the patriot today
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APRIL 2011VOLUME 1, EDITION 1
We hold these truths to be self-evident...
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The Well Informed Citizen
2 | The Patriot Today · April 2011
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Several liberty-minded grass roots activ-ists, working cooperatively on legislative efforts in Colorado since 2009, created the 2011 Liberty Watch Legislative Team of citizens to track and act on key legislation. Liberty Watch is a collaborative effort between 9/12, Tea Party, other liberty groups and their members from across the state looking to repeat previous successes such as defeating the Democrats’ “Voter Fraud” bill in 2010. More information can be found at their public Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/libertywatchco
Key Legislation Updates:
HB1131 All Mail Ballot ElectionsRecommendation: Strongly OpposeStatus: Failed Committee
HB1048 Credits for Nonpublic EdRecommendation: SupportStatus: Passed Committee
SB077 Deadly Force at BusinessRecommendation: Strongly SupportStatus: Failed Committee
SB008 Medicaid EligibilityRecommendation: OpposeStatus: Passed Committee
SCR001 Ballot MeasuresRecommendation: OpposeStatus: Passed Committee
SB073 Reverse Revenue IncreaseRecommendation: Strongly SupportStatus: Failed Committee
SB112 Prohibition of CollectiveBargaining By Gov EntitiesRecommendation: SupportStatus: Failed Committee
SB023 Reimbursement for Use ofState Vehicles for CommutingRecommendation: Strongly Support Status: Failed Committee
SB129 Verifying Work EligibilityRecommendation: Strongly SupportStatus: Failed Committee
Major Bills Up Next:
HB1160 Gov’s Energy Office Green Building Incentive Program, Sponsor: Rep. Gerou-R, Hearing 2/23Recommendation: Strongly Oppose
Summary: Establishes green building ini-tiative to incentivize making energy effi-cient improvements to existing residences with use of federal grants and subsidies. Gov’s Energy Office will create approved list of contractors homeowners can use to make improvements. This bill creates winners and losers, interferes with free market, creates further mandates and expands the power of state and federal government. Grant and subsidies to fund this bill requires more spending of fed-eral dollars which adds to the debt burden that will be carried on the backs of our children. Additionally, the science behind Energy Star Appliances and LEEDS building energy codes is questionable.
HB1207 Movie Ticket Fee for Film In-centives, Sponsors: Rep. Massey-R and Sen. Spence-R, Hearing 2/24Recommendation: Strongly Oppose
Summary: Imposes a 10 cent fee (tax) on all movie tickets sold in the state begin-ning July 1, 2011. This tax is to be used as incentive under Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media Fund. HB1207 represents the reason so many millions of Americans all across the country stood up on Tax Dday 2009 at Tea Party rallies and said, “Enough is enough!” It imposes a tax to support private industry, increases tax burden on families and forces assessed tax without vote of the people, which violates TABOR. It is for a purpose that is not legitimate function of government.
Liberty WatchNancy Rumfelt, Contributing Writer
Since 2007, the banking industry has come under increasing criticism from the public and scrutiny from their regulators. As we are quite painfully aware, banks pursued aggressive lending to builders and developers, while ignoring the fact that a bubble was rapidly approaching its bursting point. There are several areas of the US in which the bubble was expanded to ridiculous dimensions. This is partic-ularly evident along Colorado’s Front Range, where the result has severely damaged industries from banking to build ing and others related to real estate.
We don’t need to be reminded that this cycle has repeated itself throughout our history and some recessions seem to focus on specific industries. Think back to the Telecom bust. The rapid expansion of installed fiber optic lines around the country was a response to the bandwidth utilization expansion model of MCI, which was then thought to be gospel. Almost every company in the industry jumped on
the bandwagon to take advantage of the growth opportunity. In the end, the industry realized that the assumptions on which the model was based were dramatically flawed. Now, a similar bubble burst for the banking industry in the areas of mortgage lending and construction or development financing.
Let’s take a look at the influences that laid the groundwork for this current disaster. Mortgage lending became liberalized in part due to low interest rates and the insistence of Congress that lenders pro vide easy avenues to housing for those who were not realizing the American dream. The securitization industry grew into the challenge. It fostered world-wide funding of mortgage backed securities, carved into tranches that included mortgages of varying quality.
See Banks on page 18
Banks and Borrowers Face a New RealityHarold C. Goldback, Contributing Writer
The Patriot TodayP.O. Box 2660
Parker, CO 80134855-2PATRIOT (272-8746)www.ThePatriotToday.com
Board of Directors
Robert RowlandPublisher, Ext. 2
Kathy SchlegelFounder, Ext. 4
Editorial Department
Alfred C. MaurerEditor-in-Chief, Ext. 3
Lu Ann BusseManaging Editor
Sales Department
Terry Dodd, Ext. [email protected]
Creative Department
Charlotte [email protected]
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For a one year subscription to The Patriot Today, (12 issues), please send a check or money order for $36, along with your name, delivery address, and a phone number or email address (in case we need to contact you) to: The Patriot Today, P.O. Box 2660, Parker, CO 80134
The Patriot Today, LLC. All rights reserved. The Patriot Today is distributed monthly in the Front Range, and is headquartered in Elbert County, Colorado. Republication and/or reproduced in whole or in part is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of the publisher. The Patriot Today makes every effort to insure accuracy in advertising and editorial content; however The Patriot Today accepts no responsibility or liability for inaccurate information provided by the advertisers or from independent editorial submissions.
“Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide every-thing.” - attributed to Joseph Stalin
There is some dis-cussion on the web about the authenticity
of that quote but it does not matter too much in the end: in Stalin’s Soviet Union voting was mandatory and there was only one choice on the ballot. Voting was a civic duty enforced by party activists. Voting proved one’s loyalty to the system and not voting was viewed as disloyalty and an act of rebellion. Participation was routinely reported as 99%. This, by the way, is what concerns me about leftist Democrats advocating national voter IDs, a national voter registration database and the like. It can be another step on the road to tyranny.
Unfortunately we don’t have to go to Stalin for quotes about vote fraud: right
here in nineteenth century New York City, Boss Tweed is reported to have remarked “As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?” Theodore Roosevelt cleaned up the corruption sur-rounding Tammany Hall around the turn
The Patriot Today · April 2011 | 3
The Patriot TodayRobert Rowland, Publisher
Like thousands of our fellow Ameri-cans, we became involved in the Liberty Movement when we realized our country was in trouble. Diminishing freedoms, expanding
government, crushing national debt, out of control spending, and healthcare mandates all fi nally got our attention. We struggled to fi nd ways to become involved and to make a real difference. Today the movement is leaner, smarter and more effective than it was just two years ago, even 6 months ago. Many groups have since discovered their strengths: teaching, monitoring elected offi cials, organizing efforts to assist those in need throughout our struggling communities, or a host of other activities. All are designed to accomplish a singularly-focused mission to restore and preserve America, our liber-ties and our Constitution by stopping an out of control, out of touch government. We reaffi rm that We the People, by the People, is the only form of government we will accept or tolerate.
It is from this same inspiration that we too have found our niche, our purpose in this
growing, evolving movement. Taking our life experiences and skills we have given birth to this newspaper, designed to serve the cause of restoring and preserving freedom. It serves as a tool for liberty-minded Americans to connect with the millions of other fellow citizens who need to join the restoration, but have not yet gotten the message about how important their involvement is.
The Patriot Today is a monthly publica-tion to serve all these roles and more. Our primary goals include: 1) Explain why and how to join with the rest of Colorado’s and America’s patriots; 2) Connect groups of like-minded neighbors that want to be part of the committed positive force needed to restore our nation; 3) Share what our elected offi cials are doing at the Capitol and if they are keeping their campaign promises; 4) Relay information not found in today’s mainstream media, unfi ltered and relevant to the challenges facing our state and nation; 5) Provide accurate, yet fun, American history facts and educa-tion, much of which has vanished from our schools; 6) Offer lessons for our children about where we come from and why America is the greatest nation on earth; 7) Provide a forum to share ideas and opinions, encouraging spirited debate
necessary to solve our common prob-lems; 8) Unashamedly and relentlessly expose dishonesty and corruption when uncovered; but, also recognize heroes and honest politicians when they deserve it.
So if you are like many who feel there is not any reliable conservative print media left, we invite you to join with us – together we can make the difference. We, at The Patriot Today dedicate our lives, our hearts and this newspaper to restoring our wonderful nation we call America. We hope you will join with us and become a Patriot Today.
Robert has been an active leader in Colorado’s liberty movement and is the founder and chairman of the Elbert County Tea Party/912. With almost 40 years in the newspaper industry, his expe-rience includes operations, distribution, production, sales and advertising and human resources. He and his wife enjoy a rural lifestyle in their beloved Elbert County where they enjoy their horses, gardening surrounded by their two sons and grandchildren.
Book Review: Stealing ElectionsStealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy by John FundEncounter Books; Second Edition (July 21, 2008). 241 pagesAlfred C. Maurer, Editor-in-Chief
of the twentieth century but vote fraud and corruption remains alive and well in America today.
Stealing Eleactions by Wall Street Journal writer John Fund was a real eye-opener for me. I have always voted: carefully marked my ballot and turned it in thinking that once in the ballot box or placed in the U.S. Mail it was safe. Was I ever wrong! There are many ways to commit vote fraud and char-latans have fi gured them all out. John Fund exposes them.
The fi rst edition was published in Sep-tember, 2004; I read the updated 2008 edition. The fi rst question one might want to ask is who really won the contested 2000 Florida presidential election. The answer is clearly George W. Bush, and Fund cites numerous post- election inde-
pendent studies to prove that. It is not the central theme of the book, however. The central theme is how lax election laws and weak or non-existent enforcement make fraud possible.
Following Thomas Sowell, Fund says that there are two competing visions of fair elections in America. Republicans, hesays, generally focus on fair elections by
which they mean that entitled citizens should vote and that votes are counted accurate-ly. They focus on process. Democrats, on the other hand, want to ensure that as many people as possible actually do vote. They focus on voter turnout. Seem like two sides of the same coin, doesn’t it? It does to me but in practice it results in bitter disagreements. Democrats strongly oppose voter ID systems, claiming it limits
who can vote. Republicans, on the other hand, favor state-level voter IDs because it ensures only eligible people can vote.
Fund has an engaging style that makes this a fast and interesting read. His examples go back to when LBJ was elected in 1948 by what is now recognized as a stolen elec-tion. And it is not always the Rs versus the Ds in fraud. There are examples of fraud in Democratic primaries, of Democrats suppressing Republican voters as well as stuffi ng the ballot boxes, losing and “fi nd-ing” ballots, voter registration lists larger than the voting population and more. Both parties at different times and in different places are culpable.
These types of vote fraud fall into two major categories: voter identity theft and creating false ballots.
See Review on page 25
We hold these truths to be self-evident…
“Those who cast the votes decide nothing.Those who count the votes decide everything.”
- attributed to Joseph Stalin
4 | The Patriot Today · April 2011
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