Sarah Palin -- "The White Oprah"

So says long-time television journalist Cokie Roberts -- a daughter of two members of Congress.

Roberts thinks Palin will be a big part of our popular culture into the future, according to The Los Angeles Times Top Of The Ticket blog.

Get inauguration tickets through Latham -- if you live in the 4th

THIS FROM CONGRESSMAN TOM LATHAM:

Congressman Latham has been given a limited number of tickets to the Inauguration of America's 44th President Barack Obama, to be held in Washington, D.C. on January 20th, 2009. Residents of Iowa's 4th Congressional District who are interested in making the trip to the nation's capital for this event may request a ticket from Congressman Latham's office.

Interested parties should e-mail Congressman Latham through his website, www.tomlatham.house.gov, with their full name, address, phone number and number of tickets requested before 5:00 CST on November 28, 2008. Ticket requests will be entered into a ticket lottery, and Iowans selected through the lottery will be notified no later than December 2, 2008 via e-mail. A letter of acknowledgement will also be sent via the United States Postal Service.

Due to the high volume of requests and the limited number of tickets available, ticket recipients from Latham’s office must be residents of the Fourth Congressional District of Iowa. To help Iowans figure out if they are within the boundaries of the district, Congressman Latham has created an interactive map of the district at www.tomlatham.house.gov/District. Because of restrictions put in place by the Joint Inaugural Committee prohibiting the mailing of inauguration tickets, all persons receiving tickets through Congressman Latham's office will need to be physically present to pick up tickets from Congressman Latham’s Washington, D.C. office between 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM EST on Monday, January 19, 2009. Individuals should be prepared to show photo identification that confirms residency in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.

If there are any questions about visiting Washington, D.C., please visit Congressman Latham's website at www.tomlatham.house.gov/Contact. Special information about the inauguration can be found at www.inaugural.senate.gov. --

Is Sarah Palin front-runner in Iowa in 2012

While being careful to tell us up front that he thinks the premise of the question is more than a bit shaky, Republican David Oman, a key figure in the last two GOP gubernatorial administrations in Iowa, says Sarah Palin has the makings of a presidential front-runner in the Iowa caucuses in 2012.

"The retail nature of caucus politics would play to one of Governor Palin's strength - an energetic personality," he says.

There is speculation that the Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate - who distanced herself from McCain in some areas - is well-positioned for Iowa in 2012.

Whether she would make a competent president is a different thing altogether - and a seriously debatable point in 2008.

The fact remains that in the universe of Republicans, she is the only star with any true shine - although a meteoric rise from another little-known candidate can't be ruled out over the next few years. And depending on economic fortunes, Iowa Republicans, who for months flirted with Mitt Romney, may be ready for a known candidate with some burnished business credentials.

Of all the candidates in the scrum for 2012 (assuming John McCain loses) Palin would have the most appeal with the people that matter in the Iowa caucuses.

She has all the assets that can't be taught - the charisma (at least the sort that appeals to the Christian right) and stump-speaking skills.

Iowa is a state of small towns, and people in these communities increasingly see divisions based in rural-urban terms more than anything as modernity is literally swallowing once-thriving farm towns.

Her small-towns-folks-are-better-Americans speech is a brilliant appetizer for Iowa 2012. Palin speaks to a key population (in terms of voting) of small towns in the same way Barack Obama appeals to certain constituencies - including rural folk (as the Iowa caucuses proved).

Moreover, the life of Iowa communities is the family. The Hawkeye State, and in particular its rural parts, is not a friendly places for single people - unless they are widowed in nursing homes. Palin's appeal to those who want to see their candidates as they would like to see themselves - with kids and family in full bloom - is unrivaled. Keep this in mind: Iowa is a state in which many families own more than one crockpot. It doesn't get more family values than crockpots.

Additionally, Palin's punched the victim card. One doesn't need clairvoyance to hear her speeches in Le Mars, Iowa, on a fall night in 2011. I'm guessing it might sound something like this:

"Well, the New York Times and their liberal friends may not like this mom, but the last time I checked those elites are too busy blogging and jumping from one failed relationship to another to have any kids of their own. Are we going to allow the coastal elites who stopped having kids to run the nation? We small-town moms should decide the future because we're the only ones who will have kids in the future."

Infuriating irony: Iowa and California, black and white

In Iowa, a heavily white state, voters launched into the world the dream-filled vessel of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president whose imminent administration holds so much promise.

For years, Hawkeye Staters, president makers that we are, have been targets of the media elites from the coasts and the lefty blogs of the D.C.-New York corridor, people who arrogantly pound computer keystrokes about us without working to see what’s in the heads behind the feed and tractor hats of those voters now having coffee or maybe a beer outside of Templeton, Iowa, at the Corner Station — or a thousand places like it.


Iowans, the white lot that it is, went for Obama in overwhelming fashion in the general election, after being there for him in the Iowa Caucuses nearly a year ago. Iowans aren’t blind. Iowans saw Barack Obama as a black man, because that is, after all, what he is. But Iowans saw more than just that, and with their most powerful property in a democracy, the vote, lined up and went to the polls for now President-elect Obama. No state was as important as Iowa. Obama himself has said as much.

As our European-descended populace, with their German and Irish names, cast ballots for Obama, African-Americans and Hispanics in California used their votes to reveal themselves as something far different: bigots.

By large margins Hispanic and African-Americans in California voted in favor of a ugly amendment to that state’s constitution that kills the right of gay couples to marry. Had blacks and Hispanics not been allowed to vote on Proposition 8, it would have failed and gays would be able to marry. Whites and Asians voted against the ban — or with gay marriage — 51 to 49 percent.

Here is the Bakersfield Californian newspaper:

Exit polls showed that 70 percent of black voters and more than half of Hispanic voters backed Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry.

For years, as a co-owner and columnist of my family’s newspaper, the Daily Times Herald, I have used its editorial pages to fight prejudice. I have called out my own for our failings in this area, whether it is with the slow-footed acceptance of a growing Hispanic community or hostility to those of other races that emerge.

What I would hope to see, instead of apologists in the black and Hispanic communities on cable and the Net making excuses for the bigotry of their people on Proposition 8, is instead a mirror-in-the-face self-reckoning. Prejudice based on sexual orientation is just as awful as that based on skin color.

My friends and neighbors here in Carroll County sent a message Tuesday. And so did the blacks and Hispanics of California.

Iowans helped you tear down a barrier just as California’s blacks and Hispanics threw in with forces erecting one for another minority group.

It is an infuriating irony.

Why Barack Obama is our next president

For most of the last 40 years we have lived in an era of lesser-than-two-evils presidential politics, a time when the nation has collectively yearned to reach into the history books for a Kennedy, Lincoln, Roosevelt - or even a Truman.

History returns to us on Tuesday.

With Barack Obama we have a candidate who is a historical presence in the present. Simply put, Senator Obama will be the next president of the United States.

Initially brushed off by the bobble-heads of the coastal chattering class as a political mercury rising who would fade in the colds of Iowa, Obama - who announced his candidacy nearly two years ago in Springfield, Ill., on Feb. 10, 2007, in bone-chilling weather - turned the idea of his unlikely presidency into the sophisticated business of a modern national campaign.

Obama blended hole-in-the-shoes work on the ground with an embrace of technology - using social networking sites on the Internet and text-messaging in ground-breaking ways. Obama had an uncanny ability to help define the intersection of technology and politics - rather than respond to it clumsily as did the campaign of John McCain, who at one point admitted to having never sent an e-mail himself.

The last weeks of the McCain campaign have not been a profile in courage for the man many Americans have long admired. It's as if McCain's Men with Blackberrys rushed the cockpit and took the throttle. His running mate Sarah Palin's events have been full of straw-grasping personal attacks with roots in Cold War smear tactics - talk of real Americas and other Americas, reds and patriots, the last carbohydrates fueling McCain's run.

We don't need the late-arriving Alaskan to tell us what to think of Obama.

We don't have to guess on this one.

Here in western Iowa's small towns we actually got to know Obama about as well as any voters in contemporary American presidential politics can.

Yes, when Obama speaks we see an African-American because that, after all, is what he is. But we hear the unmistakable voice of a Midwesterner in the Illinoisan who formed his early presidential principles in Iowa with a deep understanding of rural politics and issues. When you cut through all the clutter and high-mindedness about his barrier-shattering presidency, it is this Midwestern-ness that should encourage Hawkeye Staters when the calendar turns past Nov. 4 and breaks toward 2009.

On the issues that matter to Iowa Obama is one of us.

"What I see in Iowa are a lot the qualities I love in Illinois. I think there's a truth to the idea that there's a Midwestern sensibility and that people don't like a lot of fuss, don't like a lot of pretense, and I think are much more likely to think about things pragmatically and how do you get the job done as opposed to having a lot of ideology driving decision-making," Obama told the Daily Times Herald in an interview at the Carroll Rec Center in the fall of 2007. "And I think that's what America needs right now."

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

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

His plan for a renewal of the American economy hinges heavily on the renewable energy that is finding a growing presence in western Iowa: wind, biodiesel.

"Instead of drill, baby, drill you have plant, baby, plant," Scott Wallace, grandson of former Vice President Henry Wallace, told the Daily Times Herald the other day.

Wallace, whose family founded the formidable Pioneer seed company, says Obama's rural policies reflect the prosperous nexus of agriculture and energy in a way that is lost on McCain.

In the presidential debates, when he had the universe of federal spending from which to choose for questions about possible cuts, McCain went right for the throat of ethanol, suggesting subsidies for it should be scuttled.

In the death throes of its campaign, the McCain camp has cannon-balled out label after label, as if one too-clever-by-half term ("Barack the redistributor") or wildly flailing charge (socialist or communist) can erase the last eight years of George W. Bush and the final eight weeks of McCain's White House bid.

Don't just consider the words of recent days. Look back.

In the summer of 2006 Obama delivered one of the more groundbreaking, even magisterial speeches, you'll hear, a "Call to Renewal" address in which he frankly discusses his own religious beliefs.

It is an inspiring speech, one I didn't think a contemporary American politician could deliver. It defines Obama.

"Faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts," Obama said. "You need to come to church in the first place precisely because you are first of this world, not apart from it. You need to embrace Christ precisely because you have sins to wash away - because you are human and need an ally in this difficult journey."

Obama is a believable Christian because of his thoughtful journey with faith, one that involved those doubts.

He writes his own books and speeches and stuffs them with religious imagery. It's not something that can be faked.

Neither can intelligence, which in political terms can be defined as the self-confidence to absorb a variety of opinions, to encourage challenging points of view from advisers.

Defenders of lesser intellects like Sarah Palin argue that all one really needs is a group of good cabinet secretaries and staff members. Well, what happens when your top advisers offer differing opinions?

These times demand our best minds.

In the end, as we are in the final days of the campaign, I think back to the first hours I started to study Barack Obama.

I was listening to his reading of his best-selling memoir, "Dreams From My Father" while driving across Nebraska in 2005.

Raised by a single mother, Obama offered some penetrating insight into growing up that way, about the search for identity and understanding of one's place in the world - something made more challenging in the absence of a father.

On that journey Obama found America, and the nation found him.

'Doubt' looks to be outstanding

This movie promises to be excellent with Streep and Seymour Hoffman going at it -- a clash of acting giants.

More response from King's comments on 'totalitarian dictatorship'

This post from the Daily Kos references an early one I did about U.S. Rep. Steve King's outrageous remarks in Sioux City.

Olbermann hammers King as unstable

McCain needs to rein in the wackos

These hysterical antics from the right have crossed the line -- days ago. It is high time for McCain to step up and demand decency from his supporters.

Rednecks for Obama

So not all the Bubba vote is going to McCain. The Web site "Rednecks for Obama" -- rednecks4obama.com -- is generating a lot of traffic, according to a story in AFP.

Storm Lake Times endorses Hubler

Art Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times, has a a good piece on the need for moderation in politics, and western Iowa. He uses it as a launching point to the following endorsement of Rob Hubler, a Fifth District Democrat challenging U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, for Congress.

Here it is:

Hubler for Congress

By Art Cullen
Everything in moderation, our mother used to say. So it should be with government and with Congress in particular. Western Iowa deserves a congressman who believes in moderation and representing all the people — Democrat, Republican or independent — and that person is running this year: Rob Hubler, a retired Presbyterian minister from Council Bluffs.

Hubler is running uphill against Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, who is anything but moderate. We have chronicled over the past six years the many outrageous and embarrassing statements King has made and extreme positions he has taken. King has been a full participant in the debacle that has occurred over the life of the Bush Administration that led us into a costly war we did not need to fight, and into a financial catastrophe borne of deregulation and putting too much power into the hands of a few.

So if you like what’s been happening — the financial meltdown, the war in Iraq, the erosion of civil liberties, the scorn heaped on hard-working Latinos, the intolerance of people who are not just like you — then you should vote for Steve King this November.

If you want a change from the Bush Years, then there is no question that you should vote for Rob Hubler.

Hubler is no flame-thrower. He simply wants to expand renewable fuels through incentives that Steve King has voted against. He wants to provide health insurance for more children from poor families; King voted against this, too. Hubler, a veteran of submarine service in the Navy, wants to make sure that our veterans get the protection they need in service and the care they need after discharge. He wants to put an end to torture of detainees in US custody; King described such torture as something like fraternity hazing.

Hubler is the best chance Western Iowa has to take our government back to the people where it belongs.

It can be done. All it takes is for you to vote for Rob Hubler next month. We can change Congress and the course that America is taking.

King sees some truth in far-fetched North American Union conspiracy

At his next town hall meeting, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, may very well tell us that he woke up in a hotel room in New Orleans in a bathtub full of ice, missing a kidney, victim of an organized ring of organ thieves.

The odds that King will buy into the greatest urban legend of all time greatly increased last month when he told constituents that he was connecting the dots on another popular conspiracy theory: the creation of a North American Union, a border-blurring confederation of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The North American Union theory takes various forms depending on who’s doing the talking or blogging. Some incarnations involve a “superhighway” linking the nations, others a common currency often called the “amero.”

Rather than dismiss the idea the St. Louis Post Dispatch calls an “urban legend” — as Republicans like U.S. Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri have done — King gives it credibility by saying he can see a case for the plan appearing, dot by dot.

“My own view is that if you look at all of the signals that are there, look at the evidence that exists and all the dots, and you connect the dots, you can draw that picture,” King said at an Aug. 19 town hall meeting at Cronk’s Cafe Restaurant & Lounge in Denison.

Read the full story at Iowa Independent.com.

McCain shows desperation, surrenders on economy

Early in Tuesday’s substance-packed presidential town hall debate, U.S. Sen. John McCain made a remarkable admission. In worsening economic times, when the U.S. Treasury secretary has unprecedented powers, the GOP standard-bearer’s first suggestion to fill that money position is Warren Buffett, the so-called oracle of Omaha, who is perhaps U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s highest-profile supporter in the financial world.

McCain has surrendered on the economy in what was another losing debate for his campaign.

An analogy leaps to mind: Were times different and social and cultural issues in the fore, would Obama have suggested that the head cheerleader for Team McCain on those matters, Sarah Palin, be given a position at the tip of the spear on that front as, say, a nominee to the Supreme Court?

Read the rest of the column at Iowa Independent.com.

Palin's forced folksiness falls flat in debate

If both vice presidential candidates fell into comas or some other sensory deprivation situation for the next two months and emerged to meet again, facing the same questions as they faced at Thursday’s debate in St. Louis, it is very likely we would see the same Joe Biden. The Delaware senator’s facile discussion of issues and world players, economic numbers and history, rose from a deep well of experience and a public career marked by curiosity.

For her part, GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin – speaking with the programmed cadence of a GPS navigation system — used forced folksiness to deliver crammed material in the manner of a high schooler looking to score a good grade on a Spanish test. The kid may escape with a B-minus, but he wouldn’t be able to order a cup of coffee in Spain a week later.

The most revealing exchange of the debate came when moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS asked Palin, the Alaska governor, to respond to Biden’s contention that the Bush Administration’s policy in the Middle East has been ineffective.

So is it, governor?

“No, but I’m so encouraged we both love Israel,” Palin said.

This after Biden offered a thorough, fact-filled commentary on the recent history of the players in the region.

With weird winks and homespunisms, Palin worked in several “you betchas” and “darn rights” and even a “shout out” to family in an effort to appeal to just folks.

As a small-town Iowan I didn’t find it genuine at all. She actually talked down to us, figuring that references to hockey moms and the hacknayed phrase “Joe Six Pack” and her self-application of the word “maverick” would hold more sway than a discussion of the issues. Details do matter — something the last two weeks and the current two wars have shown Americans.

On energy policy, one of the more important issues in Iowa, Palin could not explain GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s repeated votes against wind power, ethanol, and the renewable energy that have been so vital to the economy around here. She didn’t even give it the old college try.

Instead, as her party’s chief cheerleader, Palin corrected Biden on the — err… — cheer. It’s not “drill, drill, drill” but “drill, baby, drill,” Palin noted gleefully.

If you’re in the mood to buy it, her argument was essentially this: I’m more like you, and you can trust John McCain more than the other guy. Just go with me on it, she suggests.

Another remarkable part of the debate focused on the genocide in Darfur:

Biden: I don’t have the stomach for genocide when it comes to Darfur. We can now impose a no-fly zone. It’s within our capacity. We can lead NATO if we’re willing to take a hard stand. We can, I’ve been in those camps in Chad. I’ve seen the suffering, thousands and tens of thousands have died and are dying. We should rally the world to act and demonstrate it by our own movement to provide the helicopters to get the 21,000 forces of the African Union in there now to stop this genocide.

Palin: But as for as Darfur, we can agree on that also, the supported of the no-fly zone, making sure that all options are on the table there also. America is in a position to help. What I’ve done in my position to help, as the governor of a state that’s pretty rich in natural resources, we have a $40 billion investment fund, a savings fund called the Alaska Permanent Fund.When I and others in the legislature found out we had some millions of dollars in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars to make sure we weren’t doing anything that would be seen as condoning the activities there in Darfur.

When asked to name a policy issues on which each candidate had to change course to deal with evolving circumstances, Biden presented a detailed explanation of how he began factoring in ideology with judicial appointments — serious business.

Palin’s best shot was to suggest that maybe, just maybe, she shouldn’t have “quasi-caved” on a budget for the City of Wasilla, Alaska, where she was mayor until just recently.

Both candidates knew their roles were largely as surrogates and went after the opposing party’s presidential candidate. Palin used cliched lines, falsely arguing, for example, that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would wave a white flag in Iraq. At one point, she said, “You walk the walk, you don’t just talk the talk,” but she lacked the requisite depth of knowledge to engage in the sort of exchange that would make such claims stick.

GOP handlers prepped Palin well enough for the initial questions of the night, but the Alaska governor was at a canyon-sized disadvantage when it came to follow-ups. She let Biden get in shot after shot in what was a strategy to line team McCain with the Bush dynasty.

Biden: Look, the maverick — let’s talk about the maverick John McCain is. And, again, I love him. He’s been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people’s lives.

He voted four out of five times for George Bush’s budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he’s got there.

He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against — he voted including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan, when he voted in the United States Senate.

He’s not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.

He’s not been a maverick on the war. He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.

Can we send — can we get Mom’s MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can’t — we can’t make it. How are we going to heat the — heat the house this winter?

He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.

So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.

Palin let that go unanswered because she was obviously not fast enough on her feet. And you can’t blame Ifill for it, because Palin made a point of saying she was going to talk about what she wanted, not what Ifill or Biden were talking about.

While that media-bashing may work with the already-locked-in base, viewers with a fundamental sense of fairness saw the Alaska governor trying play outside of the rules in a debate in which Biden was civil — perhaps too much so. And which of Ifill’s questions in this debate were unfair “gotcha” questions, anyway?

Biden also seized on an opportunity to remind people of the power Dick Cheney has wielded as vice president. He said he thinks the VP’s office has had too much power, and he cast his would-be role in an Obama administration as largely advisory. Palin clearly wants Cheney-like powers. Something to think about.

Remarkably, Biden, thought to be the coldblooded product of two many years in the U.S. Senate, had the most genuine moment of humanity in the debate when he briefly choked up about car accident three decades ago that claimed his first wife and a daughter and left his sons injured.

“The notion that somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise two kids alone, I don’t know what it’s like to have a child you’re not sure is going to — is going to make it — I understand,” Biden said.

This story cross-posted at Iowa Independent.com.

McCain looks to gun down agriculture

In Independence, Missouri:

“And my administration will reduce the price of food by eliminating the subsidies for ethanol and agricultural goods. These subsidies inflate the price of food, not only for Americans but for people in poverty across the world, and I propose to abolish them.”

- John McCain, October 1, 2008

Quick, without Google, name a Supreme Court case

In an interview with Katie Couric of CBS News, GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was reportedly unable to name any U.S. Supreme Court cases other than Roe V. Wade. She would of course, ahem, appoint justices should she succeed McCain for any reason.

Here is what The Politico reports:

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

Now I put the challenge to you: name some Supreme Court cases as quickly as you can without cheating and using Google.

I could get to five cases off the top of my head. Granted, no TV cameras in my face., Then again, I am not a governor running for the vice presidency where if elected the only thing between me and the White House is a 72-year-old man.

I'll name the five cases tomorrow. And I'll give you a freebie now: Brown vs. Board of Education. Drop your answers in the comments section and we'll see which Iowa Political Alert readers are smsrter than Palin.

Should Sarah just be Sarah

In the British newspaper The Guardian, Oliver Burkeman wonders if Sarah should just be Sarah -- in reference to the cocooning of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Here is Burkeman:

The emerging consensus among right-wing commentators is that John McCain has made a terrible mistake in connection with Sarah Palin. No, not that terrible mistake! The terrible mistake in question is the campaign's decision to limit her exposure to a handful of interviews with mainstream outlets, where biased liberal journalists ask her 'gotcha' questions and then the rest of the media pick forensically over her responses. The solution: free Sarah Palin to be herself, to speak to conservative talk-radio outlets, and not to worry about tricky "facts" and suchlike.

Palin can't even tell us what she reads

I try to read many newspapers and magazines -- hard copy and online -- each day. But I would never respond "all of them" when asked which ones I read as GOP Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin did on CBS News with Katie Couric.

Come on, she can't even answer this one! I'm guessing she doesn't read any papers other than staff memos that distill the day's news and boil her life down to talking points.

Couric deserves credit for the question but should have pressed further, asking Palin to talk about an article on any subject other than the presidential race which she has read in the last month. Prediction on that: strike out No. 2.

Here is Palin with Couric:

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, "Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?" Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

“Code-talker” legislation passes Senate

Bill honoring Tama County Native Americans Critical in WWII Allied Victory on its way to President’s desk

WASHINGTON, DC - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) announced today that bipartisan legislation to honor Iowans of the Sac and Fox Tribe in Tama County who transmitted military code during World War II, has passed. Harkin sponsored the bill along with Senators James Inhofe (R-OK), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), John Thune (R-SD) and Tom Coburn (R-OK).

“The Meskwaki ‘code-talkers’ made an invaluable contribution to the world’s fight against evil in the last century and have long been identified as the Marine Corps secret weapon,” Harkin said. “These men and women who served our country deserve the same acknowledgement and gratitude as the other brave soldiers who fought for our freedom. I am proud that this legislation allows for Congress to honor these great citizens.”

Specifically, the legislation authorizes Congressional Gold Commemorative Medals to be presented to all Native American Code Talkers, including Iowa's Meskwaki, in recognition of their contributions to the nation during World Wars I and II.

Previously, Harkin presented military medals to the families of six deceased Meskwaki World War II code-talkers. Harkin was able to secure the medals through his ongoing efforts to see that American service men and women are appropriately awarded the decorations they have earned.

Iowa's First Lady: Palin just not ready for job

By DOUGLAS BURNS

Iowa’s First Lady Mari Culver says flatly that GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is woefully unprepared to lead the nation.

What’s more, Culver said, the selection of the first-term Alaska governor, who has been largely cocooned from serious questioning, reveals Republican presidential candidate John McCain to be a risk-taker at a time when the nation needs reason.



“To me, its further evidence of the gambling nature of McCain’s decision-making and his judgment. You’ve got to exercise the type of leadership and good decision-making and sound judgment in the selection of your vice presidential running mate which gives American voters an idea of the decision-making and the judgment you would exercise as president,” Mari Culver said. “I think frankly Senator McCain failed miserably in that regard. I don’t think she’s ready to be vice president. I don’t think she’s ready to be president. That goes without saying.”

Read the rest of the story at Iowa Independent.com.

Photo: Mari Culver taken by Carroll Daily Times Herald's Jeff Storjohann