So asks Shepard Smith on Fox so-called News.
An addendum to that question is – why are these issues among people who share a religion that was built on love and compassion for fellow humans?
Believe not what they say, but what they do. By that you will know them.
It amazes me Shep Smith still has a job.
Please Join:
Congressman Dave Loebsack,
Special Guest Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky
& Iowa’s Congressional Candidates
Monica Vernon (IA-01)
Jim Mowrer (IA-03)
Desmund Adams (IA-03)
Kim Weaver (IA-04)
Live Music Provided by:
Kevin “BF” Burt
Sunday, September 27th 2015
Doors Open at 11:00 AM
AT THE CELEBRATION FARMS
Double Round Barn
4696 Robin Woods Lane NE
Iowa City, IA 52240
Tickets:
Host: $1000 Sponsor: $500
Friend: $250 Guest: $25
Students: $15
Please RSVP to Nick by phone at (319) 804-9218, by email at nick@loebsackforcongress.org,
or online loebsackforcongress.org/bbq
Positive conservative? Oxymoron?
This is a line that Scott Walker used in his speech retiring his presidential bid for this round. BTW, look out Wisconsin – Walker will be wanting to burnish his right wing bona fides for 2020 and beyond. Wisconsin and its citizens will pay the price.
Let’s look at just how positive the conservative message is this time around:
First Positive Message:
We will continue to do everything we can to push the 17 + million Americans who now have health coverage through the PPACA back into the tyranny of coverage at the whim of insurance companies. This will include allowing insurance companies to drop coverage anytime they feel like it. All PPACA reforms will be rescinded so we can return to the normal state of insurance companies making your health decisions.
Second Positive Message:
We will do all we can to send a huge amount of people to countries they are no longer members of and cause a humanitarian crisis of unheard of proportions. We will do this to to satisfy the most racist in our party. This will not create or open new jobs in our country, because we will continue to “offshore” jobs. Besides the demand that those we deport will cause demand for many products to fall off markedly. Once more, a very positive message.
Third Positive Message:
We will cut off any government aid for the poor, the disabled and all others. If you are poor or disabled, then you must suffer and not take money from those who have more through the government.
Fourth Positive Message:
We will do all we can to cut women’s health services, especially the concept of choice. We will also do all we can to stop any forms of contraception thus nearly ensuring a massive amount of unwanted pregnancies and births. Women who have sex outside of marriage deserve the shame and burden of children they can’t care for.
Fifth Positive Message:
Guns will be allowed all places in this society and can be owned by all persons no matter what their fitness mentally. While this may create terror among the populace it is acceptable because a portion of a clause in the constitution has been interpreted to allow unfettered access to guns of any type.
Sixth Positive Message:
America must be ready to go to war at the drop of a hat over perceived grievances great and small. We will sacrifice your children and the public treasury in this cause. War is good business.
Seventh Positive Message:
Anything can be a source for profit for private business. This includes prisons, public water supplies, libraries, fire departments and any other enterprise that is currently in the public sector
Eighth Positive Message:
There is a lot of money to be made from privatizing education from pre-kindergarten to advanced degrees. We must end public supported education. That is socialism.
Ninth Positive Message:
The health of the planet must take second billing to businesses ability to make money and also not be charged with cleaning the effects of their enterprises.
Tenth Positive Message:
We continue to be amazed how well tax cuts have worked for certain sectors of American society. We will continue those tax cuts.
Eleventh Positive Message:
Corporations have gotten very healthy through hands-off governmental policy. This will continue. Among those will be no attempt to force corporations to share their profits through programs like minimum wage.
Twelfth Positive Message:
No Net Neutrality. Corporations will manage your access and monitor your activity with fees determined by a market controlled by only a few players.
Thirteenth Positive Message:
Climate Change has negative implications. We will do away with those by challenging the science and use of positive descriptors for change deniers such as calling them “skeptics.”
Fourteenth Positive Message:
We are busting workers’ right to organize into unions. This will allow more capital to flow to the corporation and give them better control of their assets, both human and monetary.
Fifteenth Positive Message:
We will redirect Social Security funds and Medicare funds to private companies. While the effect on these programs may be lethal to the programs, at least they will go out under the banner of free enterprise instead of socialism.
See? Nothing but positive coming from the right! The Democrats have nothing like this. I am sure of that.
Freepress workshop in Iowa City
Last Thursday, Blog for Iowa attended a workshop sponsored by Freepress and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) on the future of the internet and the 2016 presidential campaign. It was a fun evening of information-sharing and preparing to take action. The training focused on how to get your message out by asking the candidates well crafted questions; how to make sure you get called on at an event; how to talk to reporters and much more.
The power of the people can be stronger than the power of the corporations.
AFSC is calling for a halt to “governing under the influence” through a strategic education and action project, starting in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that get the lion’s share of attention from presidential candidates.
Mary Alice Crim Freepress.net
Workshop attendees now have our very own list-serve to stay in contact and organize!
If you love the internet and you vote, sign up with Freepress.net to find out about upcoming Iowa events and actions. Freepress will be a presence in Iowa between now and the caucuses.
For a comprehensive list of candidate events in Iowa, click here.
It seems safe to assume that any Republican in the White House will do the same.
theverge.com/2015/9/22/jeb-bush-fcc-net-neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission’s Net Neutrality rule classifies all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as “public utilities,” subjecting them to antiquated “common carrier” regulation. Rather than enhancing consumer welfare, these rules prohibit one group of companies (ISPs) from charging another group of companies (content companies) the full cost for using their services. Small broadband operators—like KWISP (475 customers in rural Illinois) and Wisper ISP (8,000 customers near St. Louis, Mo)—have declared under penalty of perjury that the Net Neutrality rule has caused them to cut back on investments to upgrade and expand their networks.
He’s made it clear this would happen early in his administration, promising to “start” a Jeb Bush presidency by undoing Obama’s regulatory accomplishments. Actually pulling that off would require passing legislation to topple the net neutrality framework — or appointing new FCC commissioners who would vote to roll back the rules. Whichever path he chooses, Bush seems determined to make his mark on the internet in short order if he reaches the Oval Office.
Jefferson County Farmers & Neighbors
Joe Maxwell, Senior Political Director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, addresses the role everyone can play in protecting our communities at the upcoming JFAN Annual Meeting More CAFOs Are Coming – What YOU Can Do. The meeting will be held October 7 at 7:15 pm at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, 200 N. Main Street, Fairfield, Iowa.
It doesn’t matter if you’re living in a rural or urban community, the Iowa pork industry is rapidly expanding, and many communities are threatened by infringing CAFOs. The push to fill Southeast Asia’s growing demand for pork is, in a large part, driving much of Iowa’s CAFO expansion. Exports currently account for 26% of Iowa’s current pork production. If the Trans Pacific Partnership is passed, the Iowa Pork Producers Council predicts Iowa pork exports will increase by 50% over the next 10 years.
That means we need to increase our efforts to protect our communities.
More CAFOs Are Coming – What YOU Can Do is an empowering, action-oriented event that addresses four community organizing/activist approaches to safeguarding our neighborhoods: deterrent actions, legal avenues, legislative changes, and consumer activism. Everyone who wants to stop unwanted CAFOs from invading Iowa has the ability and power to do something.
A seasoned anti-CAFO activist, livestock farmer, and former Missouri lawmaker, Joe Maxwell will speak on the necessity for all Iowans to stand up for their basic human rights to clean air, clean water, and safe food. He will discuss what it takes to galvanize people politically in order to protect against infringing CAFOs.
Most importantly, Maxwell will share what EVERYONE can do to fight back against these unwanted CAFOs. Whether you’re a rural resident facing a current threat, a rural resident wanting to defend your good quality of life, or a city resident concerned about CAFOs coming closer to your borders, there is something you can do. Everyone eats, and a special emphasis will be placed on the power of Consumer Activism.
JFAN Board member Jocelyn Engman, co-owner of Pickle Creek Herbal, will also address what it means to be a Good Neighbor, and JFAN president David Sykes will present a legal update. A panel discussion will be held at the conclusion of the meeting.
Maxwell, a long-time advocate for humane, independent, traditional farming practices, is Senior Political Director for the Humane Society Legislative Fund. He’s currently working to launch a state legislative campaign and to increase political influence for humane and independent livestock production at the state and federal levels.
Maxwell served as a state elected official for 14 years, including two terms in the recent Missouri House of Representatives and one in the Missouri Senate before being elected Lt. Governor in 2000. During his tenure, Maxwell supported family farm and traditional animal husbandry practices while working against large-scale, industrialized livestock facilities.
Maxwell played a major role in developing and implementing a strategy to fight the Missouri Right to Farm amendment in 2014. The campaign roused public opinion against the amendment with a dramatic come-from-behind surge that nearly defeated the measure – all on a fraction of the budget of the industrial Ag campaign. He also was instrumental in advocating for North Carolina’s 10-year hog confinement moratorium passed in 1997.
Maxwell grew up on a family farm, and along with his brother Steve, he raises humanely certified hogs under the Global Animals Partnership 5 Step Animal Welfare Rating Program.
The JFAN Annual Meeting is co-sponsored by the Southeast Iowa Food Hub, Leopold Group Sierra Club, solar-powered KRUU-FM, Sustainable Living Center, Radish Magazine, and Little Village Magazine.
Admission is free; a donation of $5 is welcome to support JFAN’s mission.
JFAN is a 501(c)(3) educational foundation working to protect the quality of life for Jefferson County residents since 2005. Our efforts successfully help to deter the proliferation of CAFOs in Jefferson County. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.
For more information, visit our website or our Facebook page.
Announcement In Callender, 11 Other Communities During Three-Day Announcement Tour
CEDAR RAPIDS – Rob Hogg, Democratic state senator from Cedar Rapids, will be announcing his candidacy for the United States Senate on a three-day tour of the state, starting on Tuesday, September 22, in Callender, Iowa, a community 15 miles southwest of Fort Dodge.
“I will be making my announcement in Callender as a symbol of my support for small towns and rural Iowa,” Hogg said. “I am also announcing in Callender because my grandmother was born in Callender in 1902 and family is important to me.”
Hogg, age 48, is serving his third term in the Iowa Senate after two terms in the Iowa House. He was first elected in 2002. In the Iowa Legislature, he has served as chair of the Senate Rebuild Iowa Committee (2009-10), the Senate Judiciary Committee (2013-14), and the Senate Government Oversight Committee (2015-pesent). In addition to serving in the Iowa Legislature, Hogg is an attorney in private practice in Cedar Rapids.
Hogg is a fourth generation Iowan, growing up in Iowa City, where he also got his undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa. He and his wife, Kate, have been married 25 years. They have three children, two in college and one in high school. They are members of Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids.
More information is available at www.robhogg.org or by calling 319-360-3401.
Below are the stops on his announcement tour.
Tuesday, September 22
Callender – 10 a.m., Callender City Park Shelter, at the corner of Thomas Street (D43) and Mortimer Street (P33), in Callender. (In case of inclement weather, the announcement will be at the Callender Community Center, 505 Thomas Street.)
Des Moines – 12:30 p.m., East Side Public Library, 2559 Hubbell Avenue, in Des Moines.
Iowa City – 5:15 p.m., University of Iowa Democrats meeting, Room 14 Schaeffer Hall, University of Iowa, in Iowa City (southeast building on the Pentacrest).
Cedar Rapids – 7:00 p.m., IBEW Local 405, 1211 Wiley Boulevard SW, in Cedar Rapids.
Wednesday, September 23
Waterloo – 9:00 a.m., Waterloo Public Library, 415 Commercial Street, in Waterloo (this event will be outside, but in case of inclement weather, second floor open area past reference desk).
Dubuque – 11:30 a.m., Dubuque Carnegie-Stout Public Library, Lacey Board Room, 360 W. 11th Street, in Dubuque.
Davenport – 1:30 p.m., Fairmount Public Library, Small Meeting Room, 3000 N. Fairmount Street, in Davenport.
Burlington – 4:00 p.m., Burlington Public Library, Small Board Room, 210 Court Street, in Burlington.
Thursday, September 24
Ottumwa – 9:00 a.m., Ottumwa Public Library, Mary Lemon Room, 102 West 4th Street, in Ottumwa (lower floor of library).
Creston – Noon, Southwestern Community College, Performing Arts Building – Multipurpose Room (Room 124), 1501 W. Townline Street, in Creston.
Council Bluffs – 3:00 p.m., Council Bluffs Public Library, Meeting Room D, 400 Willow Avenue, in Council Bluffs.
Atlantic – 5:00 p.m., Atlantic Public Library, Meeting Room A, 507 Poplar Street, in Atlantic.
Paid for by Rob Hogg for U.S. Senate, Inc.
The headline of this story, Branstad Advocates for School Choice, makes it sounds like Governor Branstad is doing something good. Nothing could be further from the truth. Branstad is signaling his next move to dismantle public education. He is following the ALEC agenda to privatize everything, including education.
The article is about Branstad’s plan to lay the groundwork for further erosion of public school funding while directing more money for private schools.
wcfcourier.com/news/local/education/branstad-advocates-for-school-choice
DES MOINES | Gov. Terry Branstad touted himself as a champion for school choice Wednesday and pledged to try to boost funding next year for a tax credit supporting scholarships for low-income students attending private schools if state finances allow for an increased investment.
Branstad also told the group that funding for tax breaks to private K-12 school donors under the state’s student tuition organization tax credit has increased from $7.5 million in 2010 to $12 million now and he would seriously consider ACE’s request to boost it to $15 million in the fiscal 2017 state budget.
The GOP governor’s comments come at a time when public education advocates claim Iowa school children are being short-changed after a contentious 2015 budget session in which the Legislature forged a bipartisan plan to spend an extra $55.7 million in one-time money for K-12 schools, which Branstad vetoed.
Every day when you turn on the TV news there seems to be at least one story of a shooting even in small states like Iowa. Often that is about the last we hear of the victims. In our short attention span society today’s victim is soon replaced by tomorrow’s victim. We don’t hear of the grieving family left behind if the victim dies – the spouse, the children, the parents who must suddenly cope with a shattered life.
Nor do we hear of those that survive but whose lives are often thrown into a hell on earth of bankruptcy, dysfunctional bodies, countless surgeries and shattered families. Another aspect seldom considered is the loss of the victim’s talent in this world – what could they have produced? Could they have created the next internet mega company had their live’s not been so tragically altered? So much lost. Almost all of it in the United States senseless and avoidable. Australia showed us that a country with a will can take on the gun culture and win.
When the news of the murder of a young woman at Coral Ridge Mall spread early this summer, my heart went out to her family. Their lives are now shattered due to some guy’s fantasies and access to guns. How many times must lives be shattered before people cry out “Enough!” Even the slaughter of children at Newtown couldn’t get this country off the schneid.
One question that has persisted in my mind over many years is whether any group pr agency has ever put a dollar amount on the cost of gun violence in this country. Try as I might, I could never find any research that delved very deeply into this subject. It seemed rather odd that in a country that places a value on nearly everything the cost of our love affair with guns has gone mostly unresearched. Then, while waiting for an appointment earlier this week, I had a chance to catch up on my Mother Jones reading. Low and behold, I ran into this article.
There is a treasure trove of information in this article. It is hard to pick out representative passages to entice you to click on the link and take it all in. But here are a couple to start with:
HOW MUCH DOES gun violence cost our country? It’s a question we’ve been looking into at Mother Jones ever since the 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, left 58 wounded and 12 dead. How much care would the survivors and the victims’ families need? What would be the effects on the broader community, and how far out would those costs ripple? As we’ve continued to investigate gun violence, one of our more startling discoveries is that nobody really knows.
Jennifer Longdon was one of at least 750,000 Americans injured by gunshots over the last decade, and she was lucky not to be one of the more than 320,000 killed. Each year more than 11,000 people are murdered with a firearm, and more than 20,000 others commit suicide using one. Hundreds of children die annually in gun homicides, and each week seems to bring news of another toddler accidentally shooting himself or a sibling with an unsecured gun. And perhaps most disturbingly, even as violent crime overall has declined steadily in recent years, rates of gun injury and death are climbing (up 11 and 4 percent since 2011) and mass shootings have been on the rise.
Yet, there is no definitive assessment of the costs for victims, their families, their employers, and the rest of us—including the major sums associated with criminal justice, long-term health care, and security and prevention. Our media is saturated with gun carnage practically 24/7. So why is the question of what we all pay for it barely part of the conversation?
Why the lack of solid data? A prime reason is that the National Rifle Association and other influential gun rights advocates have long pressured political leaders to shut down research related to firearms. The Annals of Internal Medicine editorial detailed this “suppression of science”:
“Two years ago, we called on physicians to focus on the public health threat of guns. The profession’s relative silence was disturbing but in part explicable by our inability to study the problem. Political forces had effectively banned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other scientific agencies from funding research on gun-related injury and death. The ban worked: A recent systematic review of studies evaluating access to guns and its association with suicide and homicide identified no relevant studies published since 2005.”
Click on the link and read the full story. Mother Jones is one of the very best investigative journals in the country. They outdo themselves with this article.
Attribution: Mother Jones
3:21 AM this Wednesday who’s going to be out in the streets celebrating the long awaited beginning of Autumn besides me? Huh? What about it? Great time for a street party, donchya think? Be sure to wake the kids up, they won’t want to miss the start of Autumn! I always like to think of it as the one day of the year when we all share equal sunlight.
OK – I was gone a week and lots happened!
1) Another debate. In this one we heard that what GOP presidential candidate admitted he smoked pot as a kid?
2) The kiddie debate was short a couple of candidates. Are you savvy enough to know what two Republican candidates were missing?
3) Let’s not dwell on the past, though. Especially when what major world figure is dropping in on the US next week?
4) Bernie Sanders gave a speech at what unlikely venue to start the week?
5) Thursday night in a Q & A session, Donald Trump agreed that what is America’s #1 problem?
6) Top staffers from what 2 Republican presidential campaigns duked it out in a bar in Michigan Thursday night?
7) In 10 days, the 2 year olds (Republicans) in the US House will stamp their feet and close down what if they don’t get their way?
8) It took her two weeks, but what high profile Iowa woman politician finally took umbrage at Trump’s portrayal of Carly Fiorina?
9) The White House plans to raise the number of what to 10,000 next year?
10) In a party vote in Australia, Malcolm Turnbull ousted what Liberal Party leader to become the new prime minister?
11) An NYPD officer body slammed a suspect that turned out to be a famous athlete in what sport?
12) To note Constitution Day last week, Why Courts Matter Iowa Coalition cited what Iowa politician as being the most obstructionist ever for confirming federal judges?
13) September 24, 1957, President Eisenhower deploys federal troops to what city to enforce integration?
14) A historian in England claimed he found the first documented use of what well used word in court documents from the year 1310?
15) A week later and what Rowan County, Kentucky County Clerk is almost forgotten by all but Mike Huckabee?
16) In a victory for what groups, the Navy was ordered to limit use of sonar off the coasts of Hawaii and Southern California?
17) David Letterman comes out of a short retirement to lend a hand on a series about what world problem?
18) The faulty ignition switch cases involving GM resulted in how many executives being jailed for the deaths and injuries caused?
19) In Irving Texas a boy of Middle Eastern heritage was arrested for having a clock bomb, even though police later admitted what?
20) An agreement has been signed to build a Los Angeles to Las Vegas high speed train. One of the partners in this venture is what country?
Fall – who doesn’t love it?
Answers:
1) Jeb! Bush
2) Rick Perry dropped out and Jim Gilmore seems to have vaporized (poll numbers to low to get an invite)
3) Pope Francis was the answer I expected, but Chinese leader XI Jinping is also coming for a visit.
4) Liberty University
5) Muslims – his staff has spent days trying to backtrack. Trump also agreed Obama is a Muslim.
6) Marco Rubio and Rand Paul
7) the government unless they get a defunding of Planned Parenthood
8) Kim Reynolds
9) refugees from Syria
10) Tony Abbot
11) Tennis – James Blake
12) Chuck Grassley who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee has essentially stopped any federal confirmations
13) Little Rock
14) the well used F word
15) Kim Davis
16) whales, dolphins and other marine mammals
17) climate change
18) 0, nada, zilch. Just a fine
19) they knew it wasn’t a bomb, but they arrested him anyway
20) China. Geez we can’t even build a train to help fleece the public?
