I'm seeing Sen. Chuck Hagel on this friday - who has questions?

Sen. Hagel will be hosting a lecture at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) on the topic of "21st Century Challenges". Sen. Hagel has served as chair of the Global Climate Change Observer Group and Senate Oversight Task Force. He currently serves as the co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He also serves on the NATO Observer Group and Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Selece Committee on Intelligence.

The lecture is open to the public this Friday, March 2nd from 3:30 to 5:30 pm. If you are intersted in attending, it will be hosted at the Jane Vorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, on the College Avenue Campus, Rutgers Universty (New Brunswick, NJ).

Address:
71 Hamilton St
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1248

If you are interested in going (and you live in the area), contact Dr. Charles Haberl by phone at 1-(732)-445-8444 ext. 17. Or you can email him at haberl@rutgers.edu

You need to register to attend and you need a photo ID - IDs will be checked from 2:30pm to 3:30pm, and entrance will be denied after 3:30pm.

**********LOOK BELOW**********

Ok, so that's all the formal stuff about the lecture. Now, if you can't attend, and want me to ask questions on your behalf, post them here. The lecture is hosted by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the American Iranian Council, so I say all Iraq foreign policy questions are game. I don't know what the agenda of the American Iranian Council is, so if any of you know, post that here too. I want to be as informed a citizen as I can when stepping into the arena of a question and answer session, and what better place than DU to prepare myself.

So basically, give me all you know about Hagel's overall foreign policy positions (I already know his on Iraq) - give me news articles, his quotations, whatever that will help me ask him a tough question or two (or hopefully several).

Cheers!

Remember, this is the guy who thinks BEN NELSON (NE) "votes like Kennedy" too much.

Will you fight back, or will you bend over like McCain and pretend it didn't happen?"

and leave them to Congress, instead, and limit them as well.

Ask him how that's going...what's the count? Will military retirees and the disabled from this war be assured of AFFORDABLE health coverage, or will the Ghost Of Rumsfeld be pulling an extra grand out of already thin paychecks?

Obviously his co-sponsorship of legislation that takes away from disabled veterans' healthcare funds is rediculous and I can hit him hard with that question.

The Pentagon runs the program, and they want to fund it (leaving more money for them to toss at contractors and use for toilet paper, apparently) by fucking the retirees, both regular and disabled.

I'd like to know what the "count" is--do he and Lautenberg have a comfortable majority? How about the House? How's that looking?

See here: http://www.moaa.org/home_legupdate/lac_update_070216.htm

On Feb. 15, MOAA President VADM Norb Ryan, Jr. (USN-Ret) joined Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) at a press conference to announce the senators' introduction of their "Military Health Care Protection Act" (S. 604).

S. 604 would:

Establish in law the unique role of military health benefits in offsetting the extraordinary demands inherent in a military career.
Establish that, in addition to their cash cost-shares, military people pre-pay large up-front premiums for their lifetime health coverage through decades of service and sacrifice.
Bar the TRICARE Prime enrollment fee and TRICARE pharmacy copays from being increased in any year by a percentage that exceeds the percentage increase in military retired pay.
Bar TRICARE Reserve Select premiums from being increased by a percentage that exceeds the most recent basic pay increase.
Bar any enrollment fee for TRICARE Standard or any increase in the TRICARE Standard inpatient copay.
Last year, a similar initiative by Lautenberg and Hagel was crucial in defeating large TRICARE fee hikes.

Both spoke passionately at yesterday's news conference about their continued determination to reject and defeat the latest defense budget proposal, which assumes TRICARE costs would be cut $1.8 billion in FY2008 by raising fees for retirees under age 65 by up to $1,000 a year. Hagel, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, called the proposal "ridiculous." Lautenberg pledged to use his seat on the Appropriations Committee to prevent the fee hikes.

It's just that Hagel usually does things that are, well, not in the hearts and minds of progressives. But at least this is something he is working on, plus it is a very valid question being that he will be in NJ, where Lautenberg represents. Again, a top question I can ask (in a positive light though!)

but that you recognize that, as a Republican, he actually DOES have the interests of the troops at heart, unlike the majority of his GOP peers who want to enrich contractors at the expense of the troops...well, you see where I am going.

Frame the question along the lines that you see him as the EXCEPTION to the GOP rule--that he actually supports the troops, not Halliburton, and then ask the question!

It's a swipe and a compliment, all in together...

Perhaps you can formulate a question out of it, such as,

Why are we in Iraq, anyway?

I'll kick the letter. I posted it early this a.m. Europe time.

I have a few days to get all my questions and information organized, so I appreciate your jesture and you have some time to get back to me.

I want to keep this kicked though, because I bet lot of people when they come home from work will see this and want to prepose questions as well.

And of course, if you're in the area, register, attend, and ask yourself!

and would welcome a politician to come on a deploying base and take questions/answers from everyone, not just the soldiers. That hasn't happened here in Germany, yet.

I've been quite publically active on this side of the pond, and I greatly appreciate those Americans who have likewise been active stateside, when I cannot be.

why "welcome home" celebrations for units redeploying from Iraq can't be funded any longer considering Bush will get $700 billion for the DoD in FY 07 alone.

If we are reduced to choosing between kevlar and hamburger/hotdog celebrations, isn't that tantamount to admitting that we were ill-prepared to go to war in the first place?

If yes, then why are we even discussing Iran?

• November 2002, Nebraska — U.S. Senate Candidate’s ballot was pre-voted for
his opponent: Charlie Matulka, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in
Nebraska, arrived at the polls to vote for himself. When he looked at the optical
scan ballot he was given, he discovered it had already been filled out — for his
opponent, Chuck Hagel, giving Nebraska the most newfangled voting of all —
not just electronic voting, but automatic voting! 109



When Chuck Hagel accepted his position as chairman of American Information
Systems, now called ES&S, he offered a rousing endorsement: “The AIS
system is 99.99 percent accurate,” he assured us. 3 A little later, he left this position
and ran for the U.S. senate seat in Nebraska, a seat he won in the biggest
upset of the 1996 general election. Hagel's victory was tallied by his previous
employer's computer voting machines.

And then read

http://blackboxvoting.com/book/bbv_chapter-06.pdf




Can you ask him to comment on the above?


www.blackboxvoting.com

Hagel was a board member of ES&S and got their voting machines to be used in Nebraska, so big conflict of interest there.

He won a huge "upset" victory.

:freak: :think:

Will the levies in NOLA be strengthened to
withstand a Cat 5 hurricane before the
season starts?

stand and vote against confirming Sam Fox, who gave $50,000 in Oct 2004 to SBVT. At that point, they had been exposed as liars. Hagel has known Senator Kerry for years and knows that Kerry was the first person to defend McCain when they lied about him.

That is definitely tops of my list so far. Thanks.

I would love to know his answer. It's hard to accept that many Democrats are likely to agree with Coleman that rejecting a man for political contributions is not valid. The point is the SBVT was not politics as usual, but easily the biggest, best funded smear campaign ever - and that is before adding in the value of the media's buy in.

How does he plan on voting for a man whose sole qualification for an ambassadorship is that he donated 50K to Slime Barge Liars For Bush?

Wonder why my text looks different? I don't know HTML, so bear with me. Anyway, ask him what he thinks the best course of action would be to dissuade Iran from developing its nuclear capabilities--I know he advocates direct talks, but I'm not sure that's enough.

He voted to fund expanded road-building in National Forests.

He voted to drill for oil in ANWR.

He voted to terminate CAFE standards.

He voted against promoting hydrogen-powered vehicles.

He voted against setting the goal of reducing oil usage by 40% by 2025.

He voted to ban all D&X abortions.

He voted to outlaw abortions on Military Base regardless of any risk to the mother.

He voted against teen pregnancy education because it was not abstanence only.

He voted against funding for minority & women-owned business.

He voted against expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.

He voted for Medicare means-testing.

He voted for limiting the self-employment health deduction.

He voted against increasing the Medicaid rebate for producing generics.

He voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate bulk purchase discounts for prescription drug.

He voted against expanding the enrollment period for Medicare Part D.

He voted for capping negligent hospital corporation and careless nursinghome liability at $250,000.

He voted against funding smaller classes.

He voted for tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

He voted against prioritizing national debt reduction over more tax cutsfor corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

He voted to extend the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends and the Paris Hilton estate tax.

He voted to renew 'fast track' unchecked presidential trade agreement authority.

He voted to implement CAFTA.

He voted to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act.

He voted to deploy the Star Wars missile defense boondoggle.

He voted against McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform.

He voted against restricting "soft money" contributions.

He voted against establishing the Senate Office of Public Integrity.

He voted to allow lobbyist gifts to Congress.

He voted for on increasing penalties for drug offenses.

I think that would explain most, if not all, of those votes. But he does have a good grasp of foreign policy, I think, which is the focus of that conference--not sure if that would be the place to bring up other stuff. By way of disclosure, he is my senator, so I do follow his track record.

:hi:

All of these issues are important, and maybe I'm not as "backboned" as others to ask Senator Hagel about issues that don't pertain to foreign policy issues, but in order to have him actually answer my question, I really do want to stick to foreign policy issues.

Issues that regard the Iraq War, Iran, North Korea, veterans affairs are the types of questions I want to ask. That's why the pending confirmation vote on Sam Fox, and the his bill he co-sponsored with Sen. Lautenberg of NJ (which is where the lecture is being held btw) are most on-track with the lecture.

Weinerdoggie - do you have anything specific you want me to ask, being you are from Nebraska?

Just what I posted above--I read recently (USA Today, from 2 days ago) that he thought we should have a consulate in Tehran, that most of Iran's people are pro-America, and that the US should directly deal with Iran. But I am concerned with Iran's nuclear ambitions--how would we curtail that? Could we combine talks with tough measures like sanctions, or would that erode the pro-USA sentiment? I agree with him that we need to foster some positive sentiment for us over there, but I also don't want to appease a country that may have its sights set on gaining power like North Korea has.

He voted against increasing the Medicaid rebate for producing generics.

He voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate bulk purchase discounts for prescription drug.

He voted against prioritizing national debt reduction over more tax cutsfor corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

He voted against establishing the Senate Office of Public Integrity.

He voted to allow lobbyist gifts to Congress.

I can't explain those votes--I'm not sure whether they reflect a conservative mind-set or not. I always just assume that when it comes to big business vs. little people, conservatives will come down on the side of business every time. Same with tax cuts vs. debt, shrinking entitlements vs. expanding them--conservatives will always vote for the former rather than the latter. The Senate Office of Public Integrity--what's that for? Campaign funding disclosures? Conflicts of interest?

I'll be back later tonight to see if you have any more questions to ask, or information on bills that I can use. I appreciate the help so far! Laters.

is a good thing to run on?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/who-is-chuck-hagel_b_40031.html

But then you look at his voting record, and it is abysmal. Did you know that in 2006 there was not one senator in the country who voted with the Bush administration more than Chuck Hagel? That's not in 2003, where he might argue - and he does argue - he was deceived. That was a month ago!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16841355/site/newsweek/

According to Bev Harris, in Black Box Voting, Hagel's job until two weeks before he announced his run for the Senate in 96, he was running the voting machine company whose machines would count his votes (he was chairman of American Information Systems, since then called ES&S). He stepped down as chairman of AIR before announcing his bid for US Senate.. Hagel never disclosed on his required personal documents this chairmanship.

Why not? Does he regret it? How does he feel about electronic voting these days?

Thanks! Oh, and if you could take a picture of the back of his pants afterwards, that would be super...

the voting-machine issue has legs--heard other people say that there was a paper trail for the elections which pretty much disproved wrongdoing. But he should have disclosed his chairmanship, and I think he got spanked by Ethics for that a long time ago.

vote to REPEAL the minimum wage????

Though I said before I wanted to keep the questions foreign policy related, this hits too close to home for me to ignore it. I remember hearing about this earlier here at DU too. Though, this stuff unfortunately leaves my mind - I am in the second semester of organic chemistry, yah know!! :P

what he thinks we should do about the trade deficit with China, since he's such a big free-trader and all...

That it was because he wanted to support his fellow GOPers right to bring forth their resolutions, even though he knew that the Judd Gregg resolution was a piece of crap meant to embarrass Dems. He picks weird times to be loyal to his party, that's for sure.

I can still ask him it though, to see his response.

I remember reading that predominately African-American neighborhoods were going for Hagel by like 85% margins, or something ridiculous.

Ben Nelson was supposed to win according to every poll, yet the outcome didn't reflect that.

You may not have any hard evidence he stole his Senate seat (although I'm sure there is circumstantial evidence galore), but you can sure make him squirm and get uncomfortable. I'd love to see the look on his face.

I'm going tomorrow afternoon, so see if you can think of anything else by then. If not, I'll tell you which questions I'm going to ask, given the chance that I am chosen to ask them. Overall I can report on what he says tomorrow evening.

especially if you were able to ask some of the more, uh, confrontational questions!

and if you were able to ask any questions. Also, is he a threat to Dems (should he run), or an unimpressive/uncharismatic person in real life?