Two different wine-related events last Saturday competed for my attention: a book signing by wine expert, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Swine Fest, a celebration of local wine and pork-related food.

Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee on twitter) was at East Village Books in Des Moines to meetup with fans, including the local (dmtweetup) twitter people and to promote his new book “101 Wines”.  Gary is the star of Wine Library TV, a great podcast about wine for the average Joe.

In the end I ended up going to Swine Fest with my wife, Ellen, and bypassing the chance to meet Gary.  My friend and co-podcaster, Tim Fisher, went and got me a signed copy of Gary’s book (thanks, Tim).

Swine Fest was held in Ankeny, IA (a suburb of Des Moines).  It featured about 10 to 20 Iowa wineries and around a dozen local restaurants.  Each had its own tented booth near the lake on the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) campus.

SwineFest

There were some minor scattered rain showers, but not enough to really put a damper on the event.  Plus there was a great rainbow.

DoubleRainbow

JakeEllenRainbow

Admission was $35 and included a glass for samples, all the samples you would like of the wines and food, and a ticket to redeem for a free bottle of any wine from any winery there (as long as supplies lasted).

Our favorite appetizers were the tenderloin from Phat Chefs from West Des Moines, the bacon-y polenta from a new downtown Des Moines restaurant called Sbrocco, and some odd rice crisp thing with pulled pork from the Tournament Club of Iowa.

The consensus on the food is that it was… Too Much Pork!  We would have preferred a little more variety.

As for the wines, usually my wife and I aren’t very impressed with Iowa wines.  They tend to be a little simple and too sweet, but we were each able to fine some good ones.  We met up with a friend who was helping out at the booth for “Make Mine Wine”, a local wine publication.  Stacy, who was manning the booth and who writes for the magazine directed us toward some award winners.

Two wineries near Indianola, IA that I personally toured with some of my sisters earlier this spring were there: Summerset and La Vida Loca.  Summerset is very well known around Iowa and has a good following.  They have live music on Sundays and host events like wedding receptions.  La Vida Loca is a little more “out there”.  They’re definitely not wine snobs and they make wines from about anything they can get their hands on – grapes, cherries, loganberries, rhubarb, and even garlic and jalapeños (and I've sampled all of those).

I generally prefer smooth, dry reds (merlots, shiraz, some cabs, etc.) and Ellen likes dry whites like chardonnays, but she also likes some sparkling whites like moscatos if they’re not too sweet.

For our free bottles, Ellen chose Simply Blush from Grape Escape in Pleasantville and I selected the Frontenac from Madison County Winery in St. Charles, IA.  I was impressed that both wines contain 100% Iowa grown grapes -- Stueben for the blush and Frontenac (oddly enough) for the Frontenac.  The blush was a little sweeter than the wines my wife usually enjoys, so I was a little surprised, but she said it was about the best blush she’d ever had.

We've had a TON of rain this Spring.  I was gone over the weekend (at NCMR) and when I returned, my rain gauge that I emptied before my trip, was completely full.  That's at least 6 inches of rain over the weekend.  Most of that was probably from Thursday night.  A bunch of my friends had water in their basements.  We were lucky.  Our sump pump ran and kept the basement dry.  That's the first time it EVER ran since we moved in 3 years ago -- even though we've had big rain storms before.

Des Moines city officials have decided to close the downtown bridges today in the expectations that the water will go over the bridges in the next day or so!  (more here)  The worst flooding hasn't quite reached Saylorville lake yet, but when it does, it's expected to overflow and then flow into Des Moines.

I walked out to the downtown Des Moines bridges at about 1:00 this afternoon and took a few photos.  The amphitheater was completely flooded and the arches of the bridges were already almost filled to the top.  They closed the Walnut bridge at 2:00 and the other three (Court, Grand, and Locust) will be closing at 6:00 this afternoon.  They will be closed to cars and pedestrian traffic.

Live river level alerts here.

I have too many things I want to blog about today (an unusual concern at times and probably a good problem to have), so I'm just going to start with the first thing on my mind.

I attended the first ever Des Moines Tweetup last night.  There were about 6 of us there.  I had previously met only one: blogging evangelist Mike Sansone (@mikesansone).  Also in attendance were: Nathan T. Wright (@nathantwright), the organizer of the Tweetup; Andy Brudtkuhl (@abrudtkuhl) (I'll need to learn how to pronounce that one) who's a fellow developer and tech blogger; Mike Templeton (@miketempleton), a marketing specialist at The Members Group trying to infuse new media into the company; and Scott Phillips (@scottatdrake), who I didn't get to talk to much, but I expect I'll see him around.

Pretty much everyone who attended is a blogger of some form.  I learned much more about the Iowa blogger community than I knew previously.  Through some of their blogs and other people we discussed last night, I discovered the I-List, a list of Iowa-based bloggers being maintained by Focal Point.

We discussed how we each use Twitter and very few of us actually use text messaging, which is usually the one part about Twitter that people know about.  Some use the twitter web page, but have to refresh it every so often because it doesn't auto-refresh (something we complained about).  Others have messages routed to IM clients.  Some use twitter-specific applications like twitterrific (on the mac) or tweetr on the PC.  I'll probably install and start using tweetr pretty soon.  I currently miss out on a bunch because I only have a notifications sent to my phone via text for a handful of people I follow.  I of course have unlimited text messaging on my mobile plan.

One cool thing that happened (for me) is that several of the attendees had read that post I made yesterday about the tweetup before we got together, having never met me before.  There's something to this whole new media, blogging, social networking thing! ;)

Another outcome of the meetup for me is that I'll start using RSS more again.  Previously I got so overwhelmed that I stopped using an RSS reader altogether.  I'm going to look into Cullect, something I learned about last night that helps separate out the good stuff in your RSS reader from the noise.

Wow!  Two posts in two days.  I'm pretty sure that's a first for me (but probably not the last).  Thanks to everyone last night for the inspiration!

Long story short… Unless you’re already planning on attending the Republican caucus, please do whatever you can to attend the Democratic caucus on Thursday (Jan. 3^rd) at 6:30 pm and please read the following information.

Your caucus location is not necessarily where you vote.  To find your caucus location, go to: http://www.iowafirstcaucus.org/caucus_finder.php for the Democratic caucus locations (for the Republican locations, go to http://www.iowagop.net/countycontacts.asp).

I think doors typically open at 6:00, but if you’re not in line by 7:00, then you blew it.  The doors are shut and you can’t participate.  You don’t need to be registered to vote before you get there.  The whole thing will take about an hour.

The following is why I’m supporting Barack Obama:

Overall, Barack Obama makes me think of what it must have been like to see JFK or Bobby Kennedy campaign.  He makes me proud to be an American again.

Barack Obama

BIO

Barack Obama is very intelligent and an excellent speaker.  He was elected head of the Harvard Law Review.  He could have had a very lucrative business as an attorney, but over 20 years ago, he left a job on Wall Street to work with Christian churches in Chicago to fight for families when the local steel plant closed.  He’s been working as a public servant ever since.  He’s fought for working families and won – expanding health care coverage to 150,000 people in Illinois and putting $100 million worth of tax cuts in the pockets of working families.

Honesty

Senator Obama tells people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.  He told automakers that as President, he’d make them raise their fuel standards to help us become energy independent.  He put his political career on the line when he opposed the war in Iraq from the start.

Lobbyists

Barack Obama is the ONLY candidate in the race who hasn’t just talked about taking power away from lobbyists – he’s done it.  He brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass historic lobbying reform in both Illinois and Washington.  He’s also the only candidate not accepting ANY donations from PAC’s or lobbyists for his campaign.  Groups run by Obama’s opponnents’ Washington supporters have spent over $3.2 million in false political attacks, but Senator Obama continues to run an ethical campaign of truth.

Electability

Barack Obama is the one candidate who can end the partisanship in Washington and unite the country.  Poll after poll shows that he’s the only candidate who beats all Republicans running for President.  He’s our best chance to get a Democratic President elected in November and the one candidate who can really change Washington.

Health Care

Obama’s plan for universal health care will cover every American (despite what some attack ads are saying).  Also, his plan does more to cut costs than any other candidate in the race – saving the typical family $2500 per year.

Clinton

I personally have a great deal of respect for Hillary Clinton.  I think it would be great to have a female President.  However, I don’t think she’s right for the job right now.

A number of polls show that up to half of the country says they would never consider voting for Sen. Clinton in the general election.  I’m not saying those people are rational, but that’s democracy for you. 

On the other hand, Barack Obama attracts more Republicans and Independents than any other candidate running for the Democratic nomination.

There was recently a resolution in congress that would have allowed Bush to easily extend the war in Iraq to Iran.  Clinton is the only (Democratic) candidate running who supported that resolution.

Also, Senator Clinton (like the others) is using money from Washington lobbyists to fund her campaign.  I just think she’s a little too wrapped up in the corruption of Washington politics.

Edwards

Edwards, like Clinton, seem to be speaking the right message, but their actions don’t necessarily match.  Their answers in the debates all sound like the coached answers of politicians.  To me, they sound like sound bites and not honest answers from the heart.

Edwards says he’ll fight to keep jobs in Iowa, which is a good thing.  But he told CEO’s they couldn’t be blamed for taking advantage of tax loopholes that they use to ship American jobs overseas.  Also, Edwards voted to make free trade with China easier and Clinton called NAFTA a boon to our economy while voting to give more tax breaks to companies who go offshore to avoid paying taxes.  Edwards didn’t do anything while he was a Senator to reduce the power of lobbyists.  Obama is the only candidate to actually reduce the power of Washington lobbyists.  Obama will end tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas and will work to restore the middle class by giving tax breaks to the middle class and not the super wealthy.

Kucinich

Representative Dennis Kucinich is requesting of his supporters that if they caucus for him and their group at the caucus is “not viable” (meaning they don’t have enough members at the caucus and must change their alignment) then those people should caucus for Barack Obama.  Kucinich said this because he believes that Obama is the candidate most like him in wanting to bring about a real, positive change in this country.

But rather than dilute the votes, why not just support Obama from the start?

Richardson, Biden, Dodd

I respect each of these candidates.  In fact, behind Obama, they are my 2^nd, 3^rd, and 5^th choices, respecively.  However, I want to make sure we don’t dilute the votes and diminish all the good we can do by spreading the votes out to too many candidates.  I’m confident in Barack Obama’s intelligence and leadership such that he will not discount the good ideas and intensions of these great men.  For example, he’s aware of the education improvements that Governor Richardson made in New Mexico.  Obama and Dodd are both members of the Foreign Relations Committee and Obama agrees with Senator Dodd that we need fair trade that works for working Americans and that we need to restore our moral standing in the world and uphold the rights in our Constitution.

As president, Barack Obama will appoint people to his cabinet and other government positions based on their qualifications.  He will appoint experts in the respective areas and not cronies.

Overall

I personally think any of these candidates would be better than what we currently have and have had to endure the last 7 years.  But I think Obama is the best choice and is the best hope for defeating the potential Republican candidates in November who seem to already be campaigning on divisive issues set to categorize us into Red and Blue states.  Barack Obama appeals to all kinds of people of all ages, races, religions, etc. – Democrats, Independents and even Republicans.  He can Unite the States once again.

Thanks for reading.  Again, please remember to caucus.

To all Iowans eligible to vote on Nov. 7, 2006:

Please vote for Bill Northey for Secretary of Agriculture on Tuesday.

For all other positions, vote as you must (personally I’ll be voting for mostly Democrats), but definitely vote for Bill Northey (who happens to be the Republican) for Secretary of Agriculture.

If you’re considering voting for Denise O’Brien (the Democrat) for the Secretary of Agriculture position, please re-consider voting for Bill Northey instead.  Here’s why:

Education:

Denise O’Brien has a high school diploma.  Bill Northey has a bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness from ISU and an MBA.

Farm Experience:

Bill is a 4^th generation family farmer from   He’s raised corn, soybeans, alfalfa, hogs, and cattle.  Denise has 15 acres on which she grows berries.  She also used to have some cattle.  She claims to be an organic farmer, but she’s technically not certified organic.

Leadership Experience:

Bill Northey was the president of the National Corn Growers Association.  “He served as Vice President, as Chairman of the Government Relations Committee, the Market Development Committee and the Ethanol Sub-Committee” (from his website).

Bill is also a Soil and Water Conservation Commissioner.  Denise has been a leader in the WFAN, which has fewer than 50 members nationwide.

Ethics:

In 1987 Denise’s husband, who she’s been farming with for 30 years according to her, was charged with animal cruelty for how they treated their cattle.  They starved several of their cows to death.  They had to pay a fine including a donation to an animal shelter.  Denise claims she was away and didn’t know that it was happening.  I know some cattle farmers and there’s no way they wouldn’t notice their cows starving to death for months before finally dying.  The organization she said she was working for while away, the WFAN, wasn’t even founded for seven years after the incident.  She also said there was a bridge out and they couldn’t get to the cows.  First, she only has 15 acres, plus the people that owned the land that the cows were on claim that there never was any such bridge.  Another excuse was that there was a draught that year.  However any farmer could tell you that the draught was in 1988, not 1987.

Priorities:

Bill’s top priority is renewable fuels, including ethanol, bio-diesel, and wind.  Bill wants to develop the renewable fuels industry to create more markets for farmers and more jobs for Iowans.  Denise’s top priority is diversifying the crops grown in .  She’s a self described radical whose vision for agriculture is to return to a pre-1920’s era where everyone had 5-10 acres of fruits and vegetables and raised free-range chickens. 

Common Sense:

Denise says she wants to push for “local control”.  However, the Secretary of Agriculture has no power to change this.  It’s up to the legislature.  Feel free to investigate the whole “Local control” issue yourself, since I’m no expert, but it does seem that it would complicate ’s agriculture, which is very important to our economy.  It also seems like it would make things difficult for farmers, especially those that have farmland that crosses county boundaries, since all the rules could change when a new county commissioner takes office (not to mention that the rules all across the state could end up varying drastically and would end up increasing the cost of farming).

Denise says we should diversify our crops in .  But the reason we grow corn and soybeans in such great quantities in is because this is a great place to grow them.  Because we can grow so much of it we can export it and feed people all around the world.  We then import the foods we don’t grow as well here.  This is the whole point of civilization and why cities originally formed.  The people that are the best at a specific thing focus on that thing and get even better at it and then trade with others.  Eventually we get bakers, blacksmiths, doctors, farmers, etc.  If everyone had to do everything for themselves we would throw away tens of thousands of years of advancement in human civilization.

It turns out that if we didn’t grow the quantities of the crops as we do in , millions of people around the world could starve.

The media:

The editors of the Des Moines Register appear to have a very anti-Republican agenda.  Since I’m a Democrat, you would think this wouldn’t offend me so much.  The Register has published many letters to the editor (10 so far) in favor of Denise and not a single one in favor of Bill.  I personally know of several people that have written letters in favor of Bill, including myself.  Several of the editors have also written columns in favor of Denise, even though they admit their ignorance about agriculture, which most any Iowan would instantly notice upon reading one of the articles.

Even with all of this bias, the Register as a whole has endorsed Bill Northey since he is simply undeniably the better candidate and will help us grow our renewable fuels infrastructure in this critical time.