment, also known as the "personhood" amendment, states that the words "person" or "persons" in the state constitution should "include any human being from the moment of fertilization," thus providing fertilized eggs with the constitutional right to life enjoyed by all humans. The mere presence of that question on the ballot could have a decisive effect on the outcome of the presidential election in Colorado by spurring pro-life voters to turn out in large enough...

In the Rockies today, a lawsuit is filed to stop energy leasing on Colorado's Roan Plateau, the public gets more time to weigh in on a change in national parks' gun policy, and the BLM rounds up hundreds of horses in Nevada. Ten environmental groups have sued the Bureau of Land Management to keep energy leases on Colorado's Roan Plateau from being auctioned off on Aug. 14. The leases are opposed by hunters and anglers who said wells present a danger to the plateau's wildlife habitat.Groups sue to stop energy leases on Colorado plateauA proposal to change gun policy in...

Denver businesses stiffed by DNC By ELIZABETH AGUILERA - THE DENVER POST | 7/13/08 8:09 PM EST As soon as Charlotte Kulscar heard the Democratic National Committee named Denver its 2008 convention site, she began researching how to get a piece of the estimated $160 million economic impact for her print shop. She thought she had a good shot. L&M Pressworks already does printing for the city, the state and the Downtown Denver Partnership. She filled out the application for the DNC Vendor Directory and was sure to include the shop's status as female- owned and green-certified. Yet so far,...

Members of Ya Es Hora Coalition, We Are America Alliance Coalition of Colorado, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, and Latina Initiative last week held a news conference to mark the launch of an effort to help more immigrants apply for citizenship and become a part of the civic process. This year, volunteers hope to register 500,000 new Latino, Asian and immigrant voters in 13 states as well as encourage 1 million registered voters to go to the polls, said Rachel Hamrick with We Are America Alliance.

Million-dollar homes, offices, show up on rolls. The foreclosure tsunami is starting to sweep over some of Denver's most exclusive neighborhoods. Homes priced at $1 million or more in places like Cherry Hills, Cherry Creek Country Club and LoDo are popping up more frequently on foreclosure rolls. And it's not just homes. Senior centers, office buildings and even churches have been forced to deal with the threat of losing their million- dollar real estate to the lenders, forcing them to scramble to escape foreclosure auctions. For example, the biggest health club in the metro area, the Lakeshore Athletic Club -...

More than two million angry Democrats are rejecting Sen. Barack Obama as the likely Democratic nominee for the presidency this year, according to a new protest organization. "I hate to use this word but it's fascist, and that's the approach they're taking to silence any Hillary Clinton supporters," Will Bower, co-founder of PUMA/Just Say No Deal, an exploding coalition of voters who say they have raised $10 million in just days to pay down Clinton's campaign debt. "Barack Obama wants to give his acceptance speech in a stadium because he intends to minimize any pro-Hillary supporter dissent. It's not because...

Denver Last January, a "confidential" memo from a Democratic political consultant outlined an ambitious scheme for spending $11.7 million in Colorado this year to crush Republicans. The money would come from rich liberal donors in the state and would be spent primarily on defeating Senate candidate Bob Schaffer ($5.1 million) and Representative Marilyn Musgrave ($2.6 million), who are loathed by liberals for sponsoring a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The overarching aim: Lock in Democratic control of Colorado for years to come. Leaked memos have a way of revealing who's on top and who's not in politics and...

Obama's Liberal Shock Troops By JOHN FUND July 12, 2008 While he is a skilled candidate, Barack Obama's ability to surprise, stun and sweep over the vaunted Clinton Machine to capture the Democratic nomination was rooted in his background as a community organizer. He's now turning those skills to the general election. But liberals aren't just on the march on the presidential level. This year, liberal activists are spending parts of the fortunes of their wealthy donors to transform politics at the state and local level. In 2005, billionaire investor George Soros convened a group of 70 super-rich liberal donors...

You might want to sit down. The fate of the universe depends on Denver voters approving a plan to welcome extraterrestrials on a May 2009 ballot. If Denver cracks open the door for alien beings, the rest of the world will follow, UFO expert Steven Greer... "If the people will lead, the politicians will have to follow,"... He rallied support for a ballot initiative to form a Denver Extraterrestrial Commission Among Greer's many strong assertions: President Eisenhower met with aliens in 1954 and hoped to tell the world, but ... The aliens at Roswell didn't crash; they were zapped by...

Barack Obama is a supremely arrogant man, and he displayed that arrogance in two separate episodes. First, Obama decided to move his acceptance speech from the Pepsi Center in Denver to the 76,000 seat Invesco Stadium. Like the 'create myself a new presidential shield' embarrassment, this story shows the level of Obama's narcissism. His only consideration seems to be gratifying his own ego. Never mind the fact that the DNC is already cash-strapped for this convention, or the fact that Denver police and the Secret Service now have relatively little time to prepare a comprehensive security plan. Just ignore minor...

BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) - New DNA tests have definitively cleared the parents of U.S. child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey of her unsolved murder almost 12 years ago, prosecutors said on Wednesday. In a statement seeking to silence suspicions surrounding relatives of the slain 6-year-old, prosecutors in the U.S. said new testing techniques on male DNA found on JonBenet's clothes did not match any family members. "This new scientific evidence convinces us that it is appropriate ... to state that we do not consider your immediate family, including you, your wife Patsy, and your son Burke, to be under any suspicion...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced it has removed the Preble's meadow jumping mouse populations in Wyoming from protection under the Endangered Species Act. The service said it is also amended the listing for Preble's to indicate the subspecies remains threatened in the Colorado portion of its range. "For Colorado basically nothing changes," A new management plant with a new critical habitat map will be developed by 2010... The determination is based on a better understanding of the distribution of and threats to Preble's meadow jumping mouse populations in Wyoming and Colorado

DA clears Ramsey family By The Denver Post Article Last Updated: 07/09/2008 01:44:05 PM MDT The Boulder District Attorney's Office announced today that new DNA evidence discovered in the clothing worn by JonBenet Ramsey identifies "the perpetrator of the homicide" and excludes all members of the murdered girl's family. District Attorney Mary Lacy said in a letter posted on the DA's website and first reported by Paula Woodward of 9News that the Ramsey family "be treated only as victims," and she apologized to them. Six-year-old JonBenét was discovered Dec. 26, 1996, with a garrote around her neck in the basement...

Barack Obama's campaign changed the rules of a highly publicized fundraiser Tuesday, after gambling regulators said the contest — a chance at one of 10 trips to the Democratic National Convention — was an illegal lottery. "We are happy to have resolved this issue working closely with state officials," said Nick Kimball, spokesman for the Obama campaign ... A spokesman for the Colorado Secretary of State said Democrats would have to get a license if they were conducting "a standard raffle where they're buying tickets" in order to win. But under the new rules, supporters don't have to donate money...

A 60-year-old librarian received a trespassing ticket Monday after a liberal group's protest outside John McCain's town-hall meeting. Kreck — a former Denver Post reporter who works part time as a librarian for an education think tank — said she was removed as she quizzed a police officer about whether he could deny her free-speech rights "on city property" by taking away her sign, while McCain supporters wore buttons inside. Jenny Schiavone, a spokeswoman for the performing arts center, said the venue is city-owned rental property but is not legally defined as public property. Detective John White, a spokesman for...

Chowdhury Got Angry When Garage Door Didn't Open Quickly. A state legislative candidate from Jefferson County accused of slapping and choking his 16-year-old daughter pleaded guilty Tuesday to third-degree assault. Vince Chowdhury, 48, got angry when his wife and daughter didn't open the garage door quickly enough when he honked his car horn in their driveway on June 17, according to an arrest affidavit. The document said Chowdhury, a Jefferson County school board member, sat in the driveway several minutes honking his horn. His wife and daughter apologized for making him wait but he thought the apology insincere so he...

The idea of a Black National Anthem is a multiculturalist paradigm. A black freedom song, a black hymnal, songs that gave African slaves on American soil some comfort and hope in the midst of their suffering, and, for that matter, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” – these all fit perfectly into an American national identity. Indeed, all Americans should know such songs. But a Black National Anthem, when substituted for the National Anthem, means that there are two nations on American soil, a black one and an American one.

I see that Gov. Bill Ritter wants us to unplug our computers and other electronic devices before leaving the house in the morning - not just turn them off but unplug them from the wall - in order to ease our transition into the New Energy Economy. In an ad now playing on local TV, Ritter briskly unplugs a laptop from the wall shortly before hopping onto a bicycle, in suit and tie no less, to pedal off to another day of executive decision-making.

Last week in Denver, almost all the values of the post-1960s Left were exhibited in one act. It happened on the Denver mayor's most important day -- the one in which he was to deliver his annual State of the City Address. The day was to begin with the singing of the National Anthem by the black jazz singer Rene Marie. But Ms. Marie had, by her own admission, long had other plans. Instead of the National Anthem, she sang "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," a song written in 1899 and often referred to today as the Black National Anthem....

DENVER -- A man who allegedly shot and killed a small dog told police that the terrier shot itself while playing with his pistol. Ryan Hayes was arrested last week on charges of possessing a weapon while under the influence, animal cruelty and reckless endangerment. Lakewood police said Hayes, 49, shot the Jack Russell mix in the head. Marlys Duggan told the Denver Post she is the owner of the dog, called Patches, and she was visiting Hayes when the dog was shot. He is "my across-the-street neighbor. I usually go over three or four times a week to visit,"...

Exactly as some legal experts predicted, Boulder's courts saw a spike in claims of "adverse possession" filed by people apparently trying to beat the clock on changes to the controversial land law. Of the 25 active adverse-possession lawsuits in Boulder County -- where a person or company claims someone else's land after trespassing on it for at least 18 years -- 15 of those cases were filed in June Some of those cases were filed just hours before changes to the law went into effect last Tuesday, court records show. The changes, drafted by a bipartisan group of state legislators...

Greg Kolomitz, former campaign manager to Gov. Bill Ritter, has started a defense fund to pay his legal bills, and his wife has e-mailed friends alleging that Kolomitz has been "falsely accused" of mismanaging campaign and inaugural funds. The e-mail plea never mentions Ritter by name, but leaves no doubt about who the family thinks is responsible for the "false" accusations that led to an ongoing investigation of Kolomitz. "We have found ourselves in a legal battle with someone whom we believed to be our friend. In April, Ritter alleged that Kolomitz had wrongly used inaugural funds to pay off...

Do we really want these chuckleheads running our country? Some of the Democratic missteps started soon after planning for the event began. The Democratic National Convention Committee decided not to take cheap office space and instead rented top-quality offices in downtown Denver at $100,000 a month, only to need less than half the space, which it then filled with rental furniture at $50,000 a month. And in a costly misstep, the Denver host committee, early on, told corporate donors that their contributions were not tax-deductible, rather than to encourage donations by saying that the tax-exempt application was pending and expected...

Former President Bill Clinton called for Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe to step down immediately or form a power-sharing arrangement with his chief opponent. The former presidentcalled Mugabe "a puppet of the military establishment" and singled out a Washington Post story that exposed coercion, intimidation, beatings and profession killings by the ruling-party s militias. The crisis in Zimbabwe was the main focus of a public one-on-one interview tonight with Jane Wales, a former Clinton advisor and current Aspen Institute vice president of philanthropy and society, at the annual Aspen Ideas Festival.

Remember the optimist's creed, "If life gives you lemons, make them into lemonade"? Well, ConocoPhillips and the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels are trying to do one better in a new, $5 million research partnership: "If life gives you pond scum, turn it into alternative fuels. And while you're at it, fight global warming." OK, trying to cram two good ideas into one slogan may make it too long for bumper stickers. But it is a classic example of the creative thinking that promises to reshape Colorado's future while creating jobs in the new energy economy. Making fuels from...

A glam-metal rocker is bucking the Greeley Stampede, vowing to use the band's gig there Saturday to educate fans about "rodeo cruelty." "I had no idea that this gig included a rodeo," Poison drummer Rikki Rockett, an animal-rights crusader for 16 years, said in a statement. The 86-year-old Greeley tradition bills itself as the "World's Largest 4th of July Rodeo." "I am blown away that I missed the description of this show on our touring schedule," said the 46-year-old Rockett, whose real name is Richard Ream. "I have a huge problem with animal cruelty at rodeos," said the drummer, who...

Two commercials from Democratic congressional candidate Jared Polis paint him as a man of the people who will stand up to special interests. But ... the facts of Polis’ campaign do not exactly match up with the rhetoric in his commercials. "How can we reform health care when the politicians won't stand up to the lobbyists? ” However, Polis took at least $10,000 from members of large lobbying firms or people who identified themselves as lobbyists, Federal Election Commission records show. Another ad says: "Jared Polis will do things differently; he'll stand up to the oil companies ..." But Polis...

No more free pass for the Democrats. Join R68 and others as we march to end all illegal imperialist occupations in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Hawaii, North America, and others.............

A jazz singer shocked some Denver residents after replacing the words to the national anthem with those of the "Black National Anthem" during the annual State of the City address this week. Rene Marie was asked to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper delivered the annual address on Tuesday. Instead, she sang the lyrics of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" — a hymn commonly referred to as the "Black National Anthem" — to the tune of the national anthem, MyFOXColorado.com reported. "If anyone has got a right to be angry it's probably me," Hickenlooper told the station....

A good sign for the McCain camp from an absolutely essential constituency. It's not so much that these leaders can move thousands of votes, but to have them off the reservation and teeing up unhelpful quotes for the next four months would have been a huge problem for the GOP. Reports Michael Scherer: At a meeting Tuesday in Denver, about 100 conservative Christian leaders from around the country agreed to unite behind the candidacy of John McCain, a politician they have long distrusted, marking the latest in a string of movement that bodes well for McCain's general election prospects among...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Senator Barack Obama is issuing a call here today for more Americans to become involved in public service, imploring citizens of all ages to rally to the nation’s need at home and abroad. “I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States,” Mr. Obama will say in an address here on a college campus. “This will not be a call issued in one speech or one program – this will be a central cause of my presidency.”

JENA SIX "What makes an activist? One dictionary defines an activist as ‘an especially active advocate of a cause, especially a political cause.’ Some synonyms given for activism are ‘involvement’, ‘advocacy’, and ‘effecting change’. I became actively ‘involved’ with the concerns of the Jena Six, ‘advocating’ for a more just way for the authorities in Jena, Louisiana to deal with the fighting that had developed there as a result of white teens hanging three nooses from a schoolyard tree. Instead of talking about it and shaking my head – like I usually do - I wanted to DO SOMETHING. Instead...

An official from the aptly-named group By Any Means Necessary is quoted today in the Omaha World-Herald, on why her group is trying to disrupt the signature-gathering efforts of Ward Connerly, who is leading an effort in Nebraska (and Colorado and Arizona) to pass a ballot initiative that would ban preferences based on race, ethnicity, and sex: "The key to defeating the initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place. That's the only way we're going to win.” The Left, as you know, favors democracy, power to the people, and nondiscrimination, except when it doesn’t.

One of the most notable incidents from Tuesday's State of the City address occurred even before the mayor's speech began. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Rene Marie was introduced to sing the national anthem. But that's not what she sang. Martin actually sang the tune of the traditional national anthem with the lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It's a song some have called the National Black Anthem, the Negro National Anthem or the Black National Anthem. Once she finished performing, there was a moment of awkward silence and then the crowd gave her mild applause. Marie said she...

As Denver dignitaries gathered today for Mayor John Hickenlooper's State of the City address, City Council President Michael Hancock introduced singer Rene Marie to perform the national anthem. But that's not what she did. Instead, Marie performed the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," which is also known as the "Black National Anthem." When she finished, the proceedings moved forward, and few seemed to notice that the Star Spangled Banner was never performed. One who did notice was Councilman Charlie Brown, and he took to local talk radio Tuesday afternoon to blast the lack of the nation's anthem at the...

Life on the fringes of U.S. suburbia becomes untenable with rising gas costs ELIZABETH, Colorado: Suddenly, the economics of American suburban life are under assault as skyrocketing energy prices inflate the costs of reaching, heating and cooling homes on the outer edges of metropolitan areas. As the realization takes hold that rising energy prices are less a momentary blip than a restructuring with lasting consequences, the high cost of fuel is threatening to slow the decades-old migration away from cities, while exacerbating the housing downturn by diminishing the appeal of larger homes set far from urban jobs. [...] Some...

The fence around the public demonstration zone outside the Democratic National Convention will be chicken wire or chain link, authorities revealed in U.S. District Court today. That may allow protestors to be seen and heard by delegates going in and out of the Pepsi Center during the convention. But the American Civil Liberties Union and several advocacy groups have filed an amended complaint to their lawsuit against the U.S. Secret Service and the city and county of Denver that says protestors and demonstrators may have their First Amendment rights violated by security restrictions. The ACLU has said it wants to...

A 17-year-old plunged his car off the summit of Pikes Peak this afternoon, in authorities said appeared to be a suicide attempt. The teen's 1985 Nissan Maxima plunged more than 1,000 feet down the ravine strewn with boulders and skree. He pulled himself from the wreckage, but it took hours for local rescuers and military helicopters to make the daring rescue. "We've had rain, we've had snow, we've had lightning popping around us all day," Steve Sperry, spokesman for El Paso County Search and Rescue, said by cellphone shortly after the teen-ager was lifted from the mountain by a Chinook...

Longtime mountaineer Kent Beverly likes to say he has climbed nearly all of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, more commonly called “fourteeners,” “I try to encourage people to go other places than fourteeners,” he said. “There’s literally thousands of mountains in Colorado.” This time last year, Beverly had been out for weeks... who usually starts his climbing season on Memorial Day weekend. But that wasn’t in the cards this year. An 11-year high in snow smothered Colorado’s ranges last winter, leaving much of the snowpack yet to melt. “I haven’t really been out because I know there’s a lot of snow,” According...

Josh Raykin had never spent even a night away from his parents. That is, until Arapahoe County snatched the 8-year-old from his home after an abuse allegation that social workers dragged their feet investigating. The ordeal began while Josh was playing outside one day before dinner in April. A neighbor knocked on the door to tell his dad that police had come to take Josh away. The strawberry-blond kid with pale blue eyes was born in 1999 after Michael and Melanie Raykin tried for 15 years to conceive. Michael, a courier, and Melanie, a hairstylist, work extra hours to send...

Former Forestry Worker Recently Freed From Federal Prison DENVER -- Colorado prosecutors are asking for $44.5 million in restitution from a former forestry worker who admitted starting the state's worst wildfire, a 60 percent increase over earlier estimates. Prosecutors are seeking the money from Terry Lynn Barton, 44, who pleaded guilty to arson for the 2002 fire. She was released from prison June 2 after a six-year term. The state originally estimated the damages and firefighting costs at $27.5 million. Prosecutors said Friday they raised the estimate after consulting with insurance companies and victims. The Hayman Fire burned 138,000 acres,...

Employees who wish their companies would set the air-conditioning at something higher than "bone-chilling" have a new ally in Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. On Thursday, Hickenlooper said thermostats would be turned up a few clicks in city buildings this summer and encouraged businesses to do the same in order to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Already, two major businesses — Coors Brewing Co. and Qwest Communications — have signed up for the initiative, city officials said. "We are ecstatic — make that therm-ecstatic — to participate in reducing our carbon footprint," said Kimberly Devigil, a Coors spokeswoman. The...