ProgressOhio

When the presidential dialogue was over, the myspace page provided a flektor, enabling viewers to share the vote results (as well as one's own votes) on a blog, myspace, email, or elsewhere. The little star on the pie chart shows how I voted. While the event was going on, the pieces of the same type of pie chart (on the same screen as Edwards) were fluctuating as viewers changed their votes in response to what Edwards was saying.



They're going to do this for all the candidates willing to participate, both republican and democratic. I'll post again when the next one is scheduled.

This is turning out to be super cool. I'm watching the Myspace/MTV interactive dialogue with John Edwards. As he answers questions, you rate his responses. Meanwhile, you can watch a pie chart showing everyone's ratings. It's fun to watch the pie chart change in real time as people change their responses.

Join in NOW - 45 minutes left. You don't have to have a Myspace profile to watch and participate.
It's at:
http://www.myspace.com/election2008

Sherrod,

Thank you so much for voting NO on the anti-free-speech resolution condemning MoveOn.org's "Betray Us?" ad. And thanks for voting to bring back Habeus Corpus, and to give our troops their needed fair time at home (Webb amendment).

My only regret is that the Democratic Leader in the Senate did not make the Republicans conduct an extended filibuster, but quickly offered cloture motions on Habeus and Webb.

I am saddened that the Democratic Leader insists on allowing legislation to come to the floor (like the MoveOn condemnation) which Republicans will use AGAINST Democrats later, when they say "Dems can't get anything done in the Senate, except voting to placate radical Leftist organizations like MoveOn."

The Republicans are playing "Heads I win; tails you lose" with EVERYTHING. Thus, you might as well do the RIGHT thing, because Republicans will try to smear Democrats no matter what the Democrats do.

-----

Here is the link for YOU to send your thanks to Sherrod:
http://brown.senate.gov/contact/

Five Republican Senators, including Ohio's Sen. Voinovich, are starting to say things like "maybe we should start thinking about a plan to sometime get our troops out of Iraq?"

The five are Mitch McConnell, Jeff Sessions, Dick Lugar, John Warner, and George Voinovich. All five voted against H.R. 1591, which was the "emergency supplemental" bill to fund the troops and to provide a withdrawal timetable. The bill passed 51-46 ( Link ) and President Bush vetoed it.

But the times, they are a-changin'. According to The Washington Post ( Link ):

Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Bush yesterday urging the president to develop "a comprehensive plan for our country's gradual military disengagement" from Iraq. "I am also concerned that we are running out of time," he wrote.

This is typical of Sen. Voinovich. He says one thing then votes another. He has stuck his finger in the air and is seeing which way the wind is blowing. Funny that these five Senators, according to the above article, started to "see the light" in February, after Democrats assumed leadership in Congress:

Republican skepticism has grown steadily, if subtly, since the Senate began debating the war in February. One lawmaker who has changed his tone is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). Earlier this year, McConnell helped block from a vote even a nonbinding resolution opposing the troop increase. Now, he views a change in course as a given. "I anticipate that we'll probably be going in a different direction in some way in Iraq" in September, McConnell told reporters earlier this month. "And it'll be interesting to see what the administration chooses to do."

Oh yes, we'll see what September brings, Mitch.

McConnell, Warner, and Sessions are all up for re-election in 2008 ( Link ). Just throwing that out there.

Matthew Iglesias talks about this much better than I can, here ( Link ).

Oh, and one more thing: What happened to the talking point, "It is treasonous to disagree with the Commander in Chief during a time of war"? Guess that doesn't apply to these Very Serious Senators.

 

See also:  Updated With Audio: Voinovich Melts Down On Sean Hannity Radio Show

Sherrod appeared yesterday on a panel at the Take Back America Conference with Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, moderated by Katrina vanden Heuvel. At the 1:02:50 mark, close to the end of the discussion, we get a question from an audience member (video):

Question: "In 2006, when you were still a member of the House of Representatives you voted for the Military Commissions Act, which had as one of its elements, the suspension of Habeas Corpus. Given your recent efforts to restore Habeas Corpus, would you still cast that same vote today."

Sherrod: "No, I was wrong."

That's it. Nothing more. No excuses, no explanations, just an admission that he "was wrong."

Normally, I demand that Democrats do not back down from decisions they make, because they will be cast as "weak" by Republicans. But in this case, it's a relief to hear Sherrod utter those words.

Also expounded upon at crooksandliars.com: Link

Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan joins Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) in an effort to raise awareness for hunger and for their proposal to add $4 billion to the annual federal food stamp budget. Day one from Tim Ryan's blog:  

This week, I’ll be participating in the Food Stamp Challenge. For seven days, I’ll be living on three dollars of food per day, the same amount an average participant in the Food Stamp Program receives. The Challenge is an exercise aimed to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by millions of Americans, who live day to day, working to put food on the table.

Last Friday, my staff and I held a meeting plotting out how I would spend my $21.00. As we looked over food prices, we were struck by how anyone could expect a person to have a balanced, healthy diet on a mere three dollars per day. On a dollar per meal, a person can’t buy fresh fruit and vegetables. A person can’t buy the milk they need. The kids across the country who go to bed hungry on nights when the budget is stretched too thin deal with the reality of poverty every day, and I want them to know they aren’t forgotten.

 There are over one million recipients of Food Stamps in Ohio, nearly 90,000 in the 17th District. I’m participating in this challenge because as Congress crafts this years Farm Bill, we’re going to have to take a hard look at the way the Food Stamp Program is administered. I hope that at the end of the week, I have a deeper understanding of the hardships of these millions of American, and a better idea of how to help them.

There is a ProgressOhio group called "Ohio's Next US Senator". It was created in 2007, even though the next Senatorial election is in 2010, so we can keep track of GV's activities. Here is the group:

Link

Join today!

The Congressional Record has the text of every speaker's comments from the Iraq Debate in the House. You can search the Record for your Representative of choice, or just start here:

Text

and plow ahead, starting at Page: H1492. This is the official start of the debate on the non-binding resolution, which started February 13. Click "Next Document" to go to the next page(s). Even though this is the official start to the debate, there was already pre-debate on Monday the 12th (see below).

The video for this is still up at c-span.org: Video

The search page for the Congressional Record of the 110th Congress is here:

thomas.loc.gov/home/r110query.html
Link

If you want to find Dennis Kucinich's remarks, for example, click on the above link and scroll down to Kucinich, highlight him, then select "Sort results by Date: Yes". Click "Search". The most recent remarks will be at the top of the Results page. Click on the page you want, then search for "Kucinich". Then click into THAT page, if you have to.

For the really adventurous of you, you can select the Congressional Record by day. Monday, February 12, 2007, in the House, starts here:

thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:H12FE7-0001:
Link

You can see that this is the "110"th Congress, The "H"ouse, the "12"th of "FE"bruary, the year 200"7", and this is page "0001":

The Senate discussion on this Resolution, on Saturday, February 17, is not up yet. However, there is very addicting stuff on Friday the 16th:

thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:S16FE7-0001:
Link

I've created groups for all 18 Ohio Congressional Districts and one group for the Next Ohio Senator.

I envision these groups as a clearing house for facts pertaining to Candidates' records, in order to cut down on the amount of reaearch we will need to do on candidates in the runup to the '08 election cycle ('10 for Senator).