Archive for March, 2007

Friday Update

Published by
jarod
March 30, 2007 in Open-Thread. 0 Comments

Excuse the mess, folks. Trying to get a few of these links up-to-date.

  • Yellow Dog University. Tomorrow. 9:30 A.M. @ the UNO Student Center. See the website for more details.
  • NNN: A “Nebraska bloc?” The fact that Hagel and Nelson are working together - let alone speaking to each other - is a very positive sign for Nebraska. Oh, and the Omaha World-Herald sucks for not putting their opinion pages online. Lame. Kyle thinks that McCollister just gave the signal to Nebraska Republicans to go after Hagel. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibilities, now, that Chuck Hagel could be primaried like Joe Lieberman in 2006. Who will it be? My guess is Bruning. But I’m still not sure that Hagel’s running for reelection.
  • Paging Power has some video of Ernie Chambers during the debate on LB 405.
  • If you’ve got any questions about how the February 9, 2008 caucus will work, the NDP has posted its plan.
  • Glenn Greenwald on how “neoconservative radicalism has reshaped our political spectrum.”
  • The Lincoln Primary is on Tuesday, and Beutler’s fundraising advantage is still substantial. As of March 26, Beutler has $79,973.10 cash on hand, to Ken Svoboda’s $23,000.67. We’ll see how the votes come down on Tuesday, and then one month until the general election.

Fahey Making the City a Little Bit Greener

Published by
jarod
March 29, 2007 in General. 2 Comments

One of the many reasons why it’s good to have a mayor like Mike Fahey:

Omaha hopes to reduce its contribution to global warming gases, and on Thursday the first citywide effort to do so was launched.

The Omaha Energy Challenge asks families to replace one conventional light bulb for each family member with a compact fluorescent light bulb. The bulbs can last eight years or more and use about 25 percent to 30 percent of the energy of conventional light bulbs.

Mayor Mike Fahey noted that it was a year ago that he enrolled the city in the Cool Cities Initiative and Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, which commit cities to reducing global warming gases. Lincoln and Bellevue are among the 420 other cities participating.

The city is taking other steps to reduce its energy use:

  • Working with OPPD to audit and reduce energy use in the City-County Building.
  • Replacing burned-out conventional traffic lights with LED bulbs, which cut energy use by about 80 percent. The LED bulbs also last years longer, which means city workers spend less time and take fewer risks replacing them.
  • Increasing tree plantings along streets with few trees.

    • Senate Approves Iraq Bill 51-47

    Published by
    jarod
    March 29, 2007     in General, Iraq and National. 0 Comments

    NYT:

    WASHINGTON, March 29 — The Senate narrowly approved a war-spending bill today that calls for most American combat troops to be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008, and in so doing defied a veto threat by President Bush.

    The 51-to-47 vote endorsed a $122 billion spending package, most of which would go to the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, although some domestic spending is included.

    Every Democrat voted for the bill, along with Chuck Hagel and Gordon Smith. 46 Republicans and Joe Lieberman voted against it. It will go to conference and then on to the President for an almost certain veto.

    Is John McCain’s Campaign DOA?

    Published by
    jarod
    March 28, 2007     in National. 0 Comments

    mccain_bush-hug.jpg

    John McCain made a bet. He made a bet that by getting the tacit endorsement of George W. Bush, by being his #1 cheerleader for the war in Iraq (a role he quite enthusiastically shares with Joe Lieberman), he could overcome the reservations that conservatives have about him and win the nomination on inevitability alone and the strength of his warchest.

    But the right isn’t about to forget about McCain-Feingold, which was signed into law five years ago yesterday, or his “Sister Souljah”-ing of Jerry Falwell during the 2000 campaign.

    And, still 9 1/2 months away from the first actual contest, McCain isn’t getting much positive press lately.

    First there was this gaffe as he resumed his “Straight Talk Express” tour:

    The unthinkable has happened. Senator John McCain met a question, while sitting with reporters on his bus as it rumbled through Iowa today, that he couldn’t – or perhaps wouldn’t – answer.

    Did he support the distribution of taxpayer-subsidized condoms in Africa to fight the transmission of H.I.V.?

    What followed was a long series of awkward pauses, glances up to the ceiling and the image of one of Mr. McCain’s aides, standing off to the back, urgently motioning his press secretary to come to Mr. McCain’s side.

    The upshot was that Mr. McCain said he did not know this subject well, did not know his position on it, and relied on the advice of Senator Tom Coburn, a physician and Republican from Oklahoma.

    Then, the news that their fundraising isn’t going as well as expected. Granted, it could be an expectations game, but the fact that they’re downplaying expectations - and seem to be getting outraised by a moderate governor of Massachusetts who is polling in the single digits - doesn’t bode well for his campaign.

    All the while, he keeps falling in the polls, with the most recent poll showing McCain down by 20 points to Rudy Giuliani, and only ahead of undeclared candidate Newt Gingrich by 4%.

    But the last couple of days have just been rough for McCain.

    First, there was the guy who taught McCain the hard way not to hijack images. For several hours yesterday, McCain’s Myspace page read:

    Dear Supporters,

    Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage… particularly marriage between passionate females.

    Trivial, but it did make him a laughingstock across the net for a day. What wasn’t so trivial were these comments that made him appear hopelessly out of touch with reality:

    “There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today.”

    The news media tore the comments to shreds, each network (besides FOX, of course) having their war correspondent explain exactly why McCain was wrong.

    So, what does that matter, right? This is a Republican primary, after all. Being hopelessly out of touch with reality when it comes to Iraq isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker.

    The nail in the coffin for John McCain:

    Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

    In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.

    For folks who already don’t trust McCain, this is serious trouble. Does it mean his campaign is dead in the water? I don’t know, but after this, I wouldn’t bet on him getting the nomination.

    Making The Case For a Larger City Council

    Published by
    jarod
    March 28, 2007     in Unicam. 0 Comments

    Yesterday, LB 405, which would increase the size of the Omaha City Council to 9 members, passed the first round of voting in the unicameral, 25-16. The bill, introduced by Sen. Dwite Pedersen of Elkhorn, and co-sponsored by Sen. Gwen Howard of Omaha, was the subject of some heated debate yesterday in the legislature.

    I worry that a few members of the legislature are missing the point, here. Mistaking the parts for the whole, as it were.

    First, there’s Mick Mines, of Blair, trying to be offended on behalf of Omaha:

    “This one feels like a poke in the eye to Omaha,” Mines said.

    The idea originated with Omaha City Councilman Jim Suttle about a year and a half ago, and he spoke on its behalf in committee. It’s cosponsored by an Omaha state senator. Just because Mines’ district extends into a small section of Omaha doesn’t mean that he gets to speak on behalf of Omaha.

    Ernie Chambers, Lowen Kruse, and Don Preister, I think, miss the point here. Mistaking the representatives for the people. Slightly diminishing Frank Brown’s influence (from one of seven to one of nine) on the council doesn’t diminish the people’s representation. The people’s representation is being harmed greatly by the failure of the city council to grow along with the city.

    Chambers, Kruse, Mines, and Preister, are confusing Pedersen’s legitimate reason for the bill - to give Elkhorn a single representative - with the overall effect of the bill. Nothing has done more harm to minority influence on the council than the westward growth of the city council.

    Consider the city council boundaries in the last election, and the new ones recently passed by the City Council.

    District 1:  Jim Suttle’s district - which includes Florence and parts of North-Central Omaha, moved west to I-680 north of Dodge and south of Blondo. The western boundary of that part of the district used to be just west of 77th St. at Cole Creek Dr.

    Districts 2, 3, 4: All three districts had their boundaries shifted to the north.

    You can’t possibly make a case that the boundaries of Garry Gernandt’s district are helping minority representation. District 4 encompasses virtually all of South Omaha from the river to 72nd Street. The westward expansion of the city has pushed the boundaries of east Omaha districts to the west.

    This move makes sense. It makes sense for Omaha. It makes sense for North Omaha, South Omaha, Florence, Dundee, Benson, Millard, Elkhorn, and the rest of the city. It puts the power back in the hands of the people. Stop arguing about how the influence of one councilman will be diminshed, and realize that the influence of one voter will be greatly increased. Maybe that’s what some on the city council are afraid of?

    Nebraska Senators Provide an Important Victory in Iraq Debate

    Published by
    jarod
    March 27, 2007     in Iraq and National. 0 Comments

    Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson did us proud today:

    The Senate defeated an attempt to erase an American troop withdrawal date from an Iraq spending bill this afternoon after an emotional debate about the powers of the presidency and Congress and the well-being of front-line soldiers.

    By a vote of 50 to 48, the Senate allowed a withdrawal date of March 31, 2008, to remain in the $122 billion bill, which has yet to be acted upon. The majority defeated an amendment offered by Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, that would have removed the date.

    Nelson and Hagel both opposed a Senate resolution calling for a March 31 deadline last week. Their votes against this amendment allowed the amendment to be defeated. Nebraska’s Senators were the only two Senators to change their votes on a withdrawal timeline from last week.

    Nelson released a statement last week stating his support for the Senate spending bill, and though he is not in favor of a timeline, he came on board due to benchmark language included in the bill, which he had a hand in crafting. Kudos to Nelson for standing up to Republican efforts to neuter this bill.

    Hagel, meanwhile, is teaming up with Virginia Senator Jim Webb to add troop readiness provisions to the bill. The Cochran amendment was the key obstacle to passage of this bill, so it should be able to pass the Senate, but they’ll have to work out some things in conference before sending it off to the President for an almost certain veto.

    Tuesday Links for 3/27

    Published by
    jarod
    March 27, 2007     in Open-Thread. 1 Comment
    • REMINDER: Yellow Dog University is Saturday, March 31. The day begins at 9 am.
    • The Senate could begin voting today on H.R. 1591, which passed the House of Representatives last week. Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), realizing that a filibuster would simply prevent funding for the war, said that the Republicans would not filibuster the bill, meaning a simple majority is required to pass through the Senate. John McCain will finally show up for a vote in an attempt to kill the withdrawal provisions in the bill. Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel are two key swing votes. Both voted against a withdrawal measure a little over a week ago, but Nelson has pledged support for the Senate bill, and Hagel is teaming with Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) to add troop readiness provisions to the bill.
    • UPDATE: The Senate defeated, 50-48, an amendment that would have removed the withdrawal language from their version of the bill. The Senate bill calls for a nonbinding date of March 31, 2008, rather than the hard September 2008 date in the House version. Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel voted against the amendment, ensuring its defeat.
    • An aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Monica Goodling, will invoke the fifth amendment in Senate hearings, citing self-incrimination. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ fired chief of staff, will testify on Thursday, and his testimony may contradict previous statements made by Gonzales to Congress. Gonzales is scheduled to testify on April 17.
    • Glenn Greenwald with a couple of great posts about our media. Hopelessly out of touch with reality. Atrios chimes in with the important distinction between those who report the news (mostly print journalists) and those who report on the news (mostly television pundits).
    • UPDATE II: We don’t pay much attention to politics across the river, but Iowa’s 5th Congressional District is represented by a certifiable wingnut named Steve King. It appears that he has his first challenger for 2008 (assuming that he doesn’t decide to challenge Tom Harkin for Senate), a Council Bluffs Democrat named Rob Hubler. I can’t find much on him. Even the prominent Iowa blogs haven’t heard of him. From what I can gather, though, his campaign looks amateur. Joyce Schulte ran against King in 2004 and 2006, losing both times. I’ve got to think that there’s an Iowa Democrat more qualified to face off against King. Mike Gronstal, for example, is the Senate Majority Leader from Council Bluffs. Obviously, he wouldn’t want to face an entrenched incumbent like King, but it suggests to me that there are western Iowa Democrats who could run a credible campaign against King.
    • UPDATE III: The death penalty debate in the legislature may get another shot. Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha has proposed an amendment requiring juries to consider aggravating circumstances before imposing the death penalty. There will be a hearing on Friday, and if the proposal comes to the floor, it may have a better chance of passing than Chambers’ original bill, which called for the complete repeal of the death penalty. No telling what Heineman would do if the bill passed, but I’m guessing he’d veto it.
    • UPDATE IV: LB 405, to add 2 city council districts to Omaha, advanced to Select File by a vote of 25-16 (6 present and 2 not voting). Debate was heated and contentious. The bill still needs to go through two more rounds of voting in order to pass.
    • Don’t forget YDU on Saturday. A couple of other quick reminders:

    Right Wing Outrage and Hypocrisy on Hagel and the “I” Word

    Published by
    jarod
    March 26, 2007     in General. 1 Comment

    Bloggers with short-term memories and no sense of their own irony… If it weren’t so sad, I might actually find it entertaining:

    Captain’s Quarters:

    Only Senators completely ignorant of the Constitution would consider impeachment a viable option for dealing with policy differences between the executive and the legislature. The Constitution, in Article 2, Section 4, makes very plain the bases on which Congress can move to impeach a President:

    The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

    It does not grant Congress the right to remove a President on policy grounds. In fact, the entire idea of the balance of powers is to ensure that policy differences get worked out by compromise and that Congress does not act out of a mob mentality. The founders made the branches co-equal for a reason, and that was to limit the power of both. Otherwise, they would have chosen the parliamentary model — they had the British system as an easy example to follow — and made Congress the arbiter of executive policy.

    Yes, there is only one legitimate reason to ever impeach a president: he lied about getting a blow job! For God’s sake, people, think of what’s important, here! Get your priorities straight! Think of the children! Oh, won’t someone please think of the children?

    Is it really that hard for them to remember that just 8 years ago they engaged in a partisan witchhunt against a popular Democratic President, for no other reason than they didn’t like him very much? Do these people have no shame!? Are they completely unaware of the irony, the hypocrisy in all of this?

    Hagel: It’s That ‘I’ Word Again

    Published by
    jarod
    March 25, 2007     in NE-Sen and National. 2 Comments

    Seems like we discussed this not three weeks ago… yet, here we are again:

    Sen. Chuck Hagel said Sunday that President Bush’s go-it-alone approach on Iraq could so anger lawmakers that some may consider impeachment to stop his war policy.

    The Nebraska Republican, a frequent critic of the war, did not call for Bush’s impeachment. But in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” he made clear that some lawmakers viewed that as an option should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment against the war.

    “Some lawmakers.” Cryptic phrasing from Hagel, and I have trouble believing him, frankly, because it’s not at all clear that we have 50 United States Senators in favor of ending the war in Iraq. I suspect the number who would consider his impeachment an option at this point to be even lower. And, since we’re not interested in impeaching the President if it’s not going to do anything, we need 67 votes.

    Listen, Hagel’s got a tendency to speak his mind, and if he didn’t so consistently show himself as willing to sell out his principles in the name of party loyalty, I might even respect him for it. He’s been outspoken on the war - and he may even be an ally in the upcoming fight to end the war. But here’s some free career advice for the Senator: if you want to get elected to anything, ever again, you should probably shut up about impeachment.

    I’m having trouble understanding Hagel’s strategy here. Despite having one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate, Hagel has repeatedly thrown the President under the bus with his rhetoric - like Joe Lieberman, except with the truth on his side. You may remember what happened to Joe Lieberman in 2006. I’m beginning to think that Hagel may find the same problem in 2008 should he decide to seek re-election. Except I don’t think we’re going to see the “Nebraska For Hagel” party formed (plus, we have a “sore loser” law), and I think Nebraska Democrats can nominate someone better than a degenerate gambler for their candidate.

    Yet another reason why we cannot concede this race. Even if Hagel’s running for reelection. Because, if he continues to piss off Republicans in Nebraska, there’s a good chance that he won’t be the nominee.

    Lee Terry’s Pork Problem

    Published by
    jarod
    March 24, 2007     in NE-02. 2 Comments

    If we didn’t already have enough evidence of Lee Terry’s hypocrisy on the subject of earmarks, there comes this excellent story from the Sunday Omaha World-Herald detailing one particular federal earmark for an I-80 bypass in southern Sarpy County - leading to a gravel road on an area of land owned by a single developer. The developer leased land to Public Service Commissioner Tim Schram, who helped lobby Congressmen Lee Terry and Jeff Fortenberry (as well as then-Congressman Doug Bereuter), and Senators Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson for the federal dollars. Seldin (the developer), and the President of his company, contributed $6,300 to Terry, $2,750 to Fortenberry, $8,000 to Nelson, and $3,300 to Hagel.

    I’d encourage you to read the entire article. It’s not often that the World-Herald nails a story, but they have a wealth of information here. But here’s the key: it’s government waste that directly lines the pockets of a lobbyist or those who he lobbies for. The very definition of pork. The article rightly points out that none of this is strictly illegal. But things of this nature raise huge ethical questions about who our elected officials, from a Public Service Commissioner to a United States Congressman, are actually serving. And it illustrates the absolute hypocrisy of elected officials who profess that they are against government waste and pork-barrel spending.

    Jeff Fortenberry, who won the prize for most disingenuous objection to the Iraq spending bill on Thursday, came through with $1.6 million of the $4 million total earmark. Terry, who has paid plenty of lip-service in the past three months to “reform,” earmarked $800,000.

    The cost to Sarpy County? At least $3 million. And the people responsible for this swindle want more:

    But an attorney for Seldin Co., Pat Sullivan, voiced a different view last spring when the Sarpy County Board took up the question of how to pay for a $500,000 environmental study. Sullivan reminded the board that the company had spent “tens of thousands” of dollars lobbying Congress and said the company’s efforts had been “instrumental” in obtaining the earmarks.

    At the time, Sullivan was explaining why Seldin Co. would not contribute $50,000 toward the cost of the study, something suggested by the county surveyor Lynam. Without a donation, taxpayers will pay the full $500,000 bill.

    Sullivan told the board that a contribution from Seldin to the study was “not in the cards.”

    In an interview, Seldin explained that an interchange would benefit all nearby property owners.

    “If it’s of general benefit to everybody in the area,” Seldin asked, “why should we pay more than our share?”

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