People are policy.
Making appointments to the myriad of regulatory positions is Gov. Jared Polis’ greatest policy power.
And, how to put this politely — he appoints extremists and looneys. And strangely they’re passing extreme and looney policies. Go figure.
He appointed an animal-rights vegan activist to his veterinary board, a position very important to Colorado’s livestock trade. Ellen Kessler made clear her purpose in life is to make eating meat illegal. I can only guess that she was appointed because she is good friends with Polis’s meat-is-murder husband Marlon Reis.
Kessler publicly called me a “piece of shit,” which is, of course, debatably true. She also Facebooked that I “couldn’t tell the difference between my ass and a hole in the ground.” This is demonstrably false. I was recently tested and successfully differentiated my rear from a hole in the ground four out of five times. Still, Polis didn’t intervene.
Saying the truth about me is one thing. Insulting our ranchers is quite another. Kessler alleged farmers sexually abused their cows, called ranchers lazy and nasty, accused them of using their cows as bait for wolves to get the state to compensate them for the loss.
In other words, she’s looney. She resigned from the Vet Board to save Polis further embarrassment. I’m sure she was asked to leave.
Here’s something you don’t expect from animal-right activists. You don’t expect them to be brought up on 13 charges of animal cruelty, as Kessler has just been over the suffering of her birds.
According to Jefferson County, “There were 13 birds total, most of them living in the basement with food and water, but no sunlight. The cages and floors were covered in seed, dirt and feces. There was an overwhelming smell of urine. Many mice were found, both alive and dead, as well as flies throughout the house.”
One bird was lying dead at her home when authorities got there, another died after it was taken to a veterinarian’s office, which Kessler until recently had the authority to oversee.
It’s safe to say Ellen Kessler has some issues beyond how she cares for animals, and I hope she can get the help she needs. Really, there but for the grace of God go any of us.
Recently Polis passed over four candidates recommended by his own agriculture commissioner to hand-pick another meat-is-murder stalwart, Rebecca Niemiec, to lead the Bureau of Animal Protection.
Niemiec has worked with the group Mercy for Animals, an organization some have called a domestic terrorist group, with a goal to end “the exploitation of animals for food.” She worked to pass the new law that parachutes killer wolves into other people’s back yards and eat their livestock.
The issue isn’t a disturbed Kessler or Niemiec. It’s how our governor appoints people like this. Is he pushing an anti-rancher agenda because it’s good for Colorado or because his meat-hating hubby wants it? Either way it takes real acting skill to tell the folks at the Western Stock Show how he loves Colorado’s ranching communities.
Polis puts people whose personal mission is to destroy an industry in charge of regulating that industry.
Polis appointed activist Joel Minor as advisor to the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, then a full-time job on his “enviro justice” team, to, you know, to promote environmental equity. Of oil and gas Minor wrote Colorado is “held hostage by an industry that insists it has special rights to pollute, disrupt communities and endanger public health.”
Polis appointed Elise Jones, former Boulder County Commissioner and current head of the anti-oil and gas “research” organization, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP), to his overly powerful Air Quality Control Commission.
Polis appointed another former Boulder County Commissioner and fellow oil-and gas-hating elitist Will Tour to run his energy office. Will’s recent job is to push all-electric building codes on the victims of the Marshall Fire. And he had the gall to use numbers made up by Elise Jones’s SWEEP to say it will only cost homeowners a few extra thousand dollars more to rebuild their homes under the anti-gas codes, while building experts say it will cost about $100,000.
Polis appoints these loons and extremists to do his dirty work to distance himself from their devastation.
Remember that as he runs around claiming he’s the “affordability governor.”
Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
