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Saturday, February 27
HF 682 Would Secure the 2010 Iowa Vote
by
paul deaton
on Sat 27 Feb 2010 01:00 PM CST
HF 682 Would Secure the 2010 Iowa Vote
 by Paul Deaton
"The
fiscal note for HF 682 states that an audit would cost each of the 99
counties an average of about $100 per year. “For just pennies a vote,
we can do enormous good for Iowa elections,” Flaherty said."
Iowans for Voting Integrity expressed dismay on Friday when the Iowa Senate indicated it would not move forward on HF 682, a measure which requires a hand count of a random sample of ballots after each general election in order to ensure computerized vote tallies are reliable. Sean Flaherty, co-chair of the group, indicated that by this action, the Iowa Senate failed to secure the vote for the 2010 midterm elections.
“Failing to pass this bill would be a terrible mistake for Iowa elections” said Flaherty. “The state did the right thing and bought paper ballot voting systems that can be manually audited. That’s the most important reliability measure available today, but without Senate action, we won’t be using it,” he added. “That would be unconscionable.”
“Audits are highly cost-effective; they increase voter confidence, deter fraud and provide routine checks on equipment performance,” Flaherty said. The fiscal note for HF 682 states that an audit would cost each of the 99 counties an average of about $100 per year. “For just pennies a vote, we can do enormous good for Iowa elections,” he said.
Despite these facts, Senate aides told members of Iowans for Voting Integrity yesterday that a leading Senator believes post-election audits are a “solution in search of a problem.” Aides have noted that recounts of close elections in Iowa have shown few counting problems and that testing voting machines before the election can detect and deter vote miscounts.
“Recounts occur only when the margin is a hair's whisker,” Flaherty said. “They offer absolutely no assurance about the vast majority of elections. More than half the states do post-election audits. These states have recounts of extremely close races, and they know that it's not enough. You need routine checks,” he said.
“When a task force that includes the President's cyber security adviser and leading authorities on voting systems says audits are necessary, we trust the Senate would listen and take appropriate action,” Flaherty said. California, Ohio, and Connecticut voting equipment reviews examined ballot scanners that are the same as those used in over Iowa’s counties. After their security reviews, California expanded its decades-old post-election audit provision, and both Ohio and Connecticut began conducting audits.
“States that have done security reviews of our same voting equipment are doing the responsible thing and conducting audits,” Flaherty said. “We can’t urge the Senate strongly enough: don't fail Iowa elections,” he said.
Click here to urge your elected officials to pass HF 682. Click here to read the full press release and learn more about Iowans for Voting Integrity.
~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County. Check
out his blog, Big Grove Garden.
E-mail Paul Deaton
Monday, June 9
Iowa CCI Members Say People Matter More, Money Matters Less
by
Sam Garchik
on Mon 09 Jun 2008 12:56 PM CDT
Iowa CCI Members Say People Matter More, Money Matters Less
By ICCI
Iowans Meet with Rep. Jo Oldson to Move Clean Elections Forward
In a time where money is talking loudly and campaign spending is at an all-time high, more than 60 members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement met last night with Rep. Jo Oldson, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, which has stalled the Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections (VOICE) bill for the past two years. The VOICE bill would take the influence of big money out of politics and give anyone a chance to run for office with the support of public financing, restoring a needed balance to our political system.
“Money and corporations are undermining our democracy,” said CCI member Diane Krell of West Des Moines.
Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Iowans from across the state are concerned about the growing influence of money in politics, and at the June 5 meeting in Des Moines, which drew people from as far as Sioux City and Bloomfield, they urged Rep. Oldson to support the VOICE bill, pass it out of her committee and encourage other leadership to support the bill.
“There are [several] ways that I see everyday Iowans being left without a voice in the policies that affect them deeply, and it is time for change,” said CCI member Robin Ghormley of Des Moines. “I see VOICE as a crucial step in everyday people gaining access to their government.”
In response to the concerns of the passage of the VOICE bill, Rep. Oldson said that she supports the bill, stating, “The policy piece [of VOICE] has a lot of merit.” Oldson stated that she had not looked at the details of the bill in the past year, adding that she does not advocate for bills in the budget but keeps the process moving forward.
Oldson committed to work with CCI to get a meeting with House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, saying, “I would be glad to talk with him.” She also agreed to commit to looking at the bill more closely.
Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement will continue to push for a government that is truly of, by and for the people. Iowa CCI believes that change is more than just a political slogan, which is why members from all across the state are working together to set the political agenda, pushing for policies that put everyday people first.
Tuesday, October 23
Controversial Rabbi Michael Lerner to Speak at Spiritual Progressives Conference Nov. 3rd in the Quad Cities
by
Caroline Vernon
on Tue 23 Oct 2007 05:23 PM CDT
Controversial
Rabbi Michael Lerner to Speak at Spiritual Progressives Conference Nov. 3rd in the Quad Cities
By James Lee
As
the Election Season closes in on the Quad Cities, people are looking at the
vast challenges facing our country and questioning how
individual citizens can make a difference. According to
national polling, over 70% of Americans feel that our nation is on the "wrong
track". Organizers of the
Spiritual Progressives Conference feel the answers to many
of our concerns and worries are rooted in our values, faith and spirituality.
Quad
Cities Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) in conjunction with Churches
United of the Quad Cities, Democracy for America–Quad Cities,
Davenport Unitarian Church,
Edwards Congregational-UCC, First Congregational-UCC, Network for Spiritual
Progressives, and a host of other supporters are
sponsoring a Spiritual Progressives Conference on November 3, 2007. The theme of the conference is: Living our Faith:
Integrating Values and Politics in the Heartland.
PURPOSE OF THE CONFERENCE
The purpose of this conference is to promote the voice of progressive
people into the national conversation on issues of values, faith and spirituality.
The conference is
designed to dig beneath the surface of controversial national issues &
public policy debates to get to the core of how we decide what makes our
society a healthy place to live.
It is our hope that the conference will help the public better
understand how to more effectively integrate progressive values with political
action that can create positive change in our nation.
Conference organizers assert that progressives have
been the social innovators who have initiated changes in our society that have
given us more freedom, liberty, and equality. Progressives believe in
continually improving our society in order to assist as many people as possible
to achieve a better life for themselves, their families and the community as a
whole. During this time of national
drift when confusion seems widespread over what America represents and truly
believes, progressive people must amplify their voices in the public conversation
on what we value as a nation.
We reject the tactic of using religion and spiritual traditions
to be a divisive force in our nation; pitting one group of Americans against
another group. We believe that ethics and morality cannot be claimed
as the property of a single religion or political group, but must be understood
in the context of furthering the well being of all humanity, present and
future. The conference will cover three main
areas:
1) Promoting a conversation on Progressive Values, Faith & and Spirituality
2) Organizing Progressives for political action
3) Creating healthy personal & inner lives for progressive people
The key-note speaker,
Rabbi Michael Lerner, will examine the question of how our values are translated
into political action. Rabbi Lerner is an internationally
renowned social theorist, theologian, editor of Tikkun magazine, and author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our
Country from the Religious Right. He has a PhD from the University of California,
Berkeley and is
the founder of the Network for Spiritual Progressives.
Faith, values, and spirituality play an important role in responding to the many challenges we
face in our country today. The primary focus of
this conference will be to explore how our values, faith, and
spirituality can direct political action and transform our nation and our world. In so doing, this conference will be
addressing the most serious issues facing our
communities such as affordable, quality health care, the war, and global warming
to name a few.
Conference
workshops include topics such as "Challenging
the Misuse of God and Religion by the Religious Right", "Global Consciousness
and Ecological Sanity", "Our Common Values" and "Grounding Justice Work in
Spiritual Practice".
To learn more about other workshops which will be presented at this conference,
click here. To download the flyer to print (double-sided to conserve paper) go to our home page: www.qcprogressiveaction.org.
The Conference commences at 9:30am with a spiritual reflection on the state of
our world. Rabbi Michael Lerner will
speak at 10:15am. Workshops will continue throughout the day.
At 2:30pm Rabbi Lerner will be part of a panel discussion with local leaders on
the state of values and spirituality in our nation. Lunch will be served and
the conference will come to a close at 3:30pm.
This
event is open to the public; seating is limited. To Register, contact PACG at 563-676-7580 or go to our website for more information: www.qcprogressiveaction.org.
Event times and places
Interfaith
Service
The
conference begins with an Interfaith Service led by Rabbi Lerner on Friday evening,
November 2nd, 7pm at the Unitarian
Church, 3707 Eastern Avenue, Davenport, Iowa.
Spiritual
Progressives Conference
On
Saturday morning, November 3rd, the Spiritual Progressive Conference
will be held at the First Congregational Church-UCC, 2201 Seventh Avenue, Moline, IL 61265. Registration
starts at 9:30AM. Book Signing with Rabbi Lerner
Saturday evening, November 3rd, 5:30pm at Borders Bookstore, 4000 E 53rd St in Davenport.
Monday, September 3
The Authoritarian Political Brain
by
Caroline Vernon
on Mon 03 Sep 2007 07:11 PM CDT
The Authoritarian Political Brain
by Propagandee
September 3, 2007
Drew Westen's The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation helps explain the neuro-cognitive mechanisms involved in rationalizing away inconvenient truths, something we all do regardless of political affiliation. From the Introduction:
The neural circuits charged with regulation of emotional states seemed to recruit beliefs that eliminated the distress and conflict partisans had experienced when they confronted unpleasant realities. And all this seemed to happen with little involvement of the neural circuits normally involved in reasoning.
The results show that when partisans face threatening information, not only are they likely to "reason" to emotionally biased conclusions, but we can trace their neural footprints when they do.
When confronted with potentially troubling political information, a network of neurons become active that produces distress. Whether this distress is conscious, or unconscious, or some combination of the two, we don't know.
The brain registers the conflict between data and desire and begins to search for ways to turn off the spigot of unpleasant emotion.
Nothing earth shattering there. But here's where it gets interesting (italics in the original):
But the political brain did something we didn't predict. Once partisans found a way to reason to false conclusions, not only did neural circuits involved in negative emotions shut off, but circuits involved in positive emotions turned on. The partisan brain didn't seem satisfied in just feeling better. It worked overtime to feel good, activating rewards circuits that give partisans a jolt of positive reinforcement for their biased reasoning. These reward circuits overlap significantly with those activated when drug addicts get their "fix", giving new meaning to the term political junkie.
To read the rest of the article, click here:
Tuesday, August 14
Rove, Romney & Gouliani
by
Caroline Vernon
on Tue 14 Aug 2007 11:07 AM CDT
Rove, Romney & Ghouliani
by Propagandee
August 13, 2007
When pro-war Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was asked if any of his five sons had volunteered for military service, he replied that they were showing their support "for our nation by...helping to get me elected."
As Blogosfear's military consultant, General Snark, observed: "What an inspiring sight. Five strapping young men braving the heat of the Iowa corn fields in their air-conditioned, up-armored Winnebago." Now that's shared sacrifice for you.
Not to be outdone, Rudy Ghouliani tries to convince us that posing for photo-ops in front of the ruins of the World Trade Center put him at equal risk for health complications as the rescue and recovery workers digging their way through all that toxic rubble. No word yet whether he will accompany Michael Moore on his next mercy trip to Cuba for medical treatment.
Click here to read the rest of this post:
Monday, June 4
Establishing our Progressive Iowa Network (PIN) - Update
by
Caroline Vernon
on Mon 04 Jun 2007 09:30 AM CDT
Establishing our Progressive Iowa Network (PIN) - Update
By Caroline Vernon
This Saturday, June 9th, progressive leaders, legislators and activists from various organizations across Iowa will come together for the first DFA-Iowa Networking Summit.
We will be gathering at the Iowa City Public Library from 9am to 3pm (the last hour will be devoted to DFA-IA administrative business).
Some of our great leaders who will be in attendance include Charlie Chamberlain from Democracy for America, Ed Fallon, Denise O’Brien, and Senator Joe Bolkcom, just to name a few…
Once again, the purpose of this gathering is to establish a Progressive Iowa Network which will serve to better unite progressives across the state in order to support each others efforts around important issues, particularly if we hope to be more effective moving into the next legislative session. Besides providing an excellent opportunity to connect with fellow progressives, one direct benefit of an Iowa Network would be the enhanced ability to articulate our progressive world view by creating a state-wide echo chamber that will carry our unified message to all Iowans.
As previously indicated, we have identified 5 issues in Iowa that require urgent action:
1. VOICE (Voter-Owned Iowa Clean Elections)
2. CAFO regulations / Farm Bill
3. Fair Share
4. Healthcare
5. Media
Also, due to the recent vote on the Iraq supplemental bill, it is our hope that peace activists from across Iowa will take advantage of this opportunity to come together to discuss potential state wide initiatives that will effectively pressure those in Congress who voted for the bill.
In addition to addressing the above issues, we are tracking organizations by their particular area(s) of focus. This list has also evolved since my last blog:
1. Policy / Research
2. Lobbying
3. Media & Blogs
4. Grassroots Organizing
These 4 areas have been added:
5. Direct Action
6. Education
7. Funding (to identify potential sources of funding)
8. Political Campaigns (organizations who can be involved with campaigns)
We are working on compiling a comprehensive list of all participating organizations, including contact information, primary areas of focus and primary issues of concern. If you or your organization will be attending the summit, we ask that you submit your information using the example below (4 stars = primary focus)
Example:
Organization: Progressive Action for the Common Good
Address: 3707 Eastern Ave, Davenport, IA 52807
Contact Information: (name/position/phone/email):
Caroline Vernon, Organizer, 563-676-7580, carolina1961@gmail.com.
James Lee, Executive Director, 563-650-3922, jlee6367@yahoo.com
Areas of Focus Rating Issues Rating
Policy/Research VOICE ****
Lobbying ** CAFO/Farm Bill ***
Media/Blogs Media **
Grassroots Organizing **** Fair Share **
Direct Action *** Healthcare ***
Education **
Funding * Other: _Peace _ ****
Poltical Campaigns
Please send the above information to carolina1961@gmail.com by Thursday, June 7th so we can be sure to include your information in the hand-out.
It is important to note that we encourage ALL progressive organizations to attend this meeting and become part of the network even if we may not be focusing on your specific issues at this time. The goal of the network is to create a framework designed to support all progressive initiatives. We need everyone’s participation in order to succeed.
If you have any questions, please call Caroline Vernon at 563-676-7580.
Hope to see you Saturday!
Thursday, May 17
Take the Bus to the US Social Forum Jun 27th
by
Caroline Vernon
on Thu 17 May 2007 10:25 AM CDT
Take the Bus to the US Social Forum June 27th
Mark Your Calendars for the Progressive Event of the Year!
By Caroline Vernon
PACG
is working on securing a bus (or two) to take a large Iowa contingent
to Atlanta, Georgia from June 27th thru July 1st to attend the US Social Forum
(USSF). Please mark your calendars and spread the word far and wide.
Details about the cost of the bus trip and available lodging will be
forthcoming... stay tuned...
Excerpt from the site:
The
US
Social Forum is more than a conference, more than a networking bonanza, more
than a reaction to war and repression.
The
USSF will provide space to build relationships, learn from each other's experiences,
share our analysis of the problems our communities face, and bring renewed
insight and inspiration. It will help develop leadership and develop
consciousness, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.
The
USSF sends a message to other people's movements around the world that there is
an active movement in the US
opposing US Policies at home and abroad.
We
must declare what we want our world to look like and begin planning the path to
get there. A global movement is rising. The USSF is our opportunity to
demonstrate to the world Another World is Possible!
Check out the following link to see some of the many workshops that will be available...
http://www.ussf2007.org/en/submitted_proposals
If you would like to be part of this great adventure, please contact Caroline at ![]() 563-676-7580, carolina1961@gmail.com
Wednesday, May 16
Establishing Our Progressive Iowa Network (PIN) - Mark the Date!
by
Caroline Vernon
on Wed 16 May 2007 11:25 AM CDT
Establishing our Progressive Iowa Network (PIN) – Mark the Date!
By Caroline Vernon
On Saturday, June 9th, progressive leaders, activists and legislators from across the state will converge on Iowa City for our first 2007 Democracy for Iowa Organizing Summit. We are still working out the details on the venue (forthcoming) but we will be meeting from 9am to 3pm (the last hour will be reserved for DFA-IA members to discuss administrative business so it will not be necessary for everyone to stay for that segment).
The purpose of this gathering is to establish the Progressive Iowa Network (PIN). This network will serve to better unite progressive organizations, legislators, and leaders across the state so we can support each other’s efforts around progressive issues in Iowa.
Currently,
we have an unprecedented opportunity to get progressive legislation
passed in our state. However, in order to achieve legislative victories
on the issues that we care about, we must establish an effective
framework that allows us to better organize our efforts, clarify our
message, mobilize our base, educate the public and influence our state
officials. We have identified the following 5 issues as requiring urgent action:
1. VOICE (Voter-Owned Iowa Clean Elections)
2. CAFO regulations / Farm Bill
3. Fair Share
4. Healthcare
5. Media
Please note: we want ALL progressive organizations to attend this meeting and become part of this network even if we may not be focusing on your specific issues at this time.
The Summit Agenda will cover the following:
I. Why is PIN important?
The first part of this summit will discuss why PIN is important. Groups/Individuals will be asked to introduce themselves and identify their main areas and issues of focus:
• Policy/Research
• Lobbying
• Media/Public Relations (including bloggers)
• Grassroots Organizing
This will NOT be an informational meeting about the issues, but rather a strategy session on how we can support each other moving forward.
II. Update & Evaluation of the recent Iowa Legislative Session
• What went well?
• What would we do differently?
III. Break-Out Sessions by Issue
• Strategize with other progressives around the state that are working on the same issue.
• What kind of help do you need from other organizations/leaders who may not be directly involved in your issue.
Lunch
IV. Report back to larger group identifying specific needs
• What do you need from PIN?
We will not have time to hear specific plans but rather will want to hear your list of needs on how other organizations/leaders can help you make progress around your issue.
V. Where does PIN go from here?
We will discuss logistics, network structure and set a date and time for our next meeting(s).
VI. DFA-Iowa Administrative Planning Session (for DFA-IA members)
This last segment will be for DFA-IA members to discuss by-laws, how we can better support Blog for Iowa, and other administrative details.
Outreach around this summit has been underway for awhile -- many progressive organizations/individuals in Iowa have already been notified. However, if you have not yet heard from us directly, please email Caroline Vernon ASAP: carolina1961@gmail.com. We need every progressive organization, leader and legislator in Iowa to participate in order to achieve maximum effectiveness as a network.
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