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An exiled Nicaraguan journalist says she fears a growing presence of Russsian troops in her homeland as the country grows increasingly isolated on the world stage. Berta Valle — wife of imprisoned Nicaraguan opposition leader and presidential candidate Felix Maradiaga — told The Post on Monday that Nicaraguans are “terrified” of dictator Daniel Ortega’s decision to welcome Russian soldiers to the Central American country after seeing what they’ve done in Ukraine. “Ortega invited the Russian military into Nicaragua. Publicly, he says Russia is supporting the military training of the Nicaraguan military. But we are terrified, because our country is hosting...

Hillary Clinton joked about her private email server and insisted that Benghazi had nothing to do with her record as secretary of State at Iowa’s Democratic Wing Ding Dinner on Friday evening. “By the way, you may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account. I love it. I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves,” Clinton quipped near the beginning of the dinner. This past week, the inspector general for the intelligence community determined that there was top secret information in just a minute sampling of the 30,000 emails on her private server turned over to the...

Rep. Steve King thinks that if Hillary Clinton decides to run for president, her “fingernails on the chalkboard” voice will make her vulnerable in the Iowa caucuses.

Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the coauthors of the Affordable Care Act, now thinks Democrats may have been better off not passing it at all and holding out for a better bill. The Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, laments the complexity of legislation the Senate passed five years ago.

Over the weekend Senator Harkin, while campaigning for Bruce Braley, suggested that people may vote for Joni Ernst because she’s really attractive and sounds nice, but they shouldn’t be fooled by that. MSNBC this morning called the comments stupid and said it’s likely they could backfire on Braley:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)This morning Joni Ernst went on Fox and Friends and called the Senator’s words offensive:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)As we know already Ernst has jumped to a nice 7-point lead over Braley and while Harkin’s comment’s may not backfire, it certainly won’t help Braley either.

Senate Democrats are pleading with donors to give to Rep. Bruce Braley’s campaign as they struggle to pull off a victory in Iowa and save their endangered majority. But there’s one key player holding onto his campaign cash: Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin. Despite direct appeals from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other top Democrats, Harkin has refused to transfer money from his $2.4 million campaign account to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The retiring Iowa senator has informed party leaders that he plans to use the campaign funds for a charitable contribution to an entity that bears...

Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) gave a ringing endorsement to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions. “Most people think that she is a moderate, kind of middle-of-the-road type of politician,” Harkin said. “This is way off the mark. She is much farther to the left and a lot more progressive in her thoughts and her inclination than most people may think. That’s why she has my unconditional support should she choose to run for president in 2016.” if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at... http://azconservative.org/2014/09/19/dem-operative-says-obama-planning-october-surprise/

p>The Talk Shows September 14th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): White House chief of staff Denis McDonough; Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C; Michael Hayden, a former CIA and National Security Agency director.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): McDonough; former Secretary of State James Baker; Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.FACE THE NATION (CBS): McDonough; Secretary of State John Kerry; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.THIS WEEK (ABC): McDonough; Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Education Secretary Arne Duncan.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): McDonough; Harkin; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Rep. John...

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley's annual 99-county tour — known in political circles as “the Full Grassley” — puts him above most of his Senate peers for trips home. Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, made 99 trips home in the three years that ended March 31, which was three times as many trips as Sen. Tom Harkin, a Cumming Democrat, who came home 33 times during the three-year period. “It demonstrates the extent to which Grassley is around,” said Chris Larimer, an associate political science professor from the University of Northern Iowa. “He's in the state talking with Iowans.” Tim...

CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin was the 15th biggest spender in the U.S. Senate for the year that ended March 31. Harkin, who will retire in January after 30 years, spent $2.9 million, compared to the median disbursement of $2.6 million for all U.S. senators and $2.49 million for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, according to new data compiled by the Sunlight Foundation and analyzed by The Gazette. The vast majority of spending went into payroll, with each Iowa senator having more than 50 people on staff from April 1, 2013, through March 31, 2014. These rosters include full-...

IOWA CITY (AP) — Two federal judges from Iowa have announced plans to retire next year, and outgoing U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin is calling for the White House to appoint their replacements “as quickly as possible,” the Democrat’s office said Monday.

Braley camp: He knew he was being recorded when he disparaged Iowa farmers and Grassley POSTED AT 9:21 AM ON APRIL 1, 2014 BY GUY BENSON Many of us assumed this recording was made surreptitiously. It must have been. There’s no way a statewide office-seeker from Iowa would knowingly demean farmers and a beloved state political figure on tape, right? Wrong, says the Braley campaign, via the Des Moines Register: Braley’s campaign strategists say the candidate knew he was being videotaped at the private fundraiser when he made the remark that has the political world buzzing, describing Chuck Grassley as...

We recently published a forecast that described the GOP as more likely than not to win the U.S. Senate in November. But our analysis was less bullish on Republicans’ prospects of flipping the seat in Iowa currently held by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who is retiring. There, Democrats appeared to have a strong candidate in Rep. Bruce Braley, who has cleared his primary field. Republicans, meanwhile, face a contentious primary with a number of candidates who have never won races for statewide or federal office. After we published our forecast, the Republican PAC America Rising released a video of Braley,...

One day after her “Squeal” TV brought her national attention, Joni Ernst picks up the endorsement of Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor, 2008 vice-presidential nominee and conservative firebrand calls Ernst a “champion for life, small government, and lower taxes.” Here is what Palin had to say when announcing her support for Joni Ernst in Iowa’s U.S. Senate race: “If Nebraska’s Deb Fischer can see through the bull in Washington, then Iowa’s Joni Ernst can help her cut through the pork. Growing up on a hog farm in Southwest Iowa, Joni has taken her “pork cutting” skills to the Iowa...

The fly-by-night group has tried to represent itself as something more official by presenting a list of respected Democrats as its "advisory board," complete with fabricated quotes, when they hadn't even heard of the organization, theWashington Examiner found. 21st Century says it was founded by Sen.Tom Harkin of Iowa in 1985 and was previously known as the official-sounding "Democrats 2000." Its web site names no staff and instead lists an "advisory board" including former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, former Labor secretary Robert B. Reich, and David Wilhelm and Don Fowler, former Democratic National Committee chairmen. In reality there is nothing official...

Seven Democratic lawmakers are pushing to ban the use of electronic cigarettes on the grounds of the Capitol complex as part of a wider campaign against them. Led by the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin (Ill.), the group called on rulemaking committees in both chambers to include e-cigarettes in the Capitol's existing ban on smoking in public places and near building entrances. "Given preliminary [federal] research finding harmful chemicals present in e-cigarettes, measures should be taken to ensure that the public is equally protected from the potential dangers posed by e-cigarettes and their vapor," the lawmakers wrote Tuesday. Via a...

Sympathizer: Tom Harkin, or "Comrade Harkin" to some, says Cuba's health care system is "remarkable." Maybe a better name for Iowa's senior senator, would be "Useful Idiot," a term the USSR used for gullible leftists in the West. Harkin, a Democrat, recently spent a week in Cuba, apparently taking in all that the island prison has to offer. On his return, he told reporters that Cuba is a "poor country" — did he think they didn't know this? — but gushed that "they have a lower child mortality rate than ours." "Their life expectancy is now greater than ours," he...

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, spoke on the Senate floor today urging passage of a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Harkin said a vote in favor of the bill would be positive for both the House and Senate. “I think in the general public we’re probably about as popular as a toothache right now,” Harkin said. “But this week we can show the American people that we can come together and we can lift our eyes above the haze and the smoke, the horizon, and we can make this country a...

The federal government shutdown could be hazardous to the health of all Americans, according to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. The Centers for Disease Control, which Harkin calls the world’s premiere public health agency, is closed. Less than two weeks ago, Harkin says the CDC identified frozen berries from the nation of Turkey as the cause of hundreds of people in several states being sickened by hepatitis-A. “The CDC detective epidemiological team went out, they recalled all this food and they stopped it before it spread any further,” Harkin says. “That team is at home now. They’re not working. What if...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) on Friday said that the Tea Party movement is just as dangerous for America as the Civil War. “A small group of willful men and women who have a certain ideology about how our country should run and what we should do cannot get their way in a normal discourse and votes,” Harkin said. “Since they can’t get their way they’re going to create this confusion and discourse and hope the public is so mixed up in who to blame for this that perhaps they’ll blame both sides.” “That is the path they see for taking...