BackboneAmerica

By John Andrews andrewsjk@aol.com

Bob Beauprez, the Republican congressman running for governor, spoke for less than 10 minutes at the D’Evelyn High School graduation on May 27, and his “personal reflections” to the graduates included not a word about politics or issues.

But his eloquent, moving statement of America’s goodness and greatness summed up the advantage Beauprez holds in this year’s bitterly contested election. Bob’s unapologetic faith and patriotism connect him to the average Coloradan in a way the other candidates simply can’t match. (more…)

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com

G.K. Chesterton once said, “The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice.” A well-positioned sliver of truth can grant legitimacy to a lie. A little evidence can make an implausible theory appear sound.

In The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown employs historical half-truths as well as outright fallacies to dispute the central tenet of Christianity – that Christ was the Son of God who came to earth to redeem mankind through his death and resurrection. The premise of Brown’s book and movie, which he asserts is true, alleges that the church has cynically conspired over the past two millennia to deify an ordinary man, all to amass and retain power. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Let the time never come when “we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.” That was the goal of the first Memorial Day proclamation by Gen. John Logan in 1868.

And it’s our goal on the next edition of “Backbone Radio with John Andrews,” this Sunday, May 28, on the eve of Memorial Day 2006. I invite you to listen in and call in. Our guests and topics will help give this holiday weekend the patriotic significance it deserves. (more…)

(John Andrews in the Denver Post, May 21) On May 5 in Louisville, Kentucky, hours before the ponies ran at Churchill Downs, a self-described “old warhorse” of conservative politics and Colorado pride breathed his last. George C. Roche III had a lasting impact on America and on our state. Upon me he had an immeasurable influence, noble though flawed, similar to another of my former bosses, Richard Nixon. Herewith, a tribute.

Roche grew up on Chalk Creek in the shadow of Mount Princeton. He lived out his retirement at Ouray in the shadow of scandal. The intervening 70 years took him from Regis and the Marines to a doctorate at CU-Boulder and a teaching post at the Colorado School of Mines, then to the presidency of Hillsdale College, a Reagan appointment, and the authorship of a dozen books.

The old warhorse carried wounds as most do. The worst came when a lovestruck young woman, his son’s wife Lissa, took her own life in 1999 after alleging an affair with him. That finished George at Hillsdale and drove him into a seclusion that lasted until news reports last year quoted the son as accepting the father’s protestation of innocence – something many of us had always believed.

More than the diabetes he had battled for decades, I suspect it was heartbreak that killed George Roche – remorse over the sins of omission (at least) which visited such damage on the family he loved and on the college he had led from obscurity to prominence. Seeing tragedy befall a friend, my own heart breaks a little as well.

However there is far more to this remarkable man’s legacy than the never-verified 1999 allegations. What we can’t sort out, eternal judgment will. But his contributions as an historian, educator, and patriot deserve undimmed honor regardless. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Our show this Sunday will look at the sea of troubles currently facing the Republican Party, and how the GOP can take up arms against them for a winning strategy this fall.

Coming off their test of strength at the Republican nominating assembly on Saturday, Colorado gubernatorial candidates Marc Holtzman and Bob Beauprez (represented by his campaign manager, John Marshall) will preview the August primary.

Coming off a very disappointing (to most conservatives) immigration speech by the President last Monday, with basement poll numbers for both Bush and the GOP Congress, State Rep. Dave Schultheis will outline ideas from the conservative legislators caucus he chairs, for better policies on illegal aliens and other issues. (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 May series this week. Andrews deplored the lenient sentence given confessed 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, saying it signals weakness to our enemies. Other topics this month include the Colorado governor’s race, taxpayer unrest, dysfunctional public schools, and a legislative report card.

1. MOUSSAOUI ESCAPES DEATH PENALTY

Susan: Perhaps the best lesson from the Moussaoui trial was that regardless how devastating the experience was for the public, the jury and the victims’ families, an American jury – operating within the framework of American jurisprudence – was capable of rendering a fair verdict. There is no right or wrong answer.

John: Moussaoui deserved to pay with his life. He proudly claimed responsibility for the Islamist act of war that took 3000 lives on 9/11. This monster is too dangerous to keep locked up. Refusal to execute him signals weakness to our enemies. The jury looked evil in the face and blinked. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Update, Sunday afternoon: Pardon a proud father for bragging on the son who inherited his mom’s big heart. In Gary Massaro’s 5/12 column in the Rocky, “Tale of a Christian lady, a cheat, and a cop,” the cop happens to be our boy Daniel. Check out this touching true story.
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A Mother’s Day theme on a political talk show? You better believe it, bucky. Individual liberty is impossible without individual responsibility, of which America’s moms are among the best examples and teachers. Limited government is impossible without a strong civil society, of which the cornerstone is family and marriage.

Besides which, my own mother Marianne, rest her soul, and our children’s mother Donna, who’s stood by me for so long, deserve this guy’s homage all day long on May 14, and have it they shall — even during the three hours I will be spending on the air with listeners.

You’re invited to be a listener this Sunday, 5-8pm, when “Backbone Radio with John Andrews” leads off with special guest Frances Owens, Colorado’s First Lady.

Another special guest will be Hugh Hewitt, the nationally syndicated radio host whom many Coloradans enjoy every weekday on 710 KNUS. His new book about the 2006 and 2008 elections, “Painting the Map Red,” will give us plenty to talk about. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com

Folks who blame Big Oil for higher prices at the pump are just plain economically illiterate. They don’t understand the real domestic and international reasons behind these increases. I’ll put on my free-market professor’s hat and start this session of Petroleum Economics 101. I’ll tell you what’s behind the recent spike in gas prices with solid analysis you won’t find anywhere in the mainstream media.

Supply and demand factors in crude oil and a declining US Dollar are the two main causes. Chris Puplava is accurate in his assessment of this issue, and I’ll hit the highlights in the rest of this post. However, the biggest culprit is Big Government – who takes a larger percentage of ‘windfalls profits’ at the pump than even Big Oil. It’s not just the amount of taxes collected, but the lack of a domestic policy that’s put us behind the energy 8-ball. (more…)

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com

“Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.” Launcelot in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice was so right — and it’s even harder to keep the bodies buried in this age of mass media. They show up on the evening news, their silence demanding justice from the living. Sometimes they are heard.

The Colorado General Assembly this year proclaimed April 23-30 as Holocaust Awareness Week, and this past Monday, May 8, as Genocide Awareness Day. In House Joint Resolution 1032 they urged the state to “teach and remember the past while raising awareness of genocides present and future.” (more…)

(John Andrews in the Denver Post, May 7) Father Time, what a joker. A couple of decades can make old certainties laughable. Back in 1986, Congress and the president struck a bargain that was supposed to settle the immigration issue for good. Millions of illegal aliens were legalized, in return for tougher enforcement at the border and in the workplace. Sounds ridiculously familiar, doesn’t it?

Those same 20 years did funny things to this Republican’s former disapproval of Democrat Dick Lamm. As Colorado’s chief executive in 1986, Lamm earned the nickname Governor Gloom for warning about such dangers as a potential “Hispanic Quebec” in the southwestern U.S. We at the Independence Institute called for an imaginary Governor Growth to rescue the state from Lamm, since I was sympathetic to open borders back then.

But today Dick and I are co-chairs of Defend Colorado Now, an amendment to cut off tax-paid services for illegal aliens, except in emergencies or when federally mandated. We’re campaigning for 100,000 signatures in 100 days to put this sensible measure on the ballot. He correctly foresaw trouble in the convergence of Mexico’s social and economic dysfunction with America’s political and cultural cowardice. My optimism was misplaced. Point to you, Governor Gloom. (more…)

Update, May 8: Juan Botero cancelled his appearance on last night’s show, stating that his campaign against Congressman Tancredo is suspended until May 10. Taxpayer advocate Douglas Bruce appeared instead, explaining his tax and debt limit proposals in Colorado Springs (see cityreforms.com) and urging passage of the Petition Rights Amendment (pra2006.com) by statewide voters this fall.
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Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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It’s been a bicoastal week for your friend John. Wednesday and Thursday I was in Ontario CA for meetings at the Claremont Institute and a speech honoring May 4 as the National Day of Prayer. Then on Friday and Saturday, out to Washington DC for the Salem Radio Network talk show hosts conference.

Did you know that the first speech ever given by an American president, George Washington’s inaugural address in 1789, contains three extended passages of prayer? Did you know that talk radio’s power in politics today was made possible by President Reagan’s repeal of the anti-free-speech “fairness doctrine” back in the 1980s? (more…)

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com

A new Roper Poll of young adults aged 18 to 24 found they don’t know much about geography. Here’s a sample of findings. Keep in mind this was a multiple choice test.

Using a map of Asia, nine in ten cannot find Afghanistan, six in ten cannot find Iraq, and seven in ten cannot find Iran or Israel. Never mind Sri Lanka or Indonesia. Didn’t a big thing happen there fairly recently? (more…)

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com

The biggest deficit that our state and country face today isn’t the financial variety. Our federal budget and foreign trade deficits are only symptoms of the cause. A verse in Proverbs sums it up best: “Without vision, the people will perish.”

Without strong, wise, decisive leadership, our country will struggle longer and harder to overcome these challenges. Here’s my take on why Bush’s poll numbers have dropped like a rock, and why Republicans need to lead if they want to maintain their majority in 2007 and beyond: (more…)