Seeing Red

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Nebraska Democratic Party LGBTQIA Caucus member Joe Shaw.   On Sunday afternoon, the Nebraska Democratic Party’s LGBTQIA Caucus Chair, Brian Whitecalf, was in church when he received a disturbing YouTube video texted to his phone. In the video, a recently announced Democratic candidate for governor, Vanessa Ward, […]

Something stinks in the Judiciary Committee and it’s the Ebke/Clark controversy that nobody is talking about. Before we jump into that, let’s quickly review the committee process. Every bill that is proposed in the unicameral is assigned to a committee, and nearly every bill receives a public hearing. There are 14 standing committees organized by […]

U.S. Representative Don Bacon, who represents the Omaha area, shared some words about Martin Luther King, Jr. today: At a time of great unrest, [King] showed a calm and powerful restraint. While people on both sides of a battle hurled insults (and weapons) at each other, he remained civil and kind. I have long admired […]

It started out as just another ‘normal’ week during the Trump presidency: Unhinged tweets from a madman sociopathic president Even more documents released showing obvious Russian collusion in our election The threat of nuclear war casting a pallor over the faces of simple American folks who really just wanted to raise their children in a […]

As everyone knows by now, Courtney Lawton, a graduate student in the English Department at UNL, was relieved of her teaching duties because she flipped off a student and called her a “Becky” (among other things). Except that that’s actually completely wrong. The official reason Courtney Lawton was relieved of her teaching duties, is that […]

Omaha Senator Sara Howard has introduced legislation that would impact how governors fill vacant positions in the legislature. These vacancies occur when senators resign before the end of their term. Let’s review the patterns of our current governor’s overreach of power and highly partisan cherry picking in his appointments. Pete Ricketts, our current governor, has […]

Here at Seeing Red we are inaugurating what we expect will be an ongoing feature called Patty Pansing Brooks is the Shit (PPBITS). The senator from Lincoln has really hit her stride and is proposing the kind of legislation the state needs to be a humane place to live. Just to preempt detractors: perhaps you found […]

If you don’t know what preemption is, you should. If you live in a city that’s more progressive than the state it’s in, chances are good that preemption is coming to oppress you. Preemption is when a higher government authority (usually a state) removes the right of a lower government authority (a city) to pass […]

Sometimes we hear basic questions or misunderstandings about governance in Nebraska. This page is intended as a primer for anyone looking to get involved in the political process and in need of basic info. On January 3, 2018, the Nebraska Legislature begins the second year of the two-year session. This year’s session will only last […]

If this article by the Lincoln Journal Star is any indication, the Republican Party thinks that Nebraskans aren’t aware of the difference between a branch of government and a political party. The governor, whomever she is, is the key figure in a branch of government. The 49 senators are a separate branch of government. The […]