The new logo is FAIL. But I really like one of the links I found there.

[LiberalAndProud]

http://newnebraska.net/

Since March 2005, New Nebraska Network has been Nebraska's online voice for progressive political change. Thank you for being part of the NNN community!

Now, it's probably understandable that Nelson would differ with Obama on the Bush tax cuts. After all, Nelson was key in their original passage - by narrow votes in 2001 and 2003 through the Republican Congress' use of budget reconciliation. The great irony is that these tax cuts were always unnecessary and unaffordable budget-busters - trading record surpluses under President Bill Clinton for the unsustainable path of ever-growing deficits we're still wrestling with today and likely will be for years to come.

Nelson and the Republican Congressional minority now want to dig even deeper by making Bush's tax cuts for the rich permanent, at an estimated cost of $700 billion over the next decade. Such a position might be an acceptable reflection of right-wing ideology and trickle-down economics except for the fact that Nelson and the GOP have both spent the better part of the last two years playing deficit demagogues over the budget into which they now want to blow a $700 billion hole.

Nelson justifies such hypocrisy in the name of "urgency" and the supposed principle that you don't raise taxes during a tough economy. Nevermind that any higher taxes would only be restored to their Clinton-era levels, which paved the way for one of the greatest periods of economic prosperity our country has ever known. What a disaster that would be! Nelson also floats a trial balloon for the temporary extension of Bush's tax cuts for the rich. But, most of those proposing this idea obviously do so as a placeholder until they could be made permanent by a more right-leaning Congress and maybe even a Republican President.

Still, out of respect for the ideological diversity in the Democratic Party, I'd be inclined to accept Nelson's break with Obama - even his hypocrisy on the deficit - if this were only a matter of remaining consistent in support of a tax cut in which he genuinely believed (no matter how mistaken). Where Nelson's position becomes wholly intolerable is the possibility of his joining a threatened Republican filibuster that would hold America's middle class hostage to their demands for another giveaway to the rich.

[liberal N proud]

1. I object to one line in that article

"His vote is his own, and he can do with it what he will" Ben Nelson is there as a representative of the people, not the representative of Ben Nelson alone.

But thanks for sharing this.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. I know. I swar he does this because it makes him feel all powerful and stuff.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=388&topic_id=25414&mesg_id=25419