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Tue Aug 17, 2010 at 07:16:34 AM MDT
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For 28 weeks in late 2008 and 2009 I wrote a series on the Constitution. It grew out of a realization that while I knew a couple of the Amendments I had never really read the whole thing. Worse I had never taken the time to think about it in part and as a whole. If you're interested you can find the last one here, and there are links to all 27 of the others. The point is not the series but what I learned from doing it.
There seems to be a failure by many of our fellow citizens to understand that the Constitution is not a Chinese Buffet where you can go straight for the sweet and sour chicken but leave off the bean sprouts. Our Constitution is more of a tapestry, where if you pull out one string that offends you the whole thing is weakened.
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Mon Aug 16, 2010 at 06:50:30 AM MDT
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Let me be clear from the start, the internment of 110,000 Japanese American citizens and residents is not exactly the same as the recent effort to stop the construction of mosques in Manhattan and elsewhere in the nation, but it is on the same spectrum, just like bigotry, prejudice and ethic hate are on the same spectrum.
It is one of our nation's greatest shames that we interred our fellow citizens without any due process and merely because of their ethnicity. In the words of President Regan in the official apology was done in a fit of "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership" .
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Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 09:15:24 AM MDT
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Happy Sunday Bread Heads!
This week we'll be baking Cinnamon Rolls! Now there are as many cinnamon roll recipes as there are stars in the sky. This one was developed for my Dad. One time when he was visiting my house he asked if I knew how to make good cinnamon rolls. That "good" is always a danger sign for a baker, as it is a totally subjective measure. Still after some thought and a batch or two I managed to settle on a recipe that Dad loved and I think you'll really enjoy as well.
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Fri Aug 13, 2010 at 20:11:16 PM MDT
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( - promoted by Fong)
Don't let anyone tell you Mark Udall is going to play it safe for six years, make easy calls on bland issues, and undo the taint of the half-assed "Boulder Liberal" smear compliment Dick Wadhams tried to use against him ad nauseam in '08.
Nosireebob, this guy has Proud Progressive tattooed to the inside of his eyelids: "Thank you Al Franken, John Kerry, Mark Udall, and all other Senators who favor Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau! Thank you for putting Americans first!" Next from Mark: taking up for the Public Option where Michael Bennet petered out and calling out John McCain, if only privately, on his warmongering so we can rebuild our national parks.
Cuz we know they're going to call Mark the same thing no matter what he does, anyway.
Don't we, Mark?
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Fri Aug 13, 2010 at 09:02:15 AM MDT
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Well, Holy Crap! It looks as though there are a lot more conservative readers here at the Great Orange Satan than I thought. In twice in the last month I have been singled out by the Newsbusters crowd as someone to vilify. I was wondering what the sudden up tick in Radical Right e-mail that I have been getting was all about.
The first time was for my July 30th article about the Radical Right's hysterics about the building of a mosque (really more like a YMCA) two blocks from the 9/11 site. The second was about yesterday's post pointing out pointing out the failure of the Radical Right by thinking that we are at war with all of Islam.
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Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 07:44:24 AM MDT
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Nearly every oath of service in this nation includes the phrase "Defend and protect the Constitution of the United States of America" in some form or the other. Not having a King we needed an object of loyalty, something bigger than the individual to focus our loyalty on. It was well planned by the Framers that when taking office each servant of the people would swear to uphold and protect the very document which created this nation.
It is therefore shocking how few of our fellow citizens actually get know or understand what the Constitution says. We have multiple issues where the public opinion seems to be against the Constitutions very clear demands for all citizens to have the same rights. The big culture war issue has been about the right of gay citizens to marry the person of their choice. Time and again the public has voted to deny this right to their fellow citizens.
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Wed Aug 11, 2010 at 21:21:32 PM MDT
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Ever since I discovered squarestate.net, it has been a forum for progressives to air their internal disputes. I have stayed out of it for many reasons but through it all, democracy has prevailed. I don't like all the outcomes of last night's primary. Some people I care about and supported will not be going on to the general, but we did have a free and fair election.
The second most painful thing about democracy is that my causes don't always win. But, the most painful thing is when people allow the losses to drive them away from the process. Our world is not decided during any one election. I thought we would never recover from the travesty we saw in 2000. But now that is so long ago, you may not even know what I'm talking about. If your leadership is not exactly the one you want, the answer is not to be less involved. The answer is to be MORE involved. I know it's hard when you work tirelessly for a cause you believe in and still fail. But the larger cause that you have worked for has not gone away.
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Wed Aug 11, 2010 at 17:02:53 PM MDT
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WUT? This was brunged to my attention:
AEG Live, producers of the Mile Hi Music Festival, featuring such culturally challenging acts as The Steve Miller Band, The Dave Matthews Band, The Jack Johnson Band and the New Weezer (which kills brain cells and kittens), is mounting legal precedent and pre-suing bootleggers who don't yet exist because the event hasn't happened yet. They're using local, state, and off-duty police officers to do this... stuff. Ya know, because we have all that extra revenue just waiting to be used to fight crimes that don't yet exist?
So there are some briefs, one with a bunch of empty slots where names of people who are charged with the future crime should be. These people are described to become as such:
The brief also says the unnamed defendants "are not neophytes, but rather somewhat sophisticated businessmen who operate in stealth to thwart the legitimate rights of Plaintiff."
Some lawyers defend the action as appropriate. One trademark lawyer pointed out to us that on the criminal side, courts empower police officers with the discretion to execute temporary remedies. And that in this instance, bootleggers are too nomadic to be served summons.
Ooh, look out! Roving bands of gypsy thieves of future property! I don't know about you, but I'm overjoyed to live in a country where profits from the patriotically innovative event coordination industry is used to spawn lawsuits against misdeeds from the future, all while using our tax dollars to fight their wars against the thought crime of copyright infringement. It makes me feel fulfilled of the human spirit.
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Wed Aug 11, 2010 at 11:08:28 AM MDT
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( - promoted by Fong)
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes said he has a plan to deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Newsflash: ICE already does this, routinely, on the federal government's dime. But thanks, Dan, for suggesting that Colorado pay for it instead.
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Wed Aug 11, 2010 at 07:34:23 AM MDT
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This spring and summer there was a bit of a employment boost due to our once a decade counting of the nation. For many it came at just the right time as the benefits available from unemployment are fairly minimal and the census paid the enumerators (the folks doing the actual door-to-door work) $16.95 an hour. A couple of months on the census also was long enough that many of these folks will be able to file new claims and restart the clock on benefits.
This is all to the good, that is until State unemployment rules kick in. You see, many states don't look at your last job to calculate what you will receive in benefits. Places like Colorado look at the last year of wages to determine your benefits. One formula takes the highest wages from two consecutive quarters and divides that by 26 then multiplies it by .6. This gives a benefit of 60% of wages, capped at $445. Or they look at the whole year, divide by 52 then divide that by 2 to get the weekly benefit.
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Tue Aug 10, 2010 at 17:43:10 PM MDT
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Anyone wanna state what they think is going to happen tonight? Is there a primary in one of your many districts?
Aside from the Senate and statewide primaries, there are some HDs and SDs to watch.
Senate District 20 which is Ruchman v Jahn. Who will go on to face John Odom who loaned his campaign several thousand dollars to get it off the ground where it hovers motionless?
SD5 Where there is a Republican primary between Rep Ellen Roberts and the Tea Party guy Dean Boehler. This is currently held by moderate Dem Bruce Whitehead.
Denver's HD4 is in an 3-way primary between Jennifer Coken, Amber Tafoya, and Dan Pabon.
For me, tonight is like watching the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. As the results come in, I foresee myself standing on tables and screaming things that are NSFW. I'll be clutching my mother's rosary, hiding in the bathroom.
It's too bad this evening's commercials aren't as good.
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Tue Aug 10, 2010 at 11:43:50 AM MDT
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There are many reasons for supporting or not supporting a candidate in a primary race. I could cite many reasons to support either Andrew Romanoff or Michael Bennet -but for Democrats there is really only one thing that they should know about this primary.
It's that Michael Bennet can't win against the Republicans.
From the Hill:
Sen. Bennet faces uphill battle if he wins the primary
The troubling news for Bennet - and other Democratic incumbents - is that only 42 percent of the Colorado voters polled approve of him, and 44 percent disapprove. Moreover, asked whether they wanted to elect a new person or reelect their incumbent, just 34 percent would vote for their incumbent, while 55 percent prefer a new person.
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Tue Aug 10, 2010 at 07:39:02 AM MDT
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Dad, Uncle Otho, Uncle Kenny, all died before they were 70, Mom and my mother-in-law are both likely to die before that age as well. They all died relatively young for various reasons, but none of them lived to see the retirement age radical Republicans like Minority Leader John Boehner and his economic hit man Rep. Mike Pence want to make the new threshold for Social Security benefits. The specious argument that the tanned man and the ghost of budgets passed make is that if we don't do something about Social Security spending the program will not be able to pay the (meager) benefits that are promised. It has exactly no basis in fact, like most radical Republican policy ideas it is not designed to address a problem but to advance a political agenda, this time to dismantle a program that has been loved by the public to the long term credit of the Democrats.
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Mon Aug 09, 2010 at 11:08:23 AM MDT
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This diary is serving to host a chain of emails specifially between School Board Member Jeanne Kaplan,Michael Bennet, Tom Boasberg, Theresa Pena and the rest of the school board. This is to expose the notion that the calls for an audit of the 2008 DPS banking derivative investment are being driven by 'politically motivated board members' - which the email chain below will prove to be factually wrong. In fact it appears Tom Boasberg's and Theresa Pena's opposition to providing an audit is politically motivated to protect themselves and Michael Bennet.
I have redacted the names and emails of everyone except former Superintendent Michael Bennet, current Superintendent Tom Boasberg, school board President Theresa Pena, and Jeanne Kaplan - however the names of the other board members are in the public record.
Everyone reading this diary on other sites will be redirected here to see the full list of emails.
The purpose of the emails is to get information on details of the finances pertaining to the Bank Derivative investment by the board in April of 2008.
The time line of these emails begins a full 15 months before there was even a primary and more astoundingly, 7 months before Michael Bennet was appointed to the Senate.
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Mon Aug 09, 2010 at 10:45:17 AM MDT
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( - promoted by Fong)
UPDATE 2: The Romanoff campaign just email blasted that President Clinton is doing a robocall on Romanoff's behalf. Looks like they have a link to it here.
UPDATE: PPP released their poll, showing a 6 point lead by Bennet (as predicted yesterday) 49-43, highlighting this point:
Bennet's biggest strength is his support with senior citizens, who could account for as much as a third of the voters tomorrow.
Yesterday two "heads up" stories emerged -- one from Colorado Pols and one from me.
I wanted to share a few things on both of those and a few more things circulating.
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