Essential Estrogen

Here's a quick rundown of some of the bits and pieces you've might have missed:

Upcoming Peace Rallies

The folks over at Century of the Common Iowan have a nice list of the upcoming peace rallies in Iowa.

Clinton to headline for Boswell

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to headline a fundraiser to kickoff Iowa Rep. Leonard Boswell's re-election campaign. The fundraiser is slated for April 21 in Des Moines, according to the Clinton camp. No other details are yet available.

Judge appointed to national council

Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge was appointed to serve on the State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Government Coordinating Council for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The appointment is for one year and Judge said she plans to keep rural areas a focus of the group as well as major population centers.

Judge was also earlier named by Gov. Chet Culver as the Homeland Security Advisor for our state.

Fair Share bill waits for another day

There were not enough votes in the Iowa House for Democrats to want to debate Fair Share this week. And, according to the Des Moines Register, Rep. Dawn Pettengill (D-Mt Auburn) was seen by Republicans leaving the Democratic meeting with tear-stained cheeks.

The bill will sit throughout this week and is anticipated to come to the floor the week after.

Jacoby steps in for Petersen

Rep. David Jacoby (D-Coralville) was named interim Chair of the House Commerce Committee while Rep. Janet Petersen (D-Des Moines) is out on maternity leave.

The committee regulates business, financial institutions, insurance, utilities and real estate. It is one of the most powerful in the Iowa House.

In addition to his new assignment, Jacoby also serves on Appropriations, Human Resources and State Government committees. He is also a member of the Administrative Rules Review Committee.

It could be worse

According to Reuters, a Finnish member of parliament is aiming for re-election by campaigning with a translation of his web site into Klingon, used in the television series "Star Trek."

While we sometimes wish candidates spoke in obscure languages so they couldn't dominate every new cycle, Klingon is extreme even for us. Further the foreign politician said there have been translation difficulties since Klingon doesn't have words for tolerance and many colors (such as green, the party under whose banner he is running in the national elections tomorrow).

Of course, non-warriors can access his site in English, Swedish and Finnish.