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Posted January 27, 2016in Guest Commentary

The Iowa caucus: silk purse or sow’s ear?

Iowa lore has it that after Monday the only ones still caucus-minded will be hotels and motels and car-rental agencies wondering if they will ever collect money owed by candidates [...]

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Posted January 06, 2016in Guest Commentary

Iowa GOP caucus ignores warnings of the founding fathers

With the praise lavished upon the Iowa caucuses as grassroots democracy and the attention that supposedly makes Iowa “the center of the political universe,” perhaps it is worth hearing from [...]

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Posted December 09, 2015in Guest Commentary

A grab bag of thoughts, and happy holidays

Cue the organist: A popular church hymn begins, “Onward Christian soldiers, Marching as to war…” That’s appropriate for Gov. Terry Branstad and his cohorts, and lots of Iowans who want [...]

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Posted November 25, 2015in Guest Commentary

Hope for our city

The proposed Iowa Events Center Hotel will be the biggest boost Des Moines has seen in centuries. In terms of development, we haven’t seen something this game-changing since the Iowa [...]

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Posted November 25, 2015in Guest Commentary

Middle East 101

Thoughts from Fabrice Moussus, an international journalist living in Paris With what happened in Paris on Nov. 13, there is a feeling of deja vu from conflicts I have been in. It [...]

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Posted November 18, 2015in Guest Commentary

An Iowa GOP caucus vote for None of the Above

To no one’s surprise, Donald Trump did not call off his quest for the GOP presidential nomination — even though he was asked to do so in a July 15 [...]

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Posted November 04, 2015in Guest Commentary

Confessions of a margin of error maker

I stopped lying after I came out as an unapologetic gay man, now a long time ago. Being a closeted gay man was really the only secret I had, and [...]

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Posted June 24, 2015in Guest Commentary

Guns in church

A faith group in our town recently held a worship event with about 350-plus people in attendance. They expected people from several states and foreign countries including Nigeria, South Africa, [...]

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Posted March 11, 2015in Guest Commentary

Charmed, I’m sure

By Kent Carlson Maybe it was the period in time I was raised, or maybe it was who raised me, but the term “charming” really wasn’t a big part of [...]

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Posted February 18, 2015in Guest Commentary

Sadly, for today’s Iowa GOP, it pays to be ignorant

GUEST #1 By Herb Strentz Although the Iowa press has not reported it yet, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has taken himself out of the Iowa caucus scene and the race [...]

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