AQHA forced to include "Cloned" horses

Dear Readers,

Some of you have writen asking me what I knew about the AQHA being forced to accepted "cloned" horses in their registry?

While I know little to nothing about "cloned" horses, I do know that the AQHA, which is the world’s largest horse registry, is now being forced to include "cloned" horses.

A landmark ruling in Texas was made when U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ordered the American Quarter Horse Association -- which is the world’s largest horse breeding and registry organization -- to allow cloned horses.

"Theoretically, could they clone the great American quarter horses?

Well, some say "Sure!"

And yes, that’s part of what the opposition is.

Tom Persechino, a spokesman for the AQHA, told FoxNews.com. "It’s not strictly for breeding purposes."

Jason Abraham won the lawsuit on August 14th, and to hear him talk about it, cloning is simply the latest in a long line of advances -  from transfer of embryos to the use of frozen sperm to intracytoplasmic sperm injection which are all techniques that let breeders avoid genetic dead-ends and preserve valued traits.

"What made Secretariat so stunning was that he was a freak of nature, an alignment of genes so superb as to be the closest thing to perfection we are likely to ever see."
- Laura Hillenbrand, author of the bestseller 'Seabiscuit'

"I’m probably the largest horse owner in the country, maybe in the world. And I’m always on the leading edge of reproduction -- and apparently they don’t like that," Abraham told FoxNews.com.

Quarterhorses are different from thoroughbreds like Secretariat in that they are raised for quick power and speed rather than endurance.

Quarterhorse racing raised more than $300 million in wagers at U.S. racetracks in 2010; it’s the third-most popular form of horse racing, after thoroughbreds and standardbred racing horses.

After cloning them, it's a short leap to other animals.

The procedure is now commonplace among cattle, Abraham said. Citing backers of the technology, NBC News said cloning will spread this year to rodeo competitions like barrel racing and reining, polo matches and equestrian events leading up to the 2014 Olympics.

The AQHA has numerous other reasons for its ban on cloning.

"Clones don't have parents. Cloning is not breeding," reads a position statement on the group’s site.

"Cloning doesn't improve the breed; it just makes Xerox copies of the same horses," the group says.

Abraham sees it differently. He believes a powerful group of breeders that make up the AQHA see cloned horses not as way to sell the Morning Line, but as a threat to the bottom line.

"The good ol’ boys club, they syndicate stallions, like Corona Cartel," he told FoxNews.com, citing a popular sire.

"You got a $20 million stud there. … They don’t want every Tom, Dick and Harry to breed the Corona Cartel. In addition, cloning could help breeders avoid problems that crop up when a single stud’s genes are constantly re-used," he said.

"We’ve got so many horses that are bred the same way, genetically, we’ve got these terrible diseases where the skin falls off the horse," he said.

For the disease called HERDA, or hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia, there is no cure.

"We bring back older genetics that are HERDA free … it just gives you a tool to go off in a different direction," he said.

The AQHA disagrees, arguing that cloning could narrow the gene pool even further which would result in the worsening of genetic diseases or the creation of new ones.

Villanova University’s Angela DiBenedetto, an associate professor of biology and an expert on genetics and cloning, sides with the association.

"The process is very inefficient, with very low live-birth success rates, and of the successes, a high incidence of later developmental abnormalities, higher risks for some diseases and malformations, and abnormal gene expression patterns throughout life," she told FoxNews.com. "We don’t know why that is."

Independent companies like ViaGen nevertheless are already cloning horses, such as Royal Blue Boon, a producer of cutting horses owned by Elaine Hall of Weatherford, Texas. She had the horse cloned seven years ago.

"I simply could not imagine not being able to continue to breed this fine animal and improve the genetics of future generations of cutting horses," Hall said.

His opinion is that "If you don’t stay up with the latest technology, you are going to be left in the dust."
But will the science ever advance to the point that Seabiscuit 2, 3 and 4 are lined up beside a row of Secretariats?

The experts agree genetic copies wouldn’t necessarily be winners. There’s no gene for winning, after all.

"Think of identical human twins you may know," DiBenedetto said. "They are alike in many ways, but not the same person."

Laura Hillenbrand, author of the beloved book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" and The New York Times best-seller "Unbroken," told FoxNews.com there’s another reason to be careful.

"If we could simply clone the best, and we stopped breeding horses, a great deal of the joy of the sport would be lost," Hillenbrand told FoxNews.com.

"We wouldn't see the wonders of genetics at work, and would no longer have the challenge of pairing one horse with another in hopes of creating an animal who bears the strengths of each."

"So much of what made Secretariat so stunning was that he was a freak of nature, one in a billion, an alignment of genes so superb as to be the closest thing to perfection we are likely to ever see. What fun would there be in a crowd of Secretariats, if he were merely commonplace?"

But it's not just about cloning, it's also about money!

The AQHA statement reads as follows:

On August 12, the parties appeared for a hearing before Judge Mary Lou Robinson for the purpose of arguing on the issues of the plaintiffs’ claims for attorney fees and for equitable relief in the form of an injunction requiring AQHA to register clones and their offspring.

The plaintiffs have requested an award of nearly $900,000 in attorney fees and seek an injunction requiring the unconditional registration of clones and their offspring in the AQHA registry.


At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Mary Lou Robinson announced that she was going to enter an injunction requiring AQHA to register clones and their offspring.

She instructed the parties to confer and determine if any agreements concerning what rules would be necessary for this relief were needed, and instructed the parties to file any briefs on the subject no later than Wednesday August 14.

As for attorney fees, the Judge did not render any ruling.

She further instructed the plaintiffs to produce all attorney fee billing statements by the end of the day and ordered that AQHA enter any briefs on the subject of plaintiffs’ requested award of attorney fees by August 14, 2013.

Finally, the Judge ordered the plaintiffs to submit proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law by the August 14 deadline as well.

"As announced on August 1, and referenced in its August 9 Brief on Equitable Relief and Attorney Fees, AQHA will continue to take any and all necessary legal action in seeking to have the verdict of the jury and any judgment entered by the Court in favor of plaintiffs reversed,” said AQHA Executive Vice President Don Treadway. "AQHA will continue to fight for its members’ rights."

It is expected that following the entry of a judgment in favor of plaintiffs AQHA will proceed with filing a Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law in which AQHA will request the Court enter a take nothing judgment in favor of AQHA based upon the fact that the jury’s verdict was not supported by the evidence entered at trial.

Such a motion is due no later than 28 days following the entry of a signed final judgment by the Court.

Should the court not grant AQHA’s Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law, then AQHA will file a notice of appeal thus beginning the appellate process. AQHA will continue to update its membership and directors with developments in the case.

As a matter of background, on July 28, a 10-person jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, Abraham & Veneklasen Joint Venture et al. in their antitrust suit against AQHA.

The plaintiffs alleged that AQHA Rule REG106.1, which prohibits the registration of cloned horses and their offspring in AQHA’s breed registry, violates federal and state anti-trust laws.

Although the jury found that AQHA violated antitrust laws, it awarded no damages to the plaintiffs despite the plaintiffs demand for $5.7 million dollars in damages at trial.

At today’s hearing, which lasted a little more than two hours, the counsel for AQHA urged the court to deny the plaintiffs’ requests and to enter judgment as a matter of law in favor of AQHA due to plaintiffs’:

• failure to establish the existence of a conspiracy to prohibit registration of clones and their offspring;

• failure to establish the existence of a properly defined antitrust market consisting of “elite” Quarter Horses;

• failure to establish that Rule REG106.1 has caused any harm to the alleged market through a constraint on the supply of “elite” Quarter Horses;

• failure to establish that Rule REG106.1 constitutes an unreasonable restrain on trade, such that the anticompetitive effects of the rule outweigh the legitimate justifications for the rule;

• failure to establish that AQHA possesses monopoly power in the alleged market; and

• failure to establish that Rule REG106.1 constitutes exclusionary conduct that is inconsistent with competition on the merits and that has the potential for making a significant contribution to AQHA’s monopoly power.

Counsel for AQHA further argued that to the extent the plaintiffs were entitled to any injunctive relief, which AQHA denied, then such relief should be limited to only the registration of cloned mares.

More specifically, AQHA argued that any equitable relief be limited so as to only allow for the registration of cloned mares that are free of genetic diseases and that such clones be listed in a Clone Supplement for breeding purposes only.

AQHA counsel further argued that, for parentage verification purposes, the mitochondrial DNA profile of the clone must be different than the mitochondrial DNA profile of the original mare and all other previously registered clones of the same mare.

Finally, AQHA counsel argued that the registration of the offspring of clones and their descendants be listed in either a Clone Numbered Registry or Clone Appendix registry as determined by AQHA and its members and Stud Book Committee.

AQHA’s counsel also argued to the Court that AQHA should retain the authority to craft whatever rules necessary for dealing with the registration of clones as opposed to the plaintiffs’ request for an extensive set of new rules dealing with the clone registration issue.

With respect to attorneys’ fees, AQHA’s attorney argued that the court should deny plaintiffs’ request for fees because plaintiffs had not produced legally sufficient evidence at trial to establish an antitrust violation.

Further, the jury in its verdict awarded no damages to the plaintiffs. Therefore, should the Court decide to award attorneys’ fees then such award should be significantly reduced in keeping with the jury’s award of no damages.

Posted by Tom Correa

Thanks For Your Service Renee!

Dear Readers,

After lunch at a new restaurant in Mokelumne Hill, my in-laws and my wife and I sat talking about Yard Sales in the area.

My mother-in-law, Fran, said she was told about a yard sale in West Point and asked if we could "swing by" to check it out.

I laughed and made mention that West Point was not "on the way" home to our place in Glencoe, but in fact about 8 miles out of the way past where we live.

We were laughing about the "swing by" comment for a while as we drove east on Hwy 26 to Glencoe.

Just before the Jesus Maria turn off, I asked if they'd ever taken that road.

When they said no, I turned up Jesus Maria Road. It is an out of the way windy road with three different shades of blacktop - those being black, gray, and green.

It winds mercilessly through the hills between Mokelumne Hill and Rail Road Flat Road over some rugged, bumpy, bouncy, isolated, lonesome looking territory.

When we finally came out, I turned toward our place but about 4 miles away I decided to turn up and head to West Point from Rail Road Flat.

This is hill country and mountain roads. Yes, 27 miles an hour can feel way too fast when an unexpected blind curve comes up and you have to share the road with oncoming traffic.

Of course there is lots of room, but it doesn't seem like that at that speed!

Once we came out where the area looked familiar to my in-laws, we reached West Point. From there, I was determined that late or not - I was going to find that Yard Sale.

Yes, you are right if you guessed that I don't like Yard Sales. To me, I just feel strange driving up onto someone's property to look over their stuff.

I certainly doesn't bother my wife or her parents, they lover Yard Sales, Garage Sales, and Thrift Stores. To them, its a treasure hunt.

We found the Yard Sale in West Point and they had all sorts of junk, and nothing I wanted so I went back to our Chevy Tahoe and listened to an old Statler Brothers tape in my cassette player.

No, our vehicle doesn't have a CD player! But that's OK, we really do survive alright without one.

As we left, I saw a sign that said Yard Sale 1 Mile On Winton Road. So yes, I headed up Winton Road. About a mile or so, we passed the Yard Sale but I didn't stop.

I just kept driving because I couldn't remember what was up in that area. For some reason, I honestly didn't recognize the area.

Sure, it was woods everywhere. That's the way it is up here. West Point is about 2800 ft elevation and we kept driving.

At one point the forest cleared and we could look to the South and see the smoke still coming from the Rim Fire not all that far away as the crow flies.

But we didn't stop, I just kept driving and into the National Forest we went.

My father-in-law was not real impressed with this, he was bored and tired and wanted to get back to our home to relax - or maybe do some shooting to prepare for our Cowboy Shooting match tomorrow morning in Rail Road Flat.

For me, the area was just so beautiful as far as the eye can see.

Some would think living up here, that I'd become jaded to the forest around us - but no not me.

I'd take big trees and woods over the likes of a city any day of the week. And yes, these days even the town of Jackson with its 4000 plus population is almost too much "city" for me to handle.

Stop lights, fast cars, horns, everyone becoming more and more in a hurry to go absolutely no where drives me nuts these days.

We entered an open fire gate and a sign the said national forest, and I kept driving.

As I drove up Winton Road, my father-in-law who loves techy stuff and actually has a watch that can give him the altitude started calling out "4500!"

After a while we asked and he called out "6300!"

Throughout our trip up the mountain, we passed all sorts of cuttings where loggers had been. And yes, since logging trucks are always coming by our home in Glencoe down the hill, it was good to see one of the places where they were coming from.

My mother-in-law didn't know about the hundreds of trees that are planted where they harvest trees. She was happy to see that, and asked why this sort of information isn't told to the public.

Thinking about it, I guess reforestation is a big deal that few people really don't know about.

I'm guessing many probably think that the government is the one who does the reforestation - when in fact its private companies with leases to harvest timber.

We finally found the end to Winton Road when we ran out of blacktop and went onto a gravel road. We were one hour east of West Point, and subsequently about an hour and 20 minutes from home if we'd turn around.

After I turned around, I noticed that out all by its lonesome sat the Hermit Springs Cal Fire Station.

I pulled in when I saw cars there in their parking area. You could see a few folks inside and I was afraid that we were interrupting their dinner.

I was going to get out and go in when a Firefighter came out and started towards us.

She smiled and asked if she could help us, and I asked the question that seemed to be the simplest "Where are we?"

My in-laws both thought we had driven so far that we had already crossed into Nevada by then, but I really didn't think so.

Frankly, I was just going to turn around and head back down the mountain when she answered, "Well, West Point is 18 miles down the hill and that road over there which is about 8 miles long will take you to Hwy 4. It comes out above Arnold. Our fire truck can do in 15 minutes. It's gravel and paved on and off for a while, but its a good road."

I was immediately impressed by her friendliness, her helpfulness and the fact that she was in a Cal Fire Station way the heck away from everything. Yes, basically on top of a mountain.

I had to ask her a few questions such as her name and what she knew about the Rim Fire to the south.

Her name is Renee Henault and she pointed over to a ridge to the south and said, "There it is. I wish I was there instead of here!"

"Putting wet stuff on the hot stuff," I nodded.

She laughed and looked happy. I took it that she knew that understood what they did.

And yes, I really do understand. She is typical of Firefighters who I have met over the years.

She is smart, kind, helpful, brave, and very willing to get into the fight where ever there is smoke.  Yes, she sees the smoke over in the distance and feels like she's being left out.

City Firefighters don't have anything on Cal Fire Firefight Renee Henault and the crew up at Hermit Springs. They all want to do their job and feel left out when they can't.

Renee is a smart and pretty gal. She could probably do great at just about anything she puts her mind to in this crazy world of ours. He'd be a success at anything she does.

She has a trusting face and kind voice, and she would probably make a mint if she ever got into sales or marketing or management.

But really, as pretty and nice as she is, I don't think she'd ever be happy anywhere else.

I saw it as she walked up to my car. She is a Firefighter, a professional at her job. She is at home in the forest fighting fires. 

She is someone who loves being a "Firefighter." She takes pride in what she does, and serves the public good without reservation.

We talked all of two or three minutes, I gave her a card and told her that I would mention her in my blog, then left headed for Hwy 4 and down to Arnold.

And by the way, I felt better about pulling in and asking where I was after she told us about some European tourists who showed up and asked if they were close to the Yosemite National Forest when they were no where near it.

At least I knew that I could just make a U Turn and head back down the hill to get home, and I'm sure that Renee would agree with me that knowing that means that I wasn't lost.

Really Renee, if you are reading this, I wasn't lost - no matter what my father-in-law was saying!

We drove to Hwy 4 and went down to Arnold and filled up there, then went down to Angels Camp and got some ice cream and headed back up Hwy 49 and home.

All in all, it was a great ride.

And yes, I really believe that every once in a while we just have to get out and go see what's around the bend or up that road that you may or may not have ever visited.

Sometimes, sometimes, the road might lead down a dead end. During those times its great if at least the view of the scenery is good.

Other times, that road might lead us to someone like Cal Fire's Renee Henault.

Yes, I can't help but like her. And yes, I have a whole lot of respect for her.

Cal Fire has some really wonderful people. Renee is one of them!

Renee, if you are reading this, I see what you're doing for us as being no different, no less courageous, no less self-sacrificing, no less important, than the job that our men and women in America's military are doing for us.

Because of that, I take great pleasure in saying, "thanks for your service!"



EDITOR'S NOTE:

I found out Renee Henault has been a Firefighter with Cal Fire since the mid-1990s. She is a Fire Captain. And no, that doesn't surprise me.





Story by Tom Correa

Richard Boone - America's Paladin

He was born Richard Allen Boone on June 18th, 1917, in Los Angeles, California. He passed away from throat cancer on January 10th, 1981, at the age of 63 in St. Augustine, Florida.

He was married three times, his first being Jane H. Hopper from 1937 to 1940, his second to Mimi Kelly from 1949 to 1950, both ended in divorce.

His last marriage was to Claire McAloon for 30 years, from 1951 to 1981, at the time of his death. They had one child together, their son is Peter Boone.

Richard Boone was an actor who starred in over 50 films but will forever be linked to his most famous character of Paladin in the Golden Age of TV Westerns, the series "Have Gun – Will Travel."

Richard Boone was the middle child of Cecile (née Beckerman) and Kirk E. Boone, a well-to-do corporate lawyer. His father was a descendant of Squire Boone, who was the younger brother of frontiersman Daniel Boone. His mother was Jewish, the daughter of immigrants from Russia.

"I was born with a lot of horsepower. There was a lot cooking inside me, a lot of energy, and Dad was a strong man by will and by intelligence, and the combination of us was almost bound to result in periodic explosions. He and I disagreed politically, very violently, and things would get hectic around the house." - Richard Boone, 1961

Although rumored throughout the entertainment industry, Richard Boone was not related to singer Pat Boone.

Richard graduated from Hoover High School in Glendale, California. Boone also attended the San Diego Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California, near Oceanside, in his youth. It was there that Boone was introduced to the theater under the tutelage of Virginia Atkinson, who spawned theater interest in many who eventually found their way to Hollywood. Robert Walker, another Academy graduate and member of the school’s theater club, Masque & Wig, became a close acquaintance of Boone's.

He attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where he was a Theta Xi Fraternity member. For reasons that I could not find, he left before graduation. Of course, it was the Great Depression of the 1930s and he worked at several jobs, so who knows what made him leave Stanford. Folks back then took what there was, so in addition to working as an oil rig laborer, he tried house painting, bartending, writing, and even boxing. In fact, at 6 foot one inch tall, he was built rugged, and that was an advantage in the boxing ring.

He went into the service just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. He did, in fact, join the United States Navy in the summer of 1941. In the Navy, during World War II, he served on three ships in the Pacific and saw combat as an aviation ordnanceman and gunner on TBM Avenger torpedo bombers. Yes, Richard Boone was an aerial gunner in the Navy during World War II.

"Richard Boone was bombed while serving on the USS Enterprise, torpedoed on the USS Intrepid, and attacked by kamikaze planes on the USS Hancock. 'We began to think somebody was trying to kill us,' he says." - writer Richard Gehman, 1961

After World War II, he used the G.I. Bill to attend acting school at the prestigious Actor's Studio in New York. His classmates included such unknowns as Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, and Julie Harris.

Serious and methodical, Boone debuted on Broadway in 1947 in the play Medea and appeared in Macbeth (1948) and The Man (1950). Elia Kazan used Boone to feed lines to an actress for a screen test for Lewis Milestone. Mr. Milestone was not impressed with the actress, but he was impressed enough with Boone's voice to summon him to Hollywood, where he was given a seven-year contract with Fox.

In 1950, Boone made his screen debut when he was signed to a contract with 20th Century Fox and was cast as Lt. Col. Gilfillan in the Lewis Milestone film Halls of Montezuma. In 1953, he played Pontius Pilate in the first released Cinemascope film, The Robe. He had only one scene in the film in which he gives instructions to Richard Burton, who plays the centurion ordered to crucify Christ. When he was ordered to appear in another film for Fox made simultaneously as The Robe, he ended his contract with the studio.

During the filming of Halls of Montezuma, he befriended Jack Webb, who was then producing and starring in Dragnet. The writer of Dragnet was preparing a series about a doctor for NBC. That's how Richard Boone became a familiar face in the lead role of that medical drama, Medic, from 1954 to 1956 and received an Emmy nomination for Best Actor Starring in a Regular Series in 1955. While on Medic, he also guest-starred as the character Everett Brayer on NBC's television anthology series Frontier in the episode "The Salt War."

"I was a father figure. I used to get letters by the hundreds. Many of them asked me to diagnose some illnesses; those that didn't say I had an interesting face. Fortunately, Paladin came along soon, so I could trade my stethoscope for a six-gun," said Richard Boone in 1960.

In 1957, Richard Boone started his second television series. It was called Have Gun Will Travel. And yes, along with his famous holster adorned with a Chess Knight, his role as Paladin would make Richard Boone a national star.

The silver-knighted Paladin rig on Have Gun Will Travel opened with Richard Boone's monologue at the beginning of every episode. The original gunbelt was made by the famed Hollywood leather smith Ojala.

As for the series, it's no wonder why Richard Boone enjoyed it. The fact is Paladin was a different type of 50's Western hero. He didn't speak with an exaggerated accent. In fact, in 1960, a High School teacher by the name of  L. Edson wrote to Boone to say, "Yours is the only Western I recommend to my students. You speak English." 

As for his character, Paladin was sophisticated, well-read, a man steeped in art and culture, yet he was tough as nails. Some say he was a mercenary, yet his gun for hire in 1875, the late 19th century West, was only used for right and against wrong.

"Paladin is a character people seem to like. He's an intriguing sort of guy with an air of mystery about him," said Richard Boone in 1958. 

Of course, what added to Paladin's mystery is that the Old West knight's real name was never revealed. While Paladin's name was never revealed on television or on the radio series later, there were three Have Gun - Will Travel novels, and in one of them, Paladin was called by the name Clay Alexander. Although that was the case, viewers never learn his name. 

Viewers do learn that he lived at the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco across from the Stock Exchange. We learn that he was a West Point graduate, a veteran of the Civil War who served as a Union cavalry officer, he was a dueling champion, that he was a man who dressed in trail clothes as well as stylish period suits, played poker as well as the piano, attended the opera and liked fine wines while also appreciating saloons and good whiskey. Throughout the series, we also learn that he quoted the Bible, Confucius, William Shakespeare, classic literature, philosophy, and even Case Law. Of course, we also learn that Paladin spoke fluent Chinese, Spanish, and Hebrew.  

Paladin gave out a business card imprinted with "Have Gun Will Travel" and an engraving of a white knight chess piece, which evokes "the proverbial white knight and the knight in shining armor." A closeup of the calling card was used at the beginning of each show. The tune that accompanied it on the screen was never dropped because it's said kids at the time loved it.

Since the show's time period was 1875 to the 1880s, Boone insisted that Paladin be a master of weapons. His character carried an 1873 .45 caliber Colt Single Action Army Cavalry Model revolver with a 7.5-inch barrel in a black leather gunbelt with a silver knight chess piece positioned on its holster. 

Here's a piece of trivia for you. That holster was black, but Paladin's clothing wasn't. In reality, his clothes were dark blue. Because it was filmed in Black & White, his clothing appeared black. As for his holster, that holster is probably the most famous of all 1950's television Western series because it's seen in the introduction of every episode. 

As for his using a rifle, he did carry a lever-action rifle in some episodes. Like most 1950's television Westerns, for example, in the series The Rifleman, Paladin's rifle was not period correct to the series because it was a Winchester Model 1892. His rifle also had a silver knight chess piece on its stock. 

His character was also known to carry a concealed derringer behind his gunbelt's belt buckle. In early episodes, he carried a single-shot barrel derringer which some say was Merrimack Arms Southerner Model derringer. Others say it was a single-shot Brown Southerner Derringer in .41 rimfire. Later it was a classic engraved Remington two-barrel Model 95 derringer of 1866 in .41 rimfire short. 

So what's in a name?

Regarding the name "Paladin," it's said that it comes from the Italian "Paladino," or "palatine," referring to a knightly, a heroic champion who fights a noble cause. The 12th-century Italian name Paladino is derived from tales of King Charlemagne's legendary knights or paladins. Paladin also refers to a military leader trusted and relied on by King Charlemagne. Both the "knight" and "military leader" aspects of the character speak to his military background and his being a soldier of fortune mystique.

While some called the character Paladin a "knight errant," a medieval knight wandering in search of honor and chivalrous adventure. Of course, especially after watching the episode "Genesis," there are those who see Paladin as a knight paying penance and seeking absolution for wrongs he himself may have committed. Either way, he was America's Paladin. As the song goes, "a knight without armor in a savage land."

Two more pieces of Have Gun - Will Travel trivia. First, Richard Boone is said to have been an excellent rider and selected the horse to use. Throughout the six-year run, Paladin's horses were called Curley, Frisco, Rudy, Mexico, and Rafter. Second, the show was first offered to Randolph Scott, but he turned it down and gave the script to Richard Boone to read while the two were making the Western film Ten Wanted Men.

In contrast to many other television Western actors of the day, Richard Boone was a hands-on actor who insisted on being an integral part of the entire production. It's said that he oversaw every part of the show. And to say Have Gun Will Travel was a big hit would be an understatement. It was a show that remained in the top four during its entire run. And in fact, it spawned a radio show of the same name.

"I give out lots of the calling cards Paladin uses in the stories, which are lettered 'Have Gun Will Travel' and say underneath, 'Wire Paladin, San Francisco.' At the last count, I had disposed of around 84,000 of them. Naturally, lots of people do wire me. Once I received a telegram signed 'Georgia football fans' which read, 

'DEAR PAL: PLEASE KILL COACH TUBBS IMMEDIATELY.' 

At New Year's, when I rode my horse in the Tournament of Roses parade, one of the spectators yelled, 'Hey Paladin, I've got a job for you -- but I never found out what. Just then, the woman with him conked him with her handbag," said Richard Boone in 1959.

"Few actors are so perfectly cast for their roles. Paladin of Have Gun Will Travel is a cultured, sophisticated, and sensitive man who is also a man of action. So is Boone,." said writer Richard Gehman in 1961.

Have Gun Will Travel ran from 1957 to 1963, with Boone receiving two more Emmy nominations in 1959 and 1960. My favorite episode is titled "The Teacher," which aired on March 15, 1958. 

In that season one, episode 27, a "schoolteacher teaching the history of the US Civil War in a small western town runs afoul of an ex-Confederate soldier who wants a different story taught. He tries to intimidate her and her students until Paladin gets wind of it. He manages to dissuade the ex-soldier from destroying the only school in the town." It had a message that we all need to hear.

A magnificently ruined face!

"I guess Paladin is so attractive to women because he's so formidable, yet so gentle at the same time," said Richard Boone in 1962. 

As for looking like a Hollywood "leading man"? Well, take a look at what the entertainment industry thought of his looks, and remember he was one of the top three television shows in the nation.

"Not a handsome man by Hollywood standards, Boone has a nose faintly reminiscent of the late W. C. Fields and pale blue eyes that cannot be described as deep or burning or penetrating. He has had to crash Hollywood on the strength of his craftsmanship and abundant energy," wrote TV Guide in 1958.

"His frown, a magnificently savage front of arched eyebrow and tight lip can cower a badman at twenty paces," wrote  L. Edson in 1960

"Boone's face, of which a girl I once knew said, 'It's so ugly, it's beautiful,' could be that of a medieval seigneur about to exercise his Droit. A medieval seigneur, I might add, recently stung by hunting wasps, for the face is pocked and puffy, and, in Boone's words, more 'interesting' than handsome." this from writer Richard Gehman in 1961

In 1961, writer Richard Schickel said that Boone had "A magnificently ruined face!"

All this praise, yet during the 1960s, Boone appeared regularly on other television programs as an occasional guest panelist and also a mystery guest on What's My Line?, the Sunday Night CBS-TV quiz show. He talked with host John Charles Daly about their days working together on the TV show The Front Page. Boone also had his own television anthology, The Richard Boone Show. Even though it aired only from 1963 to 1964, he received his fourth Emmy nomination for it in 1964.

Along with The Danny Kaye Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Richard Boone Show won a Golden Globe for Best Show in 1964. After the cancellation of his weekly show, Boone and his family moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. While living on Oahu, Richard Boone helped persuade Leonard Freeman to film Hawaii Five-O exclusively in Hawaii. Before that, Freeman had planned to do "establishing" location shots in Hawaii but principal production in southern California. Boone and others convinced Freeman that the islands could offer all necessary support for a major TV series and provide an authenticity otherwise unobtainable.

Leonard Freeman was so impressed by Boone's love of Hawaii that he actually offered him the role of Steve McGarrett. Boone turned it down. Instead, Boone recommended the role go to Jack Lord. He was friends with Jack Lord since one of the early episodes of Have Gun - Will Travel. Jack Lord also shared Boone's enthusiasm for Hawaii, which Freeman considered vital to the series' success. Boone at that time had shot a pilot for CBS called Kona Coast that he hoped CBS would adopt as a series, but, sorry to say, they went with Hawaii Five-0 instead.

By the way, Jack Lord had appeared with Boone in the first episode of Have Gun Will Travel, entitled "Three Bells to Perdido." They were friends for life.

Boone appeared in a lot of movies. And believe it or not, he typically played the villain or a heavy. Those films include The Raid (1954), Man Without a Star (1955), The Tall T (1957), The War Lord (1965), Hombre (1967), The Arrangement (1969), The Kremlin Letter (1970), Big Jake (1971), and The Shootist (1976). Paul Newman starred with Boone in the film Hombre, and Stuart Whitman worked with Boone in Rio Conchos.

In one of my favorite Westerns, Big Jake, Richard Boone portrayed vicious gang leader John Fain who demanded $1,000,000 for Jake McCandles' grandson's return. Above is John Fain from Big Jake.

During his career, he starred in three movies with John Wayne: Big Jake, The Shootist, where Mr. Boone had the role of Mike Sweeney, and The Alamo as Sam Houston. Yes, Mr. Boone played General Sam Houston in John Wayne's film The Alamo. Of course, The Shootist was John Wayne's final film.

John Wayne directed the 1960 epic and portrayed Davey Crockett. Richard Widmark played Jim Bowie, and Laurence Harvey was Jim Travis. The movie was nominated for six Oscars but only won for Best Sound.

I read that Richard Boone was aware of the financial problems that the film was having, so he refused a salary for his part as General Sam Houston. It's said that a grateful John Wayne gave him a Rolls-Royce and the buckskin coat he wore in the film as compensation. 

It's a little-known fact that Richard Boone dubbed the minister's voice in the final scenes of the original Ocean's Eleven.

Hec Ramsey

So now, let's talk about one of my absolute favorite Western television series. In the early 1970s, Boone starred in the short-lived TV Western Hec Ramsey. If you've never heard of Hec Ramsey or remember it as I do, that's a shame because it was a wonderful Western television series. 

Hec Ramsey was part of the NBC Mystery Movie of the Week, or simply The NBC Mystery Movie. There were three shows in the original 1971–1972 season that made up the rotation for The NBC Mystery Movie. The three-show series was Columbo starring Peter Falk, McCloud starring Dennis Weaver, and McMillan & Wife starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James.

The NBC Mystery Movie was a big hit. In fact, Columbo was nominated for eight Emmy Awards and won four categories. This success prompted NBC to add another show to the rotation. That show was Hec Ramsey starring Richard Boone. Jack Webb produced Hec Ramsey. Boone first met Webb in 1954 when Boone played a police captain in an episode of Webb's series Dragnet. 

Frankly, this series was really way ahead of its time. Imagine this for a moment, a CSI Western! Yes, that's what it was. It was about a turn-of-the-20th-century gunfighter and lawman who used recent Police Science to be a frontier forensic detective in the Old West. 

The series tapped into the early days of forensic science during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the time, there were all sorts of revolutionary things taking place in the world of Police Science -- including new technologies called "fingerprinting" and firearm "ballistic" identification. Physical evidence gathering was in infancy, all new to the late 1800s and early 1900s during the period when Hec Ramsey was supposed to be taking place.

As for his role in Hec Ramsey, the character's background, he was a frontier lawman and gunfighter in his younger days. Now older, Ramsey is the Deputy Chief of Police of a small Oklahoma city. With a solid reputation as a former Deputy U.S. Marshal who rode for Judge Parker, Boone's character was plenty able to use a gun. As a skilled shooter, instead of carrying a supposedly custom-made .45 caliber Colt Single Action Army Cavalry Model revolver with an 8-inch barrel as he did as Paladin in Have Gun -- Will Travel, Boone's Hec Ramsey character carried a short-barreled Colt Single Action Army snub more suited for concealed carry. 

Regarding his preference for short-barrel pistols, which is very period correct for lawmen at the time, he says in the first episode, it was a short-barreled pistol more suited for law enforcement and the "close-in work" that job entails. As he says, "a rifle can be used for anything farther."

Hec Ramsey had embraced the science of criminal forensics while still taking on outlaws with a gun if need be. So, imagine an older, weathered Paladin as a skilled gun-toting "criminalist" using crime scene evidence and science to solve crimes in the Old West. That's really what Hec Ramsey was about. 

And by the way, addressing the obvious comparisons or lack of between the characters Paladin and Hec Ramsey, Mr. Boone himself noted to an interviewer in 1972, "You know, Hec Ramsey is a lot like Paladin, only fatter."

In 1974, Richard Boone said, "I like this Hec Ramsey. He's dead honest. He walks right through all the ridiculous standards of Victorian America. He's Paladin, from Have Gun Will Travel, grown older. If Paladin had lived all those years, he would have run out of patience with the idiots and would've gotten as grumpy as Hec. He would have said to the dame, 'Lady, you're not in distress. You're just stupid.'"

As I'm sure you can tell, I really liked Hec Ramsey! It was a great show. After Hec Ramsey, Richard Boone returned to The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where he had once studied acting, to teach it in the mid-1970s.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Boone assisted the Israeli film industry at its inception. Later, he appeared in the first Israeli film set outside Israel, the Western Madron (1970), set in the American West in the 1800s. In 1979, he received an award from Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for his contribution to Israeli cinema.

In 1965, he came third in the Laurel Award for Best Action Performance; Sean Connery won first place with Goldfinger, and Burt Lancaster won second place with The Train.

Mr. Boone was also the voice actor for the mighty dragon Smaug in the 1977 animated film of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit." His voice acting in that role was very powerful and well-received.

As for his family?

Back in 1959, when Have Gun Will Travel was going strong, Richard Boone said this about his role as Paladin and as a father:

"What Paladin does to viewers, other than to entertain them, is not my business. What he does to my son is my business. So here's how I handle it: First, I make no effort in Peter's presence to demean my work or knock Paladin. But I never let the importance of this fictional character overshadow the importance of Peter to me."

Mr. Boone's son with Claire McAloon, Peter, worked as a child actor in several of his father's Have Gun Will Travel television shows. Today Peter Boone resides in Virginia. In 1997, Peter Boone said this about his dad, "Dad never made me feel I had to live up to him. He always said he wanted me to be better than he was, and he meant it. I've tried to encourage my children the same way."

Richard Boone moved to St. Augustine, Florida, from Hawaii in 1970 and worked with Cross and Sword's production when he was not acting on television or in movies until his death in 1981.

He loved Directing

"It's the director who has all the fun. Any time a camera is involved, it's the director who tells the story more than the writer, producer, or anybody else. And that's what I want to do," said Richard Boone in 1960. 

"When I direct, I have only one request: 'Please, God, let the actor I'm directing put it all out there!' I'll take care of the excess. I'll trim it. But, don't give me an actor I have to light a fire under. Let him bite the scenery, and I'll cut away the excess!" said Richard Boone in 1972.

In the last year of his life, Mr. Richard Boone was appointed Florida's cultural ambassador. During the 1970s, he wrote a newspaper column for the St. Augustine Record called "It Seems To Me." He also gave acting lectures at Flagler College in 1972–1973.

In his final role, Mr. Boone played Commodore Matthew Perry in Bushido Blade. He died soon afterward in St. Augustine of pneumonia while suffering from throat cancer. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean off of his beloved Hawaii.

His Filmography:

Halls of Montezuma (1951), Call Me Mister (1951), The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951), Red Skies of Montana (1952), Return of the Texan (1952), Kangaroo (1952), Way of a Gaucho (1952), Pony Soldier (1952), Man on a Tightrope (1953), Vicki (1953), The Robe (1953), City of Bad Men (1953), Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953), Dragnet (1954), The Siege at Red River (1954), The Raid (1954), Ten Wanted Men (1955), Man Without a Star (1955), Robbers' Roost (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Battle Stations (1956), Star in the Dust (1956), Away All Boats (1956), The Tall T (1957), I Bury the Living (1957), Lizzie (1957), The Garment Jungle (1957), I Bury The Living (1958), Ocean's 11 (1960), The Alamo (1960), A Thunder of Drums (1961), Rio Conchos (1964), The War Lord (1965), Hombre (1967), Kona Coast (film) (1968), The Night of the Following Day (1968), The Arrangement (1969), The Kremlin Letter (1970), Madron (1970), Big Jake (1971), Against a Crooked Sky (1975), Diamante Lobo (1976), God's Gun (1976), The Shootist (1976), The Last Dinosaur (1977), The Big Sleep (1978), Winter Kills (1979), The Bushido Blade (1981)

His TV credits include:

The Front Page (1949), Dragnet (1954), Medic (1954), Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963), The Richard Boone Show (1963–1964), Cimarron Strip – The Roarer (1967), The Mark Waters Story (1969), In Broad Daylight (1971), Deadly Harvest (1972), Hec Ramsey (1972), Goodnight, My Love (1972), The Great Niagara (1974), The Last Dinosaur (1977), The Hobbit (1977)

Yes, I've always been a big fan of his. And really, how could he not be one of my eternal heroes, he was Paladin, and like Maverick and Zorro, he was my youth -- my formative years when I was learning right versus wrong.

As for watching Have Gun Will Travel on the Western Channel these days? Well, I still love it. Though I have to admit that I now enjoy it with the eye of someone having a lot of life under my belt.

     

I can honestly say that I really understand now what Richard Boone meant when he talked about his Hec Ramsey character back in 1973 when he said, "Ramsey is a cantankerous SOB, so I felt qualified to play him. He's a rough old bear. He doesn't like pretense, and the word 'compromise' isn't in his vocabulary. He's my kind of guy, and I like playing him."

He was right when he said, "You know, Hec Ramsey is a lot like Paladin, only fatter."

I have to say that I really respect that sort of honesty. And really, I feel more akin to Richard Boone's honesty about his character Hec Ramsey. You see, as with all of us who would like to identify in some small way with those we enjoy on film, and of course, besides my also having "a magnificently ruined face," I can sometimes be a cantankerous SOB. So yes, that's the point about Richard Boone. Whatever role he played, he played it with everything he had to give. He played roles many of us can identify with.

  

Sophisticated or cantankerous, good guy or bad, he seemed to be a man who worked hard and was honest with what he wanted -- and what he left us. As for what he wanted? Well, he once said, "What I want, in a word, is to do the best work I can under the best possible conditions."

Because he achieved what he wanted, he left us great work from a great American actor, a wonderful Cowboy. He was a man who helped teach the difference between right and wrong to generations of Americans in a time when the good guy won and did right. Because of his ideas, which he demanded to be present on-screen, he will always be America's immortal Paladin.

That's just the way I see it.

Tom Correa

Colorado Is Infested With Liberal Idiots



Dickey Lee Hullinghorst

 
Dear Readers,

Believe it or not, the top Colorado Democrat lawmaker says you don’t need a gun - the State Legislature will protect you.

And no, I'm not making this up!

As stupid as that sounds, it was said by Colorado House Majority Leader Democrat Dickey Lee Hullinghorst.

She believes that you might as well just get rid of your guns because you don’t need them!

According to Hullinghorst the Colorado State Legislature will protect you just fine.

Yes, I know what you're think -- now the Colorado Legislature thinks they can be there to protect every citizen everywhere.

Can you imagine how ignorant you have to be to make such a statement?

And of course this only stokes the state’s raging gun-control debate by trying to make the argument that guns are not needed for self-defense.

Colorado House Majority Leader Dickey Lee Hullinghorst said in an interview on YouTube last week that firearms ownership is redundant because the state Legislature keeps citizens safe from harm.

"As a woman, I have the right not to carry a gun and to feel safe on the streets, and that’s what we provide for in the state Legislature is for all of us in the state of Colorado — to feel safe on the streets without having to carry a gun,” said Mrs. Hullinghorst on “The Tim Caffrey Show."

She also took a swipe at gun owners.

"The thought that the only way we can protect ourselves is to wield our own weapon is completely absurd and an argument that I absolutely discount as frivolous," Mrs. Hullinghorst said.

She said this despite the fact that numerous studies, including a recent CDC study, show that you’re more likely to survive a violent encounter if you’re armed with your own gun.

Her comments came as Democrats face a strong backlash against the Colorado Legislature’s sweeping gun-control legislation passed earlier this year.

Early voting already has begun in the September 10th recall elections of Democratic state Sen. Angela Giron and Sen. John Morse over their votes in March in favor of the bills.

State Sen. Greg Brophy, a candidate for the 2014 GOP gubernatorial nomination, said Mrs. Hullinghorst’s stance “speaks volumes about the Democratic agenda on guns.”

"Unbelievably naive from a citizen. Absolutely dangerous from an elected official and leader of the Democratic Party in Colorado," Mr. Brophy told Colorado Peak Politics.

Yet, as we find out, this wasn’t the first time state Democrats have tangled with gun owners over the self-defense issue or the need for the Second Amendment.

Democrat state Sen. Evie Hudak touched off an outcry in March when she told a rape victim that it was unrealistic to expect that she would have been able to fend off her attacker with a gun, saying, "Statistics are not on your side."

"Chances are that if you had had a gun, then he would have been able to get that from you and possibly use it against you,” Mrs. Hudak said at a committee hearing.

Can you imagine that?

I'm shocked that the Democrats in Colorado don't just come out with a liberal public service campaign that advises women: "Don't fight your rapist! Kick back and enjoy it!"

After all, it is apparent that Democrats in that state all but ensure that women there in Colorado will be victims.

To help ensure that Coloradans are victims and can't fight back, Colorado's Democrat-controlled Legislature passed three gun bills in March without any Republican votes.

The legislation was quickly signed into law by ultra-liberal Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper.

The new law restricts ammunition magazine capacity to 15 rounds; mandates background checks for all gun sales, including temporary transfers; and requires gun owners to pay for their background checks.

These actions against law abiding citizens has been the tipping point in the battle of supporting the Constitution of the United States and ignoring the law of the land.

So far, a re-call drive has been successful and now one part of the state wants to break away and form a whole new state of Northern Colorado simply because of the over-the-top liberal policies.

If the Democrats wanted to upset the apple cart, they did so in a big way.

The interesting thing about this is that they are either completely ignorant or completely apathetic of what they are doing.

If we use stupid statements like the one coming out of an idiot like Dickey Lee Hullinghorst as an example of whether or not the Colorado Legislature care what their constituents think, then we can plainly see that the Democrats in control of Colorado either don't know or don't care if the people in Colorado like what they're doing.

Talk about "ruling" instead of "governing". It's folks like this that need to be thrown out of office as soon as possible.

And yes, maybe they need to be charged with corruption -- since the power of their office as gone to their heads.

As for protecting yourself with a gun being "frivolous"?

Try this, get rid of her state provided security personnel and see how she likes being naked with only the Colorado Legislature to protect her in time of need?

Watch her pee herself when she finds out that some crazy with a gun wants to do her harm and she only has the Legislature to stop the would-be assassin!

As for my friends in Colorado, they will stay armed. If for any reason, they're way too smart than to believe an idiot like Hullinghorst.

And by the way, I read where Hullinghorst's campaign was endorsed by the Boulder Daily Camera and the Boulder Weekly.

If I were in Colorado, I'd think about cancelling my subscription and advertising in those papers -- it seems that their judgement is apparently flawed on what's good for the community. 


Story by Tom Correa

How about a 51st State?

Dear Readers,

 

A couple of days ago I wrote about a Pro Texas Independence group trying to get Independence on the ballot in 2014.

 

Being frank, it feels strange saying that I really understand the angst that Texas has for what the Obama administration is doing by the Federal Government to put undo hardship on the American people.

 

And honestly, I'm at a loss as to what to do to stop the Goliath that we somehow allowed to think itself our slave owner. 

Our government is supposed to be working for us. The problem that we face is that the liberals in government don't see it that way.

And yes, liberal polices are at the heart of what's wrong with the government today - both at the federal and state levels.

Liberal socialist policies are eroding our freedoms and turning America into a "regulation nation" worse than some Communist countries today.

And no, its not only Texas that has ideas of how to stop the liberals from imposing every law and regulation that they can get away with. 

The picture up above is a map of the counties in Colorado who want Independence from Colorado because the liberals have taken over the Colorado capital and are trying to change the way people live for the worse.

And yes, there is a lot of discontent in America for all of the unacceptable types of "Change" that has been taking place for a while now.

On example of the discontent that is spreading across the land is taking place in Colorado where rural Coloradans want to vote on breaking away and forming a 51st State because they are angry with liberal policies on guns, energy, and government intrusion coming out of Denver.

Read this report from The Washington Times, dated August 19, 2013:

DENVER — You’ve got North Carolina and North Dakota, so why not Northern Colorado?

Voters in several rural Colorado counties will be asked whether they want to form a new state tentatively named Northern Colorado in the November election, a reaction to the Democrat-controlled state legislature’s “war on rural Colorado.”

The Weld County Commissioners voted unanimously at Monday’s meeting to place a measure on the Nov. 5 ballot asking voters whether they want the county to join other rural counties in forming another state.

“The concerns of rural Coloradans have been ignored for years,” William Garcia, chairman of the Weld County Commissioners, said in a statement. “The last session was the straw that broke the camel’s back for many people. They want change. They want to be heard.”

Three other rural counties — Cheyenne, Sedgwick and Yuma — also plan to place the 51st state referendum on the fall ballot. At least three more counties plan to consider the proposal this week at their commission meetings, said Jeffrey Hare, spokesman for the 51st State Initiative.

Known for its agriculture and oil and gas production, Weld is the largest of the Colorado counties exploring a break with the state after the legislature’s sharp turn to the left with bills restricting access to firearms and doubling the state’s renewable-energy mandate for rural areas.

Democrats control both houses of the legislature and the governor’s office. Two Democratic state senators — Angela Giron and John Morse — are facing Sept. 10 recall elections in response to the legislature’s gun control votes.

Forming a state isn’t easy: Even if the ballot measures pass, the Colorado state legislature would be required to amend the constitution to configure the state’s borders and refer a request for a new state to Congress.

Approving a 51st state would require a majority vote of both houses of Congress, although the Constitution doesn’t require the signature of the president, Mr. Hare said.

“Again, folks say this can never happen. However, we are starting to hear from disenfranchised groups all over the country,” said a post on the 51st State Initiative’s website. “We are truly a divided nation. It is possible, if not likely, that we may not be the only group requesting from Congress the formation of a new state.”

This isn’t the first time disgruntled residents have explored the option of a state split. In the past few decades, movements have sprung up in favor of carving California and Washington into two states.

New York has had a host of proposals aimed at peeling off jurisdictions, including New York City, upstate New York and western New York. The most recent effort was in 2008, when the Suffolk County comptroller proposed splitting off Long Island.

Since the boundaries of the newly independent Colonies were finalized in the 1790s, two states have gained that status by breaking off from extant states. Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820, and West Virginia seceded from Virginia during the Civil War.

Given the complexities involved with creating a state, Mr. Hare said, the Northern Colorado movement is considering two other options: asking Wyoming to annex Colorado’s northern counties or requesting that the state legislature redraw its Senate districts to give a senator to each of the state’s 64 counties, analogous to how the U.S. apportions seats by state, regardless of their populations.

Colorado now has 35 senators in districts drawn by population, giving the state’s urban areas far greater sway in the state legislature.

“People are looking for hope because they feel like the government is out of control,” said Mr. Hare. “They feel kind of hopeless.”

Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway called Monday’s vote “a very positive move forward” that “gives us a chance to address our grievances from the last legislative session.”

The Greeley Tribune came out against the statehood movement in an Aug. 7 editorial, “Time to drop 51st state idea.”

“While we understand and agree with the message commissioners are trying to send to Denver — rural counties feel disenfranchised — we think Weld residents would be better served if commissioners drop the 51st state idea and focus on engaging the state’s political leaders in a constructive dialogue that addresses their issues,” the editorial said.

-- end Washington Times article

While the Greeley Tribune might think it can just brush off this movement, they had better get their heads out of the sand.

The frustrations of the people are being expressed in ways that the liberal political establishment does not want to acknowledge.

But friends, that don't mean they aren't real.

Yes, just like those folks in Texas who want Texas Independence, rural Coloradans want Independence in the form of creating another state just so that they can get away from those who want to change their state for the worse.  

And what do we get out of Washington DC, more talk, more regulations, and more frustration in the form of ObamaCare which is coming to you soon.

And yes, we'll all have to pay for something that Americans didn't want or need.

Story by Tom Correa