McCain loves Lobbyists

Brilliant:

Green Economic Recovery Program: Impact on Indiana

A new study commissioned by the Political Economy Research Institute, the Green Recovery Program is an in-depth look into the ability of energy reform to create jobs and provide energy independence nationwide. More specifically, and more relevant to us bloosiers, the report conveniently breaks down the initiative to a state by state level.

Letting the report speak for itself:

Impact on Indiana 

• Indiana’s share of national green economic recovery program: $2.0 billion, based on ƒ combining state’s population and gross domestic product (see technical appendix below for details). 
  
  
• Indiana’s net job creation through green economic recovery program: 43,353 jobs, based ƒ on Indiana unemployment figures in June 2008. 
  
  
• Impact on Indiana’s labor market: a net increase of 43,353 jobs would reduce Indiana’s ƒunemployment rate to 4.5 percent in two years from 5.8 percent in June 2008. 

The long and short of it-- 43,000+ new jobs. If I were JLT I would unflinchingly latch onto this, because as we all know Mitch has quietly but effectively lost thousands of jobs for hoosiers since his stint in office began. In the end, we all know that energy reform is inevitable. But as republicans continue to court big oil its gravely important as progressives we stay out front of this issue, and the Green Economic Recovery Program is a step in the right direction. 

Read the entire report including breakdowns for every state here.

Update (12:05): What do you say to this Mitch? From the IndyStar:

The average cost of the cheapest gallon of gas in Indianapolis jumped 12 cents overnight to $3.78, AAA Hoosier Motor Club reported today.

That reflects the 30- to 40-cent price increase that frustrated motorists saw at many pumps across the region on Tuesday; several Indianapolis stations raised unleaded regular to $3.95 a gallon.

Statewide, today's average cost jumped 9 cents from $3.70 to $3.79, AAA reported, making Indiana among the 10 most expensive U.S. states to fill up for fuel.

Question of the Week

Will John McCain bring Sarah Palin to the debates with Obama?

--Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo

Afternoon Roundup

Not much news to report today, nevertheless here are a few things from around the blogosphere that have caught my eye.

• Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Linda Pence, announced today a comprehensive plan to combat child abuse within the state-- a cornerstone of her candidacy's platform. Read the press release in its entirety here.
  
  
• Fellow bloosier Joh Padgett, has created a centralized online social network for progressives across the state. I urge you to jump over and check out the aptly named Bloosiers, and be sure to register as well. Keep up the good work Joh.
  
  
• Sixth district congressional candidate Barry Welsh talks about the Employee Free Choice Act:
  
  From great dkos diary on the subject:
  

  The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041), supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would level the playing field for workers and employers and help rebuild America’s middle class. It would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union by:
  
  1)Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
  
  2)Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes. (Allowing workers who form unions to realize a contract quicker than the average 3 year waiting period)
  
  3)Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

What did I miss?

"We are still dangerously vulnerable."

Lee Hamilton is at it again, this time co-chairing the bipartisan Partnership of a Secure America, a commission designed to evaluate U.S. efforts concerning terrorism prevention and national security. Their findings?

"The threat of a new major terrorist attack on the United States is still very real," Hamilton, Rudman and former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, R, chairman of the 9/11 Commission, wrote in the report's introduction. A nuclear, chemical or biological weapon in the hands of terrorists was "the single greatest threat to our nation," they said, and concluded, "We are still dangerously vulnerable."

More specifically:

Overall grade C
Preventing nuclear terrorism C
Cooperative nonproliferation and counterproliferation C+
Detecting and interdicting weapons and materials B
Integrating U.S. programs D
Sustaining programs D
Preventing chemical terrorism B-
Recognizing and preventing chemical terrorism threat C-
Detection and mitigation B
Protecting critical infrastructure C+
Demilitarizing chemical weapons B
Preventing biological terrorism C-
Denying access to bioterrorism agents B
Detecting covert bioterrorism preparations C-
Law enforcement interdiction B-
Establishing international cooperation D+
New vaccines and drugs C-
Global public health preparedness and response B

Just to state the obvious, this is telling news and the republican camp, who has built their campaign around ideas of national security from the outset, should be forced to confront this report's findings. Moreover Obama needs to continue calling McCain out on his Bush man-crush, because pinning him to the current failed administration will go a long way to help crumble McCain's self-proclaimed lock on the "strong leader" category. 

Latest Obama Ad calls out McCain/Palin on Lying

As its set to air in battleground states across the country, hopefully this beauty will help to shed some light on the shady politics of McCain and company for all those Hoosiers (11% according to latest polling) who still fall into the undecided column.

Hoosier Fundraising: 2008 vs. 2004

If winning an election was as simple as outraising your opponent than Barack Obama could claim victory over Indiana's 11 electoral votes today. Alas we all know this isn't true, but once again a telling reminder of how legitimate a chance Obama has at making Hoosiers bloosiers can be found within each candidate's statewide financial disclosure.

According to Federal Election data as of September 2 the presidential totals are as follows:

Barack Obama	$1,139,645
John McCain	$1,105,680

As you can see Obama holds a narrow fundraising lead, however this slimmest of margins is remarkable in and of itself when compared to totals for the 2004 election cycle.  Mirroring his crushing defeat within the state, Kerry was outraised by Bush by an astounding 4-1 margin for totals as follows:

George W. Bush	$2,517,928
John Kerry	$594,223

What Obama has done to shrink the contribution gap is amazing. Not only does it demonstrate McCain's vulnerability within the state, but it bodes well for Democrats as a whole come election day. Combine this fact with the statewide increase in voter registration and the huge voter turnout for Obama during May's primary and I think the race is even tighter than recent polls have it.

All I know is with 56 days left a lot can happen.  Regardless I am liking the indicators I see at present.

Electoral Roundup

Courtesy of MyDD's excellent electoral math roundup:

Indiana (11): The Hoosier state has been a difficult nut for the Democrats to crack on the presidential level, with the state giving its electoral votes to the Republicans in each of the last 10 elections, and all but four elections during the 20th century. Most recently in 2004, George W. Bush carried the state by more than a 20-point margin. However, the Democrats had a better year in the 2006 midterms in Indiana than they had previously had in some time, picking up three House seats en route to gaining a majority of the state's congressional delegation, and in the wake of this year's heavily contested Democratic presidential primary, the state has looked significantly more competitive than it has in years past. The fact that as of this summer Barack Obama held a six to nothing advantage in campaign offices in the state had a large role in this as well. John McCain still leads in the polls -- although at present his lead is only about a fifth the size of Bush's from 2004 -- so on the basis of these numbers, as well as the general trend of the state to support the GOP, he still has an advantage.

As the race tightens down the stretch, the aforementioned relevance of Indiana's 11 electoral votes does as well. I am predicting right now though, if all our hard work pays off and Indiana swings blue this year, Obama will win in a landslide.

One can only dream right?

Presidential Momentum Swing

While we knew McCain and the Republicans would get a boost in the polls following last week's convention, no one would have suspected it to be this dramatic. The latest Gallup tracking poll now has McCain moving ahead of Obama 48% to 45% respectively-- marking McCain's largest share of the vote since tracking began in early March.

Looking at this from the bright side one could argue such a post-convention bump in the polls marks the absolute ceiling for McCain support and while this has pushed him to the front his meager lead proves that merely rousing your conservative base won't get the job done.  This is good news for Obama who has consistently shown an ability to attract moderate voters, a must have characteristic in the few swing states that will decide this year's presidential election-- Indiana included.

Gallup aside, what makes me worry even more though is the rapid movement of an Obama presidency over at Intrade, the popular prediction market that prides themselves on the accuracy of their aggregate opinion approach-- valuing market trends over polling fluctuations. At yesterday's close,  Obama's median share price had fallen nearly seven points, down to a low of 55.35, and currently sits even lower at 52. This puts McCain devastatingly close at 48, and amounts to closing nearly a twenty point gap in just over a week's time. 

Folks this is a scary momentum swing indeed. As bloggers though we need to take this news standing up, and thus be sure to fire back and let everyone know how important this election is for our country. With a renewed focus and some hard work, I really like our chances of righting the ship.

Obama Addresses Fellow Hoosiers

September 6th, Terre Haute IN:


I have said it before and I will say it again, this race is within our grasps. Keep fighting the good fight fellow bloosiers.

No Child Left Inside

An enormous step forward for the environmental movement and progressives at large, the No Child Left Inside Act is scheduled for a vote as early as this Tuesday September 9th. Unfamiliar with NCLI? Well hop on over to their website and read up on what will surely be remembered as historic legislation for this Democratic Congress.

While NCLI is expected to pass, it's important to let our elected officials (especially the Republicans) know how important this issue is to us and get as many passing votes for this Bill as possible. Thus an action alert is needed, whereby everyone makes it a point to call their respective representative and voice their approval of H.R. 3036. To make this a bit easier I have included the office phone numbers for each Representative of Indiana's nine districts below.

1D) Peter Visclosky 202-225-2461

2D) Joe Donnelly 202-225-3915

3D) Mark Souder 202-225-4436

4D) Steve Buyer 202-225-5037

5D) Dan Burton 202-225-2276

6D) Mike Pence 202-225-3021

7D) Andre Carson 202-225-4011

8D) Brad Ellsworth 202-225-4639

9D) Baron Hill        202-225-5315

Read H.R. 3036 in its entirety here. Plus check out the video below which helps elucidate the need for environmental education legislation.

Unemployment's telling Rise

Senator McCain/Governor Daniels and the republicans ought to think twice about the rhetoric they are using to describe the current state of our economy. 

Because as they continue to support and promote the economic policies of a failed Bush administration, the civilian unemployment rate has steadily risen over the past two years. 

What does this mean for little old Indiana, the manufacturing stronghold of the Midwest? Despite what Governor Daniels attests, the prognosis isn't much better. 

Yep you guessed it. As the graph clearly shows unemployment in Indiana is at a one year high, rising above 6% which practically levels it with the national average. Am I the only one who feels Mitch has skirted this reality during his re-election campaign? Well enough is enough. Bloosiers need to unite and pin this on those responsible--republicans and the ever party faithful, Mitch Daniels.