Of all the people we've had the pleasure of calling to account this very good 2006, the two that stand out are Bob Beauprez and Marilyn Musgrave. Herein lies an important point about what we do: one election went one way, one another, and it doesn't really matter as we'll prove in 2007 when we continue to hold these people to account.

Well, not Beauprez so much. He's pretty much done. But the others, you watch for it.

If you ask Time Magazine's Person of the Year (look it up), ProgressTV producer Jen Caltrider, who she most enjoyed making video shorts for YouTube about this year, she'll show you these videos.


"Marilyn Musgrave's Issues" -- The not-so-obvious ones, anyway.


"That's My Record!" -- our resurrection of the Pink Lady (sans dead people) was well-received (once people realized it didn't contain dead people). Our Pink Lady put in an Oscar-winning performance in 100+ degree heat wearing pink wool. We love her. But the winner by a mile would nonetheless have to be


"Marilyn Musgrave Attacks!" -- Viewed over 88,000 times on YouTube and their #9 video clip the week prior to the 2006 elections, this video documents various Musgrave lackies' (and Musgrave herself) attempts to doge a question put to her by ProgressTV's Ben Gelt, who is like fifteen feet tall and apparently doesn't blanch easily.

So that was Jen's high point in 2006. Mine, on the other hand, the reason 2006 was a fun year for me, was


(undoctored photo)

Now it's true that we weren't the ones who came up with the now-legendary moniker "Both Ways Bob" -- we'll give that credit where it's due with Beauprez's Republican primary opponent. There was a staff meeting, when we were running through all the things to do that week and one of us remarked kind of offhandedly, "'Both Ways Bob.' That's pretty good."


We eventually decided it looks even better on a billboard rolling down I-25:



And on flip flops (Senator Ken Salazar agrees as you can see):



Beauprez kept us pretty busy this year, reaching a high point last October best illustrated by these four links:

Ritter accuses Beauprez campaign of illegal research
Rocky Mountain News, 10/14
Group wants FBI to take over probe
Rocky Mountain News, 10/16 -- we're the "Group"
Beauprez should speak up
Denver Post editorial, 10/17
FBI joins probe in guv race
Rocky Mountain News, 10/18

After you've read those, this picture makes a little more sense:



So I'm going to miss Bob Beauprez, and Rick O'Donnell, and Joe Stengel, and all the others who won't be joining us in the sandbox next year. They really were good sports about it, and I hope their remaining friends and successors will be too. Happy 2007, companeros, 'cause we're gonna be there.

I agree with Duncan Black's assessment of Ford. Ford's action denied the role of our judicial system in determining the guilt or innocence of Richard Nixon. Furthermore, Ford showed to the people that there is a distinct two tiered system of justice working in America.

This "breach of faith" by Ford (and Nixon) is a critical factor in the decline of Americans participation in the political process itself.

Ken

-----------------------------------

Ford and the Wise Old Men of Washington

As we all know, because everybody on the teevee will keep repeating it, Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon was perhaps the wisest and awesomest thing anyone has ever done in the history of presidenting. Never mind that it wasn't popular at the time. Never mind that it set an awful precedent which led to the pardoning of the Iran Contra figures and transformed corrupt Nixonites into distinguished elder statesmen and Bush administration officials.

We are told again and again that what they nation needed was "to heal." That "the turmoil" needed to be over. That it was necessary to move on.

Read the rest here.

If there's one thing I'm proud of at ProgressNow it's that stuff like the Joe Stengel affair from early this year is less likely to occur now that we're casing the joint. Through the efforts of a few honest representatives and aided by all those petitions and letter campaigns we mailed out this year and you signed (they really do get paid attention to, folks), your Colorado state government doesn't play by the same rules they used to. They're something closer to what you--wait for it--want in an honest, accountable government now.

I like to think it got rolling last February:

The non-partisan Legislative Council reports that in 2005 [then-Minority Leader Joe] Stengel collected a check for 240 of the 247 days out of session, including Saturdays and Sundays. According to the Rocky Mountain News, Stengel claims that the 7 days he didn't work were the major holidays.

So those 240 days Stengel billed included the 5 days he spent vacationing in Hawaii, time campaigning for gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman, traveling statewide as Chairman of the campaign against Referenda C&D, and 2 full days taking the bar examination.

This, as you may remember, led to...

Request for ethics investigation of Rep. Joe Stengel

After which it was only a matter of time until...

Stengel resigns as minority leader

I have to say that as scalps go, this one was particularly sweet. Nobody's screwing around with their per diem now. And there couldn't have been a better case for the kind of tough ethics reform Colorado voters passed this November...actually, stay tuned for the Rick O'Donnell "Best Of" entry.

Next: Both Ways Bob (director's commentary).

From the AFL-CIO Weblog:

Two months ago, Goodyear hired replacement workers to make tires in the struck plants. In another insult to workers, management borrowed $1 billion to fight the strike and another $1 billion in unsecured notes. Wall Street investors scooped up all the bonds within hours, showing once again that Big Business cares more about the bottom line than the lives and welfare of the people who create the profits.

Read the rest here.

Of course it is well known that Wall Street does not have the interest of the nation or our national security as a priority.

This is how Goodyear acts when our troops need equipment in Irag/Afghanistan:

December 14, 2006

(Pittsburgh, PA) – The United Steelworkers (USW) today blasted Goodyear’s neglect in responding to the USW long-standing offer to meet the challenge of fully satisfying the demand for tires on Humvees used by soldiers in Iraq.

Yesterday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, requested that the company and union work out a deal to return 200 striking workers to a production plant in Topeka, Kansas to meet the military needs for its Humvees, the workhorse vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Although Goodyear continues to claim that it is meeting the military’s production needs, Rep. Hunter says that with production levels reduced by 35%, there is a shortage within the military.

Read the rest here.

If you want to support workers this holiday then donate here.

The Jon Tester's of the world have the backbone to believe in their progressive and populist values.

Matt Stoller from MyDD.com has a few thoughts too:

In a bar fight, Obama and Hillary are not on our side. Jerome doesn't think this matters, he doesn't much care about policy and he tends to see ideology as annoying except when it suits his 'get the single issue groups out of the way' purposes. Those are legitimate strategic differences, and I get where he's coming from. I tend to see ideology as a great organizing principle, as a tool of power rather than a burden. And honestly, this debate may not matter because most of the candidates would seem to agree with Jerome.

There are two candidates who can pass the bar fight primary. One of them, Wes Clark, passes the test clearly. He is a genuine liberal, and has fought the right clearly and consistently for the last four years, most recently in Connecticut when he was the only real surrogate against Lieberman. I don't see how Clark can seriously compete, but this willingness to be on our side in a bar fight, recognizing the institutional challenges posed by the right, explains his continuing netroots support. And then there's John Edwards. I think Edwards is split. He's spent much of his time working with unions, on the road, in low-key meetings. Elizabeth Edwards has done outreach to bloggers, so there's at least acknowledgment of the dirty hippy crew. He's announcing in New Orleans, which is dog whistle politics on our issues. He knows he was wrong on the war, and feels our betrayal. Unlike Clark, though, I still haven't seen him stand up for us in a real way. I haven't seen him attack McCain, for instance, or go after the politicians who supported the Bankruptcy Bill. I haven't seen him challenge any right-wing interests in a serious way, and so while I acknowledge he's in the ball park, he's not there yet.

Read the rest here.

Who is your pick?

Do any of you remember all the stories about the Clinton administration trashing the White House before Bush took over? Surely you remember, Fox News talked about nothing else for like three months. And of course it all turned out to be crap, even though right-wingers still occasionally mention it as if it wasn't.

Either way, don't ever dare bring it up again.

Congress's Inaction Threatens Funding

The Republican-controlled Congress's decision to adjourn a week ago before completing many of the spending bills that finance the federal government will reverberate in ways large and small...

Democrats say they had little choice but to take this tightfisted approach after Republicans dumped so many unfinished spending bills in their lap. "We did not call the shots here," maintained incoming House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.), who said that with the fiscal year well underway and Democrats assuming power with a full slate of priorities, he will have little choice but to put the government on autopilot.

It has been nearly 20 years since congressional failures left the government to be financed under spending guidelines and formulas rather than line-by-line policymaking. But to federal budget experts, this year's breakdown was hardly surprising. Not since 1994, the last year of Democratic control, has Congress actually passed all of its spending bills...the Senate did even less. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) simply decided none of the domestic spending bills would get time on the Senate floor before the election.

"The breakdown of regular order this cycle -- indeed the failure to get our bills done -- should be squarely placed at the feet of the departing Senate majority leader," said outgoing House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.).

Petulant little bastards to the last. Here is what they really thought of you and the trust you placed in them. Not only has the "Republican Revolution" collapsed under the weight of its own moral bankruptcy, we see now that they couldn't even do their job in the 12 years they held power. To be fair, they did manage to impeach a sitting president over a blowjob (with Mark Foley earnestly voting "Yea"), and they did make Jack Abramoff very happy over the years. Not a whole lot else, though.

Keep that fresh in your mind when they come around in '08 and tell you they want Congress back...

We have come full circle in the tragedy and criminality of invading and occupying Iraq, which has echoes Vietnam but in reality is much, much worse.

For your holiday cheer from Mr. Bush and his thugs- the immorality of daily body counts.

This is from ThinkProgress.org:

Bush Officially Embraces Vietnam-Era Strategy Of Publicizing Enemy Body Counts In Iraq

In late October, Bush told a group of conservative journalists that the administration had made a decision not to report the number of Iraqis killed by the U.S. military. The publication of those figures was widely seen as a counter-productive strategy during the Vietnam War. Byron York reported for the National Review:

“We have made a conscious effort not to be a body-count team,” Bush said, in a clear reference to the tabulations of enemy killed that became a hallmark of the Vietnam War. And that, in turn, “gives you the impression that [U.S. troops] are just there — kind of moving around, directing traffic, and somebody takes a shot at them and they’re down.”

Today, Tony Snow announced that the administration had reversed course and would be publicizing body counts to disabuse people of the notion that “our people aren’t doing anything” in Iraq.

Read and see the rest here.

Anybody have photographs?

From Talkingpointsmemo.com is a call for photographic evidence:

On Tuesday, DHS executed the largest federal immigration raid in U.S. history.

Over at TPMmuckraker, Justin Rood has doggedly been trying to track down what happened. And cracks are showing in the government's official version of events.

But like he said yesterday, we need your help on this. Are you in any of the six states where the raids occurred? If you see anything in the local press -- especially pictures from the raids -- let us know.
-- Paul Kiel

Email to: justin@talkingpointsmemo.com
or
tips@talkingpointsmemo.com

At TPMMuckraker.com:

DHS insists it hasn't arrested a single person who was working legally in the U.S. But we've been hearing otherwise. A memo yesterday prepared by one Minnesota lawyer following the Worthington raid said at least one U.S. citizen had been swept up and was being detained. And Priscilla Falcon, a professor at the University of Northern Colorado, told me yesterday afternoon that she knew of students whose parents were legal U.S. residents, but were nonetheless detained after the Greeley, Colo. raid, which netted over 260 arrests total.

Read the rest here.

Call or email Wal-Mart now.

This from Americablog.com's John Avarosis:

Wal-Mart selling religious-right kid's video game in which kids kill Muslims and Jews
by John in DC - 12/12/2006 01:27:00 PM

UPDATE: There was a typo in the name and email address of the Wal-Mart spokesman below. Please contact them again with the new information below that's now been corrected. Sorry about that.

This is a violent video game being sold by Wal-Mart, and made by the leaders of the religious right (the game producer's wife is the founder of the extremist religious right group Concerned Women for America).

Wal-Mart's rep says she hasn't heard any complaints:
Tara Raddohl
1-479-277-7589
Tara.Raddohl@wal-mart.com

Read the rest here.

From the SF Chronical:

Players can choose to join the Antichrist's team, but of course they can never win on Carpathia's side. The enemy team includes fictional rock stars and folks with Muslim-sounding names, while the righteous include gospel singers, missionaries, healers and medics. Every character comes with a life story.

When asked about the Arab and Muslim-sounding names, Frichner said the game does not endorse prejudice. But "Muslims are not believers in Jesus Christ" -- and thus can't be on Christ's side in the game.

"That is so obvious," he said.

Read the rest here.

I just caught this off Huffington Post:

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court will allow ex-Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling to stay out of prison while it considers granting him bail, according to a report published on the Wall Street Journal's Web site on Monday.

Read the rest here.

Ken Lay is dead and his estate won't have to give back the millions of dollars he didn't rightfully and fairly earn.

Now THIS!

What does happen indeed?

Will Republicans see that jettisoning Nixon/Bush as a signal to the American people that their support for him was wrong?

What will the Hillbilly Heroin Rush and Bully-boy O'Reilly think?

More importantly, how will the Democratically led Congress react to a series of investigations that shows that a). the misuse of intelligence by the WH, b). the fraud by the CPA and military contractors of taxpayer money, and c).the continuing ignoring of Congressional and Judicial rules and rulings will it be enough that the people of America will say "Impeach" for the good of the Constitution?

He and Cheney are completely alone now. We are going to see approval polls in Nixon territory probably by Feb. We are looking at historic lows and how will the DC world react?

Read the rest here.

Well it has been a month since the great change in Congress. Now we can start our engines for 08.

I've been reading (and voting) on the Kos poll for 08 possible candidates for the Dem presidential standard bearer.

Here are the results:

Who is currently your favorite 2008 candidate?
Tom Vilsack
1% 211 votes
Bill Richardson
4% 803 votes
Barack Obama
28% 4822 votes
John Kerry
1% 299 votes
Mike Gravel
0% 89 votes
John Edwards
28% 4895 votes
Christopher Dodd
0% 81 votes
Hillary Clinton
5% 900 votes
Wesley Clark
26% 4616 votes
Joe Biden
1% 195 votes
Evan Bayh
1% 262 votes

| 17173 votes

Did you notice that Gen. Clark has a lot of netroots support?

What does Progress Now Action members think?

Call for Allard to Keep His Pledge:
Largest online petition ever launched in Colorado

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 4, 2006
CONTACT: Michael Huttner
(303) 931-4547

Denver: ProgressNowAction launched an online petition to voters throughout Colorado calling on U.S. Senator Wayne Allard to keep his pledge not to run for a third term. The online petition is being sent to over 100,000 Colorado voters, the largest online petition ever launched in Colorado.

"Now Allard is contemplating breaking his word not to run again, putting his political self-interest above the people of Colorado by running for another term," stated Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNowAction. "This petition is to remind Senator Allard that in Colorado, as in politics, your word is your bond," noted Huttner. "Allard should keep his promise and not run for a third term."

In 1996, Allard publicized how "humbled" he was for winning the "Mr. Smith Award" for leading the fight to get elected officials to commit to their promise to serve only two terms in the U.S. Senate. (Rocky Mountain News, 10/13/1996)

In 2002, when asked if he would run for a third term in 2008, Allard answered "Nope, this is it for me. You won't see me out there in six years." [Denver Post, 10/8/2002] Allard further stated: "I've always said I believe in limiting my term. I've stipulated in past campaigns that I believe in term limits, and I've never wavered on it." (RMN, 10/9/2002)

"Colorado can do better." stated Hutter. "Call on Allard to step down so we can replace him with someone who will truly be a workhorse for the people of Colorado."

Earlier this year, Time magazine ranked Allard as one the country's five worst senators. The magazine dubbed Allard as "The Invisible Man" noting that Allard "almost never plays a role in major legislation" and referred to him as one of the "least influential senators." (Time, 4/16/2006)

Coloradans can join the online petition for Allard to keep his promise by visiting Link . ProgressNowAction will deliver this petition to Allard next week.

###

ProgressNowAction is Colorado's largest progressive organization whose mission is to promote progressive solutions, correct right wing misinformation and hold public leaders accountable.

Remember that your cell phone and GM's OnStar are NOT your friends in BushWorld.

I believe the headline says it all:

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

update The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him...

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone"...

Surreptitious activation of built-in microphones by the FBI has been done before. A 2003 lawsuit revealed that the FBI was able to surreptitiously turn on the built-in microphones in automotive systems like General Motors' OnStar to snoop on passengers' conversations.

Read the rest here.

H/T to Talkleft.com's story.

Link

Robert Borosage lays out the cold hard truth of Rubinomics

First, we are all too willing to inflict civilian casualties. In the dash to Baghdad, in Fallujah two assaults and ongoing armor patrols. In Vietnam we would destroy villages to save them. There was a disconnect in the air campaigns of the start of both Gulf Wars, rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air, civilians WERE dying. Diplomacy is never on the table unless we are working a deal to ARM someone. Bin Laden and Hussein were both recipients of US arms deals. We have dealt with every oppressive dictator in South and Central America. We are not diplomatic we are ARMS DEALERS and whether or not we are pulling the triggers or not we are responsible for a lot of killing. Millions of Mexicans, Central and South Americans have seen how we treat them and it is no wonder the mother country's are turning toward socialism. Remember, it wasn't Saddam who gassed the Iranians, it was us. There is a better way, engineers, clean water, hospitals, military/civilian police, the United Nations. People that don't like the UN are war mongers, war profiteers and people who haven't the stomach for a world without fear. I saw bananas for 40 cents a pound yesterday, that means someone is killing themselves for nothing. "Let there be peace on earth and let it start with me." Why do we fail in warfare? Because we shoot first and ask questions later.

Robert Reich is correct in saying that the influence of Big Pharma on the Hill will be a big monkey wrench to having Medicare be able to lower the cost of meds through group purchasing power.

Nancy Pelosi has announced that one of the Dems first priorities ("first hundred hours") would be to end this ban and have Medicare use its bargaining clout to get lower drug prices for seniors. But Big Pharma is already on the attack...

Because when it comes to campaign contributions and Washington lobbyists, Big Pharma has more bargaining clout than almost anyone. It has already lined up former Democratic congressmen and officeholders to lobby their old colleagues. And it’s showering the Hill with money. Already Max Baucus, the upcoming head of the Senate Finance Committee, is expressing doubts about the new Democratic plan.

Why am I not shocked that Max Baucus (D-Montana) is coming out on the side of Big Pharma and against the people who voted for him?

Matthew Yglesias writes this on the history of why Max Baucus is a bad Democratic Senator who will now head the powerful Senate Finance Committee:

Fellow Democrats were even more aggrieved, however, by Baucus' behavior during the Medicare battle with which Congress closed last year's session...A conference committee composed of members of both chambers was convened, but the Republican leadership, in a sharp break from precedent, said that though Democrats could be officially appointed to the committee, none would be invited to the meetings where the substantive negotiations would take place and the actual bill be written. None, that is, except for Baucus and the similarly cooperative John Breaux of Louisiana, who will retire at the end of the year.

By lending this farce a veneer of bipartisan credibility, Baucus and Breaux essentially denied the Democrats what was not only their best chance of defeating the bill in question but the party's last hope of putting a stop to a long string of Republican provocations aimed at reducing the minority party to window-dressing status....

Matt Stoller writes:

There are certain signposts to look out for in terms of creating a progressive majority. We cannot as a party enable big pharma to steal from the government. And that's what Baucus looks like he might be doing.

Progressives and Liberals that have elected a Democratic Congress must now hold our elected officials accountable to the people.

If BigPharma wants to monkey wrench the Democratic agenda with regard to Medicare's ability to purchase drugs then it is time for us to mount an effective campaign to show the lies of BigPharma (read the post by Robert Reich).

Time to gear up and start calling and meeting with our representatives in Congress and to lend your voices to the papers, radio, and television to frame the debate on our terms.

A paraphrase from "The Prisoner" television series.


AP: Feds rate travelers for terrorism

WASHINGTON - Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years.

Read the rest here.

This is just another form of Total Information Awareness Project by John Poindexter. Even though funding was cut for that particular project it is still being pursued on a piece meal fashion like the monster sewn together by Dr. Frankenstein's hands.

Remember that the people in power like Bush and Justice Scalia do not believe in the "right to privacy" for any person in America.

What we are seeing now is what was reported on in 2004:

Gov't Quietly Brings Back Total Information Awareness

Reuters has obtained a Congressional report that shows nine months after Congress shut down the controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance program called Total Information Awareness, the U.S. government continues to comb private records and databases to sniff out suspicious activity. Peter Swire, who served as the Clinton administration's top official said "I believe that Total Information Awareness is continuing under other names." --reported by Democracy Now!, 2004 June 3

Read the rest here.

Instead of using tried and true methods of investigation by law enforcement officials that have worked this administration from Mr. Bush to Abu Gonzales to John Poindexter prefers the methods of a totalitarian states. Remember that the rating system of Americans as posing a threat of either being terrorists or criminals is stunning. Terrorists or Criminals.

From Mr. Bush there is nothing but lip service and a sneer for his oath to protect the Constitution as is his sworn duty as President.

He and his lackeys ignore or denigrate the people of this nation because they have the mindset of the torturer and dictator (or "decider").

They are the carcinogenic agent within the body politic of America.

In reading the vomit of Mort Kondracke who espouses the classic "stab in the back" rhetoric against the American people because we voted for new leadership that would not "stay the course" to continue a war that has no end and no purpose that was started by Mr. Bush.

The panting and breathless pundit class in America actively aids and abets Mr. Bush and continues to justify his actions by lowering themselves to blaming the people of America for realizing that we were "sold a bill of goods" that was nothing more then a deadly fraud.

We are nothing more then expendable numbers in the mind of Mr. Bush.