Josh, welcome to Firedoglake. We’ve never had a candidate on before from Alabama and you are most welcome. I know you are an outspoken advocate of women’s choice. Is that something that will help you win the House seat? Will it hurt? How does that work in AL-03. I know your opponent is as anti-Choice as they come.

Welcome to Firedoglake, Josh!

Welcome to FDL Josh!

Josh, I was a resident of Montgomery back in the late ’90s for almost a year, working a child welfare project for the state. It appears you are looking to represent Montgomery?

And a big old howdy to my buds from LeftInAlabama.

I think it will help Howie b/c most people believe the government shouldn’t make that choice for you. When we’re on republican radio a lot of people call and ask about choice. I often talk about the 95-10 plan that’s been discussed in congress. Most people who are anti-choice are interested in reducing abortion so they are interested to hear how we could reduce abortions in this country.

AL-03 is mostly north and east of Montgomery but it includes the eastern and even some southern suburbs. It looks like it was gerrymandered to be a safe Republican seat. Although it doesn’t look as safe as it once was.

That’s right. My district includes most of Montgomery, it moves east through Tuskegee, Auburn, and Phenix City. It moves up the GA border to Cherokee County. It also includes Anniston and Talladega.

It has more people than Alaska!

Josh- tell us about the new polling info. We’ve heard Rogers is under 50% in a couple of different polls.

WAMP (Women Against McCain-Palin) have two incredibly powerful 30 second spots they’re running that emphasize how government should stay out of women’s choice. They’re very emotionally charged.

Howie: it’s actually gerrymandered to be a democratic seat. I hate to say that democrats gerrymandered a seat but the state legislature increased the african american percentage in 2000. The district is 33% african american, the 3rd largest percentage of any district held by a republican in the country.

most of the local electeds are dems and our polling shows that 42% of people consider themselves to be democrats, while 34% consider themselves to be republicans. this is a classic what’s the matter with kansas district.

I lived in a complex just east of East Highway so sounds like that would have been in your area. It was a fairly red district when I lived there but also had people who were willing to think.

Josh, is Obama at the top of the ticket going to help you win or win it be an obstacle? The Republicans tried using him as a wedge in Louisiana and Mississippi special elections– in redder districts than AL-03– and their strategy failed dismally.

do we know which two Republican held districts have more african americans?

Thanks gradyw. The teacher’s union has a poll out that has us down 44-36. That’s pretty significant. We haven’t been able to run so many ads about me so it’s not surprising that we’d be around 36. But Rogers has dropped 10 points since we started talking about his record of sending jobs overseas and voting with oil and pharma companies. He’s been running some ads suggesting that I’m not from Alabama and that half our money come from out of state. Those suggestions are not true, and apparently they haven’t been persuasive.

Hi Josh, welcome to the Lake.

How do we end the tyranny of the gerrymander?

People here tend to vote for republicans for president but that doesn’t make it a red district in my mind. People here believe the government has a role to play in making sure we have a strong economy. They believe in basic educational opportunity for everyone. Those are fundamentally democratic beliefs.

Those are two very very courageous people.

Thanks Howie. We’ll see unprecedented democratic vote bc of the top of the ticket. If people who occasionally vote come out to vote this time in large numbers, that would have a tremendous effect.

I hate to say Elliott that I don’t know the answer to that. I think districts should be drawn by some sort of non-partisan group but I haven’t spent enough time yet figuring out how it could work.

Hi Josh, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. I have not heard of this “95-10″ plan you mentioned. Can you give us a ball park idea of what it entails?

That’s a good point Howie about the republican wedge strategy in MS and LA. Republicans haven’t managed to make people hate Obama as much as they would like. I don’t think they’ll see turnout for McCain that exceeds what Bush got. I don’t think they’ll see that anywhere.

Josh, I was fascinated by the points you made about Alabama having a huge amount of water but farmers having a terrible drought problem. I’m guessing that a lot of that countryside north and east of Montgomery is farming country. Is there an actual solution to the infrastructure problem that Rogers should have been attending to where you could make a difference in the lives of the people you seek to represent?

Robert Trent Jones Alabama Golf Trail

Thanks for the question. The idea is that you reduce abortion by 95% over 10 years by teaching sex education, providing contraception, and diminishing some of the economic reasons behind abortion. A large percent of women over 20 who have an abortion cite economic reasons. If we provide a lot more pre and post natal care then those economic reasons become a much smaller factor.

Josh – I used to economic development for a gas/electric utility, so I know where you are coming from. To move the wood chips and chicken waste, would rail help you guys at all? What’s the rail system like down there in terms of being where you need it and where you need it to go?

Thanks Howie. Irrigation infrastructure is fairly expensive but it’s still a very good investment. The farm bill (which Rogers voted against before he voted for it) included a small program so farmers can build their own reservoirs. We should build bigger reservoirs that can be used by a whole bunch of farmers and Rogers hasn’t lifted a finger on this issue.

I think Rogers and many many other representatives have entirely the wrong mentality when it comes to economic development. I’ll come back to that as we go along.

What kind of interest are you getting from the local media? Are you getting interviews on tv and radio?

it’s our understanding that Rogers was a deciding or one of the deciding votes in CAFTA. he says he voted the way he did because the CEO of Avondale Mills said it wouldn’t hurt them. well Avondale Mills closed. comment on that please Josh.

Rail could be huge here particularly given gas prices. I’d love to see it. Also, people have been dreaming of light rail from Birmingham to Atlanta for a long time but I don’t see anyone really working on it.

On the economic development mentality: I think we really didn’t think enough about the consequences of free trade before we got into it. In all the swing states in this country, you have districts like mine that have been devastated by job loss. Both parties have been part of that and no one has presented serious solutions for how you replace the jobs we’re losing.

“I think Rogers and many many other representatives have entirely the wrong mentality when it comes to economic development. I’ll come back to that as we go along.”
Josh, if you are talking about the attitude of “entice jobs from someplace else with inducements versus growing our own” – that is a national and international problem. People do not understand that your best economic development investment is with people who are already THERE and who already WANT TO BE THERE. If you have to induce a company to come to you, they are just one more inducement away from pulling up stakes and moving someplace else.

The video in this post encapsulates the progressive argument for investment in communities in order to help them grow. I wish more Democrats, whether from Alabama or California, would talk this way when they come up against the borrow-and-waste GOPs.

Congratulations on running a real race in Alabama for real Democratic values, Mr Segall. Best of luck to you.

My question is: in this economic downturn, do voters ask you about the social issues that so preoccupied GOP strategists in prior years?

Josh, I’ve seen this “Talladaga nights” video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Fwx9Pv3KU and wondered if you plan be back at Talladaga this weekend? Did you get a warm reception from the NASCAR dads there?

We’re getting a fair amount of interest. There are 2 open seats in Alabama, we have 2 great candidates for those seats. My district has a lot better democratic percentage though and Rogers has a proven record of doing what his party wants him to do even when it hurts the district.

I think we’re particularly getting some interest b/c Rogers is running such negative ads. I think you can see the latest one on leftinalabama.com or politicalparlor.net.

Radio is always willing to put us on b/c most dems don’t do a lot of republican radio. I think my infrastructure ideas are pretty nonpartisan, though admittedly dems tend to be a lot more attuned to making government function well, so we like doing those shows. You get a little bit of a zeal of the converted effect.

TV in Montgomery and Anniston has been pretty good in the last couple of weeks. I have a lot to say about the bailout.

Glad to be here!

Will African-American voters turning out in your district to vote for Barack Obama help you downticket? Is there any Obama campaign in your district?

I think that’s right Toby. We aren’t doing enough here in terms of retraining or training in the first place. My opponent voted against trade adjustment assistance to get training to people whose job goes overseas.

US DOT just announced passenger rail project grants for Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and Illinois; and one each in Arizona, California, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Washington state. I don’t know what the criteria were for getting those grants. I also know that NJ Transit is doing a project in NJ into PA, rebuilding the Lackawanna Cutoff. But again, they are on their own and have a huge commuter market to work with. In terms of doing any sort of industrial development, rail is key.

Any Congressperson who is quoting CEOs in the current economic crisis is not paying attention.

What we saw for every single project we ever did(and this is Upstate New York..not exactly high up on EcoDev consultants “gotta go look here” lists), is that there is a huge ‘wanna factor’(do we wanna be there or don’t we?). I’ve seen people move their companies to the coast so that the boss can get on his boat by 4:30 p.m. Ditto for golf, shopping for the president’s wife, etc. But I’ve also seen the effect of having colleges and universities partner with economic development to create actual products and companies. But, they were already there and the people wanted to be there.

You said you “have a lot to say on the bailout.” Can you tell us how that’s playing out in AL-03 and what you do say about it?

Toby, might point generally is that you don’t fix the economy by giving everyone $600 and you don’t fix it with this bailout. You fix it by investing in infrastructure. Irrigation is a great example in Alabama b/c 3 million acres of irrigated farm land would be more valuable than the whole of the automobile industry here and in 2009 we’ll be the leading manufacturer in the country.

But there are tons of examples. We have more waste from our timber industry that we can turn into fuel than Iowa has corn. We could be one of the leaders in the country in turning wood waste, chicken waste, peanut waste into fuel. We’re not now b/c no one wants to build a refinery in a state that has 1200 bridges that can’t hold a school bus.

One more quick example: Tuskegee has a major university but no emergency room. A small investment there is the difference between jobs or no jobs. We can’t convince young people to stay in that county b/c once you’re not a student, you’re 35 minutes from emergency care.

Welcome Josh! I’d like to know if your campaign is receiving meaningful support from the DNC?

That was a lot of huffing and puffing on Rogers’ part. The trade agreements he’s voted for are all substantially the same. There are very few protections for workers in foreign countries and our jobs start moving over there. There are dispersed benefits in the US–we get cheaper spatulas at Walmart–and concentrated harms in places like rural alabama.

The ceo of a textile company isn’t the proper person to ask if you are deciding whether to vote for a trade agreement. The workers are.

Josh, do you think that part of this is because people have been led to believe that ‘this is just the way it is…”?

Not nearly as much Teddy. We do talk about one issue regularly. When I worked for Paul Wellstone I wrote domestic violence policy. That policy involved some character education–teaching kids about health relationships. I support a certain amount of teaching kids to challenge themselves, teaching them to think about what it is to lead a meaningful life, what it is to be a good person.

But generally we talk about economics. We also talk about government wasting less money and about rebuilding trust in politics. We do talk a fair amount about the war b/c my district fights the iraq war and we’re against it.

Thanks for that answer, this is such a no-brainer it is criminal we have to

It will be SO refreshing to have these kinds of ideas discussed again in an Obama administration! Some pundit really needs to ask Sarah how that “Abstinence Only” policy is working out for the Palin brood.

Hey kids! Josh has a great tv ad, see it HERE. (and after you view it, you can click on a donate tab to send a little cash to help get it aired.)

And we would work on that consistently if elected.

especially when that CEO gave campaign contributions and continued to give when Avondale Mills left his district.

No, no, Josh…WHEN you are elected. ;)

Forgive me Toby. I’m starting to get a little lost here but let me touch on a related issue. I don’t think we run against my opponent primarily. We run against 2 things: first, the notion that the national democratic party is wrong for Alabama and second, that congressional representatives aren’t cable of helping anyone anyway.

On the first, that’s why I think it’s important for the national democratic party to show that we have a plan to create jobs in rural areas, to make it so children can move home again. If we are the dominant party on that issue, I think we’ll be the dominant party in this country.

ON the second, it’s b/c of people like my opponent that my voters don’t think anyone in congress is capable of really growing our economy. We try to give concrete ideas and we also try to spend a lot of time listening. If you went door to door in Alabama and you explained that you wanted to make it affordable for every child to go to 2 year 4 year or career tech for some form of higher ed, if you explained how much it would cost and what the benefit would be to people, most people in alabama would buy in if they felt like their money wasn’t being stolen. The problem is that people rightly don’t trust politicians.

I too am interested in what voters are asking, and telling, you about this week’s bailout. Did your opponent vote for it?

Not a ton of support so far from the DNC but we’re in contact constantly and I think some support is still possible. I also believe we can pull this out on our own if we can raise enough money this month. We’ve raised over $800k so far and need about another $200k win.

Steny Hoyer did an event for us and received some contributions from a few leadership PACs like Rahm and Clyburn. We’d love to get put on Red-to-Blue so don’t hesitate to say it on the blogs if you think we should get put on. After all, the district is an R+3, we’ve raised a good amount of money, and a number of polls have Rogers under 50%.

One more thing here: we are facing something that Joe Turnham faced in this district in 2002. Joe had polling that showed a lot of undecideds at this point. Our polling is almost identical to his. The dccc pulled out on Joe, Joe ran no ads for the last 12 days of the election, and lost by 3800 votes. This is a much much different year than 2002. A small amount of national party support could go a long way.

Josh, I see the DCCC has gotten behind their anti-Choice candidate in AL-02, a MUCH more Republican district than yours. I think AL-02 is R+13 and yours is R+3 or even less than that now. The DCCC has already dumped over $150,000 in independent expenditures on the other race and they’ve reserved almost $600,000 in air time. Do you think they’re not being as supportive of your race for any reason other than they’re reticent about taking on incumbents?

Thanks for doing this Josh. I’ve got to run and get ready for the Alabama football game.

I want to remind anyone that is blogging that Josh needs any financial help that we can give him.

While this is technically a R+3, Voter Registration might actually improve that to a true swing district this cycle.

Most people I talk to would just like all of this explained. The last time we had government by crisis we got the iraq war. Where does the figure $700 billion come from? What do we expect to happen as a result of this spending? I don’t think Congress has said enough to justify the program.

As you can imagine, people know that bailing out wall street is going to accomplish very little for them. They are also completely unhappy with some of the additions with the senate bill. It’s my understanding that the bill that was passed allows the treasury secretary to buy bad credit card debt. I have a hard time understanding why that’s necessary.

Less from people in the district, but I do hear a lot of people saying they don’t like the job Paulson’s doing. I think he’s been erratic in his decision making.

Don’t know if this will help you in your election, but the Tuskegee Airmen waited 60 years to be honored in Washington and the republican could not pronouce Tuskegee. It was an insult to the 80 something year old Airmen and an embarasment to the republican party.

After all, the district is an R+3, we’ve raised a good amount of money, and a number of polls have Rogers under 50%.

That plus massive Obama/Biden turnout could well be enough.

Howie, I think incumbency has a lot to do with it.

Part of it is that I’m a young first time candidate who has had to prove himself. I think we’ve done that job and I’d like to the dccc help in our race. My district is the sort of district democrats ought to win and I’m talking about issues that would help us around the country.

It’s hard to determine how much extra vote there will be. I’ve heard some people saying they think the african american vote will double. I’ve heard others say conservatively they believe we’ll see african american vote share rise 5-8%.

Hello Mr. Josh Segall,

Can you please comment on how former Chair Allen Greenspan has performed (thoughts, actions, agenda/priorities) while he was chairman, and since then (for example Sen. McCain was trying to read his book, did you and what are your thoughts).

The reason I ask is that he is on C-SPAN Reading one of his speeches and he has many interesting &/or odd remarks. For example the perception of trust being needed for capitalism (so the question being a if actual warranted trust -v- the illusion of trust). Other aspects of the talk are physical property -v- IP, a market based on high job turnover (how to process the job losers), adjudication (lawsuits – without trust anything but a moderate amount of grief would “flood/overpower” the the courts).

Take as much latitude as you would like. What are your thoughts on partisian/philosophical/intellectual/etc persons planning policy based on deep-thoughts: thinking inside the “bubble/beltway” (or under a particular philosophy for many years). Also people analyzing percentages of -actual people- being damaged by policy – what could be a counterbalance in deliberation to a point of that is given in consultation to representatives (the people elect the representatives who can’t possible know it all so consult experts – get one person from each side, trust the best presentation, trust your sharp mind, punish the manipulatve/incorrect/non-wise, etc?).

If you are sticking more to local issues can you please give your thoughts on a town giving a large corporation tax exempt status to build in their town rather than one across the state line…across the county line?

Next week we’re opening a Tuskegee Airmen Museum. It’s going to be great for Tuskegee. Rogers has gotten some money for it and is pretending that he otherwise would be good for African Americans. Unfortunately he’s been bad particularly bad for Tuskegee. He recently said that he has no plan to get more medical care in that county and that we aren’t going to get any. He also helped cut student loan programs.

Turnout could bring out young people and independents. I think there are going to be some surprised Republicans on Nov. 4.

How does the Iraq War play as an issue in AL-03? I imagine that if challenged on his lockstep 100% rubber stamp support Rogers will role out all the GOP lies about Iraq attacking the World Trade Center and WMD, etc. Are the people you meet on the campaign trail pretty brainwashed by Fox and hate talk radio or do they realize something’s not adding up?

redX, there’s a lot there. Let me take this a step at a time. I didn’t read Greenspan’s book and don’t know enough to comment. The talk you speak of sounds interesting.

So let’s start with some general thoughts on capitalism.

Earlier when someone mentioned how Rogers had cast the deciding vote on CAFTA and how a factory in the district closed down as a result, it reminded me of another good friend of this blog, Larry Kissell in North carolina whole battling Robin Hayes, another rubber stamp like Rogers. Coincidentally, a supporter of Kissell’s just sent me a TV spot he made for Kissell on this issue. I bet he’d be willing to adapt it to your campaign ifr you wanted him to. It’s worth taking a look at the ad.

I’m a capitalist and I think the system works as well as it can when you provide a lot of information. Part of our current financial problems stems from a lack of information for investors. I think you see these sorts of problems everywhere. We like to talk about hospitals. 40,000 harms occur every day in American hospitals b/c of staff infection, getting the wrong meds, bed soars, pneumonia. In most places you can’t know how bad these problems are, so hospitals don’t get better.

I agree that trust is a big part of capitalism but I think government has a big part in making sure that people get relevant information. I like Cass Sunstein on these questions.

I have a lot more to say so I’ll come back as I answer some of the other questions

They realize that not all of this adds up. The key argument as I see it is that when we leave Iraq it will become a haven for terrorism. People KNOW that’s not the case.

But there’s also a lot of worry about our dependence on China and the Middle East in my district. I hear that constantly. People see our problems with Iran and Russia as stemming from our being embroiled in Iraq. Rightly I think.

So why does Bush go poke China in the eye right away?

Thanks Howie. From what I can tell, Kissell is running a great race. He is a good demonstration of how powerful job loss is. He came within 400 votes last time talking almost solely about that one issue.

redX that brings me to a second point. My thoughts on job loss are pretty well summarized by Chris Hayes’ latest article. I think it’s in the New Republic. I do think we are entering a time in which people will go through multiple jobs during their lives and we have to be prepared for that on a cultural level.

redX, so this question for policy about people actually harmed in the short term vs the long term betterment… A lot of people say that there’s a lot of short term harm to people who had manufacturing jobs but those people have to be sacrificed so we can have a better economy with high tech jobs, jobs that the next generation will fill. First, I don’t think that’s true about free trade. I think you will have rural areas disappear if we don’t build their infrastructure and I think you’ll have people that suffer more and more unless we train them for the jobs we can sustain here.

I do think it’s a fair question, if I understand it, that some people always get hurt when you transition to a better policy. But I also think we have geographic representatives who try to lessen the harm along the way. Does that answer your question a little bit? I suspect you and I could talk for a while.

The republicans talk about smaller government and balenced budgets, but they have increased the size of government more than anyone in the history of the US, (starting from large and getting to enormous). Do your consistutents know that Japan ownes $593.4 billion US Treasuries, China China $518.7 billion and United Kingdom $290.8 (Data current as of July 2008). We owe China and Japan over one trillion dollars!

Elliot, I’m on my campaign manager’s computer and I’m not sure how to get that link. Can you explain your question?

Sandman: I don’t think most people know the scale of what we owe. We talk about that China stat pretty regularly though. Thanks for including the Japan info.

Josh, noting that you like Cass Sunstein, do you think that Bu$h CO should be held ‘legally’ responsible for anything?

That is appreciated, thank you for acknowledging a pretzel & hard/overly-detailed question with good manners. Recently I have seen on the national level where asking complicated questions is a no-no. It is far better to process it as you have done (with enough to do for your district), but someone going for a POTUS/VPOTUS/SCOTUS top slot not knowing how to talk about the econ/philosophy/fairness is tough.

For the district level I do think its important to know how a person will seek “expert” advise, and what they will do when that advise is wrong (or worse where that is possible).

Greenspan has something to offer, but how to filter out the ideology & the outright coded words he includes. Its all well and good to go off an give conservatives various thesis topics to investigate – but it makes me sad to think someone from the House or Senate might take some advise like this, cast a vote, and speed off to make reservations for dinner at a nice DC restaurant.

Best of luck in your hard work.

Elliott’s link is to a diary I posted earlier today at “Oxdown Gazette” one of FDL’s partner sites. It’s on the announcement late yesterday afternoon that the Bush Administration is selling $6.4B in weapons to Taiwan. I asked (rhetorically) “Why are we poking a stick in the eye of our largest creditor?”

redX: as much as possible I try to use expert advice so I can get things explained to me. I try not to just take someone’s word for it.

This brings up an interesting question and I bet Howie has some good thoughts: how much have we learned based on the failures and particularly the deceptions of the last 8 years. The current administration has really taken a red is blue, 4 is 3 kind of approach. If you are burning down forests, call it the Healthy Forests Act. I don’t think we’ve developed mechanisms to deal with that sort of all out war on the truth.

According to CNN, the US is going to sell $6.4B in Weapons To Taiwan

State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said Congress — whose approval is needed for the deal to go through — was notified Friday afternoon. He indicated the administration expects congressional approval quickly.

We’re supporting Taiwan I think bc they’re a democracy. I would do the same essentially. It strikes me as a good move to keep the status quo.

If there isn’t any objection, I’d like to point out something in my race that hasn’t gotten much play. My opponent has taken money from a company called Tull Chemical in Oxford, AL, within the district.

Tull makes Compound 1080, the world’s deadliest pesticide. The factory is in a flood plane, it’s protected by a chain link fence, and the EPA and DOT have fined the company for having no security plan and no plan to warn the community if something went wrong. Compound 1080 is odorless and tasteless, kills in about 30 minutes, there’s no cure. A teaspoon would kill 100 people. The company makes 5 tons a year for export. That’s enough to kill a third of the US population if equally distributed. After all the 9/11 reforms, we still haven’t secured some of this country’s deadliest chemicals.

There’s a bill in congress to ban this stuff. Rogers has denied knowing about the bill. The bill has been in his committee for 4 years.

Do your constituents know that US Oil production peaked in 1970, yes, 38 years ago. All the drilling since then does not keep up with the wells the run out of oil. Drill, Drill, Drill, is just a slogan, but we will be lucky just to get back to 1970 production levels, and of course, the US uses much more oil than in 1970.

Great, thank you for the answer. True Democracy and true capitalism is all about truth and information. If enought people have the true information we can make the correction decisions in electing out Representatives. Without real information (and in the last few decades at least no down side for pols or most executives)we have the worst of all worlds.

I have spoken with countless people in the last few years – one of the most common themes is the belief that today (and for at lease a while – CHEATERS WIN. We can see all patterns in a micro-cosmos trying to drive from work getting cut off and crashed into.

Have you talked about that on radio and TV and with reporters? It sound slike it could be a game-changing issue– especially for the county it’s in!

Oh and there’s one more thing: Saddam Hussein used this stuff to kill people. The Iraq Survey Group is the org we sent to Iraq looking for WMDs. This is the only thing that could be called a WMD they found. Saddam had bought it through the Iraq Grain Board in the late 70s from Tull Chemical. It’s not clear to us if Compound 1080 was even legally sold to Iraq. There’s testimony from an Iraqi Colonel who says Saddam used to feed it to political dissidents. Say something bad about Saddam and get pulled into the police station for a glass of water with Compound 1080 in it.

You can see more about it on my website: http://www.Segall2008.com

Good luck, Josh! We’re pulling for you at Left in Alabama!

If you’re still around, I have a question. At the VP debate, Isill asked about Darfur, and Biden responded with several concrete ways to improve the situation, including enforcing a no-fly zone. What’s your opinion on that? Are there any other measures you think we and our allies could take?

Everybody agrees that the situation is untenable, but still nothing gets done. Richard Shelby’s COS looked me in the eye in his DC office and assured me that “the Senator is strongly opposed to genocide.”

Well, most people are, but we need more than indignation. We need action.

Your thoughts?

Josh;

“to keep the staus quo”?

You certainly are much more sanguine regarding the state of relations among nations in the world than I feel at the moment. Would that ’status’ quo’ include continuing the ‘war on terror’ on its endless course?

Speaking of ‘democracy’, what condition would you describe ours as being in at the moment? It seems rather tenuous to me. What do you think?

I do not know you from Adam, but again recoginizing some of these truths and patterns or at least being able to talk about them is my minimum threshold. Healthy Forests, Clean Sky.. you are correct. Thank you, good luck on a potential super majority on day one (or close to it).

Work just as hard every day. And know there is no more cover once there is a super majority – so please deliver.

People know that we haven’t built refineries for 30 years. A lot of people believe drilling is the answer. Rather than trying to argue facts with Fox News (they’re on the air more than we are), we try to emphasize how much Alabama can benefit from alternative fuels, nuclear, and natural gas.

We also like to talk about fuel efficiency standards. If dems talk about fuel efficiency standards in the right way, we should really be able to get people on our side.

I agree with Biden. We could do a ton more.

Lastly, FYI the stock/market is not the end all – be all; but we have to put savings somewhere. In the last 3 months the kids school fund dropped 22%. In the last few years EDU and medical inflation have been what…11%?

Ug.

I don’t have anything against nuclear, but it cost about $450 million to dismantal the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant in Oregon. That is a pretty big ticket.

DWBartoo, I’m not suggesting that the status quo is good in any way if we are talking about countries other than Taiwan. I like a lot of what Biden had to say. Particularly with Pakistan. We used to invest a lot more heavily in Pakistan’s education system and infrastructure. The “war on terror” has included very little effort to change hearts and minds–that’s where I’d focus.

I think our democracy is in bad shape. We’ve had a lot of dishonesty in government. For the people in my district, trust has been eroded at every level of government. Birmingham, AL (Jefferson County) is about to go bankrupt, people feel like state government steals from them, and I don’t think there is any trust in congress either to tell the truth or to come up with solutions to problems like the bailout. Part of that is that politicians really don’t try to engage constituents.

We’ve pledged to have two town hall meetings/ listening sessions every year, but that’s just short hand for saying that we’ll constantly engage people on the issues. I believe the only way you make real change is by changing people’s minds. Essentially I would run a constant campaign so that we’re always talking to constituents about how we can make the country better.

We messed up badly when we initially tried to do nuclear in the 70s, but nuclear is now 20% of the power in Alabama. There’s still an issue about waste but I think the investment in new plants is worth it.

The Savings Rate is atrocious. I agree that the stock market is not a great indicator of the health of the economy.

Thank you, Josh, for your thoughtful and considered answers.

WHEN you are elected, I shall follow your career with interest.

DW

Thanks DW. Please sign up for our updates at my website. http://www.Segall2008.com

Toby, I lived just south of Josh’s district in the 2nd district. You bring up something I’ve been watching there, and wondering about. A lot of the rails have been taken up…the groove filled in. Someone there told me they were shipped to China. I’ve been trying to find out why and where, but no luck so far.

Thanks for coming by and chatting with us, Josh. It was a very stimulating talk and it sound slike you made some new friends. Good luck with the rest of the campaign. We hope you’ll visit with us again when we have to call you Congressman Segall.

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People For the America Way just made their House endorsements and launched a contest like the one we did. I was happy to help since 22 of their candidates are Blue America candidates and the other two are just fine as well. Please go over and vote when you get a chance.

Next weekend the big Blue America election initiative gets launched… right here at FDL.

I saw your guest post at DWT – what an adorable doggy! What is his/her name?

Sallie is her name. I also have an English Setter named Wimberley, after a town in Texas where I spent a lot of time while working on a campaign.

Thanks Howie. I really appreciate your having me.

What a waste of a perfectly good resource. We are idiots.

Josh, I came late to the party, but I think you’re right there. Bernie Sanders is considered a state resource because of his town hall meetings and workshops to keep his constituency educated about the state of the state and the nation. There was a little kerfluffle there when Karl’s team tried to mess with him. His constituency had his back, though…and it didn’t make any headway.

Thanks so much for answering our questions Josh, and thanks Howie
(I see you, jacqrat *s* )

Thank you for being here this afternoon Josh.

Thanks Josh, we’re looking for a win in AL-03 next month! Take care, and keep us posted.

Thanks to Josh and Howie.