Muskrat Hunt II

Goes Around

2010-04-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

Looking at the comments here I see wingnuts clutching their pearls about rape in prison. While it's a real problem that needs addressed, I find it odd that people who routinely bang the drum about vengeance on crimminals and personal accountability would suddenly start advocating for their safety.

Hm...

Maybe they're worried because some of them expect to be there shortly... where bluster/bloviating/bullying doesn't work - especially when your cellmate is three times your size and doesn't care how much money you have. That would strike fear into the heart of any keyboard kommando.

GOP laments end of the world as they know it

2010-03-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Some of the bleating and whimpering I hear from the intertubes is sad... so sad.

Just recently read this tear-jerking passage on a bit of electronic flotsam that floated by:

Let it be said here and now: I’m glad my 50-year career as a reasonably successful independent, self-employed small business owner engaged in (who cares) ended in 1998¹. For one thing, the bureaucratic red tape was already intractable² and will be 10 times worse under Markey’s new law³. (blah blah bs removed here), I just don’t see any of the incentives any more that made so many of us want to thrive and achieve⁴. And we did, despite poor health, economic hardships⁵ and seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

America, America, have we lost our way?

----
Yep... the days when you could drop by City Hall for a quick nod from your pal in the back room to get whatever you needed are long gone. Those 'incentives' are gone too - no more subsidies for industries killing the planet and the people on it... damn that's a cryin shame. There's just nothing like knowing you can lie, cheat and steal with impunity knowing for sure your pals in the courthouse will cover your ass. I'll just bet when those pesky 'little people' got their hands into the government with those damned Freedom of Information Act requests it was the end of a really sweet setup.

May it rest in peace and GOD BLESS AMERICA.

------
1. Hey, lots of us are glad too - thrilled actually.
2. You couldn't buy your way around anything any more
3. "...for hard-core partisan GOP members."
4. Yep, the royalty is all dying off - not a moment too soon either
5. Sigh... no more month-long trips to Hawaii and boar hunts with city hall pals

BIG FUCKING DEAL

2010-03-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

That's what the man said.

And hey, guess what, turnip-head?

It. IS. and I see no fucking reason to apologize.

Your torturer-king-puppeteer used that word to attack a member of Congress, you chumleys should thank Biden for showing you how that word is used best.

Make all the threats you want, without dismantling the country, that's how it is and you can't change it without at least as long a fight, which I don't think you have the stomach for. Funding maybe (thanks to the man that tried to fuck up the inauguration ceremony and his obscene-gesturing pal) but not the stomach.

From a beach in heaven Ted Kennedy is laughing as he wipes off your spit and flicks it back at you. His dream has come true and he'll be remembered for it.

Who knows, the next child saved by prompt medical care might be the next GOP president.

Done Deal

2010-03-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

From the DrudgeRetort:

CIA Agent: Iraq War Was 'Done Deal' in 2002
In summer 2002, CIA operative John Kiriakou was working at headquarters in Virginia when he was summoned to a top-secret meeting. He said he was told the Bush administration had decided the United States was going to invade Iraq in the spring -- it was a done deal. His job was to support the mission. Kiriakou said he was dumbfounded. "Here was someone at the CIA, obviously plugged into the plans of the executive branch, telling us that the public debate in Congress, reflected almost daily in the press, meant nothing," he writes in his new book The Reluctant Spy. Months later, Congress passed a war resolution. [Drudge Retort]
---
Fucking BUSH AND CHENEY.

With any kind of luck these two pieces o' filth will end up in front of a firing squad. The Iraq war was planned long before 9-11 which begs other questions.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

One day that's blockbuster is going to blow, no matter how much the wingnuts lie and cover up.

Why the Supreme Court Matters

2010-03-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

I keep hearing the obvious right-wing partisans from Longmont's Lunatic Fringe howling about 'transparency' and I routinely scoff at the concept of -them- being up-front about their motives. Especially after all the backstage maneuvers.

That feeling is magnified a thousandfold when I see stories like this:

Justice's wife launches 'tea party' group
The nonprofit run by Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is likely to test notions of political impartiality for the court.

-----
Make no mistake, the recent ruling about corporate funding rested squarely in this man's hands and he chose against us, the American people, in favor of big business. Bought and paid for, plain and simple.
-----

Experts say Virginia Thomas' work doesn't violate ethical rules for judges. But Liberty Central could give rise to conflicts of interest for her husband, they said, as it tests the norms for judicial spouses.

----
'Could' give rise to conflicts? No shit Sherlock. Now the corruption has reached the Supreme Court... eight years of Bush are over, but now we might have decades of this shit?

When you have essentially unlimited money and help from the Court, there's no upper limit to how evil you can get - and pay no price. That's why you rig courts - to cover for your pals.

Expect the worst.

Nance Rant 3-11-2010

2010-03-11T00:37:00.000-08:00

Outstanding.

Go read the whole thing, but here's a few excerpts:

Well, if we’re going to talk about shoving things down people’s throats, let’s talk turkey – specifically a plastic turkey, served with all of the traditional synthetic trimmings, a dish perfected by the POP (photo-op party), who had no shame in declaring their “strong on national defence” credentials after the attacks of 9-11 happened on their watch.

For eight years, what I had shoved down my throat was the idea that a scatterbrained idiot was legitimately elected to the presidency, that his ignorance and downright stupidity was an example of down-home charm, that his inability to prove fulfillment of his military service was of no consequence, that his drunken displays in public forums were a matter of an unfortunate misunderestimation of a complete and utter failure who had finally achieved his rightful place as a cowboy-booted frat boy who made good – thanks to a well-stacked-in-the-GOP’s-favor Supreme Court, and a complicit mainstream media that – despite it’s legendary liberal bias – was all too willing to look the other way.
--

I am told that the Teabaggers are a grassroots movement, meaning that people who can’t even spell the words on their protest signs had the intellectual wherewithal to organize nation-wide protests of – well, they can’t really explain what it is they’re protesting – but, God-damn it, they mean it. I suppose that passion alone explains why the MSM shoves coverage of their every event – as poorly attended as they may be – down my throat, while having completely ignored worldwide protests of the War in Iraq as being of little consequence.

--
In addition to the aforementioned down-the-throat-shoving with a fuckin’ backhoe, I have been told repeatedly that FOX-News is a legitimate news source, that a drug-addled tub-o’-lard like Rush Limbaugh is a patriotic American, that Glenn Beck has his country’s best interests at heart, that a woman who couldn’t name a single newspaper that she regularly reads was the stuff great vice-presidents are made of
---
WHEW. Go. Read.

Pat Robertson Linked to Gold Deal with Dictator

2010-03-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

From Drudge Retort:

Prosecutors at the human rights trial of former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor alleged Thursday that Christian televangelist Pat Robertson had lobbied the White House on Taylor's behalf in return for a gold mining contract. Prosecutors charged that the controversial pastor and former Republican presidential contender met with then-President George W. Bush on Taylor's behalf, allegedly in return for a contract to mine gold in southeast Liberia. Prosecutors have accused Taylor of ordering his subordinates to murder and mutilate civilians, cut off their limbs, use women and girls as sex slaves, abduct adults and children, and force them to perform labor or become fighters to further his economic and political ambitions in the region.
Story at ABC News

Well, now we know where wingnuts come from

2010-01-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

Shark's Virgin Birth Confirmed

Genetic analysis has confirmed the first known case of surviving offspring being born to a virgin female shark. Kevin Feldheim, manager of the Field Museum's Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution, said a genetic analysis of a white-spotted bamboo shark and its two offspring revealed the female shark gave birth without the involvement of a male.

Posted by zombiehunter at 08:12 PM
--
Hat tip to Drudge Retort

Quick shout out...

2010-01-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

... to all my loyal adversaries! Here's hoping you're having a great day planning your next victory. By all means keep being hard-cores and do everything possible to step on citizens rights to free speech, that will endear the populace to you. Really. Keep it up, people love being oppressed by wealthy jerks. Seriously. Maybe the mayor could just discontinue Public Invited To Be Heard entirely and just have a public flogging of whichever dissident the wingnuts designate and Channel 3 could televise it. I'm sure Ms. Baum would love play Vanna White at that little show. Ugh... on second thought...

Creeps

2010-01-24T08:41:00.000-08:00

I love when I read stuff like this from my Longmont Adversary:

I never had to resort to such tactics to be seen and heard.

Nope, not that we know of.

And with all the campaign money that will dumped in by the truckload by the CO GOP, you can no doubt count on much, much more vicious (and of course anonymous) tripe from these same sources.

Wake up Longmont, your town is being suborned by the far wingnut right.

Highland Ranch residents resist large church development

2010-01-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

From the Denver Post:

Colorado Christian ends Highlands Ranch quest

Colorado Christian University announced Monday afternoon it is withdrawing its request to purchase 100 acres for a new campus from the Highlands Ranch Community Association because of growing opposition by residents.

The university had planned to move its Lakewood campus serving 1,500 students to the proposed site about a mile south of Rocky Heights Middle School, west of Monarch Road, in Highlands Ranch. The parcel in Highlands Ranch backcountry is a habitat for wildlife, including a large population of elk.
Highlands Ranch residents have expressed concerns about increased traffic on already congested arteries, noise and light pollution, strain on county services, loss of wildlife habitat and diminished property values.

Residents were also troubled by the prospect of subsidizing a private tax-exempt organization with their tax dollars, university officials said.

Read more

--
Hm. Huge religious development. Wants tax breaks. Citizens stand up and say no.

Why is this so familiar? I could swear I've read about this somewhere else...

Crouching Blogger, Hidden Douchebags

2010-01-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

Well, the Longmont Lunatic Fringe Smear Brigade (or LLFSB as I think of them) is hard at work today over at the LongmontLedger.

Apparently the latest set of lies is that I'm somehow part of the dog-pooping of Marilyn Muskrat's offices. There's some sublime humor for ya. No wonder the lunatic fringe is looking to hang that on someone - they didn't get their man (much like Bush could never find Bin Laden - and I'm sure they think I'm just as bad... although the police in Longmont have found our lone bomber.) You can bet your bottom dollar the reason this lie is being pushed is because Muskrat staffers are hand-in-glove with the Baum Squad and are no doubt helping them coordinate their smear campaigns. Once a Muskrat, always a muskrat.

As for the Lifebridge sign, I don't generally do the vandalism thing. Someone called me and told me to go take that photo - so I did. I found it immensely amusing. My guess? The sign was poorly made and the letter fell off - God's prone to cosmic humor like that. Longmont Police haven't said a peep to me. Feel free to ask them.

As for displaying anyone's email address, please. If you're going to participate in dirty politics, don't cry when it gets exposed. How anyone thinks publishing that email 'led to her email being scammed' is advertising their own ignorance. People get scammed because they don't understand internet security and often use weak passwords - that's my guess. Or maybe it was just a publicity stunt from someone desperate for public attention - like all the Lunatic Fringe.

Keep smearin kids, all those anonymous posts just underline how frightened you are.

41% was bad - 28% must be worse

2010-01-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

It's interesting... when you examine the Lunatic Fringe's own words, they sometimes make sense. (I know, it's shocking)

In a now-deleted (but archived in my newsreader program) post on By the People and For the People, our glorious Mayor's own wife had this to say about the last council election that swept the Progressives into power:

From: How Hard is it to Fill Out a Mail In Ballot?

Sometimes I wonder, considering the election this past November where only 41% of registered voters took the time to fill out a ballot. FORTY ONE PERCENT! I truly don't get it? It can't even be the cost of a stamp that kept people from voting because the ballots could be dropped off. So why? Complacency. Or perhaps ignorance? Either way, it is because of people choosing to ignore their right (or as I feel, their duty) to vote that has landed our city where it is right now.

Apparently 'complacency' and 'ignorance' are okay when your team wins... especially when all the dirty politics go unnoticed. So when people 'ignore their right' (or in this case far right) or 'duty' it's just fine if they're Progressives. Anything to win after all.

I have to commend the mayor's wife for pointing this out and I promise I'll do everything I can to help remedy the 'complacency' and 'ignorance' that 'landed our city where it is right now'.

Truth and justice are the hallmarks of the American way and I'm sure once the other 72% of Longmont's voters realize the truth of just how seriously they've been screwed over, they'll be demanding justice.

Pseudonymously Yours

2010-01-03T02:01:00.000-08:00

Hi kids!

Figured it was time to stick another pin in the wrinkled and saggy butts of the Longmont Lunatic Fringe.

One of the frequent and virulent pseudonymous¹ commenters at the Times-Call website goes by the acridnymph 'DF' - since these fine 'pillars' of the community seem so enamored of making up fake names² I thought I'd offer a few guesses as to what 'DF' might mean³:

DF - Diseased and Flatulent (would explain the stench I keep smelling around town)

DF - Demented Fool (pretty obvious just from the language/grammar/generally ignorant comments)

DF - Dumpy Foody (astute followers of local politics may figure this one out)

DF - Dying Flagellator (at least it looks that way)

----

1. I.E. ball-less cowards who get off on macho posturing and blowing things up - pretending that enhances your virility in some bizarre way.

2. Because they've never moved past high-school and believe the world should be run by the most violent with the most money (see #1).

3. Because if I posted anything derogatory about these clowns ON the TC somehow I suspect their pals in TC management would make sure it never saw the light of day - because let's face it, freedom of speech only works one way for them - at least as far as I can see.

High-School Stunts Continue at Times-Call

2009-12-28T18:00:00.000-08:00

After my recent Letter to the Editor at the Longmont Ledger, yet another anonymous commenter has appeared on the Times-Call article comments:

"MacNwebguru" - terribly clever. My personal website is macwebguru.com.

Make no mistake - this is not me and is most likely one of the right-wing crazies attempting to draw criticism.

Jesus kids, high school was over a long time ago. Grow up. You're only making your side look bad.

I notice there's none of this shit going on at the Ledger. Wonder why. Hmmm.

Madoff Assaulted in Prison

2009-12-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

Madoff Assaulted in Prison

Bernie Madoff was admitted to Duke University Hospital last Friday with a facial fractures, broken ribs and a collapsed lung -- presumably from an assault suffered while serving his life sentence at the federal prison in Butner, N.C.

Hat tip to the Drudge Retort

Healthcare Reform Passed

2009-12-24T10:12:00.001-08:00

The right has fought this for so long (decades literally) that it's a joy simply to see it passed.

Nice Christmas Present.

Auschwitz gate sign recovered

2009-12-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

Polish police retrieve damaged Auschwitz gate sign

Polish police found the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign that was stolen from the gate of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz after an intensive three-day hunt and arrested five suspects, police said early Monday. The sign was found cut into three pieces.
--
Five guys were arrested.

The police refused to divulge any details of the circumstances in which the sign was found or to speculate on the motive of the perpetrators.

Hm.... fascinating. Funny how details are always thin in these cases... almost like someone with 'protection'

Work Sets You Free

2009-12-18T18:00:00.000-08:00

Auschwitz Death Camp Sign Stolen

The infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign at the entrance to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland has been stolen. The wrought iron sign, whose words mean "Work Sets You Free", was unscrewed and pulled down from its position above the gate in the early hours of Friday. Polish authorities denounced the theft, while Israel's Holocaust museum branded it an "act of war". More than a million people - 90% of them Jews - were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II. Investigators say at least two people would have been needed to steal the five-metre-long (16ft), 40kg (90lb) sign.

Posted by American1st at 03:31 PM - Hat tip to the Drudge Retort

---------
Unsubstantiated rumor has it that the sign was stolen with the intent of installing it over the entrance to CO GOP headquarters.

Big Money, Republican Machine Buys Longmont Election

2009-12-09T22:01:00.001-08:00

by Kaye Fissinger

Longmont has been under political attack from outside of Longmont and outside of Colorado. Aligned with these powerful and well-funded entities are individuals and groups within Longmont who have been furious since the November 2007 election produced a progressive-leaning majority. They are using outside money and their own deep pockets to "take back Longmont." And they have succeeded.

Western Tradition Partnership (WTP), headed by Bozeman, Montana Republicans (former US representative Ron Marlenee and state representative John Sinrud) is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Longmont over electioneering provisions and independent expenditures in the Longmont Fair Campaign Practices Act.

WTP is rabidly anti-environmental and absolutist on property rights with the stated purpose to target local and state governments. It receives its backing primarily from the oil-gas-coal industries.

Longmont Leadership is a party to this lawsuit along with former Longmont mayors
Julia Pirnack and Bob Askey, both Republicans, the Longmont Area Realtors Association, and Republican blogger Chris Rodriguez. It was formed to unseat former mayor Roger Lange and Ward 2 councilmember Karen Benker, and did so with a contribution in excess of $11,000 from Western Tradition Partnership, almost the entirety of Longmont Leadership's funding.

Western Tradition Partnership is registered with the IRS as a nonprofit 501c4. According to Luis Toro, general counsel for Colorado Ethics Watch, these nonprofit groups have come to replace 527 organizations as the favored shell for political contributions. They became popular after 527s faced greater disclosure requirements at the state and national level.

Aspen Daily News reports that "527s...lack the spending caps that other political groups have, but they must now release contribution and expenditure information. 501c4s are allowed "greater anonymity but are required to pursue mostly nonpolitical activities, which they don't always do. Groups that get involved late in the process don't have to disclose much at all until December, long after the races are decided."

The Colorado registered agent for Western Tradition Partnership is their attorney

Scott Gessler, who is also the Republican candidate for Secretary of State in 2010. It is not at all coincidental that Gessler is likely to use WTP's lawsuit over Longmont's Fair Campaign Practices Act as a platform for further degradation of campaign financing regulations.

Scott Shires is also listed as a WTP registered agent. He is a Republican operative and front man for many 527s and he has a history of violating campaign reporting regulations. Shires has also been indicted on an alleged money laundering scheme to hide an illegal gambling operation.

Shires is behind the Colorado League of Taxpayers who attacked Longmont council candidate Richard Juday in a January 2008 mailer. A similar event occurred in Garfield County. Colorado Ethics Watch sued Shires for campaign violations in that case and he was fined in excess of $7,000, an amount apparently still unpaid.

Western Tradition Partnership also had an electioneering violation complaint filed against it with the State of Montana's Commissioner of Political Practices in October 2008.

Reporting for the Missoulian State Bureau on 5/4/08, Charles S. Johnson asked WTP who else was helping the organization and was told that Christian LeFer was helping with graphics and web design work. (LeFer is a public figure in both the Montana and Colorado Right-to-Work organizations.)

LeFer is also the web registrant for the "Greeley Report" with a striking similarity to the anonymous "Longmont Report" that appeared in January 2008 to defeat Juday in favor of current councilmember and former Rep. Tom DeLay staffer Gabe Santos. After the election it targeted Benker and councilmember Sean McCoy.

Stephanie Baum, "Take Back Longmont" blogger and wife of newly-elected mayor Bryan Baum, wrote to Doug Wray about the person responsible for Longmont Report, saying that she "knows who he is" because she "met with the owner of Longmont Report." Baum and Chris Rodriguez move in the same political circle. Rodriguez is well known for his blog vitriol and was described in the Boulder Weekly's report "The gloves come off," referring to the recent Longmont city council races.

Also mentioned in "The glove comes off" is www.frontrangechickens.com. Registration data for this website is deliberately anonymous. However, it has at least two things in common with Longmont Report. It is vicious in its politics of personal destruction and character assassination, and it has an implied threat of violence.

So who benefitted--politically and financially--from the Western Tradition Partnership lawsuit and other suits targeting the City of Longmont? Who benefitted from the bombardment of expensive mailers that appeared in mail boxes all over Longmont? Who benefitted from attack blogs, push-polls and robo-calls
against candidates? With the results of the November 3rd election now in, the answers are self-evident:
Bryan Baum, Gabe Santos, Katie Witt and Alex Sammoury.

Expect more of the same from these and similar entities in 2010, 2011, 2012 and beyond. It's worked repeatedly for Republicans, and there's no reason for the Republicans to abandon their strategies and tactics of trash politics for the upcoming election cycles.

They Just Like to Blow Shit Up

2009-11-25T18:03:00.000-08:00

The wingnuts are at it again - now they have a plan¹ to slaughter all the prairie dogs - not with something as tame as poisons (heck the GOP thinks poisons are fine, as long as it's in food coming from China) but instead with exploding gas. I can almost hear the hillbilly howls of glee now: "Lookee thar Junior! That blowed up reeeaaal good!"

I can understand their eagerness too - with someone like Gabe Santos on council, they no doubt have a gigantic supply of (ahem) natural gas. Trouble is, the system² they're looking at uses propane. Might take a few custom adapters to get it hooked up to our erstwhile councilman. Besides, flow-control could also be a problem, especially after some of the lunches he eats. But I digress.

Besides, the Dept of Agriculture tried em and they don't work:

"Gas exploding devices or anhydrous ammonia or other toxic gases have not proven to be safe, reliable or effective. The best studies have shown that oxy-acetylene or propane/oxygen mixtures injected for 45 seconds and then ignited only reduced ground squirrel populations by about 40 per cent and did so at a very high cost. Although no data has been generated on the effectiveness of anhydrous ammonia, there has been, at best, mixed comments on its use. Cost, practically, safety and labour are considered serious drawbacks to anhydrous ammonia fumigation."

So if it doesn't work for squirrels, the no-doubt hardier prarie dogs will likely be even less affected. More likely the lil varmints will turn the tables on our would-be extermination advocates and send them all sky-high when their boom-boom machine blows up in their faces.

However, I'm not sure that would be a bad thing... evolution takes a lot of forms³.

Go get em kids, mind the buried services while you're at it - please?

---
1. Yes, another. I'm sure they're fantasizing about something to exterminate their opponents too...

2. I omit the name because it's a pathetic jury-rigged POS with a hyper-macho name and a hefty pricetag. Fine to blow $ on this shit and let the city fall apart.

3. And heaven knows they could use some evolving... especially to get rid of that monobrow...

Family Research Council Is Thankful for Lack of Fact-Checkers:

2009-11-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

From the Rude Pundit:

Family Research Council Is Thankful for Lack of Fact-Checkers:

In case you were there sittin' around with yer families, all around that mighty Thanksgiving table tomorrow, starin' at each other across the steroid-enhanced gigantor turkey, the mashed potatoes larded with hormone-filled cream and butter, high fructose corn syrup-based pies, the whole pesticide-coated cornucopia, and you were wonderin' to high holy heaven just what the hell you can beg Godjeezus fer in yer grace-sayin', then the Family Research Council's Super-Duper Prayer Team has answered your...um...prayers.

The Rude Pundit joined the Super-Duper Prayer Team several years ago under a nom de rude (so he can be a spy in the house o' love), and every week he receives his dirty prayerchez orders, telling him what to implore the invisible sky wizard to do to others and/or for us. This week, it's a special Thanksgiving version, which did you know is all about socialism?

Aw, sure. "In their struggle to survive in the New World, our Pilgrim Fathers learned that socialism does not work! A two-year long experiment in 1621-1622 taught them that when government redistributes income, scarcity, dependence and even death result...For their first two years at Plymouth, the Pilgrims embraced a well-intended scheme: the fruit of each man's labor went into a common storehouse; each then took from the storehouse as his family had need," says the FRC (motto: "Your one-stop history filter"). "Laziness and thievery resulted when capable men refused to labor but demanded to be fed." Then, one might imagine, they got drunk and had a giant gay orgy since apparently no women were around. It's why the sexual position known as "pilgrim buggery" involves buckles and...oh, wait. No?

Hells, no. According to the FRC, then good and wise Governor Billy Bradford changed shit around, "requiring each family to raise its own food." And they lived happily ever after because from 1623 on because of "the hard lessons about socialism and the benefits of free enterprise learned by those who inspired Thanksgiving Day."

And that'd be awesome if it was true. However, that version of the pilgrim story "misrepresents the purpose of the Pilgrims and the results of their heroic strivings. It derives from a superficial appraisal of a statement by Governor William Bradford and a partial reading of the copious records left by the literate Pilgrims." That quote is not from some wild and woolly liberal blog spouting socialist propaganda. It's actually from a 1976 publication by the John fuckin' Birch Society (hence the "heroism" of Indian slaying). And if those paranoid motherfuckers decide something ain't socialist, it ain't fuckin' socialist. Even rabid right-wingers know the real story is so much more complex that there's no way to reduce to a grunting "socialism bad, capitalism good" simian dichotomy.

(Of course, the notion that it was only stupid, selfish white people who couldn't live communally in the "New World" doesn't come into play here.)

But, still, this is supposed to be about the mighty, mighty praytones of Thanksgiving, and here's the kick-Karl-Marx-in-the-taint prayer: "May families across America, especially Christians, reflect this Thanksgiving upon these great lessons of socialism vs. liberty," and further, "May we unite in prayer against every new government program built upon an ideology in which government exercises far too much power." Mmm, that makes stuffing taste so much more stuffinger.

The SDPT is always given bible verses to demonstrate that the prayers have some stamp of approval. They are almost always confounding. Like this one that's supposed to somehow relate to the pilgrim story, from Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners."

Seriously, FRC, does anyone actually read the bible there? Because not only is that a verse that asks for mercy for prisoners, but five short verses later, Isaiah 61:6-7, it actually supports socialism: "You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of their shame, my people will receive a double portion." The King James version is a hell of a lot more explicit, something that's easily interpretable as a call for revolution against the rich. Share that dinner.

Predictions and performance

2009-11-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

It's interesting to note these posts from the still-present LongmontReport.com - both on the same evening, about an hour apart.

January 12, 2008

Prediction: Gang of Four out in Two

The guy and gal who blog at wrongmont.com and takebacklongmont.blogspot.com respectively, say it better then me, so for now, I'll let you find out about the shenanigans of the new City Council on their blogs. Really outrageous, what's going on down there.

Posted at 11:22 PM in Annexed by Boulder, Benker's Gang of Four (let's not make it five), The Future of Longmont | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Why this election is critical to the future of Longmont

Stephanie Baum cuts to the chase.

Longmont is at a crossroads

Posted at 09:59 PM in The Future of Longmont | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

---
I've posted numerous times about Ms. Baum's admission about LongmontReport.com - which she subsequently recanted - going to great lengths to deflect any connection, claiming she was just protecting her friend and desperate to end the accusations. Bottom line to me has become this: the supporters of Santos, Baum, Witt (and to a lesser degree Sammoury) just don't care - anything to win is the GOP's favorite slogan, after all. Mission Accomplished and it's Time to Bury the Bodies.

Well, so far they have a 50% accuracy record. Based on the nonstop drumbeat of negative attacks, I'd say McCoy and Hansen are in for a real fistfight when they're up for re-election - it's pretty clear big money in Longmont has PLANS and they're in the way.

During the last election we had a string of blogs pop up, I thought it would be good to catalog them here:

http://longmontreport.typepad.com/

http://takebacklongmont.blogspot.com/

http://frontrangechickens.com

http://rightforlongmont.blogspot.com/

http://liberatelongmont.com

as well as the usual list of suspects that I will refrain from mentioning (again) simply because.

This battle's over but the war goes on.

Rack 'em and Screw 'em, Boys!

2009-11-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Rack 'em and Screw 'em, Boys!

By Sheila Samples

Is there anything scarier than the New York Times' Halloween treat entitled, "Documents Detail Conditions Found at Secret C.I.A. Jails"?

Pardon my Palinese, but -- You betcha! You damnbetcha!

For starters, the "conditions" the Times mentions only briefly are, in reality, depraved, corrupt, immoral, inhumane torture. According to the Times...

"F.B.I. agents who arrived at a secret C.I.A. jail overseas in September 2002 found prisoners “manacled to the ceiling and subjected to blaring music around the clock,” and a C.I.A. official wrote a list of questions for interrogators including “How close is each technique to the ‘rack and screw'. . ."
What is more frightening -- that the C.I.A. got its jollies by torturing, even murdering human beings in its secret sodomy frat-houses -- or that the F.B.I. took one look, fled the scene and remained silent for years?

Perhaps it's the two-page memo President George Bush had circulated seven months earlier wherein he determined -- under his authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive of the United States --

"...none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among other reasons, al Qaeda is not a High Contracting Party to Geneva." (emphasis added)
[...]

"...I determine that the Taliban detainees are unlawful combatants and, therefore, do not qualify as prisoners of war under Article 4 of Geneva. I note that, because Geneva does not apply to our conflict with al Qaeda, al Qaeda detainees also do not qualify as prisoners of war."

Bush then added piously that our values as a nation that we shared with many nations (?) required us to treat humanely even those not qualified as humans nor entitled to such treatment. So -- wink, wink -- rack 'em and screw 'em, boys!

According to the Times, the documents were released as a result of several Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Judicial Watch. Makes you wonder if this nation's mainstream media, both print and electronic, has no access -- nor interest -- in freedom of information, doesn't it?

The Times did provide links (see below) to the released documents -- 953 pages it knew most of us would never read. To offset that, the Times assigned two of its top investigative reporters -- Scott Shane and Charlie Savage -- to get the critical information out.

These guys hopped right on it and, after yawning through the assignment, their bland 306-word "news" article was published on page A28.

I don't know about you, but even for Halloween -- that's scary!

Links to released documents via New York Times

A.C.L.U. vs. C.I.A. (SDNY) (pdf) (13 pages)
A.C.L.U. vs. D.O.D. (DDC2) (pdf) (441 pages)
Judicial Watch vs. C.I.A. (DDC) (pdf) (34 pages)
A.C.L.U. vs. D.O.D. (SDNY) (pdf) (98 pages)
A.C.L.U. vs. D.O.D. (DDC2) (pdf) (61 pages)
A.C.L.U. vs. D.O.D. (pdf) (141 pages)
Feinman vs. C.I.A. (DDC) (pdf) (163 pages)
Judicial Watch vs. D.O.J. (DDC) (pdf) (2 pages)

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.

Letter to the Editor

2009-10-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

I feel compelled to respond to the opinion written by Bryan Baum in today's paper. He is correct in one regard, Longmont should have purchased the land that the Union group currently owns. The problem is his timeline. It should have been purchased under Pirnack's or Stoecker's administration. But neither cared about purchasing open space, just selling Longmont to the highest bidder. It was already purchased before the current administration took charge.

Please do not forget about the petition which contained over 6000 signatures, that sought to either reverse the annexation or take it to a vote of the citizens of Longmont. I believe this was the major reason for the withdrawal of the annexation request. Mr. Baum, you belittle the citizens who signed that petition as inconsequential by not even acknowledging its existence.

Our concern regarding the annexation was not building a church. Among our concerns were a) cost to the city after the municipal tax had expired; b) infrastructure costs; c) percent of tax-exempt property; and d) water. When we asked for more information regarding these issues, we received none.

We all watched Julia at a council meeting call the online petition spam rather than show concern regarding the opinion of a large group of citizens. And Julia stating in the Times-Call Opinion that the citizens of Longmont were not smart enough to make decisions.

I urge people to vote for Roger Lange and not back the old regime that sold Longmont; which I believe Baum, Santos, and Witt would do. I believe that most people have already voted but please don't forget all the hard work that we did to have a voice in the direction of our city. It is our city and our voice and we are not for sale.

Doreen Petersen

Longmont

Keep it Classy

2009-10-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

A dear friend of mine gave me this advice:

"Keep it classy dude"

And I've been trying. Honest. I have. Sure, I may toss in an f-bomb now and then, but I can generally laugh at the sad little 'men' and spoiled little girls that are behind Longmont's SmearMachine2009... but this really requires a response:

From a Times-Call article comment stream:

Some analysis, Peggotty. You tree-hugging, prairie-dog- lovin radical leftists are the experts in "outside" campaign monies alright...like the $1.6 million Defenders of Wildlife (Virginia-based) put up to destroy the honorable Marilyn Musgrave last year.

(fake name redacted because they're a coward), Longmont, CO, 10/21/2009 7:08 PM

'The Honorable Marilyn Musgrave' ??

(Falls off chair laughing and wets pants)

...and I think that sums up my 'response'.

Sleep well my wingnuts, sleep well.

Graphical Representation

2009-10-21T18:22:00.001-07:00

This graphic is just lovely and sums it up nicely.

I Love You Don Coulson, Wherever You Are

2009-10-12T22:50:00.000-07:00

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Longmont Times-Call recently and I felt it deserved a spotlight:

Criticism limited to a few in the public

"E-mail should have been in public folder"

Oct. 1, Open Forum

Thursday's Open Forum supplied ample evidence that the only snide, unfounded, antagonistic and uncivil commentary in the forthcoming election is from certain members of the public. I have seen nothing from any candidate that even comes close to incivility, but there seems no shortage of hostility from some writers, in particular the individual who writes the "Wrongmont" blog and who took Ms. Karen Benker to task for perceived sins of omission falling just short of treason and corruption.

Interested in learning what's wrong with Longmont, I spent some time painfully reading through the blog, page after page of mind-boggling inanity and twisted grammatical structures which one might expect from a pre-schooler but hardly from a self-appointed scion of civic wisdom. Nit picking and a wild predilection to bring wrathful judgement upon anyone with a differing opinion are the hallmarks of this smarmy blog.

I saw not one single positive comment nor one suggestion as to how a perceived problem might be corrected. To paraphrase some timeless alliteration from the late William Safire, 'Wrongmont" is nothing but a niggling nest of nattering negativism.

Don Coulson

---

Hm. Apparently I'm not the only one in Longmont that doesn't enjoy Wrongmont. Careful there Mr. Coulson, I suspect he's a member of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders... you don't want to upset them... they can be... um... *yawn*

Charge of the Beckerheads

2009-10-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

By Sheila Samples

I didn't know Van Jones. I didn't know Van Jones was a friend of mine -- at least not until the stench billowing from the Fox Hate Channel became so foul I was forced to take a closer look at this terrifying creature. No -- not Jones, whom President Obama wisely had hired as Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality -- but the sobbing, lying, deliriously insane Glenn Beck.

According to Beck, who began his assault on Jones in a July 23 disjointed rant, wherein he claimed Jones is not only "a communist-anarchist radical," but a former black nationalist, avowed communist-anarchist radical. Or something. Anyway, according to Beck, Jones is really really dangerous -- a racist just like Obama, who has a "deep-seated hatred for white folks" and whose entire agenda is restructuring America into a land of reparations, social justice and jobs for minorities.

The appalling thing about the intellectually challenged Beck, like the Limbaugh-loon he so desperately struggles to impersonate, is that he is given a podium from which to spew his hate. Even more appalling is that he is allowed -- encouraged -- to do so with no reservation, no regulation, and no repercussion. Unless, of course, you consider the multi-million-dollar salary he receives for telling lies and for whipping paranoid masses of gun-toting racists into glassy eyed fury, then it's easy to see Beck is hitting the repercussion jackpot -- over and over again.

As Alexander Zaitchik points out in his three-part Salon series on Beck's background, Beck has always been desperate for two things -- attention and ratings. And he learned early in his career that nothing works as quickly nor as well with the media as personal insults, public humiliation and character assassination.

With few exceptions, the mainstream media fawn over him, laugh at his blatant lies, his death threats and his fake tears. Beck has long been obsessed with destruction -- even murder. In March 2001, he fantasized about killing Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) with a shovel as well as lining up several others and shooting them in the head. On his May 17, 2005 Glenn Beck Program, he chortled...

"Hang on, let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus -- band -- Do, and I've lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, "Yeah, I'd kill Michael Moore," and then I'd see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I'd realize, "Oh, you wouldn't kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn't choke him to death." And you know, well, I'm not sure."
And more recently, on his Aug 6 Fox program, Beck regaled at least himself by giggling about putting poison in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's wine....

Not a pretty picture. No -- not Beck, who should have the FBI nipping at his heels like other "homegrown terrorists" for threatening the lives of legislators and sowing dissent within the government -- but the media, going all Hunter Thompson on us, curled up at Beck's feet like so many chimps in a zoo cage, feverishly pumping out masturbatory praise for the low-class dirty trickster.

When Jones, rather than sink to Beck's level, resigned his position over the Labor Day weekend, some in the media were ecstatic. NBC Deputy Political Director Mark Murray whooped it up in his 8 Sep "First Read"...

"Van Jones resigns: Speaking of distractions, Glenn Beck got his man -- Van Jones, who resigned from the administration over the weekend. And judging by how Beck responded to the news of the resignation of the mid-level staffer, he won't be satisfied with this scalp. Beck made it sound like he might even have a list of "Who's next," which will embolden defenders of the administration to start focusing on Beck and others. [...] As for Jones, clearly, that 9/11 stuff made him indefensible and does call into question the White House's vetting process. The irony in all of this: Beck never lost his job for calling Obama a racist, but Jones did…"
Time Magazine, a partner of CNN, has led the charge to cover Beck's every move, every word, every teardrop in a desperate effort to get a piece of Beck's attention-and-ratings action. See here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Then, of course, there's Time's photo gallery" and the much-heralded Sep 17 cover story wherein author David Von Drehle takes 3,598 words to debunk his own headline, "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?" and to paint Beck as nothing more than a feisty, lovable -- albeit controversial -- little whippersnapper...

"Glenn Beck: the pudgy, buzz-cut, weeping phenomenon of radio, TV and books . . . The old American mind-set that Richard Hofstadter famously called "the paranoid style" — the sense that Masons or the railroads or the Pope or the guys in black helicopters are in league to destroy the country — is aflame again, fanned from both right and left. [...] No one has a better feeling for this mood, and no one exploits it as well, as Beck. He is the hottest thing in the political-rant racket, left or right. A gifted entrepreneur of angst in a white-hot market.
[...]
Beck is 45, tireless, funny, self-deprecating, a recovering alcoholic, a convert to Mormonism, a libertarian and living with ADHD. He is a gifted storyteller with a knack for stitching seemingly unrelated data points into possible conspiracies — if he believed in conspiracies, which he doesn't, necessarily; he's just asking questions. He's just sayin'. In cheerful days of yore, he was a terrific host of a morning-zoo show on an FM Top 40 station. But these aren't cheerful times. For conservatives, these are times of economic uncertainty and political weakness, and Beck has emerged as a virtuoso on the strings of their discontent."
Not to be outfoxed by her peers, on Sep 22, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric premiered her new one-on-one high-profile online interview show "@katiecouric" with Beck, whom she introduced as a "one-man cottage industry." Beck fielded Couric's painfully shallow questions, such as, "Do you feel that you're...you're kind of being divisive?" with sly grins and winks. "Let me see, here," Beck said, giggling and rolling his eyes while tapping his forehead, "how can I answer that? You're just trying to make some news -- you just want me to give you a sound byte..."

But the most interesting -- and entertaining -- take on Beck comes from Fox News' Chief Beckerhead Chris Wallace, who boasts that he "is on the Glenn Beck bandwagon," and insists that "Beck is a meteor here at Fox News." Wallace was taking the irrepressible Shepard Smith to task for not giving Beck the proper respect; even accused Smith of being jealous of Beck's fame. "Oh no," Smith proclaimed, fighting back fake tears -- "We are here to celebrate, worship and adore..." You gotta watch this.

Most mainstream media -- if they acknowledge Beck's attacks -- present them as news, such as the czars fiasco, the fake Fox ACORN videos, etc. However, there are some, even on the right, who are concerned enough about the damage being done to sound the alarm. The New York Times' David Brooks writes, not only about Beck, but Limbaugh, Hannity and others whose lust for power (attention and ratings) knows no bounds...

"For no matter how often their hollowness is exposed, the jocks still reweave the myth of their own power. They still ride the airwaves claiming to speak for millions. They still confuse listeners with voters. And they are aided in this endeavor by their enablers. They are enabled by cynical Democrats, who love to claim that Rush Limbaugh controls the G.O.P. They are enabled by lazy pundits who find it easier to argue with showmen than with people whose opinions are based on knowledge. They are enabled by the slightly educated snobs who believe that Glenn Beck really is the voice of Middle America.

So the myth returns. Just months after the election and the humiliation, everyone is again convinced that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the rest possess real power. And the saddest thing is that even Republican politicians come to believe it. They mistake media for reality. They pre-emptively surrender to armies that don’t exist.

They pay more attention to Rush’s imaginary millions than to the real voters down the street. The Republican Party is unpopular because it’s more interested in pleasing Rush’s ghosts than actual people. The party is leaderless right now because nobody has the guts to step outside the rigid parameters enforced by the radio jocks and create a new party identity. The party is losing because it has adopted a radio entertainer’s niche-building strategy, while abandoning the politician’s coalition-building strategy.

The rise of Beck, Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest has correlated almost perfectly with the decline of the G.O.P. But it’s not because the talk jocks have real power. It’s because they have illusory power, because Republicans hear the media mythology and fall for it every time."

Like Chris Wallace says, they are all just meteors exploding across this nation's sky. Perhaps someone should remind Wallace and others in the media that the shining streak they're hanging onto is nothing but a trail of gas, and when it enters Truth's atmosphere, it will disintegrate -- taking the Beckerhead Bandwagon with it.

Sheila Samples http://sheilastuff.blogspot.com/ is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.

Here Come Da Money

2009-10-12T17:10:00.001-07:00

Just got this in my mail today:
(click to enlarge images)

Paid for by LongmontLeadership.com

My bet is this is directly connected to LIFT, the CO GOP and Greg Burt.

Funny how they exclude Kaye Fissinger...

I guess they're terrified to give her ANY publicity at this point. Same for Van Dusen.

Think the Lifebridge pimps have given up? Think again.

Say no to the candidates behind this kind of bullshit, in my opinion they're the same ones behind the hate websites that have been screeching for months.

Ethical Standards, not so much

2009-10-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

Bryan Baum is a member of Rotary. Lovely. Then perhaps he can put 'service above self' and admit that he knows who was running LongmontReport.com (and very likely behind the new anonymous attack sites) - especially in light of this public admission by his wife:

The opposition candidates have tried desperately to look the other way about this, but there it sits, like catshit on a linoleum floor. Admission of guilt.

I'm thinking the 'not wanting repercussions' had something to do with elections.

If someone's going to prate on about 'ethical standards' then they should try and live up to them.

Letter to the Editor

2009-09-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm amazed at the ferocity of the online rhetoric against council members Benker, McCoy, Hansen and Levison. I spoke at city council attempting to make public legitimate documented information concerning Gabe Santos and was censured. Apparently it's okay for folks on the (far) right to endlessly slander and smear the folks their candidates of choice are running against.

The double standard is painfully obvious - and repellent.

Civility? I doubt there's any real intent to be civil at this point. I just hope violence doesn't occur, especially considering the frequency and volume of these unhinged attacks and especially the libellous emails being sent to my private clients (and which were forwarded back to me) and the two new anonymous attack blogs.

Non-partisan? Please. The GOP-backed candidates in the city council election are using the politics of personal destruction and coyly pretending to have nothing to do with it. Only the willfully ignorant and complicit refuse to see it.

This election is about the old money and power in Longmont making a savage lunge to retake the reins of power.

It's carefully concerted, cold-blooded and remorseless - much like the recently-ousted administration.

Make sure you vote and get everyone you know to vote - the balance is precarious.

The moneyed interests are counting on your apathy.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

2009-09-20T09:59:00.001-07:00

Another lawsuit - from the folks that keep howling about the cost of lawsuits against the city.

Hm. Santos keeps saying he wasn't bought by the realtors... and now the realtors assn. is fighting to keep the source of donations anonymous. Hm. The right has been howling about 'transparency' and now they're fighting for opacity. Guess it's all about your priorities, especially when priority #1 is winning at any cost and you want that cost kept quiet.

Greg Brophy, up to the usual GOP dirty tricks - again.

2009-09-10T16:33:00.001-07:00

Just got a mailer from:

WTP - Energy Tax Response Unit

Attn: Sen. Greg Brophy, Legislative Dept.

Post Office Box 88

Denver, CO 80201

with the ominous message:

NOTICE OF CARBON ASSESSMENT

OFFICIAL DOCUMENT #6Y835

PENALTY FOR UNAUTHORIZED USE

and it contains a badly-duplicated courier-type mailer (looks like 1950s technology) filled with gibberish about taxes.

Dear (name);
"To avoid disconnection of your home and office power, please remit payment of $3900 to the United States Treasury."
If the radical environmentalists get their way, "rich" folks like you and me just might receive such a demand to "pay up, or go dark" -- and under "Cap and Trade", there's a back-door production tax on everything - right down to our candles!

It really pains me that this hillbilly nitwit actually represents Wray, Colorado - he dishonors my family name every time he opens his gap-toothed mouth.

The worst part about this mailer is that it's designed to swamp Udall and Markey's phones since it's clearly aimed at older higher-income bracket GOP members.

The right in Colorado is on the run and the dirty tricks are coming out - tell your older right-wing relatives and friends that Greg Brophy is a psychotic idiot (in case they don't already know it) and to ignore this mailer - it's just another 'fear and smear' attempt by the wild-eyed wingnuts.

Margaret and Helen must-read

2009-09-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

The old gals are bang-on the money again, here's a taste:

Margaret. I got your message about Glenn Beck.   Let me just say this about that. Glenn Beck is a loon.   I mean the man is not right in the head. And that’s all I will say about that.

Harold and I just got back from visiting our newest great granddaughter in Dallas. Did you know that there is a billboard on Interstate 35 that says, “Where’s the birth certificate?”   Now what idiot Republican has so much money that he can waste it on that?   Surely there is some charity somewhere that could have put that money to better use.

But even crazier than that is all this fuss about President Obama’s planned speech for school children.   George W. Bush was reading The Pet Goat to a group of elementary students in Florida while planes crashed into the World Trade Center. Not exactly a bright spot in his otherwise dimwitted years as President.   But hey, he was the leader of the free world and still found time to read to children.    Isn’t that sweet? And yet, somehow President Obama giving a speech to school children on the importance of staying in school and making good grades is heresy.

I ask you, Margaret, has the entire Republican Party gone mad?

Enough is enough. All in favor of calling bullshit please raise your hand.

Go read the rest

Just Lay Down

2009-09-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

"Just Lay Down" seems to be the advice coming from the right - except when it's their turn. The Dems aren't supposed to filibuster, just go along when they're in the minority - shut up or we'll use the nuclear option on you! Now that the GOP is in the minority they've used the filibuster more than any other time in history. So much for 'going along' and 'bipartisanship'.

Now we have right-wing Longmont City Council candidates pronouncing that the city should just 'lay down' because a lawsuit 'isn't winnable' - golly, think there's any political motivation there?

All I can say is that the old money and power in Longmont better get a tight grip if they think they're going to take over again - all the noise about 'popular opinion' being against Council is bullshit and the screamers know it. The lame poll with 125 names on it represents a tiny splinter of the city - a splinter that's been jammed in the gears of progress for twenty years. We got that splinter OUT during the last election and my instinct is that the city isn't going to lay down for another violent screwing by the 'screw you, I got mine' crowd.

Throw all the money you want at smear campaigns and internet photocopies of howling wingnuttery, it didn't work for McCain and the GOP and it's not going to work for the Council elections.

People got wise to the 'astroturfing' scams and saw through the Potemkin villages that McCain's campaign tried to use. We saw dissenters being arrested and protest being brutally surpressed. We know how the right rolls - they roll US.

Don't get rolled Longmont, say no to Santos and Baum. Period.

More bullshit from Times-Call

2009-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

I'll bet Dick Lehman is sweating.

Losing the business of publishing city notices is about five digits worth of cash. Instead of leading the way and getting these notices on the web years ago, the Times-Call has kept their head stuck firmly in the sand and now is crying the blues about it.

The 'opinion' piece is a real 'piece' alright...

Here's my comment about it since I suspect it will get pulled for 'abuse' - what a delicious dodge. Anything you don't like suddenly becomes 'abuse' and 'poof' it's gone. Sorry, not when city journalists have their own publishing mechanism.

Hell, I'll publish the damn notices for FREE if the Times-Call can't nut up.

(my comment)

"where the notices can easily be lost in cyberspace with no permanent access or record of publishing" - Not if documentation is kept by the publisher. Is the Times-Call management saying implicitly that they can't keep good records? Or is this just about the loss of the paper-publishing money? Government is drowning in paper - which can be 'lost' just as easily - and we need to go to easier-to-maintain and easier-to-search systems. This letter is clearly yet another political attack from opponents of the current city council. Weak tea folks. Weak tea.

Look Who's Talking About Shame

2009-08-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

527 votes in a Times-Call poll about LifeBridge lawsuit?

124 names (lots anonymous) on a lame-ass poll?

Longmont : 71,093 population in 2000.

527 / 71,093 = 0.7% << this is the actual measurement of complete wingnuts in Longmont. I.E. NO THREAT.

What utter bullshit.

The right wing in Longmont needs another enema and maybe some remedial math.

There's lies, damn lies and statistics, all of which the GOP is skilled at using.

Please, laxatives, quickly.

Yale's Cowardice

2009-08-28T17:18:00.001-07:00

Wow.

That's nuts.

(waves to stalkers and giggles)

Rude Pundit on Kennedy

2009-08-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

From the Rude Pundit.

Ted Kennedy: There Went a Man:

Finally, we must take a measure of the man. Not the person, or the legislator, or the family member. No, the man. Ted Kennedy was more of a man's man than any of the brush-clearing, hick-talking, pick-up driving politicians who overcompensate again and again by faking it. No, Kennedy demonstrated, through all the ups and downs, again and again what a real man is. It is a type of masculinity that we rarely see anymore because it is a fearlessness that few are allowed to embrace.

Put aside the money for a moment. Wealth makes life easier but it does not make one happy and it is not a measure of character. Don't you think that Kennedy would have given away his whole fortune to have his brothers back?

For a man does not shy away from the tragedies of his life. When John was assassinated, Kennedy took up the cause of the civil rights movement as his first major action in the Senate. When Bobby was killed, he began to push even harder against the Vietnam War. When his 12 year-old son, Ted, Jr., had to have a leg amputated to prevent the cancer there from spreading in 1973, Kennedy threw himself into the cause of rights for people with disabilities as much as his sister, Eunice, had, a crusade that would last the rest of his life.

A man fucks up again and again, but he owns his mistakes and learns from them. Ted Kennedy wore his flaws openly in his personal life. Some of it was the price of juvenile overindulgence (even as an adult) and some of it was just stupidity. The question is less about fucking up, but how a man reacts to it. He was kicked out of Harvard for cheating on an exam, so he joined the military (although he would achieve none of the glory of John and Joe, Jr.). When the Chappaquiddick incident happened, he nutted up and told the voters to decide on his fate. He was a hard-drinking son of a bitch who screwed around on his first wife, a Dean Martin-like punchline to jokes about alcoholism and a tabloid laughingstock. During that period, among other things, he was getting funding cut off to Chile because of Pinochet's barbarism, pushing legislation to help political refugees, getting sanctions imposed on apartheid-era South Africa, negotiating with Gorbachev on nuclear missiles, stopping Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination, and strengthening the Civil Rights Act. What did you do on your years-long bender? He paid, too, with his presidential ambitions dashed. And when he was slugging 'em back like a frat boy with his nephews on a night that ended with William Kennedy Smith arrested on an accusation of rape, Kennedy made another public reckoning about who he was as a man in a speech in October 1991. And despite all he had accomplished before, he grew up, finally, understanding that to be a man one must become a man.

A man works to help those who need help. A real man is a liberal because a real man is unafraid of change and progress and difference. Let us come back to the money. The Kennedy family has always seen wealth as a privilege, a burden, and an opportunity to do good for others. Yes, it is easier to support charities and to have the time to work for various causes. But Kennedy made it his role in government to level the playing field. Where do you wanna go with this? Other than his work that climaxed with the Americans With Disabilities Act, other than his support for civil rights legislation going back to the 1964 act, we could talk about the Ryan White CARE Act, which gave funds to cities hardest hit by the AIDS crisis; we could talk about his intense support for the rights of workers through raising the minimum wage and supporting union goals; we could talk about his work for housing, for education, for women and children, for the Family and Medical Leave Act. We could talk about how he opposed the Iraq War, how he was working to provide educational opportunities to kids in Muslim countries, how he helped end the war in Northern Ireland. We could talk about how he believed, his entire career, that health care for everyone was a right, not a privilege, with COBRA and S-CHIP having been accomplished because of him. He was an unabashed, proud liberal whose full-throated speeches roared in defense of the whole ideology against the ignorance of those who would keep progress from being achieved.

A man is willing to embrace his enemies. Yesterday, Ron Reagan, Jr. had his mother on his radio show to talk about how much the Reagans loved Ted Kennedy. Kennedy and Nancy Reagan were allies on stem cell research funding, but the former first lady talked about how she and her husband were dear friends with Kennedy. Kennedy worked with Orrin Hatch, Richard Lugar, both George Bushes, and anyone he could to accomplish his goals. That's called politics. Compromise was a willingness for both sides to move. When George W. Bush dicked him over on No Child Left Behind funding, Kennedy had to know that a tide had shifted in a way that was going to make the entire process of legislating more rancorous and difficult. The political nature of the nation was moving into entrenchment, which was not how Ted Kennedy functioned.

A man knows how to die. A man understands that the end comes and doesn't desperately cling to every millisecond of life that medical science can squeeze out of him. No, a man dies with his family, in a place he loves, having done much, knowing that there was much still to be done, but accepting that there's only so much one can live.

The Rude Pundit 8/27/09 7:12 AM Rude One

Hyperbole and Prevarication

2009-08-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

That's basically all the wingnuts in Longmont have left - exaggerations and outright lies.

There is currently a claim on the web that Councilwoman Karen Benker 'cut off' Public Invited To Be Heard at a recent Longmont City Council meeting she was presiding over as Mayor Pro Tem.

Fact: The session in question was a study session.
Fact: During study sessions there is only one (1) PITBH section, not two as at regular Council meetings.
Fact: Citizens are asked to sign up ahead of time and have ample time to do so.
Fact: No one spoke up and asked to be heard at the end of the only PITBH segment.
Fact: During Pirnack's Council, PITBH segments were always later in council meetings rather than at the beginning, the first often not until 10 PM.
Fact: The Pirnack-led Council reduced the PITBH segment down to 3 minutes from 5, almost half.
Fact: The new Council reinstated the first PITBH segment at the beginning to encourage more public input.
Fact: This Council instituted the 'Coffee with Council' quarterly Town Hall meetings to give citizens more chances to talk to Council (and they've been very popular as reported by the Times-Call).
Fact: This Council began having a booth at most Main Street events to encourage input.
Fact: Claiming that Councilwoman Benker actively discouraged public comment has no basis in truth.

I believe there is a determined and systematic campaign to spread lies and misinformation about Councilmembers Benker, McCoy, Hansen and Levison - furthermore I believe it is politically-motivated, heavily funded and supervised by the Colorado GOP and elements of the recently-ousted Marilyn Musgrave's office.

Better

2009-08-26T22:12:00.001-07:00

Go check out Jesus' General.

Good stuff.

It's ON!

2009-08-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Ever since we got rid of the Big Muskrat I thought this blog's work was done... well, apparently not since there are still some muskrats skulkin' around in my neck 'o the woods!

The Hunt is ON!

Stay tuned!