Iowans Can Take Action on Nuclear Disarmament by Paul Deaton
Nuclear disarmament is an Iowa issue for a lot of reasons. So why do so many Iowans seem unaware or unconcerned about the importance of nuclear disarmament?
The President continues to keep the “nuclear football” nearby; enabling the rapid and mutually assured destruction of the planet should Russia launch an attack against the United States. Mutually assured destruction would directly affect Iowans, killing most, if not all of us. That concern does not appear to be sufficient reason to engage Iowans to take political action on nuclear disarmament.
With all of the “loose” nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, terrorists could obtain enough enriched uranium to create a bomb, or steal an existing bomb, and detonate it in an Iowa city. Even as I write, this seems so unexpected as to seem unlikely. There are more prominent potential terrorist targets elsewhere in the country. Unless terrorists set off such a bomb, it seems unlikely that most Iowans would take action based on this nuclear threat.
With the proliferation of nuclear weapons in countries like Pakistan and India, the launch of a regional nuclear war between those countries could precipitate nuclear winter, resulting in disruption of the growing cycle, rendering Iowa’s cropland useless and leading to a worldwide famine. No, that doesn’t motivate either.
As I travel around the state, asking people about the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), in which nations would agree to end nuclear weapons testing for all parties, I find that there is a broad coalition of peace activists who have never forgotten about the need to get the world to zero nuclear weapons. The thing is, these good folks represent a small fraction of our population and are less influential in political circles. Our politicians will seek to hear what a majority of their constituents believe, and this issue is not on the radar screen for most Iowans. It should be and here is why.
The vote for ratification by Iowa’s senators is critical to nuclear disarmament. When asked, most people agree that working towards zero nuclear weapons is something the United States should do, and should take a world leadership role in accomplishing. What they do not always understand is that the new START treaty between Russia and the United States and the CTBT are critical steps towards reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world and preventing nations from developing new nuclear weapons capabilities. Ratification of these treaties requires 67 votes in the United States Senate. Both Senator Harkin and Senator Grassley will play a key role in the debate. While Senator Harkin is in favor of the treaties, Senator Grassley has not stated whether he would support START or the CTBT.
We should write our Senators and urge them to support the administration’s initiative on these treaties and to vote to ratify when they are considered by the Senate. It is especially important for Iowans to let Senator Grassley know that as constituents, Iowans believe in the importance of ratifying these treaties. Senator Grassley asserts that he listens to his constituents when making legislative decisions.
Secondly, Iowans have a capacity for engagement in issues beyond our borders, exemplified in our response to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. It is harder to take action without the stimulus of an external event. The nuclear threat is comprised of actual bombs and delivery systems. It is also an intellectual concept of “deterrence.” Because of this intellectual construct, it is easy, and a natural tendency, to delay action.
One hopes Iowans can devote some part of their time to the cause of nuclear disarmament. Talking about the issue with family and friends, or attending an elected official’s public forum and phoning a Senator are easy things to do. What is harder is taking the first step towards nuclear disarmament and the security it could represent when there are so many other pressing issues in our lives. Taking action is something we can and should do.
The nuclear threat did not start in Iowa, but Iowans can play a key role in getting moving towards our shared goal of nuclear disarmament by supporting the administration's initiative in nuclear arms reduction. I urge you to make the first step and urge your senators to vote to ratify START and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
**BFIA Action Alert**
Grassley: DC - (202)
224-3744 /Cedar Rapids 319-363-6832/Council Bluffs
712-322-7103/Davenport 319-322-4331/Des Moines 515-288-1145/Sioux City
712-233-1860/Waterloo 319-232-6657
Harkin: DC - 202-224-3254 / Sioux City: 712-252-1550 / Dubuque 563-582-2130 / Des Moines 284-4574 / Davenport 563-322-1338/ Cedar Rapids (319) 365-4504/
Free Seminars for Progressive Iowa Women Dawn's List and EssentialEstrogen.com
While lunches may never be free, Democratic and progressive women in Iowa do have an opportunity to grab some free technology training in the coming weeks.
Essentialestrogen.com is working with DAWN (Democratic Activist Women's Network) to provide three seminars in three different regions of Iowa starting this Saturday, Nov. 7. Here are the dates, times and locations of the upcoming events:
Saturday, Nov. 7 - Sioux City 10 a.m. to Noon Mary Treglia Community House, 900 Jennings St.
Saturday, Nov. 14 - Des Moines 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. AFSCME, 4320 NW 2nd St.
Saturday, Nov. 21 - Cedar Falls 10 a.m. to Noon Cedar Falls Public Library, 524 Main St.
Here's what will happen at the seminars:
The seminars will focus on how progressive women can promote Democratic messages online. We'll talk about ways to protect personal information, how to start a blog or a Web site, and strategies for making sure your viewpoint is heard, through social networking and other online interactions. In short, we are training progressive women how to overcome their fears and challenges, to become more effective on the Internet.
Seminar content is suitable for all women, regardless of level of activism. Let's discuss the ways we can protect candidates from undue Internet ugliness, how we can attract younger women with first-hand knowledge of all things tech, candidate committees, and the best practices for speaking loudly and with purpose, when it comes to Democratic ideals.
Western Iowa Needs Help From Eastern Iowa Progressives Environmentiowa.org
[Note from BFIA: Since we no longer have actual journalism, we have to ante up cash if we want to get the facts out. Not to be opportunistic, but it can never be said too many times: Media Reform Now!]
How long are we going to let the 55-year-old [MidAmerica-owned] Walter Scott Jr. [Walter Scott Jr. is #281 on the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans] Energy Center in western Iowa [near Council Bluffs] get away with its pollution?
In November, we're releasing a hard-hitting study that will cast a harsh spotlight on the Walter Scott plant, including its wildly outsized contribution to global warming. Built before Dwight D. Eisenhower became president, the plant hasn't taken action to cut global warming pollution - ever. Why? It never had to, because for eight years the Bush EPA failed to hold polluters accountable.
Worse, if things don't change, the plant will keep pumping more climate-changing pollution into our skies with no end in sight.
Which is why we want to put the Walter Scott plant's pollution on the evening news and in the morning headlines - just as the EPA and the U.S. Senate are reaching a decision point on the issue.
A bill in the Senate will promote clean energy, cap carbon pollution and help force coal-fired clunkers like Walter Scott to clean up or make way for cleaner sources of power, like solar and wind. Proposed EPA regulations would have the same effect.
We know that the more people learn about coal-fired clunkers like the Walter Scott Jr. Energy Center, the more they understand why we need to repower Iowa with clean energy - and the more they want to know what we're going to do about it. Help our media team get the word out. Please chip in whatever you can today.
Together, we can hold one of Iowa's worst polluters to account, make a strong case for change, and help President Obama build the new clean energy economy of the future. Thanks for making it all possible.
Outstanding Iowa Waters Under Attack by Big Ag Lobbyists Environmental Law and Policy Center Protecting the midwest's environment and natural heritage elpc.org
We’re fighting to protect some of Iowa’s most pristine lakes and streams, and we need your help. Iowa’s legislature and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are considering a rule that would protect the 6 Iowa Great Lakes, including Lake Okoboji and Spirit Lake, 29 cold water trout streams and 3 warm water streams in Northeast Iowa. These lakes and streams would be classified as "Outstanding Iowa Waters," a designation that would strictly regulate pollution and ensure that these waters remain clean, world-class destinations for tourism and recreation.
The rule would allow businesses and towns to continue using the waters and only limit new sources of pollution, but agriculture and industry groups are using their lobbyists to fight these protections. You can help by telling the Department of Natural Resources that you care about clean water, tourism and recreation and want to protect Iowa's natural resources from pollution.
Health Care Reform Update: Kudos to the Quad-City Times
for Making Health Care Reform Real for Its Readers
by Alta Price, MD
When I sat down to Sunday morning breakfast with the
Quad-City Times, it just about knocked my socks off. Wow! Front page coverage and story after
story about how health care reform will impact real live people in my community.
The Quad-City Times interviewed local people with differing health care
situations, detailing their problems with insurance, the costs they face, how
health insurance determines their job choices, how they decide whether to buy
insurance, and so on. Then they covered how the House bill or Senate bill would
impact those individuals or families, describing individual mandates,
subsidies, and so on, but bringing it down to a very real, accessible level by
using these real life examples. They did a great job of including comments from
Senator Grassley and Senator Harkin about issues that are more debatable, such
as whether reform will lower or increase the cost of health insurance for the
average person.
This is not the first time I have been impressed with the
Quad-City Times coverage of health care reform. They have had
excellent editorials, as well as guest opinion pieces by health care providers
and others. Monday they had a great opinion piece, "Iowans need not fear
Medicare changes", from the CEOs of Trinity Regional Health System and Iowa Health System, a
network of 26 hospitals and group practices of physicians and clinics in Iowa.
And they have published countless letters to the editor on health care reform.
Breakfast with the Quad-City Times is one of my cherished
morning rituals. Since I first started practice in Sterling,
Colorado in 1982, I have always subscribed
to my local paper. I will admit I first subscribed to the Sterling
Journal-Advocate when one of the other doctors told me
you need to subscribe just to make sure they are quoting you correctly! But I
quickly grew to love that paper. And I’ll never forget in the run up to the
Iraq war, I figured out the war was bogus by reading the coverage in the
Quad-City Times, when my liberal friends reading the New York Times got
suckered in.
And I will also remember that when we struggled to get the word
out to people about health care reform, a very complicated and controversial
topic further confused by falsehoods promulgated by those with a stake in the
status quo, it was my local paper that best educated the people in my community
about the issue.
Check out the Quad-City Times website on health care reform to see what else they are doing. You can enter
your health care story there as well. I am curious – are any other Iowa
papers doing anything similar? If so, I’d love to get links to their health
care reform coverage up at Blog for Iowa.
E-mail me and let me know.
Alta
Price is a physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of
the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America,
Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health
care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for the
Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum).Watch for Dr. Price's Health Care Reform Update every Tuesday here on Blog for Iowa. E-Mail Alta Price
Party of "No" (no leaders-no ideas-no morals) Blocks Obama's Department of Labor Appointee by Tracy Kurowski
Nine months has passed since the start of the Obama administration, and Republicans continue to block the appointment of M. Patricia Smith as Labor Department Solicitor, the nation’s top cop prosecuting labor law violations.
M. Patricia Smith was nominated for Labor Department Solicitor in the spring, and her confirmation hearing was held last May. Yet, after the Senate HELP Committee finally voted to approve her nomination on October 7, Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming (the country’s least populous state) filed a procedural motion to put a hold on her nomination and delay the appointment.
At a time when wage theft among low-wage workers is rampant, this is no fluff appointment. On September 2, 2009, “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers,” the largest survey of low-wage workers ever conduced was released, revealing widespread abuse of low – wage workers. Twenty-six percent of those surveyed reported they were not paid the minimum wage, while seventy-six percent said they were not paid overtime wage as required by law.
The study also found that sixty-eight percent of those surveyed reported at least one pay-related violation had occurred in the previous week. Women – especially minorities – were far more likely to suffer minimum wage violations, and African Americans had a violation rate triple that of white workers. Worker compensation law violations were also common as was employer retaliation when workers complained or reported the abuse.
Though the report focused on large urban areas of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, the investigation into child labor and other labor law violations at the Agriprocessors Plant in Postville in 2008, proves that Iowa is not immune to such practices.
To address these types of abuses against the working poor, as New York State’s labor commissioner, Smith implemented New York Wage Watch, a program designed to work with labor unions and groups advocating on behalf of low-wage immigrants, to help uncover wage and hour violations. As a consequence, New York State increased its recovery of wage underpayments by thirty-seven percent. It also increased its collection of fines against wage law violators by twenty percent.
Smith executed her job so well that she received accolades from Kenneth Adams, president of the Business Council of New York State, the state’s leading business group. Adams wrote to the Senate HELP Committee in support of Smith’s nomination saying that Smith’s work enforcing labor laws in New York State was “thorough, fair and judicious.”
Compare that to former President Bush’s Labor Secretary Elaine Chao who referred to affirmative action and minimum wage laws as a hindrance to “free enterprise.” Under Chao’s initiative, the Labor Department focused on “compliance assistance” and other voluntary reporting requirements for companies, instead of actual labor law enforcement. The modus operandi of the Department of Labor for the subsequent eight years had been to let the fox guard the hen house.
Which brings us back to Smith and rampant wage violations.
Bush used a recess appointment to bypass the Senate’s blockage of Eugene Scalia (yes – that Scalia’s son) as Labor Solicitor in January 2002. Scalia was best known for fighting workplace injury cases on behalf of employers, referring to repetitive motion injuries, a well documented and often highly debilitating form of injury, as a myth invented by doctors.
If the Senate cannot muster the sixty votes necessary to override Senator Enzi’s hold, I would think that Obama would take a play from Bush’s book and make the recess appointment. When workers are suffering high unemployment, wage cuts and continued layoffs, wage law violations in this country must be prosecuted.
"There's something pitiable about a people that constantly bemoans its leaders. If they've let us down, it's only because we've allowed them to." -Arundhati Roy, 2002
Tracy
Kurowski is currently AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison at the United
Way of the Quad City Area. She has been active in the labor movement
for ten years, first as a member of AFSCME 3506, when she taught adult
education classes at the City Colleges of Chicago. She moved to the
Quad Cities in 2007 where she worked as political coordinator with the
Quad City Federation of Labor, and as a caseworker for Congressman
Bruce Braley from 2007 - 2009.
Tracy Kurowski writes a labor update every Monday on Blog for Iowa
One Iowa To Hold Public Forums on Marriage Equality OneIowa.Org
One Iowa will host a series of public forums to continue the statewide conversation about marriage equality. Below is the schedule through December 2009. To find out more, visit OneIowa.Org
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I was a young mother. I (like lots of Baby Boomers) was a rebellious mother and did such subversive things as nursed my daughter and made my own baby food. I was a radical. I found highly processed baby food and childrens' cereals unacceptable for my growing daughter.
But when we complained about high salt and sugar levels in baby food - the companies changed. And although, I still encourage mothers to make their own baby food - at least, the options are much much better than they were 30 years ago.
Thirty years ago .... we didn't talk much about nutrition. The slogan of the day was "Better Living through Chemistry". We thought the food industry had our best interest at heart. After all, we were certain Betty really did make all those cake mixes.
But there were people that spoke about nutrition and the connections between feeding our family and health issues. One of my "go-to" authors was a wise, well-balanced mother named Vicki Lansky. Lansky wrote the book "The Taming of the C.A.N.D.Y.* Monster"
I was shocked as a young mom to see breakfast cereals on the grocery store shelves that contained over 25% sugar. Not one - not two - but over and over again. According to Lansky and the Journal of Dentistry for Children in 1974 - Cap'n Crunch contained 43.3% sucrose content. Trix, Froot Loops and Honeycomb were all over 46% sugar. And Lucky Charms and Apple Jacks were 50 and 55% sugar.
It was with that knowledge I suddenly became the meanest mother alive and limited my daughter to 5 cereals - Shredded Wheat, Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran and Rice Krispies which had 10% sugar content. I thought I was being generous with that one!
If the name contained the word "frosted" "coco" or "super" - it wasn't coming home with me! Cuz as soon as I served it for breakfast, I would have a "souped-up" two-year-old on my hands. And let's not even talk about a cereal that was inspired by a toy or the Saturday morning television line-up!!!!
So I hit the grocery store and the cereal aisle to see how things have changed in the last 30 years.
As that very Daughter would say .... Not so much, Mom!!!!
I checked out the nutritional information for Froot Loops. Froot Loops had been named a Smart Choice cereal due to the addition of fiber. Fortunately, the FDA may be coming to their senses. Remember in 1974, the Journal of Dentistry for Children stated that they contained 47.4% sugar? Ok - calorie count doesn't look too bad. 110 calories for a 1 cup serving.... but then go down to the sugar content. 12 grams. Hmmmm?
This is where it gets tough for the average American. Teaspoons... I understand. Calories .... I understand. Grams ... Not so much!!!
Well - here's the scoop. There is 4.2 grams in a teaspoon of sugar. So 12 grams of sugar is the equivalent of 1 tablespoon of sugar. And one tablespoon of sugar is 46 calories.
So in that 110 calories of Froot Loops, there are10 calories from fat and 46 calories from sugar.
Let's compare that to cereals directed at adults. Let's look at my personal favorite ... Cheerios. Cheerios is being marketed to adults to help lower cholesterol levels because of its soluble oat fiber.
A 1 cup serving of Cheerios has 110 calories ... 15 calories come from fat and 6 come from sugar.
What can you do?? First of all, you can take control of the shopping cart and avoid buying overly-sweetened cereals. Speak with your dollars.... look for cereals that have 5 or less grams of sugar. And don't be fooled by fancy labeling on the front of the box. Learn to read those labels and understand what they mean.
And write your Congressman demanding clear and concise labeling that show the calories from sugar in all foods. We have fat calories clearly listed..... it is time to have sugar calories listed.
It is a new day. Let's start it right.
Cathy Lafrenz is a regular contributor for Blog for Iowa on the topic of food. She serves on the board of the Quad-Cities chapter of Buy Fresh-Buy Local. She raises hens for egg production and is Animal Welfare Approved. In
her spare time she advocates for health care reform, spins yarn, and
knits every pair of socks she wears. Check out her blog, Miss Effie's Diary
*IBLTV is a group of citizens from the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area who are concerned about the decline in the quality of local television. Fight local media consolidation, as it leads to an unaccountable medium that enriches itself while disregarding the need to serve the public good.
*The rational counter to 'The Point,' 'The Counterpoint' critiques and corrects the daily editorial by Sinclair Broadcasting's corporate vice president, Mark Hyman, that is broadcast on all Sinclair-owned television stations across the country
by Paul Deaton
Environmental Law and Policy Center 
by Alta Price, MD
by Cathy Lafrenz 
