On No One's Top Ten Lists

The AP has it's top ten Colorado list out. It is a bit lame. Well, it is more than a bit lame. We thought we could do better with a list of things that didn't make the top ten in Colorado, in no particular order. They didn't make the top ten because they didn't happen. Oh, well!

1. Despite much wishful hoping on the left, the Colorado US Senate race is not a Mark Udall runaway.
2. Caroline Bninski spent Christmas with friends and family, not in jail where Mark Udall and his staff tried to put her for a year. How inconvenient!
3. Neither Mark Udall nor his staff seem to have lied to the public or members of Congress in the last week, setting a new record if not for truthfulness, at least for silence.
4. Rush Limbaugh wasn't humiliated by Mark Udall's Congressional resolution which was written in a way to be an unsophisticated falsehood. No member of the Colorado delegation co-sponsored Udall's anti-Limbaugh resolution.
5. The US didn't cut and run when Harry Reid pontificated "This War is Lost." Nor did Udall object when Nancy Pelosi held useless vote after vote to defund the war.
6. Mark Udall didn't convince Bill Ritter to nix gas drilling on the Roan Plateau.
7. Mark Udall didn't cosponsor the loon in the attic's Department of Peace bill this year, and it is reported that Mark Udall also didn't see a UFO.
8. The Gazette hasn't called Mark Udall an "extremist" for six months, but many of his liberal friends have made certain that he can't claim to be a centrist.
9. Colorado didn't have a roadless wilderness mega forest fire in 2007, but there is still time for one to occur in 2008.
10. The Denver Post hasn't made it's obligatory election year claim that Mark Udall is a "moderate" or "centrist."

List making is so much fun. We're wondering if we are on Bill Ritter's enemies list, yet. We're doing our best.

New Year's Resolution

We're beginning to think that Mark Udall has adopted a "Resolution a Day" strategy to win the election. Every day is New Year's day on Udall's calendar.

His anti-soldier, anti-Limbaugh resolution went nowhere. It doubtless got his campaign some more left wing money-it is no coincidence that Udall has been on the left coast raising money-but it made no friends in the military. It was doomed from the day he leaked that he would introduce it.

He was a Johnny Come Lately as a Rockies fan, but he made up for it by introducing a resolution congratulating the Rockies for making the World Series.

Now, he is proposing a resolution to honor the 50th anniversary of a satellite system that few have heard of-Landsat. There won't much controversy in that resolution. We predict that it will pass, which is more than we can say for much of Mark Udall's agenda.

If we could get Mark Udall to make a New Year's Resolution, it would be that he stop standing on the corner waving his arms wildly with these resolutions and ask his staff to do some real work.

Udall Votes to Defend Colleague who Smeared U.S. Military

Today on the floor of Congress, Boulder liberal Rep. Mark Udall tagged along with his party leadership and voted to kill a bill that would have censured fellow Rep. Pete Stark for his outrageous slander of our troops and Commander in Chief. After the censure bill was defeated, Stark apologized and broke out in sobs.

Previously, Udall sponsored his own resolution condemning conservative radio personality for a contrived controversy in which Udall claimed Limbaugh dishonored our troops. Disproven and debunked, the Boulder liberal Congressman today turned his attention to defending a colleague who delivered a tasteless smear of our military on the floor of Congress.

This turn of events does not reflect well at all on Udall's judgment. Such votes may represent the 2nd Congressional District, but they don't represent the state of Colorado. That doesn't bode well for the Democrat's aspirations to be a U.S. Senator.

Joshua: Follow the Money

Joshua Sharf says that we should just follow the money if we want to determine why Democrats like Mark Udall are so gung-ho about trashing Rush Limbaugh and ensuring that gasoline costs $10 a gallon by the end of the next decade.

OK, he didn't put it quite that way, but what he said was stark enough. He did say:

It explains Governor Ritter's impending sellout of affordable energy in the state. It explains Ken Salazar and Mark Udall - both either holding or running for statewide office - jumping on the chance to lie about Rush Limbaugh's comments on his radio show, and an attempt to corral the power of the Congress into doing the same. (It also explains John Salazar's sponsorship of the Stolen Valor Bill, which according to the Sorosians, addresses a problem that doesn't exist, although it might be embarrassing for Tom Harkin.)

Rush Limbaugh's Revenge

Today, Rush announced that he was putting the original copy of the letter signed by 41 Democrats asking Clear Channel to fire him up for sale on ebay. The proceeds are going to a US Marine related charity that funds the education of the children of battle casualties.

Rush invited each of the 41 Senators who signed the letter to match the high bid and donate that amount to the charity to show their support for the troops. We think that he should also have issued a special invitation to Mark Udall to do likewise, given Udall's ill-advised decision to write a resolution condemning something that didn't happen.

More on the Rush Limbaugh Smear

Mark Udall knowingly and maliciously participated in a smear of Rush Limbaugh in the halls of Congress. Brent Bozell III has take down on the smear, noting that still more "stolen valor" cases are being prosecuted and that 60 are being investigated by the VA. Bozell ends his essay with these words:

Rush has beaten them all back now. In fact, as with the Petraeus/"Betray Us" attacks by MoveOn, this newest round of attempted character assassination backfired and did nothing but re-energize conservatives.

But this won't stop the left. Tomorrow it will be Sean Hannity, or Mark Levin, or maybe Laura Ingraham. This group plays for keeps.

And what of all those media outlets giving aid and comfort to the leftists who attacked Rush? Now that we know there are several dozen cases of "phony soldier" scandals, just as Rush suggested, how many stories have they devoted to them, thus vindicating Rush? Check for a Jesse Macbeth story in a Nexis database search on CBS, NBC and NPR. Search Time and Newsweek. Look up The Washington Post, The New York Times and USA Today.

You won't find a one.

Where's the Beef?

One of the few ways that deployed military members can keep in touch with what is going on at home is Armed Forces Radio and Television. By law, it has no commercials. You don't really realize how important an information source commercials can be until you have lived for three years without seeing a single one.

I served in Germany from 1981-1984. Those of you who recall the 1984 election might remember that Walter Mondale was being asked by his competitors for the nomination "Where's the Beef?" Overseas, we got to see clips of that, but without having seen the Wendy's commercials it was based on, the challenge to Mondale was totally lacking in context. Finally, someone got smart and ran the commercials as part of a special "news" program, so the digs started making sense.

Today's soldiers are luckier than we were. For one hour a day, five days a week, Rush Limbaugh provides context to the day's events. Liberals like Mark Udall may not like the context that Rush provides, but the soldiers do.

Today, Rush announced that the liberals are trying to get him taken off the military's airwaves. The next time you see a photo of Mark Udall with a soldier or hear him tell you how much he loves the soldiers, remember that he is working with Ken Salazar to take their connection with home away from them. Let them answer the 1984 question-Where's the Beef?

Lamborn Rebukes Udall

Doug Lamborn issued a well deserved rebuke to Mark Udall and Ken Salazar on the House Floor without mentioning them by name.

“I rise today to denounce the liberals' fraudulent attacks on Rush Limbaugh,’’ Lamborn said. “Anyone who reads the widely available transcript, as I have done, sees that Mr. Limbaugh was appropriately referring to the pretenders who pose as medal winners, or who falsely claim to have committed atrocities in Iraq, when he used the phrase "phony soldiers."

The History of Propaganda: Still Being Written

The Brown Pelican Society provides a thumbnail guide to the history of propaganda and examines its modern usage by the left in America. Mark Udall gets a one liner because of his participation in the Big Lie targeting Rush Limbaugh.

We found the following two paragraphs most interesting:

There is an old maxim that if one repeats a lie often and loud enough, it will eventually be perceived as the truth.

Adolf Hitler defined that dictum in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf, writing that a big lie must be so “colossal” that the public would be confident that no national leaders “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”

There has been a post WWII taboo, enforced by the Anti-Defamation League, against comparing modern activities with those of Nazi's. They fear that doing so will eventually devalue what the Nazis did.

Brown Pelican is careful to stick to history and allow the reader to draw his own conclusions about the activities of organizations like media matters.

Even so, the left has become so brazen about telling outright lies in an effort to silence conservative speech that they will eventually risk seeing themselves and their financial angels directly compared to Joseph Goebbels. We are being careful to say that we are not there yet, but each day the left seems willing to push the envelope farther in that direction. Eventually, the taboo dam will break as it should if the society is to remain free of demagoguery.

A demagogue is defined by the American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition as: "A politician who seeks to win and hold office by appeals to mass prejudice. Demagogues often use lies and distortion. (See Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.)"

On this one issue, where he was inciting prejudice against Rush Limbaugh using a lie and distortion in the hope that it would help him win an office, Mark Udall's actions clearly identify him as a willing demagogue.

More Wisdom From The West

Mike Saccone of the Grand Junction Sentinel is having a war of words with the lefties. He comments:

So why is criticizing conservative talking head Rush Limbaugh a bad tactic ahead of the 2008 election? … In a nutshell: it does nothing to burnish Udall’s moderate credentials. Indeed, allying oneself with Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, on a resolution that will have no binding effect is, well, kind of a nonstarter. Sure it’s a principled stance, but it’s nothing more than that.

More importantly, it lets politicos, from Schaffer to state Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, stand back and lob the “Boulder liberal” label * at Udall...

Nonetheless, it’s a political stance and an electoral risk [Mark ] Udall did not have to take.

This is the second Saccone essay on the subject. He got beat up by the local liberals and David Sirota on the first one. We like short essays, so we will take on Sirota (the commentator, who according to a gang of four colleague, grabs attention by standing on one foot and spinning. Picture him in a pink tutu with fuzzy yellow bedroom slippers.) in another post.

*Note that we normally kill links embedded in quotes, but the Saccone link was so full of wisdom that we left it in. (Yes, we are laughing as this is being written.)

Udall's Resolution Folly Bound to Hurt Him on Western Slope

In light of the justifiably stern rebuke Boulder liberal Rep. Mark Udall received from the Grand Junction Sentinel yesterday, this nugget of information on Colorado's recent U.S. Senate race poll numbers doesn't bode well for Udall's performance on the Western Slope:

According to the poll results, 39 percent of Western Slope voters prefer Schaffer, and 27 percent support Udall. Twenty-six percent of Western Slope voters, the poll shows, are undecided.

Already 12 points behind, since the survey was conducted before Udall's anti-Limbaugh resolution folly, the Democrat's numbers on the far side of the state only figure to push him even further behind. That 27 percent figure may recede, while independent conservative Republican Bob Schaffer could very well pick up more support from the large crop of undecideds.

A Day Late, A Dollar Short

Yesterday, we pointed out that the active military wasn't at all upset about Rush Limbaugh's comments.

Really? Jim ought to ask the average man or woman in uniform before he throws more fodder into the big blue lie machine. Rush Limbaugh's program plays on Armed Forces Radio. If there was any feeling among the military itself that Rush was disrespectful of the military, the military would be taking action to replace him.

It's nice to see that we have an audience that acts on our observations. Today PeakDems tried to gin up a response. There isn't a lot of point in following that link unless you need the KVOR Advertising Sales Manager's name, email, and phone number. A not so subtle threat, we would guess.

All you phony soldiers in Colorado Springs should contact KVOR about Rush

One of their "fans" wrote a response:

Gee, I didn't know that there was anyone in Colorado Springs who washed out of boot camp after 44 days, and then went around claiming to be an Army Ranger ordered to commit atrocities in order to gin up opposition to the war based on total lies.

And here, Mike, you have always bitched and whined and complained about Mr. Bush supposedly lying to get us INTO the war, now you're doing nothing but repeating total bullshit in an obviously bogus attempt to get us out. Have you no shame?

The funny thing isn't the response, though that is funny. It is that the fine folks at the El Paso Democrat Party (I hope I have that right) wouldn't think to start trying to organize a response from "soldiers" until we pointed out that there hadn't been one. They aren't a day late. They are a week late.

The reason they are a dollar short is that they threw it into the big blue lie machine and Tim Gill hasn't replaced it yet. Not to worry. He will.

The first three notes just happen to be: do re mi

The Mark Udall is not a moderate scoreboard:
extremist 2
reliably left wing 4
liberal 19
moderate 0
conservative (not in this lifetime)

It was incremented today when the Grand Junction Sentinel made the following comment:

It’s curious that Udall, a certified liberal who is seeking statewide office in a state that does not always vote in a certifiably liberal fashion, has bought into a phony attack on Limbaugh propagated by Media Matters, the liberal Internet group. Even after reading the transcript of Limbaugh’s Sept. 26 show posted on Media Matters’ Web site, it takes a considerable stretch to conclude Limbaugh’s “phony soldiers” comment referred to military personnel who merely favor a speedy U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

We started this scoreboard when we noticed that liberal blogs and the msm was routinely calling Mark Udall a "liberal," "reliably left wing," and even "extremist." We do not count comments from conservative blogs and we didn't count a comment on a liberal show by a conservative politician. Those who would like to check our methodology can follow the bread crumbs backwards.

And yes, we know that we linked to the same article on two sequential posts, but each post had a different purpose.

Wisdom from Grand Junction

Wisdom from Grand Junction:

Although one might presume that they would know better, that hasn’t kept two Democrats [ Mark Udall and Ken Salazar ] who represent Colorado from joining the braying pack led by the hard-left loonies at MediaMatters.org alleging that Limbaugh has impugned the character of American servicemen with his reference last week to “phony soldiers.”

Jim Spencer's Curious Quote

Today, Jim Spencer made a curious comment:

Still, I'm glad Udall called out Limbaugh. Limbaugh's disrespect for the military is every bit as bad as MoveOn's.

Really? Jim ought to ask the average man or woman in uniform before he throws more fodder into the big blue lie machine. Rush Limbaugh's program plays on Armed Forces Radio. If there was any feeling among the military itself that Rush was disrespectful of the military, the military would be taking action to replace him.

Further, embedded reporters in Iraq would have long ago filed stories about the discontent in the ranks over the comments. Most embedded reporters are liberals and would love to push any theme that damages Rush Limbaugh. There hasn't been a single story about soldier discontent, which suggests that the military down to the individual soldier has great respect for Rush and knows that he has great respect for them.

Spencer is right about one thing, though.

well, you got yourself a re-election campaign issue.

My guess, as a Retired Army Officer, is that Udall has handed Republicans in Colorado a campaign issue. I would be very disappointed if they didn't use it to beat Mark Udall bloody among veterans and military voters and their families. Most of us see through this stunt.

A Letter to the Editor of the Denver Post

An Aurora man took Mark Udall to task today in the Denver Post for his resolution.

The Udall apologists were immediately all over him, including a claim that Limbaugh "doctored his tape."

Could Limbaugh or anyone "doctor" a tape? Not likely considering the number of tape copies that must exist. For example, the show in Denver is broadcast two hours later than the same show is broadcast in Colorado Springs.

The next guy admits that Limbaugh put his comments in context within two minutes.

It wasn’t until two minutes later, after lots of shuffling in the background–presumably when Rush or one of his staffers realized his gaffe, that Rush mentioned Jesse Macbeth and provided the “context” you refer to well after the fact.

One wonders what period...20 seconds...2 seconds...would have satisfied this guy, or Mark Udall for that matter. A reasonable man would think that nothing would have satisfied either.

Udall's "Self-Righteous Obsession"

Add "self-righteous obsession" to the list of descriptions of Boulder liberal Rep. Mark Udall's resolution to condemn radio talk show personality Rush Limbaugh. Other descriptions from across the political spectrum include "bottom-of-the-barrel desperation" and "charade" and "embarrassment."

Udall and the Rockies

Did anyone else notice that Mark Udall has said nothing about the Rockies win on Monday night? The game was being played at the same time that he and his staff were feeding the big blue lie machine with his Rush Limbaugh resolution, so apparently he was too preoccupied to notice.

On Tuesday, he wouldn't have wanted to step all over his message with something so mundane as a comment about the Rockies win. He was too busy being the Representative from MoveOn.org.

Maybe today?

Udall Claims Limbaugh Resolution Not Partisan

Senate hopeful Mark Udall's claim that his resolution bears no partisan intentions and is a meaningful use of Congress' time rings hollow:

Madam Speaker, it is not my intention to advance a partisan message with this resolution. Nor is it my intention that Congress waste time and effort in exposing partisan hypocrisy, however tempting that goal may be.

It is my intention, however, to make clear to the men and women serving in uniform, many of whom are risking their lives on foreign soil to defend our civil liberties, that it is not acceptable for anyone to accuse them of being "phony" or false patriots because their political views may differ from those of their commander-in-chief.

Not even his supposed MoveOn cronies buy what Udall's shoveling.

Official Text of Udall's Resolution

The official text of the Mark Udall, (D) MoveOn.org, resolution against Rush Limbaugh appears on the Library of Congress site.

The list of original co-sponsors is also at that site. He couldn't even get Diana DeGette to sign on, which shows just how far out this resolution is ("where the buses don't run" as Brit Hume said about MoveOn.org on Sunday).

Not surprisingly, Mark Udall's ally in trying to establish a department of peace in the President's cabinet (no kidding), Dennis Kucinich, is on the list.