Colorado recently removed from its website a guide that gives tips for illegal aliens living in Colorado. Those involved in producing the guide included, to varying degrees: the Mexican government, the Colorado Department of Education, Colorado Gov. Owens, various "immigrant's rights" groups, and First Data/Western Union.

Rep. Tom Tancredo complained about the guide and caused it to be removed from Colorado's site. This, of course, caused the other side to fire up their race-baiting and strike back. From a group called ProgressNow (link):

Colorado Department of Education Vice-Chairman asks:
Does Gov. Owens Support Rep. Tancredo's anti-immigration/anti-Bush policy?

The same week that Rep. Tom Tancredo took his anti-immigration pledge on the road to New Hampshire, Governor Owens played lackey to Rep. Tom Tancredo, jumping to action when Rep. Tancredo demanded that a guide for immigrants be taken off the Colorado Department of Education's website. The Congressman demanded, and Gov. Owens did as he was told...

Coloradans, including Jared Polis, Vice-Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education found the Governor's action unwarranted. "Governor Owens' action furthering Congressman Tancredo's far right agenda was completely inappropriate," stated Polis. "Tancredo's hateful venom is now affecting his Republican colleagues," Polis added.

Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNow.Org , said because of the Governor's actions concerning the website, Owens needs to clarify his stand: "Does Governor Bill Owens join Rep. Tancredo in his extremist views on closing American borders and using the military to enforce that closure? Does Gov. Owens support Rep. Tancredo's racist, anti-immigrant agenda? Does Gov. Owens really believe that Latino and other immigrants are 'coming across our borders to kill you and your children.'" [Footnote 2]...

...ProgressNow.Org Executive Director Michael Huttner calls for the Governor and the rest of Colorado Republicans to make their positions clear: Either they disavow Tancredo and what the Wall Street Journal Editorial board called his "exploit[ation of] the terror attacks to advance [his] anti-immigration agenda...." [Footnote 3] or their silence stands as tacit approval of Tancredo's extremist views...

Footnotes:
2: Tancredo quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution 2/03/04
3: Wall Street Journal Editorial 3/18/02

First, let's put Tancredo's statement from Footnote 2 into its proper context:

Paper: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
Title: Panelists denounce illegal immigrants
Author: RICK BADIE
Date: February 3, 2004
Section: Gwinnett
Page: JJ2

..."If Republicans don't do something about the border, Republicans can't say we're doing all we can to protect you," U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo told a standing-room-only audience at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta.

"They are looking for jobs, yes, but there are people coming into this country to kill you and your children. Maintaining the borders are essential to our survival."

Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, joined U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal of Gainesville and Rick Oltman, a field representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform to talk about illegal immigration before about 300 people...

Obviously, his full quote shouldn't be shocking to anyone with any sense. Given ProgressNow's baseless smears and selective quoting, is there any reason to believe anything this organization says?

And, why would a supposedly "progressive" organization be on the same side of as issue as the Wall Street Journal, a paper that wants open borders in order to keep the price of labor as low as possible? The Wall Street Journal's goals certainly seem closer to feudalism than "progress." However, they and ProgressNow do share something in common: yellow journalism.

To tie all of this together, Colorado's guide for illegal aliens was produced by the Colorado State Board of Education, of which Jared Polis is the Vice-Chairman. Jared Polis is an internet m/billionaire who founded ProFlowers.com and BlueMountain.com, two sites that you might want to avoid. (Assuming pending further information that he's still involved with them). Polis apparently spent a great deal of money to gain his seat, and is trying to bring others with him.

For more information on him, see Polis's Eminem Fan Letter Embarrasses Democrats and Millionaires' Initiatives Fall With A Thud

There's apparently some connection between Polis, Huttner ("Executive Director of ProgressNow.Org"), and the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network. Polis appears to be a contributor to ProgressNow.org.

So, it all kind of ties together nicely, doesn't it?

This isn't the first time that Tancredo has come under attack from these people or their associates. See Tancredo now in cross hairs of attack ads

Thankfully, as can be seen above, showing the readers of ProgressNow that they're being misled should be particularly easy, akin to excercising with half-pound weights. They don't seem to have many facts on their side and are forced to simply call names.

As of now ProgressNow.org's blog accepts comments, so please visit their site and reacquaint their readers with the truth.

UPDATE:
From this blurb:

Lawyer-about- town and political pundit Mike Huttner has a new gig.

He's left Foster, Graham, Huttner and Calisher, the law firm he helped form. Now he's running ProgressNow.org (formerly the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network), whose mission statement "is to be a strong, credible voice in advancing progressive solutions to critical community problems."

Huttner, who's been a bachelor forever (just ask his mom, Diane Huttner) also is getting married to Debbie Herz, a New York City attorney, and moving to Boulder.

From the longer article "It's Not Easy Being Green":

...To gain a larger national presence, its name has been changed [from the RMPN] to Progressnow.org; it's hired the technophile behind Howard Dean's much-lauded Internet campaign to launch the new electronic crusade; and executive director (and former Westword intern) Michael Huttner ditched his law firm to run the organization full-time. But the biggest change was moving into the network's new digs on the second floor of the Alliance Center, a hugely ambitious project in LoDo that will soon house 23 progressive-leaning nonprofits.

The $5.25 million center is operated under the umbrella of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, a nonprofit founded last year by John Powers. As a longtime boardmember of the Colorado Environmental Coalition...

...he took the first step by purchasing the historic Otero building, at 1536 Wynkoop Street, from the Tattered Cover Book Store and the Wynkoop Brewing Co.; half a dozen nonprofits had already set up shop there. That's not surprising, because the building was part of a project developed by Mayor John Hickenlooper and Tattered Cover owner Joyce Meskis...

[tenants include] Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Colorado Common Cause, Historic Denver, the Center for Native Ecosystems and the Latina Initiative...