Recent posts from our campaign blog:

You can become a volunteer fundraiser

We know we aren’t going to win this election by raising more money than the incumbent. There aren’t going to be any huge negative TV ads from us. But we do need funds to put campaign literature in the hands of volunteers. Now you can donate online—just look for the blue button that says Contribute. But if you’ve got your own blog or web page, you can be a volunteer fundraiser as well: just take this link to sign up and get started. ActBlue will help you create a fundraising web page for Jan’s campaign.

What Wonderful News!

Jan Creasman’s announcement of candidacy is wonderful news for District 56. She brings over 30 years experience of advocacy for the rights of children and families, seniors, disabled persons, and individuals who lack the financial resources or power to defend themselves. She has quietly assumed leadership roles when a leader was needed. She has taken difficult ethical stance when to do otherwise would have been better for her personal interests. She understands the struggles of working people, what it means to be without union representation and unable to afford adequate health insurance. She is a lifelong resident of this District. Now is a time when we all need to look beyond party politics to elect individuals who will return our country to the one we all are so proud of and love, the one that values individual rights and freedoms. Please join me in supporting one of those individuals, Jan Creasman.

I won’t be afraid of my neighbors

Conservatives have been banging the drum of anti-immigrant fear with great success for several years. Here in Iowa, a bill to require state-issued IDs from all workers was recently advanced out of committee. Under the guise of “preventing exploitation” of undocumented workers, the bill would raise yet another obstacle for people who are trying to get work, by requiring employers to check photo I.D. or face prosecution for a felony. It’s just the latest in a series of bills designed to get votes by pandering to racism. That Jan’s Republican opponent would sponsor anti-immigrant legislation (see HF2482 for an example) is hardly surprising, but House Democrats who supported these measures should be especially ashamed of themselves.

Why? Because illegal immigration isn’t a threat, isn’t a “plague” (yes, some people have used that word in public to describe their neighbors), isn’t the most serious problem facing the nation or even among the top ten. We are supposed to believe that immigrants don’t pay taxes, even though it’s not true, simply because the lie is repeated so often. (In fact they pay between $90 billion and $140 billion a year.) We are supposed to believe that they make heavier use of welfare than native born Americans, when the opposite is the case. We are supposed to believe they deprive citizens of jobs, when in fact they stimulate job growth in the U.S. economy. Those are the facts, but facts aren’t useful if you are trying to drum up racist fear for political gain. (If you doubt that anti-immigrant groups are racist, think back to the last time you heard anyone complaining about all the Canadian immigrants to the U.S.)

Speaking of racist fearmongering, remember that big wall along the Mexican border, the one that was supposed to protect you from all those scary Mexicans? Turns out it was all just political theater and a bit of pork, not an actual functional border fence.

[A reporter for the Texas Observer] has uncovered curious gaps in the big wall. For example, while it will rip through the backyards of low and modest-income families in Brownsville, Texas, it miraculously stops at the edge of River Bend Resort, a lush golf course. The wall picks up again on the other side of the resort. Excuse me, but won’t enterprising border-crossers simply learn to dress up as golfers or caddies and putt right through this gap?

Further up the border, there’s another special gap for Sharyland Plantation, a 6,000-acre development of million-dollar homes. Sharyland is owned by billionaire oil heir Ray Hunt of Dallas - who happens to be tight with George W. Indeed, del Bosque found that Ray has donated $35 million to help build Bush’s presidential library. So, no wall for him.

Why am I not surprised?