Iowa primary precinct caucus and caucuses news">
Iowa primary precinct caucus and caucuses news, reports
and information on 2004 Democrat and Republican candidates, campaigns
and issues
IOWA
DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
PAGE 2
Wednesday,
Aug. 6, 2003
… The Fight
for Florida: From New Hampshire, The Union
Leader checks in with an editorial. Headline –
“Bush vs. Bush: On this one, we’re with Jeb”
The editorial: “President George W.
Bush’s brother Jeb, who is governor of
Florida, went public last week with criticism
of the way his brother’s administration
handled the repatriation of 12 Cubans
suspected of hijacking a boat in an attempt to
flee to the United States. The
administration sent the 12 back to Cuba after
receiving assurances that they would not be
executed. ‘Despite the good intentions of the
administration to negotiate the safety of
these folks, that is an oppressive regime, and
given the environment in Cuba, it’s just not
right,’ Jeb Bush said. Indeed, it’s not
right. This is not some diplomatic game.
People’s freedom is at stake. Sending these 12
back into Castro’s hands was the wrong thing
to do.”
… Labor
bosses, in Chicago, gearing up for major
effort against Bush with voter turnout drive
and TV spots beginning in IA and NH this week.
Headline from yesterday’s Chicago Tribune:
“Labor leaders seek unity against Bush”
Excerpt: “Saying working families can't
afford four more years of George W. Bush,
organized labor is mapping out what it says
will be the largest voter drive in its history
to defeat the president in the 2004 election.
The campaign will roll out this week with
television ads in Iowa and New Hampshire--key
primary states--and the announcement of a new
coalition of labor and constituency groups
that will coordinate voter-education efforts…’The
Reagan years were rough, but it was nothing
like this,’ said Frank Powers, a labor
consultant. ‘The Karl Rove [Bush's chief
adviser] crew understands how important the
labor movement is to opposing their economic
policies. And if they can cut them off at the
knees, they will. And that's what they've been
doing.’ There's no question that the Bush
administration has tested labor's mettle with
its policies on union organizing and attempts
to overhaul overtime pay rules. But some
question whether labor, with its history of
infighting and scandals involving top union
leaders, will be able to present a united
front in support of the Democratic
nominee--whoever that will be. Bob Bruno,
professor of labor studies at the University
of Illinois at Chicago, said conflicting
agendas often make it impossible for labor to
speak in a unified voice. ‘The AFL-CIO is
supposed to try to bridge those differences.
But if their partners don't want to play nice,
there's very little they can do,’ Bruno said…Labor's
own have only added to its woes. More than two
years ago, the 500,000-member Carpenters Union
pulled out of the AFL-CIO, complaining about
the umbrella group's inefficiencies and lack
of reform. The scandal at Ullico Inc., the
union-owned insurance and investment house,
also was a public relations setback, centering
on special insider stock deals for union
executives. Ullico has since cleaned house,
but the controversy became fuel for critics of
unions…Unions now represent 16.1 million
public- and private-sector workers, or 13.2
percent of the American workforce. Labor
has been spurred to act by what union
officials call the most blatant attacks on the
labor movement and worker protections in the
postwar era. Soon after taking office, Bush
did away with new ergonomics standards issued
under the Clinton administration. He invoked
the Taft-Hartley Act to order striking West
Coast dock workers back to work last November.
The Labor Department imposed strict new
financial reporting standards on unions in the
wake of corporate scandals. At February's
executive council meeting, Labor Secretary
Elaine Chao read a list of union convictions
in response to why the new standards were
needed, infuriating union leaders. And, in
what labor leaders call the latest assault on
working families, the Labor Department seeks
to overhaul overtime eligibility rules in a
way that union leaders say would deny millions
overtime pay. ‘The AFL-CIO is a block
from the White House. It might as well be in
Omaha, Neb., in terms of its access,’ said
Harley Shaiken, a professor of labor and
politics at the University of California at
Berkeley. ‘Labor feels frozen out. Their
agenda is not the agenda of this
administration.’”
This morning’s headlines:
Des Moines
Register, top front-page headline: “Gay
bishop wins confirmation…Vote pushes
Episcopal Church toward possible split”
Quad-City
Times online, main reports: “Gay Bishop
Wins in Episcopal Vote; Split Threatened”
& “Connection to Terror Threats in Jakarta
Bombing”
Omaha
World-Herald, nation/world online stories: “Episcopalians
confirm gay bishop” & “13 killed at
Jakarta hotel”
Featured
stories, New York Times online: “White
House fills oil reserves” AP report says
the White House decision to buy oil is
contributing to tight supplies and higher
energy prices. & “Gay bishop wins final
approval”
Top online
heads, Sioux City Journal: Local – “Voters
reject ‘TRIO’ bid” Sioux City voters turn
down proposal to change local government
structure. & “Bombing at Marriott in
Jakarta kills 13, wounds 149 in likely suicide
attack”
Chicago
Tribune, main online heads: “Israel to
Release Hundreds of Prisoners” & “Brother
of Key Saddam Bodyguard Arrested”
Iowa Briefs/Updates:
Radio Iowa
reports that the investigation continues into
a “suspicious” fire that destroyed a vacant
World War II-era barracks at the Ottumwa
airport. The report said 48 firefighters
fought the blaze Monday morning. Investigators
said utilities of the building had been
shutoff prior to the blaze – causing questions
about how it started
The Quad-City
Times reported that two women – Nancy J.
Jimmison, 40, and Tracy D. Dennis, 33 – have
been charged with first-degree murder,
first-degree robbery and willful injury with
serious injury in the death of Frank Ray
Schmidt, 28. He collapsed in front of a
downtown Davenport apartment building,
according to police reports, after one of
the women “felt he did not give her enough
drugs and money in exchange for sex.” The
report indicated that witnesses said Jimmison
followed Schmidt and a trail of blood outside
the building and took blood-stained money out
of his right pocket.
On the
Korean Front: Headline from VOANews (Voice
of America) – “Japan: North Korean Missiles
a Threat” Excerpt: “A Japanese
defense study says that Japan should acquire a
missile defense system to counter any threat
from North Korea. The white paper released
Tuesday, says that given recent behavior, the
government cannot discount the possibility
that North Korea's nuclear weapons program is
already quite advanced. The defense
document urged that the government monitor the
military stand-off on the Korean peninsula and
the development, deployment and spread of
ballistic missiles. The paper cited North
Korea's nuclear and missile programs as one of
Japan's biggest security concerns and
recommended speeding up research on missile
defense systems. North Korea fired a ballistic
missile over Japan in 1998, spurring Tokyo
into launching its first two spy satellites in
March of this year. Japan plans to launch
another two in September to help monitor its
isolated Stalinist neighbor. South Korea
said last month that the North had deployed
more missiles capable of reaching Japan.”
A report of special
interest in Iowa – a fighter against PETA and
the “nanny culture.” Headline from the
Chicago Tribune: “Flinging mud in nation’s
food fight… Industry advocate blasts ‘junk
science’; critics say he hits below the belt”
Excerpt of report by Andrew Martin of the
Tribune’s Washington Bureau: “There are
many things that irritate Richard Berman about
‘the nanny culture,’ a term he coined
to describe a loose collection of activists,
lawyers and academics who like ‘to tell people
what's good for them.’ For instance, Berman
hates the names of the left-leaning activist
groups that he believes exemplify the nanny
ideal: Center for Science in the Public
Interest, Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine, People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals. They may sound official and
altruistic, Berman charges, but they are
really extremists who use ‘hardball’ tactics
and ‘junk science’ to scam the American
public. ‘They can call themselves whatever
they want,’ he said. ‘You can have the ugliest
baby in the world and still call it Tiffany.’
But Berman's critics consider him a master of
the very same game. As executive director of
the Center for Consumer Freedom--a
not-for-profit organization funded primarily
by the food and restaurant industries--Berman
has emerged as one of the most outspoken
critics of the recent rash of lawsuits and
legislation aimed at fighting obesity by
targeting unhealthy foods. ’It's just
crazy,’ Berman, 60, said over a glass of red
wine and raw tuna. ‘We're getting into the
zone where hamburgers are like cigarettes.
Every dessert on the menu will need a
warning.’ Using the offices of his
Washington-based lobbying firm, the Center for
Consumer Freedom employs razor-sharp wit and
unconventional tactics to annoy, unsettle and,
some say, intimidate its opponents in the
battle of the bulge. For instance, a
television ad shows a lawyer cross-examining a
7-year-old Girl Scout for making his client
fat on Girl Scout cookies. A fat
calculator on the center's Web site challenges
the government's definition of obesity and
offers consoling words for those deemed obese.
’You're so fat you look like . . . Russell
Crowe!’ it reads. ‘Russell Crowe? Yes,
according to the federal government the
handsome hero is obese (as is Tom Cruise)!
Sound crazy? Not as crazy as this: Some
anti-consumer organizations actually want to
slap sin taxes on soda, snack food and
restaurant meals to force you, Tom and Russell
to slim down.’”
Eighteen –
including four Quad-City area judges – seek to
replace Neuman on the Iowa Supreme Court.
Excerpt from Todd Ruger’s coverage in
yesterday’s Quad City Times: “Four
Quad-City area judges are seeking to fill the
open post on Iowa’s highest court, including
the chief judge of the judicial district that
includes Scott, Muscatine, Clinton, Cedar and
Jackson counties. John Nahra, a
Davenport native and chief judge of Iowa’s
7th Judicial District, is one of 18 judges,
lawyers and law professors from across the
state who have applied for an expected vacancy
on the Iowa Supreme Court, according to a list
released Monday by Iowa court officials. Also
vying for the seat are 7th Judicial District
judges Bobbi Alpers of Maquoketa, Mark
Cleve of Bettendorf and Gary McKenrick
of Low Moor. Nahra, who became
chief judge of the 7th Judicial District in
1997, made unsuccessful bids for an open seat
on the court in 1998 and 2000. None of the
judges could be reached Monday because they
were traveling the state and meeting with the
15 members of the state Judicial Nominating
Commission, district court administrator Tom
Betts said. The commission will select
three nominees on Aug. 15. Gov. Tom Vilsack
will then select the new justice from that
pool. Unlike some other gubernatorial
appointments, Vilsack’s pick will not need
approval of the Iowa Senate. The upcoming
vacancy will be created by retiring Iowa
Supreme Court Justice Linda K. Neuman of
LeClaire, who had a 21-year career highlighted
by becoming both the first woman and youngest
person on the state’s highest court.
Neuman, 55, became the second woman ever
appointed an Iowa district judge in 1982 and
the first female Supreme Court justice in
1986.” Today’s editorials:
Des Moines Register:
Local -- “Enlivening Court Avenue: Take a
realistic first step…Of four development
plans, the most elaborate might not be the
best.” & Federal – “Privacy? Yes, it’s your
right…It exists on equal footing with
rights enumerated in the Constitution…Everyone
has a zone of personal privacy into which
government may not intrude.”
Hundreds of fans, including many who had
driven a few hours, were turned away yesterday
after the opening round of the girls state
softball tournament was postponed due to wet
grounds. The Rogers Sports Complex in
Fort Dodge was unplayable because of
isolated storms soaked the diamonds. Play is
scheduled to resume today with games
originally scheduled yesterday to be played
today and tomorrow.
DSM 7 a. m. 68, overcast/mostly cloudy.
Temperatures – with one exception – in 60s at
7 a.m.: From 61 in Charles City and
Decorah and 62 in Lamoni and
Waterloo to 70 in Fort Madison.
Today’s high 82, partly cloudy. Tonight’s low
64, patchy fog. Tomorrow’s high 84, mostly
sunny. Tomorrow night’s low 64, patchy fog.
back to page 1
click here
Paid
for by the Iowa Presidential Watch PAC
P.O.
Box 171, Webster City, IA 50595
privacy
/ agreement
/
/ homepage
/
search engine
to read past Iowa Daily Reports
THE CLINTON COMEDIES: 