Archive for June 17, 2012
Dave Loebsack Will Hold Telephone Town Hall Tuesday
I want to hear from you. As your representative, my first priority is to make sure that the voices of the Second District are heard. That’s why I come home every weekend to speak with Iowans. Your input and insight are important to me.
I am holding a telephone town hall on Tuesday, June 19th at 7:00 PM CT. You are invited to save the date, sign up here, and join me in a conversation about the issues that matter most to you and your family.
Thank you for placing your trust and confidence in me to be your voice in Congress. I am committed to working for Iowans and look forward to hearing from you about the issues that are the most important in your lives.
Also, feel free to forward this to your family and friends, I want to hear from as many Iowans as possible.
Sincerely,
ACA Decision Soon?
June is winding down. Generally the Supreme Court hands down its decisions for the term by the end of June each year. So we can expect a decision on the Affordable Care Act. When I think of this, I think of Bill Kristol commenting on the so-called “Hillary-care.” Kristol was an aid to Newt Gingrich at the time. He noted that if Democrats could pass universal health care, Republicans couldn’t elect a dog-catcher in this country. Here is hoping we get to find out at least to some degree.
A better use of our money?
Just remember, when you buy a gallon of gas these days you are giving some Wall Street speculator anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar. If we have to pay this much I would rather see my money go to a tax that would fix the roads. Sometimes anymore a person can’t tell if they are in Iowa or a third world country. I went down a road in central Iowa last week that really made me wonder.
The major reason that speculators are having such a field day is that the Republican held house refuses to appropriate money for the watch-dog organization that is supposed to oversee commodity trading.
BTW the way – streaming radio is a great idea.
When I sit at the computer, I usually have liberal radio on. Even though there are but a few liberal stations in the country, most of them stream and are thus easily available. Google can help you find them on the internet. I usually listen to KTNF in Minneapolis or WCPT out of Chicago. Other radio stations include KPOJ in Portland, Oregon or KTLK in Los Angeles. You don’t even need the secret liberal password.
Will one be enough?
If Mitt Romney wins the presidency (shudder!) will that be enough to satisfy his passion for doing things Daddy didn’t do? There could be another opening in the world leadership area maybe around the time that his first term ends. He would be nearing 70 at that time. Getting a bit long in the tooth as a president, but just a spring chicken for the other potentially open world leadership post.
I can tell some of you are ahead of me and figured out that the post I am alluding to is Pope. Yep, Pope Benedict may be going home to meet the boss by then and Mitt could really upstage all the rich kids on the block by not only buying his way into the Presidency, but the Papacy as well. As far as I know, the Pope doesn’t have to be a cardinal, priest or even a Catholic for that matter. Obviously, telling the truth or knowing how our government runs is no prerequisite for Romney being president. Mitt could pull off a double play that could make him legendary.
Surely Wall Street will pony up some big bucks in hopes of getting their hands on all that loot in the Vatican. Mitt can convince the College of Cardinals that he can show them investing tricks that can easily double their money. No doubt Crossroads GPS and some of the other super PACs will back his campaign for the Papacy. The tea-baggers will be out demonstrate daily. All these groups will be fighting to wrest control of the Papacy from the foreigners that have controlled it for centuries. Timothy Dolan will probably be picked as vice-Pope in charge of women and sexual issues.
Mitt leaves a diner owner upset in Council Bluffs.
Some are just born privileged. And apologizing is not exactly a Republican forte.
“Restore Our Future”
Ever think of just how cynical the name of Romney’s superPac is? They aren’t talking about restoring America’s future, that isn’t the “our” they mean. Nor does “our” mean the poor or middle class. Nope. What “our” means in this case is Romney and his .01% buddies. They want to destroy or neuter any strides Democrats have made at curtailing their ability to transfer America’s treasury to them. They see the income discrepency in this country as bad – it isn’t nearly wide enough for them. And the tax system must be reformed so that the only taxes are paid by those with less than $50,000 a year in taxes. They want Reagan Bush policies on steroids.
Hawkeye logo on Budweiser cans?
In what is probably about as cynical of a move as I have ever seen, U of Iowa officials will allow Budweiser Corp. to put the Iowa Hawkeye Tigerhawk logo on cans of its alcoholic products. The agreement is part of a larger one with Learfield Communications, a multimedia company in Missouri, that will pay the U of I athletics department $114 million through 2026.
“All proceeds from the beer deal will fund the university’s alcohol harm reduction plan, launched in 2010 to reduce binge drinking, said Sally Mason, president of the U of I, the state’s largest university with an enrollment of nearly 31,000.”
Next: Hawkeye smokes from Altria to combat student smoking. Soon: A deal with California Medical Marijuana.
Turning down this deal would have shown much more value in integrity than the large wad of money they will get. Follow the money on this one.
The Good Old Days
Today we have a guest editorial from Larry Hodgdsen, chair of the cedar County Democrats
Larry is a retired Viet Nam era veteran of the USAF. He and his wife of 40 years, Sharon, have three children and seven grandchildren who keep him very busy. Family, education, church and politics have been a lifelong passion.
Could someone please explain why we would want to relive the years, 2001-2009 by going back to those same programs. The Republicans are proposing to do just that and I think we deserve an explanation of what was so good about that period.
Was it the large tax cuts for the wealthy ( the job creators ) which resulted in the weakest 8 year growth in jobs on record and the loss of 2.6 million jobs in 2008 alone.
Perhaps it was the two unfunded wars ( one unnecessary) which added over a trillion dollars to our debt and will add another trillion over the years as we care for our wounded veterans.
Maybe it was the Medicare drug plan which was also not funded and left seniors with serious health care needs caught in the “donut hole”.
Could it have been the lack of regulation, the lax enforcement of regulations or the inattention to the “Casino” being operated on Wall Street with hard working American’s mortgages.
Surely it was their concern for our children’s education with the ever so popular “no child left behind”.
Possibly it was the 700 billion dollars of tax money ( remember TARP) handed to Wall Street to bail them out without any strings attached.
I know, it must be all of the above which turned the budget surpluses of the Clinton years into budget deficits and added nearly 6 trillion dollars to our national debt.
Maybe I missed something so please inform us as to why a Romney/Ryan rerun of the Bush years would be so great. Tell us please because we all long for the “Good Old Days”.
Sunday Funday – Gay Pride Week Edition.
Whoa – is it that time of the year already? Time for some of the most fun parades on this world or Kolob! Well, I don’t know a lot about gay pride week, but that has never stopped me before. So let’s see what we can learn about gay history.
1) Gay pride week is generally around the time of what major event in Gay history?
2) Which city claims the largest Pride parade of all?
a) New York City
b) San Francisco
c) Los Angeles
d) Toronto
3) Although not called a ‘Gay Pride’ parade, when did the first march take place and where?
a) 1975 San Francisco
b) 1974 Toronto
c) 1970 New York City
d) 1968 Los Angeles
4) Which of the following are symbols of the Gay Pride movement
a) the pink triangle
b) the rainbow flag
c) the small case Greek letter lambda
d) All of the above
5) An award is given to the Los Angeles area lesbian for leadership in the lesbian community each year. The award is named for entertainer:
a) Melissa Ethridge
b) Ellen Degeneris
c) Molly Ringwold
d) Leslie Gore
6) Which female country singer risked bad publicity and recently came out in favor of same-sex marriage?
7) In 2010, which major female country singer came out as gay?
8) Which gay writer was able to turn the name “Santorum” into an online google joke as revenge for Santorum’s anti-gay stance?
9) In 1992 this gay writer caused a scandal on NPR with his story “SantaLand Diaries” in which he descibes a crush on another male elf?
10) Can you name the states and / or US territories that currently have legalized same-sex marriage?
Ha-Ha, pretty tough questions, no? Well let’s get some answers so you can get off to the parade! (oops – I think Iowa City’s was yesterday)
1) The police raids at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in NYC on June 28th, 1969. The Stonewall Riots ensued the next days.
2) b) San Francisco – well it is their claim.
3) c) 1970, NYC – in commemoration of the Stonewall riots the previous year
4) d) all of the above
5) a) Melissa Ethridge
6) Carrie Underwood
7) Chely Wright
8) Dan Savage – go ahead and google Santorum to see if this is still true.
9) David Sedaris
10) Massachusetts was first, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Iowa, District of Columbia, Vermont, New York.
Maryland has passed legalization and Governor O’Malley signed the bill but it has been put on the ballot for this fall.





