BackboneAmerica

Note: This was also the first column on Townhall.com, Sunday 4/1/07

(Andrews in Denver Post, April 1) As a staunch conservative, I’ve never had much use for Hillary and Bill. But after their recent civil rights pilgrimage to Selma, Alabama, a change of heart overtook me. I have signed on as national chairman of Republicans for Clinton 2008, and you read it here first.

Actually, you read it here on April First, which means I’m fooling. You weren’t really taken in, were you? It was just too far out of character. Of course, people thought the same thing when such bad actors as Saul of Tarsus, slave trader John Newton, and Nixon hatchet man Chuck Colson signed on as born-again Christians. They were dismissed as frauds, fools, or both. But each man’s turnabout made him a benefactor to society thereafter. (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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Theocracy alert, take cover! The top Democrats making education policy at the Colorado General Assembly say there is “a special place in hell” for supporters of charter schools and parental choice. That’s according to an email from Rep. Mike Merrifield, House Education chairman, to Senate Education chairman Sue Windels, disclosed this week by the new website FacetheState.com. (Oops, late-breaking news and correction: Make that former Chairman Merrifield, since he quit the post in disgrace on Friday.) (more…)

By Brian Ochsner (baochsner@aol.com)

What’s the solution to rising oil & gas prices? Time and the free market will tell, but Rebecca Hagelin of World Net Daily explains why America should steer away from ethanol. US News & World Report gave a similar caution signal in its Feb. 12 cover story. Beware the hype.

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

I am pro-legal immigration. My great grandparents were immigrants after all. I could become a squish on illegal immigration. I know from a friend’s experience how hard it is for a decent, hard-working person to come here legally. The barriers are too high even for those with skills and job offers. I understand the temptation to come here illegally. I can feel myself drift toward supporting amnesty legislation championed by President Bush and Senator Ted Kennedy. What snaps me back? The entitlement attitude voiced by immigration activists sends me running to the border of immigration enforcement policy. (more…)

Update after 3/25 show: We were pleased to welcome as a surprise guest this evening, in addition to the strong lineup below, GOP presidential candidate Duncan Hunter. The California congressman, campaigning on defense, immigration, and trade, recently topped straw polls in AZ and SC. Matt Dunn, Karen Kataline, and I were pretty impressed with what he had to say. Read more about him at www.goHunter08.com.

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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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“As an Arab Christian, and victim of radical Islam during the Lebanese civil war, I refuse to stand by and let the same thing happen to my adopted country, the United States. Even after 9/11, there are those who say that we must ‘engage’ our terrorist enemies, that we must ‘address their grievances.’ (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 March series this week. Andrews took aim at the new governor’s appetite for revenue. Other topics this month include Bush’s second-term woes, the ho-hum election in Denver, US relations in the hemisphere, and Iraq yet again.

1. RITTER SEEKS NEW TAXES

John: Bill Ritter is going to become known as Gov. Tax Hike if he’s not careful. He recently floated trial balloons for additional millions from the taxpayer to fatten school budgets and additional billions for the highway system. State revenues from Referendum C are already two billion above estimates. How much is enough? (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

If one can get past the minutiae of the bickering in the West over the war, (resolutions for pullout, whining about Halliburton making too much money, etc.) what is manifest clearly is a lack of understanding what the war is all about and what is at stake. The place to start is with the Islamics.

They are motivated by an eschatological view that sees the struggle with the West building to a cataclysmic battle that will result in the entire world placed under the domination of Islam (see among many sources “The Fight for Jerusalem” by Dore Gold, Regnery Publishing, Inc. Washington DC 2007, Introduction). Their subjugation of Jerusalem and building the Caliphate are essential ingredients of this vision. But what do policy makers in the West see? (more…)

(Andrews in Denver Post, Mar. 18) Big Labor is furious at the Colorado law making it hard for union bosses to collect dues from workers unwilling to join. A bill to remove that protection flew through the legislature, only to die on Gov. Bill Ritter’s desk. Now the AFL-CIO threatens to run the Democratic convention out of Denver unless their pickpocket proposal is revived.

Ritter says he won’t be bullied, but stay tuned. Remember that our new chief executive, Kerry-style, was for the labor bill before he was against it. The battle for the governor’s soul, on this and many other issues, has barely begun. (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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Air America was abuzz on Thursday with flippant calls about assorted misdeeds we can now blame on Khalid Sheikh Muhammad - killing Anna Nicole, shaving Britney’s head, formulating New Coke, etc. Randy Rhodes, the acid-mouthed host, was having a little contest to ridicule Khalid’s confession of planning 9/11 and 30 other terrorist attacks. Ha ha.

Smug denial is some people’s response to the Islamofascist design for destroying the United States, Israel, and the free world. But we at Backbone Radio respond with defiance and determination to repel this threat and defeat this enemy at all costs. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner (baochsner@aol.com)

Exactly as Ronald Reagan said, the nine scariest words a small business owner (or investor) can hear is: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” Government ‘helps’ just like a 5-year-old helps his mom make breakfast: the actions may be well-intentioned, but the results aren’t that positive. (more…)

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

“With conservative thought accepted as mainstream thought and with the people of our country leading the fight to freedom, now we must move.” - Ronald Reagan, CPAC 1985

What else does a movement do, after all? It moves! That seems so obvious, yet at CPAC 2007 earlier this month, I had to wonder if our conservative movement has somehow lost the inspiration and the urgency of President Reagan’s rallying cry to us back in the day.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. CPAC, if you didn’t know, is the Conservative Political Action Conference. Over the last 34 years, the event has become a conservative tradition for members of the movement to come to Washington DC, share ideas, and forge relationships. The weekend of March 1-3 was no exception to that tradition — another productive and exciting weekend at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

Four years ago, I first attended CPAC when I was a student at the University of Denver. Along with many other young conservatives around the nation, I went to further my education of conservative principles and to network with all those who shared my values. (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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It was quite a week. Since Sunday I’ve been targeted with venom and rage from the left for saying in my column that it’s okay to embrace “America without apologies,” and that our fellow citizens who see only America’s imperfections are like spoiled children.

Tuesday I was the guest of Bellevue University in Omaha for a speech on conservatism in the 21st century. We talked about the sad irony of many of our country’s most affluent and educated people being its shrillest detractors. John Muller, Bellevue’s president, remarked that “success can be its own worst enemy,” whether for a person, an institution, or a whole nation like ours. (more…)

The long legal battle over our 2003 bill to draw permanent congressional districts ended Monday when the US Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of four Colorado voters seeking redress under Article I, Section 4 of the US Constitution.

The Denver Post gloated editorially that this “high-handed and illegal” action of the General Assembly has at last been disposed of. Presumably written by Bob Ewegen, who has had a four-year mad against yours truly about this issue, the editorial did me the honor of personal responsibility for the disputed legislation. (more…)

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

A big home improvement project monopolized my time for weeks. As I tiled, painted, sawed and plumbed, emails and phone messages piled up. Newspapers and magazines went unread. Today I’m catching up and regretting it.

Thanks to the Denver Post I’ve learned that teens have been charged in the brutal slaying of one teen’s mother, conflict has erupted over the use of water, Democrats in the state’s General Assembly are pushing for gay adoption and voter rights for convicts on parole, and Iraqi terrorists have killed more civilians.

Not to be outdone, the Rocky Mountain News, features on-line pictures of tornado-wrought destruction, an article about another school shooting, and a tale about a counterfeiter who bought Girl Scout cookies with bogus bills (not a bad use in my estimation). (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

Islam has no clergy. What they have is “consensus”, a consensus managed currently by militant Imams who whip the faithful into frenzies of hatred, as seen in the widely distributed photo of a poster demanding “Behead Those Who Insult Islam,” at a rally in London a couple of years ago.

Not only does militant Islam deny the holocaust of Jews during WWII, they are now denying that the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the site of the present day Al Aksa Mosque, ever existed. (more…)