Will Grassley Obstruct? Conservative Groups Plan To Make Sure He Does

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Trish Nelson

grassleyIowans need to realize Grassley is no longer working for us. 

Conservative groups Freedomworks, Heritage Foundation and Family Research Council are threatening senators who don’t toe the obstructionist party line on an Obama SCOTUS appointment. Click here to read the entire article.

talkingpointsmemo.com

“The strategy that makes the most sense is to say that there should not be any consideration of this nominee,” Curt Levey, executive director of the FreedomWorks Foundation, said in an interview with TPM.

The pressure he and other groups are putting on lawmakers comes after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued a statement almost immediately after Scalia’s death, signaling that Republicans would delay the confirmation process, regardless of the nominee, until after a new president has been inaugurated.

“It’s not about any one particular nominee,” Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the conservative legal organization Judicial Crisis Network, told TPM. “We know exactly the kind of person [Obama] is going to appoint. Getting into those details is just a silly distraction.”

FreedomWorks is preparing to target senators who look like they’ll back down from the fight, while bolstering those who hold to McConnell’s tough initial line.

He said his group sent out an alert to its activists across the country Monday evening that resulted in 14,000 emails to McConnell’s office, and that, aside from email pressure, they are planning events in senators’ home states.

Levey also threatened to primary senators who don’t toe the line.

“In some cases where there are potential primary opponents, we might consider supporting a primary opponent if the senator did not do the right thing,” Levey said.

As Rory Cooper, a GOP strategist, wrote on Medium,[https://medium.com/soapbox-dc/winning-the-supreme-court-media-battle-f92af18cdf2d#.w2kw0oe4e] part of the strategy of denying the Obama administration even a hearing is to prevent the media from focusing on the person instead of the process, and in effect, starving the story of oxygen.

”The very fact that people on our side feel very strongly that there shouldn’t be a hearing before we know the nominee is because it’s not really about the nominee. … Frankly, the real objection here is to Obama.”

Posted in 2016 Election Campaign, Charles Grassley | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Will Grassley Obstruct? Conservative Groups Plan To Make Sure He Does

Updates From Senator Robb Hogg

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Dave Bradley

hogg_banner_web_e

EDUCATION FUNDING
The conference committee on the legislation (SF174) to fund our schools for the 2016-17 school year has met and informal discussions continue among the members of the committee. As you may know, the Senate has passed a 4 percent increase, while the House has passed a 2 percent increase. Governor Branstad proposed a 2.45 percent increase.

If we want schools to innovate and to expand opportunities, like career and technical education, the arts, math and science, and community learning opportunities, we need to provide resources for them. After years of short-changing education, Governor Branstad and House Republicans need to step up to give our schools the resources they need to stop the cuts and provide world-class educational opportunities for all students.

You can help by speaking up in public, by calling Governor Branstad’s office at 515-281-5211 (weekdays), and by emailing legislators of both parties and in both chambers. On Twitter, I am using the hash tag, #FundIowaSchools. Please speak up for our schools and our students.

BIPARTISAN SUPPORT TO STOP MEDICAID PRIVATIZATION
The Iowa Senate passed legislation (SF2125) earlier this month with bipartisan support to stop Governor Branstad’s proposal to use three out-of-state for-profit companies to administer managed care for Medicaid recipients. This proposal is flawed because Iowa’s Medicaid administration is effective and is making ongoing improvements. Shipping millions of dollars out of state to for-profit companies will not help our system. Even if privatization could work, Governor Branstad has badly mismanaged the process, and it needs to be stopped. SF2125 is now pending in the Iowa House.

CLEAN WATER PROPOSALS
There are numerous clean water proposals pending before the Iowa Legislature. It will take a major effort to get the Legislature to pass clean water legislation, but I believe there are real solutions that will work that involve additional public investment (through the Natural Resources Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund or other source), a transparent monitoring system so that we can measure progress, and a cooperative watershed-by-watershed approach. Please join me in speaking up for clean water solutions with legislators, Governor Branstad and the public.

DATING VIOLENCE PREVENTION
One bill that has not gotten much attention could make a huge difference for young people in our state. In the Senate Education Committee, Senator Liz Mathis forged unanimous bipartisan support for SF2195, which would add dating violence prevention and affirmative consent to our “human growth and development” (sex education) classes in our schools. Almost one in eight high school students report being abused by a dating partner, and nearly one in five women is sexually assaulted in her lifetime. This bill, supported by the State of Iowa Youth Advisory Council, is a critical step toward reducing dating violence and promoting sexual health.

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Sunday Funday: Mainstream Hate Edition

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Dave Bradley

splc_banner

Headline: SPLC – Republican Party Is Now A Hate Group

In a report released today the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced officially what has repeatedly been made plain to anyone who listens to the demagogic crop of Republican presidential candidates: the GOP has become the nation’s leading advocate for right-wing hate, and their rhetoric is fueling a dangerous rise in hate groups. The SPLC’s annual report on domestic extremism released today found that right-wing hate and anti-government organizations grew by 14% last year to some 1,900 individual groups.

And, crucially, the SPLC identifies the divisive hate-fueled rhetoric of the Republicans as a key source of increasing right-wing extremism; while the ranks of right-wing groups grew significantly after president Obama’s election, their numbers had been on the decline in recent years until demagogic fear-mongering racists like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz seized the mainstream stage to exhort the Republican base to turn on such convenient scapegoats as Muslims and Mexicans. As SPLC President Mark Potok put it, “We have real enablers in the political mainstream who are helping the ideas of the radical right grow. We are living in an era of incredible political irresponsibility.”

The examples of Republican presidential candidates giving a voice to extremist right-wing hate are legion, from Donald Trump re-tweeting a neo-Nazi claim that African-Americans were responsible for 80% of murders committed against whites to his endorsement of a cartoon showing Jewish candidate Berne Sanders being gassed to proposals for religious tests for admission to the United States. The later proposal was put forward by Jeb Bush, who, alarmingly, is a moderate in the race in that he only wants to ban Muslims rather than, say, round them up in internment camps.

Que surprise?

Were you paying attention?

1) Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, Scout and Jem were lead characters in one of the most popular books ever. The author died Friday. Who was this author?

2) Iowa’s Senator Chuck Grassley says his opposition to replacing Scalia before the election goes back to something that what democratic senator said in 2007?

3) Due to the ramifications of the zika virus, Pope Francis told the faithful Thursday that it would be ok to do what?

4) February 21, 1965 – what major black leader is killed in an assassination just before he was to address an audience in Manhattan?

5) Students from what city wore t-shirts saying “I’m Worth Less” when they lobbied Iowa legislators for a change in school funding formula?

6) Oklahoma continues to shake due to fracking. Last week a major quake near Fairview measured in at what on the Richter scale?

7) Indianapolis lost over 1,400 jobs when what air conditioner company announced it was moving manufacturing to Monterey, Mexico?

8) The Iowa House Commerce Committee dipped its toe ever so gingerly into helping people with epilepsy and constant pain when it approved highly limited use of what?

9) Tech giant Apple was ordered by the US government to do what last week?

10) Three OPEC countries plus Russia agreed to freeze what at January levels on Tuesday?

11) Brazil announced Monday that it would switch from what currency to do business with Iran?

12) Chuck Grassley’s current position on hearings for replacement for Antonin Scalia is he will or he won’t have hearings?

13) South Dakota became the first state to pass a bill governing use of bathrooms by who?

14) We’re #3!. A report released by the Road and Transportation Builders Assn. placed Iowa at #3 worst for what?

15) A woman in Iowa has been diagnosed with what currently highly feared disease?

16) The Pope said Donald Trump’s plan to do what “was not Christian?”

17) Trump responded that if who attacked the Vatican when he was president he would not come to the Vatican’s aid?

18) It’s not a vacation? Who will be visiting Havana next month?

19) What western state is trailblazing raises in minimum wages and basing minimums on geographic locations?

20) British Prime Minister David Cameron threatens to leave what group if they do not accede to his demands for a better deal?

Just as the tournament looms, Iowa and Iowa State basketball teams looking not so good.

Answers:

1) Harper Lee

2) Chuck Schumer

3) use contraception

4) Malcolm X

5) Davenport

6) 5.1

7) Carrier. Their parent company United Technologies also closed another Indiana plant that employed 700 the same day

8) cannabis oil

9) break into the encrypted phone of the San Bernardino shooter

10) oil output

11) the US dollar (this could have big ramifications)

12) currently he will, I believe

13) transgendered people

14) bridges with structural deficiencies

15) the zika virus

16) build a huge wall between the US and Mexico

17) ISIS

18) Pres. Obama

19) Oregon – larger cities will have higher minimum wages.

20) the EU.

See you next week

Posted in Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: Mainstream Hate Edition

Scalia: Hardly Original, Very Right Wing

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Dave Bradley

scalia_oral_arguments

A week ago on the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, the corporate media began spewing the expected epitaphs. “Originalist”, “scholar”, “intellectual” thus once again painting the picture for the American viewer that Scalia was a Justice who was a cut above.

But millions and millions of Americans are not fooled by the Scalia myth. Much like the Reagan myth and the Wizard of Oz myth when the curtain is pulled back the reality really belies the myth. Scalia was not what he pretended nor what the nearly 100% corporate (yes this includes NPR) media claimed he was.

In truth, Scalia was a right winger who had the ability to argue and write well. Through these abilities he was able to construct a cover of being an intellectual. Yet much of his work on the SCOTUS was overturning precedent that was based on sound constitutional principle or inventing so-called constitutional arguments that no one else ever found.

The most obvious is Bush v. Gore. Where or where in our constitution (or any other constitution for that matter) does it say that the SCOTUS has true power to step in and determine (pick) the winner of a national election? Yet the “originalist” was the main cog in a 5 person overthrow of constitutional government. That decision has cost the world millions of lives and our country trillions upon trillions of dollars.

Lets take another Scalia original. Apparently Scalia could not read the second amendment as it was written. Some voice in his head from the past must have informed him that the second amendment started after that clause about maintaining a militia. Most people see it. Even conservative Chief Justice Warren Burger saw it.

warren burger on guns

In a previous post we briefly discussed how Scalia was part of a cabal that destroyed decades of work to get citizens the very symbol of citizenship: the right to vote in Shelby County V. Holder. But who can forget that “originalist” Scalia was one of the justices that granted certiorari for the infamous Citizens United v. FEC. There is little I can say about Citizen’s United that hasn’t been said already. There is simply nothing about running elections in the constitution. Money does not and never should be a determiner of free speech.

In a real irony of Scalia’s death, while he was involved in a non-constitutional power grab that made George W. Bush president, members of the senate from his party are trying to obstruct the VERY constitutional process for filling his empty seat. Leave it to an “originalist” to have a an argument over what the constitution means when it says:

Article II, Section 2: “[The President] shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint……Judges of the Supreme Court.”

Presidents pick Supreme Court Justices, not the other way around.

In an interview with Michael Dukakis for Slate, we get these insights into Scalia’s character:

How well did you know Scalia at law school?

Not well. It was an interesting class. Scalia, myself, Paul Sarbanes, Bill Ruckelshaus. But in those days, Isaac, we had a class of 475 that was divided in thirds. So you got to know your section very well. But I didn’t know who Scalia was until the last semester of my last year, when I took a class called Federal Courts and the Federal System, with a great man named Henry Hart. It is 1960. We are in the middle of the civil rights revolution. And there’s this guy in class who begins engaging Professor Hart every day in these long dialogues over whether it was appropriate for federal judges to reach in and take cases away from Southern criminal courts, in cases where, as everyone knew, if you were a black defendant, forget it. And this went on for about three weeks. [Laughs.] I finally turned to the guy next to me and said, “Who the hell is that guy?” He said, “That’s Scalia, he’s on the law review.” And I said, “Does he know what it’s like to be black in the South?” A bright guy—yeah. But he was to the right of Marie Antoinette for Christ’s sake. There was no consistency in his so-called philosophy. Money is corporate speech. This is all preposterous.

Posted in 2016 Election Campaign, Republican hypocrisy, SCOTUS | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Scalia: Hardly Original, Very Right Wing

Republicans Prep For 2016: Suppressing The Vote

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Dave Bradley


video 10 minutes 30 seconds

Republicans have known for a long, long time that they win when they suppress the vote. Below is a video in one of the seminal moments in the history voter suppression. Paul Weyrich reminding the religious right that Republicans lose as voter participation increases. While Democrats work hard to increase participation in government across the spectrum of our population, Republicans work in shadows to suppress the vote of all but those who fit their demographic. (video ~ 1 minute)

Text of Weyrich’s remarks:

“Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome — good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

Words that are as true today as they were when they were first spoken in 1980.

While Democrats will be working hard on street corners and shopping malls to register voters, Republicans will be enacting laws and filing lawsuits to keep large swaths of “other” citizens from being able to exercise their right to vote. Voting machines that can be easily hacked, gerrymandering to make certain votes of less value, caging, intimidation at the polls are among some of the tricks in the Republican bag. The effects of such suppression is the subject of a study mentioned in the video and found here. The following quote pretty well sums up the findings:

“Can it be the voter identification laws actually have minimal effects on American democracy? In this article, we find that strict voter identification laws do, in fact, substantially alter the makeup od who votes and ultimately do skew democracy in favor of whites and those on the political right. These laws significantly impact the representativeness of the vote and the fairness of democracy.”

The reason this has come to mind this week is the death of the late SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia billed himself as an “originalist.” Apparently being an originalist means to return the vote to white landowners as was the case at the dawn of the US. As in many cases that moved this country dramatically backwards, Scalia, the self-described originalist, was a main cog in the decision.

In one of its more landmark decisions, Shelby County v. Holder, the SCOTUS handed down a decision that allowed states to roll back decades of expanding voter rolls to all citizens. The rollback has been so dramatic that it even evokes memories of Jim Crow laws.

With a majority of state legislatures and governorships in Republican hands since the 2010 midterm elections as soon as the decision was handed down, states were ready to turn back years of progress in seconds. Armed with laws written by the likes of ALEC, state legislatures disenfranchised millions in minutes. The never ending quest to disenfranchise those who won’t vote for them hit full stride.

Cloaked in a mantle of “scholar” and “originalist” and “conservative intellectual” Antonin Scalia was able to write or join in many decisions that have changed the course of the country.

More on Scalia later.

Posted in 2016 Election Campaign, ALEC, Ring of Fire Radio, SCOTUS, Vote Fraud, voting rights | Tagged , | Comments Off on Republicans Prep For 2016: Suppressing The Vote

Grassley Town Hall: Don’t Ask, Don’t Answer

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Dave Bradley

grassley

We attended Senator Grassley’s town hall in Muscatine Thursday afternoon. It was hardly a great study in give and take. Questions were asked. Answers were given. Seldom did the answers really deal with the questions asked.

The room was packed and it was obvious that the number one question on everyone’s mind was the Supreme Court nomination to replace Antonin Scalia. Rather than answer this question directly and any other question later on, Grassley went into a short lecture on how true process worked. Obama nominates, his committee considers, maybe fast maybe slowly. We could have gotten more straight answers from the old magic 8 ball.

The first several questions were about Scalia’s replacement with every answer being evasive. Grassley tried to push blame for the divide on Obama, on Chuck Shumer and on history itself each in turn being some culprit in a plot to make this vacancy nearly impossible to fill. Then he called a halt to questions about Scalia’s replacement.

One young woman was so frustrated with Grassley’s refusal to answer questions directly she tried to break in and redirect the conversation. Grassley would have none of that and the young lady was given a short treatise on manners. Her friends came to her defense and Grassley simply stopped his answer and called on someone else.

Question after question was met with redirection to what appeared to be a non-answer that Grassley had rehearsed. TPP, human caused climate change, social security, medicare. It made no difference; Grassley had no intention of answering anything directly. It was a masterful job in misdirection performed by someone well schooled in his craft. The non-answers were meant to appear to be answers that no one could refute because he committed to nothing.

Afterwards we were talking in the car. I told my wife that Grassley could have saved us all a lot of time by buying a TV ad that went like this:

Voiceover: Here is a message from Senator Chuck Grassley:
Image on the screen: right hand extends, middle finger goes up. Hold for 25 seconds. Fade to black.

And it could have covered all 99 counties at once.

Posted in Barack Obama, Charles Grassley, SCOTUS | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Why Palm Oil Is Bad For Iowans

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Paul Deaton
Palm Oil Extraction Photos Credit Wikimedia Commons

Palm Oil Extraction Photo Credit Wikimedia Commons

On Friday, Feb. 5, the benchmark crude palm-oil future contract traded on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange reached its highest level since May 2014, according to NASDAQ.

Traders were feeling bullish as warm, dry weather caused by El Niño in the region receded from the prime palm plantations in Sumatra, Borneo and other parts of Indonesia.

These palm oil producing regions are half a world away, yet they matter to Iowa more than one knows.

The use of palm oil for cooking is in direct competition with soybean oil, including Iowa-grown soybeans traded on international markets. In a recent interview, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said one out of four rows of Iowa soybeans are bound for international sales.

“India, the world’s largest importer of cooking oils, will buy more soybean and sunflower oil this year (2015) than ever before as a global glut weakens prices and prompts buyers to switch from palm oil,” according to Bloomberg News.

Because of the decline in farm commodity prices, current trends may favor soybeans over palm, but at the expense of soybean farmers. There is a clear case to be made to avoid products like chocolate, ice cream, detergent, soap and cosmetics that contain palm oil and its derivatives as a way to support Iowa farmers.

What matters more is deforestation to expand the cultivation of palm trees. Using a slash and burn methodology to clear equatorial rain forest for palm plantations, the haze covering Indonesia was visible from space. While haze may be viewed as a temporary inconvenience, deforestation has a direct impact on the planet’s capacity to process atmospheric carbon dioxide. That’s not to mention the loss of habitat and biodiversity, as well as release of carbon stored in trees into the atmosphere.

From logging, agricultural production and other economic activities, deforestation adds more atmospheric CO2 than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world’s roads, according to Scientific American.

“The reason that logging is so bad for the climate is that when trees are felled they release the carbon they are storing into the atmosphere, where it mingles with greenhouse gases from other sources and contributes to global warming accordingly,” the article said. “The upshot is that we should be doing as much to prevent deforestation as we are to increase fuel efficiency and reduce automobile usage.”

Most corporate food conglomerates use or have used palm oil and its derivatives as an ingredient. What’s a person to do?

The first recourse in Iowa is the power of the purse. Avoid purchasing products with palm oil because it competes with Iowa-grown soybeans, and is a contributor to climate disruption. There is no such thing as sustainably grown palm oil.

Palm oil and its derivatives go under many names. A list of alternate names for palm oil can be found here along with a handy wallet sized printout.

Here is a list that discusses use of palm oil in various consumer products.

Explore the Rainforest Action Network web site, beginning with this link. There is a lot of information about the issue and actions you can take to address the most pressing aspects of deforestation.

While Indonesia may seem distant, what goes on there and in other equatorial palm plantations matters here in Iowa.

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Kaul: The Passion Of Scalia

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Trish Nelson

donald kaulotherwords.org

George W. Bush might not have occupied the White House and brought on the Iraq War.

By Donald Kaul

My mother always told me never to speak ill of the dead.

For that reason I won’t go on at length about Antonin Scalia, the recently departed Supreme Court justice. My opinion wouldn’t be worth that much anyway. I didn’t know the man — I was never even in the same room with him.

However, I do find this avalanche of posthumous praise of him as “a judicial giant” and one of the great justices of our history a little gag-inducing.

OK, he was a bon vivant and a fun guy who wrote snarky, entertaining opinions. I get that. As a jurist, however, he left much to be desired. As a matter of fact, he was terrible — one of the most destructive justices of recent times.

Named to the court by Ronald Reagan in 1986, he revived a conservative judicial philosophy that had long lain dormant: originalism.

It’s an approach that treats the Constitution as holy writ, a set of rules written in stone that allows very little room for broad interpretation. Cases that came to the Supreme Court, in Scalia’s view, were to be viewed exclusively through the lens of an 18th-century document, with no attempt to adjust to the changes in society wrought by time.

He didn’t want a living, breathing Constitution. He wanted a dead one.

His argument was that the wisdom of nine unelected jurists was no match for the wisdom of the people as expressed in laws written by their elected representatives.

In other words, if people wanted social change, let them vote for it. That argument makes hash of the theory of constitutional government, which holds that the Constitution acts as a bulwark to protect the rights of the minority against the desires of the majority.

And Scalia might say: “Where are those rights in the Constitution? Show me.”

Generally speaking I’m against literalists, whether religious or political. The people who believe in the literal truth of the Bible, for example — who arrive at the conclusion that the earth was created 5,000 years ago because that’s what the “begats” add up to — are only one step removed from the originalists who are slaves to our founding fathers.

Who, not incidentally, accepted the enslavement of millions of Americans and denied a majority of this country’s inhabitants the right to vote.

Scalia was perhaps useful as a check on judges who might take unbridled license with the Constitution. But I object to the constant theme in Scalia’s obituaries that he was a man of ironclad principles who didn’t deviate from his beliefs to satisfy expedience. For those who believe that, I offer two words and a letter: Bush v. Gore.

Scalia was the point man on the court when it halted the recount of ballots in Florida and effectively gave the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, who received fewer votes nationwide than his opponent, Al Gore. Subsequent reporting revealed that a full recount would have proven that Gore beat Bush in Florida, too — and therefore won that White House race.

Whether or not you agree with Scalia’s belief that we should supposedly treat the Constitution as a “sacred” document, there’s no evidence that it gives the Supreme Court any role in the conduct of elections. That task is left to the states.

Where was Scalia’s famed originalism then? Somehow he swept it under the carpet.

Scalia was unapologetic about his pivotal role in the election. When asked about it in later years, he would dismiss the question with the sneering remark: “Get over it.”

Get over it? I’d love to get over it. I’d love not to have had George W. Bush made president by judicial fiat. Imagine what might have been, just in one regard. Our troops wouldn’t have invaded Iraq. Perhaps the Middle East wouldn’t have exploded, sending its toxic fallout throughout the Western world.

That’s not how things went. I think Scalia went against his principles to make a political decision that favored the party to which he owed his career.

That’s his real legacy.

Donald Kaul has written columns for half a century, beginning with a long stint at the Des Moines Register that made him a household name (in a good way) throughout Iowa. OtherWords began distributing his columns in 2001 following his retirement from the Register. Kaul, who was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary in 1987 and 1999, lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. You can read more about his career in this column. He regularly writes OtherWords commentaries.

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Flint and Reagan's Wake

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Paul Deaton
Flint Strike 1937 Photo Credit Wikimedia Commons

Flint Strike 1937 Photo Credit Wikimedia Commons

Driving out of Flint, Mich. on Bristol Road wasn’t in the plans.

I interviewed some 30 people, all but one male, for truck driving jobs at the Days Inn across from the GM plant. Tired and ready for sleep, I went to the van to get my overnight bag and found all four tires had been slashed.

In the parking lot with a driver I later hired, the tire service came and replaced them. Around 10:30 p.m. I decided to drive the four hours back home to Indiana. The drive seemed much longer as I fought sleep and considered the day’s events.

In his film Roger & Me, Flint native Michael Moore identified Nov. 6, 1986 as the date of the announcement that General Motors would start laying off thousands of workers to move jobs to Mexico. Eventually, Mexican labor would prove too expensive and GM moved some of those jobs to Southeast Asia and elsewhere where people would work on the cheap building cars and auto parts.

I made about a dozen recruiting trips to Flint in 1988. There was a lot of interest in our non-union jobs, a lot of anger, and few hires. As a trucking terminal manager in Northwest Indiana I interviewed countless people seeking work in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky and many other states. I took a pencil to it, and found I had interviewed well over 10,000 people from 1987 until 1993. My life was forever changed by that experience as one applicant after another told me their stories of adjusting to devastation in the rust belt as the policies of President Ronald Reagan and his cronies eviscerated the middle class. We are still in the wake of his administration.

It was the end of an era as large-scale work sites like Buick City laid people off and eventually shuttered their plants. Flint is just one example of the hellhole the steel, auto, and other manufacturing towns became. Flint went from being an award-winning auto maker to being an EPA cleanup site. People still live there, but what was no longer exists.

Today we hear of the water crisis in Flint.

Nearly two years ago, the state decided to save money by switching Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, a tributary that runs through town and is known to locals for its filth, according to CNN. Because of the corrosive nature of water in the river, iron oxidized discoloring tap water, and more importantly, lead began leaching from the pipes in the water system.

“Everything will be fine,” former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling said as he downed a glass of water.

It’s not fine. It won’t ever be fine.

Flint went to hell, literally, after GM began shedding jobs to cheap foreign labor. Violent crime rates rose, people left the city, and today 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Employees dependent on union jobs had trouble coping when the jobs were gone, resulting in complex social and psychological problems. I experienced some of their anger that day in Flint and I won’t forget because it permanently changed me.

I get why Reagan is lionized for what he did to Flint and dozens of other manufacturing cities. The anger is still here. We are still in Reagan’s wake.

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Grassley Intends To Obstruct Supreme Court Nomination

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Trish Nelson

[Note from BFIA: Click here to see Grassley’s schedule of town hall meetings this week.]

Des Moines, IA — The Why Courts Matter Iowa coalition released the following statement today in response to Senator Chuck Grassley’s promise to delay a Supreme Court nomination:

“It is with our deepest condolences that we recognize the passing of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. While we may have had disagreements with his opinions and legal philosophy, his contribution to American jurisprudence and his commitment to public service are undeniable.”

“With the gravity of the current cases on the docket, it is necessary that we have a fully staffed Supreme Court. Even Justice Scalia recognized this, pointing out during a discussion of recusal in Cheney v. US District Court of DC that the court proceeding with only eight justices raises “the possibility that, by reason of a tie vote, it will find itself unable to resolve the significant legal issue presented by the case.”

“Further, Senator Chuck Grassley needs to take his constitutional obligations seriously. The Constitution directs the President to make this appointment and the Senate to provide advice and consent during the process. Promising to stall any nominee, regardless of their qualifications, is not “advice and consent.” It is blatant partisanship and obstructionism.”

“Grassley’s statements seem to contradict even themselves as of recent regarding judicial nominees. This week he claimed, “The fact of the matter is that it’s been standard practice over the last nearly 80 years that Supreme Court nominees are not nominated and confirmed during a presidential election year.” While back in 2008 during a Congressional hearing on the so called “Thurmond Rule” (the unofficial rule that lifetime judicial appointments shouldn’t be made during the lame duck months of a presidency) he had stated unequivocally, “The reality is that the Senate has never stopped confirming judicial nominees during the last few months of a president’s term,” and went on to call the Thurmond Rule “plain bunk.”

“His statements are further contradicted by the fact that over 17 Supreme Court justices have been confirmed during Presidential election years, with the most recent example being Justice Anthony Kennedy confirmed on February 3rd, 1988.”

“The American people deserve better than this. Whether it’s women’s health, LGBT equality, workers rights, immigration, or environmental impacts; they deserve a court capable of resolving the tough legal issues of our time. The longer we wait for justice, the more rulings will come before an understaffed court that, in the words of the late Justice Scalia, will be “unable to resolve the significant legal issue presented by the case.” This is unacceptable. Justice should not wait for partisan politics.”

The Why Courts Matter Iowa coalition is focused on ensuring that the federal judiciary is representative of America’s diverse population and ending the judicial vacancy crisis so that every American can have his or her day in court. Why Courts Matter Iowa is led by Iowa Citizen Action Network, Americans for Democratic Action Iowa, Progress Iowa, and One Iowa.

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