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Items by john

U. of Nebraska - Omaha College Democrats Blog

Best. Caucus. Ever.

Posted: February 9th, 2008, 1:05pm CST by john

Actually, at my caucus location, things were pretty hectic. But it was a great experience none the less, and literally a hundred or so new Democrats were registered to vote at my precinct alone (that voter-registrar training we did last year helped again!). Some of the new voters were high school students, other [...]
Merry Xmas UNO Dems & Frm. Prez. Renner… a Bright Idea Shines

Posted: December 28th, 2007, 8:10pm CST by john

I’ve been meaning to blog this for a few days… An issue which former UNO Dems President Ryan Renner spent a lot of time working on, and which the UNO Dems adopted as a pet project a few years ago seems to have hit the big time in the recent Democratic Congress’ energy bill. The [...]
Great Post From Jane Flemming: Young Voters Do Not Equal Unicorns

Posted: October 8th, 2007, 4:14pm CDT by john

Jane Flemming Kleeb is most famous in Nebraska recently for being Scott’s wife. Most people also know she was the brilliant Executive Director for YDA, and a few people know she is still currently the go-to-gal for the Young Voter PAC. But did you know she has a blog? And this week [...]
Democratic Congress: Kick’n It For College Kidz

Posted: September 27th, 2007, 7:46pm CDT by john

The U.S. Congress hasn’t been too great on a lot of things (getting us out of Iraq, stopping Bush’s conservative agenda), but they’ve been doing a great job going to bat for students on the issue of Student Loans & College Cost Reduction. Just last week a very important piece of legislation was passed [...]
Lee Terry vs Sick Poor Children

Posted: September 25th, 2007, 10:18pm CDT by john

Lee Terry Hates Poor Kids You see, today Terry & 158 of his extreme-right-wing friends (including Nebraska’s other two congressmen, Smith & Fortenberry) voted against the SCHIP renewal and expansion. Thankfully, the bill still passed with a huge bipartisan majority of 265 votes. CHIP (the Childrens Health Insurance Program) was a 1990s program that provided [...]
NE Republicans: Shaking In Their Boots Over Bob Kerrey

Posted: September 8th, 2007, 9:03pm CDT by john

The Nebraska GOP is just terrified of former Senator & Governor (and near rock-star) Bob Kerrey loading up for another Senate campaign. Here’s a screen shot from the NEGOP website: Not only that, but besides their 360 word frontpage attack piece (with 13, count them 13 bullet points!), the only 2 press releases ago, they [...]
Tribute To The Fallen - Photo Blog

Posted: April 24th, 2007, 10:23am CDT by john

Photos from the first night of Tribute are up in the photo gallery. We’ll be adding more as the week goes on. Special thanks so far to 40 or so volunteers who showed up to place flags, and the the members of the media (CBS, NBC, Fox, and the Omaha World-Herald so far…) who have covered the event.

Also of course a very special thanks to Mayor Mike Fahey, Councilman Suttle, Councilman Gernandt, Sen. Tom White, Douglas Co. Treasurer John Ewing, and Douglas County Registrar of Deeds Diane Battiatto for their kind words at the opening ceremony.

As always, don’t forget to check www.tributetothefallen.com for more updates.

more photos in the extended entry… click “continue reading”
Adrian Smith Showing Weakness

Posted: April 19th, 2007, 12:19pm CDT by john

While I usually leave everything related to the 3rd District, Adrian Smith, or Western Nebraska to our wonderful friends over at SmithWatch… I just couldn’t help but point out the obvious (well obvious if you’re a geek like me who like to read FEC Fundraising Numbers).

Adrian Smith, the brand-new Republican congressman from the 3rd, just can’t seem to get very good at fundraising. You see, when running for Congress lots of people want to give you money; especially when you’re a Republican in a very Republican district like Smith was. Which was why it was suprising that Smith wasn’t able to raise much much more than he did last time around. That left many of us to speculate that he just isn’t very good at raising money.

Now that doesn’t make him a bad congressman (if you want to know why he’s a bad congressman, just spend ten minutes over at SmithWatch yourself)… I can think of a number of Democratic candidates who weren’t very good at raising money but who I love dearly.

But it could be a problem for Adrian if he still can’t raise any money. You see, when you’re a first term congressman people really love to give you money. Now that Smith is in Congress he should be able to raise lots of easy dollars every two years from PACs of companies affected by the committee he sits on. The corrupt way this works is one of the big reasons Jim Esch pledged not to take PAC money last time around… but I digress.

But in the last quarter, Smith only raised $104,000… not counting his $30k in debt left over from the last campaign. That means Smith’s Cash On Hand (CoH) is only about $65,000… compare that to Lee Terry’s $215k CoH.

So is Scott Kleeb going to step up and run again? Well, Scott still has nearly as much in the bank as Smith did, at $64k.

Run Scott! Run!
Campus Progress National Conference - Apply Now!

Posted: April 17th, 2007, 4:02pm CDT by john

I want to encourage everyone to apply for the 2007 Campus Progress National Conference, in Washington DC.

The conference is June 26th, though there are events the two days before and the day after. All the information you might want is on their website, so I won’t re-list it here.

But I will add a personal note, that UNO Democrats have attended the conference the last two years, payed for 100% by Campus Progress.

Even if CP didn’t offer need-based travel subsidies, the trip would be well worth paying for yourself because the training sessions, amazing speakers, and most of all the other Campus Progress kids from around the country are absolutely amazing. The experience is one-of-a-kind.
Apply Now!
Last year CP put us up in George Washington University Dorms (HOVA Dorms…. we blasted Jay-Z all night); and there was even free breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

So I’m telling you: apply. And if you can’t afford a trip to DC, tell them so.
CP is dedicated to making sure financial need doesn’t hold back any young activists.
Lee Terry Q1 Fundraising Numbers

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 7:41pm CDT by john

Lee Terry, Nebraska’s longest-serving (doesn’t that seem weird) Congressman had some good fundraising numbers this last Quarter. According to the latest FEC filings, Terry raised, $147,679 and 92 cents.

His current Cash on Hand (CoH) is $215,229.

If he runs for Senate in ‘08 (which will only happen if Hagel decides not to) then he’s going to make sure he has a lot of Cash to do it. And if he runs for reelection, it’s going to be tough to take him down. Another problem we’ve got right now is that, unlike in ‘06 with Jim Esch, I don’t think Terry is going to be caught off-guard by a grassroots candidate again.

So what can we do? Organize, organize, organize. We’ve got to register more voters, organize more Democrats, start more Nebraska Young Democrats chapters, and all around get ready to roll. We’ve got to call Terry out (on this blog and in the mainstream media) when he votes against our interests, warmongers, flip-flops, and all the other things he does on a regular basis.

Terry may have more money, but his positions are out of step with this District. Viva Jim Esch ‘08!

UPDATE (4/17/07 12:19 CDT by Dave):

Just thought I’d put all the rest of this information into one post.

Chuck Hagel: $142,460 raised, $230,214 cash-on-hand.

Jeff Fortenberry: $121,245.23 raised, $118,593.48 cash-on-hand.

Adrian Smith: $99,189.64 raised, $94,122.43 cash-on-hand.
Lee Terry Admits He Was Wrong, And Calls on Gonzales To Resign

Posted: April 1st, 2007, 2:16am CDT by john

Because of the politically motivated “Prosecutor Purge” scandal, Lee Terry has officially called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

A Republican congressman on Saturday urged Gonzales to resign, citing what he said were Gonzales’ contradictory statements about his role in the firing of eight federal prosecutors.

“I trusted him before, but I can’t now,” said five-term Rep. Lee Terry (news, bio, voting record), whose district includes metropolitan Omaha.

Gonzales’ credibility took a blow this past week during testimony by his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sampson, who resigned March 12, said the attorney general was regularly briefed about plans to fire the prosecutors and was involved with discussions about “this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign.”

Lawmakers impatient to hear Gonzales’ side of the story said the embattled attorney general needed to explain himself quickly or risk more damage to his department. Gonzales is to testify on Capitol Hill on April 17.

“My views were that this was Democrat posturing and a witch hunt,” Terry said. “My trust in him in that position has taken a hit because of these contradictory statements by him.”

Terry’s change of heart came on the first day of a two-week break for House members and Republicans hoped to avoid spending much of that time on the defensive about Gonzales.

Notice how Terry admits that he was wrong; that he misjudged Democrats, that he presumed the worst of partisan motives, that he abdicated his roll in Congressional oversite, that he misjudged Gonzales, and also the fact that he joined the calls for Resignation only after basically everyone else already had.

Welcome to reality Mr. Terry. We’re glad you decided to join us.
BREAKING: Lee Terry’s Iraq War Vote ‘We Should Never Leave Iraq’

Posted: March 23rd, 2007, 7:09pm CDT by john

Lee Terry just emailed this message out to his constituents about the U.S. House Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill H.R. 1591. As Dave wrote, this is a bill that recently passed the House, but which Terry voted against. Also voting against the Iraq Bill were Nebraska’s Adrian Smith and Jeff Fortenberry.

Dear Mr. xxxxxx:

The House of Representatives has just approved by a vote of 218 to 212 H.R. 1591, which takes a “slow-bleed” approach to end U.S. efforts in Iraq . I voted against this deplorable bill and urged my colleagues to demand from the House Leadership a “clean” emergency spending bill that will meet the needs of our troops.

Congressman Sam Johnson, a former Vietnam POW, urged Members to vote this bill down. “Marines never quit,” Johnson said. “Neither should we.” For Congressman Johnson’s full remarks: www.house.gov/terry . (Emphasis Added)

Sincerely,

LEE TERRY
Member of Congress
11717 Burt Street, Suite 106
Omaha, NE 68154
Phone: 402-397-9944
http://leeterry.house.gov

Besides the blatant lie that this bill does not fully fund the troops, Terry makes another key point in the message. By quoting Rep. Johnson’s “never quit” statement, Terry aligns himself with a fringe-right-wing element of the Republican Party.

This wing of the GOP supports a never-ending war in the Middle East and can think of no reason or situation so bad that they could imagine voting to bring our troops home.

Terry goes on to say in his full statement:

Members of Congress should not be dictating strategy to our generals in the field.

But what Terry fails to realize is that this bill doesn’t dictate tactics, or strategy; the bill doesn’t go into micromanaging; instead it sets policy.

The majority of Americans want to see benchmarks for success in Iraq, they want to see us start to bring troops home, not send more into policing the Iraqi Civil War.

But hey, now the Democrats are on the record trying to end this war… and the Republicans are on the record trying to keep going… forever.
Jim Esch vs. John McCain

Posted: February 19th, 2007, 4:54pm CST by john

This just a really random side note: but John McCain’s website for President reminds me a lot of Jim Esch’s campaign site. The use of Flash animation for navigation, the integration of video… of course McCain’s cost about 20x more than Jim’s, but still the over-arching similarity is there.

Even their yardsigns have that same stark black/white duality… look at McCain’s yardsign in this NYTimes article.

John McCain’s certainly one of the front-runners for winning the GOP Nomination for President. Personally, I think he’d be an awful candidate, and just as bad if he managed to get elected. He’s got a great website, but I have this strong suspicion that won’t go away, that he’s just not going to win the nomination. I’d put my money on Guliani, Romney, or Huckabee. I don’t know. But whatever happens, I don’t think McCain is going to have quite the cakewalk that a lot of Republicans are predicting.

This is a Republican 2008 open thread:
what do you think will happen to their crazy party?
Caucus, Condoms, CongratulationsHappy Valentines Day!

Posted: February 14th, 2007, 4:22pm CST by john

Congratulations to the UNO College Dems Women’s Caucus!

In order to celebrate Valentines Day, and raise HPV awareness, the UD-WC handed out about 1000 Valentines (with condoms on them).

The event was a huge success and an amazing inaugural event for the Caucus!

Thanks to Kar, Nick, Megan, and everyone else who was so involved in this project…

And Happy Valentines Day from the UNO College Democrats!
How Nebraska Will Tip the ’08 Primary (Like A World Series Exhibition Match)

Posted: February 13th, 2007, 11:44am CST by john
Nebraska voters in 2008 are going to have a chance to do something they haven’t done since 1968… matter in a Presidential Nomination.

Last Saturday, the Democratic Party of Nebraska (NDP) voted to move to a presidential caucus system. Nebraska’s caucus will be held on February 9th, the Saturday after “Super Tuesday.

While technically the way to win the nomination for President is to win the largest number of “delegates” to the national convention in Denver… the reality is that it’s all about creating the right media narrative, which then convinces people to vote for you. Remember ’04 when Dean was ahead for like 6 months- then Kerry won Iowa and Edwards got 2nd, and suddenly it was the Kerry / Edwards show? By the time of Nebraska’s May Primary, the nomination was all wrapped up.

Well, ’08 is going to be similar in a lot of ways, but this time Nebraska is going to play a starring roll.

Here’s how the media calendar is looking like it will play out: (as well as my current predictions on how the race itself will go)
- 2007- January ’08: -Half the stories will be about “frontrunners” Hillary, Edwards, and Obama. The other half will be about “dark-horse” candidates, as they announce, build steam, loose steam, make big mistakes, and at least one or two drop out.
- January 1st – January 14th (01/14 is the day of the Iowa Caucus) -the stories will focus on the “horse-race” aspect of the election. That is to say, they’ll talk almost exclusively about the big 3 (Hillary, Edwards, Obama), with a few stories about the Dark-Horses, and what kinds of numbers those candidates will need to even stay in the race.
- January 14th- Feb. 5th -The Iowa Caucus, followed quickly by the New Hampshire primary, then the Nevada caucus & South Carolina primary will lead to all the candidates dropping out besides the big 3, the vanity candidates (Gravel and Kucinich), and perhaps 1 dark-horse candidate who did surprisingly well in an early state (I’m betting on Clark or Richardson to fill this role, now that my man Warner is out). For the record: my prediction is that Vilsak will do so poorly in Iowa that he’ll drop out soon thereafter. I think Edwards will pick up steam after IA, NV, and SC, but I’m not sure if it will be enough… and Hillary will do so badly in all of those states that she’ll go on a massive spending spree in super-Tuesday states, blowing through 25 million dollars.
- Then comes Super Tuesday, February 5th. Florida, California, perhaps New York, and lots of other big states will all go on the same day. After this there will be only one story: the horse race. There will be 2 major candidates left, and I don’t know who they will be.
- Where does the media attention go next? Nebraska.
It’s the first contest after Super-Tuesday, and it’s going to be watched as a key indicator for how the rest of the horse-race will play out.

I’m going to use the only comparison I know how: baseball.

Think of the primary calendar as the play-offs. When all the dust settles, no matter how promising or long-shot your team was to start with, in the end you end up with only 2 teams.

Maybe it’s the White-Sox (Obama) or the Yankees (Clinton) or the Cubs (Gravel….because hell would have to freeze over for him to win). The point is, after Super-Tuesday, the rest of the primary calendar will be a lot like the World Series: 2 teams, an extended series of contests on different home-turfs and with different handicaps, pitching staffs, etc. And where does Nebraska fit into it?

Because NE doesn’t have enough electoral votes to count as a real “game” in the series, the Nebraska caucus will be sort of like if the World-Series had an exhibition match before it officially started.

But the wonderful thing about exhibition games, just like the pre-season and spring training, is that they usually get more media-hype than actual games do.

Action is great, but speculation is twice as fun when you’re a media-mogul.

So when super Tuesday is over, expect to see Hillary, or Obama, or Edwards, or…whoever, stop off in Nebraska (probably Omaha, where all the primary voters are). Winning here will be a crucial ‘first-blood’ test of how the final 2 candidates will do against each other. Also, with its centrist cred, and farmer/middle-America persona, winning Nebraska will allow campaigns to talk about how well their message plays in “the heartland” and to paint themselves as “electable” versus their “unelectable opponents.”

There’s a lot more that can, and will, happen between now and then. But it’s good to know that no matter what happens, the Democrats in Nebraska will have some say in the whole process.

(and if you don’t know how a caucus works… don’t worry, I’ll try to post a good explanation sometime soon. It’ll be fun, I promise.)
Unicameral Weekly: What Bill Fits Your Bill?

Posted: January 29th, 2007, 10:16am CST by john
As you may have noticed, UNO Dems Blog has embarked on the lofty goal of keeping up to date not just with Omaha City Politics, National News, and In-Depth Reporting… but also our dear Unicameral.

In our last Unicameral Update we covered Gov. Heineman’s ridiculous attacks on the University of Nebraska System. Heineman was also the cheif culprit of another recent post, about property tax reform (Democrats are for it… Heiny is against it). Also: UNO Dem thoughts on a few good early bills in the Unicam.

So what’s new this week?

When a bill goes to committee, it usually gets a hearing. This is when anyone, even us College Dems, can treck down to Lincoln and have our voices heard on anything we care about. So what’s up for a first hearing this week?

Some favorites (or least favorites, you decide):
- LB72 (Fischer) Prohibit beginning a school year before Labor Day
- LB205 (Howard) Require schools to adopt a bullying policy
There’s more… lots lots more.

Check out the complete list on the Nebraska Democratic Party’s Blog
Hey UNO DEMS! - Wanna Be on a Poster?

Posted: January 18th, 2007, 2:41pm CST by john

As you may have seen… we have some new posters up on campus…We’re calling it the”MyUNO Democrats” Poster Series / Campaign, and the next set of posters in the campaign are individual snap-shots of group members.
Here’s a link to the Big Group Collage.
Soon, we’re also going to be putting up “individual” MyUNO Democrats posters highlighting various members of our group.

You can see 4 examples of the “individual” posters right here…
John, Cody, Karlee, Erin

(must have Adobe PDF Viewer to see them)
Do you want to be on a poster?
We really need 5-10 more people willing to be on posters… if you’d be willing to be on one, please email your info to john
john (at) nebraskayoungdemocrats.org

See the extended entry to read what information to include:

Poster information.
In your email, please Include:

1) The photo you want to use, or a link to the photo online
-please choose a “large” photo, one that will look good on a full page paper without looking pixilated.
-Also, please use a photo that is easy to make “vertical,” like the ones in the examples. You don’t have to crop the photo yourself, don’t worry, I’ll do that for you

2) your “reason” for being a College Democrat (some reasons are serious, like “Idealism;” some reasons are descriptive like “Involvement,” others can be just funny like “food” or “Fabulousness” or “Parties”).

3) Your 50-150 words describing your reason. Remember these are posters, so less words is better.

4) Your tag line, like, “See you Monday” or “Lets Get Things Started”

5) Your nick name, if you want to use one. Using a nick name, and a tag line, helps make these posters more personalized, dynamic, and compelling. At least, that’s the idea.

6) whatever “number” you want to be. (”Reason #xxx”)

When in doubt, just try to give all the information that is on the example posters.

and as always, if you have any problems, just send me (john) an email, a phonecall or find me on facebook.

Thanks!
First 100 Hours- Cheaper Student Loans!

Posted: January 18th, 2007, 2:16pm CST by john
As I write this, the 100-Hour Clock is currently set to 31 Hours 39 Minutes and 42 seconds.

And as we’ve covered here on the UNO Democrats Blog, so far the Democrats in the House have passed legislation to:
And today, as promised, the House is set to pass a bill designed to lower student loan interest rates.

The student-loan proposal would cut interest rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent on federal Stafford loans, which are for lower- and middle-income families.

and just why do we need this new bill?

Just three years ago, student-loan interest rates averaged around 3.4 percent. But the Republican-controlled Congress fixed rates at 6.8 percent last year… Education groups nationwide were up in arms, and Democrats campaigned to reverse the move.

This means millions of college students, including lots and lots of UNO Dems, will save thousands of dollars in loan interest payments they’ll never have to make.

Isn’t this new Congress super? Or perhaps the right word is classy.

UPDATE: The bill passes a whopping 356 to 71. How do you like DEM Apples?!!

UPDATE II: Nebraska’s own Jeff Fortenberry (R-Lincoln) and Adrian Smith (R-Central and Western Nebraska) are among the 71 ‘no’ votes. Lee Terry(R-Omaha), after facing lobbying pressure from UNO Dems among others, voted ‘yea.’
Hey UNO DEMS! - Wanna Be on a Poster?

Posted: January 12th, 2007, 5:07pm CST by john

As you may have seen… we have some new posters up on campus…We’re calling it the”MyUNO Democrats” Poster Series / Campaign, and the next set of posters in the campaign are individual snap-shots of group members.
Here’s the Large Group Collage:
Soon, we’re also going to be putting up “individual” MyUNO Democrats posters highlighting various members of our group.
You can see 4 examples of the “individual” posters right here…
John, Cody, Karlee, Erin
(must have Adobe PDF Viewer to see them)
Do you want to be on a poster?
We really need 5-10 more people willing to be on posters… if you’d be willing to be on one, please email your info to john
john (at) nebraskayoungdemocrats.org

See the extended entry to read what information to include:

Poster information.
In your email, please Include:

1) The photo you want to use, or a link to the photo online
-please choose a “large” photo, one that will look good on a full page paper without looking pixilated.
-Also, please use a photo that is easy to make “vertical,” like the ones in the examples. You don’t have to crop the photo yourself, don’t worry, I’ll do that for you

2) your “reason” for being a College Democrat (some reasons are serious, like “Idealism;” some reasons are descriptive like “Involvement,” others can be just funny like “food” or “Fabulousness” or “Parties”).

3) Your 50-150 words describing your reason. Remember these are posters, so less words is better.

4) Your tag line, like, “See you Monday” or “Lets Get Things Started”

5) Your nick name, if you want to use one. Using a nick name, and a tag line, helps make these posters more personalized, dynamic, and compelling. At least, that’s the idea.

6) whatever “number” you want to be. (”Reason #xxx”)

When in doubt, just try to give all the information that is on the example posters.

and as always, if you have any problems, just send me (john) an email, a phonecall or find me on facebook.

Thanks!
Nebraska Property Tax Relief (Sign the Petition Please)

Posted: January 11th, 2007, 8:43am CST by john

I know this is sort of off-topic, and not an issue us young-people are usually quite as excited about, but the Nebraska Democratic Party is calling on Gov. Heinny to take action on Property Tax Reform.

To read about it, check out this post from the New Nebraska Network.

Or just jump ahead and sign the petition…

-thanks!
Lee Terry Votes Against A Safer America & the 9/11 Commission Report

Posted: January 10th, 2007, 1:22am CST by john

I just wanted to highlight this even further…

Lee Terry, the Republican Congressman from Nebraska, voted against putting into place the plans layed out in the 9/11 Commission Report. WTF? The vote was 299 to 128 with 68 Republicans voting for it.

That is to say, out of 435 Congressmen & Congresswomen, only 128 voted against this bipartisanly supported bill. The recommendations in the bill itself, I’d like to point out, were written by a bipartisan commission.

If you want to draw a stark line between how Jim Esch would have behaved in Congress, and how Lee Terry has, this is that line. Lee Terry is no bipartisan… he’s an extremist Republican, and that’s now finally becoming clear. When Lee Terry runs for office next, he’s going to have to deal townhall-meetings full of Omahans like you and me asking him to explain why he voted for a less safe country. Or in terms that George Bush would understand,

“Why Do You Hate Freedom, Mr. Terry?”
You can email this question to his office, if you want to, using this email feature…
Where Do We Go Now…?

Posted: November 9th, 2006, 10:11am CST by john

One of the top stories being pushed by Republican News Media (like Fox) has been that Democrats won’t know what to do now that we’re running the show. As one prominent GOP pundit said last Sunday, “Democrats don’t have any ideas.”

Well I wanted to make sure everyone here knows why I cared so much this year and spent so much time fighting for a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate (and here’s a hint… it’s not because I thought Democrats would do nothing while in control).

Here are some excerpts of a statement released by Nancy Pelosi on the morning of the election. Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) lays out what she sees Democrats doing in the first 100 hours of a Democratic Congress… (Pelosi btw, in case you hadn’t heard, is poised to become the first female Speaker of the House in the history of our country, and the highest ranked woman in American Government ever)

Here’s how it starts:

In 100 hours, the top five oil companies will take in $4.3 billion in profits.

In 100 hours, $1.1 billion will be spent on the war in Iraq.

In 100 hours, the public debt will grow by $4.9 billion.

In 100 hours, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies will gain $2.6 billion in profits.

In 100 hours, the top CEOs will earn an average of $2 million each.

In 100 hours, a minimum wage worker working 8 hours a day will earn $171.67.

And if all goes as expected, in less than 100 hours my sixth grandchild will be born.

I want my grandchild to be born into an America where government is for and by the people. I want my grandchild to be born into an America that rewards and values hard work.

And then there’s this:

If you honor Democratic candidates with your vote today, in the first hundred hours of a Democratic Congress: We will restore civility, integrity, and fiscal responsibility to the House of Representatives. We will start by cleaning up Congress, breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation and commit to pay-as-you-go, no new deficit spending.

We will make our nation safer and we will begin by implementing the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

And this:

We will make our economy fairer, and we will begin by raising the minimum wage.

We will broaden college opportunity, and we will begin by cutting interest rates for student loans in half.

We will energize America by achieving energy independence, and we will begin by rolling back the multi-billion dollar subsidies for Big Oil.

I can’t tell you all how proud I am of the hard work the UNO College Democrats put into this election cycle to get us to where I am now. I can’t tell you how proud I am, and happy, for all the other Young Democrats around this country who rose up and fought just as hard across the country. And I can barely even begin to tell you how excited I am to see the House of Representatives lead by new Speaker Pelosi.

In January a new Congress will be sworn in, and within 100 hours our country will finally be moving forward again.

Thank God.

ps. Check back soon, as I’ll be offering my own personal suggestions to answer the question of where we go now, as Democrats, as College Democrats, as Young Democrats, and as Nebraska Democrats. Expect that post to come in the next 24 hours.
Live-Blogging Jim Esch @ UNO

Posted: October 30th, 2006, 12:37pm CST by john

Hey there folks- I’m sitting here in the UNO Nebraska Room with 90 of my fellow College Democrats and students interested in hearing more about Jim Esch. There have been at least 20 people in and out in just the last 10 minutes, I’m estimating around 120 people at least, and we’re not even half-way [...]
Live Blogging David Hahn Meeting W/ UNO Democrats

Posted: October 23rd, 2006, 8:17pm CDT by john

Gubinatorial Candidate David Hahn is here w/ the UNO Democrats to share his vision for where our great state needs to go. and could go, under his leadership. To learn more about David Hahn in general go here. David Hahn’s Biography Highlights from tonight’s meeting: 8:08pm “We are the 6th highest state in possible [...]

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