Radio, July 9: Tancredo stands guard

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------How does Congressman Tom Tancredo, whom the Wall Street Journal grudgingly calls today's "real Speaker of the House," see the current situation on immigration reform in Congress and at home in Colorado?

How do the Democratic and Republican leaders in our Colorado Senate see the legislative special session now underway on that same hot issue?

"Backbone Radio with John Andrews" brings you the answers this Sunday as we welcome "Speaker" Tancredo, along with state senators Ken Gordon (D) and Andy McElhany (R) back to the program. Mike partners Krista Kafer and Joshua Sharf will join me for those interviews. I hope you will too.

Nationally, immigration enforcement is gaining favor over amnesty and guest workers. Mexico's recent election adds a twist. Here in the state, Dems finally admit "doing nothing is no longer an option" -- that's an actual headline from one of their leaders. But they're still trying to do as little as possible, and GOP leverage isn't great. Don't miss our coverage on the July 9 show. In addition...

** Tom Krannawitter, Claremont fellow and Hillsdale political science prof, fires us up about why July 4 and the Declaration of Independence matter now more than ever.

** Mark Earley, former Virginia attorney general who now helps Chuck Colson run Prison Fellowship, reports on that important work... and veteran Colorado educator Jerry Wartgow updates us on the Common Good movement to reduce lawsuit paralysis in the schools.

Tune in from 5-8pm this Sunday, July 9, on 710 KNUS in Denver and 710knus.com around the world. Call in with your two-cents at 303-696-1971. Or comment by email, during the show or right now, at backboneradio@aol.com.

There's nothing else quite like Backbone Radio, the most principled, most patriotic, most faith-based, most Colorado-proud spot on the dial. Tune in for another lively Sunday evening of fact, opinion, and insight.

Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS

Radio, July 2: The deal that wasn't

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "It will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival... commemorated as the day of deliverance... solemnized with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations, from this time forward forever more." -- John Adams, July 2, 1776 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SHOW PREVIEW... Immigration reform in Colorado, the imperial judiciary, facts and myths of global warming, and the meaning of Independence Day -- all are on the agenda for this Sunday's edition of "Backbone Radio with John Andrews." You're invited to be with us for the show.

My state's push to end tax-paid services to illegal aliens hit a double roadblock with Democrats in recent days. On the air we'll talk about how it happened and what's next.

First a blatantly political court decision halted the Defend Colorado Now ballot issue (DCN). Then an alleged "deal" by and for Dems, no Republicans invited, largely ended the hope of reviving that ballot issue in a special legislative session.

Co-chairing DCN with Dick Lamm, I was okay with him doing shuttle diplomacy between Gov. Owens and Speaker Romanoff, but not with his sudden left turn to exclude Owens and do a group hug with Romanoff, Pena, and Hart -- tossing our constitutional amendment overboard.

I myself went overboard hours later, quitting the DCN leadership. Lamm and I and our other two co-chairs had no authority to break faith with 50,000 petition signers who wanted a statewide November vote on the illegal alien crisis. So this was, as far as I'm concerned, the deal that wasn't.

But with the special legislative session kicking off July 6 regardless, conservatives must regroup and make the best of it. State Sen. Tom Wiens and State Rep. Ted Harvey, both Republicans from Douglas County and both leaders on immigration reform, will join me on the July 2 show for a preview.

** Prof. Charles Kesler will also be my guest for a conversation about the timeless relevance of the Declaration of Independence and July 4. He's a political scientist and editor of the Claremont Review of Books.

** Also featured will be Mark W. Smith, whose new book "Disrobed" maps a plan for the right to reclaim the courts, and Marlo Lewis, a Competitive Enterprise Institute researcher who has the goods on Al Gore's global warming scare.

** And we'll continue tracking the 7th Congressional District race, that battle for a successor to Bob Beauprez, as Democrat dark horse Herb Rubenstein checks in. His better-known rivals, Peggy Lamm and Ed Perlmutter, keep turning down my invitation -- but apparently Herb's got game. It'll be an interesting chat.

Tune in from 5-8pm this Sunday, July 2, on 710 KNUS in Denver and 710knus.com around the world. Call in with your two-cents at 303-696-1971. Or comment by email, during the show or right now, at backboneradio@aol.com.

There's nothing else quite like Backbone Radio, the most principled, most patriotic, most faith-based, most Colorado-proud spot on the dial. Tune in for another lively Sunday evening of fact, opinion, and insight.

Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS

Radio, June 25: Limit the Judges

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rotation in office, a republican principle cherished by America's Founders, was giving way to near-permanent incumbency in many areas of government as our constitution entered its third century. Term limits, added for the president in the 1950s, were set for most elected officials in Colorado and other states in the 1990s. Now it's the judiciary's turn.

Limit the Judges is a citizens petition campaign seeking 100,000 signatures in 50 days to put judicial term limits on the Colorado ballot this fall. I am the chairman, assisted by several prominent legislators. "Ten years and out" would be the limit for our state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals if the proposal passes. Details are at LimittheJudges.com.

Blatant judicial imperialism by Supreme Court Democrats in striking down the illegal-alien ballot issue, along with the bizarre Appeals Court ruling that upheld a middle-aged creep (and convict) claiming he had married a child bride, has fired up supporters of our reform. Have these fixtures on the bench had their heads turned by too long in power?

"Backbone Radio with John Andrews," this Sunday on 710 KNUS in Denver, will be without John -- as I canoe a river in Washington State, where Democrat judges stole the 2004 election for governor, as you may recall. So my friends Joshua Sharf and Matt Dunn will share the microphone as Acting Mayors of Backbone.

Term limits for judges will be up for discussion with them by way of your calls to the show at 303-696-1971, or your emails to backboneradio@aol.com -- during airtime or right now. They will also discuss such national stories as the big WMD find in Iraq -- snubbed, no surprise, by mainstream media since Sen. Rick Santorum announced it on Wednesday.

Other topics and guests that Joshua and Matt will be covering on Sunday the 25th are...

** The wily ways of that very same mainstream media, as monitored by Matthew Sheffield of the Newsbusters.org website, for which Sharf blogs -- an activity of the Media Research Center.

** The "Free Markets, Free People" liberty class taught by Prof. Paul Prentice at the Independence Institute on Wednesday evenings starting June 28.

** What's the contrast of the approach to science and technology by today's Judaism vs. the evangelical Christian perspective more frequently heard on our show? Joshua calls Rabbi Barry Freundel to testify.

Tune in from 5-8pm this Sunday, June 25, on 710 KNUS in Denver and 710knus.com around the world. Call in with your two-cents at 303-696-1971. Or comment by email, during the show or right now, at backboneradio@aol.com.

There's nothing else quite like Backbone Radio, the most principled, most patriotic, most faith-based, most Colorado-proud spot on the dial. Tune in for another lively Sunday evening of fact, opinion, and insight.

Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In studio next week, 7th Congressional District candidate Herb Rubenstein, the only Democrat in that race who hasn't ducked my invitations for an interview. Ed Perlmutter and Peggy Lamm, why are you avoiding me? --------------------------------------

Radio, June 18: Rule of Law

Update after 6/18 show: For Rep. Ted Harvey's Colorado pro-life moment heard round the world, go to TedHarvey.com and click on Issues.------------------------------------------------------------- Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ------------------------------------------------------------- It's been a tough week here in Colorado for the rule of law. The citizens petition seeking to uphold that rule by reserving tax-paid services for legal residents was tossed off the ballot Monday by Democrats on the state Supreme Court in a display of raw judicial imperialism. AP headlined my concern about an ethics violation by the justice who wrote that awful opinion.

Then on Thursday the state Appeals Court ruled that common-law marriage may be valid for a girl as young as 12. What? But today, Friday, another ballot issue went into high gear, this one providing term limits of "ten years and out" for Colorado Supreme Court justices and Appeals Court judges. We'll need 100,000 signatures in 50 days -- but boy, does this thing have momentum.

"Backbone Radio with John Andrews," this Sunday on 710 KNUS, will talk about courts out of control, borders out of control, ambition out of control (though a judge today did take Holtzman and his friend Grueskin down a peg), and other trends that would dismay America's Founders.

We hope you'll join us, since it's also Father's Day, for which Steve Chavis of Promise Keepers and pro-life champion Ted Harvey, state representative from Highlands Ranch, will be my guests.

Former Gov. Dick Lamm, the Democrat voice of reason on curbing illegal immigration, will check in with a forecast of where the issue goes after Monday's court setback. We'll also get Rep. Ted Harvey's preview of the legislative special session likely to occur soon.

Other topics? We got'em. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal will relate his incredible scoop about the Taliban fanatic luxuriating on a Yale scholarship. And Geoffrey Segal of the Reason Foundation will tell why Chicago is selling off infrastructure. Are you listening, Mayor Hick?

Tune in from 5-8pm this Sunday, June 18, on 710 KNUS in Denver and 710knus.com around the world. Call in with your two-cents at 303-696-1971. Or comment by email, during the show or right now, at backboneradio@aol.com.

There's nothing else quite like Backbone Radio, the most principled, most patriotic, most faith-based, most Colorado-proud spot on the dial. Tune in for another lively Sunday evening of fact, opinion, and insight.

Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS

Radio, June 11: Two Down

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Saddam is on trial, and now Zarqawi is in eternity. Neither one likes it, we can be sure. We ourselves don't exult in it. But we take grim satisfaction in the mills of justice grinding those evil men, the enemies of liberty and law.

And we take added resolve to finish the job, to see that Bin Laden and Zawahiri are next, to win this world war by smashing the Islamofascist network sworn to America's destruction.

"Backbone Radio with John Andrews" has long insisted there is no substitute for victory in the battle of survival now confronting free peoples everywhere. Our show this Sunday will look at what's next after the decapitation of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. I hope you'll join us.

Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA), a leader on national security, will be my guest. So will former US Senator Bill Armstrong, dean of Colorado conservatives.

I'll also talk with John Sternberg of Denver, who took a gun rights case to the state supreme court... CU Regent Tom Lucero, an ally of Hank Brown in university reform... and financial analyst Brian Ochsner, who blogs for us here at BackboneAmerica.net.

Tune in from 5-8pm this Sunday, June 11, on 710 KNUS in Denver and 710knus.com around the world. Call in with your two-cents at 303-696-1971. Or comment by email, during the show or right now, at backboneradio@aol.com.

There's nothing else quite like Backbone Radio, the most principled, most patriotic, most faith-based, most Colorado-proud spot on the dial. Tune in for another lively Sunday evening of fact, opinion, and insight.

Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS