Some defense and immigration attorneys criticized [...]
An Iowa Perspective on Coal's Assault on Human HealthIf you'd like to watch online, the IDP will be livestreaming the proceedings here, beginning at 6:30 pm central.
Senator Tom Harkin [...]
…with roughly a quarter of the stimulus money out the door after nine months, the accumulation of hard data and real-life experience has allowed more dispassionate analysts to reach a consensus that the stimulus package, messy as it is, is working.
The legislation, a variety of economists [...]
Join me after the jump [...]
Get Senate Debate Updates Today From Health Care for America NOW!Government asserts that Rubashkin aided flight of Agriprocessors co-worker to Israel
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade has ordered that the Iowa meatpacking manager found guilty on 86 counts of fraud and money laundering will remain behind bars.
Sholom M. Rubashkin, who served as the day-to-day manager at Agriprocessors [...]
A TV and film star is throwing a $100,000+ fundraiser for a candidate for Iowa governor tonight, but the beneficiary isn’t the bleeding-heart Hollywood liberal you might expect.
The Iowa Republican reports that Sioux City businessman and social conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats could raise $200,000 for his gubernatorial campaign [...]
Instead of asking conservatives to call home-state senators with pleas for votes against health care reform, the Republican National Committee is asking its membership to contact the offices of two Democratic senators deemed “critically important” to squashing any up-or-down vote on the reform bill.
U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and [...]
Teen library patrons in Ames will continue to have the opportunity to access accurate sex education materials thanks to a vote Thursday night by the local library's board of trustees. The Register’s Kathie Obradovich reports that U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin will not make it to the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner in person tomorrow night because he’ll be busy trying to pass health care reform in Washington, D.C. In his absence, the party will play a video greeting from [...]
Former Iowa State University wrestling coach Jim Gibbons and state Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, both announced intentions Thursday to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell in 2010.
Gibbons, who coached ISU to an NCAA championship in 1987, said he will leave his job at Wells Fargo Advisers to [...]
On Nuclear Disarmament for IowaGuess what? Republicans think ACORN stole the election for Obama. Not just the wacky teabaggers. 52% of all Republicans. Now Doug Hoffman, pathetic as he already was, has retracted his concession of the race, because he says ACORN stole that election too. Does he have any evidence? Of [...]
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan’s attacks against U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley are simply “insulting Iowans who disagree with the [Obama] administration’s political decision to bring terrorists to the United States,” an aide to the senator told the Iowa Independent Thursday.
Jill Kozeny, communications director for Grassley, was responding to an [...]
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s comparison of civilian trials for terrorists to the murder trial of O.J. Simpson is “false and disrespectful,” Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan said Thursday.
While questioning Attorney General Eric Holder about the idea of prosecuting five men accused as co-conspirators in the Sept. 11 attacks [...]
Details for those and other [...]
Now that Democratic leaders in the Senate have unveiled their health care reform plan, Democrats have “rounded third [base] and we’re heading to home,” U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Cumming, said Wednesday night.
During an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Harkin said no one in the Democratic caucus wants to [...]
Here's Life's photo essay, "Sexiest Men of the 50s, 60s, and 70s."The question of possibly housing Guantanamo Bay detainees at a prison facility on the Iowa-Illinois border isn’t something that deserves consideration, according to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who said today that he opposes such individuals ever entering the country.
When asked if the detainees would put Iowa residents in danger, Grassley [...]
At Ames High School, he won three state' [...]
Republicans didn't hit the panic button when would-be "shoe bomber" Richard Reid was tried in federal court.
Numerous international terrorists with links to Al-Qaeda are already in U.S. prisons. [...]
The incomparable Ezra Klein:
But what’s the alternative? No one wants an individual mandate. But the folks who spend all their time trying to solve the first problem Ross describes have concluded that you can’t do it without an individual mandate. After all, why do people get priced out of [...]
Man-on-the-street ignorance footage is easy to come by but the above video demonstrates a log on the tea-bagger fire that’s been crackling since election day. In the span of a few weeks it became part of accepted right-winger lore that TARP and its related bailouts were a product of the [...]
A little more than half of Americans believe health care reform would do more harm than good, according to a University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll released Wednesday.
The national phone survey of 772 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, found that 52 percent believe [...]
It just occurred to me that Matt Foley has all it takes to become a right wing media personality. He comes from a humble background and has a checkered past. He’s not much to look at but has a resonating baritone voice. And most importantly, he’s one of us! A [...]
Those who immediately voiced opposition to a possible plan to move detainees currently housed at a military prison in Guantanamo Bay into a revamped facility on the Illinois-Iowa border should take time to research instead of offering knee-jerk reactions, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley said today.
“I’m not going to engage in [...]
Critics of the massive immigration raid in Postville and the subsequent judicial fast-tracking of detained immigrants on criminal charges have been widely expressing their concerns about Stephanie Rose, the U.S. Attorney nominee for the Northern District of Iowa who took part in the legal proceedings. While U.S. Sen. [...]
The union representing state troopers and game wardens has reached an agreement with the state aimed at saving 43 jobs, Gov. Chet Culver announced Tuesday.
The State Police Officers Council (SPOC) has agreed that its 640 members will take five furlough days during the remaining 7 months of [...]
The Iowa Independent has been tracking the nomination of Stephanie Rose for U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa for months, but now national media outlets have jumped into the act.
The New York Times reported Sunday that Rose’s confirmation has been the subject of growing controversy:
Eleventh-hour criticism [...]
Full comic here.
All religious fundamentalists have a few characteristics that they share in common; one of them is their view of a woman as a purely biological entity whose sexuality must be studiously controlled. The issue of abortion then comes down to punishing women for [...]
U.S. Rep. Tom Latham has pledged to introduce legislation that would prevent the Obama administration from further considering a prison just across the Mississippi River from Clinton as a possible future home for detainees currently housed at a military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
“I have heard from so many Iowans over [...]
A Polk County Judge has ruled the Iowa Department of Economic Development should pay a Canadian filmmaker $6.5 million in tax credits.
The ruling could have bigger ramifications down the road, as several filmmakers who have been denied tax credits weigh legal action against the state.
That’s upper peninsula for the uninitiated; land of guns guns guns! We fished for trophy walleye on Little Bay de Noc until the wee hours of the morning with terrific success. Here’s a twenty eight incher I caught earlier in the evening:
I almost got seasick this [...]
Meet Francis Thicke - Progressive Democrat for Iowa Agriculture Secretary Europe on track to meet or exceed Kyoto goals.
Meanwhile, if you favor doing anything about carbon emissions in America, you’re now a treehugging liberal, despite the fact that rightwingers have lost the argument everywhere except within their own hermetically sealed media environs.
-jb
[...]Caught five minutes today while running to Subway due to an unexpected work break, as I’m not usually on the road when he’s on.
So Genius Republican Party Leader tells me that Democrats want terrorists kept prisoner in the U.S. because that means more prison guards. Union member prison guards, [...]
May Congress follow the lead of Blizzard Entertainment, and vote on the health care bill “when it’s ready.” Ezra Klein, who’s essential reading on health care reform, points out some of the cost control measures being considered.
The first comes from the excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans. The [...]
After the jump you'll find the recipe for tonight's dinner, which I adapted from "Ground Meat in Cashew Nut'" [...]
As GOP gubernatorial hopefuls try to draw distinctions from their Republican rivals, the Iowa Democratic Party continues to co-opt their critiques with the hope of weakening potential challengers to incumbent Gov. Chet Culver.
The latest attack was delivered in Dubuque by state Rep. Chris Rants against former Gov. Terry Branstad. Rants [...]
The Des Moines Register showered more poll numbers on readers today, and the news is better for Democrats than it was over the weekend.
Though each Iowan seems to have his or her own ideas for how money should be cut from the budget, few blame the Democrats for overspending on [...]
A spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Waterloo, responded Monday to attacks from Iowa Republicans who say transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. soil is a “clear threat to national security.”
President Barack Obama has said he wants Guantanamo Bay facility by January. A nearly-empty Illinois prison near the Mississippi River on [...]
The push is on to dilute the climate change bills moving through Congress, and it’s not coming only from conservatives. Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard reports today that 14 Senate Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, are urging their leadership to amend the proposal to grant more free polluting permits [...]
Allowing military service for those with “different beliefs and different religious structure” is a “recipe for disaster,” a West Des Moines pastor told controversial Christian radio host Steve Deace Friday.
Deace was discussing the shootings at the Ft. Hood military base in Texas with Bob Deever, pastor at [...]
A group of midwestern states, including Iowa, is exploring the potential of a college-credit exchange to help defray the costs of earning a degree, AP reports.
The project would create a central location for people to store the college credits they have received from multiple institutions. Colleges and universities then [...]
Calling it a “clear threat to national security,” Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn called on U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Waterloo, to oppose a plan to house transferred Guantanamo detainees in Illinois.
A nearly-empty Illinois prison near the Mississippi River on the border with Braley’s Iowa district is among U.S. [...]
The latest Iowa Poll by The Des Moines Register finds Gov. Chet Culver losing to both former Gov. Terry Branstad and Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats in hypothetical head-to-head campaigns.
Culver’s job approval rating, at 40 percent, has hit the lowest point since taking office and has dropped 20-percentage-points since [...]
That is the conclusion of a recent survey of Clinton, Iowa wireless network access points conducted by Clinton technology consulting firm, Riverfront Technology, Inc.
“Almost all of the commercial internet service providers now supply their customers with WiFi enabled routers. Many of these come with instructions for enabling the wireless but [...]
In business sector, India’s largest company, Reliant Industries continues its interest in acquiring the North American assets of LyondellBasell. The petrochemical giant floundered into debt-induced Chapter 11 bankruptcy last January. Although no public pronnouncement has been made wth regardst to the size of the offer, industry sources say it [...]
Grassley's 57 percent approval figure [...]
Iowa Federation of Labor Endorses Kirsten Running-Marquardt in House District 33 Special ElectionMike was out fishing in Michigan this weekend. While you eagerly await his return, enjoy my favorite Stereolab song via a terrible placeholder video (so you can surf and listen!):
-jb
[...]Republicans and their flagrant abuse of the Constitution for whatever political ends suits them show no signs of stopping soon. Whether it be ignoring the 9th and 14th Amendments (abortion, gay equality), calling perjury over sex “high crimes and misdemeanors,” or tossing out the whole thing over scary brown [...]
Would it surprise you that the Bush administration tried to puff itself up after 9/11 and pretended they responded quickly?
Yet both Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney, (John) Farmer says, provided palpably false versions that touted the military’s readiness to shoot down United 93 before [...]
DougJ at Balloon Juice:
I did some searchers on “dithering” in the New York Times and Washington Post archives. In the Times, there were eleven uses of the word post-Cheney out of a total of 47 in the past year. In the Post, there were 36 post-Cheney out of a [...]
Ruth Marcus wonders why Republicans continuously make things up abouth health care reform.
Georgia Republican Tom Price: “This bill, on Page 733, empowers the Washington bureaucracy to deny lifesaving patient care if it costs too much.”
Not true. The bill sets up a Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research “in order to [...]
Join an Iowa Rapid Response Team for Health Care Today
Searching for Iowa's Agricultural Historyby Cathy Lafrenz One expects this from middle schoolers. Presidential wannabes?
Even Ann Althouse gives up and declares Palin a hopeless dummy. Her comments thread comes alive with accusations of elitism. Of course, none of them question that a bunch of Ivy League chickenhawks casually manipulate the masses to thirst for [...]
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who seems to have made a second career in this sort of thing, is accusing the White House of promoting Democratic power lawyer Bob Bauer in order to cover up an ACORN scandal.
Bob Bauer has a public record of defending Barack Obama’s relationship with ACORN. [...]
Petitioners Say They Have The Signatures
An Iowa Veteran's Perspective on Afghanistan 
Despite strict laws banning the possession and use of marijuana, some Iowa patients are turning to the drug to ease their symptoms.
Marijuana (Photo: Wikipedia)
Several states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and other states, including Iowa, are considering it.
Prompted by a court [...]
The nascent campaign of former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who is campaigning for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2010, has taken to the Internet in an attempt to counteract an attack from Democrats that has gone unanswered for weeks.
The Iowa Democratic Party launched a Web site over the summer to [...]
The vast majority of Democratic opposition to the final health reform bill in the U.S. House came from members whose districts are more rural than the nation as a whole.
“Of the 39 Democrats who voted against the bill, 33 represent districts with higher-than-average rural populations,” report Julie Ardery and [...]
Thinly Veiled Temperance ThreatsMore than 100 employees within the Iowa Judicial Branch will soon be without employment, and an additional 100 currently vacant positions will not be filled, as the department makes deeper cuts in an attempt to reduce its operating expenses for the current fiscal year.
The actions, announced today, also include reducing [...]
Even if Democrats manage to pass health reform legislation, if it contains an individual mandate it could prove unconstitutional, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Thursday.
During an interview with KAYL radio in Storm Lake and the Marshalltown Times Republican, Grassley said that even though he’s never studied law and is [...]
Federal stimulus for Medicaid has boosted jobs and incomes in Iowa while meeting the immediate health needs of vulnerable Iowans enduring a recession, researchers with the Iowa Fiscal Partnership reported today.
“Increased Medicaid spending has an economic benefit for the state of Iowa far greater than the federal government’s initial [...]
