jobu's blog

He'll be on today during the show. Tune in to KFKA (AM 1310) at 2:00 pm.

Ken's press release says that the Senator will be discussing such hard hitting topics as mortgage relief (the bill has a bunch of stuff in it for folks buying houses, but I'm not sure it helps someone facing foreclosure), the Farm Bill (which is important around here, but also has tons of pork in it), and what it means to him to be patriotic.

Senator, someone (Sam Johnson) once said that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." I'm not sure that it makes any sense for you to talk about being patriotic when you vote for things like expanded (illegal) powers for the attorney general, when you work hard to get Al Gonzalez installed, or when you (as I expect you will) vote to allow U.S. Telecoms retroactive immunity for their complicity in illegal wiretapping (you can also call this protection for the Bush administration from public discovery in a courtroom).

Son, "your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore.*" It's time for you to do your job and hold the Bush Administration accountable for its actions.

*Note: Great song by John Prine:

Again, The Wicked Witch of the Eastern Plains is getting on board with the Marriage Amendment. Marilyn Musgrave has become a co-sponsor of the Constitutional Amendment to define marriage.

Despite the fact that this thing has no hope of passing. Musgrave couldn't get the support in a do-nothing, Republican-controlled Congress. She has no hope in the current Congress. She's not that stupid, so we have to assume that doing this helps her in two ways. First, she'll be able to raise money from the hateful religious right. Second, it will likely help her shore up support in hateful Weld County.

It'll cost her some votes in the plains, where voters are more concerned with their farms and their lives than they are with the "issue" of gays. But, it won't cost her enough to make a dent.

Remember, at the end of this race, the entire thing is going to come down to asking who can win Weld County. The Witch is, after all, still a Republican running in Weld County, and that's good for a lot of votes.

Mary Tse Tung, the would be dictator of the Weld County Democratic Party, in an apparent defense of Mark Udall and his disgraceful voting last week, has pointed out to the officers, including Pam Shaddock and Chair David Delgado, that public dissent of nominated Democratic candidates is not tollerated. This means that I have been asked to resign my post as a precinct committee person in Weld County. Or so I assume.

Actually, Chairman Mary, ruler of volunteers (maybe that's why it's so hard to get folks to canvas neighborhoods), took issue primarily with my language, so I'm not sure. I mean, I checked party rules, and there is no means of removal of PCPs for potty talk, nor is there for ad hominen attacks. So, I guess I have to assume that saying I'd vote for Kinsey is the only reason that actually exists for asking me to resign.

In a sense, I suppose this is important for the party to do. I mean if dissent were tolerated, then the people might actually have a voice in the process. We might be able to question things like why the county Democrats are so totally unable to recruit candidates for races like House-48 or District Attorney? Why the folks we do are so damn week? Why the best new candidate to run in Weld (Joe Whitcomb) had to fight his way past the party establishment as it tried to recruit one of its own? Why Pat Waak anointed (against the rules that seem to be in place for other races) a candidate in CD-4 while three candidates (Angie Paccione, Eric Eidsness, and Betsy Markey) were still in the race, but then refused to take a position on the Presidential race, citing the need for fairness?

Anyone who managed to catch David Sirota on the Colbert Report a couple weeks ago, remembers watching David get jumped about being a "populist rabble-rouser" who might be destined to appear on college t-shirts in 20 years. (watch Sirota Battle Colbert here).

Well, wait no more.

It's indisputable that I'm a blow-hard. Nobody will argue.

But it should be hard to stomach this FISA vote by a man who (badly) invokes Benjamin Franklin, "a country willing to sacrifice its freedom for security will get neither." This bill didn't actually do a lot to change things; it didn't rein in any Bush administration behaviour and it didn't make it more difficult to do wire-tapping. It did, however, give large telecommunications companies immunity from criminal and civil actions that they may (or may not) have taken at the request of the Bush DOJ.

This is a huge problem. If these companies did something illegal and were prosecuted, they would likely face some (I'd say major, but who would I kid?) fines. It's unlikely that anyone would get prosecuted for helping the White House fight terror, but the companies might get fined. Might.

Instead, the Bush administration demanded immunity from prosecution, not to protect the companies from reprisal related to their patriotic assistance in the war on terror, but to protect the Bush administration from having to disclose and defend the things they asked (and got) the telcos to do.

This immunity was not about protecting telecoms. It was exclusively about protecting the Bush White House from sunlight.

In supporting this bill, Mark Udall reinforced the idea that the President can do anything he wants, regardless of possible legality. In essence, Udall threw out centuries of legal tradition that ensures that in our country, no one is above the law, from the Magna Carta to Bill Clinton.

If that don't make you utter profanity, then what does?

Mary Stack, second vice chair, has just circulated an order through the Weld Co. executive committee demanding that all links to the widestreets.net blog be taken off the site (as well as the private site that no one can see except the EC). She appears not to like my use of strong language or my indictment of Udall. Sorry Mark, but I stand behind what I said. Below is my response:

Wow. Mark Udall voted today to give the Bush Administration the FISA bill it's been crying about for months. The one that sells out the Constitution, gives Big Brother the right to spy on us at its discretion, and gives the big Telecoms retroactive immunity. What an asshole (yes, you Congressman, are an asshole).

Why did we need to do this? Because the Bush Administration kept asking? Because you are too spineless to stand against Bob Schaffer on principle? Because you were afraid of being painted as soft on terror? Probably all of the above.

I say, Fuck you. Fuck your run for Senate. We can get this kind of voting from Bob Schaffer, and he won't pretend to be someone who cares about a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

You are a fake, and I am going to vote for Bob Kinsey.

Go fuck yourself.

I've been feverishly studying the June 2 reports released by the Secretary of State, detailing who gave what to which candidate, and it appears to me that $200 goes a lot farther today than you might think.

What can you get for $200? A couple tanks of gas? Check. A month's worth of lattes with a reasonable tip to the barista? Check.

The right to charge 325% interest on someone borrowing money? Check.

The Secretary of State recently released candidate financial info for the June 2nd reporting period. Here's a rundown.

Scott Helman, who is running against Rep. Jim Riesberg, has reported his numbers. He managed to raise $1,540 since February. Not bad for a Republican lamb being set up for slaughter. It's also worth noting that he's taking donations from anyone who will donate. Only $600 of his $1,540 came from inside the district. Mostly, he's funding his campaign by relying on the usual angry crowd: Pam Groeger (who tried to cheat at underhanded politics in 2004, and likely cost the Republicans the House 50 seat), Maria Secrest, Undersheriff Margie Martinez, Bill Jerke, Joe Tennessen (who despite his nice demeanor funds a lot of the hate-filled candidates in Weld County), former House 50 also-ran Dave Owen, and Sheriff John Cook. It's nice to see that this guy doesn't really have the wide appeal or name ID of a (defeated) candidate like Dave Owen.

Glenn Vaad is doing pretty well, after raising $9,694.19 since winning his House 48 seat in November 2006. Notably, he's taken over half ($5,455) of his donations from large PAC, and only $3,139 from people in his district (included in this is $989.19 of his own money). I suppose that "local" contribution number is in line with Helman's, demonstrating just how in touch with their constituents these Republicans are. It's also striking the amount of influence land developers, power and oil/gas companies, and chiropractors seem to love Rep. Vaad. Maybe that bears more investigation?

More's coming soon...

It's all over the wire services and the blogs!!! Hillary will concede tonight that Sen. Barack Obama will be the nominee. It's about time. Comments?

OK. Hillary is denying this now. What a world? Maybe this is like Shaq denying a trade rumor.