Brothers in Arms

A blogger at DailyKos thinks our senior senator is the guy.

I just love the speculation game so I decided to embark on a fun project. Given that the corporate media is usually wrong, I decided I was going to search for Obama's VP nominee.  First I had to act as if I have an IQ over 160.  Second, I wanted a name that nobody in the mainstream media has seriously mentioned.  Third, I wanted someone who made sense from a strategically and politically point of view not from the standpoint of who DFQ prefers.  

That means I was looking for someone older than 46 but younger than 72, preferably right around age 60.  I was looking for someone from a swing state or Bush voting state in 2004 that's been elected multiple times, someone with a long record of accomplishment, someone who has a few votes different from the Democratic base but not enough to irritate the base, someone forceful enough to speak out on issues but low key enough not to overshadow Obama, and someone who has truly bipartisan accomplishments.

And I found Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.

DailyKos (go read the whole thing)

(Or is it the Grand Forks Herald editors?)

I've felt, for months or years, like I was a lone voice, crying out in the night.

"Before we even think about cutting taxes or giving tax rebates to the people, we have to look at the state of our infrastructure," I've been saying forever.  (See here, here, here or sit near me at a political meeting sometime).  I completely understand that if the government has too much money that we need to do something to remedy that, but before we can say "the government has too much money," don't we have to look at the things we've been neglecting for the past 20 years?

And so here's an excerpt from the Jamestown Sun's editorial (from the GF Herald?) today:

North Dakota ought to approach its surplus as a dairy farmer would a windfall. The farmer would fix the milking machine.

There’s plenty broken in North Dakota that needs fixing. Property taxes are way too high, for example, because the state spends less than it should for schools. This leaves local school districts to provide the cost of education, and their only source of revenue is the property tax. The situation isn’t any better in the higher education system, which is chronically underfunded. The buildings and grounds director on every campus can show off drafty windows, leaky roofs and cracked sidewalks.

This deteriorating infrastructure isn’t limited to the campuses. The International Peace Garden, the state’s signature attraction, needs funds to repair several buildings. State parks are in similar condition.

Jamestown Sun

 Really?  We have deteriorating infrastructure!?!  Say it isn't so! 

Check out this from the American Society of Civil Engineers:

Key Infrastructure Facts (2005)

· Vehicle travel on North Dakota’s highways increased 26% from 1990 to 2003.
· The North Dakota Department of Transportation has a $1.45 billion maintenance backlog.
· Driving on roads in need of repair costs North Dakota motorists $62 million a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs—$135 per motorist.
· 24% of North Dakota’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
· There are 17 statedetermined deficient dams in North Dakota.
· North Dakota has 20 high hazard dams. high hazard dam is defined as a dam whose failure would cause a loss of life and significant property damage.
· The rehabilitation cost for North Dakota’s most critical dams is $25.7 million.
· North Dakota’s drinking water infrastructure needs $490 million over the next 20 years.
· North Dakota has $52 million in wastewater infrastructure needs.
· North Dakota generates 1.01 tons of solid waste per capita.
· North Dakota recycles 9.4% of the state's solid waste.
· 49% of North Dakota’s schools have at least one inadequate building feature.
· 62% of North Dakota’s schools have at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition.

American Society of Civil Engineers

By looking at those numbers, it's not very hard to figure out what our leaders should be doing with $1.2 billion in government surplus.

But it's probably worse than that.  Although some money has been spent on infrastructure since 2005, hundreds or thousands of oil trucks have been pounding the crap out of our road system during that entire time.  If you've driven our roads lately, you know things are worse now and not better.  

A gripe I have with the editorial, though, is that the first "broken" thing they say we have in North Dakota is high property taxes.  That may be true (but it may not be true), but we won't know whether it's true until the state properly funds education and takes care of the neglected infrastructure.

We have all these initiated measures out there with their proponents using Heritage Foundation-style focus-grouped language like "Do you think your government knows how to spend your money better than you do?"  Well, obviously this particular bunch doesn't.  They want to blindly cut personal income taxes and cut corporate income taxes and sock away oil tax revenue for a few years while the schools, highways and other government buildings fall apart.  That's a horrible way to run a government but it's what they've been doing for years.  They're letting our state's infrastructure fall apart so they can give handouts to themselves, to the oil companies and to other big business types.

It's time to figure out whether the milking machine needs to be fixed.  

Here's what I would propose:  The Governor (or some legislative leaders) should form an "infrastructure task force."  Tell the task force that it is a "macro" group and not a "micro" group.  "Be good fact checkers, but don't focus on the minutia too much," they should be told.  Have them put together a comprehensive report on the status of North Dakota's State, City and County infrastructures.  (I know.  Maybe it should just be limited to state.  I'm just brainstorming here.)  The task force's report should tell the citizens how good or bad the bridges, highways and streets look and give us three options on how much time and money need to be focused on each.  Tell us how good or bad the K-12 infrastructure looks (Note:  remember; the state constitution says the state legislature is supposed to fund K-12 education).  The report should tell us how good or bad the university system's buildings and grounds look and what it would cost to bring up to average.  It should tell us how the city and county road departments look.  Are they operating with 19th century equipment?  If so, tell us what needs to be done to bring them into the 20th Century (at least).  It should be a big picture look at the entire state government, at least, and also a look at county and city governments too.  The title should be "How are we doing?"  The most important page(s) would be the summary.

Think about it:  Who -- today -- has comprehensive knowledge of the state of our state?  Our governor hasn't been out from his desk long enough to know.  The legislative leaders don't.  I doubt there's a state agency that has a good, big-picture perspective.  Neither political party knows.  The American Society of Civil Engineers painted a more comprehensive picture than anybody else seems to have done, but it's still only a partial picture, and it doesn't look very good.  If we had a real manager somewhere in state government -- or a dairy farmer -- they'd want a big picture perspective on how far behind we are on taking care of the milking machine.

I think the voters have a right to make an informed decision on the oil tax trust fund measure and on the personal and corporate property tax measure.  When we vote on these measures, we have a right to make informed decisions.  We will not be informed voters unless a reliable review is done and a report issued telling the citizens where we stand today.  Without such a report, we'll be voting with our eyes closed.

The problems today are (1) that there isn't much time to get it done; and (2) that we've seen what we get from this bunch when you ask for an "independent" review of something.  Hoeven would appoint some self-interested, agenda-driven prostitute to do the review and write up the report and it would say whatever Hoeven had said -- in advance -- he wants it to say.

Oh well.  It was a good idea while it lasted.

P.S.  Republicans always steal Democrat's ideas.  Anybody want to place any bets on how long before Hoeven comes out with a revolutionary plan to form a task force so that the people can be informed on the initiated measures when they vote?

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Did you see North Dakota's own John Hoeven had a letter to the editor in his Grand Forks Herald today? 

We already have proposed plans to increase education funding and provide real property tax relief to the people of North Dakota — and we intend to do more. With our growing revenues, we cannot only provide additional broad-based tax relief, but we also can do more for priorities such as education, college tuition assistance, healthcare, strong law enforcement, and roads and infrastructure.

With a clear and aggressive focus on...

Grand Forks Herald

(Sorry.  Couldn't resist.)

Here is the opinion column out of the Forum on Friday:

Today’s issue: House Speaker says no to a vote on off-shore oil drilling.

Our position: Despite her pledge, she’s engaging in partisan politics of the worst kind.

Ok, where do I begin on this one? I have to laugh at the idea that not holding a vote on something that will have less effect on American's gas costs than...oh, say...keeping your tires properly inflated is “partisan politics of the worst kind...”

Which congress of the last 16 years do you want me to start with? How about Newt Gingrich in 1995, refusing to pass a budget and shutting down the government for nearly a month. That cost us, the taxpayer an estimated $1.4 Billion in lost revenue and increased expenses, according to the Financial Post article on it in 1996. Look up the reference in Broken Government by John Dean. Appendix B. How about wasting the congress's time with impeaching a president because of a lie about an affair?  (“But Adam, you just wrote a scathing article about the affair of John Edwards.” I did, and I am extremely disappointed in him about it, but I don't think a lie makes someone incapable of holding an office. I wouldn't vote for someone I knew had lied to me, but I wouldn't throw them out of office because of it. Impeachment is a tool that has no criminal implications. It is used by the congress for the express purpose of removing a public official from office because they abused that office's power. It is a waste of time to use such a tool as a partisan witch hunt.) How about Tom “The Hammer” Delay holding the vote on CAFTA open for over an hour after the typical fifteen minutes had expired so they could buy a few more votes to screw over the american people and ship their jobs to banana republics in Central america? That cost $47 billion in arm-twisting and bought votes on our(the taxpayer's) bankroll, plus tons of jobs lost to people making pennies an hour, of which I have no count... Not to mention the Republicans' abuse of the motion to recommit, quorum rules and a record of 90 filibusters in order to protect their corporate backers this session. All those apparently are nothing compared to not holding a vote on offshore drilling(which pretty much everyone(even top McCain people) agrees will give no immediate relief to people at the pump).

Please...

If there is one thing the Republicans have shown for the 14 years that have held the majority in congress, it's that they do not compromise. It's finally time for the Democrats to play some hardball and remind the Republican caucus that they are the minority, and that as such, they do not control the agenda anymore.

So, to those Republicans talking in the house chamber with no lights a hijacked sound system and no CSPAN cameras, do us a favor.

Sit down and shut up.  We aren't listening.

And to Zel Miller and the rest of the Forum Editorial board:

Pipe down, and check your tires.

By now most of you have heard about John Edwards' acknowledgment of his affair in 2006. I cannot express how deeply disappointed I am in him. This is not about his affair, though.  I couldn't care less about their personal lives. That is his own business, and ought to remain as such. The reason I am disappointed in John is that this all happened in 2006, before Edwards launched his campaign. He should have known then that if this got out his political career would be dead. He went on to campaign for the presidency in the most important campaign, at least in my lifetime(if not in our nation's history), where victory is the Democrats' to lose. With so much riding on this, and with a perfect out in Elizabeth's diagnosis of terminal cancer, they went ahead and decided to campaign, and when asked about it, they made the campaign lie about it. There are a lot of people now with a lot of egg on their face. There are numerous staffers who were fed a lie, and told to parrot it, their supporters were fed a lie, and of course they parroted it, and this week, at least two bloggers (here , and here ) that I know of were banned and ridiculed by the Daily Kos community for issues related to the reporting on this story.

What continues to frustrate me about any politician that gets himself into one of these scandals is not that they have an affair. That should always be a personal matter for that politician and their spouse. That matter becomes one of public discourse when they say one word: “No.” When you deny an affair that you did in fact have, you turn the issue public, and when you are found out, you deserve every bit of the beating that comes your way. You have lied to the public. It doesn't matter about what, you have lied, and your character goes through the floor. John lied to to his staffers, his supporters, and to the American public. I will support any person who when asked about such a question, “you know what? That is absolutely none of your business. My personal life is not grounds for public discussion, and reporting on things like this is beneath the public discourse,” because it is. The minute you lie to me though, you lose my respect for you as a public figure, and my support as a candidate for any public office.

Every president that I have been alive for has told the public a bald-faced lie(Regan: Iran Contra, Bush I:Read my lips, Clinton: Monicagate, Bush II:ummmmm...everything...).   For once, just once, I would like to have a president that would tell me the truth, even if they pay for it politically.  

I'm hoping...

I really am...

P.S.I should also note that Elizabeth Edwards posted a statement to the Daily Kos community here .  I will quote her last sentence.

I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.

 

I'll shut up about this and move on now to important stuff now.  I have a bone to pick with the Forum editorial board for Friday's column... Hopefully later today or early tomorrow I'll have a topic to discuss that...you know...matters...

Short Skirt, Long Jacket

My Pick.

Watch this, too.  (" target="_blank" title="Same">Click here.)

Bohemian Rhapsody

By request.