Random Stories 5/27/08

Out here in the Western U.S., we know that forest fires are a critical issue. Forest health is an issue that should receive serious attention by those we send to represent us in D.C. As usual with Republicans in charge, the publics’ best interests aren’t being considered. Here is the Bush administration’s plan to deal with forest fires: slash forest fire prevention budgets, then propose that the shortfalls in budgets be made up by selling off the timber that would have otherwise had to have been protected from fire. Ingenious, no?

But the proposal slashes the agency’s preparedness funding by $77 million, including a $13 million reduction in money to remove dead trees and overgrown brush that act as kindling for fires in 155 national forests.

Republicans are out to prove to the American public that government can’t work. That’s why you shouldn’t vote for them. Would you go to a doctor who wanted to prove to you that medicine didn’t work? The Bushies are out to pad the pockets of their corporate cronies. Affected citizens are getting the shaft.

Meanwhile, climate change continues to impact these areas that were mismanaged by forest policies for a century. A drier climate will not make the Forest Service’s future tasks any easier.

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Now, some economic news.

Last week, a barrel of oil cost $135, setting record after record. Following suit, gas prices continue to rise. The national average? $3.90 today. That’s putting some hurt on consumers.

The Federal Reserve last week lowered their 2008 economic forecast, then raised their projections for inflation and unemployment. Which should worry all of us because the most widely accepted values of both inflation and unemployment miss significant portions of our economy. If those commonly accepted values are increasing, the values that more closely match reality are also rising, and likely doing so more quickly.

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Dick Wadhams and Bob “Sweatshop” Schaffer are in the news trying to make something out of nothing. They’re pushing the meme in the corporate media that Mark Udall really does live in Boulder, gosh darn it! Why would they be wasting their time on this? Aside from the fact that they have nothing of substance to offer Colorado voters this fall, they’re trying to magically legitimize Dick’s favorite name for Mark: “Boulder liberal”. Mark Udall moved to Eldorado Springs over five years ago. Dick’s latest plug: showing Udall’s mailing and physical address zip codes, the former is in Boulder, the latter is in Eldorado Springs, according to the Assessor’s office.

Stygius at S2 shared a good zip code that’s much more relevant to the issues:

96950. That’s the zip code for the Mariana Islands, where Bob Schaffer helped out labor bosses and Jack Abramoff’s agenda. Human rights, labor rights, the child sex trade and forced abortions: issues Bob Schaffer and Dick Wadhams want to distract our attention from by repeatedly calling Mark Udall names. It’s one reason why Bob Schaffer will lose this election.

Weekend Randomness

First up, there was some severe weather in Colorado on Thursday and Friday. A long-lived but relatively weak tornado (EF-2, preliminary) hit south of Greeley and traveled up east of Fort Collins. One death has been blamed on the storm, which did something like $200 million of damage. Other cells also produced tornadoes, but they weren’t as damaging.

I went storm chasing both days. I didn’t get out until after the big-news tornado, which touched down at 11:30A and traveled north-northwest. Unfortunately, I didn’t see much on Thursday. On Friday I went out to the far eastern plains and even poked into Kansas a little bit. I ended up backtracking north and west into Colorado. I think if I had kept going into Kansas, I would have seen more action. Tornadoes were reported pretty consistently with those storms. Oh, and while I was out, another tornado hit near Greeley. Some luck. This storm season is setting records for number of confirmed tornado reports and deaths.

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Remember that NASA’s Phoenix Lander is scheduled to land on Mars tonight. I’m going to my local museum to watch NASA’s live feed of the event. It’s a tricky landing, so I really hope everything goes well.

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Bob Schaffer/Jack Abramoff Strategy Fails (Finally)

Zappatero has a post on a Mariana Islands development. The Bob Schaffer/Jack Abramoff strategy of not extending U.S. protections to the Mariana Islands has finally run into a brick wall: Pres. Bush yesterday signed a bill that passed overwhelmingly in both houses of Congress to extend U.S. labor law to the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Energy Regulations & Republican Values

Oil and gas companies in Colorado whine that there’s not enough time to study and respond to rules proposed to take effect this year. They want some rules to apply this summer and others later. Let’s see: energy corporations are enjoying record profits quarter after quarter and are enjoying record claims and development quarter after quarter. Yup, I can definitely see why they need more time to study updated regulations: delay their implementation and the good times keep on rollin’! Shameful.

In the still developing Bob Schaffer – Jack Abramoff scandal, a nonpartisan group has put out an ad calling on Bob Schaffer to apologize for a controversial trip he took to the Mariana Islands and to donate a portion of his campaign funds to charities there. You can watch the ad at SchafferFacts.com. Schaffer’s campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, took the opportunity to attack the nonpartisan group instead. Ah, Republican values – gotta’ love ‘em! Schaffer’s ethics problems will prevent him from winning the Colorado Senate race.

Republican ne’er-do-well Douglas Bruce has been charged with sexually harassing a female staffer at the Colorado state Capitol. In just a few short weeks, Bruce has been censured for kicking a photographer and was removed from discussing a bill after making a disgusting, racist comment about guest workers. Bruce has refused to comment on the charges, which is certainly his perogative. A similar situation occurred earlier this session with a Democrat being accused of harassment. You know what he did? The morally correct thing: apologized and resigned. Instead, Bruce and his supporters work to make him the victim. What is it with Republicans and their “values” anyway?

Bob Schaffer Endorsed Abramoff Ally

The Bob Schaffer – Jack Abramoff scandal marches on. Bob Schaffer himself is refusing to talk to reporters about this issue, which pretty much confirms that Republicans only like the press when they’re parroting right-wing talking points. Investigative journalism? That’s the librul media attacking them, doing “character assassinations” (according to Schaffer’s campaign manager Dick Wadhams) and the like. Umm, Dick: Bob Schaffer started the ball rolling on this one. If you don’t want to defend his unethical, corrupt conduct, I would recommend Schaffer re-adopt his silence policy.

As the Post article notes, Schaffer twice endorsed Benigno Fitial in ads while Fitial was running for House speaker of the Mariana Legislature and later as governor of the islands. Once elected as speaker, Fitial pushed to renew the lapsed contract of since disgraced Jack Abramoff’s law firm. In Nov. 1999, Schaffer praised Fitial’s commitment to “an economic agenda of growth” and the relationship he nurtured with the U.S. Congress. Not surprisingly, Fitial responded by donating $2,000 to Schaffer’s primary Senate campaign in 2004.

We know Bob Schaffer has been too cowardly to stand up to the pressure so far. But what about his campaign staff? They’re busy trying to distract their supporters from the issues at hand. “It was just one law firm, Schaffer didn’t know Abramoff directly” (how about indirectly?). “Schaffer wasn’t aware Abramoff even existed”. This one will be fun: is Schaffer unacceptably ignorant or is Wadhams lying? “Harry Reid took money from Abramoff.” This isn’t about Harry Reid and Jack Abramoff, which has been extensively debunked anyway.

This is about Bob Schaffer and Jack Abramoff, a relationship that hasn’t been examined before now. This is about Bob Schaffer, who is running for the U.S. Senate. If his judgment is poor, the people of Colorado deserve to know that. Pointing to something as ridiculous as a “Big Blue Lie Machine” isn’t going to cut it. Conservatives might buy into that talking point, but the people Schaffer is going to need to convince in this election, registered independents, are smart enough to want something more solid than conspiracy references.

It seems to me that the Post reporter likely has more information. If he doesn’t, I’m definitely getting the sense that other intrepid folk do and will soon divulge it. I wouldn’t mind seeing a steady stream of Schaffer corruption material coming out. Republicans lost power in 2006 for a reason: their Culture of Corruption turned independents away from them. Coloradans won’t want to send someone back to Congress that was deeply mired in that morass.  We can instead choose to elect a responsible adult: Mark Udall.