Free Republic

A Colorado high school student quit the school choir after an Islamic song containing the lyric "there is no other truth except Allah" made it into the repertoire. James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing "Zikr," a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland's selection, Harper quit. "I don’t want to come across as a bigot or a racist, but I really don’t feel it is appropriate for students in a...

"Reizei's [Princeton U.] Blog from America"(My Translation/Summary): "There were three reasons for the stunning Rick Santorum three-state victory which shook the GOP establishment and dented the crown of the presumed frontrunner Mr. Mitt Romney....(snip)........(The) Third explanation is bound up in a very interesting religious development as we speak. At the end of January, the Obama Administration made the following mandate: "Catholic related schools, institutions, and hospitals must be forced to provide birth control (pill), etc. under the health plan of the United States, even to those who are not Catholic believers, otherwise they are in violation."The Obama Administration was...

(YBH) – As the final Colorado vote counts were coming in late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, confirming that Rick Santorum scored a hat trick against his Republican competitors, it was becoming clear that a sea change is occurring within the GOP race. More than before, it’s now arguable that the inevitability of Mitt Romney’s candidacy is a fallacy. This opinion has been long espoused by Republican grassroots activists across the country. Now there are numbers to back it up. Santorum has now won four out of the eight contests. He has victories in four contests compared to three for Romney....

PLANO, Texas — Standing in front of a massive crowd at a rally in Plano, Texas, Rick Santorum unleashed criticism of Barack Obama and threw out some campaign red meat to supporters hungry for it, telling them the president has an “overt hostility to faith.”“(He’s) trying to weaken them, churches, trying to say that anybody who believes in the values of the Judeo Christian policies,” Santorum said to about 2,000 people in a converted barn, one of his largest audiences of the campaign. He told the audience at the raucous rally that Obama is restricting religious freedoms in this country,...

Santorum Delivers a GOP Stunner Former Senator Wins in Minnesota, Missouri; Romney Campaign Plays Down Nonbinding Contests By NEIL KING JR. And DANNY YADRON DENVER—Rick Santorum jolted the Republican presidential race Tuesday by winning nominating contests in Missouri and Minnesota, puncturing Mitt Romney's claim to be the unstoppable front-runner. Mr. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, was running neck and neck with Mr. Romney in preliminary returns from Colorado, a state Mr. Romney won by a wide margin in 2008. With about 70% of the Colorado vote counted, Mr. Santorum had 38%, to 36% for Mr. Romney. Four years ago, Mr....

ABR is alive and well!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!

Winning 46% of the vote in MN and a whopping 55% in bellweather MO, the question now is whether Santorum is now the real alternative to Romney?

Did Tuesday’s results matter? Nowhere near as much as the results from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida mattered. But primary campaigns rarely reach stasis; momentum shifts, ebbs, and flows, and the trio of contests yesterday offered a few hints that the storyline will change once again.Rick Santorum is on the verge of overtaking Newt Gingrich as the anti-Romney alternative.Santorum began this contest as the man of the hour, the little engine that could in a sweater-vest who challenged and beat the much-better-funded Mitt Romney . . . and yet he has, at the moment, an entire three...

(Reuters) - Former U.S. senator Rick Santorum rejuvenated his presidential hopes on Tuesday with a shocking sweep of the three nominating contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, dealing a blow to wounded front-runner Mitt Romney. Even though Romney still holds strong advantages in financing and organization, his campaign will now have to refocus to fight back the challenge from the surging conservative Santorum...

His candidacy all but dismissed just days ago, Rick Santorum won the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri on Tuesday, an unexpected trifecta that raised fresh questions about Mitt Romney’s ability to corral conservative support. With his triumphs, Mr. Santorum was also suddenly presenting new competition to Newt Gingrich as the chief alternative to Mr. Romney, the front-runner. Where Mr. Gingrich has won one state, South Carolina, Mr. Santorum has now won four, including Iowa...

Just in on CNN: The Colorado GOP Chair says Santorum Wins CO! 78% reporting. El Paso County in CO puts Santorum over the top 1300 margin in this county.

Here at Broomfield High School to attend GOP Caucus. Caucus hasn't started yet. Listening to candidates speaches. Polite. Quiet. Filling up. Expect over 700 attendees. I will update throughout the evening. Regards, TS

Open for discussion.

WASHINGTON — Rick Santorum faced an important opportunity Tuesday to become the chief conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, as he was poised for possibly strong showings in Republican presidential contests in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, was expected to remain the front-runner for the GOP nomination whatever happened Tuesday, thanks to his huge advantages in campaign cash and organization and his impressive earlier wins in New Hampshire, Florida and Nevada. But late polls showed Santorum surging, although polls are notoriously weak at forecasting caucus results, because caucus turnout tends to be low and to require unusually...

Post results of the three primaries here.

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo.—Local Republican activists Debbie Brown and Lynne Cottrell share a similar story. After backing other Republican presidential candidates over the past several months, they have now swung over to Mitt Romney. It boils down to this: Mr. Romney's mildness, seen as a demerit by many conservatives, is a plus for him in swing areas such as voter-rich Arapahoe County, a bellwether for this key electoral state and a place where women dominate the electoral rolls. "I have come to see him as disciplined and competent. And unlike many of the others, he doesn't carry any baggage," said Ms....

NOTE The following news release is a quote: www.ice.gov/news/releases/1202/120206denver.htm FEBRUARY 6, 2012 DENVER, CO Chinese national indicted in Colorado for trying to illegally export to China radiation-hardened computer circuits used in satellite communications DENVER – Philip Chaohui He, aka Philip Hope, a Chinese national, made his initial appearance in U.S. district court on Thursday after he was named in a three-count indictment charging him with attempting to export defense articles without U.S. State Department authorization. The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney John Walsh, District of Colorado and Michael A. Holt, special agent in charge of the Denver office of...

DENVER — The Republican presidential race could be headed for another reshuffle Tuesday as Rick Santorum, who has lagged behind since his surprise Iowa victory, is once again challenging the dominance of front-runner Mitt Romney. Polling over the past week shows Mr. Santorum statistically tied with Mr. Romney in Minnesota, besting him in Missouri, and running second to him but ahead of rival Newt Gingrich in Colorado, all of which hold contests Tuesday. Mr. Romney’s camp took notice, firing the kinds of broadsides it generally has aimed at Mr. Gingrich. Romney surrogates on Monday accused Mr. Santorum of pork-barrel spending....

During Saturday’s Lincoln Day Dinner held by the Weld GOP, presidential candidate Rick Santorum trumpeted American exceptionalism boldly declaring that our founding documents were not the same as other countries'. Speaking to a record crowd of almost 650 Republican voters at the party’s annual fundraiser and gathering, Santorum made the case for why he would be the best candidate to go up against President Obama’s policies. Speaking on Obamacare, Santorum said that Romney signed into law “Romneycare” which the federal health care bill was modeled after and Gingrich at one time supported the individual mandate requiring all Americans to buy...

Hot on the heels of Mitt Romney’s big win in Nevada come two more caucuses and another primary on Tuesday, in which no delegates will get directly assigned to any candidate. However, both offer opportunities to shape the media coverage of the overall primary campaign, and for Rick Santorum, this might mean some good news. PPP’s latest and final polls from Colorado and Minnesota give bad news to Newt Gingrich, however: Last night’s results in Nevada were bad news for Newt Gingrich and PPP’s first day of polling in Colorado and Minnesota indicates things may only get worse for him...

If former House Speaker Newt Gingrich continues in the Republican primaries, not only is he doing more good than harm, he may be the only candidate left who can save the Republican Party. The Republican establishment is bound and determined that it is going to impose a Mitt Romney on us. Conservatives do not want former Gov. Mitt Romney. You see, we have danced this dance before. We had Sen. John McCain shoved down our throats in 2008. How did that work out for us? We have George W. Bush, who barely won his races, and before that we had...

Updated Full Primary/Caucus Calendar Jan 3 Iowa (caucus) 28 Delegates 28 Unbound - Allocation at State Convention Jan 10 New Hampshire (primary) 12 Delegates 12 Bound - Proportional with 10% threshold Jan 21 South Carolina (primary) 25 Delegates 25 Bound - Winner-take-all per statewide vote Jan 31 Florida (primary) 50 Delegates 50 Bound - winner-take-all per statewide vote Feb 4 Nevada (caucus) 28 Delegates 28 Bound - Allocated on results of primary Feb 4-11 Maine (caucus) 24 Delegates 24 Unbound - Convention elects delegates Feb 7 Colorado (caucus) 36 Delegates 36 Unbound - Allocated at State Convention Minnesota (caucus) 40...

(CNSNews.com) – Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has pledged multiple times that he would repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform law. However, his repeal proposals are light on specific details. “If I were president, day one I will take action to repeal Obamacare. It's bad medicine. It's bad economy. I'll repeal it,” Romney said at the Jan. 26 GOP debate in Florida. “And I believe the people -- I believe the people of each state should be able to craft programs that they feel are best for their people.” However, Romney’s plans...

Updated Jan. 31, 2012: Support for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has remained one of the few constants during the Republican nomination race. But as contenders to Mr. Romney have emerged and then faded, the GOP still seems hesitant to embrace him. The most recent candidate to play the Anyone But Romney role is former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who recently finished first in the party’s South Carolina primary. The National Post’s graphics team takes a look at the ups and downs of the race so far. [great grapics at source]

Dougherty Sibling Planned to Break Out of Jail Through Pipe and Free SisterBy OLIVIA KATRANDJIAN | Good Morning America – 15 hours ago One of the three members of the notorious Dougherty gang was planning to escape from his prison cell through a plumbing pipe with a homemade weapon, according to Colorado police. Dylan Stanley Dougherty is one of the three members of the Dougherty family who are behind bars after allegedly leading police on a crime spree through several states. According to a probable cause arrest warrant affidavit, when officers searched Dylan Dougherty's cell, they found a plumbing hatch...

The White HouseOffice of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release January 25, 2012 Statements on the President’s State of the Union Address Colorado Governor Hickenlooper “The President tonight hit a tone about working together that is familiar to Coloradans. People here know that partisanship is a significant roadblock to partnership. We must use collaboration as a means to finding solutions to keep pushing our state and our country closer to full economic recovery. “We join the President in the pursuit of unnecessary regulations that handcuff aspiring entrepreneurs, and we applaud his support of great teachers and our nation’s military.

The media will spend the next ten years with their heads up their sphincters trying to determine motive. Hmmm ..... what could it be now? For those of us in the media who have not surrendered to jihad (all three of us), we have noticed a decided uptick in this activity. Arrests in the US are weekly now, sometimes daily. Nothing to see here, folks, keep it moving until the next catastrophe. And then the enemedia and Hamas-CAIR operatives in DC will blame ...... counter jihadists. :) Colorado man arrested on terrorism AP (hat tip Ken) AURORA, Colo. (AP) —...

Utah had its Sheriff Mack. Maricopa County, Arizona has Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But Colorado Springs, Colorado has Terry Maketa. In November 2011, Sheriff Maketa of El Paso County, Colorado, along with its five County Commissioners struck a blow for freedom and the Constitutional rights of citizens. These six signed a proclamation affirming the right to Habeas Corpus which the National Defense Authorization Bill or Senate Bill 1867 removed when it was signed into law by President Obama. The proclamation which has gone viral, affirms that the local sheriff, who is any county’s top cop, can override actions taken by the...

The feds continue to target medical marijuana dispensaries which otherwise are operating in accordance with state law. In Colorado federal prosecutors gave 23 dispensaries which are operating within 1,000 feet of a school 45 days to shut down or face criminal prosecution as reported by John Ingold for The Denver Post. They issued an identical ultimatum to medical marijuana dispensaries in California last October. The threats are not idle. The feds yesterday filed suit "to seize the building of a Sacramento dispensary, charging the marijuana store violated federal laws against drug transactions near schools" as reported by Peter Hecht for...

Boulder police have arrested a suspect investigators believe is responsible for the 1994 death of 48-year-old Marty Grisham. According to police, Grisham was gunned down around 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 1, 1994, as he answered a knock at his apartment door. When Grisham opened the door, an assailant shot him four times before fleeing the scene. He had been having dinner with his girlfriend at the time. Grisham lived in the 5600 block of Arapahoe. Grisham was rushed to the hospital, where he died of his injuries. Grisham was the city of Boulder’s data processing director at the time of...

On Sep 9, 2011, at 5:30 PM, Benjamin Schler wrote: Dear Ms. Gotto, Thank you for your email inquiring about our office’s complaint process. We do not accept complaints regarding presidential candidates and their eligibility to run for office, because we are not the entity responsible for determining eligibility. I would be happy to discuss this matter in more detail with you over the phone. Please feel free to give me a call at 303-894-2200, ext. 6342. Thank you, Ben Schler Colorado Department of State Elections Division – Legal Specialist 1700 Broadway, Ste 200 Denver, CO 80290 p: 303-894-2200 x...

Does anyone out there have a direct connection to Glen Beck? I have a manuscript that I need to get in his hands. It is about the homefront war effort in WWII based around the Manhattan Project and describes the day-to-day living of the partiots that came together for a brief time in Uravan, Colorado to mine uranium. It was written by my wife's grandmother - who would be 121 if she lived today - edited by my wife and now turned into an e-book. It is a great picture of what America and Americans used to be. Yes, it...

[...] Although it’s being deployed in several states like Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and others, there are still many who have never heard of the Colorado Model. What’s worse, despite all the Left’s bemoaning of the “vast right wing conspiracy,” Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or whatever enemy they can dream up, there is still nothing like the Colorado Model on the Right. In sum, the Colorado Model is one of the Left’s most effective stratagems that was “built” to turn “red states” into “blue states” in a very short period (with the exception, perhaps, of the 2010...

Leaders of three troops of Girl Scouts quit their posts and disbanded the troops after the organization’s Colorado chapter said it would allow a transgendered 7-year-old to join. The troop leaders, all affiliated with a Christian school in Louisiana, resigned in protest of the Colorado chapter’s decision to allow participation from any child who identifies as a girl, The Christian Post reported. Controversy erupted when Felisha Archuleta tried to enroll her son, Bobby Montoya, who identifies as a girl, in a Girl Scouts troop in Denver. When a local troop leader refused, saying Bobby wasn’t allowed to join because he...

....The move has had the most effect in Iowa. For example, it's normal to have the last debate a few days before the caucuses. When Iowa was planning to hold the caucuses on Feb.6, a Monday, a debate was planned for the Thursday before, on Feb.2. Now, with the caucuses on Jan. 3, it's just not possible to hold a debate a few days beforehand, unless Republicans wanted to do it on NewYear'sEve. So the last debate of a debate-packed season was Dec.15 -- nearly three weeks before the caucuses. Because of Florida's move, Iowa voters won't get a last...

Now comes citizen Newt, clear of voice, deepened in his determination to tackle an issue that is basically his alone to tout; because unlike his leading rival Romney who can not get his arms around something that he can’t take two different positions on; Newt is the real solid constitutional deal. Iowa is not the only state where this should be stirring some turbulent political waters. Conservatives in states like South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and Michigan, as well as other GOP political king making states, should be taking careful notes. Core values issues like preserving life, a...

On Tuesday morning, the braintrust of President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign gathered a select handful of reporters to make a simple case: the incumbent has a number of different paths — five, to be exact — he can follow to win the 270 electoral votes necessary to secure a second term. Since we’ve spent lots and lots of time breaking down the electoral map — and making the case that Obama is stronger than his job approval ratings indicate — we thought it might be fun to look at each of the paths laid out by his team to see...

Huston has a screen capture that shows the Hammerman post before he scrubbed it of its offensive passage. One Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, a columnist for The Jewish Week, went off the deep end into a cesspool of anti-Tim Tebow derangement in his December 12 post, "My Tim Tebow" problem. Former NewsBuster Warner Todd Huston noted the most offensive passage of Hammerman's screed at the website HoosierAccess.com. This paragraph has since been scrubbed from Hammerman's post: If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing...

Can ago explain this..

President Obama’s uphill battle to re-election is getting steeper. A report released today by the centrist think-tank Third Way showed that more than 825,000 voters in eight key battleground states have fled the Democratic Party since Obama won election in 2008. “The numbers show that Democrats’ path to victory just got harder,” said Lanae Erickson, the report’s co-author. “We are seeing both an increase in independents and a decrease in Democrats and that means the coalition they have to assemble is going to rely even more on independents in 2012 than it did in 2008.” Amid frustrating partisan gridlock and...

DENVER -- Newt Gingrich's recent surge has extended to Colorado, where a new poll of GOP primary voters has the former Speaker of the House well ahead of his rivals. The survey, released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling, has Gingrich at 38 percent, well ahead of Mitt Romney, who's at 19 percent in the poll.

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the potentially powerful Hispanic vote in the upcoming presidential election remains "up for grabs" because neither President Barack Obama nor Republicans have convinced these voters that they are on their side. The one-time GOP presidential hopeful, whose own 2008 candidacy was shaped in part by immigration, said that large Hispanic populations in his home state of Arizona and elsewhere are listening carefully to what Republican candidates have to say on immigration and could become a "major factor" in 2012. "I think that the Republican Party has to discuss this issue in as humane way...

Occupy Colorado Springs rudely interrupted a public event at which Gov. Hickenlooper was speaking (or attempting to). After five minutes, someone in the crowd suggested they take a vote. The occupiers lost in a big way. VIDEO

Every civil servant wants to experience his or her legacy firsthand--but not the way that onetime Arapahoe Sheriff Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. has. Sullivan, a nationally renowned law enforcement leader, was arrested on drug charges and is now being detained in the Denver area jail that bears his name. Sullivan, who in 2001 was named the National Sheriff Association's "Sheriff of the Year," was arrested on suspicion of trafficking methamphetamines. Local news station CBS4 began an investigation of Sullivan last month on a tip that he had agreed to meet a male informant, providing drugs in exchange for sex. He...

General Information The Public Improvement Fee (PIF) is collected and used to finance a portion of the cost of new public improvements at Belmar. www.belmarcolorado.com Public improvements at Belmar include such things as public parking, parks, streets and sidewalks, water, sewer and storm water utilities, public spaces and public art. The City of Lakewood is collecting the PIF on behalf of the Plaza Metropolitan District No. 1 and its Trustee, US Bank. The PIF at Belmar is 2.5% on all sales transactions, as defined in the PIF Covenant. The PIF is a fee and NOT a tax; therefore, it becomes...

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said that land it has leased in the Wattenberg oil field in northern Colorado may hold more than a billion barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas, in the latest sign that energy production in the U.S. is set to surge. The disclosure could vault the Wattenberg onto a growing list of major new oil discoveries in the United States, joining the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford in South Texas. These new sources of oil are reversing four decades of declining domestic energy production. What is making them possible are new technologies, including...

Colorado’s Proposition 103, the biggest tax-increase proposal of the off-year November election, was headed to a sound defeat early Wednesday, an indication that voters still expect government to solve its economic woes with spending cuts instead of revenue increases. The measure, which would have raised state sales and income taxes to fund education, was losing by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent with 59 percent of precincts reporting. The vote on Proposition 103 was being monitored closely nationwide as activists in other states contemplate their own tax-hike initiatives. Efforts to place tax increases on the 2012 ballot are...

One of Colorado's top football recruits announced that he no longer intends to play for Penn State. Joey O'Connor, a 6-foot-4, 295-pound offensive lineman who attends Windsor, decided to reconsider his college options because of the recent scandal at the university. Joey O'ConnorWe're taking it day by day. I decommitted just to relieve all this pressure off my family, my teammates, my coaches and myself," O'Connor told Windsor Now. O'Connor said he notified the Penn State coaching staff of his decision, and that he will wait until after the high school season to renew his college recruitment. His team is...

Inside the worship room, carpeting bought off Craigslist covers the floor. Near the front door, simple wire shelving holds dozens of pairs of shoes. Out on the street, dank pieces of paper hung inside a sign box announce a mosque at the corner. Saied Mabrouk admits it's a modest space with few flourishes and an obviously dated look. "This is a 40-year-old building; it has a lot of maintenance and repairs for us to do," Mabrouk said before Friday prayers began at the Islamic Center of Boulder. But he said the center's new location, at 5495 Baseline Road, is a...

Yes, I know it is the Dolphins, but he did throw two touchdowns and coverted a 2pt conversion to send it into overtime. He was 13 for 27, 2-TDs and 0-Ints for QB rating of 91.70.