Posted February 26, 2014in Political Mercury
The meat of the recently-passed farm bill, signed by President Barack Obama into a law governing agriculture for the next decade, is the elimination of the $4.5 billion annually in direct payments in favor of an expanded crop-insurance program. The package also reduces spending on food stamps by about $8
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Posted February 19, 2014in Political Mercury
It’s eye-rolling, this posturing and re-posturing of Iowa Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Jacobs. Faced with news that he gave money to a Democrat — former U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine of New Jersey ($1,000) — Jacobs said he just did that because Corzine was CEO of Goldman Sachs, where Jacobs
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Posted February 12, 2014in Political Mercury
Some long-assumed sagacity about success in Iowa politics is this: never say things are going too well on the farm. Considering the last five years, that wisdom, which always sort of played on hayseed characterizations of those of us living in rural Iowa as taciturn head-shakers, is far from realistic.
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Posted February 05, 2014in Political Mercury
State Sen. Mark Segebart, R-Vail, says Iowa shouldn’t have three state universities. The population just doesn’t justify it, says the lawmaker-farmer who represents a vast swath of western Iowa. “We probably have, for 3 million people, having three huge universities, and all the infrastructure and employees that go with that,
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Posted January 29, 2014in Political Mercury
At Ford’s Theatre Center for Education and Leadership in Washington, D.C., visitors encounter a overwhelming visual — a 34-foot tower of books written about Abraham Lincoln, 6,800 titles representing less than half of the 15,000 volumes published on the Great Emancipator. So it seems something of a fool’s errand to
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Posted January 22, 2014in Political Mercury
Ladbrokes, the British oddsmaker with a global reach into the betting markets, shows Hillary Clinton with Big Horse advantages in both a potential Democratic presidential nomination bid and general election. No other would-be White House candidate even comes close to Clinton, the former among formers (first lady and U.S. senator
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Posted January 15, 2014in Political Mercury
Let’s say you are on the Jasper County Republican Central Committee. You’re rolling over the 2016 GOP presidential candidates. And you really like Paul Ryan. He’s earnest. Intelligent. And focused on fiscal matters, the neutering of big government. But suppose New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie navigates his troubled bridge over
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Posted January 08, 2014in Political Mercury
What better place to start a book about parasites than a funeral? And that’s where Mark Leibovich introduces us to his take on Washington, D.C. — at memorials for newsman Tim Russert, where members of the political-media establishment jockey for camera time and proximity to power in the sort of
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Posted January 01, 2014in Political Mercury
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jack Hatch says Iowa’s system for approving casino developments — state regulation with local control at the county level — should guide how government manages large hog and cattle operations. “I think we can take the model we have with casinos and bring them back to you,”
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Posted December 26, 2013in Political Mercury
He’s Uncle Ben. The rice. Charmin. Ivory soap. The Folgers in Iowa’s cup. For about 20 years — with a clear-seas-ahead shot at 24 — Brand Branstad is the reliable reach on the Hawkeye State political shelf. Iowans don’t even put Gov. Terry Branstad on the shopping list. They instinctively
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