Author Archives: Heidi Beedle

Republicans Reflect on Colorado Springs Mayoral Race

13
  by: Heidi Beedle May 22, 2023 at 1:36 PM MDT

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Pundits and politicos across the country have heralded the victory of Yemi Mobolade over Republican Wayne Williams in the Colorado Springs mayoral race as a great win for progressive Democrats in Colorado Springs, despite the fact that Mobolade is not a Democrat and has a history of union-busting and wage theft as a business owner.

“We figured it would be close, but we didn’t certainly expect it would be a landslide victory for [Mobolade],” said Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams during a May 17 appearance on George Brauchler’s radio show. “That’s something that we should all be concerned with — a wake-up call for us.”

Williams credits Mobolade’s victory in part to dissension among Colorado Springs Republicans. “There was not a consensus Republican pick right after that first round,” he said. “I think that really did a lot of damage to Wayne. Then, of course, there was the negative campaigning that really beat up Wayne during that first round due to some internal, local, developer fights where they were picking sides. No one laid a finger on [Mobolade], so [Mobolade] got to benefit from just positive campaigning while Wayne was on its heels the whole time.”

Much of the opposition against Williams came not from liberals or progressives, but the rabid faction of election-deniers and “RINO hunters” who have supported Dave Williams and embattled El Paso County GOP Chair Vickie Tonkins. Wayne Williams’ ties to Runbeck Election Systems have made him, and his wife, El Paso County Commissioner Holly Williams, central figures in local election conspiracies and the target of perennial defamation lawsuit defendant Joe Oltmann, whose vocal support for fringe candidates like Tina Peters and Ron Hanks have proved disastrous for Colorado’s Republican party.

One of Oltmann’s attacks against Wayne Williams.

“I mean, doing a doing a commercial with [Colorado Secretary of State] Jena Griswold [D] as well, that didn’t help him amongst the base,” admitted Dave Williams.

Former Colorado GOP Chair Dick Wadhams was more direct in his assessment of mayoral race.

“Everything was falling in line for the effort for [Mobolade],” said Wadhams, who followed Williams on the same Brauchler radio show. “Frankly, the El Paso County Republican Party can be charitably called a dumpster fire for the last several elections. I mean, the divisions within the party, the lawsuits flying around and that didn’t help either. But [Mobolade] ran in many ways a perfect campaign. He did not run as a Democrat.”

(more…)

Tweet
Share

“Advancing Death for No Other Purpose Than to Advance Death”

3
  by: Heidi Beedle March 30, 2023 at 11:27 AM MDT

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

As the Colorado Democrats’ “Safe Access to Protected Health Care” package of legislation moves to House for consideration, Republicans have taken to talk radio to share their views on the proposed bills that target the marketing practices of anti-abortion centers and their use of an unproven pill to reverse an abortion, expand legal protections for patients and providers seeking reproductive and gender-affirming health care, and expand insurance coverage for those seeking reproductive health care.

“What we are doing here in Colorado is really just advancing death for no other purpose than to advance death,” said Rep. Stephanie Luck (R-Penrose) during an appearance on the Dan Caplis Show last Thursday. “I don’t believe that [Democrats] see it in those terms. I think that they see it as their moral imperative to provide women in these situations with this opportunity and with this choice. I think that they have framed it in their minds as the righteous cause.”

Republicans aren’t just taking issues with the protections for abortion, but also those for gender-affirming health care. “I think we should all be very concerned, and I think we stop terming it abortion and call it infanticide because it’s really the murder of babies,” said Rep. Brandi Bradley (R-Littleton) during her Thursday appearance on the Kim Monson Show. “The first one, [Senate Bill] 188, is forcing doctors and insurance companies to accept gender-affirming care, which involves sterilization and abortion. They have to do it. They don’t get a religious exemption.”

Bradley during a protest against a Highlands Ranch drag event.

According to the Colorado House Democrats, the bill, which passed out of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, works to protect health care providers and patients from overreaching interstate criminal and civil threats. “Across the country and even here in Colorado, our fundamental freedoms are under attack from harmful transphobic rhetoric, anti-trans bills, and egregious attempts to limit who we are,” said Rep. Brianna Titone (D-Arvada) in a news release. “Our legislation protects those seeking gender-affirming and reproductive health care from politically-motivated, legal overreach by other states. For many people, having access to gender-affirming care is not only validating, but life-saving. This bill prioritizes patients and providers, protects our privacy and upholds your fundamental rights to reproductive and gender-affirming health care.”

Republicans also took issue with Senate BIll 23-190, which targets the use of deceptive marketing practices by anti-abortion centers. “I do believe that this bill will come after pregnancy centers, they’ll come after them by saying that their advertising is a violation and that it’s removing a choice that the woman can have and that they need to be abolished,” said Rep. Mary Bradfield (R-Fountain), during a Monday appearance on the Centennial Institute’s Frontier Freedom Hour. “Which is a shame because, as I see it, the pregnancy centers do not take anything away. They allow the couple to make their own choices. Either way, if they make the choice for life and really need counseling, help with prenatal care and doctors, and especially after the baby is born, all those care things that can be offered are offered through the centers.”

Democrats argue that anti-abortion centers prevent patients from receiving the appropriate care in a timely manner. “In Colorado and across America, maternal outcomes are declining, and anti-abortion centers that use deceptive advertising to draw in vulnerable people seeking care and misleading them with biased and inaccurate information about abortions and contraceptives are only making the problem worse,” said Sen. Janice Marchman (D-Loveland) in a news release. “People who go to these centers looking for help are often misled and stigmatized – the exact opposite of the safe and essential care we are beholden to protect as elected officials. Our bill will crack down on deceptive practices used by some of these bad actors, and is a proactive step we can take towards a future where Coloradans’ freedom to access essential and affirming reproductive health care is truly protected.”

(more…)

Tweet
Share

Boebert Introduces Legislation to Stop Abortions for Immigrants

19
  by: Heidi Beedle December 16, 2022 at 9:13 AM MST

(“Turning down the temperature” — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has introduced legislation to ban taxpayer-funded abortions for undocumented immigrants, according to a news release. This legislation comes after guidance from the Biden administration last month that was designed to ensure access to reproductive health care for unaccompanied minors.

According to the ACLU, “On November 10, 2022, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) announced new guidance to ensure that unaccompanied immigrant minors have access to abortion while in ORR shelters awaiting reunification with family in the United States. The policy requires ORR to prioritize placing pregnant immigrant youth in shelters in states where abortion has not been banned, but if a minor is placed in a shelter in a state with restrictive abortion laws and requests an abortion, the policy requires timely transfer to another state to access this care.”

The proposed legislation has support from Colorado’s entire Republican congressional delegation, including Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO). “The Biden administration is unlawfully using taxpayer money to transport pregnant, illegal alien children across state lines for late-term abortions,” said Boebert in a news release. “My colleagues and I have introduced bicameral legislation to end these illegal and horrific policies once and for all. Taxpayer money should never fund abortions, whether for citizens or non-citizens. Our priority at the southern border should be security and peace, not death and destruction.”

The 1976 Hyde Amendment already prevents federal funds from being used for elective abortions. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Hyde Amendment “blocks federal funds from being used to pay for abortion outside of the exceptions for rape, incest, or if the pregnancy is determined to endanger the woman’s life, resulting in dramatically limited coverage of abortion under Medicaid and other federal programs.”

According to the ACLU, many of the undocumented children qualify for those Hyde Amendment exceptions. “This new policy is an essential step in protecting the health and well-being of this marginalized population,” reads a Nov. 21 news release. “ORR is the government authority in charge of caring for unaccompanied immigrant minors who are detained after crossing the border to find their families in the U.S. and to seek a safer, better life. Unfortunately, many of these young people experience sexual assault in their countries of origin or on the perilous journey to the U.S., and some may enter ORR custody pregnant. This policy will help ensure that any minor who is pregnant is able to quickly and confidentially access abortion care, if she believes that is the right decision for herself and her future. Pregnant immigrant minors deserve to have their bodily autonomy respected, including while in government custody.”

(more…)

Tweet
Share

Ordinance Would Allow $100,000 Penalties Against Any Abortion Clinic in Pueblo

12
  by: Heidi Beedle November 30, 2022 at 10:25 AM MST

(One election away from your town? — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Pueblo City Council will vote on an anti-abortion ordinance during their upcoming work session on Dec. 12. Introduced by Councilor Regina Maestri, the ordinance passed its first reading during Monday’s Council meeting. The background paper, included in the meeting minutes, notes, “legal Staff does not recommend approval of this ordinance.”

Recently, Pueblo’s City Council meetings have been heavily attended by anti-abortion activists who oppose a new abortion clinic slated to open in the Bessemer neighborhood. Currently, patients seeking access to abortion care must drive an hour north to Colorado Springs.

The proposed ordinance cites federal obscenity laws passed in 1948 to empower “any person, other than the state, its political subdivisions, including the city Pueblo, and any officer or employee or agent of a state or local governmental entity in this state” to take civil action against abortion clinics that use the mail to receive any item “designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” Successful civil actions against abortion providers would lead to “statutory damages in an amount of not less than $100,000 for each violation.”

Abortion advocates question whether any kind of municipal ordinance that attempts to contravene Colorado’s Reproductive Health Equity Act, which enshrines the right to an abortion in Colorado law, is legal.

“My understanding is that it will not hold up in court,” says Karen Middleton, president of abortion advocacy group Cobalt. “I do not believe that they can try to restrict access to abortion care, whether it’s through the ordinance or zoning or whatever they’re going to do. I do not believe that they can limit this kind of access by saying you can’t have access in the city.”

The debate around the CARE [Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence] clinic has galvanized both local and out-of-state anti-abortion activists.

Leading local efforts is Forging Pueblo, a group whose mission statement mirrors those of the Seven Mountain dominionists, and includes on its board of directors Tamra Axworthy, the executive director of Pueblo’s A Caring Pregnancy Center, an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center, and Rep. Stephanie Luck (R-Penrose).

Out-of-state activists include Mark Lee Dickson, the director of Right to Life of East Texas and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative. Dickson, a self-described “36-year-old virgin,” touted his success in convincing municipalities across the country to restrict abortion access, including recently in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Texas anti-abortion activist Mark Lee Dickson addressing Pueblo City Council.

“What we’re seeing [is that] over 60 cities throughout the United States have passed ordinances that address abortion access within their communities,” said Dickson during Monday’s council meeting. “The largest is Lubbock, Texas, population 264,000. The smallest is Impact, Texas, population 20. This is something that we’re seeing happening, not just in Texas, not just in Nebraska, Louisiana, Iowa, Ohio. We’re seeing it in New Mexico, and there is interest here in Pueblo, Colorado, because an abortionist in Bellevue, Nebraska, wants to move here and open up shop. Now, part of that is my fault. We started a petition to outlaw abortion in Bellevue, Nebraska, and within days of starting that petition, [Dr. LeRoy] Carhart started a GoFundMe page about moving to Pueblo, Colorado. The ordinance that has been given to you guys is an ordinance that has been drafted by the same attorney that has helped me in over 60 cities.”

(more…)

Tweet
Share

New Aurora PD Chief: History of Misconduct and InfoWars Visits

12
  by: Heidi Beedle November 17, 2022 at 2:12 PM MST

(Speechless in Aurora. CLICK HERE for more background — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Aurora’s new interim police chief with Alex Jones.

Aurora’s newly appointed interim police chief, Art Acevedo, in addition to recently being fired by the city of Miami, has a history of misconduct and was a frequent guest on InfoWars, founded by conspiracist Alex Jones, who was ordered by a Connecticut court last month to pay hundreds of millions to Sandy Hook families for falsely saying the 2012 school massacre was a hoax.

Acevedo began his career in law enforcement as part of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). In 2004 the Los Angeles Times reported that Acevedo “has been investigated recently for allegedly showing nude photographs of a fellow CHP officer to other high-ranking officers while on duty. Assistant Chief Art Acevedo is the subject of a $5-million civil claim involving the woman with whom he allegedly had an affair in 1995.”

According to the Times, claims filed with three state agencies alleged that Acevedo kept sexually explicit Polaroid photographs of the woman in the glove box of his state-issued car and showed them to other supervisors after the affair ended. Two CHP captains allegedly said Acevedo showed them the pictures, including one in which the woman is performing a sexual act on him. Acevedo denied showing the photos to other officers to the Sacramento Bee.

In 2007, Acevedo was hired as chief of the Austin Police Department. In 2016, the Austin American Statesman reported that Acevedo was “reprimanded, stripped of five days’ pay and warned his job is in jeopardy after his boss said he didn’t follow orders to stop discussing the controversial police shooting of an unarmed teen in February. At the center of the penalty against the chief, City Manager Marc Ott said Acevedo had been insubordinate.”

While serving as the Austin PD chief, Acevedo was a regular guest on Alex Jones’ InfoWars program. In October, Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages to families of victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting, for falsely claiming they were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns. Jones was recently ordered to pay an additional $473 million in punitive damages.

(more…)

Tweet
Share

‘2,000 Mules’ Beats a Dead Horse

8
  by: Heidi Beedle May 5, 2022 at 9:12 AM MDT

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

It was a packed house at the Cinemark Tinseltown theater in Colorado Springs for Monday’s premiere of conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza’s new film, 2,000 Mules. D’Souza’s film is the latest attempt by conservatives at questioning the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, which has been the subject of numerous forensic audits — that failed to show evidence of fraud — in states like Arizona and Michigan.

D’Souza assembled a panel of conservative thought leaders from Salem Media Group that included racial slur enthusiast Dennis Prager, virulent transphobe Charlie Kirk, protester-punching Eric Metaxas, who is a co-defendant in the defamation lawsuit brought by former Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer, and Larry Elder to review his evidence.

D’Souza works with Catherine Engelbrecht of the group True the Vote, and Greg Phillips, a data expert who collected anonymous cell phone data to identify repeat visitors to ballot drop-off boxes in battleground states, a practice called “geo fencing.”

“So there are two independent lines of evidence obtained by the election intelligence organization that’s called True the Vote,” said D’Souza told KNUS radio host George Brauchler, during a May 2 on-air discussion of the film. “They got a giant amount of cell phone geo tracking data. This is the data that shows the movement of cell phones. And they bought the data from October 1, 2020, through the election. Now they sort of this data, they ran a kind of a search algorithm looking for these mules. Now, what’s a mule? A mule is a paid political operative, typically hired by a left-wing organization to dump fraudulent and illegal ballots into mail-in drop boxes, typically in the middle of the night. … Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote coined the term and when I say ‘coined’ it as she lifted it from, you know, drug trafficking and sex trafficking in human trafficking where the mule is kind of the go-between. So she basically just applied the term to this area to ballot trafficking in which we have people doing exactly the same thing. They’re serving as mules.”

D’Souza, who was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2018 for a 2014 campaign finance violation, claims that a shadowy network of nonprofits used paid ballot “mules” to distribute enough false ballots in battleground states to swing the results of the 2020 election.

This is simply the latest conspiracy theory to be trotted out for conservative audiences that can’t get enough relitigation of 2020.

(more…)

Tweet
Share