BackboneAmerica

Open letter from John Andrews
To John Temple, Editor & Publisher, Rocky Mountain News

Dear John: Twice this week your paper has shown glaring lapses from journalistic standards and gross disrespect of important public figures. I and other readers expect better from the Rocky.

Policeman Ken Jordan’s murder was ignored in the wording and dishonored in the tone of your Wednesday front page headline (print edition): “A cop’s last stop: DUI suspect, ‘tired of drama’ with police, opens fire on Springs officer.” A lawman who gives his life in the line of duty does not deserve such oblique, breezy treatment in a news story.

Congressman Bob Beauprez’s honorable service and unsuccessful run for governor, supported by the votes of over half a million Coloradans, were bashed by the editorial spread on page 4A, Tuesday. The main story, though written straight, was undercut by ridicule in the photo caption: “You’ve got Bobmail.” The mocking sidebar, “Extra! Were we at the same election?”, should have been signed and identified as opinion — if placed on the news pages at all.

Such juvenile attempts at irreverence are unworthy of a good high school newspaper, let alone a major metropolitan daily. Are you really so desperate to be in contrast with the Denver Post, to sell papers by appearing hip and cute?

You owe a published apology to the family and friends of the heroic Officer Jordan — and in lesser degree to Congressman Beauprez and his supporters. Shame on the Rocky Mountain News.

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

There was a time when we fought a great war to “make the world safe for democracy”. Now Hezbollah, the Iranian and Syrian surrogate, is putting mobs in the streets to strangle the infant Cedar Revolution democracy in its crib before our very eyes. This is in much the same way that Hitler’s SA thugs intimidated the German legislature to pass his “enabling act” in 1933, which ended the Weimar Republic of that time. Will anything be done?

We can count on the usual paralysis from the UN. Once idealized as an International Forum where disputes could be resolved instead of going to war, the UN has become an import of third world corruption that provides a world wide audience to petty tyrants and their propaganda. Defending democracy and freedom is not on their agenda. (more…)

Barakat Bad, Rose Remarkable

On tonight’s Backbone Radio show, local Muslim leader Rima Barakat was more evasive, combative, and manipulative than anyone we’ve ever tried to interview. Who is being more honest and fair, Barakat in her 11/20 Rocky piece voicing Palestinian grievances or Neil Dobro in his 11/27 reply defending Israel? Why was she unwilling to explain the MILA charity (Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism) and her connection to it? See the links and judge for yourself.

But our next guest, Danish editor Flemming Rose, gave a superb account of his role in the Mohammed cartoon controversy, and through that prism, of what a free society should mean and how Europe should respond to radical Islam.

The cartoons, very sparsely published in this country, can be viewed on Joshua Sharf’s website. Rose’s eloquence and courage will be on stage at the CU-Boulder law school building, Wittemyer Courtroom, 730pm Monday. Free and open to the public.

Will Perlmutter & Lamborn measure up?

(Andrews in Denver Post, Dec. 3) Meet Diana DeGette, Mark Udall, John Salazar, and Ed Perlmutter, majority Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation. Meet Tom Tancredo, Marilyn Musgrave, and Doug Lamborn, minority Republicans in the delegation.

Last month these seven Coloradans were elected to represent the other five million of us in Washington. Next month they will swear an oath to the Constitution and join the most important legislative body on earth, trustees for the nation’s liberty, security, and prosperity – and for all mankind’s hope of freedom. We need the best each can give.

It’s odd, when you think about it: sending a handful of our fellow citizens off to the Atlantic seaboard to make laws for you and me here in the Rockies, to impose taxes on us and determine what the state gets back (only 79 cents on the dollar at present, chew on that). Yet as I argued here on Nov. 5, representative government in this continental republic has worked about as well as the Founders hoped.

It must work even better in coming years, however, if America is to avoid the historical pattern of great nations declining from softness at home and weakness abroad after a couple of centuries on the rise. Such is the challenge confronting Congress when Speaker Pelosi bangs the gavel in January. (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
———————————————————————–
Did Islamist agitators manufacture the huge protest against those Danish cartoons? Of course. Did they also stage the recent imam airliner incident? Very likely. Should Turkey, the cradle of ancient Christianity, treat the Pope and all Christians more tolerantly? Yes. Is jihad for Allah the greatest global threat to human freedom today? Yes absolutely.

With me in the studio this Sunday will be Flemming Rose, the courageous Danish editor who first published those cartoons. He’ll speak at CU-Boulder the next day. “Backbone Radio with John Andrews” has never had a more notable guest, or a more urgent topic, in our 100-plus shows. I hope you will listen in and call in. (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

America has always been the land of the immigrant. We all know the famous poem by Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, /I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

But does this not assume that those who come to America wish to leave the old hatreds behind and build a new life? Can we afford to be as welcoming to immigrants who:

* Have announced their intention to NOT assimilate (more…)

By Brian Ochsner (baochsner@aol.com)

While the financial press has been trumpeting the Dow hitting the 12,000 level, I’ve been doing some contrarian financial research. I’ve looked at the prices of certain key commodities and indices – namely, gold, silver, and the US Dollar Index.

I’ve heard well-respected commentators such as Larry Kudlow and Mike Rosen make solid cases about why budget deficits aren’t that important and won’t negatively affect the US economy. This is usually to support the case for continued confidence and investment in the US stock market. They’re correct, based on two big assumptions: 1) The rest of the world still has confidence in the US Dollar as a store of wealth, and 2) Foreign central banks will continue to lend us insane amounts of money (over $2 billion/day) to keep the credit party going. (more…)

NATIONAL REVIEW, December 4, 2006
The Color Purple
How liberal millionaires are buying Colorado’s politics
By John J. Miller (more…)