For Chip, is peace a need, a want, or neither?

Government is not a business.  Someone should inform him of this fact.

As far as I can tell he still does not have an office in Duluth (biggest city in his district) where you have to travel 110 miles away to North Branch ... and hell help you if you live somewhere like I-Falls (250 miles), or Grand Marais (220 miles).

Democrats screwed up and did not come out in numbers.
Sad. :(

I'm very interested in this topic.  I look forward to more debate PDD style on it here.  I too find it noteworthy that this is so early in his legislative agenda, I mean ... why this?

The cynic in me wonders if it is not a "bone" thrown his way from some other neo-con type nefarious person who's been tracking the issue, doesn't want to take credit for it but wants to "bolster" Chip's record among ... people who think this is a great idea.

The current economic climate coupled with the Repubs gaining some measure of power while veering off to the far right is a recipe for disaster. Now they're going after all kinds of programs for ideological reasons and justifying this in the name of cutting spending.

It's spurious, disingenuous bullshit but people get the elected officials they deserve, either by voting for them or not bothering to go out and cast their vote against them.

Cutting spending on things like the Institute of Peace, Public Broadcasting, etc. is almost irrelevant from a fiscal standpoint. If you want to save real money let the Bush tax cuts expire and take a hard look at military spending.

From their website
ISG Quick Stats
Ten public servants—five Democrats, five Republicans—made up the ISG.
The ISG's budget was $1 million, approved by Congress
Three organizations joined USIP in facilitating the ISG.
44 people served in four Expert Working Groups to advise the ISG.
The Iraq Study Group spent 4 days in Iraq in August/September.
There were 9 plenary meetings of the ISG.
The Iraq Study Group consulted with 136 people in and out of government before September 19, and 170 people total as it prepared its report.
Members of the Iraq Study Group were not paid in any way for their work.

Rougement:  "Now they're going after all kinds of programs for ideological reasons and justifying this in the name of cutting spending."

This just seems to be so true.  That's why I found this timing so curious.  I wrote a letter to Chip on another matter but arguing the value of prevention.  Sometimes if we cut government spending in another area it just means that we have higher, sometimes exponentially higher, costs down the road.  In the realm of Peace, Diplomacy and War, in 2003 the USA rolled in to Iraq with a bunch of phony intelligence and a whole lot of shock and y'all plus thousands genuinely heroic, patriotic and well meaning military personnel.  The thing is they didn't have much of a plan for what would happen next (or a reason for being there it turned out).  They say that on the first day there the USA secured the Iraqi Oil Ministry while the Museum of Antiquities was left unguarded.  It turns out that the Iraqi's were not thrilled to have us there and the USA went down one of the longest, bloodiest, and most expensive rabbit trails in our entire history.  

But ... I kinda knew that was how it was going to turn out.  See, I study peace, not war.  And everything that happened right down to the thousands of those aforementioned American heroes who have come home with PTSD and incurable Traumatic Brain Injuries, in addition to the more visible wounds of war.  We weren't prepared for that, either.  And we weren't prepared for the unprecedented wave of suicides among our returned warriors, either.  But I remember talking with Dr. Gary Kohls, MD before the war and he said this is exactly what was going to happen.  He had all kinds of facts, figures and projections to show it was true and if our leaders had been listening to the people who study peace we would've saved billions, trillions, along with all those precious, precious drops of blood that have spilt over this.  

Anyway, I just went off on a little rant there, I guess.  I'm all for living within our means but I just think a government needs to spend money to save money.   People whine about health care, and Chip says its a top priority to repeal it, but I know that it's cheaper to have a person go to their family doctor with a mild cough then come into the emergency room with pneumonia.  It's cheaper for our elders to have adequate care at home or in the community than to lose everything, become destitute and rely on government funded 24 hour nursing homes.  I could go on and on.  

Are people thinking these things through?  Do you think Chip is thinking these things through?

As much as I miss Duluth, and hate Rochester, I'm glad as hell that my man in Washington is representative Walz.

$325,000 per minute is the current cost of our Afgan/Iraq adventure. We could end the war a month early and balance the budgets of all 50 state governments. End the war a day early and fully fund higher ed. End the war 10 minutes early and inspect every bridge in the country. How money is spent (and revenue raised) is purely ideological. The house-passed spending bill headed to the senate defunds public TV and radio, Planned Parenthood and the Inst. for Peace among other things. It's 100% ideology.

Interesting how our Congressman decides what should be funded and what should not.  I wonder where he stands on the Army continuing to be financial sponsors of NASCAR?  The Republicans are in total support of funding NASCAR, but opposed to funding peace.  Very odd.

Yes- $325,000 a minute. Has military spending been discussed in the mainstream media? Oh wait, NBC is owned in part by GE.....