John McCain Gets Zero Rating from League of Conservation Voters

John McCain missed so many votes last year in Congress that he scored a zero on the League of Conservation Voters 2007 ratings. He was the only Senator to miss all of the key environmental votes used in the scoring.

As LCV noted in their recent press release:

"The presidential candidates' scores all suffered from the occupational hazard of absenteeism. Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) missed four votes each in 2007, although both made a point of being on hand for the key vote that would have allowed a version of the energy bill to move forward that included a provision to repeal billions of dollars in tax breaks for big oil and put that money toward clean energy programs.

Clinton’s score in 2007 was 73 percent (87 percent lifetime); Obama’s was 67 percent (86 percent lifetime). * Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) scored 0 percent in 2007 (24 percent lifetime) due to missing all 15 votes scored, including the key vote on repealing tax giveaways to big oil – a measure that failed by only one vote."

McCain's LCV ratings:
0 (2007), 41 (2005-2006), 56 (2003-2004), 36 (2001-2002), 6 (1999-2000)

Obama's LCV ratings:
67 (2007), 96 (2005-2006)

Clinton's LCV ratings
73 (2007), 89 (2005-2006), 92 (2003-2004), 88 (2001-2002)

Of the other Presidential candidates who have dropped out of the race Joe Biden missed 4 of the environmental votes used in the rating in 2007 and received a score of 67. Christopher Dodd missed 6 of the environmental votes in 2007 and received a score of 60. Dennis Kucinich missed 3 of the environmental votes in the House and received a score of 80.

Hillary Clinton Receives a Standing Ovation at Texas Debate

It's worth taking a look. I stumbled across the U-Tube posting at the democraticunderground site.

You can view the clip by clicking on "Clinton Heartfelt Answer at TX Debate - only standing ovation of the night"

You can catch other segments of the debate by going to CNN which has 20 different clips of
the debate between Hillary and Barack.

Whether or not Hillary Clinton ultimately wins the nomination, Democrats are lucky to have both her and Barack Obama as our frontrunners. There is really not a lot of difference between the two candidates as far as the issues go.

When I listened to both of them when they were in Seattle just before the Washington state caucuses, their positions on the issues they talked about were almost identical.

Legislature Completes First Step in Passing Priorities for a Healthy Washington Bills

The environmental community is half way home this year in enacting their top four legislative bills collectively called Priorities for a Healthy Washington . The following four bills are still alive and moving, after having been passed by their house of origin in the Washington State Legislature before the Feb 19, 2008 cutoff date. They must now be passed by the other house.

* Climate Action and Green Jobs passed the House, 64 – 31.
* Local Solutions to Global Warming passed the Senate, 31 – 17.
* Evergreen Cities passed the House, 73 – 22.
* Local Farms – Healthy Kids passed the House, 95 -1;
companion legislation passed the Senate, 48 – 0.

Brief Description of bills taken from a recent e-mail from Priorities for a Healthy Washington:

* Climate Action and Green Jobs: The Climate Action & Green Jobs bill would lay the framework for limiting the sources and activities that cause the greatest amounts of global warming pollution in the state. It will also establish a program to prepare Washington workers for good jobs in the clean energy economy.

* Local Solutions to Global Warming: The choices made in local land use and zoning plans about where a growing population will live and work and how they will get around have a huge impact on global warming emissions. Local Solutions to Global Warming will help cities and counties shape communities in ways that will reduce climate pollution.

* Evergreen Cities: The Evergreen Cities bill would restore, retain and establish more trees and forests in our communities. The bill would also leverage partnerships with volunteers to steward the urban forests and provide funding for cities' and counties' forest plans.

* Local Farms - Healthy Kids: By getting more Washington fruits and vegetables into our schools, we can improve children’s health and create new and thriving markets for our farmers. The Local Farms – Healthy Kids bill will help preserve farmland and will expand children’s access to locally grown produce through our schools, food banks and farmers markets.

You can help keep the momentum going to pass these bills by contacting your representatives in the Washington State Legislature. Click on this Legislative link to find your legislators and send them an e-mail thanking them for their action to date and urging that they complete action by passing all four of the Priorities for a Healthy Washington bills coming from the other house.

Obama Tops Clinton in Wisconsin

Senator Clinton was not able to turn around Wisconsin and stop voters going to Obama. It seems that mistakes made by the Clinton campaign are getting harder to turn around as Obama's organizing effort is paying off. He has now won contests in 9 states in a row.

As reported by the NY Times, "With 83 percent of the electoral precincts in Wisconsin reporting, Mr. Obama had 58 percent of the vote to Mrs. Clinton’s 41 percent."

Obama is using skills drawn from community organizing to win. He has invested in working the grassroots which can be effective particularly in caucus states.

When Clinton came to Seattle to speak, her campaign had a few people in the back trying half heartedly to get people to sign up. They did not work the crowd which waited for over an hour for Hillary to come to speak.

Obama's people worked the crowd and someone told me that they got an email from the campaign the next day. Now that's turn around and obviously builds the mailing and contributor base aggressively.

A number of years ago when Senator Bill Bradley came to the Pike Place Market to speak I noticed the same half hearted effort by his supporters to get people signed up. It was a tell tale sign that he did not know how to build a campaign at the grassroots level and his campaign did not build momentum.

The word is that the Clinton campaign took too much for granted and besides ignoring grassroots efforts to build a campaign in caucus and other states, they thought it would all be over on Feb 5, 2008 and did not put into place aggressive campaigns for states after Feb 5, 2008.

It's kind of funny, people are criticizing Hillary for her attempts to confront Obama head on. Actually she is still throwing him softballs. McCain and the Republicans are not going to be so nice and it remains to be seen if Senator Obama, if he emerges victorious from Ohio and Texas, will be up for hardball with McCain.

It would be a tactical mistake for either him or Clinton to not be emotionally prepared for a vigerous onslaught from the Republicans. The Republicans are not going to quietly leave the stage. Republican have a knack even when they disagree of eventually seeing the value of closing ranks and working as one voice.

The Republicans in Congress, when they were in power did that. And even in the minority now, they have closed ranks, particularly in the US Senate, to limit the legislation Democrats have been able to pass so far.

You can expect McCain to accuse the Democrats of abandoning our soldiers and American honor with the Democrat's plans to pull out of Iraq if they take over the Presidency.

We need to remember that the real battle is not between Hillary and Barack, but between McCain and the Democratic nominee. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination is going to have to bring the Democratic Party together and remind them that the difference between Hillary and Barack is miniscule compared to that with McCain.

Supporters of both candidates are passionate and will be tempted to be bitter if their candidate loses. The first task of the eventual nominee will be to bring Democrats together reminding them of their common goals.

Democrats are making history in their choosing a nominee, but the real prize is the Presidency, not the Democratic nomination. There's still a long ways to go before we can change America for the better.

Eyman Running Initiative Campaign without Filing Required Reports with Public Disclosure Commission

Tim Eyman and friends are once again in violation of Washington State's Public Disclosure laws. This morning MajorityRulesBlog filed an official compliant with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission regarding the lack of filing of campaign contributiuon and expenditure reports for Initiative 985.

In a phone call this morning I confirmed with the PDC that there was no error on their part - no reports have been received by them from Eyman besides a C1pc on initial formation of a committee entitled Reduce Congestion.org on January 3, 2008. ReduceCongestion.org has not updated this report with any additional information or reported any contributions or expenditures as of today, Feb 14, 2008. The deadline for filing Jan reports is Feb 10, 2008.

Yet they have sent mailings to people soliciting money, have a website up asking for money on behalf of ReduceCongestion.org which they secured on Dec. 18, 2007 , and are sending out e-mail asking for money.

Voters Want More Choices notes a Dec 30, 2007 pledge to Reduce Congestion.org of $42,029,77 yet there is no report from Reduce Congestion.org of any such pledge. There is also a Feb 11, 2008 report by Help Us Help Taxpayers for a pledge made in January of $7,650.02 to ReduceCongestion.org for January office compensation.

ReduceCongestion.org (Initiative 985) has printed up and mailed out petitions yet there are no reported expenses of any kind by the campaign. For all intents and purposes anyone checking public disclosure records whould be lead to falsely believe that no money has been raised or spent on behalf on Initiative 985 by Reduce Congestion.org . This is obviously false.

Time for Congress and States to Pass the Women's Equality Amendment

It used to be called the Equal Rights Amendment. Now some are calling it the Women's Equality Amendment. First passed by Congress in 1971, it fell 3 states short of being added to the US Constitution. Thirty five state legislatures passed it, including Washington State in 1973. Three quarters of the states or 38 are needed for passage.

The 15 states that have not ratified the ERA are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

Notice the association of states not passing the amendment with our current list of Presidential candidates. John McCain - Arizona, Barack Obama - Illinois and Hillary Clinton who lived in Arkansas when her husband was Governor.

To date some 23 states have added equal rights amendments to their state constitutions. Washington State voters did so in 1972.

Action to pass the equal right amendment is proceeding on several fronts. The Equal Rights Amendment was re-introduced last year in Congress as the Women's Equality Amendment. The proposed Constitutional Amendment "prohibits denying or abridging equality of rights under the law by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

The Women's Equality Amendment has unfortunately languished in committee. It's been 37 years and its time for the Democrats to use their majority to move the issue forward. As Eleanor Smeal noted in a talk on public radio "We’re the only industrial country in the world right now that has not ratified theUnited Nations Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Sex Discrimination."

In the US Senate the Women's Equality Amendment is S.J. Res 10 and has 24 sponsors including Democratic Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barrack Obama, one of whom will be the Democratic nominee for President. The Republican's most likely nominee, Senator John McCain is not listed as a sponsor.

Washington State Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray are also sponsors.

The House bill, H.J. Res 40 has 202 sponsors. All of Washington's Democratic Congressmen (Brian Baird, Rick Larsen, Adam Smith, Jim McDermott, Jay Inslee and Norman Dicks) are sponsors of the House Resolution but Washington State Republicans Dave Reichert, Cathy McMorris Rogers and Doc Hastings are absent as sponsors. If Dave Reichert is defeated by Democrat Darcy Burner this November you will see another co-sponsor for sure.

As EqualRightsAmendment.org notes, the issue is still very much alive even without further Congressional action:

"A three-state strategy for ERA ratification was developed after 1992, when the so-called Madison Amendment to the Constitution was ratified 203 years after its passage by Congress. Acceptance of this ratification period as “sufficiently contemporaneous” led ERA supporters to argue that Congress has the power to
maintain the legal viability of the ERA’s existing 35 state ratifications. The ERA’s time limit is open to change, as Congress demonstrated in extending its original deadline. Precedent holds that rescission votes are not valid. Therefore, Congress could accept state ratifications that occur after 1982 and keep the existing 35 ratifications alive."

It seems appropriate and timely to ask McCain, Clinton and Obama to use their campaigns to bring this issue to the forefront again and urge action by both the remaining states and Congress to pass the Women's Equality Amendment. Let's see some leadership in action. Let's move America forward.

If McCain isn't willing to support the amendment, the public has a right to know that. To date he appears not to, by his not signing on as a co-sponsor of S.J. Res 10. But if he is for it, he should let the public know.

Obama Wins Washington, Louisiana, Nebraska and Virgin Islands

Obama gained 67.5% of the delegate vote in the Washington State caucuses on Saturday to Clinton's 31.2% and 1.2% uncommitted. Individual delegate counts by county can be seen on the Washington State Democratic website. The caucus system will ultimately select 78 delegates to the national convention with an additional 19 Super Delegates of party officials and elected Democrats.

Obama also won 67.5% of the delegates in Nebraska's caucuses to Clinton's 32.2%. Nebraska will select 24 pledged delegates from the caucus system plus 7 Super Delegates will also go to the National Convention.

Obama won the Louisiana Presidential Primary with 57% of the vote to Clinton's 36%. Louisiana has 56 pledged delegates and 10 Super Delegates.

Obama received 90% of the vote in the Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands have 3 pledged delegates and 6 Super Delegates.

Hillary Delivers Rousing Speech at Waterfront Rally

It had the feel and passion of a real campaign. And the crowd sensed it and picked up on it. More than 5000 people packed into the Pier 30 warehouse and adjoining room. Many were not able to get in the main room. Cars were bumper to bumper along the waterfront and and parked everywhere. And people streamed along the sidewalk. Many parked over a mile away.

The event was in an out of the way place with no bus connection but people still found their way. I asked a number of people around me if they were just curious or undecided or committed and most were strong Clinton backers and said they were definitely attending the caucuses on Saturday at 1 PM.

Hillary flew in from Virginia and roused the crowd which had patiently waited about an hour for her arrival. Former Governor Gary Locke and King County Executive Ron Sims and Congressman Jay inslee gave brief comments but the main event was Hillary and she did not disappoint.

Clinton started about by noting that Congressman Norm Dicks is now supporting her, joining Inslee, Sims, Locke, Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, Lt Governor Brad Owen and Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon.

Clinton said this election is about the future of our country - we can either have more of the same with John McCain or we can go in a new direction with the Democrats. It is not an ordinary time. She said we can become an innovation nation pushing for clean energy and combatting global warming like Washington State is taking the lead on.

"We need a President ready on Day One, a President with ideas and know how ... a commander in chief and a hands on manager" because there is "so much damage to repair" from the Bush Presidency.

She made a strong plug for a new energy future based on green jobs because we need "to transform how we use energy" describing it as "one of the most important challenges facing us." She asked people to join with her in pushing for clean energy "to transform America and the world so that the future is there for our children and grandchildren and the next generation."

Clinton said as President she would make sure the American government is on the side of all Americans, not just the wealthy; calling it "unfair that a $50 million/yr investment banker" pays a lower percentage of their income in taxes "than a $50,000/ year teacher."

"It's not right to give tax aid" to companies "moving jobs out of America". Stressing the need to create new jobs and be responsible, Clinton said Bush squandered it all on war in Iraq. "George Bush left us so deep in debt, we borrow money from China, to pay for oil we buy from Saudi Arabia." The crowd roared.

"Our greatest hope is clean renewable energy" stressed Clinton. She detailed her proposals for green jobs, praising the work of Senator Cantwell and Congressman Jay Inslee pushing for more renewable energy and touting the potential for green jobs and exportable technology.

Included was a proposal to creat a Strategic Energy Fund out of money received by ending the excess profits given to oil companies like Exxon Mobil that received special tax breaks that have contributed to their record profits at the expense of American consumers.

Saying she would work for a new agreement on greenhouse gases within a year of her becoming President, she emphasized it would include China and India. But she noted "We can't do it until the two oilmen leave the White House." Again the crowd cheered.

On other issues she said she would "end the Bush War on Science." She will ask Congress to send her the stem cell research bill and she would sign it.

She detailed her proposal on universal health care and called it the "public passion of her life".
Everyone would be covered. It would include prevention and ending the stignma of mental illness. She said she would "open up the Congressional Health Care System to the public" and make it available to every American.

Clinton said we needed to stop home foreclosures by setting up a moratorium on them , freezing interest rates to stop excessive rate jumps and allowing homeowners the ability to renegotate their mortgages.

On education she will work for universal preschool kindergarten, ending the unfunded mandate of Bush's leave no child behind and making college affordable again. She talked about ending the private loan business for colleges and putting the public back in charge by offering government loans at low rates and giving graduates options to have their loans forgiven for doing public service, like teaching, calling it an investment in our country.

On Bush's cronyism in appointing his friends and business assocaites to positions of public trust, Clinton roused the crowd by saying "We need to clean house from top to bottom" and "appoint qualified people to government" in order "to restore leadership and moral authority."

She said it was time to bring the troops home, noting her inquires to date have found no credible plan by the Bush Administration as to how to do that. Starting to bring the troops home will "tell Iraq that Bush's blank check is no longer valid" and that the Iraquis "have to start making their own decisions" for their people.

Saying Bush "has emboldened our enemies and endangered our allies" Clinton stressed that "the era of cowboy diplomacy is over." and it is time to lead with our values again. Force should be "a last resort, not a first resort."

Clinton ended her impassioned speech by urging the audience to help elect a President who is a fighter and who champions the American people and finds common ground and acts on it. She said America needs to be infused with a common purpose - to make America better for our kids and the middle class. "We need a President who gets it", who will roll up the sleeves and make it happen said Clinton.

Several hundred people milled around the front of the room for the next half hour, holding their cameras and cell phones above their heads, snapping pictures, pressing to shake her hand, say a word or get a poster signed. Campaign workers collected contact iformation as people exited.

For more on the Clinton campaign in Washington go to HillaryClinton.com.

Click here for information on where your Democratic caucus is on Saturday, Feb 9, 2008.

More stories:
Seattle Times "In Seattle, Clinton vows "new direction" for U.S."
Seattle PI "Join Me to Change the World - Clinton Touts Experience to 5000 on Waterfront

John McCain to Visit Washington State Tomorrow

The phone rang. It was one of those automated calls - from the John McCain campaign saying he's going to come visit the State of Washington tomorrow. It was a "chance for Republicans to meet McCain before the Saturday caucuses."

I hope he's making calls to others like me, because I'm a Democrat and he's wasting his time and money on me if he thinks I'm going to vote for him. But I'm a blogger and I might go to see him after I've seen Hillary tonight at Pier 30, 2431 E Marginal Way S on the Seattle Waterfront -South of Pioneer Square at 8:00 PM and Barack tomorrow at 11:00 AM at the Seattle Key Arena, 305 Harrison St.

I wonder if George is coming with John to the "Meet and Greet" as the McCain website calls the event. By the way McCain will be at the Westin Hotel, 1900 5th Ave in Seattle at 6 P.M. Friday Feb 8, 2007 in case anyone wants to see the Republican that Democrats are going to trounce in November.

McCain Closes in on Nomination as Romney Suspends Campaign

CNN reports that three separate Republican sources say that Mitt Romney will announce this afternoon that he is suspending his campaign for President. Despite protests from some conservatives that McCain is no conservative, he has just received a giant boost in his bid to be the Republican nominee for President.

What some of these conservatives don't seem to realize is that the county and many voters have moved beyond the divisive and self righteous conservatism of Bush and Rove that emphasized issues like abortion, religion and morality while taking us to war in Iraq, putting the economy in a tailspin and producing a divided America that isn't solving its problems.

Unfortunately McCain sees us in Iraq for the next 100 years and now says that he wants to make the Bush temporary "tax cuts" permanent so that the more wealthy in our country can continue to not pay their fair share. Obviously many Republicans see McCain as conservative enough and have more faith in him than people like Huckabee or Romney.

Poor Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson and others on the ultra right fringe are losing some of their clout and some of their credibility as they are crying over losing their so called influence over Republican voters. To me it seems fairly ludricious, since McCain's positions on most issues are very conservative.

Hillary Clinton, Barrack and Michelle Obama To Visit Washington State.

Saturday Feb. 9, 2008 at 1 P.M. is caucus day in Washington state. Hillary Clinton is coming to Washington State tomorrow, Thursday Feb 7, 2008. Barack and Michele Obama are coming Friday Feb. 8, 2008 . And Bill Clinton is going to Maine which has a caucus on Sunday.

Neil Modie at the Seattle PI has a good roundup of the frantic scheduling that is going on now that the Presidential race is focusing on Washington State which has the largest block of delegates of the states that vote or caucus on Saturday.

Washington State has 97 Democratic delegates to be selected. Nebraska with 31 Democratic delegates also caucuses on Saturday. Louisiana with 67 Democratic delegates and the Virgin Islands with 9 Democratic delegates will have presidential primaries.

Hillary Clinton will have a free event open to the public at Pier 60 on the Seattle Waterfront starting at 8 P.M. to 10 P.M. The address is 2431 E Marginal Way S.

Modie's article says her tentative plans include being in Tacoma on Friday morning and also Spokane.

Barack Obama has scheduled a free rally for Friday at 11:00 AM at Seattle's Key Arena.

His wife, Michelle Obama, will be speaking at a free event in Spokane at 4 P.M. at the FOX Theater, 1001 Sprague St. Doors open at 3 P.M.

Republicans will select half of their delegates on Saturday at caucuses and half based on the results of the Presidential Primary scheduled for Tuesday Feb. 19, 2008. The Democrats will use the precinct caucuses on Saturday to select delegates and ignore the Primary results.

To find where your caucus meets on Saturday go to:

Democratic caucus: http://www.wa-democrats.org/; (206) 583-4345.
Republican caucus: http://www.wsrp.org/; (206) 575-2900.

Democrats Clinton and Obama Battle to a Draw on Super Tuesday.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama split the spoils of Super Tuesday down the middle. Out of some 11 million votes cast and reported as of 10 PM Pacific Time they were only 5000 votes apart.

In projected delegate count they also split, 451 for Clinton to 438 for Obama. These are not the final counts and are only projected totals for the day. Missouri is still too close to call as is New Mexico.

A good place to go to see the final results are posted at the Seattle Times and the New York Times elections pages.

Clinton has won the states of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. These are all primary states.

Obama won primaries in Alabama , Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, and Illinois. He won all of the caucus states - Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and Utah and is leading in Alaska. This makes sense in that caucuses work well for a candidate with a dedicated, passonate and committed grassroots presence.

The problem remains that a caucus vote, while winning delegates, does not accuartely reflect the actual vote total because the Democrats are only reporting delegates selected. This is misleading in determining the actual voting strength of a candidate and also does not reflect the candidates actual appeal among the broader voting population that will be voting in November. The delegate count is more accurartely a reflection of grassroots organization strength than it is of voter appeal. And caucus rules vary from state to state.

We have written previously about how reporting delegates selected in a caucus and actual vote counts are different and that we believe the Democrats should report both numbers. The New York Times for example in their reporting of percentage of vote for each state on Feb 5th do not make a distiction in their reporting of caucus delegate votes and primary voter counts.

After I wrote about how the Democrats are not releasing actual voter sign in numbers for caucus attendees but only number of delegates chosen for each candidate I came across an op ed written in Dec 2007 for the New York Times entitled Iowa's Undemocratic Caucuses.

The piece notes that "Iowa Democrats shun public disclosure of voter preferences at their caucuses — something not generally reported by the press or understood by the public."

In a separate post I found by The Next Harrah posted on Jan 13, 2008 and entitled "Newfound Transparency in Iowa [..someday]" there is a link to vote totals after people made their final choice in the caucus. It was posted by the gazetteonline but sometime after the election and not widely known.

As The Next Harrah notes we urge all caucus states to release vote totals for both the initial sign-in and after caucuses make any final vote changes before delegates are selected, so the public can better understand what is happening and how the delegate number is arrived at.
The Democratic Party should select delegates by a transparent process and not keep secret preliminary votes and final votes.

The next states up for a vote are on Saturday Feb 9, 2007 when Louisiana (67 delegates), Nebraska (caucus)(31 delegates), Virgin Islands (9 delegates) and Washington State (caucus) (97 delegates)vote. Maine (34 delegates) holds a caucus on Feb 10, 2008. Obama has an advantage, based on past results, in the three upcoming caucus states.

Inslee, Cantwell and Sims Campaign for Hillary Clinton for President

Senator Maria Cantwell , Congressman Jay Inslee and King County Executive Ron Sims were busy Saturday urging Washington voters to support Senator Hillary Clinton for President in the precinct caucuses next Saturday, February 9, 2008. They spoke to Clinton supporters at a rally at the Machinists Hall in South Seattle after speaking in Tacoma and Everett earlier in the day.

Congressman Inslee has become a major force in Congress for renewable energy pushing the new Apollo Energy Project. Inslee called Senator Clinton a change agent who understood the energy issues and who would provide the leadership to "kick our addiction to Middle East Oil" and move us to a clean energy future and green jobs.

Programs needed include 55 miles per gallon cars by 2030, getting 25% of our energy from renewables, 70% more efficient lighting, and 20 million low income homes weatherized. Clinton stood for action, not talk said Inslee.

Senator Cantwell noted that she came to the US Senate the same year as Clinton did and that in the seven years she has worked with Clinton, Clinton gets things done. She said Clinton as President would be ready from Day 1 to to work for new green jobs and clean energy.

Cantwell say Clinton working across the aisle getting things done, even when the Republicans were in control. One example of this was Clinton working for lifetime health benefits for the National Guard and Reserve.

She saw this same dedication on Clinton's part with her plan for a clean energy economy creating new jobs. Clinton will be ready from day 1 to change history and to get our country on the right course, economically and internationally.

Ron Sims said he saw Clinton having the intuitive instinct and preparation to make the changes that people in this coutry are ready for. He said we've been in the wasteland too long but that Clinton, like FDR and TR, knows how to get things done - that she is the right person with the right intuition at the right time to be elected President.

Cantwell noted that Clinton is leading the fight in the Senate opposing any Bush proposal to lock the US into a long term agreement with Iraq. Clinton said any such proposal is basically a treaty and as such treaties must be approved by the Senate.

Cantwell also mentioned efforts being made in the Senate trying to add green energy proposals now to the stimulus package. Sims noted that China is spending $35 billion a year on new energy production and that if the US could take the lead in developing green energy sources, this could help in bringing money into this country and help reduce our trade deficit.