Why did 60% of Nebraska vote for this administration?

[LiberalAndProud]

(CBS/AP) President Bush sent Congress a $2.4 trillion election-year budget on Monday featuring big increases for defense and homeland security but also a record $521 billion deficit.

To battle the soaring deficits, Mr. Bush proposed squeezing scores of government programs and sought outright spending cuts in seven of 15 Cabinet-level agencies. The Agriculture Department and the Environmental Protection Agency were targeted for the biggest reductions.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/12/politics/main605544.shtml


IMPACT OF OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL: NEBRASKA

Conservation program hit for $465 million
Federal Budget Stuffed With Pork Still Cuts Ag Funds

Federal spending is skyrocketing toward potential disaster, but Congress managed to cut $465 million this year from conservation programs aimed at farmers and ranchers. . . . read more 2

“They have cut … things specifically designed to help farmers use their water with greater efficiency,” Scott Faber of Environmental Defense told reporters this week.
http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/26/41a746a98c45d

IMPACT OF CURRENT DROUGHT: NEBRASKA

RUNOFF WON'T HELP LAKE McCONAUGHEY
(Posted 04/01/2003. Written by PHIL WALKER. )

Lack of snow-runoff the past couple of winters from the Rocky Mountains is among the reasons for low water levels at Lake McConaughey, in western Nebraska. Will the heavy snow that fell in Colorado recently help the situation at Nebraska's largest reservoir? Greg Wagner, with the State Game & Parks Commission, says - most of that Colorado runoff will go elsewhere into river systems that do not feed McConaughey. If drought conditions persist in southwest Nebraska, there are fears that all of the water in the McConaughey reservoir may be needed for irrigation
http://www.espn1480.com/news/?articleid=4591


August 19, 2004, (IANR News)
Measurements From Nearly 5,000 Wells Show Groundwater Declines
LINCOLN, Neb. — Information from nearly 5,000 groundwater wells across Nebraska indicates groundwater in the state declined by one to five feet from 2002 to 2003 in many heavily irrigated areas. More


September 8, 2004, (IANR News)
Don't Stop Irrigating Soybeans Too Soon This Season
LINCOLN, Neb. — Continuing drought and lagging crop development in several areas of Nebraska make it especially important for soybean growers to carefully plan their final irrigations and not stop watering too soon, a University of Nebraska engineer said. More

May 18, 2004, (IANR News)
Continuing Drought Requires Extra Cattle Management
LINCOLN, Neb. — With another summer of drought forecast and limited grazing, beef producers in parts of Nebraska face critical decisions about managing cattle amid dry pasture conditions, University of Nebraska specialists say. More
http://ianrhome.unl.edu/drought/

[illflem]

1. Cutting aid to farmers

fits right in with the republican agenda. Smaller family farmers go bankrupt to be replaced by the agribusiness megi-corporations.

[Lucky Luciano]

2. B*sh does not need to worry...

those same bankrupted farmers will be voting for Jeb in 2008 because the fault is with the democrats and their welfare for poor uraban people.

What a bunch of knuckleheads.

And.......Praise the LOOOOOOOORD...about to leave the 700 club!!!

[LiberalAndProud]

3. That may be the Republican agenda. It is not Nebraska's agenda.

-An interesting essay on corporate farming-

Critics counter that corporate farms throw large numbers of people off the land. As family farmers leave they leave behind wasted towns, deserted communities, depleted resources, empty institutions, and people without hope and without a future. Owners of corporate farms may live hundreds of miles away and know little about the land itself or the community around it. All they care about, critics say, are profits. Some corporate farms have been accused of destroying the land, for example, by plowing fragile land in the sand hills to put in center pivot irrigation machines and then abandoning the land to the sand when crop prices drop.

-snip-

"We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we have created to serve us. Corporations no longer serve us. We serve them."

http://www.nebraskastudies.org/1000/stories/1001_0120.html

[sandnsea]

4. They blame it on liberals

Don't even ask me how, but the corporate farm is the fault of the liberals. Everything wrong in the world is the fault of the liberals and Republicans are for the workin' man.

[progressoid]

5. Confusin', ain't it?

I just started reading "What's Wrong With Kansas?" Eye opening and scary. In fact he uses a stat from a NE county in the introduction. They are being screwed by the very people they support.

But struggling people all over the US have been slowly leaving the Dem party over the last 50 years. I think the breaking point was during the Reagan years. They were promised family values and instead unions and regulations were destroyed, their wages dropped, their protections were whittled away and these people just accepted it. While the money trickles up and their security wanes, they have the comfort of their faux morality.

[MarianJack]

6. The Hell With All of That!

We's jus' happy that we's safe from the hummasechels gittin' married an' Janet Jackson's tits!

[Nebraska_Liberal]

12. and...

Jesus would vote for Bush if he could...

[MarianJack]

13. Y'aa Got 'Dat Raht, BUBBA...

...My pricher allaya tellin' us 'baot Jezis an' all dem wars he talked 'bout statrtin'

Jezis iz a good murkin. He likes invadin' dem A-rabs & killin' 'em or makin' 'em good God fearin' Christians like ann coulter sez!

(This is where you can start the Lee Greenwood song, especially the version of "God Bless the USA" that splices all of the mis-administration officials in)

I'm not cracking on Nebraska, but I hea too much of this, even in VERY blue Maine!

[Osiricity]

7. biased media

It doesn't help that everyone watches Fox News as their "unbiased" news source. That's my take on why they voted for this administration. That and Swift Boats crap.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but how does the drought tie into the Bush administration?

[LiberalAndProud]

8. Funds for water conservation were cut ... badly.

Both environmental and agricultural issues affect our state drastically. I was curious to see why both Nelson and Hagel voted against the Ommibus bill. This explains quite a lot.

[TheFarseer]

9. If you want a real answer.........

I think alot of farmers are worried that environmental wacko democrats will take away their pesticides, herbicides, roundup-ready beans etc and will confiscate their land and give it to ducks, which apparently has happened eventhough I've never seen it happen. Also, there's been talk about modifying tractors to be more environmentally friendly which would make them much more expensive, and also dumping used motor oil wherever used to be fun until the environmental protection agency started doing stuff. Lots of little things like that hurt. Also, let's face it, some dipstick like GW could be your neighbor whereas, there are not too many people like JK around unless it's that slick lawyer or that bigshot doctor with his tennis court in the backyard and his trip to the Caymens every year. Never mind that the repukes have the stated policy goal to wipe you off the face of the earth. Don't let that influence you!!!

[LiberalAndProud]

10. Maybe I'm stupider, but seems to me that all the fertilizer in the

world won't help them grow crops without water.

We're in trouble folks.

[TheFarseer]

11. Democrats are blamed for water restrictions

Now that I think about it, I really have no idea who would be pushing water restrictions. If it's something done by the state, it would be insane blaming the non-existent democrats. It would be like saying bigfoot ate my homework. If it's a national thing, then all bets are off. If we want to be honest with ourselves though, how can you blame anyone? If there's not enough water, there's not enough water! We've got to be better about conserving alot of things. Being pissed at liberals won't ease the shortages of oil, water, flu shots or anything else. Conserving will.