4 posts tagged “politics”

Just got back from the Iowa Caucus.  Whoa, what a madhouse!

This time, our precinct (the Fightin' DUBUQUE 19TH!!) met in the hospitality room on the third floor of the Carnegie-Stout Public Library.  219 people showed up and tried to fit in a room meant for 50.  Despite the -2 degree windchill outside, the place was like a freakin' oven.  I'm sure all sorts of fire codes were broken, but oh, well.

Bob and I showed up early, about 6 pm.  We lined up at the registration area, a long table with names divided into alphabetic subdivisions (A-G, H-L, etc), signed our names and also indicated which candidate we intended to caucus for.  This part isn't officially official--it's just a way for them to get a beginning headcount so that the chairman can figure out which candidates are going to be viable.

There's some mathmatical formula that I don't know that indicates viability.  A candidate has to have 15% in order to obtain one of our precinct's seven delegates.  With 219 people, this meant that a candidate needed to have at least 33 people in order to be viable--that is, in order to obtain a delegate to the Dubuque County Convention.

The room was already packed when we got there.  We ended up sitting next to an elderly couple who were from Illinois and had come to observe the caucus.  I spent a good 15 minutes explaining how the process worked to them and telling them about the last caucus, four years ago.  I also told them to watch the guy from Kuchinich's camp, because he would argue about almost anything and it was hilarious once he got started.

After sitting around for an hour (the law says the Caucus has to admit people until 7 pm), the Caucus finally started.  First, there was some Democrat Party business to take care of, an envelope was passed around to raise money for the State Democrat Party to pay for the caucus, and then each candidate had a representative give a small speech about why the undecided people should vote for them.  Then the primary totals were given out to see which candidates were viable as yet.  Obama was by far and away the most popular, and Hillary had enough for at least one delegate, but everyone else was not viable (ie: did not have 33 people). 

People split up into their candidate groups at this time and started arguing about who was going where.  This all took about 30 minutes.  Bob and I were caucusing for Bill Richardson, but he only had 8 people, so we held out for as long as we could, then the group split to give John Edwards the votes he needed to get a delegate.  We were technically supposed to go to Obama, but we wanted to vote for Edwards since our guy was out of the running and Obama really didn't need any more people, while Edwards did.  There was a lot of cheering from the Edwards camp when we showed up.  Yes, our votes actually made the difference!  Democracy at work!

After the final count of delegates from our precinct (Obama 3, Hillary 2, Edwards 1, Biden 1), we snuck out while the gettin' was good, as in before the traffic around the library got snarled up.

From the news coverage, it looks like Iowans came out in record numbers to caucus.  Right now, it looks like Obama 38%, Edwards 30%, Hillary 29% and Richardson 2%.  Not sure what the Republicans are doing, but it seems that Huckabee is well ahead of Romney, which is no surprise considering the number of Catholics in this state.  (Actually, the only Republican I can stand is John McCain--not because I agree with him, but because he is a veteran and has more experience than the other yahoos from that party, but since I'm a Democrat, it hardly matters).

Now the craziness is over.  All the candidates can move on and the press people can go home, and we can go back to the usual peace and quiet of semi-rural life.

(X-posted from my LiveJournal)

To all the soldiers who have to date been lost in this horrific and unneccessary war: Thank You for your service and your sacrifice.  I'm so sorry that you had to lose your lives for such a worthless cause as this one.  I'm even sorrier about the fact that while you and your brothers and sisters are over there living in the hell of war, we at home are living in our electronic haze, doing very little to either stop the war or support it.

During Vietnam, the troops were looked down on, which was sad because most of those boys didn't have a choice about being there--the draft was still in place at the time.  But the people back home at least protested the war, by the hundreds and thousands.  During WWII, Americans planted victory gardens and lived on rations because important items were needed for the war effort.  But today?  Our troops are being sent into a grinder, and we act like nothing is happening.  What is wrong with us?  What has become of our country that we have become so indifferent to the suffering of not only our own people, but the people of the country we destroyed?

AMERICA OUT OF IRAQ!!  BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!!!

Yes, my husband and I both voted yesterday.  Our precinct didn't have the fancy new machines that everyone has been bitching about, nor was there much of a wait.  We had the same machines as always and it took the same amount of time.  I'm wondering if Iowa got new machines, or if they were just put in the bigger urban areas?

Yay, almost all the people we voted for won, except Denise O'Brien for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture.  I think she may have been just a tad too liberal for the folks here. Plus, I think the guy running against her actually was a working farmer. 

Races here were close, but the democrats dominated.  Before, Iowa had 4 Republicans and 1 Democrat in the House of Representative, but now it's 3 Democrats and 2 Republicans.  (Our senators are split: 1 Republican, 1 Democrat, so they always end up cancelling each other out.  Neither one of them were up this year, though.)  So we've gone "blue". 

The new governor is also a democrat, but the old one was a democrat, too, so nothing new there. There are noises he (the old gov) will make a run for the presidency in 2008.  Not sure yet.  Watch for him.  His name is Tom Vilsack.  He's good, but not very charismatic.  He does have a dramatic history, though.  His political life started when some crazy guy ran into a town council meeting in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa (Vilsack's hometown) and shot a few people, including the mayor.  Afterwards, the former mayor's father and other townspeople encouraged Vilsack to run for Mayor.  He won, and went forward from there.

The new governor, Chet Culver, has been Iowa Secretary of State for several years.  He knows his stuff, so I think he'll work out well.  The democrats also made progress in the Iowa Legislature--perhaps a majority, but I'm not sure on that yet.

Local political offices were also dominated by the dems, but that's not unusual.  Dubuque is a democrat stronghold and has been for many years.  People here are conservative, but they're also very strongly pro-union, even after most of the unionized jobs have left the area for foreign climates.  The voters did vote down a small property tax increase to assist the Dubuque County Extension (that runs 4H, and a number of other educational programs on a teeny-tiny budget).  That's sad, because it only worked out to @$3.00/yr on a $150,000 house.  People spend more on coffee than on that.  I guess the public wasn't educated enough about the measure.  It's sad.

A lot of Iowans did come out to vote.  The weather was good, but I think the main reason was that people were pissed off about Iraq, and that they felt betrayed by our current administration.  A lot of Iowans join the military, and at one point, our state had the highest number of fatalities in the war (but that was last spring, not sure what the numbers say now).  Also, Iowa has lost a lot of good jobs because corporations are shipping them to sweatshops overseas.  Certainly, our precinct here in Dubuque was hopping.  Very busy.  The volunteer ladies who work the polls were delighted.  It was all very exciting.

So, let's hope some change starts occuring!

Last week, I recorded a show from the Discovery Channel called Global Warming: What You Need to Know, hosted by journalist Tom Brokaw. (Actually, I really wanted to see An Inconvient Truth, but as per usual in Dubuque, it ran a week and was gone before I could get over there.) :-P Therefore, I can't compare these two reports.

However, what I saw on Global Warming: What You Need To Know was enough to depress me completely.  I've been aware of the phenomenon for quite a while (my friend Robin and I have had some interesting discussions on the subject--miss you, Robin!), but it's one thing to know something is going on in a vague theoretical sense and quite another to see some of the carnage in action.

 I have an interest in the topic of peak oil, and how America in particular can adapt to the coming reality. Global Warming ties in neatly with this idea. Basically, we use too much fossil fuels, there is a coming shortage which may well have consequences in all parts of our economy and present lifestyle, and furthermore, the fact that we are generating so much CO2 from the overuse of these fossil fuels is causing accellerated climate change. And while America is (currently) the chief culprit in this energy gluttony, our government has been dragging its feet in establishing aid for research on fuel and energy-producing alternatives, while handing out all kinds of pork goodness to Big Oil, who at this time is making unprecendented profits.

And I wonder what I, a common citizen, just getting by and certainly not able to make a large-scale change, can do about this energy crisis.

1. Vote. Research the candidates and vote. A lot of people feel disinfranchised because of the shannigans that put our führer prez in office in the first place, but I really believe the American concept of government is a sound one, and if We The People get off our collective asses and go to the polls to make our wills known, change will occur. Also, vote on the state and local levels as well--make sure your candidates support environmentally friendly agendas.

2. Rethink transportation. In larger cities, mass transport is available (I often took the bus to work when I lived in Louisville and in Des Moines). Those of us in smaller cities and/or more rural areas will have to be more creative. Here in Dubuque, we do have a bus system of sorts, but the schedule is so limited and the service so poor that few people utilize it. For example, I couldn't take it to work, even though it does stop by the mall, because the bus stops service at 5 pm, and I usually worked evenings. Maybe if the system was improved, more people might utilize it. My husband and I are also taking a sharp look at how we use our own cars, and what we can do to improve the situation. For example, we could save gas by planning our errands better.

3. Do an energy audit on your home. We had that done by our electric company a couple of years ago. Some of the suggestions were very quick, easy and relatively cheap. We do have a big fix that would really help: replacing the old windows, adding insulation and re-siding the house, but that will take time and a lot of money. If you're looking into buying or renting a place, try to keep energy efficiency in mind. Little things do add up to big savings, and every little bit an individual can do helps the greater whole.

I guess the most important thing to know is that one person can make a difference, even if its a small one. Many people making small differences add up to real and significant change.

<g> Lecture over. Daresay I will talk about this subject again sometime. I do think it is vitally important that I do speak out on the subject.

(X-posted to my LJ)

Edit: Gah, this thing doesn't let you post html?  You have to use their set-up to post links?  Lame.