Has anyone heard whether the appointment of Bob Schaffer as Head of State Board of Ed is emminent? Marcia Neal won the CD-3 seat and I had heard her say she wanted to have Schaffer apointed if he lost to Udall? This would be a complete disaster.
Amendments (7% reporting)
Amendment 46 is losing (barely) 50-49%.
Amendment 47 is losing 54-45%.
Amendment 48 is losing 74-25%!!!
Amendment 50 is winning 57-42%.
Amendment 51 is losing 60-39%.
Amendment 58 is losing 55-44%.
Amendment 59 is winning 56-43%.
There are some consistent numbers for the Republican candidates. The night is far from over, of course, but these are good early results. Let's bring these races home!
Haha. The Denver Post has called CO for Obama and Udall already. Let's get some votes counted first, folks.
ProgressNow just faxed this complaint to the Department of Justice over the donation "Steve Mason" a Schaffer patsy made to the Udall campaign.
October 31, 2008
William M Welch II
Chief, Public Integrity Section
United States Department of Justice
1400 New York Avenue NW, 12th Floor
Washington D.C. 20005
Fax: 202-514-3003
Mr. Welch:
I urge that you immediately exercise your authority under federal law to investigate whether Bob Schaffer and/or his agent/campaign manager and an unknown person posing as "Steve Mason" violated and/or conspired to violate 2 U.S.C. § 441j and 18 U.S.C. § 1001 by causing false statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission regarding the true source of two contributions made to the Mark Udall for Senate Campaign.(Rocky Mountain News 10/31/2008; Denver Post, 10/31/2008)
A person makes a false statement to under federal law if he knowingly and willfully (1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact; (2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or (3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry. See 18 U.S.C. § 1001. A person making a false statement shall be fined under or imprisoned not more than 5 years. Id.
Federal law also prohibits persons from making a campaign contribution in the name of another person. 2 U.S.C. 441f.
Bob Schaffer, a candidate for United States Senate in Colorado, campaign told the Rocky Mountain News that a Schaffer supporter used the name "Steve Mason" to make two contributions to the campaign of Schaffer's opponent, Mark Udall, using a fictitious address. (Rocky Mountain News, 10/31/08). When Bob Schaffer's campaign and "Steve Mason" agreed to make this contribution under false pretenses, they knew that their actions would cause false information to be filed with the Federal Election Commission.
I respectfully urge you to launch an immediate investigate Bob Schaffer and/or his campaign manager and "Steve Mason" to determine whether they violated federal law by causing a false statement to be made to a federal agency.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Michael Huttner
Another one is Mike Coffman who just told by a judge to comply with his ruling - no more voter purges for you!
Jessie Allen, a lawyer for the activists, then told the judge she was concerned Coffman wouldn't follow the advice of his counsel, or the judge's order.
"If the defendant doesn't listen to his counsel, he's going to be listening to me personally," Kane said. "I don't issue threats idly, and I'm not issuing one now. ... I expect to be obeyed."
pacified already mentioned this below but I wanted to quote PPP's description on their polling showing Udall up 56-41:
Mark Udall continues to expand his lead in his quest to move up from the House to the Senate. He's banked a 60-38 lead with those who have already voted, is winning 60-31 with independents, and is winning every racial and age demographics.
Not much else to say on this one. It's over.
Just remember folks, those numbers only become reality if everyone votes.
On the donation thing, look at Wadhams' wording. He got the tip, then a supporter made the fraudulent donation. So, you have to commit fraud to cause fraud. I don't think it works that way.
Now I'm going to try to use itune new genius feature. It selects song similar to the one playing. Randomly itunes just started playing Fight for You Right by the Beastie Boys. I think that's appropriate. Here we go.
Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right
Geto Boys - Damn it Feels Good to be A Gangsta
Beastie Boys - Time to Build
MC Solaar - Au Pays De Gandhi
Beastie Boys - Sure Shot
Digitial Underground - The Humpty Dance
Beastie Boys - No Sleep Till Brooklyn
MC Solaar Ca Me Hante
Eminem - Mosh
Beastie Boys - Root Down
Those were actually the only songs selected. Obviously I don't have a lot of rap in my collection, but I do have a lot of Beastie Boys. In the comments, feel free to list your own genius list, traditional random 10, or whatever.
Aaron and I are going Trick or Voting tonight. I'm going as Joe the Blogger. Pretty easy costume, but I don't own bunny slippers. I will however bring a sock puppet with me.
It's as if you can almost feel, almost see the wheels flying off the Colorado GOP's Wadhams-mobile.
In their latest gambit to distract voters with anything other then Schaffer's actual policy positions, the GOP brings us this story from the Rocky:
A Bob Schaffer supporter donated to Mark Udall's Senate campaign under a false name this week, wanting to test the Schaffer campaign's assertion that Udall is accepting untraceable donations.
The funny part is that giving a fake name in a donation is illegal.
I believe this is the definition of cutting one's nose off to spite your face.
And no wonder Bob and Dick are freaking out. A new PPP poll shows them down by Beauprez-esque levels.
That same poll has Obama up by 10.
Even more fascinating is a tid-bit we get from Nate over @ FiveThirtyEight.com:
What's worse for McCain, however, is that PPP estimates that nearly two-thirds of Coloradans have already cast their ballots, as have 55-60 percent of New Mexicans, with large majorities of those votes going to Barack Obama. This is backed up to some extent by Michael McDonald's turnout statistics. In Colorado, the state had already processed approximately 1.3 million ballots as of Thursday, around 60 percent of the total 2004 turnout.
Today's the last day to early vote... I think... Get out there!
You know it's the silly season when the Republican infighting starts even before election day. So says ex candidate for US Senate, ex-congressman Scott McInnis:
"I would have beat Udall, that wasn't the issue," McInnis said. "Frankly I have more difficulties with the right wing of my party then I do with taking on a Democrat. Udall was not the biggest threat I faced in the election. My biggest threat was getting through the primary. Both parties have a pretty radical element to them."
True, McLobbyist is less extreme than Schaffer, that's not hard to do. More interesting is he's saying these things before all the votes are in.
I have to imagine the DSCC is already on this. But is there any Republican senate candidate in the country today who isn't being pressed to answer whether or not they think Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) should resign?
Along those lines, you're watching these races unfold in your own states. So you'll probably see or read what's asked and answered before we do. So if you see Republican senators in contested races getting asked this question -- and especially if they answer, let us know.
I think it is a good question to put before Bob Schaffer on or before the last debate at Channel 4 Studios in Denver located at 1044 Lincoln, airing live at 6pm on CBS 4 and then re-air at 9pm on KBDI.
There's a pre-debate rally at 5pm outside of the studios. If you are interested in attending the rally to ask Bob if he wants to be seated with a felon before the debate or have any questions, please email adam.axler@udallforcolorado.com
Today I was handed this flyer and it makes me wonder... should I vote Udall now that I know that he is working with Bigfoot! Enjoy everyone knowing Bigfoot is the reason Mark Udall will win his senate election! Mark Udall is facing Republican Bob Schaffer in one of the toughest senate battles in the country. Seeing smear attacks such as this one you can see why it is so close. Linking Mark Udall with Big Foot can sway a crucial vote in Colorado known as the Bigfoot for President Change Party.
Mark Udall faces attacks daily from shady republican groups and now he faces attacks on a new front. The mythical creature front, Bigfoot clearly does exist but also is working hard to elect Mark Udall. Mark Udall has shown no clear indication that Bigfoot is on payroll via any FEC report or on the endorsement page of his website.
As shown in the flyer shows, Bigfoot has become biggest threat to America. Not terrorism, not the crumbling banking system, not the healthcare crisis or global warming but Big Foot trumps all of them all.
It is rumored Democratic Senatorial Candidate Mark Udall who has been a champion of protecting the environment of the beautiful Second Congressional District met Bigfoot on one of his many survey trips to the district to witness the damaged caused by the Pine Beetle. Clearly global warming has even caused harmed to the most of our mythical creatures.
Bigfoot now has to lobby Mark Udall to bring back Government Grants to protect the shrinking Bigfoot habitat area. Bigfoot has also stated that he has asked from help from environmental leaders such as Al Gore and Jane Goodall to no avail for habit protection.
Clearly this is a joke but in this crazy election season I figured we could all use a little laugh. Pass it around to everyone who has enough of the mudslinging for a little bit of light hearted humor.
--Cross post from Progress Now, from the New Environment Colorado reports
Coloradans deserve clean water. But Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and Bob Schaffer have consistently taken the side of polluters in opposing stronger protections for our waterways.
As Republicans at every level across the country find themselves behind, and in some cases way behind, their Democratic opponents, they're resorting to increasingly violent outbursts that are clearly based on their narrow worldview.
Those outbursts have unfortunately become familiar to all of us: racial tensions obviously underlie attacks against Barack Obama; ideology forms the basis of attacks on economic policies (even if R's have become schizophrenic about them).
Races in Colorado are no different. They merely have their own unique facet of the larger worthless rock that the Republican party represents. I read an article covering Sarah "Socialism" Palin's visit to the rabid Republican base found in Colorado Springs. One piece of language in that article caught my attention. Follow me below and I'll share what it was.
How do you know when someone is full or shit or trying to pull one over on you? When they over do it to the point of hilarity. Look at this transcript from the recent Schaffer - Udall debate in Pueblo regarding Schaffer's Kuridastan oil deal:
Pueblo:
[BS] Well thanks Tom. Congressman Udall intentionally misrepresented my record and the company I used to work for. The company's involvement in the Kurdish region of Iraq. First of all, the congressman suggested I secured an oil deal in Iraq, I think I've corrected that for you congressman, before. He knows that to be an error but persists in that kind of a statement. I just view it to be incendiary and I regret that in a campaign for the United States Senate that that becomes part of the strategy one would use to propel oneself into the United States Congress. The effect of preventing the United States from being part of the economic solution in Iraq is do what is occurring in Iraq today and that is you're having heavy economic influence by one country, that is the Chinese, with respect to the Iraqi oil law in the country. It is the wrong direction to flow.
And again during a Fox 31 debate:
[BS] I understand where your motivation is but being untruthful about the reality is what people are sick and tired of.
[RZ] Where was he untruthful?
[BS] I didn't cut a deal with the Iraqis. I didn't cut a deal with the Kurds.
[MEU] Your company did. Your company did.
[BS] That's not why I went there. But that's beyond on the point. Secondly, I'm not in favor of an open-ended engagement in Iraq...
At least this time he don't go on and on. But what he never does is clarify the record. He jumped right into the Iraq war. So, just what did he go to Iraq for? We'll never get the details from Schaffer. Every time Udall brings it up Schaffer whines, that's not true, that's not true!
But look at this little gem from his campaign yesterday:
Dick Wadhams, Schaffer's campaign manager, derided any attempt by liberals to attack his candidate's work as an oil executive in Iraq.
Hmm. Schaffer keeps saying he had nothing to do with any oil deal in Iraq, but that's not what his campaign manager seems to be saying. If he didn't go to Iraq to secure that oil deal, but Wadhams says he was an oil executive who worked in Iraq, was Schaffer just not very good at his job?
With the NRCC pulling money out of races where republican challengers are increasingly showing no chance of winning, the RNC taking out a loan to defend current GOP senators like Norm Coleman (MN) and Elizabeth Dole (NC) facing tough challengers, and Bob Schaffer's worsening numbers, one has the wonder when the other shoe is going to drop. But I have to wonder if Schaffer hasn't already given up and is at least in part time campaign mode for Amendment 47, 49, and 54. I'm only partially kidding, but there are parallels between sweat shop loving Bob Schaffer and the anti-worker Amendments 47, 49, and 54
Schaffer told the breakfast crowd that labor unions agreed to set aside the proposal after "business leaders paid off labor unions."
There has been plenty of chatter from the other side trying to criticize the agreement between the growing number of businesses who are working to defeat 47, 49, and 54 calling the compromise all sorts of breathless, spittle inducing names. But the truth is quite a bit different:
"Labor isn't being paid anything," said Pat Hamill, the Denver businessman most closely involved in reaching an agreement with labor leaders. "We're running our own issue campaign to get things defeated. When people makes these statements, they should check their facts."
You have to wonder about a former Congressman getting in the tank for anti-union and anti-worker ballot measures when his own recent past has him working for Jack Abramoff to assist the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association to maintain their highly profitable sweat shops run with essentially indentured servitude labor.
We already know Bob Schaffer is a liar about claiming to close down a factory. Despite no evidence ever from the Schaffer campaign on this supposed closed down factory one right wing blogger has tried to claim the proof was in Schaffer's testimony of conditions at a factory called MGM-Dirova. However this factory was actually renamed in 2001 after it failed to get orders due to lawsuits against it. There is absolutedly no evidence Schaffer had anything to do with this. Wendy Doromal even documents lawsuits against this factory long before Schaffer ever stepped foot on the Marianas Islands.
This factory was still operating as recently as 2006 as RIFU Apparel, Inc, where it continued to engage in underpaying and overworking immigrants who've lost their immigration status:
Flores said Han would pay in cash and made the illegal workers sign a logbook to acknowledge payments.
The illegal workers were not paid an hourly rate, but for each piece of completed garment products.
For every 60 to 687 pieces of completed products, the workers would be paid at the rate of $.025 cents per product. For every 688 to 7,134 pieces, the workers would be paid $.035 cents per product.
For any product in excess of 7,134 pieces, the workers would be paid $.04 cents per product, the investigator said.
He said behind the Rifu Building, where the illegal workers were located, was a chain link perimeter fence used as an escape route.
These are the kinds of working abuses businesses crave as they can push workers to the breaking point and pay them next to nothing. I seem to recall reading about conditions like this with children no less in the United States:
From 1908 to 1912, Hine took his camera across America to photograph children as young as three years old working for long hours, often under dangerous conditions, in factories, mines, and fields.
This may pushing the argument here a little, but when Bob Schaffer can claim the workers in Siapan were, "smiling; they were happy." I have to really question his support for these amendments. Amendments meant to weaken the very worker organizers who got rid of child labor, got us the 40 hour work week, and something called the weekend.
Disclosure - I'm working to defeat Amendment 47 because our economy can't afford it.
NARAL Pro-Choice America, the national political leader of the pro-choice movement, turns its sights on Colorado's own hotly contested U.S. Senate race. The organization is working to highlight Schaffer's consistently anti-choice record through his long tenure in public office and contrast it with Udall's long-term support for policies to reduce unintended pregnancy, bear healthy children, or access safe, legal abortion. Check out the records here; watch Blog for Choice for other musings this week.
As featured in the Rocky Mountain News this morning:
The liberal group ProgressNow coined the phrase "Big Oil Bob" to describe Bob Schaffer. Now, professional musician Ron Sunshine, a Colorado native, has penned a tune called Big Oil Bob.
Full lyrics, .MP3 link below the fold. Singing along, and prolific redistribution is (thinks for a minute) cool by me.
If you were wondering who the oil industry is supporting in this year's presidential and Colorado Senate race, just take a listen to our own Steve Balboni, as he rips both McCain and Schaffer.
Okay, it's just one snippet of his life, but what a snippet. If Wadhams really thought the Mariana Islands issues was behind them, he's not a very good campaign manager. I think they actually got it out as early as possible to minimize the damage, or it may have just been that Schaffer has a big mouth. Either way, this is the right time to run this ad. The only question is how much impact this will have given the barrage of other ads running around. I'll have more after an 11am conference call.
Awww, they started off with questions from two cute kids. The questions were why do you want to be Senator and what experience do they have. Udall talked about his record and at the end mentioned a similarity between these two questioners and his own kids. Schaffer seemed to see that as an opportunity to go on for about two minutes about his kids. If that's the only qualification necessary, then I want to see some liberals start popping out those babies. Scahffer also seems to have downed his requisite 6 cans of Jolt Cola as his head is bobbing and weaving just like at during the Meet the Press debate.
Next question is on the economy and what it means for the taxpayer. Schaffer gives a nice simple explanation of devaluing currency by printing money. It was fine, good even. Udall goes on to explain why he voted against the bailout and what he wanted to see including regulation, injecting capital into banks, not Paulsons hands, and stopping golden parachutes.
At one point during either the first or second question, a camera cuts to Wadhams in the crowd. He look a little nervous.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me...
so they can toil in sweat shops and brothels.
Referencing my previous post about this, my other title was simply going to be, "Hey Bob, Booo!" Anyway.
Today Abramoff and Schaffer target Allen Stayman, Mariana Islands human right activist Wendy Doromal, and James Salt of Catholics United came to Colorado to speak directly about Bob Schaffer and the Mariana Islands.
First up was Mr. Salt, who read a statement from Sr. Mary Stella Mangona, who has ministered to the people of CNMI for 10 years. In the statement she says:
In my counseling services, I came in contact with many abused women who had experienced sexual and workplace abuses -- abuses that were taking place on the island during Schaffer's visit. Types of abuse included coerced abortions, human trafficking, coerced prostitution, confiscation of documentation and other widespread labor abuses.
Allen Stayman was next. The same Allen Stayman mentioned by Jack Abramoff in his 1998 proposal email of how to get what Willie Tan and Governor Tenorio wanted for their sweat shops.
Of urgent focus this year will be the effort either to defund or more likely, to severely limit the activities of the Office of Insular Affairs. This office, led by Stayman, has been the main source of difficulty for the CNMI>
Stayman brought documents to back up his assertions, including a memo from the Department of Interior from during the Reagan administration of concerns with immigration on the islands. To claim efforts of reform were partisan in nature is just wrong. Pages 2 and 3 of the letter.
Bob Schaffer may be a Knight of horseys and sepulchres but some Catholics aren't so happy with his past performance. That is, specifically when it comes to human rights. Tomorrow, James Salt of Catholics United, Mariana Islands human rights activist Wendy Doromal, and former Department of the Interior official Alan Stayman will be speaking in front of Schaffer's campaign office Monday at 11am.
Bob Schaffer's headquarters will be getting some unexpected out-of-town guests Monday. Whistleblowers who worked to end the human rights abuses on the Marianas Islands will hold a press conference in front on Bob Schaffer's campaign headquarters to demand explanations and an apology for his role in allowing those abuses to continue.
Allen Stayman was one of the key government investigators who uncovered evidence of abuse of immigrant workers on the Marianas, including squalid living conditions and forced abortions. Wendy Doromal was a teacher in the Marianas Island.
What: Press conference to demand Bob Schaffer's apology for his role in allowing human rights abuses to continue on the Marianas Islands
When: Monday, Sept. 29, 11:00 a.m.
Where: 5950 S. Willow Road, Greenwood Village, Colorado
(Orchard Road, Exit 198 of I-25)
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