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IOWA
DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
PAGE 2
Sunday,
Aug. 31, 2003
Does this
Hillary person have a credibility problem – or
why else would it be she’s not believed when
she says she’s not running in ’04? Anyway, she
said it again – “I am absolutely ruling it
out” – over the weekend.
Excerpt from report by Stephen Dinan in
yesterday’s Washington Times: “Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton yesterday ruled out running for
president in 2004 as she sought to stymie
rising speculation she might seek the
Democratic Party's nomination after all. ‘I
am absolutely ruling it out,’ the junior
senator from New York said, according to the
Associated Press, during a visit to the New
York State Fair in Syracuse. Faltering
poll numbers from President Bush have left
many Democrats scrambling to put their best
candidate forward — and for many, the
answer is Mrs. Clinton. Also fueling
speculation are reports that she and her
advisers — including her pollsters,
fund-raisers and her husband, former President
Bill Clinton — will meet soon to discuss her
prospects. But some political observers
said rather than running in 2004, they expect
what she'll really be discussing is what
supporting role to play in the election.
‘She is going to be a force in this election
whether she's a candidate or not,’ said Morris
Reid, a political consultant and a former
official in the Clinton Administration's
Commerce Department. ‘I think it's prudent for
her to sit down and discuss with her advisers
what's going on with the current crop of
candidates,’ he said. ‘Hillary is still the
800-pound gorilla.’ Mrs. Clinton has won
good reviews from Republicans and Democrats
for her first few years of work in the Senate
and Jeffrey Plaut, who works with the
Democratic firm Global Strategy Group in New
York, said remaining in that position leaves
her well positioned. ‘I think the political
view is she's been tremendously strong and
that she will be a very strong candidate to
run in the future, but that's not going to
happen in 2004,’ he said. ‘I think she's a
formidable Democratic player, but it's very
late in the cycle,’ he said. ‘The serious
candidates are up with television
advertisements and making their case, so she
would be walking off the bench in kind of the
seventh inning.’ For her part, Mrs. Clinton
has repeatedly said she will honor her pledge
to serve out her full first term, which ends
in early 2007.”
“Pounding
the President”
– Subhead on item in Robert Novak’s column in
today’s Chicago Sun-Times. Novak’s report: “Senate
Democratic leaders have sent e-mails to
liberal organizations to show up at a Capitol
Hill rally, immediately after the conclusion
of the August recess, to continue the attack
accusing President Bush of reneging on his
‘leave no child behind’ commitment for
education.
The pressure groups were urged to ‘send
members of your organizations to this rally’
in the Dirksen Senate Office Building
Wednesday morning to build support for four
education amendments to the Labor-HHS-Education
appropriations bill pending in the Senate. The
amendments would spend more federal money on
‘disadvantaged’ children, disabled students,
college Pell grants and several varieties of
aid to children of immigrants. Senate
Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Edward
M. Kennedy will lead the Bush-bashing session.
Boosting their amendments for more school
spending will be Senate Democratic Whip Harry
Reid and Sens. Robert Byrd, Chris Dodd and
Jeff Bingaman.” This morning’s headlines:
Des Moines
Sunday Register, top front-page headline: “19
arrested in shrine bombing…Al-Qaida:
Suspects linked to group…Shiites: Thousands
call for revenge”
Quad-City
Times, main online reports: “Iraqi police
capture 19 in bombing” & “N. Korea
nixes more nuke talks”
Nation/world
online heads, Omaha World-Herald: “Iraqis
threaten to deploy own militias”
Featured
headlines, New York Times online: “U. S.
and Iraqis Discuss Creating Big Militia Force”
& “Concern Growing as Families Bypass 9/11
Victims’ Fund” Report that nearly 60% of
families who lost relatives in the attacks
have not filed claims with the fund
established by Congress.
Sioux City
Journal online, top stories: “Iraqi police
make arrests in Najaf bombing” & “Blackout
may swell bills utility customers pay”
Chicago
Tribune online, main heads: “300,000 Iraqis
Join March for Cleric” & “U. S. Planes
Bomb Taliban Positions Anew”
Iowa Briefs/Updates:
The Daily
Iowan (University of Iowa) reported that
damage to three downtown Iowa City
businesses as result of a Thursday fire
totaled more than $350,000 -- $150,000 to
Joe’s Place bar, $30,000 to Malone’s and
$175,000 to the Easy Place restaurant
WHO Radio (Des
Moines) reported that Atty. Gen. Tom
Miller announced that 463,000 Iowans have
signed up for the national do-not-call list.
The report said enforcement against
telemarketers would begin on 10/1 for those
who register by tonight
Radio Iowa
reported that a second Iowan has died from the
West Nile Virus.
The report said the state health department
has confirmed that a central Iowa woman in her
70s died earlier this month from what has been
confirmed as West Nile.
From the
Korean Front:
Headline from
VOANews (Voice of America) report – “N.
Korea Calls Beijing Talks ‘Useless’”
Excerpt from coverage by Luis Ramirez: “The
United States and other nations that took part
in talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis
are calling the meeting in Beijing a positive
first step, and are looking forward to a
second round of talks. But North Korea is
now calling the talks ‘useless,’ and saying it
has no choice but to strengthen its ‘nuclear
deterrent.’ The North Korean threat came
in a statement from the Foreign Ministry,
carried by the country's official news agency
on Saturday. A Foreign Ministry spokesman was
quoted as calling the three-day talks in
Beijing, which ended Friday, ‘not only
useless, but harmful.’ The statement
followed similar remarks Saturday by one of
the North Korean delegates, as his group left
Beijing for home. The Foreign Ministry
statement accused the participants, including
the United States, of using this week's talks
to force the North into disarming. The
statement said Pyongyang believes it has no
alternative but to bolster its defenses by
continuing to develop what the statement
referred to as its ‘nuclear deterrent.’”
… “Reality
check: Vouchers do work” – subhead
on “Washington Whispers” column on U. S. News
& World Report online. Item by “Washington
Whispers” writer Paul Bedard: “Are
private schools generally too pricey to be
within the reach of kids receiving publicly
funded school vouchers? That's a case
often made by voucher opponents–and one that's
aggressively rebuffed in a new study by the
aggressively pro-voucher Cato Institute.
Thanks largely to the good deals available at
many religious schools, ‘a voucher amount of
$5,000 would give students access to most
private schools,’ the libertarian think
tank's six-city survey found. (The study
covered New Orleans, Houston, Denver,
Charleston, S.C., Washington, D.C., and
Philadelphia.) In the nation's capital, for
instance, where a school choice program is on
Congress's agenda, exclusive private
institutions like St. Albans School for Boys–pricetag
for elementary pupils: $21,837–are far from
representative. The median tuition for all the
city's private elementary schools was $4,500.”
… “Ashcroft
Taking Fire From GOP Stalwarts…More Wish
to Curb Anti-Terrorism Powers” – headline from
Friday’s Washington Post. Excerpt from
coverage – datelined Boise, Idaho – by the
Post’s Dan Eggen and Jim VandeHei: “Even
here, in a bedrock Republican state in the
heart of the conservative Mountain West, a lot
of people think Attorney General John
D. Ashcroft has gone too far. One of this
state's most prominent politicians, Rep. C.L.
‘Butch’ Otter (R), is leading an effort in
Congress to curtail the centerpiece of
Ashcroft's anti-terrorism strategy, the USA
Patriot Act. Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho),
who used to croon alongside Ashcroft in a
senatorial quartet, said this month that
Congress may have to consider scaling back
parts of the law. And in a state with an
all-GOP congressional delegation, several city
councils and the legislature are considering
resolutions condemning Ashcroft's tactics in
the war on terrorism. ‘Ashcroft wants more
power,’ said state Rep. Charles Eberle (R-Post
Falls), who has drafted a resolution critical
of the Patriot Act…Ashcroft has always been
one of the Bush administration's most
controversial figures, particularly among
liberals and Democrats who fiercely opposed
his nomination. But now the attorney
general finds himself at odds with some fellow
Republicans from Idaho to Capitol Hill who are
troubled by the extent of his anti-terrorism
tactics and angered by his unwillingness to
compromise. The rise of opposition within
his own party could threaten Ashcroft's bid to
secure even greater powers for the Justice
Department's war on terrorism. New Harris Poll
numbers released this week also show
Ashcroft's overall popularity slipping below
50 percent for the first time this year, while
the percentage of those who disapprove of his
performance has climbed to nearly 40 percent.
The tumult has made Ashcroft a central issue
in the Democratic presidential campaign, where
candidates are turning to him and his
terrorism policies as a sure-fire way to rally
the party faithful. Democrats also hope that
focusing on Ashcroft will raise doubts among
undecided voters about the Bush
administration's tactics in the national
security arena. During a campaign stop in
New Hampshire last week, former Vermont
governor Howard Dean went so far as to
summon the ghosts of Watergate, calling
Ashcroft perhaps the worst attorney general in
history -- worse, he said, than President
Richard M. Nixon's attorney general, John N.
Mitchell. ‘And he was a criminal,’ Dean
told supporters. Amid the growing controversy,
Ashcroft traveled this week to Boise and two
other GOP-friendly cities, Salt Lake City and
Las Vegas, as part of a month-long tour to
drum up support for the Patriot Act. ‘Make no
mistake: Our strategies and tactics are
working,’ he said. ‘Our tools are effective.
We are winning the war on terror.’ The former
Missouri senator and governor, who once
flirted with a presidential bid as a candidate
of the religious right, says he is untroubled
by the increased focus on his anti-terrorism
policies, and has shown no sign of tempering
his rhetoric. In his address Monday to
police and prosecutors here, Ashcroft called
the war on terrorism ‘the cause of our times’
and, in a thinly veiled jab at Otter, warned
that those who want to restrict the law ‘would
tip off the terrorists that we're on to them.’
In an interview after the Boise speech,
Ashcroft said he pays little attention to
criticism from the American Civil Liberties
Union and other groups. He said he believes
that the Otter amendment approved 309 to 118
by the House in July, which would cut off
funding for ‘sneak-and-peek’ warrants, ‘was a
mistake,’ and that many members did not know
what they were voting for.” Today’s editorial, Des Moines Register: “Create
outdoor amenities, grow rural Iowa”
Excerpt: “Enhancing the natural amenities will
not guarantee rural growth, but high-quality
growth is virtually impossible without it.”
Saturday’s editorials, Des Moines
Register:
“If
livestock is an industry…Treat it as such.
Zoning would protect neighbors and the
industry…An industrial-style hog facility
might as well be a power plant or a foundry.”
& “The Canadian advantage” Excerpt: “As
costs of health care rise, the competitive
disadvantage of American companies will
increase.” Joy in
Iowa City and Ames, but tears in
Cedar Falls after yesterday’s
football games – Hawkeyes get season’s first
win 21-3 over Miami of Ohio, Cyclones win
17-10 but don’t exactly clobber lower division
(1-A) opponent Northern Iowa. Next Saturday:
Buffalo at Iowa, Ohio at Iowa State …Central
Iowa sportscasts reported that former
University of Iowa football standout Ross
Verba – who prepped at Dowling High School
in West Des Moines – has been sidelined for
the season. For the past two years, Verba
has been the starting left tackle for the
NFL’s Cleveland Browns. He suffered a torn
right biceps during Thursday night’s preseason
game against Atlanta.
DSM 7 a. m. 65, overcast/cloudy. Temperatures
at 7 a.m. ranged from 48 in Sheldon, 49
in Estherville, 50 in Mason City
and 52 in Decorah and Algona to
64 in Atlantic, Clarinda and Ankeny
and 65 in Des Moines. Today’s high
70, chance showers. Tonight’s low 56, chance
showers. Labor Day high 74, chance rain.
Monday night’s low 57, partly cloudy.
Tuesday’s high 81, mostly sunny. This
morning’s weather summary from WHO-TV’s
Brandon Thomas: “A wide range of highs
this afternoon, with temperatures in the mid
sixties to upper seventies. Temperatures will
be warmer in northern Iowa. The rain
continues tonight, with some parts of southern
Iowa picking up over an inch of rain. Lows
tonight drop into the upper forties in
northern Iowa to the low sixties in southern
Iowa. A few showers in the morning on
Labor Day, with a little bit of sunshine in
the afternoon. Highs will be in the low/mid
seventies. Mostly sunny on Tuesday, with
highs in the low eighties.”
As nearly
200 Iowa City men died in the Civil War, the
University of Iowa felt the impact – cut
tuition from $4 to $2 per course to attract
more women.
In yesterday’s
Press-Citizen, Iowa City historian Bob
Hibbs wrote “the 1861-1865 Civil War
affected Iowa City as strongly as it did most
of America.” Excerpt: “Nearly
200 Iowa City men died in the war.
The University of Iowa lost many male students
and some of its faculty. Its president fled
Iowa City fearing for his family's safety
after being characterized as Southern
sympathizers.
The
22nd Iowa Regiment organized in Iowa City
was among many highly praised Union units. Of
960 men in the regiment, more than 600 were
from Iowa City and UI. The regiment lost
214 men, including its commander, Col. William
Milo Stone of Iowa City.
All
totaled, about 125 UI students went off to war
from enrollments below 300. Tuition fell
from $4 to $2 per course to be affordable to
more women. University enrollment went
from half women in 1861 to 54 percent in 1862,
to 65 percent in 1863.”
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