Video Highlights the President's Support of Extending the Protection Tax Credit While Romney Raises Big Oil Money

DES MOINES -- While Mitt Romney attends two fundraisers today at the Petroleum Club in Midland, Texas, Obama for America Iowa released a new web video today of the President's remarks in Iowa detailing both Romney and Ryan's opposition to the wind industry, an investment critical to a strong middle-class and a growing economy.  Last week in Iowa, voters heard how President Obama believes Congress should extend the production tax credit for wind energy right now to create American jobs and support American businesses and manufacturers.

Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to let the credits expire, which would put thousands of jobs at risk in Iowa and other states. The Republican Party has echoed Romney's hostility toward the wind industry?even omitting wind energy credits from their 2012 platform.

Mitt Romney continues to tout an energy policy that is full of empty rhetoric and bad ideas that would make oil billionaires even richer at the expense of Iowan jobs.  President Obama's tour through Iowa last week reiterated the importance of extending the tax credit because he believes America 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 watch the video.

Meanwhile, more editorial boards from across the state have publicly rebuked Mitt Romney's opposition to the Wind Energy Tax Credit, which is set to expire at the end of this year. "Obama stands with Grassley and Branstad who know that Romney's energy plan to repeal regulation will do little to diversify U.S. energy sources," writes the Quad City Times in a Sunday editorial.  Below is a snapshot of how newspaper editorial boards across Iowa have lined up in support of extending the tax credit:

Quad City Times "Flinches" At Romney's Opposition To The Tax Credit: "We stand with Sen. Chuck Grassley, Gov. Terry Branstad and most Iowans flinching at Mitt Romney's myopia on wind power," writes the Quad City Times. "Obama stands with Grassley and Branstad who know that Romney's energy plan to repeal regulation will do little to diversify U.S. energy sources. Every energy form is subsidized in America. Without the federal wind energy tax credit, Iowa would be using very few windmills, and producing none" [Quad City Times, 8/19].

Iowa City Press-Citizen: Our View: Wind tax credit good investment for nation: "Romney's campaign staff have responded to the president's attacks by explaining that, while the presumptive Republican nominee strongly supports the wind energy industry, he would rather "allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits." Such a statement ignores the fact that wind energy tax credits were to stimulate development of a renewable source of energy. It also ignores how well the tax credit has helped grow an industry that provides a true energy alternative... The potential benefits for wind energy go far beyond the parochial concerns of any one state ? be it one as small as Iowa or one as big as Texas. Support for this tax credit likewise should go beyond the concerns of any one political party." [Iowa City Press-Citizen, 8/16]

Cedar Rapids Gazette Says Romney Stands At Odds With Entire Iowa Congressional Delegate: "Romney opposes an extension of the federal wind energy tax credit when it expires this year. That stand is at odds with the entire Iowa congressional delegation, including Reps. Tom Latham and Steve King and Sen. Chuck Grassley, all Republicans, as well as Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, who says Romney just needs a little more education on the topic.  ...We agree with the governor." [Cedar Rapids Gazette, 8/12].

Dubuque Telegraph Herald Argues Romney "Blows It" On Wind Energy: The Telegraph Herald writes that Romney "reveals a lack of understanding of the importance of wind energy. ...Among the flaws in this logic is that subsidies give wind an unfair advantage. Over coal? Over natural gas? These industries have the infrastructure built over a century of being consumers' only option. As wind energy attempts to make inroads, the subsidies are merely helping it gain footing." [Dubuque Telegraph Herald, 8/12].

Spencer Daily Publisher Said Romney would Leave U.S. more Dependent on Foreign Oil: The Publisher wrote: "Add to the conversation the Romney campaign's pledge to do away with the wind energy tax credits if he is elected. Without support for ethanol or wind energy, the US suddenly becomes much more dependent on foreign oil and, as a result, more interested in the affairs of state in countries we really would rather not be in. I have a feeling the heat will stay high on this issue for a long time to come." [Spencer Daily Reporter, 8/7/12]

Des Moines Register Editorial: "Wind tax credits should be extended." "Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, may have tilted at the wrong windmills when he said he would allow wind energy tax credits to expire," opines the Des Moines Register. "The incentive for erecting wind generators is very popular in Iowa and other Midwestern states that are harnessing the clean power of the prairie zephyrs. ...Iowa is especially big on wind. This state is ranked No. 2, behind only Texas, in wind generation capacity, and it employs more people than any other state building and maintaining wind towers and turbines." [Des Moines Register, 8/5].

Ames Tribune: Wind energy tax breaks are bipartisan in Iowa. Newspaper wrote, "The Iowa Republicans are right. Wind is important. It's big business here, and Iowa is a leader in the industry... But wind energy is also a young industry, competing with the deeply entrenched fossil fuel industry ? which also receives billions in government subsidies every year. Wind needs a help a little longer to get established." [Ames Tribune, 8/3/12]

Editorial in West Branch Times: "Wanting More Details on Romney's PTC Position." The West Branch Times called on Mitt Romney to clarify his position on ending the Wind PTC. The Times noted, "Staff members of the likely Republican candidate have recently said that he would favor ending the PTC, but they did not state whether he would favor phasing it out or ending it immediately. The PTC directly benefits Acciona Windpower in West Branch because it provides tax credits of 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour from wind facilities in service before Dec. 31, 2012. Both Republicans and Democrats from Iowa's Congressional caucus support the PTC because it helps support 6,000 to 7,000 jobs here. [West Branch Times, 7/20/12]

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The battle over heckling Paul Ryan at the Iowa State Fair continued in force this weekend - in the mainstream media, with social media, and "on the street." It's an important conversation and raises questions activists need to confront.

The Ryan protesters say they care about the poor and middle class. I don't doubt that. But fixing the systemic problems that exacerbate poverty in America require, literally,  fixing the system. You do that by building public support for change and ultimately, by pressuring policymakers to do the right thing (or even better, by electing policymakers who don't need pressuring).

Heckling. Shouting down a speaker. Storming a stage. That's the easy way out. The hard work is the daily grind of building public consensus to move policy forward. Sure, when you drown out a presidential or vice president candidate you feel powerful - for a few minutes. Then what? If you're honest, you're left with the reality that you just alienated most of those who agreed with you on the issue. You've actually set-back the movement to fix the system, to make it work better for the very poor and middle-class people you want to help.

I repeat the question that none of my activist friends involved in the Ryan action have answered: How can you cite Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as inspirational figures for your actions and yet fail to provide even one example of either Gandhi or King heckling or shouting down an opponent? The answer is simple. Neither Gandhi nor King ever - not once - treated an opponent this way. Sure, they embraced protest and civil disobedience (the operative word is "civil"), but these were used judiciously, in conjunction with other types of political action, to build the broadest possible public consensus and to motivate others to take action.

There's a lot more to talk about on this subject. Perhaps there's a compromise in here somewhere. Maybe next time an action such as this is planned any shouting of questions could be done before or after the candidate's speech? Just throwing that out there.

Monday, we talk with Heather Ryan of Ryan Talent and Model about a troubling child custody case involving a mom who could lose her daughter because she let her participate in beauty pageants. We also talk with Drake professor David Courard-Hauri about climate change and the myth that addressing the problem would be economically ruinous.

Tuesday, Bradshaw is my guest. We talk - surprise, surprise - politics! One item on the docket: the question posed above regarding last week's Paul Ryan protest.

Wednesday, there's plenty to cover: an update on the ethics complaint filed against Bruce Rastetter, more on the Ryan/Romney budget, and a bunch of other stuff.

Thursday, State Rep Dan Kelley joins me.

Friday, Dr. Charles Goldman is my guest as we discuss the Keystone pipeline, and how an alternative plan to route the same pipeline through western Canada is on its way to being rejected by the Canadian people and the provincial governments due to environmental concerns.

So, join the conversation live, Monday-Friday, online from 12:00-1:00 pm on the Fallon Forum website. Call in at 244-0077 or toll free (855) 244-0077. And tune-in to Bradshaw, Monday-Friday from 1:30-2:30, also on the Fallon Forum website. Video and audio podcasts are available, too.

Thanks! - Ed

EVENTS

August 21 - Irish Jam at Open Sesame (Des Moines)
Discover the fusion of Lebanese and Celtic culture every third Tuesday of the month with Irish jigs and reels and Lebanese cuisine washed-down with a pint of Guinness. All musicians and patrons are welcome at 313 E. Locust St from 8:30-10:30 pm.

August 22 - Maternal Health and Warfare Survivors (Des Moines)
Dr. Lisa Menzies, a local pediatrician, discusses the safe birth projects she has assisted with in Tanzania, and Rachel Reynolds, a nursing instructor from Mercy College of Health Sciences discusses her recent work with survivors of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. At 7:00 pm at Friends Meeting House, 42nd and Grand. Light snacks and drinks provided. Contact Mike at (515) 238-1782 or mikecollet4@aol.com.

August 23 - Drinking Liberally (Des Moines)
You don't have to be a card-carrying liberal to enjoy political conversation and excellent libations at AJ's, 419 E Court starting at 8:00 pm every Thursday. If the revolution is going to start anyplace, it's over a frosty libation. Contact desmoines@drinkingliberally.org.

August 24-26 - White Eagle Multicultural Pow Wow (Waukee)
At Hawkeye Antique Acres, 3322 Ute Ave. Twelfth annual event, fostering better understanding of all cultures through drumming, music, dance and story-telling from Native American and other cultures. Contact dcmoonwolf@hotmail.com or (515) 266-3187.

August 30 - Green Drinks (Des Moines)
Join casual conversation with people interested in environmental issues and sustainable energy over something to eat and/or drink. It's from 5:30-7:30 pm at Gateway Market and Cafe, 2002 Woodland Ave. Contact Shari Hrdina at DesMoinesGreenDrinks@gmail.com.

October 7 - Images of Peace Interfaith Prayer Service (Des Moines)
A 7:00 pm at DMACC Auditorium, Urban Campus, 9th and University for an interfaith prayer service featuring a video by Rodger Routh, presenting images of peace from various faith traditions and a variety of perspectives. At the end of the service people will walk to the Path of Peace Sculpture nearby to scatter the soil gathered from representatives of many different faiths at last year's Interfaith Service. Sponsored by the Des Moines Area Ecumenical Committee For Peace. Contact Eloise Cranke at (515) 262-5974 or Susie Paloma at (515) 480-1872.

October 20 - Contra Dance at Odd Fellows Hall (Des Moines)
Contra-Indications is hosting a contra dance at Odd Fellows Hall, 2904 Kingman Blvd, 8:00-11:00 pm, with lesson at 7:30 pm. Live music by Barn Owl Band; Jill Allen as caller. $10 adults; free under 12; $25 family maximum. Visit info@contra-indications.org.

DES MOINES - Obama for America is releasing a new television ad that highlights President Obama's commitment to issues important to women and their families.  The new ad - "The Same" - draws the stark contrast between President Obama and the Romney-Ryan ticket's record on women's health. 

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have taken extreme positions on issues that matter to women and their families. From promising to "get rid of" Planned Parenthood to backing proposals that would take away a woman's right to choose, women recognize they cannot trust the Romney-Ryan ticket to stand up for them.

President Obama is committed to protecting women's health because he knows that women are capable of making their own choices when it comes to their health care. The President has repeatedly fought back against Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, and believes that women - not politicians or the government - should be in control of their own health decisions.  President Obama knows that access to quality, affordable health care means a stronger American middle class.

"The Same" will air in Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Iowa.

Please click HERE to watch the ad and HERE to learn more about President Obama's record on issues important to women and their families.

First, kudos to Mitt Romney for choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate. Now, the danger: Romney, Ryan, their surrogates, their supporters and the American people will continue to treat election 2012 as just another contest to determine whose hand is at the helm of state for the next four years.

No, this election is for keeps. If Barack Obama doesn't lose his bid for a second term, he and his vast, left-wing support network of Marx-inspired think tanks, strategists and elected officials will fulfill Obama's 2008 campaign promise to "fundamentally" transform this nation, thus bringing the American experiment in liberty to what could be the final curtain.

This is not idle hyperbole. I have just finished Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott's chilling new book, "Fool Me Twice: Obama's Shocking Plans for the Next Four Years Exposed" (WND Books). I recommend it as must-reading for all Americans, but particularly for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. In their run for the White House, the GOP standard-bearers don't seem to realize what they are up against - and, by extension, what lies in store for us all if they are not victorious in November.

"Fool Me Twice" is Klein and Elliott's third in-depth political study of Obama. "The Manchurian President" (2010) examines Obama's lifelong ties to anti-American radicals; "Red Army" (2011) explores Obama White House links to the Marx-inspired policy world where, in research papers and "progressive" legislation, the foundations of Obamacare, for example, went unnoticed for years before being passed in 2010.

Having learned to track the left's policymaking subculture, the authors now turn to what an Obama second term likely holds. To this end, they examined thousands of documents, including initiatives from the Center for American Progress, or CAP (the Obama administration's "idea factory," as Time magazine calls it); sundry pieces of legislation introduced by "progressives" in Congress; and both well-known promises and little-known executive orders issued by Obama himself. The book-length result is what Klein describes as "the secret template for Obama's next four years - the one actually created by Obama's own top advisers and strategists."

In meticulous detail, the authors lay out the plans of Obama and his allies to, among other things: reconceive of U.S. defense as a fight against "climate change," national sovereignty and other leftist bogeymen; "green"-ify the U.S. energy industry; open U.S. borders and register illegal aliens who are soon to be given amnesty by Obama (and who overwhelmingly vote Democrat); and, of course, move to a single-payer government health-care system. From the morass of technical jargon and policy wonkdom the authors sift through emerges a terrifyingly sharp image of centralized federal control of practically everything - even political dissent on the airwaves via the so-called Fairness Doctrine.

This not-so-nascent form of totalitarian power is what the 2012 election is all about. Whether they realize it - and they don't - Americans are about to decide whether to empower the increasingly dictatorial executive branch of Barack Hussein Obama, whose future plans to distort "checks and balances" promises to transform the U.S. government out of all recognition, or to break the momentum of government centralization by electing Romney-Ryan.

Most Americans, ill-served by mum media and silent politicians, will be shocked at the executive branch usurpation of powers Klein and Elliott describe as being in the hopper, and always at the expense of the people through the steady attrition of congressional powers. For example, there are plans "to wrest budgetary control from Congress" of Pentagon purse strings and vest them in an "independent panel," and ideas to strip Congress of its powers over immigration by empowering a White House panel to allocate all visas. Other centralizing and, in fact, truly fascist ideas afoot include plans for a federal "green bank," which would use taxpayer dollars to finance "clean" energy companies (such as the notorious and now-bankrupt company Solyndra), as well as a national infrastructure "bank," which, as the authors put it, "would concentrate even more power in Washington while creating a giant cesspool for government cronyism and corruption."

All of which is to say, this election is not merely about jobs or deficit spending or fixing Medicare, as the Romney-Ryan ticket would have us believe. Such blinkers only lull the electorate into complacency and, worse, preserve the Obama machine's politics-as-usual cover.

Election 2012 is anything but politics as usual. It is an existential crisis. For many reasons, I would vote for my dog over Obama-Biden, not least of which is that she always warns me of danger. Romney-Ryan must find the courage and love of country to do the same.

www.wnd.com/2012/08/why-republics-fate-really-does-hang-on-election/


ABOUT YOUR GUEST: Aaron Klein is a New York Times bestselling author, journalist and radio host. He is senior reporter for WND and hosts "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on New York's WABC Radio, the nation's largest talk station. Klein's program is one of only two weekend shows in the U.S. to make the Talkers Heavy Hundred official list of top American radio shows. His previous books include Red Army, The Manchurian President, The Late Great State of Israel and Schmoozing with Terrorists.

ABOUT YOUR GUEST: Brenda J. Elliott is an award-winning historian, researcher and New York Times bestselling author. She is the blogger who created RezkoWatch (RW), TheRealBarackObama (RBO) and RBO2. She has appeared on hundreds of radio shows, contributed to numerous investigative articles and publications and is the co-author of Red Army and The Manchurian President.