Russell Baughman fought in three wars for our country. His brother, Ronald, died in one of them.

As thanks for his service, Russell was turned away from the polls when he showed up to vote on March 11.

You see, his drivers license was out of date.

Of course, to drive a car legally in his state of Indiana, one must have an up-to-date drivers license or other up to date photo ID.

But Russell doesn't need to drive a car. He rides his bike.

The Vermont House of Representatives passed the National Popular Vote bill today by a vote of 77-35. Once ratified by enough states to form a majority in the Electoral College, this plan will ensure that the candidate for president who wins the most votes in all 50 states would be elected president.

This bill has already passed the Vermont Senate so it now goes to the Governor. Congratulations to the folks at Common Cause Vermont as well as to Rep. Chris Pearson who not only championed the bill in Vermont but is traveling to states across the country to explain the NPV agreement.

(Maybe they read my post from yesterday and got worried about how climate change would impact the skiing and maple syrup!)

Read here for updates on how this plan is moving in other states.

The news on global climate change keeps getting worse, yet it has not become major topic for presidential candidates.

Climate scientist Jim Hansen (of the Goddard/NASA Institute for Space Studies) and other climatoligists are telling the world that we have already exceeded the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that could be considered safe:

If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.

The scientists say that we need to take very serious measures very soon:

Present policies, with continued construction of coal-fired power plants without CO2 capture, suggest that decision-makers do not appreciate the gravity of the situation. We must begin to move now toward the era beyond fossil fuels. Continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions, for just another decade, practically eliminates the possibility of near-term return of atmospheric composition beneath the tipping level for catastrophic effects.

While Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain all talk about the need to do something to reduce emissions, none of the proposals they support (such as reducing emissions by 85% by 2050) come close to what Jim Hansen and other scientists are now telling us will be necessary. Even Al Gore didn't spend much time talking about global warming when he was running for president.

I was in Reno, Nevada yesterday with former Nevada Common Cause Board Chair Jim Hulse and a group of activists who were calling on Senator Jim Ensign to explain his obstruction of a bill to require U.S. Senators to tell us who they are taking money from -- now.

Watch a video of our event:

Currently, Senators file campaign finance disclosure reports on paper.  The paper reports are scanned into a computer, printed out, and then retyped to be placed on the Federal Election Commission website.  This process takes about four months and costs about $250,000 in taxpayer dollars.

When I head home for the holidays, my relatives sometimes have a hard time grasping what I do as a "reformer" and how that impacts their daily lives.  This year, I'll point them to a recent story in the Seattle Times that describes how 96-year old Francis Taylor is about to lose her home of more than 40 years when banks foreclose on loans she took out from the now defunct lender Ameriquest.

After inventing the "sub-prime" mortgage industry, the collapse of which now threatens to throw the country into a recession, Ameriquest has gone into bankruptcy and sold its remnents to Citifinancial.  The company settled a lawsuit with 49 states recently for $325 million out of claims of predatory lending.  They also recently paid a fine for violating the do not call list.  I guess greed knows no bounds, certainly not privacy in your own home (that they plan to take away from you.)

The sad thing is, things didn't have to work out this way.  Years ago, consumer advocates saw the crisis coming and urged state governments to put stricter regulations in place.  Today's Sacramento Bee reminds us how the California legislature failed to enact reforms back in 2001. Ameriquest and others said this would make it harder for first time homeowners to buy their first abode, but it turns out that almost all of Ameriquest's loans went to existing homeowners -- many of whom the company probably knew could not make the payments and would end up losing their houses.

California Common Cause has worked for years to change the process by which politicians currently draw their own political districts -- a process that in effect allows politicians to choose their voters before voters can choose among politicians.

These efforts took a big step forward today with the official launch of the Voters FIRST initiative.  This ballot question, filed by Common Cause, AARP, and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, will appear on the November 2008 ballot if enough Californians sign petitions to support it by next April.
Read the full text of the initiative here.

Today, the campaign received a big boost in receiving endorsements from the California League of Women Voters and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.