BackboneAmerica

Update after 2/25 show: For more about Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of American Islamic Forum for Democracy, click here. He will be on CNN with Paula Zahn, Tuesday 2/27 at 6pm MST. Heather MonDee’s self-defense class at Denver Academy of Martial Arts is called Stay Alive Personal Protection. Here’s the link. Bob Beltz of Walden Media, discussing the “Amazing Grace” movie, was rescheduled for an upcoming show.

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Did you see any sort of tribute to George Washington this week on the 275th anniversary of his birth? Me neither, and what a shame. The Father of our Country, one of the greatest men of the millennium, deserves undying homage. Presidents’ Day, this week’s generic non-holiday, is no substitute.

On last week’s show we quoted from Washington’s first inaugural address: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the American people.”

Those two duties, preserving liberty and sustaining republican government, sum up our challenge as conservatives. Lincoln echoed Washington in calling America “the last best hope of earth.” Yet political urgency of the moment often distracts us from the big picture as those heroes saw it. Our goal on Backbone Radio is to cut the clutter and keep eyes on the prize. Please join us! (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 February series this week. Andrews insisted we must not retreat in Iraq. Other topics this month include Ritter’s veto of the labor bill, the furor over Amendment 41, global warming, and the 2008 presidential race.

1. IRAQ: RETREAT OR STAND?

Susan: Growing evidence of civil war throughout Iraq, the exit of the middle class and impotent political leadership make the President’s focus on a military surge, seem like the worst kind of denial. Putting more troops in harm’s way without a political strategy and sufficient resources is unconscionable.

John: Iraq’s people voted for a constitution and elected their leaders. Islamofascists in Iran and Syria are terrified by that example of self-government. They are fomenting civil strife to destroy it. But Iraq is not the real target of these fanatics. They seek to conquer America and the free world. We must not retreat. (more…)

Update after 2/18 show: Here’s more on Star Parker, author of “Uncle Sam’s Plantation.” Gianna Jessen’s dramatic story is at giannajessen.com. “Gianna:Aborted and Lived to Tell About It” is published by Focus on the Family. Terri Rayburn’s work is detailed at fund4colorado.org. That radical school plan is at skillscommission.org.

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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After liberalism has run its course, which I believe is already happening, what will America be? That phrase, “America after liberalism,” can mean one of two things.

Either it describes a society that is demoralized, declining, and exhausted as a result of embracing false ideals - much like Europe today. Or it foresees an America on the road to renewal after rejecting the liberal illusion and rededicating ourselves to the nation’s founding principles.

Which will it be? That’s up to us. As liberalism crashes and burns, we must be ready with a conservative vision of liberty and order to rise in its place. Otherwise we’ll see the New World pulled back into the grip of the Old, erasing four centuries of ever greater independence. (more…)

(Denver Post, Feb. 18) “Ninety-nine and 44/100 percent pure.” Remember the old Ivory Soap slogan? It made the sensible point that if you start with a really clean cleaning agent, everything else will clean up better as a result.

Squeaky clean is certainly what Coloradans want with our judges, entrusted as they are with interpreting the laws, punishing wrongdoers, and dispensing justice. So you will be glad to learn that by one yardstick, voter approval, state judges are better than 99 percent perfect. It sounds improbable, but the statistic is easy to calculate.

In nine elections since the judicial performance review system began in 1988, over a thousand judges have faced the voters for retention or dismissal. Fewer than one percent were dismissed (seven, to be exact). Only 13 were even recommended as “do not retain” by the sweetheart-minded performance commissions. Be my Valentine, your honor? (more…)

Backbone Radio proudly engages a statewide and national audience each Sunday from the moral high ground of “America without apologies, America as it was meant to be, America with steel in her spine.” These were some of our hundreds of guests in 2006, the program’s third year:

Sean Allen
Conservative Student Activist

Uri Bar-Ner
Israeli Ambassador

Bob Beauprez
Candidate for Governor

Bill Becker
Maine Heritage Policy Center

Waldo Benavidez
Secure Borders Advocate (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

To the academics and left wing “progressives,” our volunteer military is now allegedly a mercenary army. The same point is cropping up from coast to coast. It is as if a switch were turned on somewhere. The plan, of course, is to make it so unfashionable that no one will volunteer. At least the Left would paint those who do as semi-literate and brutal killers.

The latest example from San Francisco high schools is a clear demonstration that they are working at younger and younger ages to achieve the purpose of rendering our democracy unable to defend itself.

But understand: the “mercenary” slur only applies to our military forces, not those of our enemies. Recently, Canadians were discovered fighting for Al Qaeda in Somalia. (more…)

By Melanie Harmon (harmon.melanie@gmail.com)

Editor’s Note: Melanie Harmon, a new contributor, submitted this piece Monday on Lincoln’s birthday. I met her as a DU undergrad when she testified in the Senate about radical faculty infringing academic freedom at Metro State, her former school. She later founded DU’s conservative student paper, Common Sense, and worked on the Holtzman for Governor campaign, before graduating in spring 2006. Welcome, Melanie – JA

Like most recent college graduates, I busted out of my cap and gown ready to conquer my next life experience: the real world. Four days after graduation, I moved to Washington, D.C. with two suitcases and lofty visions of what my life would be, post-University of Denver.

I chose our nation’s capital because I wanted to continue the conservative activism of my previous four years. I would be serving my country and the state of Colorado while sticking to the principles I knew to be good and right: personal and fiscal responsibility, little government interference, faith in God and faith in the American people.

Five months into my cross-country, real world experience, those lofty visions were promptly pulled back down to earth. The November elections taught me Lesson No. 1 of living in the real world: that life is chock-full of disappointments. (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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Statesmen are scarce, whether you look at Washington or our elected leaders here in Colorado. President Bush has shown moments of greatness but little consistency. The US Senate is an embarrassment much of the time, no matter which party is in power. Bill Ritter has fumbled repeatedly on his first series of downs. All the White House contenders for 2008 have their flaws.

So it’s not just for historical interest, but for an example much needed today, that Americans should honor the statesmanship, genius, and nobility of Abraham Lincoln at this time each year. We’ll do so this Sunday on “Backbone Radio with John Andrews,” mindful of his birth 198 years ago on Feb. 12. I hope you will join me, Joshua Sharf, and Matt Dunn for the program. (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

For those of us who love freedom and democracy, it is disturbing to see the losses we are suffering around the world to populist movements. We couch our arguments for democracy in the context of advanced and wealthy countries unconsciously, possibly not recalling the desperation among the poor of the world.

To the teeming masses in Caracas, waiting a couple of centuries for a prosperous society to develop isn’t appealing. Along comes Hugo Chavez, who confiscates the wealth of the country and redistributes it to the poor, who then think he is wonderful. That an armed thug doesn’t know a thing about running an economy doesn’t even cross their minds. His militarization of Venezuelan society will lead to oppression, war, and deeper poverty. A butcher’s bill will come due eventually, and will be paid by the very poor that now extol the man. (more…)

Today is the birthday of Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004. Two of my recent tributes to the 40th president are posted below. Reagan was a great statesman, not just a great communicator. To honor our hero’s memory, I offer a few gems from the countless sparkling words he left us. May we prove worthy of his legacy - JA
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REAGAN IN HIS OWN WORDS

** “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.” (National TV appeal for Goldwater, 1964)

** “Man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.”

** “The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve; the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideas to which we are dedicated.” (more…)

(Andrews in Denver Post, Feb. 4) In our country and our state today, government is too big, growing too fast, too intrusive in our lives, costs too much, and delivers too little value for the dollar. I say so in homage to Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004, whose birthday is Tuesday.

For Americans as a free people, two centuries into our republican experiment with liberty and responsibility, government is not the solution – it is the problem. That’s as true now as when President Reagan asserted it in his 1981 inaugural, never mind the pendulum swing of polls and parties since then.

Picture University Boulevard at evening rush hour. The snowy street was jammed. While Bob eased his SUV through the traffic, Art and Jack peppered me (the only politician among four of us coming back from skiing) with complaints about the apparently broken system evidenced by last fall’s campaign and this winter’s new officeholders.

Why all the negative ads, they grouched; why the platitudes and the sleaze? Why so many hacks jostling for power? And once in power, why the selfish grabs for advantage by each side? Why not more bipartisanship, more regard for the common good, more deference to world opinion? The ride home grew uncomfortably long as I parried the well-meant barrage.

As a constitutional conservative – that is, a believer in natural law and a realist about fallen humanity – I had rational answers for these familiar gripes from the minister, the oilman, and the financial guy. Faux unanimity is usually a mask for devilry, my line went. If fierce two-party competition seems messy, try a dozen parties splintering ideologically – or one party tyrannizing us all. (more…)

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

“Who, on average, is better paid — public school teachers or architects? How about teachers or economists?” asks a Jan. 30 oped piece in the Wall Street Journal.

The answer isn’t one you’d expect. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earn 36% more per hour than the average white-collar worker. The authors of the article, Jay Greene and Marcus Winters, released a study “How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?” taking aim at the enduring myth that teachers are underpaid. (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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Government is not the solution; government is the problem. So warned Ronald Reagan as he took office in 1981 at a time of drift and demoralization for America. His words are on my mind as we head into another weekend radio show and look to the Gipper’s birthday next Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Did Reagan mean we don’t need a strong and well-respected civil authority to protect individual rights, uphold the rule of law, and defend the peace against domestic predators and foreign enemies? Of course not. We very much need that, and without it we’d not be enjoying what our Constitution calls the “blessings of liberty” in this country today.

But what I believe the late President saw back then (a quarter-century ago, can it already be that long?), and what is even more pronounced in the nation today, is the ill effect of government exceeding its limits to the point where strength sinks under bloat and respect sours into distrust. That’s what he meant by “the problem.” (more…)