The Republican party and the Republican brand are in trouble.  Big trouble.  We all already know this with the anti-Republican sentiment nearly as high as the pro-Democratic sentiment nationwide.  

Our Presidential candidate is up nearly six points in polling averages.  Nearly all of our national groups are outfunding their Republican counterparts (where are you, DNC?) and the Republicans are retiring at a record rate rather than attempt to serve in the minority after a hard-fought battle -- if they even win back their seats.

And if you want more evidence, look below the fold for the changes by the Cook Political Report released today.

The state of Iowa has been hit with a double-barreled gut punch in the month of June.  Multiple days of torrential rainfall in June triggered massive flooding considerably worse and further-reaching than the historic floods of 1993.  As of yesterday, 77 of Iowa's 99 counties were declared Presidential disaster areas.  Making matters worse, the nation's top corn-producing state has lost nearly 20% of its corn crop on a year where corn prices are soaring due to increased demand.  It's hard to even appreciate at this point the magnitude of the negative effect that the events of June 2007 will have on the state of Iowa.  With all that said, lawmakers and special interest demagogues in the state of Iowa are holding firm in their insistence that the current state of crisis has to take a backseat to a more pressing concern....being as cruel as possible to Iowa smokers as quickly as possible.  The statewide smoking ban passed into law barely 60 days ago is to be foisted upon us strictly on schedule on July 1, with the whole state distracted from solving its real problems by the mass confusion surrounding the monstrous ban.

How you can help those that have been flooded out.

First an anatomy of the Great Floods of 2008, in my untrained, but observant, view.  The Floods began around Thanksgiving of 2007.  How is this??  Quite easy, that's the first snow fall we had in my part of the world.  For the next three months there was measurable snow fall every other day to every third day and snow continued into March.  In Cedar Rapids, the airport (the official measuring location and well to the south of town) measured around 63 to 64 inches of snow for the season.  

In a 'normal' year there would be between 30 and 35 inches of snow and there would be a significant January Thaw.  However, this year, the thaw didn't really occur.  We did have a brief thaw, but not a 'real' one.  Normally, at least half of the snow would melt off during the January Thaw.  Then Spring came.  And its rains.  It rained darn near every day in the months of April and May (or at least it seemed that way).

My photos of the flooding:
http://good-times.webshots.com/...

Read on....

Strange week. Saw my first McCain ad this week...and it is clear he is running as a Democrat. Healthcare, alternative energy, environment...all Democratic talking points. We have gone from Democrats feeling like they have to run as Repub-Lite to Republicans trying to hide behind a Democratic facade. You even have a Republican running for Senate in Oregon trying to claim (falsely) that Obama supports him. This is desperation for the Republicans! It sounds like racist attacks have failed them, though I am sure they will try more as time goes on.

Meanwhile yet more polls show Obama ahead in Virginia and Missouri, tied in Florida, AHEAD IN INDIANA (wow!) and within 1-2 points of McCain in North Carolina, Alaska and Georgia. Each and every one of these states was solid Bush in 2004. Now they are either leaning Obama or effectively tied.

but I don't care right now.

I just received one of those awful Republican & racist themed crappy chain emails from a person that I love & cherish dearly, my favorite aunt. This email was also sent to several family members, friends & strangers to me.

After I had read it and the steam stopped coming out of my ears, I hastily fingered out (I admit it ... I can't type, but I could compete in the world's fastest one finger typist competition) response & then hit the "reply all" button.

going on regarding what politicians and other people have been saying about this current flooding and what they said after the federal flood about New Orleans and those it impacted. I was cynical enough and had had my suspicions as I noticed that something was missing.

To wit: Nobody, even though some of the currently-affected communities along the Mississippi which had also been affected in the flooding of 1993 have been flooded again, has been telling the folks in these communities that they should not rebuild......

Now that I have your attention, there’s a 20th Century story I’d like to tell that may assist those coping with flooding disasters in the 21st Century. The title of the diary refers to a promise citizens of Dayton, Ohio made to themselves while trapped by floodwaters in the tops of their homes.

I've posted some of this information in comments to diaries related to the current flooding situation in Iowa. But I thought it important to put it all together so anyone interested in how a community might protect itself from flooding could explore an option that doesn't include being completely dependent upon the Federal government.

I sure hope McCain isn't paying his staff much money cause man do they stink at their job.  Granted they have a tough job of making McCain look young, hip, smart, energetic, enthusiastic, smart, oops said that one already...

This camp can’t go a single day without falling on their face, flip-flopping on an issue, or just saying something so stupid it hurts to read.

cross posted on my site OurHispanicVoices.com

...and spent a few months hanging around with friends in Iowa City, back when I was a kid. Thus, the recent flooding has been heavy on my mind...

cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland

This fabulous tip was in the latest e-mail update from the Center on Sustainable Communities (a great non-profit organization, by the way):

Flood Clean-up

Stay away from bleach
Our first instinct is to bring out the chlorine to disinfect and kill mold. But a study conducted by Professor Jeffrey Morrell, Dept. of Wood Science, Oregon State University found that bleach "doesn't eliminate the surface micro flora." It doesn't kill the roots of the mold, only bleaches it so we think it's been cleaned away when it hasn't. So not only is it ineffective, its fumes are harmful to both humans and the environment.

Try This Instead
Mix:
2 ounces of borax and
1 cup of white vinegar

Spray on the mold, let sit for up to 60 minutes and then wipe the area. The mixture will prevent mold from growing back.

-- from After the Flood, Green Living Online
http://www.greenlivingonline.com

This is emotional, so give me a little break.

I've written about Katrina here. I've bitched about the lack of coverage. Heck I've yelled about it. Now where I live is literally drowning. I don't mean from a "kind of you know like it is wet," I mean literally!

Time and time again here we talk 24/7 about who will be Obama's VP. What does McCain's medical records show? Did Hillary blow her nose on a napkin with a US flag on it (I made that one up).

I will with this first picture and an few more below (all Cedar Rapids, Iowa), hopefully let you know some bad stuff is ongoing and we could use some attention.

Granny Doc is always reminding us to support the DNC, and a contribution with your credit card is a great way to do it.  But there are other ways to contribute.  (Remember "Had Enough"?) I am asking for help to defeat one of the wingnuttiest people in the Congress, Steve King of Iowa.  

Steve King is the bigot who said that Al Qaeda would be dancing in the streets if Obama wins.  Desmoinesdem has a handy catalog of his sins here, and there are a lot of them.  Last week he asked Scott McClellan why he couldn't have taken his accusations to the grave with him.  (If Scotty's old friends had known what a sensation his book would be, he might have.)

If King loses, I personally will be dancing in the streets with anyone who cares to join me.  

With 35 Senate seats being contested this year (33 plus 2 special elections), Democrats have only 4 female candidates: Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Kay Hagan (NC), Vivian Figures (AL) and incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA). That's a shamefully low number. The Republicans only have 2 incumbents, Elizabeth Dole (NC) and Susan Collins (ME), and one sole challenger, Christine O'Donnell (DE).

Overall, this is not a great year for women in the U.S. Senate. The overall outcome will be somewhere between minus 2 and plus 4 female Senators. The most likely outcome is somewhere between minus 1 and plus 1.

So, let's look ahead to 2010. Specifically, to which Democratic female politicians might or should run for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Bleeding Heartland has been sparring with some Iowa Republican bloggers about the appropriate policy responses to the recent catastrophic flooding (see this post and this follow-up).

Here are some things I have learned.

Tired of being asked for money by campaigns...take a little break to help out a fellow blogger, a foodie community and farmers being affected by the floods.

Subscribe to Edible San Francisco today and we’ll donate 100%of your subscription to the Iowa Farm Aid fund (valid 6/19/08 - 07/01/08).

And why should you do this you may ask? Well...

The floods in the Midwest have continued and I include some information where I can in the Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin sections. Best of luck to all readers in the hard hit areas.

This week I return to an issue I discussed before: Republican cronies litterally killing our troops with no government oversight. This week Democratic Sentor Bob Casey is demanding an investigation of the electrocutions due to bad wiring that have been plaguing our military bases managed by a Hallibruton subsidiary. More below.

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) asked Scott McClellan today whether he could not have "taken some of this with you to the grave and done this country a favor?"  If I were McClellan's insurance carrier, I would assess that he is a better risk now that this testimony is on the record under oath. You, too, can do your country a favor, and help Steve King achieve the retirement of his dreams--building a border fence as a volunteer citizen to keep the brown people out.  

[cross-posted from the Disaster Accountability Project]

Yesterday, the Washington Post timidly reported that floods in Iowa and other Midwestern states may not be "natural" disasters . However, scientists have long warned that worsening floods are the predictable result of human intervention - of floodplains covered with impermeable concrete and stripped of vegetation; of river channels forced up and out of their beds by constricting artificial levees; of sprawling development offering more victims to raging rivers.  The article's thesis is neither new nor controversial, but the story does include a revelation that deserves immediate, national attention.

Between 2007 and 2008, farmers took 106,000 acres of Iowa land out of the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to keep farmland uncultivated, according to Lyle Asell, a special assistant for agriculture and environment with the state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR)...