HB 1278 was thought to be down and out, but just like Rocky emerging from the canvas against that Communist bastard Ivan Drago, House Bill 1278 lives on. The Denver Post reports, “Swayed by emotional testimony from property owners who are losing their land through RTD’s power of eminent domain, a Senate committee rejected what was described as a “watered-down” bill to curb that power and requested reconsideration of the originally introduced measure.”

The House did its best to amend the bejeezus out of the bill, but the Senate committee was having none of it, and will hear the bill in its original form tomorrow. If passed with the original language, HB 1278 will curtail the public-private shenanigans that HB 1354 encourages. In order to prevail, HB 1278 must go into tomorrow’s battle with the same vigor that Rocky possessed in defense of his dead friend Apollo Creed.

Thanks to the hard work of my minions, we have a growing multimedia outlet for property rights issues.

In a rather odd twist of fate, the Property Rights Project blog reports that we have potentially the most unlikely fan of our push for property rights multimedia: the father of Light Rail himself! To be fair, I’m not sure he’s actually a fan of our videos, but judging from his statements he’s at least a fan-to-be. Not only that, he’s also one of the more outspoken opponents of HB 1354, also known as, “the college tuition fund for the children of developers.”

Ethiopian journalist Habtamu Dugo will be speaking at the Independence Institute offices tonight. The reception will be at 5:30, followed by his presentation and Q&A at 6pm. He is a brilliant and courageous man who is sure to inspire all who attend. Give Kay a ring at 303-279-6536 if you plan on attending.

My minions have created another masterpiece. It has already been picked up by the Rocky Mountain Right, Heritage’s Insider Online, Property Rights Project blog, and CEI’s blog, openmarket.org. We are very excited about this video so please don’t hesitate in sharing it with everyone you know!

Update: We’ve got some interesting primary documents from the Gallegos story now on our site.

Well, Samsphere Denver is over and done with but hopefully not forgotten. I had a really good time meeting the 50 or so “basement dwellers” that make up the Colorado blogesphere and was finally able to put some faces to the blogs that I’ve been reading. The morning presentation was a seminar in the basics of blogging and how to set up your very own blog. By lunchtime Sam had helped create a good amount of new blogs. As the day went on, the advice became more and more advanced and focused, finally culminating in a panel that I sat on to finish the day off. Slapstick Politics has the video of my advice to all you bloggers out there.

Taking a cue from Ben DeGrow, here are some other Samsphere accounts from bloggers smarter and more respected than I: Face the State, Bob’s blog, Night Twister, and Slapstick’s YouTube page filled with videos from the event.

Ben DeGrow found himself quoted for a second time in the Rocky last week. This time it was for his right-to-work stance on Colorado’s unionization woes. It’s no shock that the forces of collectivism come out swinging when anyone defends an individual worker’s right to choose where he or she works and for how much.  What’s funny is that they label us “anti-worker.”

Dave Kopel wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal last week about Hillary and Obama running around the country in a pro-gun rights charade. Give me a break. They are about as pro-gun as I am pro-taxes.

It seems the Senate Committee on Transportation wanted nothing to do with stopping RTD’s public-private nonsense. They passed the bill unamended to the Senate Committee of the Whole. Needless to say, this guy has reason to be happy.

Keeping with the Ritter’s executive order theme we’ve got going on, take a look at this. It can be found in LoDo at 16th and Wewatta:

Jimmy Hoffa, eat your heart out.

Late on a Friday afternoon last November, Governor Ritter issued an executive order allowing “employee partnerships.” Since then, some state employees have had encounters with guys like this. Others might find themselves being “exclusively represented” by guys like that without their consent soon enough. I recently sat down with policy analyst Ben DeGrow to discuss how representation like this passes and what it means for our state employees. Turns out, the voting process isn’t as democratic as you might have heard. Ben also goes into his newest paper titled, A Shaky Foundation, A Potential Threat: Analyzing Colorado State Union “Employee Partnerships.“ In it, Ben exposes some of the misstatements and fallacies surrounding the executive order, and it’s effects on the efficiency and transparency of state government. Unfortunately, the evidence is quite sobering for those state employees who do not feel as though they need representation.

© 2008, Benjamin Hummel. To see more cartoons like this go to www.politixcartoons.com.