So I was driving to work today listening to the radio and I heard the most unusual Anti-Salazar ad. I didn't catch who funded it but they listed off 3 things that I guess were meant to convince us sheeple that Salazar isn't fit to serve the people of Colorado.
- He didn't fight a law that allows the State of Colorado to automatically deduct union dues from worker's paychecks.
- His office lost a case that allowed 70some sex offenders back on the streets
- He wants to force the FBI to notify terrorists (not suspected, not potential) when they do search warrants instead of allowing the FBI to keep these warrants secret.
My first thought when I heard this ad was "WTF??? This guy must be a saint if that's the worst they got on him."
More below the fold...
Let's look at this more critically.
- The state of Colorado can automaticly deduct union dues from union workers. The ad implied this was a bad thing without saying whether or not people actually contested the law. The Atorney General isn't going to fight a law that isn't considered a bad thing by those the law affects. Looking at it from a libertarian standpoint I can understand that they don't want the state dipping their fingers in people's money. So I guess we should do away with states deducting child support from people's paychecks too. I mean it's a parent's right to cut and run from their responsibilities. While we're at it lets just get rid of all of those pesky tax deductions. Sure irresponsible people will just spend every cent they have and cry poor when the tax man cometh but it'll keep the state out of our paycheck.
- A single case freed 70 people? You don't see many prosecutions with 70 defendants so my mind deducded this was likely a civil rights case. Someone brought a case to court saying these 70 people's (yes "sex offenders" are people in case there was any doubt) civil rights were denied and the state was unable to defend it's methods adequately so they were set free. The ad implies Salazar it to blame for his office loosing the case. Now I know the captain is responsible for his crew and all that but if it was a civil rights case, then whoever did the shoddy work to get these people convicted is more to blame and Salazar may or may not have been AG at that time. But there were no specifics of course.
- This one is the most absurd one of all. It deals with the "sneak peek" provision in the patriot act allowing law enforcement officers the ability to search your house when you're not there and without ever notifing you. The ad assumes that FBI is only going to use this power on real honest to God Terrorists. So Salazar is fighting for our civil rights? Well more power to him. If FBI want to search your home you should know it's happening because we all know the kind of people these guys think of as "terrorists": Peaceful protestors who don't like their civil rights pulled out from under them.
So I don't know what the intention of this ad was, but I was left feeling more confident than ever that I'd picked the right side of this fight.
Go Kenny go!