Posted July 22, 2015in Political Mercury
Back in 1938, Orson Welles famously exposed the Great American Gullibility. With his Mercury Theatre On The Air, Welles, adapting “War Of The Worlds,” used a series of simulated news bulletins to convince radio listeners that aliens were attacking Earth. Earthlings of 2015, welcome to Mars. With each new outrage, provocation, charge
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Posted July 15, 2015in Political Mercury
No other state, North or South, had a higher percentage of its “military age” male population — between 15 and 40 — serve during the course of the Civil War than Iowa, according to Iowa Public Television. By the end of the war in 1865, 76,534 Iowa men had served in
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Posted July 08, 2015in Political Mercury
Bernie Sanders is drawing big crowds as the little guy fighting big things. Big money. Big banks. The democratic socialist senator from Vermont wants to “break up” those banks, and calls for the like-minded to sign a petition on presidential campaign website. So does he think Iowa farms are getting
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Posted July 01, 2015in Political Mercury
Martin O’Malley can’t spot any Orioles these days in Baltimore, the city he served as mayor for eight years. Climate change chased the birds away, he said. On an acreage 1.5 miles southeast of Roselle, O’Malley, a Democratic presidential candidate, searched the trees Sunday afternoon for his beloved bird. He thought he
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Posted June 24, 2015in Political Mercury
1. The political spectrum of influences in the Iowa congressional delegation has lurched to the right. For the last 30 years, Iowans, or businesses, needing Democratic and Republican influence on Capitol Hill had both in the form of men who became institutions, Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley. We no longer have that, and
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Posted June 17, 2015in Political Mercury
I guess it’s my job to catch these sorts of things. And I’m sure not on the short list of Joni Ernst boosters or apologists. But it never occurred to me, this questioning of the presence of Cy and Herky, the mascots for Iowa State University and the University of
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Posted June 10, 2015in Political Mercury
Four hundred motorcyclists, led by a leather-attired Sen. Joni Ernst, joined another 1,500 largely Republican faithful Saturday for the Red Oak political star’s inaugural Roast & Ride, a blend of Harley-Davidson attitude, just-folks farm culture and open season on Democrats. Pork was on the menu at the Central Iowa Expo
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Posted June 03, 2015in Political Mercury
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, said he’s been “turning up” his own focus on national defense and security in the wake of what he sees as alarming events. “I believe that we are at war with radical Islam,” King said. “They’ve declared that war against us. They keep announcing they’re
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Posted May 27, 2015in Political Mercury
A conversation I’ve had with a number of Latino politicos and community activists in Iowa through the years starts like this on my end: “The Latino community needs to learn from the Irish immigrants of a century and a half ago. When met with the infamous ‘Irish Need Not Apply’
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Posted May 20, 2015in Political Mercury
America, it would seem, owes Congressman Steve King a collective apology. Yes, yes, the Kiron conservative made those comments comparing undocumented Latino immigrants to stray pets. And there’s the infamous “cantaloupe” thighs ding, the pinnacle in his career of provocations of the Mexican and Central American immigrant community King suggests brings
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