Iowa Political Alert

GOP White House candidate Gingrich to campaign in Carroll, screen film developed on Pope John Paul II

2011-11-11T15:54:00.001-06:00

Republican president candidate Newt Gingrich, the former speakers of the U.S. House from Georgia, will campaign in Carroll Monday.

Gingrich and his wife, Callista, will be at the Santa Maria Winery at 6 p.m. for a book signing and reception. At 7 p.m. they will screen the movie “Nine Days That Changed The World” about Pope John Paul II's historic nine-day pilgrimage to Po-land in June of 1979 created a revolution of conscience that transformed Poland and fundamentally reshaped the spiritual and political land-scape of the 20th Century.

Newt and Callista Gingrich, along with a Polish, American, and Italian cast, explore what transpired during these nine days that moved the Polish people to renew their hearts, reclaim their courage, and free them-selves from the shackles of Communism. Produced in partnership with Citizens United Productions.

The event is open to the full public.

Gingrich surges in national poll

2011-11-11T14:52:00.002-06:00

From McClatchy Newspapers ...

WASHINGTON — The Republican presidential race is being shaken up again, with Mitt Romney retaking the lead, Newt Gingrich surging into second place, and Herman Cain dropping to third place, according to a new McClatchy-Marist nationwide poll released Friday.

The breakdown of the poll:

— Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, 23 percent;

— Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, 19 percent;

— Cain, the former restaurant executive, 17 percent;

— Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 10 percent;

— Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, 8 percent;

— Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, 5 percent;

— Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, 1 percent;

— Former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah, 1 percent;

— Undecided, 17 percent.

Exercise at Drake University Will Let Voters Make Tough Decisions on Deficit Reduction

2011-11-11T14:28:00.000-06:00

News Release ...

DES MOINES -- As they weigh presidential candidates’ rhetoric about the federal budget in advance of the January caucuses, Iowans will have an opportunity to try to improve it themselves in a community-wide deficit-reduction exercise Monday, Nov. 14 at Drake University.

The exercise, designed by The Concord Coalition, is being co-hosted by the Des Moines Register and Drake University’s College of Business and Public Administration. The event, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.

“Even after the country has fully recovered from its current economic difficulties, we are on course for sharply rising deficits as the population ages, health care costs continue to climb rapidly and the government’s interest costs spiral upwards,” says Robert L. Bixby, Concord’s executive director.

“Without reforms, the gap between government spending and revenue will get larger and larger,” Bixby points out. “We clearly need to put the country on a more responsible track and avoid burdening our children and future generations with our debts. Fortunately, various experts and bipartisan groups have recommended many ways to do that. We invite Iowa residents to join us next Monday night to discuss many of these options and decide which ones they believe would be most fair and effective.”

Bixby and Sara Imhof, Concord’s Iowa-based Midwest regional director, will be the presenters at the program.

The exercise allows people to assume the roles of members of Congress who have been appointed to a special committee to recommend a package of policies to put America on a sound fiscal foundation again – much like the “super committee” that is to issue its recommendations to Congress on Nov. 23.

The exercise calls for difficult decisions on domestic and defense spending, entitlement reform and tax policies.

“This experience should help voters to better understand the federal budget, the choices we face and the consequences of continued procrastination,” Imhof says. “That, in turn, should help them hold elected officials and candidates accountable for sound fiscal policy proposals.”

Although there is no charge for the program, reservations are appreciated and can be made at concordcoalition.org/RSVP .

WHAT: Community-Wide Deficit Reduction Exercise

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14

WHERE: Parents Hall, Olmsted Center at Drake University.

2875 University Ave., Des Moines

WHO: Robert L. Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition

Sara Imhof, Concord’s Midwest regional director

Political Mercury: Occupy Wall Street movement boost Iowa's rural Main Streets

2011-11-11T14:24:00.002-06:00

Strong school systems. Rich, black-coffee-colored-soil. Strong sewing in our social fabric.

When we discuss rural Iowa’s advantages, the reasons for our comparative successes, our lower unemployment rates than the prevailing national numbers, these factors come to the fore.

But there’s something else that deserves more attention as a determinative influence on life in rural Iowa: the presence of robust, credible, entirely trustworthy community banks.

Read the rest of Douglas Burns' Political Mercury Column in Des Moines' Cityview newspaper.

Grassley Q&A on deficit reduction

2011-11-11T14:22:00.001-06:00

NEWS RELEASE FROM GRASSLEY'S OFFICE ...

Q&A on the Deficit Reduction Committee
with U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley

Q: What exactly is the deficit reduction committee in Congress, and under what authority was it created?
A: Last summer, Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011. The law made it possible for the federal government to borrow more money, avoiding possible default on debt, and authorized the formation of a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Twelve members of Congress – six Democrats and six Republicans – were named by party leaders to the Joint Committee, and two of them are designated as co-chairs. Committee members are charged with presenting a ten-year proposal for at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction by November 23. Both the Senate and the House are supposed to vote on the Joint Committee’s legislative package by December 23. If the Joint Committee doesn’t agree on deficit reduction legislation or it is not enacted, then an automatic spending reduction process would be triggered beginning in January 2013. These automatic reductions would be divided evenly between defense and non-defense spending. The way that the Budget Control Act restricts amendments and limits time for debate is unusual. I’m an advocate for regular order where standing committees develop responsible policy and legislative proposals in their areas of jurisdiction. And, I voted against the Budget Control Act because the spending reductions weren’t proportional to the massive fiscal challenges we face. But, Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution gives to both the Senate and House the power to “determine the Rules of its proceedings,” and the Budget Control Act was adopted by Congress and signed into law by the President on August 2, 2011.

Q: Can Congress unravel the law if the Joint Committee isn’t successful, preventing the automatic deficit reduction from taking effect?
A: As the director of the Congressional Budget Office recently said, “Any Congress can reverse the actions of a previous Congress.” At the same time, there is tremendous pressure to begin reversing unsustainable growth in the federal debt and deficits. In 2009, for the first time ever, the deficit was more than $1 trillion. From 1946 to 2008, budget deficits averaged 1.7 percent of the gross domestic product and exceeded five percent only three times. From 2009 to 2011, budget deficits will average 9.4 percent of the gross domestic product. The federal debt held by the public has grown from 40 percent of the gross domestic product in 2008 to an estimated 69 percent of the gross domestic product in 2011. The fact that Congress can vote to abandon plans put in place for spending restraint – and, too often, either has unraveled budget controls or never adopted them in the first place – makes the case for a constitutional requirement for a balanced budget. I’m a co-sponsor of legislation that would establish a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The last time the Senate voted on a balanced budget amendment was in March 1997, when the nation’s debt was less than half of what it is today. The resolution failed by one vote. A balanced budget amendment passed the House of Representatives in 1995. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives must vote on a balanced budget amendment this year, sometime before December 31, thanks to a requirement in the Budget Control Act.

Q: Don’t tax increases need to be part of the solution for reducing deficits and debt?
A: Fiscal discipline and economic growth need to be the top priorities for deficit and debt reduction. Unchecked government spending will further threaten economic opportunity with higher debt and higher taxes. It might be one thing if tax increases actually were used to reduce the deficit, but that’s not what happens. Since World War II, every new dollar in tax increases has resulted in Congress’ spending $1.17. Raising taxes has been a license for Congress to spend even more. And, every dollar spent by Congress is a dollar taken out of the economy, and higher taxes leave fewer resources for the private sector to make investments, expand production, and create sustainable jobs. The work of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction should stay focused on reducing spending, not on finding ways to increase revenue to fuel excessive government spending. In addition to supporting reforms to entitlement spending to make sure valued programs are available to future generations of Americans and sustainable for taxpayers, I’ve submitted specific recommendations to the Joint Committee for spending reductions totaling hundreds of millions to even billions of dollars from administrative restructuring, reduction of duplicative and overlapping programs, and unnecessary and wasteful programs under the authority and jurisdiction of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where I serve as Ranking Member. I also made recommendations to the Joint Committee for my bipartisan legislation that would save $4.8 billion in federal government spending on prescription drugs, including through Medicare and Medicaid, by stopping deals between name-brand and generic drug makers that keep less expensive drugs off the market. I’ve urged the Joint Committee to adopt caps on farm payments, for a savings of $1.5 billion, and backed a goal of saving $23 billion in spending from programs that fall under the jurisdiction of the Senate Committee on Agriculture. The bottom line is that Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

Not good news for Santorum

2011-11-11T14:12:00.000-06:00

This from Politico:

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, a Penn State grad currently running for the GOP presidential nomination, has said he is “devastated” over the scandal.

For Santorum, there is the prospect of damaging political fallout: On Wednesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that, while serving in the Senate, Santorum sponsored Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State defense coordinator at the heart of the scandal, for a “Congressional Angels in Adoption” award, citing his work with a nonprofit group he founded for foster children.

British betting site has Bachmann favored to win Iowa caucuses with improved odds, now 7 to 4

2011-07-07T12:24:00.006-05:00

The British bookmaking site Ladbrokes.com has Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann favored to win the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses at odds of 7 to 4. She was at 5 to 2 just weeks ago. If you are using horse-racing strategy, though, and looking for a "good price" — a candidate with a good shot of winning but longer odds and a better payday -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry has the right stuff for Iowa and is likely to enter the race. He's at 6 to 1 for the Iowa caucuses. President Obama remains at 1 to 2 to retain the White House in 2012 -- making him a Triple Crown favorite in the betting for the general election.

Interestingly, Bachmann's odds of winning the GOP nomination dip to 6 to 1 and her odds of capturing the White House in a race with Obama canyon-dive to 20 to 1. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Labbrokes odds are 11/8 to come away with the GOP nomination for 2012, and 5 to 1 to beat Obama.

Iowa Caucuses Odds

Michele Bachmann 7/4
Mitt Romney 7/2
Tim Pawlenty 4/1
Rick Perry 6/1
Sarah Palin 10/1
Jon Huntsman 12/1
Herman Cain 14/1
Rick Santorum 20/1
Newt Gingrich 33/1
Ron Paul 33/1
Gary Johnson 50/1

Odds of Winning GOP Nomination

Mitt Romney 11/8
Tim Pawlenty 5/1
Rick Perry 5/1
Michele Bachmann 6/1
Jon Huntsman 10/1
Sarah Palin 14/1
Rudy Giuliani 25/1
Herman Cain 25/1
Newt Gingrich 33/1
Ron Paul 40/1
Rick Santorum 66/1
Gary Johnson 66/1
Thaddeus McCotter 66/1

General Election Odds

Barack Obama 1/2
Mitt Romney 5/1
Tim Pawlenty 12/1
Rick Perry 14/1
Jon Huntsman 20/1
Michele Bachmann 20/1
Sarah Palin 33/1
Rudy Giuliani 50/1
Herman Cain 50/1
Ron Paul 66/1
Newt Gingrich 66/1
Rick Santorum 150/1
Gary Johnson 150/1
Thaddeus McCotter 150/1

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Joins Pawlenty for President as Senior Political Adviser

2011-07-05T16:24:00.000-05:00

Press Release

URBANDALE, IOWA – Sarah Huckabee Sanders is joining Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign as senior political adviser. She begins her new role in the campaign’s Iowa headquarters today, taking the lead for the campaign on the Iowa Straw Poll effort with a focus on expanding the campaign’s grassroots operations across the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

“Sarah is a results-oriented person with a great track record in Iowa and around the country,” Gov. Pawlenty said. “We are very excited Sarah is joining our team just as we are hitting our stride in Iowa.”

“I’m delighted to join the Governor and First Lady in Iowa, which holds a special place in my heart,” Sanders said. “It’s clear to me that Gov. Pawlenty has what it takes to unite the party, unite the country and beat President Obama.”

In 2007-08, Sarah Huckabee Sanders helped lead her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, to victory in the Iowa caucuses as his national political director. In 2010, she was campaign manager for John Boozman’s successful U.S. Senate campaign in Arkansas. Sarah was recently named one of TIME Magazine’s “40 under 40” and is widely recognized to be one of the best political operatives of her generation. Sarah is a full-time consultant with Tsamoutales Strategies, a transnational consulting firm.

FDR 1936 I welcome their hatred

2011-07-05T16:19:00.000-05:00

Governor Tim Pawlenty TV Ad: Results, Not Rhetoric

2011-07-05T16:16:00.000-05:00

SARAH PALIN TO ATTEND PREMIERE OF THE UNDEFEATED AT PELLA OPERA HOUSE IN PELLA, IOWA

2011-06-25T12:38:00.002-05:00

TheIowaRepublican.com moved this earlier today ...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (June 25, 2011)– Victory Film Group (www.victoryfilmgroup.com) and ARC Entertainment announced today that Governor Sarah Palin and her husband Todd will attend the premiere of The Undefeated at the historic Pella Opera House on Tuesday June 28 at 5pm Central Time in Pella, Iowa. Immediately after the showing, Victory Film Group and ARC Entertainment will host a traditional Iowa cookout to thank the Pella Opera House and the people of Pella.

In accepting the invitation to attend the premiere, Sarah Palin stated, “We are very excited to visit historic Pella and its opera house and look forward to seeing the finished film for the first time with fellow Americans from the heartland.”

Responding to the Palin’s announcement that they will attend the Iowa premiere, Larry Peterson, Chairman of the Board of the Pella Opera House said, “We look forward to hosting Governor Palin and her husband, Todd, at our beloved opera house as we welcome them to our community.”

“We are incredibly excited about Governor Palin and her husband Todd’s attendance at a location that speaks to the basic core values of The Undefeated,” said Stephen K. Bannon, the writer and director of the film.

“We are delighted that Governor Palin and her husband Todd have accepted our invitation to join us at the Iowa premiere of what we believe is a truly moving and extraordinary film,” said Trevor Drinkwater, CEO of ARC Entertainment, the film’s worldwide distributor.

The film begins its national rollout exclusively in AMC Theatres in 10 cities the week of July 15th. The film will debut in Dallas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Atlanta, Orange County, Phoenix, Houston, Indianapolis, and Kansas City, with plans to take it nationwide in additional markets thereafter.

The Undefeated features leading prominent political commentators Mark Levin, Tammy Bruce and Andrew Breitbart as well as conservative activists Kate Obenshein, Sonnie Johnson and Jamie Radtke. Additionally, the film features interviews with Alaskan civil servants, elected officials and advisors who were involved in Alaskan politics during Governor Palin’s tenure.

The Undefeated, which was written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by Bannon and Victory Film Group co-founder Glenn Bracken Evans and Dan Fleuette, chronicles Sarah Palin’s rise from obscurity to national prominence.

About Victory Film Group

Victory Film Group develops, produces and distributes documentaries and films that address today’s leading political, socioeconomic and cultural issues while incorporating the conservative perspective.

British betting site gives Bachmann best odds of winning Iowa Caucuses; Obama at 1 to 2 for general election

2011-06-24T17:22:00.003-05:00

The British bookmaking site Ladbrokes.com handicaps the Iowa GOP Presidential Caucuses with Waterloo native and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in the lead spot at 5 to 2. (Bet $200 to win $500)

Michele Bachmann 5/2
Tim Pawlenty 3/1
Mitt Romney 7/2
Sarah Palin 7/1
Jon Huntsman 8/1
Herman Cain 8/1
Rick Perry 8/1
Rick Santorum 20/1
Newt Gingrich 25/1
Ron Paul 25/1
Gary Johnson 33/1

Here is how Ladbrokes handicaps the general election -- giving President Obama Triple Crown horse odds of 1/2 -- and dropping Mrs. Bachmann into the long-shot arena.

Barack Obama 1/2
Mitt Romney 5/1
Tim Pawlenty 12/1
Rick Perry 14/1
Jon Huntsman 20/1
Michele Bachmann 25/1
Sarah Palin 33/1
Herman Cain 40/1
Rudy Giuliani 50/1
Ron Paul 66/1
Newt Gingrich 66/1
Rick Santorum 100/1
Gary Johnson 100/1

And here are Ladbrokes' odds on the identity of the Republican presidential nominee ...

Mitt Romney 11/8
Tim Pawlenty 4/1
Rick Perry 5/1
Michele Bachmann 8/1
Jon Huntsman 10/1
Sarah Palin 14/1
Rudy Giuliani 20/1
Herman Cain 20/1
Newt Gingrich 33/1
Ron Paul 40/1
Rick Santorum 66/1
Gary Johnson 66/1

Senator Charles Grassley on Western Iowa Flooding

2011-06-24T17:17:00.001-05:00

Harkin: Afghanistan purpose accomplished, time for U.S. to get out

2011-06-24T17:14:00.003-05:00

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Thursday said it is time for the United States to “fundamentally rethink” the “so-called” war on terror.

“We need to get out of these large-scale conflicts, refocus our efforts on smaller operations, intelligence-gathering, law enforcement, and cooperating with our allies,” Harkin said.

In a conference call with the Daily Times Herald and other media on Thursday, Harkin said the Obama administration’s planned draw-down in Afghanistan, announced by the president on Wednesday, is too small.

“I don’t think the president’s proposal to withdraw 10,000 troops is enough,” Harkin said.

Making a case that the United States and allies had made significant progress, Obama said 10,000 troops would be pulled from Afghanistan by the end of the year with another 23,000 returning from the conflict there in 2012 — leaving 68,000 in Afghanistan.

Read the full story in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.

La Prensa Interview with Congressman Steve King, R-Iowa

2011-06-24T17:13:00.000-05:00

Carroll's Nuckels earns major national political award

2011-06-24T17:11:00.002-05:00

Campaigns & Elections magazine this month named Carroll High School alum Ben Nuckels as one of its 2011 Rising Stars — one of the most prestigious honors in politics.

The award goes to a select group of operatives age 35 and under who have an established track record of achievement in political consulting or advocacy and the promise to achieve greatness.

Nuckels, 32, a vice president at Joe Slade White & Company, is a son of Steve and Marsha Nuckels of Carroll. Ben Nuckels lives in Oconomowoc, Wis., between Madison and Milwaukee.

Read the full story at The Carroll Daily Times Herald website

ARC ENTERTAINMENT & VICTORY FILMS TO PRESENT THE WORLD PREMIER OF THE UNDEFEATED AT PELLA OPERA HOUSE IN PELLA, IOWA

2011-06-24T15:24:00.002-05:00

Documentary about Gov. Sarah Palin will be shown at 111-year-old historic Midwestern landmark

SANTA MONICA – Victory Film Group (www.victoryfilmgroup.com) and ARC Entertainment announced today the premier of The Undefeated at the Pella Opera House in Pella, Iowa on Tuesday June 28, at 5 p.m. Central.

The Undefeated, which was written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by Bannon and Victory Film Group co-founder Glenn Bracken Evans and Dan Fleuette, chronicles Sarah Palin’s rise from obscurity to national prominence. ARC Entertainment is the film’s worldwide distributor.

“The community of Pella encapsulates what Iowa and the Heartland are all about. Steve Bannon certainly found a location that has the ‘Iowa-ness’ he was searching for,” stated Craig Robinson, editor-in-chief of TheIowaRepublican.com.

Built in 1900, the Pella Opera House is presently a non-profit founded by area leaders committed to bringing the finest performances to the venue. During the preceding 111 years, the Pella Opera House building has served many functions including headquarters for the Women’s Federated Club, as well as showing the country’s first silent movies at the beginning of the motion picture industry.

MSNBC's 'Rachel Maddow Show' highlights Carroll Daily Times Herald story on Pawlenty and abortion questions

2011-06-03T00:18:00.002-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Boris to Bush: If you come to England you may not get back to Texas

2010-11-22T14:16:00.003-06:00

London Mayor (and Tory) Boris Johnson, a former journalist and provocative columnist I've been reading for years, has penned one of his most hot-blooded pieces for The Telegraph in which he says President George W. Bush may not get out of London if he comes for a book tour because of comments about interrogations done under his administration.

Here is Johnson -- whether you agree or not with his premise:

It is not yet clear whether George W Bush is planning to cross the Atlantic to flog us his memoirs, but if I were his PR people I would urge caution. As book tours go, this one would be an absolute corker. It is not just that every European capital would be brought to a standstill, as book-signings turned into anti-war riots. The real trouble — from the Bush point of view — is that he might never see Texas again.

One moment he might be holding forth to a great perspiring tent at Hay-on-Wye. The next moment, click, some embarrassed member of the Welsh constabulary could walk on stage, place some handcuffs on the former leader of the Free World, and take him away to be charged. Of course, we are told this scenario is unlikely. Dubya is the former leader of a friendly power, with whom this country is determined to have good relations. But that is what torture-authorising Augusto Pinochet thought. And unlike Pinochet, Mr Bush is making no bones about what he has done.

Could deficit reduction really happen?

2010-11-22T14:08:00.003-06:00

There is a highly encouraging piece on potential deficit reduction in The Washington Post that contains more bi-partisanship than anything I've read it some time.

After an election dominated by vague demands for less debt and smaller government, the sacrifices necessary to achieve those goals are coming into sharp focus. Big cuts at the Pentagon. Higher taxes, including those on home ownership and health care. Smaller Social Security checks and higher Medicare premiums.

The changes to Social Security would be phased in over the next 65 years ....

Social Security is proving to be the most emotional issue. Over the next 65 years, Bowles and Simpson would gradually raise the early retirement age from 62 to 64 and the standard retirement age from 67 to 69. They would reduce scheduled benefits for better-off retirees and use a less-generous measure of inflation to calculate cost-of-living increases. And they would guarantee higher benefits to the poorest and oldest retirees, those most in need of additional support.

Betting on America and winning

2010-11-19T17:17:00.003-06:00

It is never wise to bet against the American economy long term. Warren Buffett tells us this and I listen.

Amid the roiling economic times of the spring and fall of 2009 I decided to invest more in America, literally. I didn't select exotic companies to add to the range of diversified mutual funds and other investments. I had a firm belief that our economy would recover and people who were running scared from the markets and long-standing American companies were fools.

On August 11, 2009, I purchased shares of General Electric at $14.43. As of Friday, Nov. 19, 2010, close, they were up 12.43 percent to $16.22

On October 23, 2009, I purchased shares of Union Pacific at $58.97. As of Friday, Nov. 19 close the UP stock was up 55.71 percent to $91.82.

On Aug. 21, 2009, I purchased shares of Sirius-XM at $0.85. As of Friday, Nov. 19, 2010, they were up 63.68 percent to $1.40 a share.

These are basic American companies -- household names.

Immigration a global issue

2010-11-19T16:54:00.002-06:00

The Christian Science Monitor has an eye-opening cover story on immigration as a global issue. It is not just about Latinos coming to the U.S. from the south. The world is struggling with immigration like never before.

Here is The Monitor:

Contrary to popular perception, anti-immigrant sentiment today isn't just about rich nations shunning the mass arrival of migrants from poorer ones. It is poor nations sending their huddled masses to other poor nations. It is rich countries sending people to other rich ones. It is countries acting as transit corridors – switching stations of humanity. According to the UNDP, only about one-third of migrants move from a developing country to a developed one.

I am surprised this idea has not been raised in the United States, although pro-family conservatives probably couldn't stomach being on the opposite side of anything dealing with marriage:

The Netherlands and Britain, among others, have erected barriers to family-reunification visas by setting the legal marriage age for foreigners at 21 rather than 18 as it is for citizens.

And Mexico doesn't really have any room to preach to us about immigration considering that nation's own problems with handling Central and South American immigrants.

72 Central and South Americans were massacred in northern Mexico, allegedly at the hands of drug traffickers, because they refused to work as recruits for the gang. The case was not an isolated one: Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights issued a report claiming that 10,000 migrants were kidnapped in a six-month period from September 2008 through February 2009.

Cityview Column: Is smoking ban obsolete, questions for Reynolds and I-Jobs

2010-11-04T12:24:00.002-05:00

The latest installment of my Political Mercury column in Des Moines' Cityview newspaper looks at the smoking ban, poses some questions for our new lieutenant governor and makes some observations about I-Jobs. You can read the full column online through Cityview ....

But here is a sample:

Has the Iowa smoking ban had its intended effect?

In other words, is the law obsolete? Did it provide the needed cover two years ago to bars and gathering places frightened to make the smoke-free move?

Could it be lifted simply based on the fact that many places wouldn’t go back, and those that do would feed a niche market of sorts?

AND

Mothers Against Drunk Driving reports that a person arrested for the first time for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated has done this an average of 87 times before getting caught. Is that about the right number for you, Mrs. Reynolds? And should we double it?

As Clarke County treasurer did you ever come to work drunk or hungover or otherwise suffering the ill effects of consumption of spirits? And as a self-described protector of the public dime, did you reimburse taxpayers for any diminished performance stemming from the boozin’?

What would have happend to $100,000 invested in U.S. Stock Market index fund on day Obama took office?

2010-11-04T12:11:00.002-05:00

Timothy Egan raises a great point in a much passed around piece in The New York Times this week:

Suppose you had $100,000 to invest on the day Barack Obama was inaugurated. Why bet on a liberal Democrat? Here’s why: the presidency of George W. Bush produced the worst stock market decline of any president in history. The net worth of American households collapsed as Bush slipped away. And if you needed a loan to buy a house or stay in business, private sector borrowing was dead when he handed over power.

As of election day, Nov. 2, 2010, your $100,000 was worth about $177,000 if invested strictly in the NASDAQ average for the entirety of the Obama administration, and $148,000 if bet on the Standard & Poors 500 major companies. This works out to returns of 77 percent and 48 percent.

Audio of Dan Dirkx at Carroll Area Development Corp.

2010-09-30T18:27:00.003-05:00

Republican Statehouse candidate Dan Dirkx Tuesday spoke with the Carroll Area Development Corp. on Tuesday at the Carrollton Centre.

Click here for the full audio of Dirkx's remarks and a question-and-answer session at the Carrollton Centre.

Fallout on Reynolds' comments on civil unions

2010-07-09T12:00:00.003-05:00

Iowa Independent editor Jason Hancock has two detailed stories on fallout from GOP candidate for lieutenant governor Kim Reynolds' openness to gay civil unions. She made the remarks in an interview with the Carroll Daily Times Herald this week (see post below).

Here is Iowa Independent today:

When GOP lieutenant governor candidate Kim Reynolds suggested she would be open to the idea of civil unions for same-sex couples, she set off a firestorm of criticism from both the conservatives she was trying to woo and liberals who oppose efforts to overturn marriage equity in Iowa.

Bob Vander Plaats chats with Kim Reynolds before the primary in Mount Ayr (photo by Dave Davidson, www.TEApublican.com)

And despite the efforts of Terry Branstad’s campaign to diffuse the situation, that criticism continues. Some are even suggesting the statements could be the last straw for Bob Vander Plaats as he contemplates running for governor as an independent this fall.

Iowa Independent had an earlier piece quoting conservatives attacking Reynolds for the remarks.

Reyonlds says abortion 'murder,' open to idea of civil unions for gays

2010-07-09T11:57:00.001-05:00

By DOUGLAS BURNS
Carroll Daily Times Herald

GOP candidate for lieutenant governor Kim Reynolds Tuesday said she believes abortion is “equivalent to murder.” On another key contemporary social issue, Reynolds said marriage should be defined as being between one man and one woman — although she made three separate references to civil unions for homosexuals in an interview, saying she would be open to such a prospect in Iowa.

As former Gov. Terry Branstad’s running mate in his effort to win a fifth term, Reynolds, halfway through her first term as a state senator from Osceola, is spending some of her early days on the campaign trail in counties in which Sioux City business consultant Bob Vander Plaats and State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, showed strength in the June Republican primary. (Roberts carried Carroll County in the primary with 74 percent of the vote.)

“In some of the counties that the governor (Branstad) didn’t carry I’m gonna try to get out there and meet with them and just talk to them and listen to them, give them an opportunity to get to know me,” Reynolds said.

Speaking at the Carroll Pizza Ranch, Reynolds fielded a question about gay marriage, now legal in Iowa.

“Well, I am pro-life, and I am pro-family,” Reynolds said.

Later, in an interview with the Daily Times Herald, Reynolds was asked to elaborate on those positions.

If her stance on abortion prevails, and it is criminalized again, what should the penalty be for a physician who performs an abortion or a woman who has one?

“Well, I think it would be equivalent to murder,” Reynolds said. “I would want to research that before I would lay specifically out what the penalties would be.”

If someone is stabbed to death in front of Pizza Ranch now is the culprit guilty of the same crime as a doctor who performs an abortion?

“No,” she said.

So if it’s a different kind murder then?

“I would want to take a look at that and make sure that I completely walked through that before I would say anything right now,” Reynolds said. “I’m not going to give an answer to that right now without thoroughly looking through that and making sure that I’m looking at both sides.”

If she’s strongly pro-life, why hasn’t Reynolds thought about the punishment component as criminalized abortion is the end game, the logical conclusion, of the pro-life movement?

“I don’t know if it needs to be the death penalty,” she said. “Is that what you’re asking me?”

Should the doctors and women involved in the abortion get a ticket, a fine, or should they be executed?

“I think that we would take a look and make sure that the punishment met the crime,” Reynolds said. “It would depend on the level of crime that was served. I would want to be sure to take a look at that before I gave an off-handed comment to that issue.”

On gay marriage, Reynolds said Iowa voters, not the state’s Supreme Court, should make the decision about its legality in the Hawkeye State.

How has gay marriage hurt Iowa so far? How have homosexuals who are married hurt this state? What are they doing to Iowa that’s troubling to Reynolds?

“I believe that the definition of marriage is between one man and one woman from a religious aspect,” Reynolds said. “That is my belief. I have stated that. I always have believed that.”

That considered, Reynolds said she would be open to the idea of civil unions for gay couples.

“We could take a look at civil unions,” Reynolds said. “There are other options maybe that I would be in favor of looking at.”

She added, “They can do civil unions. I think they can get to some of the same place that they want to look at.”

Reynolds said that as a citizen she would vote for a measure defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

“But the bottom line is this is an extremely important issue, and I believe that Iowans have a right to speak on that,” Reynolds said.

Is EPA biased against ethanol?

2010-06-28T11:13:00.004-05:00

On a conference call with media last week, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, raised the possibility that the Obama Administration's EPA may be biased against ethanol. He thinks the EPA is taking its cue from the Department of Energy and says officials with the latter are on record as believing ethanol is a dying fuel.

Then today, the AP reports the following from a South Dakota congresswoman:

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota says she and other members of Congress want to find out why federal officials have delayed a decision on allowing higher concentrations of ethanol in gasoline.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced it will wait until fall to decide whether to increase the maximum blend from 10 to 15 percent. The agency said the delay would allow more testing of the higher blend in vehicles.

Senator Robert Byrd passes

2010-06-28T11:01:00.002-05:00

Here are some links to stories to the passing of the longest-serving member in the history of Congress:

New York Times:

Robert C. Byrd, who used his record tenure as a United States senator to fight for the primacy of the legislative branch of government and to build a modern West Virginia with vast amounts of federal money, died early Monday. He was 92.

MSNBC:

In the middle of the night, West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd (D) -- the longest serving member of Congress (from 1953-2010) -- passed away. He was 92. And much like Ted Kennedy's death nearly a year ago, Byrd's passing complicates the math for Democrats in the Senate, at least temporarily. Democrats now have a 58-41 majority in the chamber, so two votes shy of the 60 needed to break a filibuster. That could make passing the financial reform legislation -- which seemed more than likely this week, with President Obama hoping to sign it into law before July 4 -- a bit more difficult

CAMPBELL CALLS FOR APOLOGY

2010-06-28T10:36:00.000-05:00

Sioux City, IA -- Matt Campbell, Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress in Iowa’s 5th District has called on Rep. Steve King to apologize for his remarks last week which claimed President Obama "has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race that favors the black person.”

Campbell said that King owes an apology to the President and the people of Iowa.

“King has had time to reflect on his comments, and it’s time he apologized or retracted the statement. He owes an apology to both the President and to Iowa” Campbell said.

Campbell is also concerned with King’s follow-on comments.

“I’m particularly disturbed by King’s follow-on comments this past week to his initial statement. Rather than apologize for suggesting the President and administration acts in a racist manner, he has more stridently made the charge” Campbell said.

“When Steve King makes comments like these, he jeopardizes the important progress the American people have made over decades in civil rights.”

“King's has made clear that he thinks the President and administration acts in a racist manner in instances, and has explicitly made the charge in interviews he’s given since,” Campbell said.”

King justified his remarks by saying he was ‘standing-up’ against racism.

"I'm standing up against something that is or could become racism," King had said.

“It’s important that Iowa’s GOP leadership condemn King’s remarks to protect the important progress we’ve made in America in race relations and equal rights,” Campbell said.

Romney leading British betting parlor odds as Obama challenger in 2012

2010-06-25T17:28:00.003-05:00

The British betting site Ladbrokes as of June 25 had the following odds for winning the 2012 presidential election. Obama is now under even odds -- meaning if you bet $100 on Obama and he wins you win $110. In horse-racing parlance there is something known as a "good price" -- which is horse that is not expected to win but has a thinking man's shot at doing so with some good odds. Romney qualifies on that score at 8 to 1. A little riskier bet with longer odds but reasonable chances is Mitch Daniels, the Indiana Republican governor at 25 to 1. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 33 to 1 is worth a look in the Ladbrokes context.

Here are the Ladbrokes odds:

Barack Obama 10/11

Mitt Romney 8/1
Sarah Palin 16/1
Mike Huckabee 20/1
Tim Pawlenty 20/1
Hillary Clinton 25/1
Bobby Jindal 25/1
Newt Gingrich 25/1
Haley Barbour 25/1
Jon Thune 25/1
Mitch Daniels 25/1
Joe Biden 33/1
Michael Bloomberg 33/1
David Petraeus 33/1
Jeb Bush 33/1
Jon Huntsman 33/1
Mike Pence 33/1
Scott Brown 33/1
Charlie Crist 40/1
Rick Perry 50/1
Rudy Giuliani 66/1
Eric Cantor 66/1
Tom Ridge 66/1
Rand Paul 66/1
Mark Warner 100/1
John McCain 100/1
Al Gore 100/1
Rob Portman 100/1
Kay Bailey Hutchison 100/1
Sam Brownback 100/1
Rick Santorum 100/1
Gary Johnson 100/1
Stanley McChrystal 100/1
Tom Coburn 100/1
Fred Thompson 125/1
Dirk Kempthorne 125/1
Ron Paul 150/1
Brian Schweitzer 150/1
Michele Bachmann 150/1
Dick Cheney 150/1
Paul Ryan 150/1
Mark Sanford 200/1
Lou Dobbs 200/1

Congressman King still our employee, not a shock jock yet

2010-06-25T17:25:00.001-05:00

In evaluating employees one of the more important measures is time management.

And it is in this way that we should judge Congressman Steve King’s cheap charge Monday that President Obama has a “default mechanism” that favors “the black person.”

King offered no evidence of this suggestion of presidential racism other than Obama’s ill-considered entry into what’s now a year-old dispute between a Harvard professor and a white cop in Cambridge, Mass., that led to a brief national discussion about law enforcement and race — and that laughable White House “Beer Summit.”

Indeed, Obama has come under criticism from African-American leaders for not having a “black” agenda, for being a product of elite Ivy schools. He’s more Wall Street than street, say some of his critics.

King, who gets testy when others challenge his motivations on racial matters, had no problems doing just that with Obama on Monday on the talk show of Watergate alum G. Gordon Liddy. Our congressman also spent the week doing a number of other interviews in which he defended, amplified and elaborated on the statements.

Read the full column in the Carroll Daily Times Herald ...

King once made a great point in challenging some of my work. We can’t divine what is in the hearts of others on race, went King’s line of reasoning. King asked me to respect that in evaluating his remarks with race, but he fails to apply the same standard to himself in commenting on the commander in chief.

We can debate whether King is accurate with his portrayal of Obama as a closet black militant. But, really, is this the sort of business we want Mr. King, our $174,000-a-year employee, doing for us on the job?

BP blame debate alive in western Iowa race

2010-06-25T17:20:00.004-05:00

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, took to the national airwaves this week to attack President Obama for pressuring British Petroleum to create a $20 billion escrow fund to pay for damages related to the two-month-old oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, King’s Democratic opponent in the fall, Matt Campbell of Manning, strongly criticized the western Iowa Republican’s defense of Texas Congressman Joe Barton’s characterization of Obama’s meeting with BP officials as a “shakedown.”

Read the rest of the story in the Carroll Daily Times Herald ....

Daily Times Herald's Burns appears on Des Moines' radio Fallon Forum

2010-05-06T13:42:00.005-05:00

Douglas Burns of the Carroll Daily Times Herald this week appeared on Ed and Lynn Fallon's radio program on 98.3 WOW-FM in Des Moines.

The one-hour political talk show focused on the gubernatorial race, western Iowa Congressman Steve King, immigration and the changing newspaper industry -- among other issues.

Click here for a link to the program. This link will take you right to the audio.

98.3 WOW FM's newest show The Fallon Forum with Ed and Lynn Fallon, Monday through Thursday 7:00-8:00PM!

Lynn Fallon was a stay-at-home mom for 14 years until returning to Grand View University to earn her degree in religion. In 2003 she helped establish The Connection Cafe, a free-meal program for the homeless, low-income and working poor in Des Moines . In 2006 she left to work with Ed in his gubernatorial campaign. She was campaign manager for his congressional campaign in 2008.

Ed Fallon worked a variety of jobs before running for public office, including farming, construction, landscaping, grave digger, peace activist, musician, music teacher and owner and operator of a bakery. He served fourteen years in the Iowa Legislature and ran for Governor in 2006 and Congress in 2008.

I'M for Iowa is a limited liability corporation set up by Lynn and Ed in 2006. The business structure provides a broader scope for social and political activism than is allowed under a non-profit structure. I'M for Iowa is supported by people who share Ed and Lynn's vision for progressive reform and who want to invest in their work.

Rural Midwestern States To Face Greatest Rise In Temperatures

2009-08-28T15:33:00.004-05:00

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

2009-08-27T11:39:00.004-05:00

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

2009-08-24T15:58:00.003-05:00

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

2009-08-24T15:56:00.001-05:00

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'

2009-08-17T21:37:00.002-05:00

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

2009-08-05T15:59:00.004-05:00

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?

2009-08-05T15:52:00.003-05:00

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

2009-08-05T15:49:00.001-05:00

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.

Douglas Burns on Dave Price's 'Purple Matters' radio show

2009-07-24T17:49:00.001-05:00

WHO-TV's Dave Price had me as a guest on his weekly radio program "Purple Matters" to discuss the gubernatorial campaign announcement of State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll.

That section of the hour-long program in which I am involved starts at about the 31:00 minute mark and goes for about 15 minutes.

We discuss Roberts specifically and the Republican race generally.

Roberts to announce intentions Tuesday at State Capitol

2009-07-17T11:52:00.002-05:00

State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, this morning sent a press release across Iowa announcing a news conference at the State Capitol in Des Moines for next Tuesday.

Roberts, a five-term legislator who represents Carroll County and parts of Sac and Crawford counties, is expected to announce the formation of an exploratory committee for a possible run for governor.

The news conference will be held at 11 a.m.

"My early conversations and travels have gone extremely well," Roberts said in an interview this morning.

On Thursday night Roberts spoke with Greene County Republicans in Jefferson. That followed several other speaking appearances before GOP audiences across Iowa in recent weeks.

Roberts withheld any more comment on his political future until Tuesday.

If he forms an exploratory committee, Roberts would start by transitioning his legislative fund-raising and campaign apparatus to a gubernatorial one.

Should he later decide to drop out of the governor's race he could transfer the campaign account back to a legislative effort.

The GOP field eyeing an opportunity to challenge Democratic Gov. Chet Culver is widening. The list of candidates is expected - at this point - to include Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, Roberts, State Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone, GOP eastern Iowa activist Christian Fong and State Sen. Paul McKinley of Chariton.

"The race is wide open at this point and the entrance of Representative Roberts adds another candidate for grassroots Republicans," said Tim Albrecht, a Republican strategist who operates one of the state's more prominent conservative Web logs, TheBeanWalker.com.

Albrecht says the GOP in Iowa has a strong chance at ousting Culver because of the public's frustrations with the Democrat's handling of state finances.

For his part, Roberts lines up with Republicans on key issues, Albrecht said.

"Rod is not afraid to let people know what he thinks but does it in a non-abrasive manner," Albrecht said.

Chuck Grassley for president?

2009-07-16T17:50:00.001-05:00

In talking on the phone with Iowa State University professor and WOI Radio “Dr. Politics” host Steffen Schmidt I couldn’t see if he was maintaining a straight face when he put forward this idea: U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, as a presidential candidate.

Schmidt, who has been in Ames for four decades as a political science professor, assured me he was serious, that his face was in fact straight, that he was basing his comments on conversations with people inside the Republican Party.

“It’s not a throwaway, B.S., or a joke or anything,” Schmidt said.

The GOP, Schmidt said, is in need of an “adult” who can speak for the party without embarrassing it — as former potential presidential candidates Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., have done in recent weeks.

Grassley fits that political adult bill, plus he has a workmanlike reputation on both sides of the aisle, says Schmidt.

And while party leaders may be concerned about Grassley’s charisma factor on a national stage and age (he is 75 and first served in the Iowa House when Dwight Eisenhower was president) he’ll be a steady, Midwestern voice, goes the line of reasoning.

“They know he’s never flown to Argentina,” Schmidt said in a reference to the embarrassing saga involving Sanford and his Argentine lover.

Of course, being relegated to defining a candidate or a party by what it is not, rather than what it is, raises troubling questions.

Dignity in politics

2009-07-07T15:35:00.001-05:00

Writing in The New York Times, David Brooks has a must-read on dignity in not only life but politics. For those of us tired of public life in the national confessional, this column is spot on ...

Today, Americans still lavishly admire people who are naturally dignified, whether they are in sports (Joe DiMaggio and Tom Landry), entertainment (Lauren Bacall and Tom Hanks) or politics (Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King Jr.).

But the dignity code itself has been completely obliterated. The rules that guided Washington and generations of people after him are simply gone.

We can all list the causes of its demise. First, there is capitalism. We are all encouraged to become managers of our own brand, to do self-promoting end zone dances to broadcast our own talents. Second, there is the cult of naturalism. We are all encouraged to discard artifice and repression and to instead liberate our own feelings. Third, there is charismatic evangelism with its penchant for public confession. Fourth, there is radical egalitarianism and its hostility to aristocratic manners.

The old dignity code has not survived modern life. The costs of its demise are there for all to see. Every week there are new scandals featuring people who simply do not know how to act. For example, during the first few weeks of summer, three stories have dominated public conversation, and each one exemplifies another branch of indignity.

Palin's 'crazy' move may position her well in Iowa

2009-07-03T20:12:00.005-05:00

We can't gauge Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with conventional political measurements.

Her appeal with Iowa Republican caucus-goers is precisely what was on display today -- an absolute thumb-nosing of establishment politics, conventional thinking, and on the day before the Fourth of July when Cable TV's heavy-hitting lampooners were out of the office on their first or fifth holiday drinks no less.

Yes, at first blush, this announcement of her imminent resignation as governor, with its epic nonsequiturs and mom-unleashed-at-the -school board-meeting quality, hand-delivers ammunition for Palin's fleet of detractors.

And as several journalists have noted already, there does seem to be a piece, perhaps a big one, missing from this story. Will she have to make an Appalachian-sized amendment to the story as her fellow GOP governor Mark Sanford did just recently?

If not, this may work for Palin.

What made Palin popular with Iowans was not her resume of experience in Alaska. Those who cheered her in Sioux City last fall, with the most vocal applause for a Republican I saw in Iowa in the 2008 presidential cycle, knew little about it.

The boys with the Blackberrys tell us that Palin should have stayed in Alaska to finish her term. Then perhaps, as she is only 45, take a shot at the U.S. Senate. Build some credentials, burnish that resume.

That would put Palin on the same playing field as other politicians, and by that measure, she loses.

Palin is already a political figure too large for the office she holds. That speech today was clumsy but what matters is how Iowa Republicans will her now.

Will they hold it against Palin that she quit her job as Alaska governor to become a national advocate, a visible and likely effective one, for their values? It's hard to think of someone as a quitter when you see them more on television and at party dinners and in other venues than you did before.

Then there's this to consider: Many in the national media have this mistaken sense that Iowa Republicans are seeking a new indentity, that they'll reach out to moderates and carve out more widely palatable positions. Having been to two major GOP events in just the last 10 days in Iowa I get the distinct sense that the party is growing smaller, more insular, more angry -- and that it is likely to double-down on a candidate like Palin -- damn the torpedoes and the media and conventional wisdom -- and Gov, Haley Barbour who tried the other night in Des Moines (to no avail) to get rank-and-file Republicans to accept new demographics and dynamics of life in America.

Palin is exactly what many Republicans want. A time machine. We know that machine goes back, but whether there's a switch in it for the future remains to be seen.

Senator Behn, Mr. Vander Plaats: What should penalty for abortion be?

2009-07-03T19:42:00.003-05:00

It's a line of a questioning most pro-life candidates don't like.

When I ask it, they often claim they never thought about it, that they don't answer hypotheticals.

That question: If your views prevail and abortion is made illegal, what should the penalty be for a woman who has an abortion and a doctor who provides one?

Should they be fined - like we do with speeders on our highways - or should they be strapped into an electric chair?

Misdemeanor or felony?

There's a big difference.

But pro-life candidates never talk about this.

"This may surprise you," Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats tells us. "I haven't thought through the whole 'what's the penalty piece of that.'"

That said, if abortion were made illegal, Vander Plaats, a Sioux City businessman who is strongly pro-life, thinks at the very least doctors should lose their licenses if they provide the procedure - if it is made illegal.

"I think for a doctor I would say he's violating the law and you take away his practice," Vander Plaats said.

And the woman who has an abortion? Should she be sent to prison or to death row?

Is having abortion a pre-meditated murder?

"It would have to be premeditated," he said.

But Vander Plaats didn't prescribe a punishment for the aborting mother.

"As far as the woman I really need to think that through," Vander Plaats said. "That's a very, very tough question."

If his side of the most divisive social issue in modern America carries the day, should the doctors be in Anamosa or Fort Madison, Iowa's two toughest prisons, for life if they do abortions?

"I think the first debate we need to have, I mean we as society need to have, is when does life begin," Vander Plaats said. "When is this life and why are we for the sanctity of human life?"

When pressed some more, Vander Plaats said that if legalized abortion is overturned, the state of Iowa would need to look at consequences and see if an aborting mother or abortionist is akin to the man who allegedly shot to death Ed Thomas, the beloved coach of the Aplington-Parkersburg football team.

Vander Plaats may find some pressure from his political right (if you can imagine that) on this issue.

One person who does have the stomach to talk about punishment in a Roe-revoked world is our former state senator, Jerry Behn, a Boone Republican who is considering running for governor.

In his two campaigns for the Senate here, Behn focused heavily on his passionate opposition to abortion. He stopped me after a Sac County Republican fundraiser last Saturday and recalled a previous interview we did in which Behn left no doubt about his views on punishment should abortion become illegal again.

He made it a point, with no prompting, to tell me that he stands by his remarks then - and would take the same position today.

In that earlier interview, Behn said he "hadn't really gone there in his mind either" when I asked him what penalties should be meted out for abortion.

But Behn, never one to dodge a question, quickly pointed out that "I frankly do believe it's murder."

In the case of the doctors who provide the abortion, Behn said, they are, in his mind, guilty of "premeditated murder."

"It's going to make it look like I'm a warmonger running around looking for doctors to execute," he said as the interview progressed.

But Behn said, "In principle it's the doctor I really get frustrated with. It is as premeditated and cold-blooded as you can get."

The Boone Republican said he'd stand by the statement that the doctor's action is murder.

"I'd be willing to have somebody make the argument that it isn't," he said.

Vander Plaats: Election can turn on marriage, smoking

2009-07-03T19:37:00.001-05:00

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats says the 2010 election can be won on opposition to same-sex marriage and the one-year-old Iowa smoking ban, issues that provoke powerful feelings on their own but also serve as metaphors for increasing government intrusion into Iowa life.

"Those are issues that resonate with people and resonate quickly, and to be quite honest, are emotional issues, issues that I think can win an election or lose an election," Vander Plaats said.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Daily Times Herald that moved from the economy to the future of the Republican Party itself to other matters, Vander Plaats said gay marriage and smoking would be swing issues with Iowans in the governor's race.

"There's a couple of issues I think people are really starting to wrestle with," Vander Plaats said. "One is the marriage issue and separation of powers."

He added, "That's a huge issue that they understand and understand big-time."

Vander Plaats argues that the Iowa Supreme Court outreached its authority in early April and made law with a decision allowing gay marriage.

"It's not just about marriage," Vander Plaats said. "It's a court overstepping its bounds from the bench."

Vander Plaats has suggested a controversial remedy, saying that if governor he would issue an executive order staying same-sex marriages until the Legislature - and therefore the people - can deal with it.

"That's part of the balance of power," he said. "But what we've done too long I think in this country and in this state is we've said whatever the Supreme Court says goes. They can't do certain things."

Some conservatives have challenged Vander Plaats' proposal as a dangerous usurping of power that would give the governor's office, including possible future ones peopled by liberals, too much power. Legal scholars also have questioned the executive stay that Vander Plaats defended in the interview as appropriate.

"The people of Iowa didn't get to vote on this," Vander Plaats said. "I guarantee you so many people in Carroll woke up on April 4 or April 3, whatever, and said, 'What? We're a same- sex marriage state? Are you kidding me? When did that come about?'"

Vander Plaats said Gov. Chet Culver should have done everything in his power to prevent gay marriage from becoming legal.

"I believe he displayed absolutely no executive leadership," Vander Plaats said. "It was within his power to hold them in check and he chose not to and I believe the reason he chose not to is because of the far left wing of his party."

In terms of tapping into voter frustration, Vander Plaats said, "No. 2 is the smoking issue."

Vander Plaats himself doesn't smoke, although he said in the interview that contrary to popular portrayal, he will have a beer now and again.

Vander Plaats said the smoking ban, which turned a year-old July 1, is a direct assault on private-property rights served with a heaping helping of government hypocrisy with a casino exemption.

"You mean all these private establishments can't have smoking but your state-run casinos can?" Vander Plaats said.

Vander Plaats said he "would deal" with the smoking ban as governor.

"Freedom is really founded in private property," Vander Plaats said.

He added, "With the smoking issue, that should be a marketplace decision. That's how we operate."

All of that said, Vander Plaats acknowledged the challenge of repealing or altering existing law, particularly one that is so high profile and on which most people have an opinion.

"There is a lot of legislation that I wish never came to be," Vander Plaats said. "To go back and change legislation, that is a very difficult task."

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

Vander Plaats, a Sheldon native who graduated from Northwestern College in Orange City, is a former teacher and a head basketball coach in Jefferson. He and wife, Darla, have four sons.

The 2010 race will be Vander Plaats' third consecutive run for governor. He was in the last primary for a time before signing on as Republican Jim Nussle's lieutenant governor candidate. Vander Plaats also ran for his party's nomination in 2002.

While he's been unsuccessful in three political runs, Vander Plaats built considerable political clout in the 2008 Iowa Caucuses as he chaired the campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the first-in-the-nation Republican presidential nominating contest.

"I believe we have a great network throughout the entire state of Iowa," Vander Plaats said. "We have really good name identification throughout the state of Iowa in particular with Republican voters."

Vander Plaats said he senses the mood today among Iowans is one of wanting people in political office with "real life leadership" and "real life experience."

"I think what they're saying is we'd like to get back to a citizens' form of government," Vander Plaats said.

Other GOP candidates in the emerging field, such as State Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, and State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, have legislative records that can be easily attacked by Culver.

"I believe Chet Culver does not want to run on his record," Vander Plaats said. "I believe he wants to run by attacking somebody else's record."

Vander Plaats said while he may agree with the voting records of Roberts or Rants he thinks they make his fellow Republicans more vulnerable to negative advertising.

"There's always something in a bill that you can exploit," he said.

He added, "Culver with Jim Nussle, all he did, was hang Jim Nussle with his record."

Vander Plaats said another defining political choice Iowa Republicans face when sending a candidate to challenge Culver is this: do they stick to core values or moderate or water down positions in an attempt to reach out to independents and Democrats.

"One of the reasons I'm a Republican is because I'm pro-life," Vander Plaats said. "One of the reasons I'm a Republican is I'm pro one man-one woman marriage. Those are vital planks to our party."

Last week, at a major GOP event in Des Moines, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour urged his party to open a "big tent" and accept candidates and members who are pro-choice on abortion.

"From what I've heard, when he made those comments, it was eerily quiet," Vander Plaats said.

That's an accurate description of the response about 1,000 Republicans activists gave Barbour at the Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines.

"I am not going to compromise my stance on who I am for the sanctity of life, who I am for the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman, the way it was designed," Vander Plaats said.

Vander Plaats warns the GOP about compromising with a moderate Republican, someone who could be a "Manchurian candidate" for liberal forces looking to cripple conservatism in the state from within the Republican Party.

On the economy, Vander Plaats said the state has an environment that is hostile to business. He pledges to focus on streamlining government and creating competitive tax and regulatory climates.

Specifically, he advocates simpler tax forms and a system that is "more flat."

Vander Plaats advocates corporate state income tax reduction with an aim of eliminating it.

"We need venture capital in this state," he said.

Vander Plaats also said property taxes are killing small-town businesses.

He said instructional money for K-12 public schools and mental health services now provided by the counties should be funded by the state, not through local property taxes.

This first appeared in Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Vander Plaats: Republicans should be held to higher standard on family values

2009-07-01T22:59:00.002-05:00

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City tells the Carroll Daily Times Herald that his party should be held to a higher standard when it comes to values questions of the sort now swirling around South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, an admitted adulterer.

While extra-marital affairs occur in both parties, it is fair to judge Republicans more harshly on such matters, Vander Plaats said.

"I think its an added dimension for our party," Vander Plaats said. "The reason I say that is we highlight one man-one woman marriage. We highlight family values. And if we do that that's where the trust comes in. Are you going to walk the walk or just talk the talk."

He added, "As Republicans if we are going to highlight that, that puts us to higher standard."

The party is searching for ways to attract new voters and authenticity is key, said Vander Plaats.

"We talk just recently family values and we get Governor Sanford," Vander Plaats said.

Should Sanford resign?

"I think what it is is a compromise of his leadership and I think honestly he has a family in crisis," Vander Plaats said. "I think he needs to put his attention on the family right now. If I was counseling him I would say, 'Governor Sanford, not only for your state but I believe for you and your family I'd resign.'"

32-year-old Cedar Rapids political newcomer files as Republican for governor's race

2009-07-01T22:42:00.001-05:00

Campaign press release ...

(Cedar Rapids, IA) Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong has launched his campaign for Governor, calling for a restoration of the Iowa Dream.

Fong is the son of a Chinese immigrant who fled Communist China as his family was being killed for their Christian faith. “I’ve been blessed to live the Iowa Dream where hard work and determination are rewarded. But sadly, today I see that dream being put farther out of reach for future generations. And that’s why I’m going to spend the next year traveling the state asking for Iowans’ support, because I believe I can provide the leadership needed to restore the Iowa dream,” said Fong.

Fong continued, “Restoring the Iowa Dream starts by replacing the CEO of our state. I share the belief of the majority of Iowans that we are in desperate need of new leadership in state government. The current administration thinks we can overspend and bond and borrow our way to prosperity. As a businessman, I know that’s the wrong approach to pull Iowa through this recession.

The experience I would bring to the Governor’s office is not the experience of elected office, not the experience of broken government, but the experience of commonsense private sector conservative principles to lead our state.”

Fong was instrumental in helping Cedar Rapids recover from the devastating floods of 2008. He led over 5,100 volunteers as the CEO of Corridor Recovery, offering his leadership skills to help people in need during the 4th largest natural disaster in U.S. history. In addition, Governor Culver also appointed Christian to serve on the Generation Iowa Commission, where he has worked with peers to address Iowa’s “brain drain”.

Fong concluded, “Iowa families cannot shoulder the burden that state government is placing on them. State government is broken, and we need new leadership. I’m going to spend the next year applying for the job with the people of Iowa.”

Fong graduated from Underwood High School in Southwest Iowa at the age of 16 and then attended Creighton University, graduating at age 19. After college he and his wife, Jenelle, located in Cedar Rapids and Christian started work at AEGON. After locating in Cedar Rapids, Fong attended Dartmouth. After earning his MBA, Christian and his family returned to AEGON and Cedar Rapids, where they reside today and attend River of Life Ministries church. The Fongs have three children.

GOP 'stars' can't shine without ideas, party identity

2009-07-01T12:41:00.002-05:00

Is our nation so polarized that even prayers are overtly partisan?

At last week's Iowa Republican Party "Night of the Rising Stars" at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines our own state senator, Steve Kettering of Lake View, and state Sen. Linda Upmeyer, R-Garner, handled the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer.

Kettering, the Senate Republican whip, did his job on the pledge without a hitch.

But in the prayer Upmeyer took what was a clear shot at Gov. Chet Culver and President Barack Obama when she said, "We are frustrated with the current leadership" for taking us down a path we don't want.

I had to paraphrase part of that because, with head bowed, it's challenging to take notes. There are limits even in journalism.

To be fair to Upmeyer this was a crowd of 1,000 Republican activists. Still, you'd think they could wait until after the prayer to start hurling rhetorical grenades.

Overall, the young Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn deserves accolades for the event. He's seeking to reach out to younger voters with new media and plenty of pizzazz while not alienating, or dare we say, confusing, older stalwarts in the party.

At the beginning of the night, the Iowa GOP urged all those in attendance to "tweet" the event - to use the social-networking or hyper-blogging tool, Twitter, to move the message from this historic Sherman Hills mansion to cell phones and computer screens all over the state.

Strawn came on to the stage to the trendy beats of Tomoyasu Hotei's popular song from the edgy film "Kill Bill Vol. 1" - which perhaps was a little overboard considering the audience. But it was part of an effort to choreograph a new face for the party.

My friend Chuck Offenburger, the accomplished Iowa journalist, author and Republican, prepared me for the night by saying it would be like no other GOP one I'd attended in Iowa. He was right.

All of this said, while reaching out to young voters, the party couldn't go too far. When keynote speaker Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, led into a great line about hotel magnate Conrad Hilton he asked the assembled if they recalled "The Ed Sullivan Show." Most people clapped in the affirmative.

The great Hilton line: When Sullivan asked what message he'd have for the millions of Americans watching the show Hilton didn't hesitate when he urged people to put the shower curtain in the tub.

The GOP used the evening to introduce a number of new leaders "or stars." Locally, State Rep. Jason Schultz of Crawford County made the list.

For my money, an elected official to watch in the party is at the county level right now. Republican Story County Auditor Mary Mosiman had a natural presence and clean, charismatic delivery on the stage. If you can do the financial books and speak that well, there surely must be a bright future.

Strawn's party still has long way to go to reach out to the significant voting block of independents in Iowa - or to pull any Democrats.

"We don't need to change who we are to win elections," Strawn said at one point in his remarks.

Just a few minutes later he noted that the Iowa GOP for the first time had a booth at Des Moines' Asian American Festival.

Strawn spent a good deal of his speech criticizing Obama. The GOP chair characterized U.S. economic policy as "Barack's bailout." Employing the commander in chief's first name in a cheap reach for casual alliteration, or calling the governor "Chet" in an effort to diminish him, is not the stuff of an energized party. It's annoying and alienating, and Strawn can do better.

Republican strategist Tim Albrecht told me the GOP needs to find "ideas" candidates and leaders.

This is possible. The party has time to rebuild itself for 2010 and 2012.

But it must get beyond psychological breastfeeding for the base. There's room for red-meat barbs for Obama and Culver to be sure. But right now there is an absence of those big ideas of which Albrecht talks.

I left Hoyt Sherman and a Sac County GOP fund-raiser last week with the distinct sense this is a party that is more energized by what it against than anything else. They provided no new ideas for the media to cover. And we were there looking for those storylines.

"We can't just point out the negative," Strawn himself acknowledged.

Here's a suggestion for Republicans: Call a brief moratorium on attacks on Democrats and stay on message with well-crafted, thoughtfully articulated Iowa GOP policies, principles and pledges.

They already have the playbook for this. It was such an approach that fueled a national GOP resurrection, or Republican revolution, in 1994.

(Photo: GOP Iowa chairman Matt Strawn (left) with Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour in Des Moines)

Rural Iowa must avoid 'majority-minority' isolation

2009-07-01T12:28:00.000-05:00

Soon, if the time is not at hand, white Iowans won't have the luxury of being racists.

Rapidly changing demographics mean that places like Carroll, even if they remain largely lily white, will need to become more accepting of cultural diversity for economic reasons: people in other cities with whom we must interact in business are increasingly going to look less like us.

It used to be the argument against racism was made on moral and religious grounds. They still stand.

But those who haven't been persuaded may want to reconsider. A May census report shows that 47 percent of the nation's children under age 5 are minorities - and 25 percent of all kids in America that age are Hispanic.

The census is projecting that by 2042 the United States will be a "majority- minority" nation. In other words, whites of European descent will make up less than 50 percent of the population. For young people those numbers will change more quickly.

Which raises a concern: In areas with little diversity, like Carroll, is there a danger of a sort of cultural isolation that could hamper businesses here, prevent new development as decisions increasingly will be made by minorities?

Are there steps we can take to foster an accepting environment that will make a dramatically changed America in 2030 comfortable with what likely will remain a white Carroll?

"We all know that economic development is about building relationships," says Paul Lasley, chairman of the sociology and anthropology departments at Iowa State University. "If we do not have the ability to build relationships, we are going to be disadvantaged.

An expert on rural issues, Lasley is urging students to look at the imminent changing of the colors in the U.S. population as an opportunity.

"I have been telling students at ISU for years that unless they have a second language they are going to find themselves increasingly disadvantaged," Lasley said.

In particular, rural Iowans with agricultural interests should heed this advice as it can benefit trading opportunities.

"Companies need folks who are conversant in either Spanish or Chinese," Lasley said.

I asked Lasley if largely white rural communities like Carroll were in jeopardy of losing business and jobs and opportunities simply because we can't relate or connect to a new world that won't look like ours.

Not so fast, Lasley said.

Money still talks.

Lasley expects that in the future the divide in America will be less about race than education and income levels.

"Skin color is going to become less important. but social class may become more important," Lasley said. "I see that among young people."

Rants calls for special session

2009-07-01T12:27:00.001-05:00

SIOUX CITY, IA – Rep. Chris Rants made the following statement today in response to the numbers released by the Department of Revenue and Finance on tax receipts collected for the fiscal year.

“Governor Culver has allowed the budget mess to become far too problematic for him to handle on his own – we have gone from having a projected deficit to an actual deficit. He needs to call the Legislature back for a special session to balance the budget. He then needs to ask the Legislature to reduce the budget for the coming year by an equal amount.

“Everyone in the state has seen this day coming, except for Governor Culver. Taxpayers and local governments cannot afford a ‘wait and see’ approach any longer. Action is needed now.

“It is time to quit worrying about the political ramifications of admitting that we have a deficit and get about the business of fixing it. Governor Vilsack put aside partisan politics and called a special session in 2001 and 2002 to balance the budget after revenues declined; Culver needs to do the same."

Roberts makes first foray into governor's race

2009-07-01T12:24:00.002-05:00

Carroll legislator joins four other likely candidates for GOP nomination at Sac County event

SAC CITY - State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, made his first public appearance Saturday as a potential candidate for governor. Roberts urged more than 50 party activists in Sac City to hold firm on core principles but understand that Republicans can't alienate independents and conservative Democrats if they are to take Terrace Hill.

"We need to be as thoughtful and considerate about the messenger who carries the message as the message itself," Roberts said.

Roberts noted that in representing Carroll County and parts of Sac and Crawford counties, he has a district with a high combined percentage of independent voters and Democrats - but he's still run unopposed in the last four elections.

"People have taken note of that," Roberts said.

He said Republicans can stand on principle but also need to be approachable and engaging in term of political style - traits Sac County Economic and Tourism executive director Shirley Phillips credited Roberts with possessing in her introduction on him.

Roberts, who is close to announcing an exploratory committee, was one of four likely GOP candidates for governor to speak at the Sac County Republican Central Committee's "Breakfast With Gubernatorial Candidates" in the historic Chautauqua Building in Sac City.

Bob Vander Plaats, a Sioux City businessman who has already announced his intention to run, State Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, who has formed an exploratory committee, and State Sen. Jerry Behn, R-Boone, who said he's closer than ever to formally entering the race, attended the event.

For his part, Roberts said Iowans appear ready for a change from Democratic control of the Legislature and governor's office.

"I can detect that people are very interested in a change of direction," Roberts said.

Roberts, a five-term legislator, said Iowa government needs structural changes and promised to downsize bureaucracy.

Hitting on a theme that ran through all the GOP speeches Saturday, Roberts said the people of Iowa, not the state's seven-member Supreme Court, should make a decision on the definition of marriage. The Court ruled in April that gay marriage in Iowa is legal.

Gov. Chet Culver should allow Iowans to vote on the matter, Roberts said.

"What that signaled to a lot of Iowans is our leaders do not respect the people," Roberts said.

On that issue Behn urged voters to say "no" on judicial retention for the justices who are in the next ballot. Their decision to legalize gay marriage is the type of move that should be left to the elected lawmakers, the Boone Republican said.

"Let 'em run for the Legislature," Behn said.

Vander Plaats said marriage is a winning issue for Republicans in 2010. He says 70 percent of Iowans are with him on it.

"Republicans need to start talking about marriage between one man and one woman," Vander Plaats said.

Vander Plaats repeated a statement that has drawn fire from within his own party in saying he would issue an executive order as governor to stay the Court's decision on same-sex marriage until the Legislature can weigh in on the matter. Critics contend such a move, if legal at all, would confer too much power in the executive branch that could be exploited by future liberal governors as well.

Behn spent some of his remarks using Carroll as an example of a city in Iowa where competition between public and private K-12 education benefits both. He called for increasing the tuition tax credit for private schools - but didn't spell out a specific dollar figure. Additionally, Behn said, Iowa should establish a scholarship fund that would allow parents to get the same amount of money the state spends on their children for public education to help pay for private school.

Vander Plaats, who earned the most frequent and sustained applause at the event, said he would not retreat from socially conservative positions.

"You don't win the governorship by selling out who you are," Vander Plaats said. "Republicans need to be trusted."

Without specifically referencing the situation of South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, who acknowledged an extra-marital affair last week, Vander Plaats made it clear he believes such episodes need to be scrubbed from the party.

"If we campaign on family values, we better walk the walk of family values," Vander Plaats said.

Earlier in the week, Vander Plaats told the Daily Times Herald Republicans should be held to a higher standard on personal behavior because they often run on family-values issues.

In terms of a broader platform, Vander Plaats said Republicans can go after Culver's base with well-articulated policies in the arenas of health care and education.

Rants, the political veteran of the GOP's Saturday morning political foursome, focused his speech primarily on the economy, saying he would work on key indicators such as property-tax burden and friendliness of business starts.

The Democrats are making the state less competitive with its neighbors by advancing an aggressive anti-business agenda, Rants said.

At the same time, Rants said, he has a strong record in opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

The next GOP candidate for governor must cobble a coalition of fiscal and social conservatives, said Rants, a former House speaker now is his ninth term in the Legislature.

"I'm a Republican who has my feet planted squarely in both camps," Rants said.

After hearing the speeches, Sac County Republican Party chairman Brian Krause, pastor of Faith Bible Church in Sac City, told the Daily Times Herald, "It's going to be a tough choice."

Krause said Vander Plaats clearly had the strongest connection with the crowd, and Rants owns the credentials debate, having been elected as House speaker at just age 25. Krause said Roberts presented himself as "approachable" - something that is vital in winning independent voters.

"I think they all threw out a good message," said Sac County Sheriff Ken McClure.

This story first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Indiana's Pence now in Iowa presidential mix

2009-07-01T11:59:00.001-05:00

Add another name into the mix of Republicans wading into Iowa presidential politics.

The Iowa Republican Party has just announced that U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., will travel to Iowa in July for events in the Cedar Rapids area.

As GOP House Conference chairman Pence is the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. House and recently has been outspoken on Iran and the climate change bill.

A former talk-radio show host in Indiana, Pence has been mentioned by Iowa GOP insiders as a potentially formidable candidate.

 ”Throughout his career in public service, Congressman Pence has been a forceful advocate for our party’s principles of limited government, personal responsibility, and political, economic and religious freedom,” said Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn, adding that he anticipates this message resonating with many Iowans and Republicans.

A John Edwards sex tape?

2009-07-01T11:47:00.002-05:00

The New York Times today has a story on a former John Edwards aide inking s tell-all book deal. The aide says Edwards asked him to take the fall -- or paternity -- for the pregnancy of the presidential candidate's paramour.

The aide, Andrew Young, sold his book proposal to St. Martin’s Press for an undisclosed price late last week. In his proposal, Mr. Young quotes Mr. Edwards, a Democrat who was his party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2004 and ran for president last year, as begging him to confess to fathering Ms. (Rielle) Hunter’s baby.

“ ‘You know how much I love you,’ Edwards said. ‘You know I’d walk off a cliff for you, and I know you’d walk off a cliff for me,’ ” Mr. Young wrote in the book proposal. “ ‘I will never forget this. And I will always be there for you.’ ” The proposal was shared with The New York Times by a book publishing industry executive. Portions of it were reported over the weekend by The Daily News of New York.

But in a case of burying the lead we learn that Young contends there is an Edwards sex tape.

Mr. Young’s proposal states that he was writing the book because he had become disillusioned with Mr. Edwards’s behavior and recklessness, which he said included participating in the production of a sex tape with Ms. Hunter that Mr. Young later discovered.

Roberts: GOP must reach out to independents, Dems

2009-06-26T12:31:00.001-05:00

Potential Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts says simple math will make for some complicated political choices in 2010.

Roberts, a veteran state representative from Carroll who is close to forming an exploratory committee for a run at Terrace Hill, says the candidate who emerges from what could be a large GOP primary must not be so entrenched with the base to be hamstrung in efforts to appeal to other voters.

“The price can’t just be winning the nomination,” Roberts said.

According to the Associated Press, voter registration in Iowa as of June 1 showed 684,443 registered Democrats, compared with 577,645 Republicans. Iowans who registered without a party preference outnumbered both groups, with 694,397 people, The AP reported.

An ordained pastor (although he hasn’t been behind the pulpit for 20 years) Roberts is development director for the 125-congregation strong Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in Iowa. Roberts is a skilled orator who uses consensus-building language, measured words, not the vitriol of some in his party. His votes may be the same as many hot-blooded conservatives on social issues but Roberts says “some of the hyperbole goes to excess.”

“Having a healthy dose of humility is helpful,” Roberts said. “There’s still something very powerful about the spoken word.”

While the GOP is at a voter registration disadvantage in Iowa — and President Barack Obama likely will be a crucial campaign surrogate for Democratic Gov. Chet Culver — Roberts said the race is winnable.

“Governor Culver is vulnerable,” Roberts said. “I think he can be defeated.”

Republicans may have to do it with less campaign money than Culver, Roberts said.

Roberts has been meeting with potential advisors and supporters from a geographic diverse cross-section of Iowa.

As he’s unannounced a Roberts platform is still very much evolving but he makes it clear economic issues will be primary.

Roberts will be one of what is expected to be a handful of potential candidates for governor to attend a Sac County GOP fund-raiser on Saturday.

UC Davis Prof: Absence of rural voice on Supreme Court does matter

2009-06-16T15:00:00.003-05:00

In a story published Monday in the Center For Rural Strategies' Daily Yonder, I wrote about the lack of any significant rural connections in the biographies of the likely next U.S. Supreme Court, one that would appear to replace Justice David Souter and his rural New Hampshire background with Judge Sonia Sotomayor from the Bronx, N.Y.

Lisa Pruitt, a University of California Davis School of Law professor who contributes to the Web log Legal Ruralism, picked up the story on the Internet and added expertise to my pedestrian instincts. Among Pruitt’s specialties is an area she calls law and rural livelihoods.

“Some judges are clearly more sensitive to rural realities than others, and this sensitivity influences their decision making,” Pruitt writes on the Web log. “Whether this sensitivity is due to those judges’ rural upbringings or other rural exposure, I cannot say. But rural difference from what has become an implicit urban norm is often legally relevant — as I’ve often argued in my scholarship.

“I have no doubt that we need judges (and justices!) who have a capacity to recognize that, judges who — at a minimum — are open to learning about rural realities when presented with them.”

In theory, judges born in Trenton, N.J, — such as Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia — should be able to apply the law and follow the Constitution in cases that pit urban interests against rural.

That said, I’d agree with U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who while supporting Sotomayor, is urging President Obama to make his next Supreme Court appointment with consideration given to candidates outside the Ivy League, maybe even someone who went to night law school in a heavily rural state.

Hopefully, Professor Pruitt and others involved with scholarship at the intersection of rural life and law will follow our urban-dominated Court to see if any decisions show bias to-ward their collective citified biographies.

If Hispanics are cheering probable newfound representation with Sotomayor on the Court shouldn’t rural Americans be troubled (if not outraged) at the absence of anyone with our geo-graphic orientation?

Cityview publishes column on Rod Roberts

2009-06-15T15:50:00.002-05:00

By DOUGLAS BURNS

When Rod Roberts embarked on his first Statehouse bid in 1998, I was skeptical. In fact, the candidacy of this ordained Christian conservative pastor frightened me.

With a passionate belief in separation of church and state, I had visions of Rod as something of a localized Pat Robertson, an evangelical bent on Bible-beating his view of life and Christianity into his politics, his representation of us. Most of all I feared that if Roberts, a Republican, shirt-sleeved his brand of Protestantism, he’d expose rifts in this city that we’ve long since repaired to make way for collective progress and respect.

After hundreds of interviews and interaction with Roberts over the last decade, I can now say that my initial suspicions, which I think Rod himself would admit were fair and not borne out of any malice, were dead wrong.

Simply put, Roberts has demonstrated himself to be a member of that proud tradition of Christians in politics, those whose private faith informs their public acts.

Over his nine years in the Iowa House, Roberts, the Iowa development director with the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, has been a reliable vote on social conservative issues to be sure. He’s vehemently opposed to abortion and is steadfast in his religiously based view that marriage should be between one man and one woman. Organizations such as the decidedly right-of-center Iowa Family Policy Center know this and tell us they’re quite comfortable with the prospect of a Governor Rod Roberts. They trust him.

But it is not with social issues that Roberts has made his name in the Legislature and Iowa politics. Specifically, Roberts fought for legislation that has dispersed money from casino-rich counties to the rest of the state through Endow Iowa. Rural areas without slot-machine-fed streams of cash benefit enormously from this. It is a signature accomplishment.

The full column is published in Cityview

A moving take on late-term abortion

2009-06-15T11:46:00.003-05:00

Lynda Waddington, the talented eastern Iowa journalist and essayist, has a thought-provoking and exceptionally moving piece in the London Guardian newspaper about her decision to have a late-term abortion some years ago. It was a baby this mother of three wanted. Lynda explains her painful situation and in so doing explodes some of the myths about late-term abortions.

This should be read with an open mind -- and a heart.

Here is The Guardian:

The death of a child is like a shotgun blast to your chest. In the beginning, you just numbly stare at the raw hole, wondering what happened. Then the pain takes hold and every other aspect of life is obliterated. With time, the raw edges scab over, but it never fully heals. Unfortunately for American women living in such a politically charged climate, such wounds are often reopened.

According to the popular wisdom spouted by anti-abortionists, women like me who have late-term abortions are promiscuous, neglect birth control and are then either too lazy or too ignorant to schedule an earlier abortion. This rhetoric, elevated to obscene levels, has become even louder since the killing of Dr George Tiller, the US abortion doctor who was shot last month in Kansas, where I had my termination.

Roberts close to announcing exploratory committee

2009-06-15T11:41:00.002-05:00

State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, says he’s close to announcing the formation of an exploratory committee for a gubernatorial campaign in 2010.

“I’m pretty much 95 percent decided to do this with the exploratory committee,” Roberts said.

At this point the veteran legislator said he was not prepared to release names of those who would serve on an exploratory committee.

The ability to reach voters in Iowa’s vast geography will play a major role in Roberts’ ultimate decision, he said.

“There’s a lot of ground,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot of folks.”

The key charge of the exploratory committee will be to determine if Roberts has the fund-raising muscle to be competitive. He would look for a green light on that before announcing a run.

A large field is emerging of possible GOP candidates to challenge Democratic Gov. Chet Culver. As it stands that Republican list would include: Sioux City business consultant Bob Vander Plaats (who ran in 2006 before joining forces with the eventual nominee, Congressman Jim Nussle) U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, State Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, former State Sen. Jeff Lamberti, an Ankeny lawyer and board member of Casey’s General Stores, State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone and Vermeer Corp. president Mary Andringa of Mitchellville.

Roberts knows he doesn’t go into the starting gate with the best odds. That suits him just fine.

“I kind of like being the darkhorse person in the mix of names,” Roberts said.
Roberts has been receiving more media attention around Iowa in recent weeks.

WHO-TV’s Dave Price ran a Web log post titled “Don’t forget about Rod Roberts” which went on to analyze some of the possible field and Roberts place within it.

Roberts will be one of what is expected to be a handful of potential candidates for governor to attend a Sac County GOP fund-raiser on Saturday, June 27.

Last week, Roberts attended the Iowa Association of Business and Industry event in Arnolds Park in which former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was the featured speaker. Roberts said the event gave him an opportunity to further network with leaders in Iowa and potential supporters.

Supreme Court will lack a rural voice

2009-06-15T11:37:00.002-05:00

By DOUGLAS BURNS

With the swirl of barbs and recriminations over Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination centering on race, little attention is being paid to what is a glaring lack of representation on the high court: Rural America.

If Sotomayor is confirmed, she will break a barrier as the first Latino to be seated on the Supreme Court. But as she joins the court and Justice David Souter, who grew up in Weare, N.H., leaves, the Court’s collection of nine biographies will be decidedly urban, Eastern and heavy on Ivy League education.

Of the nine justices, only Clarence Thomas can lay claim to any real rural ties. He was born in Pin Point, Ga., a rural community founded by free slaves. But Thomas lived there for only six years (albeit without indoor plumbing) before his house burned and a grandfather took him to the nearby city of Savannah. Thomas’ wife is from Omaha, Neb., and as the Omaha World-Herald pointed out this weekend, he does know University of Nebraska Husker football.

The full story is published at The Daily Yonder.com.

Q&A with possible GOP White House candidate

2009-06-09T12:43:00.003-05:00

SIOUX CITY - The Daily Times Herald and La Prensa, an Iowa Spanish-language newspaper, inter-viewed U.S. Sen. John En-sign, a Nevada Republican, this week in Sioux City.

Ensign, chairman of the Republican Policy Commit-tee, delivered an American Future Fund lecture in Sioux City after visiting Blue Bunny ice cream in Le Mars and Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center. The senator is viewed by some in the party as an "ideas" leader, and his visit to northwest Iowa sparked much speculation about a possible presidential bid in 2012. Ensign has not announced such a move.

Daily Times Herald: On your way here from Le Mars and Sioux Center you went through farm fields and saw wind turbines that are sub-sidized by the federal gov-ernment. You've advocated free-market principles, keeping the government out of as much business as pos-sible in your view. What should the federal govern-ment's role be in Iowa agri-culture?

Senator Ensign: First of all, let's look at energy. We subsidize oil with our mili-tary. That is the bottom line. I think we subsidize oil to a great degree. So for a period of time to subsidize some of the alternative energies until they can become more competitive, I don't have a problem with that. If oil was truly a free market and we didn't have to use our mili-tary to subsidize it, then put everything on a level play-ing field.

But because we do subsi-dize that right now I have no problem subsidizing some of the renewables.

As far as farm subsidies, you have to remember I come from a state that gets no farm subsidies, even for our farmers that we have. We don't grow any of the crops that get that so I've voted against farm bills in the past because they don't benefit Nevadans and I rep-resent Nevada.

Daily Times Herald: (Joking) Just make flights cheaper from Omaha to Las Vegas.

Senator Ensign: (Laugh-ing) Well, we have a new airline that at least makes it reasonable for people to come Las Vegas called Alle-giant Air. I encourage peo-ple to check it out.

La Prensa: In 2007 you opposed the immigration reform bill. Your state is one with more immigrants. What are your thoughts on that issue for the Hispanic com-munity?

Senator Ensign: That bill itself was actually never voted on. That bill was pulled from the floor. What I believe should have hap-pened with that bill, if we would have taken the so-called amnesty, the green card, out of the bill so we could have proven that we were securing the borders, that we were sanctioning employers that were not following the law, and that the program was working, that for instance people who were here were getting signed up - we were doing background checks, elimi-nating people who were criminals. A certain per-centage are going to be criminals. We want them out of the country.

And then we also want to encourage people, for in-stance, with work visas to give them more time in this country that they learn Eng-lish, they learn it well, that they learn what it means to be an American, that they have a job with health insur-ance. Reward them for things that are good for America that are also good for the immigrants.

In six, seven, eight years down the road, once we've proven all those things work, then revisit the issue of green cards and citizen-ships and things like that.

The problem is in 1986 all of those reforms were prom-ised when they gave am-nesty but they never did the reforms. So let's prove to the American people that the reforms are working first and then we can talk about the green-card issue and things like that down the road.

Daily Times Herald: Senator, do you think the United States is less safe today than it was on January 20 of this year and what evi-dence would you have to support you answer.

Senator Ensign: I be-lieve that certainly we've put ourselves in a much more difficult position to keep us safe because we've taken away some of the tools that potentially could be used. Enhanced interroga-tion techniques without a doubt have kept us safer. We have stopped several terror-ist attacks against the United States using en-hanced interrogation tech-niques. We no longer have those tools available. So if we get a situation to prevent the next 9/11 and now we don't have those, could it potentially? It's potentially less safe because we don't have the tools that kept us safer in the past.

Rants is wrong about fallout from a Roberts bid

2009-06-09T12:10:00.001-05:00

Last week in Sioux City I had the chance to talk with a state representative from there, Christopher Rants, a Republican who is considering running for governor.

It's quite possible that Rants could face State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, and many other GOP candidates in what promises to be a crowded gubernatorial primary field as the party works to redefine itself in the wake of a 2008 thrashing. Roberts is mulling his own Terrace Hill bid.

Rants applied the expected niceties to his fellow Republican, calling Roberts a swell fella and holding true to Ronald Reagan's famous 11th commandment: Never speak ill of another Republican.

But Rants told me a Roberts announcement for governor would open the door for Democrats to run for his House seat, that if Roberts entered the primary, and lost, voters here wouldn't be accommodating and send him back to the Legislature.

I'll be direct: Rants is wrong.

First, I have heard no rumblings about a Democratic contender for Roberts' seat.

Both Roberts and State Sen. Steve Kettering, R-Lake View, ran unopposed in their last races in districts in which Carroll is the dominant city. This is an embarrassment for the local Democratic Party.

Voters in Carroll should have no problem giving Roberts a chance to run in a gubernatorial primary next summer and keep his name up for re-election to the House should he fall short with his greater ambition.

The truth is voters probably won't have a choice. I'll be surprised if a viable Democrat steps forward even though there are several highly qualified potential candidates here.

This appeared in Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Nevada senator's Iowa visit fuels White House speculation

2009-06-02T14:33:00.003-05:00

SIOUX CITY - U.S. Sen. John Ensign, a conservative Republican from Nevada, said Monday in Sioux City his party can appeal to women and minorities on educational choice.

"This is an issue we can actually take back," Ensign said.

Stirring speculation about a potential presidential run in 2012 the telegenic, silver-haired veterinarian spoke to more than 100 people in attendance for an American Future Fund lecture at the main library in downtown Sioux City. Earlier in the day Ensign toured the Blue Bunny ice cream plant in Le Mars and Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center.

Before he entered politics, getting elected to Congress in 1994, Ensign opened the first 24-hour animal hospital in Las Vegas.

"We need new idea leaders, new conservatives, that come out with brand-new ideas, new solutions for the challenges America faces," said Tim Albrecht, communications director for American Future Fund, a conservative, free-market political advocacy organization. "Senator Ensign is definitely an ideas guy and that's what conservatives are thirsty for."

The chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, a top position in his party's leadership structure, Ensign is not a declared for the presidency. But his visit to northwest Iowa drew CNN and Fox News cameras - as well as early vetting from Republicans eager for an alternative to President Barack Obama.

"We need as a party new ideas," said State Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City. "That's the Republicans' way back to the majority. It's not just saying 'We're Republicans. It's 'We're Republicans with ideas on energy, with ideas on health care, that are reaching out to younger voters, to minority voters.'"

Rants, a possible gubernatorial candidate who had dinner with Ensign Monday night, said the Nevadan is doing all the right things to position himself as a national voice for the party.

Ensign touched on many conventional GOP themes, and strongly criticized Obama, but didn't do so in harsh or shrill terms, an approach not lost on Rants.

"You can be just as conservative as anybody else out there, but you need to deliver that message in a non-threatening way," Rants said. "It doesn't change your values. It changes in how you deliver it to people."

Ensign drew some his most sustained applause at the event, peopled by a decidedly conservative crowd, with his call for changes to the American educational system.

"I think more choice in education will lead to better schools," Ensign said, making the case for vouchers and other programs aimed at creating private school options for more young people in the K-12 range.

Ensign said bad teachers shouldn't be able to hide behind strong unions.

And he sees educational choice as the "new civil right." Too many families are mired in underachieving school districts, he said.

"We can take that issue away from the Democrats," Ensign said.

Ensign joked that his political orientation was as a Democrat - one who at age 18 voted for President Jimmy Carter. But Ensign said he changed his political allegiances quickly.

"Once you learn to meet your own payroll you certainly understand why limited government is a good idea," Ensign said.

Ensign said Obama's stimulus plan, bailouts of the auto industry and budget plans, amount to a modern-day New Deal.

"I don't think we (the federal government) should be owning auto companies," Ensign said.

Of Obama's budget Ensign said: "That was the scariest thing I've ever seen come to Washington, D.C."

Ensign acknowledged that "there's a crisis going on in the United States" with health care.

But he said the Democrats under Obama are steering the nation toward a Canadian or European model of health care in which the Republican senator thinks bureaucrats will be positioned between doctors and patients.

On the energy front, Ensign favors federal support for transitioning biofuels and other renewables into viability but he argues that the nation needs more clean coal and nuclear power in the mix.

Albrecht said Ensign's remarks resonated with the audience in Sioux City.

"It was like a sea of bobble heads because there was a lot of nodding going on," Albrecht said.

Added Albrecht, "Conservatism, despite reports to the contrary, is alive and well. We saw it tonight in Sioux City."

This story first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Behn, former senator for Carroll, considers gov run

2009-05-28T18:31:00.001-05:00

BOONE - Republican State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone, who represented Carroll County for most of two terms before redistricting after the 2000 elections, says he's "seriously considering" running for governor in 2010.

Behn said he's talking with supporters and others about a possible bid. He joins what is a growing list of potential candidates that includes State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll.

Behn said he had no firm timetable in mind at this point for making an announcement.

A social conservative with strong credentials in the pro-life community, Behn spent much of the interview hammering Democratic Gov. Chet Culver on fiscal and economic matters. Culver is borrowing too much money and spending the state's future away, Behn contends.

"I really want to leave an Iowa to my children and grandchildren that is every bit as good as the Iowa left to me by my parents," Behn said.

He said Iowans instinctively know the state is heading in the wrong direction and are looking for a turnaround.

"If you look at the Titanic, if it was aiming the other way, it wouldn't have hit the iceberg," Behn said.

Specifically, Behn hammered Culver's $830-million bonding plan, which is aimed at creating jobs and improving infrastructure. The borrowed money will be paid back through certain gambling revenues over 20 years.

Behn was first elected in 1996 in a Senate District that included Carroll and Greene counties. Four years later he defeated Democratic challenger Joan Phillips, then of Manning, and represented Carroll until being redistricted into a more central Iowa region, District 24, that includes Boone, Waukee, Perry and Adel.

"Carroll County has a special place in my heart," Behn said. "You essentially put me in the Senate."

Conservative voters only have to look to Behn's voting record on social issues, the Boone Republican said.

Behn thinks he can hold the GOP base while reaching out to independents on the economy.

"I think the economy moves voters," Behn said. "The independents are worried about money - pure and simple."

This doesn't mean Behn won't use the issue of recently legalized gay marriage in Iowa in a potential campaign.

Behn makes the case that the three branches of government shouldn't be equal, that the courts should take a lesser role to the legislative and executive branches, the latter two of which he says are closer to the people.

"Absolutely," he said, when asked if that's the power structure he favors in Des Moines.

"The judiciary was supposed to be the weakest of the three," Behn said.

In April the Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriage.

Republicans need to return to the "ABC's," said Behn who said that should stand for "anyone but Culver."

"You have to have someone who fundamentally disagrees with the direction we're headed," Behn said.

Behn, 55, is a longtime grain farmer who lives just south of U.S. 30 in Boone. He and his wife have four children, three grown and living in Iowa and the other 13 years old.

Besides Behn and Roberts a GOP gubernatorial field is emerging that includes some well-known politicians and candidates with big-time business credentials and bases. As it stands that list would include: Sioux City business consultant Bob Vander Plaats (who ran in 2006 before joining forces with the eventual nominee, Congressman Jim Nussle) U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, State Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, Bettendorf businessman Mike Whalen, former State Sen. Jeff Lamberti, an Ankeny lawyer and board member of Casey's General Stores and Vermeer Corp. president Mary Andringa of Mitchellville.

Behn said that no "big name" - such as King - has announced. The Boone senator said that his decision isn't necessarily connected to the moves of other Republicans.

He worked closely with Carroll's Roberts, and Behn says he holds him in high regard.

"He's a quality candidate," Behn said. "I like Rod personally. I like Rod professionally."

Racing Committee recommendation makes sense

2009-05-28T18:15:00.002-05:00

Prairie Meadows Racing Committee recommends that Iowa pass a law requiring all casinos in the state to simulcast horse races from the Altoona, Iowa, track.

This should pass. While not all Iowa counties can benefit directly from casinos, the equine industry does have a presence in them all. This law would be a way to spread the benefits from gambling beyond those locales with the political muscle -- or geographic good fortune -- to obtain licenses.

The fact that I love horse racing has nothing to do with this opinion.

Kaul: Enjoy American cars while you can

2009-05-13T11:08:00.002-05:00

By DONALD KAUL

Packard, Studebaker, Hudson, Auburn, Oldsmobile, DeSoto, Pierce-Arrow, Stutz, Cord, Mammon, Dusenberg, Nash, Franklin, Edsel, LaSalle, Essex, Stanley, Graham, Reo, Crosley, Kaiser---the pages of automotive history are heavy with the obituaries of car nameplates that have gone on to that Great Junkyard in the Sky.

Why should Pontiac be any different, or Chrysler for that matter? It’s no great tragedy, at least not one that we haven’t experienced time and time again. It’s been obvious for some time that the global auto industry was overstocked in production capacity and understocked in customers. Some winnowing was inevitable.

Right now it seems that American manufacturers are the ones being winnowed. Chrysler is CURRENTLY on life-support, Italian style, and General Motors is undergoing a series of painful amputations. Whether either can survive remains an open question. It would be a tragedy to lose them. Not the bogus tragedy referred to earlier---an automotive icon of your youth disappears, so what? -- -but a real, practical tragedy; hundreds of thousands of jobs gone, whole towns dead.

It was and is worth trying to save these companies but there comes a time when the situation becomes hopeless and it’s time to cut your losses and move on. We’re not there yet, but you can see it from here. To one who grew up in mid-Twentieth Century Detroit the thought of GM collapsing is almost unimaginable. It was the all-powerful Ozymandias of the auto industry---“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair,” it seemed to say.

But now we’ve moved to the close of that Shelley poem:

“Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

“The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Or, as we like to call it these days: Detroit.

Actually, downtown Detroit doesn’t look too bad; it’s got a pulse. Like so many center cities these days it exists primarily as an entertainment center, with extravagant athletic and cultural facilities as well as fine hotels, restaurants and casinos. But move off into the neighborhoods---former neighborhoods really---and Shelley’s desolate vision is made flesh. Much of the city is a wasteland of vacant lots and derelict buildings framed by weeds growing through long-unused sidewalks.

There’ll be dozens of other cities joining Detroit in the urban ash-heap if the automakers go down.

Car companies die for a variety of reasons, only sometimes because they make bad cars. More often it’s mismanagement that does them in. That’s pretty much been the case here in recent years. Our auto executives have been locked in a mindset that believed a decent profit could be turned only by making big cars, trucks and vans. Which was fine so long as the American public loved big, not so fine now with $4-a-gallon gas a recent memory. When the mood turned to small, the Japanese manufacturers moved in and ate their lunch.

You could make a case that Chrysler stopped being a car company years ago, that it invented the van and was content to make its money on them, with cars as an afterthought. Now it’s going to be run by an Italian company that makes its money on small cars, very small. We’ll see. General Motors was conceived nearly as century ago as an automotive giant that would have a specific car for every income class. Cadillac and Buick were the luxury brands with Chevrolet and Oldsmobile for the common man. Then they decided there was a hole to be filled in the luxury field and the LaSalle was born. The Pontiac was developed to fit between Olds and Chevy.

All of this demanded a huge dealer network and a vast bureaucratic superstructure. It worked, but to keep people buying cars they had to make cars that wore out quickly and “planned obsolescence” became the watchword. That was when old Ozymandias started to crumble.

I wish our car companies well, I really do. If they go away we will feel the pain in places we didn’t know we had places.

Distributed by Minuteman Media.

Why Rod Roberts should run for governor

2009-05-12T11:49:00.002-05:00

When Rod Roberts embarked on his first Statehouse bid in 1998 I was skeptical to say the least. In fact, the candidacy of this ordained Christian conservative pastor frightened me.

With a passionate belief in separation of church and state I had visions of Rod as something of a localized Pat Robertson, an evangelical bent on Bible-beating his view of life and Christianity into his politics, his representation of us. Most of all I feared that if Roberts, a Republican, shirt-sleeved his brand of Protestantism, he'd expose rifts in this city that we've long since repaired to make way for collective progress and respect.

After hundreds of interviews with Roberts over the last decade and in interaction through Rotary and elsewhere I can now say that my initial suspicions, which I think Rod himself would admit were fair and not borne out of any malice, were dead wrong.

Simply put, Rod has demonstrated himself to be a member of that proud tradition of Christians in politics, those whose private faith informs their public acts. In hindsight this shouldn't have come as a surprise. Rod's father, Jack, now retired, was a longtime history and government teacher at the Colo-Nesco School District east of Ames. Rod probably learned about church-state separation somewhere around the time the training wheels came off his first bike.

Over his nine years in the Iowa House, Roberts, the Iowa development director with the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, has been a reliable vote on social conservative issues to be sure. He's vehemently opposed to abortion and is steadfast in his religiously based view that marriage should be between one man and one woman. Organizations such as the decidedly right-of-center Iowa Family Policy Center know this and tell us they're quite comfortable with the prospect of a Governor Rod Roberts. They trust him.

But it is not with social issues that Roberts has made his name in the Legislature and Iowa politics - or in Carroll. Specifically, Rod, a man who clearly keeps close counsel with successful economic-development leaders in Carroll, fought for legislation that has dispersed money from casino-rich counties to the rest of the state through Endow Iowa. Carroll County and other rural areas without slot-machine-fed streams of cash benefit enormously from this. It is a signature accomplishment.

On the education front, Roberts, a former member of the Carroll Community School Board, has shown a keen understanding of the state's public systems, which consume a lion's share of the tax dollars we send to Des Moines. What's more, he provided crucial advocacy for private schools with support of tuition tax credits and the rescue of logical state transportation programs for parochial students - funding that was under heavy assault at one point from former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

With regard to constituent service, an underrated but perhaps the best measure of a legislator, Rod's performed diligently. He's listened and delivered, most recently where the city of Carroll and a much-needed traffic signal project at U.S. Highway 30 and Griffith Road is concerned. I've personally never seen Rod Roberts unprepared or ill-informed on legislation. This teacher's son does his homework.

In an in-depth analysis of a potential Roberts gubernatorial bid we published Monday, fiscal-issues-first Des Moines Republican David Oman, former state chairman of that party, described Rod as having "a winning personality." This is right on the money for Rod is that rarest of political creatures with whom one can disagree but still hold in esteem, for while he's a sharp tactician and not afraid to mix it up, Rod isn't guided by guile.

In 2010 the Iowa GOP has a barn-door opening provided by an at times stumbling Chet Culver and overreaching Democratic Party, which appeared more interested in political paybacks than governing. But Republicans face political Siberia if they can't nominate a competitive candidate for Terrace Hill and shape an agenda that reaches out from the ideological single-issue madness of fringe players to life in the middle of Iowa, where most of us live.

There's every reason to believe Rod Roberts can erect the political bridges Republicans so desperately need.

Rod has what GOP insider and influential blogger Tim Albrecht calls a "gentle mannerism." Because Rod is so comfortable with himself, with his beliefs, and the necessary reconciliation on soul-searching matters like abortion and the death penalty, he doesn't have to spit-scream like a broker on a New York trading floor to prove who he is. There's no worry of a magically morphing Mitt Romney with Roberts.

Practically speaking, Roberts should enter the GOP gubernatorial primary because he has everything to gain and nothing to lose if he runs a clean campaign full of ideas and scrubbed of insults - which if history is a guide, there's ample reason to believe he will.

There are three possible results should he enter. Roberts could connect the Robert Ray moderates and Steve King conservatives in his party to capture the nomination. Or he could find himself positioned nicely for the lieutenant governor slot should a central Iowa moderate emerge as the GOP's top candidate. The worst-case scenario is that Roberts, who could drop out of the June 2010 primary in time to keep his House seat, would boost his name recognition, setting up future runs, perhaps for Congress or another statewide office or a prestigious leadership role in the Iowa House as its speaker or ranking member.

In the end, Rod should run because if he doesn't, he'll always wonder what could have been. Rod's earned this shot and should take it with the support of the Carroll area he's admirably represented.

This column first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Does Roberts have right stuff for gov run?

2009-05-11T13:42:00.002-05:00

Early GOP vetting starts for 2010 with Carroll-area legislator in mix

By DOUGLAS BURNS

Iowa Republican strategist Tim Albrecht sees a canyon-sized opening for his party in the 2010 gubernatorial race in which a potential double-digit-sized list of challengers to Democrat Chet Culver is building.

One legislator in the mix, although not formally announced, is State Rep. Rod Roberts, a Carroll Republican who has served west-central Iowa for a decade in Des Moines.

Albrecht said Roberts, a social conservative, has the style and skills to hold the GOP's right base while reaching out to moderates and Democrats.

"Rod has a way about him, a very gentle mannerism that could bring in some of those individuals," says Albrecht, a former statehouse staffer who now operates TheBeanWalker.com, a conservative Web site the Washington Post tabs as one of the tops for politics in Iowa.

An ordained pastor (although he hasn't been behind the pulpit for 20 years) Roberts is development director for the 125-congregation strong Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in Iowa.

Because of this background Roberts won't be forced to headline his candidacy with the twin towers of Hawkeye State conservatism: opposition to abortion and gay marriage. He's strong on both fronts.

"He doesn't have to lead with his faith because people already know him," says Bryan English, a spokesman with the highly influential Christian-conservative Iowa Family Policy Center.

English said the GOP must field candidates who can deliver a broad message. Roberts would seem to have that ability, English said.

"He's a very well-rounded representative," English said. "He does a great job. He's very good at what he does."

Following an electoral thrashing in 2008, the GOP, both nationally and statewide, is in the process of deep soul-searching, with some arguing for entrenchment with a robust, unapologetic social agenda and others calling for laser-like focus on economics in the form of policies aimed at reining in taxes and reducing the role of government.

For his part, Roberts says he's closer to a run than ever.

"I am still very seriously considering this question of running," Roberts said. "I am probably more interested in running than I have been up to this point."

Roberts said he will make a decision "sooner rather than later" and is eyeing the Fourth of July as a tentative date for deciding whether to establish an exploratory committee. That group then would determine if Roberts has enough fund-raising muscle to be competitive.

"The biggest hurdles are can he raise his profile and raise the money he needs," Albrecht said.

A field is emerging that includes some well-known politicians and candidates with big-time business credentials and bases. As it stands that list would include: Sioux City business consultant Bob Vander Plaats (who ran in 2006 before joining forces with the eventual nominee, Congressman Jim Nussle) U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, State Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, Iowa Auditor Dave Vaudt, former State Sen. Jeff Lamberti, an Ankeny lawyer and board member of Casey's General Stores and Vermeer Corp. president Mary Andringa of Mitchellville.

Roberts knows he doesn't go into the starting gate with the best odds. That suits him just fine.

"I kind of like being the darkhorse person in the mix of names," Roberts said.

Roberts starts with much less of a geographic base than potential contenders with statewide, regional - or in the case of King - national name recognition.

A Carroll resident, Roberts represents House District 51, which includes Carroll County, part of Sac County (Wall Lake and Lake View) and eastern Crawford County (but not Denison).

The obvious question looms for Roberts: Can he build support outside of western Iowa? The short answer is yes.

"Name recognition and fund-raising will be a real challenge with such a large field," says Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt. "However, I think Roberts has good conservative credentials and roots in the faith-based community to go after the spot on the ballot."

Schmidt is also a commentator for InsiderIowa.com. An audio recording of Schmidt's complete vetting of Roberts as a possible candidate is posted on the The Daily Times Herald's Internet homepage, carrollspaper.com.

Roberts' name has been discussed in the highest GOP circles.

Iowa's last two Republican governors, Robert Ray and Terry Branstad, said in earlier interviews that Roberts has the standing in the party to make a run.

"Personally and politically I think a lot of Rod Roberts and others do, too," says David Oman, who was executive assistant to Ray and Branstad, served as co-chair of the Iowa Republican Party from 1985 to 1993 and was a candidate for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1998.

In an interview last week, Oman said Roberts has an intangible quality working for him, what the Des Moines Republican termed a "winning personality."

Roberts also can count his wife, Trish, development director at St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll, as a major political asset, Oman said.

"His wife Trish is terrific," Oman said. "Iowans want to get to know a spouse. She certainly will be beneficial to Rod."

That said, Oman thinks geography will be the major challenge for a possible Roberts bid.

He'll need money and he'll need to get around the state - the latter of which is more challenging than it may seem, according to Oman.

"Iowa may look small on a map but whether you're driving or flying it is an expansive state," Oman said.

Because Iowa hosts first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses every four years voters expect high-level candidates to almost go door to door.

Additionally, Republicans must travel more aggressively to win statewide in Iowa as the party's base is more dispersed in rural, suburban and urban areas of the state - unlike Democrats who can pull off wins by running up margins in about two dozen counties, Oman said.

"With others from western Iowa in, that will make this opportunity perhaps more challenging," Oman said.

Oman is among those veteran politicos in his party urging a primacy of economics over fire-breathing right-wing social agenda rhetoric that alienates independents, moderates and conservatives Democrats - all of whom Oman thinks are ripe for the picking in 2010 because of dissatisfactions with Culver and fears about the growing role of government in Des Moines and Washington, D.C.

"I would come down on the side of suggesting we have to rally Republicans on core principles of limited government and sanity when it comes to spending and individual responsibility and freedom and growth," Oman said.

In eastern Iowa, top Republicans says they are familiar with Roberts but need to know more.

The Roberts "brand" is just not known there, said Tim Palmer of Cedar Rapids, a small-business man who chairs the Linn County Republican Party.

"The feedback I've heard from this side of the state is that no one is taking it seriously, but that's nothing against Rod," Palmer said. "He seems to be well thought of on your side of the state. He seems to have a good brand with the people who do know him."

Palmer, a social conservative who is the editor of a popular Web site called HawkeyeReview.com, says Roberts' biography is appealing to him.

To this point the Carroll person who rose the highest in state government is attorney Art Neu, a former lieutenant governor and an admirer of Roberts, although Neu is decidedly more moderate.

"I think he's about as reasonable a candidate as I could possibly expect from the Republican Party today," Neu said. "He's been a good legislator. I think he'd be a good governor."

This story first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Photo: Jeff Storjohann, Carroll Daily Times Herald

ISU professor Schmidt vets Roberts as gubernatorial candidate

2009-05-11T11:18:00.001-05:00

InsiderIowa political commentator and ISU professor Steffen Schmidt reviews Mr. Roberts background and possibilities of getting the 2010 Iowa GOP nomination for governor. Roberts is one of twelve names that have surfaced as being interested in the job, according to Schmidt.

Schmidt says, "Name recognition and fund raising will be a real challenge wioth such a large field. However, I think Roberts has good conservative credentials and roots in the faith based commnity to go after the spot on the ballot."

IOWA TIES TO VIETNAM WALL FEATURED IN LATEST EPISODE OF LATHAM'S TELEVISION PROGRAM

2009-05-04T11:13:00.001-05:00

WASHINGTON, DC – The latest episode of Iowa Congressman Tom Latham’s monthly television show has hit the airwaves and is now available online.

The May episode of the “Congressional Report” celebrates Memorial Day by focusing on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, and its traveling half-scale replica known as the “Wall that Heals.” For this month’s program, Congressman Latham interviewed Daniel Schenk, program manager for the “Wall that Heals,” about the importance of honoring veterans and the future of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

“Every American owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women who have served – or are currently serving – in the armed forces,” Congressman Latham said while filming the episode. “These brave Americans have put everything on the line to protect their families, communities and their nation.”

During the show, Congressman Latham pointed out that Featherlite Trailers, based in Cresco, Iowa, constructed a specialized trailer that carries the traveling replica wall as it crisscrosses the country. Congressman Latham visited an unveiling ceremony for the new trailer on the National Mall in March.

“The employees at Featherlite have played an important role in making this tribute more accessible to veterans and other Americans,” Congressman Latham said. “And for that, all Iowans should be proud.”

The “Congressional Report” airs throughout Iowa on Mediacom Channel 22 on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Episodes of the television show are also available on Congressman Latham’s Web site, www.latham.house.gov, and on his Youtube Channel, www.youtube.com/user/CongressmanTomLatham.

No gay marriages in Carroll County, Iowa -- yet

2009-04-29T17:46:00.001-05:00

New forms here, recorder reports no applications

County Recorder Marilyn Dopheide reported that no gay couples had filed for marriage licenses in Carroll as of late this morning during the first hours such unions are legal in Iowa.

Dopheide said people had called the office this morning seeking information on the necessary legal forms for a marriage. Since no information has been filled out at this point, she can't tell if they are gay or heterosexual.

"They're both men and women, and I don't ask," Dopheide said. "They're asking because it's spring."

Dopheide said the Iowa Supreme Court's decision allowing gay marriage became official at her office at 8:10 a.m.

In larger, metropolitan counties, and ones along Iowa's borders, gay couples applied for licenses this morning. There were reports of lines of same-sex couples in Polk County seeking forms.

"The recorders are doing their jobs, Dopheide said.

On April 3, the seven-member Iowa Supreme Courts court ruled unanimously that the state's ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, effectively establishing marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Dopheide said her responsibility is to follow the law.

And for now that means changing the paperwork in the office. The new certificates for marriage ask applicants to list themselves as "Party A" and "Party B" - and then, if they so choose, to select a small box on the side of the form identifying themselves as "spouse," "bride" or "groom." The older marriage certificates simply listed "bride" and "groom."

The Carroll County Recorder's Office collects a $35 fee for a marriage license, and that fee remains the same.

Dopheide said she expects some people will not be pleased with change in traditional terms on the marriage certificates

Some have made their distaste with legal gay marriage known.

"I would say it's more frustration than anything," Dopheide said.

Other Iowa county recorders, who are elected, have received threats from gay-marriage opponents who want them to join in protest of the law. Those threats have been of an electoral nature, Dopheide said.

For her part, Dopheide said some people who have called her clearly don't understand the law.

"They don't think the Supreme Court ruling is law," Dopheide said. "I think there's some confusion as to the Supreme Court making law."

Dopheide, who has been county recorder since 1995, said she's never had a gay couple come in and request paperwork for a marriage.

The Daily Times Herald has never had a request for publication of a gay-wedding announcement, although some obituaries list what are clearly homosexual relationships within the surviving families of the deceased.

In 2008 there were 127 marriage licenses issues in Carroll County, down from 139 in 2007 and 150 in 2006.

This story first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald ...

Douglas Burns quoted in London Observer today on Obama's first 100 days

2009-04-26T15:40:00.005-05:00

Writing in the London Observer today Paul Harris leads with material from Carroll Daily Times Herald columnist Douglas Burns on President Obama's first 100 days.

Here is The Observer:

Douglas Burns works on a newspaper in the small town of Carroll, Iowa, whose 10,000 souls live near the banks of the Middle Raccoon River amid a wide expanse of quintessential American farmland.

Burns is a columnist on Carroll's Daily Times Herald, a post that would not normally see him command the attention of those who aspire to occupy the White House. Yet Burns has interviewed Barack Obama a staggering six times. "It is remarkable, I suppose," he said. Burns's position of power comes from the unique role Iowa has played in the rise of Obama to the White House.

Throughout 2007, he followed Obama's Iowa's campaign for the Democratic nomination as it criss-crossed the state, stopping in dozens of tiny towns, just like Carroll, gradually building up to Obama's astonishing victory over Hillary Clinton for on 3 January 2008. That night went down as one of the most significant in recent American history. It showed that this farm-dominated, overwhelmingly white, midwestern state could be an unlikely springboard for Obama's journey to the White House.

That victory not only proved that he could beat the Democratic frontrunner - Clinton - but that white voters were more than willing to elect a black man as their commander-in-chief.

To cheering crowds in the state capital Des Moines, Obama delivered one of the most memorable speeches of his generation, which began with the words: "You know, they said this day would never come." When it was over, his supporters partied long into the night.

Since then, Iowa has featured strongly in Obama's team - several key members of his government hail from the state - and Obama has held an equally special place in the state's political folklore. "Obama's political life as president was essentially born here. He really is a president from Iowa," said Burns.

Later Burns is quoted on his assessment of how the 2010 governor's race may play in the 2012 Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa.

In Iowa, that fight is already playing out, as local congressman Steve King prepares to seek his party's nomination for the governor's race in 2010. King is deeply conservative and, if he gets the nod, it will be a signal that Iowa's conservative Republicans - probably boosted by the decision to legalise gay marriage - will be dominant.

That will have a national impact, because it will lay a powerful base for someone like Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, to run for the Republican nomination in 2012, using Iowa as a springboard, just as Obama did.

Not that the prospect worries Democrats. Many welcome the Republican party's drift rightwards as a sign it is losing touch with the centre ground that so often decides US elections. "They will really be defeating themselves for a generation," said Burns.

Porn industry looking for bailout -- joke's on us

2009-04-26T15:32:00.004-05:00

We've all heard the punchlines and snickers about the porn industry seeking bailouts. Some real reporting on this from the American Prospect reveals it for it what it is: a cynical PR grab. Larry Flynt is perhaps unrivaled with such endeavors ...

Here is The American Prospect:

We all know that plunging home values and decimated 401(k)s are among the effects of the recession. But what about depleted sex drives? "People are too depressed to be sexually active," Hustler publisher Larry Flynt said in a January statement asking Congress for a $5 billion bailout of the adult industry. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such, but they cannot do without sex."

Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, who is more likely to need bail than a bailout, told Hollywood gossip site TMZ that unlike spoiled, private-jet-riding auto executives, he would drive to Congress "in a white Prius" to ask for financial support for the porn industry. He could barely conceal his smirk.

But in a time of economic crisis, lawmakers are more likely to give the porn industry grief than gratitude. Legislators in California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Washington state recently proposed stemming budget losses through various skin tariffs, ranging from a Magnum-sized 25 percent sales tax on X-rated movies to a $5 "pole tax" on visits to strip clubs.

King GOP bid less likely, Roberts gets Eastern Iowa mention

2009-04-24T15:17:00.003-05:00

Writing in The Cedar Rapids Gazette James Lynch reports on U.S. Rep. Steve King's comments today that he's not revved up to run for governor.

Lynch also gives Carroll's own Rod Roberts a mention as possible candidate for governor.

Here is The Gazette:

The Kiron conservative said on Iowa Public Television’s Iowa Press that a gubernatorial campaign is not uppermost in his mind. The program will air Friday night and Sunday forenoon.

“I don’t go to bed at night thinking about it nor getting up in the morning thinking about it,” the fourth-term congressman said.

King’s name is one of a handful mentioned as GOP nominee for governor. Others include Reps. Rod. Roberts of Carroll and Christopher Rants of Sioux City, state Auditor David Vaudt and Ag Secretary Bill Northey, but Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City is the only one with an active campaign at this time.

IMPACT OF PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ECONOMIC POLICIES ON IOWA

2009-04-24T11:55:00.000-05:00

This from The White House today:

Working Families:

Making Work Pay: The President’s tax-cut – which covers more Americans than any in history – is putting more than $600 million back in the pockets of more than 1.1 million hard-working Iowa families.

$18,120,842 to support child care for working families.

Energy:

$21,103,000 in block grants to foster energy efficiency in building, transportation, and a wide range of other improvements.

$80,834,411 to support the weatherization of homes, including adding more insulation, sealing leaks and modernizing heating and air conditioning equipment.

$40,546,000 to the State Energy Program, available for rebates to consumers for energy saving improvements; development of renewable energy projects; promotion of Energy Star products; efficiency upgrades for state and local government buildings; and other innovative state efforts to help save families money on their energy bills.

Education:

$682,859,389 potentially available to Iowa to lay the foundation for a generation of education reform and help save thousands of teaching jobs at risk due to state and local budget cuts.

Health Care:

$1,300,000 to fund a new Community Health Center, which will serve an estimated 7,950 patients and create a projected 60 jobs.

$3,175,923 to expand services at 13 existing Community Health Centers, which will expand service to an additional 17,988 patients and create or save a projected 84 jobs.

$1,033,962 to provide meals to low-income seniors.

$89,098,176 made available in Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) to protect health care for the families hit hard by the economic crisis and some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.

$2,173,252 in vaccines and grants to ensure more underserved Americans receive the vaccines they need.

Transportation:

$357,722,231 in highway funds to help build and repair roads and bridges.

$36,483,617 to repair and build public transportation infrastructure.

$84,000 to address airport safety and security, infrastructure, runway safety, increased capacity, and mitigation of environmental impacts.

Law Enforcement:

More than $18.7 million for state and local law enforcement assistance available through the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. The JAG Program supports a variety of efforts such as hiring and support for law enforcement officers; multijurisdictional drug and gang task forces; crime prevention and domestic violence programs; and courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives.

REAL RESULTS IN IOWA

Thanks to the Obama Administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, real impact is already being felt across the state.

Stimulus Package Will Allow The State Of Iowa To Offer Health Insurance To All Children In Families Earning Up To Three Times The Federal Poverty Level. KAALTV reported, “Iowa is now one step closer to offering health care to all children thanks to President Obama's stimulus plan. The federal funds will allow state officials to expand the hawk-i program. Beginning July 1st, the state will offer health insurance to all children in families earning up to three times the federal poverty level. That's just over $66,000 for a family of four.” [KAALTV.com, 3/2/09]

Iowa-Based Website That Posts Jobs For Contractors Has Heard From 60 Contractors Looking To Hire (WITH VIDEO). “With hundreds of millions in the pipeline from Washington, Brian May, who posts jobs for contractors across Iowa on his Industry People Group, a career Web site for the construction industry, says contractors are hiring. ‘One company is looking for 30 to 40 workers this year,’ May said. ‘Anyone from flaggers, crane operators, truck drivers, foremen.’ In the five weeks that May has posted jobs, they've heard from 60 contractors who are looking to hire.” [ABC News, 3/4/09]

A Windmill Plant, Which May Be Using Stimulus Funding, Plans to Open in Iowa City, Hire 130 Local Workers, Could Draw More Green Businesses. “Iowa City officials are negotiating with a company seeking to open a manufacturing plant at the 420th Street industrial site on the city's east side that would bring 130 jobs. The company would purchase 18 acres of the 173-acre site. Local officials would not release the name of the company… The plant would manufacture windmill bases, according to Iowa City Planning and Community Development Director Jeff Davidson. It would bring 130 full-time jobs with ‘above-average wages and benefits,’ Davidson said. The company is choosing between Iowa City and Davenport for the location of the new plant... The city is willing to negotiate incentives with the company, including tax incentives, according to Davidson… Proximity to Clipper Windpower in Cedar Rapids and Acciona Windpower in West Branch also makes Iowa City a favorable location, according to Davidson. Lombardo said that the plant likely would attract more interest in the site. ‘If we're successful, we think others will come in,’ he said. Lombardo said that if a deal is reached the plant could be online next year. Asked if he was surprised that a business was considering expanding during an economic downturn, Davidson speculated that the company might be using federal stimulus package money. The package includes funds to support clean energy.” [Iowa City Press-Citizen, 3/3/09]

Nearly $30 Million In Stimulus Money Will Make Long-Discussed BNSF Bridge Repairs A Reality. “Enough stimulus money has been earmarked to upgrade the BNSF bridge in Burlington to make the project a reality. Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Dave Loebsack, both Democrats, announced Friday that $28.7 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used to convert the bridge's pivot span to a lift span. The long-discussed project has been targeted since the U.S. Coast Guard found that the it ranked third among bridges most often struck by barges. Between 1992 and 2001, the bridge was struck 92 times. So far, $55.5 million has been secured for the bridge project, whose estimated cost has increased to more than $56 million. The design has been completed for some time and once BNSF moves forward with its share of the funds, the bridge could be completed within two years, providing a substantial number of construction jobs…‘This is a win-win for our state: job creation for working families and a boost to our local economy from needed infrastructure improvements.’ Loebsack also praised the appropriation. ‘This $28 million in Recovery Act Funds builds on my ongoing fight to ensure that Burlington remains a hub for freight rail and a major transportation artery for years to come,’ he said in a statement.” [Burlington Hawk Eye, 4/18/09]

A Stimulus-Funded Project to Replace the Runway at the Iowa City Airport Will Create 50 to 60 Jobs. “A project to rebuild Iowa City Municipal Airport’s runway is finally taking off. Iowa City’s airport will receive $2.5 million in federal stimulus funds to reconstruct its more than 50-year-old runway, Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, announced on March 20… Federal funding will replace the runway — which has cracks, weather-related scaling of pavement, and fragmentation of its surface — with a brand new platform, said Tharp, who is also a licensed pilot. While the state of the runway isn’t extremely hazardous, the ancient strip has reached the end of its life cycle and is threatening to damage aircraft, he said. ‘Projects in general have various degrees of priorities,’ he said. ‘The ones that affect safety and use are among the top. And that’s what our runway system is.’ … Tharp said the airport makes room for several helicopter operations on any given day, including organ donors and critical patient transfers to the UI Hospitals and Clinics. In total, the air station has roughly 30,000 takeoffs and landings annually. Tharp said funding for the reconstruction will create 50 to 60 jobs…” [Daily Iowan, 3/26/09]

Iowa’s Title I Schools To Receive Over $50 Million for Hiring Teachers, Providing Tutoring and Additional Academic Support. “A $126,426 federal stimulus grant to Carroll Community School District for low-achieving students was among more than $50 million in Title 1 grants for Iowa schools announced by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin on Wednesday. Most Iowa school districts will receive such funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Harkin said the grants are for elementary and secondary schools with high percentages of children from low-income families. Schools will use the money - half of which is expected to arrive by the end of March, the other half in October - to provide additional academic support and learning opportunities to help low-achieving children master challenging curricula and meet state standards in core academic subjects. ‘In particular, Iowa school districts may use the funding to hire teachers and teacher assistants, provide tutoring, create school computer labs, fund parent involvement activities, purchase instructional materials, host professional development for teachers and create pre-kindergarten classes,’ Harkin said in a press release.” [Carroll Daily Times-Herald, 3/20/09]

Des Moines Transit Authority Will Use $7.88 Million in Stimulus Funds to Buy Buses, Upgrading Technology and Facilities Improvement, Creating Up to 750 Jobs. “Improvements to Des Moines' bus system will become a reality as early as this fall thanks to federal stimulus money. The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority plans to use $7.88 million in economic stimulus money to pay for six projects, including buying new buses, installing vehicle locator technology, completing a final design for the downtown transit hub project, improving rider communication and repairing the DART headquarters. The money is part of about $36.5 million released to Iowa from the Federal Transit Administration at the beginning of March. The DART projects are expected to generate up to 750 jobs, said DART General Manager Brad Miller… ‘We are very excited to use the stimulus funds to create ... jobs by advancing and modernizing our transit system,’ said DART Commission Chairwoman Angela Connolly, who also is chairwoman of the Polk County Board of Supervisors.” [Des Moines Register, 3/30/09]

Iowa Launched a Website for Disadvantaged Iowa Youth Seeking Jobs Through Recovery Act This Summer. “Iowa Workforce Development said Monday it launched a Web site, the www.YouthforIowa.org, for disadvantaged young Iowans seeking jobs through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal government's economic stimulus initiative. The statewide summer employment program gives young Iowans an opportunity to develop skills needed for successful employment. The program is for Iowans ages 14 to 24 who are considered low-income and meet one of these criteria: Deficient in basic literacy skills; a high school drop-out; homeless, runaway or foster child; pregnant or parenting; an ex-offender; or anyone needing additional assistance to complete an educational program or to secure and hold employment.” [Des Moines Register, 4/21/09]

Iowa Awarded $48.9 Million Worth of Stimulus Contracts for Repaving in 8 Counties. “The Iowa Department of Transportation has awarded an additional $48.9 million in road construction contracts using federal stimulus money , Gov. Chet Culver said today. The work will pay for repaving of roads in eight Iowa counties, including Calhoun, Chickasaw, Clarke, Decatur, Monona, Osceola, Page and Wapello. The projects are being financed through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act approved by Congress. Iowa is expected to receive a total of $358 million for state and local road and bridge projects under the legislation.” [Des Moines Register, 3/20/09]

Webster, Iowa Will Use $600,000 to Replace an Aging Bridge, Contract Will Be Let in April. “It didn't take Hamilton County Engineer Danny Waide long to find a "shovel ready" project suitable for the recently-approved federal stimulus package. Sitting in the Hamilton County Secondary Roads five-year plan for about 10 years now has been replacement of the Rocky ford bridge, north of Webster City on the old Cashway blacktop. The design to replace the aging and narrow bridge on R-27 is already done, according to Waide. But with a $1.1 million estimated price tag, budget constraints had previously forced county supervisors to keep pushing it back on the Secondary Roads schedule. Now, with $600,000 in federal stimulus money on the way, bid letting is slated for April. With cooperative weather, the new bridge should be open for traffic by Nov. 1.” [Daily Freeman-Journal, 3/11/09]

Why Ashton Kutcher should run for Congress in Western Iowa

2009-04-21T14:54:00.004-05:00

By DOUGLAS BURNS
Celebrity activist and new media pioneer Ashton Kutcher just beat CNN in a race for 1 million followers on the Internet social networking site Twitter.

A suggested next challenge for the Iowa native: move back to your home state - the western side, say Council Bluffs - and run for the 5th Congressional District seat.

As much as anyone in America Kutcher has brilliantly blended fame with substance to create an interactive organization that he's trained on fighting malaria and child sex trafficking.

An obvious new platform for the earnest Kutcher would be a run for political office. And the place to do it would be in heavily conservative western Iowa where U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, appears to have a Gordian knot on elections, anchored as he is with an eye-poppingly reliable GOP vote in many northwest counties.

Kutcher could raise truckloads of money - just a $5 donation from only half of the now 1.2 million people following him on Twitter - would yield $3 million. This doesn't take into account his own considerable assets - and those of wife Demi Moore, an American icon who was worth millions while Kutcher was still waiting to be discovered at the Airliner bar in Iowa City.

There's plenty of reason to think Kutcher would run as a Democrat. He campaigned visibly (check out YouTube) for President Barack Obama last year and John Kerry in 2004 - although the Cedar Rapids native voted for George W. Bush in 2000.

"I would say that I'm a fiscally conservative individual, in general, and probably very socially liberal, but there really isn't a party that exists for that," Kutcher said last November on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher." "So I'm a little bit in between. I wasn't that far away from looking at John McCain as a viable candidate for myself, because I sit somewhere in the middle. But, as soon as a Sarah Palin comes onto a ticket, it turns me away so feverishly."

Kutcher is largely known for zany roles in "That '70s Show," "Dude, Where's My Car?" and MTV's "Punk'd."

For much of his career, Kutcher, 31, offered no evidence, at least publicly, to suggest that he was anything other than the "dumb handsome guy," a description he laments in Details magazine.

But behind those Hollywood looks are some Iowa smarts.

Kutcher studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa before entering modeling and moving on to smashing success on TV and in film. In 2002, he founded Katalyst, a production company that has shepherded more than 10 feature films and television series to completion.

Until just recently I'd never considered Kutcher beyond the caricature he helped erect. But just after the election, he appeared on Maher's politically hot-blooded "Real Time," where even the most quick-witted of the professional chattering class are pushed to the limits.

Kutcher's clearly well-read and passionate about issues and got off one of the more memorable lines of the program about the flagging American auto industry, a suggestion more rhetorical than practical, but containing within powerful truth.

"You know who should bail them (auto companies) out, is the oil companies," Kutcher said. "The reason for their companies' decline is their allegiance to the oil companies."

For his part, Steve King, has made more rumblings, some of it right in Carroll a few weeks ago, about a possible bid for governor.

If he does that, the open congressional seat creates opportunities for many in both parties.

But should King remain in Congress a high-profile candidacy from Kutcher would have impact on the 2010 political season beyond Iowa as the star could in effect nationalize King, something the congressman has done to some extent with his uncommon artistry for soundbites.

Kutcher could go a long ways toward making extreme right-wing King more of the face of the Republican Party - which would help Democrats in Iowa and perhaps even tilt the balance in the GOP presidential nominating process here in 2012 more toward the Sarah Palin-minded and away from candidates with stronger economic portfolios and intellectual ballast.

Right off the bat it important to note that the numbers in the 5th District don't appear to add up for any Democrat, even a resurrected John F. Kennedy.

That said, the power of celebrity should never be underestimated. And remember, Iowans in the western part of the state have fond memories of another television funny man-turned-pol representing them - Fred Grandy, who went from playing Yeoman-Purser Gopher Smith on "The Love Boat" to Congress and a near primary upset of Gov. Terry Branstad.

There are, of course, countless arguments against Kutcher running here.

He could be attacked from left, right and center as a Hollywood carpetbagger with exotic ways.

And in many respects a run for Congress - and status as a freshman legislator should he pull it off - would be awfully limiting for someone of Kutcher's wide-ranging talents.

What's more, some would suggest that as an eastern Iowan Kutcher would be better off going for Republican U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley's seat. But as a state of 3 million people Iowa is certifiable if it doesn't keep re-electing the senior senators, Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democrat who chairs the Agriculture Committee.

Politically, Kutcher has the better angle here in western Iowa.

In the 2008 election, the Democratic candidate for the 5th District, Rob Hubler, was never able to take full advantage of King's continuing long line of provocative statements. (King called disgraced red-baiter Joseph McCarthy a "great American hero" and contended that Iraq is safer than Washington, D.C., and compared the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison to fraternity hazing.)

In short, this material, would be golden in the hands of someone with Kutcher's exceptional skills at, well, punking.

In the end, the best argument for Kutcher is what happened last week when he reached the watershed of a million followers on Twitter, a texting/blogging convergence tool that allows users to send information out in 140-character or less blasts to anyone interested in reading them.

In effect, Kutcher just built a muscular grassroots political machine that would be the envy of many a campaign pro.

He should now test it.

There's no better place to do that than in western Iowa's 5th District, where Kutcher would give King's loyal followers a royal headache at the very least, and maybe even provide the opposition a fighting chance.

This column first appeared in the Carroll (Iowa) Daily Times Herald.

Interesting interview with Iowa native Ashton Kutcher

2009-04-15T12:47:00.001-05:00

Gay marriage ruling inspires native Iowan

2009-04-10T16:38:00.001-05:00

By The REV. JAN CARLSSON-BULL

Editor's Note: This column was written by the Rev. Dr. Jan Carlsson-Bull, minister, First Parish Unitarian Universalist, Cohasset, Mass. The former Jan White graduated from Carroll High School in 1960.

I am so proud of my home state. Just moments ago I read online of the decision of Iowa's Supreme Court that the Iowa "Defense of Marriage Act" violates Iowa's Constitution. Welcome to the growing number of states that celebrate inclusive marriage.
Growing up in the heartland community of Carroll, amid the "amber waves of grain," I was clueless about straight, gay, lesbian, and all the other adjectives we visit upon ourselves to describe our sexual affinities. It took a long time for me to understand and appreciate that there are many ways of loving. My toughest lesson was a 10-year ordeal as the wife of a man who was gay.

He simply couldn't come to terms with it. His vacillation morphed into an anger that turned against me. With my then two young children, I fled. That was just over 30 years ago.

I have since remarried, am now the mother of three adult daughters, and the grandmother of a completely adorable 1-year-old little boy. I'm also a Unitarian Universalist minister in the coastal town of Cohasset, Mass. It's a profession I love and a faith I hold dear. I preside at weddings of bride and groom, groom and groom, bride and bride.

For any of you who are not cheering this recent court ruling, I ask you: If a straight woman is married to a gay man and they produce two beautiful children, but the frustration in that man who is fighting his identity escalates into lashing out at his spouse, is this a marriage that nonetheless conforms to the legal norms of 47 of our states? If inclusive marriage had been on the books of New York, where we then resided, if our society had affirmed the wondrous variation of sexual affinity, might there not have been an early and congenial parting of the ways with the knowledge that he had his options and I had mine? I'm ever grateful for the reality that brought two little girls into the world, but not for the societal and legal context that contributed mightily to the toxicity of this quite legal marriage.

When I bless a marriage between a man and a woman, a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, I bless a relationship defined above all by mutual love and respect - whoever, however. The lifestyle of many of our happily married (and sometimes unhappily married) gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender sisters and brothers is so much like that of our straight sisters and brothers that we could trade one for the other and not know the difference.

As a straight woman now married to a straight man, I think to myself, this isn't always easy. I love him, but if men are from Mars and women are from Venus, we don't even start out on the same planet. There's an argument to be made for options.

When I preside at weddings, I commonly say a prayer I wrote several years ago. It applies equally to bride and bride, groom and groom, or bride and groom:

As this is their day of love, so may it be their life of love. As this is their day of promises, so may it be their life of promises fulfilled.

As this is their day of hope, so may it be their life of hope realized.

We stand on the threshold of shared lives,knowing that not every day will feel like a wedding day.

We gather as family and friends, knowing that not every day will be a celebration of family or friends.

We affirm this day of love and promises and hope, trusting that the resilience granted by mutual affection and respect will be theirs, so that the lives they share and the family they form, will unfold and endure with grace and graciousness.

lt is this that we celebrate, this love that is deep and layered and true. lt is this love that will endure.

Amen.

Loving our neighbor as ourselves is that haunting commandment that calls us to love beyond category. I don't believe there were any "yeah, buts .." in that invitation. I don't believe it applies to all relationships except marriage. One of my most euphoric moments was joining a few years ago with 100 or so other clergy from across faiths in a procession across the Boston Common. In our clerical robes, we made our way across the Common to the Massachusetts Statehouse to advocate for civil marriage as a civil right.

I and so many of my clergy colleagues celebrated when that right was won; just as my now 100-year-old mother celebrated when, as a young girl growing up on an Iowa farm, she discovered that, as a young woman, she would go to the polls along with men to cast her vote; just as so many of us in this nation celebrated when the hard fight to attain voting rights across color lines was affirmed with the passage of the National Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Civil marriage is a civil right. Inclusive marriage is simply right.

I am so proud of Massachusetts and Connecticut and what will hopefully soon come to pass in Vermont. But today, I am prouder than proud of my home state, Iowa.

Reducing masquerades and fighting fair on gay marriage

2009-04-10T15:21:00.001-05:00

Because much of society holds gays in contempt, they often try to pass off as heterosexual, engaging in a charade.

Many homosexuals go to the proms with opposite-sex dates. They get married and they have children. For a while, they may even believe they are straight.

But their true colors are eventually and painfully revealed, and the women they married and the chi1dren they bore are left to deal with the fallout of having been props in the heterosexual playacting of the "family man."

These families are the real victims in this cultural war against gays. As a result of the Iowa Supreme Court decision last Friday allowing gay marriages we can hope fewer Iowans suffer in these masquerade-ball families.

Many, of course, still will.

The court's ruling doesn't scrub our society of bigotry toward homosexuals.

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, once compared gays with unicorns and leprechauns, suggesting that they are just liberal imaginings. He spoke in Carroll Wednesday but released much of his vitriol toward gays earlier in the week when he claimed in eastern Iowa that legalized gay marriages in Iowa would lead to incest.

"We have no residency requirement in Iowa law, which means that people can come from all over this country - a man and a man, a woman and a woman - it could be, I suppose, a father and a son or a mother and a daughter," King said Monday night in Cedar Rapids. "They can come to this state and get married and then go back to the state where they reside."

King should read the law before he comments on it.

In Iowa, incest is a Class D felony.

What's more, a state memorandum sent to county recorders makes it clear the associated charge that the court ruling will be a door opener for polygamy is just flat out false.

Iowa Code chapter 595 clearly defines marriage as a civil contract between two parties, and nothing in the court's decision alters that definition.

Many liberals, President Barack Obama most notably, agree with King's premise that marriage should be between one man and one woman. U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, once told me that "all other things being equal" heterosexual couples should have preference over gays seeking adoptions.

It's fair to fight this way, to make the case that kids and families are stronger with a married man and woman at the helm. But it is cruelly inaccurate to raise the specter of incest and bestiality in connection with the gay marriage debate as it demonizes people.

At the end of the day gay marriage is a cultural firestorm because Americans are forever obsessed with other people's sex lives.

Each day we are flooded with news of celebrities' sexual doings, and you can't get from the first tee at the golf course to the fairway without hearing rumors of some sap's infidelity or bedroom conquests. It's as reviling as it is irrelevant, and this prurience is probably the most pathetic thing about the American state of mind.

The worst-reviewed movie in my lifetime, "Gigli," starring those one-time star-crossed lovers Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez (who gave us the first celeb-fusion name, Bennifer), still pulled in millions at the box office because people thought they might get to see some nocturnal gymnastics with the atrocious acting.

There's another angle to consider.

A marriage license - for gays or straights - is in the eyes of the state largely an economic pact tying people's fortunes together. In that sense, a homosexual union is essentially a free-market choice about who has access to one's money.

Moral judgments on homosexuality are better left to the churches, which don't have to perform gay marriages or even accept homosexual members.

Some churches denounce homosexuality as sinful.

Southern Baptists have been very vocal in their opposition to gay marriage.

Meanwhile, the Episcopalian Church confirmed an openly homosexual bishop.

Fortunately, you can attend either church.

And since opinions about homosexuality and marriage are at their core religious beliefs or lack thereof you should be able to marry someone of either sex.

This column first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Gay Marriage Debate: In Western Iowa city politics and protocol at issue

2009-04-03T12:10:00.004-05:00

CARROLL, Iowa — As politicians and social activists despaired or rejoiced an Iowa Supreme Court decision this morning legalizing gay marriage within weeks, the owner of Bridal Country Ltd. In Carroll had a more practical concern.

How does she handle dressing-room arrangements and deal with what may be some changes in clientele?

"We're thinking it may be totally different for us now," said Jackie Pudenz "We have had men come in and try on gowns. I've pretty much seen a lot of things. Now that it's actually law, it takes on whole different aspect."

Pudenz, who has been in the wedding attire business for three decades, said she was talking about the Supreme Court decision's potential impact with an employee this morning.

"The dressing room situation will be more interesting - seriously," Pudenz said.

Pudenz said she hasn't had a run of gay couples appear at her Carroll store, but just last week, she said, a male wanted to try on a dress.

While it is a private business, and Pudenz does hold her own political views on the issue, she's come to the conclusion that "I have to be open as a business. I can't allow my opinions into my business."

At the Carroll County Recorder's Office, which collects a $35 fee for a marriage license, there haven't been any early requests from same-sex couples this morning.

"I've been just listening to the broadcast finding out what we can and can't do," said County Recorder Marilyn Dopheide.

Dopheide, who has been county recorder since 1995, said she's never had a gay couple come in and request paperwork for a marriage.

"I have not really had the phone calls of that nature," Dopheide said.

The Daily Times Herald has never had a request for publication of a gay-wedding announcement, although some obituaries list what are clearly homosexual relationships within the surviving families of the deceased.

Like Pudenz, Dopheide has a practical immediate concern. As it stands the marriage application forms list categories for "bride" and "groom." She is wondering how that terminology may be changed with same-sex couples who may not want to break down their relationship in those traditional gender-based terms.

"That particular topic was discussed," Dopheide said. "How do we determine the particular terminology on the form?"

Dopheide has been talking with the Iowa Department of Public Health, which manages marriage licenses, and other county officials about changes that may take place as a result of the cultural sea change today.

An elected official, Dopheide, a Democrat, said her position on gay marriage is necessarily this: "My opinion is what the Supreme Court says I am required to do."

State Sen. Steve Kettering, R-Lake View, was on the phone this morning with GOP leaders planning a response to the politically explosive news.

Kettering said Republicans and their Democratic allies on this issue will seek to change the Iowa Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

"Monday morning I would expect we will go down and proceed that way," Kettering said.

That process requires a simple majority vote of both chambers in two consecutive Iowa Legislatures followed by a public referendum.

State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, said this morning that those legal requirements may stretch out an attempt at enshrining opposite-sex marriage in Iowa until 2012, when it could be a major issue in the outcome of state races and even the presidency because of its mobilization of the GOP base in Iowa.

"There it is," Kettering said. "Without question it will mobilize the Republican base, energize the Republican base."

Roberts, a social conservative who is a potential GOP candidate for governor in 2010, expressed strong displeasure with the court's unanimous ruling today.

"I'm disappointed and I'm upset with their ruling, but I'm not surprised by it," Roberts said. "Having said that, it doesn't make it any easier to accept."

Roberts said the foundation of the nation is the family unit, which he believes best involves heterosexual married couples.

"I believe marriage is a unique relationship, a covenant, between one man and one woman," Roberts said.

Roberts says he doesn't have the answers about why people are gay, but he said: "I don't know if I agree with the statement that they are born gay."

In terms of his constituents in west-central Iowa, Roberts said 95 percent of those who have contacted him on gay marriage are opposed to it - including many Democrats and Independents.

Both Kettering and Roberts said the court's ruling comes at a time when state leaders are focused on the economy - which Roberts said is still the No. 1 political issue.

"There isn't any question that it will divert attention, no question about it," Kettering said.

This story is crossposted at the Carroll Daily Times Herald Web site.

The impact of the 'artistic crime of the century'

2009-03-31T17:47:00.002-05:00

Yes, the key players are French, and the film is set largely in the 1970s when young adults would do such eye-rolling things as run around in fields giving each other piggyback rides.

We see this in the archival footage that is the back story to "Man on Wire," the documentary about the "artistic crime of the century" that just won an Academy Award.

"Man on Wire" chronicles the insanity or daredeviling of French wire-walker and street performer Philippe Petit, who in 1974, at age 24, surreptitiously strung cables between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and proceeded to spend 45 minutes walking it, tightrope-style, with no net. He was but a footfall or sweeping gust of wind away from oblivion.

What Petit, with a rag-tag collection of eccentrics, and some 1970s long hairs who appear to be stoned out their minds in the archival footage, did that day was, of course, illegal.

They used fake IDs and other tactics to gain access to the roofs of the towers so they could string the cable for Petit's daring-do.

In the 94-minute documentary, which is a British production done primarily in English with some French subtitling, we see Petit lay preparations overseas for the high-wire act and then hide out in the Trade Center with his gear the night before the "performance."

It is very much a chronicling of insanity. Or is it?

Against logic it is a thing of beauty to see Petit and his confederates breach World Trade Center security for purposes of art, not Armageddon.

Underlying this documentary, with its spectacular shots of New York City from the tops of the towers, is the gnawing sense the viewer has of the horrors we would we see on Sept. 11.

One of the more profound interviews I've recorded for the Daily Times Herald came from a Carroll High School graduate who was on the ground outside of the Towers more than 30 years after Petit walked between them.

After her 30-minute subway commute to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Michelle Gatton emerged from a train in the concourse area of the center only minutes after the first of the Twin Towers had been skewered by an airliner.

It's the building where she worked on the 52nd and 84th floors as a marketing professional for a software company.

"I had to be there at 9 a.m.," she told me later that day. The crashes took place minutes apart around that time.

Gatton saw the fire and the smoke and the second explosion from a vantage point across the street from the towers. Gatton's voice shook as she described the horrifying scene during an interview with the Daily Times Herald.

"I actually saw four people jump," Gatton said. "When you can see their arms and legs waving in the air as they fall it's not pretty."

It's still hard to read that quote.

While I watched "Man on Wire" and endured the insufferable Frenchness of Petit (who mocked American reporters for asking the obvious, "Why?") a peculiar effect took hold.

I saw his rebellious stunt, his mocking of life itself, his dance with God, if you will, up in the misty, cloudy Trade Center air, in the way I would imagine Petit wanted us to: as a mesmerizing reaffirmation of the human spirit.

"To me, it's really so simple, that life should be lived on the edge," Petit says in "Man on Wire." "You have to exercise rebellion. To refuse to tape yourself to the rules ... to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge. Then you will live your life on the tightrope."

This story is crossposted on the Carroll Daily Times Herald Web site.

Douglas Burns -- Veterans Memorial Dedication Remarks

2009-03-27T15:44:00.001-05:00

My friend Jason Walsmith of Templeton Rye and The Nadas videotaped the proceedings at the dedication of the Veterans Memorial Monument in Carroll, Iowa. He posted the video to YouTube and when Jason was here at the paper this week, showed it to me. For years, I worked with many veterans in the area to raise money for this monument so it was truly an honor to help them dedicate it last Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day.

Some things don't change

2009-03-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

In 1927, Iowa ranked second in per-capita car ownership. California had one car for every 2.9 persons. Iowa followed as a close second with one car for every 3.6 persons. Alabama “footed the list” with one car for every 12 people.

Iowa casinos eye NJ lawsuit aimed at opening sports betting

2009-03-25T12:37:00.003-05:00

Iowa's top gaming industry representative said this morning that his association is closely watching a federal lawsuit in New Jersey aimed at opening up sports betting nationwide.

"Certainly we're aware of it," said Wes Ehrecke, president of the Iowa Gaming Association. "As far as the industry I think this certainly would be of interest to our members."

With New Jersey facing major budget problems and with Atlantic City casinos suffering, a state senator there has filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J. against the Justice Department that seeks to overturn a ban on sports betting.

Only four states are allowed to have government-sanctioned sports betting: Nevada, Oregon, Delaware and Montana.

"Obviously in those states it can be done in a regulated fashion and taxed," Ehrecke said.

New Jersey State Sen. Raymond Lesniak's suit challenges the exemption for the four states as unconstitutional.

At this point Ehrecke said the Iowa Gaming Association, an industry group representing Iowa's 17 state-regulated casinos, would be monitoring the lawsuit. But Ehrecke said he planned to raise the issue at the associaton's next board meeting in April to see if members want to take a more activist role in seeking to open up an option for sports betting in Iowa.

He said some first steps would be to assess what other states with commercial gaming are doing in light of the lawsuit. If successful, the lawsuit still would leave open questions about the federal and state legislative and legal paths to a day when fans could, say, bet on Iowa-Iowa State football games at Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona.

But the lawsuit may be a reason to start a debate on legalized sports betting in Iowa, Ehrecke said.

"Is it time to allow other states to opt in?" Ehrecke said.

Ehrecke said legalized sports betting in Iowa would clearly mean more money for the casinos and the state through the taxes levied on the industry. And the state is looking to tie its fortunes even tighter with gaming houses. Gov. Chet Culver is now seeking to fund a $750 million infrastructure-and-jobs revitalization plan by financing bonds with casino revenues.

The Associated Press reports that a consultant hired by one of the plaintiffs in the New Jersey suit, the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association, estimated that sports betting could be a $10-billion-a-year industry in New Jersey alone.

Ehrecke said he had no studies about what legalized sports betting at Iowa's casinos could mean financially for the industry and state.

He noted that "it's a moot point" as long as the federal ban is in place and that it's a long way from the filing of a lawsuit to a dramatic change in the law.

Opponents of legalized sports betting say it harms the integrity of professional and collegiate athletics.

Advocates say betting is taking place anyway, and may as well be regulated and benefit the state rather than boosting the fortunes of organized crime and offshore facilities.

"As Captain Renault said to Rick, 'I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here,'" Lesniak said, appropriating a famous quote from the movie "Casablanca" in an AP story.

This story is crossposted at the Carroll Daily Times Herald.

(Top photo: Iowa Gaming Association president Wes Ehrecke.)

Minnesota senator to speak at Iowa Democratic Women's Summit

2009-03-25T12:33:00.000-05:00

Senator Amy Klobuchar, the first woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate, will be the keynote speaker at the Iowa Democratic Women’s Summit to be held at the State Historical Building in Des Moines on Saturday, March 28. The Summit, sponsored by DAWN (Democratic Activist Women’s Network), will discuss strategies for breaking the “glass ceiling” that prevents competent Iowa women from attaining higher political office.

Described in the New York Times as a “brainy upbeat soccer-mom progressive,” Senator Klobuchar won her Minnesota Senate race in a landslide in 2006. She is seen as a rising star in the national Democratic Party and is viewed by some political pundits as a woman who might one day become the first woman President of the United States. Senator Klobuchar has an undergraduate degree from Yale and a law degree from the University of Chicago.

With Harkin's help Carroll, Iowa joins fast company

2009-03-24T16:43:00.002-05:00

In a king's ransom of weighty economic development news that confirms our high hopes for a more robust Carroll, the crowning story we published last Thursday is word that Western Iowa Networks will overbuild a fiber-optic network in the city.

This $11 million project - funded in large part with a $10 million loan through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that Sen. Tom Harkin helped secure - will separate Carroll from much of the rest of rural America.

Western Iowa Networks will stretch lines of glass cables only slightly bigger than a human hair through the community. The fiber optic lines will run from a central location at 603 N. Adams St. to what are essentially neighborhood hubs. If a business or homeowner wants the service, WIN then runs the fiber line to them.

"It will be a total overbuild," said WIN CEO Steve Frickenstein.

WIN officials estimate that Internet speeds will be 10 to 20 times faster with their fiber than what most businesses and homes in Carroll have now.

Read the rest of the column on the Carroll Daily Times Herald's Web site.

North Dakota: The little state that could

2009-03-24T16:24:00.002-05:00

Hurray for rural America.

Reuters is reporting that North Dakota's diversified economy is keeping the state of just over 600,000 people afloat while most U.S. states sink deeper into economic recession.

According to Reuters, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services this week upgraded the state's issuer credit rating to "AA-plus" from "AA," citing in part its "ability to generate surpluses with little impact from the current economic downturn."

Since December, S&P's state rating actions resulted in downgrades for California and Illinois and negative outlooks for Florida and Rhode Island ratings with North Dakota being the sole state upgraded by the ratings agency in six months.

As tax collections wither in most states, North Dakota is still raking in the revenue.

"North Dakota is about the only state in the country that is doing well, and its sales tax (revenue) was up 14.4 percent," said a recent Rockefeller Institute of Government report comparing state tax collections in the fourth quarter of 2008 to the same time period in 2007.

The state's jobless rate was a mere 4.2 percent in January, compared to the national unemployment rate of 7.6 percent.

"Isn't it crazy?" said Pam Sharp, North Dakota's budget director, in a telephone interview with Reuters on Thursday.

"People are still making money here; income growth is up," she added.

What sets North Dakota apart from other states according to Sharp is an economy that has been diversified beyond the energy and agricultural sectors, a stable housing market that did not take a hit from the subprime mortgage crisis and conservative financial management.

Palin a big fund-raising draw for Democrats

2009-03-24T15:31:00.002-05:00

CNN is reporting that Dems view Sarah Palin as grist for the fund-raising mill ...

Here is CNN:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asked supporters Tuesday to make a donation to help stop the former vice presidential candidate and her fellow Republicans from blocking President Obama's policy goals.

National Guard offering $20,000 signing bonuses

2009-03-24T15:29:00.001-05:00

In an ad we ran in the Carroll Daily Times Herald Advertiser today the National Guard is offering signing bonuses of between $10,000 and $20,000. Interesting ...

Grassley rhetorically suggests Japanese-style honor suicides for AIG execs

2009-03-17T11:33:00.005-05:00

Of course U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was just being rhetorical with the suicide recommendation for AIG brass -- and he effectively conveyed the outrage over AIG handing out bonuses while taking handouts from the taxpayer.

Here is Grassley in a radio interview about the AIG execs:

"The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better about them is if they follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say 'I'm sorry' and do either one of two things, resign or go commit suicide."

"Gossip Girl's" Chuck Bass: TV's best villain

2009-03-16T21:10:00.003-05:00

Someone once asked Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, the thrower of mansion parties, the maker and bedder of centerfolds, to reveal his best pick-up line.

Simple, said the iconic Hef, "Hi, my name is Hugh Hefner."

Writers for TV's "Gossip Girl" are similarly inspired with the creation of rich-kid, bad boy Chuck Bass, a character of such supreme smugness, unapologetic chauvinism and brilliantly wicked one-liners that it's hard to imagine him springing to life in the era of reality TV.

Based on the book of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. "Gossip Girl" chronicles the fictional lives of wealthy private school kids in New York City. The title refers to an anonymous Web site with which the teens are terrifically obsessed.

In many respects the show, clearly aimed at the youth demographic on the CW network (channel 9 for us), is like "Beverly Hills 90210" only with views of the Brooklyn Bridge and New York skyline instead of palm-tree fenced drives and dreamy ocean cutaways. In a nutshell, here's the lowdown on the series: Two kids from Brooklyn, Dan and Jenny, try to make it among the trust-fund crowd in Manhattan.

Those of us who don't "summer" in the Hamptons or overseas are supposed to empathize with Dan (picture Jason Priestley's Brandon before the "90210" drunken-driving episode) and Jen who find themselves in all manner and variety of fish-out-of-water situations.

But the reason to watch this show begins and ends with Chuck Bass, played with an American accent by the British actor Ed Westwick, who turns condescension and contempt into art forms. He's so good you can live with the rest of the characters and at times tired plots.

Bass is the son of a New York magnate. He's driven to school in a luxury car and effects an air of entitlement that surely would earn plaudits from a resurrected F. Scott Fitzgerald. Young Bass completely embraces the money and influence of his world - the princely pomp and the champagne circumstances he luxuriates in courtesy of the genetic lottery.

"I care about three things, Nathaniel: Money, the pleasures money brings me, and you," he tells his best friend in one of the first episodes.

His most famous line - a la Hefner - is just this, "I'm Chuck Bass."

This is how Chuck Bass justifies getting into an Ivy League college in spite of his boozy ways.

"I'm Chuck Bass."

When his friends exchange impromptu admissions (one slept with a best friend's honey, another had sex in the backseat of a limo) they look to Chuck Bass to reciprocate with a revealing ditty about his own misdeeds - legions of which the audience has observed. Chuck, knowing that we know his unabashed bad-apple ways, delivers that signature line: "I'm Chuck Bass." As if they had to ask, the impudent lessers.

Here's Chuck Bass talking about a popular and beautiful girl in his school: "There's something wrong with that level of perfection. It needs to be violated."

In the middle of a party he's holding in a swanky Manhattan penthouse, Bass instructs his guests with the following: "Until I say so the only girls you talk to are the ones I've paid for."

The printed word doesn't do the lines justice. It is Westwick's delivery, his ability to convey an arrogance so journey-to-the center-of-the-earth deep that he makes Chuck Bass strut while sitting down, scream with but a stare and hurl insults with a simple tilt of the head. Bass commands a room simply by standing in its corner.

In the more traditional dramatic-series TV format of past decades, "Gossip Girl" and Chuck Bass give us a wonderful respite from the pitch and pull of life in the same way "Dallas" and J.R. Ewing did for an earlier generation. Bass is the anti-hero extraordinaire. He preens through episode after episode, stealing every scene he enters, often with but a smirk, and always with an absurd pomposity.

When Chuck realizes that (horrors) he has true feelings for one of the female leads, the scheming Blair, he approaches her with news of his love. "No one is more surprised or ashamed than I am," Chuck Bass says.

What does one hear on Chuck Bass' voice mail? "Leave a message and I might listen to it."

How does Chuck Bass describe someone who just returned from backpacking overseas? "He looks like Matthew McConaughey between movies."

In the end Bass has an intoxicating honesty. So many people want to have it both ways - the limousine liberal approach if you will. They want to be well-liked and rich and charitable and acquisitive and churchy all at once. Contemporary American society is full of insufferable hypocrites.

Chuck Bass, in a radically pleasant departure, is forthright with a belief that he is just better than the rest of us. He wasn't born on third base, thinking he hit a triple. Bass went from womb to owner's box and could care less what you think about it. Just get him a drink and send that girl over. Yes, the hot one.

And Chuck Bass is not about to go all Oprah soft on us and complain about the downside of all this uppity living.

""What we're entitled to is a trust fund, maybe a house in the Hamptons, a prescription drug problem," Chuck Bass says to a pal while walking through Central Park. "But happiness does not seem to be on the menu."

Chuck Bass then takes a drag on his cigarette and informs the friend that it's about time the latter sealed the deal with his girlfriend - and yes, that means what you think it does.

"I'm Chuck Bass."

Yes you are. And network TV needs you.

Eating your way through Denison, Iowa

2009-03-16T15:15:00.003-05:00

DENISON, Iowa —Antonio Oropeza, a Mexican immigrant living in the west-central Iowa city of Denison, doesn’t have his grandmother Angelina anymore. She has passed. But the Orepeza family treasures heirlooms she left: her salsa and this abuela’s (grandmother’s) culinary influence on their delightful little restaurant, El Charro (Big Hat) just south of U.S. 30 in the middle of the main strip in the Crawford County seat.

It’s a humble place with a giant taste. El Charro has a steady stream of customers, a mix of Anglos and Hispanics, who pop in not only at lunch and dinner time but throughout the day for an assortment of homemade dishes — from generous nacho plates to the hand-rolled tortillas that make the foundation for the guaracha, a sandal-shaped specialty topped with beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato and avocado and your choice of meat. (A special note: the chorizo, or Mexican sausage, is a must-try).

The rest of this story is available at the Center For Rural Strategies' Daily Yonder.com.

HARKIN ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF $2.1 MILLION IN RECOVEY ACT FUNDING FOR ADOPTION AND FOSTER CARE PROGRAMS IN IOWA

2009-03-16T15:07:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced the release of $2.1 million authorized by the Economic Recovery Package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to support foster care and adoption assistance programs in Iowa. $1.6 million will support adoption assistance programs, while nearly $540,000 will go to foster care programs.

“The well-being of Iowa’s children is paramount and keeping kids safe and healthy means ensuring they have homes that are secure,” said Harkin. “These critical funds will improve state services and help ensure children in need are placed in safe, loving adoptive and foster homes.”

The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children and Families will distribute nearly $187 million nationwide for the first and second quarters of FY 2009 as part of the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) funding increase to support states’ adoption, foster care and guardianship assistance programs. This funding represents a 6.2 percentage point increase for states, under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act.

Increasing the federal matching rate for federal foster care and adoption assistance programs helps provide much-needed fiscal relief to states across the country so they may maintain core operations and undertake projects that will put Americans to work during the worst economic crisis in decades.

About 496,000 children nationally were in foster care in 2007 (the most recent year for which complete data are available), of which approximately 198,000 children receive Federal IV-E foster care assistance per month, and the average monthly number of children receiving Federal adoption assistance was over 398,000 in 2008.

Cityview: Second-hand consequences

2009-03-12T16:37:00.003-05:00

The Des Moines-area alternative newspaper Cityview has published a cover story I authored examining some of the effects of the smoking ban -- such as how it has hurt rural bars.

Here is Cityview:

When Frank Sinatra, one of America's most famous smokers, died (at age 82, baby), one tribute observed that thousands of men on thousands of bar stools would no longer be able to ask, "What would Frank do?"_

Sinatra expired in 1998, and we've made it a decade without the philosopher-king of love and loss, the crooner with spot-on instincts in the world of handling a punch in the gut and making it to work the next day._

For the last eight months, with a nearly complete statewide indoor smoking ban in effect, many Iowans have been in something of a prolonged mourning for the passing of Sinatra's defiant prop, the barroom cigarette.

An underappreciated part of our culture, particularly in rural and working-class reaches of the Hawkeye State, died last July 1. Small-town and working-class bars are supposed to be a bit irreverent, dimly lit places to escape the bully boss, pending divorce, or the drudgery of a Working Joe life. Smoking is a part of this for many Iowans - or it least it was (legally) until last summer.

"I'm not justifying smoking, but it was part of the culture," said Paul Lasley, chairman of both the Sociology and Anthropology departments at Iowa State University. "This disruption of social life in a small community is one of the unintended consequences of the smoking ban."

To read the rest of my story in Cityview, click here.

Obama says now may be good time to buy stocks

2009-03-05T15:38:00.003-06:00

At this point it only makes sense to hang on to those mutual funds. Your bet is essentially this: the world will not end, the global economy will not fold.

Our president it saying that now is actually the time to buy more stocks. He doesn't give us any specific tips but did offer this, according to The New York Times:

The president did not offer any specific stock tips, but suggested that he believed the market might be close to its low point.

“Profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal,” Mr. Obama said, “if you’ve got a long-term perspective on it.”

Powerful advocacy for the newspaper industry

2009-03-03T17:29:00.003-06:00

A veteran newswoman, now working for the San Fransisco Chronicle, has written a spirited and spot-on argument for the value of the traditional newspaper.

Stella Haven's post at her blog -- Just A Girl In San Francisco -- is must-read for anyone who cares about professionally vetted news and the newspaper's track record of quickly affecting social change.

Ms. Haven is just a few years older than me, but we both came of age in the profession around the same time, learning the business the shoe-leather way, where you had to interact with people face to face instead of relying on texts and emails as too many younger writers do today.

Here's hoping her paper -- the Chronicle -- survives. SF needs it.

How competitive is Rahm Emmanuel?

2009-03-02T12:05:00.003-06:00

If your brother is the basis for the outrageous "Entourage"character Ari Gold, sibling rivalry no doubt occupies a big place in your life.

As it does for White House chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel -- who dropped more F-bombs in a New Yorker profile than anyone in a position of such stature has since, well ... even Cheney, who had the decency to keep his F-ing to an exchange with a senator.

The New Yorker piece reveals just how competitive Rahm is with his brothers. Here is Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker:

While Obama was wooing Rahm, Rahm’s older brother, Ezekiel, an oncologist and a bioethicist, served as a sounding board. “I probably spent half an hour every day being screamed at on the telephone by him,” he said. “ ‘I don’t want to do this. Why do I have to do this? Tell me I don’t have to do this.’ All of which said to me he knew he had to do it.” (Ezekiel told me that the rivalry among himself, Rahm, and their third brother, Ariel, a Hollywood agent who is the basis for the Ari Gold character on HBO’s “Entourage,” was so intense that they had to pursue careers in different cities. “We couldn’t possibly be within a thousand miles of each other, because the force fields just wouldn’t let it happen,” Ezekiel said. Rahm is now his boss; he works at the White House as an adviser to the budget director on health policy.)