Disqus - Latest Comments for desmoinesdem

Re: AG: State could end up paying for 109 additional film projects

desmoinesdem — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:56:31 -0000

Even $78 million is way too much--that's more than the Power Fund has spent so far, and film-making doesn't involve the collateral benefits that many of the Power Fund projects have.

Re: Grassley could be vulnerable in 2010

desmoinesdem — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:50:54 -0000

Will there be a candidate with name recognition, or will Bob Krause or Tom Fiegen be able to raise the money to get name recognition? Those are the key questions.

Re: An alternate view of Borlaug’s legacy

desmoinesdem — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:36:30 -0000

Re: Iowa Dems go after Branstad

desmoinesdem — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:29:05 -0000

I assume that $400 million deficit was in early 1990s dollars, which would be equivalent to a larger deficit adjusted to today's dollars.

Good for the IDP for confronting this revisionist history about Branstad.

Re: Journal reporter looks back at Branstad’s last campaign

desmoinesdem — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:50:06 -0000

Grandy's wife endorsed Bonnie Campbell in the 1994 general election, incidentally.

Re: Group urges Iowa delegation to repeal DOMA

desmoinesdem — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:52:57 -0000

Good for them. I will be surprised, however, if anyone in the Iowa delegation signs on.

Re: Democrats Lost Leverage From Start in Health Care Debate

desmoinesdem — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:38:32 -0000

A couple of quibbles:

How were Democrats supposed to credibly put single payer on the table when it would have immediately become obvious that we didn't have the votes to get it out of any Congressional committee?

Also, single payer would not eliminate private insurers. In the UK people can buy supplemental private health insurance, just like many Americans in the Medicare system do.

Re: State senate panel dismisses ethics complaint

desmoinesdem — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:35:24 -0000

When was the last time the Iowa House or Senate Ethics Committees seriously considered an ethics complaint, as opposed to unanimously dismissing it with no real investigation?

Re: Hanson bests Burgmeier in HD90

desmoinesdem — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:59:42 -0000

Surely the GOP must have had volunteers knocking on doors yesterday and making phone calls. Are you sure they were just waving at cars?

Re: IDP Chair: Fong is being dishonest

desmoinesdem — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:37:42 -0000

Credit analysts and institutional investors know the difference between borrowing to pay bills and borrowing to make capital improvements. That's why strong demand drove down the interest rate on the I-JOBS bonds. Other states that are borrowing to pay bills must pay higher rates to attract buyers for their bonds.

Re: In HD90 special election, Burgmeier gets more help from outside groups

desmoinesdem — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:38:19 -0000

Is George Soros that much of a household name in district 90 that Hanson would be damaged by association with him?

The message at the end is clear, but weird ad.

Re: Moderate GOP group’s poll sheds light on 2010 campaign

desmoinesdem — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:25:52 -0000

I agree that this is a good poll for Culver. His approve/disapprove numbers (52/38) are close to what The Iowa Republican poll found a couple of weeks earlier (53/41), which suggests that Survey USA's numbers are a bit of an outlier with Culver's approval in the mid-40s.

A big problem with The Iowa First Foundation poll, however, is that they use a likely voter screen, which is absurd 16 months before the election.

I'm curious to see what Selzer's next poll for the Register shows (probably in September or October).

Re: Burgmeier, Hanson introduce themselves with negative TV ads in HD90

desmoinesdem — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:29:49 -0000

About ten years ago I read an academic article about perceptions of negative political advertising. The authors had studied people's reactions to ads from the 1996 U.S. presidential campaign. They found that people disliked Dole's 30-second negative ads. The Clinton campaign ran a bunch of 30-second ads that had 25 seconds of negative material on Dole followed by 5 seconds of positive material on Clinton. The people studied did not perceive these as negative like the Dole campaign's ads. Probably research like this is why you see so many "attack and pivot" political ads.

Re: Loebsack hopes for measured discussion on health care

desmoinesdem — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:51:48 -0000

Republicans are bringing a gun to this knife fight, Congressman Loebsack. No "measured discussion" is possible if the other side is not dealing in good faith. This isn't Jim Leach's Republican Party.

Re: Deace joins up with birther movement

desmoinesdem — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:43:03 -0000

The rank-and-file birthers are being manipulated by the same people who pushed ridiculous conspiracy theories about Bill Clinton. They want to create continuous background noise undermining the president's legitimacy.

Dual citizens born in the U.S. are natural-born citizens. Anyway, how would a conspiracy know to plant a birth announcement in a Hawaii newspaper for a baby born halfway around the world? Would anyone have seriously thought in 1961 that it was realistic to start plotting to get a biracial baby elected president of the United States?

I liked John Deeth's recent post comparing the birthers to the people in 1928 who claimed Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith (a Catholic) had "a secret tunnel to the Vatican."

Re: McKinley fixes ‘paid for’ notice

desmoinesdem — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:59:45 -0000

Not ready for prime time.

The Iowa Senate Republicans site still has an item from April 16 at the top of the "recent news" page.

http://www.iowasenaterepublicans.org/

I think a few newsworthy events occurred between April 16 and the end of the legislative session on April 26.

Re: Rants: Roberts should skip gubernatorial bid to keep his House seat safe

desmoinesdem — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:57:55 -0000

I wouldn't say Roberts' district is our top pickup opportunity, but I certainly would want to see Democrats play hard for that district. If it's an open seat, we have a reasonable chance at winning with a good candidate.

Re: Study highlights grim realities of rural obstetric access

desmoinesdem — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:14:00 -0000

Out of curiosity, has anyone looked at the c-section rates from rural hospitals that have since closed their obstetrical departments? I have read in the past that some rural hospitals have very high rates of scheduled c-sections.

It's conceivable that care for women could improve, even if they have to drive further to a hospital, if the hospital they are going to is more likely to give them a real trial of labor rather than a guaranteed c-section.

Re: Study highlights grim realities of rural obstetric access

desmoinesdem — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:00:45 -0000

This is an important one, not only for rural areas: "changes in physicians’ attitudes toward work and quality of life."

One of the reasons we have an explosion of labor inductions (in some areas more than 50 percent of first-time mothers are induced) is that OB/GYNs don't like to be called into the hospital in the middle of the night or on weekends. In past generations that came with the territory if you went into that field.

Unfortunately, the labor inductions are more likely to lead to other interventions if the cervix is not ripe (pitocin, epidural, cesarean birth). It shouldn't be normal to induce labor for non-medical reasons.

Expanding access to midwifery care in rural hospitals would be good for mothers, babies and the overall costs associated with labor and delivery.

Re: Radio host, pastor insult senator’s Christianity

desmoinesdem — Sun, 24 May 2009 00:23:51 -0000

I am becoming more and more convinced that Republicans will overplay what they think is a winning hand on gay marriage. This kind of talk is repellent to everyone but the hard-core GOP base.

Re: Freshman Dem publically supports marriage vote

desmoinesdem — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:47:21 -0000

I reject the Republican framing that says voting to write discrimination into the state constitution is some kind of neutral vote to "let the people decide."

If Marek wants that amendment on the ballot, let him stand up and admit that he would like to ban same-sex marriage in Iowa.

Re: Despite setbacks, labor has high hopes for 2010

desmoinesdem — Sat, 16 May 2009 08:31:26 -0000

They shouldn't focus on Mertz. She is always going to screw them over. They should focus on the Democrats who don't support them despite representing fairly strong Democratic districts. I'm looking at you, Geri Huser, Brian Quirk and Doris Kelley.

If organized labor doesn't support primary challengers in some of these districts, then elected Democrats have every incentive not to pass labor legislation.

Re: Grassley closes door on public health care plan after yesterday’s ambiguity

desmoinesdem — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:44:25 -0000

More like, can AHIP convince Baucus not to include a real public option? Having looked up Baucus' donors at Open Secrets, I think they can.

Re: Swine flu: Are CAFOs to blame?

desmoinesdem — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:17:57 -0000

Depending on how the public health investigation being undertaken by U.S. and Mexican officials turns out, it could have a significant impact on how we regulate agriculture in Iowa.

You must be joking. We Iowans never respond to any scientific evidence about hidden costs of factory farming with more regulation of factory farms.

Re: Bartz, Iowa Family Policy Center encourage county officials to defy supreme court same-sex marriage ruling

desmoinesdem — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:20:07 -0000

You can read the full text of the petition at the end of this post at Bleeding Heartland:

http://tinyurl.com/czz8rg