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Wadhams makes me laugh sometimes. Jason Salzman had an interesting chat with him.
Jason: I'm wondering if Congressman Schaffer approves your language?
Wadhams: He approves of the aggressive way we are trying to draw contrasts with Boulder Liberal Mark Udall.
Jason: Will you hook me up with the congressman to see if he approves of you using those words, ass and scumbag?
Wadhams: You can try calling him if you want.
Jason: OK. What's his number?
Wadhams: You know, Jason, you are a liberal partisan. You set yourself up as some kind of objective source. And, Jason, you and I both know you are liberal partisan Democrat.
[ed - but he has no problem talking to the fair and balanced fox news]
Jason: Not true. I try to be fair.
Wadhams: I don't consider you a legitimate reporter, Jason.
Jason: You'll see. I'm fair.
Wadhams: Oh no you're not. Your columns amuse me, but you are a partisan Democrat. Talking to you is like talking to the spokesman of the Democratic Party. We don't have to talk to you.
Jason: Well, I appreciate your talking to me.
Wadhams: I don't have to. I might as well be talking to the press secretary for the Democratic Party.
Jason: That's not true. I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. Take that.
Well, I suppose one can't be more fair than just reprinting exactly what was said. Personally, I would have said, so, and you're not a partisan Republican? Just what is a legitimate reporter anyway? One who reprints your press releases no matter how untrue? The ones that take your calls yelling at them? If you can just put your hands over your ears and sing, "La la la, I can't hear you" then why get in a screaming match the other day with Udall press secretary Tara Trujillo? Is screaming at her closer to talking to Helen Thomas or Jason Salzman? I hear from "legitimate reporters" it was quite the scene.
UPDATE - Sufimarie has a good point in the comments. Why will Wadhams and Schaffer only talk to what they consider friendly audiences? Do they not want to talk to, oh I don't know, voters.
"It is now evident that speculators in the energy futures markets play a much larger role than previously thought, and it is now even harder to accept the agency's laughable assertion that excessive speculation has not contributed to rising energy prices," said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.). He added that it was "difficult to comprehend how the CFTC would allow a trader" to acquire such a large oil inventory "and not scrutinize this position any sooner."
The article goes on for three pages, quoting source after source, on how these firms played monopolizing middle men not to profit off the sale of the oil, but just to profit off the reselling of oil. All this while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in charge of watch-dogging the industry was asleep at the helm:
The CFTC, which learned about the nature of Vitol's activities only after making an unusual request for data from the firm, now reports that financial firms speculating for their clients or for themselves account for about 81 percent of the oil contracts on NYMEX, a far bigger share than had previously been stated by the agency. That figure may rise in coming weeks as the CFTC checks the status of other big traders.
and:
CFTC documents show Vitol was one of the most active traders of oil on NYMEX as prices reached record levels. By June 6, for instance, Vitol had acquired a huge holding in oil contracts, betting prices would rise. The contracts were equal to 57.7 million barrels of oil -- about three times the amount the United States consumes daily. That day, the price of oil spiked $11 to settle at $138.54. Oil prices eventually peaked at $147.27 a barrel on July 11 before falling back to settle at $114.98 yesterday.
Wanna know who first received an exemption to begin doing this kind of market manipulation: E N R O N.
Yeah, I'm sure I should have been talking about McCain's latest gaff, but this seems a mite more important.
This new Vote Vets ad will be airing in the Denver and Springs markets starting today. To help keep it on the air, Vote Vets is asking for donations.
Transcript from the ad:
"I went to Iraq for my country. Bob Schaffer went to Iraq for a big oil company. I tried to secure peace in Iraq. Bob Schaffer tried to secure an oil deal in Iraq. Our time in Iraq left thousands with head trauma. Bob Schaffer's time in Iraq helped land a contract for oil. Too many vets can't get the care they need. Congressman Schaffer voted against billions in funds for veterans. We fought for our country. Why hasn't Bob Schaffer fought for us?"
Schaffer's record speaks for itself (from press release):
Schaffer was often only one of a small handful of Congressmen who voted against the annual appropriations for the Department of Veterans Affairs, including Fiscal Years 2000 (Oct 14, 1999), 2001 (Oct 19, 2000), 2002 (July 31, 2001 and Nov 8, 2001). These bills appropriated billions in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
On October 6, 1998, Schaffer voted against the VA-HUD Appropriations Conference Report which provided $93.4 billion in funding for veterans and other programs in Fiscal Year 1999. Schaffer was only one of 14 to vote against the bill.
On October 30, 2001, Schaffer voted against funding Veterans Affairs Medical Programs to a level that would ensure that all of the programs were fully funded.
Our side has 527s too Dick. This makes the whole Udall missed a vote, Udall missed a vote, look like a child's tantrum. Well, it already looked like that.
My friends, Tech President reminds us that it was two years ago today was Dick Wadhams' then cadidate George Allen uttered his now famous and well distributed message of well, macaca.
Is Wadhams going to have Schaffer run the same, "campaign on positive, constructive ideas"?
Today Bob Schaffer was asked about his refusal to support a compromise that allows some offshore drilling with the removal of some subsidies to those oil companies. Those subsidies would instead fund alternative energy programs.
Showing just how much Big Oil Bob is in the pocket of Big Oil he lamented about low their profit margins are:
Transcript:
[Schaffer]: "You know, the interesting thing is, the reality is, the marginal profit of the oil...energy industry in America today is 8%, which is modest compared to insurance, for example, insurance companies or banks or other industries.
"But because prices are soaring, the reality is the federal government is raking in a bunch of cash right now on the backs of energy producers. So, that's one part of the equation that people seem to be missing right now.
"You look at the tax payments that are being made right now by the major oil companies and the month-to-month increase that you've seen over the last several months, the amount of income the federal government is raking in right now is enormous."
On Caplis and Silverman, Bob said, "The entire bill is predicated on a $48 billion tax increase on the energy production in America. audio of the show.
Yet, he voted for $33 Billion with a B in tax breaks for big oil when he was in congress. He's complaining about rolling back and then some the tax cuts he helped implement in exchange for more drilling and renewable energy programs, all the time whining about how low the oil company's profit margins are. All this while the oil companies just posted record profits, again. Wow! Bob's got a great big set of balls everyone. Take a look at how big Bob's balls are that he can claim the oil companies aren't profitable enough. And, that roll back would fund renewable energy. What's that tumble I hear? It's Bob Schaffer falling off the renewable energy band wagon he just got on seemingly only last week.
I think Udall's spokesperson put it best (from a press release):
"The bottom line is that Bob Schaffer would rather let Colorado families and businesses continue to suffer than see a dime taken away from the oil companies," said Udall campaign spokeswoman Tara Trujillo. "It couldn't be a clearer display of his true priorities."
So, inside yesterday's debate was even more interesting:
[Reporter/Debate Panelist Lynn Bartels]: "Bob, when you are on the campaign trail, you always pull out that tiny [piece of solar cell material]...you probably have it with you now so you can show people...that you've touted as the cutting edge of solar research. How much of your home is solar-powered?"
[Schaffer]: "My home isn't...well, to the extent..."
[Bartels]: "Do you have solar panels at your house?"
[Schaffer]: "We have windows at our house."
What's worse, Udall, Green Party candidate Bob Kinsey, and even fringe candidate Doug Campbell all said their homes use solar energy.
But, you know, that's okay because at least Bob's pocket is solar powered.
Scissor Sisters - Ooh
The Boomtown Rats - Lookin' after No. 1
Snowden - Filler is Wasted
Beastie Boys - Sabrosa
The Velvet Underground - I'm Set Free
Ministry - Waiting
Wynton Marsalis - From the Plantation to the Penitentiary
REM - Tongue
Sex Pistols - Anarchy in Denver the U.K. - just kidding
The Velvet Underground - The Murder Mystery
And some Cheers and Jeers for you (apologies to Bill in Portland Maine)
In raising money Wednesday for Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, Vice President Dick Cheney lent a hand to one the most reliable supporters for the Bush administration and other Republican leaders, a new study shows.
Since taking office in 2003, Musgrave has voted in accordance with White House wishes 84 percent of the time, compared to an average of 80 percent for all House Republicans during the Bush presidency that began in 2001, according to a study released last week by Congressional Quarterly.
After they wrote a nice article about SquareState, Jeers to the Gazette for writing about the immigration forum Udall and Schaffer will be doing in your town tomorrow. There was not one mention of Bob Schaffer's love of the Marianas Islands immigration policy.
Jeers to Greg Schnacke of Americans who Drink up MilkShakes with Long Straws for pulling a schnacke on Coloradans. One of the main guys who predicted $2 Billion in gas leases on the Roan plateau, is whining that a bunch of protesters caused the leases to only amount to $114 Million. Yes, Greg, it's all the liberal's fault, just like how we lost the Vietnam war.
Perry has just plowed a whopping $400,000 into the coffers of the Club for Growth, the big right-wing group that advocates for conservative economic policies, the latest FEC records show.
Club For Growth, in turn, is now spending about $227,000 of that money to air an attack ad in Colorado against Mark Udall, who is the presumptive Dem nominee is going up against scandal-plagued GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer. The battle is playing out in a state where Dems have made strong gains after many years of Republican dominance.
BTW, been doing some work on that calendar. As you hear of events, I'd prefer to let us share the work and give permissions to people to add to the calendar themselves.
update below Colorado Pols has already referenced the antics of the Schaffer crowd out front of today's debate.
Now comes word that those antics include screaming chants of "Drill here, drill now". That would be great guys, why don't your oil company over lords go drill on the millions of acres of land they already have leases for. You can't have your pudding if you don't eat your meat. That was how Pink Floyd put it, but I remember hearing something different in a Russian accent from my grandmother as a child. It seems we now have to treat the republicans and their oil company overlords just like the children they seem to be.
I seems Schaffer's supporters also like to use a bullhorn directly into other people's ears. Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. I expect video up of this soon.
Another incident included a Schaffer shill pushing a nearly 70 year old Udall supporter for getting too close with his sign. What a way to represent Bob Schaffer. Picking on old people. Thanks Bob!
Speaking of thanks Bob:
Yes, Bob Schaffer helped Big oil get $33 Billion in tax cuts(updated from "million" - Ed.) when he was in the house, and now he's trying to give them even more areas to drill when they're not even using all of the extremely cheap leases for oil drilling they already have.
Nearly three-fourths of the 40 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States outside Alaska isn't producing any oil or gas, federal records show, even as the Bush administration pushes to open more environmentally sensitive public lands for oil and gas development.
Why do Bob Schaffer and his shills want access to more offshore drilling? Gas prices are just a trojan horse that will do next to nothing to lower gas prices. It's nothing more than bending the United States over for Big Oil's even more obscene profits.
Update Video from the event:
So they want to drill, eh? What are they waiting for? There are nearly 30 Million acres of land in the lower 48 states already leased to Big Oil that they're not drilling on. If drilling everywhere really was the answer, why aren't they drilling here and now already?
Mark Udall(D) has gained on his Republican Opponent in Colorado's open US Senate seat. The current Senator, Republican Wayne Allard, who is consistently ranked as one of the worst Senators in the nation, is retiring.
The Rasmussen Poll shows an improvment for Udall, he now leads 47 (47), 41 (43) over scandal plagued Schaffer. With 'leaners', he goes over the half-way mark: 50 (49), 42 (46). (July numbers in parens).
Rasmussen goes on to explain:
A Udall win could mean more bad news for the Republicans in the Senate, who are at risk of losing even more seats to the Democrats this fall. Other Republican seats at risk include Alaska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Colorado, Mississippi, Kansas, Virginia and Kentucky.
Swift-boat money will soon be flying into the state for Club for Growth ads. But there have already been some pretty outrageous negative ads against Udall by third-parties, so I am unsure how this will affect the race.
UPDATE: Thanks to Magster over at DKos, there is a poll out in the Rocky Mountain News That shows Udall up 44-38. The article pretty much states that this campaign is about to go Nuclear. I'm holding the poll suspect because it has third-party candidates, one receiving 5% of the vote.
UPDATE2: Ras is not so kind to Obama. McCain is up 49-48 with leaners. Obama seems to slipping away in this state. Hopefully, the convention will turn things around.
Not that we exactly needed an extra open thread but I wanted to draw your attention to a few extra things I noticed while surfing the inter-tubes.
The Swing State Project noticed the National Education Association's PAC just filed notice of a $400,000 media buy against Bob Schaffer. In the last debate Schaffer seemed proud to formerly be on the board of a 527 extolling the virtues of free speech. How do you feel now Bob? This comes on the heels of a League of Conservation Voters media buy against Schaffer.
A phone number being used by callers hoping to score tickets to Barack Obama's Mile High acceptance speech is experiencing difficulties.
Several callers to the number, 888-468-7404, said they haven't been able to get through after repeated calls and have been connecting to a busy signal.
Calls by The Denver Post through the morning have also found busy signals
The DNCC announced half seats at Mile High will be reserved, free, for Coloradans, and it's news the phone lines are jammed? Gee.
Bwaaahahahahaaaaaa. The Washington Times has an expose on the use of profanity on liberal blogs. Yeah, well, I f*cking learned it from Dick Wadhams.
These are just two of the images on Bob Schaffer's son's facebook page. The original page is archived. Plenty of coverage on this over here and in the DenverRockyMountainPost. With the racist attacks on Barack Obama coming from the likes of Fox News, this is having a lot of impact here in the squarestate. Rep Rosemary Marshall is, uhm, a bit perturbed too. Also interesting is that Wadhams felt the only response necessary from the campaign is to put it all on college aged Justin with dad saying he's going to punish him.
Denver - State Representative Rosemary Marshall Colorado called on Bob Schaffer to immediately condemn the racist material on his son's personal Internet site. These images include a picture of the pyramids with a caption "SLAVERY GETS SHIT DONE" as well as an image of Jesus Christ holding an assault rifle in front of the Confederate battle flag, a symbol often used by the KKK and other racist and anti-Semitic groups.
"Schaffer needs to take responsibility and immediately condemn the racist images on his son's Internet page," stated state Rep. Rosemary Marshall, a long-time leader of Denver's African American community.
Bob Schaffer declined to comment when asked by the Denver Post. (DP, 8/5/2008)
Schaffer declined to comment? Wouldn't the response be something along the lines of, that's not how I raised my children?
More from the press release:
"It's enlightening to see some of the values Bob Shaffer, who runs as a "family values" man, has instilled in his own son: racism, homophobia, and a militant inversion of Christianity," said Allan Burns a businessman in Colorado Springs.
Schaffer has used his son in his first campaign commercial and on his campaign website.
"Schaffer is a coward to use his son for his campaign commercials but then point the finger rather at him for failing to follow his "values", stated Marshall.
Bob Schaffer's personal Facebook Internet page directly linked to his son's which included the racist images until the after the blogs and media begin asking questions late yesterday.
As the press release alleges, Justin's page was friends with dad's. That means dad approved the request either without looking at son Justin's page or didn't care what was on it. Since the actual Justin Schaffer page is now deleted we can no longer confirm that, but the son was a fan of the candidate page. What's that about the acorn not falling far from the tree? [corrected fan page details]
A bit about neo-confederates and the meaning behind the confederate flag below the fold.
The headline calls it: "Colorado lawmakers fail in bid to phase leasing of Roan". Senate Republicans decided they would make good on their promise to not let Congress get anything done this year. Colorado Dems wanted to get phased leasing written into law prior to the BLM's Aug. 14th lease opening auction. The corporate media of course lay the blame at both parties' feet.
Xcel Energy expects to shut off 72,000 customers gas and electricity due to non-payment this year. That's interesting because I thought the economic downturn was just psychological. Anyway, it has also written off $10 million in unpaid bills so far this year. It makes that money up by applying charges to the rest of its customers' bills.
Finally the righties have something legitimate to complain about Mark Udall. Yesterday he missed a key vote that could have been the one that tipped the scale to keep congress in session to work on energy issues. Yep, looks like a lot of congresscritters just wanted to call it a day (or month) and go home.
Udall spokeswoman Taylor West said the Boulder County lawmaker was on his way back to Washington at the time and that the vote was called with only 10 minutes' notice. Udall asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to delay the vote without success, and the resolution passed by one vote, 213-212.
...
West said that her boss would send a letter to Pelosi today objecting to the fact that the vote wasn't delayed long enough for him to make it from the Washington airport to the Capitol.
Sure, the righties are going to squawk and squawk about this one. But, late by 10 minutes? How can one legitimately say Udall doesn't care about this issue, when he was 10 minutes away? Sure it looks bad, and it gives Schaffer something to help sink his teeth into Mark Udall's ankle, but 10 minutes? How late has Bob Schaffer been to working on renewable energy issues? A lot longer than 10 minutes.
There was a very interesting part in a DenverPost story on Monday following the 2nd Udall-Schaffer debate concerning renewable energy:
[Schaffer] even blasted Udall for missing a key 2004 vote to extend a renewable energy tax credit. (Though the Wind Energy Association news release about the vote sent to reporters by the Schaffer campaign also called Udall "vital in gaining this extension" and Udall's campaign said he missed the vote while visiting troops in Iraq.)
Here's a part of that letter:
"Gaining the PTC extension became a reality through the cooperative leadership of Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA)," said AWEA Legislative Director Jaime Steve. "AWEA is also very appreciative of strong efforts by Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Tom Daschle (D-SD), Harry Reid (D-NV), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Tom Harkin (D-IA) and many others," Steve said. "On the House side, Reps. Jim McCrery (R-LA), Mark Foley (R-FL), Bob Matsui (D-CA), Jerry Weller (R-IL), Ron Kind (D-WI), Jay Inslee (D-WA), Mark Udall (D-CO) and Greg Walden (R-OR) were vital in gaining this extension."
Colorado Pols was quick to point out how stupid Wadhams must be for sending out an old press release meant to attack Udall, when it actually praises his work on renewable energy and specifically his work on this tax credit bill. Maybe there's some secret plan here, and Wadhams is a genius...
Jay Marvin reminded us today that Big Oil Bob Schaffer tried to work some favors in Iraq and get and oil deal for the company he worked (works?) for. This was against State Department wishes and certainly showed that greed wins out over national security for B.O.B and today's Republican Party. (Was it ever different?)
In March 2003, weeks after the invasion of Iraq, war architect Richard Perle resigned from his position on the Defense Policy Board in an attempt to "defuse a controversy over charges he stood to profit from the war in Iraq."
Salon is running a story on Republicans who are desperately putting as much distance between themselves and their party. While the Democrats are fighting for passes to the events in Denver, a good number of their counterparts are hiding from Minneapolis.
Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Wayne Schaeffer, who's trying to hold a Colorado seat for the Republicans, have all ruled out attending. Incumbents Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, Gordon Smith in Oregon, John Sununu in New Hampshire and Roger Wicker in Mississippi, as well as candidates John Kennedy in Louisiana and Steve Pearce in New Mexico, say they're not sure whether they'll be there.
Wayne Schaeffer can't run from his record. That is why Ken Udall will take him down.
As the press release alleges, Justin's page was friends with dad's. That means dad approved the request either without looking at son Justin's page or didn't care what was on it. Since the actual Justin Schaffer page is now deleted we can no longer confirm that, but the son was a fan of the candidate page. What's that about the acorn not falling far from the tree? [corrected fan page details]