The important thing is that we stay in touch. My Facebook page is filled to the maximum 5000 friends, so PLEASE “like” my fan page by clicking here.

Also please follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

I think when it’s all said and done, my loyalty has to be with Amy and her Energy blog. It’s really one of a kind here in Colorado. There is no other place to go for the latest in free market energy and environmental news in Colorado. I won’t tell you who to vote for, but if you need a little nudge, click on Energy Policy for me. We appreciate it.

In the interest of being cool and up to date on all things Independence Institute, head on over to our fan page and “like” it. You won’t regret it. Grandma says so.

I remember at the time wondering if there was even a glimmer of a chance that I could survive ten minutes, no less ten years into the future. Thanks to the kind hearts of more people than I could ever thank, I am still here.

Like so many people who didn’t have children, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the world. After becoming a parent I realized just how little I really knew; being Parker’s dad was humbling. I had no concept how little I understood of love before Parker came. I had such an odd concept of what was important before her. Parker was my only child at the time and the center of the universe. By all appearances she was thriving and perfect.

Just over two weeks before Parker’s first birthday we found she had a lemon-sized tumor in her head. The next day we found that it was cancer and it had spread to her spine. The next day, after a biopsy, we found that it was likely a vicious cancer for which there is no cure. During surgery they implanted a stint to relieve the painful swelling caused by the fluid building around the tumor.

I walked into the recovery room, and there she was. She looked so beautiful in spite of tubes going in and out of her head and arms, and a stifling tangle of wires attached all over her. She looked up at me with an expression that just screamed, “Daddy, why are you letting them do this to me? What have I done wrong?”

Two days later the pathology report confirmed her death sentence. Armed only with a morphine pump we took my little girl home to die. Less than a week before her first birthday she was gone.

I can’t explain, because there no words to explain, the helplessness and powerlessness of holding your only child as she suffers in pain and confusion knowing there is nothing, nothing you can do but watch and pray you could somehow trade places.

I knew this kind of thing doesn’t happen to me and mine; it happens to other people. Now I know it does happen, and it happens to families just like yours too. That’s one of the reasons YOU need to care about the Children’s Hospital. They did the very best they could for my little girl and treated her with the dignity and love she deserved. Parker had the very best doctors and nurses at her call.

I hate to tell you that if this could happen to my family, it could happen to yours. And if that should ever happen you will thank God that people had given to make Children’s Hospital the place it is.

A dear friend, Tracy Smith, every year takes part in a fund-raiser for Children’s – the Courage Classic bike ride. She does so in the name of my little girl Parker. I am asking you personally to make a pledge to her effort. Please do it to help keep Parker’s memory alive. Please do it to save the child like Parker in your life.

Donate here, http://www.couragetours.com/2011/tracy_smith

All my thanks,

Jon

Did you know “Mother Earth” has civil rights? And that soon her self-appointed representatives can bring charges against other earthlings (that’d be us) who infringe on her rights in something called a “Ministry of Mother Earth”? I didn’t believe it either until I read this article outlining the latest brilliance coming out of the UN.

Assuming this treaty passes the earth can send her subpoenas to my attorneys c/o Independence Institute.

Can one plead the 5th to driving my SUV over the limit with the A/C blasting and the windows down? In any event we are starting my legal defense fund.

In other news, the 2011 Colorado legislative session is just about over. Let’s see if the Republicans can live up to their campaign promises about protecting freedom and free markets in the face of some questionable bills like: SCR-01 which not only threatens a citizen’s right to petition their government. And don’t forget about the enormous amount of corporate welfare coming to natural gas producers and Xcel thanks to a couple of bills that fleece ratepayers and have passed out of committee. Finally, we’ve got to deal with a potential state health insurance exchange. Health Care Policy Center director Linda Gorman laid out the case that these exchanges do not increase consumer choice and only make implementation of ObamaCare easier at the state level.

Let’s hope Republicans don’t fall prey to Caldara’s first political axiom… and instead, stick to their principles in the face of these anti-freedom bills. With a Republican controlled house these can only pass if Republicans help.

About Todd Shepherd, they said, “Award-winning reporter who moved to the Independence Institute, where he ferrets out government fraud and waste. Has created Complete Colorado, a state-level version of the Drudge Report that has become a daily must-read for anyone interested in politics.” I agree completely. I use Complete Colorado as show prep for my nightly radio show on 850 KOA.

About me they said, “Runs libertarian think tank, the Independence Institute. The state’s best Republican message-maker hands down, hosting his own talk-radio program and television show. Often rubs establishment Republicans the wrong way as they chafe at his honest assessment of the political scene. Case in point, his favorite political axiom is: “If Republicans can f— things up, they will.” Again, I have to agree. They nailed it.

So imagine my surprise when this Denver Post editorial came out this morning. The Post came out in support of me both in my current legal harassment situation and in my serious concern over House Bill 1072. This new bill in the legislature will further amend the already dead petition process here in Colorado. As it stands, only a rich guy with a financial death wish would bring an initiative to the ballot. This bill however, makes things even worse. As lawyer and expert in petition law Shayne Madsen was quoted,

…the bill would provide initiative opponents with additional opportunity to sue, while increasing the already high costs and bureaucratic hurdles for putting a measure on the ballot.

Worse yet, the bill also turns the burden of proof on its head! If anyone were to file a claim against a petitioner asserting fraud of any sort, the burden of proof is on the initiative’s proponents to prove that no fraud took place. Guilty until proven innocent.

And that’s the bottom-line with this new bill HB 1072, and the old bill HB 1326: raising the costs and risks associated with bringing an amendment to the people so that no one, except maybe only the most well-funded, union backed special interests can bring an initiative forward to the people of Colorado.

Update: Word out of the legislature today, HB 1072 passed out of committee today unanimously, with a change to the “burden of proof” section.

I mean it. Dead. Only a fool with a financial death-wish would try to get ANY initiative on a statewide ballot.

You see, the petition process frightens many in government because it gives us little people the ability to have a meaningful say in restricting government. When the legislature fails to address our needs, we can bypass them and bring an issue directly to our fellow Coloradans. Over the years we’ve been able to do this on a number of occasions. Take for example the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) or Term Limits. Without the petition process, we would not have TABOR in place now saving us from an even larger budget deficit. And legislators certainly would never have limited their own terms in office.

To be sure, the enemies of the petition process have come from both the left and the right. In 2009, the legislature passed the 24-page HB 1326, which placed several restrictions and regulations on the petition process that did not exist before – restrictions that would hamper ordinary citizens from petitioning their government by greatly raising the cost of petitioning. Of course this does not effect the rich, union backed forces nearly as much as the little guy (us).

Additionally, the law for the first time opened up the individual proponents of petitions to be liable for a much more loosely defined “fraud” or wrongdoing by nearly anyone working or volunteering on behalf of the amendment. And here is where the story really begins. With the proponent of a petition forced to personally pay the legal costs if someone else commits “fraud” – even when their amendment does not pass – who in their right mind would take on that risk? Answer: me.

Right now I am the target of a legal complaint and may be personally liable for so-called “fraud” committed by other people during the signature gathering process for Amendment 63, our Right to Health Care Choice initiative. As this MUST READ Citizens in Charge article outlines, I could be forced into personal bankruptcy because of this legal complaint. All because I wanted my fellow Coloradans to have a say in how our government was run.

Despite the initiative process still officially on the books, it has effectively been nullified by this 2009 legislation. I join Vince Carroll at the Denver Post in calling for cleaning up these rules.

My current situation now serves as a warning to those who might be considering running an initiative in the future. Now read this Citizens in Charge article.

Merry Christmas from all of us at the Independence Institute!

It is going on nine years since we lost our only child at the time to a vicious and rare form of cancer. There isn’t a moment that goes by that I don’t feel the loss of my sweet daughter Parker, the love of my life. My son, Chance, battles Down Syndrome enduring nine surgeries in his short six years of life. As you might know, this is why I am fighting so hard to pass our Health Care Choice Amendment this fall. It is also why the Children’s Hospital is so important to me. The care they gave Parker to comfort her was graceful. And for my son Chance, well, they give Chance a chance to live.

I am so grateful that for years my friend and Independence Institute colleague Tracy Smith pedals the Courage Classic, a fundraising bike ride for Children’s Hospital. In my daughter’s memory she formed “Team Parker,” and will pedal through the Rockies this weekend. This year Team Parker is joined by Independence Institute’s Transparency guru Amy Oliver.

I know a big part of my job is to raise funds for Independence Institute, but I don’t think it takes away from that mission to ask you to give a little to save kids right here in Colorado. Team Parker has a goal of raises $8000 for Children’s Hospital. We can make this goal happen.

Give not just to save my son’s life. Give because, like me, someday sadly you might be grateful Children’s is there for your child.

Give here: www.couragetours.com/2010/tracysmith

And thank you to all of you who help me remember my angel, my love, Parker.