Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine is just as excited as we are about this year’s Founders Night celebration. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that he gets to spend more time with me or that he gets to debate Ann Coulter in front of our audience. Nick let his readers know about our event in this Reason blog post. Thanks Nick, we appreciate it. And yes, we DO know how to throw a good party. Remember that bet I won at our annual ATF Party this past summer? I’ll take my winnings in scotch at Founders Night.

If you want to RSVP for Founders Night online, you can go to our event page here. If you’d like to RSVP over the phone, please call Mary MacFarlane at 303-279-6536, ext 102.

Two of my good drinking buddies, libertarian Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine and social conservative Ann Coulter agree on one thing:  I’m a lot funnier after a glass of scotch. What else can we all agree on this year? Find out at our 27th Annual Founders’ Night Dinner! We will have a spirited “can’t we all get along” style debate between Nick and Ann.

This year we are holding the event on Thursday, February 16th at Infinity Park in Glendale. You can click here to buy tickets online. Or call Mary MacFarlane at 303-279-6536, ext 102 or email her at Mary@i2i.org.

In addition to featuring Nick Gillespie and Ann Coulter that night, we’ll be honoring Colorado’s most famous businessman Jake Jabs – President and CEO of American Furniture Warehouse!

QUICK – tickets are selling fast!

You may have heard about our Free People, Free Markets class, you may have even taken the course already. If not, I want to encourage you to learn more about something that is certain to enrich your life. Over the years, Free People, Free Markets: Principles of Liberty has taught hundreds of interested liberty lovers the fundamentals of economics, philosophy, and history regarding our country’s founding and economic foundations. If ever there was a time to deepen your love affair with liberty and freedom, THIS is it.

The class meets for 5 consecutive Saturdays, from 9am to noon, starting with the last Saturday in January, the 28th at Colorado Christian University’s business school, room 103 (8787 Alameda Ave, Lakewood). For more info, please call Andy Anderson at 303-829-9435.

Need more reasons why you should enrich your love of liberty? How about this:

You have a strong love of freedom. It’s a natural part of being human. But too few of today’s adults were taught the fundamentals of a free society. We have a wonderful seminar to offer you. It pulls together the basic principles of liberty and a free market, showing you that these cohesive fundamentals allow society to work well, and to honor the individual. The course material springs from the great thinkers and achievers who shaped America. It is designed for business and community leaders and the general public as well as for college students.

The course makes the moral and philosophic case for free-market capitalism. One of the most important concepts of Western Civilization is the acquisition of property as an unalienable right. The course develops the relationship between economic liberty and political liberty. Participants learn the principles behind wealth-creation. They are introduced to the philosophy of the Austrian School of Economics and its connection to the founding ideas of the American experiment. Participants are awakened to their heritage of economic liberty. It will be more than worth your time.

Classes held on five consecutive Saturdays. The course is designed for business and community leaders, college students, and the general public. If desired, you may obtain three college credits through the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs by paying the usual college per-credit fee.

Come if you love liberty. Come if you love collectivism, but need to understand the libertarian position. Come if you want to receive an inexpensive, thorough, and energetic exposure to the founding principles of economic and political liberty.

For more information about the course itself contact Penn Pfiffner at 303-233-7731 or constecon@hotmail.com. For more information about registering and any other matters contact CRBC at 303-829-9435 or principlescourse@smallbizgop.

Our good friends at Liberty on the Rocks want you to know about their upcoming Christmas party to celebrate the holidays, new years, and free market education. If you don’t know about Liberty on the Rocks yet, you should. LOTR is the free market drinking club you wish you could have joined back in college. The Denver chapter is throwing a heck of a Christmas party this Friday, December 16th at the Colorado Auto Dealers Association (CADA) that I will be attending. (Yeah, I am a featured guest. Meaning, you can drink and hang out with me… if you buy me drinks). If you have Facebook, check out the event information here. For those of you still stuck in the stone age, here is the information:

Where can you enjoy a tasty alcoholic beverage while discussing liberty and politics with others? Or sing Christmas karaoke with liberty activists, elected officials and good friends? Or receive a gift from a stranger? All while supporting free market education?At the Liberty on the Rocks Christmas party – that’s where! So mark your calendars for another great event at CADA, where you can celebrate freedom while enjoying great food, conversation and time with your friends. And who can forget the chance to talk politics *and* sing karaoke?

We will have secret Santa gift giving – where anyone bringing a gift will get one in return! In addition to great food, karaoke, a cash bar and plenty of others to mingle with. There will also be cake to celebrate the upcoming third anniversary of Liberty on the Rocks.

Admission is $15 and includes one drink ticket, complimentary snacks and a cash bar.

*SUPPORT FREE MARKET EDUCATION*

All proceeds go to support the Liberty on the Rocks Free Market Education Project, which aims to distribute free market literature and information to hundreds of people across the country through local networks.

We hope to see you there. Be sure to bring your secret Santa gift (optional), your appetite for good food and your karaoke singing voice!

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TODAY AT: http://denver.libertyontherocks.org/

Come join me for free markets, food, booze, and education. Help spread the message of liberty this Christmas season!

If you did not have the opportunity to join us last month to honor retiring Colorado Springs Gazette editorial cartoonist Chuck Asay with our prized Vern Bickel award, have no fear. Thanks to our great friend Michael Sandoval, we have video of my opening remarks and those of syndicated editorial cartoonist Henry Payne of the Detroit News and my favorite – Reason Magazine. You can catch the opening remarks in the video below:

In the second video, you’ll hear the end of Henry Payne’s opening remarks, see Chuck receive the award and say a few words:

Join your friends at the Independence Institute for our first ever Vern Bickel Award Cocktail Party! We’re partying next Thursday, November 17 at Cableland in Denver. Cableland, as you may know, is the 19,500-square-foot mansion built by Denver philanthropist and Cable TV pioneer Bill Daniels. We will be honoring Chuck Asay, retiring political cartoonist at the Colorado Springs Gazette. We’re also thrilled to present special guest Henry Payne, political cartoonist at the Detroit News.

Celebrate with us while you record the Broncos game. That way you can fast forward when the Jets score and only watch the Broncos play their “duck-and run-as-fast-as-you-can-Tebow” style offense. The party wraps up at 8PM, so you’ll be home in time to see Rex Ryan eat coach John Fox!

***Reminder: Annual Founders’ Night Dinner has moved to February 9, 2012***

Tickets $40/person
*Space is extremely limited*
Valet required
RSVP required to Mary MacFarlane at 303-279-6536 ext. 102 or Mary@i2i.org

Ticket price includes cocktails & heavy appetizers

Allow me to be sexist for a moment here. Guys, this blog post doesn’t apply to you. Ladies, please listen up:

Tickets are still available for the Fall Independent Women’s Luncheon on Thursday, Oct. 27th at the Denver Country Club from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Our keynote speaker will be Nicole Neily who serves as Executive Director of the Independent Women’s Forum. Nicole will be speaking on the issues of the day and how women have played an important role in the history and direction of our country.

Tickets are $40.

To RSVP online, go here. Or call Mary MacFarlane at 303-279-6536 ext. 102 or email mary@i2i.org

What an event! I can’t begin to describe to my readers how incredibly epic our Constitutional Law event was last month. Our two resident ConLaw scholars Dave Kopel of the University of Denver Law School and Rob Natelson, formerly of the University of Montana Law School wow’ed the crowd with their presentations. We completely sold out the Antlers Hilton auditorium down in Colorado Springs with hundreds of liberty loving nerds who wanted to learn more about the supreme law of the land – our Constitution. In case you missed it, or wanted to relive it again, we’ve got the entire event posted on YouTube. You can find the playlist here.

I also wanted to post the schedule of the event that you will see on the videos, including the lecture titles from Rob and Dave. Here is what was presented in order:

Below are the 4 videos from the event:

PART 1:

PART 2:

PART 3:

PART 4:

Hellooooo Intertube world! Things are exploding over here at Independence. It seems everyone around our little liberty village has something to say. First up, we’ve got some brand new Issue Papers. Under the guidance of Amy Oliver, Colorado’s Queen of Transparency, Kyle Huwa wrote Issue Paper number 6 titled, Governor’s Energy Office Needs a Dose of Sunshine. From the executive summary:

The Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) of the State of Colorado spent a total of $121,652,884.75 from January 2008 to November 2010. This report aims to clarify and provide transparency to the GEO’s spending. Despite best efforts, the exact nature of many of the expenditures remains unclear.

Indeed, the governor’s energy office’s spending remains unclear to the very people who made that spending possible – us taxpayers. Let us check the books!

Next up we have an extremely timely Issue Paper from Senior Fellow and ex-Professor of Economics at CU Barry Poulson. Along with co-author John Merrifield of the University of Texas, Barry wrote Issue Paper number 7, Proposition 103: What is the Cost to Colorado Taxpayers? It turns out (surprise surprise) that the estimated $2.9 billion tax increase known as Prop 103 will actually cost taxpayers closer to $6 billion. Not to mention over 11,000 jobs and a whopping $2,711 per household! But hey, it’s “for the children” right?

While we’re on the subject, I’d like to remind everyone about a free event coming up that will focus on our state’s budget issues with a long-term view. It’s called Colorado’s Long-Term Budget Dilemma: Two Perspectives. The event is this Tuesday the 11th, downtown at the Denver Press Club. So who are the two perspectives? One will be our very own Fiscal Policy Center Director Penn Pfiffner, who will talk about the findings from our Citizens’ Budget project. The other perspective will be Phyllis Resnick, principal economist for DU’s Center for Colorado’s Economic Future who will be presenting the findings from DU’s study, Financing Colorado’s Future: An Analysis of the Fiscal Sustainability of State Government. We hope you’ll join us for this informative and FREE event next week!

In other exciting news, Transportation expert and Independence Institute Senior Fellow Randal O’Toole will be in town next week! In case you are unfamiliar with Randal, you can check out his blog, The Antiplanner and his latest book, “Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to do About It.” Randal will be in town for just a couple days but in that short time he’ll be hosting three events. The first is on Tuesday the 11th at Gander Mountain in Thornton. Randal will be presenting to Hear Us Now on his book, “The Best Laid Plans.” The event is free and will start at 6pm. On Wednesday the 12th, Randal will be heading up to the Olive Garden in Boulder for a lunch event. Here are the details for the Boulder event found on the Land Use Coalition’s webpage. Finally, that same Wednesday the 12th, Randal is going to be the featured speaker at a special Liberty on the Rocks event. Here are the event details:

The True Environmental Impact of Rail ProjectsConverse and drink with fellow liberty enthusiasts on Wednesday, October 12 at Choppers Sports Grill in Cherry Creek from 7-9 pm!

Our special guest for this bonus happy hour will be Randal O’Toole of the CATO Institute, who will spend 10-15 minutes (followed by Q & A) discussing the harmful impact high speed rail has on the environment (despite claims that it is about “going green”).

When: Wednesday, October 12 from 7-9 pm
Where: Choppers Sports Grill | 80 S. Madison Street in Denver (in the back room)

Last week I wrote:

I want to alert my readers of an event happening this Wednesday, October 5th from 8 to 9:15am. The South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce will be holding a forum on the real world impact school vouchers have on education. On one side will be our Education Policy Analyst Ben DeGrow and on the other side, opposing vouchers, will be someone from the Colorado ACLU. I’ve been told that this event is less a debate and more a public forum.

Here is an idea of the format: Each participant will have approximately 3-4 minutes for some opening remarks, intros, etc. That will be followed by 4-5 questions posed by the moderator. Then it will open up to questions from the audience followed by closing remarks. It will be held at the South Metro Chamber down in Centennial.

So here’s the update: I just found out that the forum will indeed be open to the general public. People can just show up on a first come, first serve basis. The Chamber does not believe that the event will sellout so seating should not be an issue. Please go check this out!