Iowa

20080619
John McCain - Barack Obama - Iowa - Flood - Disaster - Law - Enforcement - 2008 Election
"Culver aides: McCain ignored request to cancel Iowa visit." ... "An aide to [Iowa Democratic Governor] Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday that [2008 Election] Republican presidential candidate John McCain ignored the governor's request to cancel a campaign visit amid a massive flood recovery effort in the state." ... "Patrick Dillon, Culver's chief of staff, said the governor was concerned that McCain's trip would divert local law enforcement from the flood recovery effort to provide security for McCain." ... "[2008 Election] Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama canceled a scheduled visit to eastern Iowa last week at the request of state officials." -By Mike Glover -AP via -Google

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Disaster - Environment - Human - Agriculture - Land - Science - Iowa - History - Weather
"Iowa Flooding Could Be An Act of Man, Experts Say." ... "[Cedar Falls, Iowa college professor and City Council member Kamyar] Enshayan, director of an environmental center at the University of Northern Iowa, suspects that this natural disaster wasn't really all that natural. He points out that the heavy rains fell on a landscape radically reengineered by humans. Plowed fields have replaced tallgrass prairies. Fields have been meticulously drained with underground pipes. Streams and creeks have been straightened. Most of the wetlands are gone. Flood plains have been filled and developed." ... ""We've done numerous things to the landscape that took away these water-absorbing functions," he said. "Agriculture must respect the limits of nature."" ... "Officials are still trying to understand all the factors that contributed to Iowa's flooding, and not everyone has the same suspicions as Enshayan. For them, the cause was obvious: It rained buckets and buckets for days on end. They say the changes in land use were lesser factors in what was really just a case of meteorological bad luck." ... "But some Iowans who study the environment suspect that changes in the land, both recently and over the past century or so, have made Iowa's terrain not only highly profitable but also highly vulnerable to flooding." ... "" (1, 2) -By Joel Achenbach with contributions by Kari Lydersen -WashingtonPost

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20080614
Flood - Iowa - Des-Moines - Illinois - History - Health
"Thousands Flee Rising Waters In Iowa, Ill.: Breaking Levees Flood Des Moines [Iowa's capital], Western Ill. [Illinois]; Streets In Cedar Rapids [Iowa] May Be Underwater For Two Weeks." ... "Days after it rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids, the Cedar River has forced at least 24,000 people from their homes, emergency officials said Saturday." ... "The bleak news came as swollen rivers breached levees in the state capital, Des Moines, and in far western Illinois, leading to the evacuation of hundreds more homes." ... "Officials guess it will be four days before the Cedar River drops enough for workers to even begin pumping out water that has submerged at least 438 blocks, threatened the Cedar Rapids drinking water supply and forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital." ... "The Cedar River crested Friday night at nearly 32 feet, 12 feet higher than the old record set in 1929." (1, 2) -AP -CBSNews

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20080602
Hillary Clinton - Accounting - Politics - Florida - Michigan - Iowa - Puerto Rico - Nevada - Washington - Maine - Barack Obama - 2008 Election - "Hillary: Peddling pop vote canards to the end." ... "The facts, which must be repeated:" ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary [Clinton] does not lead in the popular vote by any measure other than her own idiosyncratic belief that Florida should count even though it didn't and hundreds of thousands of Floridians didn't vote because they were told it wouldn't; that Puerto Rico should count even though Puerto Ricans can't vote in the general election ("lead us to victory in November"???); that Michigan should also count even though it didn't and thousands of Michiganders didn't vote because they were told it wouldn't and she was the only person on the ballot; that Obama should get zero votes -- Zero!!! -- from Michigan ["Uncommited" received 238,168 votes, Clinton received 328,309 votes]; and that Obama also should get no votes from four states that he won [Iowa, Nevada, Washington, and Maine], because they held caucuses and didn't count the popular vote." -By John Riley -Newsday.com

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20080403
• Global - Climate - Atmosphere - Science - Antarctic - Ice - History - UN - San Diego - California - Iowa - US - "Dust plays huge role in climate change: Tiny particles heat up the atmosphere faster than scientist once believed. The good news is this dust can be cleaned up fairly quickly." ... "Scientists know that dust affects climate. Tiny particles create veils that reflect sunlight and cool the atmosphere. Dark particles absorb sunshine and warm things up. But as scientists look deeper into the dust-climate connection, they find that they have underestimated its importance." ... "Research published April 3 in Nature reveals the tight linkage between atmospheric dust flows and Antarctic temperatures during ice ages over the past 800,000 years. A research review published March 23 in Nature Geoscience online shows that black carbon particles in the atmosphere have a more powerful global-warming effect than any of the greenhouse gases except carbon dioxide. And these particles are 60 percent as effective as CO2 itself. That's far more powerful than the estimate in last year's report of the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." ... "The good news is that black carbon particles such as diesel soot or wood-stove smoke only stay airborne for weeks. (It takes a century to get rid of today's CO2 emissions.) This fact offers an opportunity for instant payback, say study authors V. Ramanathan at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego [California] and Gregory Carmichael at the University of Iowa in Iowa City [Iowa]. In an announcement from Scripps, the authors note that commercially available technologies exist to cut back soot emissions substantially. Using them would rapidly reduce black-carbon warming. " -By Robert C. Cowen -CSMonitor 

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20080314
• Hillary Clinton - Children - Healthcare - Legislation - History - 2008 Election - Mothers - Iowa - Massachusetts - Utah - "Clinton role in health program disputed." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton, who has frequently described herself on the campaign trail as playing a pivotal role in forging a children's health insurance plan, had little to do with crafting the landmark legislation or ushering it through Congress, according to several lawmakers, staffers, and healthcare advocates involved in the issue." ... "In campaign speeches, Clinton describes the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, as an initiative "I helped to start." Addressing Iowa voters in November, Clinton said, "in 1997, I joined forces with members of Congress and we passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program." Clinton regularly cites the number of children in each state who are covered by the program, and mothers of sick children have appeared at Clinton campaign rallies to thank her." ... "But the Clinton White House, while supportive of the idea of expanding children's health, fought the first SCHIP effort, spearheaded by Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, because of fears that it would derail a bigger budget bill. And several current and former lawmakers and staff said Hillary Clinton had no role in helping to write the congressional legislation, which grew out of a similar program approved in Massachusetts in 1996." ... ""The White House wasn't for it. We really roughed them up" in trying to get it approved over the Clinton administration's objections, Hatch said in an interview. "She may have done some advocacy [privately] over at the White House, but I'm not aware of it."" ... ""I do like her," Hatch said of Hillary Clinton. "We all care about children. But does she deserve credit for SCHIP? No - Teddy does, but she doesn't."" -By Susan Milligan -BostonGlobe 

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20080216
• John McCain - Politics - 2008 Election - Texas - Iowa - New Mexico - New Hampshire - Domenici - Obama - Clinton - History - "McCain's temper may prove to be a liability in presidential campaign." ... "Temper, temper." ... "Republican [2008 Election Presidential Candidate] John McCain is known for his." ... "The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been dubbed "Senator Hothead" by more than one publication." ... ""F--- you," he shouted at Texas [Republican Senator] Sen. John Cornyn last year." ... ""Only an a------ would put together a budget like this," he told the former Budget Committee chairman, [New Mexico Republican Senator] Sen. Pete Domenici, in 1999." ... ""I'm calling you a f------ jerk!" he once retorted to Iowa [Republican Senator] Sen. Chuck Grassley." ... "McCain has even blown up at volunteers and, on occasion, the average guy." ... "He often pokes fun at his reputation: "Thanks for the question, you little jerk," he said last year to a New Hampshire high school student wondering if McCain, at 71, was too old to be president." ... "Other times, his ire is all too real. This has prompted questions about whether his temperament is suited to the office of commander-in-chief or whether it might handicap him in a presidential campaign against either [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidates] Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are not known for such outbursts." ... ""I decided I didn't want this guy anywhere near a trigger," Domenici told Newsweek in 2000 when McCain unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination against [Republican President] George W. Bush." (1, 2) -By Libby Quaid -AP via -IHT.com 

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20080205
• John McCain - Pat Robertson - Money - Religion - Immigrant - Workers - Women - Abortions - Illegal - Iowa - Ethanol - Air - Environment - US- Global - Climate - History - 2008 Election - "Top McCain Flip-Flops." ... "1. Taxes. [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain was one of two Republican senators to vote against [Republican] President Bush's tax cuts of 2001, saying that he could not support cuts that benefited the rich rather than the middle class. He now favors making the tax cuts permanent." ... "2. The religious right. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he attacked [Republican televangelists] Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." He withdrew that remark in a 2006 interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," saying that the Christian right has a "major role to play in the Republican Party."" ... "3. Immigration. Last year, he sponsored a bill that would combine a temporary-worker program and a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants while also increasing border security. He now emphasizes securing the borders first." ... "4. Roe v. Wade. In August 1999, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would "not support repeal of Roe v. Wade" because it would force women to have illegal abortions. He has subsequently said that he was speaking about the need to change the "culture of America" and that he supports the repeal of Roe, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide." ... "5. Ethanol. In 2003, he said that ethanol "does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality." Campaigning in Iowa in August 2006, he described ethanol as a "vital alternative energy source, not only because of our dependency on foreign oil, but its greenhouse-reduction effects."" -WashingtonPost

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20080118
• John Edwards - Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Radio - Ad - Nevada - Illinois - Iowa - North Carolina - "Edwards hits Obama on independent ads." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards said Friday that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama needs to “speak up, if he really means what he says” about ending divisive politics and denounce a Nevada ad funded by an independent group that supports the Illinois senator’s presidential bid." ... ""Everyone pledged that this kind of divisive politics that divides the Democratic Party, and could divide America, would come to an end. [Senator] Sen. Obama made that pledge, I was sitting five feet from him when he made it," Edwards told the crowd at a Nevada campaign event." ... "“And now it turns out that in the last 24 hours there's a radio ad, a malicious radio ad, attacking [Senator] Sen. Clinton. That is exactly the kind of divisive politics. It's being run right here, in Las Vegas [Nevada]. I denounce it. This kind of ad, I don't care who's doing it — in this case it's [Senator] Sen. Obama's supporters — but this sort of thing needs to stop.["]" ... "“And from what I've seen, [Senator] Sen. Obama has not said a single word about this. Nothing. When two days ago, three days ago, he said on a stage in front of America and said, 'This kind of politics has no place in America,’” said Edwards." ... "“He should speak up, if he really means what he says, and this is not just talk, he should speak up and denounce this type of divisive politics.”" ... "John Edwards was criticized by Obama in Iowa for not calling an independent group that supported the former North Carolina senator to demand they pull ads they were running in support of his candidacy." -By Rebecca Sinderbrand -CNN

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20080117
• Hillary Clinton - John Edwards - Barack Obama - Race - Language - Radio - Ads - Nevada - Union - Money - 2008 Election - Iowa - North Carolina - "Clinton, Edwards campaigns blast radio ads backing Obama." ... "The campaigns of [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidates] Hillary Clinton and John Edwards took aim at [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama Thursday over radio ads in Nevada funded by a third-party group that is backing his candidacy." ... "The buy is allegedly being funded by the Unite Here Campaign Committee on behalf of the Culinary Workers Union, which has endorsed Obama." ... "On a conference call with reporters late this afternoon, Hispanic supporters of Clinton’s presidential candidacy criticized the union for incorrectly implying that “Si Se Puede” – a slogan associated with the late activist Cesar Chavez – was also the Obama campaign’s official slogan." ... "John Edwards was criticized by Obama in Iowa for not calling an independent group that supported the former North Carolina senator to demand they pull ads they were running in support of his candidacy. “When Sen. Obama says ‘turn the page,’ he obviously means turn to whatever page is most convenient. He loudly and repeatedly attacked independent ads by unions in Iowa as the product of special interests,” said Edwards Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince." ... "“But when a different outside group starts running ads on his behalf in Nevada, there's not a peep from him or his campaign. It must be because he's burning up the phone lines calling the head of Unite Here personally to demand he pulls the ads down right away.”" -By Rebecca Sinderbrand -CNN

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20080108
• Corporate Money - Politics - Ads - 2008 Election - 2004 Election - Workers - Homes - John Edwards - Hillary Clinton - Barack Obama - Mike Huckabee - North Carolina - New York - Illinois - Arkansas - Iowa - US - Consumer - Litigation - Globalization - "Chamber of Commerce vows to punish anti-business candidates: The group indicates it will spend in excess of the approximately $60 million it put out in the last [2004 Election] presidential cycle." ... "Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 [Election] political campaign, the president of the U.S. [United States] Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business." ... ""We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," chamber President Tom Donohue said." ... "The warning from the nation's largest trade association came against a background of mounting popular concern over the condition of the economy. A weak record of job creation, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, declining home values and other problems have all helped make the economy a major campaign issue." ... "Presidential candidates in particular have responded to the public concern. Former [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Senator] Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has been the bluntest populist voice, but other front-running Democrats, including [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Senator] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Senator] Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, have also called for change on behalf of middle-class voters." ... "On the Republican side, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and] former Arkansas Gov. [Governor] Mike Huckabee -- emerging as an unexpected front-runner after winning the Iowa caucuses -- has used populist themes in his effort to woo independent voters, blasting bonus pay for corporate chief executives and the effect of unfettered globalization on workers." ... "Reacting to what it sees as a potentially hostile political climate, Donohue said, the chamber will seek to punish candidates who target business interests with their rhetoric or policy proposals, including congressional and state-level candidates." ... "In advance of today's news conference, Donohue told The Times of his plans to be active in 140 congressional districts this year, as well as the presidential contest." ... "At the state level, Donohue said his organization would be active in nearly four dozen contests for attorney general and state supreme courts. Both state courts and attorneys general are involved in decisions affecting business, including consumer protection and a wide range of litigation." ... "Under Donohue, the organization has also frequently aligned itself with GOP [Grand Old Party=Republican] priorities." ... "Under a system Donohue pioneered, corporations contribute money to the chamber, which then finances attack ads targeting individual candidates without revealing the name of the businesses involved in the ads." -By Tom Hamburger -LAtimes 

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20080107
• John Edwards - New Hampshire - Iowa - North Carolina - California - Teenager - Health - Company - Drug - Christmas - Working - People - 2008 Election - "Underdog Edwards says he won't give up the fight for the White House." ... "The former senator from North Carolina [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards] sought to bring added emotional wallop to his message before Tuesday's primary by campaigning with the family of a Northridge [California] teenager who died after her insurance company delayed approval for a liver transplant." ... "The newest participants in the Edwards campaign were the Sarkisyans of the San Fernando Valley [California], whose 17-year-old daughter, Nataline, died just before Christmas of complications from leukemia. After much debate, the family's insurance company had approved a liver transplant, but she died hours later." ... ""When I talk about what insurance companies and drug companies are doing to America, this is what I mean," Edwards said to a crowd of about 500 in Manchester [New Hampshire], where some were moved to tears by the family's story. "This has real effects on real people's lives."" ... "Grigor Sarkisyan told the audience how he had promised to buy his daughter a white car after she got out of the hospital, but had to buy a white coffin instead. He said he thought he had done everything he was supposed to as a father: working hard, supporting his family and buying health insurance he thought would take care of them if they got sick." ... "His wife, Hilda Sarkisyan, had heard Edwards' speech Thursday after his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and called the candidate's campaign. The family arrived in New Hampshire on Sunday morning." ... "The couple urged voters to support Edwards, saying he is the lone candidate who will fight for Americans against such powerful interests as insurance companies." ... ""They cannot tell us who's going to live and who's going to die," Hilda Sarkisyan said." -By Seema Mehta and James Rainey -LAtimes 

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20080105
• John Edwards - Hillary Clinton - Barack Obama - Health-Care - New Hampshire - Iowa - North Carolina - New York - 2008 Election - "Edwards rebukes Clinton in Democratic debate." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Democrat Hillary Clinton, attempting to slow [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama's surging campaign, went on the attack on Saturday and drew a sharp rebuke from [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards for defending the status quo." ... "In a combative debate three days before a too-close-to-call New Hampshire primary, Clinton questioned Obama's health-care plan and cast doubt on his ability to deliver on his calls for change in Washington." ... "Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, upbraided the New York senator for criticizing Obama and noted her third-place finish in Iowa on Thursday, when Obama captured the first big prize of the presidential campaign and Edwards finished second." ... ""I didn't hear these kinds of attacks from Senator Clinton when she was ahead," Edwards said. "Every time he speaks out for change, every time I fight for change, the forces of status quo are going to attack -- every single time."" ... "Clinton criticized Obama for shifting in recent years from supporting a single-payer, government-run health-care plan to one that does not mandate insurance coverage for all Americans." (1, 2, 3) -By John Whitesides with contributions by Peter Cooney -Reuters 

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• John Edwards - Barack Obama - Politics - 2008 Election - 2004 Election - Iowa - New Hampshire - Working - People - Investment - Civil Rights - Lawyer - Drug - Oil - "Obama borrows from Edwards." ... "After beating [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards in Iowa on Thursday, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama has decided to join him -- repeatedly poaching his opponent's themes, language, and even jokes." ... ""We shouldn't just be respecting wealth in this country -- we should be respecting work," Obama told an overflow crowd in a [New Hampshire] high-school gym today." ... "Edwards's 2004 presidential campaign was centered around the idea that the [Republican President] Bush administration had launched a "war on work" through tax cuts that offer incentives for investment over labor. "Hard work should be valued in this country, so we're going to reward work, not just wealth," Edwards said in accepting his party’s vice-presidential nomination at the Democratic’ convention in Boston. In this campaign, he has sharpened his populist rhetoric, railing against greedy corporate CEOs who are waging war on working people and the middle class." ... "Since arriving in New Hampshire Friday, Obama has borrowed Edwards's favorite verb by bragging that he had "fought" as a community organizer and civil rights lawyer, and conceding that "insurance companies and drug companies will not give up their profits" -- which Edwards asserts repeatedly to ridicule Obama's talk of conciliation. Obama repeatedly invoked those interests, as well as "big oil and big insurance," common villains in Edwards speeches." -By Sasha Issenberg with contributions by Foon Rhee -Boston/Globe

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• John Edwards - Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Corporate - Media - Politics - Iowa - New Hampshire - 2008 Election - "Elizabeth Edwards To Chris Matthews And Rest Of Media: Ahem -- John And I Are Still Here." ... "One of the things I'd been wondering was whether [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards' slim victory over [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary [Clinton] for second-place in Iowa would shift the media dynamic of the race and get people to cover it as more of a three-way contest. In general terms, it's already obvious that the answer is No." ... "First, Elizabeth [Edwards] was asked whether John would be able to survive if [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama won both Iowa and New Hampshire. She observed that John had come in second in Iowa in 2004, that he had gotten short-shrifted in coverage then, and that this was happening again[.]" ... "Now, I recognize that news orgs have a dilemma on their hands in deciding whom to cover and how to apportion resources. And I also realize that the candidacies of Hillary and Obama are both historic in ways that Edwards' effort isn't. But in a general sense there's no question that the media's treatment of the Edwards campaign has really been an ugly failure on many levels." ... "Though Edwards had all along been very competitive with Hillary and Obama in Iowa -- a state in which victory is supposed to be hugely important, according to the pundits themselves -- Edwards's campaign was never treated with anywhere near the same scope or seriousness that the others were. The coverage has often been tinged with a snide dismissiveness. This hasn't palpably changed with Edwards' second-place finish in Iowa. " -By Greg Sargent -TalkingPointsMemo.com 

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• Ron Paul - Duncan Hunter - Rudolph W Giuliani - Corporate - TV - Politics - Censorship - New Hampshire - Iowa - Texas - California - 2008 Election - "New Hampshire G.O.P. Backs Out of Fox Forum." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Ron Paul raised nearly $20 million in the last quarter, likely more than any of his rivals. He garnered 10 percent of the Republican vote in the  Iowa Caucuses, surpassing [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudolph W. Giuliani. And he’s in New Hampshire this weekend on the airwaves and the campaign trail before the Jan. 8 primary." ... "But the Texas congressman and presidential contender won’t be getting a seat and the table at Sunday’s Fox News Republican candidate forum." ... "On Saturday the New Hampshire Republican party expressed its disappointment with the decision to exclude Mr. Paul and Representative Duncan Hunter of California by severing its partnership with Fox." ... "“We believe that it is inconsistent with the first in the nation primary tradition to be excluding candidates in a pre-primary setting,” said Fergus Cullen, chair of the state G.O.P. [Grand Old Party=Republican] party. “All candidates regardless of how well known they are or how much money they’ve raised should be treated equally here.”" -By Michael Falcone -NYTimes 

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