OMFG! Politico writes Bipartisanship's Obit

by: Zappatero

Mon Jan 30, 2012 at 17:56:51 PM MST

On the front of Politico is an article about how the big bipartisan deals that used to be relatively common in Congress now appear to be a thing of the past. From Politico:

 Call it the Split the Difference Scenario - a dream of Washington at its civic-minded best that has flourished for decades, even as the reality of Washington became ever more snarling and contentious.

Sometimes, the dream even came true, in iconic closed-door moments: a bipartisan bargain over Social Security in 1983, a high-drama budget summit at Andrews Air Force Base in 1990, a landmark spending accord between Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich in 1997.

The striking fact about Washington at the start of 2012 is how many people, in public and private, say they have concluded that the capital is no longer a city of splittable differences.

UPDATE: If you have the time, Digby explicates beautifully.

The Do-Nothing, Hate-Everything Republican Congress

by: Zappatero

Wed Jan 25, 2012 at 11:30:22 AM MST

• Ministry of Truth at Kos:

  My friend told me after the State Of The Union that the Republicans looked like a bunch of "miserable old sourpusses."

  "How so?" I asked.

  "He is talking about uplifting stuff and they look miserable."

  I wasn't even planning to watch, but happened upon it as it was just starting. The terminal, chronic negativity of the GOP was on full display. They were not moved by any rhetoric and were not inspired by any of The President's ideas. If the DNC wants some ideas for TV spots, they should just take the closeups of Republican leaders during that speech and run them in an infinite loop.
• Colorado's sublimely daft Doug Lamborn decided he had to stand up for something besides killing the EPA and Big Bird, so he played the ignorance card and skipped the address. Let's imagine the reaction to a Democrat doing that to President Bush. Unfortunately, the voters in CD-5 will never look back on their decision to choose Lamborn over Jay Fawcett in '06. (Hi, Jay!)
• Despite Mark Udall's continuing, lame attempts to foster bipartisanship (God Damn it, Mark, it's Dead, and you're the Last to know! (Even the Supes couldn't contain their pettiness and only a quorom of them showed up. ) If Udall has put this much effort into condemning the automatic filibuster used by Senate Republicans on almost every vote they take, no one would ever know it.
• And despite his late, and most likely futile, efforts to retake the debate on the budget and taxes, Obama's invitation to the speech of Warren Buffet's secretary (who pays a higher tax rate than her Billionaire Boss), showed that Republicans couldn't manage just 1% Solution of Sympathy for that tax dilemma. The result was heapings of scorn and derision for the hard-working woman.

Anything less, and they are all frowns - exactly like last night.

(* - Apologies if I was a little harsh. - Z)

Doug Lamborn's fight against the EPA

by: Zappatero

Thu Dec 01, 2011 at 09:49:28 AM MST

We all also know that their views on regulations are pure, unadulterated bullshit. The latest example is the newly contained leak at the Suncor refinery north of Denver:

Suncor Energy said on Wednesday it has contained a leak of an oily substance near its Commerce City refinery in Colorado that was running into Sand Creek, which joins a river that supplies Denver with water.

The Canadian energy firm said it had not yet identified the source of the leak, but acknowledged it was likely coming from its 93,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in the area. It said plant operations were unaffected.

The leak comes a month after Colorado's Department of Public Health warned Suncor that it needed to take stricter measures to mitigate contamination that an investigation found was coming from the site and could threaten local water supplies.

Republicans like Doug Lamborn would take the regulators away and let oil refineries deal with problems however they saw fit. This proves the fallacy of their free market mantra and that those like Lamborn, who are constantly agitating for fracking and against the EPA, do it for one reason: not to prevent the flow of hazardous materials into our drinking water, but to ensure the flow of campaign money from their Big Energy donors.

Republican support for troops = Dump remains in landfill

by: Zappatero

Thu Nov 10, 2011 at 08:28:49 AM MST

The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops' remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea.

The Dover, Del., mortuary, the main point of entry for the nation's war dead and the target of federal investigations of alleged mishandling of remains, engaged in the practice from 2003 to 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of fallen service members.

Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman supported the Bush Administration and their incompetent and malicious war policies almost every chance they got. They should be held accountable for this failure.

And any time a Republican says he supports the troops we should make them prove it with deeds, not the empty words of a cheap politician.

Green energy investments aren't just "meant" to create jobs; they're creating them

by: Jason Salzman

Sat Oct 15, 2011 at 13:43:23 PM MST

The editorial commented on General Electric's announcement this week that it will be building a $300 million solar-panel manufacturing plant in Aurora, which will create 355 jobs right off the bat and could employ double that number.

Here's part of what The Post had to say:

What makes it even sweeter is that the thin-film technology that will be used in the plant was developed in Golden, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, an economic engine in its own right, and PrimeStar Solar, an Arvada-based company.

With these developments, the state continues to make a name for itself in the green energy business.

In both a symbolic and real-world blow to green energy development and the jobs renewable industries are meant to create, the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden announced significant job cuts today.

That's not true, especially when it comes to NREL, as this week's announcement from GE makes clear.

Coffman, Lamborn and Associates to cut education even further

by: Zappatero

Thu Sep 29, 2011 at 11:14:42 AM MST

WASHINGTON-House Republicans have announced plans to cut heating subsidies for the poor, job training and President Barack Obama's "Race to the Top" program providing grants to better-performing schools, as they unveil a massive spending bill for labor, health and education programs.

The controversial GOP measure also seeks to block implementation of Obama's signature health care law, cut off National Public Radio from federal grants and reduce eligibility for Pell Grants to low-income college students.

Doug Lamborn: Idiot Extraordinaire

by: Zappatero

Tue Aug 02, 2011 at 06:43:03 AM MST

"Even if some people say, 'Well the Republicans should have done this or they should have done that,' they will hold the president responsible. Now, I don't even want to have to be associated with him. It's like touching a tar baby and you get it, you're stuck, and you're a part of the problem now and you can't get away," Lamborn said Friday on the Caplis and Silverman Show on 630 KHOW talk radio.

Where does the expression "tar baby" come from? And who uses it anymore? Maybe it's a no-brainer for those who grew up in lily white Kansas and now live in lily white Colorado Springs? But it should be a no-brainer not to use the ignorant and racist expression.

UPDATE: Doug Lamborn hates earmarks -- requested $156 MILLION for the Fighting Fifth

by: Zappatero

Mon Jun 20, 2011 at 12:23:44 PM MST

After taking control of the House of Representatives last November, congressional Republicans came up with a surefire way to cut government spending and shrink the federal deficit - ban earmarks.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who represents Colorado Springs, wrote an editorial supporting the ban, and targeted what he called "an important first step toward fundamentally changing the way taxpayer dollars are spent in Washington."

By the time he threw his support behind the ban, Lamborn had requested at least $156 million in earmarks, much of it for military bases in his Colorado district, but also tens of millions in contracts for companies that had donated to his campaign.

From the 2008 through 2010 fiscal years, Lamborn got the second-highest amount of earmark money of the 10 Colorado House members who served during those years, including three who were in the House for a part of that time - Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, Tom Tancredo and Sen. Mark Udall.

Our God is bigger than their God, isn't He?

UPDATE: Add profligate porker Michelle Bachmann to the list:

It's all Republicans' Fault

by: Zappatero

Sun Jun 05, 2011 at 13:49:30 PM MST

Nancy Pelosi speaks the simple truth about our Do-Nothing Republican Congress:

Schieffer: The fact is, the Congress has been in session since January and it's done basically nothing.

PELOSI: Well you can talk to Mr. Boehner about that.

SCHEIFFER: So it's all their fault. It's not your fault?

PELOSI: They set the agenda. We have said every day that they're there another day goes by and there's no jobs agenda or jobs bill that has come to the floor. But again, it's about how we can work together to go forward. These issues are bigger than politics, they're bigger than elections. They're about the country that we will live in. And what we will see as we go forward is one vision of America that's encompassed in the Republican budget plan that abolishes Medicare, that makes college unaffordable for nearly ten million young people in our country, that takes us deeper into debt and does not create jobs, or you can talk about an agenda that talks about making it in America, investing in American education, innovation and that's what campaigns are about.

Doug Lamborn's contribution to a jobs agenda? Cut NPR. Never mind the miniscule amount of money that goes to public broadcasting. Talk about oil company subsidies and Lamborn says we should cut NREL instead. For a dim bulb he sure knows which side his bread is greased on.

Mike Coffman's contribution? Not enough "In god we trust" for him.

And on and on with the trite and tivial. Republicans say government doesn't work and are doing everything possible to make it true.

They don't care if you or I are working, productive or contributing to society. They have one goal right now: get that Black Man out of the White House. That is Republicans' Job 1. They couldn't care less who has a job as their tactics to achieve that bald-faced goal are turned into policy.

Republicans continue to hate on our Soldiers and Public Safety employees

by: Zappatero

Wed Apr 06, 2011 at 08:36:22 AM MST

U.S. military troops at war in Iraq and Afghanistan would receive one-week's pay instead of two in their next paycheck if the government shuts down this weekend due to the federal budget impasse, according to a senior defense official.

Oh, and prison guards and undercover FBI agents:

"Under federal law, many classes of federal employees keep needing to work if the government shuts down. FBI agents serving under cover won't suddenly drop out, and federal prisons will keep operating. But the people who do these jobs won't get paid."

I'm pretty sure those guys and gals making $174K might not even check in with their COS knowing their checks were not in the mail, though they sure do expect a helluva lot more from their inferiors - you, me, and the soldiers and officers that protect us every day.

Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman vote to continue Tax Breaks for giant Oil companies

by: Zappatero

Wed Mar 02, 2011 at 07:11:30 AM MST

Coffman (CO)
Gardner
Lamborn
Tipton

What did these geniuses, who say they are trying to balance America's budget, 'Nay'?

No major Integrated Oil Company shall be eligible for any tax benefit or relief under the following provisions of such Code to the extent attributable to such tax period.

So they don't want to remove any of the existing tax benefits these oil companies currently receive. There are some who argue that due to extreme market conditions (which always seem to help their bottom line) oil companies should be taxed at "windfall" levels. Though it will never happen that's the policy I'd put in place.

It's doubtful much local or state press has reported the details of this vote; it's too far "in the weeds" they'd say. So these 4 goofs who are representing us will probably never have to answer that question, but it would be nice if someone checked with Coloradans about their views on taxing some of America's and Colorado's most profitable oil companies, and for $3.50 a gallon we should at least get the time of day from the profiteers and their enablers representing us in Washington, DC - most especially those from Colorado.

Poor CO-5 and CO-6

by: Fong

Fri Jul 23, 2010 at 07:36:30 AM MST

I bet you can guess which ones they are and where they're from :D!!!

YES, it's Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn from CO-6 and CO-5 respectively.

Usually a caucus effort is to rally and organize a message and a plan. But what could it possibly be? Is it yelling the word socialist louder? Maybe they'll revive the "M" word like it's something to fight about. Perhaps they could rail against "government interference" while being members of the government AND interfering with things like the census which Bachmann told her constituents to not fill out and then the moron changed her tune when someone told her that would put her job at risk.

As of now, it's just a nasty show of misguided whiteys.

Here's Bachmann on FOXNEWS Van Susteren's show talking about the hot caucus.

Here's the list of 40 teabagging caucus lovers from Bachmann's website