NEBRASKA BLUE

Yesterday afternoon (Sunday the 8th) The Lancaster County Democratic Party
held their convention, and the turn out was over 700 people!

It seems all the delegates and alternates, as well as other at large members ALL showed up to be part of electing delegates and making their party stronger.

All in all an EXCELLENT day for Nebraska Democrats.

As opposed to Mike Johanns who held a news conference a few blocks away,
and gave out copies of his postions on the issues for the election, which was attended by
only a few people and a some media.

Note here to Mikey, you could have saved a lot of expense and time if you
would have condensed that whopping 14 page document down to what it really should be,
just one page saying, “More of the same". Because that is the straight truth about you.

After the opening the Convention, Some of the best Candidates every put forth
to support Lancaster County and Nebraska each took time to come up on stage.

Many spoke for a few minutes each. Barb Baier and Nancy Intermill both great candidates
for the Lancaster County Comission brought up the subject of the plan to fund
and build a new County jail, a plan which has been very poorly thought out.
And may not even be necessary at all now or in the next few years. (more on this story
later on). Both of these fine ladies have more leadership in their little fingers, than
the current crop of Comissioners have in total.

Max Yashirin and Scott Kleeb both spoke well, as did all our local candidates and the leadership of the NDP and LDP.

And from the looks of the participation in the County Convention, they have
one heck of a lot of support here in Lancaster County!

I met and shook hands with a lot of FORMER Republican and Independent voters there,
which should be NO surpirse to the NE GOP.

Wow, sorry I take that back, it is and will be a surprise to them in November,
because it’s not like they listen or care ANYWAY..

P.S. Remember the new GOP Election 2008 Slogan…

“CHANGE YOU DESERVE”

Also the slogan for the ANTI-DEPRESSANT Prescription drug EFFEXOR.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/12/gops-new-slogan-already-b_n_101376.html

Well it is actually pretty accurate, because after all the major screw ups under the GOP, it’s leadership and Worst President EVER… People will need to be on anti-depressant
medication to vote FOR them.

P.P.S. Sorry Mikey I can’t let it go…. you SERIOUSLY came up with a steaming pile
of “More of the Same” Boilerplating and spinning it across 14 pages!
That must the hardest you have worked in ohh, let’s say years?
I mean I know you are a lawyer and all, but that’s impressive!
NICE!!!!

Hey when you have 4800 copies left over from the 5000 you ordered, please put them in the recycling dumpster, so you don’t clog up the county landfill.

There’s a nice big one over behind the church at 70th and Vine that should do nicely.

I don’t know what changed the minds of the Lancaster County Democratic
Leadership, but last night I learned that they ARE going to have local candidates
speak at the county convention on Sunday.

To which I say THANK YOU… for listening. And Thank You for making that happen.

This is one very good example of Democratic leadership in action, being
asked to change something for the people and the leadership listening and responding.

Again thank you!

See everyone at the convention…

Paul

UPDATE - read the newest post, the LDP leadership changed their minds and plan, and local candidates WILL be speaking at the convention.

The local County Democratic Conventions are coming up, and for those of you fellow Dems that stepped up and volunteered, or were selected to be a delegate to the conventions
should note your convention date and times -
HERE- http://ndp.3cdn.net/d8ee0de36f256f5771_l6m6bxfn0.pdf

The Conventions start tomorrow with Burt County, and end on the 14th with Webster County.

The Lancaster County Convention is being held on the 8th of June at Pershing Auditorium
at 12:30 Pm.

HERE is the call to action part of it.

In this year, of massive popular turn out and participation of American’s to make
a difference in we how the people get a say in electing our leaders, the local Lancaster County Democratic leadership has voted to EXCLUDE the possibility of local and State candidates being able to speak to the delegates at the convention.

That’s right, 700 Lancaster County Democratic Delegates are going to be gathered together
that day, and no candidates, even LOCAL ones are NOT going to be able to speak to them.

INSTEAD, the key note speaker is going to be Kyle Michaelis the President of the Nebraska
Young Democrats, and the Webmaster of the New Nebraska Network ( A Democratic Blog).

Which sucks big time from the average Democratic voters perspective.

This year we have many races that will impact directly upon the life of Nebraskan’s and Lancaster County people.

THESE are the people that should be speaking to the delegates..

———————————————————————

Scott Kleeb, running for the Senate to keep us all from suffering more of the same
from Mike Johanns, the perpetual job hopper, and political opportunist.

Max Yashirin running against Jeff Fortenberry another Bush supporter, that votes to support anything ther GOP tells him too, regardless of how badly is hurts Nebraska families and
farmers.

Susan Scott and Travis Wagner running for Legislature to bring progressive values and common sense back to our legislalture so it doesn’t just rubber stamp what ever the governor wants.

Dan Marvin, a new fresh voice of reason and common sense.

Earl Scudder running for UN Regent, to help keep our State University on the cutting edge
of science and making tutition affordable for Nebraskan Families.

Nancy Intermill and Barbara Baier running for County Comissioner, to help bring some
balance and reason to the county comission that is spending money on a new jail that is not needed and we cannot afford.

As it stands NOW, none of those fine people is going to get to speak to the Lancaster County Delegates. This issue WAS brought up by the leadership of YOUR party, but with the exception of Vic Covalt (The LDP Caucus Chair - who supported the candidates being able to speak).

They voted to NOT let candidates speak at the county convention. The leadership did however throw the voters a tiny bone and they are allowing candidates to have informational tables manned by staffers and volunteers out front.

I cannot believe it would be hard to arrainge with the candidates a few minutes of speaking time for each of them to conitinue the spirit and dedication that each of our local delegates has shown by VOLUNTEERING to support their fellow voters and neighbors.

Quite frankly, this year when people ARE fired up and ready to support local and national candidates more than in any time past, the local County should be supporting that need
but unfortuneatly for us Lancaster County Democrats, we are instead getting to hear
a speech by an NDP insider and political climber Kyle Michaelis who IS NOT a candidate
and brings nothing to the table except his own ambitions, instead of the people that will make a difference in OUR lives this coming year, and for perhaps many years afterward.

Once again our local party shoots itself in the foot because it keeps listening to
those that climb the ladder of their exclusive club, instead of being connected to the average Nebraskan voter on the street.

I for one would like to hear from ALL the local candidates.

If you believe this too, please e-mail your party leaders at the following adresses..

Becky Gaston chair@lancastercountydemocrats.org

Eric Aspengren director@lancastercountydemocrats.org

PLease send a note of thanks to Vic Covalt who supported the local candidates speaking.

Here - covalt@neb.rr.com

Now that the primary is over, Tony Raimondo has taken down his campaign website.

http://www.raimondo2008.com/

Lets hope that D behind Tony’s name really meant something after all and he will put some support behind other Democrats running to change Washington this year, even if he can’t
do it in person as a candidate.

John McCain in his own words…..

Coming out BOTH sides of his mouth…..

Believe it or not CBS, on network, news broke a story on the $90 million dollars spent by the Department of Agriculture from 2000-2006 on world-wide travel to conferences for Department personnel.

Whoa, Who has been the Agriculture Department executive for the last 2 and one half years. Yeap, it was conservative lackey boy “Mikey” Johanns. Johanns is living up to the repugs fiscal conservative policy as demonstrated in other well run and funded programs such as our war on two fronts and the corporate tax cuts bestowed upon our well run and philanthropic corporations.

$91 million for travel is a ton of money for such small division of our federal government.
Much of the Department of Agricultures workforce is made up of seasonal workers who work for Forestry, Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Johann’s needs to be held accountable for his inability to manage effectively and prudently. He’s the guy that inherited a budget surplus from then Gov. Ben Nelson and drippled it away well before the 9/11 crisis he is so fond leaning on. His performance as a Cabinent head is par with his performance as Governor. He constantly demonstrates his ability to pander to whoever is signing his paycheck. Unfortunately, it’s not the taxpayers it’s the GOP handlers he is so eager to please.

The difference between Kleeb and Johann is clear alright, as Johanns was more than willing to point out Tuesday night during his victory speech. I’ll let the new guy get a shot because the “seasoned and experienced Johanns” is too tainted for me!

Last night Scott Kleeb won a landslide victory over Tony Raimondo.
Scott carried 75 percent of the vote, verses Tony’s 25 percent.

In Lancaster County it was even more in favor of Scott, where he recieved 80 percent
of the votes cast.

There are a lot of reasons why Scott earned this landslide victory, but the biggest
one is this…

He spent time talking to his fellow Nebraskan’s, he listens to them, and shares their concerns, and he values them and included them in his campaign.

Grass roots support and boots on the ground can beat big money and the political machines and talking points of yesterday.

And last night Nebraskan’s proved that, by voting for REAL change.

OK, so first he endorses Tony Raimondo, which is pretty hard to swallow for most of us, well at least if he wants to be taken seriously.

I have no clue why he would pull this stunt, other than to keep his name in the papers.

THEN, he starts plagaraizing stuff from around the web, to post on his campaign site…

WOW… I guess since your drug test is over you can now go back to smoking the good stuff???

I am sure Lee Terry and his campaign manager are smiling big time, cause you just fell
on your own sword….. twice.

Nice going Jim….

Tony Raimondo who is long on money and short on actual support from local Democrats just wrote his campaign another check for $450,000 to be able to keep running his Obnoxious
Ads for a couple more weeks.

His ACTUAL fund raising from other folks in Nebraska is about $100,000 in total or about
25 percent of what his opponent Scott Kleeb has raised.

Considering my own unscientific local polling of Democrats in Lincoln, I still cannot find anyone that will admit to supporting Tony Raimondo, but I have found a lot of people that say his ads suck and they are tired of seeing this guy on TV 30 times per day.

The REAL truth about Tony and his money is that when he writes those checks to himself,
they are a LOAN to his campaign, and should he win (or not) he can hold fundraisers to ask people to help him retire his campaign debt, which basically means he is buying those ads with YOUR money, should you be stupid enough to give him any….

Pete Ricketts did the same thing in 2006, lucky for all of us, he lost the race, and is still sitting on millions of campaign debt, well if you count his debt as the loans he made
from his own personal fortune to his campaign.

Howie Klein on the Huffington Post has a good column up about Tony Raimondo

You can read it here….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howie-klein/why-would-anyone-support_b_100194.html

Here is a quick blurb from that post, that I think you should find important..

Raimondo was in the news this weekend because he triggered the millionaires amendment on Friday by writing himself a $450,000 check. Many Democrats in Nebraska haven’t bought into Raimondo’s “conversion” in the first place, and are now uncomfortable that just as he’s talking about laying off more Nebraska workers from his business– not Chinese workers from his business there though– he’s spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to attempt to buy himself a Senate seat.

In Columbus, Neb., orders at Behlen Manufacturing Company for its pre-engineered metal buildings have slowed. So far, the company, which employs 1,100 people, has avoided layoffs, Tony Raimondo, the chairman, said.

Behlen plans to build up inventory and perhaps shift workers into busier areas, like building grain silos, while waiting for better days, he said. But if trends continue, about 50 workers would be vulnerable.

“We’re on the bubble,” Mr. Raimondo said. “The odds are against us that we will get through the summer without layoffs.”

I would dare to say, if they admit to 50 jobs being in danger of lay offs, there are probably more than that involved, and if Tony wasn’t running for office right now, those jobs already would have dissapeared.

Getting back to the heart of Tony’s ad’s and campaign his esteemed hired gun Eric Fought
has Tony running hard to win on a platform of being a business man.

Well that’s what we already have in DC right now… mostly businessmen, that vote for and take care of businesses to the detriment of working families, our financial system
and the future of this country.

And once again here in Nebraska we have a businessman that wants to buy his way into the
Senate, writing big checks to fund himself since obviously the people of Nebraska haven’t and won’t support him with their own hard earned dollars.

A fellow Democrat I was talking to the other day, said this of Tony…

“Every time I see that guys face on TV, I expect him to pull the mask off and reveal it is really just Pete Ricketts running again".

Good Point…

Paul

The New York Times pulls back the curtain on the Pentagon
running a disinformation campaign against the American public.
They were, and probably still are, using retired Military Officers as
propogandists to support the Administration’s talking points.

FULL STORY HERE - LINK

Here is one lovely bit of information..

Many also shared with Mr. Bush’s national security team a belief that pessimistic war coverage broke the nation’s will to win in Vietnam, and there was a mutual resolve not to let that happen with this war.

This was a major theme, for example, with Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News analyst from 2001 to 2007. A retired Army general who had specialized in psychological warfare, Mr. Vallely co-authored a paper in 1980 that accused American news organizations of failing to defend the nation from “enemy” propaganda during Vietnam.

“We lost the war — not because we were outfought, but because we were out Psyoped,” he wrote. He urged a radically new approach to psychological operations in future wars — taking aim at not just foreign adversaries but domestic audiences, too. He called his approach “MindWar” — using network TV and radio to “strengthen our national will to victory.”

The Selling of the War

From their earliest sessions with the military analysts, Mr. Rumsfeld and his aides spoke as if they were all part of the same team.

In interviews, participants described a powerfully seductive environment — the uniformed escorts to Mr. Rumsfeld’s private conference room, the best government china laid out, the embossed name cards, the blizzard of PowerPoints, the solicitations of advice and counsel, the appeals to duty and country, the warm thank you notes from the secretary himself.

“Oh, you have no idea,” Mr. Allard said, describing the effect. “You’re back. They listen to you. They listen to what you say on TV.” It was, he said, “psyops on steroids” — a nuanced exercise in influence through flattery and proximity. “It’s not like it’s, ‘We’ll pay you $500 to get our story out,’ ” he said. “It’s more subtle.”

The access came with a condition. Participants were instructed not to quote their briefers directly or otherwise describe their contacts with the Pentagon.

In the fall and winter leading up to the invasion, the Pentagon armed its analysts with talking points portraying Iraq as an urgent threat. The basic case became a familiar mantra: Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons, was developing nuclear weapons, and might one day slip some to Al Qaeda; an invasion would be a relatively quick and inexpensive “war of liberation.”

At the Pentagon, members of Ms. Clarke’s staff marveled at the way the analysts seamlessly incorporated material from talking points and briefings as if it was their own.

The next time someone in the main stream media trots out a retired General or Admiral
to talk about the war, or current events, we would all do well to remember that these men
are NOT impartial, most of them sit on the boards of, or work for the Defense industry.
As lobbyists or spokesmen.

Or as shown above, most of them are simply mouthpieces for the Psyops campaign the Department of Defense is waging on the American people.

Just thought you would like to know.

By the way there are a couple of honest men out there that spoke the truth as they saw it
regardless of what Bush or Rumsfeld wanted to hear. As soon as they departed from the
standard spin coming out of those in power in the Whitehouse and the Pentagon they were fired for it.

The names Fallon and Shinsecki should ring a bell for some of you.

Honorable men forced out because they told the truth.