iowa

News Roundup: An Idylly Wild Friday

Friday, October 24th, 2008

In California…Idyllwild, though chock full of brush, a real danger during what amounts to the in-state October “fire season,” takes issue with its fire officials. Not being able to stand what it considers authoritarian bullying and unnecessary displays of power, the area has treated its department in a manner Capt. Jim Marietta likened to “the old Frankenstein movies..where the town is approaching with pitchforks.” Yikes.

OPEC Puts Kabosh on Output Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has reduced its production by 1.5 million barrels a day, citing the credit crisis and thus decrease in demand as output limiting incentives. Or is it the advent of the Escalade Hybrid?? We’ll never know…

Stocks: Like Lava Down a Mountain Alas; here we go again. Stocks plummeted 300 points this morning causing a sell off that itself was due to what The New York Times reported were “dismal corporate earnings and poor economic data around the world.”

But…Iowa Proof Some Local Banks Ok Yet some banks have showed that on a smaller scale, things are fine. Farmers Savings Bank of Colesburg, Iowa has had no foreclosures, no tightening credit! Well that’s refreshing. Relying on the same customers they’ve had as well as a very local internal farming-based economy, lending is on the up-and-up (or at least at a constant) and these banks are continuing as they were.

Pakistan Taking on the Taliban Tribal militias, or “lashkars,” are one of the tools the country’s employed while it wages a war against the Taliban and backer Al Qaeda. As both militant presences and the war in neighboring Afghanistan has become more, rather than less, Pakistan’s looked for fr help anywhere it could find it. Though often untrained as well as untried, these tribal militias have proven to be valiant and will hopefully be helpful in that fight.

P+P@The DNC: Ohio Delegates Share the Secret To Winning in the Heartland

Friday, August 29th, 2008

The Midwest is ground zero for the election. It’s rural, urban, blue collar, moderate, unionized, independent…and will make the difference between winning and losing.

Whichever candidate wins Ohio is going to win the election. It’s true this year and it’s been true every election since 1896 (with one exception in 1944).

Much is made of Obama’s ability to get the vote out, and Ohio is no different.

“Obama has 300 people on the ground, John Kerry had 16,” said Sally Powless an Ohio delegate from Toledo and a member of AFSCME. ”Kerry went in 17 counties and Barack is going to go after all of them. You can’t just go in urban areas, you have to get support everywhere.”

Some of the loudest applause at the Democratic convention came with rhetoric tailored to the middle class. Other lines that targeted Exxon-Mobil or companies that ship jobs overseas brought delegations to their feet.

So when Obama says he will cut taxes for 95 percent of working families, it’s a reaction to the lay of the land in places like Ohio.

“So many plants have been closed down,” said Jane Ragland, another Ohio delegate from rural Chillicothe about 46 miles south of Columbus. ”We in rural areas have the manpower and we’re in need of employment.”

So when Obama spoke of his heroes like the “woman [who] talk[s] about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman,” he’s relating to the personal experiences of blue collar and women voters.

The personal touch is working.

“I know how he feels,” Ragland said. “I know the stumbling blocks he had before he got to be where he’s at. If he can raise above the odds, we all can. That’s what he has to get across.”

And that message is resonating in Iowa, Gov. Chet Culver said in an interview.

“He’s just got to do what he’s been doing across the county and spread his message,” he said. “It’s a historic moment to see the torch passed to the next generation of American leaders,” and Iowans are looking forward to it.

Obama, Huckabee and the kids

Friday, January 4th, 2008

The message last night in Iowa was a clear: Please let’s change the whole mess up!

Sounding the opening bell on the 2008 elections, caucus-goers voted overwhelmingly for a first-term African-American senator on the left and an anti-BigMoney governor on the right. Key to the victories of both men was the mad increase in participation of young voters. The numbers are amazing. You know the way it sounds when someone sits down next to you somewhere and is moving to the music in their headphones and you think Yeah that sounds pretty good and then they let you have a listen and it’s more than good, it’s banging— well that sound is how the numbers look.

Youth turnout rate nearly tripled this time around, going from 4 percent in 2004 to 11 percent last night. Young voters supported both winners by the largest margins of any age group. According to a CNN poll, among 17-to-29-year-old Democrats, 57 percent supported Barack Obama; among 17-to-29-year-old Republicans, 40 percent supported Mike Huckabee. What’s more, the percentage of Democratic caucus-goers under the age of 30 (22 percent) was greater than the percentage of people under 30 who live in Iowa (21 percent). All of which reflects national trends noted since 2000. Since then and before last night, 6.2 million new voters under 30 years of age had cast ballots. And this year, 44 million Americans under 30 will be eligible to vote, more than one-fifth of all U.S. voters.

Was Obama right to target the much maligned “apathetic” youth? Oh yes he was. He got the youth vote and he got the woman vote and he got the white vote. In a 95 percent white state, Obama killed. He didn’t do it alone, of course, and it couldn’t have hurt that the man nailed this last of his caucus ads, hitting the two-minute mark exactly. Swish and the buzzer!

Addition: For anecdotal reporting on what went on inside the caucuses, ie, more about the youth takeover, read these three quick Salon dispatches.

Caucusland weather report

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

It’s caucus day in the snowy farmland that is Iowa. The New York Times put up this explainer video that attempts in a pinched nearly Power-Point way to answer the question: “What the hell is a caucus and how does it actually work?” The short answer is: Folks get in a room, drink coffee and consult on the candidates. There are no secret ballots. The experience is less complicated for Republicans. For Democrats, it’s a messy talkfest that requires compromise. Sad part is that only something like 10 percent of eligible voters participate, which isn’t entirely a product of apathy. If you work nights, you can’t go. If you’re out of town on business, you can’t go. If you got kids and no baby sitter, you can’t go. If you are the baby sitter, you can’t go. If you’re an Iowan but attending a college somewhere not in Iowa and so not in Iowa tonight, you may be lucky overall, but you can’t go caucus. Some say that’s just how it is. To which others might respond: “Video conference anybody?”

Best candidate quote going into tonight goes to… Obama: “There are people who say, you know, ‘Obama may be inspiring, he may have good ideas, but he hasn’t been in Washington long enough. We need to stew him and season him a little bit more, boil all the hope out of him so he sounds like everybody else, then he’ll be ready.’ But the real gamble is to have us do the same old things with the same old folks over and over and over again and expect nothing but the same results. That’s a risk we can not take.”

It’ll be gusty and in the teens fahrenheit for caucus goers tonight. Dern cold, aye?!

Keyboard kingmakers

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

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With less than 24 hours until the Iowa Caucus kicks off the mad dash to White House, which candidates will take the early states and the party nominations is anyone’s guess… even yours.

Whether your personal prediction comes from scrupulously dissecting the most recent polls from Rasmussen or taking a looksie into that crystal ball you got for Christmas, a good guess can skyrocket you straight to professional political pundit status this primary season. The policy-minded team behind Fantasy Congress has teamed up with Politico to launch Kingmaker, a virtual competition where betting correctly on contest outcomes can earn you bragging rights and big prizes.

Pop and Politics checked in with Kingmaker co-creator Andrew Lee, a 20-something who says he would rather read blogs in his pajamas than tune in to Monday Night Football, to chat about placing political bets, Hillary vs. Paris and the Internet’s role in promoting civic participation. See the edited transcript of the interview after the jump.

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