I don’t know how many newspapers are planning to endorse Democratic primary candidates (I haven’t caught any others so far, and I know it’s sort of uncommon to endorse candidates in a party primary), but today the Iowa City Press-Citizen endorsed Fallon:
Rather than being dismissed as a mere leftist, Fallon’s commitment to individual freedom weaves in and out of partisan labels. His grassroots support could bring a surprise on June 6, and we believe he engages in the type of politics that we would like to see more of.
But more than that, they go candidate-by-candidate in a way that seems to provide a list of preferences: (3) Culver, (2) Blouin, and (1) Fallon.
We have toyed with the idea of endorsing a candidate (or candidates, if we do it individually) here, but I don’t know if any of us feels like it would really help in the long run.
After reading that endorsement, though, I might try to do something on my own in the days before I have to skip out (when I start work with the party in June). If a tree falls in the forest…
May 28th, 2006
Today marked the National Day Without Immigrants, the effects of which have been felt all throughout Iowa and the rest of the country. The Register has a few articles detailing the impact of today’s boycott, highlights including some anger over lost wages in Storm Lake, some construction delays, a few protests across the state (including Iowa City), and various other reactions from around the state. I recognize that in a state such as Iowa, where we are having trouble stemming the hemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs, where the agricultural economy has seen better days, and where unemployment is a problem that some still face, immigration can be a particularly thorny issue. However, the immigrants who are coming to Iowa are exactly the type of productive citizens that the state claims to need so badly. These are people who work hard, who raise their children here, who pay taxes (regardless of citizenship, the sales tax is always paid), and who only seek the opportunity to share in and improve the quality of this country. My family came to this country generations ago via immigration, and the idea that we as Americans, or we as Iowans, would deny others the right to the same opportunities our families had when they came to the country is outrageous to me. The sooner Iowa recognizes that immigrants are a boon to our culture, our economy, and our state, the better.
In other news, Chet Culver has articulated the details of his plan to create more affordability among higher education. However, when I heard Culver speak, he seemed to gear his plan more towards offering more AP classes in high school than in restructuring and improving the economics of college. Yes, being able to knock a year off your B.A. or B.S. in high school would be a financial windfall, but an AP class is, in my opinion, a poor substitute for both the knowledge and life experience gained at college. And, yet again, another political candidate outlines a plan for spending without saying where that money is going to come from.
Finally, if anyone missed it, Stephen Colbert absolutely took Bush to task at the White House Correspondent’s Association dinner. He did not reserve his vitriol for Bush alone though, as the press itself took a beating, as well as McCain and Scalia among others. Here’s a Washington Post summary of the sketch and how it went over.
May 1st, 2006
