Prosecutor outrages the Left

Action from 2/22 Radio: For breaking an ID theft ring of over 1300 illegal aliens, DA Ken Buck finds himself sued by ACLU and pilloried by the New York Times. The Weld County prosecutor and his colleague, Sheriff John Cooke, must be doing something right. Here is a partial archive of web links for state and national news coverage of the story since it broke in November.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/us/02greeley.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Ken%20Buck&st=cse

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081120/NEWS/811199888/1001&title=Allard%20talks%20%27Number%20Games%27%20on%20Senate%20floor

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081120/NEWS/811199886/1001&title=%27Number%20Games%27%20suspect%27s%20family%20confused%20by%20arrest

http://www.noco5.com/index.aspx

Greeley Tribune

11/16/08

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081116/NEWS/811159876/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=Farmers%2C%20business%20owners%20concerned%20about%20finding%20workers

Editorial

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081116/TRIBEDIT/811159936/1029/NONE&parentprofile=1025&title=Immigration%20reform%20long%20overdue

11/15/08

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081115/NEWS/811159958/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=Officials%20hope%20arrests%20lead%20to%20widespread%20change

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081115/NEWS/811159994/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ANALYSIS%3A%20Federal%20policies%20hinder%20immigration%20enforcement

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081115/NEWS/811159996/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=New%20immigration%20rift

11/14/08

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811139961/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=Weld%20cracks%20down%20on%201%2C300%20ID%20theft%20cases

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149962/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ID%20THEFT%3A%20Arrested%20so%20far

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149949/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ID%20THEFT%3A%20Understanding%20the%20tax%20ID%20number

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149947/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ID%20THEFT%3A%20Examples%20of%20returns

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149974/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ID%20THEFT%3A%20By%20the%20numbers

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149942/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=Woman%20finds%20herself%20a%20victim%20

Television

11/14/08

Channel 5

http://www.noco5.com/story.aspx?ID=471&Cat=2

Channel 9

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=103992

http://www.9news.com/news/investigative/article.aspx?storyid=103852&catid=207

Channel 7

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17992968/detail.html

Channel 4

http://cbs4denver.com/local/illegal.immigration.greeley.2.864743.html

Channel 2

http://www.kwgn.com/pages/news_local_landing/?Weld-Co-probe-focuses-on-illegal-tax-ref=1&blockID=134747&feedID=202

Longmont Times-Call

http://www.timescall.com/print.asp?ID=12168

Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/nov/16/1300-could-be-arrested-in-immigrants-tax-scam/

CNN LOU DOBBS

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/11/14/wian.bb.identity.theft.scheme.cnn

KKTV

http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/34456909.html

NFIB: The Voice of Small Business

http://nfibelection2008.illumen.org/newsArticle.jsf?documentId=2c9e4f691d9ef3f3011da0d0a75f01eb

Free Republic

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2133235/posts

Americans for Legal Immigration

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=138238

Colorado Springs Gazette

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CO_IMMIGRATION_TAXES_COOL-?SITE=COCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10989583

Rocky Mountain News

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/14/weld-county-investigating-1330-tax-files-for/

MSNBC Message Board

http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=193977&boardsparam=Page%3D3277

Minuteman HQ Forum

http://forum.minutemanhq.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=18525&sid=c3696ee1597ff3a87e94ad5fedf4c425

AARP Bulletin Today

http://bulletin.aarp.org/states/co/articles/analysis_federal_policies_hinder_immigration_enforcement.html

United for A Sovereign American

http://immigrationbuzz.com/

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=103852&catid=188

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17979255/detail.html

http://cbs4denver.com/local/illegal.immigration.greeley.2.864743.html

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/14/weld-county-investigating-1330-tax-files-for/

Transparency bills gain momentum

Action from 2/22 Radio: The Colorado legislation we discussed with Amy Oliver is SB-57 for web posting of all financial transactions by school districts, and HB-1288 for web posting of all financial transactions by state government. For status of those bills in the legislative process, full text of both proposals, and committee members who will initially decide them, go to www.leg.state.co.us.

For the Colorado transparency website maintained by Amy Oliver and her Independence Institute colleagues, go to http://transparency.i2i.org.

A Limbaugh listener fires back

Editor: A day after Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-GA, took Obama's bait and went after radio host Rush Limbaugh this week, he ate his words. The damage was done, however. Americans saw Republicans and conservatives sniping at each other when we should be focused on stopping the Democrats' runaway train of statism. Here is the story on Gingrey's initial, soon-retracted criticism of Rush. And below is an open letter from our regular contributor Red at Heart, a grandmother in Colorado Springs, taking him to task. Dear Congressman Gingrey:

As one of the 20 million-plus listeners of the Rush Limbaugh radio program, I am writing to comment about your remarks made with respect to Mr. Limbaugh.

First of all, the listening audience of Rush is a highly ignored constituency in this country. We lined up in support of G.W. Bush, and stood by while the Left vilified a decent man. We did not always agree with him, especially the fact that he forgot his veto pen when he moved into the Oval Office. We have not taken to the streets to protest Mr. Obama's election or the voter fraud that may have well put him in office. We have stood by silently and watched the most expensive inauguration in American history take place while the rest of the country strains under a recessive period, and not one Congressman spoke out against the waste. We stood by silently while the minister giving his benediction made comments meant to further divide our country along racial lines, and not one member of Congress spoke out to rebuke it. We watched folks in office, like you, sit idly by during the campaign and not make noise about questionable campaign contributions, voter registration irregularities, questionable associations with persons that normally would not fit our template of what we want to see in our president, or the fact that Mr. Obama was never pressed to release typical and expected documents prior to the election. We did not hear one Congressman in front of a national TV microphone exposing Obama's votes in Illinois on late term abortion. Many of his supporters in Nov. did not even know his position on abortion. Why? Because elected officials that have a duty to tell the truth failed to do so. We do not have the microphone on the floor of the House or Senate. We send people there to do that job for us. When we see failure to speak out on our behalf, we turn to other sources with the courage, leadership and voice to do it for us.

The 20 million-plus Americans that follow and support Rush Limbaugh are tired of weak politicians that bow at the feet of the media. We are tired of the media and pundits setting our policy in this country and we are tired of having no place to go for truth and a refresher course in common sense, ethics, and adherence to the Constitution. Our moral fabric of this country is shredding, politicians such as Pelosi and Reid, rule the day without regard. Had it not been for Mr. Limbaugh and others like him, Pelosi's plan to stimulate the economy by abortion and birth control would have gone unnoticed. It was only after the 'right wing extremists' on talk radio fired up the base that it became a well known issue and was quickly extinguished. Moderate and centrist Republicans are losing elections to right-leaning Democrats. The writing is in the wall, yet the realization of what we need to do to win elections goes by the wayside.

As a physician, the Republicans in this country would like to see you and others with the expertise and knowledge to start talking about healthcare reform and how it should be shaped around conservative values and the free market. There is work to be done to speak in a clear and loud voice. Pandering and trying to 'get along' with those that have no tolerance for the other side of the aisle has lost us elections and majorities in '06 and '08. If we don’t have leadership to stand up and take these issues on, we lose again in '10 and '12. There is a critical poverty in this country when it comes to lack of truth and getting information out to the public.

Please refrain from attacking private citizens. Yes, the average person does not know what your job is like or what you must do in order to get through the day as a U.S. Congressman. We do, however, understand that we are sick and tired with weakness, giving in to policies that continue to weaken and diminish our economy and our standing in the world. We are tired of the media and foreign campaign donations shaping our policy, driving our elections and determining our course. Your comments about Rush Limbaugh have given fuel to the Democrat fire to get him off the air. Free speech will die in this country, thanks to bias, lies and fear.

Just as Mr. Obama is making a media blitz to try and convince the country that he truly wishes a bipartisan approach to his stimulus, he is also slyly setting the stage for removing dissenting voices such as Mr. Limbaugh from public airwaves. The stimulus bill could have already been voted on and passed due to Democrat majority. Mr. Obama plans to hang any failure it may have around the necks of Republicans that vote with him.

Sometimes being on the outside and looking in provides us with a clear picture. We watch what happens day to day in Washington. We see political posturing, gross over-spending, waste and negligence. We have a voice or two in this great nation that have a platform to speak out against this, and the Washington mindset is to silence those voices.

Why do we not hear politicians speaking out against other dissenting voices such as Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, John Stewart, Barbara Walters, Andrea Mitchell, Bill Mayer and a host of others that hate Republicans, despise conservatism and will go to any lengths to push their liberal agenda? Why are you, and others in Congress, that are getting a bit uncomfortable with Rush Limbaugh's comments, also framing your discussion around boisterous, outspoken rhetoric coming from the other side?

We have a local talk show here in Colorado Springs and day after day, average citizens call in to say, "I want my country back." If Rush Limbaugh did not have a message that speaks to the heart and minds of millions upon millions of Americans, the market would not be there for him to speak. Let freedom ring, please.

State Senate & House contact info

Colorado's citizen legislature, with session limits, lean staffing, and offices in the Capitol itself, enhances accessibility for you and me. Following up our Jan. 15 radio special, "Under the Dome: Legislative Preview 2009," here's a quick reference for Democrat and Republican leaders in this year's General Assembly. It meets until early May.

Senate President: Sen. Peter Groff 303-866-3342, peter.groff.senate@state.co.us

Senate President Pro Tem: Sen. Betty Boyd 303-866-4857, betty.boyd.senate@state.co.us

Senate Majority Leader: Sen. Brandon Shaffer 303-866-5291, brandon.shaffer.senate@state.co.us

Senate Minority Leader: Sen. Josh Penry 303-866-3077, joshpenry@gmail.com

Senate Asst. Minority Leader: Sen. Greg Brophy 303-866-6360, greg@gregbrophy.net

====================================

Speaker of the House: Rep. Terrance Carroll 303-866-2909, terrance.carroll.house@state.co.us

Speaker Pro Tem: Rep. Kathleen Curry 303-866-2945, repcurry@gmail.com

House Majority Leader: Rep. Paul Weissmann 303-866-2920, reppaul@aol.com

House Minority Leader: Rep. Mike May 303-866-5523, mike.may.house@state.co.us

House Asst. Minority Leader: Rep. David Balmer 303-866-2935, david.balmer.house@state.co.us

=====================================

A full directory of all 100 members, committee assignments, and status of bills, is online at www.leg.state.co.us.

Hear legislative preview special

John Andrews' interviews with Colorado House and Senate leaders, aired Jan. 15 on KNUS "Under the Dome," are here in full audio podcast. click hereSen. Betty Boyd (D)

click hereSen. Josh Penry (R)

click hereRep. Paul Weissman (D)

click hereRep. Mike May (R)