Today, on the front page of the Living section, the Omaha World-Herald ran a story about blogs. They profiled three Omaha blogs but they unfortunately overlooked the College Democrats Blog.

One blog featured was by Cathie English. Ironically, Mrs. English is an English teacher at Aurora High School. A huge problem with her blog is that her most recent post was made Sunday, April 25, 2004. I have a hard time believing that the OWH couldn’t find a blog that is updated more frequently than that.

Heck, the reporter could have gone to Yahoo! and searched “Omaha blog” and she would have found our site. Is the media bias or lazy. I’m not sure which.

P.S. I emailed the reporter from the Omaha World-Herald that wrote this story requesting that our blog be included in future stories about blogs.

This is still a developing story but it looks like President Bush will be visiting Nebraska after the State of the Union address. Click here for the full story.

Why is Bush visiting Nebraska? I think I know why…

* Raise money for mayoral candidate Dave Friend.

* The administration finally found out that the U.S. Congressman from District 2 is Lee Terry (not Terry Lee). He wants to assure Terry Lee that the mix-up will never happen again.

* Dubya made up some Pro-Bush buttons and will be selling them all week on campus.

* My personal plea to the president about parking at UNO has finally been answered.

* He was hypnotized by the UNO Marching Band.

* Cheney and Dubya drew straws (and we know who lost).

* Dubya heard about the stellar growth of the College Democrats at the University of Nebraska – Omaha and he decided he must do something about it.

P.S. I’m sorry about the title of this post. I just couldn’t resist. If there is a lot of backlash, I will change it (but I think it’s funny).

Today, the KETV News at 5:00 featured one of the strangest video clips I’ve ever seen.

In an attempt to cater to their 12-year-old demographic, KETV News decided to humanize (or cartoonize) the smoking ban bill.

It seems the villain in this cartoon is Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey. Mayor Fahey makes Mr. Smoking Ban very, very unhappy. Mr. Smoking Ban then pleads with City Council to help him out. Finally, Mr. Smoking Ban is saved by petitions.

I can’t make this stuff up people. Watch the video for yourself.

Today, the Omaha World-Herald reported on the 2004 fundraising reports for Mayor Mike Fahey and his challenger in the upcoming election Dave Friend.

Here are some highlights:

Friend released his 2004 fund-raising report Monday, showing he has $31,724 cash on hand. Fahey has $593,589 on hand.

Friend’s campaign raised $86,105 in cash last year and spent $54,380.

If you’re a Republican, those numbers must be extremely depressing. If these numbers don’t make any sense to you, let me compare them to some other fundraising figures. Notably, the race for Omaha City Council District 3 between Anne Boyle and Jim Vokal. The World-Herald also reported those figures.

Incumbent Jim Vokal had $38,194 in the bank at the start of 2004 and he raised another $60,534. After expenditures, he has $82,009 on hand.

Meanwhile, challenger Anne Boyle outpaced Vokal in 2004 fund raising. She released her report Monday showing she raised $96,632 last year. After expenditures, she has $91,333 in the bank.

Remember, these two are running for a City Council seat and they have raised just as much money as Dave Friend. Either Dave Friend is a terrible fundraiser or the Republican Party has given up on him.

Nebraska has a new lieutenant governor.

Read the full story from the Omaha World-Herald

If you read Rick Sheehy’s biography, one thing may jump out at you. Sheehy used to be a Democrat. That sounds eerily familiar to former Governor Mike Johanns who used to be a Democrat before switching parties. So, is Sheehy a RINO (Republican In Name Only)? In the future, this blog will refer to Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy as Lt. Governor Mike Johanns Jr.

So, why would a life-long Democrat switch parties (only 17 months ago I might add)? He must have a good reason. Let’s find out…

A Catholic who opposes abortion, Sheehy said he switched parties in August 2003 because he began to believe that the party’s values didn’t mesh with his own.

Ok, it sounds like Sheehy was a Pro-Life Democrat for many years. The Democratic Party, especially in Nebraska, has a lot of Pro-Life Catholics (heck, even the College Democrats have a Pro-Life Catholic). I don’t see that as a very legitimate reason for switching parties. So, what’s behind door #2?

He cited the scandals involving former President Clinton and a bitter fight over ambulance service in Lincoln, which he said had partisan overtones.

“I just had some personal issues, and I didn’t believe the Democratic Party was serving me personally,” he said.

Scandals involving President Clinton were a factor in changing parties? You’ve got to be kidding me! Has Sheehy looked at the scandals in the Bush adminstration (WMDs, Abu Gharib, the war in Iraq, you get the picture). Maybe he hasn’t seen the scandals. Quick, someone show him the scandals because he may switch parties again. Unfortunately, Sheehy didn’t mention which specific “scandal” was so repulsive that caused him to switch parties, but I don’t know any “scandal” that President Clinton was involved in that compares to the “scandals” involving Dubya.

Finally, Sheehy said he also switched parties because of a bitter fight over ambulance service in Lincoln. I don’t know what the heck that was about so I won’t comment.

Nebraska Democrats said they believe Sheehy switched parties because he had been thinking about running for Congress in the heavily Republican 3rd District.

“There must have been another reason for him to switch parties. The basis he states really has nothing to do with Republican and Democratic issues,” said Steve Achelpohl, state Democratic chairman.

It looks like Rick Sheehy is just a political opportunist. That’s why from now on we will refer to him as Lt. Governor Mike Johanns Jr.

Maybe the most disturbing quote of the day came from our new Governor Dave Heineman

Heineman said the fact that Sheehy had changed parties didn’t affect his decision. “We’re not a very partisan state, and that wasn’t a factor at all,” the governor said.

We’re not a very partisan state??? What the hell is he talking about? Either the governor is lying or he is an idiot (or maybe both). In any case, that statement made absolutely no sense.