BackboneAmerica

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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“O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stress a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness.” America’s beauty is in her ideals, truths, and traditions, even more than in the plains and mountains that we love. Thanksgiving is one of those, the Pilgrim feast that holds on as a 21st-century holiday, and I hope you had a happy one.

Our forefathers’ westward push ultimately reached the continental divide and Backbone Colorado USA. There in my hometown of the heart our family gathered yesterday. From there on Sunday we’ll once again bring you “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” We too are impassioned about freedom, as every topic and guest this week will testify. (more…)

By Dave Crater (crater@wilberforcecenter.org)

Editor’s Note: Andrews’ “Ten Conservative Essentials for the Republican Comeback” are here given a different twist as to priority, interpretation, and in one case (No. 6, Disunity), inversion. Coming from such a credible quarter as the Wilberforce Center for Colorado Conservatism, the disputation is welcome to me. Bring on more! – JA

1. Piety. Must be first on any conservative list. Liberalism is the state as God. Libertarianism is the individual as God. Conservatism is God as God. The United States would not have been founded except for Christian faith, and it will not be preserved except by Christian faith. The continuing decay of true faith among Republican Party elites, who tend to be more concerned with what is thought of them in Denver, Washington, and New York than what is thought of them in Wray, Fruita, Ft. Morgan, and the Colorado River valley, is a major reason for their inability to inspire the grassroots.

2. Principle. Human nature is a constant. Moral truth is a constant. Prudence is the apprehension and experience of the unchanging truth of human nature and the cosmos. It does not adjust to the times. It interprets and judges the times.

3. Courage. Indeed, send us! If we believe zeal guarantees minority status, we will not be ferocious on behalf of the good. We will not ever truly know the good, which by its nature inspires zeal. And backbone. Otherwise known as courage. Courage is steadfastness in the face of moral confusion and personal hostility. Political courage is steadfastness in the face of the moral confusion and personal hostility generated by liberalism and by empty Republican pragmatism. Political courage means calling compromise and bad faith what it is. (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

Have a look at this website that lists 751 areas in France that basically are no longer French, but Muslim. French authorities can no longer enter these areas. “Sensitive urban zones,” they’re called; the French acronym is ZUS.

And when our Islamic community leaders in this country depict themselves as a “persecuted minority” and demand special accommodations, understand that the real motive of some is to carve out similar areas of Islamic Republic in these United States.

It’s happening in France, and points to the end result of “tolerance” and multiculturalism: to wit, the complete loss of freedom, democracy and eventually the Nation itself. I wonder if the politically correct realize this.

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

Last week an AP headline heralded a remarkable scientific breakthrough: “Swiss scientists grow human heart valves using material taken from amniotic fluid.” Another article spoke of dogs with muscular dystrophy walking again with the help of stem cells.

In both cases, scientists used non-lethal stem cell extractions from amniotic fluid or from adult cells — rather than from embryos killed for the purpose. The fact is the most promising and successful therapies using stem cells involve those taken from adult, placental, or amniotic sources not from those taken from unborn children. For this reason, private investment capital is focused on adult stem cell research, leaving less successful and unethical research out in the cold – where it belongs.

This may be about to change – enter the new Congress flush with victory and access to the public checkbook. (more…)

By John Andrews (andrewsjk@aol.com)

The election was ugly, but our party has been through worse and come back stronger. We can do so again.

Losses in statewide races and the legislature, at the county level, and with the Democrats taking Congress, all stung. Never mind, we can take it. We’re Republicans. We don’t melt in the rain. America needs what our party has to give, and we’re not about to let her down.

The November 7 outcome raises several questions: What did the voters say? What did Republicans do wrong? What did Democrats do right? What’s the silver lining? And what must we do to win next time? (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

There is a fundamental flaw in the thinking of the Jimmy Carters in our society, and it endangers Western Civilization itself.

It is the implicit subconscious assumption that we are the most powerful and wealthiest country in the world. And in the minds of the Jimmy Carters, this status will remain inviolate, because our victory in 1945 has cast it in stone forever! Several mistaken assumptions flow from this: (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

Appeasement in the Middle East is moving rapidly as a result of the American elections:

** Civil war in Lebanon, resulting in a Hizbollah-run Islamic state, is immanent. UN “peace keepers” will only watch, pointed as they are against Israel.

** America will do nothing, wanting Syria’s “ help” in Iraq.

** Syria will demand that we force Israel give up the Golan Heights, for which Israel and America will receive nothing.

**The Catholic Near East Welfare Association will soon make an emergency appeal for all the Christian refugees fleeing Lebanon for their lives. It seems the clergy prefer to hold candlelight vigils for the thousands slain than take any preventive action.

As the position of Israel becomes more and more untenable, contingency plans to evacuate the whole population of Israel to say, New Mexico, will need to be drawn up. The silence of the Democrats in Congress in the face of these democracies being snuffed is deafening.

What was that proverb about feeding the Alligator, hoping he will eat you last?

(Andrews in Denver Post 11/19, also Townhall.com 11/18)

Gloomy, dejected, defeated? Not this Republican. It’s Thanksgiving, and I have too much to be grateful for.

Yes, the Democrats elected a governor, gained legislative seats, and took Congress. Yes, our judicial term limits proposal lost, and few ballot issues went as I hoped. And no, the GOP currently doesn’t have the “got’em where we want’em” defiance of John Elway’s old Broncos.

So why am I not down? Because before I am a Republican I’m a conservative, and I am an American before that. At bedrock, prior to anything, I am on a lifetime enlistment as a servant of my Maker and a soldier of the Cross, poor though my example may be.

Through such eyes, the blue wave and red rout of Nov. 7 have no more finality than a chess king tipped over at game’s end. We’ll vow to do better next time, of course – but with light hearts in the joy of a world too bright for any election to darken.

The common-sense recognition that politics isn’t everything happens to be a distinctively American trait, just as Thanksgiving is a distinctively American holiday. The day’s occurrence so soon after votes are counted is helpful in reminding us what really matters. While congratulations are due Bill Ritter and all the winners, along with condolences to Rick O’Donnell and others who lost, this week is about giving thanks for the bigger picture. (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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RUSH & TOWNHALL took note of us this week! See details at bottom.
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SHOW PREVIEW, NOV. 19… Like it or not, she’ll be Speaker of the House. Nancy Pelosi’s arrival isn’t to my liking from the standpoint of keeping America safe, taxes down, and our values strong. But we may like her object lesson of why Democrats shouldn’t get the White House in 2008. And Planet Pelosi will be an unruly place, judging from her setback in the Hoyer-Murtha race this week. How unfortunate.

I’ll preview the next two years of Democrat dominance, with Madame Speaker stirring up DC and Governor Bill Ritter leading Colorado, tomorrow on “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” Though we’ll have no bar scene this week (with thanks to all who came to Lodo’s for our birthday last week), expect high energy with guests like Jon Caldara and Jim Spencer. Plan to listen in and call in. (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 November series this week. Andrews wondered what voters might have done had Rumsfeld and Hastert left a month sooner. Other topics this month include the Democrats’ takeover of Congress, Bill Ritter’s election as governor, ballot issue results, and the Denver voting mess.

1. RUMSFELD SACKED BY BUSH

Susan: John, explain to me the political logic of firing Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld the day after the Repub’s took a drubbing at the polls – largely because of the war in Iraq. The decision smacks of previous Bush responses to 9/11 and Katrina. Fire, ready aim.

John: Hindsight is great. If Secretary Rumsfeld and for that matter Speaker Hastert were going to depart, October instead of November would have been better politically for President Bush and congressional Republicans. But Gates, the new defense secretary, and Pelosi, the new speaker, still dare not accept a US defeat in Iraq. (more…)

(John Andrews in Rocky Mountain News, Nov. 11) What ever happened to investigative journalism? As a young White House staffer in 1974, I saw it bring down a president. In the past month, our lazy journalistic watchdogs couldn’t even sniff out the main story between two would-be governors.

Granted, Bill Ritter’s victory over Bob Beauprez was so broad and deep that no great difference ultimately resulted from the October storm over plea bargains and leaks. Still that episode is worth reviewing, not as a rehash of the campaign, but as a case study in media attitudes.

You remember the endless stories about a federal agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) who allegedly gave Beauprez information on a criminal alien who had benefited from a plea bargain allowed by Ritter when he was district attorney. The media compliantly played up the Democrat’s attack on his Republican opponent for using the information in an ad. And they had a field day with the FBI leak investigation.

This was grossly hypocritical, because if the leak had come to them, they would have both used it and protected their source. It also revealed an odd disinterest in the information itself and its relevance to the former DA’s qualifications for higher office. Why weren’t the media energetically digging up this seamy stuff on their own? (more…)

As noted at right, Backbone Radio this Sunday will mark
two years on the air — and do our part in rallying the troops
after an ugly election night — with a birthday party at Lodo’s
in Highlands Ranch, SE corner C-470 & Quebec.
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Please stop by any time from 5-8pm for fellowship, food,
and most important, a lift to your spirits as we regroup
for victory next time!
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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
———————————————————————–
SHOW PREVIEW… “Undaunted courage.” That phrase from the Lewis and Clark journals became the title of Stephen Ambrose’s book about their expedition. They had a determination no adversity could shake. Zebulon Pike and his men brought the same kind of backbone to their exploration of Colorado for Jefferson in 1806, as noted in my latest Denver Post column.

The election debacle now puts Republicans and conservatives to the test: Is our courage daunted by this adversity? It must not be, say I. So let’s have a gut check on Sunday’s edition of “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” (more…)

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

It is easy to point out where individuals went wrong – the mortal wound dealt by Marc Holtzman’s divisive, ego-driven bid for governor, for example. Or perhaps what we had going against us. Both Colorado papers were conspicuously biased. One editor-in-chief told a Beauprez insider that it was his paper’s mission to get Ritter elected. Nice commitment to objectivity.

We could point to spurious attack ads – a friend of mine was labeled by his opponent as the pro-cancer candidate. Of course the war and the Administration’s handling of it certainly had an impact.

We could hand the blame around, but in the end Republicans must recognize their own responsibility for the loss of the 2006 election. We had help from the press, the 527’s, even death squads a world away, but most of the blame rests with us. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner (baochsner@aol.com)

We need to get back to basics, and be the party of big ideas again. Also need to get back to fundamentals. As Vince Lombardi said to his team on the first day of training camp: “Men, this is a football.” Or to Republicans: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are the party of lower taxes and spending, limited government, and personal responsibility. Any questions?” Bush and Owens really killed us by abandoning conservative principles. Some folks want to bash social conservatives for the party’s problems, but that isn’t the cause IMHO. 43 passed, Ref. I failed, that’s proof right there.

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

There is a perception on the part of the “progressives” that we have the option to walk away from the struggle with Islam without consequence. (Was this not the case in Vietnam?) It is consistent with the belief that “we are the problem,” that “fighting the war on terror is what’s causing terror.” (more…)