Bob Murray wants to continue mining near the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah as six unreachable miners' bodies are still warm. Governor John Huntsman (R) reacted:  

"That's totally unacceptable. There will not be business as usual until there is closure."

Huntsman went on:

"Furthermore, if it takes every dollar this guy has in his bank account, he needs to bring closure to this darned thing. We've got families of six good people who are currently sitting in that mine."

Not Murray, nor any coal mine owner/operator, will like the sound of that.

Kurt Loder seems to have gotten everyone's attention with a lame-assed, conventional-wisdom'd review of SiCKO for MTV - part of the Viacom empire. flipflopper caught the review and gave it a DailyKos once-over. About 260 of our fellow Kossacks chimed in as well.

Many of you probably asked, as I did, "what the hell is Kurt Loder still doing at MTV?!?" He's doing news and reviews, as I soon found out, and his reactionary views are sneaking in under the radar and being pumped into our kids' brains. We don't want that MTV.

Chris' favorite little "agent provocateur" is on. She just wants anyone dead who disagrees with her.

850KOA's Bob Newman is a well-known hater in Colorado and environs. There are these mini-Rush Limbaugh types all over the country. They usually fly under the radar, but occasionally the anonymity lulls them into thinking no one cares what they say.

But there's a new watchdog in Colorado, the offshoot of its big brother that causes so much heartburn these days. And people are starting to care what these fools say. People are starting to keep track of who supports them with advertising dollars.

Now Media Matters of Colorado caught Newman calling for the tracking of Muslims with GPS transmitters.

With Don Imus taking some well-deserved, righteous and long overdue heat for his latest racist remarks (I heard him call Lester Holt "Homeboy" after one MSNBC newsbreak) I figured it'd be a good time to recall what another hate-host from up here in Colorado said about Congressman John Murtha recently.

The tough-talkin' liar is Bob Newman, who did some time in the Army Marines and likes to call himself "Gunny". He's on 850KOA in Denver and goes after the mini-Rush, nuke Iraq, hate immigrants audience. There's a big audience of those up here. But this is a true "clear channel" station and it hits 20 - sometimes 30 or more - states on a mild weather night.

When Dems won back congress and Murtha started exerting some oversight, this little pipsqueak couldn't stand it can went into a rage one night. He finished the seg with these words: "John Murtha should be hung."

To: Fox News Channel on-air staff
Subject: Urgent need to report IRAQ war successes
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 20:33:39

There is no time better than now to show up the MSM and help our President win the Iraq war. Democrats are on the attack and undermining our nation. It is more obvious than ever that the MSM will not report our Iraq successes.

All Fox News Channel staff must act with this single goal. You must do your journalistic duty and report all the good news from Iraq as soon as humanly possible: the painted schools, open markets, the visits by Senators, and cell phone sales. I even hear chlorine production is up!

A: When George Bush is pulling his "emergency supplemental" ruse once again as the Iraq War goes into its fifth year. A little background:

Now that the House and the Senate have passed emergency appropriations bills to fund the war in Iraq the next step is for members of the House and Senate to come up with a compromise bill. It is hoped a compromise bill can be agreed upon and passed during the week of April 16. Then it goes to President Bush who has sworn loudly and stridently that he will veto it.

This bogus emergency raises far more questions for me than it anwers. And it frustrates the hell out of me that Dems are playing right into Bush's hand in this "emergency" that is no emergency at all.

What does this allow Bush to do?

We all know the serious bias that's been occuring on the Sunday Morning gabfests. Media Matters has taken these somewhat slow-thinking arbiters of our moral discourse to task, but they just don't seem to get it.

Yesterday on MTP Russert fell into the same old trap and exposed the fact that he probably couldn't pass 5th grade math at the same time that he hosts his somewhat influential show.

There are far better analyses of yesterday's show by several diarists below. I'm taking my shot at this one by pointing out the basic math that compelled Russert to invite 2 R's (Perle and DeLay) and 2 D's (Sestak and Andrews) to discuss the major military and diplomatic failure of a generation. Granted, our guys probably had 4 times the brain power as the Republican flackies, but it still doesn't make up for the obvious bias in these shows.

American public support of the war: 29%
Republican guests on MTP: 50%
Democratic guests on MTP: 50%
Math grade for Tim Russert and producer: 0%

When 850KOA Denver's Bob Newman said that Congressman "John Murtha should be hung" the other night, I wondered what set him off.

It's happened more than once on that station; and if 850KOA's Clear Channel management didn't approve then Bob Newman would have never called for Murtha's hanging like he did. So let there be no doubt 850KOA approves of their high-paid hosts and guests calling for the killing of our nation's leaders.

It's weird no surprise to me how an "independent" like Bob Newman could Swift-boat John Kerry yet be so sanguine about our nation's massive failures in Iraq under George W. Bush's command.

Now I've found what set Bob off on his homicidal screed the other night. You can see it at Colorado's SquareState Quick Hits section:

It seems we are going to have to shoot down this ignorant meme again and again until Republicans figure out how this democracy works. It may be a long time, folks.

There is definitive proof that criticizing the President's Iraq War failures and encouraging discussion of the unprecedented criticism by retired General Officers of our nation's gigantic problems in Iraq does not hurt our troops' morale.

Republicans keep lying about it because they can't stand the heat of the debate. When it was Bill Clinton in office they did not hesisate one second in criticizing his decisions as Commander in Chief. And they did not worry about troop morale with regard to those criticisms.

The following occurred on May 17 at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Defense Department Budget.

"Pussy" is probably what W called his dad for wimping out at Jeb's leadership gathering in Florida the other day.

No, not that kind - the kind that cries in public:

Former President George H.W. Bush came here Monday to talk about leadership and opened his remarks with advice on working with rivals, being patient and building personal relationships.

I can just hear him: "I ain't no pussy like my dad. That's why I didn't ask him what he would do about Saddam. I went and kicked Saddam's ass. That's what I'm talkin' about."

George Bush, and Holy Joe Lieberman, have a friend in Ken Salazar - our mushy-middle, milquetoast senator from Colorado who can't seem to take a tough position on anything Democrats stand for these days.

In another of his series of bold commitments Ken stated yesterday we must "stay the course" in the Iraqi quagmire:

Bucking the position of some Democratic Party leaders, Sen. Ken Salazar said Wednesday it's too soon to begin pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq.

Do Dems have a plan for Iraq? We know what the media keeps saying, contrary to the truth.

Who will replace Rummy? How can we be so blase as to recommend firing a guy who's been there from the beginning?

Who can we replace this Greatest SecDef Ever abject failure with at such a critical time?

With someone who has been to Iraq and tried to achieve the impossible goals given to our military leaders firsthand. Major General John Batiste - an Iraq II vet who has the rank, who has new ideas, and who's gone toe-to-toe with Rumsfeld. Batiste was on Countdown in October:

I told them we shouldn't do it...we should let Cheney come here and lie about Jay Fawcett, the Fighting Dem Vet candidate in Colorado's Fighting Fifth district.

I told them we should let "Shooter" threaten to shoot us in the face, accuse of us treason and wanting to raise taxes (Jeez, I don't know which is worse to them), and then whip out the old Vice-Presidential waterboard. But Jay said he would waterboard me if I didn't print this!

How's that for being tough on terrorists Democrats?

We know Dick and the boys don't like to read a lot of stuff, especially if doesn't fit their world view. But I hope "Shooter" has the time to read this thoughtful statement from our next congressman from beautiful CD-5, Lt. Col. Jay Fawcett:

We welcome Vice President Cheney to Colorado Springs and salute his service to our country.  Unfortunately, he is stumping for the wrong candidate.

Doug Lamborn has no military experience and no plan for Iraq. He is unqualified to provide the leadership on military and....

oh man, here we...gurgle....gurgle...gurgle....go!!!!

Doug Lamborn, the (R) candidate who's leaking support faster than you can say "Watch out for that iceb...." continues his fall in what was a gimme seat for the R's. He cracks in the latest ad from the Jay Fawcett campaign.

The Fawcett campaign's new ad is here. DCCC is supposedly coming in with a buy for it right this second. Doug's world famous "Shut up" and "I don't have my own plan" quotes are included for your viewing enjoyment....

We all know Doug Lamborn (R-Club for Sleaze) has a problem with the truth. That's why outgoing Representative Joel Hefley would not endorse the winner of his own party's primary for the Fifth Congressional seat.

But the sleazy campaign Lamborn ran is not the reason the Colorado Springs Independent, the Denver Post, or Esquire Magazine all endorsed Jay Fawcett.

They endorsed Jay for his superior qualifications, better experience, and willingness to ask the tough questions of our military leaders. The choice was simple for them.

So what's a losing candidate to do in a situation like this? Go negative. Here are Doug's latest lies as seen on a TV near you:

Joel Hefley was one of the first victims of the Republican House Leadership's "Power over Ethics" platform.

We are seeing the logical conclusion of the decision to cling desperately to power and defend the unethical acts of your peers at all costs -  even when they are breaking the law and preying on minors.

The people don't like it. And there are even some Republicans who won't play along. Joel Hefley, the retired congressman from Colorado's conservative Fifth District, is one of them.

Hotline on Call:

A new Mason-Dixon poll demonstrates how races are popping up in unusual territory. In CO 05, which has never elected a Democrat, Jay Fawcett (D) is tied with state Sen. Doug Lamborn (R) at 37%.

....snip....

For the next 28 days, the NRCC will have to play Whack-A-Mole -- shoring up these newly vulnerable seats. But with plenty of top-tier Republican incumbents still needing cash, that may be an increasingly tough task. [JOSH KRAUSHAAR]