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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]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Jessica Peck Corry

I don't know Larry Craig personally. I've never met the guy. Before yesterday, he was just another U.S. Senator. Today, he is just another sad example of what has become of my political party's tragic relationship with sexuality.

As everyone from Boise to Buffalo knows by now, Craig - a Republican from Idaho - recently pled guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct stemming from an encounter he had with an undercover police officer in the Minneapolis airport bathroom.

Already, party leaders have temporarily pushed him from senior committee posts, including his position as ranking member on the Veterans Affairs Committee. Many in the Republican Party are calling for him to resign. But should social outrage be enough to end a political career? In this case, maybe and maybe not.

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

It takes a lot for me to put a bumper sticker on my car. With the exception of the occasional political candidate, I haven't given into the temptation since college. That is, until this summer, when I revealed one of my most strongly held political views.

The sticker says it all, in big bold letters: "SAVE THE MALES."

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

If you are a decent-looking Democrat looking to make it big with Hollywood donors, you've got to undertake one simple task: Create a plan to save the world from humankind's devastating environmental impact.

Former Vice President Al Gore has headlined the trend with his film "An Inconvenient Trut." John Kerry, similarly tried to be seen as a "green" candidate in 2004.

Stars responded to "celebriticians" like Gore and Kerry by ditching their gas-guzzling Hummers in exchange for more fuel-efficient hybrid sedans. They started replacing their Evian plastic water bottles with glass-bottled Voss, and even installed energy-efficient windows throughout their 10,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansions.

While it's fun to mock Hollywood, we cannot escape a more serious inquiry into how effective each of our efforts will be in fighting environmental decay -- especially in an era when we face a new global world complete with its own set of unknown variables.

Editor's note: Jessic 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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