Thursday, April 13, 2006

Constituent: Misspelling "appalling"


Tip of the bowler to The Stakeholder. Fort Collins resident Joel Potter spent two years teaching freshman composition at Colorado State University as a GTA. He has a soapbox in the Coloradoan:

Today, I received in the mail a six-page, 8x10 glossy pamphlet from the office of Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, which is described as her "Congressional Acheivement Report" for 2005.

I very much dislike receiving such "reports" from members of government, regardless of the sender's party, as these "reports" are usually nothing more thanpoorly disguised campaign ads designed to plant in the voter's mind a dozen or so lovingly posed pictures of the legislator in question along with glowing, almost self-hagiographic language dealing with that legislator's alleged accomplishments supposedly wrought on my behalf.

I wouldn't mind these self-serving advertisements so much if it weren't for the fact that they are "prepared, published, and mailed at taxpayer expense" as is noted - no doubt by law - on the last page of Musgrave's "report," in the most miniscule print to be found in the entire document.

If Musgrave is so very concerned that I be kept aware of her supposed accomplishments achieved on my behalf, I would be happy to receive her "report," were it not masquerading as a selfless public service announcement (and if she were to pay for it from her own campaign coffers). I know that some Musgrave apologists will no doubt bleat that every politician does this, and that they must, in order to compete. I disagree. Just because one, or a few, or every other politician sees fit to engage in such waste of taxpayer dollars does not make it acceptable for Musgrave to do so.

But what is particularly galling to me regarding this self-promoting pamphlet, beyond my general aversion to such misuse of taxpayer dollars, is that apparently Musgrave does not care enough about such campaign mailings to ensure that the message contained therein is spelled correctly. The very title of her mailing, "Congressional Acheivement Report 2005" is incorrect; of course, most readers will recognize that Musgrave's past achievements apparently do not include a facility with language, but then, in most blatant campaign ads, such as this one, it's evidently more important to stuff it full of staged photos rather than meaningful content that might help to actually inform the electorate.

I find it saddening, and painfully ironic, that a member of the House committee on Education and the Workforce, of all things, cannot be troubled to ensure that the merest levels of basic editorial scrutiny are applied to the text of her "report." It's one thing to see a minor grammatical error buried deep in the text that even her staffers (evidently) do not get around to reading; it's quite another for a legislator tasked with overseeing our nation's education system to put her name on a report that in its very title trumpets her casual disregard for an aspect of language communication so salient as spelling.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Holy Marilyn!

Last month, this appeared on SoapBlox Colorado:
Friends who attend a large Longmont Christian church were telling me that last Sunday, instead of the minister, they got Marilyn Musgrave in the pulpit for the sermon. It was not announced beforehand that she would be there.

Marilyn, apparently, went on and on about her unhappy childhood, and that she has a parent dying. With tears in her eyes, she asked the congregation to pray for her and hers. When she finished she apparently split at quickly as she could, presumably to avoid rubbing elbows with or fielding questions from the little people.

Ick. Ick. Ew. Barf!

Well, according to some offline comments in the Longmont Times-Call, not every worshipper at the Rick Rusaw's LifeBridge Christian Church were pleased to have Marilyn Musgrave campaigning from the pulpit.

To the caller on March 24 who suggested the (U.S. Rep Marilyn) Musgrave wasn't speaking "politically" at LifeBridge on Sunday, March 19: Excuse me! I was there, too. And during the prayer, she specifically mentioned several of her platforms, including war and abortion. I objected to the premise of attending church and literally being subjected to Musgrave's campaigning.
And:
I am totally upset and appalled that LifeBridge (Christan Church) would give (U.S. Rep.) Marilyn Musgrave an open forum at church on Sunday. Are her opponents going to get equal time for their program and their sob story.
What did you expect folks? LifeBridge claims it's non-denominational, but it's pretty clear that Rick Rusaw's sect is pure, unadulterated right-wing pro-war Republicanism. Glory Be!

You see, Pastor Rick was on hand to give Much Holy Blessings Upon Bush's fundraiser for Marilyn last year:

LifeBridge senior minister Rick Rusaw has been invited to give a prayer at the event. Worship minister and musician Tim Foot will play the piano during the fundraiser at the Brown Palace.

“This is a great chance to set politics aside and come before God and ask for his grace,” Rusaw said.

He said he wasn’t sure how LifeBridge became part of the event, but Rusaw has met Musgrave and once offered prayers to her family.

A staff member from Musgrave’s office, B.J. Nikkel, also is associated with LifeBridge, Rusaw said.

“He’s a respected community leader, and the congresswoman thought he would be a great person to give the prayer,” said Guy Short, Musgrave’s chief of staff.

Creepy!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Another fine specimen doing Marilyn's dirty work

Extra! Extra!


It's another edition of, I'm a Fool to Do Your Dirty Work, right here on Musgrave Must Go. Remember when a bunch of Larimer County Republicans agreed to help DeLay crony Marilyn Musgrave smear Angie Paccione, and ended up having egg smeared all over their faces instead?

Well, they must not read the news regular in the Buxman household. According to the Greeley Trib:
A Greeley resident filed a federal complaint against Rep. Angie Paccione, D-Fort Collins, on Monday.

The complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission in Washington alleges Paccione violated federal election law when an e-mail from her campaign offered free vacations to contributors.

"Seeing what she had done I thought something ought to be done," said Ron Buxman, 50, of Greeley. "It may have even been a staff person who did this and I understand. But, the buck still stops with you, even if someone below does it."
It's the same shabby Modus Operandi. Some generic Republican party hack -- this time the vice chair of the Weld County GOP -- acts all shocked, and doesn't come clean and admit they are doing Marilyn Musgrave a favor. Yet it then turns out that they are also Musgrave contributors, and the whole thing stinks. It makes a sick kinda sense, since Marilyn can't come out and fight on her record.

In fact, the Buxman Family has given quite a bit of dough to Marilyn. From opensecrets:





Contributor

Occupation

Date

Amt

Recipient

BUXMAN, DORIS
GREELEY,CO 80631

SELF/DAIRY FARMER

3/19/05

$500

Musgrave, Marilyn

BUXMAN, DORIS
GREELEY,CO 80631

9/30/04

$250

Musgrave, Marilyn

BUXMAN, HAROLD
GREELEY,CO 80631

9/30/04

$250

Musgrave, Marilyn

BUXMAN, RON
GREELEY,CO 80631

SELF/DAIRY FARMER

8/13/03

$250

Musgrave, Marilyn

BUXMAN, RON
GREELEY,CO 80631

SELF/DAIRY FARMER

10/8/02

$400

Musgrave, Marilyn



Unfortunately, another part of the pattern is incomplete reporting. Consider this, remember when "constituent" Chuck Fox signed the legislative complaint that they forgot to send to the legislature? Fox told Lynn Bartels:
He said he doesn't know who wrote the letter, but when he was asked to sign it, he did.
Not that Lynn wondered who asked him to sign it, since it was pretty obviously Marilyn herself.

So now, doesn't it seem relevant for Greeley Trib reporter Joanna Larez to wonder:
  1. Who wrote the complaint?
  2. Who asked Ron Buxman to sign it?
But the Marilyn ought to ask herself whether Buxman was really the right guy. A curious tidbit floated into the gmail this morning. It's from a Sep. 10, 1998 Denver Post article:
Republicans on Tuesday selected Weld County Commissioner Bill Webster to replace Ron Buxman, who withdrew last week from the House District 48 race.

Buxman, 42, left the race Sept. 1, citing a "youthful indiscretion" that threatened to hurt his family and personal life if it came to light. He did not elaborate. Buxman also said he withdrew because his brother, Don, was quitting the family dairy business.
Seem Ronny had some high aspirations. Maybe next time around, ol' Ronn-o can explain this "youthful indiscretion" so fellow Coloradans can continue looking to him to point out the mistakes of others?

Monday, April 10, 2006

Flowers over Baghdad

So the Boulder County GOP dinner was MC'd by Marilyn Musgrave. Marilyn must have been chaffing that she couldn't stand up a bunch of uniformed personnel behind her.
During the Boulder County Republican Party’s Lincoln Dinner at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center, Musgrave charged that state Rep. Angie Paccione, the Fort Collins Democrat also seeking the 4th CD seat, "is anti-war" and would join congressional Democrats who consider the U.S. servicemen and women in Iraq to be "occupiers" of that country.
Well, we all know that the "liberation" is going swimmingly, isn't it? You say tom-A-to . . . .

And this "liberation" is on schedule and on budget, thanks to a Republican leadership too busy grooming their "tough guy" image in the mirror to pay attention to the reality on the ground in Iraq. If you want to know why your poll numbers are so bad - keep looking in the mirror, dingbat.

So Marilyn is obviously a lover of war, so long as she's not accountable for talking about what it will take to win it, or she herself could hold accountable the White House idiots who have been screwing up the occupation. Yeah, I call it "occupation." Not only that, I call it a failed, bungled, bumbled, bulloxed, broken, mangled occupation that isn't working and is getting our guys and gals killed and mangled for the sake of a pack of arrogant swine who think they are above the law.

I guess if Angie Paccione is in favor of plans that actually do work, and is actually in favor of helping vets, then Angie hates the military. That's the logic of the Republican bosses these days.