Hold Onto Your Assets
Seven years ago, the Colorado legislature passed reforms to the state’s civil asset forfeiture laws, implementing important safeguards to protect citizens from having their property unfairly seized by overreaching government agencies. Now those reforms are under assault this year.
Prison Spending, Recidivism, and the Colorado Budget
Run Time: 0:12:01 MP3 02/24/09 Where does spending on corrections stand in the Colorado budget? Are we paying more per year for housing inmates? Is the inmate population increasing, and if so, does recidivism play a role? Mike Krause joins Amy Oliver to discuss these issues and his event coming up next week at the […]
Calling in the Guard: State Dems Get in Touch With Their Inner Drug-Warrior
A slavish devotion to drug prohibition in the United States has spawned predatory and hugely flawed practices at nearly every level of government. Colorado lawmakers have actually cranked up that devotion by turning the Colorado National Guard into really well armed drug police working on commission for the federal government.
U.S. Should Support Taiwan’s Democracy
For 30 years, the U.S. has maintained an “unofficial” relationship with Taiwan.
And while this outdated policy acquiesces nicely to communist China’s absurd (and equally outdated) claim of sovereignty over democratic Taiwan, it also badly undermines the American tradition of supporting democracy around the globe.
Reducing Recidivism and Lowering Corrections Costs
In Colorado, recidivism is defined as “a return to prison for either new criminal activity or technical violation of parole, probation or non-departmental community placement within three years of release.” Recidivism is also a major factor in the decades worth of massive growth in the state’s prison population that taxpayers are obligated to pay for.
Smoke ’em if You Got ’em, It’s for the Children
In 2004, Coloradans overwhelmingly passed Amendment 35, a tobacco tax that helps expand state-funded health care for the working poor, the uninsured and children.
Amendment 35 also funds professional busybodies who use tax dollars to try and get people to quit smoking.
Downzoning Denver
August 21st and 25th – Downzoning Denver Why do the Denver city central planners hate senior fellow Mike Krause’s property rights so much they want to downzone his entire Berkeley neighborhood — so that no one can ever add value to their property through redevelopment? For answers to that question and more tune in to […]
Regime Watch: The “Green” 2008 Summer Games
Run Time: 0:11:55 MP3 8/20/08 Amy Oliver and senior fellow Mike Krause discuss the complete farce the so called “green” Olympics have been in Beijing. Not to mention the tremendous human rights violations China has perpetrated that has been curiously overlooked. What kinds of rights violating policies did China implement to prepare for the games […]
Tibet Isn’t the Only Captive Nation in Beijing’s Empire
The international attention being focused on China’s thuggish military occupation of Tibet in the run up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing is well-deserved, but it should be remembered that Tibetans are by no means the only group in western China living under the heel of the Beijing imperialists.
The Mongol people of Inner Mongolia and the Uighers (pronounced “wee-gurs”) of China’s Xinjiang region are also oppressed by Beijing. But unlike the Tibetans, they have neither a Dalai Lama nor sympathetic celebrities to present their problems on a world stage.
Both Ways Beijing
Here’s how “both ways” Beijing works: First, China’s communist government vigorously pursues the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee makes the horrid decision to grant Beijing the games. Then when the regime’s domestic and world-wide thuggery–such as its brutal military occupation of Tibet, or its complicity in the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan– gets put under some scrutiny, Beijing cries foul and whines that the games should not be politicized.
Sentencing Reform
April 3rd and 7th – Sentencing Reform Once again the Colorado budget and prison spending are on a collision course. The Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCCJJ) tries to balance public safety, justice, the rights of victims and the most cost-effective use of public resources. CCCJJ recently released recommendations. Commission member State Representative […]
Is Taiwan next for China’s thuggery?
Communist China has tried mightily to put on a friendly face for the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But with China’s thuggish military occupation of Tibet on display to the world, the regime in Beijing is showing its true colors.
