As many of you know, it’s the time of year when campaigns are required to file reports stating our financial status. As I stated in an email to supporters this morning, there is an incredible amount of momentum behind my campaign for Milwaukee County Supervisor right now.

I’m making a final push before the end of the year to turn that momentum into victory this spring.

If you have the means, consider a financial contribution of $10, $25, $50, or more to my campaign. Click here to do it online with a credit card… it only takes 2 minutes of your time and really makes a difference when I show how much momentum my campaign has when filing our financial disclosure statements.

In the world of politics, financial support is equated with campaign viability and also helps drive fund raising dollars down the road. When I can make a strong showing financially, it really really helps with that viability but more importantly with helping get my message out to the people in the 15th district.

Again, whatever you can contribute is greatly appreciated.

Have a happy and rewarding 2008!

Not great news for Rudy: His national poll numbers are now tied with Gov. Huckabee and his “firewall” strategy of losing everything up till the Florida primary is showing just how ill-conceived a plan it really was.

Since the beginning, I’ve been saying that the more Republican voters actually learn about Rudy, the less likely they’re going to be to support him, and you’re starting to see the polling reflect that.

The whole “strategy” of losing every primary up till Florida is about as much of a winning idea as letting the opposing team run up the score on you up till 2:00 left in the 4th quarter and then calling “hail mary” plays to win.

This is a good start to solving some of the energy problems the United States faces:

Congress by a wide margin approved the first increase in automobile fuel economy in 32 years Tuesday, and President Bush has signaled he will accept the mandates on the auto industry.

The energy bill, boosting mileage by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon, passed the House 314-100 and now goes to the White House, following the Senate’s approved last week.

…it requires new energy efficiency standards for an array of appliances, lighting and commercial and government buildings. AP

The only question I have about it is the increased reliance on ethanol produced solely from corn. With food prices skyrocketing over the past year, lowering the supply and increasing the demand for a basic food ingredient isn’t going to help. The increased demand on corn also drives up other food prices as farmers abandon traditional crops like wheat and soybeans to cash in on high corn prices, thus raising the prices for those crops as well.

Three weeks out from the first ballots being cast to decide who will be the candidates in the 2008 Presidential election, it’s Republican voters that seem to be in a particularly tough spot right now.

A lot of attention has been on Gov. Mike Huckabee over the past few weeks, and rightfully so. He has kept his head down, stayed out of the mud, and touted his religious beliefs and conservatism in an effective manner. All of which would be great if the extreme right fringe of his party didn’t hate him so much.

All you have to do is tune in to AM talk radio these days to get the big picture. The ultra-right has declared Huckabee persona non grata and committed their full wattage to trashing him ever since he attained “front runner” status. The reason they’ve redirected their attacks from Democratic frontrunners to Huckabee is simple: he’s not “conservative enough” for their tastes.

Which is not to say he isn’t conservative, because he is. It’s because in his time as Governor of Arkansas, he didn’t serve just those in the extreme right wing of his party. He worked to serve all of the residents of his state, and for some on the right, well that’s just unacceptable.

So the ultra-right wing of the Republican party is having a hard time finding someone who fits their exact requirements for what a conservative should be. Those requirements are something along the lines of:

- Never, ever, voted for a tax/fee increase no matter what the situation.
- Wants to ship illegal immigrants and their children who are American citizens back to wherever they came from.
- Believes the richest American’s should receive even more tax breaks.
- Has never worked on any kind of bi-partisan legislation.
- Says they’re a “person of faith”.
- Will start a war with Iran.

Some of the things that those same people don’t seem to have problems with:

- Infidelity.
- Changing their mind on important issues (a.k.a. flip flopping), a flip flop itself from the last election.
- Supporting gay rights as long as you promise to appoint conservative judges who will revoke said rights.
- Cross dressing.
- A womans right to choose as long as you promise to appoint conservative judges who will revoke said rights.

The problem for these folks who will only support someone who fits their static definition of what makes a “real conservative” is the rest of the Country, and even most of those in their own party doesn’t share their values with regards to those issues.

Most Americans want a reasonable person and not an idealogue as their next President. The ultra-right wing on the other hand want exactly the opposite, hence their relentless attacks on people like Gov. Huckabee right now. By all accounts, he’s a “reasonable” conservative, hence his rise in recent polls among other “reasonable” conservative voters.

I’m not saying that Gov. Huckabee is an ideal President, but when you look at the rest of the GOP field, he certainly stands out as the most reasonable and most electable in the minds of most conservative voters. That’s not to say he’ll win a general election either. For a number of reasons ranging from his soft support among hardcore Republicans to his complete lack of money, he’d get creamed in a general election.

When you have people who represent that ultra-right wing of the Republican party threatening at this early stage to boycott their party’s candidate and support a third party candidate who is more in line with the out of touch principles outlined above, it’s easy to see why the Republican party is in for a complete meltdown in the 2008 Presidential Election.

…and that’s not even counting what looks like another disastrous cycle for Congressional Republicans.

Hard to believe a year has passed since the previous round of talk about a “new way forward”, and how the Iraq Study Group was going to convince President Bush to end what it called a “grave and deteriorating” situation.

It was a year ago that we were told, again, that within the coming 6-12 months, the Iraqis would be able to take over security for their own country, it’s politicians would make progress that would end the sectarian violence, and families in the US could expect to see their loved ones return soon.

A year later, it’s easy to realize that not a whole lot has changed despite the promises that things would. We’ve got more troops in Iraq than we did last year, their military still isn’t able to “Stand up so we can stand down” (The motto of two years ago.), it’s politicians have made zero progress in 12 months, hundreds of billions of dollars have been charged to the next generations credit card, and nearly 1,000 more members of the U.S. military have been killed.