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It sounds like there was a great week of activities taking place in Iowa City during Peace Week last week.

200 people rallied and marched in Iowa City Saturday, and about 500 more people attended at least one Peace Week event throughout last week. Peace Week, organized by the UI Anti-war Committee, came at a time of increasing violence in Iraq. 25 U.S. soldiers were recently Killed In Action during a two-week period, one of the highest since the war began.

Over 4,000 U.S. troops have been KIA. Spectacular car bombs by Sunni insurgents have led to ghastly death tolls, including one incident that killed at least 54 people and wounded dozens more, and the Mehdi Army - led by radical anti-American nationalist Moktada al-Sadr - has been fighting the Iraqi Army, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and the Badr Brigade to stalemates in Sadr City, Baghdad and Basra this week. This increased violence in Iraq calls into serious question the Bush Administration and mainstream media claims that the surge is working.

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Ed Fallon today attacked a bill that would ban politicians paying themselves with campaign funds as “status quo politics at its worst.” The bill was introduced because Fallon had paid himself nearly $14,000 with campaign funds after the end of his 2006 gubernatorial bid, making Fallon one of the most notable politicians to line his […]

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The end of the first fundraising quarter is Monday, March 31st and I thought I’d ask my readers to consider donating to one of the candidates on the Iowa Democratic Bloggers ActBlue page.

The candidates that I would like to ask you to consider donating to are Elesha Gayman, McKinley Bailey, and Eric Palmer. These three candidates have been targeted by a group funded by RJ Reynolds, Mid American Energy, and other corporations. Negative ads have been running throughout their districts on the issues of property tax relief and fair share.

These candidates are all serving in their first term in the Iowa House and are top targets by state Republicans. Please chip in to help these great candidates counter the corporate funded attack ads and win re-election this November.

Click here to donate.

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David Yepsen was singing the praises of Chet Culver today for undermining efforts to allow teachers and other public employees the same rights as private sector employees. Apparently if this happens, there’s a chance that teachers may negotiate for smaller class sizes as part of collective bargaining and why would any Iowa school want smaller […]

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The Marshalltown Times Republican has a story about two Marshall County families that have recently put up small wind turbines on their property. Marshall County approved a zoning ordinance for wind turbines in 2007 and the first two were installed in October and November. The total cost was less than I expected.

But at $10,600 — with half of that on a no-interest loan from the state — it fit his budget. Jansen’s model, a Skystream 3.7 made by Southwest Windpower, starts spinning in winds of 5 to 6 mph and shuts down to protect itself in winds of 25 to 30 mph.

By producing as much as 2.4 kilowatts of electricity in an hour, Jansen’s energy savings might be able to pay back his investment in 10 years or less, according to dealer Todd Hammen.

Small wind projects like these will surely spread across rural areas throughout the state.

Hammen thinks acreages and farms are ideal places to install windmills, and Farm Bureau reports there are 50,000 residential acreages in the state, he said.

“Small wind can create a tremendous effect in the long-term if its embraced by a large number of people,” he said. “… We haven’t even begun scratching the surface of people generating wind.”

Already both Jansen and Vopava have had visitors stop by, curious about how the wind generators are working.

“You are going to see these popping up all over the Midwest,” Vopava said. “They’ll become almost as common as the old windmill of a couple generations ago. The price is reasonable enough and as we all become more aware of alternative energy resources, this is a good option. You’re never going to run out of wind.”

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Tom Beaumont wrote a piece in the Register yesterday probing some of the campaign irregularities that Chase Martyn uncovered last week. While both pieces reinforced the fact that something irregular was happening with Fallon’s group “I’m for Iowa.” Fallon answered questions about how much money he made from the group very differently in both articles. […]

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Lesser Scaup - Aythya affinis - Petit fuligule, Petit morillon (French),Pato boludo-menor, Pa…

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Tonight at 8 pm the global movement called Earth Hour is taking place. Do you part.

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Of course the thugs who tortured Tatiana the tiger (pictured above with family) into a degree of madness now claim victim status are suing the San Francisco Zoo. The reader will recall Tatiana as the tiger who, after being abused and taunted with rocks…

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