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Diary Of A Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

I've got some troubling news: The power lunch is continuing its sad decline. Well, at least it's not as fun as it should be.

While once this midday ritual brought together leaders, sealed business deals, and launched bi-partisan compromises, today it has become a confusing mess of politically correct gender-related etiquette that has taken all the pleasure out of what should be a union of two of life's greatest joys - getting to eat and not having to work.

Editor's note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

In the aftermath of a front page Sunday Denver Post editorial condemning Gov. Bill Ritter's secretive push to impose collective bargaining on state employees, state Democrats are floundering in their response. The question: What should they be doing to help rebuild the trust they've lost with voters?

The Post editorial didn't just condemn Ritter's pro-labor executive order; it went into detail about the dire consequences that could result from the governor's actions: "We're concerned this may be the beginning of the end of Ritter as governor."

Editor's note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter. [more]

There is nothing more annoying than powerful women playing the victim card. It's a fact I'm reminded of this week as Debbie Stafford - a longtime Republican now turned Democrat - suggests that she was "battered" by her former party's leaders.

The state representative from Aurora asserts that her decision to become a Democrat had little to do with policy - and more to do with protest. "If I believe someone is being battered...I would tell them to pack their bags and get out fast. My party was trying to batter me into submission," she told a Denver Post reporter last week.

Editor's note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

As a politically active libertarian Republican living in large Western city, a day of civic advocacy can feel as pleasant and productive as climbing a 14,000 foot mountain in the middle of a lightning storm. Simply put, the forces are against you.

I chose my adopted hometown of Denver because - in some respects - freedom runneth over. Life here is too impatient to endure the municipal controls that burdened the smaller communities I used to call home. And I like it this way. But as is the case with every great adventure, there are also drawbacks.

Editor's note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter. [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

Just ten months into Gov. Bill Ritter's administration, the nickname "Back Room Ritter" is already gaining traction. And rightly so - this is a man who likes to make important decisions without public input.

Earlier this year, Ritter remained silent after a Denver District Judge scolded officials from Ritter's Department of Public Health and the Attorney General's office for violating constitutional mandates regarding open meetings. The judge ruled that this government coalition had violated the Constitution by meeting in secret to set arbitrary limits on sick and dying patients seeking relief under the Colorado's voter-implemented medical marijuana program.

Editor's note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter. [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

Let's celebrate Hillary Clinton's fantasy for a moment and assume that her plan to socialize American health care could work.

Let's visualize for the sake of pleasant conversation that she finds a way to fund her plan with a paltry $110 billion annual taxpayer investment. Let's suppose that it wouldn't put small businesses out of business. Let's suppose that every American (and every illegal immigrant) would be covered.

What would this coverage look like? Now it's time to take off the blinders. It could be a nightmare for every American facing a catastrophic health care emergency. We need look no further than our neighbors to the north and across the Atlantic to realize why socialized health care is horrific in practice.

Editor's note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter.
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Diary Of A Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

Health care in America is expensive. It's a reality that hits home every month when I open the $1,500 bill from my family's health insurance company. And this is just for our monthly premium - not any of the co-pays we must cover for each doctor's visit.

For any family facing financial realities like mine, it's tempting to buy into the idea of socialized medicine - or as Hillary Clinton puts it, "universal health care."

Crisscrossing the nation this month, the Democratic presidential candidate and New York senator is unveiling a plan she says will ensure that every American who needs health care will get it.

But can her plan possibly work? And would it ultimately improve health care in America? The answers are both a resounding no. [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

My youngest daughter is on a waitlist to a top early childhood education program until next October. My husband and I are willing to wait because we're confident she'll thrive there. Still, we find ourselves troubled. The reason: She's already waiting in line, but hasn't even been born yet.

Optimistic about her future, I must concede I'm also a little scared about the world she'll live in. Could people really be putting their children on school waiting lists three months before they are even conceived? If only we hadn't waited until the second trimester.
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Not that we didn't have fair warning. More than a year ago, as we began to look at preschool for our oldest daughter, now a toddler, we ran into the stiffest of competition. After one top school's waiting list hit 700 children, administrators stopped taking names. [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

If you can't handle conflict, uncertainty, or new ideas, you must be a conservative. This is the bigoted conclusion being tossed about in the aftermath of a new university study alleging that the brains of conservatives and liberals work very differently.

In a haphazard experiment released this month in Nature Neuroscience, scientists from New York University and the University of California at Los Angeles claim that they have successfully navigated the neurobiology of politics, and in doing so, have discovered that certain brain activity can be directly tied to an individual's political ideology.

Call me a skeptic. How can scientists tie brain function to socially constructed political distinctions that are constantly changing? The bottom line: They can't.

Editor's note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter. [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

Joining a union in 2007 is like buying a Britney Spears CD. You do it because it makes you nostalgic for those good old days before reality set in.

In contemporary American life, unions are largely irrelevant -- that is, everywhere except for politics. Union bosses regularly abuse workers to achieve their political objectives -- and in states like Colorado, they get away with it.

There was a time when unions served a societal good. They fought against horrible working conditions and gave a voice to the voiceless. Today, however, they serve special interests largely out of touch with the American workforce -- small business employees and employers like those in my family.

Editor's note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter. [more]

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