Tag: politics

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Home Life Living in Society

Saturday Swagger

Garden in the Morning
Garden in the Morning

LAKE MACBRIDE— When the drunken arctic air finished its swagger through the upper Midwest, patches of brown grass reappeared in the white landscape. Pools of water formed on the driveway like dammed up dreams, ready to be cut loose when the rest of the snow melts— a false hope of Spring. Feeling restless, I went to town.

Partly, to proofread the newspaper comme d’habitude on Saturday morning. More than that, one of the county supervisors was holding a community discussion at the public library. If life is anything here, it is partly about politics. Several friends were there, and it was good to break winter for a while. It was a campaign stop for the June primary, and also a chance for conversation with friends and acquaintances.

Topics included drug testing, marijuana decriminalization, ever changing synthetic drugs, the overcrowded jail, trails, the para transit service, loss of services in the new mental health regions, and roads— lots of talk about roads. One who lived west of the Ely blacktop mentioned his road specifically. “When will the county address Curtis Bridge Road?” he asked. I listened mostly, and raised an issue or two. It was all good.

Toward the end a woman came in and talked about geoengineering, wanting the county to take action. She had a confusing message. She asked the county to do something about it, but couldn’t say what “it” was. She had a handout with a website which could be the subject of another post… or not. There’s only so much mental capacity and too little time to consider everything.

But allow me to end my drunken swagger. Time has come to be less distracted. Before we accept it and focus, however, the super bowl is coming, marking the last feasible (albeit lame) excuse to delay and celebrate the holidays. What’s the rush? The needs of the growing season will soon be here, catching us unaware. “Just one more thing, that’s all I ask,”  he said to himself.

Whatever the human capacity for wonder, the hydrant of behavior must be articulated so we can focus on one thing at a time. Engaging as hanging with friends may be, and good for the soul, if we don’t focus, our lives will be no different than the recent polar vector— chilling us for a few days only to leave without stunting the disruptive vectors approaching our lives.

When I worked for the oil company, we had employees in about 100 countries. On staff was an expert in addictions. He worked not only on drugs, alcohol and tobacco, but on almost everything that could trap people and diminish productivity. When I spent time with him as part of my training, I learned more about distraction and its relationship to addiction than I thought possible. Admitting we have a problem is first step. My addiction is to following life’s many ideas to wherever they lead. I admit it, and don’t really want to do much about it. There it is.

It will freeze again this month, at least I hope it will. There’s pruning to do, a garden to plan, and income to be generated. A season to be made. Things don’t happen without our engagement. All the while, Saturday turned to Sunday. The proof reading is finished, the auto fueled, and the groceries were bought. It’s time to set things aside and focus on one thing at a time, and maybe get some of them done.

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Living in Society

Politics 2014 in Big Grove

Off-Year Caucus
Off-Year Caucus

LAKE MACBRIDE— Living in Iowa, I feel compelled to write about politics from time to time. It is an irresistible urge, that in many ways runs counter to preferred topics like local food, gardening, sustainability, and the like. In an effort to address this Iowa (and maybe New Hampshire) urge, here’s how things look from Big Grove Precinct, going into 2014.

For ten dollars, a person can get the voter registrations for a precinct from the county auditor. In my precinct, there are 1,305 registered voters. Of these, 499 are Democrats, 413 are No Preference, 391 are Republican, and two are coded “L” which I assume means libertarian. From 20 years of living here, and being very active in partisan politics, I know that during a general election, most people are willing split their ticket and pick who they feel is the best candidate for each position. I’ve found this to be true from the top of the ticket on down. No preference voters have become the key group to watch and work with, although not to the exclusion of others.

We moved to Big Grove in 1993 and during our first presidential election here in 1996, 1,105 people voted, with the breakout for president Clinton 599, Dole 377, Perot 105, Nader 10, Browne 1, and Hagelin 2. By 2012, there was more Republican support with these presidential results: total votes cast 1,123, Obama 555, Romney 551, Johnson 7, Litzel 1, and Stein 1.

Our county has election data available back to 1970, so if one figures out which previous elections are comparable, both turnout and the number of votes needed to win are relatively easy to determine. At the precinct level, party affiliation doesn’t lend itself very well to statistical analysis, since, as I mentioned, people are willing to split their ticket to vote for the person rather than the party.

The 2014 political schedule is as follows.

The first day of the second session of the 85th Iowa General Assembly is Monday, Jan. 13. I have been in touch with my state representative and state senator since New Year’s Day, and let them know my priorities. Now it’s up to them.

On Jan. 21 are the off-year precinct caucuses. Expect very light turnout of party activists on the Democratic side. The Republicans have made these events into a social time, so they may have more caucus-goers, but their attendance is expected to be light, like with the Democrats.

March 14 is the deadline for state and federal candidates to file for the June 3 primary. Already we know there will be Democratic primaries in the governor’s race, the county attorney and supervisor races, and probably some others. Since politics is a low personal priority this year, I won’t engage much until after the filing date. Even then, I’ll engage only enough to pick candidates in the primary.

State legislator per diem runs out on the 100th day of the session, April 22. Presumably the session will end on or about that time because legislators will want to work on the fall campaign.

After June 3, we’ll know who our candidates for the general election are, and soon thereafter we’ll also know how the Iowa Democratic Party will organize around them.

Summer is a slow time in politics, and candidates gain some visibility in parades, town festivals and events as they get out and press the flesh. Otherwise, those that aren’t known to voters work to get known.

Labor Day is the official kickoff of the fall election campaign.

In September and October, people evaluating whether to enter the 2016 presidential race will start coming to Iowa to help candidates raise money and visibility for the general election. I’ll begin talking to registered voters about the election, and start identifying them. In reviewing my list, there are a lot of new names, so it will take a while to get through them. I’ll also help out the county party as best I can.

The general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

So there you have it, Iowa politics in under 700 words. In a turbulent world, taking time to figure out the timeline of political events helps organize for and maintain a level of sanity. I hope readers have found this useful. Now back to our regular programming.

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Living in Society

Holiday Reading — Bill Clinton’s Memoir

End of the Holidays
End of the Holidays

LAKE MACBRIDE— A long standing tradition is the holidays are over on the Feast of the Epiphany. So it is this year. Today the Christmas tree lights will turn off for the last time, and the decorations will be repacked until December. It hasn’t been a noteworthy season, nor a bad one.

I made cherry crisp for dessert last night. The last of a string of holiday desserts coming to an end. During winter, the pantry and freezer replace the freshness of garden and farm, and only so many cherries were kept when they were in season. It was enough to provide the flavor for a while. It won’t last for long.

I tried to finish reading President Bill Clinton’s memoir “My Life” during the holidays. At almost 1,000 pages, it was a bit long for the time allotment, and at times it plodded along with the endless, somewhat desultory recitation of his administration’s accomplishments. He did a lot and I’m up to the point where the Clintons dropped Chelsea off at Stanford.

To hear him tell it, Bill Clinton wasn’t always the sharpest knife in the drawer. Especially when he approved the Independent Counsel Reauthorization Act of 1994 that enabled a conservative judiciary to appoint Kenneth Starr as an independent counsel to investigate Vince Foster’s suicide and the Clintons’ Whitewater real estate investments. One thing led to another, and that’s the problem. Starr’s office became an open investigation of anything that might cast aspersions on the Clintons, their friends and supporters, whether it was grounded in fact or fantasy. I thought Bill Clinton was pretty smart until I read his story of why he signed the law, something he said he didn’t have to do and his predecessor encouraged him not to do. What was he thinking?

I’m not sure I believe all of Clinton’s memoir, but who can blame him for putting the best face on everything? What I do know is what he experienced from the independent counsel’s office and the conservative money spent to tear him down has become derigueur for the president regardless of political party. My beef with Clinton was the way he raised money, letting high level donors stay overnight in the Lincoln bedroom. Having read his explanation of the Lincoln bedroom story, and knowing now it was a conservative talking point, I’m over it. He made a lot of mistakes during his administration, but he admitted them, and did more good than bad by any measure.

I am not over my former congressman Jim Leach’s participation in the Whitewater investigations. He should have known better than to get involved with that, and I have no regrets of working hard over two cycles to remove him from office. I still cringe a little when I see him around the county. Clinton devoted about three paragraphs to Leach, and that was enough to induce nausea.

With the temperatures hovering between ten and 17 below zero today, it’s a good time to curl up with a book. Which I will do after finishing a few other tasks around the still holiday decorated house.

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Social Commentary

The Ship Has Sailed

ForwardLAKE MACBRIDE— All the people waiting for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to collapse under its own weight had better find something else to do. Almost four years in, there’s no way to hop in the DeLorean, go back in time and undo the good the law has already done.

Don’t get me wrong. I expect to hear more laments and entreaties about how wrong it was for President Obama to do it, and that government is taking over health care, yada, yada, yada. Please people. Get a grip. We went through all of these arguments during the Clinton administration. When the Republican idea of filibustering health care reform to death the way Bob Dole did died, so did the idea of repealing Obamacare. If Republicans gained control of the presidency and both chambers of the legislature, how would the repeal even work three years from now? Could they go back in time and undo the mammograms already provided, the colon screenings performed, or take away the happiness people who didn’t have health insurance experienced when they got it? I suppose one Back to the Future reference is sufficient: they won’t be able to go back in time, and some form of the law is here to stay.

The ship has sailed for Obamacare, and by that I mean we are in a period of waiting to know how it will work out. The website is working. The reforms set in place are working. The number of enrollments is increasing. What seems most important about new enrollments is answering the question, what kind of medical treatment will people require? Even though part of the new fee structure includes a premium for excess insurance to cover a bad claims experience, if everyone who comes into a plan needs expensive treatment, it will skew the costs. How will that work out? We won’t know until insurance companies review the data and actuarial experience and set 2015 rates. So we wait. For the close of open enrollment on March 31, and to see the claims experience during 2014.

Josh Mitchell of Talking Points Memo has written that as enrollments increase above ten million people (not a typo, read the article), so does conservative rage. Chill dudes. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post has suggested there are three stages of Obamacare acceptance. Get with the program.

What seems clear to me is that once people get health insurance two things will happen. First, life will return to a semblance of normal, and people will discover that having health insurance is far from a perfect situation. Conservatives will be quick to point this out, although we all know this experience is logical and predictable. Secondly, Obamacare will become the paradigm, generating new struggles to reduce government costs for Medicare, Medicaid, nutrition and other programs, while at the same time attempting to do right by the American people. We’re moving forward in the incredible storm and stress that is living in this country.

If you don’t like it, either move into a yurt, or contribute something positive to the discussion, one our country has been having since Harry Truman was president. A discussion that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

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Living in Society

Chickens on the Road

Chicken
Chicken

SOLON— In this small town, people got to talking about the food supply chain when a cooler full of processed chickens fell off a truck destined for the local food bank. The chickens were rejected after the media publicity generated a call from a government agency saying the poultry could not be distributed to the needy. Someone else stepped up with substitute chickens to fill the gap, which can happen in our good hearted community.

That someone raised chickens for the food bank is pretty cool, but is not the whole story. The chickens were discarded because they were not USDA inspected and stamped at a small slaughter abattoir, not because they fell off the truck. As a culture, we are overly reliant on a government food inspection system that may play a role in our legal system, but does not make common sense. It is an example of how we have lost touch with where food comes from and what home cooks have to do to make sure they serve healthy, nutritious meals. The town will be talking about this incident for a while.

On Aug. 30, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed the first law requiring inspection of meat products. The law required that USDA, through the Bureau of Animal Industry, inspect salted pork and bacon intended for exportation. Exports of U.S. livestock, and meat products, had fallen under increasingly stringent restrictions by foreign countries. Producers urged the U.S. government to create an inspection program to enable them to compete in foreign markets. Over the years, inspections came to protect the giant agribusinesses and prevent entry, and run out of business, small scale operators like the slaughter abattoir mentioned.

With the rise of consumerism during the 20th Century, notably after Upton Sinclair published his exposé of Chicago slaughterhouses in 1905, meat inspections became de rigueur. President Theodore Roosevelt led passage of the Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug Act, after overcoming his initial dislike for Sinclair. While the slaughterhouses were undeniably gross, as Joel Salatin pointed out in his book, “Folks, This Ain’t Normal,” there is no substantial evidence of mass meat adulteration or related human sickness prior to Sinclair’s reports.  For more information about the history of U.S. meat inspections, click here.

The consumer protection side of this issue gained public attention during a 1993 outbreak of e. coli bacteria in ground meat. Following the Al-Qaeda attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, food security came under the umbrella of homeland security concerns. The fear of pathogens in our food supply has become an obsession among some, and the Solon incident is evidence of how ridiculous things have become. What whit of difference would the USDA stamp have made on this batch of chickens? None whatsoever.

Arthur Schlesinger, in his book, “The Cycles of American History,” had me asking the rhetorical question, “what mood are you in?” It seems clear to me that the public purpose we once held our politicians and public figures to has given way to private interest… to the extent a farmer can’t raise chickens and give them to the needy in our society without some petty bourgeois official saying, “no, it’s against the rules, and my corporate masters have deemed them unsafe.” What a sad state of affairs this is, one that serves large corporations more than people who both have chickens and hunger, but prevents them from getting together.

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Living in Society

Exodus of Leadership

W. B. Yeats
W. B. Yeats

LAKE MACBRIDE— A story that asks the question “who will be the next statesman after Nelson Mandela” is circulating on the Internet, and there is no credible answer. The conditions that raised Mandela to prominence on the world stage may have been unique. The better answer is that someone like him is no longer possible on our connected globe with more than seven billion people. None of the current generation of political, religious or institutional leaders is a candidate for an appellation like global statesman. Suffice it to say Mandela was unique to his time.

Some of the best people in our federal government are making their exits. The departures continued yesterday with the announcement that Rep. Tom Latham of Iowa’s third congressional district was calling it quits at the end of his term. Following on the heels of Senator Tom Harkin’s similar announcement, the two couldn’t be more different from each other. But there is a common thread: Washington has changed.

When President Barack Obama was inaugurated, there was hope for getting things done. In the 111th Congress, Democrats had increased their majorities in both legislative chambers, presumably setting the stage for positive accomplishments with a Democratic president. That hope was dashed almost immediately. Hope was most certainly gone when I visited Washington in September 2009.

I made the rounds to Senators Harkin and Grassley’s offices to advocate for ratification of the New START Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The former was perceived to be a slam dunk, and prospects for the latter were hopeful, and the reason for my engagement. In retrospect, ratification of the New START Treaty proved to be a Herculean struggle, and CTBT had no legitimate chances. I recall a conference call in 2010 with then Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Ellen Tauscher where when asked about next steps after ratification of New START, her answer was hesitant. She demurred, indicating we were at the end of the line even if she hadn’t said it in so many words.

One knows there are lobbyists in Washington. Being from Iowa, we are used to lobbyists occupying every square inch of the capitol from the bathrooms to the law library to committee meeting rooms. In 2009, the number of Washington lobbyists was between 12 and 13 thousand people, and they descended upon the capitol in droves each day. I saw them, they can’t be missed. At the same time, lobbyists with substantial ability to influence is a much lower number, in the dozens. When I was walking through the senate office buildings, the presence of lobbyists was akin to what goes on with termites when they find a moist chunk of wood to gain entry into the foundations of a house: our government has been hollowed out.

Yesterday’s Iowa political story was not the announcement that Tyler Olson (Democratic gubernatorial candidate) and Tom Latham are exiting politics. The story being missed is that Tom Harkin and Tom Latham are exiting politics, and what that says about what’s going on in our federal government.

We are in a time when “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” In high school I knew that verse by W.B. Yeats referred to World War I, but this old poem resonates as clearly as a bell in today’s political environment. Begging the question, what rough beast is slouching toward Washington to be born?

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Living in Society

Politics Takes No Holiday

Off-Year Caucus
Off-Year Caucus

LAKE MACBRIDE— One definition of politics is it’s the practice and theory of influencing other people on a civic or individual level. To be sure, politics is about persuading people to do one thing or another, and in the end, it means exerting power over others. Sometimes this is positive, and others less so— and politics is not necessarily a choice between good and evil.

In our country, we have a long history of persuasion and influence that includes popular figures, celebrities, charlatans, politicians, hustlers, hucksters, thieves, businessmen and women, dilettantes, and persons of varying credentials, some spurious and others genuine. Most of all this is widely accepted. A simpler definition of politics is it is life in society, and a motley amalgamation of ingredients for making a life.

Our lives are separate from politics. During a typical day, if such a thing exists, there may be few discussions about partisan politics while at the same time everyone is trying to persuade everyone else of something. The topic of whether Hillary Clinton will run for president in 2016 simply does not come up when I’m with most other people. Nor should it almost three years before the next presidential election. Politics is a lot more than the endless cycles of partisan politics.

The power of politics influences my behavior, but not so much. Sure, I’ll exercise diligence filing my tax return, comply as best I can with traffic laws, and try to be a good neighbor. Beyond that, it is easy to break away from the body politic to live a life, especially as the year-end holidays approach.  Yet politics takes no holiday. If anything the entreating parties increase the din of their pleas as one year ends and another lays in waiting.

In this quiet home place, the tax collector, the insurance companies, the lenders and retailers clamor for attention, and can be turned off, at least for a while. We are left with the pinkish sunrise of a new day and hope for a tomorrow where politics takes a long holiday. Something that by its nature seems impossible, but nonetheless, is the stuff of dreams.

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Work Life

December Already

U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack
U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack

LAKE MACBRIDE— The stack of holiday requests for money is growing, and this year there is not much extra to spread around, which makes the picking easy. In fact, besides paying annual dues to a couple of national organizations, no other organization will be getting anything. That’s the way it is going this year.

The last of the red delicious apples were used for a family dinner on Sunday, ending the Thanksgiving holiday season cooking with a few extra pounds of weight and a refrigerator full of leftovers. Or, as I posted on twitter, “baking apple crisp for family dinner across town. #localfood is great, but done with cooking in favor of leftovers for a long, long while.” While preparing a menu for our Thanksgiving meal, I realized how much food we have in the house, and it’s a lot, especially if one likes daikon radishes. We won’t have to buy many groceries except milk, lemons and limes between now and New Year’s Day. That frees up time for other things.

What are those other things? A short list includes finalizing a decision about our health and dental insurance during the annual open enrollment period (I’ll post about that when I do), cleaning house with my spouse, decorating for the holidays, and most importantly building a business plan for 2014. If 2013 was a hodgepodge of turbulent activities, I expect next year to be more orderly and sensible. The key aspect of the research and development of a business plan is networking with people to identify opportunities. In practical terms, that means becoming more social, and instead of turning down invitations, accepting them more. The agenda will rapidly become packed.

This also means keeping to my schedule of devoting a few hours each morning to writing. Not only here, but a larger project, the results of which I hope to self publish on Amazon.com. More on that as the plot thickens, literally.

Lastly, I attended an event with our U.S. Congressman Dave Loebsack yesterday. It is something to see the changes in him since he was a college professor challenging a 30-year incumbent, and he got excited and involved every time a person wrote a letter to the editor supporting his campaign, to someone who wants to get re-elected and has to deal with more than 750,000 constituents.

The League of Conservation Voters, that evaluates members of congress on environmental issues, gave Loebsack an 87 percent lifetime score, which means his views are similar to mine when it comes to his voting record. The only higher score in the Iowa delegation is Rep. Bruce Braley at 88 percent. U.S. Senator Tom Harkin is rated at 93 percent in 2012, with a lifetime score of 83 percent. The Republicans in the delegation are scored very low. Loebsack’s 2012 score is 69 percent, which reflects his growing movement to the center based upon having a much different district than he did when we first elected him in 2006.

What that means is on rare occasions like yesterday, when I get one-on-one time with him, I feel a need to briefly and succinctly talk about the need to put a price on carbon. I believe he shares my views, but has to suppress them in a move to the center to get re-elected. Among the many things he said during his remarks yesterday, was that he wanted to get re-elected, and the district has diverse views. I too would like to see him re-elected.

December will soon be gone, but there is a lot of living to do before it ends. Better get to some of that post haste.

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Living in Society

Precinct Politics

Se.n Bob Dvorsky
Sen. Bob Dvorsky

LAKE MACBRIDE— The Braley for U.S. Senate campaign came to our political precinct last night, and a small group of friends and neighbors gathered near the lake to hear what the campaign staff had to say. They were looking for help this year to contribute to the effort. No surprise there. The event kicked off the campaign in a way that will begin to get local political activists involved.

What was a surprise is that Braley hired Sarah Benzing. The surprise is that even though the hire is old news and was covered in August, it’s the first many of us that don’t follow politics regularly heard about it. Benzing was Braley’s first chief of staff after winning the 2006 election. More recently, she served as campaign manager in high profile U.S. Senate campaigns for Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Ed Markey of Massachusetts. An old, but more complete biography is here. Braley brought in someone he trusts, but more importantly, he hired a top gun in the political operative world.

Congress is in session, so Representative Braley was in Washington during the event and State Senator Bob Dvorsky spoke briefly on his behalf. The message was that despite a dysfunctional congress, Braley has been able to get some substantial work done to benefit Iowans.

What was missing from the two minute campaign video and the discussion was the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Braley sided with Republicans on the recent house vote to “fix” Obamacare, a bill the White House said would gut the ACA. It will become a political liability if Braley walks back his support for the ACA as a senate candidate. President Obama won re-election in our precinct by four votes, so it seems clear why Braley would try to hedge his bets. But fence straddling on this issue is not becoming of a candidate who asserts he is a progressive politician.

In Big Grove precinct, we gave Senator Tom Harkin 64 percent of the vote during the 2008 election, but also gave Senator Chuck Grassley 62 percent during the 2010 election. It’s no secret that the so-called no-preference voters will decide the 2014 senate race. In this precinct, somewhere between 850 and 1,000 people can be expected to vote in 2014, and that means to win the precinct, if Braley is nominated, he will have a core of 35 percent of the votes, and needs to persuade another 15-16 percent, or roughly 130-150 voters. It can be done, but it will not be a cake walk.

The group gathered last night will support Bruce Braley’s campaign going forward. Whatever he may lack as a candidate is made up by the fact that once the Republican clown car drops off their nominee next year, the race will be depicted as a high-profile duel of the titans. Money is expected to pour into the race, and one can only thank our lucky stars that our household does not turn on the television much any more. Politics is local, so what happens in Big Grove precinct has broader meaning. Maintaining the U.S. Senate majority is high on our list of priorities, and that means working now to elect Bruce Braley.

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Living in Society Social Commentary

Hope for a Small Town

Onion Work
Onion Work

Whether it was the high school football game between Regina and Solon, or the new restaurant and microbrewery, Main Street was hopping when I returned from the political fundraiser in Coralville. Cars lined the streets and people were standing at the intersection of Main and Iowa Streets. That hasn’t happened for a long time. Perhaps there is hope for the future of small towns.

My state senator’s birthday party/fundraiser has been an annual event for 27 years. 90 minutes dovetailed with some necessary errands, it was a great way to catch up with friends made during past political campaigns. We learned our U.S. representative is now a Costco member, and he and his spouse were planning to go there after the event. No talk of Syria, or really anything political from the congressman. This group is his home constituency, and we get it that there is more to life than politics. There has to be since the 113th U.S. Congress isn’t doing much. Senator Bob Dvorsky announced he was running for another term.

Onions
Onions

My day was spent at the farm cleaning onions. The work was not complicated, removing the top and roots, inspecting and sorting. The day passed quickly, and afterward, at the convenience store in town, the clerk called me, “hun.” Short for honey and a term of familiarity for locals, one of which I have become.