It was just announced that Netroots Nation 2009 will be held right across the Eastern border in Pittsburgh, PA.

Specifically, the event will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. I've actually attended a labor union event there shortly before Nick and I took over this site. It's a very nice facility, and it's only a few years old.

To explain my excitement, Pittsburgh is only twice the distance away from me as the nearest Starbucks. It's only a measly 2 hour drive!

The events will run from Thursday, August 13, 2009 until Sunday, August 16, 2009. 

Young Democrats of America Executive Director Alexandra Acker traveled to Cleveland today to address the Summer membership meeting of the Ohio Young Democrats. OYD's Youth Voter Turnout Plan (I call it Buck-iVote08) calls for knocking on 52,000 doors in precincts containing at least 25% of voters between the age of 18-35 throughout the state.  This peer-to-peer contact plan is intended to increase youth voter turnout in Ohio 157% over the 2004 election. 

The plan makes sense. Since roughly 80% of young people are engaged in following the 2008 election thus far (compared to only 42% in 2004), and since young people have voted heavily Democratic in the last two election cycles, targeting young people with GOTV drives is a good investment in this election cycle. I'll write more about the plan later.  

Al Gore is a surprise guest at the Netroots Nation"Ask the Speaker" panel with Nancy Pelosi.

Watch it recorded below:

So, did I call this, or what?

NEW YORK (AP) -- Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm resigned Friday from his role as GOP presidential candidate John McCain's campaign co-chairman, hoping to quiet the uproar that followed his comments that the United States had become a "nation of whiners" whose constant complaints about the U.S. economy show they are in a "mental recession."

Gramm, a past presidential candidate, made the remarks more than a week ago. McCain immediately distanced himself from the comments, but they brought a steady stream of criticism just as McCain is trying to show he can help steer the country past its current financial troubles.

Now, my next question is, will John McCain repudiate the economic plan written by Sen. Gramm? Since Sen. Gramm bears a good bit of the blame for this recession (I've gone so far as to call it the Phil Gramm recession) you would think that would be a no-brainer, but we'll see. That's also the quesiton the Obama camp is asking:

"The question for John McCain isn't whether Phil Gramm will continue as chairman of his campaign, but whether he will continue to keep the economic plan that Gramm authored and that represents a continuation of the polices that have failed American families for the last eight years," said Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan.

Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, has written a letter to Stephanie Tubbs-Jones over Jean Schmidt’s chief of staff Barry Bennett. Jones is the chairwoman of the House Committee on Official Standards of Conduct.

You may remember that a few weeks ago BSB started this story when we published a list of various quotes Bennett has made to the media on topics including a campaign fundraising letter, and even commenting of Schmidt’s primary opponent.

You can read Burke’s letter here (PDF).

This morning I was sent some poll numbers from American Political Polling that seem to show promise in the battle of the 1st district Steve’s. According to this, Democrat Steve Driehaus seems to lead incumbent Steve Chabot by a 3:1 margin.

Survey Responses

1. The majority of District 1 voters, 54.7%, believe that George Bush is doing an “excellent, good or fair” job as President while 37.5% believe he is doing a “poor” job of leading the country.
2. If the election were held today, 63% say they would vote for Democrat Barack Obama.
3. If the election were held today, 16% say they would vote for Republican John McCain.
4. If the election were held today, 20% are still undecided.
5. Generally speaking, 57% of voters in OH1 say that Ohio is heading in the wrong direction. 
6. Generally speaking the most important issue is the economy at 62%.
7. Incumbent Chabot holds a favorable rating among voters in the Butler County portion of his district and his support base appears stronger there than in Hamilton County.
8. Voters in Hamilton County, which represents the vast majority of the First District, appear ready for a change in party and candidate for their district.
9. Polling results suggest that challenger Steve Driehaus leads incumbent Steve Chabot by a 3 to 1 margin.

The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 % with a 95% confidence level.

Now I’m not sure how much faith I’d put in a poll that has such high approval numbers for Bush (though I would like to see the breakdown of excellent, good, and fair), but I’ll still take this as a good sign.

The poll was done over three days (ending July 11) in Hamilton and Butler counties. The sample size was 598 registered voters.

I would like to personally go on the record as predicting that Steve will win this race. Now which Steve that is, I leave to fate...

I had a good chuckle at this one...

SAN FRANCISCO - A measure seeking to commemorate President Bush's years in office by slapping his name on a San Francisco sewage plant has qualified for the November ballot.

The measure certified Thursday would rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

Supporters say the idea is to commemorate the mess they claim Bush has left behind.

I figure its going to take a good 20 years to repair the damage W has done. Massive increase in our national debt, decimating our armed forces, crumbling infrastructure going unrepaired, weakening dollar, millions of veterans not getting the care they deserve....

Yup. I'd say a sewage treatment plant is a fitting tribute, indeed. 

This Sunday the Ohio Democratic Women's Caucus will hold canvasses on behalf of women candidates in and around Columbus. The information from their presser is below:

The weekend of July 19th-20th will mark the 160th Anniversary of the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. To celebrate this historic occasion, the Ohio Democratic Women’s Caucus will host canvasses across Franklin and surrounding counties for our women candidates running for Congress, State Senate and State House. Specifically, we will be walking in targeted precincts for Mary Jo Kilroy (CD 15), Sharen Neuhardt (CD 7), Danielle Blue (SD 16), Marian Harris (HD 19), Nancy Garland (HD 20), and Tracy Heard (HD 26).

The meet-ups and canvasses will take place on Sunday, July 20th at 1:00 p.m. and will be hosted by one of our women candidates running for office. Two special guests, who know first-hand the importance of electing more Democratic women to office, will join us on a conference call at 1:20pm to kick off the canvasses. We hope that you will bring your friends, sisters and daughters with you to meet our terrific women candidates and then spend a couple of hours in pairs talking with voters about the importance of electing Democrats to office this year. If you are not moved to action by the celebration of the 160th anniversary of the beginning of the first women’s rights movement, perhaps these statistics will inspire you to get out and knock doors:

* Ohio ranks 38th in the country for number of women in State Legislatures (17.4%)

* Women currently hold only 88, or 16.4%, of the 535 seats in the 110th US Congress

The meet-up locations are listed on BSB's event calendar. Everyone get off their duff and go knock on some doors this Sunday in C-Bus!

Like Tim Russo (in part for different reasons), I have a very low opinion of DailyKos, and particularly Kos himself. I normally read it only to get my blood boiling over the nonsense that gets front paged while really good diaries get ignored.

This post yesterday got very little attention, but I think it's absolutely one of the most insightful posts on geopolitical intrastate strategy for a presidential campaign.  It's also the best explanation as to why the "Southern Ohio is racist, and therefore should be ignored" meme is utter nonsense.

Why did the Republicans win statewide in Ohio during the 1990s?  Because their Democratic opponents had only limited appeal to the major metropolitian areas in northern Ohio which was offset by Republican strengths in SWO and the poor showing of Democratic candidate is SEO, even though that region has several local Democratic officials.

Why did we do so well in 2006?  In part the political environment, but we finally ran a candidate with an established and significant political base outside the Cleveland-Akron-Canton-Youngstown region who had appeal to rural voters.

Why did Hillary Clinton win Ohio's primary?  Because Obama's overwhelming support in large metropolitian areas were offset by Clinton's strong support in SEO (thanks to the focused campaigning efforts and public support of Governor Ted Strickland in SEO) and her support in other rural areas.

Obama cannot win Ohio if tries to run up the score in Ohio's metropolitian areas.  If he stops McCain, he stops him in Southern Ohio, a region that has been neglected and ignored by this Administration.  Obama cannot on one hand say he can be competitive in red areas of Virginia, but that he cannot be competitive in purple areas like Souther Ohio.

Whether you think Obama "needs" Ohio or not (the anti-Ohio bias from DailyKos and other national Obama netroots supporters is just bizarre and misguided), Obama needs Ohio for no other reason that McCain cannot win without it.  And if Obama isn't going to stop McCain in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, or Cleveland.  He needs to, at a minimum, keep McCain from running away with places like Chillicothe, Portsmouth, Athens, Ironton, and Marietta.

This is a region where retail politics, not media buys, are most influential.   The geography and lack of infrastructure requires a significant time investment to cover.  However, it's an investment that could pay dividends.  John Kerry couldn't make himself appear credible to Southern Ohio voters.  That's why he lost Ohio and Bush was re-elected.

Drop the elitism and wake up people.  We can win the whole thing, but only if we treat Appalachian voters as a serious voting demographic that deserves respect and attention.

Maybe I'm too easily amused, but I found this hilarious.

Noting Congressman Steve Chabot's devotion to passing tax cuts for big oil, a few representatives decided to honor him for his work.

And how did they go about that? By delivering a huge check from "Big Oil" to some of campaign staff.

Amazingly enough, no one really wanted to accept it. After multiple attempts, they finally had to leave the check outside one of Chabot's old campaign offices.

You can read their full story at the ODP blog.

Today the House GOP vote to defeat a Democratic plan known as the DRILL act that would require increased oil exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska, as well as include provisions to, 1. require oil companies to "use or lose" leases on 68 million acres that they already hold but with no active exploration taking place, and 2. increase the staff at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to look into oil speculation's damaging effects, and curb traders from using the market speculation to drive up prices as the airline industry requested recently. 

This vote goes to show that the GOP is more interested in delivering profits for their oil company buddies than in helping bring down oil prices. The NPR-A is close the Trans-Alaska pipeline and production could be brought on line there much faster than ANWR. Similarly, the 68 million acres currently under lease but not being actively explored are in the western Gulf of Mexico near oil pipelines and infrastructure that would allow production to come on-stream much faster than off the coasts of Florida or California. 

While I know there are some environmental groups who don't like the idea of drilling in the NPR-A (the Natural Resources Defense Council prefers to call it the "Western Arctic Reserve," making no mention of the fact that it has been designated the NPR-A since the 1920s), the fact that the oil contained there can be brought on stream much more quickly than ANWR means that this is the place we need to drill now.

So, to summarize, the GOP killed the Democrats' plan to drill in places where we can get at oil quickly, because they prefer to open areas for drilling where we can't produce oil for 10 years. And, the GOP fought for years against higher fuel economy standards that could have put millions more hybrids on the road years ago, thus reducing consumption and prices.

Now, which party has the more credible plan to bring down gas prices? 

UPDATE: Zach Space has just issued this press release responding to the GOP killing this drilling plan:

“The fact that Congressional Republicans have chosen to place partisan politics over the needs of our struggling families is absolutely irresponsible.  We had the opportunity to increase drilling in Alaska, but Republicans are more interested in scoring political points than reducing gas prices.”

“For the sake of American consumers, I hope that cooler heads will eventually prevail and bring relief at the pump.  Unfortunately, the actions of Congressional Republicans have ensured that today will not be the beginning of that opportunity.  Both Democrats and Republicans should stop playing politics and work together to reduce gas prices for the American public.  ”

 

If you haven’t noticed yet, I like to use direct quotes a lot. I think it’s great to be able to hear (or at least read) politician’s opinions in their own words.

Here are statements from Rep. Charlie Wilson and Rep. Betty Sutton on the recent Medicare veto override.

“This is a victory for seniors and those with disabilities. By passing this legislation, Congress is preventing a 10.6% pay-cut to doctors who provide Medicare. This is especially important for Americans living in rural areas who have fewer choices when it comes to medical providers. If their doctors stopped taking Medicare, they could literally be left without a provider in the community. Today’s action makes sure that some of our most vulnerable citizens will continue to have affordable, reliable health care and be able to continue getting the care they need from the doctors they already know and trust. I’m proud that we were able to override the President’s veto and strengthen Medicare for America’s seniors.”

-- Rep. Charlie Wilson (OH-6)

“Today, we have achieved an important victory for our country’s seniors and families. The improvements in this bill will ensure that Medicare recipients can continue to see the doctors they know and trust, and receive the quality care they deserve. It will also ensure that physicians providing care will be fairly compensated.

“Sadly, this crucial legislation was nearly derailed by the President’s careless and ill-conceived veto.  If his veto had stood, it would have jeopardized healthcare access for the millions of seniors and other vulnerable Americans who rely on Medicare for their health coverage.  Thankfully, my colleagues and I stood up against the President, overriding his veto to turn this measure into law. 

“The well-being of our seniors is one of our most important responsibilities; with today’s vote we are upholding that duty.”

-- Rep. Betty Sutton (OH-13)

It was announced this morning that Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy has already agreed to debate Steve Stivers twice in the hotly contested 15th congressional district.

"There seems to be a tremendous amount of attention on this race, that is why we are happy to announce there will be debates this year between Mary Jo Kilroy and corporate lobbyist Steve Stivers."

-- Brad Bauman, Communications Director for Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress.

WOSU and AARP are each sponsoring one of the debates.

And Timken and Hoover have just laid off hundreds of Stark County residents, as Hoover was sold to a firm based in Hong Kong, and Timken? Well, hell, with the price of steel being what it is I'm not sure why they are laying people off. But still. Voters should know which candidate's campaign is funded by ordinary Ohioans and which one is funded by corporate magnates who are simultaneously killing jobs. 

Boicceri raised close to $400,000 in the 2nd Quarter and now has $531,000 on hand.  More than half of Boicceri's fundraising total this quarter came from small-dollar donations ($100 or less) while two-thirds of Schuring's cash was from the Timkens and the Hoovers.

Now, Schuring has tried to make light of the fact that Boicceri is getting a significant portion of his donations from outside the district. All I can say to that is, well, DUH. Boicceri's 33rd State Senate District is mostly in Mahoning County, where for all practical purposes the man is a saint. Of course his current constituents who believe he's doing a great job in the State Senate are going to donate towards his congressional campaign. 

Come to think of it, Sen. Schuring, why aren't more of your constiuents donating to your campaign? I mean, you do represent more than just the Timkens and the Hoovers in the State Senate, right?

Right?

Take that, Sen. McCain!

However, because the RNC continues to outraise the DNC, the Obama+DNC total of $72 million cash on hand is short of the McCain+RNC cash on hand total of close to $100 million cash on hand. 

While Barack can make up some of that difference, I'd say either the DNC isn't doing a very good job of fundraising, or else they are spending a little to freely right now. 

Today, John McCain had the gall to claim that he "knows how to win wars."

Yet another completely ridiculous claim that nobody in the MSM will bother to challenge.  John McCain served our country with amazing courage and dedication as a naval officer, fighter pilot, and a POW.  John McCain has done alot of things, and not because of his age, but one thing John McCain has never done is win a war.

John McCain did not win Vietnam.  Second, he hasn't always been right on matters of war.  Quite the contrary.

In 1993, John McCain opposed President Clinton's decision to send American troops into the Balkans.

"We need to be honest about one central fact: We have no way to predict the size, length and casualties of a peacemaking effort," he told the Senate on April 21.

"If we find ourselves involved in a conflict in which American casualties mount, in which there is no end in sight, in which we take sides in a foreign civil war, in which American fighting men and women have great difficulty distinguishing between friend and foe, then I suggest that American support for military involvement would rapidly evaporate."

Yeah, that's what John McCain said about sending American troops to Kosovo.  A military campaign he opposed in which there were no American casualities. 

"I never talk about Vietnam," he said last week during a talk in his Capitol Hill office. "I never relate stories about it. When I walked away from that place, it was over."

Except when campaigning in Pittsburgh when McCain has no problem pandering to sports fans there by claiming he told his captors the offensive line of the Steelers when asked for names of his fellow squandron mates (even though his autobiography suggested he gave names of the Green Bay Packers instead.  And apparently, simulatenously proving the torture does not yield credible intelligence at the same time.)

As for Bosnia, he said, there are better analogies.

"I think you can draw a parallel to the military challenge in Bosnia with what the Russians faced in Afghanistan," he said. "Even with ground forces and with overwhelming air superiority, they were unable to defeat a motivated, very capable enemy."

Yet, it never happened.

And we are to believe that John McCain "knows how to win wars" even when he can't get the basic facts of a warzone correct.

And he's such a foreign policy expert he's been chastising Russia's treatment recently of Czechoslovakia-- a country that ceased to exist only 15 years ago.  ("It's as if Russia doesn't believe that Czechoslovakia is a real sovereign country!")  You know, right around the same time that McCain was lecturing President Clinton about injecting the U.S. military in taking sides in a foreign civil war.

Oh, and pro-surge John McCain should really have a talk with pre-surge John McCain on Iraq, too:

“We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.” [CNN, 9/29/02]

“But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” [MSNBC, 1/22/03]

“But I believe, Katie, that the Iraqi people will greet us as liberators.” [NBC, 3/20/03]

“It’s clear that the end is very much in sight.” [ABC, 4/9/03]

“There’s not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shiahs. So I think they can probably get along.” [MSNBC, 4/23/03]

John McCain has never won a war.  John McCain has been wrong, deadly wrong on matters of war, including on the Iraq war.  Especially when he supported this President's unnecessary war in Iraq before we had finished our objectives in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama has been speaking for a year about how Iraq was harming our interests for success in Afghanistan and Pakistan and we needed more troops in that region.  John McCain?  After years of denying Obama's position that we needed more troops in Afghanistan, McCain just this week apparently realized that... we need more troops in Afghanistan.

Nobody can deny that John McCain is a war hero who served our country with extraordinary courage.  However, as true as that premise may be, it is equally untrue that John McCain's experience makes him well-versed on strategic decisions on matters of war.  In fact, his extensive record has indicated a rather naive understanding.

That's not leadership we can believe in.

[Update]:  Apparently, some in the MSM actually asked McSame as Bush how he's able to claim he knows how to win wars:

Asked later about the claim he knows how to win wars, McCain said such knowledge comes from his involvement in "all of the major national security challenges of the last 20 years." He mentioned the Iraq troop increase, the first Gulf War, the crises in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990's, and Vietnam, where he was both a Navy pilot and a prisoner of war.

Okay, McCain never made policy or strategic decisions in Vietnam (which he never mentions) and opposed the use of military force in Bosnia and Kosovo.  So, again, where exactly did John McCain develop his war-winning abilities?

If you have Windows XP on your computer, try this.

Open up a file in Windows Notepad

Type bush hid the facts

Save it as whatever you like

Close it and open it back up. 

The text is GONE. 

No wonder all those e-mails disappeared off the White House's computer!

Sorry about all the 18th district posts lately, but Dave over at NixGuy still seems to think that Fred Dailey still has a chance.

I remain sanguine.  Zack Space is running hot heavy and scared because he needs to, this is a +R district and Fred Dailey is no Noe.  The drilling issue could come in handy too.  Fred could use some attention from the nationals and a good close poll is all that is needed to do the trick.  That will come later.

Lets just take this apart and deal with it piece by piece:

Zack Space is running hot heavy

Of course Space is running hard, any candidate that isn’t doesn’t deserve to win. He has a huge cash advantage over Dailey, and most of that money is coming from small donors. Dailey, on the other hand, has pretty much done nothing.

The drilling issue could come in handy

I don’t completely agree with it, but just today Space signed on to co-sponsor the Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands (DRILL) Act. If passed, it will allow more drilling in Alaska. Read the press release for more information. The bill does have some good points though: it requires oil companies to drill on the land they already have rights to and ban foreign exporting of Alaskan oil. 

Fred could use some attention from the nationals and a good close poll is all that is needed to do the trick.  That will come later.

I can’t wait for credible polls to start pouring out of the 18th district. They won’t be close. Furthermore, the NRCC simply doesn’t have the resources to bail out Dailey’s laziness. But I encourage all Republicans everywhere to base their entire campaign around receiving help from the NRCC and the like.

Tim at Blogger Interrupted points out that Obama volunteers are needed in Parma this weekend to make phone calls.

From Tim's post:

Sunday, July 20, starting at 3 pm, going until 9pm, volunteers are needed to make persuasion calls out of the Parma office.

5580 Ridge Rd.  Just south of the Pearl Rd. intersection.  Easily accessible via I-480.

Please Call Katie on 860-450-6234, or email her at jhryder@gmail.com, for more info and to COMMIT!  Kinda need a hard count.  Bring your CELL PHONE, free weekend minutes users are needed, as phone lines are still being installed.