Letter to editor, Longmont Times-Call
Published 4-24-09

SEN. SHAFFER CO-OPTS REPUBLICAN VALUES

Regarding state Sen. Brandon Shaffer’s “Colorado’s guiding values,” 4/19/09 Times-Call opinion page: Nowhere identifying himself as a Democrat, he co-opts for his own purposes long-held principles of the Republican Party, such as “putting people above the pressures of special interest groups” and “creating a (state) budget process that is strong and stable … based on the beliefs and the values that guide us.” Sound familiar? That’s right, Republican principles are based on moral and family values.

Recently chosen as president of the upper house of the Colorado Legislature by his fellow Democrats, undeniably an honor, one might think Shaffer ascended to the governorship instead by immediately promising to convene an interim commission of legislators and community leaders “to craft a state budget process.” How this would differ from similar “bipartisan” budget studies underway or already performed by committees appointed by either Gov. Ritter or the Legislature is not clear.

Of course, Shaffer exemplifies the historic role of tax-and-spend Democrats: expand government at every level and control peoples’ lives. That’s all they know how to do. The only difference currently is that the progressive liberals who now run the party think they can outflank the Republicans by hijacking the GOP’s long-held moral principles (e.g., thou shall not steal from Pinnacol) just long enough to form a bipartisan coalition to go about dismantling TABOR –- the only barrier that protects the common people of Colorado from confiscatory taxation.

Do not be fooled.

Voters in states teetering on bankruptcy today such as California, New Jersey, Kentucky and Missouri had the opportunity to adopt their own version of TABOR but failed to act. In all good conscience, we who believe in financial integrity in government cannot let Shaffer and his gang push Colorado into that abyss.

Longmont deserves better representation than this.
P.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST SCANDALS IN OUR MIDST

As suggested in the Longmont Times-Call’s call-in, one way to solve the prairie dog problem at Longmont’s Vance Brand Municipal Airport without exterminating them might be to trap them and see how many of the caring people who show up at these public hearings step forward to take them home to keep in their own backyards.

But because these cute little rodents are known carriers of the dreaded bubonic plague through infestation of fleas, that’s not a good idea. And due to their tunneling ability, of course, building fences and putting up plastic barriers to control them are usually a waste of time and money. Prairie dogs not only attract coyotes, which feed on them, but share their burrows with rattlesnakes.

So what can be done to negate their deleterious effect on properties such as public golf courses, park lawns, public airports and the like? You don’t see prairie dog burrows next to DIA runways, do you, or on the County Courthouse lawn.

Relocation is problematic if not impossible, and public officials must share the blame for neglecting this humane option. While it is true that mankind is encroaching on their habitat, it is also true that Boulder County has accumulated almost 94,000 acres of open space (the city of Longmont also owns hundreds of acres) without setting aside any part of it for relocating and accommodating these unwanted rodents. This is a public scandal in itself, a governmental flaw that the press simply ignores.

Early-on, metro-area counties tried exporting their prairie dogs to rural counties and got away with it for a while – until farmers and ranchers finally rose up and said no, we already have too many and we do not want yours too. Not only do these rapidly multiplying rodents feed on cash crops, they destroy scarce ground-covering by pulling grass out by the roots when they feed (much like grazing sheep do, a practice that triggered early Colorado settlers to gunfights between cattlemen and sheepmen).

There are places for these eco-important rodents to exist in peace in Boulder County, and I think people who hammer officials such as those at Longmont’s airport who find that they do not have much choice except extermination need to take their harassing complaints directly to the Boulder County Commissioners and the Longmont City Council, whose members do have the power and authority to set aside some open space land to mitigate this aggravating problem. Fair enough?
P.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS

The taxpayers might as well throw in the towel because whatever authority they once held over the public institutions that enjoy their forced contributions is disappearing at an astonishing rate and the Ward Churchill case is only the latest example. The University of Colorado is not a private institution. It depends a great deal on taxpayer funding and therefore is governed by an elected Board of Regents. After due diligence these regents, who represent all the people of Colorado, found that employee Professor Churchill’s work was not up to standard, so they fired him. Along comes an accomplished tort lawyer who smells money and knows how to play a tune on journalists’ butts, sues the University, overwhelms a fumbling defense lawyer who no one has ever heard of, succeeds in making a First Amendment case out of it, which it is not, and he and his client prevail.

THEY ARE PUSHING HARD FOR SOCIALISM, ARE YOU READY?

Abraham Lincoln, where are you? A government of the people, by the people, and for special interest groups is now what we have in Washington D.C., as over 100 of America’s most powerful and influential leftist-liberal organizations have formed a new coalition called Rebuild and Renew to boost President Barack Obama’s socialistic program to redistribute the nation’s wealth, starting with his current $3.6 trillion budget. Most of the members of this group are already supping at the public trough, while others either intend to, or will act as cheerleaders or even strong-arm enforcers. Government largesse manufactures votes, they know it, and that’s what this game is about.

R&R’s roster is loaded with familiar names. Heading the list is ACORN. A few more at random: the AFL-CIO, AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), Americans for Democratic Action, AAUW (American Association of University Women), Common Cause, Greenpeace, MoveOn Action Fund, National Education Association, People for the American Way, Sierra Club, and ProgressNow. The American Civil Liberties Union reportedly joined but for reasons not disclosed withdrew.

More about ProgressNow: Based in Washington D.C., it has a Denver affiliate called ProgressNowColorado, which has played and continues to play a significant role in Longmont city politics, such as fighting a church expansion project and electing key council members. Its Denver website has deleted a video of Longmont team leader Jen Gartner extolling the success of a petition drive she and her teammates engineered, but still posts a list of 80 Longmont members, most of whom are anonymous.

I lived through it: Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced socialism in 1933 with his New Deal and it did not work (the unemployment rate in 1939 was still at 17%), Lyndon Baines Johnson tried it in 1964 with his Great Society and it did not work, now Barack Hussein Obama thinks he is smart enough to make it work. Abraham Lincoln, where are you?
P.