Biffster’s World

Bring the boys back home.
Bring the boys back home.
Please don’t leave the children on their own, no, no.
Bring the boys back home.

Huzzah! Here’s yet another reason to rejoice over Bill Ritter being elected governor last year. The Colorado governor signed a bill to protect gays from discriminatio (via 9NEWS.com):

Gay people would be protected from being fired based on their sexual orientation under a bill signed into law Friday by Governor Bill Ritter.

This is the same type of bill that former governor Bill Owens vetoed. Twice! Ritter has been a breath of fresh air as Governor. I am proud to stand up and say that I voted for him. Sure, he’s made a couple of questionable moves (vetoing the union bill, for example). But even then, it appeared that Ritter acted because of what he believes to be right, not due to external pressures.

I love living in a blue state!

Drinking Liberally
Drinking Liberally®

Promoting democracy one pint at a time.
209 chapters in 44 states plus DC.

So what happens when a state has both a Democratic congress and Governor? Turns out, really, really good things. Including a bill signed by Governor Ritter earlier this week guaranteeing no funding delays for developmentally delayed kids (via 9News.com):

Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) signed Senate Bill 4 into law Tuesday at the annual lunch to benefit the Autism Society of Colorado. The measure would streamline the funding process for early medical intervention for families like the Efirds.

There are roughly 4,000 Colorado children, two percent of the state’s kids, with significant developmental delays.

Good things, man. Good things.

So is this a case of rats leaving a sinking ship, or just a man trying to cover his own ass? Dunno for certain, but Michael Brown came out swinging hard against President Bush about the Hurricane Katrina recovery disaster (courtesy 9News.com):

Brown said his biggest mistake during the handling of Katrina was not standing up to his bosses and letting the American people know how the president and his aides did not want to hear the truth. He says subsequent media reports have shown him briefing the president as to the problems in New Orleans and questioning his staff when he heard people were being sent to the Superdome which he asserted was not safe.

“What really irritates me the most is that the leadership in this administration failed me miserably during Katrina,” Brown said.

I find this extremely interesting. George W. Bush stood by Michael Brown for a long time, even though everyone else in the country was screaming about how horrible Katrina relief was handled. Brown helped destroy an American city, and he deserved to be raked across the coals. Yet there was the famous quote from Bush talking about how good a job Brown was doing. Bush showed a lot of loyalty in Brown.

Which is what makes Brown throwing Bush and Chertoff under the bus so interesting. And odd. Is Brown just in self-preservation mode now? Actually, that is probably the answer…

9News.com is running an article about wind power in Colorado. For those of you from outside the state, our current Democratic governor Bill Ritter ran his campaign based heavily on the promise of renewable energy. He said that he would go out of his way to make Colorado a leader in renewable energy, including wind and solar. And he’s already making a difference:

“Why come to Colorado? At some point, it’s a risk-reward game for us. To spend more time and more money and maybe not get a wind project in a state in the northeast or on the west coast, we’re going to come to a place where we can spend capital and affect public policy in a postive way,” said O’Sullivan.

In other words: Colorado was chosen because our political climate is friendly towards companies that are going after alterantive energy. FPL felt the change in the air here since Ritter moved into office, and decided this is where they could make money.

So what exactly is Florida Power & Light Enegry going to do here?

The project includes the construction of 267 wind turbines creating enough energy to power 120,000 households. FPL will construct a 78-mile-long transmission line to connect the Peetz facility to Xcel’s Pawnee substation near Brush. Up to 350 people will be hired to help build the wind farm and transmission line. Afterwards, 20 full-time workers will live in the community to keep it operational.

In the end, this is going to be good for just about everyone. FPL will make a lot of money, Xcel will make a lot of money, there’ll be jobs created here in Colorado (and in a small town like Brush!), and Colorado will take a step forwards toward becoming an alternative energy giant.

I love stories like this!

I spend quite a bit of time on Usenet newsgroups. I mostly stick around the linux-based groups, but every now and then poke my head into other groups, such as alt.politics.democrat. I stumbled into a conversation, and came up with a fairly good rant. Good enough to repost here…

Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 14:23:38 -0500
From: Michael Fierro Newsgroups: alt.computer.consultants,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.democrat[...]
User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.1pl1 (Debian)
Subject: Re: nancy palosi sets america’s forign policy

On 2007-05-04, Steve rambled on thusly:

> far as your other silly comments I guess 9/11 was just a bad dream and there
> is no Al Qaeda in Iraq at this time. As far as hiding under my bed that’s

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Since we started the war with Iraq,
Al-Qaeda has moved into Iraq, true. But there was no connection between the
two until we changed the dynamics of the region.

> more along the lines of those of you who can’t stomach relatively light
> military casualties thousands of miles away. What will you do when it’s

3200 dead American soldiers is “light military casualties.” Are you sure
you’re American? You don’t appear to care much for our troops. Tell you
what: ask the families and friends of those 3200 soldiers if those were
“light military casualties.”

> heavy civillian casualties in the streets of major American cities? Where
> are you going to run to then?

If you really think that anyone short of China could actually stage a major
invasion of our country, then you’re insane. None of the terrorist
organizations could do so. None of the countries supporting terrorist
organizations could do so. You’re talking about an operation that would
require a massive naval force (unless they are all Canadian or Mexican),
air support (or our air force would blow the ships out of the water before
they got close to our shores) and millions of soldiers on the ground.

As for terrorist attacks like 9/11, there almost definitely will be more.
The current administration has done nothing to secure the homeland against
such attacks. If anything, we are even more vulnerable, since so many
National Guard and Reserve members are in Iraq right now.

Don’t fall for the Republican talking points: fighting in Iraq will NOT
keep the terrorists from attacking us here. Fighting over there actually
weakens our ability to respond to such an attack here. Unless we are very
lucky, we will get attacked again.

The question then will be: who do we blame? And why didn’t the government
protect us?

Don’t cower under your bed against the supposed terrorist hordes who would
stage an impossible invasion. Instead, stand up and demand that the current
administration work to improve homeland security. And get us out of Iraq,
where all that we are doing losing our troops and encouraging more and more
people to join the terrorist ranks.

–
Michael Fierro (aka Biffster) biffster@NOSPAM-REALLYgmail.com
http://aperfectworld.biffster.org Y!: miguelito_fierro AIM: mfierro1
–
“I am now telling the computer EXACTLY what he can do with a
lifetime supply of chocolate.” - “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory”

The fact that so many people are scared witless about scary Islamic fundamental terrorists just baffles me…