Primavera is the only sane choice.

Rep. Dianne Primavera (D-Broomfield) is running for a third two-year term representing House District 33 in the Colorado House of Representatives. Throughout the last four years she’s worked tirelessly to advance the causes of real, live human beings.

Many wonder why any decent, capable, honorable human being would even consider becoming involved in politics given how shitty it’s become. I’ve wondered that myself. Whatever the reason, the people in this here district are damn lucky that someone as decent, capable and honorable as Primavera wants to be involved.

Of course, times are tough economically. The primary causes are being in a state of war for an astounding nine years, reckless deregulation of the FIRE sector and government policies that not only encourage but affirmatively reward outsourcing. In other words,  the causes are Republican.

History tells us that when the party hired to act as a rebuilding contractor doesn’t move fast enough, the bosses will turn the reins back over to the party that burned down the house in the first place. That’s what’s fixin’ to happen now.

Given the fact that there are more Republicans around these parts than there are Democrats, the moneyed elite is targeting HD33 for recapture yet again.

Primavera’s opponent is a muppet by the name of Don Beezley. He’s one of those generic “businessman” types who has no actual skills but does have a penchant for making lots of money. His current gig involved creating and selling chiropractic clinic franchises.

It wasn’t always that way. Beezley is now a registered Republican, but the conversion is recent and far from complete. Ideologically he’s a libertarian. At one time he was actually a paid libertarian who worked in D.C. as a vice president of the Cato Institute, a right wing “think” tank.

Go to Beezley’s website and you’ll read a bunch of vacuous, poorly-worded platitudes about freedom and the like, but no actual substance. Beezley’s problem is that he’s been grooming himself for public office for quite some time and has a rather ugly paper trail as a result. A small sampling is available here courtesy of the Broomfield County Democrats.

The Denver Post handed out its endorsements in the most heavily contested Colorado House of Representatives races yesterday, and the editorial board’s short ‘n’ sweet commentary on HD33 focuses on Beezley’s hypocrisy in being an anti-government zealot angling for a goverment paycheck:

Republican Don Beezley has said he doesn’t even believe in local or county government. Then why his desire for a state paycheck? Our nod goes to Rep. Dianne Primavera, D-Broomfield, who has served ably since knocking off Bill Berens in 2006.

How much influence the Post‘s endorsement will have remains to be seen. Mindless, weepy-eyed prosaicisms about freedom go a long way among dumbasses.

Dianne Primavera Continues to Rock

I’ve gotten somewhat involved in local Democratic politics since moving to Colorado in 2003.  Over the the past couple of years, though, I’ve found myself sitting in a meeting or an assembly multiple times wondering, “What the fuck is the point?”

But every now and again the old excitement returns. Last night was one of those times.

I was a delegate to the Democratic Colorado House District 33 Assembly.  Pretty much the sole purpose of the Assembly was to nominate incumbent Rep. Dianne Primavera as the party’s official candidate for the state House of Representatives.

It was all pretty perfunctory. Everyone knew way that Dianne wanted to run for reelection. No other Democrat wants the job, AFAIK, and Dianne is extraordinarily good at it. She’s respected on both sides of the aisle and is widely viewed as the James Brown (“hardest working [wo]man”) of the Colorado General Assembly.

The Assembly got under way at 7:30 p.m. and its business took all of about fifteen minutes to complete. We managed to nominate Dianne before she even showed up.

So why wasn’t she on time? What’s the matter, can’t this hoity toity incumbent be bothered with the details of her own reelection?

That’s not it at all, of course. Dianne was late to the Assembly because she was working, as always. The House Judiciary Committee was conducting a hearing on S.B. No. 10-076 (pdf, 3 pages), which Dianne is sponsoring along with Sen. Morgan Carroll. The bill is quite important to Dianne, and she wanted to be there in person to shepherd the bill through what promised to be a rather prickly process.

It worked. When all was said and done the Judiciary Committee voted 7-4 in favor.

And what does the bill do? It designates as an unfair claim settlement practice an insurer paying its employees bonuses, incentives or other compensation for denying or delaying a claim, or for canceling or rescinding an insurance policy. When Dianne arrived and told us why she was late, the room erupted in applause. While clapping my hands I smiled and thought, “This, THIS is the point.”

Anyone who knows our humble little district knows that Dianne is a Democratic incumbent in sea of Republicans. Given the voter registration numbers, the state Republican Party has once again made retaking this seat a priority. So despite Dianne’s exceptional record over the course of two terms, getting reelected will take loads of time, effort and money.

You know what? It’ll be worth it. Dianne Primavera’s extraordinary combination of skill, work ethic and deep concern for actual flesh-and-blood constituents is all too rare. We’re fortunate as all hell to have Dianne Primavera representing us in Denver, and we’ll not give up such high-quality representation without a huge honking fight.

“The Tank” is back!

Sociopathic racist lunatic Tom Tancredo, who’s gotten more than his fair share of ink on this blog, simply won’t go away. The failed Republican presidential candidate and former congressman looks to be planning a run for Governor of Colorado, according to the good folks at Colorado Independent. Though he hasn’t formally declared, he’s telling reporters that he “fully intends to run.”

Tancredo’s intent is perhaps best revealed in this breathtakingly over-the-top video the Tancredo folks recently posted to YouTube. The upshot is that all those illegal immigrant gangstas we’re letting into God’s Chosen Nation are raping, murdering and eating our godly white wives, children and pets, and will continue to do so unless and until we finally wise the fuck up and do what Tom Tancredo says.

Of course, the gang whose members are depicted in the video, Mara Salvatrucha a/k/a MS-13, hails not from some barbaric foreign land but rather from Los Angeles, California, USA. But hey, never mind that shit. One should never let a fact stand in the way of hysterical fear mongering. We can be damned good and sure that Tancredo won’t allow himself to get distracted. Let the good times roll, Colorado!

Capital Punishment Avoids Execution

The 2009 Session of the 67th Colorado General Assembly adjourned sine die on Wednesday.  House Bill 1274, which would have abolished capital punishment in Colorado and channelled additional funds to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s cold case unit, went down to a narrow 18-17 defeat in the state senate. Democratic Senators Mary Hodge, Jim Isgar, John Morse and Lois Tochtrop sided with the senate’s fourteen Republicans in voting to keep capital punishment. Earlier, the bill passed the state house of representatives by an equally slender vote of 33-32.

For now, at least, troglodytic Old Testament savagery is safe in Colorado.

And what would Gov. Ritter have done had the bill passed? He ain’t sayin’.

Judge McConnell leaving 10th Circuit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit announced yesterday that Judge Michael McConnell is resigning effective August 31. After seven years on the bench Judge McConnell is returning to academia. He’s going to be a law professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at the prestigious Stanford Law School.

Judge McConnell has served with distinction since being appointed to the Tenth Circuit in 2002 by President George W. Pencilcock. Here’s wishing Judge McConnell all the best in his new endeavor.

The Tenth Circuit’s official announcement, along with the resignation letter Judge McConnell send to President Obama, is available here (pdf, 4 pages).

CO Senate Republicans officially “malicious”

In times past I’ve draw attention to ColoradoSenateNews.com, the online voice of Republicans in the Colorado State Senate. The unintentional hilarity associated with watching Republicans lose their shit in print is usually well worth a mouse click or two, but no longer!

Colorado Independent reports that ColoradoSenateNews.com, “that rich vein of ‘news and information from the Senate Minority Office,’ has morphed from a public relations faux-news outlet to an Internet ‘attack site’!”  Seems that web browsers’ security protocols are flagging CSN as a site that hosts malware, computer software that worms its way into your computer to do damage and/or gather private information and send it to another computer. The site is apparently lousy with viruses as well.

Colorado Independent concludes that “It’s tempting to believe the Republican techies were just clumsy in their attempts to fish data from visitors; but it’s equally tempting to believe they cluelessly left the site exposed and were hacked.” Stated differently, our Colorado Senate Republican brethren are evil, incompetent or both. No surprises there.

In any event, let’s all stay away from CSN for the time being. It won’t be easy, I know, but worthwhile endeavors rarely are.

Ted Haggard: Class up the Ass

Disgraced former megachurch pastor and man-penis/methamphetamine enthusiast Ted Haggard is no stranger to this blog. Soon he will be no stranger to fans of the syndicate judge show Divorce Court, either.

Ted and his lovely wife, Gayle, continued their relentless efforts at restoring shine and functionality to the Haggard money making machine by sitting for an interview a few days back with Divorce Court “Judge” Lynn Toler. The show airs on April 1.

Lest there be any doubt about the matter, Gayle says:

Biblical principals of forgiveness, compassion, steadfastness and her husband’s genuine repentance helped Gayle through the darkest hours, she said, and she believes his struggles have deepened his Christian walk.

“I think he is better equipped to minister to people than ever before,” she said.

That’s right: better equipped to minister than ever before. It’s amazing what a Schedule I controlled substance and a dick up the ass will do for ya, eh Ted?

In any event, this teevee appearance comes hot on the heels of Haggard’s HBO documentary and the shitstorm of publicity accompanying that little venture. The Denver Post article linked above reveals that Ted and Gayle received an “undisclosed amount” for their Divorce Court appearance, and that Ted has multiple speaking engagements scheduled at “prominent U.S. evangelical churches.” Expect fleecing of the faithful and stupid to begin in earnest very soon.

Cases to Watch (CO Supreme Court)

Today the Supreme Court of Colorado granted cert. in Boles v. Sun Ergoline, Inc., No. 08 SC970. The issue is:

Whether the public policy of Colorado allows enforcement of an exculpatory agreement purporting to release a manufacturer from liability for possible future injuries caused by the manufacturer’s defective products.

The Court of Appeals didn’t designate its opinion for official publication, so that opinion isn’t publicly available.

Exculpatory clauses are nominally “disfavored” in this state, but they’re generally enforceable on some ridiculous freedom-of-contract theory absent some truly horrific disparity of bargaining power. Colorado also adheres to the near-universal rule that excupatory clauses are enforceable as against negligence claims, but are void as against public policy as applied to claims arising from willful and wanton conduct or some higher level of misconduct.

One of the issues in Boles will surely be what rules apply to enforcing exculpatory clauses as to “strict liability” claims. Strict liability means liability without proof of fault. In the product context, the idea is that someone injured in a product-related accident needn’t show that the manufacturer was negligent in designing, making or marketing the product. All the plaintiff has to do is prove that the product was defective and that the defect caused the plaintiff’s injuries. As a practical matter, though, proving that a product is “defective” under the applicable legal standards often involves proving fault on the manufacturer’s part.

In other states, the enforceability of exclupatory clauses as to strict liability claims often boils down to the identity of the plaintiff. If the person bringing the claim is a sophisticated commercial entity and the clause is contained in a contract entered into by the plaintiff  and the  defendant, the clause is likely enforceable. If the plaintiff is some poor schulb who got hurt by a defective product and lacks any direct contractual relationship with the defendant, courts won’t enforce an exculpatory  clause. Time will tell just how “business friendly” our Supreme Court wants our state to be.

Do NOT call CNN

CNN is telling viewers to call CNN if they observe any election day shenanigans at the polls. Bullshit. Don’t do it.  CNN wants viewers and headlines; they don’t actually care whether you and your whole family gets disenfranchised.

If you see or experience any such issues, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA.

For a running tally on Republican efforts to steal this election, check out Our Vote Live, the Electronic Frontier Foundation/Election Protection Coalition site that documents calls received at the OUR-VOTE hotline. At this writing, they’ve received close to 30,000 reports

I’ll see all y’all Broomfield Dems tonight at the pizza place. I look forward to celebrating or commiserating with you.

We really do matter this time

You’ve no doubt heard it several hundred trillion times already. This will be the several hundred trillion and first. Colorado is a very big deal in this year’s presidential race.

The numbers wonks over at FiveThirtyEight have been busy doing what they do best: running computer simulations of the upcoming presidential election. McCain’s most common victory scenario has Obama winning all the Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004 states, with McCain winning everything else.

McCain’s problem in that scenario is that it becomes a loser for him and a winner for Obama if Colorado goes blue.

Let’s take nothing for granted. If you haven’t voted yet, please get out and do it on 11/4. Your vote counts, folks. It truly does.

Let’s show vile Republican criminal Mike Coffman that he can’t steal this election. Let’s show John McCain that the people of the United States are better than the violent, angry racist scum to which he so whorishly pandered himself.