As one of the few Iowa bloggers who is not enthusiastic about Barack Obama, I’ve noticed some odd behavior among some of his supporters. I have questions for those of you who back Obama after the jump.

I’ve been thinking about these questions for some time, but felt compelled to write them down after reading this piece by Daily Kos superstar diarist kid oakland, as well as the comments below it.  

Hillary Clinton started running this ad, which suggests that Obama is not up to the job of handling international crises:

I don’t think this is a great ad. I understand the experience argument, and I do think Hillary is more experienced, but it hasn’t worked against Obama up to now, and I don’t see why this ad changes the game.

Obama hit back with this ad, which positions Obama as the candidate with superior judgment, because he opposed the Iraq War from the start:

I am not impressed with this ad either. I am tired of hearing Obama coast on a speech he gave five years ago. First of all, he took that speech off his website in 2003, when the war seemed to be going well. Second, his Senate voting record on all things connected to Iraq is EXACTLY THE SAME AS HILLARY CLINTON’S.

As a U.S. Senator, Obama has not shown superior judgment on Iraq compared to Clinton. He has stood on the sidelines while other senators tried to defund the war. I am not buying his claim to superior judgment on matters of foreign policy.

Probably Obama will get the better of this skirmish, because as usual, the media uncritically pass along his claim to superior judgment. I have never seen a single tv analyst point out that since getting elected to the Senate, Obama has done nothing more to end the war than Clinton has.

UPDATE: Jeralyn at Talk Left put up this excerpt from an interview Obama gave the New Yorker in November 2006:

http://www.newyorker.com/archi…

Where do you find yourself having the biggest differences with Hillary Clinton, politically?

You know, I think very highly of Hillary. The more I get to know her, the more I admire her. I think she’s the most disciplined-one of the most disciplined people-I’ve ever met. She’s one of the toughest. She’s got an extraordinary intelligence. And she is, she’s somebody who’s in this stuff for the right reasons. She’s passionate about moving the country forward on issues like health care and children. So it’s not clear to me what differences we’ve had since I’ve been in the Senate. I think what people might point to is our different assessments of the war in Iraq, although I’m always careful to say that I was not in the Senate, so perhaps the reason I thought it was such a bad idea was that I didn’t have the benefit of U.S. intelligence. And, for those who did, it might have led to a different set of choices. So that might be something that sort of is obvious. But, again, we were in different circumstances at that time: I was running for the U.S. Senate, she had to take a vote, and casting votes is always a difficult test.

Obama basically came right out and said that if he’d been in the Senate, he would have done the same thing as Hillary on the AUMF vote.

Thanks again to Betsy of BlueNC for the roundup.-desmoinesdem

This week finds many of us burning the candles at both ends.  We see campaigns gearing up in North Carolina as the time for filing to run for public office comes to a close at noon today.  Campaigns are looking to hire “internet outreach coordinators” for the first time and BlueNC has been announced as a venue for an open forum discussion between our two Democratic gubernatorial candidates.  Imagine seeing that in the newspaper and realizing we didn’t have a date set for the event!  We will also host a debate or forum between at least three of the four candidates for Lt. Gov. in NC.  Just yesterday we received confirmation from a candidate for senate that she will live-blog at BlueNC.  Check out the other state blogs on the list and on the Open Left and MyDD state blogrolls.  

The rest of the roundup is after the jump.

RF asked me yesterday why I don’t plan to donate to Barack Obama’s campaign this year. One of these days I am going to write a fuller explanation of why Obama is not “change I can believe in,” but today Chris Bowers has an outstanding piece at Open Left that articulates some of my concerns.

Bowers prefers Obama to Hillary Clinton, but he hits the nail on the head here:

Rather, what does bother me is the notion is that someone who regularly reinforces conservative stereotypes about liberals when talking to the media is somehow the great champion, defender, and savior of liberalism. Don’t tell me that someone who thinks the DLC’s champion is too partisan is the next Russ Feingold or Paul Wellstone. Obama’s failure to challenge conservative falsehoods, like the notion that Hillary Clinton is some sort of ultra-partisan whose boots are stained with the intestines of her Republican enemies, is a clear indication that he will not fundamentally challenge prevailing conventional, ideological wisdom in other areas. Will he be a hundred times better than Bush? Absolutely. Will be ninety times better than McCain? Oh yeah. Is better than Hillary Clinton? I don’t know, but I’m willing to take that chance at this point. What I just can’t swallow is hearing, on a reasonably frequent basis, Obama reinforce conservative talking points, falsehoods and stereotypes in one ear, and that Obama is a progressive savior in the other ear. The fact is that he is willing to pander to some conservative media if it will win their endorsements, and to reinforce some conservative stereotypes if it will win him independent voters. While that may be playing to win, it is not playing to transform the discursive and ideological landscape of American politics. In my experience, it is actually pretty much the same old politics.  

Click the link and read his whole piece, really.

Big Tent Democrat, another reluctant Obama supporter who blogs at Talk Left, read Bowers’ piece and was struck by this Obama quote:

“I’m not a person who believes any one party has a monopoly on wisdom,” Obama said.

Big Tent Democrat added, “Indeed. Who needs a Democratic Congress? Not Obama apparently.”

A friend forwarded to me an action alert from the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women about House File 2292, which

would require employers to make reasonable efforts to provide a private place, other than a toilet stall, for nursing mothers to express breast milk or to breastfeed a child on their regular breaks.

Employers benefit when their employees are able to continue breastfeeding, as this website makes clear:

Benefits to the Employer

   * Reduced staff turnover and loss of skilled workers after the birth of a child

   * Reduced sick time/personal leave for breastfeeding women because their infants are more resistant to illness

   * Lower health care costs associated with healthier, breastfed infants

   * Higher job productivity, employee satisfaction and morale

   * Added recruitment incentive for women

   * Enhanced reputation as a company concerned for the welfare of its employees and their families

An absence of just one day costs the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power average $360 (for a $15 per hour employee). And it takes one and one-half days to have someone else do that employee’s work.

“It works to everyone’s advantage to show people that we really care about them and their babies,” says Tory Arriaga, a nurse at PanEnergy Corp, Houston. “The Company wins because we’ve got an employee who is very happy and who is probably gong to have less sick time and a healthier baby at home.”

“This newfound corporate interest arises from studies showing breast-fed babies have fewer minor illnesses. Sick babies pile up medical bills and frequently keep their mothers and fathers out of work. Providing new mothers with a private room, breast pumps, refrigerators and an extra break or two a day becomes a money-saving proposition.”

Benefits to the Employee

   * Facilitates the mother’s postpartum recovery

   * Reduces the incidence and severity of allergies and of ear and respiratory infections in infants, which translates into less time off and sick leave taken

   * Provides the most complete, easily digested, convenient and economical source of nourishment for infants

   * Creates a special closeness between mother and infant

   * Enhances the mother’s self-esteem and confidence

   * May lessen the risk of breast cancer

   * See Benefits of Breastfeeding article for an inclusive list

“Providing the opportunity and the resources for new mothers to be able to continue breastfeeding after they return to work enhances employee morale and productivity”.

The state has a clear interest in promoting breastfeeding even after women return to the workplace.

Breastfeeding has many health benefits for babies and mothers. (Click that link for a huge list of articles and resources on this subject.)

Continuing the breastfeeding relationship promotes a strong and healthy attachment between mothers and babies.

There are even environmental benefits of breastfeeding longer.

The Iowa Commission on the Status of Women notes:

There are two ways you can help. But don’t delay! HF2292 must be voted out of Committee by March 6th in order to remain viable!

Come to a “Nurse In” at 4:00 pm on Monday, March 3 at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines! Bring nursing infants and toddlers to the 2nd floor Capitol Rotunda. Older children are also welcome! (Be prepared to sit on the floor.) Please let your legislator know you are coming and would like to visit with her/him about HF2292.

Email or call your legislators and ask them to support HF2292. This is a cost-free measure to protect the health and well-being of our youngest Iowans. With Iowa’s mothers working at such a high rate, the least we can do for them is to guarantee their right to a reasonable accommodation to express breastmilk at work.

Look up your legislators’ email address at www.legis.state.ia.us or call them at 515-281-3221. You can look up the names of your legislators and the text of HF2292 at the same address.

The full text of the release from the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women is after the jump.

Take a minute and a half out of your life to watch this video:

The Obama supporters on the blogs are way too complacent about how tough it will be to beat McCain, by the way. This is one of the lines we will need to push to get the job done.

Believe it or not, the Iowa House of Representatives is in the process of passing a bill to
“…allow the state's Office of Energy Independence to add nuclear energy to the mix of alternative and renewable energy sources that could apply for millions of dollars in state grant money.” (Todays DM Register – http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080228/NEWS10/802280389/1001/NEWS ).

A crazy plan by a few crackpot tools of the utilities, you say? No – in fact House File 2305  is co-sponsored by 57 representatives, including a bunch of democrats (who should be ashamed of themselves!).  Sponsors include:
 
PAULSEN, STRUYK, KAUFMANN, BAUDLER,DEYOE, RAYHONS, SODERBERG, UPMEYER,HEATON, TJEPKES, TYMESON, FORRISTALL, L. MILLER, GREINER, HOFFMAN, CHAMBERS, ALONS, WORTHAN, MAY, DE BOEF, SANDS, WATTS, LUKAN, DOLECHECK, RANTS, ROBERTS, D. TAYLOR, JACOBS, VAN FOSSEN, BOAL, VAN ENGELENHOVEN, PETTENGILL, TOMENGA, QUIRK, T. TAYLOR, DANDEKAR, KELLEY, SHOMSHOR, BUKTA, BAILEY, ZIRKELBACH, JACOBY, GIPP, RAECKER, DRAKE, FOEGE, HUSEMAN, R. OLSON, CLUTE, ANDERSON, WISE, GRASSLEY, RASMUSSEN, HUSER, SCHICKEL, WINDSCHITL, and BERRY.

If these folks are your reps, please call them up and ask them what the hell they are thinking…. I think we can all agree that Uranium is not a renewable resource, and as far as alternative – after 50 years and 60-80 billion dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies, I don't think it really qualifies as alternative, either.  In fact, it is the most expensive segment of the power industry, and has been from the start.

Please go to http://www.legis.state.ia.us and find the contact info for these people, and ask them to please extract their heads from their hindquarters before they embarrass our entire state.

Rich Dana
rich@gotoplanb.net

UPDATE: For more details, go to the Natural Living Expo site.

One thing I’ve been working on in my non-blog life is helping to plan the third annual Natural Living Expo, which will be held this Saturday, March 1, at the State Fairgrounds in the new Animal Learning Center building.  

If you’re in central Iowa this Saturday, please consider dropping in between 10 am and 3 pm. The event is free to the public, and there is plenty of free parking.  

Ed Fallon will be stopping by the Expo (you can find details in his public schedule, a couple of posts down this page).  

A bunch of environmental groups will have tables there as well, including the Iowa Environmental Council, Local Foods Connection, 1000 Friends of Iowa, Whiterock Conservancy, and I-Renew.

I’ve put a press release about the expo after the jump, and you can find more information about the vendors and speakers at:  www.naturallivingexpo.org  

Steve Gilliard passed away last June (decades too soon), but those of us who were addicted to his blog had been missing his writing for months already. One day in February 2007, Steve went to the doctor to get a prescription for a cold he couldn’t shake. He was admitted to the hospital right away for treatment of an infection of unknown origin, and he never was able to get back on his computer.

I’d already been planning to write this diary before I had my own run-in with a scary infection last week. I don’t write many personal reflections, but I feel compelled to share how much I still miss Steve’s blogging.

Ed Fallon turns 50 this Saturday, and his campaign has set an ambitious goal of collecting $50 from at least 1,000 donors to mark the occasion.

Everyone who gives $50 to the campaign will receive Fallon’s mother’s recipe for “killer apple pie.” You can contribute here:

http://www.actblue.com/page/50…

The campaign also has a number of public events scheduled for Saturday to mark Fallon’s birthday. I’m putting the details after the jump.  

A group funded by RJ Reynolds, Mid American Energy, and other corporations is running TV and radio ads that attack a handful of incumbent House Democrats that includes Elesha Gayman, Eric Palmer, McKinley Bailey, Bob Kressig, and Art Staed.

The ads have run on cable TV and are paid for by the Iowa Leadership Council, a group organized under the Internal Revenue Code that allows it to raise unlimited contributions.

The council raised $214,550 in the last six months of 2007, according to IRS records, with the largest donors the Reynolds American tobacco company, which gave $40,000, and MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which donated $25,000.

These ads are applauded by Cyclone Conservative who goes searching for a slogan Republicans can spin in the election. He says that Republicans need to start the attacks now and repeat a slogan over and over again.

The slogan that he comes up with is that Democrats are against property tax relief and against keeping jobs in the state. This is absolutely ridiculous. He makes it sound like Democrats want all Iowans to be unemployed and want to force them to hand over all of their money in property taxes.

After running on slogans like “God, Gays, and Guns” for years now, Republicans should realize by now that they no longer are working. Republicans need to forget the slogans and focus on ideas. All of their ideas have run there course and now what is left, is an empty party that is only able to push wedge issues, while they attempt to come up with more meaningless slogans.

Thanks to Betsy for the roundup, which came while I was in the hospital. -desmoinesdem

Rick Renzi’s under indictment, Sue Myrick gets caught with her fingers in the cookie jar – possibly legally, Patrick McHenry has questions surrounding just about everything he does, John Shadegg can’t make up his mind. How many more Republicans will get caught up in legal or ethical controversies prior to November?

One way to stay on top of this is to follow along with the state blogs. We’re discussing our congress critters and their shenanigans long before it hits the national scene. Stop by. Check us out. You too can be the first to know.

The roundup for last week is after the jump.

I received an e-mail alert from The Interfaith Alliance Iowa Action Fund today.

Apparently the House Labor Committee is considering a very bad bill in an effort to look “tough” on immigration.

The full text of the action alert is after the jump. It summarizes the main features of the bill and provides talking points you can use with legislators, along with the relevant contact e-mails and phone numbers.

My opinion is that a phone call from a constituent is harder to ignore than an e-mail message.

UPDATE: This article about the bill ran on the front page of the Des Moines Register on Tuesday:

http://www.desmoinesregister.c…

I saw on the I-Renew e-mail list that the Iowa Environmental Council has put out an action alert urging citizens to contact senators in support of SF 2083. It’s an important bill that would improve energy efficiency in this state.

The full text of the action alert, along with suggested wording for your communication with legislators, is after the jump. Of course it’s better to put things in your own words if you can.

cross-posted at Daily Kos and MyDD

I am a healthy woman in my late 30s who rarely sees a doctor outside of regularly scheduled checkups. I have had two uncomplicated pregnancies followed by easy, midwife-assisted births.

Most years we pay far more in premiums for our family’s health insurance than our medical care would cost if we paid for everything out of pocket.

Not this year. Yesterday I returned home after spending seven days and six nights in the hospital. It might have been a lot worse if I were uninsured.

Apologies for the sudden break from blogging. On February 15 I came down with an ear infection that got out of control and put me in the hospital with cellulitis in my leg from last Tuesday until this afternoon. I have about 50 diaries in my head and will start writing them again tomorrow.

Meetings with previous candidates, with long-time, active Democrats and with Democratic county chairs are great listening and learning opportunities.  

The Des Moines Register released results from a poll that shows Barack Obama would win Iowa in the general election against John McCain. However, the poll shows McCain would win in a matchup against Hillary Clinton.

Obama 53%
McCain 36%

Clinton 40%
McCain 49%

 
These results are similar to Survey USA's poll released earlier in the week.

The most interesting thing from the Des Moines Register poll was Obama's strength throughout the entire state of Iowa and among woman voters.

Other good news in the poll for Obama includes a decided advantage among female voters, who preferred him over McCain by a margin of more than 20 percentage points.

Obama also beats McCain in each of Iowa's five congressional districts, including the GOP-heavy 5th District in western Iowa. Obama also pulls more support from the opposing party than either of the other two candidates, with 14 percent of Republicans saying they would vote for him.

These numbers show that Obama would help Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. Having Obama on the ballot would be a boost to Congressional candidates in Iowa's 4th and 5th Districts and help Democrats get a larger majority in the Iowa House.

A popular topic of discussion in my town seems to be how crappy the roads have been all winter. The discussion has moved into the local newspaper and into the city council chambers.

I have to agree with a lot of the criticism because many of the roads that I drive on everyday are pretty bad. However, I do not blame the city council or the city workers for the ice covered and snow packed roads. I put the blame on the anti-tax crowd that gets all worked up about any discussion of property taxes. Every time a new budget is discussed the anti-tax gets all riled up about property taxes without stopping and thinking about what we actually spend our money on. This lack of rational debate has caused us to become a low-tax minimal-services society.

If you think it is a wise investment to pay overtime for city workers to hop into their snow plows in the middle of the night to clear the roads, then you might just have to pay a couple more dollars on your property taxes.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of all taxes. I understand that our tax money is wasted over and over again by the federal, state, and local governments. I don't like the fact that $9 billion of tax payer money is missing in Iraq. I don't like the fact that the state promotes corporate welfare if the company promises to locate jobs in the state. I don't like if cities abuse TIF districts that divert tax payer money away from schools and other services. It is too bad the anti-tax aren't as vocal on these issues.

The question isn't how much we pay in taxes, the question is about the the quality of services we receive from those taxes. Unfortunately, we have become a low-tax minimal-service society. So if you complain then you need to understand that you get what you pay for.

A new poll by Survey USA shows Barack Obama winning Iowa over John McCain by 10%. The poll shows Hillary Clinton losing to McCain by 11%.

Iowa:
Obama 51%
McCain 41%

Clinton 41%
McCain 52%

I am not surprised that Obama would win Iowa. However, I am surprised about how far behind Clinton is. McCain barely even campaigned in the Iowa. I thought some Iowans might hold that against McCain and some might not know him well enough to decide to support him over Clinton. It looks like I was wrong.