Daily Democratic Wire 2-17-2010

George Wenschhof

Yesterday, President Obama touted 8 billion in federal loan guarantees to help build two new nuclear reactors in Burke county, Georgia - referring this to "clean energy" and job creation. MSNBC.com has more here.

Unfortunately, in spite of improved construction techniques, there has been no solution as to what to do with the spent nuclear waste which hardly qualifies nuclear reactors as a "clean energy" option. Disposal in the Yucca Mountains has also led to political turmoil and Obama when campaigning for president, took the side of opposing future disposal of nuclear waste at Yucca.

It has been three decades since a nuclear reactor has been built in America and the lack of a means to dispose of the nuclear waste is one of the main reasons along with safety concerns after the "Three Mile Island" incident.

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Tomorrow, President Obama by use of executive order, will establish a Deficit Commission - he will name former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican senate whip Alan Simpson as co-chairs. The official title for the commission will be the "National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform".

The use of an executive order was made necessary when seven of the senate republicans who co-sponsored a bipartisan bill to create such a commission, changed their minds and voted against the bill. politico.com has more here.

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Vice President Joe Biden touts benefits of the Stimulus bill - in an interviewed taped yesterday and aired this morning by CBS News Harry Smith and "The Early Show", Biden says job creation will begin to kick in now as a result of the Stimulus bill and argued Americans had gotten their money's worth.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

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This is the one year anniversary of the Stimulus bill - Organizing for America (OFA), the campaign arm of Barack Obama, sent out a email today to supporters from David Plouffe which has a cool bar graph that clearly shows the decrease in job losses from one year ago. You can view it here.

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80% oppose recent Citizens United Campaign Finance 5-4 ruling by Supreme Court - the narrow majority of the court took the view that corporations were individuals and using "freedom of speech" ruled no limits could be put on financial contributions to political campaigns from corporations.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted February 4-8 also showed 72% want Congress to take action to counteract the Supreme court decision. The Washington Post has more here.

Presently, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Representative Chris Van Hollen (D.Md.) are drafting legislation which will limit corporation's political contributions by denying contributions from foreign controlled corporations and corporations who received bail out money or have any contracts with government. In addition, corporations would be required to informed shareholders of political contributions.

This is a start on reversing the effects of a horrible Supreme Court decision. What is desperately needed is true campaign reform to take money out of politics. In the 2008 presidential campaign, over 2 billion was spent just by the candidates and their political parties.

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