Doing the Right Things: An American Hero

A lot of citizens complain.

A lot of politicians talk.

But year in and year out, Senator Russ Feingold does something about the problems of America. No, I am not working in his campaign, but I think he is one of the most under-rated people in U.S. government.

Senator Russ Feingold is one of my heroes. He isn't particularly charismatic, but from everything I read about the man, he is one of the most visionary leaders in the Senate, and has more integrity than anyone I can think of in our federal government.

Feingold is, I suppose a liberal. (He has long championed fiscal restraint, and that puts him to the right of a lot of members of the Bush administration.) He is definately a Democrat from Wisconsin, and carrys on that state's legacy of progressivism. Here are a sampling of the causes he has championed: an end to the death penalty, campaign finance reform (he co-authored the bill with John McCain who got most of the publicity), he voted against Alberto Gonzalez and in 2001, said that we were rushing into passing the Patriot Act, and was the ONLY SENATOR that voted against it.

He has recently introduced three bills to curb the excesses of the Patriot Act.

He was a Rhodes Scholar and graduated from Harvard Law School. He has been in the Senate since 1992 and I hope he keeps fighting the good fight for a long time.

Check him out.

Alberto Gonzales

The Senate voted to confirm him today, but the Democrats showed strong opposition. Although there was never any doubt that the Republicans would confirm him since they control the Senate, the 36 Senators voting "no" sent a strong message to the Bush White House and the world that we are serious in our opposition to the use of torture.

I think the Senate Democrats have laid the ground work for mounting a strong opposition to future right wing nominees.

Send a note of thanks to our Senators, Murray and Cantwell for voting "no". Here is the message I sent to both of them through their web sites:

Senators:

Thank you very much for having the courage to vote "no" on the vote to ratify Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. You took a principled stand for some of the most cherished principles in our constitutional system.

Although he was confirmed, I believe that the large number of "no" votes sent an important message to the Bush Administration: The American people will not tolerate any use of torture or violations of basic human rights by our government. Your vote helps to encourage me that the United States of America is still a place where the rule of law matters and that we can reclaim our reputation around the world. The United States can still exercise strong moral leadership in this world if we display the kind of commitment to protecting human rights that you demonstrated today.

Let us hope that Mr. Bush is more careful in future
appointments because of the vote you and 35 others cast today.

By the way, I don't get how John McCain, a former POW and victim of torture by the North Vietnamese, was able to bring himself to vote for Gonzales. I guess a man who wants the White House bad enough is willing to compromise on just about anything to stay in the good graces of the Party.

Social Security Reform

I will give the Bush White House this much: the State of the Union speech was well written and it gave some details about what the Bush agenda will be in the next few years. However, those details are not to impressive. For all of the talk about how much change this will bring to the Social Security system, it just sounds like a bad deal when you look at the details. According to the Washington Post:

Under the proposal, workers could invest as much as 4 percent of their wages subject to Social Security taxation in a limited assortment of stock, bond and mixed-investment funds. But the government would keep and administer that money. Upon retirement, workers would then be given any money that exceeded inflation-adjusted gains over 3 percent.

That money would augment a guaranteed Social Security benefit that would be reduced by a still-undetermined amount from the currently promised benefit.

In effect, the accounts would work more like a loan from the government, to be paid back upon retirement at an inflation-adjusted 3 percent interest rate — the interest the money would have earned if it had been invested in Treasury bonds, said Peter R. Orszag, a Social Security analyst at the Brookings Institution and a former Clinton White House economist.

State of the Union

Okay, the speech is tonight. Let me know what you think of what "W" had to say tonight. "Glittering generalities" or was there some substance? Sensible plan on Social Security or a false crisis being drummed up to privatize the system? A plan to get out of Iraq or wishful thinking?

By the way, call or e-mail your Senators now! Ask them to vote no on making Alberto Gonzales the new Attorney General! We don't need someone in that position that will play legal games with the definition of torture. We are supposed to be all about rights, due process, fairness. Send this guy back to Texas. He doesn't belong in OUR federal government - we have respect for the rule of law - we don't try to redefine it to torture prisoners. AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!