cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland

If you're not going out of town for the holiday weekend, I highly recommend that you march or ride with fellow Democrats in your local Independence Day parade.

These events are fantastic outreach opportunities for campaigns and a great way for you to meet like-minded neighbors.

It's not too late to volunteer. Just contact your county Democratic Party, or the campaign of a local candidate, or the Obama campaign office if there is one in your city. Ask where and when you should show up if you want to help out during the July 4 parades. (Keep in mind that some communities have parades on the evening of July 3.)

A few more tips to help you enjoy the parade are after the jump.

Two days before the June 3 Democratic primary in Iowa, I received an automated push-poll, followed the next day by a second robocall containing "important information" for me. Both calls were hit jobs on Jerry Sullivan, the leading Democratic candidate in Iowa House district 59.

Many of us will receive similar calls between now and November. We need to be prepared to help the Democrats who will be targeted in this way.

My number one piece of advice is do not hang up the phone.

Do not hang up the moment you hear an automated voice on the other end.

Do not hang up the moment you are asked to participate in a brief survey.

Do not hang up the moment you realize that this is not a legitimate opinion poll.

Stay on the line and grab a pen and paper for taking notes.

Follow me after the jump for further instructions.

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

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.

cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland

Republican Congressman Steve King, who was elected in Iowa's fifth district in 2002, likes nothing better than to stake out a conservative position on a hot-button social issue.

I learned yesterday from the One Iowa advocacy group that this week King "introduced a Federal Constitutional Amendment to codify discrimination and ban same sex marriages nationwide."

Slightly revised from the version posted at MyDD, thanks to feedback from several thoughtful readers. Note: If Hillary Clinton were the nominee, I would have written a similar diary addressing her volunteers.

This diary is for people planning to volunteer for Barack Obama's presidential campaign this summer and fall. My goal is to help you be more effective in communicating with voters like me, who don't care for Obama.

I know that the Obama campaign has scripts and training sessions for its volunteers, and those worked well in the primaries.

Now you have to reach out to Democrats who weren't buying what Obama was selling in the primaries. It seems to me that many Obama supporters respond in a counter-productive way when they encounter people who are not sold on the candidate.

In this diary, I will offer two basic principles to guide your conversations with non-supporters.

Then I will cover types of comments you may hear from resistant Democrats when you are doing GOTV for Obama. Those are all based on things I have heard people say (not comments I have read on blogs).

I will give examples of what I consider ineffective and constructive responses to those comments.

Follow me after the jump if you care to hear more.

It's election day in Iowa, and the Democratic primary between Congressman Leonard Boswell and Ed Fallon is one of the highest-profile races in the state.

Both campaigns have expressed confidence about the outcome--Boswell's because of an internal poll reportedly showing him way ahead, and Fallon's because of direct voter contacts by the candidate, his staff and volunteers.

In this diary I will discuss Boswell's closing argument, as expressed in broadcast media advertisements as well as direct-mail pieces.

I will also go over the main rationale for Fallon's campaign and the key events during the final days before the primary.

Join me after the jump for more.

I wish I could say I saw this one coming, but I was pleasantly surprised Tuesday morning to read the Des Moines Register's editorial urging Democrats in Iowa's third Congressional district to give Ed Fallon "a chance to unleash some of his ideas and energy in Washington."

That's right, the same editorial board that endorsed Hillary Clinton five months ago because of her experience, readiness to lead and hard work in the Senate has determined that Congressman Leonard Boswell "falls short."

Join me after the jump for more on this endorsement and other recent developments in the campaign.

Ben Smith wrote this post about Barack Obama's prominent early supporters, who came on board when he was seen as having little chance of beating Hillary Clinton. Here is his list:

Senator Richard Durbin
Former Majority Leader Tom Daschle
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller
Oprah Winfrey
Iowa Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald
Former Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer
Ted Sorensen
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine
Alabama Rep. Artur Davis
New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes

Though this list includes only one person who is famous outside the political world, it reminded me that just for fun, I've been meaning to put up a diary and poll about famous supporters of each Democratic presidential candidate.

Follow me after the jump if you care to hear more.

A little more than two weeks before the Democratic primary in Iowa's third Congressional district, Ed Fallon has challenged Congressman Leonard Boswell to shift his support as a superdelegate from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

It's a shrewd move for several reasons that I will describe after the jump.

More background on this race can be found in my previous diaries here or at the Iowa progressive community blog Bleeding Heartland.

Less than a month before the Democratic primary to represent Iowa's third district, Ed Fallon is trying to make Congressman Leonard Boswell either debate him or pay a political price for refusing to debate.

Join me after the jump for more on that and other recent developments in the race.

I'm covering this campaign more frequently and in more detail at the Iowa progressive community blog Bleeding Heartland.

Asthma has been on my mind lately, because a child in my extended family was recently diagnosed with it after going to the hospital for respiratory problems. The chronic disease is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in children.

In addition, at least 20 million American adults are estimated to have asthma.

Yesterday was World Asthma Day, in connection with Asthma Awareness Month.

Join me after the jump to read about five policies our society should implement, as well as five steps individuals can take, to reduce the incidence and severity of asthma in our households and across the country.

When Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was running for president in 2003, I started getting e-mails from his campaign regularly. I had never donated to him, but I figured that he must have bought the Iowa Democratic Party's e-mail list before he decided to bypass the Iowa caucuses.

At some point during Lieberman's campaign against Ned Lamont in 2006, I unsubscribed from the list.

So I was surprised to find a message from "Joe Lieberman" (sending address "info@joe2006.com") in my in-box this morning, with a subject line of "Opting back in to the Joe Lieberman mailing list".

Congressman Leonard Boswell's campaign has been giving the incumbent an image makeover as the June 3 primary approaches.

I learned from direct-mail pieces this month that Boswell is "Taking on George Bush for the Changes We Need," as well as "working to bring the troops home every day" and "Taking on powerful interests" to deliver health care to all Iowans.

These campaign communications bring to mind Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote: "What you do shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say."

Progressive Kick has created a website that shows in quite an entertaining way what Boswell has been doing during his six terms in Congress. Let's just say he hasn't been much of a crusader against powerful interests.

Join me after the jump for more.

It's been a while since I've posted here about the Democratic primary to represent Iowa's third Congressional district, but I've been busy covering the race at Bleeding Heartland.

Today I want to bring you up to date on the increasingly negative campaign that six-term incumbent Congressman Leonard Boswell has been running against Ed Fallon.

For more background on the race, here are links to some of my previous diaries:

the introductory diary, with biographical information on Boswell and Fallon

The cases for Fallon and Boswell

Boswell and Fallon pick up the pace

Will Democrats vote on the issues?

Who would be a more effective representative?

The Every Child Matters Education Fund has released a report called "Geography Matters: Child Well-Being in the States." It assesses the vulnerability of children in all 50 states according to a dozen metrics.

As the mother of two small children in the Des Moines area, I had a particular interest in Iowa's ranking (seventh overall, mixed bag on the individual metrics).

But when I clicked on the page ranking all states in terms of "overall child vulnerability," one thing jumped out at me: the bottom 20 states all voted for George W. Bush in 2004. Of the top 20 states, only three voted for Bush (including Iowa, which he won by a very slim margin).

Follow me after the jump to learn the specific reasons that blue states are better places for children to be born and grow up.

Welcome to the latest diary in my series on the Democratic primary in Iowa's third Congressional district. Ed Fallon is challenging Leonard Boswell, who was first elected to this seat in 1996.

Today, I consider who would represent this district more effectively in Congress.

Here are links to my previous diaries on this campaign:

the introductory diary, with biographical information on Boswell and Fallon

The cases for Fallon and Boswell

Boswell and Fallon pick up the pace

Will Democrats vote on the issues?

I am covering the race more frequently and in more detail at the Iowa progressive community blog Bleeding Heartland.

Welcome to the latest diary in my series on the Democratic primary campaign in Iowa's third Congressional district.

Today's topic: will progressive Democrats vote for the candidate who is closest to them on the issues, or will other concerns push them toward the incumbent?

Here are links to my previous diaries on this campaign:

the introductory diary, with biographical information on incumbent Leonard Boswell and progressive challenger Ed Fallon

this diary about the main arguments for and against each candidate

this piece about the candidates' activities in February and early March

I am covering the race more frequently and in more detail at the Iowa progressive community blog Bleeding Heartland.