Hey, look over there at that other thing!

Is the whole Alito thing just a ploy to get the headlines off of Scooter's impending stay in the pokey? DNC chair Howard Dean seems to think so.

"President Bush shouldn't try to use the nomination of an extreme conservative to distract from the ethical problems his White House is facing. Three days after a top White House official was indicted, President Bush continued his troubling pattern of playing to his right-wing political base in times of political trouble. In an indication of his weakened political position, Bush has nominated Samuel Alito, a conservative activist judge, to replace Justice O'Connor, who has been a voice of moderation on the Court for a generation. A lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States is too important to be sacrificed on the altar of short-term political gain."

Read more of Dean's comments at http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=55907.

Holtzman shows leadership, stupidity

How to feel about guv candidate Mark Holtzman? On the one hand, Holtzman has been campaigning his ass off to defeat C and D while other Republicans like Beauprez and O'Donnell have tried to avoid taking a strong stance. On the other hand, campaigning against C and D shows a basic lack of intelligence.

Holtzman's latest radio ad is a real piece of work, where he lamely attempts to give examples of government pork. The sum total of the cuts he suggests wouldn't buy lunch at Chipotle.

The idea that there is fat in the government is an article of faith among some folks. But while federal pork has ballooned, you can't say the same about Colorado. Owens is a fiscally brutal guy. Refer to my earlier post "Say goodbye" for more on this.

It must be so hard to be a Republican right now. The New Republic reports that 49% of the GOP believes its most important duty is to protect traditional definitions of marriage and the family. It has a sizable contingent of Ayn Rand acolytes that worship the dollar. And it has a bunch of wingnuts that just like bombing small countries. Most of the secular, pro-business types I know are having meltdowns.

A basic misunderstanding

There are still Republicans who feel that the Democrats set out to oppose any Bush nominee for SCOTUS. This just ain't true. I personally said positive things about John Roberts. And our elected boys and girls in DC "kept their powder dry" (as the talking point went) on the subject of Miers.

Miers was on a list of acceptable SCOTUS candidates presented to Dubya by Democrat leader Harry Reid. Elected Democrats did nothing to oppose her candidacy. The wingnuts on the right were the ones who rejected Miers. And now we have Sam Alito, who is, in the eloquent words of dailykos, nuts.

More on this after we get C and D passed tomorrow.

Owens points out hypocrisy

The Post reports that Repub. Guv Owens has sent a letter to Cato, Heritage and all the other anti-government think tanks to explain why he supports C and D. I imagine it read something like this:

"Learn first grade math, you morons! Signed, Bill."

But seriously, in his letter, the Guv points out the hypocrisy of C and D opponents like John Andrews. It reads, "When John Andrews was our State Senate President, he voted for fiscal repair packages that were far more expensive than what I am now proposing."

The Guv is right. It is hard work to draft bipartisan legislation. (And Andrews was always terrible at it.) It is far easier to sit back and spout platitudes about how government is evil and we should all go back to living in caves and hunting woolly mammoths.

Keepin' it Colorado

Scooter gets indicted. Five counts. One count obstruction of justice. Two counts of false statements. And two counts of perjury. All good news. Nothing on espionage. But we all know how hard that is to prove.

Thewashingtonnote.com, Dailykos.com, and every other website out there are covering the story. I am going to hold off until we get reaction from Allard, Salazar and the rest of our boys in Washington.

Or until I just need to write something that will cheer me up.

Those zany tax-cutting Democrats

Democrat State Repr. Alice Madden has a plan. At the Nov. 8 energy forum, she will advocate ending the state excise tax on ethanol. Let's see, here. It's good for the economy, good for the environment, will create jobs, and lowers taxes. Nah, it's way too logical to work.

The fightin' 7th

Oh, to live in Colorado's 7th congressional district! In 2006, it will be one of only a couple contestable districts in the whole nation. So there will be all sorts of fundraisers and brawls and other politcial fun.

The Republicans have locked arms behind Rick O'Donnell. Even the Penguin himself, Dick Cheney, came out to Colorado yesterday stump for him. (An event that caused O'Donnell to gasp, "I've been pinching myself.")

Colorado got an early look at O'Donnell's non-leadership this month. Instead of staking out a position on C and D, he fled to Europe for two weeks of family fun. Came back for his photo op with Cheney. And then ran back to Europe.

Of course, being a rightie and all, O'Donnell leads all candidates in fundrasing. He's already a good $150,000 in front of the nearest Democrat.

Hutchison sticks foot in mouth. And head in butt.

Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was on Meet the Press on Sunday. And she reminded us all just how hypocritical one person can be if she sets her mind to it.

Hutchison was declaiming on the Rove/Libby fiasco in a tone so stilted it was charming. And according to this particular Texas belle, perjury is a minor crime that the country should excuse. She said, "I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars."

(The full transcript of Meet the Press is available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9764239/)

Pity Hutchison didn't feel that way a few years back, when she voted to remove Bill Clinton from office for perjury. Her voting record on that subject is at http://www.ameriroots.com/impeachment/senator_hutchison.html.

Tell Hutchison that she ought to quit flip-flopping on the issues through her website. You can find her contact page at http://hutchison.senate.gov/e-mail.htm

Everybody's pickin' on Dubya

The hyperconservatives over at Club for Growth have issued a report on government pork. Remember, these are the tax-cutting loonies who elected Dubya in the first place. Read more at http://www.clubforgrowth.org/.

"Number of Pork Projects in Federal Spending Bills"
2005 - 13,997
2004 - 10,656
2003 - 9,362
2002 - 8,341
2001 - 6,333
2000 - 4,326
1999 - 2,838
1998 - 2100
1997 - 1,596
1996 - 958
1995 - 1439

Our poor president is going to be locked out of the cigar room at whatever Texas country club he belongs to. Not even his business buddies can stand him any longer.

Say goodbye

Here are just a few of the state-level departments, grants and programs that'll be gone if referendums C and D don't pass: the Hazardous and Toxic Control program, the Office of Suicide Prevention, the Motor Vehicle Dealer Licensing Board, the Office of Domestic Violence and Sex Offender Management, the Vehicle Emissions Program, the Council on the Arts, the Pet Care Facility Regulation Program, all Soil Conservation grants, all Plumbing and Electrical inspections, the Insurance and Securities Fraud Unit, and oversight of mental health providers.

This is just a partial list. I have a 28-page PDF of the complete cuts. If you need it, post your email address and I'll send it to you. I'll delete your post after I send the PDF.

Adding to your own shame

To the long list of things you can call the opponents of C and D (you know, things like "liars" and "idiots") you can add "racists." The AP reports that some folks in Larimer, Weld and El Paso counties are receiving a phone call. The recorded message states that C and D will allow state government to steal away tax refunds and use them to support illegal immigrants.

Allard and Miers, sittin' in a tree

The Denver Daily News reports that newly released Miers memos pledge "unwavering opposition" to abortion. Not surprisingly, my least favorite senator has sprung to her defense. Allard, apparently speaking in the royal tense, said,
"We felt genuinely that we could work with her."

Am I the only one who suspects that the only reason Allard still has his job is because Colorado voters simply refused to elect someone with a mustache?

Even more media idiocy

The Denver Post's headline on a recent report by the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. reads, "Colo. fares well among peers." The Denver Daily News' story on the same report carries the headline, "Report paints gloomy forecast for state's economy without shift in priorities."

Who is right? Maybe they ought to arm wrestle for it.

Twice the idiocy

I wouldn't have thought it possible to have two nervous breakdowns in one day. But here I am...

The headline of the Denver Post reports that Colorado's FEMA office is understaffed because of budget constraints. Apparently, Bush believes in growing every sector of government except those that actually protect United States citizens. Our FEMA office also hasn't had a fulltime director in 16 months because Bush has been too busy to appoint one.

As if that wasn't enough to set me off, the headline of the Rocky Mountain News cries that Colorado is evenly split on C and D. Let's see, the Republicans are for the amendments. The Democrats are for them. Who the hell is voting against them? The Bull Moose Party?

It's too easy

Making fun of Dubya is so easy, it's almost unfair. I feel like I'm picking on a three-legged greyhound. But watching Andy Dick as Bush's speechwriter is priceless. Thanks to Kevin M. for the link below.

http://www.badmash.org/videos/videos_flv.php?v=george_bush_512K_Stream

"Yeah, but I commited that crime a whole year ago..."

Senate Majority (and it feels so good to write "majority") Leader Ken Gordon is in the Denver Post today. He wants the Colorado Court of Appeals to rule that the Republicans illegally rewrote the blue book for the 2004 election. At the behest of special interest groups, the then-ruling party changed the wording that explained measures regarding construction liability and tobacco taxes.

The Republican's response? Partially that the election has long since passed so who the hell cares. This strikes me as the lamest defense ever.

Read the whole story at http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3110313

Joe Rice for Colorado House in 2006

Take a tour of America via Broadway. Start in Denver and all you see are Dem yard signs and a few Green Party folks waving banners outside the state capitol. At about Evans, you begin to see elephants and when you get past Belleview to Littleton, you are buried a thick blanket of red.

But despite the Republican stranglehold on voter registration in Littleton, the Democrats down there sometimes almost nearly barely pull a rabbit out of their hat. Like in 2004, when State Senate candidate Jared Ingwalson (who I call "Dad") finished with something like 49.99999999% of the vote.

Which is a good sign for Lt. Co. Joe Rice. He is a Democrat running for Littleton's seat in the Colorado House in 2006. But first Rice is heading back to Iraq, where he is going to serve his third tour of duty.

This is a thread to discuss Rice and debate his candidacy.

Paul Krugman Paul Krugman Paul Krugman

Some wizard in the blogosphere was tracking the relevance of NY Times op-ed writers. He noted that blog references to them have fallen over the last two months. So Paul Krugman. That ought to fix everything.

It's easy to criticize

That Bill Maher, he's the funniest secular cynic I know. As he demonstrates here:

"George Bush must meet some new people. You know, when Americans see their president giving every job to the same old cronies, they use words like 'loyal to a fault' and 'stubborn' and 'close-minded,' 'lives in a bubble,' 'sock-puppet,' 'asshole.' 'Worst president ever.' But they're missing the point. The problem isn't his political philosophy - 'kill people and animals and take their gas' - the problem is he has to expand his circle of friends beyond his mom, Karen Hughes and the House of Saud. Which is why before George Bush makes another political appointment, he has to join Friendster."

Read the rest at http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/index.html.

Jailhouse rock

The Denver Daily News reports that Tommy DeLay has accused prosecutor Ronnie Earle of jury tampering. Ah yes, the "whoever smelt it, dealt it" defense. I remember it well. From third grade. Seriously, this is S.O.P. for the neocons. Just keep everybody confused and count on a fair and balanced press to trip over itself trying to report both sides of the story.

I'm going to be very disappointed if the Hammer, Doc Frist, the Mastermind and Scooter aren't all in jail about two years from now.

The elite have their day

Everybody hates Harriet Miers. At least those of us in the blogosphere do. The conservative elite have spent years grooming their legal eagles for the supreme court and they are pissed that Bush ignored their recos. The liberal elite can't stand Bush's obsession with getting his drinking buddies high paying jobs.

But Colorado's James Dobson is on the Miers bandwagon. Her cred may be suspect. And her experience may be absent. But she is an evangelical. And for Dobson, that is literally all that matters.

Perhaps Karl Rove told Dobson something in their closed-door meeting. Or perhaps Dobson is just insane. Either way, I'd like to trade him to Arkansas for whoever is shelving the books at the Clinton library.

In the meantime, I keep myself happy by rocking back and forth in my desk chair repeating, "Santorum is gonna lose, Santorum is gonna lose." No, that doesn't help us in Colorado. But I take my victories where I find them.

The friends of my friends get cushy jobs

I complain a lot about how our sitting President has replaced capitalism with cronyism and meritocracy with, well, more cronyism. But Jim Nicholson (our country's secretary for the Dept. of Vetrans Affairs) just takes the cake.

After running a real estate company in Colorado, Nicholson raised $380 million for Bush's 2000 campaign. This apparently qualified him to take care of America's veterans. New Republic reports that Nicholson promptly underestimated the number of veterans needing medical treatment by 80,000 because he forgot there was a war going on. That's amazing. Nicholson forgot Iraq.

You know who would have actually cared for America's veterans? John Kerry. Because he is a veteran himself.

Playing the game

There weren't a whole lot of politicians on display at the Cindy Sheehan protest at the state capitol on September 24, 2005. There were lots of veterans. Lots of families with loved ones stuck over in Iraq. A couple counter protesters with signs that inexplicably said, "If hippies are so smart, why do they live in igloos." But not a lot of elected leaders.

About halfway through the protest, some nut handed me a flyer that claimed to have "proof" that the World Trade Center had actually been imploded by charges set on the ground levels. (I suppose the planes hitting it on September 11 were just a coincidence.)

And I foresaw what would have happened to, say, Repr. Diana DeGette if she had attended the protest. I foresaw a diligent reporter standing up at a debate, holding out the flyer, and asking Ms. DeGette why she was going to conspiracy-theory demonstrations. I foresaw her career going up in smoke.

By all means, protest. But don't get mad when Salazar and company don't show up. They have elections coming up, you know.

The C and D thread

Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that my entire blog could be devoted to amendments C and D? To save space and sanity, I am going to devote this thread and this thread alone to the two amendments that have the support of everyone from Gov. Owens and Colorado Biz Magazine to Sen. Salazar and every elementary school student who understands basic math. (Hell, I am fairly sure that yesterday I heard a lamp on 15th Street endorsing C and D.)

Fire away.

Governor Zero

What if we had a governor's race and nobody came? Let's say the current executive director of the great state of Colorado was term limited. (And that his White House aspirations were currently in a toilet somewhere.) Let's say Hickenlooper, Bridges, Salazar and some of the other Dem favorites were planning on staying as far from the mansion as possible. Let's say some of the other leading liberals were too youngish or too cosmo to consider campaigning in the ranchlands out east.

What would Dems do then, besides handing the mansion to whatever Republican rolls out of bed in 2006?

Perhaps it is too early to panic. Perhaps the reason nobody has declared for governor is that folks are sitting back waiting to see if C and D pass. Despite strong(ish) bipartisan support, the ammendments could very well get shot down. And that means Colorado is facing something beyond a budget crisis. It means that Colorado will be, in effect, impossible to govern at all.

So I am sitting here, crossing my fingers and hoping that the ammendments pass and that they pull some Democrats out of the woodwork. If not, maybe I'll just run for governer myself. Heck, I'm certainly as qualified to run Colorado as Harriet Miers is to be on the Supreme Court!

Full disclosure

There are a whole lot of liberal blogs out there. You can find links to a couple of them on the right of your screen. coloradolib is one more. Prattling on about politics with a focus on the Centennial State.

Anyone can comment here. Anyone should. Anyone has opinions that ought to be heard, damn it. But if anyone's opinions include slander or meaningless flaming, they will be erased. Anyone has been warned.

The slant here is neo-lib. Not quite Nation-lib, not quite Buchanan-con. And definitely never, never, never Dubya's brand of neo-con non-thought. Think Bill Clinton, balanced budget, Edwards in '08 and you'll be getting close.