Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Hubler Says Economy Vaults Over Iraq As Major Issue

CARROLL - As he campaigns in western Iowa, Fifth District Congressional candidate Rob Hubler says its becoming clear to him the economy is surpassing the war in Iraq and the standard-fare menu of social issues as the chief concern for voters.

Hubler, a Council Bluffs Democrat, is challenging three-term GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve King of Kiron.

In past elections, socially conservative middle-class voters have been to in essence go against their pocketbook and line up with corporate Republicans made politically expedient appeals on abortion, gay marriage and other social issues.

This time, with rising gas prices and a generally tough economic picture, voters may not have the luxury of looking past basic needs at the polls.

"I believe that is a dynamic," Hubler told Iowa Independent in an interview in Carroll. "They're making a choice that the economy is a primary issue for them."

Hubler sets forth the top three issues in the sprawling 32-county district as follows:

1. The economy
2. Iraq war
3. Health care

Hubler said the economy is almost 2-to-1 over Iraq with voters, and that in southwest Iowa the economy comes up to the near exclusion of Iraq.

"It's kind of regionalized," he said.

Hubler believes economic anxieties reveal the concerns western Iowans have with a Congressman who doesn't deliver federal money for his district.


Figures from the Citizens Against Government Waste Congressional (CAGW) "Pork Book" show that King is by far the weakest bread winner of Iowa's congressional delegation. King brought home just $9.8 million in 2008 in what the group calls "pork-barrel" spending.

While ostensibly a measure of what this conservative organization deems "waste" or "pork" spending, the report can't help but reveal the effectiveness of legislators in working the system to get money for their constituents. Toward that end, U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, are runaway leaders for the Hawkeye State, bringing back $321.4 million and $302.8 million, respectively, in what the CAGW calls pork-barrel spending. Western Iowa's former congressman, Tom Latham, now over in the 4th District, delivered seven times as much as King -- $67 million. Since Latham, too, is a Republican, King can't counter that this is about partisan politics in a Democratically controlled Congress.

That said, two first-term Democrats in Iowa, U.S. Reps. Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack, brought back $27.5 million and $53.5 million, respectively, in 2008, CAGW reports. That's far more than third-termer King who has a GOP powerhouse, Grassley, with whom to team up for the interests of western Iowa's many small towns that are in dire need of economic-development assistance.

"Show me the money," Hubler says. "(King) does not perform as a congressman, period. He does not know what the definition of a representative is."

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Commentary: Smoke Ban Advocates Should Turn Off Their Lights

One of the primary arguments for complete indoor smoking bans is that employees of restaurants and bars that permit smoking are at risk for the effects of second-hand smoke.

That fails to take into account the obvious fact that millions of employees smoke themselves and may desire to work in a place where they can do so.

Americans can choose to work in smoking or non-smoking environments. Using the workplace-protection theory, government should be far more interested in the health consequences of geographically isolated residents of coal-mining parts of the nation, but we aren’t banning the electricity they pull from the earth in risky conditions.

To be consistent, those so worried about workplace safety, and how their own purchasing or lifestyle decisions affect employees, should live by candlelight so we can shut down coal mines and the often fatal working conditions so painfully revealed in the mine accidents of recent years.

One hidden element in what is now a global debate about smoking is this: If smokers can’t seek refuge in a bar, they are more likely to light up at home around kids, who have no choice in the matter.

The marketplace is moving us to a largely smoke-free environment. Why not allow a few bars out by the freaking airport or in forlorn small towns to allow their patrons to smoke? And, yes, there is a rural-urban element to this as the impetus for the Iowa ban comes from Iowa City and Des Moines -- even if some rural legislators voted for it.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

10 Ways To Deal With The Iowa Smoking Ban

As Iowa bureaucrats work feverishly to place of the long arm of government into private businesses with a statewide smoking ban set to take effect on July 1, it is time to examine ways to deal with what will be a radical cultural change in many shot-and-a-beer small town taverns that dot the Iowa landscape.

We don't have complete details yet on how many elements of the ban will work. But with what we know, here are some suggestions for smokers (and those looking to continue to do business with them) on how to handle the ban.

1. Head west (for another year).

The Nebraska Legislature has passed a statewide ban similar to the one in Iowa. But Nebraska gave its businesses some time. You can smoke legally in bars in Omaha and other places west of the Missouri River in Cornhusker country until June 2009 -- almost a year after the Iowa ban goes into effect.

2. Take your anger out on Gov. Chet Culver, Big Brother Democrats and Turncoat Republicans.

To be a one-issue voter for the rest of your life is crazy. But the smoking ban is an example of effete urban Iowans monkeying around with the small businesses of rural Iowans. If it's smoking today, what's next for government intrusion into small businesses? Will we go the way of New York City and ban certain fatty foods to the point where chicken-fried steaks must be served without gravy?

With statehouse races in the fall, smokers and those who don't like the creep of big government into Iowa life should send a message by voting against smoke ban supporters. Better yet, contribute to their opponents. The ban was generally a Democratic brainchild and product but some Republicans jumped off the Bridge Over The River Common Sense on this one, too.


3. Pick up a second (or third) vice


Casino floors are remarkably -- but predictably -- exempted from the ban. Add gambling to your smoking addiction.


4. Take advantage of "smirting"


Combine the words flirting and smoking and, presto, you get "smirting." When you see an attractive guy or gal forced to leave the bar for a smoke, step outside yourself. You may get 5 to 10 minutes to make your case for a date (or something else) as said object of desire huffs down a nicotine fix. This is already very popular in Chicago where a ban went into effect Jan. 1.


5. Let the state pay for your smoking cessation therapy


The Iowa Department of Public Health's tobacco control division uses revenue from taxes on smokes to fund counseling for smokers. You can get several free sessions, and Bonnie Mapes, director of Tobacco Use, Prevention and Control, says the counselors will discuss root causes of smoking -- including family matters and childhood problems that may have led to the addiction.

"They will talk to you about all the issues with smoking," Mapes says.


6. Start a private club or a patio bar


The language on both of these possibilities isn't exactly clear but there would appear to be some angles for starting a club (as long as its sole purpose isn't to skirt the ban) or developing an outdoor area at a bar that could hold loyal smoking clients.


7. Drink at home


No worries about OWIs. Cheaper. Cleaner bathrooms than at bars. Watch what you want on television.


8. Welcome To Missouri


There is no ban in th Show Me State and St. Louis is loads of fun in the summer.


9. Hang out in Latino businesses


In the Latino culture tattle tales are not tolerated. And having folks rat out other folks is the way the state expects to see this ban "self-enforced."


10. Just violate it and see what happens


Questions remain about how this ban will be enforced. There are graduated fines associated with the ban for businesses and customer-violators. Take your chances until you get hit with a fine ...

How Candidates Transform Themselves

BY DONALD KAUL

If Barak Obama doesn’t watch it, he’s going to talk himself right out of the Democratic nomination. He keeps saying dumb things.

He did it again the other day. Speaking to a group of fat-cat donors in San Francisco, he said he was having trouble winning working-class voters because of their frustration at economic conditions. Then added:

“It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustration.”

See? I told you it was dumb.

There may be truth to the observation that economic conditions are making the proletariat bitter but to tie that to guns or religion is like checking how much gasoline you have left by holding a lighted match to the mouth of the tank.

No sooner had the comments been posted on the Internet than Hillary Clinton and John McCain were all over it like white on rice.

Senator Clinton was especially sanctimonious. She said Obama’s comments were “demeaning” to the good, loyal folk of Pennsylvania whom she hopes will vote for her.

“I grew up in a church-going family, a family that believed in the importance of living out and expressing our faith,” she told a rally in Indianapolis.

“The people of faith I know don’t ‘cling to’ religion because they’re bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they’re spiritually rich.”

Wow. Is that one pious lady or what?

Senator McCain contented himself with saying that the comments were “elitist” and “a fundamental contradiction of what I believe America is all about.”

It was enough to make you gag. It makes you wonder whether any of these clowns have ever known any working class Americans. The objects of their reverence sure don’t seem much like the working-class Americans I grew up with on the near-northwest side of Detroit.

Politicians would have you believe that all time-clock punchers are “hard-working people who play by the rules, go to church on Sunday and struggle to make ends meet.” They blow off steam by bowling and deer hunting and umpiring Little League ball games.

Well, some are like that, some aren’t. Some are mean and duplicitous, some are stupid and lazy, some beat their wives. Some wives cheat on their husbands, who in turn are cheating on them.

In other words, there is no single template for the American working class and Obama was wrong to suggest one, although no more wrong that Clinton and McCain were to nominate the group for sainthood. Blue-collar folk do a variety of things for a variety of reasons. They are diverse. Just like rich people.

Still, no politician ever went broke pandering to the self-regard of the American voter and you have to give Clinton and McCain a plus on this, Obama a minus.

But the real story of the Pennsylvania primary is the remarkable transformation of Hillary Clinton. When she went into the state she was seen as a product of a comfortable, middle-class Chicago family, who went to the best schools and married a hotshot who took good care of her, although at a price. In the past seven years, she and her husband have made more than $100 million.

She has peeled off that persona like the skin of an onion and now stands before us as a former waitress who as a child couldn’t get enough of the primitive Pennsylvania shack her family vacationed in; a closet gun enthusiast with a hidden love of bowling.

No Chicago bluestocking, she. The new Hillary is a hash-slinging, pistol-packing, beer-drinking lover of all things Pennsylvanian, who also observes vespers. I expect her to show up for the last debate, chewing gum, and announce that she and Bill have bought a summer place in a Scranton trailer park.

I can hardly wait for the Indiana primary, when we learn that “Hoosiers” is her favorite movie.


Distributed By MinutemanMedia.org

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Formal Complaint Filed Against King For Congressional Web site Comments

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Scott Brennan today filed a formal complaint with the House Ethics Committee regarding the political content currently published on U.S. Rep. Steve King’s taxpayer-funded website.

Iowa Independent first reported the presence on the official site of the highly partisan comments about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama several weeks ago.

In the letter, Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Scott Brennan cites specific provisions in the Regulations on the Use of the Congressional Frank, which serves as a communications guidebook for Members of Congress. Brennan states that King is in violation of two specific provisions listed under examples of “unfrankable” items, including:

No specific references to past or future campaigns or elections (are allowed), including election or re-election announcements and schedules of campaign related events.

Comments critical of policy or legislation should not be partisan, politicized or personalized.


Over the weekend, King publicly refused to take down his comments.

“Steve King is violating House ethics rules by promoting his political comments on his taxpayer-funded website,” Brennan said. “King has refused to take responsibility for his abuse of government resources, so I am asking the Ethics Committee to take action.”

“Iowa’s taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for King’s hateful political commentary on the 2008 Presidential election,” Brennan added. “King needs to stop breaking House ethics rules and take down these politically motivated remarks from his taxpayer-funded website.”

Huh? Bill Clinton Claims Race Card Played On Him

Bill Clinton appeared on WHYY radio (an NPR affiliate), in which he defended comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson right before the South Carolina contest

Here’s the transcript: INTERVIEWER (RE: Jackson comment): “Do you think that was a mistake, and would you do that again?"

CLINTON: "No. I think that they played the race card on me. And we now know, from memos from the campaign and everything that they planned to do it along. Jesse Jackson -- I said, if you go back to what I said … First of all, there was a conversation that I engaged in that included two African America members of Congress, who were standing right there, who were having the conversation with me. And I said that Jesse Jackson had won a good campaign with overwhelming African American support and white supporters. And this was started off because people didn’t wanna -- they wanted to act like, for reasons I didn’t understand, that Senator Obama didn’t have this African American support, or they thought his white support was better because Jesse Jackson had blue-collar working people, and most of Senator Obama’s support were upscale, cultural liberals. So it was like beneath them to be compared to Jesse Jackson.

"I respect Jesse Jackson. He’s a friend of mine, even though he endorsed Senator Obama. One of his sons and his wife endorsed Hillary. Their whole family’s divided. But his campaign in 1988 was a seminal campaign in American history. It was the first campaign to ever to openly involve gays. Hillary’s chief delegate counter, Harold Ickes, worked his heart out for Jesse Jackson. I frankly thought the way Obama campaign reacted was disrespectful to Jesse Jackson. And I called him and asked him if he found anything offensive, and he just laughed and he said, ‘Of course I don’t. We all know what’s going on.’”

"I mean this is just, you know… You gotta go something to play the race card on me -- my office is in Harlem. And Harlem voted for Hillary, by the way. And I have 1.4 million people around the world, mostly people of color in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and elsewhere, on the world’s least expensive AIDS drugs. I appointed more African American, Hispanic and women judges and U.S. Attorneys than all previous presidents put together and had nine African American Cabinet members.

"I was stating a fact. And it is still a fact. You know, I was amazed that we got almost 20% of the African American vote in South Carolina, and I think it was because we had so many local officials who believed in Hillary and stuck their necks out for her, some of which were threatened with their jobs. But I can see that this used against me, but this was a conversation that occurred early in the morning. We didn’t even know what the vote was gonna be at the time. We were all sitting around drinking coffee. We’d just been to breakfast. We were talking about South Carolina political history. And this was used out of context and twisted for political purposes by the Obama campaign to try to breed resentment elsewhere.

"And, you know, do I regret saying it? No. Do I regret that it was used that way? I certainly do. But you really gotta go something to try to portray me as a racist."

Commentary: McCain Should Give Steve King Road Show To Rally Base



Western Iowa's firebrand conservative congressman Steve King is pitch-perfect with his party's base. With his selection of language and issues the Kiron Republican has something of a political Midas touch with the rural right.

And now he's in John McCain's corner. Which is no small thing for the presidential candidate.

With something of a growing national reputation for making provocative comments many conservatives regard as fearless, King, in the right settings around the nation, could give a big boost to McCain with reluctant Republicans.

Of course, McCain and King would have to set a few boundaries so King doesn't force th Arizona senator to go off message with a YouTube moment. If King sticks to basics, he's an asset, because of his unassailable conservative bona fides.

Speaking to a crowd of nearly 600 Republicans this past weekend in Carroll, King made a passionate case for the campaign of presumptive GOP presidential nominee McCain.

The next president, King said, may very well appoint two or even four members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Stay home, disgruntled Republicans, at the risk of spending the rest of your lives watching your causes and issues, legislative initiatives at the state and local levels, even school board votes, overturned by liberal courts, goes King's potent line of reasoning.

Many conservatives were not with McCain to begin with and remain wary of his maverick ways. But it's high time for Republicans to fall in line, primarily because of the Supreme Court appointments, King said.

"Here’s the most important thing," King said. "If you look across these presidential candidates, we don’t know if it’s going to be Obama, we don’t know if it’s going to be Hillary. But here’s what I do know. I know that Bill Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court. She is the model, the epitome, of a liberal activist judge. She’s the person that the text of this Constitution that I carry with me every day means nothing unless she can use it as a shield to protect her judicial activism.

"She has a liberal attitude about how society would be shaped and how life should be treated with contempt unless it happens to be a death penalty for a multiple murderer, and also with disrespect toward marriage and our Christian values.

"We are sitting here on the precipice, of the risk, of going into the darkest of judicial appointment ages if either Hillary or Obama is the next president of the United States. You will see appointments to the Supreme Court, of which there will be likely be at least two, perhaps four. If that happens you will see the clones of Ruth Bader Ginsburg appointed to the Supreme Court. Think about a whole series of Ruth Bader Ginsburgs appointed to our federal courts, all the way down through the ranks, the entire farm team."

King -- who supported former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson for the Oval Office, said Republicans must honor the decision made by his party on the presidential candidate.

"It’s not that hard when you think about it," King said. "Smile, hustle and act like you like it. This time we will be officially nominating an authentic American hero
This is a man who has served his country every day of his adult life, and he’s done so sometimes from the cockpit of a jet plane, and he’s done so sometimes from a bunk in the Hanoi Hilton."

Denison Arts Festival Celebrates 50th Anniversary of 'Donna Reed Show'


DENISON — With a more targeted focus on Midwestern students than in past years, the Donna Reed Performing Arts Festival is scheduled from June 16 to June 21 in Denison.

The 22nd annual event is expected to bring students, both young people and adults interested in the arts, from a 300-mile radius for programs on theater performance, theater education, children’s musical theater, film production and screenwriting.

“The biggest impact of the festival still lies with tourism and drawing people to our area — and education,” said Kenny Kahl, festival coordinator.

Kahl said the programs aren’t just for aspiring actors or folks with the lights of Hollywood in their dreams. People in careers with a premium on public speaking also can benefit from the Reed Festival — started in honor the late famous actress from the Denison area.

“What we teach is valuable in any field,” Kahl said.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of “The Donna Reed Show.”

The first episode of “The Donna Reed Show” aired on Sept. 24, 1958. It ran for eight years and earned Donna Reed a Golden Globe in 1962 for best female television star.

Another highlight this year will be the continued presence of Eddie Foy III, a casting director for more than 40 years who at one time headed up ABC’s casting department. He will teach a class on marketing the actor.

There are many other popular courses, including “Children’s Musical Theater” for kids 6 to 13 who like to be in front of an audience. Private coaching for students interested in acting careers also is available.

An ambitious program is the Iowa Motion Picture Association’s one-week movie camp in which participants will learn elements of filmmaking with the goal of shooting and editing a short movie by the end the week.

Information on all classes is available at www.donnareed.org or by calling (712) 263-3334.

Donna Reed was born Donnabelle Mullenger in Denison, Iowa, on January 27, 1921. At age 16, she left Denison by train for Los Angeles to complete her formal education and to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. She captivated the country with her sensitive portrayals in films like the great American classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “From Here to Eternity” for which she won the coveted Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Obama In Philly

Boris Johnson Knows How To Run A Mayoral Campaign

Monday, April 21, 2008

Obama Leaves No Aftertaste In Rural America With 'Bitter' Comments

Rural Americans, of both the bitter and optimistic variety, really don’t have much of a problem with Barack Obama’s closed-door (but open mike) characterizations of us.

But we are exhausted with two weeks of effete urban commentators, caffeinated with $4 lattes and speaking through studio-make-up shined faces, telling us what we think about what Obama said.

And, yes, we can smell Hillary Clinton’s contrived outrage, her false fury over the remarks, for what it is: political opportunism, the carbohydrates fueling the Clintons’ royal run.



You see, we don’t have to guess on this one. We don’t need talking heads on MSNBC to do our figuring and ciphering. Here in western Iowa’s small towns we actually got to know Obama about as well as any voters in contemporary American presidential politics can.

As a reporter and columnist based in Carroll, the hub of west-central Iowa, I tracked Obama’s schedule for the nearly one-year campaign in Iowa. Some days, Obama would be in five, six or more small communities.

I’d give Obama better odds at finding his way from Carroll to Sioux City without a map than any of the pundits calling him elite.

Speaking as a small-town American (Carroll, Iowa is 10,000) I can say this: we want a president smarter than everyone we know. Obama passes that test. Does it make him “elite” in our eyes? Yes, but in the manner of a standout student, a superior speaker, not an out-of-touch pol.

This isn’t to give Obama a free pass with what he said earlier this month at a fund-raises in San Francisco:

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them.

“And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate, and they have not.

“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”


Obama made a classic American mistake with these hyper-chronicled meanderings about “bitter” small-town people.

You can’t joke or characterize people who don’t live and look like you. Even if, well, you are right.



As a white, rural man I am on a foundation of quicksand should I write anything about Bill Cosby’s assessment of the African-American community’s values implosion or repeat challenging comments Hispanic friends make about their own evolving culture in western Iowa.

But I can tell you that Obama, while talking like white men dance with those San Francisco comments, is on firm factual footing.

In his groundbreaking book “What’s The Matter With Kansas,” Thomas Frank could just as easily have been talking about western Iowa when probes deeply into why working class people vote against their own economic interests.

“How is that the Kansas conservative rebels profess to hate elites but somehow excuse from their fury the corporate world, even when it has so manifestly (hurt) them?” says Frank.

Moreover, he writes, “Apparently there is no bad economic turn a conservative cannot do unto his buddy in the working class, as long as cultural solidarity has been cemented over a beer.”

We see it right here in western Iowa in our desperate small towns.

“Walk down the main street of just about any farm town in the state, and you know immediately what they’re talking about: this is a civilization in the early stages of irreversible decay,” Frank writes of Kansas.

Why do people who live in dilapidated homes in Iowa’s forlorn villages, people whose first electric light may have come through the Rural Electricification Administration, people who live in a land capitalism long since left behind, vote for corporate shilling, government-bashing conservatives?

Conservative Iowa politicians and their followers are actors in a tragic play. They posture as independent pioneers living in mud huts and getting by with just a mule and plow, plenty of pluck and nary a buck from Uncle Sam.

But Iowa — and western Iowa to even greater degree — is reliant on the federal government in the way of a newborn and his mother’s milk. In short, rural America needs the federal government.

All of this doesn’t make for good political brochures, and dependence is not the image we want to project. It does happen to be true, though. The proof is in the cashed checks.

Consider this fact alone: From 1995 to 2002, total U.S. Department of Agriculture subsidies for farms in Carroll County stood at $114 million, with 2,348 recipients, according to a federal database used by the Associated Press and The Des Moines Register. Our American way of life of preservation of the food supply demand that these subsidies continue.

That considered, does any thinking person believe Obama’s brief and failed turn as a rural anthropologist will hurt him more than what Republican presidential candidate John McCain said today in Alabama?

“We must reduce barriers to imports, to things like ethanol from Brazil, and we’ve got to stop subsidizing ethanol in my view,” Senator McCain said.

If the ivory-towered urban elites hawking their tiresome flyover views on cable television each night want to see what a bitter small-town American looks like, they can come to western Iowa during the second year of what we have every reason to expect would be a decidedly anti-rural John McCain presidency.

Barack Obama misspoke. John McCain didn’t.

Rural Americans know the difference.

This story is cross-posted at Iowa Independent.com where it first appeared.

IEM investors still believe Obama will be Democratic nominee

Barack Obama continues to hold a significant lead over Hillary Clinton on the University of Iowa's Iowa Electronic Markets' (IEM) Democratic Nomination Market Monday, the eve of the Pennsylvania primary.

As of 9 a.m. CDT Monday, Obama's contracts were selling for 75 cents, which means IEM investors believe there is a 75 percent probability that Obama will be the Democratic presidential nominee. Meanwhile, a contract for Clinton was selling at 21 cents.

Obama has held a significant lead on the Democratic nomination market since the day after February's Super Tuesday elections, when Clinton announced she was loaning her campaign $5 million. Since then, the price of an Obama contract has reached as high as 85 cents, while Clinton's contracts have touched as low as 11 cents.

More than 1.65 million contracts have changed hands on the IEM's two nomination markets since trading began in March 2007.

Meanwhile, on the IEM's Presidential Election Winner Take All market, investors still give the edge to whoever the Democratic nominee is in the race against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. As of 9 a.m. Monday, a contract for the Democratic nominee was trading at 54 cents, meaning investors believe there is a 54 percent probability the Democratic candidate will win the popular vote count in the November general election. A contract for the Republican nominee -- presumably McCain -- was trading at 45.5 cents.

The Iowa Electronic Markets is a real-money political futures prediction market operated by professors in the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business. Begun in 1988, the IEM is a research and teaching tool that has achieved an impressive prediction record, substantially superior to alternative mechanisms such as opinion polls. Such markets have been significantly more accurate than traditional tools in predicting outcomes ranging from political election results to movie box office receipts.

What's Steve King's Problem With The National Guard?

Western Iowa Congressman Steve King is the only Hawkeye State lawmaker opposing a request to give the head of the National Guard a seat at the table with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

U.S. Sen Charles Grassley and U.S. Tom Latham both joined Democratic colleagues in supporting the measure which recognizes the enormous contributions of the Guard. King sees it differently, though, as he told The Des Moines Register.

(U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin and Grassley, along with three House members - Tom Latham, Leonard Boswell and Dave Loebsack - signed on to a letter to the leadership of the Armed Services Committee in both chambers. The letter cites these problems as well as delays in a post-deployment benefit that had been promised by the Pentagon.

So they ask that as the defense authorization bill is written this year, the chief of the National Guard Bureau be made a full member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Rep. Steve King was the only member of the delegation who did not sign on to the letter. Asked for comment, King said: "Rep. Braley and all Democrats in the Iowa delegation do not support the troops and their mission. We will not be led to victory by those who have declared defeat."

There was no elaboration, so it's not clear why King would say that in connection with this particular initiative.


How exactly is this anti-troop? Does this, Mr. King, mean Grassley and Latham aren't patriotic or somehow not supporting the military?

Rob Hubler, Democratic candidate for Iowa’s Fifth Congressional District, says King is obligated to elaborate on why he refused to sign a letter asking Congress’ Armed Services Committees that the head of the National Guard Bureau become part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Now we in the Fifth District can lay claim to having the only member of the state’s delegation refuse to support the brave men and women who chose to serve in Iowa’s National Guard not to mention overseas in Iraq,” Hubler said.

The only statement the incumbent gave for not signing on to the request is his belief that Democrats do not support U.S. troops.

“He has got to do better than just use an extreme talking point that is untrue and worn out,” Hubler said. “If you want to really represent the people of western Iowa, including those who wear the uniform of our armed forces, you must give a more detailed reason for such an irresponsible decision. And by the way, where is his criticism of fellow Republican lawmakers Tom Latham and Chuck Grassley who understand this is an issue that transcends party lines?”

“Furthermore, this is not even an issue over the war in Iraq, it is a policy issue over the inner workings of a government office and making it more efficient,” Hubler added. “This is to ensure that Iowa’s guardsmen and women have a voice with the other military branches and that they receive the benefits promised to them for enlisting. As the next Representative of Iowa’s Fifth District, I will bring Real Representation to those who served or are actively serving our great nation.”

Hubler is a Vietnam-era veteran of the U.S. Navy.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Challenger: King Can't Back Up Muslim Stereotyping

Rob Hubler, Democratic candidate for Iowa’s Fifth Congressional District, says U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, is finally being called out for his habitual use of extreme rhetoric.

“When confronted with having to actually prove his statements he is silent,” Hubler said referring to the incumbent’s claims that many fraudulent religious work visas were coming from mosques. Several Washington lawmakers challenged the validity of the remarks, but King’s only response was to drop his objection over the visa program’s extension.

“Didn’t he tell the Sioux City Rotary Club that his remarks are thought out, researched ahead of time, and are not off the cuff,” Hubler asked. “I guess if he is not prepared to back up those statements, the least he can do is build up a reserve of apologies.”

“The incumbent should be concerned with making Congress address the rising cost of gasoline, the trillion dollar deficit, and the specific needs of the Fifth District instead of fostering stereotypes,” Hubler added. “Those are the concerns I hear from of the people of western Iowa as I travel throughout its thirty-two counties pledging to bring them Real Representation in Congress.”

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Commentary: The New World Order Of Beer

Like other rural Iowans I've long been a domestic light beer guy, Bud, Miller, Coors, the brews pumped from fraternity kegs and found in the growing number of walk-in coolers we seem to have around Carroll.

But as I've traveled to major brew pub Meccas, the Denver area, Seattle and much of the Northwest and even some spots in New England, I've learned that there is what one could call "A New World Order of Beer."

Sitting atop this world is the Fort Collins, Colorado-brewed Fat Tire. That's right, Fat Tire, not flat tire, the latter being what most everyone mistakenly calls this ale before they take their first taste.



In short, we've come a long way since the days of daddy's Pabst.

The following is the ranking my Top 10 Beers -- "The New World Order Of Beer." Please comment liberally about my choices and tell me what I am missing or where I am wrong in the feeback section.



1. Fat Tire

Next to the mountains and skiing it's one of the best reasons to go to Colorado. Fat Tire is from Fort Collins' New Belgium Brewing. Here's what the company has to say about it: "Fat Tire Amber Ale's appeal is in its feat of balance: Toasty malt flavors coasting in equilibrium with crisp hoppiness."

2. Hazed and Infused

Another Colorado beer, this one from Boulder. It is hop, hop, hopping good, and has perhaps the coolest labeling of any beer you'll see. I saw a bartender at a wedding take the last two bottles of this and hide if for himself.

3. Stella Artois

Classy pour from Belgium. I've ordered it in some Iowa restaurants. If you have three of these a decent bartender will let you order the fourth by yelling "Stella!" a la Brando.

4. Goose Island Honker's Ale

Chicago's Goose Island Brewery accurately says "combines a spicy hop aroma with a rich malt middle to create a perfectly balanced ale that is immensely drinkable. A smooth, drinkable English Bitter for those looking for more from their beer."

5. Avalanche

Can you tell Colorado is known for its beer? Breckenridge Brewery says this about its best: "Aromas of pale grains, a semi-sweet middle and a clean-as-Colorado-snow finish make this our best-selling beer."

6. Harpoon

A Boston beer. They drink this stuff from the tap at the Crow's Nest, a bar north of Boston made famous in the movie "Perfect Storm." Need I say more. The Ale and the IPA are equally good.

7. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

No false advertising from the company of the same name which tells us: "It has a deep amber color and an exceptionally full-bodied, complex character. Generous quantities of premium Cascade hops give the Pale Ale its fragrant bouquet and spicy flavor."

8. Pacifico

This is a smooth tasting Mexican beer not plagued with the after-taste of some of its rivals. Worth drinking even if you don't have a plate of burritos in front of you.

9. Mac and Jack's African Amber Ale

This beer is extremely popular in Seattle, and for good reason. Nice smooth Ale made brewed in Redmond, Wash.

10. Dogfish head

Just had this recently in Brookyln, N.Y. It comes from Delaware, having started as a beach beer and moved on to production at Milton, Del. Pace yourself as the calorie count is much, much higher than your regular light beer.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Having The War Both Ways

By Donald Kaul

John McCain was firm of voice and steady of gaze as he looked out into the crowd and said: “We are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success.” He was talking about Iraq, oddly enough.

The audience, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, was appreciative, which was unsurprising. After all, the VFW was appreciative six years ago when Vice-President Dick Cheney came to them to announce that there was “no question” that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The VFW is where politicians go to lie---and receive uncritical support for any war that’s going on at the moment.

Senator McCain has done a terrific job of having it both ways on the question of Iraq. He is a staunch supporter of the war---always has been---as well as a severe critic of its conduct. In other words it would have been a perfectly lovely war if only we had fought it better. And, since we’re now doing that, the future looks bright.

He brushed by the fact that, even as he spoke, the violence level in Iraq was spiking, casting doubt in the minds of the public as to whether the Surge was working. But not in the minds of administration officials, never that.

McCain has said, famously, that he’d be willing to keep troops in Iraq “for a 100 years,” if necessary. When that drew fire he quickly retreated to the position that he meant that only in the sense that we still have troops in Japan, sixty years after World War II. “Only if American troops aren’t being shot at or killed,” was the way he put it.

Oh, that’s OK then, said the wise heads who tell us what to think. So long as they stop killing us we have no objection to staying.

That really begs the question, which is this: How long are you prepared to keep troops in Iraq if they are being shot at, if they are being killed?

When, if ever, will it be time to say “Enough. We’re out of here.”

McCain has no answer for that and neither, apparently, do Gen. David Petraeus or Ambassador Ryan Crocker who are running the show for us in Iraq.

The pair of them appeared before Congress last week and presented an absolutely pathetic argument for keeping tens of thousands of troops in Iraq at a cost of $12 BILLION-A-MONTH!

Asked again and again by Senators and Congresspersons to give a hint as to how we will know, finally, that we’ve won in Iraq and when that great day might be expected, they had no answers. None.

All they could tell us was that things, as bad as they are now, would get worse if we leave.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing to come out of the Petraeus-Crocker hearings was Crocker’s statement: “In the end, how we leave and what we leave behind will be more important than how we came.”

If you believe that, you probably voted to re-elect George Bush.

I was reminded “how we came” to Iraq last month by PBS’s brilliant four-hour documentary “Bush’s War.”

To watch it was a grinding, infuriating experience. Our path to Iraq was paved with willful ignorance, false assumptions, self-delusion and outright lies.

At every turn strong evidence that argued against our attack on Iraq was ignored in favor of much weaker evidence that supported the Bush-Cheney mania for war.

The show is not an anti-war polemic; it is a carefully balanced, thoroughly documented record of how we got into this mess. And it is a shameful story of duplicity and hubris.

In a nation that took democracy seriously George Bush and Dick Cheney would have been impeached, not re-elected.

And now some analysts are saying that John McCain, a true believer in the war, might be our next president.

That100 years in I

EDITORS NOTE: Distributed by MinutemanMedia.org

Protecting The Pajamas Journalists

The Libertarian Party is hailing a new piece of legislation introduced by Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) that would protect the coterie of Internet "pajamas journalists" known as "bloggers" from FEC restrictions. H.R. 5699, called the "Blogger Protection Act of 2008," would give bloggers permanent protection from FEC campaign laws when linking to campaign Web sites or editorializing about candidates.

"These guys really don't get the credit they deserve for all the work they've done to create accountability and transparency in American politics," says Andrew Davis, national media coordinator for the Libertarian Party. "Often, bloggers are the first to expose politicians for lying and corruption, and hold all politicians to a new level of accountability that would have been impossible only a few years ago. They fully deserve the same protection from government interference that is given to traditional media outlets."

Bloggers were granted protection two years ago from FEC regulations that would have potentially considered linking to a campaign Web site or editorializing about a candidate a contribution or expenditure when blogging. However, those protections were only regulatory, and could be changed without Congressional approval. H.R. 5699 seeks to make those protections a statute.

Iowa Democrats Challenge King Web Site Posting

The Iowa Democratic Party is challenging U.S. Rep. Steve King's use of a congressional Web site to promote his controversial views on presidential candidate Barack Obama.



Iowa Independent reported weeks ago
on the presence of King's comments about Obama on the taxpayer supported site. Among other things, King said: "I'll just say this, when you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected president of the United States, and I mean. What does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam?" King made the remarks in Spencer and they were reported widely. His office posted the comments on the Web site.


Democrats, who at this point have just raised the matter in a news release, are eyeing a formal challenge to the posting by King, a Republican from Kiron who represents the Fifth Congressional District.


"Steve King is using his taxpayer-funded website to promote his hateful comments toward a Democratic Presidential candidate," said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Scott Brennan. "King needs to stop doing his politicking from his government office and get back to the work he was elected to do. He very well may be in violation of House ethics rules by promoting politically charged comments on his congressional site.


"This kind of rhetoric is out of touch with the mainstream values of everyday Iowans, Brennan added. "It is time for King to take these inappropriate remarks off of his congressional website. Taxpaying Iowans deserve better."

Monday, April 14, 2008

'Postville' Author Probes Deep Into Rural Iowa With New Project

Well into an interview for his upcoming book on Oxford, Iowa, Stephen G. Bloom faced a defining choice for his portrayal of an 83-year-old woman.

Should he go for broke with a penetrating, perhaps interview-ending impertinent question?

In poker parlance, author-journalist Bloom opted to go “all in,” asking the widow if she really loved her late husband all those years in this small eastern Iowa town.

“You can’t ask that if you know someone,” Bloom said.

And, he added, “That’s a real un-Iowa question to ask.”

Instead of a door in the face, Bloom, a University of Iowa journalism professor and noted writer, was rewarded with a gem of honesty.

Come to think of it, the woman confided, her husband had an affair with a lady he met at, of all things, a euchre card game.

“I would have felt better if she were young and beautiful, but she wasn’t,” the widow told Bloom.



Bloom is the author of “Postville,” a year 2000 book examining the cultural calamity in the small, predominantly Lutheran town after Lubavitcher Jews settle there and take over the local slaughterhouse, resurrecting the local economy but shaking the flow of life there so many rural Iowans know.

A former writer for newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and Dallas Morning News, Bloom spoke to a packed forum at Des Moines Area Community College in Carroll last week. He also talked with The Daily Times Herald and a handful of DMACC supporters about his new works during a three-hour dinner at the Carrollton Centre.

One of the endeavors on which he focused is a book set for publication this fall — “The Oxford Project: Who We Are.” In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein shot photos of most of Oxford, Iowa’s, 670 residents. Some 20 years later, encouraged by Bloom, he went back and compiled a then-and-now image collection of more than 100 of those residents. Over the last several years, Bloom has interviewed these Oxfordians about life and family and Iowa, basic questions about what they eat, how they work, and deeper ones about what they believe happens to man after death or what went wrong a in a relationship.

“No one has ever decked me,” Bloom said.

The result, Bloom thinks, may be something of an unprecedented chronicling of a rural Iowa community with the voices of regular folks leading the story.

Too often, features on small towns take a predictable journalistic path, Bloom said.

“You interview the mayor,” Bloom said. “You interview the important people.”
Bloom said he sees this book as something of a “fanfare for the common man,” a reference to Aaron Copeland’s unmistakably American music.

“It blew us away,” Bloom said. “It was just stunning.”

Bloom brings an outside observer’s eye to this project, as he did with “Postville.”

But having moved from San Francisco to Iowa in 1993 to take the U of I post, he’s added many more years of life on the inside of Iowa to his perspective for Oxford.
He appreciates the openness of Iowans and says it is vital to the book.

“I don’t think I could do the Oxford book in New York because I think people would be warier of me,” Bloom said.

Bloom said when he moved to Iowa from California, he had something of an immigrant experience.

“I didn’t come from Guatemala,” Bloom said. “I came from San Francisco.”

He learned about the culture of the Iowa potluck — the seven-layer salads.
“Iowans and casseroles, right?” he said.

And he quickly picked up on what is widely viewed as the most life-changing, long-running trend in the state: Iowa is getting older and young people have sought futures elsewhere.

“The nature of older people unfortunately is that they get older and die,” Bloom said.

One criticism Bloom has of his adopted state is that so many have an unwillingness to adapt to modernity.

“I think they’re still rhapsodizing the Iowa of 30 or 40 years ago,” Bloom said.

Bloom, who lives in Iowa City with his wife and son, is also working on “Tears of Mermaids,” a work that traces the history of pearls and reveals to readers what happens from the time they are fished from oceans to when a necklace is clasped around a woman’s neck.

He is also founder of the Iowa Journalists Oral History project, which records the histories of the Hawkeye State’s senior journalists of note, publishers, editors, reporters, photographers and columnists.

Photo: Author and journalist Stephen G. Bloom speaks at Des Moines Area Community College’s Carroll campus about his work in rural Iowa.


This story is cross-posted at Iowa Independent.com where it first appeared.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Culver Should Consider Smoke-Ban Veto As Winning Message To Rural Iowans

Gov. Chet Culver won’t veto the ill-conceived, anti-rural and laughably hypocritical imposition of Prohibition-era busy-busybodying ban on smoking in Iowa’s taverns.

In fact, two of Culver’s top spokespeople already are on record heralding this week‘s passage of the strict smoke ban that, of course, exempts the money-minting casinos, but tells owners of bars in Audubon and Carroll and Storm Lake and Denison, places often peopled with a majority of smokers, to get health-club, celery stalk-sucking religion by July 1.



Culver’s surrogates tell us to expect Iowa’s Democratic governor to sign House File 2212 next Tuesday amid much fanfare and here-heres.

But Culver is missing a defining opportunity to reach out to rural Iowa, to show with a veto (or a silent pen) that he understands there is a difference between Clive and Carroll, Iowa City and Storm Lake, that there is an urban nannyism, a know-bettering in this legislation which clearly will hit long-standing taverns in shot-and-a-beer rural Iowa more than the city establishments.

Stick with your initial instinct, governor, and don’t sign this legislation. Send it back to the divided chambers (the votes were close) and ask for a local-control bill, the plan you talked about in your Condition of the State speech — and the one you told me in Carroll a few weeks ago still made the most sense.

Use this high-profile bill to send a message to rural Iowa: We matter. Our small businesses are important.

We don’t want to live like automatons in the Des Moines suburbs.

Show lawmakers in both parties that you are relevant. Be a maverick. Don’t sign this bill. Much of rural Iowa will not forget it — and where are the anti-smoking forces going to go in 2010 — to U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, or another conservative, free-market Republican challenger who will use the ban against you?

Already challenged by well-documented population loss, higher gas prices and other factors, the smoking ban likely will be a death blow to small town institutions.
How can you exempt Prairie Meadows, who will turn more millions based on that loophole, and then force it on small-town bar owners, who are fighting for hundreds of dollars.

The bill fails to take into account a reality of life in small-town Iowa.

When the smokers are chased out of the taverns (they are addicted so quitting overnight is not likely) there is no replacement class of non-smoking customers waiting in the wings to fill the bar stools. It’s not like New York City or Chicago where a ready population of non-smokers can compensate for the business losses.

What should anger all Iowans is that legislators used the smoking debate as a diversion from truly meaningful work that would lift our state.

With the potential to turn Iowa into something of a Saudi Arabia of renewable energy, and pressing educational concerns, the signature accomplishment of the 2008 session is a law that will take a cigarette out of the hands of a working stiff in Le Mars who is just trying to get through a tough week with the comfort of a few Buds and a convivial smoke.

Legislators can count.

There are more non-smokers than smokers.

This one is a crowd-pleasure for the majority of Iowans for whom broader issues like property rights and individual freedom and rural-versus-urban dynamics don’t register.

But many of us in rural Iowa are paying attention. Culver could make a huge political statement with a veto of the smoking by casting it as an attack on rural freedoms.
Governor, at least consider this: buck conventional wisdom, show the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate it’s your show — that the Senate majority leader isn’t the shadow governor.

Kill this bill.

It will not be forgotten for a generation of Novembers in small towns out here in western Iowa, governor.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

A Belated Funeral For An '80s Word

Commentary -- We are gathered here today to pay our final respects to a word no longer relevant.

Nerd.

The term, a relic of the 1980s when people actually wore pocket-protectors (those things jammed with pens), was always rather an impotent insult because we all knew the nerds would have the last laugh after the high school prom (or at the end of a long line of teen movies).

In a sense, it is sad to see nerd go, lose its standing, as the term is somewhat endearing.

But it just has no place.

You see, those characteristics and trappings that made a nerd back in the day make one super cool today.



The 2nd Edition of American Slang defines “nerd” – in its 1980s incarnation, the one with which we most associate it — as “an over-studious person, especially a computer devotee.”

I haven’t used “nerd” in conversations or columns in some time, if ever, because it just holds no sway. This is not something I spent much time pondering. It crept up on me like news of an estranged cousin’s passing.

Last week, during an interview I conducted for Monday’s feature story on Kim Gehling’s hip new Carroll business, Web sites To Impress.com, we talked about her interests and career motivations.

Gehling told me she prides herself on being accessible and easy to talk to for a tech type, or a “nerd” as she joked.

Actually, I observed, the word nerd just doesn’t fit anymore.

Go to the trend-setting cities, places like Seattle, and you will see the nerd as norm, as laptop computers, and iPods and tricked-out cell phones are the coin of the realm. Walk into the Starbucks (which are on every block in Seattle) and you see that so many Americans have become the parody of the nerd in real life.

Being a “computer devotee” — or an innovator on the Internet — is about the surest-fire way to build fame and followings among those under 40, and many over that age. What’s the next Facebook or YouTube? Who will turn millions based on pluck and old-fashioned nerdiness.

How cool is it that some dude paid a pittance for the domain name pizza.com several years ago and cashed in those rights for millions?

’80s nerds are 21st century stars.

I thought Kim Gehling was heroically smart and ultra cool as she explained to me how I could turn a Web log I do on politics into a Net location that draws more visitors and perhaps turns something of a profit. “Search engine optimization,” she called it.

Tell me more, girl!

Such techy terminology might have been grist for the jocks back before ESPN.com became one of the hottest sites on the Net.

Glibert and Poindexter struck a blow for the nerds of the world in 1984’s “Revenge of the Nerds.”

A quarter century later it is the nerds who rule the world. To prove this I simply refer you to the Internet tool known as Google Earth.

The company, consistently ranked as one of the most desirable for which to work, is hurtling toward an unprecedented dominance of humanity.

The “just say no” folks warned us with that fried egg commercial about “this is your brain on drugs.”

Today, our brains are on Google.

We now have the nerd as oracle.

And if a nerd is cool, then, well, a nerd just isn’t a nerd anymore.

Bury the word.

Fallon Challenges Boswell Stand On Iraq

Today, Ed Fallon questioned Congressman Leonard Boswell's stand on the Iraq War. "Congressman Boswell has been disingenuous of late in trying to portray himself as being against the Iraq War," said Fallon, who is challenging Boswell in the June 3rd primary. Fallon noted that the public record shows Boswell voted with a minority of House Democrats to authorize using military force in Iraq in 2002, and that he was still voting as recently as last May (H.R. 2237) against timetables for withdrawal and as late as June in support of funding that didn't contain timetables (H.R. 2764). Fallon challenged Boswell to a public debate on the issue, saying, "Congressman Boswell should either acknowledge that his consistent support of the war for five years was a mistake and apologize for it, or come out in the open and defend his record."

"Congressman Boswell has said that he 'voted five or six times' for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, but he never gives references to those votes," Fallon said, citing an article in The Des Moines Register on March 8th. "I know of three votes on H.R. 1591 and one vote on H.R. 4156. I'd like to see to what votes he is referring."

Fallon also listed three questions he would ask General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker if he were already in Congress. Both the American commanding general for Iraq and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq are scheduled to testify before Congress today and tomorrow.

Noting that Gen. Petraeus himself recently acknowledged that there has been insufficient political progress in Iraq- the purported reason for the surge - Fallon said he would ask if the surge has been a strategic failure. In response to Army figures that 25% of soldiers on their third and fourth tours of duty are suffering serious mental health problems, Fallon said he would ask what is being done to address these issues to help our troops and veterans. Finally, given the fact that we are less safe today than when the war began, the human cost in American and Iraqi lives, and the estimated three trillion dollar price tag of this war that is crippling our economy, he asks how they justify the continued presence of American forces in Iraq.

"I've opposed the Iraq War since before it began," Fallon said, "but now we have to clean up the mess that the Bush Administration has made and redirect funding from the war to address problems here at home, beginning with our economy."

Pointing out that Gen. Petraeus himself said a year ago, "There is no military solution to a problem like Iraq," Fallon said he has endorsed A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, an initiative supported by many congressional candidates, retired military officers (including a former commanding general in Iraq), and assistant secretaries of defense.

"I support this plan because it does more than simply end U.S. military action in Iraq," Fallon said. "It calls for the use of U.S. diplomatic power to restore stability to Iraq and the region, and it addresses humanitarian concerns. It restores our military and supports our veterans. And, to help prevent such a war in the future, it takes steps to restore our Constitution and independence to the media, and creates a new U.S.-centered energy policy."

Monday, April 07, 2008

Harkin Announces Money For Iowans With HIV/AIDS

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced that the Iowa State Department of Public Health received $2,545,458 to provide services and healthcare to people living with HIV/AIDS through the Ryan White Care Act from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Harkin is the Chairman of the Senate panel that funds health and education initiatives.

“This funding is critically important to people who are living with HIV or AIDS,” Harkin said. “Just a short time ago, being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. Today, this money helps people affected by this disease live.

The funding will improve the quality, availability, and organization of HIV/AIDS health care and support services. It also provides access to medications.

Harkin has been a long-time supporter of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As Chairman and formerly ranking member of the subcommittee that funds health and education, Harkin led the effort to double NIH funding over five years. President Bush has proposed freezing funding for the NIH at $29.3 billion.

Report Shows King Not Delivering Money To Western Iowa

This time its the numbers, not spoken words, that should dog U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

Western Iowans now have hard-dollar, change-on-the-floor proof that they are left with little in the way of real constituent work from King. A government spending report reveals that King has something of a reverse Midas touch when it comes to bringing home federal dollars for his 32 counties.



Figures from the Citizens Against Government Waste Congressional (CAGW) "Pork Book" show that King is by far the weakest bread winner of Iowa's congressional delegation. King brought home just $9.8 million in 2008 in what the group calls "pork-barrel" spending.

While ostensibly a measure of what this conservative organization deems "waste" or "pork" spending, the report can't help but reveal the effectiveness of legislators in working the system to get money for their constituents. Toward that end, U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, are runaway leaders for the Hawkeye State, bringing back $321.4 million and $302.8 million, respectively, in what the CAGW calls pork-barrel spending. Western Iowa's former congressman, Tom Latham, now over in the 4th District, delivered seven times as much as King -- $67 million. Since Latham, too, is a Republican, King can't counter that this is about partisan politics in a Democratically controlled Congress.

That said, two first-term Democrats in Iowa, U.S. Reps. Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack, brought back $27.5 million and $53.5 million, respectively, in 2008, CAGW reports. That's far more than third-termer King who has a GOP powerhouse, Grassley, with whom to team up for the interests of western Iowa's many small towns that are in dire need of economic-development assistance.

Sure, the current system is fraught with waste and abuse. But can western Iowa afford to have a congressman unilaterally disarming in the fight for infrastructure and projects? Instead of having an advocate in Congress, western Iowans get Kingisms, written or spoken hate routines that appear to be demo tapes or tryout screeds for a right-wing radio talk-show career.

And rather than forging working relationships with people in Washington, D.C., who could do something for Iowa King is chumming around with the political equivalent of street corner preachers and others often found talking to themselves in strange places.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Iowa GOP Blasts Harkin For McCain Comments

Republican Party of Iowa Communications Director Tim Albrecht blasted U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin for comments the Hawkeye State Democrat made Thursday on a conference call in response to questions from Iowa Independent. Harkin suggested McCain's reported temper, something the likely GOP presidential candidate has talked about this week, posed potential danger for the nation should McCain win in November.

“Tom Harkin’s remarks are shameful," Albrecht said. "Sen. McCain has honorably served his country, and deserves admiration and respect. Perhaps Sen. Harkin should focus on his own party’s presidential race, where there is plenty of mud to go around. Unfortunately, Tom Harkin’s liberal record mirrors that of his would-be nominee, and he goes to excruciating lengths to distance himself from it every 6 years, when his own name is on the ballot.

“The only thing that is ‘scary’ to Tom Harkin is Sen. McCain’s strength as the Republican nominee.”

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Harkin: McCain's Temper May Lead To Order Given In Anger



U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says he's seen the John McCain temper up close -- and it's scary, a sort of "flying-off-the-handle" response that may be dangerous in the character of someone who wants to be the most powerful man in the world.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, discussed his own temper earlier this week. Iowa Independent asked Harkin about it this morning during a conference call with other media.

“I’ve been on the receiving end of it,” Harkin said. “And yes, I’ve seen it, and yes, everyone here knows about it.”

When asked if McCain's reported eruptions should be considered disqualifying for a president, Harkin said, “Well, it can be scary."

Harkin said McCain is known for “flying off the handle.” Harkin didn't elaborate on specific instances when asked.

“These are the kinds of things that could cause problems,” Harkin said. “An order given in anger might not be corrected.”

Harkin, who was quick to point out that he would never question McCain's patriotism or devotion to nation, said the Arizona Republican's blend of temper and views on the Vietnam war are both revealing and troubling.

“Anybody to this day who believes we could have ‘won’ the Vietnam War by just killing a few more Vietnamese, that’s kind of scary if that’s the kind of mindset someone has whose running for the presidency,” Harkin said. “What does that say about Iraq and other countries? All we’ve got to do is just bomb them back to the Stone Age and we’ll win.”

In a speech on Iraq at the Council on Foreign Relations on Nov. 5, 2003, McCain said:
"We lost in Vietnam because we lost the will to fight, because we did not understand the nature of the war we were fighting, and because we limited the tools at our disposal."

McCain discussed the early incarnations of his temper in Virginia earlier this week. Here is The New York Times on the matter:

“I was always the new kid, and was accustomed to proving myself quickly at each new school as someone not to be challenged lightly. As a young man, I would respond aggressively and sometimes irresponsibly to anyone whom I perceived to have questioned my sense of honor and self-respect. Those responses often got me in a fair amount of trouble earlier in life.”

“In all candor, as an adult I’ve been known to forget occasionally the discretion expected of a person of my years and station when I believe I’ve been accorded a lack of respect I did not deserve,’’ he says. “Self-improvement should be a work in progress all our lives, and I confess to needing it as much as anyone. But I believe if my detractors had known me at Episcopal they might marvel at the self-restraint and mellowness I developed as an adult. Or perhaps they wouldn’t quite see it that way.’’


This story is cross-posted at Iowa Independent.com where it first appeared.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

"Patriot Majority Today" Is Launched as News-Based Website

First Installment Includes "32 Things Bush & McCain Don't Want You to Know About the Decline of U. S. Military"


Washington, DC – Patriot Majority for a Stronger America, a 501(c)4 organization, today launched the website "Patriot Majority Today" (www.PatriotmajorityToday.com).

Patriot Majority Today is a news and information source for Americans who want our country to move in a new direction on issues of importance and who believe that the misguided leadership of the Bush Administration has created a crisis that must be fixed. This news-based web site will uncover issues ignored by conservative policy makers and under-reported in the media.

Patriot Majority for a Stronger America is a related organization to Patriot Majority, a 527 that ran issue ads in Massachusetts in 2006 and Ohio in 2007.

The main features in today's launch of the website Patriot Majority Today are:

— 32 Things Bush & McCain Don't Want You to Know About the Decline of U. S. Military Readiness, an investigative piece detailing the rapid and unprecedented decline in military readiness that has undermined long-term American security interests across the globe and here at home.

— Governors Take Lead on Energy Independence, a summary of how states – in the absence of federal leadership – have led the way on energy independence for America.

— Updates and continuously refreshed news feeds on the price of gas, federal debt, dollar-exchange rates, national security, energy independence, education and other subjects crucial to America's standing in the world and here at home.

According to Craig Varoga, President of Patriot Majority for a Stronger America:

"Too many issues are being ignored by our national leaders, especially conservative policy makers, including the decline of military readiness, our dependence on foreign oil, selling our national debt to foreign countries and failing to improve our schools so that they prepare our students for the 21st Century.

In 2006 and 2007, Patriot Majority -- a related 527 organization -- ran successful issue ads in Massachusetts and Ohio. Patriot Majority Today continues in this tradition of promoting patriotic service to make America stronger.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Prisons Boss: Death Penalty Unlikely In Iowa

Iowa likely will never reinstate the death penalty because of long-standing political sensibilities and confidence in a “life means life” sentencing system, the state’s top prisons official said Monday.

Iowa has not had the death penalty for more than 40 years.

In a wide-ranging speech and question-and-answer session with the Carroll Rotary Club, John Baldwin, director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, pointed out Iowa’s strict life sentencing policy, one that differs from other states.

“In this state life means what it says it does,” Baldwin said. “When you get sentenced to life you are eligible for parole a day after you’re dead.”



Art Neu, a Carroll attorney who is on the Board of Corrections, said life in prison is worse than death.

“I’d opt for death any old day,” said Neu, who has visited all of the state’s prisons and some out of Iowa. “That’s not a country club.”

Baldwin noted that the last execution in Iowa was a federal hanging in 1963. The last two executions under Iowa law were at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison in 1962.

In 1965 the death penalty was abolished by the legislature and Gov. Harold Hughes.
“Iowans by and large just don’t favor the death penalty,” Baldwin said.

In the 1990s the issue was hot in the Iowa Legislature, and in 1990 Gov. Terry Branstad made the death penalty a major campaign issue.

It emerges from time to time but not with as much intensity.

“While they (legislators) talked about it they never did anything,” Baldwin said.

He said Iowans have a “liberal background” on the death penalty question.

Moving to more immediate issues of infrastructure and population, Baldwin said new prisons and Fort Madison and Mitchellville, as well as community based corrections facility upgrades in Waterloo, Sioux City, Des Moines and Ottumwa, would help relieve growing pressure on the 9,000 prisoner system.

One major item is the proposed construction of a new prison to replace the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. That prison is the oldest building in Iowa, with original construction in 1839, fully seven years before Iowa became a state.
Baldwin said a new prison, at a price tag of $131 million, would allow the state to house 800 inmates with the same staff it now uses to manage 550.

“It’s a wise investment,” Baldwin said. “It will keep our people safe.”

Baldwin expects a spike in the prison in 2009 as tougher regulations on sex offender go into effect.

“When the law was passed it increased the time of some sex offenders,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin said an increase in the female prison population is linked largely to substance abuse and mental health issues. About 60 percent of women in the prison system are diagnosed with mental illness compared with 30 percent for the corrections department as a whole, he said.

The most troubling inmates in terms of reform potential are those with a dual diagnosis of mental health problems and substance abuse.

“Those people recidivate two to three times the average,” Baldwin said.


(Photo: Iowa Department of Corrections director John Baldwin speaks to the Carroll Rotary Club Monday about a number of criminal justice matters.)