iowa underground blog

Jan 14, 2006 07:00 PM to Jan 14, 2006 09:00 PM
State Historical Building
600 East Locust
Des Moines, Iowa 50309

Join Iowa’s gubernatorial candidates as they respond to an evening of real life stories told by real Iowans.

Mike Blouin (attending)
Chet Culver (attending)
Ed Fallon (attending)
Patty Judge (attending)
Sal Mohamed (attending)
Jim Nussle (invited)
Bob Vander Plaats (invited)

Hear candidates speak about how they would direct the state’s resources to create a hopeful future for our state. Iowans will share their stories in the context of issues that affect everyone in our state: Energy, Health Care, Jobs and Wages, and Education.

The non-partisan forum is being sponsored by Iowa Citizen Action Network Education Foundation. A number of co-sponsoring organizations are also helping with the forum. None of the co-sponsoring organizations will have endorsed a gubernatorial candidate before January 15. T-shirts, buttons, signs, or other indicators of support for a particular candidate will not be allowed at the forum.

For more information contact Matt Russell at Iowa Citizen Action Network: 515-277-5077 ext. 15 or mrussell@iowacan.org

From Progressive Iowa

Media Matters: Top Alito myths and falsehoods

Center For American Progress: The Alito Myths

Balkinization: The Basic Case Against Alito

And this should send shivers up your spine and down the other side…

Christian conservatives rally for Judge Alito:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Christian conservative leader Rev. Jerry Falwell said on Sunday that confirming Federal Appeals Court judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court would be the biggest victory for his constituency in three decades.

“What we’ve worked on for 30 years, to mobilize people of faith and value in this country, what we’ve done through these years is coming to culmination right now,” Falwell said at a rally on the eve of Alito’s confirmation hearing.

“Now we’re looking at what we really started on 30 years ago, reconstruction of a court system gone awry,” Falwell said at a rally at a Baptist church in Philadelphia and broadcast on Christian radio and television.

“There could be a reconstruction of the U.S. Supreme Court in our immediate lifetime,” said Falwell.

Help prevent theocratic dictatorships: It’s time to call your senator, folks.

Live video of the hearings available via C-SPAN here.

SCOTUSblog is liveblogging the hearings here.

See also this metafilter thread.

• tristero

Bush was against unauthorized and illegal wiretaps…
before he was for them.

Actually that quote isn’t quite accurate. Bush was never against illegal and unauthorized wiretaps. He just wanted the American public to believe he was. Kind of like he wanted the American public to believe the Iraq occupation and invasion had something to do with WMD’s. All of which makes Bush little more than a shameless liar. But then we already knew that.

Except, you know…..it’s not funny.

• tristero

From the Des Moines Register:

Just as members of the national 9/11 Commission last month lambasted the federal government for moving too slow to identify critical assets, national-security experts continue to question some of the choices on Iowa’s list.

Included are the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville, the Boone Railroad Museum, the De Soto National Wildlife Refuge in Harrison County, and the Grotto of the Redemption shrine in West Bend.

A decision by emergency-management officials to keep a watchful eye on food-production facilities resulted in critical-asset designations for Sprouts Unlimited Inc., a vegetable producer in Marion; Snappy Popcorn Co. in Breda; and a Krispy Kreme drive-through in Clive.

“Food-borne illnesses, whether they’re naturally introduced or terrorist-introduced, are of a concern,” Miller said. “It is a method of attack that the terrorists have at least given some thought to.”

• Sousy

Via Talking Points Memo:

From Roll Call: ‘President Bush is expected to announce a list of recess appointments to a host of key federal positions as early as tonight or Thursday morning, including two controversial nominations that Democrats have attacked as patronage appointments for unqualified nominees.’

A full list:

Personnel Announcement

President George W. Bush today recess appointed the following individuals:

Floyd Hall, of New Jersey, to be a Member of the AMTRAK Reform Board.

Enrique J. Sosa, of Florida, to be a Member of the AMTRAK Reform Board.

Nadine Hogan, of Florida, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation (Private Representative).

Roger W. Wallace, of Texas, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation (Private Representative).

Gordon England, of Texas, to be Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Benjamin A. Powell, of Florida, to be General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Ronald E. Meisburg, of Virginia, to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.

Julie L. Myers, of Kansas, to be Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

Tracy A. Henke, of Missouri, to be Executive Director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness at the Department of Homeland Security.

Arthur F. Rosenfeld, of Virginia, to be Federal Mediation and Conciliation Director at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Ellen R. Sauerbrey, of Maryland, to be Assistant Secretary of State (Population, Refugees, and Migration).

Dorrance Smith, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs).

Robert D. Lenhard, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission.

Steven T. Walther, of Nevada, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission.

Hans Von Spakovsky, of Georgia, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission.

Peter N. Kirsanow, of Ohio, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board.

Stephen Goldsmith, of Indiana, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

A special item to note: Julie Myers and Tracy Henke – two people in rather important DHS positions that were attacked on both sides of the aisle in the Senate as being patronage appointments. Why?

Former senate staffer Tracy Henke and Julie Myers (wife of Michael Chertoff’s chief of staff and niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers) are the names the article mentions. Both are in line for DHS appointments.

• Sousy

Into the new year we spring with a clip from the post-game Ferentz interview w/ Dolphin and a cold-stricken Podolak. It’s almost sad that a college football coach can convey more humor, intelligence and class in a few short sentences than our dear imperial POTUS has managed to relay in the past 5 years. C’est La Vie 2005…

• tristero