Biffster’s World

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!

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…

There’s a continued push here in Colorado to abolish the death penalty:

The bill to abolish the death penalty in Colorado and create a cold case unit is moving forward in the state legislature.In a 7-4 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved the measure Wednesday. State Representative Paul Weissman, a Democrat from Louisville, says abolishing the death penalty could save millions of dollars which could go elsewhere.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am morally opposed to the death penalty. I don’t see any difference between the state killing someone or a citizen killing someone. Both are wrong.

The issue is being debated in a different way here in Colorado, though.  Instead of debating the morality of the issue,  it is being approached from a financial point-of-view.  That is just different enough that it might pass!

Now as I’ve said before, I don’t know this for certain, but I am fairly certain that Tom Tancredo is a racist. How else can you explain most of his anti-immigrant stances, or his racist-tending ideas? For example, 9NEWS reports that Tancredo wants to have the black and Hispanic congressional caucuses abolished. Apparently, Tancredo believes that these caucuses are equivalent to segregation, which basically just shows that Tancredo has no idea what segregation is.

And don’t get me started on the hypocracy of Tancredo referring to anyone/anything as racist!

I don’t know how Tancredo got elected. And I have no idea at all how he beat Bill Winter in ‘06. Hopefully things change when Tom’s up for re-election in 2008.

I am pretty sick and tired of hearing people say, “Democrats don’t have any ideas! They don’t have any plans for how to make things better. All they can do is bash Republicans.” This is patently false; the Democratic Party has a Six-Point plan for 2006:

The Democratic Party is committed to keeping our nation safe and expanding opportunity for every American. That commitment is reflected in an agenda that emphasizes the security of our nation, strong economic growth, affordable health care for all Americans, retirement security, honest government, and civil rights.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much media coverage about the Six Point Plan. Media, both mainstream and left-leaning, have been ignoring this for some reason. And it is important! These are good points, this is a good platform from which the Democrats should work. Everyone needs to read this plan, to understand what is in store for us now that the House and Senate are under Democratic control.

Things are going to get better!

The folks over at ProgressNowAction tried to interview Marilyn Musgrave and ask her a question posed by an undecided voter in her district. Instead of answering, however, Musgrave cut and ran while those with her tried to manhandle the questioners. Sound far-fetched? Fortunately, there’s video of the whole incident:

via coloradolib and YouTube: John Edwards encourages us to vote, and vote Yes on 42 (Colorado minimum wage increase):

Just in case there was any doubt in your mind who should win the congressional race here in the Highlands Ranch area, watch this YouTube video of the debate between Winter and Tancredo (and jax):

There should be no way for Winter to lose, ‘cept for the fact that registered Republicans outnumber Dems 2-to-1  here…

Yahoo! News has what may be the least surprising headline ever: Democrats have big lead after sex scandal:

A ABC News/Washington Post poll found Democrats held a 54-41 percent lead in the congressional horse race among registered and likely voters, which ABC said was the biggest Democratic lead this close to election day in more than 20 years.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.  Representative Foley’s actions were bad, Speaker of the House Hastert’s coverup was even worse. There was no way that this wouldn’t lead to a massive public backlash against Republicans and towards Democrats. The question is: will this backlash hold up for another four weeks?

Let us hope so!

How much worse can things get for House Republicans right now? Mark Foley’s predilection for little boys would’ve seemed to have been a catastrophe. But instead, Foley’s pediophilia is just the tip of the iceberg. The Republican cover-up is turning out to be the true catastrophe for the House Republicans. One which they aren’t going to recover from.

So just how bad is it? It looks like the coverup has been going on for three years:

At the same time, a congressional aide said in an Associated Press
interview he first warned Hastert’s aides more than three years ago
that Foley’s behavior toward pages was troublesome. That was long
before GOP leaders acknowledged learning of the problem.

The aide, Kirk Fordham, said he had “more than one conversation with
senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives
asking them to intervene” several years ago.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s staff immediately said this was false, of course. Hastert is fighting for his political life here, trying to deny that there was any type of cover-up. But with every passing day, new information is released which points to a massive cover-up. And House Republicans are starting to realize that Hastert’s ship is sinking:

Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, third-ranking leader, pointedly told reporters he would
have handled the matter differently than the speaker, had he known of
it.

“I think I could have given some good advice here, which is, You
have to be curious, you have to ask all the questions you can think
of,” said Blunt, a member of the leadership. “You absolutely can’t
decide not to look into activities because one individual’s parents
don’t want you to.”

Republican Rep. Ron Lewis of Kentucky, in a tougher-than-expected re-election race, abruptly
canceled an invitation for Hastert to join him at a fundraiser next
week.

“I’m taking the speaker’s words at face value,” Lewis told the AP.
“I have no reason to doubt him. But until this is cleared up, I want to
know the facts. If anyone in our leadership has done anything wrong,
then I will be the first in line to condemn it.”

I think it is safe to say that Hastert is not going to survive the scandal. It’s also a fair bet that at least a few incumbent Republicans will lose their seats because of this. November’s election was already looking promising for Democrats. Now, it looks like a sure thing that the Dems will take control of the House.

(All quotes from Yahoo! News)