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POPSMYG | Nebraska's Sen. Ben Nelson
He made recent headlines for his deal making on health care reform, but will his legislative success spell doom with Nebraska voters? ___ In 1990, Ben Nelson entered the realm of Nebraska politics by running for Governor. He won the Democratic primary by only 42 votes and entered the governor’s office by besting incumbent Kay Orr by 4,000 votes. Nelson’s plan as Governor was to bridge the gaps between rural and urban areas " a “One Nebraska” " and create a “more efficient and effective state government.” These successes did not go unrecognized, for when Nelson was re-elected Governor in 1994, he attracted 74% of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a governor in half century. In 2000, Nelson ran for the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Senator Bob Kerrey. Nelson, a conservative Democrat, carried the day even as Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush won Nebraska with 62% of the vote. ___ http://senate.gov.twi.bz/h
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POPSTHE JURY IS STILL OUT! As for actual historic achievement, the jury is still out. Let's see what happens with health care, the climate bill and financial re-regulation first. Above all, the new Afghanistan policy needs to play out for at least a few months before we assess the new regime's biggest risk to date. At the same time, actual events in 2009 did resolve some of the political questions that beguiled us just one year ago. Let's take them in Letterman order. Continued at source: disc.yourwebapps.com
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POPSWhat Obama Might Look Like If He Read Polls And Michael Barone's Column
He had already realized that his sentiments were leading him away from the Whigs and toward the new Republican party, and in 1856 he became a Republican. He quickly came to the fore in the party as a moderate opponent of slavery who could win both the abolitionists and the conservative free-staters, and at the Republican national convention of 1856 he was prominent as a possible vice presidential candidate. Two years later he was nominated by the Republican party to oppose Douglas in the Illinois senatorial race. Accepting the nomination (in a speech delivered at Springfield on June 16), Lincoln gave a ringing declaration in support of the Union: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." The campaign that followed was impressive. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates (seven were held), in which he delivered masterful addresses for the Union and for the democratic idea. He was not an abolitionist, but he regarded slavery as an injustice and an evil .....
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POPSWhen Sleight of Hand Is Used to Pass an Unpopular Bill by Michael Barone prohibiting slavery in territories north of Arkansas and substituted popular sovereignty -- territory residents could vote slavery up or down. We cannot say with assurance that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was unpopular -- Dr. Gallup didn't start polling until 81 years later. But the results of the next election were pretty convincing. The Republican Party was suddenly created to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the 1854-55 elections transformed the Democrats' 159-71 majority to a 108-83 Republican margin. Democrats didn't win a majority of House seats for the next 20 years. Nor did the Kansas-Nebraska Act settle the issue it addressed. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers fought it out in "bleeding Kansas," and Douglas felt obliged to break with the Democratic administration and disown election-stealing by the pro-slavery side. The issue roused a former congressman named Abraham Lincoln to re-enter politics, and he beat Douglas in the popular vote (but not in the legislature)
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POPS7 stories Barack Obama doesn't want told Obama’s best hope of nipping bad storylines is to replace them with good ones rooted in public perceptions of his effectiveness. Hence the desperate mad rush to pass a healthcare bill ANY healtcare bill.
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POPSWhat A Country We Live In "For eight years, he ran the Bush administration on the sneak, unleashing a campaign of fear, warfare and wild spending that has caused the very viability of this American experiment to teeter on the brink of collapse. This was the man who claimed the office of the vice president was not part of the Executive Branch because he did not want to obey the law and hand his official papers over to the National Archive. Dick Cheney belongs in a prison cell, not in a conversation about the presidency of the United States. That we actually have people floating his name in the first place reveals just how dark some of the corners of our politics really are. Worse, these are the people whose ideals and ideology were the dominant force in government for most of this decade, so dismissing them out of hand is a truly dangerous error in judgment. Indeed, quite a country we live in."
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POPSBilly Graham Center Archives: Records of the Fellowship Foundation (The Family) concerned largely with either contacts between members of the prayer breakfast fellowship in Washington and those leaders of the indigenous movement in a particular country This page includes historical background and list of of archived documents, tapes, and photographs.The International records are fascinating: an astonishing list of countries and the years during which The Fellowship Foundation has used Christianity as a political tool to interfere in the development of nations. What was the extent of Billy Graham's involvement? There is a 25-year restriction on access, so any any activities that occurred during the Regan's 2nd term through Bush, Jr. administration are not available.
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POPS Marching Off To Surrender With all due respect to President Obama, has there ever been a lamer, feebler, dumber, or weaker call to arms than his December 1 “surge” speech? What must be going through the minds of those young American men and women who will soon be sent into harm’s at the behest of President Obama? Clearly, this president does not understand the importance of defeating Al-Quaeda and winning the war on terror, which he refuses to even acknowledge. It is nothing short of a scandal that 30,000 additional Americans will be sent into battle by a Commander-in-Chief who is more concerned with defeating Republicans than destroying the enemy! John W. Lillpop is a recovering liberal. “Clean and sober” since 1992 when last he voted for a Democrat. Pray for John: He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where people like Nancy Pelosi are actually considered normal!. Obama's Speech Made Zo Rant. machosauceproduction http://bit.ly/8rnQAl
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POPSHuckabee Proves That You Can Be An Honorable Man And Still Disagree I don't agree with his politics, but Mike Huckabee demonstrates here that he at least understands the meaning of being 'honorable' and 'respectful.' I think he's got a lot of courage to make these statements, given the right wing's current apocalyptic-style rants they call political discourse.
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POPSPalin's New Book Doesn't Let A Pesky Little Things Like The Truth Get In The Way Not that we should be surprised, but this article from the AP is well worth reading. It contains many more statements by Palin in her new book, "Going Rogue," than I've clipped here, each one juxtaposed with facts. And, while it is true that Palin's statements have not become truer over time, it is a sad fact of American politics that, all too often, the more oft-repeated an untruth, the more likely voters are to believe it is true. As the late, great George Carlin once said (paraphrasing), "Honesty is the best policy, but dishonesty is the second-best policy."
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POPSWhat Obama Is Up Against This article makes some very good points regarding hte limitations of Presidential authority. If we want what we voted for,we have to continually work for it. The U.S. is in this current situation because "We the People" have neglected our duties as citizens to keep ourselves informed, oversee our representatives by making damn sure that they know exactly what we want and then follow-up to ensure that they do what is needed. Casting a vote every 2 to 4 years and then ignoring everything that happens in between voting, does not a Democracy make.
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POPSThe First Couple If the President and First Lady can find time for love and a night out what about you? Is your career too important you can find time for each other?
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POPS NYTimes Declares Fox News Winner! After discussing past Presidents who unsuccessfully fought the press, Carr first scolded the White House, and then declared an unpredictable winner: Even though almost all the critiques contained a kernel of truth, in each instance the folks who had the barrels of ink, and now pixels, seemed to come out ahead. So far, the only winner in this latest dispute seems to be Fox News. Ratings are up 20 percent this year, and the network basked for a week in the antagonism of a sitting president... he administration, by deploying official resources against a troublesome media organization, seems to have brought a knife to a gunfight. Carr seemed even less impressed with the tactics the Adminstration has been employing in this battle: On the official White House Web site, a blog called Reality Check provides a running tally of transgressions by Fox News. It ends with this: "For even more Fox lies, check out the latest ‘Truth-O-Meter' . . .
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POPSConservative Politics Disguised As Religion I urge that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
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POPSThe Case Against Barack Hussein Obama As i said in my other clipmark, "Fox News and the Rest of the MSM have not carried the birth certificate story for more then 3 months" Nada, nothing, not a peep. Fox News has been paid off.
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POPSAfghanistan: Krauthammer's Take If he tells you that his expertise in that area is useless and what you have to do is go to the other strategy, it's persuasive. The administration is refusing that advice, at least up until now, because it means a costly year, year and a half, two years " as we had in Iraq with the surge " that it thinks that politically it cannot afford.
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POPSIrony of Obama's Opposition And now, as President, Mr. Obama consistently speaks of solving problems by using "what works" rather than employing ideological approaches. This too is reasoning and judgment, rather than resort to theory without consideration for the facts on the ground. It does not mean that the President will not consider free-market economics, on the one hand, or government intervention, on the other, but he looks for solutions that take into account the myriad of consequences rather than simply going with a principle, results be damned. What is ironic, although maybe karmicly inevitable, is that this king of reason is being confronted with logic's nemises -- emotion, belief and intentional deception. Take, for example, Mr. Obama's first acts as President. The economy was diving into a deeper recession. The financial industry was frozen. The President supported a huge rescue program.
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POPSLegalized Bribery in American Politics Just one in a thousand adult Americans contributed $1,000 or more to any candidate in the last election, yet candidates for the 2004 presidential nomination raised more than 80 percent of their individual investments from these elites. In other words, with regard to using money to influence presidential candidates, 0.1% of Americans account for 80% of the influence. 2300 energy companies lobbied Congress between 1998 and 2004, with $984 million paid for lobbyists. Why pay a lobbyist $300,000? Because it’s a great investment, of course. Does anyone believe the legal fiction that the purpose of a lobbyist is to educate politicians on the issues? Of course not. Those huge bucks are paid out for skilled middle-men and women to discreetly (or not so discreetly) convey the message that a politician will be handsomely rewarded for screwing over his or her constituents in favor of the lobbyist’s employer.
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POPSIn Which Obama Has A General Problem, Just Like A Real President* The tug-o-war playground politics of the matter aside, there is still the fact of war in Afghanistan, a persistent global threat, and the rapidly diminishing credibility of the United States as a stalwart, moral force in the world, from the limp handling of Iran to the delivery of tribute to Vladimir Putin, and now the dawdling and dithering over the erstwhile good war. For all their squawking about us, the Euros don’t need us to be another EU member. They need someone to do the dirty work. Ditto the Arabs. China and Russia have got to be enjoying this, though. On second thought, there is a sort of double-reverse presidential precedent to this crisis. It’s Obama as McClellan. Not exactly Lincolnesque, but very Lincoln-proximate. Totally related: Victor Davis Hanson at NRO looks at Two-Front Wars, Theirs and Ours and comes away with something other than the currently fashionable doom-and-gloom mongering. It’s al-Qaeda after eight years of war, on the ropes and desperate.
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