Bruce Braley (born October 30, 1957) is the U.S. Representative for Iowa's 1st congressional district, serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district lies in northeastern Iowa and includes Davenport, Bettendorf, Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Dubuque, and Clinton.
Braley was born in Grinnell, Iowa. His family owned a farm in nearby Brooklyn, Iowa. Braley attended college at Iowa State University where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa College of Law. While in college, he worked in agribusiness and in highway maintenance. He was admitted to the bar and has served as a trial lawyer in Waterloo since 1983. Braley specialized in representing workers who had been injured on the job or were terminated unfairly.
As an attorney, Braley served as president of the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association. He and his wife, Carolyn, were named couple of the year by Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Northeastern Iowa. They reside in Waterloo and have three children, Lisa, David and Paul.
Joni Ernst is a Republican politician and legislator from the state of Iowa. She was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2010. She represents District 48, which serves the southwest part of the state.
Before being elected to the state senate, Ernst served for six years as the Montgomery County Auditor. Ernst is serving her 18th year in the US Army Reserves and the Iowa Army National Guard. She spent 14 months mobilized and overseas in Kuwait in 2003-2004, at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Rachel Anne Maddow (pronounced /ˈmædoʊ/; born April 1, 1973) is an American television host, political commentator, and author. Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor of a prime-time news program in the United States.
Asked about her political views by the Valley Advocate, Maddow replied, "I'm undoubtedly a liberal, which means that I'm in almost total agreement with the Eisenhower-era Republican party platform."
Maddow was born in Castro Valley, California. Her father, Robert B. "Bob" Maddow, is a former United States Air Force captain who resigned his commission the year before her birth and found civilian work as a lawyer for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Her mother, Elaine Maddow (née Gosse), is a school program administrator from Newfoundland, Canada. She has one older brother, David. Her father is of Russian and Dutch descent and her mother is of English and Irish ancestry. Maddow's mother was raised a strict Roman Catholic, and Maddow herself grew up in a community that her mother has described as "very conservative." Maddow was a competitive athlete and played three sports in high school. Referencing John Hughes films, she describes herself in high school as "a cross between the jock and the antisocial girl."
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Obama attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School before returning to Chicago and to work at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her future husband. Subsequently, she worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Throughout 2007 and 2008, she helped campaign for her husband's presidential bid and delivered a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She is the mother of two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and is the sister of Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Oregon State University. As the wife of a Senator, and later the First Lady, she has become a fashion icon and role model for women, and an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition and healthy eating.
He came home from work last night, to find that she is gone,
Now He's spending his first Sunday sitting in the pew alone,
There are whispers all around him, His heart breaks in two,
He's wondering who will reach out and help him make it through,
She has a reputation like the woman at the well ,
The only love she ever knew was the kind she buys and sells,
But her thirsty heart is searching for a love that will be true,
The Savior cries for her to see Himself in me and you,
Who Will be Jesus to her?, Who'll show the love that's commanded in His
word?,
Will she see in us the mighty God we serve?, Who will Be Jesus to her?
Wonded People everywhere, and when they look at us, do they see Jesus
there?
Who Will be Jesus to Them?, Who'll show the love that restores Them
again?,
Oh, They do not need a judge, They need a friend, Who will Be Jesus to
Them?
They were so excited it was coming to be, two people so in love
and now soon there would be three, for many years they planned it.
Now soon it would be true, She was picking out the pink clothes, he was
looking at the blue.
The call came unexpected the doctor had bad news, Some tests came back
and things weren't right, said you're gonna have to choose,
"I'll wait a week for your decision" and then the words cut like a
knife ,
"I'm sure everyone will understand if you want to end its life".
Though they were badly shaken they just had no choice,
Because they knew God creates no accidents and they were sure they
heard His voice Sayin'.
(chorus)
sometimes miracles hide, and God will wrap some blessings in disguise
and you may have to wait this lifetime
to see the reasons with your eyes, cause sometimes miracles hide
It seemed before they knew it the appointed day arrived,
with eager apprehension they could barely hold inside,
The first time they laid eyes on her confirmed the doctors fears
but they held onto God promise they were sure they both could hear.
(chorus)
Though she was not like the other girls they thought she was the best,
and through all the years of struggle neither whispered one regret.
And the first day that she started school and took her first bus ride,
they'd remembered the words that God had spoke and they both broke down
and cried.
You see to them it did not matter why some things in life take place,
cause they just knew the joy they felt when they'd look into her face.
They learned that sometimes miracles hide,
they said God Has wrapped our blessing in disguise and
we may have to wait this lifetime to see the reasons with our eyes,
Since that blessed night in the manger, she watched her baby grow,
It seems Like yesterday He was in her arms, where did the time go?,
He learned His Fathers trade, as she marveled at It all,
The sweat dropped from her Little Carpenter as He made the timbers fall,
(Chorus)
She can hear them driving nails upon the Hillside,
and she prays that His spirit will not fail,
she watches as her young man undertakes His Fathers Will,
as she stands and listens to the driving nails
In the streets of Jerusalem a child can disappear ,
She was frantic as She looked for Him, Until She began to hear,
hammers up at the temple, she called Him as she ran,
surprised she found Him teaching like no ordinary man
(Chorus)
Darkness covered all the land in the middle of the day,
she began to tremble as the earth began to quake,
Hammers, Nails & Timbers of The Carpenters Trade,
made the sound that pierced her soul as the Cross was being raised
(Chorus)
Lord I'm Laying down this life of Contradiction,
All the sunday resolutions & the monday rational
Cause my Righteousness is filthy rags & Fiction,
When I'm talking love & Charity & Living something else,
The idle talk I spread is really gossip, and this thing I call
discernment,
is just judgement in disguise,and I keep myself so busy being busy,
that I'm looking past the wounded people right B4 my eyes ,I've been..
(Chorus)
Breaking the Law of Love, Seeking the way of the one Above,
Jesus come & make me whole, heal my heart
& keep my soul from breaking the Law of Love
Lord Even tho I know that I'm not worthy,
I believe U came to heal us & to make our hearts Your home,
To pour Your Spirit out in broken vessels,
and love thru us in ways that we could not love on our own
Keep us from... (Chorus)
The More I let U fill me w/ Your mercy,The more I'll love my neighbor
Saturday night in Plainville
Saw some local people go
To the downtown corner movies
For a late night picture show
And it's ninety mindless minutes
Of the best in blood and gore
They all come out laughing,
Just can't wait for more.
While on the other side of
Town a child four years of age
Huddles up a weak defense
Against his fathers rage
And as we spend our time and money on
Life's moments cheapest thrills
In our city there's an Elm Street
Where the nightmare is real.
[Chorus]
Oh God, have mercy on us please,
For the times that You've shown
The need and we refused to see
Give us all a heart like Yours that grieves
For the lost souls on Elm Street
That need to be released
Complacency's a poison taken
One drop at a time
It fools our minds into
Thinking that everything's just fine
Desensitize our Spirit with
Nothing left to feel
'Till we never hurt for Elm Street
Where the nightmare is real
Oh Lord You've got to send me
Where there's a need to go
Put me on their street, Lord,
Cause they all need to know
There's a God who's so much bigger
Than anything their going through
Oh they need to know that there's
A place where nightmares don't come true.
Oh God, have mercy on us please,
For the times that You've shown
The need and we refused to see
Give us all a heart like Yours that grieves
For the lost souls on Elm Street
That need to be released
Oh God, have mercy on us please,
For the times that You've shown
The need and we refused to see
Give to us a heart like Yours that grieves
For the lost souls on Elm Street
Just like an actor, unsure of my lines,
I lived my life for other people, one lie at a time.
Desperate for approval, always tryin' to look good,
Never sure of who I was or where I stood.
Till You came into my heart, and exposed me with Your light,
Till You touched me with Your love, and You healed me with Your life.
Chorus
I know where I stand, strong and secure,
I finally know who I am, I'm myself and I'm Yours.
Gonna stand on Your promise, I always stand tall,
Even when I fall, I know where I stand.
So good to be real now, to know and be known,
Resting in Your perfect love, my heart is finally home.
Completely forgiven of all that I've done,
Now I'm living my life for an audience of one.
Finally sure of who I am, and I'm sure of who I'm not,
The insecurity is gone, because I live on the Rock.
Repeat Chorus
I no longer live my life by what other people say,
But I only live for You, 'cause Your love will never change.
And though people let me down, You'll never turn away,
No You'll never turn away, that's why
I'd see him go to church almost every sunday
He had invited me to go a time or two
made no bones about the fact that he was a christian
And he seemed to know I was looking for some truth
Never looked at me with eyes of condemnation
though he knew I was uneasy when he pray
he was always there to lend a hand
and when he did he'd always say
that the good Lord and his blessing
are what made him act that way
I'd rather see a sermon
than to hear one anyday
I'd rather one would walk with me
than merely show the way
Actions speak much louder
than all the words can say
That's why I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one anyday
There were times that I would see him from a distance
and he didn't knw that I was watching him
he always took the time to love his children
and he treated his wife like his best friend
I got the call two weeks ago this monday
that the job I had ten years was at the end
he was the first to call and show p on my doorstep
and he said that he would be there
till we got on our feet again
I'd rather see a sermon
than to hear one anyday
I'd rather one would walk with me
than merely show the way
Actions speak much louder
than all the words can say
That's why I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one anyday
I never was much for religon
too many double-standard people let me down
but the message this man lived was very simple
he showed me what I needed
and he was there when I let Jesus
turn my life around
I'd rather see a sermon
than to hear one anyday
I'd rather one would walk with me
than merely show the way
Actions speak much louder
than all the words can say
That's why I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one anyday
That's why I'd rather see a sermon
All I ever wanted was someone to care for me
Someone to always be there for me
Right through the good and bad
I spent a long time hoping that just one time
A portion of love I would find
Then you came along and gave me so much more
(chorus)
Above and beyond my needs
Your love has carried me
When I was not strong enough to make it on my own
Your love has calmed my fears
I know you're always near
Only a love so strong could come from
Above and beyond
Just a cup of water was all that I needed
All alone in my darkness I pleaded
For someone to answer my call
Then your love washed away all the pain
The moment I called out your name
You filled up my heart and I won't be the same
He came home from work last night, to find that she is gone,
Now He's spending his first Sunday sitting in the pew alone,
There are whispers all around him, His heart breaks in two,
He's wondering who will reach out and help him make it through,
She has a reputation like the woman at the well,
The only love she ever knew was the kind she buys and sells,
But her thirsty heart is searching for a love that will be true,
The Savior cries for her to see Himself in me and you,
Who Will be Jesus to her?, Who'll show the love that's commanded in His
word?,
Will she see in us the mighty God we serve?, Who will Be Jesus to her?
Wonded People everywhere, and when they look at us, do they see Jesus
there?
Who Will be Jesus to Them?, Who'll show the love that restores Them
again?,
Oh, They do not need a judge, They need a friend, Who will Be Jesus to
Them?