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House Republicans: We Don’t Care About Gun Violence Stories

4
  by: Colorado Pols March 25, 2023 at 1:12 PM MDT

“[Democrats] will say, ‘You’ve got your side of the argument and it’s the Constitution, but we’ve got real, live people on our side.’

“And we’re like, ‘We don’t care.’”

     — State Rep. Scott Bottoms (R-Colorado Springs)

House Republicans are spending their first Saturday of Spring on another inevitably-pointless “filibluster” related to gun violence prevention legislation that Democrats are moving through the State Capitol.

Today’s attempted filibuster comes at the end of a week that began with the shooting of two staff members at East High School in Denver and ended with students descending on the Capitol building to plead for help in enacting new gun violence prevention measures. As we noted on Friday, Republicans in the state legislature responded to these desperate calls for help by treating students as a nuisance; State Sen. Larry Liston (R-Colorado Springs) wrote on Twitter: “How would you feel if rude and impertinent 15/16 year olds barged into your office unannounced and berated you for an unfortunate situation that you had nothing to do with?”

As Kyle Clark of 9News reported on Friday evening, Liston’s horrible comments were only the tip of the iceberg from Republicans. Last Wednesday — AFTER the East High School shootings — State Rep. Scott “There is No” Bottoms (R-Colorado Springs) flatly told an audience at a local church that the Republican response to personal stories of being impacted by gun violence was to flatly state, “We don’t care.”

 

 

The “filibluster” that Rep. Bottoms promised to undertake on Friday evening instead began today. Members of the Republican micro-minority in the State House have been droning on for hours in opposition to SB23-170, an addition to Colorado’s successful “red flag” law that seeks to expand the list of people who can petition for an “extreme risk protection order” to temporarily remove a firearm from the possession of a person believed to be an immediate risk to themselves or others. This bill is a common sense addition to a program that has already been proven to save lives in Colorado, but that matters little to a Colorado Republican Party that now operates as little more than a subsidiary of the “no compromise” gun group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO).

Republican lawmakers literally don’t care about how gun violence might impact Coloradans or their communities. They’re not even pretending otherwise.

Weekend Open Thread

33
  by: Colorado Pols March 25, 2023 at 12:30 AM MDT

“Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.”

–Mark Twain

Colorado Republicans Treat High Schoolers Like January Sixers

10
  by: Colorado Pols March 24, 2023 at 2:49 PM MDT

Senate President Steve Fenberg addresses East High students on gun safety legislation.

As the Denver Post’s Capitol reports Nick Coltrain and Seth Klamann reported yesterday evening, for the second time this legislative session, the students of nearby East High School marched to the Colorado state capitol building to demand in the wake of gun violence on and near their campus that lawmakers pass stronger gun safety measures:

Hundreds of students from at least five Denver high schools, reeling from another school shooting, filled lawmakers’ offices and surrounded them in the hallways of the Capitol on Thursday to demand safer schools.

The rally was in response to the second shooting at East High School in as many weeks, but violence at any school affects every school, students said. They chanted slogans like “protect schools, not guns” from the Capitol steps…

On Wednesday, two administrators at the school were shot by a student, according to law enforcement. The student suspected of shooting the administrators was found dead by suicide hours later in Park County.

Students arriving at the state capitol to lobby lawmakers in favor of stronger gun safety laws yesterday, continuing today with Denver Public Schools closed for a “mental health day,” met two very different partisan reactions. Sympathetic Democrats welcomed students’ support for four gun safety bills moving through the legislature, and Sens. Chris Hansen and Rhonda Fields promised in response to news that the East High shooter may have utilized an untraceable “ghost gun” to introduce a new bill to ban them completely in the state.

According to a number of witnesses present, however, the interactions between East High students and Republican lawmakers were somewhat less cordial:

Got that, kids? Sen. Larry Liston was “happy” to be “berated” with your “rude and impertinent” “unannounced” grievances about your friends and administrators getting shot. What makes you think Liston can help? It’s not like lawmakers pass laws, right?

As for Republicans who hid in darkened offices as though high school students were January 6th insurrectionists, that’s just rank cowardice. For one thing, these students all went through the capitol’s metal detectors, which is more than we can say for clueless Republican lawmakers with a habit of fumbling their guns in a building where no one else can possess them. Why would armed Republican legislators be afraid of high school students who didn’t even smash any windows to get in the building like January 6th “sightseers?”

As one of Colorado’s longest-serving backbencher safe-seat Republicans, this is far from Larry Liston’s first offense when it comes to general disdain for children. Back in 2008, then-Rep. Liston drew scorn and was forced to apologize after he flat-out called unwed teen parents “sluts” in a debate over teen pregnancy rates. It’s not something Liston would be likely to repeat today, especially in earshot of Lauren Boebert, but we can see that time hasn’t made the kids any more welcome on Larry Liston’s lawn.

This time, Liston and friends helped turn a crowd of East High kids into lifetime Democratic voters.

Punching & Polling: New CO Republican Leader Wants GOP To Be ‘More Like the Tea Party’

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  by: Erik Maulbetsch March 24, 2023 at 1:13 PM MDT

(Back to the future — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

New Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams won his race by uniting the clans.

As the newly elected Chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Dave Williams is making the obligatory rounds of the state’s numerous conservative talk radio shows. For the past two weeks, he’s been introducing himself to the party faithful, sharing his vision for revamping the state GOP, and taking some tough questions from the likes of George Brauchler, Deborah Flora, Dan Caplis, Peter Boyles and other mic-wielding Republicans from both wings of his party.

Yet while Williams makes his case on the radio, some prominent Republicans have either announced they are leaving the party, downplayed the significance of chair’s role, or criticized him directly for election denialism and for his links to fringe elements of the party.

Williams’s first on-air appearance, just hours after his election, was on the KNUS show of fellow election denier Randy Corporon, who was elected by state Republicans to serve on the Republican National Committee. Corporon, who also founded the influential Arapahoe County Tea Party (ACTP), was clearly thrilled at Williams’ win. He encouraged him to continue to court grassroots Republicans and invited him to speak at the next ACTP meeting. Williams replied, “I want to make the Republican Party more like the Tea Party.”

Williams was on less friendly ground a week later when he appeared on the Peter Boyles Show. Boyles, who’s been perhaps the loudest right-wing radio voice against election denialism and Trump (a marked departure from his vehement support of Trump’s racist “birther” conspiracy),  asked Williams about the challenge before him:

Peter Boyles: Can you feel the weight of this? You have to bring this thing like the Phoenix bird, out of the ashes?

Dave Williams: Yeah, for sure. It’s a weighty responsibility, especially when there is no other statewide Republican official that you can point to, Heidi [Ganahl], is no longer a regent. And prior to that was Cory [Gardner]. So now it’s fallen to me, to a certain extent, to be the voice of nearly one million Republicans, and that’s something not to take lightly. Boyles responded by asking Williams how he would win over more moderate Republicans.

Boyles: These guys are right-of-center. They’re not the lunatic fringe; they’re right-of-center guys. And how can you win them? Because elections are won in the middle. They’re not won by the Tina Peters supporters or guys that take rifles and shoot copying machines or wherever the hell that Hanks character did. This is not the stuff that’s going to get you across the finish line. How are you going to do it?

Williams: It starts with figuring out what our marketplace wants. We have to go to the voters, whether they’re Republican or unaffiliated, and we have to start asking them, ‘What are the issues you care about most?’

Williams repeated that same message a few days later on KNUS’ Deborah Flora Show:

“We’re not asking the marketplace what they want,” said Williams. “We’re kind of just kind of shooting in the dark, not really knowing what issues they care about. So we have to invest in good old fashioned polling that kind of tells us what issues do these people care about, and we can then align ourselves on those issues – without compromising who we are – and start to make some gains.”

That answer is the second half of the two-part message Williams pushed on all his radio appearances: First he says the party is going to “go on offense” against Democrats personally by “exposing their corruption.” Second, he says he’s going to rely on empirical data to determine the party’s policy priorities going forward.

His focus on polling data appears to be an attempt to push back against his well-established reputation as a far-right bomb-thrower, often against his own party. Boyles pointed out as much during their conversation, noting, “You’re hanging in a coalition right now of some frankly pretty nutty people.”

Williams did not respond to emails requesting comment on his two-point plan; both what evidence of moral and ethical corruption he expects to find on Democrats as well as any details about the upcoming polling project. This article will be updated with any response received.

“Establishment” Republicans have already made similar public statements, such as former chair Dick Wadhams, who previously wrote off the entire field of candidates and then told the Colorado Sun that if Williams delivers on his campaign promises, particularly his offer of a leadership role to Tina Peters, the party would “have no credibility.”

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Get More Smarter on Friday (March 24)

0
  by: Colorado Pols March 24, 2023 at 12:13 PM MDT

Welcome to Spring; enjoy the allergies! Let’s Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter.

 

FIRST UP…

 

► If you are a registered voter in Denver but have not yet cast your ballot ahead of the April 4th election — headlined by the first open race for Denver Mayor in 12 years — then welcome to the club! Less than 5% of Denver voters have cast a ballot as of today.

Recent shootings at East High School in Denver may help voters make a decision among the 16 candidates running for Mayor.

 

► Former President Donald Trump won’t likely be indicted for hush money payments to a porn star until at least next week. In the meantime, Trump is handling the wait with his typical subtlety and grace:

 

► As The Denver Post reports, students from several local high schools visited the State Capitol on Thursday to plead with lawmakers to take more action on gun safety:

Hundreds of students from at least five Denver high schools, reeling from another school shooting, filled lawmakers’ offices and surrounded them in the hallways of the Capitol on Thursday to demand safer schools.

The rally was in response to the second shooting at East High School in as many weeks, but violence at any school affects every school, students said. They chanted slogans like “protect schools, not guns” from the Capitol steps.

“This should have stopped with Luis,” Jasmine Brown, a junior at West High School, said. “This should have stopped with Columbine.”

Luis Garcia, a junior and varsity soccer player at East High School, was shot last month while sitting in his car outside of school. He died of his injuries.

The response from Republican lawmakers was…not good:

In a series of Tweets today, Colorado House Republicans cast the blame for shootings at East High School squarely on the Denver School Board.

As Westword reports, the Denver School Board completed quite the flip on its policy of armed police officers in public schools. Following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, the school board pulled armed police out of schools over concerns about officers potentially targeting minority students for extra scrutiny.

 

► Governor Jared Polis unveiled a sweeping new affordable housing proposal that supporters say will also have huge benefits for the environment.

 

Click below to keep learning things…

 

(more…)

And Now Comes The Great Firewall of Utah

2
  by: Colorado Pols March 24, 2023 at 12:07 PM MDT

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R).

AP reports via NPR from the Beehive State, where the permanent Republican supermajority had itself another crazy idea that Gov. Spencer Cox was happy to sign into law:

Utah became the first state to enact laws limiting how children can use social media after Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a pair of measures Thursday that require parental consent before kids can sign up for sites like TikTok and Instagram.

The two bills Cox signed into law also prohibit kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., require age verification for anyone who wants to use social media in the state and seek to prevent tech companies from luring kids to their apps using addictive features.

As readers with young children already know, most social media platforms don’t allow kids under 13 to sign up due to federal law regulating marketing to young children. But if you know that, you ought to also know how easy it is for kids to lie about their age to gain access to whatever platform they want. And as for blocking kids from accessing social media during certain times of day, they can get around such restrictions faster than adults can say “VPN”–which is another term net-savvy parents should know about, because your kids already do.

The laws are the latest effort from Utah lawmakers focused on children and the information they can access online. Two years ago, Cox signed legislation that called on tech companies to automatically block porn on cell phones and tablets sold, citing the dangers it posed to children. Amid concerns about enforcement, lawmakers in the deeply religious state revised the bill to prevent it from taking effect unless five other states passed similar laws.

Notwithstanding the fact that tech giants are expected to file suit as soon as the law takes effect in 2024, the simple fact is that the state of Utah has no practical ability to enforce this law, since unlike China and other tightly-surveilled countries the state has no centralized control to block or impede network traffic within their borders. If parents choose to engage in a technological arms race against their own children to control what they can access online, they’ll enjoy somewhat better odds than the state of Utah.

Our experience is that the kids always find a way.

Denver Ballot Returns are Pretty Miserable

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  by: Colorado Pols March 24, 2023 at 11:00 AM MDT

The race for Denver Mayor is coming down to its final week, but voters are still holding onto their ballots like a lottery ticket that they aren’t totally sure isn’t a winner.

Election Day is April 4, which means the last day to safely drop a completed ballot in the mail is Wednesday of next week. As of today, only about 5% of ballots in Denver have been returned by voters.

Yes, five percent. As in, more than four but less than six.

 

Denver ballot returns as of March 24, 2023

 

The last time Denver had an open race for Mayor was in May 2011, when Chris Romer (28% of the vote) and Michael Hancock (27%) earned enough votes to make the runoff election. James Mejia finished in third place with 25.7% of the vote.

In May 2011, voter turnout reached a little more than 38% of all eligible voters. This was before Colorado instituted all-mail balloting, of course; in theory, making it easier to vote in 2023 should increase voter turnout [*Denver did start all-mail balloting for the first time in 2011]. On the other hand, a ballot that includes 16 candidates for Mayor does make things a bit more complicated when you’re trying to make a decision as a voter.

If you are a Denver voter and you still haven’t cast a ballot — and according to the data, that’s pretty much everyone — you can CLICK HERE for more information on how to vote.

Trump Indictment Roundup: Probably Not This Week

1
  by: Colorado Pols March 23, 2023 at 1:35 PM MDT

There was a lot of buzz earlier this week that former President Donald Trump would be indicted within days on charges related to using campaign funds to make a hush money payment to a porn star with whom he allegedly had an affair years earlier.

As The New York Times reports, that indictment probably won’t happen until next week at the earliest:

It now appears that any indictment of former President Donald J. Trump would not come until next week at the earliest.

The grand jury hearing evidence about Mr. Trump’s role in a hush-money payment to a porn star typically does not consider the case on Thursdays and does not meet on Fridays, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg has been questioning witnesses about the role Mr. Trump played in the payment to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and there have been several signals that the prosecutors are nearing an indictment. Still, the exact timing of any charges remains unknown.

Although the special grand jury hearing evidence about Mr. Trump meets on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, it typically does not hear evidence about the Trump case on Thursdays, according to the person with knowledge of the matter. Special grand juries, which unlike regular grand juries sit for months at a time and hear complex cases, routinely consider several cases simultaneously.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg

Bragg isn’t staying completely quiet, however. From The Washington Post:

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday emphatically rebuffed a House Republican demand for documents and testimony related to his office’s investigation of former president Donald Trump, saying the request was “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.” 

On Tuesday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Bragg demanding materials related to his investigation into alleged hush-money payments from Trump to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Jordan also accused Bragg of an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority,” an escalation of the standoff between the district attorney’s office and Trump’s House Republican allies… [Pols emphasis]

…On his Truth Social platform, Trump has kept up a steady stream of attacks on Bragg in all-caps-heavy posts, calling him an “animal” and demanding his removal from office.

As The Washington Post details in a separate story, Trump is plainly terrified about a pending indictment:

With his potential indictment looming in Manhattan, the former president on Thursday criticized those who have called for his supporters to remain peaceful.

“EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M 100% INNOCENT, INCLUDING BRAGG,” Trump said on Truth Social, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “BUT HE DOESN’T CARE. HE IS JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!”

While not explicitly urging his supporters to get violent, the seeming message here is that a peaceful response might be insufficient. To label it a dog whistle would be an understatement. Trump is standing next to a tinderbox and casually lighting a match.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called for “peaceful” demonstrations while also encouraging his caucus to do everything it can to muck up the gears of justice where Trump is concerned. But as Jonathan V. Last writes for Bulwark, this is all very odd considering that the former President faces numerous legal problems:

Having made their deal with the devil to elect and protect the most corrupt man to ever serve as president, Republicans are now outraged that his corruptions have resulted in multiple criminal investigations. [Pols emphasis]

Whodathunkit?

 

 

Trump’s pending indictment(s) will have a direct impact on Colorado Republicans as well. Congressperson Lauren Boebert has thrown down hard on Trump’s behalf, as has new State Party Chairperson Dave Williams. As Williams said on March 11 after being elected GOP Chair:

“We are the party that elected Donald J. Trump, and we are not going to apologize for that anymore.”

Williams may find out next week just what those words taste like when he is forced to eat them.

Lauren Boebert Is Congress’ New Dead Fetusmobile

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  by: Colorado Pols March 23, 2023 at 1:11 PM MDT

Rep. Lauren Boebert holds up dead fetus pictures while introducing legislation to delist gray wolves.

This morning, the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee convened to hear legislation introduced by Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado that would remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species List–a rare occasion in which Boebert would directly address a major flashpoint issue in her district, and would enjoy plenty of support from CD-3 ranchers hotly opposed to the reintroduction of the species in Colorado. In other words, if even you don’t agree with Boebert on the issue, we were ready to witness a rare instance of Boebert actually doing something close to her job.

But as Raw Story’s David Edwards reports, it was not to be:

During Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee hearing, Boebert was recognized to present her bill to remove the Gray Wolf from the list of endangered species.

“I appreciate this time today and thank you so much for everyone who’s attending here and traveling so far to be here,” Boebert began. “I do want to say before my opening remarks, you know, since we’re talking about the Endangered Species Act, I’m just wondering if my colleagues on the other side would put babies on the endangered species list.”

The lawmaker held up photos of fetuses as she spoke…

That’s right, folks. We’re not talking about an attempt to disrupt debate over legislation Boebert opposed. Boebert actually hijacked her own presentation to engage in a totally gratuitous round of lurid, performative wedge-issue nonsense, instead of focusing on the bill she was there to present–a bill that might have otherwise helped convince voters in CD-3 that Boebert cares about something besides outraging her way onto the evening news.

We’re not showing these disgusting images just to cost you your appetite. People need to see this pointless grandstand, and understand it in the full context of Boebert trying to speak for her constituents on a legitimate yet totally unrelated question, in order to understand what an utter failure of representative leadership Boebert has become. Just a few months ago, after almost losing her seat in an election that wasn’t supposed to be close, the same Lauren Boebert promised to help “take down the temperature in D.C.”

After this spectacle, it’s clearer than ever that Boebert doesn’t know what that means.

(more…)

East High School Shooting Shifts Mayoral Race

24
  by: Colorado Pols March 23, 2023 at 10:00 AM MDT

UPDATE: According to CBS4 Denver, the Denver School Board is discussing trying to place more armed police officers in schools:

Denver school board member Tay Anderson, who led the movement to remove Denver police officers from Denver Public Schools in 2020 is now calling for reinstating DPD officers in schools according to Mayor Michael Hancock’s Chief of Staff Alan Salazar.

Salazar confirmed to CBS New Colorado that Anderson called DPD Chief Ron Thomas Thursday morning, saying he was going to be putting forth a proposal to the Denver school board to place 160 Denver officers in 80 DPS schools.

Salazar pushed back on the numbers, however, saying the Denver Police Department doesn’t have the resources to divert 160 officers off the streets and into schools.

—–

East High School

The race to become the next Mayor of Denver has been relatively quiet compared to past mayoral elections. That probably changes in the aftermath of Wednesday’s shooting at East High School in Denver that wounded two staff members and left the 17-year-old alleged shooter dead of an apparent suicide.

The race for Denver Mayor has been difficult to follow because of an obscenely-large 16 candidate field that makes it hard for voters to converge behind one or two frontrunners. Further complicating the campaign is the fact that the issue of homelessness has been widely embraced as the top subject for every candidate; when everyone is focusing on the same topic, it is hard for voters to tell the difference between contenders at a quick glance.

The shooting at East High School changes this calculation for voters in that it creates a clear delineation on the issue of armed school resource officers in Denver public schools.

Denver Schools Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero announced late Wednesday that armed school resource officers (SROs) would be returned to public high schools for the remainder of the school year, regardless of the position of the Denver School Board, which had removed them in the aftermath of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock supported the decision.

As Kyle Clark of 9News explained in a tweet on Wednesday:

 

 

Among the top tier candidates, four support the return of armed officers to Denver Public Schools: Kelly Brough, Chris Hansen, Mike Johnston, and Debbie Ortega. Those opposed to putting SROs in public schools include Lisa Calderón and Leslie Herod.

You can see how this is a problem for candidates such as Herod, who released the following word salad statement on Wednesday evening:

“We are failing our kids. We are failing our educators. And we are failing Denver families. What happened today at East High School is absolutely unacceptable and serves as a reminder that intentional action must accompany our thoughts and prayers.

“The East High community is making every effort to keep its students safe and supported. Like most of our schools, they are under-resourced to meet the diverse and growing needs and they lack the necessary coordinated supports from a city that is battling against the proliferation of guns. We must do better and we can. When we are asking educators to search students for weapons, we have clearly gotten school safety policies and practices wrong.

“Curbing youth violence is fundamental to the safety and wellness of our city. Our city’s leaders should be bringing our state’s top experts together to address the root causes of this crisis and to make sure that we never again put our educators on the front line to keep our schools safe.

“My heart is with the families of those affected by this tragedy and to the entire East High School community. I will not sit on my hands and wait for another tragedy to occur. Together, we will take action. I am with you.”

Mail ballots were first sent out to Denver voters last week, but early ballot return numbers have been remarkably low, indicating that voters have yet to make up their mind on the race for Mayor. With less than two weeks to go until Election Day on April 4, the East High School shooting puts candidates such as Calderón and Herod in an untenable position with no real time to explain the nuances of their opposition to SROs.

Political environments can change quickly — fairly or not — to the detriment of some and the benefit of others. In the race for Denver Mayor, it’s a good bet that we’re now looking at four candidates (Brough, Hansen, Johnston, and Ortega) battling for two spots in the June 6 runoff election.

Surreal Senate GOP: Democrats “Limiting Women’s Choices?”

2
  by: Colorado Pols March 22, 2023 at 2:59 PM MDT

You know it’s BS and I know it’s BS and here it comes anyway.

Today, the Colorado Senate Democratic majority passed three important pro-choice bills over the fervent objections of the shrunken GOP minority. These three bills, to protect abortion rights in Colorado from out-of-state legal pursuits, limit “surprise billing” for abortion care, and regulate so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” set up to steer patients away from abortion for religious reasons, build on the landmark Reproductive Health Equity Act passed last year to formally protect abortion rights in the state following the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

But if all you knew about these three bills consisted of the press release sent out by Colorado Senate Republicans this afternoon, you would have no idea what these bills actually do:

Senate Bill 188 identifies a problem that it doesn’t solve and instead unnecessarily reiterates that gender-affirming health care and reproductive health care services are legal in Colorado.

“Unnecessarily reiterates?” If these same Republicans had their way, abortion would be illegal in Colorado. And the “problem” identified by the bill is other states taking legal action against Colorado abortion providers. Any comment on that?

Senate Bill 189 prioritizes abortions over other medical issues by requiring individual and small group health insurance plans to cover the complete cost of an abortion. Democrats rejected proposed amendments from Senator Jim Smallwood that would have included cost coverage for treatment of other life threatening diseases such as cancer.

Again, there’s nothing in this legislation that “limits women’s choices,” in fact it requires insurance companies to cover abortions without surprise bills for out-of-network providers. If Republicans want similar protections for other health conditions, propose a bill to do that (we’re not holding our breath).

That’s two out of three bills, and we still haven’t seen any evidence of Democrats “limiting women’s choices.” Apparently the justification for this mind scramble script-flipping comes in Senate Bill 23-190, which cracks down on so-called “crisis pregnancy centers.”

Senate Bill 190 suppresses abortion alternatives and marginalizes pregnancy resource centers by declaring the advertising and administration of abortion reversal medication a “deceptive trade practice.”

There is absolutely nothing in Senate Bill 190 that “suppresses abortion alternatives.” Everyone knows that if you don’t want to have an abortion you most certainly don’t have to, and as the fervently anti-abortion Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer herself pointed out yesterday, Planned Parenthood offers detailed educational resources on healthy childbearing in addition to abortion care. But when a patient arrives at a crisis pregnancy center instead of Planned Parenthood, their choices are inherently limited by not offering the option of an abortion.

This is such a plainly self-owning argument that we were momentarily taken aback, trying to figure out what we missed. After careful review, we’re forced to conclude it really is as outrageously dishonest as it looks.

Republicans are the only ones “limiting women’s choices” on abortion. To claim otherwise is not just false but madness.

Barbara Kirkmeyer: Finding New Ways to Look Stupid

5
  by: Colorado Pols March 22, 2023 at 12:01 PM MDT

That key around Kirkmeyer’s neck does not open a box of logical arguments.

Republican lawmakers in Colorado have spent the majority of their minority’s time in 2023 objecting to pretty much any legislation proposed by Democrats. It matters not whether the legislation is significantly objectionable or only moderately disagreeable — the response is the same on every issue of consequence.

In the State Senate on Tuesday, Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer of Weld County took her remonstrations to another level. Kirkmeyer was speaking on the Senate Floor in opposition to SB23-190 (“Deceptive Trade Practice Pregnancy-Related Service”), a bill that seeks to crack down on so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” — which are often funded by religious organizations — that advertise an array of services but actually only exist to sermonize against abortion and/or offer quack science alternatives such as non-existent drugs that claim to “reverse” abortions. 

Over the course of about 25 minutes, Kirkmeyer barfed out a mouthful of completely ridiculous false-equivalency arguments that were a) Completely nonsensical; b) Either plainly false or an embarrassing example of Internet illiteracy; and c) Laughably hypocritical.

Let’s get right to the meat of her argument, in which Kirkmeyer narrates her attempted navigation of the Planned Parenthood website:

 

KIRKMEYER: It took me…three clicks. Three clicks on Planned Parenthood before I even got to the word ‘abortion.’ And when you go on to Planned Parenthood, what it says on their opening page is, ‘Maybe you want the facts on how pregnancy happens, or you’re pregnant, and want to know about your options, or want to know how to have a healthy pregnancy.’ This is Planned Parenthood…

…Yet when you go on their page, you have to go to three clicks. You go to a page that says, ‘Explore related topics.’ There’s this list. That list doesn’t say abortion. Number 11 on that list says ‘pregnancy options.’ And when you tap on ‘pregnancy options,’ then you finally for the first time read the word ‘abortion’ on the Planned Parenthood website. But again, nowhere on that list, when it says, ‘explore related topics,’ after it says it is about how to have a healthy pregnancy, does it say ‘abortion.’ It doesn’t show up. 

So if we’re talking about deceptive practices, this is a [sic] agency, Planned Parenthood, who in their 2020-21 report provided evidence that it continues to prioritize abortion.

In fact…so…again, this bill wants to imply that crisis pregnancy centers are deceptive. And what I’m saying is, Planned Parenthood is deceptive. [Pols emphasis]

Kirkmeyer’s argument hits a problem right from the start. Kirkmeyer points out that Planned Parenthood encourages healthy pregnancies and tells patients the whole truth about different reproductive health options. That’s horrible! Er, wait…

Then Kirkmeyer claims that the Planned Parenthood website is deceptive because it takes her “three clicks” to find a mention of the word ‘abortion.’ We conducted that same experiment ourselves; it took us precisely NO CLICKS to discover the word ‘abortion’ right there on the home page of PlannedParenthood.org:

 

The home page of PlannedParenthood.org, which doesn’t mention the word ‘abortion’ at all (except for the four different times that it does).

 

It should serve as no surprise that Kirkmeyer is providing false information about Planned Parenthood. After all, she was perhaps the most egregious liar of all the 2022 Colorado candidates during her campaign for Congress in CO-08 (where she eventually lost to Democrat Yadira Caraveo).

But here’s the kicker…

As multiple news outlets reported in August 2022, the hardline anti-abortion rights Kirkmeyer scrubbed all mention of the word ‘abortion’ from her campaign website after winning the Republican nomination for Congress in CO-08 (where being a hardliner against abortion rights was a political necessity).

Literally two weeks after Kirkmeyer told Jesse Paul of The Colorado Sun that she had been “very transparent” about her positions on the issue of abortion rights, her campaign website in CO-08 had become noticeably opaque on the subject. As Axios Denver reported in August 2022:

In a newly created Colorado battleground district, Republican Barb Kirkmeyer listed defending “the Sanctity of Life” on an issue page of her website, according to a July 5 archived version of the page. An old version also included a video of her speech at the 2022 March for Life event. Both references now appear to be gone.

To use Kirkmeyer’s own words from Tuesday’s Senate debate: “So if we’re talking about deceptive practices…”

If Republicans are ever going to crawl back into the good graces of Colorado voters, the first step might be to stop being so cravenly untrustworthy and patently ridiculous. For example, don’t say stupid crap that people can fact check for themselves with a quick Google search.