Scott Sanborn, Teleprompter Reader For Obama

I just turned on KGAN news at 5pm and heard Scott Sanborn talking about the scandal involving political targeting of Tea Party and other conservative-leaning groups that had organized and had applied for 504(c)3 status with the IRS.  Sanborn repeated the lie told by the Inspector General who claimed that it wasn't politically motivated.

Scott Sanborn, don't you know about all the evidence that this is a political hit?  Does the name Lois Lerner ring a bell?  What about all the past "jokes" from Obama about auditing people?  What about the plan by Chuck Schumer and Al Franken and others to intentionally target, using the IRS, those who they did not agree with?

How can you read that crap with a straight face, Scott Sanborn.  Of course it was political.  You must be nothing but an Obama administration stooge.  Just another corrupt member of the media, reading lies to the public.

Iowa Media Must Have Their Marching Orders About Postville Anniversary

 
Speaking of Postville, the media must have their marching orders to write brown-nosing articles about the anniversary while whitewashing our corrupt politicians.  Here's one today from the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Chuck Grassley remembers the makeshift court hearings in the Waterloo Cattle Congress barn. Tom Harkin remembers women and children sleeping on church pews for safety. Bruce Braley remembers seeing families ripped apart. Dave Loebsack remembers simply a scene of failure.
All four members of Eastern Iowa’s congressional delegation still have vivid memories of the May 12, 2008, immigration raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville. Even five years later, the memories are so vivid that they have infused the discussion in Congress on overhauling the country’s immigration laws.
“It was a real catastrophe for the town of Postville,” Grassley told The Gazette. “A lot of people were dependent on those jobs. It was a community that had a lot of diversity and accepted that diversity. It was a sad thing.”

Chuck Grassley must be going senile.

As for Tom Harkin, Bruce Braley, and Dave Loebsack, they're from the party that used to be pro-slavery, so naturally they would be upset about this.

Does everybody in the media seem to forget that Agri-Processors knowingly hired children, illegal aliens, falsified documentation, dumped waste and blood into the town's sewer system, and food safety violations over the years?  Their biggest crime, for which Sholom Rubashkin was convicted, was financial fraud.

Chuck Grassley happily took the Rubashkin's slave-labor money.

Tom Harkin never met an unskilled illegal alien he didn't love.

And don't forget that Harkin spent $8 million of your borrowed tax money on a waste treatment plant for AgriProcessors.  Aiding and abetting crimes with our tax money.  That's the Tom Harkin way.

What's really disgusting is how the media in Iowa is bending over for this "anniversary" and making their pro-amnesty push without bothering to look any deeper into the history.  But then the media in Iowa have always been on the side of the illegals.

I've always wondered whether then-Governor Tom Vilsack's push in 1999 to import 300,000 illegals to work in what was then Steve King and Tom Latham's districts was nothing more than a political plot to import enough poor Democrats as a way to grab permanent political power using low-wage, uneducated people who would join the benefits plantation:

In 1999, Iowa's Governor Tom Vilsack proposed that his state be allowed a special federal dispensation from existing immigration laws, so it could import hundreds of thousands of foreign workers. Not messing around with pretense, Vilsack admitted that cheap labor is his goal. His concerns are for Iowa's business corporations, that desire to avoid paying the kind of wages that would have to be paid to American workers...

Several polls of the public show that most Iowans oppose a policy of encouraging immigration. Yet, as might be expected, members of the media have fallen right in line with the Governor's campaign for mass immigration. One such is columnist and editorial board member of the Des Moines Register, Shirley Ragsdale. She has cleverly attempted to make the issue one of race guilt. Could it be, she implies, that Iowans just don't want "diversity?" Calling those who oppose current immigration policy "xenophobic," she then goes on to paint Iowa residents as backward types in need of greater cultural "sophistication." One wonders if "sophistication" is a quality that workers bound for meat packing plants are likely to inspire.

In retrospect, I think Vilsack's plan was entirely political.  He wanted to turn two a couple of safe Republicans seats towards the Democrats, by hook or by crook.  You look at the way Vilsack has behaved in recent years at the Department of Agriculture, getting everybody hooked on fraudulent Food Stamps and pumping out millions with the fraudulent Pigford settlements.  It's all about Democrat empire building.  Getting more slaves back on the plantation.  It helped that Tom Vilsack's wife, Christie, was an obvious racist filled with hate and disgust, making fun of Southerners and black people like she did in print in the 1990s.  The stupid country bumpkin wife from Mount Pleasant.  Oh what a mistake Iowa made by electing Vilsack.  I wonder how different things would have turned out if poor old Ralph Davis had gotten his sewage problem taken care of rather than going into that Mount Pleasant City Council meeting in 1986 and shooting up the place, giving old Tom his first shot at political office.

As far as the media is concerned, they're just sycophants.  All fresh from J-school with their Bachelor's Of Libtardology.  All earnest.  They don't know anything other than what their masters tell them to do.  They have student loans to pay back or jobs to keep.  They'll do whatever it takes to keep the paychecks coming, even betraying the views of most Iowans and publishing their Anti-American stories.

Enslave A Mentally Disabled Man In Iowa For Decades, Only Pay A $50,000 Fine

Who said slavery is over? 

Henry's Turkey Service got away with it for decades in Iowa, enslaving mentally disabled men, paying them 41 cents an hour, having them live in a filthy bunkhouse, and subjecting them to abuse.

A jury awarded the 32 plaintiffs $7.5 million each, but it was scaled back to $50,000 per slave. 

businesses that employ fewer than 101 employees, such as Henry's, can only be ordered to pay a maximum of $50,000 per worker for compensatory and punitive damages under the Americans with Disabilities Act, EEOC attorney Robert Canino said in his brief.

How much do you think the lawyers are going to get out of it?

You don't see anybody protesting the enslavement and abuse of mentally disabled men in Iowa, but arrest some illegal aliens in Postville five years ago and watch the media never let it go.

The Worst Ever Or The Worst So Far?

Joe at the Tax Update Blog refers to former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman (pictured above) as The Worst Commissioner Ever in his small roundup of stories relating to the IRS scandal where conservative-minded 501(c)4 groups were targeted for harassment.

Hold on, Joe.  Do you really mean ever?

Or do you mean so far?

After all, we haven't heard about who Obama might want to appoint to the position.  The next one is his to pick.

Fighting Over Diversity

The Cedar Rapids Gazette had a story by somebody named Meryn Fluker about how "diversity" in schools isn't just about skin color anymore.  Why, it's also about economic diversity based on which children are receiving Free Or Reduced Lunch in Iowa City.

Yes, we're redefining diversity now because The Historically Racist Democratic Party can't keep blacks on plantations or Asians in internment camps any longer.  Instead, the White Hippie Commie Socialists in Iowa City put a lot of the poor kids in a certain part of town and now they want to bus them all over the district in order to achieve "fairness".

Here's the funniest part of the Fluker story:

Even though the number of students in the state qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches is almost double the proportion of learners of color, some feel that people often conflate the populations.

Michael Shaw, a former Iowa City school board member, said free and reduced-price lunch designation is seen as “code for black and Latino,” despite white students who also fall into that category.

“That often doesn’t get factored into the discussion,” he said.

[North Liberty resident Jessi] Williams’ family qualifies for reduced-price lunch because she has decided to pursue a master’s degree.

When she completes her schooling this spring and begins work, her family will likely no longer be in that category.

“I’m white, and I have all the privileges that go along with being a white person in our culture,” Williams said.

“It strikes me as quite odd that by virtue of me getting a job and a paycheck, my minority status in the district changes.”

Tuyet Dorau, the lone member of color on the Iowa City school board, called the policy’s definition of diversity “a slap in the face.”

“As an ethnic minority, I was offended that under the current policy, my minority status was no longer going to be recognized in that context,” said Dorau, who voted against the policy.

Poor Tuyet Dorau.  It's not enough that she lives in a $400,000 house in Coralville.  Unlike Martin Luther King Jr, she wants to be judged by the color of her skin.

It's all about her and her minority status.

She's a joke.

So is this Jessi Williams of North Liberty, going on about "white privilege":

“I’m white, and I have all the privileges that go along with being a white person in our culture,” 

What kind of crazy nonsense are you talking about, Jessi Williams of North Liberty?  You sound like a complete moron.  White privilege?  Did you get hit in the head and believe you're living in the Confederate South?  Who says the phrase "white privilege" except the usual commie lunatics at a university?

Instead of taking children as they are as individuals, they only look at children as groups.  They don't care whether a kid can read, write, or do math.  Let's look at their skin color instead!  No, let's look at whether they qualify for a free or reduced price lunch!  No, let's move them around the district on buses based on what their parents earn!  No, let's do something else that has absolutely no bearing on the child's ability to learn!

It's appalling that somebody like Tuyet Dorau is on the school board, or that Merkin Fluker or whoever is writing a story quoting a dingbat like Jessi Williams.

What is the point of an article like this?  If you have a hard left agenda and are a closet racist posing as a champion of "diversity", this sort of an article seems somewhat sane and rational.  But to the rest of the world who has moved on from slave-trading and hair-splitting, this sort of bullshit drivel and racist agit-prop makes you wonder who is running newspapers these days.

Watching The News

It's been a few weeks, I know.  I've been on vacation.  I've been making snow men in May.

Tonight I'm watching the local TV news and I really can't believe how crazy it's all getting.  We all know the media are tools of the government and leftist causes, but has it been this bad in the past?

It's the fifth year "anniversary" of the Postville raids, and naturally KWWL's cameras are out showing all the protesters:  illegal aliens and the usual commie nuns.  What's new?  Nothing there.  When did the reporterettes get all ugly on TV?

Switch over to KCRG and there's a story about parking meters that take credit cards in Iowa City.  Is parking that expensive in downtown Iowa City now?  How much do those parking meters cost?  No, the reporter won't tell you how much they cost.  Everything government does is good and for your benefit.

Earlier, I saw a story featuring Iowa City's morbidly obese police chief, Sam Hargadine.  He's so fat I think they were photographing him from the nose up.  That guy's got more chins than the Beijing phone book.

Sam is somehow for repealing the ordinance to put the cameras up, yet wants red light cameras in the future.  I suppose that's like going to both sides of the buffet and saying you're on a diet.  Right, fatso?  Can you even bend over and tie your shoelaces?  Can you even see you penis?  How can a cop be this fat?

City Council member Terry Dickens doesn't want the red light camera ordinance repealed.  There's a clown who should be targeted in this fall's election.  If he runs again there should be somebody running against him and shoving his face in this issue.  Terry, Dickhead, or whatever your name is, there's very few red light accidents in Iowa City.

Also I saw where the expensive jail or justice league or justice center or whatever they're calling it went down to defeat again.  It needed 60% to pass and only 54% were in favor of spending $43 million to build a tiny jail to house all of Obama's Chicago finest drug dealers, wife beaters, welfare cheats, and drug dealers.  First Johnson County elects a Republican to the Board of Supervisors, now the voters are repeatedly turning down all the fancy plans of the Government 'Rats.  It's a very unusual time.

Modernizing Iowa's Bottle Deposit Tax - Or Getting Rid Of It?

The Gazette has a story about how some groups, all surely with a vested interest in sucking more tax money off the general public and growing the size of government, want to modernize Iowa's bottle deposit tax.

An early editor of this blog wrote about a so-called reform of the bottle law in 2005 that never took hold.  And in 2007 they urged Iowans to get rid of the bottle deposit since recycling is everywhere.

I'm in agreement.  It's not the 1970's anymore.  Times have changed.  Even rural people have curbside recycling or can take their cans and bottles to a redemption center.  Those who litter should face steeper fines.

Oh, but you won't hear that from the assembled few with a vested interest in screwing the public out of another dime or more, or expanding it to include every plastic bottle produced.

What these jerks want is more tax money from people who recycle rather than return.  They want expanded government control because they have an insane fetish about this sort of thing.  They want to put more burdens put on businesses that sell things.  Not just grocers but also the bottlers who constantly have to change what they stamp on containers.  They will cry and moan about the environment in front of the TV cameras and haul out old Robert D. Ray. Maybe they'll even try to get Mr Tax Raiser himself Terry Branstad on board.  The most important thing is that it'll have bi-partisan support, not whether it's the right thing to do in this day and age.

Enough is enough.  Get rid of the bottle despot tax.  Yes, you read that correct.  The Bottle Despot Tax. 

You'll still have recycling, something you barely had in the 1970's.  Isn't that the goal, recycling?

No, no, no.  Recycling isn't the goal.  Fat, bloated government is the goal with scraps for those who have been paying off the politicians.

Gazette Engaged In Budget Sequester Obama Butt-Licking

Do you need more proof that the media is in full-blown Obama Butt-Licking mode than Orlan Love's propaganda in the Cedar Rapids Gazette about how the Sequester is affect the Iowa National Guard?

What's it like to be a member of the Obama butt-licking media, Orlan Love? 

What's it like to be working on behalf of Your Dear Leader?

What's it like to be a tool for the government?  Do you get any perks?

Funny how there's no discussion of Biden's hotel bills in Paris and London.

I see where the Senate passed a budget recently.  How big is the deficit in that budget?  Over a trillion dollars?  Has the Gazette written about that lately?

Jason Lassner and Anne Green: Don't Blame Our Profession

This guest opinion appeared in the P-C today and was passed along from a reader.  It's by local psychologists Jason Lassner and Anne Green:

Last weekend’s tragic events in North Liberty, which resulted in a man’s death and three police officers being shot and wounded after a lengthy standoff, gave many in our community reason to pause. In the aftermath of Newtown, the complex interplay between mental illness and an individual’s right to own a gun continues to demand our thoughtful attention.

Whoa, wait a second.  The Newtown shooter didn't own a gun by any legal means.  He stole the guns after killing the owner of those guns.

This is how anti-2nd amendment, anti-gun nuts talk.  They lie.

Nevertheless, we read the front page headline of this morning’s (March 13) Press-Citizen with great dismay. Your editorial decision to highlight and publish a letter written by a local psychologist in support of the deceased shooter’s application for a gun permit in 2010 is an example of salacious journalism that served to confuse your readers rather than inform and educate them.

This is one time I'll defend the Jew-hating leftist radicals who work at Gannett's Press-Citizen.  It's part of the story.  It also shows how totally incompetent Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek is with his decision making, even if the media wanted to downplay it because he's a Democrat.

As psychologists, we are sometimes asked about a patient’s mental health condition and the likelihood of that individual causing harm in the foreseeable future. In such instances we do our best to provide our honest professional opinion within the limits of our knowledge. Since no one can predict the future this can be a delicate challenge. 

Additionally, a patient’s written consent for us to state our opinion does not mitigate our concern for their emotional well-being. Their trust in us forms the basis of their ability to seek help.

Really, Jason Lassner and Anne Green?.  If a psychologist believes that a man with a violent past, including assault charges and a temporary restraining order lodged against him, should legally possess a gun, well, that psychologist is kind of crazy.  When a patient has a violent past, especially a violent fairly recent past, that should be weighed more heavily than what a psychologist says.  In this circumstance, what the University of Iowa said about delaying the application until Taleb Hussein Yousef Salameh's studies were complete would have been sensible.  Revisit it later.  Salameh didn't have to go hunting.  Sometimes when you act stupidly, you have to give up some of your rights.

It is difficult enough for people to seek mental health treatment due to barriers such as access to care and the risk of social stigma. Freedom of information laws notwithstanding, publishing any part of a patient’s mental health record reinforces existing fears that asking for help is not worth the risk. After all, how many of us would trust a professional with sensitive and private information if we believed it might show up on the front page of the local paper?

Cut out the sanctimonious bullshit, Jason and Anne.  You're just upset because one of your fellow psychologists got caught making a really stupid decision.  You're just trying to provide cover for your profession.

Your decision to publish a confidential letter written by one of our colleagues, a reputable and established professional, on behalf of his former patient defies common sense and human decency.

Isn't it important to know who screwed up?  People like Jason Lassner and Anne Green would rather sweep it under the rug.  You're just like the Catholic archdioceses who kept moving pedophile priests around the place and then tried to cover it up.

If your objective was to more fully inform the public about the tragic events of last weekend, then simply mentioning the letter’s existence would have been sufficient.

If your intent was to promote meaningful public discourse about whether an individual’s right to own a gun should be limited by a history of mental illness or criminal behavior, then publishing the letter was completely unnecessary.

What's wrong with publishing the letter?  It's part of the application file.  Get off your damn high horse.

If your goal was to sell more newspapers by appealing to people’s instinctive attraction to private information about others, then we suggest you take a good look in the mirror.

Do your standards of professional conduct actually support your editorial decisions in this case?

Nobody buys newspapers anymore, except old people.

The Press-Citizen, and all Gannett papers in general, have no standards of professional conduct.  Anything goes as long as it's supports their anti-Jew, pro-Democrat, pro-Big Government agenda.

If I was at the Press-Citizen, I would not have published this letter, but then the Press-Citizen has few readers and they'll print every letter they get.

Should we blame the psychologist?  Yes, we should.  He screwed up.  He made a mistake.  For some reason, that psychologist thinks that people with violent pasts should be legally allowed to possess guns.

But I think Sheriff Lonny made a bigger mistake.  With the facts before him, and the University of Iowa advocating against granting Salameh a permit, Sheriff Lonny granted him one anyway.

I also think if Lonny Pulkrabek was not a Democrat, the media would be laying it on thick and calling for his resignation.  Instead, Pulkrabek is one of their fellow incompetent lefties.  The media would rather have a dumbass Democrat in office than an Independent or Republican.

Why Did Sheriff Lonny Give Cop Shooter Taleb Hussein Yousef Salameh A Weapons Permit?

According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and at the bottom of a story by Vanessa Miller weirdly headlined "Family Celebrates Man Killed In North Liberty Police-Involved Shooting", deceased cop shooter and UI student Taleb Hussein Yousef Salameh was granted a weapons permit by Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek in 2010, despite repeatedly being in trouble with the law and had a temporary protective order lodged against him:

Salameh’s criminal history in Iowa includes numerous convictions for driving and alcohol offenses, theft and trespassing. He was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of public intoxication and assault causing injury.


Salameh has never been convicted of a felony, but a Johnson County judge in February issued a temporary protective order against Salameh. The petition eventually was dismissed.

When Salameh applied for a permit to acquire a weapon in 2010, UI officials expressed concern to the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Pulkrabek said he issued Salameh a permit only after receiving a letter from the student’s therapist saying it was OK for him to own a weapon.

In the letter from Salameh’s therapist, who he was seeing for depression and anxiety, the therapist said Salameh wanted a gun to go hunting with friends.

Wait a second.  Wasn't it just last month that Vanessa Miller and Lonny Pulkrabek were going on about how no UI students have been denied weapons permits because of information supplied by the university?

This is the same Vanessa Miller who jumped the gun with her Trayvon Martin anti-gun banner waving.

And this is the same Sheriff Lonny who used to boast about denying gun permits based on somebody having a traffic fine.

Via the Daily Iowan, who mentioned this a couple days ago:

According to records released Monday, Salameh applied for a gun permit in March 2010, but UI Dean of Students David Grady recommended that the Johnson County Sheriff's Office deny his application. Since Grady became dean of students in 2009, Salameh is one of only two students that Grady recommended the Sheriff’s Office deny a permit. 

“I have serious reservations about Mr. Salameh’s intention to purchase a handgun,” Grady said in a letter to Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek in 2010. “… I respectfully request that you carefully consider this information when evaluating Mr. Salameh’s application for the gun permit.”

In the letter, Grady cited previous criminal convictions including an assault on another student that occurred out-of-state and that Salameh was visiting a counselor and psychiatrist as reasons that the Sheriff’s Office should delay his handgun application until at least 2011. According to the*Gazette, the Sheriff’s Office issued Salameh a gun permit in February 2010, despite Grady’s concerns.

The question now becomes:  Why did Sheriff Lonny issue Taleb Hussein Yousef Salameh a weapons permit? 

Because Lonny got a note from the therapist?

Has anybody asked Sheriff Lonny why he approved that gun permit?  A better question to ask Sheriff Lonny would be, "Are you retarded?" or "Are you on drugs?"  Pee in a cup, Lonny.  I'm curious about what's on your hard drive at work.

Meanwhile, we're treated to a bunch of maudlin shit by Vanessa Miller.  Do we have to read his stupid sister's rantings about the "theft of his life"?

Vanessa, where is your axe to grind about Sheriff Lonny?  Oh, I forgot, he's a fellow radical Democrat like yourself.  He gets a free pass by his friends in the media.

KWWL and Ron Steele Are Propagandists

Ron Steele is one of those smug assholes in the media who happily reads the teleprompter with the words his friends in government have supplied.

Tonight was a good example.  I accidentally landed on KWWL news at 6pm and immediately he and some reporter, Jason Epner, start talking about the tens of millions in government dollars allegedly cut in Iowa because of the Obama sequester, largely in education and health care.

Epner was all ready, interviewing some overpaid drone from Grant Wood AEA, describing how children who can't read will be affected.

I shut it off.  This was nothing but disgusting propaganda.

Where was Ron Steele and Jason Epner and Tara Thomas when Obama and his gang were running up trillion dollar deficits?  Nowhere, that's where. 

And now, with only a tiny cut in the rate of growth occurring because of the sequester, the pro-government, pro-Obama, pro-deficit media have to obediently read what their friends in government tell them to read.  It's disgusting.

What is this fetish the media has with ever-increasing government?  Any cut in spending causes them to freak out and announce their Top Story Tonight about "painful cuts" and other lies.

Why is Ron Steele such a butt boy for the overspending, crack-smoking wing of the Democratic Party? 

Is this why you got into reporting, Ron Steele, so you could be a lackey for a bunch of fat, miserable alcoholics in state government?

Republican Wins Johnson County Supervisor Seat - First Time in 51 Years

John Etheredge won a close race in Johnson County yesterday, becoming the first Republican in over 51 years to get a seat on the Board of Supervisors.

I didn't even know there was an election yesterday, and didn't vote.  I would have voted for Etheredge just because I don't like one-party rule.

Last month I wrote:

It has always boggled my mind why the Republicans in Johnson County don't make a better effort at taking over things.  I know the District isn't the same as the County (there's 91,000 eligible voters in the county, as opposed to 75,000 in the school district), but there's nearly 19,000 registered Republicans in the County.  Even if there were only 15,000 Republicans living within the school district, you'd only have to turn out several hundred Republicans to swing things in another direction. 
Then again, this is a county where almost all Democrats never face a challenger in an election.  There's not even a name on a ballot!  The Democrats are unopposed!  That's how you get all these fat, angry, hypocritical, creepy, freaky, bizarre looking leftists running everything.
Supposedly there is a group called the Johnson County Republicans.  Where are they?  Cowering in a corner?  Afraid to come out of the closet?  They must be the most unorganized, feckless bunch of losers imaginable. 
Were the Johnson County Republicans for allowing the school district to borrow against future revenue?  Don't they have a stand on what happened to all the tax revenue after we raised our sales tax from 6% to 7% a few years back?  Why aren't they organizing against these things?
There's 33,000 registered Independents in Johnson County, perhaps about 25,000 in the school district.  I realize they will be unorganized, but why aren't they being tapped for action?

You see, Republicans, you've got to run a candidate in order to have a chance to win.  Then, all you have to do is turn out the vote.  You've got to call people.  You've got to make people aware of the election.  Johnson County seems to have an election every month.  Why aren't the Republicans calling Independents (ex-Democrat Independent) like myself?

Congrats to John Etheredge on his win.  I'm sure the other Stupidvisors like the angry Rod Sullivan will be assholes to him.  Like all hyper-partisan assholes on the left, they are uninterested in political diversity.

Iowa Media Pushing The Sequester Panic Button On Behalf Of Dear Leader Obama

The Cedar Rapids Gazette, and surely all the other willing accomplices in the media, will be printing variations of this list of atrocities if the sequester happens.  The sequester that Barack Obama agreed on.

The White House compiled the numbers from federal agencies and its own budget office about how automatic budget cuts would affect states. The numbers reflect the impact of the automatic budget cuts this year.
Unless Congress acts by Friday, $85 billion in cuts are set to take effect from March-September.

As to whether states could move money around to cover shortfalls, the White House said that depends on state budget structures and the specific programs. The White House did not have a list of which states or programs might have flexibility
Here are some examples of how automatic budget cuts could affect Iowa:

It's a list of all the usual suspects:

• Schools won't have any money
• Disabled students won't have anybody to help them
• Head Start will be scaled back
• Low-income college students will be forced to get a job
• Army will be cut
• Police grants will be cut
• The water and air will be dirty
• Nobody will be able to get jobs
• Kids will be kicked out of child care
• Drug addicts will have to go back to using
• AIDS tests won't happen
• Grandma and Grandpa will go starve.

Somebody call a WAAAAAAAAAAAAMBULANCE!

$85 billion in cuts.

Has anybody looked at what the budget deficit was the past 4 years?

Over $1 trillion dollars a year!

Why aren't the losers in the media talking about the deficit and the debt?  Instead, they're just pushing the panic button about a tiny fraction of a cut.

Because when your fetish is larger government and your religion is larger government, that's what you do.  You promote the propaganda while ignoring the crime of debt put on future generations.

Cedar Rapids Casino: What TIF Money?

Cedar Rapids casino backers say they aren't getting free land.

City Hall isn’t giving away the land for commercial use — to casino investors or anyone else — that sits across the Cedar River from downtown and that the city now owns and obtained through the flood-recovery buyout process.

Mayor Ron Corbett and City Council members Don Karr and Justin Shields, all casino backers, say the latest advertisement from the Just Say No Casino campaign isn’t true when it states, “Cedar Rapids plans to give casino investors CITY-owned land … and we MAY not see a dime.”

Joe O’Hern, the city’s flood-recovery chief, and Rita Rasmussen, the city’s senior real estate officer who has overseen the city’s buyout effort, explained this week that federal law and state policies dictate the competitive process for how the city disposes of flood-damaged property purchased with federal funds.

And one option on commercial property isn’t to give it away, Corbett said. “They bid. They can’t get it for free.”

What about TIF?

You don't think that the casino owners will get a whole bunch of TIF money thrown back at them?

This project screams TIF!  TIF!  TIF!

If the casino vote passes and a license is granted, which I think is doubtful, let's check back in the future about whether any TIF money is offered.  It would be quite convenient of "reporter" Rick Smith to accidentally leave that detail out of this story.

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?

Saw this in the Cedar Rapids Gazette today:

Road builders, contractors and their allies will gather in the Statehouse Rotunda under the banner “It’s Time for a Dime” on Wednesday in what will be the most public push for a gas tax increase to date.

They include the Farm Bureau, the General Contractors Association, the Soybean Association, the Association of County Supervisors and the Chamber Alliance.

The Chambers of Commerce all around the State are stocked full of crack-smoking, tax-happy lunatics.  That's where the most useless bureaucrats and members of the media go to lobby.

As far as the Farm Bureau and the Soybean Association are concerned, they are one of the reasons why our roads are deteriorating.  Most cars and trucks barely cause any wear on a road's surface, but those big rigs and overweight semis cause almost all the damage.  Why pay for the damage you inflict?  It's better to lobby politicians, especially pro-tax-fetish Democrats (who will vote to raise taxes for any reason at any time), to screw the little guy again.

Meanwhile, at Terrace Hill:

Gov. Terry Branstad’s support is conditional on an agreement with the Legislature on commercial property tax reform.

They're using the same old playbook:  property tax reform.  Which never hapens.  

Terry Branstad has always been a tax raiser.  What's new there?

This article is really written from the old playbook:   The tax raisers come up with an idea, get big business and the Democrats behind it in order to screw the little guy, and now it's time to get the media on board to pressure those evil Republicans from not allowing "critical" road repairs to be funded.

Gee, it's only a dime!