New unemployment data came out showing the job market continues to worsen.

My Facebook friends reflect this. Four times this week, friends of mine have announced their availability in the job market via their Facebook statuses.

Colorado has lost almost 100,000 jobs in the past year according to the Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment.

Only a fraction of the stimulus money has been spent, and most of that has come in the form of food stamps and extended unemployment benefits, and other direct assistance programs as opposed to public infrastructure projects. There is wisdom in taking the time to ensure that projects are sound and the money is not wasted, but it is frustrating to see that money delayed.

Sent to a few thousand friends in Rep. Salazar's district today:

The time is now to speak out for clean energy and environmental protection. A critical vote in Congress on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) is set for Friday, and we need our own Rep. John Salazar to support this bill.

That's why I'm writing. Can you take two minutes right now to call Rep. Salazar's D.C. office, and let them know that you want him to vote for the Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454)?

Time is short: please call his office now at 202-225-4761.

This is one of the most important votes Rep. Salazar will ever cast. The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) sets practical, science-based limits on pollution linked to climate change, and puts the country on the path to building a national New Energy Economy. ACES offers our country the most important opportunity in generations to jump start our economy, create millions of new, good-paying jobs, and set the stage for America to compete and prosper in the 21st century.

Please call right away, and thank you for doing your part at this critical moment.

Sincerely,

Leslie Robinson
Garfield County resident

Two-hundred and fifty people gathered on the steps of the Colorado Capitol Saturday, May 30 as part of a "National Day of Action" to advocate for a single-payer model of health care reform. People came from Colorado Springs, Buena Vista and Ft. Collins as well as metro Denver to share stories and data about the utter failure of U.S. health care, which has become a profit-center for multi-payer insurances and hospitals at the expense of health care access for the people of Colorado.

Roya, a rally organizer from Health Care for All Colorado, related the story of a friend, repeatedly denied health care due to a "pre-existing" condition of cancer, until she died. Mike, a leader of ArapaHope Community Team, another rally organizer, told of continuous denial of health care coverage since he had a mild heart attack 14 years ago.

Fort Collins physician, Dr. Cory Carroll expressed the frustration of primary care providers whose care for patients is often complicated or obstructed by for-profit private insurances that assume the right to deny or delay claims.

Sen. Morgan Carroll observed that insurance companies make their profit by over-charging premiums, which rose 98% from 2000-2007, and by denying necessary health care. In Colorado, unlicensed and unqualified insurance industry folks deny necessary medical treatment. Asking "Where are our priorities?" Sen. Carroll noted that we have spent billions more on wall street bailouts than it would cost to provide health care to every single American for decades. Read more of Sen. Carroll's remarks.

Single-Payer has been declared "off the table" by Sen. Baucus and others in Washington. When Gov. Howard Dean visited Denver last week to promote a parallel public health care option, he drew gasps from his progressive audience when he suggested that Medicare Part D was "good" reform --perhaps a mark of the insularity of Washington culture, and a disconnect  on the part of some of our leaders.

GOV. RITTER VETO MESSAGE ON HOUSE BILL 09-1170

May 19, 2009

Honorable Colorado House of Representatives
67th General Assembly
First Regular Session
State Capitol
Denver, CO 80203

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am filing with the Secretary of State House Bill 09-1170, "Concerning unemployment insurance benefits for locked-out employees." I vetoed this bill as of 4:55 p.m. today, and this letter sets forth my reasons for doing so.

There are currently ongoing contract negotiations between the United Food and Commercial Workers No. 7 and several grocery stores, including King Soopers, Safeway, Albertsons, and City Market. The parties to these negotiations have been working hard for several months to try to reach an agreement. I believe it is ill-advised and counterproductive to enact legislation that materially impacts the relative bargaining position of parties in the midst of ongoing negotiations. In these troubled economic times, I am deeply concerned about the effect a strike or lockout of employees would have on grocery store workers and consumers across the state, and I am concerned that signing this bill into law will make a negotiated resolution of the grocery store contract more difficult, not less.

Therefore, under these circumstances, the state should not interject itself into these contract negotiations by enacting House Bill 09-1170 into law.

The merits of this bill, however, are worthy of future discussion and perhaps future legislation. In 1999, the statutory provision that House Bill 09-1170 would repeal and reenact was substantially amended for the first time in twenty-four years, upsetting the longstanding balance governing when locked-out and striking workers were eligible for unemployment benefits. The issue of how best to restore this balance is a debate that we should have. But the debate should be had and legislation crafted outside of the shadow of a major contract negotiation that has the imminent threat of a strike or lockout.

Accordingly, I have vetoed this bill.

Sincerely,

Bill Ritter, Jr.

Governor

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former Michigan Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis have threatened to sue a pro-Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) group over a posting on Twitter using their names.

Attorneys for Gingrich and Anuzis wrote a pro-EFCA group on Wednesday, asking them to disable a posting by the anonymously-owned “EFCANOW” handle, which asked followers to sign a petition supporting the labor legislation, and included Gingrich’s and Anuzis’s Twitter handles.

The suit marks a first for the political use of Twitter, which has taken off amongst lawmakers, political figures and interest groups since earlier in the year. The complaint gets to the heart of one of the most common practices of the site: directing a message toward another user -- even if the two don’t know each other -- by using an “@” sign.

“The posting falsely purports to have been written by Messrs. Gingrich and Anuzis and includes the Mark as well as the Twitter ‘handles’ of the foregoing individuals,” attorneys wrote in a letter. “The posting is deliberately designed to fraudulently induce readers into believing that…Messrs. Gingrich and Anuzis all support EFCA.”

The attorneys alleged that the posting, of which the authorship is unknown, violates the pair’s trademark and publicity rights, and invokes tresspassing and wire fraud laws, and maybe even so-called “RICO” laws, which are traditionally used to target organized crime groups...

A false story was planted this morning about my sueing [sp.--Pols] twitter. This is totally false and we have repudiated it with the media

Read this piece from Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic. It's pretty biting, and yet there's nothing I can see with it that is untrue. What's wrong with this picture?

Here we are, in the summer of 2009, with gay servicemembers still being fired for the fact of their orientation. Here we are, with marriage rights spreading through the country and world and a president who cannot bring himself even to acknowledge these breakthroughs in civil rights, and having no plan in any distant future to do anything about it at a federal level. Here I am, facing a looming deadline to be forced to leave my American husband for good, and relocate abroad because the HIV travel and immigration ban remains in force and I have slowly run out of options (unlike most non-Americans with HIV who have no options at all).

And what is Obama doing about any of these things? What is he even intending at some point to do about these things? So far as I can read the administration, the answer is: nada. We're firing Arab linguists? So sorry. We won't recognize in any way a tiny minority of legally married couples in several states because they're, ugh, gay? We had no idea. There's a ban on HIV-positive tourists and immigrants? Really? Thanks for letting us know. Would you like to join Joe Solmonese and John Berry for cocktails? The inside of the White House is fabulous these days.

In 1996, King Soopers and Safeway had a secret agreement. When King Soopers workers voted to strike, Safeway locked out thousands of Safeway workers.  

Safeway workers did not vote to strike, or even to reject a proposed agreement -- they weren't given the chance. They suddenly found themselves out of a job, on the street, forced by their employer into a strike situation.  

During current contract talks between the grocery workers' union and grocery chains, the threat of a lockout once again looms.  

This article in today's Denver Post is priceless: "GOP aligns stars to plot comeback."

The "stars" of the GOP, apparently, are former Gov. Bill Owens, former Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, former congressmen Bob Beauprez, Bob Schaffer, Scott McInnis, Dick "Undefeated Since 2008" Wadhams, and House Minority Leader Mike May.

You have to read the article, but here are a few things that jump out to me.

First, where was Josh Penry? Are the "wise men" of the GOP shutting him out? 

Second, notice something about the race and gender of the GOP's braintrust? And if you're going to have a "members only" meeting of lilly white good old boys, do you really want the press to report on it? You think maybe, just maybe, being the Rich White Guy party is part of the problem?

We were all disappointed by news yesterday that House Bill 1274, the bill to repeal Colorado's death penalty and shift resulting savings to cold case criminal investigations, had been effectively gutted in a surprise move by a few Senators.

But contrary to what you may have read, there is one more chance to fix House Bill 1274 and repeal the death penalty: Wednesday morning there will be a conference between the House and Senate to reconcile their two respective versions of the bill. Remember, the House passed a death penalty repeal, not a diversionary substitute bill! The conference committee can revert the bill to the House version or something close, and send it back to both chambers for another vote.

It all comes down to tomorrow, the last day of the legislative session. Can you call key representatives and Senators--either right now or early tomorrow morning--and tell them you want House Bill 1274 passed in its original form?

Senator John Morse: 303-866-6364

Senator Brandon Shaffer: 303-866-5291

Senator Dan Gibbs: 303-866-4873

Representative Ed Vigil: 303-866-2916

Representative Karen Middleton: 303-866-3911

Representative Beth McCann: 303-866-2959

Representative Lois Court: 303-866-2967

Representative Sue Schafer: 303-866-5522 

Representative Ed Casso: 303-866-2964

You can call your own legislator or others, too--visit www.leg.state.co.us for a phone directory. 

Also please take a moment now or in the next few days to thank Rep. Don Marostica (R) for his vote for House Bill 1274 earlier this session. Call him at 303-866-2947.

With the legislative session required by law to end tomorrow, legislators are hard-pressed to get through all the remaining legislation on the calendar. Please be respectful of these hardworking representatives, and their staff if you reach one of them instead. Feel free to call this evening, right now if you like, they're working late tonight and are in early Wednesday morning. Leave a detailed message if no one can take your call.

Friends, whether we ultimately win or lose in this particular fight, I want to tell you that I am enormously proud of the thousands of phone calls and emails our members have sent in support of repealing the death penalty in Colorado this year. It has been a privilege just to watch you all take action. You're a credit not just to our great state, but to the progressive wisdom that's slowly changing our country. Thank you.

Good.

Every session, somebody drops in a bill that makes suspicion of not wearing a seat belt a primary offense for cops to pull you over. Of course everyone should be wearing their seat belt. And in a perfect world, this might not be a bad idea for a law. But it's been shown time and time again around the country that blacks and latinos get stopped by police disproportionately, and this traffic law would only provide another excuse for law enforcement to pull someone over for the crime of DWB.

Even ignoring all the studies about racial bias in police stops, I don't want to be subject to this law. My car has an adjustable-height shoulder belt. You can not tell I am wearing my seat belt unless you're looking right in the driver's side window or through the front windshield. I could get pulled over every day for that reason.

So kudos to the legislature for once again killing this very stupid bill. Along with the dumb RIAA bill that comes up every year to forbid me from selling CDs of music that I myself composed, arranged, and performed, hopefully the DWB bill will continue to die annually like the weeds in my yard.

The winners and losers of the 2009 Colorado legislative session

As the 2009 Colorado legislative session draws to a close this week, the state's largest progressive advocacy organization, ProgressNow Colorado, released their annual list of winners and losers:

The #1 Biggest Winner for 2009. Colorado's Uninsured--Despite a budget crisis that might have doomed progress on health care, Governor Bill Ritter and legislative Democrats passed one of the most significant pieces of health care legislation in four decades. The Health Care Affordability Act stands to cover 100,000 uninsured Coloradans at a time when the health care and unemployment are combining to squeeze families more than ever. The act was a product of skilled negotiations, good policy and innovative leadership.

2. Sen. John Morse--Morse demonstrated that fighting the good fight can also be good politics. By taking the reins on reforming Colorado's budget gridlock, Morse helped push an economic recovery agenda in the face of what has become typical partisan teeth gnashing from the Senate Republicans. In the process, Morse has been elevated to Senate Majority Leader after just two years in office.

3. Gov. Bill Ritter--Ritter proved how a crisis is also an opportunity. Facing what is likely the worst budget outlook in the modern history of Colorado, Ritter played a key role in budget negotiations, saving higher education and preserving some of his biggest priorities, while negotiating with hospitals to secure passage of the Health Care Affordability Act. Ritter also signed the FASTER Jobs bill creating jobs and addressing our roads. In addition he successfully negotiated a budget reform bill that will significantly increase Colorado's Rainy Day Fund--something the Republicans failed to do when they were in charge. Finally, Ritter also launched a website tracking how money from the federal recovery package is being spent in Colorado: www.colorado.gov/recovery.

4. Sen. Gail Schwartz--Schwartz chaired the Joint Committee on Job Creation and Economic Growth, providing leadership and lending her name to legislation supporting new energy job growth--not a bad position in a down economy. Schwartz continued to bring rural representation to the Democratic caucus, sponsoring bills encouraging rural broadband and bringing health care to underserved areas of the state.

5. Rep. Joe Rice--Since returning from his third tour in Iraq last year, Rep. Joe Rice has been busy. This year, he was the chief House sponsor of two of the biggest bills of the session: the FASTER Jobs bill, which is expected to create 5,000-8,000 new jobs on much needed investment in roads and bridges as well as the Colorado jobs creation tax credit.

6. Rep. Dennis Apuan--In a year where community-organizers-turned-politicians are all the rage, Dennis Apuan's freshman session was impressive. Apuan sponsored bills providing care to seniors andsupporting Colorado veterans, and he is fast becoming a fixture on the 5 and 30 local news with his town hall events. With his Obama-like resume and his McCain-style outreach, it's no wonder El Paso County Republicans are beside themselves.

7. Treasurer Cary Kennedy--Kennedy followed her collaboration last year with then-Speaker Andrew Romanoff on the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) bill to work with new Speaker Terrance Carroll on HB09-1346, which uses federal stimulus dollars to build schools and renewable energy infrastructure. This work, along with some shrewd management of the state's assets before the financial crisis, has made Kennedy a welcome leader at the Colorado Treasury.

8. Rep. Don Marostica--No one could have summed up the modern state of the Colorado GOP better than Marostica. Looking beyond the fireworks of Marostica's comments (e.g. Dick Wadhams is a "has-been" and a "loser"; Josh Penry can "jump in a lake"; the Senate Republicans are "lemmings"), Marostica understood that the challenges facing Colorado actually require solutions. Such notions are apparently heresy in today's GOP, which is why there continue to be calls to boot Marostica from the Joint Budget Committee.

9. Rep. Ed Vigil--For casting the deciding vote to repeal the death penalty in the House after agonizing over the longest minute of the session.

10. Colorado's New Energy Economy--One of the few bright spots in all the economic news is Colorado's continued leadership in new energy. Just last month, Gov. Ritter was cutting the ribbon at the new Abound Solarand GE Energy Control Solutions factories in Longmont. The legislature also tackled a slate of new energy jobs bills, including SB09-171 and HB09-1345, providing green-collar jobs training and laying the groundwork for a green energy grid, along with HB09-1312, a bill to help schools use renewable energy to save on utility costs. In addition House Bill 1346, the Investment Recovery Act, sponsored by Shaffer and Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll, would maximize the opportunity to leverage federal support for clean energy projects in Colorado that create homegrown jobs.

10. Right-wing spin--Going into session, we were told that oil and gas rules were killing jobs, conservatives supported transportation, Republicans wanted to put an end to the "permanent campaign," and the GOP was poised for... wait for it... a comeback. What we got was a hyper-partisan "party of no" strategy that continued to shill for the oil and gas lobby (Brophy in GJS 1/27/2009), flip-flop on the budget(Spence flip-flop on Homestead Exemption), and whine as Gov. Bill Ritter reasserted his leadership during the economic crisis(Penry in DP, 4/4/2009). Meanwhile, the headlines from the "resurgent" GOP were dominated yet again by Michelle Malkin, swastika guy and right-wing venom.

9&8. Sens. Scott Renfroe and Dave Schultheis--the two-headed monster--Either Colorado Republicans can't silence their extreme right wing or maybe have no real objection to it. Either way, these two made national news by going to the Senate floor and suggesting that gays should be put to death and that HIV-infected babies served as a warning to promiscuous mothers. Go back and read the comments. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/25/words-and-controversy-senate-republicans/ They're still shocking.

7. Pinnacol Assurance--Even though they held on to $500 million in surplus cash that could have gone to higher education, Pinnacol execs did not weather the publicity well. When even your defenders are comparing you to AIG, as Sen. Greg Brophy (R-Wray) did in the Senate on April 9, you know you've got problems.

6. Rep. David Balmer--Anyone taking bets on whether Balmer tries to run for leadership again after this year's ethics scandal? Still, Balmer's storied resume won't stop his colleagues from accepting his checks.

5. Mesa County--The Colorado House of Representatives made history this year by electing Terrance Carroll the first African-American Speaker of the House... but not before presumptive speaker Bernie Buescher of Grand Junction was defeated by Republican Laura Bradford. Who's Laura Bradford? Exactly. The Mesa County Commissioners were also party to the mill levy freeze lawsuit that was defeated in the Colorado Supreme Court. Now this same bunch is considering "re-Brucing" in their continuing legal crusade to deny funding for Mesa schools.

4. Oil and gas lobby--One of the few industries willing to bankroll the Republicans anymore, the oil and gas lobby is at least batting 1.000 for trafficking falsehoods about oil and gas rules, all in an effort to fight protections for air, water, and wildlife.  Last summer, the rules were supposedly to blame for high gas prices.  Now we're constantly reminded how rules are closing drill rigs in Colorado, even as the global energy bust has shut down production in other states at comparable rates. For more on Big Oil making up falsehoods see:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/16/salzman-drilling-rules-exonerated/  For more on Josh Penry shilling for big oil see: http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2009/03/23/032409_6A_grant_column.html

3. Rep. Cory Gardner--Widely rumored to be entering the GOP primary to carry on Marilyn Musgrave's legacy in CD4, Gardner puts political self-interest in front of his constituents by voting to take out transportation dollars out of our state's budget and then claiming he wasn't trying to "hurt" transportation.  ("Road funding dumped from bill" DBJ, April 27, 2009) Gardner did little to distinguish himself--unless you count nearly weeping Glenn-Beck-style on cable over the oil and gas rule review bill. 

2. Denver Democrats--The legislature lost three veteran lawmakers this year from Denver: Sen. Jennifer Veiga, Rep. Anne McGihon, and even Senate President Peter Groff. Their experience will be missed.

The #1. Biggest Loser for 2009:  Sen. Josh Penry--If Penry proved anything, it's that he was more afraid of offending his party's base than appealing to the moderate middle. Penry was caught fudging the numbers on the oil and gas rules and was more than happy to polarize the state Senate when Colorado needed action on transportation and the economy. The coup de grace came with the state budget, after a bipartisan compromise passed the House by 51-13, broke along party lines in the Senate. This kind of weak discipline and immaturity was a lesson in being Penry-wise and pound foolish. And to top it off: Penry supporters began attacking primary rival Scott McInnis before the legislative session even ended. (See "McInnis' voice mail posted at site run by supporters of possible rival", GJS, 5/1/2009)

Editor's note: the roll-call vote shows that GOP Rep. Mike Coffman did in fact vote for the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. We regret the error and thank Rep. Coffman for his support.

By a vote of 249 to 175, the House of Representatives just passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. All of Colorado's Democratic representatives voted for the bill.

Watch Representative Polis speak during the debate, it's very good:

Watch Representative Markey speak in favor of the bill (she rocks!)

The trial of Angie Zapata's accused murderer Allen Andrade has reached a milestone in that the prosecution has rested its case. So far we've heard all kinds of heinous testimony and evidence of hatred and violence in this case.

You can follow the rest of the trial on AngieZapata.com include live updates viw Twitter from the courtroom from Pam's House Blend blogger Autumn Sandeen and the Greeley Tribune, all aggregated on this site.

Rep. John Kefalas did a masterful job of presenting the case for the Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act (HB 1273). There was for the first time a relatively brief 1-1/2 hours window for House floor debate on April 6 - see summary below. In the end, the bill fell one vote short, as six House Democrats – Speaker Terrance Carroll, Rep. Kathleen Curry, Rep. Wesley McKinley, Rep. Karen Middleton, Rep. Jim Riesberg, Rep. Christine Scanlan – failed to support it. Lacking one vote, Rep. Kefalas laid the bill over until July 2009, precluding further action on it. Please thank your legislator if they supported the bill.

That's what it's all about, baby!

Just check out all of this patriotic merchandise. Get your "Got a birth certificate?" bumper sticker, or your "Obama bin Lyin" pro-impeachment sticker. What about "Rush is right"?

My favorite is the intro text, in which they are clearly bypassed by the double-entendre:

The Reagan.org / Patriot Depot duo has been invited to display our tea bags at the official tea party in Washington DC at the US Treasury Department (National Stage) 12:00pm-2:00pm and Lafayette Park (Grassroots Stage) 11:00am-3:00pm. The media has been invited to watch us unload the tea bags at 9:00 AM. The tea bags are going to serve as the back drop for the events at Lafayette Park. Later that day, we will be heading a short distance over to the Treasury department for an authorized protest with the tea bags. Major Media, including Fox News, will be there.

Pardon me while I adjust my teabags... In my Luzianne iced Arnold Palmer, of course--not the other thing.