Rural Midwestern States To Face Greatest Rise In Temperatures

Writing in The Huffington Post, Ryan Grim reports on a new analysis from The Nature Conservancy that, if correct, should stir major action in the rural Midwest.

The environmental group finds that rural Midwestern states will face the greatest consequences of climate change. The three that will face the steepest rise in temperature -- Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa -- are farm states whose soil will be significantly less productive as temperatures rise more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit there by 2100.

What does this mean?

The consequences to these farm states will be far reaching. As droughts become more common, their soil and climate will begin to look more like their neighbors' to the south in Texas and Mexico.

Clearing some air with Congressman King

Kiron pol takes fair shot at ‘Taking Note’

It is no news flash to readers of “Taking Note” (in the Carroll Daily Times Herald) that this column has been used with some frequency in the last 13 years to vigorously challenge our congressman Steve King.

A skilled orator and turner of phrases, King often presents views in provocative fashion.

This column has pulled no punches on calling out the congressman where we find him wrongheaded.

In a strongly worded but civil exchange with me following his town-hall meeting in Carroll on Wednesday, King, a Kiron Republican who represents Iowa’s 5th Congressional District, offered reasonable criticism.

Put another way, the congressman called me out. And he has a point.

King doesn’t mind the colorful barbs, the political shots. King trades in those, too. They are the coin of the realm in American politics, and have been since British colonial rule.

But King took issue with my direct labeling of him as a “racist” — which I have done. (In a column in March 2008 in which King expressed concerns about President Barack Obama's name and a June 2007 piece about King's thoughts on declining birth rates among certain Europeans.)

When I asked King a question Wednesday afternoon about the GOP gubernatorial race and how his own foot-dragging with a decision may delay important commitments from those who have long supported both King and State Rep. Roberts, R-Carroll, who is in the race, King said he’d happily take the question (See related story on Page 1 of the Carroll Daily Times Herald). But he wanted to clear the air first.

“That’s a well-stated question, Doug,” King said. “Let’s just compartmentalize some animosity here before I move to answer that question. You know that that exists between us. I’ll just tell you the heart of that is this: in one of your articles you labeled me a racist in print. And I take great offense to that.”

He added, “I’m not going to get engaged in a debate, and I’m not going to defend myself. I think my life’s activities do that well enough.”

We moved back to the 2010 race for Terrace Hill, and King fielded some more questions from me and Daily Times Herald reporter Butch Heman.

Following the session at the Santa Maria winery, I told King that while the column will continue to challenge and criticize him it will never again affix the label of racist to him.

King is right. That’s not fair on my part. I cannot divine what’s in Congressman King’s heart, and our public discourse is limited by the quick-draw labeling of people as “sexist” or “racist.” I have been called both.

Where this matter is concerned I will quote King and let readers draw their own conclusions as to the content of his words. There is much nuance where race is concerned and what may appear prejudiced to one person comes across as according to Hoyle to the other.

Talking 2012 presidential politics in Iowa

I spent the morning of my 40th birthday talking presidential politics in Iowa for 2012 on Iowa Public Radio.

Click here to listen to the show in its entirety.


On "The Exchange" host Ben Kieffer referenced a cover story I did for Cityview in Des Moines on possible contenders for 2012 in Iowa.

Vander Plaats to make official announcement

SIOUX CITY – Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, the 2006 Republican nominee for lieutenant governor who is leading the field for the party’s 2010 gubernatorial nomination, will officially launch his campaign on Monday, Sept. 7 in his hometown of Sheldon in northwest Iowa.

“Labor Day is the traditional start of the election season and Sheldon is the natural place for me to officially kick off the campaign. Sheldon is where I learned the value of freedom and leadership. It’s where my parents, teachers and neighbors instilled a traditional Iowa work ethic in me. And, it’s where I learned that the family is the foundation of society and it is government’s responsibility to foster a strong family instead of trying to replace it,” Vander Plaats said.

He continued, “The response we’ve seen since forming a campaign committee in January has been extraordinary. Support is growing every day around the state, pushing us far out in front of the five other candidates in the Republican field. Iowans of all political stripes recognize that Chet Culver is spending too much and demanding too little for taxpayers’ hard-earned money. They know he has to go and that we need a governor whose core principles will be less government, lower taxes and higher quality. They’re rallying behind this campaign because they know I’ll be that governor.”

Vander Plaats’ announcement will be at noon on Labor Day at the City Park in Sheldon. Vander Plaats will make a second appearance on Labor Day, visiting the Marlin Bontrager farm near Kalona. Bontrager and his wife, Becky, own and manage a livestock and grain farm. The couple and their 10 children have also formed the Bontrager Family Singers, a ministry that performs gospel/bluegrass music.

After growing up in Sheldon, Iowa, Vander Plaats pursued a career as an educator. After attending Northwestern College in Orange City on a basketball scholarship, Vander Plaats taught at Boone and Jefferson-Scranton High schools. Earning his master's and specialist's degrees in the area of educational leadership from Drake University, Vander Plaats also served as principal at Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn and Sheldon High schools.

In 1996, Bob became president and chief executive officer of Opportunities Unlimited, a Sioux City health and human services organization that provides rehabilitative services for young adults with brain or spinal cord injuries or other life-altering disabilities. In 2002, Bob led a positive and energetic campaign for governor. Though he narrowly lost in a three-way GOP primary, that campaign laid the foundation for a statewide organization that has continued to grow. Vander Plaats also served as Iowa chairman for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Vander Plaats is currently president of MVP Leadership, Inc., which specializes in strategic vision and executive leadership for business and industry, economic development, education, health care, human services, and private foundations.

'I'm at Slick Willie's place'

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The couple on the elevator snickered.

"You mean that trailer on stilts?" the husband said.

My companions on the ride from the fifth floor to the lobby of the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in downtown Little Rock, Ark., last Saturday were of course speaking of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, on the south shore of the Arkansas River.

After a country breakfast at the farmer's market, I walked several blocks from the River Market district in Little Rock to the Clinton museum, a silvery structure that is oddly rectangular and lounges off an incline toward the Arkansas River and a rusty relic of an abandoned railroad bridge.

The architectural comparison of Clinton's museum to a mobile home or a package of Reynolds Wrap hanging on a table isn't clever. It's obvious.

At the entrance outside the facility that archives the life and service of our 42nd commander in chief, I encountered some early-morning smokers, a husband and wife taking their last draws of nicotine before the tour.

The man, sporting a generous gut and speaking with a deep Southern drawl, pulled out his cell phone, and called a buddy.

"You'll never guess where I'm at," he said into the phone, laughing, and looking conspiratorially at his wife. "I'm at Slick Willie's place."

"Slick Willie's place" is much like President Bill Clinton. On the outside, it appears sort of white trashy, an easy punchline. But inside is a modern, intelligent, brilliantly organized presentation of Clinton's two terms as our president, with a dash of history about his life as governor, childhood and college years. Built with generous amounts of glass the Clinton museum allows visitors fantastic views of Little Rock and the sleepy, serene Arkansas River community. You get the distinct sense that you are in Clinton's brain looking at the outside world. It's a remarkable effect.

Inside the museum, I spent hours reading Clinton's speeches and going through displays. Among the most impressive was one dealing with the Internet and science. Clinton and Vice President Al Gore understood the intersection of technology and commerce in a way no president ever has, or perhaps ever will.

I'm on the edge of turning 40, a statistically likely halfway point for life. It's entirely possible that in 2050, if I'm near death and highly reflective, I will look back on the 1990s - the years of peace and prosperity under Clinton - as the best ones of my American life. Some will argue the Republican Congress deserves credit for those times and others maintain the positives of that period happened in spite of Clinton, not because of him.

For so many reasons, his presidency is deserving of reverence and high-minded debate. As is his work as a post president.

But with that there's always the taint, an eye roll.

In recent days, former President Clinton has been much in the news for his role in the retrieval of jailed American journalists in North Korea.

For this Clinton has been celebrated.

And mocked.

Because the reporters were female, there's been much late-night hee-hawing from Conan and Jimmy about the Clinton-led rescue - all stemming from Clinton's Monica Lewinsky infamy.

The jokes flow from the same theme: Did he hit on the journalists? It's a sick premise considering the import of the situation for the women, but let's face it, the thought occurred to more people than Rush Limbaugh.

As the man at the museum door said, "I'm at Slick Willie's place."

Carroll woman's answer to highly visible Obama: Selling her televisions

This first appeared in the Carroll (Iowa) Daily Times Herald and has since been picked up by news organizations and bloggers across the globe.

By DOUGLAS BURNS

A 78-year-old Carroll woman says she's so tired of seeing President Barack Obama on the airwaves that she's selling her television sets - two of them.

Deloris Nissen, a retired nurses' aide and former Kmart employee who was raised on a farm near Audubon, placed a classified advertisement with The Daily Times Herald for Friday's paper.

In the $5.50 ad, Nissen tells readers she has two television sets for sale.

The reason: "Obama on every channel and station."

In an interview Nissen said she is serious about selling two TVs - and genuine about her disgust with what she believes to be an overexposed president.

"I just got tired of watching him on every channel," Nissen said. "I thought, my gosh, does he ever stay at the White House?"

Nissen, who voted for U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the 2008 presidential election, said she could live with seeing Obama come on television to make serious announcements. But he seems to be on all the time, Nissen said.

When the president does appear on a channel she happens to be watching, Nissen said, she quickly turns.

"I have the remote real handy," Nissen said. "I have the batteries. I'm ready for him."

Nissen's annoyance with the president as a frequent presence on her television doesn't mean she'll abandon the medium altogether.

She's keeping a bigger flat-screen television and selling an older 20-inch Sony and possibly a 13-inch set.

"It's too heavy," Nissen said of the 20-inch TV. "I can't handle it anymore."

That said, she doesn't plan on selling it for less than $100 - even if Obama was just on Tuesday pitching his health-care-reform plans.

Obama's own advisers and political observers across the ideological spectrum have for months debated whether the now popular president is overexposed.

For her part, Nissen said she expects to take some flack for the advertisement in her local paper. After all, Obama did win Iowa and Carroll County in the 2008 election.

But she's not worried about any criticism.

"I'm an old lady, and I don't care," Nissen said.

The Des Moines Register carried its own column on Nissen today.

Tons of comments on the Washington DC Gossip site Wonkette. Most nasty and over the top.

Who's knocking in 2012?

In Des Moines' Cityview Douglas Burns provides an early handicapping of potential 2012 gubernatorial field in Iowa Caucuses.

Here is Cityview

There are no breaks in the business. Literally days after President Obama was elected, speculation started about potential challengers for 2012. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke in late November to a conservative crowd of about 800 people at the Sheraton in West Des Moines, feeding, of course, notions about White House-sized ambitions for the young GOP intellectual. And Sarah Palin seems to be everywhere with breathless analysts parsing her latest verbal contortions. Indiana Congressman Mike Pence hit both coasts of Iowa just two weeks ago. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour headlined a major Republican event at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines this summer. And U.S. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada) spoke to an American Future Fund-organized event in Sioux City. We can, of course, forget about that last one.

Read the rest of the story and the rankings at Cityview online ...

ROBERTS CALLS ON GOVERNOR TO BE “REAL” WITH IOWANS

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts today called on Governor Culver and his staff to be more honest with Iowans about the condition of the state’s finances.

“Iowans need a governor who will be ‘real’ with them about the health of the Iowa economy,” said Roberts. “Iowans realize that we are in an economic recession. The recession is real, and the governor needs to be upfront about how the recession is affecting the Iowa economy.”

Roberts, a 51-year-old state representative from Carroll, made the statement after the governor’s office claimed on Monday that the state experienced a strong boost in revenue for July 2009. The governor’s office suggested that a slight increase in gross revenue indicated that the state’s economy had improved. But Roberts noted that gross revenues only increased slightly for July 2009 because of a state bookkeeping change which now credits the state government with receiving tax dollars which must be passed along to local school districts. As a result, the state’s gross revenues are artificially inflated.

Roberts also pointed out that net revenues—not gross revenues—should be used to determine the health of the Iowa economy. According to a non-partisan state budget office, the Legislative Services Agency (LSA), net revenues for the state dropped 6.1% for the month of July compared to July 2008.

“Net revenue is the amount which the state actually has to spend. It is the true indicator of the health of the state’s economy,” said Roberts. “By focusing on a slight increase in artificially inflated gross revenue rather than a sizeable decrease in net revenue, the governor’s office is not being straightforward about the true health of Iowa’s economy.”

Roberts notes that this is not the first time that the governor’s office has failed to be real with Iowans about the health of the state economy. The governor’s office has also disputed that the state is in a budget crisis, even though the state budget for the fiscal year 2009 ended with a $161 million shortfall. The projected spending gap for fiscal year 2011 is approaching $1 billion dollars. Roberts says that he will be more candid with Iowans as governor.

“Iowans are concerned that the state and nation are in a recession. They don’t need a governor who denies the state’s fiscal challenges; they need a governor who will acknowledge them,” said Roberts.

Roberts said the solution to the state’s budget crisis is to enact fiscally responsible policies. According to Roberts, state government will emerge from its budget crisis by reducing spending and keeping taxes low on businesses and families.