I told you last week about the meet and greet KBDI channel 12 is hosting for me in downtown Golden.  Well, the time is upon us!  Tomorrow from 6pm to 9pm at the Golden Hotel, I will be live in the flesh, glad-handing, kissing babies, and signing autographs.  (8 x 10 glossies not included, please bring your own).  I hope you are as excited meeting me as I would be about meeting me.

But seriously, come on out; I’d love to meet you and hear what you have to say about the show. Besides, a $10 donation to KBDI gets you the chance to buy me a drink.  What a win-win!

Space is limited, so call Channel 12 at 303.991.5038 to reserve your spot.

Subtitle: Or How He Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Disclosure

Last Friday, our investigative reporter Todd Shepherd broke this story about Governor Ritter and his cabinet largely ignoring a 1999 ethics executive order for nearly 3 years.  Todd and I also recorded a podcast for iVoices.org on the matter.  I’ll let Todd’s report give you the low down on what Ritter failed to do:

Governor Ritter’s office has only one “conflict of interest” report on file for the fifteen members of his cabinet, despite an executive order that requires each and every member of his cabinet to file such a (financial) disclosure.

Thus, we have former prosecutor Bill Ritter ignoring a law, an ethics law, for almost 3 years.  Why is it that this administration must be dragged kicking and screaming into transparency?

He had a few options he could have taken when faced with former Governor Bill Owen’s executive order:
1. Follow it.
2. Rescind it.
3. Ignore it and hope it goes away.

Unfortunately for Ritter, option 3 did not work out. He was caught dead to rights and was forced to publically dig himself out of a ditch – which he tried to do on 850KOA’s Mike Rosen show. Here is the audio of Ritter on Rosen explaining what went wrong and what he plans to do to fix it. I’ll give you a minute to listen to the clip….

Did you hear that?! Ritter THANKED me and the Independence Institute! (You’re welcome, sincerely Guv, thanks for stepping up and taking responsibility for this one).

Ritter’s plan to correct this ethics misstep is to rescind Bill Owen’s executive order and issue a new one, which he’s done as of this morning, as reported by the Denver Post. And by new I mean virtually identical to the old one (minus the gifts part which is now covered by Amendment 41).

The Westword covered the story with an emphasis on the Governor’s office ignoring all of our requests for facts and comment. Didn’t Evan Dreyer realize we could tell he was reading our emails and ignoring them?

Prison spending in our state has tripled over the last 20 years.  Unless Colorado has suddenly become a vacation destination for the common criminal, something has gone awry on the sentencing law front.  Thus, we have the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) to address sentencing reform, and possible solutions to our criminalization, probation, and recidivism problems. Commission member and Colorado State Public Defender Doug Wilson joined Justice Policy Center director Mike Krause on iVoices.org for an overview of what the CCJJ plans to do, how things are going, and what he hopes will result from the meetings. In addition, Mike has planned an event out on the western slope that features quite the distinguished panel: State Senator Morgan Carroll; Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger, Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey, Chairman of the 9th JD Community Corrections Board Steve Reynolds, Colorado Department of Public Safety Director Pete Weir, and Colorado Department of Corrections Director Ari Zavaras. They will be discussing the impact of sentencing on Colorado’s prison population and on the Colorado budget, and the ongoing work of the CCJJ to address sentencing reform in Colorado.

Event info:
Thursday, October 22, 2009
4:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Two Rivers Convention Center – 159 Main Street, Grand Junction, Colorado 81501

Admission Free
Refreshments served

RSVP to Angeline Roles at (970) 242-3246 or aroles@club20.org
by October 19, 2009

What do health care, the economy, bailouts and deficits have in common? They all somehow involve the Obama Administration, and have all been covered by Denver Post columnists David Harsanyi and Mike Littwin. Tune into Independent Thinking as Harsanyi and Littwin join me to talk about the President’s agenda and what it means for Coloradans. That’s tonight at 8:30 pm on KBDI Channel 12; repeated the following Monday afternoon at 1:30 pm.

Washington state is mulling over whether they’d like to adopt a TABOR-like amendment for themselves.  Resident economist and senior fellow Barry Poulson thinks they ought to.  After all, it has been TABOR that has helped us evade situations like California’s current bankrupt fate.  Like clockwork, Washington residents are already hearing the same scare stories we all did (and still do) about how TABOR starves the state’s budget, makes children cry, and kicks cute puppies.  Fortunately for the state of Washington, the Bellingham Herald published Barry’s new piece on exactly why Washington should consider adopting a TABOR-esque measure.  Plus, Barry went on air on Washington’s David Boze’s radio show to discuss the issue and reply to some of the scare stories.

The full quote from our Jessica Corry’s HumanEvents.com piece is, “The Canada Health Act is responsible for more pain, more suffering, and more death than any other piece of domestic legislation in history,” he said. “Imagine a law that prevents you from taking care of yourself and preventing your own death.” That powerful quote comes from Rick Baker, a Canadian who helps fellow Canadians escape south to us in the States to get the medical care they need.

The Colorado Springs Gazette also came along with us to Vancouver and ended up quoting Rick as well in their piece, A Look at Canada’s Health Care Plan.

Keep checking back here for more coverage from our trip, as we are still waiting on a couple of features.

***Feels great to be back in the States! Our Canadian Health Care Fact Finding Trip was a resounding success. We were able to get coverage on the Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier and a whole slew of local Fox affiliates (including our Fox 31), in addition to being published in The Washington Times, L.A. Times, and The Wall Street Journal. John Fund, who joined us for our Canadian adventure, wrote the latest piece printed just today in the Journal, Escape to Montana. Gateway Pundit also did a fantastic job live blogging the event for us. Check his coverage here for analysis and videos.

***Wait, so why were we in Canada getting a closer look at their “public option?” Check out this earlier post I wrote outlining our mission.

***Obama’s “stimulus” package has brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to Colorado in order to create jobs. (as if government can create a job without destroying private sector jobs). Our Colorado Spending Transparency (COST) director Amy Oliver uncovered just how costly it is to “create” jobs with tax dollars. After reading it, you’ll likely ask yourself, “am I in the wrong business?”

***Washington state is in the middle of debating whether to bring a TABOR like amendment to their neck of the woods. Economist and senior fellow Barry Poulson could not be more clear: do it!

Wow, we must be doing something right if even the L.A. Times writes such a favorable article on the southward escape routes that exist in Canada. Medical “brokers” arrange these routes south to us in the States as a last ditch effort to relieve someone of chronic pain or keep them alive. The author Kim Murphy uses a couple of the stories in her piece that we’ve heard up here in Vancouver.

Below are a couple of the health care horror stories that are all too common up here. These folks share what they did when faced with rationing from their “public option:”

Thanks to Gateway Pundit for his continuing coverage of our trip.

Wondering where I was were ya? Well, I’m hanging out with our neighbors to the north in Vancouver, Canada (eh?) on a mission to get a closer look at the Canadian health care system. We’ve got 6 Canadians who were denied treatment under their “public option,” and are willing to share their stories.
We will also be meeting with a medical broker who helps Canadians escape south to the states to get the care they need – in time – so they can live. The overall theme of the trip thus far has been, “don’t do what we did, then we won’t have any place to escape to!”

Here is some of the media coverage of our trip so far: Gateway Pundit has been live blogging the event on site here. The Washington Times wrote a piece focusing on the medical brokers necessary to keep average Canadians alive.

I’ll keep linking to new coverage as it appears. Keep checking back!

KBDI Channel 12 is hosting a meet and greet for me on Thursday, October 8th, from 6-9pm at the Golden Hotel in downtown Golden.
This is your chance to not only meet yours truly, but to meet the good folks behind our TV show Independent Thinking – including KBDI president and CEO Wick Rowland. This is your chance to ask Wick the tough questions, like why I don’t have my own dressing room, why they keep giving me plain M&M’s when my contract clearly states Peanut! (You could also ask him if he really thinks “Frontline” isn’t biased.)

But seriously, come on out; I’d love to meet you and hear what you have to say about the show. Besides, a $10 donation to KBDI gets you the chance to buy me a drink.  What a win-win!  Space is limited, so call Channel 12 at 303.991.5038 to reserve your spot.