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The Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation (ALEF), a non-profit organization funded by foundations and companies, supports and enables young men and women from Appalachia to pursue higher education though scholarship and leadership curriculum. The program includes an emphasis toward the preparation required to be the leaders of the next decade. The concept of operations for ALEF is to partner with established academic institutions across Appalachia to provide the technical skills necessary as the basis for credible leadership.
Obama picked 10 charities in all to make donations to, with ALEF being one of six charities that helps prepare students for higher education. Those six are each receiving $125,000. The other five are: American Indian College Fund, College Summit, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Posse Foundation and the United Negro College Fund.
Several folks have posted about the exchange between Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito and Pres. Obama and the GOP retreat last week (h/t JB). If you haven't watched the video, here it is.
Here's how I look at this exchange. The basic assumption in Capito's question is in this part:
I represent the state of West Virginia. We're resource rich. We have a lot of coal and a lot of natural gas.
Towards the end of his response President Obama reminds her that's not the full picture.
So what I want to do is with West Virginia to figure out how we can seize that future. But to do that, that means there's going to have to be some transition. ... what does that industry look like in the next hundred years?
How would you answer the question for West Virginia--what does coal mining look like in the next 100 years?
The first thing I think about is, 100 years from now--probably just 50 years from now--there's not going to any coal mining to speak of going on in West Virginia--all the coal will be gone. Just looking out 30 years from now, there's a whole lot less coal mining than today. So, what about 20... or 10 years from today?
This is the twilight of coal wealth for West Virginia... its heyday is in the past... we're in the final lap. The President is responding to Capito--West Virginia doesn't have 100 years worth of coal--and reminds us all we need to do even more to prepare for what comes next.
Stripped to its essence, it's the most pressing question I take away from the Q&A between Capito and Obama.
To prepare for the next 100 years: what economic development do we as a state want to promote that is not coal-related?
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
I am but the poor substitute for the wisdom of our senior Senator but bring you news because Congress Matters.
Remember, it is getting near to Ground Hog Day. Some the Hill news that's fit to blog is over the fold . . .
Via Open Left: "C-SPAN has now issued a formal request to televise the secret House-Senate health care negotiations."
"President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation's editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation's health care system," C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote. "Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American."
Via Open Left, here's yet another reminder that candidate Obama's promises for health care reform sounded quite a bit different than what President Obama is now signaling we ought to settle for.
There is still 3 to 6 weeks left for the final version of health care reform to get hammered out. After this morning's expected passage in the Senate, President Obama is preparing to roll up his sleeves:
In an interview today with PBS, President Obama said he plans to begin working on merging the Senate and House health care bills before Congress returns from Christmas recess.
"We hope to have a whole bunch of folks over here in the West Wing, and I'll be rolling up my sleeves and spending some time before the full Congress even gets into session," Obama said, "because the American people need it now."
Obama is expected to work with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to merge the bills.
There's still time for Pres. Obama to remember what candidate Obama had to say. Many of us remember the promise of Barack Obama's campaign, will he?
From the beginning, the cost of military action against al Queda in Afghanistan and the Iraq invasion was funded by supplementals. It was convenient to maintain the illusion that there were some things that were unknowable.
In recent years, Republicans have been characterized by two principal positions: They like starting wars and don't like paying for them. George W. Bush initiated two major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but adamantly refused to pay for either of them by cutting non-military spending or raising taxes. Indeed, at his behest, Congress actually cut taxes and established a massive new entitlement program, Medicare Part D.
Those Bush tax cuts spent the "projected budget surplus", or magic ponies. The economic downturn started in September of 2007, and the policies of the Republican Congress from 1995 to 2007 laid the foundation. And the solution to any economic policy question for the Gee Oh Pee is "more tax cuts, less regulation". And it still is.
Still thinking about taking your marbles and going home next year?
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty frustrated by the pace of change in West Virginia. I get angry when state politicians say they'll speak with 'one voice' for coal interests while ignoring the rest of us. I'm ready to send a signal that even here in Appalachia we are committed to addressing the deteriorating atmosphere.
So many of the debates going on today are remote and distant, sometimes it feels hard to impact what's going on in Charleston, Washington, or Copenhagen. I've spent a lot of time thinking about what we can do today, something that can have an positive immediate impact and I've finally found something.
We've talked many times about the importance and difficulties of developing sustainable diverse economic opportunities in West Virginia. Thankfully, there are committed grass-roots activists working hard at these efforts.
Blasts have reverberated off the top of Coal River Mountain since mid-October. Each boom is a reminder of how much is at stake in the Coal River Valley. For two years, residents of the Coal River Valley campaigned for the mountain's preservation for development as an industrial-scale wind farm. A wind farm in the Coal River Valley would chart a new course for the region and pose a true threat to those who seek to demolish West Virginia's natural resources and heritage for short term profit. Though blasting has begun, the battle for Coal River Mountain is far from over, and in the valley below, residents are increasingly taking sustainable development into their own hands as part of Coal River Mountain Watch's Sustainable Economic and Energy Diversification (SEED) project.
SEED is a community organizing project designed to connect residents of the Coal River Valley to one another and the outside resources they need to make their small business and renewable energy ventures a reality. We began by meeting with twelve families in the valley over the summer and fall, and identified three inspiring projects to pursue. Two families are in the beginning stages of a community owned wind development project. One group of woodworkers are building a wood kiln to dry and increase the value of sustainably forested lumber. The SEED Community Team formed as a group of locals generating new ideas for community revival and economic diversification in monthly meetings. In their latest meeting, they resolved to build a community owned greenhouse and plan to break ground on the project in the winter. The entrepreneurial spirit is spreading!
SEED volunteers help with construction of a community center building in Rock Creek, WV
SEED is structured to ensure accountability to community members. It begins with listening to community members, and the Community Team ensures that project organizers do not veer off course in the collaborative process of small business development.
Judy Gunnoe lives at the head of Lick Creek Hollow, nestled between two toes of Coal River Mountain. "I think there are other options beyond coal because coal's not gonna be here forever - our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, what are they gonna do when coal's not here? There needs to be some kind of other jobs besides coal. I think there's a lot of smaller businesses that would like to be in this area, but they're scared off because of the mining. If you can get a few things started, you can get a few people to work - you can even employ these high school graduates. There's not a lot of young people; what ones are here, they leave or they go in the mines because that's the only thing to do, and by the time they're 30, they're half-dead." The Gunnoes are SEED community leaders and are building a community center and hope to put wind turbines on the ridge above their home.
Organizers are working on two wind development projects in the the valley. They need to start raising funds today to be able to purchase and install a 100 kilowatt wind turbines as soon as possible and stake the community's claim on the toe of Coal River Mountain. This single-turbine installation lays the groundwork for larger wind development in the future.
Like any volunteer effort, the SEED project cannot be sustained by sweat equity alone. It needs your help. There is an immediate need for anemometers to measure wind feasibility, then there are additional costs associated with the purchase and installation of wind turbines in the Coal River Valley.
Community members visit a wind farm in April, 2009
Contribute $17, $34, or even $170 today to safe, clean, homegrown Sustainable Energy and Environmental Development for West Virginia Coal River valley. Send a clear signal that you want to that target to be at least 17%.
When we all work together, we can change our climate for good.
I understand the worry caused by two gate crashers attending President Obama's first state dinner. It's a terrible embarrassment and a lapse that shouldn't have happened.
The Secret Service faces an unprecedented situation and the risks are up 400 percent.
And people should not crash parties, particularly state dinners.
But he's OUR president. I don't want security to ever be to the point that our president is not accessible to us.
Yes, I want alert protection for our president.
But I don't want him sealed off in a bubble available only to hand selected audiences at all times.
The gate crashers, and I'm not giving them the attention they want by naming them, were still screened.
At other events when the president goes to Five Guys or gas stations, the people are not going to be screened.
Do we want a president walled off from us?
I've seen several presidents in person, from Reagan to Obama. A few years ago I saw then President Clinton immediately after Thanksgiving after he went to a public golf course not far from Camp David. It was dusk by the time he finished. Some how word spread and people showed up, a not large crowd, but about 50 people. None were screened. They just stood behind yellow crime scene tape. It was fairly dark as Clinton approached them.
I'd been in enough situations in life involving yellow crime scene tape to recognize when police officers are concerned, alert, and at extremely heightened alert. The agents squeezed in tight around him and two had their hands on his jacket ready to pull him down.
With the darkness and the closeness of the people, it would have been impossible to have stopped a determined assassin.
The Big Dog did not even seem to notice. Nonchalantly, with a Big Dawg grin he walked up to the people, greeted each warmly, listened to them, shook hands with them. This was at the height of the Republican Hate Machine cranked to 11 and he made sure he was the president of everyone there.
I'm not naive. This is a dangerous world and we elected an African American man in a society that is too armed and too racist to give any of us comfort.
But we're a democratic society. We had a president before who lived in a bubble. I want my president to be secure as possible, I want smarter and better protection for him.
I also want to be able to shake hands with him some day too. Out in the street or at a public golf course. In our America.
In recent days, conservative blogs and Twitter feeds have been ablaze with the latest craze, the posting of the message "Pray for Obama - Psalm 109:8."
When you look up the scripture in question it reads, "May his days be few, may another take over his position."
While this may seem to some like harmless eliminationist rhetoric used by the extreme right for laughs, the verse immediately following makes the message far more disturbing.
And before anyone excuses this toxic use of scripture as nothing more than the wish that President Obama not be re-elected to a second term of office, the next verse in the psalm reads, "May his children be orphans and his wife a widow".
In fact, the entire chapter is about the prayed for death of an evil person. Not to mention that anyone who knows enough Bible to have thought about this verse in particular, surely knows the entire chapter and appreciates its message. Pretty scary stuff
Posted by one of the many Carnackis who volunteered for the 2008 Campaign for Change.
Originally posted Saturday, November 1. With the first anniversary of the election of President Obama coming up, I thought I'd repost this.
...
I hope I can be indulged a very personal diary. Today I had my best day canvassing ever.
I arrived early at Martinsburg's Campaign for Change office. I'd been busy doing drop lit and strictly focused on local races for the best part of this week and had missed the latest West Virginia poll.
I admit it was a kick in the gut. After a strong sense of feeling like the race was tightening here - Barack Obama's national campaign chairman had just said there was a "razor's" difference between the two candidates in their polls, to see a poll showing Obama 12 points down was tough. Especially after going by 320 houses (I should keep count) the day before. We've hit that stage here at the campaign where those of us who have been doing it week after week and many (not me) day after day for months are bone weary. Reading that poll was a gut check moment. I'd done my best, I could go home and rest and spend a beautiful autumnal day raking leaves and watching football - something I haven't done this year. I looked at the poll's internals. There it was inside. On the exit polling of the early voting Obama 50, McCain 49. In West Virginia.
And then I knew. No matter what happens come election day, today we were winning. No matter what comes election day, we had done our part. This state was supposed to be McCain's and he had put just one person here. And the hard-working, incredibly dedicated staff and volunteers of the West Virginia Campaign for Change had pushed and prodded and fought and made the poll numbers so tight that McCain and the Republican National Committee had to scramble and pour resources into this state to hold on to it.
Those are resources that McCain doesn't have to send to Virginia or Pennsylvania or Ohio or North Carolina or Georgia or Arizona. We had done it with no visits from Barack Obama. We had one visit from Joe Biden and one today from Bill Clinton. If we had received the amount of attention from Obama that Virginia or North Carolina or Pennsylvania had received, I know he would be ahead here too because no one can promote a candidate as well as the candidate. But we have just 5 electoral votes so we didn't get the visits and I understand that.
Sometimes I've quipped this was the Campaign on Pocket Change instead of the Campaign for Change because we had our people selling buttons and bumperstickers and yard signs (or for free for 30 minutes of phonebanking) so that they could buy more buttons and bumperstickers and yard signs.
But back to today. I got up and walked to the door. More people had come in. People were talking excitedly. There was energy. "Come on, let's go talk outside. We can do a sign wave and talk."
So we did. Mike, a standup comedian in his day job, fired us up the way he does so that our cheers for Obama and Anne Barth our Congressional candidate echoed off the downtown buildings. Across the street at the Shelley Moore Capito HQ it was empty and silent.
Then Alice Germond, the DNC Secretary who lives in Harpers Ferry spoke to us.
"I'm so proud of the campaign Barack Obama has run," Germond said.
"Obama has run an honorable and unifying campaign," she said. "I hope all of our candidates will start running those kinds of campaigns...not like Karl Rove's that seek to divide and destroy our democracy."
Then our people headed out. My regular canvassing partner of late, Ken "Not Carnacki" Collinson took Alice Germond with us. Alice, a lovely lady in every way, actually fit in well with us even though she lives in neighboring Jefferson County and those of us in Berkeley County are a different breed.
We'd finished a block when our staff PR person said someone from the New Republic wanted to tag along. (I can't remember his name, though I should since he had come out in 2004 and knew Martinsburg well from following the Project Next group.)
It couldn't have been better if we had staged it. (I wish we were organized to do something like that.) Alice stopped a couple walking to talk to them about early voting (see how she fits in with us, we talk to everyone and not just those on our sheets) and they were an older, white Republican couple. But they were on their way then to early vote for Obama.
I went into an African American barbershop to make sure everyone there had early voted. Most had - straight ticket voters too - and left some lit for people coming in later. I had a good conversation with them and told them the same thing I wrote earlier about the poll, that no matter what happens on Tuesday, today we were winning and that we had already done our part by making McCain spend resources here to win the state. "Every vote counts in the popular vote too and that will determine Obama's mandate," I said. That got several nods.
We were doing primarily a targeted canvass today - primarily because there were some streets we hadn't finished doing our lit drop for the Berkeley County Democratic Association so on those streets we hit every house with lit as well as those on our walk list where we knocked.
As we walked down Burke Street, an attractive, young white couple walked toward Kenny and I. He offered them a flier. They had already received one. They were on their way to early vote because of it and they were voting a straight Democratic ticket.
You know, sometimes when you're on your fourth hour of nonstop up and down streets, up the sidewalk and up the porch stairs to the door, back down and up the street and up the next set of stairs and back down you sometimes wonder if it's worth it.
It is.
I don't know how many other young couples like that one we got out. But we got them out.
All this week doing lit drops hitting every house in three different neighborhoods it's been strong Obama. I've had three encounters with McCain voters, including one man in camo who had his bow and quiver in hands.
"Any luck?" I asked as I approached with my door hangar on Thursday.
"No," he said.
"I'd like to give you some information about our Democratic team of candidates."
"Obama's a Muslim," he snarled.
"No, my friend, (I think that went over his head) he's not. He's a Christian and to say otherwise is bearing false witness," I said. It's not the first time I've disagreed with an armed man before and quite frankly anyone who couldn't get a deer in this county wasn't someone I was too worried about being able to shoot me.
"He's a Muslim," he said louder as if that would make it true. "He prays to Allah."
I could have stayed and argued that it doesn't matter, but when canvassing the goal is to not argue with people but to visit as many houses as possible so I waved and said, "You're wrong, my friend" and went on.
OK, back to today. So it's been a good week, but house after house in poor neighborhood and on to where it was better Obama after Obama. Drake, the 10 year old son of our volunteer coordinator, was keeping our walk list. "Hey Alice," I shouted across the street. "I've had all 1s and 2s and no 5s."
She didn't say, "Game on," but she talked to a couple of undecideds who didn't like Obama because he's pro-choice. She was sure she had persuaded them for Obama after she finished.
Alice Germond, DNC Secretary, tries to convince one of our voters to vote today instead of waiting Tuesday.
The reporter left and we did several more blocks and Alice had to leave. Kenny, Drake and I continued until we ran out of literature and called for Tyler to bring us out some. I was tired and hungry so we went in to eat (Robin, one of our regular volunteers, made a delicious pumpkin curry soup in the crockpot, thank you Robin).
As we headed out the door (Drake, despite his cherubic face, is a harsh task master), one of my West Virginia Blue diarists and commenters, JBdem4usa, also one of our regular volunteers in M'burg, said he thought our package had arrived.
Earlier this week, the campaign manager of our Bush Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (her HQ is across the street) accosted one (possibly more by some tellings) of our volunteers, "Are you Carnacki?"
That prompted some fun comments and ReliableSourceWV had "I am Carnacki" buttons made. So now a lot of people are Carnacki.
Ken Collinson encouraging a young woman to vote early. Today was the last day for early voting in West Virginia
I put up a quick thank you post and we headed back out. At one house, the man hollered for me to come in (Note: never go in homes even if invited when canvassing.) So I went in and it was an older African American gentleman. He'd already voted. He said he'd seen our volunteers all over town. "I really like how you guys roll," he said. I thanked him and told him to join us at HQ on election night. He said he might.
One of the last houses I did today had an older man in front painting it. He was a lifelong Republican, he told me. But he pointed to my Obama button and said he had voted for my candidate and a straight Democratic ticket for the first time in his life.
"We need change," he said.
...
I don't know if we're going to win West Virginia. I doubt it. But I do know this. We won today.
...
Update: Of course, we lost West Virginia. But our GOTV effort in the Eastern Panhandle helped defeat two Republican wingnuts running for Attorney General and Supreme Court justice as well as helped other candidates downticket.
If you get all of your news from traditional media, you'll hear all sorts of stories that say the public option is dead. Fear not, the public option is still very much alive.
There's different ways of looking at it, but I side with Sen. Rockefeller in his views that President Obama is the key player who will decide the fate of the public option.
That's not the big story today though, Rockefeller said. "Actually, the big story coming out of today is that I got eight votes and Chuck got 10 votes -- and in effect that's like getting all the Democrats to vote for it."
Well, "most of the Democrats," Rockefeller corrected himself.
Rockefeller also said that he's "a little bit" disappointed in President Obama for not pushing harder for the public option.
"The crunch is really beginning to count now," Rockefeller said, adding a moment later that, "I think it's important that he come in at this point, strongly."
"This was really good news for us," he said. "We're clearly not there, but not a single Democrat has said, 'I'm absolutely against the public option.' Chairman Baucus said he likes it but wants to see if it can get 60 votes, and we're feeling that we might get there."
Schumer emphasized that Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are more conservative than Democrats in the Senate, who are in turn more conservative than House Democrats.
[snip]
The Senator also said health care reform that includes a public option would not be bipartisan.
"We're not going to get Republican votes, that's for sure. But more and more Democrats are open to it."
[snip]
"We lost today," he said. "We said we were gonna lose before the day began. We didn't expect it would be this close."
The bad news is we learned today the Senate Finance Committee will not report a public option in its version of health care reform. The good news is we also learned today there are at least 51 Senate votes in favor of Schumer's public option.
He then goes on to provide an even more detailed explanation why it is up to President Obama as to what kind of public option (if any) we end up with in the final bill.
Because Democrats are not going to pursue reconciliation for the public option (see why here), the next step in the process does not actually involve Kent Conrad's Budget Committee, as I had previously reported (the Budget Commitee only comes into play with reconciliation). Instead, a source on the Hill confirms to me the Senate HELP and Senate Finance committees will be merged by an informal, behind the scenes process involving the four major players in the Senate: Tom Harkin (Chair of HELP), Max Baucus (Chair of Finance), Harry Reid (Majority Leader), and the White House. Together, these four will meet and decide what sort of bill to send to the Senate floor for debate and amendments.
During this process, we can guarantee that Harkin will push for a HELP or Schumer-like public option to be sent the floor, while Baucus will push for no public option to be in the bill at all. Given his recent statements, the best bet is that Reid will probably push against a public option too, and instead favor either triggers (which he has called a good idea) or co-ops (which seems to be the sort of public option he likes best). With two against and one in favor, this means that the only way a public option ends up in the bill that is sent to the Senate floor will be if the fourth major player, the White House, demands it.
It is all up to the White House now. If it pushes for a public option to be included in the health care bill sent to the Senate floor, then a public option will pass as part of health care reform (at that point, all we would need are 60 votes for cloture, and from what I hear we have 57 already). However, if it allows a health care bill to go to the floor without a public option, it is pretty unlikely that a public option will pass as part of health care reform.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said that the Senate "comfortably" has a majority of votes to pass the public plan, and that he believes Democrats can muster 60 votes to break a filibuster.
"I have polled senators, and the vast majority of Democrats - maybe approaching 50 - support a public option," Harkin said told the liberal "Bill Press Radio Show." "So why shouldn't we have a public option? We have the votes.
"I believe we'll have the 60 votes, now that we have the new senator from Massachusetts, to at least get it on the Senate floor," Harkin later added. "But once we cross that hurdle, we only need 51 votes for the public option. And I believe there are, comfortably, 51 votes for a public option."
The Iowa lawmaker's statements mark a bold claim that Democrats have the votes to pass a health bill in the Senate including the prized public (or "government-run") plan after signs for weeks now that centrist Democrats and virtually all Republicans would not support a bill including the provision.
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