Francis Thicke: “We Have Broken The Relationship Between Plants And Soil”

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Trish Nelson

Grass-based, organic dairy farmer Francis Thicke can be followed on Facebook.

 

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A Case Of Bernie

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Paul Deaton
Iowa Row Crops

Iowa Row Crops

Editor’s Note: Trish Nelson is taking time off and will return to regular posting on Blog for Iowa after Labor Day. Here is my first offering in an effort to fill her shoes as we enter high summer in the land of corn, conversation and caucuses).

For those who remember the political environment before Blog for Iowa’s humble beginnings in 2004, politics has changed. Enter Bernie Sanders for president.

David Corn of Mother Jones recently wrote about Sanders’ long-time relationship with Tad Devine of Devine Mulvey Longabaugh, and his strategy to win the Democratic nomination for president. The article is worth a read.

“Sanders has survived and thrived in politics by neutralizing negative ads and resisting the urge to attack,” Corn reported. Resisting negative attack ads has been a hallmark of Sanders’ previous campaigns.

Progressives have the 2016 presidential election to lose if the primary turns into a frenzy of negative publicity. Corn asserts Sanders has a proven way of approaching the electorate in a positive manner. Sanders’ methods seem similar to what Iowa Republicans did to elect Senator Joni Ernst: bypass the television and go directly to voters with a strong narrative.

Some of us recall political consultants James Carville and his rapid response operation, and Joe Trippi and his book The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, The Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. They seemed revolutionary at the time, even if their stars have faded. Rapid response and use of the Internet in campaigns have been assimilated as boilerplate campaign tools, and to a large extent have been eclipsed by the power of unlimited money in politics.

Sanders has disdain for unlimited money in politics and rejects super PACs, successfully focusing fundraising efforts on smaller, individual campaign contributions. Progressives like Sanders because of it.

All five Democratic presidential hopefuls agree there is a problem with Citizens United and the influx of unlimited money from a small number of donors. They differ in approach to solving the problem, and the bottom line is, as Elisabeth MacNamara, president of The League of Women Voters of the United States said recently in Des Moines, there is no political will to amend the constitution regarding Citizens United.

Sanders’ opposition to super PACs has done little to stop them from forming to support his candidacy. In a Burlington Free Press article, author Nicole Gaudiano quoted Sanders:

“I have not sanctioned any super PAC,” Sanders said in an interview. “A major problem of our campaign finance system is that anybody can start a super PAC on behalf of anybody and can say anything. And this is what makes our current campaign finance situation totally absurd.”

His comments notwithstanding, PACs like Progressive Democrats for America and Bet on Bernie 2016 hope to raise millions to support Sanders’ campaign. The former designed a two-fold, web-based donation platform where a donor can contribute directly to Sanders’ campaign and to the PAC with a few easy clicks.

Will the nuanced approach Sanders used previously regarding going negative in campaigns be possible during the Democratic primary/caucus season? How will he parse the tendentious issue of money in politics when his campaign must raise about $50 million for the primary campaign?

Sanders’ supporters I know have not thought much about this. There is social buzz about Sanders where his every word is like a drop of wine. Will Sanders still be standing after his supporters drink a case?

Posted in 2016 Election Campaign, Bernie Sanders | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Overnight Dispatches

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Paul Deaton

Idyllic farm scene from IowaFollowing the news has been like drinking from a fire hose. What the corporate media doles out to us is only a small fraction of the story. Here are some events that happened in the last 12 hours.

The Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greelyville, S.C. went up in flames last night. The cause of the fire is unknown as officials investigate. This is the seventh burning of an African American church in the South since the June 17 shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. Three of the seven fires have been identified as arson. Read Melissa Boughton’s coverage here.

The White House set the formal announcement of re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba this morning at 11 a.m. EDT. The plan is for each country to open an embassy in the other.

The State Department released more than 3,600 pages of Hillary Clinton emails purportedly related to Benghazi, Libya. Already Bloomberg made a cursory pass, pointing out the banalities of life as HRC. Read Jennifer Epstein’s post here. Even though Clinton has explained what happened in her book Hard Choices… well just keep your sanity and view this as an extension of the Whitewater investigation.

Political consultant and campaign manager for Howard Dean’s campaign Joe Trippi apologized for creating the hailstorm of political contribution requests many received yesterday as the second quarter financial reporting period closed at midnight. As John Deeth pointed out, it’s about the bat.

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The Associated Press story on slavery in the fishing industry continued as they featured the homecoming of a man who was held captive as a slave for 22 years on an Indonesian fishing boat. These ships produce seafood for U.S. markets. Margie Mason and Robin McDowell’s stories about slavery represent amazing work as journalists. BFIA posted about it here. Here’s last night’s story:

What else, BFIA readers?

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How The Gun Lobby’s Top Legislative Priority In Iowa Was Defeated

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Trish Nelson

iowa capitoldesmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/06/29/common-sense-guns/

by John Feinblatt

Every four years, the national media looks to Iowa for stories about where American voters stand on pressing issues.

After what happened this spring here in Des Moines, it’s clear where Iowans stand on guns and public safety — and how Iowans made their voices heard is a story that deserves to be told.

It starts in the Statehouse, where the NRA’s lobbyists pushed Senate File 425. The bill set out to overturn a longstanding background check requirement on private handgun sales. In effect, the gun lobby wanted to get rid of a provision that helps ensure guns sold at places like gun shows and via the Internet are subject to the same rules as guns sold at federally licensed dealers.

In quickly advancing the bill to the floor, gun lobby-aligned lawmakers conveniently avoided talking about what the bill would actually do. They went so far as to say that that the bill was focused on “safety improvements.” They also touted the bill’s other provisions, including those that would streamline the law to ease some restrictions on law-abiding gun owners. The lobbyists never mentioned repealing background checks. That makes sense, since 88 percent of Iowans support the background check policy.

In the run-up to the final vote on the Senate floor, I reached out to Republican strategists in Iowa to see whether the NRA could be stopped.

“Not a chance,” longtime political observers told me. “They’re too powerful and once they’ve gotten something on the floor, there’s no way to beat them.”

We’ve heard that line for years. Too often, we’ve taken it for granted. The truth is, there’s only one way to find out if the conventional wisdom is actually accurate: show up and fight back.

And that’s what we did.

The Iowa chapter of Moms Demand Action, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, went to work. Iowa moms made nearly 5,000 phone calls to state senators, explaining what the bill really would do. They held an advocacy day and delivered petitions filled with signatures. They ran informational advertisements in newspapers across the state.

Most important, they talked face to face with their friends and neighbors.

In the end, the so-called experts were wrong. The Legislature never passed the bill, and the “unbeatable” gun lobby saw its top legislative priority in Iowa defeated.

The lesson we should take from Iowa is simple, and bears repeating.

When people know what’s in a bill —when legislators understand the consequences of what they’re voting on — they’ll do the right thing.

Using misleading language to mask a bill’s true purpose may have worked in the past, but it didn’t this time. Once we got away from the horse-trading lobbyists at the Capitol and into cities and towns throughout the state, we saw that the public wanted to keep the background check system in place. Iowans know that keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous felons is just common sense. Like the vast majority of Americans, they believe that Second Amendment rights go hand in hand with basic safety measures.

The defeat of SF 425 is more than just a political victory, though. Iowans will be safer as a result of its defeat. We know this because in nearby Missouri, legislators overturned a background check requirement in 2007 and the results were deadly. Research by the scholar Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, found that after Missouri did the gun lobby’s bidding and gutted its background check system, the state’s gun homicide rate increased by nearly 25 percent. We know, too, that the gun suicide rate in Iowa is 27 percent lower than in states that lack comprehensive background check measures.

Ultimately, the win in Iowa serves as yet another reminder that when you try new approaches and get voters engaged on an issue, powerful interests can be defeated.

When the people go head to head against the gun lobby, the people —and public safety —can prevail.

John Feinblatt is the president of Everytown for Gun Safety. Contact: info@everytown.org

Posted in ALEC, gun control, Iowa legislature 2015 | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Ernst And King Forced To Give Money Back

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Trish Nelson

AlecProgress Iowa has done an exemplary job of exposing the workings of ALEC in Iowa and holding conservatives accountable.  Click here to check out Progress Iowa’s website. Please support them if you can.  Video below is news coverage by a Mason City local TV station, KIMT.

Congressman Steve King and Senator Joni Ernst accepted thousands of dollars from a white supremacist linked to the tragic shootings in Charleston, South Carolina. A petition launched by Progress Iowa was signed by more than 1,000 in less than 4 hours, and led to both King and Ernst using those donations to support the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund, in support of the shooting’s victims.

 

Posted in Joni Ernst, Steve King | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Sunday Videos

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Dave Bradley

OUTRAGE IN IOWA CITY
following the Iowa decision in 2009

Woman removes Confederate flag in SC
her name is Bree Newsome on the off chance that you haven’t seen this

We celebrate our country’s independence next Saturday. I would say this is a good start

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Sunday Funday: Hey! The Sun Ain’t Movin’! Edition

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Dave Bradley
Sunday morning before church cheesecake Mike Luckovich, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday morning before church cheesecake
Mike Luckovich, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

I’m warning you – the sun is stuck. If it don’t move pretty soon, it’s going to get hot. I mean hot!

Were you paying attention? It was one busy week.

1) The car from the Dukes of Hazzard tv show will no longer be produced with a confederate flag on it. What is the name of that car?

2) “Interpretive jiggery-pokery” is how Scalia termed the majority opinion in what SCOTUS case this week?

3) There are 3 countries on the North American continent. Which one(s) do not have marriage equality?

4) President Obama took some undue criticism for saying a bad word. What bad word did he say?

5) The grandson of preacher Billy Graham resigned his pastor position at a Florida church amid charges of what?

6) What young man apologized for the lives he had taken at his sentencing hearing last week?

7) What two Iowa politicians had to deal with contributions from the Conservative Citizens Council leader last week?

8) Doctors in Adelaide, Australia warned women that what fashionable clothing could cause nerve and muscle damage?

9) Wikileaks claimed they had proof that the NSA spied on the last three presidents of what?

10) A California judge dismissed a ballot initiative that proposed to do what to people who engaged in gay sex?

11) An almost perfect storm of fasting during Ramadan, power outages and what act of nature resulted in the death of 800+ people in Karachi, Pakistan since Sunday?

12) What Spanish language network dropped coverage of the Miss USA pageant after remarks by Miss USA part owner Donald Trump?

13) Donald Featherstone died this week. While you may not recognize his name, you will certainly recognize his most famous creation. What did Donald Featherstone create?

14) Hard to believe it has been a century plus a year since the assassination of this man triggered what would become known as World War I?

15) His state is falling apart under his leadership, so which governor thought it a good time to announce a run for president last week?

16) Take a guess how Steve King felt about the SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality?

17) Thursday was a good day for what industry in the stock market?

18) Taxis have gone on strike in France, snarling traffic to protest the presence of what competitor?

19) A bad week for the Palins. Grandma Palin was finally severed as a commentator for what network while daughter Bristol announced a second unmarried pregnancy?

20) Japan announced they were lifting a 67 year old ban on what activity to the delight of the nation’s night clubs?

BTW – there are many more suits against the ACA working their way through the judicial system. Look for another one to wiggle its way up to the SCOTUS again next year. Killing the ACA anyway they can is what Republicans do.

Answers:

1) the General Lee

2) King v. Burwell or the ACA case

3) none . All three now have marriage equality

4) the ’N’ word during an interview with Marc Maron

5) having an affair while both he and the woman were married to different partners

6) Dzjokar Tsarnaev (Boston Bomber)

7) Steve King and Joni Ernst

8) tight jeans.

9) France

10) kill them with bullets to the head or anything else that was convenient

11) heat wave with temps up to 113 degrees

12) Univision. Seems Trump made quite disparaging remarks about Hispanics when he announced his presidential run.

13) the pink lawn flamingo

14) the archduke Ferdinand

15) Bobby Jindal

16) if you said he was against it, you would be right.

17) for profit hospitals. The ACA ruling saved their butts

18) Uber

19) Fox (not) News

20) public dancing

Posted in Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: Hey! The Sun Ain’t Movin’! Edition

Another Judicial Retention Fight Next Year?

Posted on June 27, 2015 by Dave Bradley
Iowa Supreme Court photo 2013

Iowa Supreme Court photo 2013

Wouldn’t you have thought that after 3 judges were replaced by the new Terry Branstad that he and his party would pretty much get their way in the Iowa Supreme Court? Thus after appointing all the members of the Iowa Board of Medicine and having them go after telemedicine abortions it truly looked like there would be no trouble making a ruling against telemedia abortions stick.

It is what we like to call rigging the game. Remember when Bob Vander Plaats (R-Heaven) went after the three judges that were up for retention after the marriage equality decision? They only went after the three because that is all the law allowed to be up for a retention vote at one time. The retention vote was also used to drive up right wing voter numbers in an off year election. After a vicious campaign all three judges were escorted unceremoniously from the chambers and shiny new Governor Terry Branstad took to the task of replacing them.

The nomination and confirmation process was relatively uneventful. With a majority of the Court appointed by Branstad it surely might give one to think that Republicans may have a sympathetic ear in the chamber.

They appeared not to count on the integrity of the judges. Well, much as in the marriage equality case, the justices voted 6-0 that if you allow something for one citizen, then you must allow it for all. Oddly, this is in the Iowa Constitution. That is the guideline used by the justices. Always has been.

Here is an excerpt from the Quad City Times that lays the issue out succinctly:

“When Branstad’s appointees to the Iowa Board of Medicine outlawed the practice, Planned Parenthood of Iowa filed suit, claiming the selective ban was aimed squarely at discriminating against women, the only gender that would seek this prescription.

The Board of Medicine never discussed other applications of telemedicine. Its ban focused only on prescriptions of abortion-inducing drugs.

The Iowa Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling agreed with standards from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists affirming the practice safe. The court ruled: “In their view, the medically necessary information a physician needs to determine whether to proceed with a medication abortion is contained in the patient’s history, blood work, vital signs, and ultrasound images—which can be accessed by reviewing the patient’s records remotely or in person.”

Further, the court said Branstad’s board, “imposes some burdens that would not otherwise exist,” for women seeking these services.”

For those who heard a clip of Branstad’s reaction Monday morning he sounded like he had just been cheated by a business partner. He was sounded stunned and betrayed. At the end he brought up the possibility of a judicial retention fight by saying he wouldn’t be looking for judicial fight:

“I do respect the fact that the judiciary is a separate branch of government and the ultimate decision is with the people of Iowa as to whether they want to retain the judges or not,” the governor said. “So the position that I have consistently taken is not to advocate for or against the justices that are up for retention.”

Many folks forget that following the loss of their seats Justices Ternus, Baker and Streit were awarded a John F. Kennedy ‘Profiles in Courage’ award. At the ceremony Caroline Kennedy noted:

The three judges are interesting and courageous on many levels, … Like many of the people who get this award, they don’t consider that they are doing anything particularly courageous, they just feel they’re doing what’s right, they’re doing their job.

Have to wonder if we will have a repeat in 2016.

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Woah! What A Week!

Posted on June 27, 2015 by Dave Bradley

‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just some quick comments on quite a historical week:

There’s A New Flag In Town
For those who feel that the state should fly the flag that promotes their side in a controversy, I have to wonder if they would approve of a rainbow flag being flown on state grounds in a silent approval of marriage equality?

No Strategy, Just Destroy
Is the Republican Party only about ATTACK, DESTROY, PLUNDER? That seems to be their strategy since FDR but it has really come to a head during the Obama Administration. Think about their strategy concerning Social Security since its passage. Think of their strategy since Medicare. Think of their strategy since the ACA. The strategy since the ACA is so ludicrous that no one could ever had predicted such a reaction. Wasting huge amounts of time and money over and over taking useless votes in the House while real problems fester into huge problems. Willing to destroy the health care system in order to destroy the ACA. Crazy

Vander Plaats:
When I heard the SCOTUS decision on marriage equality my first thought turned to Bob Vander Plaats. Couldn’t help but think that the hate that he carries within him must be eating him alive right now. No doubt he is invoking Jesus’ teachings against homosexuality in his conversations today. But Jesus never said a thing about homosexuality. Jesus told us to love one another. That is the real Jesus. That is the one to study. Vander Plaats you may want to read your bible.

Heritage?
It continues to amaze me that so many citizens feel that the state should be flying a flag of treason on government grounds. Government grounds are owned by all people and as such should display only symbols that have been approved by all. Remember also that this flag is not only a flag of treason, in its current incarnation it is a flag of internal rebellion against the national government being promoted by the individual states. Amazing this could go on so long. Thanks in large measure to gutless politicians and the role of money in our political system.

Now, Democrats, Run On Health Care
The SCOTUS did Democrats a huge favor Thursday. The last strange challenge to the ACA was brushed away and the ACA is left with a solid base. Poll after poll shows that Americans want to have access to health care by a wide margin. Democrats ran away from the ACA in the last election and got their asses handed to them. Each and every Democrat needs to stand up for the ACA and promise to improve and expand it. They also need to challenge their opponents to spell out what “repeal and replace” really means. They are nothing but empty rhetoric.

Has The Message Sunk In? Quit The Damned Discrimination.
In the last couple of years the country has been in various stages of outrage over the inequalities that the Powers That Be try to maintain. From the war against black people in urban environments to the war on women being battered and discriminated against in employment to the war on equal treatment before the law for gays. Time and again we have seen citizens stand up and say in one voice “NO MORE!” Slowly things are changing. With the eyes of the internet seemingly watching everything and exposing lies and corruption throughout our system maybe we are headed ever so slowly to government FOR the people. But the people must grab the opportunity to work and vote.

Internet Neutrality:
As noted by the previous paragraph, one of the very instrumental keys to continuing to expose the lies and corruption is a neutral internet. Now can you understand why the right wing, especially the likes of the Koch brothers and the corporate media is so interested in controlling the internet. They have controlled all the other information media in this country for a long time. Doesn’t take a lot of research to find that the US has one of the worst informed publics in the world. We can’t get good information from TV, radio (even the vaunted NPR), magazines or newspapers. If they controlled the internet they would have a monopoly on information.

Nixon’s Southern Strategy.
45 years later the ugly outcome of Nixon’s Southern Strategy is coming home to roost. Promising to turn a blind eye to discrimination in the South for the delivery of votes, the Southern Strategy turned the Republicans into a viable party once more in the US. Now they are caught in a trap of whether to continue their support of the power structure in the South and alienate voters elsewhere in the country or abandon the South for votes elsewhere. This was manifested last week when Republican presidential candidates tried to claim they were on both sides of the confederate flag issue. Jeb! Bush was the most hilarious by far.

Can We Expect Massive Divorces On The Right Now?
They have been predicting that is what would happen. Call me a skeptic, but I won’t believe it until I see it. The 20 or so Republican presidential candidates should take the lead in this one.

Obama Legacy Caving Into Corporations?
Looks like the TPP, TTIP and TISA – the three trade deals that look like the monster that could kill America – are all but written into the law books. One of the real imponderables of the Obama years. Especially considering the lessons that all the previous similar trade deals have taught us.

Dutch Court Tells Government: Cut Pollution
In a case in the Netherlands last week, a Dutch court ordered the government to cut pollution by 25% in five years. The biggest question coming out of this is whether courts will become the battle ground on climate change around the world?

Married Today, Fired Tomorrow
Heard on the radio Friday after the marriage equality ruling came down: “ Remember that gay folks can get married anywhere in the US now, but when they go back to work on Monday morning they can legally be fired for being gay in most states.” There is work to be done yet, folks.

Posted in Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama, civil rights, Corporate Greed, economic inequality, marriage equality, Medicare, Radio, Republicn Policy, SCOTUS, Social Security, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Woah! What A Week!

A Musical Day In America

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Trish Nelson
Posted in marriage equality | Tagged , | Comments Off on A Musical Day In America