Archive for March, 2008

Sure enough.  A couple sightings in the area confirm his visit as well as a sighting of Turd Blossom having lunch with our own Doc Hastings, one of which was Jesse Jackson who was here in Richland Washington for an isotope symposium.  But the Rove visit came with no announcement, no fanfare, and more importantly, no fundraising. 

Not wanting to speculate too much… but considering that rumors have been slowly coming in that Hastings may in fact retire, and current Democratic challenger, George Fearing, is not is not yet a threat in either fundraising or name recognition.  While that is swiftly changing (The Fearing Campaign crossed the 100K a few days ago), it certainly wouldn’t warrant a visit from Rove this early in the game.  So was Rove here to talk him out of it?

A recent article by Benjamin Wallace-Wells noted National Republican Congressional Committee leader Tom Cole’s challenges as Republican congressmen are jumping ship for private shores.

Going into the 2008 elections, Cole faces a daunting list of challenges. To date, 29 of his party’s representatives in Congress have retired, an unusually large number, leaving open politically marginal seats that incumbents might have held but which will be more difficult for challengers to defend — Deborah Pryce’s seat in Columbus, Ohio; Mike Ferguson’s in central New Jersey; Heather Wilson’s around Albuquerque; Thomas M. Reynolds’s in Buffalo. Reynolds, Cole’s predecessor at the N.R.C.C., just narrowly held his seat in 2006. Rick Renzi, a Republican congressman from Arizona, was indicted last month on federal corruption charges, putting what was another safe Republican seat in play. These vacancies mean that in a year when, by historical standards, his party would be expected to win back seats, Cole will have to defend many more seats than he will be able to attack (only six Democratic incumbents have announced they are leaving office).

If Hastings leaves this seat it certainly would change the dynamics.  But this is still just throwing the idea up in the air to see where it lands.  

More as it comes in…

Start a rumor…. NO!  But there have been plenty of rumors about State Representative Shirley Hankins (R-8th) running in 2008 that’s for sure.  And getting hammered in the local press on some ethics questions and a subsequent reprimand has sure fueled the rumors. (note:  none of the links from the Herald on the old story work anymore)

But for all the rumors of switching parties, retiring, or even announcing a 2008 run are…. bunk.  Tonight, Shirley had an invite only event at a local winery.  The event’s speculation abounded. One thought that rattled around briefly in my head was how nobody seemed to know what would be announced at this event.  And if you think I’m stringing you along well… I am.   But I just didn’t think it would turn out to be an announcement on her race.  It could easily have been, but I didn’t really know what to expect.  One thing for sure… it sure had our local press rattling and humming.  What fun! 

Notable Dems in attendance including House Speaker Frank Chopp had Benton County Republican Chair Patrick McBurney a little rattled as well.

“I’m just not real comfortable with a Republican inviting the Democratic speaker over here,” McBurney said, “from a strictly partisan point of view.”

McBurney wasn’t invited to the event. 

But instead of announcing political plans, Shirley was announcing an educational foundation she is fronting.  The bits I got were that it was for helping 3.0 GPA kids with college. 

I don’t know all the details but I think that is just great!  I think she is a good person to push any effort for education opportunity.  Hankins has been a strong supporter of education and even supported the Simple Majority effort last election.  All commendable efforts.

We still don’t know if Shirley is going to run, but I would suspect that is a forgone conclusion.  She will run, and I have a confirmed rumor that she will have a Democratic challenger. 

Congrats Shirley and good luck!  On both your new foundation, and making the press squirm a bit. 

That’s the scoop!

(Apologies for the light posting)

Are you tired of the Democratic Presidential Primary sucking the life force out you. Well, turn off the freaking TV and come on down to Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities to escape!

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities

O’Callahan’s - Shilo Inn

50 Comstock Rd.

Richland

7pm till?

You must, I repeat, YOU MUST read Carl’s post over at HA (link fixed).  I won’t ruin it for you.  Carl’s post is a post that links to another post to PZ Myer’s Pharyngula.  I once had the opportunity to make Mr. Myer’s laugh.  He has returned the favor in spades!

Tonight we said goodbye to our son.  He has had a long journey through his short years.  His Mother and I will always love him no matter what, and have tried to guide him the best we could.  He’s a special child with wonderful abilities.  He takes after his Dad, plays music, enjoys games and fun. He takes after his Mother in his studies and has uncanny emotional intuition.  He’s a smart boy, with good grades.  Curious, rambunctious, and full of vim and verve.  But after twelve years, tonight, with hugs and kisses… we said goodbye.

Tomorrow he will no longer amicable to our council.  No longer pliable to our will or better judgement.  Nor will he be able to hear our soft words of guidance, and neither will he accept our wings for protection for the simple consequences of adolescence in the once fragile form that not only amazed us with his gentle grace, but the swiftness that he filled his form and became who he is at this moment of abandonment.

You see… Tomorrow… he will be 13.  A Teenager…  And if history is of any account, all from us he will hear from this day to the next will be… ”bla bla bla bla bla bla bla”.

Mourn for us… 

(I’m getting his hair cut in the afternoon just for kicks.)

Happy Birthday Christopher!!

I’ve been following the news all day and I can’t be more thrilled with the “Responsible Plan” and the momentum it is building with congressional challengers accross the country. Goldy got the scoop (doesn’t this guy have a day job?).

It hasn’t been 24 hours since Darcy Burner and nine other Democratic challengers introduced their Responsible Plan for ending the war in Iraq, and we’re already seeing a surge of new challengers signing on. Blue Jersey reports both Dennis Shulman (NJ-05) and Tom Wyka (NJ-11) have endorsed the plan, while Darius Shahinfar (NY-21) announced his support in a post to The Albany Project. Closer to home, Larry Grant (ID-01) marks the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion by signing on to the plan, while Left in the West reports that Lt. Col. Jim Hunt (MT-At Large) is on board too.

Meanwhile, down in Washington’s Mexico, where Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick are in a battle for the Democratic nomination to face off against Republican incumbent Gordon Smith in Oregon’s US Senate race, the two candidates issued dueling endorsements just minutes apart.

Momentum on this plan will build and we are bound to see some heavy national media attention in the near future and more congressional challengers signing on.

Here in Washington’s 4th CD, George Fearing wasted no time and was one of the first to sign on. So far not a word from Hastings on either the plan, or much of anything else.

Meanwhile, today on NPR, Gen. David Petraeus discussed the current situation in Iraq which validates the much of the work outlined in the “Resonsible Plan” validating the conventional reality that republicans like Hastings are turning a deaf ear instead of “listening to the General’s on the ground”.

As the fifth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq is marked this week, Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, says that attacks are down 60 percent, but progress is “tenuous” and “reversible.”

[...]

“There is a degree of hope in the Iraqi population that probably was not present back at that time,” he says, adding that, ultimately, success depends on “progress in the security arena, providing basic services to the Iraqi people, the Iraqi government getting their ministries functioning in a way that they are not right now, and getting the economy overall growing so that it can employ what is a fairly substantial unemployed and underemployed population.”

Patraeus himself has said “There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq”. With Doc Hastings’ unwaivering support of the Bush/Cheney military approach, it’s very obvious Hastings’ is still not listening. And as Red State Rebels put it… “It’s the Iraq recession economy, stupid” (A great way to put it Julie). And while Hastings will likely dig in his heels in favor of the Bush-McCain dogma of “winning” (what ever that really means anymore), he directly over looks the reality that what this country is going through economically is a further detriment to achieving his own stated goals on not only in military aspects, but diplomatic as well.

I’ve seen Hastings speak on the Iraq war and he simply doesn’t get it. I’m looking forward to what he has to say now.

It’s tonight…

You know the drill!

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities

O’Callahan’s - Shilo Inn

50 Comstock Rd.

Richland

7pm till

h/t to Slog

We all hear much about“supporting our troops” but that rhetoric falls short when we let them down.  The increasing number of Homeless veterans a serious issue that is lethargically being dealt with by the Bush Administration. And nothing pisses me off more than letting those who serve fall between the cracks.  One major path to combat homlessness amongst our vets is to provide education.  The resources of a college community not only uplift through education, but also provide a support network for those already needing it.  It’s a reality we Americans too often ignore. 

Many of our soldiers get great training and skill that don’t always translate outside of the military.  But military life experiences combined with advanced education create some of the most exceptional human beings on the planet.

The Reponsible Plan on Iraq proposes bringing back the GI Bill in it’s truest form.  Providing educational benefits for all military personnel.

Live Broadcast from the “Take Back America” conference in Washington DC.

Darcy Burner and Congressional Challengers put forward the “Responsible Plan For Ending the War in Iraq”.

Download the plan here!

Darcy Burner and 9 other congressional challenger will present “The Responsible Plan” today at 2pm PST.  This announcement will be broadcast here on McCranium.org (and other web sites accross then nation). 

Stay Tuned!

I’m watching it now and it is quite good!  I remember learning about being tar’d and feathered in middle school.  Somehow it all seemed so much less brutal back then.  Guess they never heard of waterboarding?  Well, I guess it wasn’t an interrogation.

A Responsible Plan for Iraq will be announced tomorrow.  The plan’s effort was led from Washington’s 8th CD challenger Darcy Burner and 9 other Demcoratic congressional challengers who teamed with top military experts in putting forward this bold “Responsible Plan for ending the War in Iraq”. 

This is what happens when grown-up’s talk to the Iraq war and sensibly address the issues.  A plan to address the Iraq war from not only US withdrawl, but positive forward thinking on the economic, diplomatic and humanitarian fronts as well.  Most people cannot argue that those issues don’t dwell deep in the minds of Americans when discussing troop withdrawal.  Unfortunately, the Bush Administration and the Congress that followed it are simply moving the goal posts instead of addressing the difficult challenges ahead.  But this group, joined with Major General Paul Eaton, Brigadier General John Johns, and former Undersecretary of Defense Lawrence Kolb are putting forward something quite significant. Signing on to this plan is an impressive group Congressional challengers (including Washington’s 4th CD challenger George Fearing), many of whom are putting up stunning challenges to the incumbents in their respective districts. 

Darcy Burner

WA-08

Monday at 2:30pm (pacific), these congressional challengers will present this forward looking plan at the Take Back America conference in Washington DC and will be live video streamed from Darcy Burners web site as well as here on McCranium.org and websites around the country. 

If after tomorrow (or if your convinced already) you decide that a real plan, a “Responsible Plan” for ending the Iraq War is what you would like to see, you can help put people that will make this plan happen in Congress by donating to on a new Act Blue page created for these challengers at Responsible Challengers.  And remember, the great thing about a large number of individuals giving even small donations to candidates is that it always trumps the big special interests on the other side who give big.   

Come back tomorrow and tune in to watch!

General Paul Eaton ”The fact that the President, Vice President and the Secretary of Defense, refused to plan for a proper reconstruction phase, the phase 4 of Iraq, set the stage for the dilemma we’re in right now.  What is absent still, is a diplomatic surge, economic surge bringing to bear the full power of the United States.  When chaos hit, there was no plan to reassure the positive reconstruction of Iraq.”

Powerful, smart words to an extrodinarily under-discussed issue in print and televised media. 

From Goldy at HA. 

Back in August, Democratic challenger Darcy Burnerconcluded her unprecedented $123,000 netroots fundraiser with an innovative, Internet town hall meeting on Iraq. Hundreds of concerned citizens from around the nation tuned in to the live stream that afternoon, to hear Burner announce her intention to work with military experts to develop a coherent plan for both pulling out of Iraq, and reconstructing that shattered nation in the absence of our armed forces. On Monday, March 17, Burner will present the fruits of her labor to the Take Back America conference in Washington D.C., along with an impressive group of military experts and fellow challengers.

Joining Burner at the unveiling of the Iraq strategy document will be Chellie Pingree (ME-1), Donna Edwards (MD-4), Jared Polis (CO-2), and Tom Perriello (VA-5). Eric Massa (NY-29), Larry Byrnes (FL-14) and George Fearing (WA-4) have also signed on to the plan, with many more to challengers come. It is an impressive and ambitious plan that calls for the sort of diplomatic and economic surge that the Bush administration has ignored for all too long. It is anything but “cut and run.”

I’m looking forward to Reichert and Hastings’ responses next Monday. 

Want’s Congress to have… you know… ethics! (via Politico)

Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio resolved this morning that the way Democrats passed the ethics bill last night was unethical. This afternoon he resolved that the House should investigate Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.) for unethical behavior. In between those privileged resolutions, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) resolved, using a “point of personal privilege,” that it was wrong for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-Ohio) to challenge his ethics. And all before the newly approved Office of Congressional Ethics has even had its ribbon cut.

Let it be resolved that the resolution be resolved on the floor with objections to the resolutions!

For that, Hastings should seek a job at the Department of Redundancy Department. The political drama must have been fascinating to the gallery. Hastings, brought forward staff complaints about rule changes that would create outside oversight of House ethics functions. Something that would be unecessary had so many issues not been “Delay-ed” during Doc Hastings’ tenure as chair of that committee. Despite those realities, Ray LaHood jumped in to defend Hastings’ reputation.

Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.)–long known as a voice of moderation– took equal offense to Tubbs Jones. “You know, there’s a saying where I come from, once you tar and feather someone, you can never get the tar off. What happened here with disclosure of this letter made public in Doc’s district is that he will always have a little bit of this tar on him that somehow he might have violated the rules. That’s wrong, folks. What good is it for us to trash one another?” he asked.

Tubbs Jones tried to interject. “Will the gentleman yield?”

The gentleman wouldn’t.

“I don’t have the time, ma’am,” LaHood said. “But I’ll tell you this — I believe that the chairwoman of the Ethics Committee owes Doc Hastings an apology for trying to besmirch and impugn his integrity and his honesty and his service on the Ethics Committee and in the House of Representatives. Now, you know, if the chairwoman, Mr. Speaker, would be willing to do that, it might get on page 40 of his local newspaper. It won’t be on page one, the way the headlines read today,” he went on.

I guess my “little opinion in Eastern Washington” (McCranium.org) is page 40… I haven’t heard boo out of local press.

But it is exactly that reputation that puts Hastings in the position. And it seems Democrats aren’t looking to have that memory fade from the public consciousness. And in a twist of irony, a vote on the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (Formally House Ethics Committee) to have secondary oversight was held over 16 minutes against procedural rules to gain more support. Hastings was largely credited for holding open voting for 3 additional hours of tough arm-twisting during the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit vote in 2003.

Much has been made of Hastings mischief as ethics chair by organizations and former candidates. The problem has always been that in his district, it is largely ignored by the press and opponents have had a difficulties fundraising to spread that message. Top that off with the fact that some folks either don’t understand the serious implications Hastings’ actions on the committee had to the overall health and function of the pre-2006 US Congress. Others were simply still too raptured with the Bush agenda of War and fear-mongering to recognize that the Jack Abramhoff, Tom Delay and other scandals were glaring symptoms of the breakdown of ethics for which their congressman’s role was paramount. It wasn’t until the Mark Foley scandal broke that the deadlock over ethics was briefly busted loose under the republican controlled congress. Now, with a new chair, it’s getting oversight and the rules of play will likely change for the better.

Hastings’ opponent isn’t playing shy about Doc’s recent political drama show on the house floor. George Fearing’s campaign quickly spoke out on the issue (click to see press release).

Previous worries about getting the message out in Washington’s 4th CD are starting to fade as it is rumored the Fearing Campaign will cross the 100K mark in fundraising by the end of March or sooner. All from individual donors. This could really be a race to get excited about.