Debatable Conduct

There are few things in life that are not debatable. One of them is the forecast for political news events in America through the end of this year. That timetable is packed - especially over the next five weeks.

To start with, there will be plenty of debates between Congressional candidates between now and election day. Bob Kerrey and Deb Fischer have already had two debates, with another scheduled for tonight. Sen. Claire McKaskill and Rep. Todd Akin have also had their first debate, which didn't go quite so well for Akin. The first presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney will happen on Wednesday night. Finally, the ultimate forum for formal debate, the Supreme Court, is back in session this week.

In short, Americans have a lot to discuss, though it seems we're often reluctant to actually say anything of value at all in our political debates. HBO's 'The Newsroom' pointed out this summer, more clearly than ever, that the current American presidential debate format isn't really set up to address any ideas seriously, good or bad.

What's worse, in our current American political atmosphere, once a candidate has said something significant - especially if it's bad - too many people tend to just keep shoveling the lies down their political gullet, reluctantly swallowing the party line instead of standing up and debating even whether that's the right thing to do.

On Sunday, it was a surprise to see New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie - who usually seems to swallow almost everything in front of him that's edible - unwilling to swallow and regurgitate the new Republican Party line on Akin.

Akin, in case you'd forgotten, is the House backbencher from Missouri who stated earlier this year that some kinds of rape are effectively justified. On Friday, Akin got into more trouble, saying he opposed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that was the first piece of legislation President Obama signed into law. This was just a day after Akin had misogynistically whined that McKaskill's debate performance wasn't really "ladylike."

Gov. Christie made his position clear on ABC's 'This Week' saying that the Republican Party should NOT be behind Akin after the "reprehensible" comments from the Missouri legislator. While we disagree with most of Christie's policies and style, at least he showed he was his own man.

Bob Kerry did something similar in his Friday debate performance against Deb Fischer.

Kerrey refused to repeat strictly Democratic party lines, as he assertively questioned Fischer on both issues of spending and taxation, and on the issue of earned benefits like Social Security and Medicare. Fischer's 'solutions' - if they could be called that - were nothing more than boilerplate GOP rhetoric. Fischer may as well have had Karl Rove and Grover Norquist pulling all her strings from the rafters.

Kerrey spoke out in the debate, noting what common-sense clear-headed Nebraskans have said for years is really undebatable: That our government MUST take in more revenue to pay down our bills AND we must find ways to cut unnecessary expenses from those earned benefit programs, at the same time. Not surprisingly, Fischer just continued spouting the extremist right-wing slogans she'd obviously been force-fed.

We'd love to see a real debate tonight between Kerrey and Fischer, and another this Wednesday between President Obama and Mr. Romney, of the kind outlined in 'The Newsroom'. We're just not going to hold our breath it'll happen.

Friday Funday: Big Shoes And Big Thanks

As we're fairly sure you heard earlier this week, Tom Osborne, the University of Nebraska's Athletic Director - and legendary former head football coach -  announced his official retirement date as January 1, 2013. Not unexpectedly, sports media writers and broadcasters from all over the country heaped praise on Dr. Osborne, most of it well deserved.

Many of those praising the College Football Hall of Fame coach and talented athletic director expressed sentiments we've also shared for years: That when AD Osborne chose to move on, the proverbial shoes in his position were going to be incredibly difficult to fill. That time has apparently come, though we hope not without one more set of thank yous, and one last story about the legacy of Tom Osborne at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Our entire staff has - collectively, as well as individually - had differing relationships with Mr. Osborne over the years. Paul has been drawing a prediction cartoon of the Husker football team since not too many years after Coach Osborne took the reins of the team. In fact, without Tom Osborne, it's doubtful that Husker fans would have shown the level of devotion that has warranted many, many years of Paul's HuskerNutz cartoons and books.

Our editor, Amy's family has also had multiple levels of business relationships with the Huskers over the years, thanks in part to Tom Osborne. Countless numbers of Nebraskans have been fed very well thanks to those relationships.

Our webmaster Shawn has had his own relationship with Mr. Osborne over the years, including his time as the Executive Producer of the Husker Sports Radio Network. Shawn has produced and worked with countless hours of Husker sports media programs, including more than a few with Coach Osborne himself.

It's with these relationships firmly in mind that we hope you understand what the real legacy of Tom Osborne is.

Tom Osborne has always been far more than someone just focused on college athletics. For all the years we've known him, Tom Osborne has been a teacher, someone concerned with teaching people to become better than they are. Even when he was in Congress, Rep. Osborne would surprise the occasional staffer by taking time to listen, and talk with them when most other Congresspersons would walk on by.

The most important legacy Tom Osborne will leave at the University of Nebraska is what he's done for - as sports media people often call it - "the academic side of the house." The move to the Big 10 was always less about the athletic money and opportunities for students, and more about the academic grants and educational opportunities in the Big 10, something Osborne knew when he made his decsion.

Having the most academic All Americans - college athletic superstars who also achieved top performance in the classroom - in college sports? That's Osborne's legacy too.

What has always kept Nebraska athletics a step above virtually every other college in the nation has been the understanding that's at the core of Dr. Tom Osborne - that the "student" part of "student athlete" is equal, and many times more important, than the "athlete" part of "student athlete".

We hope whoever tries to fill his shoes always keeps that idea in mind.

Thanks, Tom, for all you've done for Nebraska. Enjoy the fishing next spring. You've more than earned an extended vacation.

Real Monsters At The Voting Booth

Over the last day or two, increasingly positive and legitimately confirmed poll numbers have been rolling in from virtually every legitimate pollster and poll aggregator about all kinds of political contests across America. We even noted it yesterday. While we emotionally embrace this numerical reflection of what we're seeing in our various locations around the country, the fact is, our staff has been feeling a bit like actors in a horror movie - waiting for the other shoe to drop, as the ugly monster rears its head again.

That monster, in case you've forgotten, was the disastrous election of 2000, in the very county where we now have our South Florida location. After the Supreme Court stopped the ballot counting in Florida, and declared George W. Bush the winner, ballots were still recounted. As the Federal Election Commission's final tally has proven for years now, Al Gore actually won the most votes of most Americans in the 2000 election.

That miscarriage of justice lead to some of the worst economic, military, and social disasters in our nation's history. It also gave those on the right, from the Karl Rove school of politics, a warped kind of encouragement. Because they got away with it in 2000, the right-wing extremists now seem to believe that anything is acceptable, in the service of winning - up to and including gaming the spirit of American elections, if not election laws.

Sadly, a similar kind of Rovian monster is exactly the one right wing extremists are attempting to revive in the voting booth again this year, through tactics like voter suppression and voter intimidation.

Even though multiple studies have proven voter impersonation and associated fraud is virtually non-existent, forces from the extreme political right have continued to desperately push voter ID laws to prevent voter impersonation. While many voter ID laws have already been struck down this year, a major battle in Pennsylvania - a very important battleground state - is continuing today. The fact is, voter ID laws only really serve to suppress the votes of minority, urban, and young voters, along with a specific subset of older voters. From college students to snowbirds, thanks to the efforts of heavily biased right-wing partisans, millions of legitimately registered and legal American citizens may not be able to vote this fall - which election law experts say may put any final election tally in jeopardy this year.

It gets worse.

Some governors, like Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott, have attempted mass voter purges, trying to push thousands of legitimate voters off the voter rolls. Like the voter ID laws, these voter purges have fallen significantly more on groups like minorities, college students, and snowbirds - all groups that tend to vote heavily Democratic. Even today, Gov. Scott is once again attempting to pursue yet another voter purge, 40 days away from the election, while he and the state of Florida are being investigated for fraudulent actions on this matter by the Justice Department.

Finally, there is the ugliest anti-voting tactic, voter intimidation. An extremist right-wing group called 'True The Vote' has been training millions of Americans in the tactics of voter intimidation and voter challenges, for use on voting day. Once again, these same monsters are targeting areas that are occupied primarily by minorities and college kids.

The goal for all these tactics is simple. If the Republican Party can't win the election with better candidates, they will try to steal it - just as they did in 2000.

Until the votes have all been counted, the voting results are in - and the counting machines have been proven not to be rigged - we simply do not trust that those on the extreme political right will not attempt to do everything they can, up to and including stealing the election from the American people.

This monster ain't over by a long shot, folks.