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The Progressive Political Blog for Colorado
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(That event in San Francisco might be hard to find as all the Bush street signs were changed to Obama signs last night: http://www.boingboing.net/2009... - promoted by johne)
It's difficult to know how much of Obama adulation is due to the awesomeness that is Barrack, or the awfulness that is George Bush. The fact that there isn't more of these parties is testament to the former, but you can't ignore the fact that Bush's unpopularity is almost as historic as Obama's popularity.
Hope and optimism may no longer allow itself to be bullied, but that doesn't mean that Bush-era partisan animosities aren't going to take one last shot before we start our new era of post-partisanship. The Countdown to Bush's Last Day finally reached zero, and some folks want to celebrate:
Hello all from DC. I'm finally back in the hotel room after the Inauguration. Very quickly: inauguration itself - great. Inauguration crowd management - epic fail. And now, a few details.
For the few of us still in town, what are you doing tonight?
Even if you're staying in, here's some help from Living Liberally. Our Spartanburg, SC chapter had a drink recipe competition:
"Yes We Caffiene"
- Coffee, Brandy and Chrystalized Pineapple
Team of Rivals:
- Kahlua, Cocoanut rum, Baileys, layered in shot glass.
Obama Mama:
- Vodka, Kahlua, Coconut Liquer,and Milk over ice.
Hope Float:
- Baileys, Butterschotch Schnapps, float Creme de Cocoa on top.
"How Sweet it Is"
- Southern Comfort, Grapefruit Juice, Grenadine
"Obama Drop"
- Vodka, Blue Curacao, Lemon Juice in shot glass rimmed with sugar
Obama Express-O:
- Expresso, Vodka and Baileys.
Washington Apple:
- Apple Pucker, Cranberry Juice, Sprite, and Crown Royal.
Obama Mama II:
- Vodka, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice, Blue Curreco, Cherry Garnish.
In other news Aaron was on the teevee yesterday with Democrats Work.
I also noticed this:
Really? really? Rocky staffers are going to march? You'll forgive me if I don't laugh. For all the protest marches over the past many years that have been virtually ignored and vastly under-reported, this is their answer?
Remember all the republican hissy fits about coming new oil and gas rules affect on jobs in that industry? What's really happening:
ConocoPhillips and other energy companies have been coping with a precipitous drop in fuel prices. The problem is exacerbated for natural gas produced in western Colorado because of a lack of pipeline capacity to get gas to more lucrative markets across the country.
Numerous companies, among them Williams Production RMT and EnCana Oil & Gas (USA), have announced plans to reduce drilling rig counts in and around Garfield County, which leads Colorado in drilling activity. Companies also have cited factors including tighter lending markets and concerns associated with stricter oil and gas development rules being implemented in Colorado.
Notice what's listed last. Can we even believe that? Of any industry, big oil has been perhaps more opposed to regulations than even the banking industry. They certainly wouldn't misrepresent the impact of those new regulations would they? Naaaawww.
update by Johne Sorry, hulu, but I will not have Fox News on this site. Not to mention that I couldn't find a way to turn off autoplay. I'll have another stream up shortly.
And, just as I was about to figure out how to embed the mogolous stream of cspan it's capacity got borked. next...
Here's a few that may be acceptable. Take your pick.
USA Today
Democracy Now
I still had to set autoplay to off. Why isn't that a default?!!! grrrr. netiquette people!
Senate Joint Resolution 6 (SJR09-006) was introduced by Senator Betty Boyd and Representative Jim Riesberg to ask for the reauthorization of the S-CHIP program previously vetoed by Bush. Keep in mind that joint resolutions are just that, resolutions. They're about as binding as the new years resolutions we try to adopt.
Part of SJR09-006
(1) That we, the members of the Sixty-seventh General Assembly urge Congress to reauthorize SCHIP to enable Colorado to continue to provide quality, affordable health insurance coverage to nearly 60,000 children and to increase that number over time, extending coverage to the remaining uninsured children...
Pretty simple right? Well, not to Senators Renfroe and Harvey. Renfroe tried to introduce the following amendment
"This amendment comes just right out of the eligibility requirements for this plan. The plan does state that they treat a woman and her child as two persons. And, so I just want us to recognize that within the resolution that we're sending off."
Actually I can't find anything like that. In fact in CRS 25.5-8-109 it says
(5) (a) (I) A pregnant woman whose family income exceeds one hundred thirty-three percent of the federal poverty level but does not exceed two hundred five percent of the federal poverty level shall be presumptively eligible for the plan. Once determined eligible for the plan, a pregnant woman shall be considered to be continuously eligible throughout the pregnancy and for the sixty days following the pregnancy, even if the woman's eligibility would otherwise terminate during such period due to an increase in income. Upon birth, a child born to a woman eligible for the plan shall be eligible for the plan and shall be automatically enrolled in the plan in accordance with the eligibility requirements for children specified in subsection (4) of this section.
Furthermore, the state medical services board interprets state law and has their own set of rules. Within those we find the following:
110.1 To be eligible for the Children's Basic Health Plan, an eligible person shall: Eff 03/30/2008
1468417
A. 1. Be less than 19 years of age; or Eff 03/30/2008
1468418
2. Be a pregnant woman Eff 03/30/2008
So, Senator Harvey jumps in:
I have just been looking at the SCHIP website that uhm has the number as of November 2008, SCHIP enrollment, is 59004 children and 1557 pregnant women. That source is from the Joint Budget Committee. And of the pregnant women, a pregnant woman counts as two people."
(b) A pregnant woman whose family income does not exceed two hundred twenty-five percent of the federal poverty level, adjusted for family size, and who is not eligible for medicaid; except that, subject to available appropriations, the department may increase the percentage of the federal poverty level for purposes of eligibility to up to two hundred fifty percent.
I'm not sure where the idea of a pregnant woman counting as two comes from but it's not from state statute nor do I see any reference in documents that talk about the poverty level.
Regardless, this shows that even in a simple resolution to call for the reauthorization of SCHIP, there are republicans that want, as Senator Shaffer remarked, to "inject abortion politics" into everything.
Those republicans might want to pay more attention to what's happening at the federal level. The DCCC lists 10 republican congresspeople who voted against SCHIP and lost their seats. That list includes a certain congresswoman from the 4th CD.
They might also want to listen to the public. A WSJ poll found that 65% of people consider it a good idea to expand "government-assisted health insurance coverage and unemployment benefits"
Specifically in Renfroe's district he might want to notice that Weld county voted down such an anti-choice definition by 68%. Something tells me Senator Renfroe isn't listening to his constituents.
No votes on the amendment were:
Sandoval, Romer, Tapia, Isgar, Veiga, Schwartz, Heath, Hudak, Carroll, Keller, Gibbs, Tochtrop, Bacon, Shaffer, Newell, Hodge, Boyd, Foster, Morse, and Spence (R)
The following voted against the resolution
Brophy ,Renfroe, Harvey, Cadman, Lundberg, Kester, Schulteis, Kopp, White, Penry, Sheffel, King, Mitchel, Spence
Finally, here's some of that audio (sent to me by senate majority staff upon request):
3. Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter ventured to Colorado Springs as part of his "State of the State Tour," covering a variety of towns and cities, to reiterate the key themes of his annual speech by the same name to kick off the legislative session.
2. Ritter brought along none other than Michael Bennet, a convenient way to "introduce" Colorado's future U.S. senator to friendly — yet certainly curious, if not skeptical — audiences as quickly as possible.
1. Astoundingly, a crowd estimated at perhaps 400 people (my educated guess) jammed like sardines into the Carnegie Room at Penrose Library downtown, on short notice, with limited advance publicity.
Astounding crowds is a good thing. It's been a slow coming-out period for Dems in the Springs. I'm pretty sure this is a permanent development, but the fired-up base wasn't there to kiss Ritter's ring:
Is anyone in town? Reading my twitters is seems a good chunk of the people I know are in DC for some strange reason. Is something going on there I should know about?
Anyway, here's a selection of Colorado news from the past few days.
Gov. Ritter is starting to lay out specific recommendations of where to cut. It ain't pretty.
Will the per-diems be abused? Legislators are being asked not to use these on days they're not at the capitol.
Lawmakers are trying to find a TABOR compromise. Of course, the usual suspects just want to get in the way.
Still no Rocky sale, but they're still reporting news.
Interior will slow the commercial leasing of oil shale; reshape relations with American Indian tribes; and shift the department's almost exclusive focus on fossil fuels when it comes to fulfilling the nation's energy needs, Salazar said.
PERA the state employee pension plan may be up to $30 billion short.
Long live Marilyn Musgrave! The HD49 vacancy committee chose BJ Nikkel over Ray Walter. Nikkel has worked for Musgrave, which the vacancy committee cited as the reason why they chose her. Walter has removed the state seal from all but his "principles" page. I guess he's stickin to 'em.
From the what the fuck department, CU is hosting Dinesh D'Souza and Christopher Hitchens to debate God. Who's D'Souza? Among other things, he's the author of "The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11"
A whole host of local and national environment groups are suing to stop oil shale development.
Their was a story in the Times Call about a Michigan company coming to Longmont to work closely with Vestas the wind turbine manufacturer in Windsor. However, their website is crappy and I can no longer find the story
Despite former protests, Jason Salzman has found Rocky editor John Temple will discuss how the government could intervene in the Rocky sale. I guess he only wants the right people talking about it.
Congressman Polis is expecting some $415 Million in federal aid for education in Colorado.
Someone tell me how this makes sense:
Legislators have introduced bills to change or postpone the oil and gas rules. One introduced Friday by Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, proposes barring rules protecting wildlife if existing oil and gas development would be harmed.
Woody Guthrie was inspired to write the song "This Land is Your Land" as a reaction to what he saw as a growing rightwing nationalism. Specifically Woody was disturbed by the prevalence of the song "God Bless America" and originally titled his own piece "God Blessed America For Me".
The original lyrics to Guthrie's peoples anthem were far more political than what we know today. The so-called "radical" verses were recorded but not released until much later. Yesterday at the pre-Inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial Guthrie compatriot Pete Seeger performed and he sang the radical verses. The folks at Crooked Timber fill us in on the details,
Perhaps you gotta be steeped in left history to get excited by this or be Joe Klein-But the only time I broke down in tears watching the big concert today was when Pete Seeger, all 89 years of him, started singing the two "radical" verses of This Land Is Your Land that almost always get cut when the song is sung in public, or in countless elementary schools across the nation (pasted below). I bet Pete was thinking, "This is the way Woody wrote it and so I'm going to make sure the whole country hears it." How long before some right-wing blogger mentions that this song was written by a member of the
Communist Party-whose best buddy and fellow comrade made it to the Lincoln Memorial to bring it all back home?
When you add this to all the encomia to King and to Rosa Parks and to Lincoln the Emancipator-well, the left's definition of patriotism is now dominant-only six years after anti-war posters reading, "Peace is Patriotic" sounded absurdly marginal. Change I can believe in...
"As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Chorus
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me."
Reading this story gave me goosebumps. Pete Seeger is a national treasure and the fact that he was asked to perform at all is, I think, very telling about the social conscience of the man we just elected to lead us and the people that he has chosen to surround himself with. On my desk sits a famous picture of Woody Guthrie, cigarette falling out of his mouth, guitar hanging there with the the saying "This Machine Kills Fascists" prominentley displayed. Woody and Pete used the power of song to organize workers, to protest racial discrimination and to bring a social conscience to the world.
This is indeed a time of great hope for our nation. This land was made for you and me.
-update by johne here's the "official" version from HBO. (Steve, you have to remove the "allow script access" parameter that soapblox doesn't like)
Over a week ago I attended the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute's Budget Works Seminar. Writing one post about the entire session was daunting so I kept procrastinating. However, breaking it up into smaller posts over several days seems much more manageable both for me and all of you. This is part 1, but all articles will be under the tag: budget works.
I'll be covering the unique restrictions placed on the Colorado budget (TABOR, 23, etc), how the money is distributed, what are current situation is, and finally some good and bad news about our future.
When talking about the Colorado state budget, the difficulties placed on the legislature by passed amendments and legislation, and the current nausea inducing situation, the first thing one normally talks about is TABOR, the Tax Payer's Bill of Rights. Yes, this constitutional amendment is important, but there are some other things that also affect how the state can collect and spend its money.
The first, and oldest, of these is the Gallagher amendment. No, it has nothing to do with watermelons or sledgehammers. Adopted in 1982, it capped non-residential property taxes at 29% and residential property taxes at 21%. It also set a distribution of 55% of tax dollars collected being from non-residential and 45% from residential.
However, as more and more homes were constructed, to keep this 55/45 ratio, the residential property tax rate has dropped from 21% in 1982 to under 8% in 2003.
And, guess what is the main area of state spending funded with property taxes? That's right, K-12 education. K-12 education is further hampered as TABOR confounds what the state used to be able to do address school funding to get around Gallagher.
To talk about that, I have to describe a mill levy. I used to think it had something to do with saw mills or perhaps grain. Turns out I was being too literal. The word mill has a few meanings, but it turns out a mill levy is "a property tax rate based on dollars per thousand of assessed valuation." I would have expected it to be spelled mil levy where "mil" is an abreviation for one thousand, but what do I know? Anyway, local governments were able to freely float mil levys to equalize education funding until TABOR came along.
A perfect picture of what's been going on can be seen here:
source: CFPI budget works slide
(click for a larger image)
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm in DC right now in one of the most exciting times in recent memory - the inauguration of Barack Obama as our next President. For now, a few photos:
First, a metro ticket with a photo of a guy who looks very familiar:
As you probably know, President-elect Obama has called on all Americans to honor Dr. King by participating in the National Day of Service on January 19th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the Presidential Inauguration Committee has asked Veterans for America to be part of this great volunteer effort.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden, left, his wife Jill, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, pose for photographs in Wilmington, Del., Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009, on their inaugural whistle stop train trip to Washington.
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
(And they didn't touch on the imagery of aborting the donut hole. Someone, must save those poor aborted donut holes! - promoted by johne)
(this diary originally was titled "Glad Anti-Choicers Didn't Let Me Down," but then they went and did something even more ludicrous that necessitated a more salacious headline)
With the embarrassing defeat of Amendment 48 last fall, anti-choicers could be licking their wounds wounds these days, assessing whether the give-rights-to-eggs concept is really the best strategy to win their ideological war. But no, they're touting the spectacular failure of Amendment 48 as a recruiting tool to convince the public that women are modern-day plantation owners owners.they say that Krispy Kreme's free inaugural day donut gimmick -- predicated on a celebration of freedom of choice reflected by the 2008 election results -- is anti-choice. Makes sense to me, too. Now, I know logic has no place in virulent anti-choice land, but sometimes I can't help highlighting the unique...marketing tactics?...employed. More gems after the jump.
Happy Friday and welcome to the eleventh installment of the Dog's ongoing series on the United States Constitution. This series is looking at the entire Constitution and talking about the seeming meaning of each section. Up to today we have been going over the Articles of the Constitution. If this is the first time you have joined this series, you can find the other ten installments at the following links:
The Senate today voted to give Wall Street another $350 billion today. The vote tells us a lot about the new Senate (you can see the full tally here - and remember, on this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote against releasing the $350 billion bailout tranche).
For instance, both Tom and Mark Udall (D-CO), who voted against the bailout in the House when running for the Senate, switched their votes to support the bailout. You may recall that Mark Udall said he was against the bailout not because he didn't trust George Bush, but specifically because he was against voting for a bill that had no oversight measures. And yet now he's voting for the same bailout that includes no new oversight measures. This suggests that the Udalls (like lots of political aristocracy) have absolutely no principles - that, in fact, they are the worst stereotype of politicians: The kind of people who go populist when facing election, and then goes corporatist when he's comfortably insulated in Washington.
2010 CO-06 candidate David Canter is wasting no time calling attention to Coffman's voting record:
Believe it or not, on January 9th newly elected Congressman Mike Coffman, my opponent in the 6th Congressional District, voted AGAINST equal rights for women --not once, but twice!
These were Mr. Coffman's FIRST TWO VOTES in Congress, and they give us an idea of what we can expect from the next two years. I am running for Congress to replace Mr. Coffman and I say that's not acceptable!
The Declaration of Independence says that "all men are created equal." But what about women? The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution says that "all persons" shall have equal protection under the law, but let's face it, throughout American history women have not had equal protection, and they do not enjoy completely equal rights even today.
Did you know that research released in April 2007, shows that just one year out of college, women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field. Ten years after graduation, the pay gap widens. To match men's earnings for 2008, women have to work from January 2008 to April 2009--an extra four months!
This is the countdown clock at the Skylark Lounge. What're all'y'all doing on the 20th?
I didn't want to try to plan something huge and enormous with Drinking Liberally especially since I'm working on a bunch of other projects.
In our place, the HD2 Dems will be at the Skylark. They'll start around 6pm with a 7pm replay of the inauguration. Afterwords the swing band The Jason Justice Group will perform. They're asking for $10 contribution at the door.
The Denver Young Dems are having a happy hour starting at 5 at The Corner Office, 1401 Curtis. The even is open to everyone and is free. I hope I'm allowed, as I no longer qualify as a Young Dem.
That event is just down the street from the state party's big hootenanny at the Westin Tabor Center Hotel, 1672 Lawrence. Tickets are available: http://www.coloradodems.us/eve...
In my neighborhood, the Oriental Theater is hosting a bash with a large number of bands. Proceeds will benefit the arts and music programs at DPS schools. They're also asking for canned food items to benefit the Bienvenidos Food Bank.
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