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Iowa Presidential Watch's

IOWA DAILY REPORT

Holding the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.

Our Mission: to hold the Democrat presidential candidates accountable for their comments and allegations against President George W. Bush, to make citizens aware of false statements or claims by the Democrat candidates, and to defend the Bush Administration and set the record straight when the Democrats make false or misleading statements about the Bush-Republican record.

General News

Candidates & Caucuses

Clinton Comedies

Iowa/National Politics

Morning Summary

War & Terrorism

Federal Issues

Iowa Issues

Opinions 

Iowa Sports

Iowa Weather 

Iowaisms

 Today's Cartoon

 

 Cartoon Archive

PAGE 2                                                                                                                   Sunday, Aug. 31,  2003

THE CLINTON COMEDIES:     

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.

 IOWA/NATIONAL POLITICS: 

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.”

 MORNING SUMMARY:    

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.  

 WAR & TERRORISM: 

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.’”

FEDERAL ISSUES:  

… “Reality check: Vouchers do worksubhead 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.”

IOWA ISSUES:

 

OPINIONS: 

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.”

 IOWA SPORTS: 

 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.

IOWA WEATHER: 

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.”              

IOWAISMS: 

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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