Bits of Tid: May 12, 2007

In 13,000 hours we should have a president-elect.

• It's time to de-authorize the war, say Biden, Richardson, and Clinton.
• Some big names are backing Chris Dodd's energy plan.
• The governors of Maryland and New Jersey are endorsing Hillary.
• Edwards is proposing an $8 billion program to make college more affordable. A drop in the bucket compared to the $425.1 billion price tag for the war.
• On the other side, Rudy Giuliani and Ann Romney (Mitt's wife) have both donated to Planned Parenthood. And you thought Rudy was the only pro-choice Republican out there?
• State Senators Alan Cropsey (who 'represents' Mount Pleasant) and Bill Hardiman (ex-mayor of my hometown of Kentwood) have each been featured recently in Michigan Liberal's Better Know an Obstriutionist series. (Don't forget to let your state legislators know your thoughts onm the state budget!)
• I don't care about the whole Paris Hilton thing, so shut up, media.

Hello Kassel, Germany!

Thanks to Google Analytics, I can tell not only how many people are visiting this blog and Eye on Ehlers, but where they are viewing these sites, how they got to the site (i.e. by clicking the link on MichLib, using Google, etc.)

People have visited my blog from such places as Mount Pleasant, Bay City, Tallahassee... and Beijing, Tokyo, and Prague.

Some have even visited this wonderful blog from unheard-of places in different countries. So I thought I'd pay homage to those obscure towns and cities in the far reaches of the globe by featuring them on this blog. Perhaps, in so doing, I might even help fill the void that GW has left in America's foreign relations. (Okay, maybe not, but still.)

So let's start with Kassel, Germany, a city of roughly 194,176 people (roughly the size of Grand Rapids).

Wikipedia notes that Kassel has quite a long history:

The city's name is derived from the ancient Castellum Cattorum, a castle of the Chatti, a German tribe that has lived in the area since Roman times.

Kassel as such is first mentioned in 913 as the place where two deeds were signed by king Conrad I. The place was called Cqasella and was a fortification at a bridge crossing the Fulda river. A deed from 1189 certifies that Kassel had city rights, but the date of their conveyance is not known.

Still not intrigued? Germany's first public museum, theater, and observatory were all built in Kassel. The Brothers Grimm, Napoleon's brother, and the founder of Reuters all hailed from Kassell.

So here's a shout out to you, Kassel! Tell Mayor Bertram Hilgen that the people of the USA say "Guten Tag!"

School Election Day!

Ah, the joy of democracy.

A little earlier today (at 3:40 PM) I voted for the fourth time in my life (having voted for a sinking fund renewal in February 2006; last August's primary; and of course the general election six months ago). This was my second time voting in person nat a voting location.

Four items appeared on my ballot. I voted for two of the three candidates for Kentwood School Baord; two of the four candidates for Grand Rapids Community College Trustee; and Yes on a GRCC millage increase as well as an Interurban Transit Partnership millage.

Voter turnout is expected to be light today, as it usually is in this type of an election. But here's the shocker: I was the 352nd person to vote at my voting place. 352! Granted, two voting precincts vote at Glenwood (at least that's how it usually works; perhaps it's different in a school election), and both appearedto have voted in the same place this time (as opposed to when they voted in different parts of the gym in August. But I was #120 in my precinct in the primary, and we ended up with 20% turnout in our precinct.

Predictions
Based on the level of campaigning I have seen, I predict that Bill Joseph and Mimi Madden will win re-election to the Kentwood School Board, as will GRCC Trustee Margo Anderson. As my upset pick, Fran Pepper will oust Terri Handlin from the GRCC Board. The GRCC and ITP millages will pass with 64% and 73%, respectively. (If this scenario plays out, I will be a perfect 6 for 6 in terms of voting for winning candidates and sides of proposals.)

Polls close at 8... so if you haven't voted, do so now! Then check Election Magic for results.

Twelve more US soldiers died in Iraq today.

Not one. Not two. Not three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, or even eleven. Twelve innocent American lives lost. Not to mention almost 50 Iraqis (so much for 'liberating' them).

Twenty-five of our troops have died this month alone. An average of three have died each day this year. And they said the surge was supposed to fix the problem.

Nearly 3,400 have died since the war began - 3,200 since Bush declared 'Mission Accomplished' four years ago last week, and hundreds more than the number who died on September 11.

War is not pro-life.

I'm just glad my Marine Reservist friend Cliff is back from Iraq. He came home last week and I saw him in church earlier tonight.

Ehlers featured on front page of Daily Kos

Vern Ehlers is famous in the progressive blogosphere now:

Another failure to plan:

In a grim sign of the times, the "Wall of the Fallen," set up by House Republican leaders in June, is almost full. The mounting death toll from Iraq has forced U.S. House staffers to study how to reconfigure the display in the lobby of the Rayburn Building - the largest office building for members of Congress - to squeeze in more names.

...New names are added to the display every few months, but none have been added since November. [...]

In the current format, there is space for about 130 more names, but 506 Americans have died since mid-November.

Apparently a member of the, "no one could have anticipated" club, Republican Rep. Vernon Ehlers said that he recently realized:

Boy, we could have a problem. More space is needed.

More space. Yes, that's the problem.

School and local elections this Tuesday!

Many people believe that young people simply do not care about politics - or if they do, they only do so during presidential campaigns. But every election is important, including elections for governor, state legislature, city office... and school boards. And other than K-12 students and teachers, I don’t know of any group that has more at stake in these school elections than people our age.

This Tuesday, many communities will be holding elections for School Boards, while others will be voting on tax issues (i.e. millage requests) and the like. Click here to find out if there’s an election going on where you live.

If there’s an election where you live, but you’re not sure if you will vote, here are a couple of reasons why you should.

1. K-12 schools do matter to us. If you're reading this, you are probably a college student, and you probably don't care what goes on in your communities' K-12 schools (unless you want to be a teacher). Here's why you should. Companies generally choose to create jobs in areas where potential employees are well-trained to work for them. This means that in order for Michigan to emerge from the economic doldrums brought on by the decline in our auto industry, workers need to be well-trained and well-educated. It’s up to our schools to educate young people and to equip them with the skills they need in the 21st century world. Gov. Jennifer Granholm understood this, and was thus able to push a stronger high school curriculum into law last year.

School board members - including those who will be elected Tuesday - have the responsibility of making the schools in their communities educate children as best they can. The better the schools in your communities are, the smarter their students will be, the better prepared they will be for the workforce and the more attractive our communities will be to businesses.

2. Your vote has a big impact (relatively speaking). About 60 million people vote for the American Idol in a typical week. 3.8 million people voted in Michigan’s gubernatorial race six months ago. By contrast, no more than a few thousand people vote in School Board elections in many places. This means your vote will have a much greater impact on who wins.

3. Today’s School Board members = Tomorrow’s political leaders. A number of School Board members go on to serve as city council members, mayors, and state legislators. Former Grand Rapids Public School Board member Robert Dean now serves in the Michigan House, having won a hotly contested race last fall. The 2006 Democratic nominee for Congress in the Grand Rapids area, Jim Rinck, currently sits on the GRPS Board. Those are just a couple of examples. So if you see a candidate whom you know is a conservative... well, you know who not to vote for.

Polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM on Tuesday. If you can, educate yourself (no pun intended) about the candidates running in your area... then be sure to vote!

Ehlers, other MI Republicans oppose expansion of hate-crmes law

The US House Thursday passed a bill designed to expand the nation's hate-crimes laws to include those crimes that are based on gender or sexual orientation. 25 Republicans joined with 212 Democrats (including each of Michigan's six Democratic Representatives) in votng for the bill, which President Bush is threatening to veto.

CNN has more on the bill:

Under current law, hate crimes are subject to federal prosecution only if the acts of violence are motivated by race, religion, color or national origin. Federal prosecutors get involved only if the victim is engaged in a federally protected activity, such as voting or participating in interstate commerce.

The White House says there is no need for the expanded bill because state and local laws already cover the crimes it addresses, and there is no need for federal enforcement.

In addition to allowing greater leeway for federal law enforcement authorities to investigate hate crimes, the House bill -- which was passed on a 237-180 vote --provides $10 million over the next two years to aid local prosecutions.

According to the article, critics of the hate-crimes legislation say it will target pastors who preach against homosexuality. Two points in that regard. First, the bill targets those who commit crimes based on gender and sexual orientation, NOT those who believe homosexuality is wrong.

Second, I'm a straight man, and I personally believe marriage is between one man and one woman. But if one of my friends from the GLBT falls victim to a hate crime, I would expect nothing less than for the perpetrator to receive swift justice.

But Congressman Ehlers and 179 of his colleagues - including every Republican member of Michigan's congressional delegation - do not see it that way. They believe that the current law, which criminalizes hate crimes perpetrated based on religion, race, national origin, or color, is sufficient enough.

But a hate crime is a hate crime, regardless of the basis on which it is perpetrated. Until Mr. Ehlers realizes this, he will probably keep receiving zeros on the Human Rights Campaign's Congressional Scorecard.

Mark Brewer's first YouTube podcast

Buckley agrees with Kissinger that the war cannot be won

Wait until the folks at YAF hear about this piece:

The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue. The opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question. About 60 percent of Americans wish the war ended — wish at least a timetable for orderly withdrawal. What is going on in Congress is in the nature of accompaniment. The vote in Congress is simply another salient in the war against war in Iraq. Republican forces, with a couple of exceptions, held fast against the Democrats’ attempt to force Bush out of Iraq even if it required fiddling with the Constitution. President Bush will of course veto the bill, but its impact is critically important in the consolidation of public opinion. It can now accurately be said that the legislature, which writes the people’s laws, opposes the war.

[SNIP]

But beyond affirming executive supremacy in matters of war, what is George Bush going to do? It is simply untrue that we are making decisive progress in Iraq. The indicators rise and fall from day to day, week to week, month to month. In South Vietnam there was an organized enemy. There is clearly organization in the strikes by the terrorists against our forces and against the civil government in Iraq, but whereas in Vietnam we had Hanoi as the operative headquarters of the enemy, we have no equivalent of that in Iraq, and that is a matter of paralyzing importance. All those bombings, explosions, assassinations: we are driven to believe that they are, so to speak, spontaneous.

[SNIP]

Students of politics ask then the derivative question: How can the Republican party, headed by a president determined on a war he can’t see an end to, attract the support of a majority of the voters? General Petraeus, in his Pentagon briefing on April 26, reported persuasively that there has been progress, but cautioned, "I want to be very clear that there is vastly more work to be done across the board and in many areas, and again I note that we are really just getting started with the new effort." The general makes it a point to steer away from the political implications of the struggle, but this cannot be done in the wider arena. There are grounds for wondering whether the Republican party will survive this dilemma.

So who wrote that article? Some 'left-wing surrender monkey?' Nope... That, my friends, comes to us from William F. Buckley, father of modern American conservatism.

He's not the first of his ideology to say that the war is lost; Henry Kissinger has also said so. Again I ask, as I did last week: Where are all the war hawks criticizing Kissinger and Buckley for saying essentially the same thing Reid has said.

100 Posts!

This is my 100th post to Great Lakes, Great Times, Great Scott (formerly known as Scott Does Politics)! Let's celebrate with a few videos...



This is my very first YouTube video posting! It features Tim (whom I've known since middle school) and a couple others getting pied in the face for a good cause here at CMU. That's me saying "Having trouble there Tim?" at 1:13.

Here are a couple videos from British TV shows just after last November's elections.




And finally some late-night humor:

“A total now of eight people have announced that they want to be president. It's George Bush's fault. He has lowered the standard." --David Letterman

"As it does every year, this State of the Union matches up two bitter rivals: the president of the United States and words." --Jon Stewart

"31 million people watched the president -- many, I suspect, in hopes that he would get voted off. ... One of the big topics, of course, was the war. The president said he understands that Americans are losing patience, but he would like us to give his new plan a chance to work. In other words, all he is saying is give war a chance" --Jimmy Kimmel

"I'll give President Bush credit though. He addressed the problems troubling Americans -- the war in Iraq, the economy, the need to develop alternative fuels. He seemed to know what we were thinking. It's almost as if he was reading our mail or listening to our phone calls." --Jay Leno

"Seriously, the stakes are very high. And in this high stakes game, the president of the United States made one simple request [on screen: Bush asking Americans to give the new Iraq strategy a chance]. He's right. Everyone deserves a seventh chance." --Jon Stewart, on Bush’s State of the Union address

"During an interview with '60 Minutes' on Sunday, President Bush defended the invasion of Iraq, saying, 'We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude.' Said the Iraqi people, 'We've been meaning to send a card, but our Hallmark store keeps blowing up.'" --Amy Poehler

"Some good news. Finally, President Bush is going to do something about global warming. He became alarmed when another chunk of ice fell off his mother." --David Letterman

"President Bush is still on the road trying to drum up support for his new Iraq program. ... This time, Bush has an exit strategy for the Iraqi war. In January of 2009, he will escape to Crawford, Texas." --David Letterman