Deficit clouds mayoral race

Editor: Randy Pye, the only mayor the young city of Centennial has ever had, can't run again. Two hopefuls are already in the field to succeed him, Councilman Todd Miller and former Charter Commission Chair Cathy Noon. The election is this November, and others may jump in. Local taxpayer advocate Ron Phelps offers these thoughts: =====================

Like other municipalities, the city of Centennial faces tough financial decisions in the coming months. The City recently held a special meeting to ponder how to deal with the tough times ahead.

The City Council’s initial steps include cutting approximately $3M from public works from the 2009 adopted budget. Some public works will go forward, and no services or staff will be reduced. With anywhere from $200K to $1.7M more to resolve for 2009, they will meet again in July to make additional decisions.

For 2010, the City also needs to resolve the projected deficit of approximately $3M. This will also be discussed in July.

All of this falls right smack into the upcoming City elections. With two announced candidates for Mayor, I think it’s essential that all of Centennial’s citizens learn how the candidates propose to solve the City’s financial challenges.

Another one bites the dust

It's just a shame that a song by that title was actually more popular than Tuesday’s announcement from Senator Arlen Specter. This man just recently proclaimed he would not switch parties because it would upset the balance of power. A couple of years ago he got up in front of the Senate to announce he would sponsor a bill that would not allow Senators to switch parties during their term. So what does all this mean? Here are a few thoughts:

Once again another politician disappoints and outright lies to the public; One more reason not to trust them.

Our GOP has shown it has another member who can’t be trusted to do what he promises. All of us know without his support, the all-important 787 Billion “Economic Recovery” bill would not have been possible, and the world would be a different place today.

Let us be honest, Specter did this purely to save his own career. He most likely would have lost in the Republican primary and this was his only choice if he wanted to stay in the Senate.

Is this good or bad for the GOP?

I think it all depends on your point of view. If you are a tried and true Republican, you think they do no wrong and you will support them at all cost…..well then you probably are deeply distressed.

I happen to think it is both. If the party truly digs deep, atones for its sins, and finally stands up for itself, there is a great opportunity. What do I mean by “stands up for itself?” Well, it seems that every time the Democrats call us on the carpet about something, we just sit back and take it. We do not loudly defend our positions or even go after them when we do not like their policies. They play dirty politics, and folks, it is not our style. Sometimes you just cannot beat them if you do not have a straightforward and rational policy. It is rather obvious we need to get back to our roots, listen to Americans, stand up for what we believe, make some promises and LIVE by them. A message that is TRUE and really CONNECTS with America would be a good start.

Now for the BAD, or maybe the good. I fear if we do not get our act together quickly, our party will disintegrate. The history of political change is violent and quick. If you don’t believe me, read up on the transition from the Whigs to the Republican party before the Civil War. Or, how about how fast the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. It could happen if we are not careful. If we don’t clearly shape our positions, folks, I think it could happen before the next election in 2012.

Here is what I’d like to see us concentrate on:

** A Clear, Strong and Real Energy Policy that actually recognizes we need oil before we switch to another energy source. How about let’s go for a “Manhattan Project” to solve this problem.

** How about some REAL financial sanity.

** How about something to force our legislators to really live up to their promises. How about they have to sign a “warranty” that they actually read the bills they vote for.

** I’d go for a real and enforceable “None of the Above” on the ballot. If NOTA gets more votes, then both parties candidates are out and we have another election. Maybe they would actually do what they say!!!!

** And how about we change Election Day to April 15th. Nothing like having to vote on tax day!!! Maybe WE will actually think about what is really going on in Washington.

Bottom line: Time is running short for our party.

I do not want to see us go down into the junk heap of history as a failed experiment. I hope we can get our act together. If not we may be have to vote for the Democrats or the Common Sense party. It is important we speak to our leaders and plead with them for sanity and Common Sense.

'Suicide of West' imminent?

National Review listed James Burnham's "Suicide of the West" as one of the top 10 books that nudged America toward political conservatism in recent decades. (See rankings in their 50th anniversary edition.) Burnham was a young Trotskyite who turned against Communism and in his later years wrote for National Review. He wrote this book in 1964.

Burnham's thesis was that liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.

For a young person unschooled in political thought, such as I was, this thesis was difficult to believe. Both JFK and LBJ were aggressive in their Cold War liberalism, which in those days included a strong pro-American component. Even the true believers on the Left assured us that they were pro-American, despite appearances to the contrary. Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs and I.F. Stone were all leftist idealists, they never actually betrayed their country. Or so we were endlessly and emphatically told in the mass media and in our classrooms.

Well, it turned out that Burnham and his fellow conservatives were correct, and we had been lied to on virtually all fronts. We now know that Hiss, the Rosenbergs, Stone and many others on the American Left spied for the Soviet Union for years.

The leftists were not only for collectivism, they were against America and most of what it stood for. Their virulent assaults against the free market, against a strong military and against traditional American values were all of a piece. They regarded liberal journalists and liberal officials in all three branches of government as "useful idiots" and as loose allies in the steady drip of daily propaganda and assaults against America.

By now we are much further along in this process. Some of the most prominent liberal journalists and liberal Democratic leaders in government are no longer acting as merely useful idiots. Some of them are at last revealing themselves to be more malevolent than that.

This is most clearly seen in their move to prosecute those in the Bush admininistration who authorized the enhanced interrogation techniques (which they falsely call "torture") against a few of our top terrorist enemies.

We should recall at this point that the laws of war and the Geneva Convention clearly distinguish between (1) conventional soldiers and (2) nonuniformed terrorists who hide among civilians and attack from schools, mosques and civilian residences. Conventional soldiers, when captured, must be treated humanely. Nonuniformed terrorists, when captured, may be summarily shot.

Unfortunately, instead of shooting these vicious predators on the spot, our government unwisely treated most of them better than we have ever treated prisoners of war. They get better food in prison than our schoolchildren get in school cafeterias. There have been strict limits even on the interrogation techniques.

In three highly supervised cases waterboarding was employed to get vital information that saved many innocent lives. (Many of our own soldiers and sailors undergo waterboarding as part of their training, hence it is absurd to deem it "torture".)

But now many voices are telling us that this was unacceptable, that America's leaders must be punished, rather than thanked and honored, for this great so-called evil. They quote the Constitution much as Satan quotes Scripture, and they pretend to defend both America and the Constitution. However, this new thrust is clearly intended to demoralize those who are defending the country and to reduce or destroy America's future effectiveness in fighting our enemies.

Here at last the Left is taking a position that is so clearly anti-American that there is very little room at the margin for "useful idiots". Some Democrats on my "lunatic" list claim that foreign terrorists captured on the battlefield should be treated as if they were American citizens with Constitutional protections, but even for them that level of imbecility is not credible. Political maneuvering aside, their position can be seriously maintained for long only by the actual enemies of the United States.

For benefit of the lawyers and other confused citizens, let us apply the Left's argument in mirror image so that everyone can see just how bonkers it really is.

The FDR administration put more than one hundred thousand Japanese American citizens in concentration camps during World War II. This was clearly a much more heinous crime against humanity than waterboarding three Al-Qaeda terrorists. We should therefore prosecute all those Democrats still alive who had anything to do with perpetrating that great injustice. Correct?

The LBJ administration entered the Viet Nam conflict on the false and exaggerated claim of being attacked near the Gulf of Tonkin. This resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of American soldiers and sailors and of millions of Asians. We should therefore prosecute all those Democrats who had anything to do with perpetrating and acting on that falsehood. Correct?

The Reagan administration's retributive attack across Libya's "line of death" in 1986 happened to kill Gaddafi's innocent young daughter. We should therefore prosecute all the Republicans who had anything to do with that attack. Correct?

The Obama administration's attacks on Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists using Predator drones and other means also produce collateral damage, killing innocent children and others, without benefit of legal hearing or trial by jury. Also the suspects are not even given their Miranda warnings. We should therefore (as Ted Olson has recommended in a recent thought experiment) prosecute everyone in the Obama administration who has anything to do with these attacks whenever they occur. Correct?

No, of course these assertions are clearly not correct. The concept is intended to be used only against the "evil" Bush administration, which in fact was trying with the best of intentions to protect America in a legally acceptable manner.

However, war is not police work, never has been, and never can be. The concept of prosecuting actions like this, if taken seriously, would degrade or destroy our ability to defend ourselves. But that is the whole idea. Our domestic enemies will now have another powerful new tool to weaken us, if we have become so confused and lacking in will as to allow it.

In summary, James Burnham was both correct and extremely prescient. Liberalism is indeed the ideology of Western suicide. We will see this in spades during the next four years.

Meteorologist debunks climate hysteria

Editor: Rob "Sunny" Roseman, trained in meteorology and long familiar in Denver as a TV weatherman, was my radio guest on April 26. Here are his talking points as used in our discussion, designed to cool off the overheated emotion surrounding alleged global warming and the rush toward an economically harmful carbon tax. CLIMATE HYSTERIA & MEDIA BIAS... OR CLIMATE BIAS & MEDIA HYSTERIA (WHATEVER)

Gore, McCain, and other alarmists use scare language such as... "Inaction Poses a Threat.” “Action is a Moral Imperative.” "Situation is unprecedented.” Rational discussion has given way to the Politics of Global Warming, and ultimately to the Church of Global Warming.

BUT WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW?

ABOUT THE CLIMATE MODELS……….

They define a virtual world. Use parameters.

Difficulty dealing with oceans & clouds.

Deal with only limited amount of variables.

Some are faulty and downright wrong.

We are supposed to “take them on faith.”

Current models go haywire after 1 week.

We are supposed to believe in 100 years?

Last 10 years are cooling. Not predicted.

None of models predicted….so they are wrong.

ABOUT CLIMATE HISTORY…………..

We are in an Interglacial period now. Between glacials.

Has always varied. Warmer and Colder.

Medieval warming period 1100 to 1500 (1.13C) warmer.

CO2 levels -100ppm less than today.

1910-1940 and 1970-1998 same amount of warming.

Last 10 years actually have been cooling.

120k, 220k and 320k warmer than today. (.75C)

Today not even close to anything the warmest in

Last 2 million years. Had higher levels of CO2.

ABOUT EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS………….

Drought, Severe, etc. always been there, will be.

Even 50% less C02 will still be there.

1955-2000 increase in C02 no decrease in Soil Moisture.

Can’t make any warmer with same moisture.

Hurricanes….no increase in Frequency/Intensity since 1700s.

ABOUT ICE SHEET DISINTEGRATION……………

Been happening over past 10-15K years.

Antarctica…no change last 40 years.

Greenland warmer past 10K years.

Melting occurs 3.5CM per 100 years anyway.

Bottom Line: Good headlines/Good movies.

ABOUT RISING SEA LEVELS……………….

Been rising for last 15,000 years anyway since last

Major ice age.

Usual rate is 2mm per year.

Rate of rise has slowed last 100 years.

ABOUT METHANE CONCENTRATIONS……………..

They all say this is really bad….sounds bad.

Increase over past 150 years has actually stabilized.

“WE DON’T KNOW WHY”

CONCLUSIONS TO DEAL WITH

NO DATA:

To support something unusual current warm period.

To support droughts, floods & storms more severe.

To support Ice Sheets disintegrating any faster.

To support sea levels rise any faster than before.

WHERE TO NOW:

Do we believe the skeptics or the alarmists?

Do we adapt to our climate (like all species that survived) or do we try to change the climate?

France in 1990s 35,000 dead heat wave.

(Air Conditioners)

Do we adopt Cap & Trade?

HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS…………..

We need to adapt to our climate. Get smart.

Need Al Gore to shut his mouth. Earth will cool 5 deg.

No cap & trade. Nothing other than a massive tax incr.

No more stupid studies from Britian …..obese people

add to global warming.

Have moonshot to create a hydrogen economy.

Manhattan project.

Have to use oil and gas in the meantime.

O/G used for most anything and everything.

Drill, Drill, Drill.

Explain Hydrogen, how it can be used.

New Industries. New Technologies.

Re-Tool America. We own it.

We can sell to rest of world.

We don’t have to buy from rest of world.

Clean technology.

Can actually shut up Enviros finally.

Come to 5/1 Media Panel

What forces in America's economy and culture are threatening the survival of newspapers and diverting audiences to other information sources? What are the consequences for us as citizens in a free society? How can we take charge in the emerging new paradigm; or can we? Discuss all this with Centennial Institute panelists at Issue Friday, May 1, 10:00-11:00 am, on the Colorado Christian University campus. Where: CCU School of Business Room 102

What: "Rocky Times for Colorado News Media"

Who: David Kopel & Jason Salzman Former Media Critics for the Rocky Mountain News Panel & Open Forum Moderated by John Andrews

Reservations recommended * RSVP to Centennial@ccu.edu or call 303.963.3424

Directions to CCU Campus in Lakewood: From Garrison, go east two short blocks on Cedar, park on your right. Continue east into the campus, toward flagpole. School of Business is the 2nd low building on your right.

The Centennial Institute, directed by John Andrews, was established in 2009 as a project of Colorado Christian University. We sponsor research, events, and publications to enhance public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation. By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom, teach citizenship, and renew the spirit of 1776.