Edwards: "I'm not a new Democrat, I'm a REAL Democrat."

John Deeth had a busy day covering the Hillary Clinton event in Iowa City (here) and the John Edwards event in Cedar Rapids (here and here). In his second post, Deeth had this great quote from John Edwards...

I'm not a new Democrat, I'm a REAL Democrat.

This quote is a hit at Hillary Clinton and DLC democrats. It sums up an argument that I have repeatedly made on this blog about the so-called centrist Democrats (here, here, here, and here). We don't need politicians that speak to the center, we need politicians that speak to the people about their shared values and who aren't afraid stand up for their beliefs.

Right now John Edwards is speaking about the shared values and he isn't afraid to stand up for his beliefs.

Are Coal Power Plants a Good Idea?

I haven't written about this yet, but it was announced awhile back that Alliant Energy is planning on building a new coal power plant in Marshalltown. I go back and forth on the power plant. Yes, it will be good for the Marshalltown economy, but as a Marshalltown resident and an asthmatic, I have to consider the health care and environmental impacts.

Here is a recent letter to the editor in the Des Moines Register that shows one viewpoint on the issue of coal power plants.

A halt to building coal plants? It's not such a radical thought
By MARC FRANKE
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER

March 17, 2007

We should stop building new coal plants in Iowa and declare a moratorium on increasing coal use.

When I first heard this idea, it seemed pretty radical. Now, the more I consider it, the more it seems like the best thing for our state. We can grow our economy, add new jobs, improve our tax base and reduce pollution for us and our children all at the same time.

When we burn coal for electricity, it releases a lot of pollution. The tiny particles from combustion get into our lungs, choking our breathing and providing a pathway for pollutants into our bloodstream. The airborne mercury from burning coal gets into our fish, which then endangers pregnant mothers and small children. The sulfur from burning coal gets into our air and acidifies our lakes and streams, destroying habitat for fish. The carbon dioxide from burning coal gets into our atmosphere and accelerates global warming. In the years since 1940, carbon in our atmosphere is 27 percent higher than at any time in the past 650,000 years.

Iowa has some of the best wind resources in the United States. Already, Iowa's wind farms have created new jobs, increased the property-tax base for schools and services, reduced money flowing out of our state to import coal and prevented a huge amount of pollution. The new factories for wind turbines have created jobs, too, right here in Iowa.

If we need more electrical capacity, why wouldn't Iowans insist that it come from our own energy resources? Why spend our hard-earned energy money on highly polluting power from somewhere else? When I pay my electric bill, I want the money to help build my community, not to create more pollution in the air I breathe and the water I drink.

Advocates of coal electricity tell us that the pollution could be eliminated and the carbon could be stored with new technology now available. But so far, none of those plants has yet been built for us to evaluate. The Department of Energy has a $1 billion contract out to build such a "FutureGen" plant by 2012. When such a plant exists and is proven, we could end our coal-power moratorium.

Alliant is proposing a new coal plant for Marshalltown, and a New Jersey company, LS Power, is proposing a new plant for Waterloo. The Waterloo electricity might be sold to other states. Iowa would get the pollution; other states would get power; and New Jersey would get the profits.

Iowa gets up to 85 percent of its electricity already from coal. Nationally, coal provides only 50 percent of electricity. Let's get all of our new electrical capacity from our own energy resources and build up our economy, our jobs and our local tax base.

A coal power plant lasts 50 years. Let's not build any that aren't the best technology. Let your local officials and legislators know that Iowa already has more than enough coal electric power and the pollution that it brings.

MARC FRANKE of Ely writes and speaks on energy and policy. He volunteers with the nonprofit Iowa Renewable Energy Association.

Make your VOICE Heard

Last week, the Iowa blogosphere came together in support of HF 805, the VOICE legislation. The bill hasn't made much progress, but our Representives have recieved our emails and calls. We need to keep the pressure on, so the Democratic House leadership doesn't kill the bill.

Here are 2 important posts from the Iowa blogs on the VOICE legislation from last week. (Here is my post about Tom Vilsack speaking about the importance of the bill and why the Democratic Party should be behind it, instead of trying to kill it.) Read them, then send your Rep. another email and get your friends and family to do the same.

Political Forecast takes a look at the VOICE legislation and tackles the issue of funding...

Clearly, the cost is an issue with the legislation — but let’s put it into perspective. When considering the overall budget of the state, $10 million is 1/10 of 1% of the total budget. That’s a mere drop in the bucket.

Political Fallout sums the VOICE legislation nicely, saying...

Can Iowa Afford Clean Elections? (VOICE Over)

Iowa Values Fund (Corporate Welfare): $10 million/year

Iowa Football Coach Kirk Ferentz’s Yearly Salary: $1.2 million (+$400,000 longevity bonus)

2006 Iowa Governor’s Race: $13 million

2006 Iowa House & Senate Race Disbursements: $16,639 million

Big Tobacco Ho’ Minority Leader Christopher Rants Big Tobacco Mo’: $60,000

Security Detail for Culver’s Children: $253,494

Clean Elections (VOICE): $10 million

Cost of e-mailing representative: $Zero

Restoring Faith in Democracy: $Priceless

Why aren't they supporting Huckabee?

Here is a great quote from Republican Mike Huckabee, who is considering running for president.

If Republicans in this election vote in such a way as to say a candidate’s personal life and personal conduct in office doesn’t matter, then a lot of Christian evangelical leaders owe Bill Clinton a public apology

I am not sure why Huckabee isn't getting noticed more in the Republican field for President. I have seen him a couple of times on CSPAN and have come away with a good impression of him. Now, I only know a little bit about his stances on the issues, but he sounds sane, is likeable, and is a real conseravative. I am not going to vote for him, but I think he would be the type of candidate Republicans could support.

Let's face it, Rudy and Romney both are NE Elites that have liberal stances on key Republican issues. And it isn't like McCain is a hardline Rightwinger. I can see why Republicans are trying to recruit Fred Thompson or hoping that Newt enters the race. But why aren't they considering Huckabee?

Energy Solutions are up to Individuals

I stopped at Target yesterday and as I was checking out the person in front of me had 2 large packages of light bulbs. These weren't the energy efficient compact flourescent bulbs. I thought about the energy that could be saved if this person would have replaced these lightbulbs with energy efficient compact flourescent bulbs.

I concluded that no matter how much money we put into a power fund for renewable energy research or how many ethanol and biodiesel plants we build, real change won't happen until individual people take it upon themselves to make smarter decision to save energy and help the environment.

Today's opinion section of the Des Moines Register expresses the same sentiments. They have 2 articles worth reading: Energy Solutions begin at home and Individuals must take on energy-efficiency ethic.

The Register concludes in Energy solutions begin at home...

It makes sense to seek local solutions to energy challenges through conservation and alternative-energy sources. Just as the states are laboratories for democracy, they can be laboratories for developing new sources of energy and finding ways to use less of it. The answers aren't in Washington but right in our own backyards, in the way we build our communities and live our lives.

Government can help encourage individuals to make the choices and promote conservation. The Iowa House passed the Energy City legislation written by Tyler Olson that help accomplish this.

Richardson: "Get out of Iraq this calendar year."

Gov. Bill Richardson knows what he is talking about when he speaks about foreign policy and the use of diplomacy. Here is a YouTube video posted on the Democracy for America website where Gov. Richardson that we should get out of Iraq this calendar year.



Richardson's candidacy intrigues me. He is strong when it comes to foreign policy. However, I would like to know where he stands on Fair Trade and NAFTA.

The New Mexico legislative session is over now and Richardson is planning more trips to Iowa in the near future. I recommend checking him out. Even if he isn't your top choice come caucus time, he would be a solid VP candidate.

Is Hillary a Fair Trader?

I saw this story on Political Wire saying that Hillary Clinton has split ways with her husband, Bill, on the issue of trade. Bill Clinton was a leading advocate of so-called Free Trade by approving NAFTA when he was in office and fighting to include China into the WTO.

From Bloomberg News...

Senator Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, wonders why the North American Free Trade Agreement is ``continuing to drive hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people from Mexico into our country,'' she said in an interview. ``We just can't keep doing what we did in the 20th century.''

Somewhere along the Clintons' ``bridge to the 21st century'' -- their 1996 campaign mantra -- they parted ways on trade. Bill was a champion of the global economy and prodded Congress to approve Nafta in 1993 and China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. Hillary, 59, says new deals may need to be put on hold pending a review -- an idea she calls ``a little timeout.''

Hillary isn't near the top of my list of candidates, but this is good news to hear. It will be interesting to see where Edwards, Obama, Richardson, Dodd, and Biden come out on this issue.

Hey Democrats, is that a Corporate Lobbyist in your pocket?

David Sirota writes on the Huffington Post about the connection between corporate lobbyists and Democrats in Washington. Sirota tells about one lobbyist, J. Jonathon Jones...

"In 2003, Jones played an instrumental role in organizing a regular meeting of Democratic lobbyists and Senate staffers. Every other Monday during the congressional session, 80 to 100 lobbyists and top staffers for Democratic members plotted strategy in a conference room at the Hall of the States near the Capitol...Staffers stopped meeting in 2005 in a reevaluation of the group in the wake of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. After the air cleared, the mix of lobbyists and congressional aides started meeting again last fall...Jones's main challenge is to beat back the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party and to help craft legislation that businesses can stomach."

Barack Obama has positioned himself as a reformer on government ethics and the influence of lobbyists. Tom Daschle says that Obama" has become a real expert on ethics in government, restoring integrity to the (governmental) institutions.” Unfortunately, Obama is isn't totally clean on this issue.

When Obama declared his presidential candidacy in February, he said he would re-engage Americans disenchanted with business-as-usual in Washington who had turned away from politics...One of the lobbyists, who supports Clinton, said that Shomik Dutta, a fundraiser for Obama's campaign, called to ask if the lobbyist's wife would be interested in making a political contribution.

Sirota says that the influence of corporate lobbyists is so obvious that the lobbyists no longer care if their arguments for policy make any sense at all.

K Street doesn't feel the need to be publicly consistent: Because when you can buy off congressional staffers, when you can create corporate front groups under the guise of "helping Democrats," when you can get even the supposed "anti-lobbyist" presidential candidate to bow down to lobbyists, there's no need to bother with annoying things like consistency or the truth.

Democrats lost control of Congress in the 1990's because they were talking out of both sides of their mouths. They said they supported the middle class, the working family, and labor, but then went and did something else. It didn't take long for the American people to question what Democrats stood for because it seemed that Democrats didn't stand for anything. Now that Democrats have control of Congress, it is disappointing some Democrats are going back to their old ways.

Braley Doing His Job in Congress

Welcome to the return of Democratic Accountability. Rep. Bruce Braley does his job by holding the administrator of the GSA and Karl Rove accountable in a hearing in front of the Committee of Oversight and Government.



Thanks for holding our government accountable Rep. Braley. Keep it up!

Energy Expo in Ames on Saturday

The City of Ames is sponsoring an Energy Expo on Saturday. I attended the event last year and thought it was great. There were a lot of vendors there and people from the city that explained how the city is taking actions to reduce energy use and recycle. IRenew also had a booth.

The event is worth checking out. Here is the info...

City of Ames 6th Annual Energy Fair

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the Ames Community Center -

515 Clark Avenue

Edwards vs Gingrich

Now tell me which party is the party of family values?

National Debt: Who do you owe money to?

Here is who you owe money to...


Here is how much money you owe on the National Debt.