Congress: Extend unemployment to the jobless NOW

Join the push to ensure that our electeds in Washington do right by the people that elected them. Visit the AFL-CIO Day of Solidarity campaign to find out how you can get involved.

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Stand up to corporations that attack working families

I’m up to here with corporations that take advantage of working families, and now Del Monte is on my “you-know-what list.” Share the widget document below and pass on the word about the march on Monday, November 22 in Denver to show solidarity with the Del Monte workers whose jobs were cut. It’s a National Day of Action!

Denver Takes A Stand –

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The Anatomy of a Smear Campaign

The “cartoon” below appeared in print and online editions of The Examiner newspapers this week. These publications are owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, who is well-known to Colorado Democrats because he has repeatedly funded anti-labor and anti-gay ballot initiatives in our state. He has also been a major funding source for various committees of the national Republican Party and has contributed thousands of dollars over the years to Tom Tancredo. Although Philip Anschutz publicly supports Jane Norton in this year’s senate race, he funneled $100,000 to Michael Bennet’s campaign in 2009 from PACs and executives of companies he controlled at that time.

Michael Bennet spent his first six years in Colorado (1998-2004) becoming quite wealthy working as a kind of corporate raider for Mr. Anschutz who specializes in buying up distressed and bankrupt companies, consolidating some into new entities, and selling off other pieces for profit. While Mr. Anschutz has been quite successful financially, he is not known for restoring pensions or retirement benefits to employees of his companies.

During his ten years in Colorado before he was appointed to the Senate there is virtually no evidence of Michael Bennet speaking out for minorities or expressing any opinions at all on civil rights or other issues important to progressive Democrats. That is why it is all the more appalling that his campaign is attacking the integrity of Andrew Romanoff.

The cartoon in question was inspired of course by a Denver Post story several weeks ago planted by the Bennet campaign. The story found “manipulation” by the Romanoff campaign in a composite blue-screened banner produced by a volunteer at the top of its website. The image of an African-American woman, a strong supporter of Romanoff, had been moved next to his own image. Neither Romanoff nor anyone on his staff had knowledge of this and the original pictures of the event were so similar to the banner in question that when contacted, the campaign reaction was mostly disbelief that it was a serious story. Bennet’s own campaign had mailed thousands of campaign pieces with his image seeming to sprout from President Obama’s neck just a few weeks before, but this didn’t seem important to The Post. It didn’t matter that the campaign had never represented the banner as anything but a composite.

The banner in question had been in place online for all to see for seven months, apparently without offending anyone. Yet within hours the Bennet campaign had produced a list of about twenty Latinos who seemed deeply offended and demanded an apology. It was granted, and the banner was removed.

Apparently the Bennet campaign had been unable to find any African-Americans who had been offended, but they worked the story hard anyway, making sure every political news entity in America was notified. When the story was about to die, they worked hard to find new ways to keep it alive. The re-telling with no one looking at the original blue screened banner sounded so much more sinister, so fitting to their grand scheme to paint Andrew Romanoff as a racist.

The same Andrew Romanoff who worked in Montgomery, Alabama at the Southern Poverty Law Center fighting racist hate groups as a young man.

The same Andrew Romanoff who went to the trouble to learn to speak fluent Spanish and then taught English to High School kids in rural Central America to help give them a leg up in their lives and to give him a better understanding of their culture.

The same Andrew Romanoff who had the trust of virtually every legislator of any race who he worked with during his remarkable run in the state legislature as their Minority Leader and Speaker.

The same Andrew Romanoff who built a multicultural coalition of Whites, Latinos, and African-Americans to ward off a certain-to-pass ballot measure in 2006 that would have been as harmful and unjust to non-whites in Colorado as the legislation recently passed in Arizona is to minority citizens there.

That Andrew Romanoff.

That’s who the Bennet campaign, terrified of the Colorado electorate, knowing all the special interest money in the world will not be enough to save their candidate, is willing to try to destroy—Andrew Romanoff. And now as their despicable smear campaign is dying, they’ve engaged their Republican ally, Philip Anschutz to publish this distasteful cartoon.

Doesn’t it tell you why there is no place in the Democratic Party for those who would try to smear a good man like Andrew Romanoff? If Michael Bennet had just worked a few precincts with us before his appointment he wouldn’t put up with them either. Call his office in Washington at 202-224-5852 and tell him to get rid of these people. They are hurting him too, and their presence smears all of us.

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Romanoff brings his “A” game to the Denver County Assembly

Glad I was there to hear this first hand.  Andrew Romanoff helped me remember what being a Democrat is all about…and it sure isn’t about being spineless!

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The time is NOW…

Don’t be fooled by the double talk.  By the way, it’s against the law to take away health care from members of Congress.  I can’t wait to see if Sen. Bennet will take up Andrew Romanoff’s challenge to push for the public option.

Oh, wait…Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida already did that.  Oops.  Too late.

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The best senator money can’t buy

I don’t think I need to say more than this…

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Can a leopard change his spots?

There’s been a lot of talk bandied about in this period preceding the Colorado Senate Democratic primary.  There are folks that use the term “progressive” when they refer to Sen. Michael Bennet, and I want to make sure that we really understand what this means.

Now, in all fairness, I am very psyched about the fact that Sen. Bennet signed on as a co-sponsor of the Dream Act, and I even shook his hand publicly at a Democratic Party picnic and thanked him for his courage.  Also, he did sign on the the Lily Leadbetter Act, which guarantees equal pay for equal work.  I am glad that he decided to act as your garden-variety Democrat would act.

However, I just have to remind everyone of one of Sen. Bennet’s first actions when he arrived at the Senate, which was to join the “ConservaDem” faction led by Sen. Evan Bayh.  Right out of the gate, the ConservaDems trumpeted that they wanted a slowdown to spending and even threatened to slow down the President’s agenda.  Remember Rachel Maddow’s report back in March 2009:

Here’s the thing.  We need Democrats to act like Democrats.  We need them to be strong on labor, on consumer protections, on re-regulation of the finance and insurance industries.  When they can get those no-brainers down, then we will have a strong coalition to wage the war for comprehensive immigration reform, for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.  These social issues are going to take a whole lot of testicular fortitude to win,  and they will only be won when we Democrats win the confidence of the American people again.  They will be on the side of social change when they no longer live lives that are fraught with economic despair.  Let’s not forget that the first thing that many middle-class people say about undocumented residents is that “they take our jobs.”

Aren’t we listening to Middle America?

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The real skinny about the public option

Watch this…any questions?

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Can’t afford to wait

No more messing around, Congress. We need the public option RIGHT NOW!!!

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Support Lucia Guzman

I’m so excited to learn about Lucia Guzman’s candidacy for Senate District 34.  If you haven’t met her yet, she is a long-standing advocate for Denver county residents, from her work on the Denver school board, to her work with the Agency for Human Rights/Community Relations with the City and County of Denver.  We here at Liberal Latina endorse Lucia Guzman for Senate District 34!

For more information about her campaign, visit http://www.luciaguzman4colorado.com.

Here is a video from her recent campaign kick-off celebration:

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