A New Progressive Anthem

I found this ad for the Oregon Bus Project that I thought was pretty good.

Not bigger government, not smaller government, but better government. Not left, not right, but forward. Voters wanted.

Edwards Announces Iowa Staff

John Edwards announced his campaign staff in Iowa. It seems to be a lot of the same people who worked for him in 2004, considering he finished second, isn't a bad thing. This time around though, a second place finish in Iowa would be a disappointment.

Edwards' Iowa State Director is Jennifer O'Malley, who worked as Edward's Iowa Field Director back in 2003-04. O'Malley also has expierence working for Tom Dachle and Tim Johnson in South Dakota.

Here's a look at some of the other staff members...

Jackie Lee — Iowa Field Director
Lee returns to Iowa for her second caucuses having served as the North Central Iowa Regional Field Director for the Edwards for President Campaign in the 2003-04 cycle, and then as Field Director in Virginia and Florida. Most recently Lee served as Field Director for the Florida Democratic Party. Previously, she was Delaware State Director for the Emergency Campaign for America’s Priorities and for Americans United to Protect Social Security and served as the Field Director for the Oklahoma Democratic Coordinated Campaign.

Pat Maloney — Iowa Political Director
Maloney joins the campaign from 21st Century Democrats where he was National Field Director during 2006. Maloney, a native of Cushing, Oklahoma, worked as Political Director for the 2004 Oklahoma Democratic Coordinated Campaign. Maloney is returning to Iowa for his second time having previously organized southwestern Iowa for Edwards in the 2003-04 caucuses before working as Deputy Field Director in Oklahoma and Texas.

Matt McGrath — Iowa Trip Director
McGrath is a veteran of the Iowa caucuses, having organized parts of Southeastern Iowa for Edwards in 2003-04, and then continuing with the campaign in Tennessee and Ohio. He was South Carolina’s Coordinated Campaign Director in 2006. Prior to that, McGrath worked with New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes, helping to set up his successful campaign for Congress. In 2005, McGrath served as the Kentucky State Director for Americans United to Protect Social Security. McGrath served as a Regional Field Director for Anchorage for Tony Knowles’ U.S. Senate race in 2004.

Mark McCullough – Iowa Deputy Press Secretary
McCullough worked at the American Association for Justice as the Southern Regional Press Secretary. Prior to that, he handled media for the non-profit Washington Regional Transplant Consortium, a Donate Life organization. In the last caucuses, McCullough organized Iowa City and eastern Iowa for Edwards and later worked in Virginia and Florida. The Florida native has also worked on U.S. Senate campaigns in South Dakota and Oklahoma.

Zach Wineburg – Iowa Deputy Field Director
Wineburg, a North Carolina native, returns to Iowa after organizing northeastern Iowa for Edwards in the 2003-04 cycle before continuing with the campaign in Virginia and Georgia. Recently, Wineburg was the Kansas City Regional Field Director for the successful McCaskill for U.S. Senate campaign in Missouri. He previously worked at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

Chris Fields — Surrogate Trip Director for Iowa
Fields previously worked as a Field Organizer in Davenport for Edwards’ campaign during the 2003-04 caucuses. She most recently managed the successful re-election campaign of State Senator Beall. Fields, a seasoned Hispanic organizer, was the director of all Hispanic and bilingual educational efforts at D.C. ParentSmart, a Washington, D.C. based educational non-profit and as a Field Organizer for the South Carolina Democratic Party to elect Inez Tenenbaum to the U.S. Senate.

Melanie Muenzer — Iowa Operations Director
Muenzer is back in Iowa after having worked in 2006 for Congressman Leonard Boswell’s re-election campaign, a position sponsored through Senator Evan Bayh’s All-America PAC. In Chicago, she handled operations for a real estate title company. Prior to that, the native of Indiana worked extensively in 2004 on Governor Joe Kernan’s race.

Forget Cigarettes...tax Meth

I was watching the news last night and I heard Republican Representitive Lance Horbach from Tama say in debate on the cigarette tax that we shouldn't be increasing the tax on cigarettes and should put a $5 tax on methanphetamine.

I know that Rep. Horbach was being a little sarcastic, but his example is beyond ridiculous. The Republicans didn't have any other better reason to not raise the tax, as the $1 per pack increase was passed in the House 58-40.

From the Register...

The $1-a-pack tax hike is expected to cut the overall demand for cigarettes by 19 percent, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency. About 20 percent of Iowa adults smoke, said anti-tobacco lobbyists, who predicted more than 20,000 current smokers will quit to avoid the higher tax.

Critics say it will push some Iowans to buy their cigarettes across the border into Missouri, where the tax is only 17 cents a pack, or into Nebraska, where it's 64 cents.

Bill Tackles Student Loan Debt in Attempt to Keep Young Iowans in Iowa

I have written that one reason Iowa's young people are leaving the state is because of higher student loan debt when they have graduated college. Here is what I wrote back in September...

However, young people decide if they want to stay in Iowa when they graduate from college and today our young people are finding themselves graduating with a ton of debt from student loans from tuition nearly doubling since 2000.

Let's say a young Iowan graduates with a degree in education and has $50,000 of debt from student loans. Will that person decide to get a job in Iowa and make $30,000 a year or will they go to Texas and make over $40,000. How about a nurse who graduates with $50,000 of student loan debt. They can choose to stay in Iowa and make $30,000 a year or go to Minneapolis or Kansas City and make $45,000. A pharmacy graduate with student loan debt can stay in Iowa and make $90,000 or head elsewhere and earn well over $100,000.

These people may like Iowa, but that extra money sure would help pay off the amount of student loan debt they have accumalated. What choice would you make?

There is a bill being debated that addressess this issue. From the Des Moines Register...

One way Iowa can keep young people in the state is for employers who hire them to pay back all or part of their student loans in exchange for a tax credit from the state, one professor says.

College graduates could see their loan debt - up to $25,000 - erased within three years under House File 730, a bill supported by Democrats and Republicans in the Iowa Legislature.

Employers would have a competitive edge over those in neighboring states with an unusual way to recruit new graduates for hard-to-fill or competitive jobs, said University of Iowa business professor Jay Christensen-Szalanski, who came up with the idea.

Privatized Government Is Not A Smaller Government

One of the key principles of the Republican Party is a smaller government. Republican strategist, Grover Norquist has even said...

I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

Over the past 6 years in Washington, the Republcian leadership has been privatizing government in the attempt to make it smaller. However, a privatized government is not a smaller government. It is just a government that gives your tax dollars to companies to provide poorer quality services.

All you have to do is look at the mess of a privatized FEMA during Hurricane Katrina, the safety of drinking water for troops in Iraq, and most recently the poor care of injured troops at Walter Reed.

I agree that it is important to cut wasteful spending, duplicate programs, and pork barrel projects. However, people forget that government is by the people, for the people, meaning that government is meant to provide services that people need. Services that help people. Some of these services aren't able to be successfully done by private business.

We shouldn't complain that our money is being spent, we should demand that our money is being spent well. We shouldn't be giving our tax dollars away for these services to be done by the lowest bidder. Some of these services are too important to be done by the lowest bidder. A smaller government isn't the answer, the answer is a quality government that serves the people and one that we can be proud of.

John Edwards Community Meeting in Newton

Yesterday, I attended the Community Meeting John Edwards held in Newton. The event was held at the UAW Hall and close to 200 people were there. Check out Iowa for Edwards for video of the event and links to news stories.

Edwards opened by saying that our next president needs real ideas and vision, but more importantly needs to be someone with honesty, openess, decency, and someone we can trust. Edwards showed that he is going to be open about his ideas throughout this campaign saying...

When you to caucus in January of 2008, which I hope is for me, you will know where I stand. Not just on health care, but also Iraq, energy, jobs, and global warming. You will know where I stand.

He then outlined his health care plan saying that it is based on shared responsibility. I would write more about the details of the plan, but the Des Moines Register did a good job doing that. Plus, I want to watch the DVD that the Edwards campaign is mailing out to 70,000 Iowans that outlines his health care plan. The biggest positive that I see in his plan is that it provides seemless care, so if you change jobs, you don't have to worry about changing your health care coverage. Edwards got the biggest ovation when he said that he would pay for the plan by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans.

Edwards spoke about 15 mintues about health care and then opened it up for questions. Edwards did very well in this setting. He was asked about a wide range of topics, answered honestly, and threw in a joke here and there.

On Iran, he said that he would work with Europe to put pressure on Iran by speaking directly to the Iranian people and attempting to drive a wedge between the people and those in power.

Edwards was asked about social security. He said the last things we should do is raise the retirement age or reduce benefits. People who work all their lives, should be able to retire, when they retire. This line got a large applause from the crowd. Edwards said he would think about keeping the cap on Social Security taxes, which is currently at $90,000, and create a bubble to $150,000 or $170,000, so that middle class people don't get hit with more taxes, yet the wealthy pay more into the fund.

The next question was on immigration and was the most interesting exchange of the day. The man began asking if Edwards considered himself a politician or American first saying that everyone is playing politics and not doing what is right for the country. Then he started asking about immigration. All in all, the man spoke for a couple minutes before Edwards could answer. When Edwards responded, he said that maybe the man should be running, which drew laughter from the audience and the man asking the question. The man responded by saying that he would rather work to get Edwards elected. This type of exchange would not have been able to take place in a larger venue, like the ones Obama and Hillary have had here, or Edwards' announcement in Des Moines in December. It is these exchanges that make the Iowa Caucuses unique and helps Iowans really get to know the candidates.

Edwards' response to the question on immigration was that first and foremost it is a border security issue. He said that the current situation is not sustainable. Next, he would have much tougher laws on employers. Finally, the people here should have a chance to earn citizenship. He stressed the word earn by saying they should pay a fine if they came here illegally, they should learn to speak English, and follow the laws.

The next person thanked Edwards for dropping out of the Nevada debate sponsored by Fox News. Radio Iowa wrote about the question and Edwards responds by saying...

We have a bunch of forums and debates...but there's a limit to how many of those things you need to do. I didn't see any reason, under those circumstances, to give FOX News a forum.

There's another question about health care. Edwards says that nearly half of all bankruptcies are due to medical costs and that you are more likely today to file for bankruptcy than for divorce. He then had a good line, saying that those in Washington that say the economy is doing great in America, should come visit the people in Newton and see what it is really like. Edwards the goes on to say that some say universal health care is for the 47 million Americans that are uninsured. He believes it is a moral issue to provide insurance to these people, but his plan is much more. It is for everyone who is stuck in a system that isn't working.

Edwards then said that baby steps won't work anymore to solve the issues we face today, not health care, not ridding our addiction to oil, not in Iraq, and that we need real leadership on these issues.

Then a student from Grinnell College asks about the rising cost of college tuition. Edwards discussed his College for Everyone plan that he put into place in 2005 in North Carolina. The plan is if you graduate from college and have the grades to go to college, you get your books and tuition paid if you work 10 hours a week. He discusses our debt for diploma system by saying this plan decreases the debt load students have.

Finally, there is a question from State Senator Dennis Black about ethanol. Edwards says that we need a comphensive investment in developing renewable energy such as ethanol, solar, wind, biofuels, and new technology. We need to conserve and need more fuel efficient vehicles and buildings. Then we need to cap emissions and he would have a cap and trade system. He then transitioned into talking about global warming saying that the situation is an emergency. He close by saying that it is time for the President to ask Americans to be patriotic about something besides war.

At this event, I got a better understanding of where he stood on the issues. I wish he would have talked some about NAFTA, Fair Trade, and outsourcing American jobs. This was the place to bring these issues up. Edwards had the chance to say that he is against Free Trade agreements that ship jobs overseas and that he supports Fair Trade agreements.

At his official announcement in Des Moines back in December, Edwards gave a motivating speech that called you to get involved in making America better. I was pumped when I left the event. However, I felt that Edwards was close to be right on the issues, but not quite there yet. At this event, Edwards got a step closer.

Century of the Common Iowan is 1 Year Old

One year ago yesterday, I started Century of the Common Iowan. I picked the name in honor of the great Iowan, Henry Wallace, who was Vice President under FDR. In my first post, I wrote...

Wallace never became President. If he had the world would surely be a different place today. That doesn't mean his message should be forgotten. We have started a new Century, so lets call for the 21st Century to be the Century of the Common Man. In a time when our nations priorities are backwards, we need a Century of the Common Man. There is no better place to start the call than in the state where Henry Wallace was born, Iowa.

I wanted the blog to be a collection of interesting stories and videos that I found and a chance for me to write about some of the important issues that affect the lives of common Iowans. It seems that a lot of our political debate is centered around the hot button wedge issues, while the issues that affect the live of the common Iowan are continually being ignored.

Over the past year I have written a lot about issues such as the rising cost of college tuition and Iowa's Brain Drain, immigration, and the need for a trade policy that protects American jobs. I have focused on the need to stand up for the core Democratic values of equality, opportunity, freedom, the rule of law, separation of powers, and security.

This has led me write about the false moderates that make up part of the Democratic Party. These so-called Centrists fail to stand up for these core Democratic beliefs. They believe they can have it both ways by voting for the interests of big business, while speaking about the interests of the common American. Then they tell the core Democrats their views are out of the mainstream. David Sirota writes...

That’s really the problem with the term - and with Washington’s definition of it. “Centrism” as defined in the political dialogue today means “being in the middle of elite opinion in Washington, D.C.” But if you plot this “center” on the continuum that is American public opinion, you will find that it is nowhere near the actual center of the country at large. The center of elite Washington opinion is ardently free trade, against national health care, opposed to market regulation, for continuing the Iraq War, and supportive of the flattest tax structure we’ve had in contemporary American history. That center is on the extreme fringe of the center of American public opinion, which is ardently skeptical of free trade, for universal health care, supportive of strong market regulations, insistent that the war end soon, and in favor of making the tax system more progressive.

I have been lucky and received some invitations to meet politicians when they have been in Iowa that I would not have gotten if I did not have a blog. These have come from Wesley Clark, Bill Richardson, John and Elizabeth Edwards, and Iowans for Sensible Priorities. I haven't been able to attend some of these events, but it is great to be invited.

Some political events in Iowa that I did get a chance to attend include John Edwards campaigning in Ames and his official announcement for President, Tom Harkin campaigning for a local state house race, Chris Dodd campaigning for Chet Culver and Dave Loebsack, and live blogged from Barack Obama's rally in Ames (Part 1 and Part 2). In the Democratic Primary for Governor, I wrote a lot about the Ed Fallon campaign, clean elections, and the Values Fund. Before the 2006 Elections, I had the chance to have meetings with Dave Loebsack, Selden Spencer, and Denise O'Brien.

Some people ask me why I take the time to do this. I am reminded of this quote by Paul Wellstone...

Politics is what we create by what we do, what we hope for, and what we dare to imagine.

It has been a great year blogging and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. Thanks for reading and please keep coming back.

What Bills Made it Through Funnel Week?

Popular Progressive takes a close look at what bills made it through funnel week and what bills did not. It is worth checking out.

If a bill did not pass through committee this week then it can not be debated the rest of the session. Here is a list of bills that passed through committee and are still up for debate (The ones in bold are ones that I believe to be the biggest issues)...

Bills that are still "Staying Alive" (Grazi, Brothers Gibb)

Raise teacher pay by average $2,000 a year
Raise cigarette tax by $1 per pack
Create Iowa Power Fund to encourage renewable/alternative energy
Add sexual orientation/gender identity to protected civil rights classes
Create safe zones to keep sexual predators away from children
Give injured workers choice of doctor
Take steps to limit greenhouse gas emissions
Ease water-based requirements for landed casinos
Allow same-day voter registration
Extend school infrastructure sales tax statewide
Raise compulsory school attendance age to 18
Give incentives to attract film-making projects in Iowa
Require ``paper trail'' for voting machines
Cap interest rates at 21 percent for car-title loans
Ban ownership or possession of a wild animal
Empower local smoking regulation
Give counties more say in hog-lot siting decisions
Adopt tough ``zero tolerance'' penalties for sexual predators
Establish private cause of action for consumer fraud
Lower legal threshold for boating while intoxicated
Bar parent-teacher conferences on general election day
Remove unarmed combat fight from regulation by state labor commissioner
Require kids under 13 to wear floatation jackets on boats
Require back-seat passengers under age 18 to be restrained
Change cable franchise laws
Expand Great Places program
Create crime for abuse of a human corpse
Create statewide voluntary 4-year-olds preschool program
Establish community-based wind energy program
Regulate body piercing and require parental consent for minors
Register beer kegs
Give school district reorganization incentives
Bar remote control or Internet hunting of wild animals
Limit campaign contributions for statewide/legislative elections
Shield personal identifiable information in county records
Require landlord to have good cause to end mobile home rental pact
Establish program for home visits for all families with a newborn child
Exclude unarmed combat fighting from boxing and wrestling regulation
Require state to convert state-owned vehicles to alternative fuel vehicles
Negotiate bottle bill changes
Restrict investment in Sudan
Reimburse students the cost of advanced placement exams
Prohibit people younger than 17 riding in the open bed of a pickup
Replace ``idiot'' with ``mentally incompetent'' in Iowa Constitution
Delineate core curriculum standards
Prohibit tobacco use on school property

Update: Obama Paid His Parking Tickets

Barack Obama has paid his parking tickets that dated back to his Harvard Law days.

Here are the details...

Two weeks before the Illinois senator officially entered the presidential race on February 10, he paid parking fines he received while attending Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Cambridge city official said on Thursday

I guess this puts him back on my list of top candidates.

This Changes Everything on Obama

Barack Obama was near the top of my list of presidential hopefuls until yesterday when I saw this story on Political Insider...

Obama had 17 parking tickets while at Harvard Law; That went unpaid for 17 years.

Oh the horror!

This shows that people are willing to dig deep, real deep for dirt on the candidates. It is pretty ridiculous and it is what ends up turing people off from being active in politics.

Pretty soon we will see ads like this...

Iowa Power Fund Passes Out of Committee

From the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (IRenew)...

The Iowa Energy Independence act passed the first funnel last night and is alive and well. Many energy issues are included in the bill, including more funding for the Iowa Energy Center. I have pasted the bill in its entirety below.

From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa Power Fund

WHAT: A $100 million fund to go toward research in alternative energy sources, such as wind, plants, grasses, animal wastes, solar power, water, vegetables, and other renewable sources. Gov. Chet Culver is seeking an immediate $25 million. The rest would be spent over the following three years.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: The goal is to help start and expand energy businesses in Iowa, to make Iowa a leader in researching new energy technologies, to create new high-paying jobs, to leverage new private investments, to lower energy costs for Iowans, to cut Iowa's dependence on foreign oil, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize the global climate.

WHAT'S NEW: The policy piece of the plan, House File 498, was endorsed by a House committee late Tuesday as lawmakers scrambled to keep it alive past the first legislative funnel deadline. The bill includes a new director of energy independence, an advisory council of experts to set goals and guide spending, and the power fund. Meanwhile, the money piece, Senate Study Bill 1298, was approved in a Senate committee Tuesday morning.

The Iowa Power Fund was a key of Culver's campaign for governor. During the campaign the plan showed that Culver had the vision to lead the state into the future. Energy indpendence is not an easy task and bills like this are a key to achieving these goals.

Fallon Lecture in Des Moines Thursday

Ed Fallon is giving a lecture on Thursday night in Des Moines called Politics as a Religous Vocation. I think this would be very interesting to attend, but probably won't get the chance to.

A couple people that I talked to before the Democratic primary said they usually vote Republican, but were voting for Fallon because he had the strongest religous values of any of the candidates. Here is more about the lecture from an email from Ed Fallon...

I’m giving a talk this Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Student Center, 1150 28th Street in Des Moines. It’s the annual Stringfellow Lecture, and the subject of my talk is “Politics as a Religious Vocation.” I’m excited about it because, while I do a lot of public speaking, I don’t often get to discuss the confluence of faith and politics in my life. It’s free and open to the public. Regardless of your own faith journey, regardless of whether or not you even have a faith journey, I’d be delighted to see you there.

While my faith is Christianity, I have profound respect for all true religions. Over the years, the wisdom I have garnered from other faiths has helped me understand my own faith better. Yet the gospel is, for me, a true inspiration. Jesus is one of my political heroes. Divinity aside, any guy who can take on a corrupt foreign power and a compliant domestic power while feeding the poor, healing the sick and preaching good news to the downtrodden – well, that’s somebody I’d like to meet.