Friday, March 24, 2006

How to honor the troops

Remember all this? A Coloradoan letter to the editor illustrates what those two Marines have to look forward to, thanks to Marilyn Musgrave.

The March 7 headline "Uniformed soldiers at GOP event raise hackles" hit home with me.

New York and Washington columnists criticized the use of uniformed military personnel for GOP promotion. John Jones, chairman of the Larimer County Democrats, suggested Marilyn Musgrave should use her influence to increase veteran benefits rather than "grandstand" uniformed personnel to raise GOP position by bringing them to a GOP event. I strongly agree.

As a retired 30-year Air Force Reserve officer and covered by TRICARE for prescription medications, I picked up my heart medication that has been shown to greatly reduce "second cardiac events" (read heart attacks) in people with a previous cardiac event. I was informed that the 30-day supply was now $13 more per month's supply, compared to last year.

To Musgrave and fellow Republicans: A reduction of military medical benefits, while funding tax cuts for the wealthy? Think about it!

Lloyd C. Helper,
Lt. Col. USAFR retired,
Fort Collins

Someone's Congresswoman - but not yours

I hope Jay Marvin has a podcast of his interview with Triffany Hammond up soon. But this is the story making the rounds:
I just wanted to let you know what happened when a small group of Colorado Dems visited Marilyn Musgraves Loveland office today.

There were about 18 of us there to deliver letters asking her to turn down Bush's Reverse Robin Hood Budget Proposal (there were over 100 letters!).

The organizer of our group called earlier in the week to inform her office that we'd be coming by and that we'd welcome her to answer some of our questions when we delivered the letters.

We gathered in the parking lot before going in. While we were sharing some of our letters with one another a woman came out and explained we were on private property and didn't have a right to be there.

We decided at that point to deliver our letters. We were very quiet going into the building so as not to disturb neighboring businesses and we were very polite going into Musgrave's lobby where we converged to deliver the letters.

A young man greeted us, accepted the letters, assured us they'd get read, acknowledged the phone call earlier in the week indicating we were coming by but explained that Marilyn wasn't there and he didn't have her schedule. Before excusing himself to take a phone call he even went so far as to say, "...you're welcome to stay and I can answer your questions after I take this call."

We didn't stay, we thanked him for his time, took Musgrave's scheduler's phone number and very quietly left the building.

While were meeting on a berm on the outskirts of the parking lot to take a group photo, the police arrived.

One of the officers took our organizer to the side and explained that Musgrave's office called and complained that we "barged in unannounced" and asked that we be removed from the premises.

He allowed us to stay in our group and explained that we had to stay outside the berm in the public area and warned us not to impede public right of way.

We couldn't believe it! In one breath her offices were telling us that they'd received the call and welcomed us to stay and in the other they were calling the cops on us and painting us as storm troopers.

The median age of this group, I'd guess, was 50 or so, we were peaceful, we were professional and we were hoping to express to our representative's office our concerns for the budget that is up for review in DC next week.

Now, I have to ask myself this question. If we'd have gone into her office in the exact same fashion but, instead, with letters of support for Bush's sorry excuse for a budget...would the results have been the same?????

Bullies. Better yet, bullies who think they are better than you.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Sally Fox "rattled"

Remember the Musgrave-orchestrated hit on Angie Paccione?

The Colorado State University Collegian talks to Sally Fox, who's getting more ridiculous and disingenuous sounding every time she opens her mouth. All the "constituents" have ended up sounding totally ignorant about what they were complaining about.

And after doing Marilyn Musgrave's dirty work, Sally's trying to run from it.
Earlier this month, Sally Fox filed a complaint against State Rep. Angie Paccione, D-Fort Collins, along with the signatures of 11 other local Republicans. The complaint claimed Paccione violated state ethics rules by offering prizes to top campaign donors by being introduced on the House floor.

Calling the complaint "frivolous," her partisan colleagues eventually cleared Paccione of any wrongdoing, and the charges were dismissed.
And Musgrave contributor Fox just got a Congressional tribute from Musgrave, for her grassroots work for the Republican party. That's classy.

Bring on the clown:
Fox said she never meant the complaint to get the attention of the Capitol ethics committee, but to raise concerns.

"I wanted to alert the public that this had been done, not by Angie, but by one of her aids," Fox said.
So she's admitting Angie did nothing wrong? That her complaint had no substance and no merit? What is it to "raise concerns"?

You did Marilyn a favor. It backfired. You look dumb. Own it. And spare us the tripe.

And then:
"I do not go out and attack people," she said. "There is enough meanness and hatred in the world."
Oh, stand up and be counted, Sally. You were the one who said "yes" to Marilyn and acted as her tool to stick it to Angie Paccione. It just didn't work, was all.

Feeling secure yet?

What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?
During the Dubai port scandal, Marilyn Musgrave saw the wind blowing, and was all kinds of shocked about port security in this country.
The American people will not tolerate this. It's foolish to even think of this.
So she's been leaving it up to the Bush people to come up with ways to keep us safe; they've screwed it up while Congress has done nothing and never demanded accountability, and we're supposed to applaud when Marilyn takes off the knee pads for ten minutes?

If Musgrave and the rest of Congress are just figuring out this stuff now, seems like we need some new leadership in Congress, don't you think? So much for "priorities."

And has Marilyn really learned any lessons about port security? Angie Paccione doesn't think so:
Musgrave claimed in a Ft. Collins Coloradoan editorial this month that she consistently supports additional funding and domestic control of our seaports. Only ten days later, she voted against providing $825 million to improve port safety.

"What in the world is Musgrave doing in Washington?" asked Angie Paccione, who is running against Musgrave in the 4th Congressional District of Colorado. "Musgrave’s vote against making our ports safer shows just how radically out of touch she is with the priorities of ordinary Americans."
Why did Marilyn Musgrave and right wing extremists vote to kill the Sabo Amendment? From Kevin Drum:
We have been told by conservative hawks that Iran is actively building a nuclear weapon and that we should do everything we can to stop this, up to and including a military assault on suspected nuclear sites. Since Iran is incapable of delivering a nuclear weapon 7,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, the primary doomsday scenario they've offered up is that Iran (or a terrorist group working with Iran) will ship a completed nuke through an American port and then threaten to detonate it in a large city.
There you have it, people: Republican homeland security.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Debate! Debate! Debate!

Angie Paccione in the Fort Morgan Times:
Paccione said there is a need for change and a sense of urgency behind that notion. For her, it's a matter of having discussions instead of creating distractions.

"I'll debate (Musgrave) anytime and anywhere," Paccione said. "I'm a fighter who will force her to debate in front of people. We need to make it a political liability for her not to show up."

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Complaining Musgrave contributor just got Musgrave tribute



Remember that Musgrave-orchestrated attack on Angie Paccione that backfired?

Turns out Musgrave contributor Sally Fox, the old fraud, just got a Musgrave tribute in the US Congress.
Musgrave's chief of staff said Friday that the Fort Collins congresswoman pays tribute to a number of people in the 4th Congressional District and that contributions play no role.

But Paccione smells hypocrisy.

That's because last month Paccione was blasted for a campaign e-mail which offered top-producing workers an introduction on the Colorado House floor, and her accuser was none other than Sally Fox.

Quid pro quo.

So Tom Bender -- er, supposedly "Mary Bender" -- gets another bash Angie letter into the Coloradoan. You'd think he'd at least let her write at least a little bit of it so it wasn't so obviously insane.
On the progressive side, state Sen. Bob Bacon and Rep Angie Paccione continued their party-line march in lockstep with the liberal Democratic Party line defending al Qaeda, insisting that America is the threat to our national security and asserting that enforcement of federal immigration laws and any serious assistance by the state Legislature to discourage illegal immigration and potential terrorist acts are nothing more than racial profiling and discrimination.
And he manages to spell "xenophobia" wrong too. You read it here first: Tom Bender is a flaming liberal mole in the Republican Party. Keep up the good work.