Rod Sullivan's Legislative Agenda

Rod Sullivan's Legislative Agenda

From Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan's weekly e-mail; so good I have to share it all.

Democrats now control the Iowa Governor, Iowa Senate, and Iowa House. We are presented with a rare opportunity to take important steps to improving Iowa.

I have the following wish list for the Iowa Legislature:

Raise the minimum wage.

Tax all income the same. Reward work at least as much as we reward investment.

Increase the income tax rate for the top earners, and reduce it for the middle class. Maintain a progressive income tax system.

Allow local governments to set their own property tax caps.

Allow local governments to use local option income taxes.

Eliminate Federal deductibility for State income taxes.

Increase the tobacco tax.

Repay the Senior Living Trust.

Repeal the so-called "Right to Work" laws.

Adopt Fair Share legislation.

Add OSHA inspectors.

Fully fund Medicaid, and expand HAWK-I.

Initiate same-day voter registration.

Allow for local control of smoking ordinances.

Expand the Bottle Bill to include all plastic containers. Increase the deposit to 10 cents. Give 1.5 cents more to handlers, and put 3 cents toward REAP funding.

Require all vehicles sold in Iowa to meet low emissions standards.

Increase requirements for utilities to develop wind power, and allow private wind producers access to the grid.

Increase teacher pay to greater than the national average.

Increase State funding for Regents institutions.

Institute public campaign financing, and strong campaign finance laws.

Add sexual and gender identities to the Iowa Civil Rights Code.

End mandatory sentencing.

Repeal the 2000 foot law for sex offenders.

Adopt "Sunshine Laws" similar to those observed by city and county governments. All meetings of 4 or more Legislators should be open to the public.

Encourage stem cell research.

It is a very long list, but that is to be expected when you haven¹t set the agenda for a very long time. I firmly believe all these changes would
benefit Iowa.

Do I expect all of these things to happen right away? No. But I do expect some of it to be accomplished. I also expect most of it to be discussed.
Asking for important issues to be discussed is certainly not asking too much.

Steve King: Mexican Murderers Are Gonna Getcha

Steve King: Mexican Murderers Are Gonna Getcha

The Carpetbagger Report reports the latest Steve King Howler:

Twelve Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens, according to statistics released by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. If those numbers are correct, it translates to 4,380 Americans murdered annually by illegal aliens. That’s 21,900 since Sept. 11, 2001.

Now, as a rule, immigrants to enter the United States illegally are loath to commit crimes — they know that the quickest way to deportation is to get arrested. But let’s put that aside and consider the merit of King’s apparent belief that there’s a rash of homicidal immigrants rampaging through the country.

As this elected member of Congress sees it, there are 12 murders a day committed by illegal immigrants. He’s not talking about car accidents; King is specifically referring to literal murder. He admits that there’s no actual data from law enforcement sources on this, but King insists his report is accurate.

Captain’s Quarters, a very conservative blog that generally supports the Republican line on immigration, took a good look at King’s numbers and wasn’t impressed:

Asinine hardly begins to describe this report. Conservative decry junk science; bad statistics are just as bad. It took me all of 10 minutes to check this data, something that Rep. King apparently couldn't bother to have his staff do, and a standard fact check that WND declined to perform. It seems that some people will believe almost anything as long as it can be used to demonize illegal aliens. They just know it, because some other groups have anecdotal evidence of it.

The regular ol’ scare tactics haven’t been as effective as the right had hoped, so King and his like-minded allies have had to ratchet things up a bit by effectively telling the nation, “Support the far-right on immigration reform — or some Mexican guy might kill you.”

I'm a bit of an extremist in the other direction on immigration - I think any human being should be able to move to any country at any time, or else we should end the hypocrisy and tear down the Statue of Liberty with its "huddled masses" rhetoric that we don't really believe anyway.

Or maybe I'm not such an extremist:

Four out of five youngsters believe people should be able to live in any country they choose, a BBC global survey of 15 to 17-year-olds suggests...

I accept that folks may disagree with me about this, though too often the reasons are intentional or unintentional racism. I keep coming back to my theory that people are paranoid and uncomfortable when they hear someone in front of them in the Wal-Mart line speaking Spanish and they conclude "Those Meskins are talking about me!" You've got a right to your opinion, but it needs to be bnbacked up with FACTS, and King's bigotry is bad enough without flat-out lies.

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The Leach valedictory is getting close to the point of overkill. No more link love till he actually does something. Hey, old media: how about some coverage of the guy we actually elected? Or even, for the sake of variety, a shot of Jim Nussle's empty Capitol Hill office? Notice how quiet Nussle has been? What lobbying job is HE gonna take?

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Briefly noted:

State 29 made not one but TWO gratuitious Oasis references last week. They must have spent bucketloads on the helicoptors for that video.

I actually gave up on my Packers yesterday when they were down 31-0. Had a brief flurry of hope after the onside kick, but that was quickly dashed. And the %$^&$ Bears clinched.

Vilsack 08: War Is Peace?

Vilsack 08: War Is Peace?

Yesterday I opined that the Vilsack logo



had a retro New Deal look. (As opposed to a retro New Deal platform - that was the LAST Iowa Dem who ran for president.

But Wonkette, among others, point out that the V has another connotation:



Pass the Victory Gin.

Pundits Mourning "Moderation," Leach

Pundits Mourning "Moderation," Leach

One of the big themes and memes on the national blogs lately has been that the beltway pundits are dinosaurs, missing the changes in the political structure. Instead of adapting to the new reality that for the first time perhaps ever the US is developing an ideology-based party structure (I said "developing" - the GOP is there but the Dems aren't yet) they mourn the death of "bi-partisanship" and "moderation."

The ur-pundit, David Broder, looks misty-eyed at the last of another species at extinction. Its last known habitat was Eastern Iowa:

Leach was one of eight members of the dwindling tribe of Republican moderates who lost their seats this election, unable to separate themselves from the public rejection of a conservative-dominated White House and Congress.

"But the big force," Leach said in a conversation in his nearly empty office, "was the accountability thing -- the overwhelming dissatisfaction with the Republican Congress."

Because he can understand and even sympathize a bit with that feeling, Leach said, "I am probably the least disappointed defeated member" of the vanished Republican majority.

You can almost see the tear rolling down Broder's face, like this guy:



Note that his feather does not come with a Jim Leach headband. Bet Broder didn't know about that flap when he said "tribe."

A hat tip where it is due to, of all folks, the Johnson County Republicans, who also note Leach will be on Iowa Press this weekend. You know, the show that didn't think it was "worth" inviting Dave Loebsack - that's Congressman Loebsack to y'all - to appear just a couple months ago?

Leach said he'll likely land in academia. He acknowledged a string of offers from the University of Iowa and other colleges in the state as well as such prestigious East Coast schools as Harvard, Princeton and Georgetown.

I'll say this much for Leach: no one even thought about about which high-dollar lobbying job he was going to take.

"I think Iraq will be the principle legacy of this administration," said Leach. "It is quite possible that this will go down as one of the great blunders of American history, possibly the largest. I personally think it is much more difficult than the Vietnam situation, with far greater consequences."

The JC GOP, uhhhh, didn't blog that part.

Iowa Ballot Status: Maybe You'll Get That G On Your Card Soon

Iowa Ballot Status: Maybe You'll Get That G On Your Card Soon

And that L too. Richard Winger at the outstanding Ballot Access News reports:

Last year, the Iowa Libertarian and Green Parties sued Iowa in federal court, against Iowa regulations that only let voters register into qualified parties, or as independents. Iowa has been one of only two states that doesn’t print a blank line on the 'political party' question on voter registration forms. Iowa prints a checkbox for each qualified party and a checkbox for independent (sic-it actually says "No Party"), but there is no way to register into an unqualified party. Iowa currently recognizes only the Democratic and Republican Parties.

The state has said it wants to settle the lawsuit, and has offered to let any group be named as a choice on the voter registration form if it had statewide nominees on the ballot in the last election, and if it submits a petition signed by 50 people who say they are members of that party. There would still be no blank line.

Unqualified parties appearing on the Iowa ballot this year are Green, Libertarian and Socialist Workers.

YARRRRRR! What about the Pirate Parrrty, ye scurvy dogs? (James Hill's site isn't working... UPDATE: Guess it is now; here's his self-written post-mortem)

If the settlement is finalized, they would each have the option to submit the 50-signature petition and then be listed on voter registration forms. However, the Socialist Workers Party has never been interested in encouraging its members to register publicly as members, and is unlikely to take advantage of the proposal.

It is rare for a state to print the name of an unqualified party on voter registration forms. The only other state that does so is Utah (which prints the name of every party that has been qualified at any time in the last 20 years).

I've seen nothing, nothing, nothing on this in the Iowa press or blogosphere, and I'm surprised Barth and Litten didn't bring it up in the campaign. Or maybe they did and no one noticed.

Coolest Thing About Vilsack for President

Coolest Thing About Vilsack for President



This retro-New Deal look logo. In fact, it looks cribbed:






You can almost see FDR and Winston Churchill flashing V-For-Victory long before it was the Peace Sign.

Obama Hangin' with Ludacris

Obama Hangin' with Ludacris

He is not only SO running, he's taking the rock star thing to heart:

Barack Obama is coming for that Number One Spot. The senator, contemplating a run for president, met privately with Ludacris on Wednesday. 'We talked about empowering the youth,' said the rapper.

Ludacris was in town to launch the YouthAIDS 'Kick Me' campaign to raise HIV/AIDS awareness...

While the Hillary-Gore-Lieberman DLC wing of the party tut-tuts about video games, lyrics, and entertainment content in general, Barack H. Obama gets the popwer of popular culture for positive change. Not to mention he's connecting with someone who has actual credibility with young people. Bono, I love ya and I've been a fan since "War", but let's face it: you and I are old farts now.

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I know I'm supposed to gush more about Vilsack's announcement today. But here's what real Iowans were interested in yesterday:

Sinclair Broadcasting Group, owner of KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids, reached an agreement today with Mediacom Communications Corp. to delay disconnecting its stations from the dominant cable TV provider in Iowa until Jan. 5 while negotiations continue.

If Vilsack had a prayer, news of his announcement would genuinely compete with this, or with the UI presidential hiring fiasco.

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Zionism = Apartheid: Even Jimmy Carter says so. Here a South African takes a take on it:

Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. Since 1967 Israel has permanently seized the territories' most desirable parts and settled its own Jewish "colonists" throughout the land. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid. The West Bank has been fragmented into three areas — north (Jenin and Nablus), center (Ramallah) and south (Hebron) — which increasingly resemble the Bantustans of South Africa.

Restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by a rigid permit system enforced by some 520 checkpoints and roadblocks resemble, but in severity go well beyond, apartheid's "pass system." And the security apparatus is reminiscent of that of apartheid, with more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons and frequent allegations of torture and cruel treatment.

Many aspects of Israel's occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime. Israel's large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices in apartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites.

Amazingly, this was published in the United States. Look for immediate denouncemnts of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as anti-Semitic.