All of the reports coming out of Washington are about how talks at the White House are not going well. That’s probably an understatement. Cantor says that Obama walked out. Peolsi says that Cantor exaggerates.  The quotes suggest that both are right.

Obama: "don't call my bluff; I am going to the American people." "Enough is enough, I'll see you tomorrow."

This is getting ridiculous. The debt ceiling has been raised over 70 times in my lifetime. It was raised seven times under George W. Bush. The Republicans didn’t mutter a peep about raising the debt ceiling when Bush was president.

This is about the Tea Party sending people to Washington who have no understanding that the debt ceiling is related to appropriations. Both houses passed a budget. Implementing that budget requires that the government borrow money. The time to decide how much money to spend was before the budget was passed and signed by the President, not after.

I keep writing about how the impact of not raising the debt ceiling will have consequences. Nobody knows for sure what those consequences will be, but they will all play out in the financial markets, where U.S. Treasuries are traded and are the benchmark for lots of other interest rates—like rates on commercial loans and consumer loans and credit cards, and borrowing by cities, counties, and states. Moody’s announced yesterday that they are considering downgrading the credit rating of the U.S. Government. Standard and Poors announced back in April that they were considering a downgrade. The Chinese are considering downgrading their rating of U.S. debt.

Surely you realize that, as a consumer, if your credit score is high you get a lower interest rate on your mortgage than you do if your credit score is low. The same is true for government borrowings. To have the credit score of the U.S. downgraded is a really, really big deal. The U.S. Government has never had its credit questioned in the history of the United States. (Okay, I exaggerate: Markets were jittery in 1995. But it is rare that anybody questions the credit of the U.S.) If Moody’s downgrades the credit score of the U.S. every interest rate in the world will be questioned, including rates on municipal bonds. This isn’t just about the U.S. This could plunge the entire world into a new downturn, from which recovery will be long and tedious.

Homework

Moodys Worried About US Credit Rating

When I ran for office I ran on a platform of creating jobs. It was something I had some experience with while working for Community Reinvestment Fund. Sitting from the sidelines, I confess that I am frustrated to see bills that would actually help to create jobs either flounder in the legislature or be absent altogether. Even more frustrating is the firmly held beliefs of local voters, especially of the Tea Party persuasion.

One of them commented right here, on this blog, that regulation killed the economy in Western Colorado. This belief is widely held because it is what local in-the-pocket-of-the-oil-and-gas-industry officials and chamber of commerce has told them. The belief is so strong that nothing can cause the true believer to look at other factors. It is a religion. Just have faith. Believe.

Except the belief is absolutely wrong. For starters, other states have even tougher regulations, and they still have an oil and gas industry. The industry discovered that they could make more money in the Marcellus Shale play a bit to the east of here. They also found it difficult to attract investors for their exploration wells when the market crashed in 2008. Believe me, regulation of the oil and gas industry did not cause the market crash—a housing bubble and some questionable lending practices did.

So long as we drive automobiles and put a week’s worth of groceries in a refrigerator, we are going to need to produce oil and gas, and coal, and electricity. The industry is going to be around for a long time. It is the most profitable industry in the history of the world. They could put people back to work in Western Colorado tomorrow if they wanted to—but there is no incentive for them to do so.

One year after the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, BP posted record profits of $7.12 billion for the first quarter of 2011, which is up 17% from the same quarter a year ago. Assuming that profits continue at that pace, they are on track to have profits of $28.48 billion for the year. That’s PROFIT, after paying all of their expenses, including regulatory, Gulf clean-up, and litigation expenses. This company is not suffering because of regulations.

Exxon Mobile did even better. Their profits soared 69% in the first quarter of 2011 to $10.65 billion. That is $42.6 billion in annualized profits. This company is not suffering because of regulations.

All of the suffering is happening to American families. Why the local officials continue to suck up to the Koch Brothers through their Tea Party flavored Americans for Prosperity, and Grover Norquist through his pledge of no new taxes and drowning government in the bathtub is beyond me. The Koch Brothers aren’t suffering. Nobody in the oil and gas industry is suffering. It is time for them to show their patriotism and invest in America and American workers. Stop the suffering.

Homework

Community Reinvestment Fund

BP Profits

Exxon Profits

David Koch, Americans for Prosperity, Tea Party

GOP, a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Koch Industries?

Koch Industries Makes Billions

Last week Arn McConnell wrote a letter to the editor of the Sentinel in response to a letter Kelly Sloan wrote about TABOR.  American Patriot didn’t like the word Tea Party linked to Kelly Sloan or to Americans for Prosperity. He made his point by posting a comment at this blog. (See Comments at “Scott Tipton is Toast,” posted on June 30.)

So, American Patriot, you are right. Democrats are clueless about who is in and who is out when it comes to the Tea Party. It does give me some comfort that the local Tea Party does not claim Americans for Prosperity (A Koch Brother’s Production), or Kelly Sloan (a Canadian participating in American politics, albeit one who is working on becoming a citizen,) or Scott Tipton (who IS toast.) I’m not so wild about the thought that the local Tea Party endorsed an angry man in the GOP primaries, or that despite their claims of Democrats as members they seem to vote for the eventual GOP candidate regardless of primary endorsement.

From the perspective of the local Democratic Party, of which I am an officer, if you call yourself a member of the Tea Party, you are a member of the Tea Party, even if that membership is questioned by other Tea Party members. Speaking of membership, the Tea Party is not a political party in the sense that they field candidates, they only endorse candidates. They are not recognized in the state of Colorado as a “party.” They appear to be part of the Republican Party. And it isn’t just me thinking that, Utah people think so too (see link below.)

American Patriot, I do appreciate your continuing efforts to educate Democrats about the real motives of the Tea Party. I applaud your efforts to educate the public about Koch Brothers using their wholly owned subsidiary Americans for Prosperity to pay for busses full of protestors in Grand Junction and insurance on some conservative events. I hope you will continue to enlighten me and my readers, but for now I can’t see any daylight between Scott Tipton’s votes and the rhetoric of the Tea Party.

I will say that the local Tea Party did show some daylight between them and the Republican Party when Craig Meis abused his power as a county commissioner. Grand Junction needs a voice that challenges elected officials. There aren’t enough Democrats to do that, so keep up the good work, American Patriot. But don’t expect many Democrats to rush to join the Tea Party—we don’t think hating government is patriotic and we don’t want to drown government in any bathtub. (Some of us even think that Konola was a better candidate than King. Maybe that’s an ego thing.)

P.S. If you’ve missed me lately it is because I’ve been gardening in South Dakota and then soaking in my turn of the last century claw footed bathtub.

Homework

July 1 Sentinel Letters to the Editor

http://gjresult.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=886 ßGJresult 2010 endorsements

Tea Party in Utah

Craig Meis Defiant After Tea Party Calls for Resignation

Mother and I are taking a vacation starting Memorial Day week-end. As a result I’m a little distracted. Just to complicate things, the air-conditioner in my car went out, and I have to get it fixed before we leave. Have an early morning appointment, which is why I’m blogging before bed tonight.

Things I’d blog about tomorrow morning, if I weren’t so distracted:

A group of ex-elected officials filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of TABOR.

England says that fracking does not threaten water. France bans fracking.

Obama was greeted like a rock star when he went to his ancestral home village in Ireland.

FEMA and tornadoes, or why only government can fix a destroyed city.

The Ryan Plan taking its first victim in New York.

Ward Churchill coming to Grand Junction.

One thing I do have to say, which is related to another of those interesting conversations: I attributed a comment and an attitude to the wrong conservative in yesterday’s blog. (Scroll down to read the blog and Tea Party comments.) My apologies, again, to American Patriot. As for Voter 2010, you are way too misinformed and judgmental. You are obsessing. Get over me.

On occasion I post a comment to the on-line edition of The Daily Sentinel. When I do, it usually leads to a discussion with a conservative. Often that conservative is “American Patriot,” a local Tea Party leader. In a recent conversation, he explained to me that I didn’t belong here and that I should move to Boulder. He went on to explain how things were just fine here in Happy Valley before people like me got here; that the people usually “got it right;” that people with calluses on their hands could think, blah, blah, blah.

Yesterday I happened into a diner for breakfast, and sat at the counter, since I didn’t have an entourage. (I’m often alone, single women over a certain age often are.) Shortly after I sat down, a man sat on the stool next to mine. We started a conversation that sounded a bit like a friendlier version of “move to Boulder.”

Without knowing anything about me, other than I was clean and not young, he started telling me about what this community was like before people from outside came here. He complained about fish ladders because it ruined good fishing holes. He explained how his family raised him on the proceeds of their apple orchards, including how imperfect fruit ended up as cider or applesauce, thanks to a local food processor—now gone. He explained how a lot of the local orchards don’t make money because they don’t do the things they are supposed to do in order to maintain their trees. He remembered a lot of farmers growing sugar beets, and how they were processed right here. Another ghost company. He told of working for coal mines that supplied the power plant in Cameo that, in turn, supplied Grand Junction with power. He was proud of his sons who shoe horses, explaining that horses in the east have their shoes glued, not nailed, in place.

That conversation lasted one full breakfast. Why? Because I understood enough to make appropriate comments along the way. You see, my story isn’t all that different. I grew up in a mining town. My grandfather worked for 50 years in the hoist room, where men and ore were lifted from the mine. My other grandfather was a rancher and farmer. He worked the sugar beet factory when the crop came in. He introduced the Black Angus breed of cattle to South Dakota. He wrestled all comers for money during the Great Depression. He raised eleven children as a share cropper. Both of my grandfathers had calluses on their hands, and neither of them was stupid.

My father was in the Army during WWII. After serving in Alaska, he went home to work for the mine. Because he did not want to work underground, he worked as a safety inspector. Because he dressed well, some kids in the neighborhood believed he was a spy. But we were poor. My mother’s brother would bring us milk in bottles the dairy couldn’t sell because the seal was improper. My dad hunted and fished to supplement the family food budget—we ate deer and pheasant and duck and trout. My mother had a garden, and canned vegetables and fruits, doing her part to put food on the table. Every fall I got one new school outfit from my parents and another from my grandparents. I was constantly told by parents and grandparents that I had to do well in school if I wanted a good life.

Eventually my father moved the family to metro Denver so that he could earn more money working in maintenance at a bank. He went to night school to learn how to be a stationary engineer, changing careers when he already had four kids to feed and clothe.

So, “American Patriot,” let me tell you something. Just because I wasn’t born in Happy Valley does not mean that I know nothing about what it is to make a living by working the land, or working in dangerous mines, or being at the bottom of the socio-economic scale.

I’ll tell you something else. Even though I am the first person on either side of my family to go to college, I didn’t get my political leanings from college professors. I had grandparents and parents who were registered Democrats. They knew that Democrats fight harder for the little guy—the worker. The little guys in Grand Junction need to be a little less provincial. The GOP, and their pandering to multi-national corporations, does nothing to bring back the Happy Valley you remember.

One final thought, Progressive is not an insult. You prefer being backwards?

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot from members of the Tea Party. I get a talking points memo every day from someone on the E-mail List from Hell. My personal Troll used to post links to Andrew Breitbart’s website, but seems to have found other sources lately. And I can count on a Tea Party response from “American Patriot” when I post a comment to a Sentinel story.

What I’ve found in all of these communications is that liberals actually have some commonality with the Tea Party, but the members of the Tea Party have been steeped in a tea of hatred that is so strong that they miss anything that isn’t fed to them by their addiction to outlandish tales.

Let’s start with the story of Andrew Breitbart and Shirley Sherrod. Yes, it is old news. The short version is Breitbart posted a doctored video at his website alleging that Sherrod was a racist. (She’s African American, he was trying to prove that she discriminated against white people.) The Obama administration reacted with a knee jerk and fired Sherrod over the phone while she was driving her car. The Obama administration apologized and offered her employment in her old job. She refused. Now she has been hired, in another capacity at the USDA. Obama must have charmed her into working for him again.

I’m ashamed of the way the Obama administration reacted, but I’m aghast at the way that conservative pundits like Breitbart play so loosely with truth. To be fair, Breitbart may have been duped, as well, by James O’Keefe who calls himself an investigative journalist. But I doubt it. They were both steeped in the poisonous tea of hatred.

They didn’t know the first thing about ACORN, but set out to destroy it. Unfortunately the so-called liberal media didn’t report the whole story until ACORN was dead. Then O’Keefe set out to destroy the main stream media in a porn/sex toy sting operation. It failed.  O’Keefe broke into a Senator’s office, which got him arrested. And then there was the attack on NPR.

So far all the right wing pundits ignore the lack of journalistic standards in both Breitbart and O’Keefe because it is inconvenient to acknowledge that they are being duped by a couple of con-men. E-mail List from Hell, Kevin King and American Patriot, I’ll take you seriously when you stop drinking poison tea, and start searching for truth.

May I suggest Chammomile? It grows well in the Grand Valley, and has a calming effect.

Homework

Shirley Sherrod Got Her Groove Back

O'Keefe Channels Michael Jackson?

Indict Breitbart

The news from both the state and federal level is all about budget dustups.

Evidently in Denver legislative leaders decided to have dinner to discuss their differences about Colorado’s budget, and how to balance it. The dinner was cancelled when Brandon Shaffer decided to go home and have dinner with his family. At least that’s what he said. The GOP leaders at that dinner say that Shaffer stormed out in a huff. Apparently the sticking point is that the GOP has decided that Colorado state workers need to pay more for their retirement benefits. Some Democrats are calling this the “Wisconsinization” of Colorado’s Budget. ColoradoWINS, the union representing state workers, was not amused, and Shaffer has threatened to introduce his own budget in the Senate—the first time that has been done in over 20 years.

Meanwhile back in Washington, a government shutdown is still looming.  Michelle Bachman issued a call to the Tea Party, asking supporters to come to Washington to protest the budget negotiations. A couple hundred (that wasn’t a typo) protestors showed up. There were 50 members of the press at the event. I guess it is the wrecked car syndrome. The media is still gawking at the Tea Party, even though most of America has moved on, and the Tea Party is in the midst of breaking up into hundreds of parts. Locally rumor has it that there are three Tea Party groups, all working against each other in things like City Council elections.

So, even though the Tea Party is disintegrating, the federal budget is being held hostage because the demands of the Tea Party have not been met, and GOP legislators are scared to death that if they don’t support a disorganized bunch of malcontents they’ll face primary challenges and not get to keep their cushy jobs, with full benefits paid for by taxpayers.

The common theme in both state and federal negotiations seems to be that the GOP thinks that getting to a budget deal means constantly moving the goal post away from any policy that might help American workers.

Homework

Denver Post Story About Unpleasant Dinner

Federal Budget Two Step

Tea Party Rally Fizzles

Federal Budget Negotiations

Yesterday the blog was about distractions. While we are distracted, the world keeps spinning, and there are things that should be the focus of our attention. Three come readily to mind: Civil Unions, Oil and Gas Commission, and a government shutdown.

The House District 54 Representative, Ray Scott, sponsored a bill that would take the agency that regulates Colorado’s oil and gas industry back to where it was before those pesky ranchers and environmentalists demanded a seat at the table. That bill will be heard in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee today. Evidently enough people have gotten to Scott that he is willing to make some concessions, but since the commission was just restructured last year, the question needs to be asked why this bill is needed at all. Hopefully the committee will agree and just kill the bill.  (HB 11-1223.)

On Thursday, the Civil Unions bill will be heard by the House Judiciary Committee. Senate Bill 11-172 is finding some unusual support from editorial boards all across the state. They have been making the point that if the GOP really is about small government, then there is no place for government in the regulation of marriage.  The conservative Colorado Springs Gazette had this to say, "Society should head toward complete withdrawal of the State from the regulation of marriage, which is best left to the partners and their respective religions." Hopefully the committee will pass this bill so that it reaches the floor of the House, where some Republicans are ready to vote in favor of civil unions.

And finally the Tea Party is at war with the Republican Party. There still is no budget in place for the year that is now almost eight months old, and another budget fight is looming over the budget for the year that starts in September. The most recent continuing resolution expires on Friday, and the Tea Party is moving the Republican Party even further to the right. The Democrats caved, and now support the opening position originally proposed by Representative Ryan of Wisconsin. (Can’t seem to get away from Wisconsin these days, can we?) But the Republicans are no longer interested in their own opening bid; they want more. To complicate matters, Operation Odyssey Dawn just blew a hole in the budget. If the target keeps moving, there will never be a budget this year or next year, and the government just may shut down until we can elect some grown-ups.

I don’t know exactly how to react to this possibility. While I want seniors to keep getting their Social Security checks, I think that if they don’t, because of some boneheaded move by Republicans, Republicans won’t find elections quite so easy in the future. Seniors vote, and while their memories may be shot, they do know a lot about Social Security and who messes with it.

Homework

Colorado HB 11-1223

Colorado SB 11-172

Story About Pressure on GOP Lawmakers to Pass Civil Unions Bill

Cantor VS Boehner

For the first time in my lifetime there seems to be a national conversation about the value of unions. In a Gallop poll released yesterday, 61% of Americans are in favor of a union’s right to collective bargaining.  The number is a bit surprising, considering that mostly when one reads about unions,  the article describes thugs and bullies who are demanding more than they deserve.

If we step back for a minute, we can see how there will always be tension between large corporations and workers. They have different goals. The corporation wants to maximize its profits; one way to do so is to keep labor costs down. The worker wants to have enough income to eat regularly, live indoors, sport some flashy threads, and actually be able to afford enough gas to drive the latest fad-mobile.

Just as it is easy to break one stick, but hard to break a bundle of sticks, one worker has very little leverage when talking to the management/owners of a corporation. But the entire workforce standing together can get the attention of the corporation whether it is discussing wages or benefits or safe working conditions. Unions have been the first line of defense for the rights of workers. The workplace is not a democracy, but it is more democratic thanks to unions.

Unions have delivered many things for which we should be thankful: laws that protect children from being exploited in sweat shops, week-ends with our families, employer based health care benefits, overtime pay after 40 hours of work, breaks during a work day for snacks, meals, and potty breaks—and a maybe a cup of Starbucks. There is a middle class in America because unions worked to raise wages out of the levels of poverty.

One surprising statistic, considering that Unions are the reason workers don’t have miserable lives, is that corporations have managed to convince workers that they will be treated right without union representation. They’ve managed to convince the workers to stand alone, instead of in a group. They’ve taken the power of democracy away from workers. The largest concentration of union members today is not in the private sector, it is in the public sector. And that is why the fight has moved into legislatures. The party that represents corporations wants to see unions everywhere diminished. The party that represents workers wants to make sure that both private and public sector employees stand together for living wages and decent working conditions.

Mark my words, the right of workers to stand together and bargain collectively is going to be an issue from now until the elections in 2012. The winners will be those who stand with workers. After all, workers outnumber company owners.

Homework

Poll Showing Support for Unions

Brits Look at the Value of Unions

Union Rally in New Mexico

Union Rally in Colorado

Union Rally in Utah (Including information about a Utah Tea Party Group trying to recall Wisconsin Senators.)