Gov. John Hickenlooper (D, Colorado) goes after the horrible scourge of… UNSANCTIONED YOGA INSTRUCTORS

Hey, John Hickenlooper is the governor and it’s his state agency that’s doing the crackdown on yoga certification*. Or should it be shakedown? – Because there’s apparently money in regulating this.

Teacher-training programs that are required to be certified must pay fees to the state. The state charges $1,750 for an initial provisional certificate that is good for up to two years, then $1,500 for a renewable certificate good for three years. It also charges $175 for every “agent” authorized to enter into a contract with a student, plus $3.75 per student per quarter. In addition, schools that have been certified must secure a minimum bond of $5,000, which is based on the amount of tuition collected.

You gotta wonder what the victory condition for Colorado is for this one. I mean, liberals like yoga, right? And Hickenlooper’s a liberal. You’d think that he’d do the smart thing and take this as an opportunity to get rid of a stupid set of regulations… and, yes, this is stupid. A remarkable amount of our licensing regime is based on the twin engines of stupidity and laziness: people write a quick regulation instead of making a specific, circumstances-based decision; and then other people expand that regulation to cover something that it had no business covering.  Happens. All the. Time.

So good job, Gov. Hickenlooper. You keep finding those enemies of the State! …As I said: he’s the governor.  Fish rots from the head down, and all that.

Via @Aaron_RS.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*To be fair, this program started up in 2002, under a Republican governor. To be equally fair, nobody enforced the dumb thing for a decade because it’s yoga.

Tweet of the Day, That’s Not A Good Thing To Say During A Gubernatorial Debate edition.

Speaking objectively: is there, in point of fact, a good way to answer this question?

I mean, I understand that not all sex offenders are, say, pedophiles. But I’m personally trying to think of a class of sex offender that I’d want around my kids anyway, and I’m kind of drawing a blank. As did, apparently, Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado. Alas for him, he signed off on a policy of letting sex offenders work with kids without violating the sex offender’s parole and I didn’t, so his inability to justify that is a problem.

Moe Lane

PS: I happen to think, by the way, that there are serious problems with making two minors sex offenders. Apparently, so does John Hickenlooper… but, again, I’m a guy on the Internet and he’s the governor of Colorado. Why hasn’t he done something about the situation?

Hickenlooper the Coward.

That’s not my assessment, although I certainly do agree with it (OK, so I guess that it is): it’s the assessment of Bob Crowell, father of a murder victim whose murderer might be given clemency if John Hickenlooper loses.

No, seriously.

“I think that’s the coward’s way out.”

This story has been addressed on RedState before, notably here and here: the short version is that John Hickenlooper, Democratic governor of Colorado, is against the death penalty. Fine*. This theoretical stance of Hickenlooper’s has come up against the real-world example of Nathan Dunlap, who is a remorseless, cold-blooded killer who ruthlessly and senselessly murdered four people twenty years ago, and who has been staving off his execution ever since. The problem for Hickenlooper is this: while the people of Colorado would dearly love to see Dunlap get the needle, the Lefties that make up Hickenlooper’s organization would not. Continue reading Hickenlooper the Coward.

Embattled Gov. John Hickenlooper apologizes to sheriffs about gun control law implementation.

I wonder what John Hickenlooper’s internal polling is telling him?

Governor John Hickenlooper is offering an apology to some of his fiercest rivals on the issue of gun control: Colorado’s sheriffs.

[snip]

A Hickenlooper spokesman confirms that the Governor apologized to the sheriffs for not meeting with them prior to the passage of gun control bills they opposed. Hickenlooper also said his administration didn’t do a good job anticipating pushback on gun control. According to his spokesman, Hickenlooper pledged better communication in the future.

9News goes on to mention that the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page made an additional claim that Hickenlooper’s spokesman declined to confirm; 9News neglected to actually mention it, though. Fair enough, since it’s single sourced and news organizations don’t like to risk get burned – but I’m happily partisan, so let me quote the Sheriff’s office:

 Governor Hickenlooper said he didn’t realize it was going to cause such controversy and had he known he would not have endorsed the new gun laws without more research.

…That internal polling must be downright awful.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Gov. John Hickenlooper’s Democratic cronies ‘clear’ Sen. Mark Udall of bullying charges. #obamacare

Funny how that happened, huh?

Colorado Republicans were stunned late Monday upon learning that the “neutral and objective panel” that cleared Sen. Mark Udall of bullying state insurance regulators in fact consisted of three Democrats in the Hickenlooper administration.

Barbara Kelley, executive director of the Department of Regulatory Affairs, released a statement to Fox31 saying that the three members of the panel were herself, her deputy Michelle Pederson, and legislative liaison John Cevette, former chief of staff to Democratic Senate President Brandon Shaffer.

Continue reading Gov. John Hickenlooper’s Democratic cronies ‘clear’ Sen. Mark Udall of bullying charges. #obamacare

Revealing Politics: Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) lied, lied, lied about Colorado job growth.

Which John Hickenlooper so totally did.

Executive summary: Gov. Hickenlooper bragged in his State of the State address that Colorado had gone from 40th in the nation in job creation to 4th. Which is impressive, yes? – Except that Colorado went from 40th in 2010 to 4th in 2012Also in 2012 was an election where the Colorado state legislature went fully under Democratic control… which means that 2013 was a year where Democrats ran amok through the legislative process.  The result? Colorado slipped from 4th place in 2012 to 10th place in 2013.

Oops.

Continue reading Revealing Politics: Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) lied, lied, lied about Colorado job growth.

Gov. John Hickenlooper (D, Colorado) pretends his job-killing 2013 policies… never happened.

Well now.

Governor John Hickenlooper played fast and loose with jobs numbers during his State of the State address today.  In one of the key sound bites of his speech, so critical that he also tweeted it out, Hickenlooper touted that Colorado had gone from being 40th in the country for job growth in 2010, to 4th now.

Hickenlooper must want to forget everything about 2013 (why didn’t he tout any of his big accomplishments from 2013?) because Colorado was 4th in the country for job growth in 2012.  But for 2013 (you know that entire year Democrats spent passing the most liberal, progressive agenda in Colorado legislative history), instead of looking to make Colorado’s economy stronger, the state has now dropped down to 10th. Continue reading Gov. John Hickenlooper (D, Colorado) pretends his job-killing 2013 policies… never happened.

Psst! Hey! John Hickenlooper! (@hickforco) #corecall

They’re coming to vote you out*.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado defended his record on gun control after two Democratic state senators were recalled by their constituents in an election on Tuesday…

They’re coming to vote you out.

…Hickenlooper chuckled nervously when reporters asked him what he thought these election results meant for his political future…

They’re coming to vote you out. Continue reading Psst! Hey! John Hickenlooper! (@hickforco) #corecall

Meet John Hickenlooper, now-endangered Democratic Governor of Colorado.

By the way: all of this takes effect on July 1, 2013. Plan accordingly, Coloradans.

I’m calling Gov. Hickenlooper endangered for a reason: he just made a rather poor life choice. You see, the fellow bowed to pressure from East Coast liberals and signed into law today an effective firearms ban masquerading as a “high capacity magazine ban.” John Hickenlooper is apparently just self-aware enough to realize what problems this is going to cause him down the line: “[Hickenlooper] said his office later today will release a “signing statement” to try to explain how the bills, particularly one that limits ammunition rounds, should be interpreted.”

If you’re explaining, you’re losing.  And here’s why Hickenlooper is explaining:

Continue reading Meet John Hickenlooper, now-endangered Democratic Governor of Colorado.

Gov. John Hickenlooper (D, CO) to set up task force to stymie pot legalization.

Alternative title: Democrat campaign promises – up in smoke!

I’m translating.

Gov. John Hickenlooper will create a task force to deal with the fallout from the state’s legalization of marijuana use, possession and sales.

‘Fallout.’ See, right there you can determine the tone that the Denver Post was encountering from the office of the Governor. Later on…

The task force is to include state officials, lawmakers, marijuana advocates and other “stakeholders” — likely a reference to law-enforcement, drug-treatment and community representatives.

If you’re familiar with bureaucracy’s little ways, you’re probably snickering at that right now. On the other hand, if you also favor legalizing pot then you’re probably swearing, instead. On the gripping hand, if you’re those two things and ALSO a partisan Republican hack* then you’ve gone right back to snickering.

Continue reading Gov. John Hickenlooper (D, CO) to set up task force to stymie pot legalization.