Both Ways Bob Flip Flops distributed as gubernatorial candidates arrive for first debate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 10, 2006
CONTACT: Michael Huttner
(303) 931-4547

Denver: ProgressNowAction is distributing “Both Ways Bob” Flip-Flops as Congressman Bob Beauprez and Bill Ritter arrive for their first formal debate at the KBDI Channel 12 Studios at 2900 Welton Street in Denver today.

“Each pair of flip-flops costs .49 cents yet they serve as a valuable reminder of how Bob Beauprez continues to try to have it both ways,” stated Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNowAction. 

“This week Beauprez paraded around the state on his so called “clean energy tour”, yet his voting record shows that he is consistently in the pocket of the oil and gas industry and against renewable energy efforts,” noted Huttner.

If you are a member of the media and would like us to send you a pair of official Both Ways Bob flip-flops, e-mail michael@progressnowaction.org.

For more detailed research on how Congressman Beauprez has flip-flopped on key issues including energy, health care and the environment visit www.BothWaysBob.org.

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Ethics in Government: Likely on the ballot. This initiative would ban public employees from accepting gifts valued at more than $50.

Colorado Minimum Wage: Likely on the ballot. Raise the statewide minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $6.85 per hour.

Domestic Partnerships: Two issues likely on the ballot. The first one, Referendum I, would give same-sex couples many of the rights and responsibilities of married couples.
The second one would state that domestic partnerships are not similar to marriage. This is aimed at protecting domestic parnterships from right-wing legal challenges.

Gay Marriage Ban: Likely on the ballot. Would amend the State Constitution to say that marriage is only recognized as a union between one man and one woman.

Reproductive Choice: This measure did not make it on the ballot.

Marijuana Possession: Likely on the ballot. This initiative would legalize the possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana for adults 21 years and older.

School Funding: Referendum J and Amendment 39 are similar measures that would require school districts to spend a portion of their budgets on certain operations.

Powerful Colorado business groups are urging business leaders in Maine, Michigan and Oregon to oppose proposed ballot initiatives in those states that largely mirror the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

The constitutional amendment known as TABOR was passed by voters here in 1992 and placed a limit on Colorado government revenue growth. Voters last November suspended TABOR in part for five years via Referendum C.

"If it passes, TABOR will push Maine to the edge of the cliff as it did in Colorado," reads part of a letter sent by a coalition called Concerned Colorado Business Leaders to the Maine Motor Transportation Association. "You have a chance to act now - save your state from years of artificial budgetary wrangling and save yourselves the cost of [an] inevitable, expensive TABOR- reform fight."

Warfare erupted Wednesday over a Democratic political committee's attempt to find out whether GOP Gov. Bill Owens' administration awarded contracts to companies that donated to a Republican political committee.

The open records requests were filed by Tim Knaus, former chairman of the state Democratic Party and executive director of the political committee Clear Peak Colorado.

John Zakhem, an attorney for Trailhead, warned Clear Peak this week of "retaliatory measures" against Democratic leaders if the "harassment" against Owens continues.

Knaus is furious that the open records request sent to the state drew a response from Zakhem.

"Their lawyer identified himself as Trailhead's lawyer yet was calling on behalf of the governor complaining about our statutory right to an open and transparent government," Knaus said Wednesday.

Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate...

Although the commission's landmark report made it clear that the Defense Department's early versions of events on the day of the attacks were inaccurate, the revelation that it considered criminal referrals reveals how skeptically those reports were viewed by the panel and provides a glimpse of the tension between it and the Bush administration.

For more than two years after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA provided inaccurate information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media appearances. Authorities suggested that U.S. air defenses had reacted quickly, that jets had been scrambled in response to the last two hijackings and that fighters were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93 if it threatened Washington...