Home front – Tyranny
Colorado applies to be drone testing ground
(9News.com) A bi-partisan letter of support signed by Gov. Hickenlooper and every member of Colorado’s congressional delegation, except Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Co) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Co), urges the FAA to approve Colorado’s application to be the guinea pig for domestic drones.

Nathan: Ah, the wonders of being on the forefront of technology and oppressive government: even most of the so-called “conservatives” in the Colorado GOP can’t help but join in.  (Of course, ANY time you see Tranzis and liberals signing onto the same bandwagon, you just know it is a really bad idea.)  The idea that all Coloradoans welcome an even more massive intrusion of government into their lives is nonsense.  At the same time, too many Coloradoans DO welcome just that.  Not that Colorado is a spy-free state today (nor for the past five years, from personal knowledge).  Colorado state agencies have been using near-real time satellite surveillance for the last five to six years to detect things as minor as engine oil leaking from a parked truck on the back lot of a relatively small industrial site in a remote region.  If not as ubiquitous as surveillance cameras are in Boston or New York, Metro Denver has more than its share.  But the use of drones by law enforcement and other government agencies in Colorado would up the ante, and place Colorado right up there with Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois as a first-tier police state.

Home front – Hoplophiles and Self-Defense
Colorado: Nucla requires home gun ownership
(9News.com) The Nucla Town Board last week passed a new ordinance requiring that residents own firearms, but it has exceptions for heads of households who don’t want to participate or who cannot legally possess a gun.

Nathan: One of the signs of backlash by SOME Coloradoans (especially on the Western Slope and especially in the far Southwest) against the police state is this action by the tiny community of Nucla:  they realize that it is a political statement and not really something they will enforce.  Not that they really need to:  Nucla is as heavily armed as most small ranching and mining towns are.  And the crime rate is low – until you count government activities into the mix.  And it is not that far north from Dove Creek (county seat of Dolores County to the south of Nucla’s Montrose County), where the school board gave the superintendent and one of the principals the additional title (with responsibilities and a $1/year salary) of “security officer” to allow them to be armed on school grounds to prevent another Sandy Hook.  Not that Sandy Hook is likely to get repeated in Dove Creek, where the school (PK-12) is located immediately north of the County Courthouse and Sheriff’s Office, where the school is surrounded by (even by Colorado standards) heavily armed houses full of people who have to hunt (in many cases) to be able to survive a 25% unemployment and even higher “underemployment.”  And where the Sheriff had to publicly chastise a visiting federal bureaucrat and her DHS bodyguards for her fear of being attacked in a public meeting.  But the people of Southwest Colorado, especially the West Ends of Montrose and San Miguel and Dolores Counties, understand that they are in the great minority compared to the progressives of Metro Denver and their huge population of ethnic client groups: black and Hispanic and border jumpers, and the rest.  And that the predominant idea among the elite in Denver (“conservative” as well as liberal) seems to be that the Eastern Plains and the Western Slope and areas like North, Middle, and South Parks and the San Luis Valley should exist primarily as playgrounds for the Front Range: skiing and elk and other game production (or preservation, depending on whether you are a “conservative” hunter or a liberal treehugger), and perhaps to produce livestock and crops and water for the consumption of the masses on the Front Range (that stretch of urban madness stretching from Laramie and Cheyenne down through Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont, Boulder, Denver, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, to Pueblo).  Ultimately, as the Police State of Colorado matures, these enclaves of relative liberty like Nucla and Dove Creek will become either little Coventries or just swept away:  if relocation into strategic hamlets worked in Vietnam, then it will surely be tried in Colorado.

Hoplophiles – Self-defense – local tyranny
Colorado: Sheriff’s lawsuit against new gun laws grows
(9News.com) The right-leaning Independence Institute says 54 sheriffs are joining the lawsuit, along with other gun-rights activists who oppose the laws.

Nathan: Thanks to Debby for this one.  Remember, 9 News is part of the mainstream media: to them, a libertarian think tank is “right-leaning” and Jon Caldera is a paid-for spokesman for right-wing extremists and Big Business.  This number of 54 is up from 37 or 38 a few weeks ago, and shows some hope that the people who are SUPPOSED to be the highest law enforcement authority in their respective counties (as well as the keepers of the peace for the people) are sick of the Colorado General Assembly and a series of autocratic governors (and mayors) and their trampling on rights and liberties.  (Of course, cynically, one can point out that the Sheriffs, too often, see the state authorities as competition to their own inherent power to tyrannize people as elected quasi-dictators.)  Together with recall attempts we’ve discussed earlier, and various claims to ignore the laws which go into effect on 1 July, this is a good thing, but unlikely to succeed.  For related discussion of the really unforgivable behavior of the legislature and other powers-that-be in this Colorado gun law business, visit and read Ari Armstrong’s column.