Jon Caldara, who heads up the libertarian Independence Institute, carries a smirk on his face a lot of the time. So you’re not sure what to believe when he talks.
Such was the case, on his Channel 12 show, Devil’s Advocate (at 5:45), last month. when he made this comment about Colorado Sen. President John Morse:
Caldara: “And during this [gun debate], he [Morse] went on a tantrum and started saying, we gun owners have a sickness in our soul, we have a sickness in our soul. It was personal.”
A regular old sickness is enough. But in your soul. That’s bad.
Morse: “Robert F. Kennedy said after Martin Luther King’s assassination that violence breeds violence. Repression breeds retaliation. And only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls.”
Does anyone besides Caldara think Morse was saying that gun owners have a sickness in their souls?
Morse, and Kennedy, were obviously referring to removing the sickness of violence from society.
If there’s any sickness here, you can find it in Caldara. The ailment is called “RecklessFactLessOsis.” It’s common among talk-show hosts, and it spreads ideologically. The best medicine is to read more and talk less.
I’ll update this blog post when Caldara responds to my request for a comment/clarification about his twistiness.
UPDATED 7/1 with a response from Dana Loesch via a blog post of hers.
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Syndicated talk-radio host Dana Loesch dropped into Glendale Saturday and surprised me by being even more offensive and nasty than she is usually.
Maybe the mile-high air pushed her further into the deep end? Maybe she saves her worst stuff for in-person delivery? Whatever was going on, as you can see for yourself below, Loesch clearly owes even her own pro-gun crowd, gathered in Glendale to oppose gun safety laws, an apology for her behavior Saturday.
Loesch: “On my way here this morning flying in from St. Louis, I thought of a civil rights leader,” Loesch said. “He made a very impassioned speech, a historic speech, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. I too have a dream. I have a dream that one day we as law-abiding, God-fearing, America-loving, Second Amendment-exercising gun owners will be judged on the strength of our character and not the content of our magazines!”
Loesch: Over the weekend at the “Farewell to Arms” event I purposefully quoted and riffed from Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I Have A Dream Speech.” The entire point of my doing so was at the end, when I said “And the entire point of this? This historic civil rights leader was disarmed, just as you, Colorado, are being disarmed. The left never tells you that King’s gun permit was rejected.”
Would King have been alive today had he been granted the right by the racist, Democrat south to own a gun? Who knows. But my point stands.
Gun rights are civil rights.
This was bait. And the leftist media, namely Raw Story, took it — but they predictably had to bastardize my speech and omit its entirety so they could play a race card. Why not report how your policies disarmed a civil rights leader?
If you choose staid National Public Radio over the rollicking and squirmy world of conservative talk radio, you may not know about the war brewing over how Republicans would pick a candidate to oppose Senate President John Morse, if a recall election takes place in the peaceful land of El Paso County.
Two Republicans, Jaxine Bubis and Bernie Herpin, want to take on Morse, which leaves inquisitive minds on conservative talk radio to wonder how to choose between the two.
KVOR talk-radio host Jeff Crank, along with Rep. Doug Lamborn, Sheriff Terry Maketa, Laura Carno, and Steve Schuck, signed a letter suggesting that the “duly elected Republican Central Committee of Senate District 11 decide which candidate shall be the best candidate to face the Democrat.”
On KLZ’s Grassroots Radio Colorado Wed., co-hosts Ken Clark and Jason Worley discussed the Crank, et al., letter on air, as well as former State Sen. Shawn Mitchell’s Facebook reaction, which included the line that the letter amounted to “the establishment telling the grass roots to get lost.”
Worley said he doesn’t “like the idea of the ‘those-that-be’ coming in with money and choosing who the person is going to be.”
Co-host Ken Clark added that he thought Herpin would “just barely” be a better legislator than Morse.
Clark, who doubles as the Colorado Director of Freedom Works, told listeners that Crank and Colorado GOP Ryan Call refused to help in the Morse recall effort.
Clark: Jaxine Bubis was one of those people who was out there gathering signatures. She gathered thousands of them herself, on her own. [Bigmedia note: Was she paid like many others?] Okay? She was part of that effort. She was neck-deep in that effort. She was making phone calls. She was going door to door. She was working on the recall effort….
Then you’ve got the Jeff Cranks of the world; you’ve got the Ryan Calls of the world. Everybody starts flooding El Paso County, running down there, going, “Oh! Me, too! Me, too! We’re going to put in our candidate. Now that you guys did all the work, we’re going to put in our candidate. We’re going to take this thing over, and you are going to vote for ours, because we say so!”
You know what, a lot of people are pissed off about that. And it’s wrong! In my opinion, there is no reason why the El Paso Republicans and the Colorado Republicans couldn’t get involved in that recall. But they didn’t! And Jeff Hays ran for cover. He did not help with that recall effort. Neither did Ryan Call. So now, if they want to come in and put in their candidate, I’m crying – I’m saying, “Foul!” I’m saying, “Go back home! You didn’t start this! We will finish it!” That’s what I’m saying….
Worley: Where was Jeff Crank? I realize some of Crank’s allies came in at the last minute to help. understand that. [Bigmedia note: paying for signature gathering, for example] Great. Good news. But the people who got it off the ground did it on their own. And they didn’t get a whole lot of help. So, it does kind of look like, “You know what? You guys did all the heavy lifting. Now we’ll come in and we’ll grandfather you. We’ll grant you a candidate who we think can win.” Now, you know what? You didn’t get your hands dirty in the first place, so I do have a problem with that. This is the same thing that pisses people off and gets them out of the Republican Party in the first place.
Clark: Well, and I can tell you that the candidate that they’re working on, this Bernie Herpin, when he was a city councilman, you know, we’re talking train wreck. We’re talking Waller. He’s worse than Waller. I mean, this guy is the – even the fact that he’s got an “R” next to his name. My opinion, he was the only guy that said that Jeff Hays and Ryan Call could find out there that was willing to say, “Okay. I’ll be your stooge….”
Worley: Youknow what? This grandstanding, this paternalism from the Republican Party here in Colorado, sucks! And you know what? I’m – for those who know me, they know I’ve been a Republican my whole life. My grandfather would roll over in his grave if I [inaudible]. But you know what? I’m damn close! I am damn close!
The radio show then ended abruptly, and I found myself thinking, maybe these talk radio hosts, Crank, Clark, and Worley, should get together and urge the GOP to just drop the Morse recall campaign. Who knows if they’ll survive it.
UPDATED June 22 with a response from Jimmy Sengenberger and a correction that the organization I am Created Equal donated over $55,000 to Colorado-Springs consulting company Kennedy Enterprises, as opposed to at least $14,000 as previously reported, to gather signatures and perform other functions for the Morse recall campaign.
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On KNUS yesterday morning, guest host Jimmy Sengenberger convened a panel so that listeners could, as Sengenberger put it, “learn exactly what’s going on” regarding the campaign to recall State Senate President John Morse.
How you learn “exactly what’s going on” from a one-sided panel is beyond me, but that’s standard fare for conservative talk radio.
But Sengenberger’s discussion went beyond misleading into grossly-manipulating territory due to the way he introduced one of the three panelists.
The panelists were Jennifer Kerns, identified as a “Spokeswoman for Recall Morse;” Jeff Hays, identified as “Chairman of El Paso Republican Party;” and Mario Nicolais, identified as an “election attorney” on the panel to give “legal insights.” Sengenberger later referred to Nicolais as an “election attorney” or an “election lawyer.”
What Sengenberger didn’t say was that Nicolais is a staff attorney for Scott Gessler’s former firm, the Hackstaff Law Group (formerly called Hackstaff Gessler), which is obviously a conservative outfit. Gessler’s office will be presiding at a hearing to determine the validity of a protest, filed by Morse backers, of the language used on the Morse-recall petitions.
What’s more, and you wouldn’t expect Sengenberger to know this, Nicolais’ name, along with the Hackstaff Law Group, appears on the Articles of Incorporation for IAmCreatedEqual.com, Inc., which donated over $55,000 to the Morse recall effort in in-kind contributions to Kennedy Enterprises to support a paid signature-gathering campaign and other activities. The fact that the signature gatherers were paid is often omitted on talk radio.
Sengenberger should inform KNUS listeners about Nicolais’ conservative affiliations, as well as the fact that Nicolais’ law firm (which is also Gessler’s former law firm) represents a major funder of the recall, and now Gessler’s office is presiding over the petition-protest hearing.
Sengenberger was very precise, and fair, in identifying the other guests on the show but, for some reason, he was incredibly vague about Nicolais.
I asked Sengenberger via email why he didn’t identify Nicolais more precisely.
“Regrettably, I was unaware that Hackstaff is the former law firm of Secretary of State Scott Gessler, so that particular point of emphasis wouldn’t have come to mind,” wrote Sengenberger. “As for not mentioning the law firm where Mario Nicolais is an attorney, this was simply an unintentional oversight on my part that is inconsistent with what I usually do when I have attorneys on. However, I don’t see how anyone listening wouldn’t be able to determine his political leanings based on the tone and tenor of the conversation, including his comments.”
State Sen. Greg Brophy said yesterday on conservative radio that recent wildfires may have been started by terrorists and that “the Governor and Democrats” have left Colorado vulnerable to terrorist attacks due to their failure to spend millions of dollars on air tankers to fight forest fires.
Brophy said on Fort Morgan’s KFTM that “the governor and the Democrats would spend three-hundred-and-some-odd-million dollars to implement Obamacare but we couldn’t find $17.8 million to buy airplanes for safety and security here in Colorado.”
“What most people don’t realize,” Brophy told host John Waters, “is that both of these fires weren’t naturally caused. These were human-set fires. The fire at Waldo Canyon last year, no one knows who set even to this day, John.
And then, if you remember, when Osama Bin Laden’s hideout was overrun in Pakistan by our Seals, and they captured his computer, one of the acts of terrorism that they were looking at getting involved in was setting wildfires in the western United States. I mean, we really need to address this, and the Legislature failed us last session.” [BigMedia emphasis]
All Waters could muster for a response was a lovable, “That’s very sad.” (Is there a medical term for co-dependency between a conservative radio host and a conservative guest? If so, this is it.)
I was hoping for a question like, “Are you troubled by the complete absence of evidence of terrorism in these two fires?”
Or how about this deep follow-up, “Do you think there’s an element of fear-mongering and politicization in your terrorist theory?”
Or, “Do you think Democrats are adequately protecting the water supply and Bronco games?”
The specter of wildfire terrorism was raised before by state Republicans but Brophy has raised it to a new level in terms of timing and specificity.
“[The Legislature] didn’t get it done,” said Brophy. “They failed us. Everybody knows that those planes wouldn’t have been available for this fire, but don’t we learn the lessons from this fire, and from the one a year ago?”
Brophy favored legislation authorizing the purchase of four air tankers capable of dropping water and retardant on fires. The bill, which was criticized by The Denver Post as unneeded, passed, but the $17 million wasn’t allocated.
On Greeley’s KFKA radio June 7, gun activist Laura Carno asked:
Does [Senate President John Morse] stand by the Colorado Senate Democrats’ tweet that sheriffs, including the Democrats, are standing with criminals for challenging these gun control measures in court?
We’ve talked about that. They tweeted out, “Sheriffs stand for criminals and against law-abiding citizens.”
Oliver neglected to mention that, in reality, CO Senate Democrats tweeted that pro-gun sheriffs stood “with criminals”because a man who shot a gun at his wife was actually standing (physically with both feet planted) on stage with the Sheriffs,when they announced their lawsuit aiming to overturn new laws banning on magazines holding more than 15 rounds and requiring background checks for most gun purchases and transfers.
As reported by ColoradoPols May 17, Clint Webster was standing with the sheriffs at a May 17 news conference at the Independence Institute.
Webster has a criminal record stemming from threatening his wife and shooting at her and another person.
The Post reported in 2010 that Webster, who was running for State House, “threatened to kill his ex-wife and fired two shots from a Colt semi automatic pistol at her and another person as they drove away from his house.”
Webster “pleaded guilty in 1992 to second-degree assault, a felony, two counts of felony menacing and a misdemeanor assault charge,” according to The Post.
Colorado Springs TV station KRDO made the same mistake in May 29 putting the standing-with-criminals comment in context on its website but completely omitting a reference to Webster and his gun crime in its broadcast story.
This is a serious error, because without the reference to Webster, you’d think Democrats were accusing sheriffs of standing with criminals just because the sheriffs oppose gun-safety laws. This was clearly not the intent of Democrats.
“The statement was pointing out the irony of the sheriffs protesting legislation that prevents criminals from getting guns while standing with a man who shot at his wife and another unnamed person who was with his wife.
In the photo below, there is Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith (wearing glasses) at the press conference. Next to him is Clint Webster, who was convicted of felony assault and menacing for shooting twice at his wife. So the Sheriffs are quite literally standing with a criminal, and not just any criminal, a domestic violence offender who fired two shots from a Colt semi-automatic handgun at his wife.”
UPDATE 8:15 p.m. with comment from Personhood USA.
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As expected, Gov. Hickenlooper signed a bill Wed. making it a crime to cause the death of a fetus due to a reckless act against a woman (like a drunk driver hitting a pregnant woman).
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains issued a statement praising the bill’s sponsors, Reps. Mike Foote and Claire Levy, and Sen. Pat Steadman, and stating that the new law “empowers district attorneys and other members of law enforcement to hold criminals accountable for crimes against a pregnant woman which result in the loss of her pregnancy.
“The bill was thoughtfully crafted to protect pregnant women without impeding upon a woman’s right to access reproductive health care,” according to Planned Parenthood. “We thank our state lawmakers for focusing their time and energy on a bill that positively supports women.”
Some Republicans, as well as Personhood USA, opposed the bill, which GOP Sen. Scott Renfroe, referred to as the “Let’s-Go-on-Killing-Babies” bill, because it didn’t give legal rights to zygotes (fertilized eggs) or other forms of human development. The law specifically does not “confer the status of ‘person’ on any human embryo, fetus, or unborn child at any state of development prior to live birth.”
Personhood activists, who aim to ban all abortion and some common forms of birth control, are gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would give legal rights to all “unborn human beings.” The fact that this phrase is not defined in the text of the ballot question makes abortion-rights activists worry that courts could interpret it to mean that all forms of human development, starting with zygotes, should receive legal protection, thus banning all abortion and some common forms of birth control.
Personhood USA spokesperson Jennifer Mason commented via email on the new Violence Against Pregnant Women law:
Mason: Heather Surovik, whose nearly full-term son was killed when she was struck by a drunk driver near her due date, has opposed the Violence Against Pregnant Women act, calling it “possibly the most deceptive bill ever to be signed into law in Colorado.” Like Heather, Personhood USA recognizes that Planned Parenthood and its supporters carefully worded this bill to repeal criminal abortion laws and protect abortion providers even in cases of gross negligence, all under the guise of decrying violence. This bill specifically denies rights and recognition to babies like Brady Surovik, which is why Personhood USA will continue to support Heather Surovik’s petition drive for true justice for pregnant victims, without the hidden agenda of Colorado’s pro-choice political activists.
This afternoon Hick will sign a bill setting a state standard for the amount of electricity rural electricity associations must produce from renewable sources, like wind and solar, according to Fox 31’s Eli Stokols.
Judging from past coverage, Republican opponents of the bill will try to cast it as an attack on rural Colorado.
When Rep. Jared Wright tried to do this back in April, the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby pointed out that the Rural Electricity Association in his area supported the renewable-standard bill (SB 252).
So reporters should check for meat behind accusations of an Democratic attack on the ranchers and others in rural counties, if those accusations start flying again today.
Evidence of meatlessness and manipulation by those claiming “war on rural Colorado” can be found in an article about SB 252 in the news letter of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union’s May “Legis Letter.” The bill was vehemently opposed by a large electricity association called Tri-State Generation and Transmission. Here’s an excerpt from the May RMFU newsletter:
Tri-State and the rural electric family chose to draw a line in the sand, and now we are stuck with goals that may be a challenge to achieve. By refusing to listen to RMFU and other rural and agricultural groups looking for a reasonable compromise, Tri-State only managed one achievement: driving a new wedge between rural and urban Coloradoans.
In the run up to the vote on SB 252, industry “pundits” were predicting the end of civilization: Unemployment in rural communities will double! Rural utility customers will be bankrupted! Urban Colorado declares war on rural Colorado!
Ag groups were caught in the middle, trying to get both sides to listen rather than shout slogans. On the one hand, we don’t want to see rural communities hurt by utility costs; on the other, the sky was not, in spite of what was being shouted, falling. Urban Colorado is working toward a much higher portfolio standard than rural Colorado. They don’t see why that’s fair, and the answer is more complicated than most people understand. But that’s not warfare; it’s a time to talk over our differences. [BigMedia emphasis]
The newsletter quoted Rocky Mountain Farmers Union President Kent Peppler, who criticized the uncompromising opposition to SB252. RMFU was neutral on the bill, even though its Renewable Energy Chair sits on the Tri-State Board.
Here’s Peppler’s quote in the RMFU newsletter:
“The lesson in this legislative setback,” said RMFU President Kent Peppler, “is that ‘My way or the highway’ only works if you have the votes. The REAs didn’t have the votes, and ignoring their agricultural constituents and potential allies didn’t help that problem. Going down in flames may be noble, but it doesn’t get the job done. Now the real work has to begin. The last thing we should let this do is poison our commitment to renewables. Homegrown power is coming of age for communities, individuals, and facilities. The demand for renewables means new opportunities for rural communities, new jobs for rural communities, and new businesses keeping our rural communities alive.” [BigMedia emphasis]
Independence Institute Director Jon Caldara tweeted May 21 that he was “sure” the campaign to recall State Senator Angela Giron needed assistance.
Here’s his tweet:
Jon Caldara @JonCaldara 21 May recall Angela Giron three weeks shy of petition deadline | News – Home http://www.krdo.com/news/group-continues-efforts-to-recall-angela-giron-three-weeks-shy-of-petition-deadline/-/417220/20230294/-/124f326z/-/index.html … I’m sure they need help #coleg #2A #magban [BigMedia emphasis]
One of the many Twitter-obsessed political reporters in town should have reported whether this meant that the Independence Institute was helping with the petition drive.
“I’ve done petitioning,” Caldara told me.” I know that if they’re trying to get it done, I am certain they need help. It was a tweet all unto my own. I don’t know if they’re doing well or great or whatever. I figure they could use help.”
Lobbyist Corky Kyle, who runs the Kyle Group, hosts an internet radio show called “In the Lobby,” which promises to give “you a backstage pass to the heated industry of lobbying and politics.”
Kyle: All right. We’re back. We’re back, after the exciting first segment of our show. How’s it feel, Denver, to be a small businessman? Did you just want to bend over and grab the Vaseline®? Or maybe they’re not going to use Vaseline ® this time. I don’t think they are.
Gagliardi: They’re not even going to take you to dinner.
Kyle: They’re not even going to take you to dinner! That’s right! And, on top of that, they won’t even kiss you!
Gagliardi: [laughing] I know.
Kyle: What the heck is going on with this?
Watch here @ 19:30:
Kyle and Gagliardi were upset with the legislative session, generally, but in particular, they didn’t like a bill that would subject businesses with 15 or fewer employees to workforce discrimination lawsuits, even though damages and penalties would be limited.
“I represent 7,500 members in this state and another 2,000 in Wyoming,” Gagliardi said on the show. “And the worst thing I hated to see come out of this session was the lack of respect for those who actually generate the infrastructure in this state, and that’s business.”
But was it ok to compare the legislation and the session to being butt f*cked with no Vaseline or anything more advanced?
I don’t think so. Do you?
“I stand by that, even though it may be a little vulgar,” said Kyle, adding: “If someone can show me where small business was helped, I’ll eat my hat and buy them dinner.”
For his part, Gagliardi told me.: “I would stand by my comment as far as lack of respect [to small businesses]. The question is, was respect shown to the small business community during this session? And the answer would be no.”
But what about the specific wording of the radio conversation?
“In that venue, playing off Corky’s comments, it’s not something I probably would have said in mainstream, but in that venue, given the context, and given what had happened the previous 120 days, I would probably stand by it,” said Gagliardi, adding that on internet radio “they really do push the envelope with more open dialogue.”
He’s right about internet radio (See shows like “Panties.”), but I can’t find any shows, featuring serious lobbyists and legislators, like “In the Lobby” does, that hit such obscene notes.
Anal sex came up the other day on Grassroots Radio Colorado, but the reference point was host Ken Clark’s story about how somebody ” rear-ended me” (as in a car accident). His co-host dropped the line: “That’s what she said.”
I don’t recall Kyle’s “In-the-Lobby” show, which has featured dozens of elected officials, including leadership from both parties, getting so deeply in the gutter before.
I asked Kyle if he was changing his show, trying to be more abrasive, so to speak.
“I think it’s starting to change on me because I just don’t like the way things are going [in the Legislature.] Before, the whole premise of the show was, ‘if you don’t get involved in legislative process, you get what you get.’ All of a sudden things have gotten very contentious. You have to draw a line, and people want to hear different things. I want legislators on who will express some sentiments…. I don’t like the way it’s going. Small business is getting the shaft so bad.”
Still, Kyle says that anyone who knows him will say that he’ll treat guests with the respect they deserve.
“I really do try to go down the middle,” he says. “That particular day it got a little stupid. I figure after 32 years, I get a hall pass.”
