Fourteen months ago, the 700-person Central Committee of the El Paso County Republicans elected and charged a new leadership team with great responsibility for this crucial 2008 election year. We are on track for the most aggressive growth we have ever experienced both financially and in terms of volunteers and infrastructure. Our funding and expenditures last year were approximately $130,000; our budget this year is more than $400,000, and we are on track to meet our goals.

   Looking beyond the bickering and challenges that come with a tough primary season, I challenge all Republicans in this community to invest their time and treasure in their local party. El Paso County is the largest and fastest growing county in Colorado. In addition to the various local and state races, we are committed to seeing Bob Schaffer elected to the U.S. Senate. We're also committed to preserving a Republican presidency. We cannot accomplish these goals without unity within this local Republican organization. While there are always naysayers and disgruntled individuals in a volunteer organization, we must put aside selfish differences and focus on the goal of united victory in November.

   In Colorado, our election process and the bond of trust between voters, the party, and the candidates starts with the caucus. Many of you heard some of our radio commercials or received some mail or e-mail from the party in the days leading up to the caucuses. Compared to the next several largest counties in Colorado, we saw a 30 percent higher turnout and I believe significant credit is due to the incredible efforts of the volunteers who worked on the marketing program, manned phone banks, and walked their precincts inviting people to the caucus.

   While no one could have anticipated the incredible volume of people attending the caucuses, delegate and alternate information was monitored and tracked extremely well and candidates received quality data just 21 days later.

   There are many exciting things happening within the El Paso County Republican Party. Here are a few highlights: 

   - Developed and conducted caucus training for hundreds of precinct persons; 

   - Supervised 387 caucuses with increased participation from an average of 2,200 participants to well over 12,000 this year; 

   - Conducted the firstever Colorado presidential straw poll with results collected and reported to the media and state party within two hours; 

   - Held the County Assembly with close to 3,000 participants 

   - Updated the old Republican brand with a new logo and a bold attitude 

   - Developed a six-year business plan including an aggressive communication strategy 

   - Raised nearly twice as much money in an off-election year than in past cycles

   "Because it matters to me that she grows up in a country free and safe from terrorism . . . Because it matters to me that my family and the values we believe in are protected from those who seek to destroy them . . . Because it matters to me, I will vote. And I will vote Republican."

   This is one of the scripts accompanying a picture of a woman and a young child on the new El Paso County Republican Web site (www.gopelpaso.com). There are other panels describing economic, social and national security ideals of the Republicans in El Paso County. The conservative and moderate voices of this county have a renewed determination about aggressively educating and winning the hearts and minds of the families in our county and state.

   The current executive committee of the El Paso County Republicans includes people from many political camps and agendas; no special interest group within the organization dictates the agenda. The divisions caused by bitter battles over the years can be mended with the strong bond of victory, a selfless outlook, and team drive. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of divisive party politics, the leadership of the party wants to open the flaps of the Republican tent and invite all who think it's time for change to come in, to participate, and to make a difference. Because it matters.

Garcia is chairman of the El Paso County Republicans.

Gov. Bill Ritter and Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien are making great strides in advancing children’s access to preschool, education and health care in our state. However, there remains a moral and social responsibility to immediately address the needs of the children who need us most — the children who are currently in the child welfare system and face the greatest levels of risk.

Almost half of the child abuse reports made this past year have not had the proper follow-up because our system is, by all accounts, over-burdened. And Colorado is currently investigating 13 child deaths statewide that were reported cases of child abuse that “fell through the cracks.”

In late February, the El Paso County Department of Human Services announced it was going to replace temporary child welfare case workers with 24 full-time case workers in an effort to reduce training time and respond to reports quicker and more efficiently. The county also asked the state for additional funding to hire 27 more case workers to help handle the ballooning case loads. Hamstrung by an ongoing budget crisis, the department has not been able to hire additional case workers since 2000, despite considerable growth in the county. Counties should not have to struggle to find funds to protect the most important resource our state has: our children.

Colorado ranks fifth in the nation in terms of wealth and per-capita income. Yet we have the eighth-highest rate of children living in poverty. Colorado is home to one of the largest concentrations of bachelors degree graduates in the United States. Yet we rank among the bottom 10 states in terms of the number of students who graduate from high school. Research has shown that children who experience abuse are 59 percent more likely to be arrested as juveniles, 28 percent more likely to be arrested as adults and 30 percent more likely to commit violent crimes.

Other studies have found that as these children age they are up to seven times more likely to experience major health problems. In short, they will become drains on our society rather than contributors. But the situation is not without hope.

Research on risk and resilience demonstrates that children who have been abused can overcome adversity and thrive when they receive protection, treatment and access to positive influences and support. We can make a difference in these children’s lives.

In fact, we must. It is our responsibility during this election season to ask the important questions and ensure that child welfare is part of the political dialogue. We need to support the candidates who prioritize the prevention and treatment of child abuse.

State government will have to play a key role if Colorado is going to move from a state of too many at-risk children to a state where children are protected and prized. Some important legislative steps include mandating a maximum number of caseloads that county caseworkers are allowed to carry, and expanding state and county interagency collaboration to reduce service fragmentation, increase efficiency and streamline services to provide a comprehensive continuum of care.

But it will take a commitment from all of us to turn this situation around. It is time for leaders from business, philanthropic, academic and faith communities to collaborate and join government leaders in the fight to prevent child abuse in Colorado.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and hence another opportunity to learn more about these important issues. We invite readers to visit www. childabuse.org/ecm-caa.html to read the Children’s Action Agenda, a brand-new comprehensive agenda to help educate the public as well as help legislators introduce and measure policies that better serve children in our state. We encourage everyone to sign this important online petition and to let our state government know that children — all children — must be a political priority.

Updike is director of strategic initiatives and Every Child Matters Campaign at the Tennyson Center for Children. Cooper is president of the Tennyson Center for Children, one of the Rocky Mountain region’s leading treatment centers for emotionally and crisis-affected children and youth.

Self-sufficiency is a desirable goal for the individual, the family and the community. Regardless of the methods used to measure family and individual needs, rising costs for consumers impact everyone, but especially those who are already struggling.

We believe that most individuals and families want to be self-sufficient. Sometimes they need help in getting there. That's where Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado steps in. As a regional distribution hub for nationally and locally donated and purchased food, Care and Share works with nearly 400 local partner agencies (community centers, soup kitchens, food pantries and more) to provide food to more than 95,000 individuals across southern Colorado. This much-needed assistance can provide the extra push to get those in need further along on the path of self-sufficiency.

When Care and Share provides food to its partners, those agencies are able to focus their time and resources on their own specialized service delivery - further impacting their clients' ability to become self-sufficient more quickly.

Feeding yourself and your family isn't a "want;" it's a need. While needs vary among individuals and families, children and adults alike experience low productivity, a lack of concentration and poor health when nutrition is scarce.

Rising food costs worldwide cut into the already dwindling budgets of many. Higher oil prices, lower food reserves and changes in weather have affected growers and consumers alike. Although prices are expected to eventually stabilize, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is projecting at least 10 years of more expensive food worldwide. In the United States alone, food prices rose 4 percent last year, and the USDA expects costs to climb as much again this year. Everyone feels the pinch of these cost increases, but the poorest among us feel it most.

We laud the concept of self-sufficiency standards, which seek to put a realistic face on just what it takes to live a basic, healthy life - with adequate food, shelter, transportation and health care. The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute's self-sufficiency calculator may or may not have hit upon an accurate formula, but the effort is certainly a step in the right direction. Current federal definitions of poverty and maximum food stamp benefits (which are formulated on the basis of percentage of poverty level) are woefully meager. Try feeding yourself nutritiously on $3 per day!

However self-sufficiency is defined, the unchanging reality is that as food and other costs continue to escalate, more people are going to need more help in order to keep a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs and gas in their cars.

Care and Share's goal is to solve the hunger part of the equation. Reducing hunger provides a pathway for family self-sufficiency and overall community well being. Children who are well nourished are better prepared to learn in school, are less prone to health problems and more likely to succeed in life. Wellnourished families produce better workers, engaged voters and active consumers - the building blocks for a vibrant community.

Saccaro is president and CEO of Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado.

I recently read, with some interest and more than a little skepticism, an article by an atmospheric scientist expressing cynicism about global warming ("Recent climate studies show threat overblown," Other Voices, March 27). I know he's at least moderately intelligent, however, because it's always best to hedge your bets when the trend you're betting against isn't going your way. And hedge he does.

Typical of fearful academia-types, he relies extensively on noncommittal wording to make his anti-climate-change points; like, "some" recent findings "tend to disprove," "is likely," etc. This ambiguous doublespeak is what you get from someone who is trying to make a point without taking a stand.

Instead, he relies on a lot of authoritative-sounding jargon to give the illusion of saying something while actually saying nothing at all. Being a former Air Force officer and current financial institution examiner-auditor, with two bachelors and a master's degree to boot, I know a bit about obfuscatory prose myself.

I'm also a hunter, hiker and climber, and I spend an awful lot of time outside of the office observing and hunting big game and other animals, enjoying the changing seasons, and feeling the falling rain and snow, or lack thereof as we have increasingly experienced in recent years. I know from first-hand experience that the fingerprints of man-made climate change are evident in seasonal timing changes for numerous animal and other species in Colorado and elsewhere. I'm backed up by dozens of studies and last year's authoritative report by the Nobel Prize-winning international climate scientists.

Earlier this year, more than 30 scientists told The Associated Press how global warming is affecting plants and animals at springtime across the country, in nearly every state. What's happening is so noticeable that scientists can track it from space. Satellites measuring when land turns green found that spring "green-up" is arriving eight hours earlier every year on average since 1982 north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Anyone who occasionally ventures outside of their climate-controlled homes and offices can see the trees and bushes blooming earlier. They can smell the lilacs and honeysuckle. In the West, they're coming out two to four days earlier each decade over more than half a century. You can hear it in the birds. Scientists in Gothic, Colo., have watched the first robin of spring arrive earlier each year in that mountain ghost town, marching forward from April 9 in 1981 to March 14 last year.

Marmots on the grounds of Colorado's Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory are emerging from hibernation dens more than a month earlier than they did in the 1970s.

Colorado's largest glacier is shrinking fast. According to University of Colorado researchers, since 1960 Arapaho Glacier has lost 40 percent of its thickness.

Researchers at the Aspen Global Change Institute note that Aspen has had an average overall warming of 3 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 30 years, and if the trend continues it will have a ski country climate similar to that of, say, Amarillo, Texas, by the end of the century.

"Globally, the last really cold year was 1976, and in 2006 - for the first time in 112 years - not a single U.S. state had normal or below-normal temperatures. The warm weather is winning out," said Paul Goodloe from The Weather Channel, citing statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

You can feel it in your nose from increased allergies. Spring airborne pollen is being released about 20 hours earlier every year. You can even taste it in the honey. Bees, which sample many plants, are producing their peak amount of honey weeks earlier. The nectar is coming from different plants now, which means noticeably different honey.

The evidence of climate change is obvious and all around us, visible to all who aren't perpetually confined to their climate-controlled cubicles and ideologywarped minds. We don't need someone else to tell us what we can see, feel, hear, and smell for ourselves, which is global warming.

Lien in an avid Colorado outdoorsman who has noticed changes in the environment during his forays into the mountains.

If you can't manage your own finances, you should be relieved: Peter Groff wants to do it for you. And all it'll cost is a little bit of everyone else's freedom.

Paternalism - the belief that adults do not possess the ability to take care of themselves - is the ideology behind House Bill 1310, which Colorado Senate President Groff is trying to pass into law. By putting incredibly stringent restrictions on the service, HB1310 would effectively ban the practice of short-term "payday" lending.

Once the rhetoric is switched off, payday lending's usefulness to borrowers in tight spots is pretty easy to understand. The service allows consumers to borrow against a future paycheck, meaning that the car gets an urgent repair, a critical check doesn't bounce, or the heating bill gets paid. Used responsibly, payday lending can help a borrower stave off financial calamity.

And it's that idea of responsibility that the bill's House and Senate sponsors can't get their heads around. Responsibility is what makes it possible for adults to manage their own finances. It enables people to depend on each other at home, at the office and in society. Take something away because a small minority of adults can't use it responsibly, and you treat everyone like children.

The injury on top of the insult is that laws against payday lending do serious economic harm to the people most likely to use such a service.

One unintended consequence of payday lending restrictions is that they force would-be borrowers into alternatives that are far more costly. Georgia went one step further than the Colorado Legislature and outlawed the practice - a mistake, as a Federal Reserve Bank of New York study indicates. The study found that bounced-check fees grew by $36 million and Chapter 7 ("no-asset") bankruptcy filings rose by almost 9 percent after payday lending was banned. Bouncing checks and wrecking one's credit rating are not superior to paying a lender $15 for a $100 advance on your paycheck.

Another study, from researchers at George Mason University and Colby College, adds further support for payday lending as a useful financial tool. According to the study's lead researcher, "access to payday loans in their environment, all else fixed, increases a borrower's probability of financial survival by 31 percent."

The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Mark Ferrandino, declared a moral crusade against payday lenders, accusing them of "preying on people living paycheck to paycheck," while Senate sponsor Groff accused such businesses of "enriching themselves on the backs of Colorado's most vulnerable citizens."

But who's exploiting Coloradans here? Is it the businesses helping adults bridge temporary gaps in their finances or the politicians trotting out the poor to score a political victory?

Let's leave aside the economic arguments. The message sent by the Legislature to the public is far more important. By voting for HB1310, Colorado's lawmakers would declare that consumers capable of opening a checking account can't act like adults when it comes to managing a three-figure loan.

This lesson from government will only erode personal responsibility, to the detriment of a healthy society.

There's no end to the list of things lawmakers could take away from everyone because some people misuse them - cars, guns and power tools come to mind. Why stop with payday lending?

Tim Miller is the communications director at the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit coalition of restaurants, food companies and consumers working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.

As an atmospheric scientist, I laid out in my Aug. 1, 2007, and Nov. 14, 2007, Other Voices pieces some scientific evidence that the current wave of climate hysteria is overblown. I recently returned from the Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in New Orleans and I wanted to update readers on some of the interesting developments in climate science presented.

Alarmists have been saying since Hurricane Katrina that climate change is causing more and more severe hurricanes. Some recent findings presented at the meeting in fact tend to disprove that assertion. Several papers noted that there has been no discernible change in the frequency or severity of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic and Gulf once the data have been corrected for the improvements in storm detection since the advent of satellites. In other words, the data make it clear that we are seeing more tropical storms now than 50 years ago because we can see more, not because there are more.

Additionally, recent research has shown that the storms that do occur are not more destructive. Rather, we have been building more structures and more expensive structures in hurricane-prone areas. Recent storms have indeed caused more dollar loses, but it's not the intensity of the storms that has changed. It's the value of what we put in their way that's changed.

Further, recent studies show that even if substantial global warming were to occur, the net effect is likely to be a decrease in frequency and intensity of storms. This is due to an increase in wind shear aloft that inhibits tropical storms' development. So the evidence is that there is no discernible trend toward more severe hurricanes. Any substantial global warming that might occur in the future would likely act to inhibit tropical storm formation and intensity.

Likewise, there has been some interesting news on temperature. In 2007, the mean global surface temperature was about one degree Fahrenheit above the 20th-century mean, ranking it as the fifth-warmest since modern records started about 1900. The most interesting point is that there has been no apparent trend toward increasing global mean temperature since the late 1990s. Even while atmospheric carbon dioxide continued to increase over the past 10 years (it is still only a few hundred parts per million of the atmosphere), there has been no corresponding increase in mean global surface temperature. The temperature trend has been essentially flat. So, in contrast to the increasing trend in mean temperatures that climate models say should be happening, we are in a period of about 10 years of no apparent trend.

In summary, some recent work shows that there is still no smoking gun that clearly links atmospheric carbon dioxide as the chief cause of global mean temperature change. What's going on? It looks like the computer models used to predict the future climate may be overestimating the role CO2 plays in the very complex ocean-atmosphere system. It's also possible that the models haven't properly considered the role that that the sun's energy output contributes over both the visible and non-visible spectrum. It is the sun, after all, that ultimately controls what the climate on Earth will be like.

The answers to these questions are unknown now and likely not knowable for some years yet. As I've counseled before, look skeptically at anyone who tells you that they know what the climate will be like in 50 years. The state of the science does not support a high confidence in such projections.

Pfeffer, of Colorado Springs, is former director of weather for NORAD, United States Space Command and Air Force Space Command and former deputy director of the Air Force Weather Service.

Global warming\climate change hysteria continues to run wild. Our esteemed governor recently appointed the director of the lobby - Environment Colorado - and other environmentalist partisans to the regulatory board for oil and gas companies, a clear conflict of interest which will prove not to be in the interests of Coloradans. In Washington, recent legislation has, among many other ill-considered measures, outlawed incandescent lights and mandates a three-fold increase in production of ethanol from corn and other bio-mass sources.

The impacts of these misguided policies are beginning to become evident in higher food costs, restricted energy supplies which are leading to higher prices, and other adverse economic impacts. These legislative measures will do nothing to control the weather, but will do a lot to control you, eliminate your individual freedoms and reduce your employment opportunities. Even some studies by environmental groups have pointed out the net increase in CO2 from land clearing and conversion of food crops to raise fuel crops. Producing one gallon of ethanol will require a thousand liters of scarce water compared to only three or four liters to refine a gallon of gasoline.

At the national level, the proposed Lieberman-Warner bill (America's Climate Security Act, S2191) will impose steep costs on the U.S. economy, estimated even by its supporters at hundreds of billions of dollars in higher costs for energy that will ripple through the entire economy. This bill would establish a presidentially appointed "Carbon Market Efficiency Board" which would create an entirely new federal bureaucracy to set the price on carbon emissions. The Congressional Budget Office has warned that the impact of cap-and-trade energy price increases would disproportionately affect people at the lower end of the income scale. The EPA estimates that the bill may reduce GDP by $2.9 trillion by 2050 while reducing atmospheric CO2 by only around 25 ppm by 2095.

More and more scientists and meteorologists are speaking up. A recent conference in New York was attended by hundreds of scientists who adhere to scientific realism and valid processes. One of the best papers reviewing the natural impact on climate change is at www.sepp.org/publications/NIPCC-Feb%2020.pdf.

Meanwhile, the earth continues to cool. Our world has entered what may be a long-term cooling trend in response to lower solar output. Climate on Earth and the other planets is driven by solar output and on Earth that's amplified by circulation patterns in the atmosphere and oceans. Attempts to refute the solar link have cited a handful of studies that have measured only the direct effects of a portion of the solar spectrum, not the total output of the sun. Indirect effects have not been included in these limited, partisan studies despite growing evidence of their validity. The Pacific and Atlantic multi-decade oscillation drives the El Niño and La Niña cycles which drive much of our weather patterns. This natural cycle has now shifted to the cool cycle which will further lower temperatures and drive higher snow accumulation and glacier growth in the northern hemisphere.

The summary of 2007 climate by the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies and National Climate Data Center used an average of the monthly data through the year to make the claim that 2007 was tied as the second warmest year on record. What they hid is that the warmth was the result of a temporary spike caused by a strong El Niño which drove up land and air temperatures. January was the warmest month of 2007 and the temperatures have declined sharply in a dramatic plunge with significantly colder winters and mild summers in both hemispheres. Every climate monitoring agency has reported declining atmospheric, surface and ocean temperatures, along with increased snow cover and ice volume.

Manmade climate change is a political fraud, a scientific scandal and a financial swindle. As we enter what may be a significant, multi-decade cooling period, we are going to need our crops for food and our plentiful domestic oil, natural gas, coal supplies and nuclear energy to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Pico is a retired naval flight officer with more than
three decades of experience in applying atmospheric and space weather forecasts to land, air, sea and space-based surveillance and communications systems operations.

PART 2 of 2 PARTS

In February, the House leadership orchestrated yet another set-up. For three years as county commissioner, I had abstained from voting on symbolic, ceremonial resolutions. See the list on my Web site, and The Gazette articles. In December, I verified House resolutions were by voice vote, with no record taken.

Instead, the Appreciation Day resolution on veterans recorded co-sponsors.

Contrary to claims, I did not oppose it. As I had said the week before, we spend too much time on symbolic gestures that accomplish nothing substantive — mere political posturing. We should legislate, not pontificate. I honor veterans every day. To offer thanks only one day out of 366 insults them, as did lumping them with resolutions for skiing and socialized medicine.

To show the difference between sincere support and hypocrisy, a recent bill in my committee proposed restoring millions of dollars that had been stolen about five years ago from the veterans’ trust fund. I successfully amended it to require interest be added to the repayment, to make the fund whole.

How many of my accusers had voted to steal that money from veterans?

A Democrat member opposed on Feb. 6 a Ronald Reagan birthday resolution. On the floor, she said the Reagan administration and military had caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Central Americans. A week later, she voted to praise that same military.

Repercussions? Zero.

Hypocrisy? Priceless.

A local legislator criticized me in the Feb. 16 Gazette: “We have rules, regulations, and traditions in this building, and I don’t believe it’s appropriate for anybody’s personal beliefs to trump any three of those.” In other words, votes do not express personal beliefs. Votes are for tradition, not truth. Yuck.

What message did she send to veterans? That they are pawns of duplicitous, mediamad politicians. Such cynicism is what truly disgraces the House. Again, veterans have e-mailed me resounding support. They object to being used as props.

My colleagues are furious that I always tell the truth. See my Web site letter faulting their 75-year “tradition” of declaring all their laws “emergencies” so people can’t petition to disagree with them. There are many other examples of gratuitous, institutional, legislative hypocrisy.

You may now choose. Will you swallow their media manipulations, political pranks and vengeful games? Or will you support the reformer you have known for 20 years?

I took my oath as commissioner and state representative with my hand on the Bible. It was opened to my favorite verse, John 8:32, which assures us, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I am confident of your decision.

Bruce represents District 15 in the Colorado House of Representatives. He may be called Monday through Friday at 303-866-5525. His e-mail address is taxcutter@msn.com or for state business, Doug@DouglasBruce.com. His postal address State Capitol, 200 E. Colfax Ave., Room 271, Denver CO 80202.

First of two parts

Stop and think: Does it make sense that, after 20 years in public life, proven conservative Douglas Bruce would do in one month all those offensive things alleged? Of course not.

Start with the inauguration. The Denver legislative leaders were mad that they could not bluff me into giving up a future two-year term. They wanted me to hear their speeches in person, though it would be mere ceremony without substantive voting, and to give up two years of actual service in exchange. They were trying to test me, to roll me, and I refused.

I followed the court and secretary of state directives that stated waiting the weekend was not only lawful, but intended by the term limits constitutional provision, which I helped draft. Which offers my constituents more — two years of added service (with my entire salary going to charity) by starting on the first work day, or two days of passive listening to empty political oratory? The choice was obvious.

The leadership then insisted my oath occur when no one was looking, as though I had sneaked into office. Remember, they had falsely and publicly claimed for a month that I was doing something tricky or illegal, when I was not. Sen. Bill Cadman waited 40 days to take his oath, with no protest, but my waiting 44 days was an alleged outrage.

I had hoped to break the legislative tension by being sworn in (the oath takes 30 seconds), and then easing the artificial anxiety by 90 seconds of self-deprecating humor before my new colleagues. Instead, the leadership wanted me to stand up my invited guests, and maintain the sneaky image it had fashioned for me.

Before the morning session began, I had endured 105 minutes of nonstop photos by a media mob. I asked the Rocky Mountain News photographer to refrain from noisy flash photos during the prayer and the pledge. He agreed. When I got to the floor, he raised his camera. I asked him again, and he agreed again. As soon as I closed my eyes, he broke his promise and disrupted the prayer. He had signaled the cameraman, who had just stepped on my family Bible, to shoot my reaction.

I told the photographer, “Don’t do that again” and nudged his leg, as he was sitting in front of me. No kick, no violence, just a poke, the way one would awaken a snorer in church. A still-private citizen quietly touched another private citizen before the House came to order. No injury, no noise, no disorder because members were all in prayer! It was sheer media hype.

This entire set-up was caught on videotape, and admitted by both photographers in their committee testimony, which 90 percent of legislators never heard. Many pages of documentation are at www.DouglasBruce. com under General Assembly — “The Nudge.” The response of local citizens to my touching this pushy paparazzi photographer intentionally disrupting a public prayer has been overwhelmingly supportive of my actions. For that, I am grateful.

Then it came out that one who had condemned me, the third-ranking Democratic leader, was accused of exposing his genitals in public to a lobbyist the week before.

Four or more prior accusations of incidents with lobbyists during his prior seven years in the House were all covered up by House rules. Soon thereafter, another legislator publicly called unmarried pregnant teens “sluts.” He also joined three moralistic attacks on me. Neither legislator was ever condemned by the House. Though a private citizen, I was.

Part Two will be published on March 6. Bruce represents District 15 in the Colorado House of Representatives. He may be called Monday through Friday at 303-866-5525. His e-mail address is taxcutter@msn.com or for state business, Doug@DouglasBruce.com. His postal address State Capitol, 200 E. Colfax Ave., Room 271, Denver CO 80202.