Cross-posted at Tennesseans for Russ Feingold

I happened to drive by the Jonesborough Visitors Center today, and discovered that the Republican senate candidates were having a debate.

I popped in to see the last half hour or so, and here's what I saw.

The debate was overall fairly positive. Van Hilleary was clearly the most charismatic of the three. Both Hilleary and Ed Bryant teamed up to deliver some blows to Bob Corker, particularly poignant were Hilleary's attacks on Corker for raising taxes as the mayor of Chattanooga.

Yesterday, Dick Cheney came to University of Tennessee at Knoxville (of which I am a grad student) to deliver a speech for the ground-breaking of the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy.

Cheney was scheduled to speak at 11 am, but in order to get through security attendees were asked to be there 2 hours earlier.

Well, 9 am is pretty early for me, so instead of attending, I decided to protest. The Progressive Student Alliance had organized a protest complete with two persons dressed as Cheney.  At 11 am, We marched to our free speech zone across the street from the Thompson-Boling Arena where Cheny was speaking and began our protest. Luckliy for us, snipers were positioned on the roof, guns aimed at us, to keep us safe. We protested for probably an hour and a half outside.

Meanwhile inside the event, several PSA members unfurled a "Peace Now" banner and made entreaties to the Vice President (during his speech) to end the war.  Cheney ignored them and they were promptly kicked out, but luckily not arrested.

Even Fox News picked up the AP article:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Vice President Dick Cheney was heckled by peace protesters Tuesday as he spoke at the groundbreaking for a public policy center honoring former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker.

During Cheney's brief remarks, about a half-dozen people protesting the war in Iraq yelled, "War, what is it good for?" and held up a large banner saying, "Peace Now."

Cheney continued speaking and didn't acknowledge the protesters, who were escorted from the ceremony inside the University of Tennessee's basketball arena.

About 50 protesters, most of them appearing to be college age, demonstrated outside the arena. Several carried signs, including one that read "Honor Baker, Impeach Cheney."

I urge other students in other schools to take similar actions when architects of the War visit your campus. Coverage in the Media will help to highlight further growing sentiment that the War in Iraq should come to an end.

Cross posted at Tennesseans for Feingold

As I meander through various blogs, I see many progressives question Russ Feingold as a serious presidential contender because of his recent divorce and in some cases his religion--he's Jewish.

I honestly do not think that either of these will be a hurdle on Feingold's way to the White House.
When I think of the average Democratic Primary voter, I do not think of a man or woman who judges a candidate based on his religion or marital status. Instead, I see people who want real progressive change. They want a candidate who represents their values and is not afraid to stand up for those values. They want Feingold.

Addressing Feingold's divorce, it is true, I believe, that he would only be the second unmarried president ever elected, but Feingold is not the kind of politician to let himself be defined as "the divorced guy running," especially with such a strong progressive record.  Furthermore, Feingold could use his divorce as an opportunity to connect with the average voter. He could simply tell voters, if asked about it, that, like so many of them, he has had personal problems and understands the plight of so many Americans who have experienced divorce.

Feingold's religion is also a non-issue.  Yes, the Democratic Party is on an evangelical high at the moment.  "We should talk more about our faith," they say.  "We need to appeal to these evangelical voters," they say.  That's all fine and well, but I, like so many other Democratic Primary voters, vote on candidates and issues, not religion.  Will Feingold's religion hurt him in the primary? Hell no.  Will it hurt him in the general election? I doubt it.  We are appealing to independents, Democrats, and the occasional moderate republican (if they even exist anymore), not the former campaign workers of George W. Bush.  And in Florida, his religion may actually help, given Florida's large Jewish population.  

To be frank, anyone who does not vote for Feingold based on his marital status or religion was probably not going to vote Democratic anyway.  Let's not pick our candidates based on what we think Christian conservative Republicans will like in a candidate, let's pick our candidate based on who best will best represent us and stand up for progressive issues.  That's Feingold, hands down.

In an AP article today the DLC asserts that we should increase the size of our standing army by 100,000 regular soldiers.

I agree with the DLC that we should appeal to independents.  Increasing the size of our military is one way to do that.  It would, no doubt, be popular among most Americans, making it politically astute.
The question then becomes is it good policy. No doubt everyone of us has seen one of the infamous True Majority pens with the pull out chart of world military spending, showing how the US far exceeds all others. In fact, the second largest military spender is Russia and they spend a mere fourth of what we spend on defense. In this country, we have a monstrous national debt and our resources are limited. So is the extra expense of 100,000 regular soldiers worth it?

Senator Feingold introduced a bill today that strengthen disclosure of lobbying activities as well as place harsher limits on gifts and travel from lobbyists or the interests they represent.  In an article from The Hill, a short synopsis on the highlights of the new bill is included:  In a press release on his senate web site, Feingold presents his reasons for such reform:
Between this new law, which is the first major lobbying overhaul since 1995 with The Lobbying Disclosure Act, and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act or McCain-Feingold, Feingold has certainly set himself up as the good government Democratic candidate of 2008, routinely calling for reform and attempting to extirpate government corruption by limiting the power of special interests.
Following the DeLay-Abramoff scandal, the perceived dishonesty of George W. Bush, and the Rove-Plame affair, voters will be looking for a candidate who is honest and interested in reforming a system that they view as corrupt. Feingold is that candidate.