Colorado: Michael Huttner

Hundreds of business people gathered outside the Capitol Monday to urge lawmakers to vote against legislation that would drain $500 million from a workers' compensation insurance fund to help balance the state budget.

The opponents, who included Pinnacol employees, insurance agents who sell Pinnacol coverage and some business owners with policies, gathered on the west side of the Capitol.

A Pinnacol employee with a bullhorn led the crowd in chants, including "Shame on Shaffer," a reference to Senate Majority Leader Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, the sponsor of one of the bills that target Pinnacol money.

Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, pointed behind him and told the crowd that "we should be scraping the gold off the dome before we raid your money.

Tuesday's anti-stimulus rally at the Capitol drew hundreds of people protesting President Obama's signing of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Among the protesters was an unknown man identified only by his "swastika sign" that likened Obama to Adolf Hitler.

Michael Huttner of ProgressNow, a left-wing advocacy group, attended the rally and in typical Huttner fashion, sent out a post-rally release where he decried the use of swastikas a Nazi analogies, and also demanded an apology from rally organizers, including Independence Institute President Jon Caldara.

But according to conservative muckraker Ari Armstrong, supporters posting on ProgressNow's Web site have regularly used Nazi analogies over the years, and ProgressNow has yet to condemn, edit, or apologize for this sort of language.

Moments before President Barack Obama's pen touched paper Tuesday, Republican state Sen. Shawn Mitchell's tongue spit fire.

"Today is unfortunately historic," Mitchell, from Broomfield, told a crowd of hundreds gathered on the west side of the state Capitol in protest against the federal stimulus package. "It marks one of the biggest, most expensive mistakes in the history of American domestic policy."

Mitchell was one of a lineup of conservative lawmakers and activists who stirred the crowd by blasting the stimulus bill as fiscally irresponsible and an unwanted government intrusion into taxpayers' pockets.

Jim Pfaff, the Colorado state director of Americans for Prosperity, said the stimulus is massive deficit spending.