The Progressive Political Blog for Colorado
(HOME)

[mobile edition]
Got a hot tip?

Need a job?
Progressive Job Bank
SquareState Ads

Barack Obama
Why not this?
by: therebis - Jan 03
Bush's Iraq War Is Now Illegal
by: USMCinCO - Jan 01
1 Comments
Slow News Day Scandal
by: Aaron Silverstein - Dec 24
1 Comments

Bob Schaffer
Colo Dept of Ed
by: tjlord - Nov 25
2 Comments

Trivia

About
The progressive community blog on all things Colorado. Blogging since 6/17/2005.

You're encouraged to join. This blog is what we make it.

About/Disclaimer

Widgets

oil

by: Brahman Colorado

12/20/08 @ 10:54:28 AM MST

( - promoted by Aaron Silverstein)

Since May of this year, I have tried no less than six times to write this diary. I haven't had all the facts or references to document what I know. It became so personal a journey for me that I found myself immersed in a struggle to get the information on a small rural county fighting to preserve it's great natural resources of land, water and pristine beauty and my desire to move there.

It is the struggle of one the poorest counties in historic Southern Colorado against the oil and gas industry, drilling for Methane gas in Huerfano County.

A place that has been the crossroads of the Ute trail, Camino Real, Taos trail and the Santa Fe trail bordering the Sangre de Cristo mountain range at the base of the Spanish Peaks. The Peaks have traditional and religious significance to American Indian tribes including the Comanche and Ute. Summer thunderstorms, which often form near the summits, were evidence the rain gods worked their magic on the peaks. The common Indian names are "Wahatoya", Huajatolla" or Guajatoyah", roughly interpreted as "breasts of the earth".

A place where rivers, streams and water sheds have supported a rich diversity of life for thousands of years.

IMG_1376

There's More... :: (5 Comments, 1209 words in story)

by: johne

12/12/08 @ 11:22:22 AM MST

I've got to hand it to the republicans for trying their usual tactics, of environment versus jobs.
Sure, the republicans oppose environmental regulations as they claim these will hurt the oil and gas company's jobs.  But, then it's kind of hard to hold down a job if the air is burning your lungs or the ground water is making you sick.  We should always err on the side of jobs, just so long as we don't create another Cuyahoga River.  

The announcement (pdf) from the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission includes these new rules.

•Establish protection zones around streams that serve public drinking water supplies.
•Require companies to keep track of and disclose to state and emergency responders chemicals they use in drilling operations.
•Reduce odors where oil and gas development is occurring near homes and schools in northwestern Colorado.
•Manage erosion and reduce water pollution around oil and gas operators during storms and snow run-off seasons.
•Allow the state health department and state wildlife agency to consult and offer recommendations on oil and gas development to protect public health, the environment and wildlife.
•Provide notice to nearby landowners and public comment periods for development proposals.

Yes, those are surely going to hurt jobs.  Mmmm-Hmmm.

Here are all 177 pages of the Final Draft Rules in pdf.

And there's also this from the Rocky piece

Rep.-elect Laura Bradford, R-Collbran, said she is most concerned with proposals to put areas off-limits for oil rigs for three months during the breeding seasons of certain species. That ban essentially becomes five months because it takes an extra month to move rigs in and out, and animals don't migrate along the same straight lines every year anyway, Bradford said.

I'm glad to see they're using a freshman for this.  What she's leaving out is that rule only goes into effect if the developer does not come up with a plan to show how they won't be impacting wildlife.  But, you know, that might be hard work.  Heck, the developer might have to hire some folks to generate that report.  

BTW, the industry guys are just fine with these rules as the vote was unanimous, 8-0.  This looks like nothing more than the same old republicans up to their same tactics that do nothing for the general population of Colorado.  Keep it up guys.  This is why you keep losing elections.

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

by: johne

10/15/08 @ 05:10:04 PM MDT

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?

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

by: wade norris

10/11/08 @ 11:28:00 AM MDT

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.

His website is Steam Powered Opinions.

There's More... :: (0 Comments, 28 words in story)

by: Aaron Silverstein

09/10/08 @ 06:47:25 PM MDT

Think Progress
Part of the "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" at the Denver Minerals Management Service involved employees illegally taking drugs, often while at the office. According to the new Interior Department Inspector General's report, Gregory Smith, Program Director of the Royalty in Kind Program, referred to cocaine as "office supplies" and rewarded his employees for obtaining it for him.

Update: How much of Colorado's money went through Smith's hands? [ed. note, same guy?]

A search yields this from 2006:

Royal Ahold N.V. ("Ahold") has agreed to pay a total of US$1.1 billion to settle all securities law claims asserted against Ahold and certain other defendants in the securities litigation pending in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, Gregory W. Smith, General Counsel of Lead Plaintiff, the Public Employees' Retirement Association ("Colorado PERA") announced today.

[ed. note, Sure, not the same guy, but weird nonetheless -johne]

From the report (first set of links on that page)

     We also discovered a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity in the RIK program - both within the program, including a supervisor, Greg Smith, who engaged in illegal drug use and had sexual relations with subordinates, and in consort with industry.  Internally, several   staff admitted to illegal drug use as well as illicit sexual encounters.  Alcohol abuse appears to have been a problem when RIK staff socialized with industry.  For example, two RIK staff accepted lodging from industry after industry events because they were too intoxicated to drive home or to their hotel.  These same RIK marketers also engaged in brief sexual relationships with industry contacts.  Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length.
Comedy in an inspector general's report.  ha!
Discuss :: (5 Comments)

by: conniptionfit

09/04/08 @ 10:45:06 PM MDT

(What are they waiting for?  Heck, I don't care if they start drilling right in the middle of their convention in Minneapolis.  If they really thought it would make a significant contribution to lowering gas prices, they better get to it instead of constantly crying about it. - promoted by johne)

"Drill Here, Drill Now" is a know-nothing, knee-jerk slogan thought up by know-nothing, knee-jerk Newt Gingrich, Republican scam artist of "Contract For America" fame.  And we all know how well that worked out, don't we? "Drill Here, Drill Now" depends on the ignorance of busy Americans of the basic facts and math of the Oil Business.  The REAL issue is not our dependence on "Foreign Oil" as the powers-that-be have been telling us for the last 32 years.  The real problem is our economy's dependence on a finite, dwindling (not to mention filthy) energy source. Period.  Allowing ourselves to be distracted and side tracked by petroleum dollar greased politicians and Oil lobbyists into endless arguments about ways to bring back the good ol' days of cheap oil is like watching a starving man argue with himself over whether  a steak dinner or a lobster dinner would be better.... if he had access to a steak or a lobster.
There's More... :: (3 Comments, 1530 words in story)

by: johne

09/03/08 @ 01:39:23 AM MDT

Earlier tonight I attended a fundraiser for Jared Polis where House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD-5) was the main guest of honor.  Not that Jared needs the money, this seemed more of an occasion to interact with a member of the House leadership and one of our next incoming Congressmen.

Oh, the questions I could have asked, the questions I wanted to ask on telecom immunity, warrant-less wiretaps and FISA, Iraq war funding, so many things.  The problem is, knowing myself a little bit, there was no way I could phrase these questions without it coming across as challenging, argumentative, or just plain rude.  Sure, where else am I going to get to address the majority leader like that, but when else am I going to get invited to another Jared Polis event should I ask the questions I want? Besides, Jared is going to have to work with this guy for at least the next two years.  So, I just sat back and listened.  What I got in return was an entirely different impression than that given of Hoyer on the blogs.

After a good round of introductions from the people there who actually wrote big checks, Jared introduced those of us in the cheap seats.  I don't mind being in the cheap seats, and I couldn't afford to write any check this month anyway.  Introducing me as a blogger, Hoyer remarked, "God save us from the bloggers."  I'm not sure who "us" is, but we're obviously having some effect that God is being invoked.  Sure, there were all kind of ways I could have responded, but I just held my tongue.

What came next though was worth listening to.  As there were actually not that many people at this event in the backyard of a local bed & breakfast, chairs were arranged almost as if we were at a cook-out.  I was three seats over from the Majority Leader.  Most of the conversation centered around energy, gas prices, and healthcare, but also touched on the economy, Iraq, and the struggling US auto industry.

There's More... :: (1 Comments, 809 words in story)

by: no-work-because

08/23/08 @ 03:16:28 PM MDT

Re: H.R. 362 (Naval Blockade of Iran) and other belligerent acts.   Please find pasted below an essay on Middle East. A few points are excerpted first as teasers.  

        There's no time to lose!  Bush is drooling again, anticipating a quick conquest of Iran before his term expires. "I'll not talk appeasement!" exhorts the hysterical Bush.  "I'll not dialogue with my prey.  Appease bend over and drop your pants, I've got a lot of countries to do."
        Now he has [The Republic of]Georgia on his mind!

        The Biblically promised boundaries of the Holy land - "from the Nile to the Euphrates" (Genesis 15: 18), would encompass a large slice of Eastern Africa, the entire modern Middle East from Egypt to Iran, including the whole Saudi peninsula, and even a large swath of the former Soviet Union, which contains the territory of the present Republic of Georgia, currently in the news. (see map)

 Little mention is made in the almost jingoistic American media of Iranian offers to consider privately run, domestic, commercial, enrichment facilities that would yield uranium fuel in appropriate concentrations to be used only in nuclear power plants.  This proposal should assuage international concern over reported Persian attempts to obtain nuclear concentration levels required for military use.  
•    The fact is that a 2006 Gallup World Poll shows only 17% of Iranians support the most extremist Muslim view that Islamic Shari'a law must be the only source of legislation, putting Iran nowhere near the top of the heap as far as radical Islamic nations goes.
•    While a handful of Americans have seen the light and can be found demonstrating with signs saying "No Blood for Oil!" they should add to their placards "No Blood for Matzo Balls or Easter Eggs!!"
•    If anything, the invasion of Poland ended Germany's appeasement of the Allies. With the end of WW I in 1919, over 150 years after its death by hacking and cleaving, a faint, flickering ghost of Poland was briefly conjured by the Allies at Versailles from conquered German lands.  This is the land reclaimed by Germany in 1939 and even then only after Allied refusal of reasonable German requests for unharassed passage to the neutral port of Danzig, on the German border.
•    If the Arc were found, in addition to possibly gaining the benefit of its legendary otherworldly powers, Wilhelm II could command respect as its guardian: a legitimate, reinvigorated Holy Roman Emperor.
•    While less than the Biblically promised lands - "from the Nile to the Euphrates" (Genesis 15: 18), which would also encompass a large slice of Eastern Africa...
•    Deuteronomy 20: 13-17, But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive. But you shall utterly destroy them...
•    Perhaps they have become too used to others, including six million of their brethren, paying the price?
•    We could easily turn Iraq over to the Arab League, or even OPEC, for governance, but again, the fact of the matter is that Americans are dying in Iraq to claim that land for Israel, unwitting front man, international intention laundering organization for fanatical Christian ambitions in the Middle East.
•    These days it is common to remember with condemnation the domestic WWII internment of Japanese Americans. But if we must eventually do battle with the minions of Moses and the cutthroats for Christ, how will we identify and isolate these legions of homegrown enemy agents, domestic terrorists and local, fifth column Quislings - completely indistinguishable from loyal Americans?

   Full text follows:

   Hatter gone mad?
   (He's late for a very important date!!)*
    *reference to character from Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland".
   steveluera2002@yahoo.com

   There's no time to lose!  
   Bush is drooling again, anticipating a quick conquest of Iran before his term expires. "I'll not talk appeasement!" exhorts the hysterical Bush.  "I'll not dialogue with my prey.  Appease bend over and drop your pants, I've got a lot of countries to do."
   Now he appears to have Georgia (South Ossetia) on his mind!

   Scott McClellan's recent revelations about disingenuous White House schemes to sell the war in Iraq now sprinkle a few grains of salt on administration claims that Iran is supporting radicals in both Lebanon and Iraq or is rushing full tilt to acquire the bomb.
   Now, suspicious recent events, including the possible murder of the anthrax researcher Ivins and the commencement of a Russian-Georgian War under cover of both the Olympic opening ceremonies and Senator Edward's adultery confession is causing many to wonder how far the administration will go in its insanely corrupt mission to embezzle Middle Eastern oil wealth.
   Was Ivans assassinated to cover-up a post-911 plot by Bush to scare Americans into invading Iraq?  Was this scheme planned to enrich the Bush Oil Cartel by guaranteeing it exclucive access to Iraqi oil after the elimination of President Saddam Hussein?  Is the new war in Georgia ment to kidnap from Russia a pipeline designed to transport Middle Eastern oil?  What exactly are the motivations driving the so-called civilized nations of the West in their rapacious dealings in the Middle East?  And why do they continue to harrass the Arabs, Persians and other native populations of the area with a thorn in their foot - Israel, provoking oil embargos and prices hikes that are severely affecting not only Americans, but most people world wide, as well as their national economies?

   Little mention is made in the almost jingoistic American media of Iranian offers to consider private participation by other countries in its growing commercial enrichment facilities.  Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, speaking at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy on February 11, 2007, proclaimed: "We said that we are ready to have all of our nuclear activities in a consortium so that others can participate in our activities and as the result we build confidence."    
    These joint ventures, monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations, could yield for export from Iran uranium fuel in appropriate concentrations to be used only in nuclear power plants.  Why shouldn't Iran join the growing move to Green solutions for our energy needs?
   (Mother Jones Magazine's Mojo Blog  "MojoConvo: Iran Panic?  Talk about it with the Experts."  June 28-July 5, 2008.   This information was introduced into the discussion by Hass in the comments section at 8:32 pm on 6/28/2008 and substantiated by b at 11:17 pm on 6/28/2008 with a link to a letter from Manuchehr Mottaki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on May 13, 2008.)
   This proposal could assuage international concern over reported Persian attempts to obtain nuclear concentration levels required for military use.  It would also keep Iran, and other future nuclear powered countries, free from the threats of political blackmail from external suppliers of fuel for their power plants.  But we, the general public, hear nothing of it.  
   Even in an interview with Spiegel online international (February 26, 2007), United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon evaded the question when reminded of Ali Larijani's proposition.
    The fact is that a 2006 Gallup World Poll shows only 17% of Iranians support the extremist Muslim view that Islamic Shari'a law must be the only source of legislation, putting Iran nowhere near the top of the heap as far as radical Islamic nations goes.   ("Gallup presents... Russian Muslims: Religious Leaven in Secular Society" Sergei Gradirovski, Research Advisor; Gallup World Poll and Neli Esipova, Senior Consultant, Gallup Organization.  Harvard International Review, Spring 2008 p.58)
   Furthermore, constant reports by the Western press that Iran wishes to annihilate and murder Jews are, to say the least, overblown, twisted mistranslations.
   The University of Michigan's Juan Cole, who has analyzed Middle Eastern events for television as recently as July 28, 2008 on PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer, in referring to a speech by Iran's President Ahmadi-Nejad repudiating claims of Iranian desire for nuclear weapons, said "The scholock Western pundits, journalists and politicians who keep maintaining that Ahmadi-Nejad threatened 'to wipe Israel of the map' when he never said those words, sill never, ever manage to choke out the words Ahmadi-Nejad spoke on Saturday, much less repeat them as a tag line forever after." (Informed Comment.com 8.27.06, From Twin Terrors (uranium enrichment program of Iran) Kurdish Life 59(Summer 2006))
   The Kurdish Life piece adds, "Virginia Tilley, a South African analyst, also challenged the version of Ahmadi-Nejad's remarks pervading U.S. news.  "The most infamous quote, 'Israel must be wiped off the map,' is the most glaringly wrong.  In his October 2005 speech, Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad never used the word 'map' or the term 'wiped off'....what he actually said was, "This regime that is occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the pages of time.'"
   "Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad was being prophetic, not threatening.  He was citing Imam Khomeini, who said this line in the1980's (a period when Israel was actually selling arms to Iran, so apparently it was not viewed as so ghastly then.)  
   "Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad had just reminded this audience that the Shah's regime, the Soviet Union, and Saddam Hussein had all seemed enormously powerful and immovable, yet the first two had vanished almost beyond recall and the third now languished in prison.  So, too, the 'occupying regime' in Jerusalem would someday be gone.  His message was, in essence, "This too shall pass.'"
   Ms. Tilley goes on to refute claims that Iran would pursue "the expulsion of Jews into the sea or the ravaging of their towns and cities..." ("Is Iran's President Really a Jew-hating, Holocaust-denying  Islamo-fascist who has threatened to "wipe Israel off the map"? Counterpunch, August 28, 2006)
   Yet, like an alarm clock gradually penetrating a deep sleep the drums of war have been beating steadily for some time now.  Will we waken in time to prevent yet another needless conflagration in our short, violent, pathetically misguided military history?  

   Every war we've ever fought was wrong headed; consistently inspired by insidious greed and hyper-inflated haught.  The Revolutionary, 1812, Mexican, Spanish - American, Civil, 1st and 2nd WWs, Korean, Vietnamese, Panamanian, Grenadine, Afghanistani and 1st and 2nd Iraqi wars.
•    Our revolutionary war was an adventure in extortion initiated by Washington. He had discovered from first hand experience, while working in his youth as a surveyor's assistant, the vast potential of the North American continent undreamed of even by King George III, and wanted a larger share of it for his heirs and himself.   Benjamin Franklin's extreme reluctance to participate in this treasonous rebellion gave the lie to its legitimacy.   In fact the overwhelming majority of colonials had neither motive nor opportunity to join the conspiracy.  ("Nine tenths of the population lived in the countryside, where the availability of cheap land plus the generally favorable climate and soil created a prosperous, independent farming community."   The Good Americans: The Loyalists In the American Revolution"  Wallace Brown, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1969 New York. p.5)          
•    Given the validity of the previous claim, the War of 1812 was a justified British irredentist exercise.
•    President Polk's campaigns to steal Texas and the territory that makes up our current southwestern states of Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and California from Mexico, and wrest Washington and Oregon from England were typically presumptuous American plunderings, justified with invocations of  "Manifest Destiny".  
•    "Remember the Maine" was as dishonest a propaganda campaign as was "Regime Change" or "WMDs", which plunged us into war with Spain.
•    President Polk's campaigns to steal Texas and the territory that makes up our current southwestern states of Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and California from Mexico, and wrest Washington and Oregon from England was a typically presumptuous American plundering justified with invocations of Manifest Destiny.  
•   One wonders if the lives of American agricultural workers would have been much different if the South had successfully seceded!  Surely the lives of African-Americans improved very little with emancipation.  Didn't mass production and mechanization make slavery obsolete by 1908 anyway?   Quite arguably, the standard of living for laborers today is actually worse than that of antebellum times!
•    The First World War, caused by a simple, stupid feud within the interbred ruling royal family of England and Germany, again bred a succeeding legitimate war of irredentism.  
•     Our numerous Cold War humiliations - Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Granada, even Kosovo, to which Afghanistan and Iraq will ultimately be added - resulted from our unnecessarily stabbing Communists in the back.  
    Ceaselessly the bodies pile up, lives uselessly wasted, lives and property wantonly destroyed.  Shall we continue feeding our grotesque addiction with yet another unwarranted invasion?   While a handful of Americans have seen the light and can be found demonstrating with signs saying "No Blood for Oil!" they should add to their placards "No Blood for Matzo Balls or Easter Eggs!!"

   Actually, President Bush's recent remarks about appeasement were fundamentally flawed.  The stale, dog eared argument that Hitler's invasion of Poland terminated the Allies' policy of appeasement is just more of the same revisionist spinning of past events spewn by the victors throughout history.  We've heard it all for decades.  
   Yet there was no appeasement of Hitler for he did nothing inflammatory to appease.  Indeed, it was he who too long appeased the Allies.  If anything, the invasion of Poland ended Germany's appeasement of the Allies.
   Regaining Poland was nothing to get excited about. Gerrit P. Judd, in his text "A History of Western Civilization" 1966 Collier-MacMillan Limited, London, pp. 464-465, informs us that "Poland reached its peak of power and prosperity in the sixteenth century and declined thereafter."   In 1660, over a century before our Independence, after years of revolution during which "the cossacks slaughtered, with acts of bestial cruelty, not only Polish Christians but at least 100 thousand Polish Jews", chunks of Poland began to disappear.  
   When the succession of Augustus III to the throne in 1734 required the help of Russian troops, "it was apparent that Poland was little more than a satellite of Russia."   Years before our own revolution Poland was nearing extinction.  
   Finally, in 1772 the last, fatal partitions of this former European power began, with Russia, Prussia and Austria seizing a quarter of Poland.  More territorial losses followed in 1793, culminating in 1795 with the defeat of a final rebellion led by General Kosciusko, who had fought for the patriots in the American Revolution.  Poland was no more.  
   With the end of WW I in 1919, nearly 200 years after its mortal wounding and slow death by hacking and cleaving, a faint, flickering ghost of Poland was briefly conjured by the Allies at Versailles from conquered German lands.  This is the land reclaimed by Germany in 1939 and even then only after Allied refusal of reasonable German requests for unharassed passage to the neutral port of Danzig, on the German border.
   The rest, as they say, is history.  Belligerent Britain and the fearful French, exactly as before WW1 when they refused to allow Kaiser William II on the dais of world power with themselves and Tsarist Russia, again conspired to stop Germany from consolidating its commonwealth of confederated territories and becoming a peer.
   Two apocalyptically catastrophic wars later we find ourselves again in an almost identical situation.  

   Today the crisis revolves around Israel, Iraq and Iran, with a supporting cast of the U.S, Islam, Christianity and Zionism.  Instead of Poland, the ghost country this time is Israel; dead these 2000 years, conjured up from conquered Muslim lands by, you guessed it, our good friends, the British.  
    But as with the long suppressed truth of pre-Revolutionary majority support for England in the land that would soon claim to be the birthplace of modern democracy, a telling yet not commonly known fact this time is that, contrary to popular belief Israel is not a Jewish state.  
   Why?

   Everyone knows the story of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc.  What they don't know are the facts upon which it was based.
    In 1898 a race was on.  German Kaiser Wilhelm II had learned of secret, Palestinian mountain caves where the holy Arc of the Covenant was rumored to be hidden.  The British were also big on archaeology and probably had heard the same rumors.  
   In nearby Egypt just a few years later they discovered the cryptic, mystical tomb of King Tut, untouched for three millennium.  Speculation was rampant about what intense, bizarre, occult forces ancient artifacts of the mighty Pharaohs would possess.  
   This indeed may have been another reason why Britain didn't want the Kaiser getting stronger: they needed to keep Germany away from the Middle Eastern bounty of allegedly power endowing religious treasures and vast reserves of oil essential to political world hegemony.
   At any rate, young Wilhelm knew he was not yet strong enough to conquer the crumbling empire still ruled by Muslim Turkey in which the secret location lay. But while it would be impossible to establish a Christian nation in the land of Palestine, Wilhelm II hoped the Turkish Sultan Abdulhamet II would allow a small, autonomous Jewish homeland in that province of the Ottoman empire, from which Muslims could gain considerable tax revenue.   Especially since Wilhelm II had just backed the Turks in a major international crisis involving the Greeks and Turkish ruled Crete.  
   Just a few harmless Jews.  Who, of course, would owe the existence of their national park to the Kaiser and wouldn't object to some casual, anonymous, archaeological expeditions.  
   If the Arc were found, in addition to possibly gaining the benefit of its legendary otherworldly powers, Wilhelm II could command respect as its guardian: a legitimate, reinvigorated Holy Roman Emperor.  Of course Queen Victoria would turn green with envy, to say nothing of the French and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.  And imagine the Jewish reaction to news of the most important Jewish, national, biblical treasure being discovered and nabbed right from under their noses!!!
   Oblivious to Wilhelm's true intentions, the Zionists themselves were also just a wee bit greedy, for on the day of the meeting with the Turkish Sultan Abdulhamit II, Theodor Herzl, the founding father of modern Zionism, decided to asked for the land  "from Gaza to the Euphrates", which would include all of modern day Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon and most of Iraq and present day Turkey, and incidentally, all the oil therein.

   NEWS FLASH!!!

   This also includes the Republic of Georgia now currently in the news. Makes you kind of wonder what exactly is going on. What's really behind this attempted land grab by the West?

   While geographically smaller than the Biblically promised lands - "from the Nile to the Euphrates" (Genesis 15: 18), (see map)
which would also encompass a large slice of Eastern Africa - the British had already wrested Egypt from the Ottoman empire and occupied Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, Germany was ruling Tanzania, Portugal owned Malawi and Mozambique, Italy possessed Somalia and Eritrea while battling for Ethiopia, and the French had Madagascar.  Thus the land Herzl requested was the only "available" section left.
    However, such a concession would swallow all of the remaining Middle Eastern portions of the Ottoman empire, leaving the Turks, who in 1829 had lost Greece to independence with the Treaty of Adrianople, 1850 Algeria to France, 1875 44% of the Suez Canal to England, 1878 Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia to independence with the Treaty of San Stefano, 1881 Tunisia to France, and 1882 Egypt to England, only their tenuous Balkan holdings of southern Bulgaria, Macedonia and Thrace.
   Aghast, Sultan Abdulhamit II gasped, "You may dismember me, but you'll not vivisect me!"   ("Wilhelm II, The Kaiser's Personal Monarchy, 1888-1900" John C.G. Rohl, Cambridge University Press, 2004   P.950)
   Twenty years later, in the aftermath of WW I, the militarily powerful, but spiritually spineless British balked, just as Wilhelm did, at establishing a Christian nation even in the midst of the defeated Muslim masses, again miscalculating that a modest settlement of Jews in a small section of Palestine wouldn't ruffle feathers.  As a protectorate of Britain, this would be Christian land on loan to the Jews, certainly no threat to Imperial interests in the area, and possibly a step towards the return of Christ.
   The 1947 establishment of the so-called "secular" State of Israel again exploited the rampant impotence, insolvency and anarchy of the ruined Ottoman empire to reinforce this Christian sanctioned beachhead, strategically bolstered by sympathy and guilt generating accounts of the Holocaust.
   Even Truman's 1948 recognition of Israeli independence was a bold faced ploy, coldly calculated not only to win back desperately needed votes from liberal Democrats he'd alienated in tacitly supporting the anti-labor Taft-Hartley act by his actions during the 1946 railroad strike.   He had further angered these important supporters with the anti-Communist containment policies of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall plans.  
   In recognizing Israel, Truman was also trying to woo critical votes of Fundamentalist Christian Dixicrats opposed to his belated, lukewarm foray as champion of African-American civil rights, which itself was a slyly contrived catering to the vital votes of both blacks and liberals.  ("The New Israel and the Old: Why Gentile Americans Back the Jewish State" Walter Russell Mead  Foreign Affairs July/August 2008 p.41)  

   And so it remains to this day: a Christian established nation in the midst of a sea of Muslims, hidden behind a veiled ethereal phantom - the reincarnated Nation of Israel.  While "Defense of the Jewish Homeland" is our public, proxy agenda, Christian control is our true aim as we attempt to justify the confiscation and securing of this biblically delineated territory.
   Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, and, incidentally, all the oil therein.  
   (I'm going to repeat that last bit just for emphasis. "and, incidentally, all the oil therein."  !!!   More and more this obsession appears to be the single factor driving Bush's buccaneers to ally themselves with the  Judeo-Christian gangsters.)
   With annexation of Iran, the deed to Afghanistan, (Kashmir, next door, is a "no man's land"), and "liberation" of Tibet, this behemoth balloons to the very borders of Myanmar.
   As the Bible is mute as to latitudinal boundaries, dominion could technically range north from Durban, South Africa; consuming much or all of Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius, Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, Egypt, and on through central Ukraine to include all of Russia between Leningrad, Moscow and the Barents Sea.
   Meanwhile, Christianity dominates Europe, North and South America, Australia and Northern Asia from the Urals to the Bering Straits.  Former European colonial domination and insidious missionary creep led to the Christian infestation of Africa from Dakar to Mogadishu, Cape Town to Cairo.   Furthermore the islands of the South Pacific, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China, and the countries of Indochina have long been targeted by evangelicals of every stripe.

   Christian tentacles literally encircle the globe, in anticipation of the day when:
    "it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me," says the Lord.  "And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me.  For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched.  They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." (Isaiah 66: 23,24)  
   Moreover, "the...unbelieving...shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."  (Rev. 21: 08)
   This cult has from its inception condoned and codified slavery and institutionalized a strategic military doctrine of rape, plunder and genocide not unlike that which the rampaging Janjaweed militias seem to be preemptively copying from their Judeo Christian foes with the atrocities presently inflicted on the peoples of Darfur.
   (Deuteronomy 20: 13-17,  "And when the Lord your God delivers it [a city] into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.  But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies' plunder which the Lord your God gives you. Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive. But you shall utterly destroy them: The Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you"    
   Numbers 31: 15,17,18  "And Moses said to them: 'Have you kept all the women alive? ... Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately.  But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately.'"  
   Psalms 137: 8,9   O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy the one who repays you as you have served us!  Happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock!  
   Leviticus 25: 44,45  "And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have - from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.  Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property"
   Matthew 13: 25  "But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.")
   The very existence of these theological tenets, cornerstones of the pulpit from which Moses and Jesus preached, undermines, indeed eliminates, the authenticity and sanctity of the deity by whom they were decreed.
   Little wonder then that we see nervous perspiration bead the brows of leaders in North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, and Venezuela.  Alone, against all odds, these brave men dare battle the gargantuan.   Anxiety haunts their people, from the innocuous grandmother to the seemingly incomprehensible suicide bomber fanatic.   For in defeat they join the legions of subjugated, subservient androids, under the yoke of those wearing the new, sacrilegiously mutated, perversely reversed, Stripes and Stars.  
   Incredulously, with eternal naiveté, echoing the Texas polygamist wives, the Ugly Americans still ask: "But doesn't everybody want to live this way?"

We have seen that, just as in 1939, when German re-occupation of phantom possessed Poland was declared an invasion of a real, tangible, venerated ally, so current Muslim efforts to protect their homelands from the very real specter of nuclear armed, insatiable incubi - Israel, and its absentee Christian landlords - are again, incredibly, challenged as threats of invasion and annihilation of a legitimate entity.
   We have seen the man who fathered the Truman Doctrine, which was adopted to prevent coercion by "countries which sought to impose their will and their way of life upon other nations", turn a blind eye to the true imperialist intent of Jews and Christians.
   (An intent proudly heralded in their most holy religious literature:
   "Let them [the nations that resist submitting to domination by Jewish invaders] be put to shame and perish, That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth." Psalms 83:17, 18.  
    "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations"  Matthew 28:19)
   We have seen that by establishing the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, which extended the Truman Doctrine's invocation against coercion to all non-communist countries, but most especially Egypt, Syria and Israel's other neighbors, we hypocritically joined the gang rape of the Middle East, impregnating it with a ferocious, ravenous litter of homicidal wolves intent, as with Romulus and Rome, on empire.
   We have seen, amazingly, the same people claiming exclusive status as the "chosen" and "preordained elect" of God, act as if ethically impervious and morally immune to the mayhem their insanity understandably evokes.  Has it not occurred to them that egotistical domination is not worth the cost?  Perhaps they have become too used to others, including six million of their brethren, paying the price?

   When Americans, especially politicians and news pundits, pretentiously talk about national defense and national security, they assume that the rest of the world understands they are referring to security and defense against attacks on us by Muslims.  
   It is getting very late in the game to realize that our best security and defensive interests lie in helping Islamic nations protect themselves from colonial, imperial and even religious expansionist threats coming from our side of their borders.  Securing those borders of weaker nations from external attack by our allies and US is the best way to proactively and preemptively prevent retaliatory "terrorist" strikes.
   Present day Iraq is our latest Frankenstein's monster, brought back to life from the murdered remains of Saddam Hussein's domain, just one more incantation, another ghoul in our International House of Horror.  Why are our young soldiers dying real deaths to protect an apparition? Our troops are not defending U.S. interests in any way.  What possible benefit to us can there be?  We're certainly not getting lower gas prices.
   We could easily turn Iraq over to the Arab League, or even OPEC, for governance, but again, the fact of the matter is that Americans are dying in Iraq to claim that land for Israel, unwitting front man, international intention laundering organization for fanatical Christian ambitions in the Middle East. Our soldiers are dying in preliminary, proxy battles of the Jewish Apocalyptic Christian campaign for East Africa, the entire Middle East, and eventually, world domination.
   Technically land conquered by Americans flying the American flag belongs to America.  This is why our troops are not fighting under the American flag.  Few have noticed that thing sewn on uniforms of American military forces.  Those are not American flags; they are some sort of evil, deformed, malignant tumor.  And land controlled by those wearing this diabolical, mutant flag, the land our kids are dying for, will be claimed and governed, not by the people of the United States of America, but by Fundamentalist Christians, through their stooge, Israel.
   Iran seems to be the next victim of our bloodthirsty, maniacal, Judeo Christian, premeditated, serial killing, Western Civilization bred, nonpagan barbarians.   And now Georgia, target of the Bush's latest war in, launched under cover the Olympics, can only be another falling domino.
   Will Jews and Apocalyptic Christians succeed in this surreptitious hunt?  Eventually the quarry of this crusade will fight back with a vigor much more wide spread and disastrous than the lucky 911 strike at a nearly abandoned cube farm.  Surely Putin will join Ahmadi-Nejad to stand firm.
   How long will we continue this senseless slaughter?  Do we even have the ability to stop it?

   These days it is common to remember with condemnation the domestic WWII internment of Japanese Americans.  Yet at the time there was genuine trepidation as to which country these U.S. citizens really bore allegiance.  
   In the near future, large numbers of Jewish and Christian Americans might feel duty bound to betray the constitutionally mandated, secular United States of American, for a usurping theocracy of Zion.  For many that day has long since arrived.  
   But if we must eventually do battle with the minions of Moses and the cutthroats for Christ, how will we identify and isolate these legions of homegrown enemy agents, domestic terrorists and local, fifth column Quislings - completely indistinguishable from loyal Americans?  They already infiltrate every level of our military and civilian institutions.  From them we hold no secrets.
   We may as well sew the Star of David or the red, Knights Templar Cross on our shoulders now.
   Offers to establish new homelands for these truculent descendants of the bloody Hebrews, in some sparsely populated areas of the American West - New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, North or South Dakota, Idaho, Alaska - or even the Northwest Territories of Canada, elicit only blank, bewildered stares.  
   An end to this insanity requires far more than simply asking Judeo Christians to rise from their expansionist dream.  Perhaps we must prepare to shake them awake.  
 

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

by: johne

08/20/08 @ 10:57:53 AM MDT

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.

Discuss :: (1 Comments)

by: johne

08/15/08 @ 04:47:03 PM MDT

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."
There's More... :: (2 Comments, 46 words in story)

by: johne

08/15/08 @ 09:42:24 AM MDT

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.  

Discuss :: (3 Comments)

by: johne

08/08/08 @ 02:46:58 PM MDT

Jesse Taylor over at Pandagon has a great impersonation of Glenn Beck:
"They exist.  They exist.  You know how I know they exist?  Because if they didn't exist, how would I be able to ask for them and you know what I was asking you about?  Hm?  Hmmmmm?  Man, I could use a drink, but I won't get one because I'm a recovering alcoholic.  You pay attention to me! I'm being charmingly self-effacing here."

"Rockets exist...and they have engines.  But that doesn't mean that rocket engines for your car exist."

"So does my car not exist?  Does it?  Put the fucking engines on, bitch!"

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you-"

After you read that whole thing and mosey on back to SquareState I'll then draw your attention to her motivation for this Glenn Beck impersonation:

If people really loved America, they would strip down, leave their clothes at home, and drive around buck naked. That would decrease the weight of our cars, which would increase our gas mileage so dramatically that we probably wouldn't have to drill for any new oil!...
It turns out that about two-thirds of vehicles already have properly inflated tires. That means we'd likely save somewhere around 800,000 barrels of oil a day if everyone else also complied. Meanwhile, the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates that there are about 86 billion barrels of oil in the areas that we're not allowed to drill. You do the math.
Wrongo!  What's happening here is that Beck doesn't have very good reading skills in understanding this piece on tire safety.  The article does say that, "27 percent of cars and 32 percent of vans, pickups and sport utility vehicles had at least one tire that was underinflated." However that statistic refers to "substantially" underinflated.  As it refers to later in the article, the point at which a tire can fail such as lead to those rollover deaths when combined with crappy suspension design of the Ford Explorer and a lack of driver skill.  

The article I just references was the first google hit for, "under-inflated tires".  However, if you look for statistics on tires that are only a few psi low, the fifth hit mentions how 93.5% of cars in Europe have under-inflated tires at around 5-7psi under the recommended pressure. I'll leave the search for US tire inflation stats as an exercise for the reader.  But remember, teh google is easy.  Do you want to know the difference between slightly under inflated tires and tires at proper pressure?  See if you can tell the difference:  

Looks like damn near the same image, but one is 9 psi low.  In other words, if your tire looks low, it's actually likely so low it's dangerous.

As for how much oil is available where drilling is off limits?  I'm more interested in how much oil is available on lands currently leased but undeveloped.  Isn't it neat how the entire republican party and all of the wingnut welfare pundits are in the hands of big oil?  It's like I used to be told at the dinner table.  You can't have your pudding unless you eat your meat.  Okay, that was Pink Floyd.

Discuss :: (1 Comments)

by: johne

07/25/08 @ 01:10:07 PM MDT

Apparently Bob Schaffer, John McCain, and George Bush think the solution to gas prices is more drilling.  Why, polls even say Coloradans like the idea of drilling off our coasts.  How nice thats a favorable solution in a land-locked state.  I didn't know we were such a bunch of nimby selfish morons.  

How nice that now people are screaming about gas prices, suddenly they have a solution.  What the hell were they and their oil executive enablers doing in the last eight years as gas prices were rising from $1.30 a gallon?  Oh, that's right, Bob Schaffer was voting to give those oil companies even more tax cuts.  If that was supposed to allow them to invest in more exploration and drilling, which should increase supply, we'd see oil prices drop.  Gee, that didn't happen did it?

If Schaffer and Wadhams want to highlight his energy industry experience as a positive for this state, let them go ahead and do that.

More drilling isn't the answer and never will.  There just aren't enough milkshakes to go around.  We're drinking it up faster than we can put straws in each cup we find.  

In short, the system has reached its limit. Today's oil use outpaces new oil discoveries, with the world using about 12 billion more barrels per year than it finds.8 The growing imbalance between supply and demand means record high crude prices and the threat of more skyrocketing costs caused by even mild supply disruptions.

On the flip is the answer that goes on the offensive.

[update] Currently this poll on Ritter is being hammered by wing-nuts.

[update2] If you want proof their drill more has nothing to do with lowering gas prices just look at how they voted to open the strategic oil reserve:

Oil prices reversed course and moved higher Thursday in U.S. trading after a move in Congress to tap into the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve was defeated. ... At a press conference before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, pointed out that previous releases from the oil reserve had knocked down prices, sometimes significantly: 33 percent in 1991, 19 percent in 2000 and nine percent in 2005.
There's More... :: (11 Comments, 107 words in story)

by: johne

07/24/08 @ 10:43:23 PM MDT

There are now two ads out attacking Mark Udall.  One is a radio ad from someone called American Future Fund.  The other is a tv ad from Coloradans for Economic Growth.  Sounds pretty good right? Here's the video. Let's go through this bit by bit.  

Of course first they start off with taxes and taxes, oh my.  "Udall voted for higher taxes 50 times.  Really?  How'd did you add up that number?  I emailed the Udall campaign to ask about this line.  It took them a while, but they got back to me saying that Udall has voted to lower taxes a whole bunch more.  They'll even list the roll call votes for you.  Nice research guys.  [update] The roll call votes are now on Udall's website

Next there's something about raising taxes a whole bunch.  What the hell are they talking about?

While Bob voted for massive tax cuts for the already obscenely profitable oil industry?  Hey, you notice those are the oil companies that want to drill up our coasts like a bunch of milkshakes, when they already a whole vat of milkshake in the basement, still untouched.  This guy later became an oil executive.  Schaffer ran an oil company just as the gas prices started to sky rocket.  Brother, please!

So, don't talk to me about taxes.  Every proposed tax increase still doesn't restore the Bush tax cuts.  And as always, there the Trillions being spend in Iraq each year that could pay for an awful lot of health care and educational programs.  

Later they squeal, "Udall stood with extremist groups.

Yet, the Rocky said, "Udall may be the most moderate-leaning Democrat to represent the 2nd District in a generation." [11/2/00]  There are a few others in the Post and Camera.  Sorry, get your own Lexis account.

Whereas Big Oil Bob, we already found data on his voting record, Schaffer is the 14th most conservative in the congress since 1937.

updates below the fold

There's More... :: (7 Comments, 139 words in story)

by: johne

07/17/08 @ 06:07:21 PM MDT

At first I honestly didn't think there was too much of a story here.  Denver Post reporter Michael Riley found that Bob Schaffer did help Aspect Energy, negotiate a deal with the Kurds for oil.  I'm not really surpised that a former congressman who voted for the war in Iraq would latter work to get oil deals in Iraq when of course the war was not about oil.

However Talking Points Memo uncovered some new stuff:

The U.S. government didn't want people like Schaffer and Aspect Energy and others going into Iraq and cutting deals directly with the Kurds because it would undermine the federal government in Baghdad, which was still debating how to share the country's oil reserves. President Bush for years has pushed Iraqis to pass a national law permitting foreign oil companies to invest in Iraq and providing a system for distributing those revenues.

At first he says he didn't know the State Department had this position.  But now he's saying he did now.  This might have something to do with Allard asking what's the deal of the state department:


  In that regard, we have conveyed to all parties, the Kurdish Regional Government, the central Iraqi Government, and international oil companies that signing deals before such a law is passed will complicate efforts of the parties to pass a good law. We strongly believe that having competing oil and gas investment laws will be both bad for companies and for Iraq.

Ooops.  As usual the operative question is What did he know and when did he know it?

Discuss :: (4 Comments)