Progress Radio Update
Click to hear Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon respond to Gov. Owen's vetoes.

mp3: 00:40, 497 KB

UPDATE: Let's start the Hit Parade:

SB 138: 10% ethanol requirement. VETOED: Texas oilmen win over Colorado farmers, thanks to Texas import Bill Owens.

SB 198: Regulation of contracts between health care providers and employers to protect employees from bogus coverages. VETOED.

SB 239: Mortician licensure. Don't need that? Hope your grandma's really in that jar.

SB 081: Ending discrimination based on sexual orientation. As fast as he could...

SB 111: Cultural competency instruction for health care providers. What is that, like, multi-culturalism? Jim Welker says that's a bunch of hooey.

SB 064: Monitoring of state contractors. After Colorado lost millions on Owens' various IT boondoggles, this veto is a straight-up insult.

HB 1314: Employers get to intimidate their workers into brow-beating sessions on unions or Jesus or whatever -- and that's just the way Bill Owens likes it.

HB 046: The "P-16" comprehensive education study. Because if he'd let it become law, it might have revealed what a disaster his precious College Opportunity Fund really is.

SB 209: Colorado Higher Ed task force. Again, it would make COF vouchers look bad.

SB 065: Public School Capital Construction Advisory Committee. A no-brainer if you want to starve public education anyway.

SB 069: Teachers apparently don't need school accountability reports that help them, parents need reports that help them criticize teachers like Jay Bennish and let them know if the school requires a uniform. Buh-bye.

HB 1336: Athletic agents.

SB 001: "Enjoy those high prescription costs."

HB 1346: He's right, those kids didn't need health care.

SB 047: Only rural folks have health care needs requiring better intermunicipal organization, it seems. Go figure.

SB 105: "Elevator and Escalator Safety Act." Have you ever used the one at the Capitol?

HB 1331: Landscapers don't need a license -- remember that after that new pond you just built floods your basement.

HB 1127: Feel the burn, athletic trainers. No license necessary, so go ahead and twist your students like pretzels.

We're saying hello to Bill Owens' Little Friend today. That's a reference to Scarface and the veto pen: get your mind out of the gutter.

It's a rough day for progress in Colorado, but there's good news just (looks at calendar) a few months away.

Governor Owens just vetoed SB 1. This bill would have placed Colorado into a multi-state purchasing pool for Medicaid recipients and would have saved the state a helluva lot of money.

Governor Owens vetoed SB 1 for one reason: Republicans get obscene amounts of money from pharmaceutical companies.

Call the Governor and ask him why he would sacrifice cheaper prescriptions for medicaid recipients in favor of pharmaceutical corporate fat cats.

303-866-2471

Progress Radio Update
Click to hear Senator Bob Hagedorn respond to the veto of SB 1

mp3: 3 minutes, 1.7MB

HB-1149, Rep. Morgan Carroll's bill to require Colorado lobbyists to disclose information about their clients and the bills they're involved with is awaiting the Governor's signature.

We had hundreds of members write their Representatives and Senators in support of this bill, which was vital in getting it over the finish line. Send him a message right now that clean government in Colorado matters.

Link

Makes you wonder what they would have found in Tom DeLay's office if they'd violated the Separation of Powers to find out?

You know this "as if" is totally deserved...

FBI Raid on Lawmaker's Office Is Questioned

The Saturday raid of [Rep. William] Jefferson's [D-Louisiana] quarters in the Rayburn House Office Building posed a new political dilemma for the leaders of both parties, who felt compelled to protest his treatment while condemning any wrongdoing by the lawmaker. The dilemma was complicated by new details contained in an 83-page affidavit unsealed on Sunday, including allegations that the FBI had videotaped Jefferson taking $100,000 in bribe money and then found $90,000 of that cash stuffed inside his apartment freezer.

Republican leaders, who previously sought to focus attention on the Jefferson case as a counterpoint to their party's own ethical scandals, said they are disturbed by the raid. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said that he is "very concerned" about the incident and that Senate and House counsels will review it.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) expressed alarm at the raid. "The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important Constitutional issues that go well beyond the specifics of this case," he said in a lengthy statement released last night.

"Insofar as I am aware, since the founding of our Republic 219 years ago, the Justice Department has never found it necessary to do what it did Saturday night, crossing this Separation of Powers line, in order to successfully prosecute corruption by Members of Congress," he said. "Nothing I have learned in the last 48 hours leads me to believe that there was any necessity to change the precedent established over those 219 years."

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), in an e-mail to colleagues with the subject line "on the edge of a constitutional confrontation," called the Saturday night raid "the most blatant violation of the Constitutional Separation of Powers in my lifetime." He urged President Bush to discipline or fire "whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation."

Two issues here:

1) Highly suspect Democratic lawmaker.
2) The most partisan "Justice Department" in history.

Mix in that trademark Bush administration disregard for the Constitution, with a dash of desperate GOP scandal deflection, and there's plenty of shame to go around on this one. The lesson is that although preponderance tells its own story right now, people on both sides get fat and corrupt on the power you give them every two years. What was it News Gingrich said? Throw all the bums out. The outcome of that doesn't worry me, if you know what I mean.

And isn't it cool how miffed Dennis Hastert gets about his precious office building, while telling you how great it is that the NSA wiretapping your phone without a warrant? But that's for another blog.

Sent to thousands of our subscribers in CD-4 today.

As reported in the media this morning (Roll Call 5/22/06), Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave is featured prominently on a website that appears to be that of the Knights Party, self-described as America's "Largest, Oldest and Most Professional White Rights Organization."

Roll Call reports that Musgrave has refused to respond to their phone calls and emails about this issue.

This article demands an immediate response. Join in calling on Musgrave to publicly disclaim any assocation with the Knights Party or any other hate group:

Link

Sincerely,

Michael Huttner
Executive Director
ProgressNowAction.org

What's it like, trying to participate in small-d democracy over in Red America?

Instructive answers were on display at the 2004 Colorado GOP Assembly, where the Colorado Springs Gazette helpfully reminds us this morning that

...there were 400 more votes cast than there were delegates, leading to charges of ballot-box stuffing.

Yesterday they tried again; and though the number of votes at the 2006 Colorado GOP Assembly didn't exceed the number of voters, looks like there were plenty of shenanigans to go around. The Gazette continues:

...scores of delegates left without voting -- including 46 from El Paso County, said County Commissioner Wayne Williams, the assembly rules chairman.

Holtzman press secretary Jesse Mallory said during the process that he was happy with the changes because they guarded against voter fraud. Immediately after that interview, a campaign worker said to Mallory: "I don't think there's any question that the delay worked to our advantage. Our people stayed in place."

But after results were announced, Holtzman campaign consultant Boyd Marcus accused the party of working against his candidate. He complained about the lengthy process of credentialing and of 24 El Paso County delegates being allowed to vote after ballot boxes had been closed.

All this after weeks of haggling over how they were going to protect this election from the people in charge of it. In the end, my understanding is the World Arena was crawling with state police keeping an eye on the ballot boxes...

Disgruntled righties immediately attacked at Colorado Pols yesterday evening.

BM (Bob Martinez, or bowel movement) did a wonderful job of unifying the party…the Republicans left early in unison, so as to avoid the "Superdome" fiasco. The whole convention was ridiculous, and very disappointing. This was my first (and probably last) state convention...

It was a pathetic day for Colorado Republicans. There are way too many problems in this party. From Martinez interrupting Marc to the blatant lack of planning of the vote. These folks have got to go...

I've been a life-long Republican, but "flight" is what I'm doing this year. When you get the real party back, give me a call -- this is NOT the Republican party of my grandfather. I do wish you well, but I'm sick of what's happened and I have little doubt the inmates won't be occupying the asylum long after someone's turned off the lights and shut off the gas.

The World Arena was starting to remind me of the Super Dome in New Orleans. Older participants needing medical care (there were paremedics, thank God), lack of food vendors, and food running out. Everyone was well dressed though.

When El Paso and Teller Counties were announced many delegates had left the arena. that's when the BB camp began trolling for delegates and calling people at home to come and vote. They also were busy calling alternates to come to the arena to vopte [sic] some 4 hours later...

The entire process was a fiasco. The party would be better served by dismissing those in charge of their duties and having a vacancy.

Do you know what I see when I read this? I see Bill Owens and Donetta Davidson in 2004, issuing "emergency orders" targeting "Democrat vote fraud" that never materialized. I see Republican "GOTV" operatives throwing away thousands of Democratic voter registrations in 2004. I see hundreds of thugs in ties converging on the Miami-Dade Clerk and Recorder's office in December of 2000 screaming "Stop this count!"

In a way, this is worse: this is how they treat their own. This is what they mean by "culture of corruption," isn't it? From the bush leagues to the hallowed halls of Washington...

Great work, folks. Hundreds of letters have been delivered to the Colorado Senate, urging them to pass meaningful lobby reform.

We've proven to them that ethical government matters (some of your representatives would have you believe otherwise).

Senate backs measure for lobbyists' disclosure

Hired lobbyists would be required to disclose information about their clients, the bills they're pushing and their activities at the Capitol under a measure that won the Senate's initial approval Tuesday...

Senate Republicans opposed the bill, even though the House had weakened it by stripping two provisions: one would require a one-year "cooling off" period between leaving public office and become a lobbyist, and the other would compel lobbyists to report campaign contributions of $100 or more.

Still, the bill would require lobbyists to disclose the bill numbers of legislation they're working, their clients' position on legislation and any direct business relationships between lobbyists and lawmakers.

Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, led the fight against the bill, arguing that it's unnecessary because reputable lobbyists already disclose such information to the secretary of state.

He said the bill would ultimately hamper lawmakers...

Depends on what it's "hampering." Hampering the peddling of influence? Hampering the secret dealing that screws ordinary citizens because they don't have a lobbyist? Considering the source, I'd say that's the point.