DES MOINES -- Obama for America Iowa released a new radio advertisement today detailing the impact of the extreme Romney-Ryan budget on wind, an investment critical to a strong middle-class and a growing economy.  In Iowa, voters will hear how clean energy would be slashed under the Romney-Ryan budget, threatening Iowa's status as a leader on wind energy jobs.

Iowans can't afford to go back to the same policies that crashed our economy and punished the middle-class - we need to continue moving forward toward an economy built to last that strengthens the middle-class by paying down our deficit in a balanced way while making the investments critical to a growing economy.

Please click HERE to listen to the ad.

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Local organizations launch petition drive at ProtectIowaSeniors.com

DES MOINES, IOWA -- Iowans are petitioning their members of Congress today to ask: will you protect Iowa seniors? The petition drive was launched at ProtectIowaSeniors.com by the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans, Progress Iowa, and Protect Your Care. The petition calls for Iowa's delegation to reject the Romney/Ryan budget and support the reforms made in Obamacare.

"Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the most anti-senior ticket in history," said Jan Laue, President of the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans. "Their ticket and the Romney/Ryan budget pose unprecedented threats to all Iowans, particularly Iowa seniors. We are calling on Iowa's Congressional delegation to reject the Romney/Ryan budget, and protect the programs that benefit our seniors."

The Romney/Ryan budget ends Medicare as we know it for more than 500,000 Iowans through privatization, replacing the current payment system with a fixed-cost voucher program. The budget also forces more than 60,000 Iowa seniors back into the prescription drug "donut hole" and raises the amount they have to pay for medicine. Iowa's Congressional delegation has twice voted on the Romney/Ryan budget. Congressmen Dave Loebsack, Bruce Braley, and Leonard Boswell have all opposed the budget. Congressmen Tom Latham and Steve King have supported the budget.

"Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security have provided a strong foundation for Iowa seniors," said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa. "And the new reforms in Obamacare only strengthen the care seniors receive. We are now asking Iowa's congressional delegation: will you protect Iowa seniors by standing up for the reforms we've fought for, and by rejecting the Romney/Ryan budget?"

Since Obamacare became law, Iowa seniors have saved more than $32 million on prescription drugs, and more than 400,000 Iowa seniors have received free preventive care. In addition, the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund is extended by reducing overpayments to insurance companies and cracking down on waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare.

To learn more about the petition and issues facing Iowa seniors, visit ProtectIowaSeniors.com.

Exclusionary Policies Run Counter to Christ's Example,
Author Says

An evergreen tender spot on the religious-political landscape is homosexuality and gay marriage. When a politician, pundit or gadfly wants to gin up his or her base, an easy tactic is to make a statement about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, says media analyst Paul Hartman.

"It's one of those issues where everyone has an opinion, one way or another," says Hartman, a retired PBS/NPR station executive and author of "The Kairos," (www.CarpeKairos.com) a five-star-rated suspense novel that imagines Jesus Christ as gay.

"One of the many roles that Jesus modeled for us was that of social reformer. He championed the equality of outcasts - prostitutes, beggars, widows, orphans, lepers.  He ignored their 'pre-existing conditions' and just loved 'em. You don't have to be a well-educated liberal today to be on the right side of history, you just have to follow Christ's example."

Currently, there are three American Christian denominations that officially accept homosexuality in their clergy: Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians. In July, the Episcopalian Church became the largest U.S. denomination to officially sanction same-sex unions by authorizing a "blessings" ceremony.

Hartman cites four reasons why American churches should accept homosexuality and gay marriage:

• In support of family and monogamy: The current estimate of U.S. citizens who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) is 12 million. Due to lingering stigmas, that self-reported number is likely only a fraction of the actual. Even 12 million is a significant portion of the population who have been forced to live on the sidelines and denied the rights and responsibilities that other Americans enjoy, including marriage, and the adoption of needy children. Such denial of freedoms for sexual minorities runs counter to the Christian belief in family values.  Indeed, there are many theologians who argue homosexuality is one of God's diverse gifts in His creation of families.

• Avoiding hypocrisy and elitism: Like so many topics in the Bible, its few brief references to same-sex relations beg for intelligent interpretation. The original Bible writings, Hartman argues, never used the word "homosexual." Translators introduced that term.  In context, biblical "clobber passages" condemn "unnatural relations," meaning God finds it an abomination when straight persons ignore their nature and have sex with partners of their own sex.  Logically, people whose natural orientation is toward their own gender would have "unnatural relations" if they're intimate with opposite sex partners.  Another example is when people parrot what they've heard about the sin of Sodom being same-sex relations.  They don't realize that the Bible itself repeatedly and clearly defines that city's wicked sins as inhospitality and unloving acts toward others.  That's a charge some make against churches which discriminate against members of the GLBT community.  "When will we learn?" Hartman asks.  "Christ's message is inclusive, not exclusive."

• Already accepted in three denominations: Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians - none of them wildly radical sects of Christians - now ordain openly gay as well as openly straight clergy. While it's nothing new for denominations to disagree, it should be noteworthy that three mainstream Christian churches have accepted and embraced gay people.

• Most importantly, "Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves." Modern-day Pharisees love to emulate God's role as judge more than Christ's model of loving caregiver to the littlest, the lowest, the last and the least.

About Paul Hartman

Paul Hartman is a retired PBS/NPR station executive with a passion for biblical history. He is a Presbyterian elder, a lay preacher and a Dead Sea Scrolls aficionado. A father and grandfather, Hartman says he wrote "The Kairos" after serious Bible study revealed two repeatedly-quoted words from God as the answer to his lifelong battle with fear.

New law protects consumers from unlicensed lenders

CHICAGO - August 20, 2012. Governor Pat Quinn today signed a new law to shield consumers from unlicensed lenders. House Bill 3935 imposes a Class 4 felony on lenders who have not been licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), and protects consumers trapped in these high-interest loan deals from having to pay back the debt. Today's action is the latest by the governor to crack down on predatory lending and help consumers.

"Two years ago, we signed new laws to curb predatory lending and make the payday loan industry more transparent," Governor Quinn said. "Today's action is the next step in protecting consumers from unscrupulous, unlicensed lenders."

Sponsored by Sen. William Haine (D-Alton) and Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), HB 3935 provides consumers with greater protections by putting teeth into the penalty and declaring any such loan as "null and void." Under existing law, the IDFPR may issue a cease-and-desist order to anyone doing business without the required license. Currently, 522 payday lenders are licensed and regulated by the IDFPR, which also regulates 1,054 Consumer Installment Loan Act lenders and 240 Sales Finance lenders.

Often called "loan sharks," unlicensed lenders charge extremely high interest rates and impose short-term repayment deadlines under threat of violence for non-payment. They are often associated with organized crime or street gangs.

The effort to increase regulation of predatory lending began with the "Monsignor John Egan Campaign for Payday Loan Reform," launched in 1999 after the Catholic priest heard the confession of a woman whose life was being ripped apart by usurious interest rates. The resulting reforms -The Consumer Installment Loan Act and Payday Loan Reform Act - are amended by this law.

The law is supported by Illinois Citizen Action and the Illinois Small Business Loan Association, and is effective on Jan. 1, 2013.

 

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