T-shirts vs. Guns

Back when Bush was busy running the country into the ground, he had events around the country, kind of like what President Obama is doing today.  There are some important differences, not that the corporate media is going to get into them.  Among them:

Democrats couldn’t attend Bush events if they wore the “wrong” t-shirt.  On more than one occasion, they were removed from the area.  Sometimes, they were removed by people who didn’t have the legal authority to remove them.  More than one spent time in jail.  That’s what “free speech” amounted to in the Bush years: agree with Bush or go to jail.

Right-wing cranks are protesting near Obama events with guns on their hips.  Yes, you read the right: a civilian (not a law enforcement person), with a gun on the hip in a holster.  Are you freaking kidding me?!  Right-wing shock jocks will insist that this person had the undeniable right to exercise his 2nd amendment rights – possibly his 1st amendment rights if they strain really hard.  Um, that’s great.  What about those Democrats who didn’t show up to Bush’s events with anything but a t-shirt?  The Cons didn’t stand up for their rights, did they?  I know what would have happened if a Democratic civilian had showed up to a Bush event with a gun in a holster on their hip, and you should too: they’d have been carted off to Gitmo and withheld indefinitely.  Such is the hypocrisy of the Cons.

[Update]: Cenk Uygur sums it up quicker than I did.  Think a Muslim-American could have been anywhere near a Bush rally with a gun on his hip and a weapons permit?

Bush events were carefully screened so that the Cowardly Boy King didn’t have to face opposition to his bat-shit insane policies.  Every single event for years was screened very carefully.

Bob Schaffer – Jack Abramoff Links Still Growing

The Colorado Senate race this year is important on many different levels.

One, we have the opportunity to get rid of Wayne “Do-Nothing” Allard. If you think that’s a silly name, do a search for legislation he’s sponsored. Despite a decent level of seniority within the Senate, he hasn’t done much except vote for Bush’s legislation the way Bush wants.

Two, we have the opportunity to send a Senator from Colorado that more accurately reflects our Western views. Mark Udall understands that the Iraq invasion and occupation was wrong, he understands the importance of science in our 21st century society, and he understands that Coloradans and Americans need and deserve a universal health care program.

Three, Bob Schaffer displayed an amazing lack of understanding of what his job entailed while representing Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. He is on record as being proud that he did more for the Ukraine than his district. His Republican colleagues are on record as noting that Bob Schaffer wasn’t terribly engaged. He is on record as only wanting to serve a limited number of terms in Congress. After a hiatus, he’s running for office again. This short list alone should preclude him from being elected to the Senate. But there are plenty more reasons not to elect Bob Schaffer.

As johne at SquareState has been busy documenting, Bob Schaffer‘s Congressional career is proving to have been linked in significant ways to Jack Abramoff’s large web of corruption. Legislators were sent around to world on junkets paid for by lobbyists. When they returned to Congress for hearings, they attacked and subverted established government entities and workers. Those workers and agencies were functioning well, and as such didn’t fit into the Republicans’ worldview of being bad. Many people associated in one way or another with Abramoff have found themselves found guilty (by plea or by decision) of numerous crimes. Many more await, I’m sure.

This latest Schaffer-Abramoff post utilizes items found in Bob Schaffer’s Congressional archives. This is important to note: his own memos and emails, combined with the growing body of evidence surrounding Abramoffs’ and others’ activities are painting their own picture. Unlike Dick “Macaca” Wadhams, intrepid muckrakers don’t have to try to make things stick to Schaffer. He’s done the job quite nicely on his own. As these details and the larger narrative of Schaffer’s corruption slowly make their way to the public, this Senate race should increasingly lean Mark Udall’s way.

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.

*****

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.

*****

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.

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.

Mike Rosen’s Global Warming Disinformation Mouthpiece: Maureen Martin

He’s done it before, but this will mark the first time I’ve covered Mike Rosen’s efforts to spread global warming disinformation by hosting denyers on his radio program on 850 KOA (via Colorado Media Matters). Amy Oliver, another radio host in the market, has hosted plenty of her own denyers, so Mike has company. The thing that is similar between the two hosts is their utilization of “free marketeers” as “experts” on climate change. This episode builds on the right-wing’s attempt to scare people into thinking discussion about climate change is secretly hiding an anti-economy viewpoint. It’s nonsense of course, but they will fight tooth and nail to maintain their lock on our economic system, no matter how much it strengthens the disparity between classes.

Mike Rosen introduced Maureen Martin as a “senior fellow for legal affairs at the Heartland Institute”. That’s sounds impressive, doesn’t it? The Heartland Institute is only one think tank among many that focus on “free market” approaches. It has become more clear to Coloradans recently what kind of “free market” these advocates would like to move toward: indentured servitude, human trafficking, child prostitution and compulsory abortions, via the Schaffer-Abramoff proposal. No thanks, Bob, Mike, Maureen and Co. I actually support workers’ rights – they’re what created and what sustain the middle class.

Bob Schaffer, Marilyn Musgrave and Jack Abramoff

I was reminded this morning that Bob Schaffer’s replacement, Marilyn Musgrave, was also involved with the Jack Abramoff lobbyist scandal. Marilyn Musgrave is as bought and paid for by the gas and oil industry as any other Republican out there. It’s sad that the good folks in CO-04 feel like they have to vote for someone who represents “values” when just the opposite is true.

How moral are Marilyn Musgrave and Bob Schaffer when they support a labor system that doesn’t allow its workers to attend church because they fear the workers will organize?

Background: these are the most recent Bob Schaffer – Jack Abramoff related news items:

Bob Schaffer on immigration

Bob Schaffer on vacation … er, fact-finding trip

Bob Schaffer’s endorsement of Abramoff ally

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.

Bob Schaffer & Jack Abramoff

There’s been quite the kerfluffle in the blogosphere surrounding Bob Schaffer‘s presentation of the Northern Marianas as a good example of a guest worker program. If you haven’t heard about the background story, you certainly will in the coming months. Big Oil Bob has reopened the books on some huge ethics ghosts from Republican past: Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay. But wait, it gets better. The story also deals with … forced abortions. I’m going to enjoy watching Republicans trying to spin their way out from all this.

The least shocking thing about this is the utilization of sweatshops in the Marianas. As disgusting as it is, it’s a logical extension of the right-wing effort to destroy workers’ rights here in the United States. What would corporations give to employ workers for next to nothing while increasing the prices on products sold in the U.S.? A lot, considering the way they’ve shut down manufacturing plants state-side and opened up factories in countries with more conservative labor laws (read: little to none).