BackboneAmerica

By John Andrews (andrewsjk@aol.com)

Your ballot is your business. But since I’m often asked about mine, here is how I voted when our absentee envelopes went in the mail today.

On the amendments, it was… Yes 38… Yes 39… Yes 40… No 41…
No 42… Yes 43… No 44.

On the referendums, it was… Yes E… No F… Yes G… Yes H… No I…
No J… Yes K.

More detail on my reasons for the ballot issues appeared in this September column. My case for Bob Beauprez in the governor’s race appears here.

So for Bob and the other candidates, it was a straight Republican ticket, and with disappointment that we don’t have party ID for city councils, school boards, RTD board, and yes even judges, in place of the current, dysfunctional nonpartisan system.

Speaking of judges, I cast a polite, impersonal no vote on retaining any and all of them. Some are conservative, some liberal, and no doubt most are honorable individuals doing their best. But that’s not the point.

I simply believe the whole judicial system needs a wakeup call from we the people as to our discontent with its imperial tendencies, and a substantial vote tally in the “do not retain” column is one way to start sending that message.

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Who do they think they are? Imperial judges are more and more aggressive in dictating to we the people. Now it’s the New Jersey Supreme Court, ordering legislators to enact same-sex unions. If there was any doubt that Colorado needs Amendment 40 to curb the runaway courts, and Amendment 43 (along with No on Ref I) to protect traditional marriage in our state, this should remind us what’s at stake.

Yes on 40: Limit the Judges is coming on strong as election day nears. I’ll have a report on our campaign — and on the late-breaking move to retire Judge Marquez, the worst member of the Appeals Court — this Sunday on “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” Our show is essential voter education with Nov. 7 fast approaching. Please listen in and call in. (more…)

By John Andrews (andrewsjk@aol.com)

This morning my view from a hotel window toward Pike’s Peak is obscured by a driving blizzard. Harsh autumn weather like this bedeviled the Pike expedition, first American explorers of our state, in late 1806. We’re in Colorado Springs for an El Pomar Foundation lecture series I co-chair; last night’s program used the Pike bicentennial as an occasion for some political self-examination.

The peak that later bore his name was, Pike wrote, “never out of sight in our wanderings” through the region. America’s founding principles should stand as a similar landmark for Coloradans today, I believe. Pending a full report later on my 10/25 debate with Ed Quillen, here’s the outline we spoke to: (more…)

(John Andrews in Omaha World-Herald, Oct. 25) As a Colorado leader with many Nebraska friends (we don’t discuss football), I’d like to see Nebraska have the kind of thriving economy my state has. That’s why I hope Nebraskans in this election will restrain taxes and spending with fiscal guardrails, as Coloradans did years ago.

The possibility that Nebraska will pass Initiative 423, the Stop Over Spending amendment, is welcome news to me, unlike the Big 12 Conference football standings. The SOS plan to slow the runaway growth of government can help restore healthy growth to Nebraska’s lagging economy. It worked for us in the high country, so why not for Nebraskans on the Plains as well?

This taxpayer advocate objects to the distortion of our Colorado success story that was foisted on World-Herald readers last month by big-government cheerleader Deb Crago (“Critical state services suffered under Colorado state budget lid,” Sept. 28 Midlands Voices). Her phony scare propaganda deserves a rebuttal from the perspective of working families. (more…)

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

If hypocrisy is “do as I say not as I do” then selective moral outrage is “do as I say not as I do and shame on you!” True moral outrage draws attention to what is wrong and exerts a powerful force for change. Selective moral outrage uses society’s moral expectations as a weapon against specific targets for political gain, while ignoring other comparable ones. Effective in the short run, the tactic’s success will surely wane as the public grows more cynical and apathetic toward moral outrage both real and counterfeit.

If you want to see selective moral outrage in action you have but to open the daily paper or magazine, visit the cinema or go to a political rally. This week the Denver Post is outraged by a government leak revealing that Bill Ritter’s plea bargain of illegal aliens put dangerous people back on the streets. (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

One of the principles of military victory is to isolate the battlefield, cutting off the enemy’s supply. We are apparently not doing that in Iraq. We are apparently reluctant to be accused of “widening the war” by our critics. So we continue to fight the war on our enemy’s terms. Thus, “Staying the course” under these circumstances means continuing indefinitely the meat grinder for our blood and treasure.

For their part, despicably, the Democrats would be the first to howl “widening the war” if we did the right thing and struck insurgent staging and supply areas in Iran and Syria. The Democrats want to preserve this latter day “Ho Chi Minh Trail” that assures our defeat. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Ever since 1973, the democratic process and the conscience of the American people have been forbidden from arbitrating between the baby’s right to life and the mother’s “right to choose.”

But on Nov. 7 in South Dakota, that long-silent voice will at last be heard as voters decide on Measure 6, a referred law to ban nearly all abortions in that state. No ballot issue in the country (certainly not my proposal for judicial term limits) is nearly as important as this one. See full details at VoteYesforLife.com.

Dr. Allen Unruh, a leader in the South Dakota campaign to reclaim a place in our democracy for the unborn child, disallowed for a generation by lawless and heartless judges, is my guest on the Oct. 22 edition of “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” Be sure to listen. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner (baochsner@aol.com)

I saw another reminder of why voters shouldn’t vote for Democrats this election. It’s a Texas Democratic campaign poster that shows how seriously Dems take — or don’t take — illegal immigration.

Look, I’m one of the biggest critics of Republicans not acting like Republicans in DC and Denver. It’s disheartening to tally up what my party is “for” these days — not securing the borders, not even trying to rein in out-of-control federal spending, and passing stupid laws and initiatives like the smoking ban and Referendum C.

But when the other party sees illegal aliens just as potential voters, and turns a blind eye to the increased crime and costs to American taxpayers (not to mention the national security threat from Other-Than-Mexicans crossing the border), it’s insane to think most Democrats won’t toe the party line on this issue. (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

In Ecclesiastes it says somewhere “Nothing is new under the sun”. Reading Scripture and looking at current politics, one can see this is true. For example:

“..the Pharisees began to press him hard, and to provoke him to speak of many things, lying in wait for him, to catch at something he might say.” (Luke 11:53). The Democrats, like the Pharisees, are not willing to embrace the “New Covenant” of free markets and individual responsibility. And like the Pharisees, who thought killing Jesus himself would solve their problem, so do the Democrats and their allies in the media demonize the President and comb the landscape for any scandal. (more…)

(John Andrews in the Denver Post, Oct. 15) Political crossovers are in. Rick O’Donnell, Republican for Congress, says his hero is the late Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. His opponent, Ed Perlmutter, boasts the endorsement of our former state Senate colleague, Republican Dottie Wham. Bill Ritter, the Democrat currently leading in the race for Governor, has some Republicans backing him.

So I’ll cross over and predict that Bob Beauprez, the GOP nominee for Governor, might become this year’s Harry Truman. Notwithstanding the recent Denver Post poll showing Ritter ahead 50% to 35%, this thing’s not over yet. What Truman, the scrappy underdog, did to his favored challenger in 1948 could be the template for a come-from-behind Beauprez win. Bill Ritter as a latter-day Thomas E. Dewey: imagine that.

Now I’m no odds-maker. This is a guy who thought the Beatles were a flash in the pan. I never play the lottery, and my little boy used to beat me at Go Fish, which his four-year-old may soon do also. Yet I have this hunch about a potential Beauprez upset.

Winner or not, Battlin’ Bob gets my vote for at least ten reasons. Immigration, judges, jobs, taxes, education, health care, highways, water, values, and qualifications – that’s the deciding decalogue in Beauprez’s favor. Here is my case for the Republican nominee: (more…)

Update during the show: John Miller’s 50 Greatest Conservative Rock Songs is here. Great stuff, dig in.
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Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Greetings from snowy Lansing, Michigan, where my great-grandfather and uncle were both state senators. I’m here campaigning against a teacher-union ballot issue modeled on Colorado’s awful Amendment 23, mandating education spending increases ahead of all else. These bad ideas spread like kudzu; got to keep chopping them back.

On Sunday I’ll be home again, in front of the “Backbone Radio” microphone for another show on America without apologies, America with steel in her spine. You are invited to listen in and call in. 303-696-1971 or backboneradio@aol.com gets you into the conversation.

Bob Beauprez, Republican nominee for Governor, is one of my guests on the show. Trailing with three weeks to go, he is battling for a come-behind victory, Harry Truman style. My Denver Post column on all the reasons Beauprez deserves your vote will be posted here starting Oct 14.

Other guests and topics for our Oct. 15 show will include: (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Greetings from snowy Lansing, Michigan, where my great-grandfather and uncle were both state senators. I’m here campaigning against a teacher-union ballot issue modeled on Colorado’s awful Amendment 23, mandating education spending increases ahead of all else. These bad ideas spread like kudzu; got to keep chopping them back.

On Sunday I’ll be home again, in front of the “Backbone Radio” microphone for another show on America without apologies, America with steel in her spine. You are invited to listen in and call in. 303-696-1971 or backboneradio@aol.com gets you into the conversation.

Bob Beauprez, Republican nominee for Governor, is one of my guests on the show. Trailing with three weeks to go, he is battling for a come-behind victory, Harry Truman style. My Denver Post column on all the reasons Beauprez deserves your vote will be posted here starting Oct 14.

Other guests and topics for our Oct. 15 show will include…

** Indiana Congressman John Hostettler, chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee, talking about that issue and the election struggle for party control.

** Al Knight, Denver Post columnist, discussing his support for Amendment 40, term limits on judges.

** Linda Seebach, Rocky Mountain News columnist, on the troubling data about civic illiteracy in our colleges.

** John Miller of National Review, recapping his hit parade article on the 50 greatest conservative rock songs. (Yes, you read that right, and don’t miss this interview.)

Please tell your friends about “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” America and the West, still not fully aroused to the threat we face five years after 9/11, need a lot more backbone right now. We’re committed to helping. How about you?

Yours for self-government,
JOHN ANDREWS

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

“I’m glad I had an abortion and I want the world to know it” declare the over 5,000 signers of Ms. Magazine’s new petition. According to the magazine, the purpose of the “We had an Abortion” petition, a repeat of a similar one published by Ms. three decades ago, is to “help eliminate the stigma” of abortion and to demand the repeal of restrictions on abortion.

At present it is legal to kill an unborn child until the point of natural birth. The few restrictions that exist cover issues such as public funding or notification of parents when their teenager seeks an abortion. Presumably, anything short of publicly funded abortion-on-demand would be too restrictive for the signers. (more…)

Update, 6pm: To order Tawfik Hamid’s book, “The Roots of Jihad,” not yet available on other websites, send your $26 check payable to him to Roots, 700 N. Colorado Blvd. #180, Denver CO 80206. Details on his Oct. 9 lecture at DU are on www.isime.org. More about Dr. Hamid’s courageous journey from radical Islam to a still devout, but more humane, understanding of the faith is at www.muslimsforhumanrights.org.
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Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Wow, when I was a 16-year-old page (Republican National Convention, 1960), it was a strictly G-rated experience. Times have changed, and not for the better. The Foley affair is ugly on many levels, but it is far from the only thing going on that matters to conservatives and Coloradans. Our show this Sunday will focus on some of those other things, saying little of pages and perversion.

** Richard V. Allen, President Reagan’s national security adviser, returns as my guest for a discussion of foreign and defense policy issues in next month’s election. Dr. Tawfik Hamid, an Egyptian scholar of Islam, will also join me to preview his new book, “The Roots of Jihad.”

** David Brussat, architecture critic for the Providence Journal, will tell us why the Denver’s new attention-grabbing museum, may fall short of greatness. And I’ll talk with producer Ken Wales about the “Amazing Grace” movie, Wilberforce’s life story out soon from Walden Media. (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. Andrews argued for a Republican vote in races for Governor and Congress, along with a conservative vote on ballot issues. Other topics this month include the controversy over voting machines and photo ID, along with Denver’s new art museum addition.

1. WHO SHOULD CONTROL CONGRESS?

John: When you vote, remember: the US Congress is the world’s most important elected assembly. It not only holds in trust the liberty, prosperity, and human dignity of 300 million Americans, but also the future of freedom everywhere. To ensure a strong defense and protect the Constitution, we need a Republican Congress.

Susan: Republican Control got us into this mess – record deficits, unleashed insurgencies around the globe, out of control health care costs. We need a Democratic Congress to slow down the Bush White House. Gridlock may put us on the road to recovery. Vote Perlmutter, Paccione, and Fawcett et. al. (more…)