This week I had CO-4 Candidate Betsy Markey back on my radio show to talk about her vision for the district and for Colorado. The interview is great on its own, because, well, Betsy Markey is hands down a better candidate Marilyn Musgrave. The interesting part of the story is that Marilyn Musgrave went on the local Fox affiliate KCOL of Ft.Collins earlier in the day with their show's host, John Clarke, where they went on to smear Betsy Markey for 'making up a scheduling conflict' to 'avoid a debate on KCOL' and accusing her of being 'afraid to debate' (just like Mark Udall and Barack Obama are 'afraid to debate')
making up a scheduling conflict
But Marter told PolitickerCO.com Friday afternoon that Markey can't debate Musgrave on KCOL-AM Saturday morning, as she'll be on a different radio show - "Ultimate Politics" on KCKK-AM 1510 and KSXT-AM 1570.
Musgrave manager Jason Thielman responded
"That (other radio show booking) is conveniently appeared, I believe," Thielman said.
Alright, first off, die hard Edwards fan here. And Wolfson is not my favorite guy. That being said, he is putting it out there that Edward's being in the race in Iowa cost Clinton the other votes that she would have gotten had he been truthful about the affair or had dropped out.
So in essence, Edwards took Clinton's win in Iowa by lying, and giving a win to Obama.
more here
This week I got to interview Erin Egan from Democrats Work.
Erin provides a good background on what Democrats Work's history, what they have accomplished in the past, and more importantly, what opportunities are coming up. One such opportunity is the Delegate Day of Service on Wednesday, Aug. 27th. This is being headed up jointly by future first lady, Michelle Obama, and first lady of Colorado, Jeanne Ritter.
Read on for more...
Welcome back to another installment of UP News. The guys in this interview are indeed, card carrying liberals, and not only that, they are the ones coordinating events for the Big Tent event for Bloggers in Denver for the Convention.
John Erhardt and Aaron Silverstein are my kind of activists. Both are Editors for Square State, which is one of the main blogs in Colorado. Additionally, Aaron is with Democrats Work and will be organizing the Delegates for Actions in Denver the week of the convention. John is the state coordinator of Living Liberally/Drinking Liberally and is putting the fun in the Big Tent Event by getting some top notch food, bands and events. I will be there with my brother in law, Tomas Custer, who runs Hispanic Tips and who was interviewed here on NPR.
No need for qualifiers here folks, I have been a pit bull for Edwards from the start of my blogging on KOS.
But after reading this tripe on Huffpo, and hearing all the rumors of VP choices who are, at best,conservative democrats, and at worst a registered Republican, I no longer can stay silent. I owe my activism in almost every way to John Edwards - from my support of him in 1998, to my move to Colorado in 2000 to fight Tancredo (when Gore could have picked Edwards, but instead, went with Lieberman - what might have been?) to my work on Kerry-Edwards and this past year. I even wrote this Now, I have been working dutifully for someone whom I truly believe in, Barack Obama, since Edwards dropped out and am working daily 6 and 7 days a week for him. But I must defend someone who inspired me first, Senator John Edwards. Now ask yourself, Why do they attack a non-candidate?
read on to find out the reason...
This past week, a coalition of progressive groups gathered in Columbus, Ohio to make the people's voices heard on the subject of affordable Healthcare.
This group included
SEIU,ACORN,Progress Ohio,UHCAN (Universal Health Care Action Network),SPAN (Single Payer Action Network),Justice for Janitors, and Gamaliel affiliates AMOS and NOAH
Ok, so maybe you did, but, because I am holed up in Columbus at a training for Obama, I was floored by seeing this video. I mean, the age thing is a factor in this year's presidential campaign, but there is another relevant issue - that Obama has the 'cool' factor sewn up as well...
No, John Edwards is not raising money to stop poverty by performing marriage ceremonies, but he did influence me, and his advice directly led to me meeting my wife.
At his homecoming rally in December of 2006 John Edwards told us -
"don't wait for the next president to be elected to do something, get involved now"
So I got involved. I organized for Edwards in Colorado and started making connections with people and later, when he asked us, I went to protest Bush's vetoed war funding bill on May 2nd 2006 at our state capitol in Colorado. As luck (or fate) would have it, I ran into someone (the Coach) who I had spoken to once, a year earlier, who offered me my own radio show slot in the Denver market. (with zero experience)
And as luck (or fate) would have it, I had heard John and Elizabeth Edwards talk about the importance of Unions as the backbone of the middle class, so I started reaching out to local unions and union supporters...
(keep reading, I swear there is a wedding in here)
Welcome to part 5 of the series on Renewable Energy. This next installment could easily be a stand alone story, but I wanted to keep it in the context of the entire problem. (especially in light of the Supreme Court's ruling reducing the penalty to Exxon for the Valdez oil spill - an average of $15,000 per plaintiff, some of who lost a year or more in wages) This segment is about the human cost in blood and lives. I hope that your anger about what has been done in this world in our name, for the consumption of oil, will stir you to the necessity to GET OFF OIL NOW through an immediate change in U.S. consumption and policy.
Here is my interview with Doug Vilsack, son former Presidential candidate, Tom Vilsack and Iowa Governor. Doug is someone I met while stumping for John Edwards, and he was stumping for Hillary. After we met, I told him about the show I host and he mentioned this story, which although I had heard about it, could not believe the depth and scope of the despiteful tactics of big oil and the complicity of our Media, most notably, CNN.
In parts 1-3 of this 'blogumentary' we covered the amount of renewable energy just waiting for us to tap, how local governments and people are getting involved, and how we need the federal government to change the laws to support renewable energy. (and a good bit of information from Dcoronata on Geothermal energy. Now for the bread and butter issue: jobs. With the economic forecast showing a continued housing slump and general signs of a recession, a decade long approach of offshoring jobs, bad unemployment numbers, and no real growth in any job sector except service jobs, there seems to be a lot wrong with our country's economic health. Fortunately, there is a solution for these problems, the emergence of green collar jobs.
Yesterday, we talked about how local politics can create a change in the way our cities and even states use energy, so much so, that we can change the policy of the utility companies themselves. AnotherMassachusettsLiberal commented on an interesting program in his community,called 'Green Start' and described it like this :
I pay extra to get renewably generated electricity, and the extra money I pay comes back, doubled, to my town in the form of grants for renewable energy projects. 32 total households in town are in the program, and there's currently almost $8,000 in the account.
Ideas like this are making ripples across the nation and making change, which is inspiring. However, as you will see in this interview with Ron Lehr of the American Wind Energy Association or AWEA, there has got to be some movement on the National level by the Federal Government, if we are really going to embrace the change necessary to move our country forward quickly.
Here is the interview:
Welcome to Part 2: Local Energy Initiatives: This will cover some of the ways citizens have gotten involved in passing laws to change their options for energy use, effectively giving a level playing field fo renewable energy. Now, although this post seems to be Colorado focused, the fact is, in part due to the location of the National Renewable Energy lab in Golden,Colorado combined with an active progressive community, Colorado has been leading the nation in embracing renewable energy. Here to tell us more about this and the Clean Energy Progress Fund - an initiative to be voted on this fall in Colorado, is Professor Thomas McKinnon, a Chemical Engineer,who has worked both with the NREL and with the School of Mines and now heads up the drive to support the Clean Energy Progress Fund.
This past week there has been a lot of talk from both Bush and McCain about the necessity for the Congress to start permitting new drilling sites for Oil companies in the face of high oil prices, as seen in this video
from the BBC, even though there is plenty of evidence that the real reason for the high prices are the insiders and speculators that Randi Rhodes first documented this week. Followed by KO's investigation:
Huffington post has a story that seems to indicate that John Edwards is still very much in the running for VP. Now, I don't want to distract too much from the overwhelming importance of stopping this FISA amnesty bill, but maybe Senator Edwards opposing this capitulation would be a good thing as well.
By the way, if you are a Sam Nunn fan or want to dream about Gore as a VP, here is more on the VP story...
Now that we have a nominee in Barack Obama, it would seem that nothing can stop him from sweeping into the Oval office this fall. Curiously, however, some people seemed to be concerned that Obama can't win because he can't get white voters or can't keep the dissapointed Clinton supporters in his camp.
While some stories like this NPR storyare fairly benign,
there are other stories documenting the growing number of Clinton for McCain supporters and even a website boasting of 15,000 supporters and threatening the following
Our Plans
It is our mission to raise money, promote John McCain. We will set up a "527" to raise money, run TV and radio ads against Obama. The Democrat party has left us out in the cold, so we are going to build a fire that they cannot put out
.
Really? how did the "democrat" party leave anyone out in the cold? More on these McCan'ts...
While I have posted now not one, but two different post in the past 2 days, on John Edwards as the best VP choice, I want to state a disclaimer:
I think the waiting game has helped the dems
and while I think Obama is narrowed down his choice to 2 people, he should draw out the selection process as long as possible...
EDWARDS WINS ON THE ROAD We are now closer to the general, and we must win the election this fall. Time to rally behind the best ticket, and who the people already know and can get behind...
read more...
UPDATE
because Edwards said at one point he was not interested in VP, let me put this up, which basically reversed that statment
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Mr. Edwards has carefully played down his aspirations for an administration role. In an interview in January, he said he would not accept a vice-presidential spot or Cabinet position. "No, absolutely not," he said, shaking his head emphatically when asked.
But privately, he told aides that he would consider the role of vice president, and favored the position of attorney general, which would appeal to his experience of decades spent in courtrooms as a trial lawyer in North Carolina; and his desire to follow in the footsteps of Robert F. Kennedy, one of his heroes.
I am writing a diary to insist on the inclusion of John Edwards in y'all's VP polls.
Why? Well, as someone who traveled my state stumping for Edwards, I can't tell you how many times I heard people say
"if it had only been Edwards/Kerry - they might have won."
Now I am fully behind Barack Obama for President
as I have stated here. But, having said that, I am dismayed that the most popular candidate in the race, (besides HRC) would not be on the minds of diarists here.
let this sink in...
