Rule One: If you can't afford it, you can't have it.

It is a familiar sight at the legislature.

Another well-intentioned bill that would cost taxpayers' money was supported by all the members of one party and opposed by all the members of the other party.

The supporters of the bill, estimated to cost $22 million according to the Denver Post, argued that it was good for the state, despite the cost. The party opposing the bill said that this is no time to increase government spending since the state is facing a $1.2 billion shortfall.

Of course, it is easy to tell which party is which. Yep, all the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee voted in FAVOR of the bill and spending the money, and all the Democrats on the committee voted AGAINST it.

Wha - what?

It's true. Apparently "fiscal restraint" has its limits.

The bill in question died in committee along a 7-4 party vote. It would have made a third DUI a felony. That is probably a really good idea. But when you can not pay for it, you can not have it. It is a pretty simple rule.

Isn't that what the Republicans tell the Democrats all the time?

I demand you read this!

There is more than one problem with Mark Hillman's Denver Post column published yesterday. (Trial Lawyer Hypocrisy Act.)

One, however, really jumps out. Twice he writes how plaintiff attorneys can "demand up to 40 percent" of the eventual recovery.

How does that "demand" work?

Circle K can "demand" consumers spend $5.00 for a "fun size" Snickers. So what? Ain't nobody gonna be meeting that demand.

I can "demand" Sandra Bullock's appearance at dinner. That demand ain't gonna be met either.

People that have been injured by the someone else's negligence have a wide selection of attorneys from which to choose to represent them. Almost none will hire an attorney who "demands" 40 percent. It is called a "free market," something Republicans usually extol the virtues of.

Couldn't we get a few more levels of government involved?

Today's Denver Post declares in a broad headline

Feds jump aboard rail hub

The article by Mike McPhee states that "the announcement of a $304 million federal loan Friday gave the green light to the redevelopment of Union Station... ."

Further, "the loan (is) guaranteed by the City and County of Denver."

This means that one level of government, the feds, are going to give your money to another level of government, the Regional Transportation District, and that another level of government, the City and County of Denver, has guaranteed with your money the loan of your money to you.

All of this for a project no private investor would touch.

Of course, every transaction between each level of government has a cost. You, of course, pay for that, too.

Hey, let's put these guys in charge of EVEN MORE healthcare

According to today's edition of the Denver Post:

A Montbello mother says her 9-year-old son's death from severe asthma could have been prevented had Denver Human Services resolved problems with his Medicaid pharmacy benefits.

Zuton Lucero said she called Human Services every three days for months last year when she was suddenly unable to get prescription drugs for her son, Zumante.

The boy's health deteriorated without the medication, his doctor said, and he died at Children's Hospital in July after losing consciousness at his house after an attack.

"I don't want anyone else to be sitting where I'm sitting," Lucero said.

Unfortunately, "compassionate" progressives want us ALL to be sitting there, Ms. Lucero.

They want the same government run system that neglected your little boy to take care of all of us.

And somehow those of us that don't believe the government is the answer to all problems are the "callous" and "uncaring" ones.

See "The human system fell down" in today's paper.

We are frogs in a pot of water. Is it getting warmer in here?

This is part one of 3. At the end of each clip, you can click to see the next one.

I ask you to watch all three parts. His comparison to the frog in the pot is 100% accurate.

I ask you to fight the expansion of state power.

And notice how hot the water is getting, before it is too late.

Hickenlooper may be "class clown," but he is also "most likely to succeed."

The Colorado GOP knows it has uphill battle on its hands in the 2010 race for governor.

GOP leadership has acknowledged that Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper is a likable fellow and their candidate Scott McInnis is .... well..... not. (See Dick Wadhams warns Republicans Scott McInnis can’t beat John Hickenlooper in a personality contest).

In a press release today, Colorado GOP chairman Wadhams says "This is not an election for class clown, it is an election for Governor of Colorado."

This is a doomed strategy. It will backfire.

Continuing the "class clown" analogy, making fun of the popular guy does not make one more popular. Generally speaking, the one making fun of the popular guy comes across as a jerk. Or, in today's vernacular, a "hater."

McInnis does not need help in that regard.

Even those that don't particularly care for the class clown will feel some sympathy for him as the jerk keeps calling him names. The official GOP name for Hickenlooper in almost all of its press releases is "Hickenritter," a reference to the sitting Democratic governor, Bill Ritter.

While the GOP may think Hickenlooper is the "class clown," it is the GOP itself acting like petulant school boys.

If the Colorado GOP does not grow up, the Colorado governor race might be one of the few elections the Dems win in 2010.

Think they'll be hatin' it then?

Unused scratch pads get jealous

Yesterday's Denver Post contained the headline:

“Countries sign deal to reduce emissions”

The story notes that “the accord is not legally binding. It has no enforcement provision….”

Allow BlueCarp the liberty of translating this story. The headline would be more accurate if it proclaimed:

“Dishonest, easily duped doodle on paper; proclaim moral superiority.”

The story should then note that “true Conservationists decried the shameless waste of paper”

Never take the first offer ... ever.

On the most recent episode of 24 (the second greatest drama in television history after The Shield), an undercover agent, Renee Walker, is making a deal to buy some weapons grade plutonium from a former KGB official. Apparently, this plutonium is a necessary and hard to get ingredient for nuclear weapons. It is not cheap.

He has the stuff. She knows he has it, but plays along as if she's just asking if he knows who might have it.

He does not know that she knows this.

He says he has to make some calls to see if he can find out who has it. He says it will take a $5 million payment just for him to make the calls because just asking around is very dangerous. He tells her if he can find the owner, $5 million is a pittance.

She plays along, says she'll ask her buyer if he's willing to pay the $5 million, and she'll get back to the former KGB guy. The make believe buyer is Jack Bauer.

Jack tells her that he can have the money wired to the KGB guys' account to facilitate the deal. The federal government is all good with this, since they are trying to keep New York City from being nuked.

Here is my quibble: if a KGB terrorist says he needs $5 million, you do not say "okay, no problem.' That's not how negotiations work. KGB terrorists know this.

You say, "sorry, my buyer isn't going to give you $5 million just to make some calls without a guarantee of some kind. You can either have a third party hold the money in escrow, or he'll pay you $1 million for your trouble, even if you come up with diddly squat. If you come through and we make the deal, you'll get your huge cut."

I'm just sayin', ....

if I were a former KGB agent with weapons grade plutonium to sell, and somebody said "OK" to my first demand without haggling, I'd immediately think I was dealing with an undercover agent and that person would be sharin' a room with some mutated fish at the bottom of the East River.

Apparently, I have spent way too much time thinking about making a deal with former KGB officials.

End the Patriot Act!

This is an email from Justin Longo regarding an important event. I have reposted here:

Hey everyone,

I want to alert you to an event that both Dave Williams and I will be attending (bonus: Dave will be speaking at the event!):

Come Join Us in supporting the Bill of Rights Defense Committee for the End the Patriot Act Rally -- Noon - 1:00pm on the West Steps of the Colorado Capitol!

It’s time to END the USA Patriot Act and enforce the Bill of Rights! Please join us over the lunch hour this Wednesday, on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol Building to send a big message to our DC Representatives. Congress will soon be voting to extend provisions of the Patriot Act, so let’s fully support the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, and the members of the House and the Senate who will be saying ‘YES’ to our beloved Bill of Rights, by voting ‘NO’ to extending the Patriot Act.

Come join Colorado Campaign for Liberty, ACLU, Libertarian Party, We Are Change, Progressive Dems, We the People and a host of other groups, for a gathering of Americans from all political persuasions who are standing up for the Bill of Rights!

That's this Wednesday, from Noon till 1pm on the west steps of the State Capitol.

Thanks for listening,

Justin Longo

Legislative Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado

"Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism." -Mises

Too much medical reefer? More government is not the answer.

There is a problem with the over prescripion of medical marijuana in Colorado. Fortunately, the solution to the problem already exists.

The pro-big government statists in both major parties, however, can not let the "crisis" go to waste. The boom of medical marijuana providers in Colorado gives the statists another opportunity to create another layer of government bureaucracy and government control over individuals and the doctor/patient relationship.

For instance, Christian Thurstone, a "board-certified child/adoscent and addictions psychiatrist" laments the abuses of our state's medical marijuana process ( see "Medical Marijuana and Teenagers, Smoke and Mirrors,") in today's Denver Post.

He complains that

In the last three months, I have seen more than a dozen young people — all between the ages of 18 and 25 and with histories of substance abuse — who received from other doctors what are essentially permission slips to smoke pot.

That presents a problem. It must be addressed.

However, Dr. Thurstone loses some credibility when he declares "Now, almost every day, a kid asks me, 'Doc, how can marijuana be bad? It's a medicine.'"

The good doctor is exasperated that he has to answer this question, as if the kid has a good point he can not refute.

That is an absurd conclusion. The kid does not have a good point. The doctor should tell the kid that valium, vicodin and oxycontin are medicine, too, and the kid should not be doing those things either, unless he has a medical need for them.

Of course, to answer in such a way is place marijuana on the same legitimate medicinal grounds as these prescription drugs. Dr. Thurstone does not wish to do this, and his bias is apparent.

(Of course, valium, vicodin and oxycontin are all more addictive and dangerous than marijuana, but let's not confuse the issue with clarity).

Dr. Thurstone has a higher opinion of his ability to determine if patients need medical marijuana than his fellow MDs. He disagrees with many of them.

He probably has a point. But let's not pretend that this is a new situation. Unethical MDs have wrongfully prescribed all kinds of medicine ever since the first prescription pad was printed.

Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson's doctors immediately come to mind.

The problem is not medical marijuana. The problem is its inappropriate prescription by licensed medical professionals. There already exists a way to deal with incompetent and/or unethical doctors.

Anyone, even other doctors like Thurstone, can file a complaint with the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners if one believes a medical doctor is acting in an unethical manner.

I found the form online in about five minutes.

The checklist of potential complaints includes "overprescribing of medications." It seems like Dr. Thurstone is in dire search of a solution that already exists, and it's as obvious as a bong at a baptism.

It appears that the good doc's real problem is that medical marijuana exists at all.

If one believes that a medical doctor is overprescribing a medicine, any medicine, report him to the board that already exists. There is no need to lobby the legislature for more government intrusion into citizens' lives.

Physician, heal thyself. And leave the legislature out of it.

Osama expresses regret at missing Copenhagen

Noted climate change expert Osama bin Laden has joined the Al Gore Cult of Global Warming.

It is not known if the Cult officially clashes with bin Laden's version of Islam.

According to the Wasington Post

"The world is held hostage by major corporations, which are pushing it to the brink," he said. "World politics are not governed by reason but by the force and greed of oil thieves and warmongers and the cruel beasts of capitalism."

The "cruel beasts of capitalism," of course, are to be replaced by the butterfly and lollipop loving rationale of Al- Qaeda.

"May I look in your trunk, sir?"

So, "Cell phone laws have no impact on accidents."

But they give the police another reason to pull you over, look in your car and ask what you are doing.

Chalk up another win for the statists and another loss for the libertarians.

You have nothing to lose but your chains!

Bill and Melinda Gates have donated $10 billion to research vaccines and bring them to the world's poorest countries.

This is clearly immoral. They "earned" this $10 billion in obscene profits by the exploitation of the labor of others.

The government should have taxed the Gates family, and Microsoft Corporation, at a higher rate thereby making sure the people benefit, and not the bourgeois elitists that think they can atone for their exploitation of others by throwing table crumbs to the poor of the world.

Only the state has the moral authority to decide whom and to what causes the natural resources of the world belong! Profiteers like the Gates have stolen the labor of the working man and it must be returned!

The right wing media, like the Associated Press, are all owned by the corporate-military-industrial complex, and these media puppets hold up those that exploit the labor of the working class as heroes!

This is nonsense! The world can only reach its potential via control by the people! Corporations, evil banksters and all of their profit-monger brethen hold us back! They use us up and spit us out!

We, the working people, should have that $10 billion for our own use! Gates and his wife did not WORK for that obscene profit! They stole it!

The United States should nationalize Microsoft and return the power to the people! We should not be beholden to our profit-seeking corporate masters! We, the collective, should decide where that $10 billion goes!

Let equality reign!

--special guest post by Krasniya Koi

Willie Nelson: Freedom fighter.

Willie Nelson cancelled a concert in Kenansville, North Carolina, Thursday night after six of his band and crew members were cited for possessing moonshine and marijuana the day of the show.

If the government has enough money to pay law enforcement officers to keep 60 year old men from drinking and smoking prior to going to work on a Willie Nelson show, then the government has too damned much money.

Just talk priorities, people. Where else could the money for enforcing these infractions be spent?

I have no doubt that statists could compile a list as long as Pinocchio's nose after an audit. Each item on that list would be a better use of tax money.

But how about this crazy idea? Let individual taxpayers keep that money and spend it however the hell they want.

Even on moonshine and reefer if they are so inclined.

Freedom just scares the hell out of so many people.

Yes, individual freedom is dangerous. It can be deadly.

But until we realize that state power is far, far more dangerous, and far, far more deadly, then we just keep paving the road to our own serfdom.

And once we reach our destination? We will be less safe, less free, and less prosperous.

And yet we speed down that road like Thelma and Louise ... knowing the result. And doing it anyway.

Let freedom ring.

He's not heavy, he's my tenth cousin.

According to The New England Historic Genealogical Society, newly elected Senator Scott Brown and President Barack Obama are 10th cousins.

Back in 2008,

"the society discovered that Obama is related to seven prior presidents, including George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison. They also learned he was related to Hollywood actor Brad Pitt."

Perhaps we are not all brothers in the literal sense. It appears, however, we may all be tenth cousins.