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Monday, February 28
Peace Rally in Burlington, Iowa, March 19th
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 28 Feb 2005 10:54 AM CST
 Peace Rally in Burlington, Iowa, March 19th
United for Peace and Justice
Saturday, March 19th 2005 2 P.M.
Burlington, IA USA
There
will be an opening prayer by a member of the clergy. He will then
announce that, all during this peace rally, the names, faces, age, and
home town of every American soldier who has already died for us in Iraq
will be projected on a large screen. One name and face every three
seconds. By then the total American military dead in Iraq will be over
1,500, so it will take one hour and fifteen minutes to show every one
of them. This will take place while our planned program on how and why
to end the Iraq war is presented. After the planned program ends, there
will be an open microphone for any to make brief comments comment. We
will also announce the date of our next monthly meeting and invite all
to attend.
Prior to the March 19th peace rally, a
petition to [George W.] Bush will be circulated. All signed petitions are
to be brought to the March 19th peace rally. A copy of this petition is
being emailed to every peace group listed on the United for Peace and
Justice website asking them to also circulate it and send the signed
petitions to [Geroge W.] Bush at the White House right after March 19,
2005. Here is what the petition says:
PETITION TO [George W.] BUSH.
We, the
undersigned, respectfully ask [George W.] Bush to publicly make the
following pledge. We believe there has already been far too much death
and destruction. It is time to bring this war to an end.
I,
George W. Bush, pledge to halt U.S. Military actions immediately and
move all U.S. troops to the borders of Iraq and bring them home as soon
as possible. We have no long-term interest in a military presence in
Iraq. All Iraqi businesses, including oil, will return to Iraqi
ownership. We promise to pay for war damages and will help in peaceful
ways to create an Iraq where freedom and justice prevail.
~~~~~~~~
In
addition to the petition which will help advertise this event from now
until March 19th, we will run a series of newspaper ads, one each day
for 30 days, the last two to be half page ads the day before and the
day of the March 19 peace rally. We will also run at least 50 thirty
second commercials, plus there will be numerous press release and news
stories and letters to the editor.
Location:
Burlington,
Iowa riverfront at the Port of Burlington Building right on the
Mississippi River 400 Front Street Burlington IA 52601
United for Peace and Justice
RSVP
Contact:
Dick Distelhorst
319-753-1148
 Click here to receive action alerts from Rapid Response - Iowa
Sunday, February 27
QC Library Patrons Favor Warning Signs About Patriot Act
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 27 Feb 2005 07:49 AM CST
 QC Library Patrons Favor Warning Signs About Patriot Act
QC Times
By Tory Brecht
Bettendorf public library director Faye Clow faced what she called a
"terrible choice" recently when asked by the Quad-Cities chapter of the
Iowa Civil Liberties Union to put up warning signs near library
materials.
Specifically, the signs would warn about provisions of the USAPatriot
Act that would allow records of books and other materials borrowed by
patrons to be obtained by federal agents and forbidding librarians from
informing the borrowers if their records were being monitored.
"We have people lobbying on the national level against parts of the
Patriot Act," [Clow] said, referring to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom.
"I think people should be aware," said Aaron Brinson, a 17-year-old
Pleasant Valley High School student. "They should know what they check
out can be looked at."
...Bettendorf's Dawn McKinney, 40, thinks it's important to raise
awareness. "People in general need to be made aware of how
much access the government has to their lives," she said. "It's a
little disturbing because I don't know who decides what is justifiable
cause to look at materials."
(click here to read the entire story)
Click here to receive action alerts from Rapid Response - Iowa
Friday, February 25
Getting The State Budget In Order
by
Chad Thompson
on Fri 25 Feb 2005 12:32 PM CST
 Getting The State Budget In Order
The Des Moines Register ran an article today detailing the Iowa House GOP budget outlay.
Iowa's cigarette tax won't be raised if House Republicans get their way.
House GOP leaders released a $4.8
billion state spending plan for the 2006 budget year that they said
covers the rising cost of Medicaid, the state-federal health care
program for the poor.
The plan, in addition to containing
an $82 million school aid increase, sets aside an extra $40 million for
targeted education programs.
The $40 million increase is about
$100 million less than Gov. Tom Vilsack wants for an array of education
initiatives: teacher pay, preschool and child care, school sharing
incentives, and state support for the community colleges and state
universities.
Conspicuously absent from the GOP
plan is the 80-cents-per-pack cigarette tax increase recommended by
Vilsack, a Democrat. The current tax is 36 cents a pack.
Setting a state budget that doesn't
require any tax increase "is good news for taxpayers," said Rep. Bill
Dix of Shell Rock, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. An
overall spending increase of 4 percent "ought to be enough."
...
Democratic legislative leaders heaped criticism on the Republican plan.
"It is based on deception and broken promises," said House Minority
Leader Pat Murphy of Dubuque. He accused the GOP of reneging on
promises to improve teacher quality and creating the illusion of a
balanced budget while tapping cash reserves.
During the last four years, the
Legislature has borrowed heavily from other funds in order to balance
the state's general operating budget. Rather than repay all the money,
the House GOP plan calls for writing off about $1 billion owed to a
tobacco endowment and other funds.
What's missing from all of this is what has been alluded to this week, notably in David Yepsen's column: the state is not building a firm financial footing on which to operate.
To be honest, this probably won't be settled one way or another until
the Legislative deadlock is somehow broken - or we start having honest
discussions about what the state's "priorities" are rather than having
Stuart Iverson decide for the entire state what our "priorities" are.
The truth here is that Medicaid assistance is being slashed at the
Federal level, and we're going to have to pick up the tab - and find
creative ways to do so other than draining every cash reserve we can
find and reducing educational funding, law enforcement funding, and
nearly everything else. Draining funding from a program that
promised a certain service (like draining the Senior Living Trust Fund
as Tom Vilsack's budget proposed) without 'killing' the program is about as dishonest as it gets in legislative terms.
John Drury was right the other day in this column: Iowans need to have a serious dialogue about what we expect out of our government, and how we're going to pay for it.
The insistance by the Legislative GOP leadership that we're somehow
"meeting Iowa's priorities" is a sham. Maybe if we repeat it
enough we might begin to believe it - or maybe not. Iowans
deserve more from our state government. In 2005, we're not
getting it.
Thursday, February 24
Iowa to Face Federal Budget Cuts
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 24 Feb 2005 11:00 AM CST
 Iowa to Face Federal Budget Cuts
Iowa Fiscal Partnership
Analysis: Bush Budget Whacks Iowa Services
New report projects Iowa cuts of nearly $580 million in federal spending
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – A new report reveals sweeping cuts in services for Iowa in the budget proposed by [George W.] Bush.
A
Washington budget watchdog group, the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities (CBPP), reports that Iowans would see cuts in federal grants
in aid of more than $577 million from 2006 through 2010, including $178
million in 2010 alone.
"The administration is hiding the effects of its budget proposals
as no administration has done in over 15 years," said David Osterberg,
executive director of the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project. "It's pretty
hard for Iowans and other Americans to battle back on cuts the
administration won't detail. Fortunately, this new report gives Iowans
a better idea of what they're facing – and information they can use to
talk to their representatives in Congress."
While
the proposed budget details the cuts only for 2006, the CBPP analysis
uses further information provided to congressional committees to make
estimates of future cuts in several areas.
This
is the first time since 1989 that an administration's budget has not
provided information about the proposed funding levels for individual
discretionary programs in years beyond the first year.
Nationally,
[Bush's] budget would cut $214 billion in domestic "discretionary"
spending in the five years. However, only the first $18 billion of
those proposed cuts – cuts that would occur in 2006 – are identified by
the administration.
"The
pain in the budget comes mostly after 2006, with the cuts growing
deeper with each passing year," said Sharon Parrott, CBPP director of
welfare reform and income and the report’s lead author.
Among the Iowa cuts:
-- $3.7
million in 2010 in the supplemental nutrition program for women,
infants and children (WIC), $5.1 million over the 2006-2010 period and
a projected loss in number of recipients of 5,600.
-- $38.1
million in 2010 in elementary and secondary education, including
education for the disadvantaged, impact aid, school improvement
funding, and special education, $108.7 million in total projected cuts
for 2006-2010.
-- $12.5 million in 2010 for vocational and adult education, $57.6 million in total projected cuts for 2006-2010.
-- $3.1 million in 2010 for low-income energy assistance, $4.1 million in total projected cuts for 2006-2010.
-- $9.1
million in 2010 for children and family services, including Head Start,
services for abused and neglected children, and other children's
programs, $26.2 million in total projected cuts for 2006-2010.
-- A loss of rental assistance vouchers for 3,800 families in 2010.
-- $23.2
million in 2010 in [Bush's] proposed "Strengthening America's
Communities" initiative, $100.7 million in total projected cuts for
2006-2010.
"These cuts will be a new burden on the people in Iowa who can least afford to bear them,"
said Charles Bruner, executive director of the Child & Family
Policy Center in Des Moines. "It is important for Iowans and all
Americans to understand that the proposed cuts in these services do not
provide deficit reduction. Instead, they will shift costs to state and
local governments, and will be used to help pay for tax cuts that are
primarily benefiting the wealthiest Americans."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The
new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "Large Cuts
to a Wide Range of Programs are Obscured in the Administration’s
Budget," is available at the Center’s website: www.cbpp.org.
The
Iowa Policy Project and the Child & Family Policy Center will make
federal budget information available in the coming months through their
joint initiative, the Iowa Fiscal Partnership, which is on the web at www.iowafiscal.org.
Wednesday, February 23
Action Alert: Attend a Public Meeting and Tell Senator Grassley to Protect Medicaid
by
Trish Nelson
on Wed 23 Feb 2005 06:51 AM CST
Action Alert: Attend a Public Meeting and Tell Senator Grassley to Protect Medicaid
Iowa Citizen Action Network
Attend an Open Public Meeting and Tell Sen. Grassley to protect Medicaid from $45
billion cuts proposed in [George W.] Bush's budget. Sen. Grassley has
scheduled numerous community meetings this week. Check the list of
locations at the end of this post to see which meeting you can
attend! If you are unable to attend one of there forums, please call or
write Sen. Grassley to make your voice heard and help save Medicaid.
As Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Grassley is one of the most important elected officials who can defend Medicaid from $45 billion in cuts
proposed by Bush. These proposed program cuts are a direct result of the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.
SEN. GRASSLEY NEEDS TO HEAR FROM YOU while he is in Iowa this week and
before the House and Senate propose their own budgets on March 7.
Tell him that cuts to Medicaid will be devastating to your family, your
community, and the state of Iowa.
Below
are some talking points to help you make your case and a list of public
meetings. The most important thing for Sen. Grassley to hear is
that Medicaid is a lifeline and that those who participate have no
other options if services are cut. And as always, send us an
e-mail telling us you attended the meeting or made a phone call.
Contact
Matt Russell, Iowa Citizen Action Network's health care organizer at
(515) 277-2077 to learn more and to get more
involved in this campaign. Additional information is available at
ICAN.
Talking Points
1. For Medicaid participants: Medicaid is important to me and my family because…(tell your story - how does Medicaid improve your family’s well being and what hardships would result if services were lost)
2. For providers, professionals, and local officials: Medicaid is important to my community, my hospital, my clients because…(give concrete examples)
“Cuts in Medicaid shift costs to providers, to people with private insurance, to other programs, and to Iowa’s most vulnerable populations: seniors, children, people with disabilities.”
3. Bush has proposed a budget that would take more than $380 million of Medicaid funding from Iowa over the next 10 years. These cuts will hurt me, my family, my hospital, my community, etc.
4. Iowa is already struggling to pay the current state share of Medicaid costs. $380 million dollars of additional federal cuts over the next 10 years will devastate Iowa’s state budget. It’s going to make it that much harder for the state to provide necessary health care to our most vulnerable Iowans: children, seniors, people with disabilities.
5. Mr.
Grassley you’re going to have a lot of influence in securing the
funding for Medicaid because of your leadership role in the Senate
Finance Committee. We’re relying on you to protect Iowans who
rely on Medicaid for vital health care services.
We have many crucial opportunities to speak with Sen. Grassley in person during the
week of Feb. 21 when he is in Iowa. If you are unable to attend
any of the following, it is important that you call or write Sen.
Grassley in Washington:
Sen. Chuck Grassley
135 Hart Senate Bldg., Washington, DC 20510-1501
Ph. 202-224-3744
or click here to send an e-mail
SENATOR GRASSLEY’S OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS THIS WEEK
Wednesday February 23
7:30-8:30am
Jasper County Town Meeting
Jasper County Courthouse
Multipurpose Room
Basement
101 1st Street North
Newton
9:30-10:30am
Marshall County Town Meeting
Marshall County Courthouse
3rd Floor
Meeting Room 1
1 East Main Street
Marshalltown
4:15-5:15pm
Wapello County Town Meeting
Ottumwa City Hall
City Council Chambers
105 East 3rd Street
Ottumwa
Thursday February 24
7:30-8:30am
Davis County Town Meeting
Mutchler Community Center
900 East North Street
Bloomfield
9:30-10:30am
Van Buren County Town Meeting
Village Cup and Cakes
Meeting Room
202 Main Street
Keosauqua
11:45am-12:45pm
Jefferson County Town Meeting
Jefferson County Courthouse
3rd Floor Conference Room
51 East Briggs Avenue
Fairfield
1:30-2:30pm
Henry County Town Meeting
Henry County Courthouse
Law Library
2nd floor
100 East Washington Street
Mount Pleasant
3:45-4:45pm
Lee County Town Meeting
Fort Madison City Hall
City Council Chambers
811 Avenue E
Fort Madison
Friday February 25
7:30-8:30am
Des Moines County Town Meeting
Southeastern Community College
West Burlington Campus (Southwest Corner of Campus) Building 400, Room 406
1500 West Agency Road
West Burlington
9:30-10:30am
Louisa County Town Meeting
Louisa County Courthouse
Courtroom
2nd Floor
117 South Main Street
Wapello
Monday, February 21
COUNTERPOINT EXTRA: Props to Media Matters for America
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 21 Feb 2005 11:51 AM CST
Counterpoint Extra: Props to Media Matters for America
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
Iowa's Ted Remington
Before
resuming normal Counterpoint activity, I just want to take a moment to
publicly thank David Brock and the good folks at Media Matters for
America for having my back concerning Mark Hyman's attack on me. Not
only did Media Matters do a stellar job in pointing out the distortions
and falsehoods concerning me, but they thoroughly debunked Hyman's
smears of other college teachers he committed in the same commentary.
More
importantly, MMFA is taking a leading role in keeping the heat on
Sinclair Broadcasting, particularly in their participation in Sinclair
Action, a group of progressive organizations that are working to
educate people on the reality of Sinclair's business and "journalistic"
practices. They've just revamped their website, and it looks great. I
highly recommend that everyone take a look and take action.
Finally,
thanks to the posters to [the Counterpoint], anonymous and otherwise, for the
words of encouragement. They are truly appreciated!
Cheers,
Ted
Listen to Ted talk with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Michael Papantonios on Air America Radio's weekly program, Ring of Fire aired February 12.
Click here to receive action alerts from Rapid Response - Iowa
Saturday, February 19
Pella Chronicle Publisher orders "From the Left" Column Scrapped
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 19 Feb 2005 09:38 PM CST
 Pella Chronicle Publisher Orders “From the Left” Column Scrapped
The Des Moines Register
By Rekha Basu
Mike
Corum, who writes the From the Left column for the weekly Pella
Chronicle, stopped by to welcome the new publisher [Sandy Selvy] to the
community from Ottumwa. It wasn't until later that day that Corum
understood why she seemed disengaged.
The publisher's first official act related to the newsroom was calling up the editor and ordering him to scrap Corum's column.
The
editor, Hal Hatfield, refused, and resigned in protest. He thinks
the publisher's move is a nod to conservative advertising and business
interests.
But
Selvy denies that either is the case. She says the paper doesn't have
enough local content, and that "no one cares about what Mike thinks
about Bush and what's going on in the war."
(click here to read the entire story)
If
you would like to write a letter to the editor expressing your views about the decision to limit
dissent in this central Iowa community, write, call or fax your
thoughts to:
The Pella Chronicle
Phone: 641-628-3882
FAX: 641-628-3905
E-mail Sandy Selvy
E-mail The Register:
Click here to receive action alerts from Rapid Response - Iowa
March is Social Security Month for Democracy for America as Bush Tries to Sell his "Plan"
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 19 Feb 2005 11:39 AM CST
 March is Social Security Month for Democracy for America as Bush Tries to Sell his "Plan"
QC Times
It's
almost that time again...the March Democracy for America meet-up topic will
be Social Security, and Democracy for the Quad-Cities is all over it as Dr.
Alta Price reports they are already inviting local seniors to attend
and discuss the Bush "plan." Be sure to watch this space
for Caroline Vernon’s upcoming series honoring DFQC seniors - four of
their group’s “most loyal” attendees. Thanks Alta and DFQC for
the great idear!
By Ed Tibbetts
WASHINGTON, D.C. — [George W.] Bush tried Tuesday to assure older
Americans that any Social Security reform would not hit them in the
pocketbook, a message the White House hopes will resonate in places
such as Iowa where 1 in 6 people get benefits from the 70-year-old
government program.
Bush met
in the Oval Office with reporters from a half-dozen newspapers,
including the QUAD-CITY TIMES, based in states where there is a large
elderly population as he seeks to reform [dismantle] the Social Security program.
“Benefit
cuts is an interesting word,” Bush said. “Benefits are scheduled to
grow at a certain rate, and one of the, one of the suggestions, for
example ... was they grow at a, they grow, but not at a rate as fast as
projected. You can call it anything you want. I would call it an
adjustment to reality,” he said.
(click here to read the entire story).
To find or start a Democracy For America meet-up in your area, click here.
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