What Courage Can Do

Since we began The Daily Felltoon, one of our more distinguishing features has been that we'll occasionally give direct praise where it's due, and give direct condemnation when it's been earned.

Today, we have to give praise to a man we've often had disagreements with in the past, Nebraska's Governor Dave Heineman. The Governor did something on Monday that is increasingly rare among major politicians of any party – he took some definitive action.

Gov. Heineman called for a special session of the Nebraska Legislature in order to properly, legally, and thoroughly address the issue of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. As we wrote on Monday morning before the Governor's announcement, it's obvious that Nebraskans have wanted their legislature to have a greater role in the pipeline process.

It now looks like Nebraskans will get their wish, even though the Speaker of the Legislature feels that a special session would be an exercise in futility.

While it would have been easy for Heineman, a Republican, to automatically side with the big oil interests of TransCanada, the Governor chose to do what was right, not what was easy.

The Governor's actions may seem worlds apart from the protesters on the streets of Cairo, or those of the Occupy protesters on Wall Street. Still, a similar kind of quiet determination, like that the Governor displayed Monday, has been a hallmark of the many revolutions that have been happening around the world this year.

Doing what is right has never been easy, whether you're a poor, unemployed person, or a political leader. From standing up to the terrible reign of Middle Eastern political dictators, to standing up to the corruption of the financial despots of Wall Street, the dangers are always many, and the costs are often high.

In our American political system, actions like Gov. Heineman's could be political suicide, if the Governor planned on running for other offices. In the Middle East, standing up for what's right has cost the lives of many.

There is even the danger of becoming that which you hate, as it appears some of Col. Gadhafi's captors tortured him before they killed him - just as Gadhafi had been rumored to do to his enemies.

Still, once a person displays the determination to do the right thing, it often becomes easier for others to do the same.

Once enough people have decided to do what is right instead of what's easy, the cowardly dictators and despots, whether political or financial in nature, have fewer and fewer places left to hide their ill-gotten gains.

In the Middle East, those abusive leaders who remain are becoming as paranoid as the power brokers on Wall Street, afraid that the rivers of red - whether blood or red tape - will swallow them up, and take away that which they've stolen from others.

The river might take back what they've taken - but justice won't happen automatically.

Like the Tunisians, the Egyptians, the Libyans, and even the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Governor Heineman's action that forces Nebraska's Legislature to do its job, is merely a beginning, not an end. We don't expect the Governor's new position  will instantly resolve the debate over the pipeline, or even stop the pipeline from eventually going through portions of Nebraska.

What we do hope is that this is a new beginning to solving a difficult problem.

Slipping On The Truth

There are plenty of times in the media business, when reading, sharing, and compiling stories and information, we may think we see patterns that - upon further inspection - aren't really there. As legitimate members of the media, if we simply run with those initial thoughts, we could lose our credibility and end up being called crazy - or, worse yet, be compared to some of our least legitimate media brethren, like Fox.

Upon further inspection, we can sometimes see those patterns really do exist - and that we may have simply slipped and found connections few others have yet to see.

Today, we're observing one of those patterns in the way three different stories are developing - new information on the Keystone pipeline, elections in Tunisia, and a local school board race in Denver, Colorado.

In Keystone pipeline news, it should surprise no one that the oil corporations are once again attempting to buy off our politicians to get what they want. As we noted last Friday, Mike Flood, the Speaker of Nebraska's legislature, is backing away from calling a special session to discuss forcing TransCanada to move the pipeline route or enacting more strict safety standards. Flood is still backing away, even though Nebraskans have made it clear they would like their legislature to have a greater role in the pipeline process.

What you may not have heard about with the Keystone pipeline is the latest news that Alberta, Canada paid four U.S. Republican Congresspersons to take a "free" tour of the oil sands pipeline. You also likely missed the news that the EU is likely to label tar sands oil one of the dirtiest sources of oil on Earth - which would mean the penalties and fines levied against tar sands oil would sap much of its already questionable economic benefit.

To us, these kinds of actions reek of the kind of crony capitalism many on the right claim to be so worked up against right now. It's another disgusting example of the corruption of our political and economic systems by the financially wealthy yet ethically bankrupt.

Sadly, this isn't just an oil company problem, or an American phenomenon being railed against by the Occupy movement.

In Tunisia this past weekend, where the Arab Spring began almost a year ago, the Tunisian people had their first legitimate election in many years. This one was held to elect an interim government to run the country while Tunisians complete their new constitution. The biggest problem regular Tunisians on the street had with this election wasn't turnout, or the vast number of political parties (about 100) they had to choose from.

As a story in the New York Times pointed out, Tunisian's biggest election complaint was the feeling their efforts at building a new government were already being undermined by wealthy Tunisians and corporate interests, who were trying to buy up the political process like they do in the U.S. - and buy their way into power in Tunisia's nascent government.

Those people who are in high positions of money and power seem to not even want to allow regular people to control some of the smallest, most local political decisions - like who gets on the local school board in Denver, Colorado.

Emily Sirota, a social worker, political activist, and wife of a local radio talent (who is one of our professional acquaintances), decided this year that she wanted to run for school board. Ms. Sirota's plans make clear she wants to help enact policies that would improve public schools while keeping costs low, instead of allowing private for-profit schools (who often care more about their bottom line than educating children) to use vouchers to skim public tax dollars into their private accounts.

For Ms. Sirota's desire to help the public schools better manage their public money, she and her family have had to face a disproportionately large amount of campaign money and negative media being thrown at her by her opponent. Ms. Sirota's opponent has been funded by traditional large right-wing corporatist interests, all people or groups with well-known ties to supporting the "haves" and "have mores" at the expense of everyone else.

To us, this pattern of attempting to pay off, buy out, or beat down anyone who stands against the interests of the currently wealthy individuals and corporations is exactly what the Occupy movement is protesting.

That the arrogant wealthy -  and the politicians they've bought - now seem like they're scrambling to stand up after stepping in oil (or something worse) merely proves to us we're not the only ones to slip on the truth once in a while.

Enjoying The Moment, For The Right Reason

Normally on Friday, we attempt to keep things a bit lighter - and to a limited degree, we're leaning toward the positive today.

After all, it is a Friday, so we've got a weekend awaiting us at the end of our workday. There's another Husker football game tomorrow, which we plan on enjoying. Some of our staff are already on a short vacation, visiting family halfway across the country (including a relatively new addition to the family). And...?

We get to say 'We told you so.'

While we certainly don't revel in violence or death, we do believe the capture and subsequent death of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is a good thing, in a number of ways.

To start with, the revolution going on in Libya is now done. At least the shooting. Mostly. Any obligation that U.S. and NATO forces had to that conflict has now been thoroughly fulfilled. That means the French and British forces that were assisting the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) on the ground can rapidly transition to their homes. The American air support and drone bomber forces can also pack up their equipment and come back to the United States.

That isn't why we're saying 'We told you so' though.

When we first wrote about the fall of Libya in this commentary nearly eight months ago, we noted that the Libyan people were quite unhappy with Mr. Gadhafi, and had been so for some time. When he needed to be removed from his position, it had to be the Libyans that needed to do it - not an outside force from France or Britain or NATO. And while NATO did bomb his caravan just before Gadhafi was captured and killed, his capture and death came at the hands of his own people, as we'd thought it should.

That isn't why we're saying 'We told you so' either.

We're saying "We told you so" today for a commentary we wrote seven months ago today, along with a cartoon that made very clear that Mr. Gadhafi's time was up.

In that earlier commentary, we also noted that President Obama was beginning a process of helping the world understand that America no longer needs to play "Supercop" at the first sign of ANY danger. As Thursday's events proved, there are many other countries who have more than enough ability and capability to fill roles that were once thought to be exclusively reserved for the U.S.

For many years now, Americans from both the left and the right have commented that we we can no longer play "Supercop" to the world, for a whole host of reasons. Still, no American leader had taken us down that path successfully - until now. Without loss of American lives. Within our budget for such events. And within a short time period.

That's exactly what we said seven months ago, that President Obama would do.

We understand - there are still many detractors who can't bear to give President Obama credit for ANYTHING. If Obama walked on water, these wailing whiners would cry that he couldn't swim.

Now, however, as President Obama has indeed succeeded, as we thought he would, the only thing most of his critics can do is float balloons full of wishes and hot air, while our President turns his focus back to our most pressing issue - getting his Jobs bill passed.

It's usually good to win and be right. It's even better to win and be right for the right reasons.