Congressional pork barrel pig-outs may for now be on hold, after embarrassing publicity about earmarking abuses shamed leaders into calling a temporary halt to the practice, but Americans for Prosperity-Colorado wants to prolong that pork-free diet by asking members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation to take a 2-year no earmarking pledge.

“Signing the pledge is one important test of whether the Congressman or congressional candidate is serious about reining-in runaway deficits and debt,” said AFP-Co State Director Jeff Crank. “Earmarking is an abuse of the budget process that Americans correctly recognize as an open invitation to corruption, cronyism, and vote-buying. We would like to see earmarking permanently banned, but we’re taking this one step at a time by asking for a 2-year promise.”

It's election season, in the midst of a prolonged economic meltdown, so it's not surprising to hear presidential candidates making superhuman claims about the miracles they can do for the economy. But in a truly free market system, and under the Republican form of government Americans inherited, in which the president's powers are limited, a chief executive's real influence over the economy should fall somewhere between modest and minimal.

It’s a bit disconcerting, therefore, to see self-styled conservatives playing a game of Job Creation Derby with the President, given that the Right has traditionally been far less interventionist, and far more laissez faire, than the command- and-control, pump-priming Keynesians on the other side.

We're not sure about you, but we've grown tired of hearing the obnoxious, misinformed, unruly left-wingers of Occupy Wall Street arrogantly presuming to speak for the “99 percent,” since they sure don’t speak for most Americans we know. Now, however, we don’t have to just take this verbal (and sometimes physical) assault in silence, thanks to a rally this Saturday, Dec. 3, on the West steps of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. The event will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., rain, snow or sunshine, and will feature a variety of liberty-minded, solutions-oriented speakers.

It’s there that the voices of America’s real 99 percent will be raised above the OWS din, in defense of limited government, fiscal responsibility, regulatory restraint, free enterprise and other ideas rarely heard inside OWS camps.