BackboneAmerica

(John Andrews abroad ) This week I had a couple of vivid glimpses of what it must have been like to participate in American political life in the first decades after independence. One was experiential, the other literary. Both confirmed my “Claremont conservative” conviction that the principles of the American founding lose none of their truth across time, geography, or cultures.

The International Republican Institute, funded by USAID and dedicated to advancing democracy around the world, had invited me to Macedonia and Serbia to share the perspective of a think-tank entrepreneur and former legislator with leaders of center-right parties there.

The acclaimed biography of Alexander Hamilton [link] by Ron Chernow went along in my suitcase. After each long day of meetings in Skopje or Belgrade, unwinding at the hotel, I traveled back with Hamilton to New York or Philadelphia in the 1780s and ’90s — where one finds some notable parallels to the Balkan drama of today. (more…)

BULLETIN FROM JOHN ANDREWS
Chairman, Backbone America
Colorado Fellow, Claremont Institute
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Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click http://www.710knus.com/
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Stop subsidizing lawbreakers: our new ad spotlights illegals
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Come to our party… One year on the air & post-election rally, Sunday Nov. 6, 5-8pm…
We’ll do the show live from LoDo’s at 470 & Quebec… Mark your calendar, join us
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OUR NEXT SHOW… Are human beings fit to be free? That’s the question on my mind as I write to you from Belgrade on Thursday, looking forward to being home in Denver on Sunday for the next edition of “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” I’ll have a full report on this week’s meetings with “small d” democratic party leaders in the newly independent ex-communist republics of Macedonia and Serbia, where I’ve been traveling for the International Republican Institute. (more…)

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com

While both untrue, myths and lies are not the same. A lie is meant to deceive, usually to gain an advantage that the truth would not likely yield. A myth, to borrow from Merriam-Webster, is “a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone…” But these guileless origins notwithstanding, myths can be as destructive as lies — particularly when it comes to public policy.

When faced with emotionally charged issues like education, distinguishing between myth and fact can be difficult. Such a tangle of myths has grown up around public education that few know the facts. (more…)

A new radio ad makes the connection between concern about Colorado’s growing population of illegal aliens and taxpayer resistance to higher spending. The ad began running this week in Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Grand Junction.

“I’m voting no on Referendum C & D to force our politicians to address the expensive and dangerous problem of illegal aliens and open borders,” says a woman in the spot. Listen to the radio ads:
Broadband
Dial-up
See below for more details.
(more…)

By Kelley Harp harpkw@yahoo.com

Can it be? Is Jim Spencer, our favorite ultra-liberal columnist for the Denver Post, a new advocate for school choice and school vouchers? In his Oct. 12 column, he notes that while poor kids still do worse on standardized tests than others, poor kids in poor schools do worse than poor kids in richer schools. “The numbers prove that poverty affects the academicperformance of Colorado’s schoolchildren,” writes Spencer. “The question is what — if anything – the state can do about it. (more…)

(John Andrews in the Denver Post, Oct. 16) Voting is underway on a law transferring several billion dollars from Colorado families and employers into government, Referendum C, along with a plan to borrow another couple of billion for government projects, Referendum D.

I expect that when the votes are counted, the common sense of citizens will result in their saying no to this largest-ever proposal for increasing our tax burden and financing our infrastructure by credit card. (more…)

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com

Well, well. So the national Phi Kappa Tau fraternity is suspending its University of Colorado chapter at least until August. Its 35 members will have to find a new place to live. Apparently the house was “not representative of the values and principles of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity nor those of the Greek community in Boulder” according to the national office. That’s a delicate way of saying they partied too much. (more…)

By Jim Windham Editor, The Texas Pilgrim

There is now a second event to be added to the one on 9/11/01 that will dominate George W. Bush’s place in history, dictating as it will the future of “small government conservatism”, the concept of federalism as we have known it, and as a result, the future shape of the Republican Party.

No less an authority than Bill Clinton has remarked that the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will force a debate on three questions: (1) what is our obligation to the poor?, (2) what is the role of government?, and (3) how do we pay for it? He is correct, and the answers will determine the future of the electoral revolution began by Ronald Reagan in 1980 that has been sustained for 25 years. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com

“Three groups spend other people’s money” Dick Armey likes to say: “Children, thieves, and politicians — and all three need supervision.” This is just one of Armey’s Axioms, and a sample of the wisdom he shared at a Greeley luncheon sponsored by Colorado FreedomWorks on Oct. 4. Representative Armey spoke with candor and common sense about government’s constant itch to raise taxes and spend more money.

The Ref C & D battle isn’t a new fight, he reminded attendees. Alabama and Oregon had similar votes on measures to raise taxes andor spending. Both were soundly defeated, against the odds, with help from FreedomWorks and other aroused citizens groups. (more…)

The “Head On” debate between former state Sen. John Andrews (R) and former Denver councilwoman Susan Barnes-Gelt (D), seen daily on Colorado Public Television since 1997, began its October series this week. Holtzman v. Beauprez, Tom DeLay, Mayor Hickenlooper, and Katrina recovery, are the topics. (more…)

President Bush’s speech last Thursday at the National Endowment for Democracy, discussing the battle against Islamo-fascist aggression — what some of us call World War IV — is an important and heartening statement of his strategic determination and moral clarity. I have linked it here, since news accounts emphasized only the President’s report of 10 terror plots that have been foiled — itself very significant — while skimping or ignoring his carefully reasoned account of what the enemy seeks to do and what we are doing in response, aimed at ultimate victory.

Welcome to BackBone Radio

The campaign for No on C & D is sprinting to catch up in the yard sign wars. Below are a number of locations in various counties where you can get signs, starting Friday, Oct. 14. Thank you for helping us defeat the tax increase. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com

Is Referendum C a tax increase? Well, to begin with, if it isn’t, why are Coloradoans voting on it? One of the great aspects of TABOR is that it makes government get voters’ approval for any future tax increases — or anything that resembles one. (more…)

By Jeremy Schupbach jshoebox@mac.com

Conservatives would be wise to be cautious in their support of the President’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice. The jury is out on whether Harriet Miers will be the strict constructionist, federalist justice in the mold of Scalia or Thomas; the kind of justice that President Bush promised to nominate. Too little is known about Miers. (more…)