FreeColorado.com Celebrates Ten-Year Anniversary

Media Release: November 11, 2008

FreeColorado.com Celebrates Ten-Year Anniversary

Ari Armstrong’s FreeColorado.com celebrates its ten year anniversary this month. Since November, 1998, the web page has become a leading, independent voice for free markets and individual rights in Colorado.

“While I’m amazed that it’s been ten years since I started writing on the internet about politics, I’m pleased with the results. While I’ve lost many political battles, I’ve also helped to win some, and throughout I’ve provided a consistent voice for liberty in Colorado,” Armstrong said.

“I’ve also had the privilege of meeting some of Colorado’s leading politicians, journalists, and activists, some of whom have become friends, fellow travelers, or political adversaries — and sometimes all three.

“I look forward to fighting for freedom for the next decade,” Armstrong continued.

Following are a few of the highlights:

* Armstrong started his web page in November, 1998, a few months before the term “blog” was coined from “weblog” (see Wikipedia). Originally the web page, called the Colorado Freedom Report, used the domain co-freedom.com. Armstrong learned about web pages from the book “HTML for Dummies.” Around 2003, he switched the domain to FreeColorado.com, and in January, 2008, he converted the page to a blog format.

* Armstrong has also written articles for the Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Post, and other newspapers, as well as for the Independence Institute. He wrote a column for Boulder Weekly from October, 2003, to March, 2007. Since July, 2005, he has co-authored a column for Grand Junction’s Free Press.

* He has debated Tom Mauser on guns, John Suthers on drugs, and Andrew Romanoff on taxes.

* This year, Armstrong also came out with his first book, Values of Harry Potter: Lessons for Muggles (see ValuesOfHarryPotter.com).

* Armstrong has fought against the Referendum C net tax hike, the Blue Laws, corporate welfare, the smoking ban, eminent domain abuses, and Amendment 48 (defining a fertilized egg as a person). He has advocated legal abortion, free markets in medicine, domestic partnerships for gay couples, and the re-legalization of marijuana.

* In 2002, Armstrong joined a broad coalition to reform Colorado’s asset forfeiture laws. The coalition included Shawn Mitchell, Bill Thiebaut, Terrance Carroll, Dave Kopel, the Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, and the Colorado Progressive Coalition.

* In 2001 and 2004, Armstrong served as assistant editor for Sheriff Bill Masters’s books critical of America’s drug policy.

* While Armstrong once volunteered for the Libertarian Party of Colorado and worked on contract to produce its newsletter, by 2005 he had quit the party and left the libertarian movement.

* Armstrong has been praised as the “founding father of pro-freedom Colorado webbing,” responsible for “great independent work.”

* Armstrong has also been criticized as a “known misinformationist,” a “gun rights zealot,” “the Pied Piper of Colorado,” a non-“legitimate reporter,” “the self appointed Lord High Minister of Libertarian Purity,” and a “felonious dick stepper onner.” He has received one death threat.

Armstrong said, “I have angered nearly every political faction in Colorado, met some strange bedfellows, entered some heated battles, and earned some dear friends. I’ve made a few mistakes and grown from them. I’ve also been proud to advocate individual rights in this state.”