Ehlers's website gets a makeover - except for the News section

This fall, white is the new Navy blue at Congressman Vernon Ehlers's official website.

While not much of a fan of the Congressman, fair is fair, and I do like parts of the new layout for the site. On the left sidebar, for example, one can go to the Write Your Representative website, search legislation, and get help from his office. Also, you have the opportunity to "Tell Vern what you think!" by taking a poll.

Yet one thing I found notoriously missing is any updated news. The Latest News section of the front page contains unlinked citations to press releases from June. The News section is more recent, containing a couple of items from August 2.

Meanwhile, the Newsroom on Senator Carl Levin's website contains 27 press releases since that day, and Senator Debbie Stabenow's contains 26. Granted, many of these deal with funding for projects in areas outside the Third District, but even so, why doesn't the Congressman's website mention the more than $340,000 earmarked to help stop gangs in West Michigan? Or the two grants worth $330,000 and $270,000 coming to help fight crime in Grand Rapids - the heart of Ehlers's district?

And what does the Congressman have to say about Gen. David Pertaeus's testimony, Alberto Gonzales's resignation, or the passage of the College Cost Reduction Act (which he voted against?

Who knows? You'll just have to Contact Vern to find out.

In the mean time, what do you think of Ehlers's new website?

Ehlers attends Iraq panel discussion

Media Mouse has an excellent round-up of a recent panel discussion on the Iraq War. Guess who showed up?

Last night at the Women's City Club in Grand Rapids, Democracy for America's Kent County chapter held a panel discussion titled "Searching for a Constructive Response to our Entanglement in Iraq." The panel featured two West Michigan area professors and a former military chaplain, all of who gave twenty-minute talks on the conflict in Iraq followed by a question and answer period.

Surprisingly, Grand Rapids area congressional representative Vern Ehlers who has recently stated his unwillingness to listen to protestors, attended the event. While it is nice to see Ehlers out in public engaging the current situation in Iraq, the fact that Ehlers chose to attend this particular event--and not any of the other numerous teach-ins that took place before and after the start of the war--is somewhat troublesome for those who have been pressuring Ehlers to end the occupation of Iraq as the three panelists basically echoed Ehlers' position that the United States has a "moral obligation" to the Iraqi people and that the United States must stay in the country to attempt to mitigate the effects of what is for the most part now a civil war. To be fair, Democracy for America cannot be blamed for Ehlers' attendance, but it was unfortunate that all three panelists represented what was at best a "centrist" position on the situation. There was no voice for an immediate withdrawal on the panel, nor for that matters were there any voices calling for a timetable for withdrawal. Ehlers will likely see the panel as bolstering his position, he has recently claimed that he will only listen to "facts" when making his decisions about the war and now he has three area "experts" on record essentially supporting his position on the conflict.

War costs Ehlers's constituents $818 million - so far

The National Priorities Project has released a fact sheet detailing the cost of the war in Iraq to the state of Michigan and to each congressional district. From Media Mouse:

The fact sheet also highlights the fact that the war has cost residents of the 3rd Congressional District that includes Grand Rapids at least $818 million dollars. According to the National Priorities Project's analysis, that money could have paid for healthcare for 139,738 children for the duration of the Iraq War, 6,595 affordable housing units, or 74 elementary schools. The cost of the war to the city of Grand Rapids (http://www.costofwar.com/) has been estimated to be at least $236,523,931.

These costs have apparently been ignored by Republican Representative Vern Ehlers who represents the Third District. Over the past week, Ehlers--who was questioned about whether or not he would support cutting funding for the war--has refused to do so. Instead, Ehlers has claimed that he initially had "deep reservations" about the war and is unhappy without how it has gone, but has stated that it will be a "bloodbath" if the United States leaves. Ehlers has further said that he will not be influenced by demonstrations but rather will be "swayed by facts."

Media Mouse goes on to list the many "facts" that evidently have not swayed Congresman Ehlers, including the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have been killed, the millions who have been displaced, numerous attacks by insurgents, and the lack of electricity throughout most of teh day in Baghdad.

And let's not forget the eight million Iraqis living in destitute conditions.

So much for 'liberating' them.

GR Press: Anti-war campaign in town to work on Ehlers

Here's The Grand Rapids Press with more:

They have been in town several weeks now, organizing meetings, attending demonstrations, handing out lawn signs, andwriting letters, all aimed at changing one man's mind.

"The only person around here who can do anything about this is Vern Ehlers," said Bryan Finken, 46, a part-time philosophy professor from Denver, about the war in Iraq.

...

Their effort is part of a national campaign by a coalition of anti-war groups called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. The effort is targeting 40 Republican members of Congress they believe may be wavering in their support for the war.

Those 40, if they change their minds, would give the war's opponents a veto-proof majority in Congress, organizers said. They call their campaign Iraq Summer, modeled after the 1964 Freedom Summer, which registered black voters in the South, and the summer of 1967 protests against the Vietnam War.

America is speaking - is Vern Ehlers listening?

Ehlers has $408,000 on hand

The Federal Elections Commission has the numbers:

Raised this quarter: $44,245.00
Raised this cycle: $112,620.00
Spent this quarter: $28,099.75
Spent this year: $84,652.47
On hand: $408,029.95

By the way, OpenSecrets has all the goods on where Ehlers is getting his money, including which companies and industries are bankrolling his campaigns.

House passes relief for college students; Ehlers opposes it

These days, getting a college education is essential for those who want to be successful throughout life. Moreover, a skilled and educated workforce is critical for the US to get back on the right track.

Key to this is making sure college is affordable. Last year Republicans in Congress voted to cut the Pell Grant and raise interest rates on student loans. Under Democratic leadership, Congress is working to remedy that. An important piece of this effort, the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, has passed the House. Congressman Ehlers, however, opposed it.

Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education Committee and champion of students, had a few words for those who tried to kill the bill:

"...You don’t like the fact that while you were in power after years of flat lining the Pell Grant, we we’ve finally given them the biggest increase in decades for the poorest kids in this country. You don’t like that so you want to kill the bill. You don’t like the fact that were going to take 5 million middle class kids and extend to them a loan thats interest rate is cut in half? While their families are struggling to get them through college? They’re making sacrifices every year? You’re going to do this? You’re going to kill this bill? Are you proud? Are you proud of this amendment, that you are going to try to kill this bill? Say it louder."

Well Mr. Ehlers, are you proud?

GR Press: Ehlers gets an earful from protesters

It's nice to see people try to hold Ehlers accountable:

Members of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, a national group calling for an end to the war, and Institute for Global Education, a Grand Rapids-based group that preaches nonviolence, waved signs reading "Keep 'Em Safe, Bring 'Em Home" at passing traffic on Michigan Street NW. Some drivers honked and flashed peace signs.
"We're targeting the more-moderate representatives we believe will switch their opinions," said Matthew Arnold, deputy field director for AAEI in Michigan. The group also is targeting Reps. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph; Tim Walberg, R-Tipton; Mike Rogers, R-Howell; and Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia.

Anyone who know Walberg, Rogers, or McCotter well enough knows that they are not moderate. But at any rate, how does Ehlers respond to the protest?

"I've learned not to let protesters sway my views on the issue," the Grand Rapids Republican said. "But, what they are trying to address is real and should be addressed."

...

"I'm no supporter of war, but that's over the hill now," he said. "The question is what can we do from here ... and we're going to need a presence there at this time." (emphasis added)

From Media Mouse: Ehlers Introduces Voting "Reform" Legislation

Media Mouse has the scoop:

Last month, Grand Rapids area Congressional Representative Vern Ehlers Republican) introduced the Voting Enhancement and Security Act of 2007 (HR 2360) in the House of Representatives. The bill would amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to establish state guidelines for an independent and verifiable voting record on electronic machines, require state auditors to certify audit plans, and require states to develop contingency plans and emergency ballot protocols.

Republicans on the House Administration committee--on which Ehlers is a ranking member--are urging their colleagues in the House to vote for Ehlers' bill instead of another popular voting reform bill known as HR 811. That bill would require that electronic voting machines generate voter-verified paper trails and require them to be in place by 2008 and would require mandatory audits of a portion of precincts in federal races. A key difference is that Ehlers' bill does not require changes by the 2008 election, nor does it require the paper trails that many voting reform organizations have sought. Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center for Justice Under Law of New York University said that Ehlers' bill "does nothing to address the serious voting system security vulnerabilities experts have identified" and cites it as an example of Republicans using the tough deadline imposed under HR 811 to ensure that Congress does not address the security and accuracy of voting machines.

However, some critics of HR 811's deadlines have introduced legislation
calling for paper trails. On May 25, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced the Ballot Integrity Act of 2007 that would implement safeguards to prevent errors and tampering at the polls, require states to use voting systems with voter-verified paper records subject to public manual audits in the 2010 federal elections, and ensure that voters are not denied the right to vote by faulty purges of voting rolls.