The Colorado Independent

DeGette fights GOP ‘big government’ anti-abortion gambit

By John Tomasic | 09.13.11 | 1:18 pm

In a new chapter of the often topsy-turvy story of the Tea Party era, Colorado Democratic US Rep Diana DeGette this week finds herself championing local government rights against Republican efforts to expand federal power. DeGette on Wednesday urged House and Senate appropriations committees staffers to reject legislative stipulations that aim to prohibit the District of Columbia government from using local tax dollars to pay for abortions as part of its employee insurance policies.

Breitbart, Live Action post controversial Planned Parenthood video in shadow of Congressional abortion debate

By John Tomasic | 02.01.11 | 1:38 pm

A new conservative activist hidden-camera video dropped on the internet Tuesday as part of a multi-state effort to catch Planned Parenthood staff on tape offering assistance to men running a child prostitution ring. The immediate aim of the video and its wide distribution is to strip Planned Parenthood of government funding. The larger aim is to blow wind into the sails of the dramatic anti-abortion legislation the new Republican-controlled Congress has introduced that seeks to radically limit funding for abortions in cases of rape, end private insurance policies that provide abortion coverage and defund organizations that provide abortions, like Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the nation but also one the largest non-abortion reproductive and sexual health care providers coast to coast.

Sherrod to sue Breitbart, joins ACORN employees in seeking redress

By John Tomasic | 07.29.10 | 3:42 pm

AP reports that Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod has declared she will sue right-wing activist publisher Andrew Breitbart for posting a tendentious blog and misleadingly edited video that painted her as a racist. Breitbart post on Sherrod fed…

Conservatives edge away from anti-ACORN filmmaker caught in wiretap scandal

By David Weigel | 01.27.10 | 8:54 am

On Monday morning, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, both age 24, dressed up as telephone company workers and walked into the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). Inside the office, waiting for them, was James O’Keefe, the 25-year-old conservative activist who posed as a pimp in 2009 for a series of undercover videos that badly damaged the national community organization ACORN. As Basel and Flanagan clumsily worked on the phones, O’Keefe was recording them for a reason that remains unknown. When the “repairmen” and accomplices were asked for ID, they gave themselves up and were arrested.

Candidate Penry rails against the ‘big government’ employing his family

By John Tomasic | 10.26.09 | 5:13 pm

State Senate Majority Leader and gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, has been attacking Gov. Bill Ritter for months and with what appears to be increasing disregard for facts. A standing broadside features unsubstantiated criticism of the…

Who hates ACORN most? Rep. Steve King makes his case

By John Tomasic | 10.21.09 | 4:52 pm

A “corrupt criminal organization” that caused the global financial crisis. That’s right. But Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is not referring to any bonus-loving cowboys’ Wall Street hedge fund or renegade bank department. He is speaking about that low-income housing and…

The Jane Norton interview: Did she mention ‘big government’?

By John Tomasic | 10.05.09 | 1:39 pm

Jane Norton, former Colo. Lt. Governor and Republican U.S. Senate candidate, appeared on Adam Schrager’s “Your Show” this weekend. She stayed for a mere ten minutes, less than half the time most of the other candidates have given to…