Backbone Radio

Rodney King for President?

Slated on Backbone Radio, July 20 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

"Can't we all just get along?" The absurd but famous plea of troublemaker Rodney King, dismayed by the riots exploding on the pretext of sympathy for him, echoes as a motto of our times. Liberals, radicals, utopians, and entrenched interests always manage to seem surprised, even hurt, when their bullying is resisted. Barack Obama's words just after 9/11, lecturing about the need to "understand" Islamist rage and mayhem, have been in the news this week. He expressed the same cool condescension in saying the US mustn't be "provocative" in response to Iran's recent missile tests. That's right, we're the problem.

Look, Senator: anybody who's spent an hour thinking about history and human behavior knows that actually we can't all just get along. Evil is out there, predators are out there, selfishness and sinfulness are here to stay. The world will never stop being a contentious place. We'll always need to defend what's right and good.

That's why Backbone Radio stands for America with steel in her spine. A nation of invertebrates will soon be lunch for powers on the prowl. In different ways, this theme runs through our July 20 show.

** Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO5), co-founder of the House Missile Defense Caucus, talks about those tests by Tehran the other day. John Fonte of the Hudson Institute debunks the dangerous fallacy of global governance, a rapidly growing fad.

** Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute and Ward Connerly of the American Civil Rights Institute report on the gutter tactics being used against their ballot issues to curb union power (Jon) and end racial preferences (Ward).

** Plus an update from our man in Hollywood, black conservative author and actor Joseph C. Phillips.

The Left never sleeps. Not here in Colorado, not in your state, not in Washington DC either. The current Weekly Standard cover story where I'm quoted makes that grimly clear. So we can't sleep unless their vision for a "just get along" USA is okay with us. And I'm pretty sure of your answer to that.

Yours for a fighting faith, JOHN ANDREWS

After Tancredo, who?

Slated on Backbone Radio, July 13 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

These are the times that try Republican souls. GOP morale isn't good as Democrats swoon over Obama and take aim on House and Senate gains. Opportunity awaits, though, with Congress holding a dismal 9% approval rating and the public realizing how Dems' obstructionism has pushed up gas prices. For conservatives with fire and backbone, 2008 can be a good year and 2009 a better one.

Suburban Denver is witnessing a dandy primary fight set off by the retirement of one such conservative, Congressman Tom Tancredo, and the aspiration of several others to succeed him. The primary on Aug. 12 probably matters more in this safe Republican district than the general election on Nov. 4. Ballots go in the mail next week, so this is the home stretch.

** Backbone Radio this Sunday will host a forum (not a debate) among these four contenders. I'll have a quarter-hour each with Secretary of State Mike Coffman, State Sen. Steve Ward, State Sen. Ted Harvey, and businessman Wil Armstrong. You'll know more about each man's qualifications and beliefs when we're done.

** I'll talk with commentator, author, and activist Floyd Brown, whose independent TV ads have stirred national politics since 1988. Some say Brown's plans for this year are what made Obama break his promise on public campaign funds.

** Turning to our Colorado brain trust, we'll also hear from former education commissioner Bill Moloney about the political view from Cape Cod, Kennedy country -- and from CU classics professor Christian Kopff about his new book on Western civilization.

"We should seek to be more influencing than influenced," urges BackboneAmerica.net contributor Jim Ritchie. "Be a thermostat, not a thermometer," is another way I've heard it put. Good advice for conservatives in a summer when even the summer soldiers seem ready to wilt. No wilting here -- we can stand the heat, we've got spine. Please stand with us.

Yours for victory, JOHN ANDREWS

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