Heidi Schnackenberg Alert

You remember Heidi Schnackenberg, right?

She's the big lefty who lives in LuVern or San Diego or New York and was either a screenwriter or a contributor to the Register's Liberal Young Adult Morons columns.

Heidi has resurfaced, writing for something called Women's ENews and she's pissed:

As a young woman, I stepped out into the treacherous waters of opinion journalism, and was amazed by the lack of civil discourse and the intensity of personal attacks that I received via e-mail, letters to the editor and on Web postings.

Subjects such as women's issues, racism, anti-war politics, environmental matters and virtually any topic deemed "liberal" inspired some vitriolic comments from readers that I will mention here.

I was called everything from "bitch" to "whore" and was often addressed as "sweetie" or "honey" before a launch of expletives. Most attackers took the position that I was just a cute, dumb college student (even though I was in my late 20s) in an effort to discredit me and I was most reliably attacked by a collection of right-wing Web sites and right-wing men who sent me letters.

Needless to say, I ran out of the gates, trail-blazing, and came back a wounded animal.

The experience solidified my "attack and retreat" explanation of the low numbers of women in opinion journalism.

Heidi talks to Rekha, Yepsen, and others. She learns that both male and female opinion columnists occasionally get cranky and profane emails and letters. Who'da thunk that? Next week, Heidi will be writing a column about how she recently discovered that the sun rises in the East.

If you read down far enough, you'll notice Heidi's comments on Sasha Kemmet:

Sasha Kemmet is a young, budding liberal writer for The Des Moines Register's Young Adult Board. She has been stalked by critics who have accused her of everything from racism to elitism. She describes her detractors as deeply misogynist.

"I was surprised by the viciousness of the attacks and it was extremely disappointing. My goal in writing was to initiate dialogue, not bring about petty personal attacks." Kemmet thinks "society wants women to have opinions as long as they don't speak them too loudly . . . as long as this persists, women will believe it themselves."

Sasha Kemmet wrote this ridiculous essay that dissed women who chose to become stay-at-home mothers:

Then my generation did something terrible. We started listening to those critics our mothers have always known to ignore. We started believing we couldn't learn math and physics as well as men. We felt guilty for living full, successful lives with careers. We let our faith be twisted and took the blame for the "destruction of family values." Then, it all stopped. The numbers stopped climbing. The glass ceilings were replaced. Women started leaving what they had fought so hard to get...

The pinnacle of the women's movement is not the choice of staying at home or working.

Sasha later clarified her comments:

Again, with the mother staying at home, I have no problem with women being stay-at-home moms, but I believe it is troublesome when it become a trend.

Ah, those "troublesome" stay-at-home moms. God forbid it becomes a trend!

Then Sasha wrote a column, using a phony Voltaire quote, and defended First Amendment rights for the KKK, a terrorist organization. After that column, this blog stopped paying attention to her, except on occasions like this when it's easy sport to trash her stupid and idiotic columns one more time.

Subsidizing The Competition

The Register has a story today about how Mediacom and the Iowa Cable and Telecommunications Association are suing the Department of Agriculture over rules that currently allows taxpayers to subsidize a competitor when it comes to providing hi-speed rural internet.

Some thoughts on the Register piece:

The lawsuit's chief complaint - that Fairfield already has high-speed service, provided by LISCO itself, Middletown, N.Y.-based Mediacom and Iowa Telecom - mirrors criticism of the program made by cable and telephone firms around the country. The lawsuit was filed in the home state of one of the leading supporters of expanding the Agriculture Department's program.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., has criticized USDA for being too stingy with the program. He says the restrictions are so tight that many companies don't even bother to apply for the loans. As a result, areas in Iowa and elsewhere lack access to high-speed Internet service, which can boost businesses and create jobs.

If you read further into the story you'll learn that at least 95% of rural Iowa has access to broadband internet.

Actually, if you don't mind spending at least $49.95 a month, the other 5% without wired broadband can get satellite broadband internet.

Federal taxpayers have ponied up nearly a billion dollars in gimmeaways on this corporate welfare program. It would probably be cheaper in the long run to just give every hayseed a dish and a $10 a month voucher.

Jobs? What kind of job needs hi-speed internet access that isn't satisfied by satellite service? Besides, has Harkin been in Iowa lately? The unemployment rate is currently 3.6%.

One more thing:

Michael Porter, LISCO vice president of marketing, said recently that its fiber-optic service will be many times faster than existing broadband service in Fairfield.

"Iowa has a world-class educational system, but the kids like to go other places in order to seek fame and fortune," Porter said. "We're trying to build a situation that would make it entirely feasible to stay here."

What? Slightly cheaper access to internet porn? What the heck is this Michael Porter guy smoking?

That whole, "Kids are gonna leave Iowa if we don't continue to screw taxpayers and competing businesses" attitude has got to stop.

Hey Kid, Want To Make $50?

The State of Iowa is giving away 25 Kum & Go gas cards worth $50 each.

All you have to do is enter your name before June 30th on this web page for a chance to win.

Miscanthus: 1600 Gallons To An Acre?

An article from an Illinois newspaper, the Daily Pantagraph, via the AP:

U of I[llinois] researchers have worked for years to successfully convert pig manure into crude oil. Others are working with microbes that can turn corn into butanol, which can be used for fuel, and still more are looking for new ways to recycle the waste from biofuel production into livestock feed.

But miscanthus might hold the greatest near-term potential for farmers and fuel consumers, crop scientist Stephen P. Long says. He has spent the past several years working with the grass to determine its viability as a fuel to generate electricity and as a source of "cellulosic ethanol" - ethanol made from plant products other than corn.

Miscanthus, switchgrass, corn stover and other plant waste can be made into ethanol through a process that uses an enzyme to ferment the cellulose, the primary structural component of green plants, into sugar, which is then distilled into ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. Then, just like corn ethanol, it can be blended with gasoline for use as motor vehicle fuel.

Switchgrass, a prairie grass that can reach heights of seven feet, is being used as a test fuel at a power plant in southern Iowa and has potential as a source for cellulosic ethanol, researchers say. But miscanthus could be an even better source, and a better crop for farmers.

Harvest at test plots across the state indicate that miscanthus could yield 15-20 tons per acre, at least double the yield of switchgrass.

"I think we have a lucky break with miscanthus," Long says, noting that Illinois is the only state growing it in production trials. "It could really make a big difference to cellulosic ethanol because if you're getting double the yield, it means you're actually getting more than double the profit."

Tests indicate a ton of miscanthus could produce up to 80 gallons of cellulosic ethanol, Long says.

It really doesn't make any sense for the government to pay farmers to not farm in the future, especially with crops like this around. You can plant this kind of grass on practically any kind of land that's unsuitable for corn or beans.

Iowa To Fine Everybody In 2020 If Energy Goals Aren't Met?

Vilsack signed a whole bunch of bills this morning relating to tax credits for big agribusiness renewable energy development within the State of Iowa.

The Des Moines Register says:

One of the bills Vilsack signed at a Statehouse ceremony requires that 25 percent of all fuel sold by 2020 be renewable. (emphasis added)

Requires? What do they mean by requires?

At the start of HF 2754 is this:

1 14 Section 1. PETROLEUM REPLACEMENT GOAL. It is the goal of this state that by January 1, 2020, all biofuel will replace twenty=five percent of all petroleum used in the formulation of gasoline. (emphasis added)

Oh, so it's just a goal?

But then there's this:

8 33 214A.11 VIOLATIONS PENALTIES.
1. Any Except as provided in subsection 2, a person violating the provisions who violates a provision of this chapter shall be is guilty of a simple serious misdemeanor. Each day that a continuing violation occurs shall be considered a separate offense.

2. The state may proceed against a person who violates this chapter by initiating an alternative civil enforcement action in lieu of a prosecution. The alternative civil enforcement action may be brought against the person as a contested case proceeding by the department under chapter 17A or as a civil judicial proceeding by the attorney general upon referral by the department. The department may impose, assess, and collect the civil penalty. The civil penalty shall be for at least one hundred dollars but not more than one thousand dollars for each violation. Each day that a continuing violation occurs shall be considered a separate offense.

Could the State of Iowa fine residents $100 to $1000 for not meeting the goal of HF 2754 by 2020? Am I reading this correctly?

Email me at state29@gmail.com if I'm wrong and I'll delete this post, otherwise the post stays.

"There are cases when private property must be taken in the interests of the entire community"

The Des Moines Register Editorial Board wants Vilsack to veto the anti-Kelo legislation that passed the Iowa Legislature. Their excuse is:

Eminent domain is never the first option, but there are cases when private property must be taken in the interests of the entire community. Not a single credible example has been cited of this power being abused in Iowa, and that is because existing Iowa law has long contained elaborate procedures to protect the rights of property owners.

It's one thing to use eminent domain for the widening of a major road or to move old houses and businesses out of a flood plain, but it's another thing entirely if politicians use it to take private property from one invididual so that another private individual who is connected to the politician can redevelop it, reap financial gain, and the local coffers get increased tax revenues. That's what this bill is about.

Remember The Hoosegow Honeys

From the Polk County (Des Moines) Inmates On The Web site:



This barely legal gal may be spending her prime years in Caged Heat, considering what she's been busted on: Intent to deliver meth, possession with intent to deliver, possession of marijuana, assault use or dangerous display of weapon, and, perhaps the most egregious offense, not having a drug tax stamp.

How do cute chicks get caught up in such trouble?

At 5' 6", 130 pounds, and with piercing dark eyes, tempting lips, and hair that could be easily babe-i-fied by a hot Hollywood stylist, she should have been on the fast track to anywhere.

Instead, she's residing almost in my neck of the woods while awaiting trial.

Maybe "George Costanza" should pay a visit?

The Hospital Monopoly In Des Moines

From the Des Moines Register:

Frail, long-term patients in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids soon could be treated in specialized wings built into local hospitals.

The new wings technically would be separate hospitals, which could reap millions of extra dollars in federal financing. State regulators have said for years that such an arrangement would be illegal in Iowa.

But Steve Young, the director of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, announced last week that his agency intends to rewrite rules to allow what are known nationally as "hospitals within hospitals."

The change comes a month after a different state agency rejected plans for four free-standing, long-term-care hospitals, two each in Des Moines and the Iowa City area. Those projects, which were proposed by out-of-state, for-profit chains, were criticized as too expensive.

With Young's decision last week, existing hospitals can consider adding the special facilities.

Gee, you've got to wonder which hospital lobbyists worked over the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals. How much did it cost Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield to get their way?

Isn't it funny how the State can reject companies from building hospitals in Iowa (here and here) yet turn around and rewrite the rules so that the local monopolies can add a wing?

The Weakest Endorsement

The Register's endorsement of Deacon Blouin as the Democrat they'd like to see go up against Jim Ross Nussle has to be one of the weakest I've ever read.

They like Blouin for his experience, although he hasn't been elected to anything in three decades. He's just floated around Iowa, filling various administrative posts until Vilsack appointed him the Iowa Corporate Welfare Czar a few years ago.

Blouin says he's for education, but his plan is nothing but a shell game.

If Iowa could eliminate their Iowa Values Corporate Welfare Fund, take that money to adequately fund higher education, and streamline the insane corporate and individual tax code (ever filled out the Iowa income tax form if you have a house and children?), all that would do a lot more than jacking up sin taxes, building more casinos, and taxing current businesses in order to bring in competition while stifling those who aren't politically connected.

The Register seems like they would love to endorse Ed Fallon but they just can't bring themselves to do it. What a bunch of gutless and cowardly corporate liberals and RINO sissies that the Register Editorial Board has these days.

Fallon may poll poorly against career resume padders and legacy puppets, but come election day they'll all vote for Fallon over Nussle.

Rob Borsellino Died

Story in the Register:

Borsellino recalled an interview with Reagan in the late 1970s when he was ready to “get in his face” about his politics. But he was disarmed by Reagan when the future president struck up a personal conversation, asking after Borsellino’s family.

“What stayed with me was the idea that I could sit across from someone I disagreed with — totally disagreed with — and find some common ground. And actually have a good time,” he wrote. “It’s something I carried with me over the years.”

Related: Rob Borsellino Has ALS (Feb 2005)

Vilsack: Iowans Must Pay $180 Million In Order To Buy More Expensive E85

From KTIV:

Sioux City will be getting its first E-85 pumps fairly soon. Next week, Iowa governor Tom Vilsack will be at the Sioux Harbor Travel Plaza to sign legislation that will help make that happen.

The legislation calls for spending $180-million over the next 20 years. The taxpayer money will go toward helping stations pay for converting to underground tanks for the fuels, and toward state tax credits.

Meanwhile, in St Paul:

A gallon of E85 cost between $2.14 and $2.69 over the past week, according to prices reported to an American Lung Association Web site, http://www.cleanairchoice.org. That compared with regular gas prices of $2.55 to $2.98 in the Twin Cities on Wednesday, as posted on http://www.twincitiesgasprices.com.

Some recent entries the Price Forum for the ClearAirChoice.org web site:

Eagan, MN. Thursday, May 24th.
Unleaded: $2.79. E85: $2.34.

West Columbia, SC. Wednesday, May 24th.
Unleaded: $2.51. E85: $2.59.

Arlington, VA: Wednesday, May 24th.
Unleaded: $3.02.9. E85: $3.22.9.

Duluth, MN: Monday, May 22nd.
Unleaded: $2.75. E85: $2.69.

Palatine, IL: Monday, May 22nd.
Unleaded: $2.89. E85: $2.79.

Greeley, CO: Sunday, May 21st.
Unleaded: $2.80. E85: $1.99.

Stanley, WI: Saturday, May 20nd.
Unleaded: $2.95. E85: $2.89.

Green Bay, WI: Monday, May 15th.
Unleaded: $2.95.9. E85: $1.99.9.

Greeley and Green Bay look like good deals, but with most other locations it's break even or possibly much more expensive than conventional unleaded gasoline. You also have to take into consideration that E85-burning vehicles get 15% to 30% worse mileage than dino-burners.

E85 was a good idea until California and New York needed millions of gallons of the stuff to replace MTBE.

And E85, like any fuel, is a commodity. If the price of oil goes up, the price of ethanol is going to go up along with it, so in a way it's in the best interests of ethanol makers to keep the price of oil high.

Also factor in that the price of corn has been going down for years and it doesn't cost much to get waste products like corn stover, plus with all the tax incentives from the Feds for ethanol production you can see how it's a guaranteed money-making machine - for now.

As far as Iowa is concerned, do residents really want to be spending $180 million in tax dollars above and beyond all the other tax incentives given to ethanol producers in order to push this fuel?

Somehow I can see the future after Vilsack's long moved out of Iowa: Those E85 pumps will be sitting idle because nobody wants the stuff. Gas station owners will be pissed off and demand more money from the state in order to convert them to bio-diesel tanks once everybody's burning that stuff in their plug-in electric hybrids and getting 300 mpg.

Operation Wetback

From the Mason City Globe Gazette's letters section:

Here is a little history lesson. In 1954, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the President (Republican) and there was an operation to deport illegal immigrants back to Mexico. What was the name of that operation? It was called Operation Wetback.

Websters Dictionary defines “wetback” as disparaging and offensive, a Mexican laborer who enters the U.S. illegally, alluding to the practice of swimming or wading the Rio Grande to enter the U.S.

Post World War II, millions of Mexicans swarmed to the United States as the demand for cheap agricultural laborers increased.

In 1954, Operation Wetback got under way as a national reaction against illegal immigration. Commissioner of INS Joseph Swing oversaw the border patrol, and organized state and local officials along with the police.

The purpose of border enforcement was “illegal aliens,” but Operation Wetback became strictly focused on Mexicans in general.

Officials swarmed Mexican-American neighborhoods in southeastern states. Some Mexicans, fearful of the potential violence of this militarization, fled back south across the border.

The agents discovered over one million illegal immigrants. Many of the illegal immigrants were deported to Mexico by trucks, buses, trains and even ships.

Also, since when does another country have the right to tell this country what to do and isn’t it amazing how Mexico demands humane treatment for its citizens who migrate to the U.S., but yet Mexico provides few protection for migrants on its own soil.

More history on Operation Wetback here.

Michael Gartner To Be Investigated For Micromanaging Things

From WHO-TV:

The Legislature's Oversight Committee has the Iowa Board of Regents and its president, Michael Gartner, on its agenda.

That's according to Senate Republican Leader Mary Lundby of Marion.

She told The Cedar Rapids Gazette that once the committee finishes hearings into the pay scandal at a jobs training program, it will look at whether the regents and Gartner have overstepped their bounds and micromanaged the regents' institutions.

Lundby says, in particular, the committee is interested in the University of Iowa, which is losing two top officials. President David Skorton is leaving to become president of Cornell University. Athletic director Bob Bowlsby is the new A-D at Stanford University.

Lundby says they're not "pointing any fingers," and "we're just wondering why."

Gartner has a history of being a jerk and a liar, but I'll defend him on the Skorton and Bowlsby issues. And here's why:

Skorton made about $300,000 a year as the President of the University of Iowa. His wife was earning less than $100,000 a year. Now, as President of the pretigious Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and a cushy gig there for the Missus, Skorton and wife have hit the yearly 7-figures bracket. That's an easy and understandable call on Skorton's part.

As for Bowlsby, good riddance. Other than picking Kirk Ferentz as a replacement for Hayden Fry, which was kind of a no-brainer since Ferentz was one of Fry's assistants from way back, Bowlsby has done a good job of constantly screwing things up. Kick him up upstairs to Stanford for all we care.

See, Mary Lundby? Problem solved. And before breakfast!

No, I'm Not The Email Tipster

From the Des Moines Register:

Des Moines officials Thursday called off a police investigation into the identity of a person who claimed that three City Hall employees kept inappropriate material on their workplace computers.

The anonymous e-mail, which triggered an internal investigation that later cleared the employees, was "about the most cowardly thing I can think of for someone to do," Assistant City Manager Mike Matthes said.

The city has a contract with Alexander Open Systems of Overland Park, Kan., for computer services. Matthes estimated the investigation prompted by the e-mail cost about $2,000 and noted that nearly a dozen employees from five departments helped investigate the claim.

Matthes said the search, which included deleted files, found no pornography.

No, it's not me (I now live and work in Overland Park), but I find it amazing that all these Des Moines city employees would scramble and investigate based on an anonymous email.

Imagine if the City of Des Moines reacted this way when somebody called in an anonymous tip concerning a pothole.

Tom Vilsack Helped Wal-Mart Take Over The World Using Your Tax Money

Radio Iowa announced that the Iowa portion of the Avenue Of The Saints has been completed. Missouri finishes their final section in 2008. The project, over 20 years in the works, cost over half a billion dollars. 80% of the cost was paid for by Federal taxpayers.

From the Iowa Saints web site, I found this nugget of information:

The push for the Avenue of the Saints began about 1985 with a lobbying effort by southeast Iowa community leaders, who ultimately developed a broader coalition. One of the factors behind their campaign was to provide a better transportation network for Mount Pleasant's huge Wal-Mart distribution center. The company now employs 1,200 people and handles an estimated 3,500 trucks per week that serve Wal-Mart retail stores in several states...

Several politicians endorsed the Avenue of the Saints concept, including Mount Pleasant mayor (and future Iowa governor) Tom Vilsack, Senators Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin of Iowa, Congressmen David Nagle, Fred Grandy and [Jim] Leach of Iowa, and Congressman Dick Gephardt of Missouri.

Many Democrats, particularly the moonbat wing of the party, love to hate Wal-Mart, so it will be fun to see if Vilsack catches any flack in the future over this.

Grassley's Top Ten

Via Don Tusk-Talon, I discovered Senator Grassley's Top Ten Flaws With Giving Them Mexicans Amnesty:

“I was burned once in 1986 when I voted for amnesty believing that it would solve our problems. Now, we have a 12 million illegal immigrant problem. I’m not getting burned again,” Grassley said. “Not only do we have a glide path to citizenship, but it’s a glide path with plenty of loopholes that don’t meet the common sense test.”

They're all good points Grassley raises.

Nobody could design a better smoke and mirrors amnesty program that the bill currently going through Congress.

But when it comes to The Common Sense Test you've got to wonder how this project Grassley supported with your tax dollars passes?

Why Can't Iowa Get This Tourist Attraction?

No rides.

It cost $13,000,000 to build.

And the theme park expects to get 600,000 visitors a year:

The theme park will include life-sized silicone-made models which visitors can touch to discover erogenous zones.

People will also be able to build their ideal partner from a series of body parts

Instead, Iowa has bat wings. Maybe.

Deacon Blouin Doesn't Perform Abortions But He'll Definitely Raise Taxes

Yepsen's column this morning about Mike Blouin is a hoot:

If it weren't for the abortion issue — he's personally pro-life in a decidedly pro-choice party — and a slow start to his campaign, he'd be more formidable.

That's kind of like saying, "If Ed Fallon was in favor of taking lobbyist money and doling out corporate welfare, he'd be more formidable."

So what would be the first thing Deacon Blouin does once he moves into Terrace Hill?

• Taxes. The day after Blouin takes office, he said, he will assemble a group of experts and leaders to put together a rewrite of income- and property-tax laws for the Legislature to consider when it convenes in January. One goal will be to lower property taxes paid on commercial property by replacing them with state sales- and income-tax dollars.

Screw the poor while fattening the coffers of all the slumlords throughout Iowa.

• Environment. He's willing to consider raising park user fees and earmarking some sales-tax revenues to provide more revenues for environmental programs.

Tax the little people who visit the polluted rivers and streams in Iowa's parks. Don't bother jacking up the fines against factory farms and big agricultural processing plants that dump shit, blood, and fertilizer into the waterways.

• Education. He would give all levels more money, which he would raise through the normal growth of state tax revenues and an unspecified increase in the cigarette tax. But he would freeze community college and university tuitions for four years, something that would deny those institutions important sources of additional dollars.

What? Play a shell game with the community colleges and universities and then tax smokers to pay for it? That will never work.

• Immigration. Iowa must be a more welcoming place, he said, and so he would sign a repeal of the Iowa law specifying English as the state's official language.

Bienvendos, undocumented immigrants! Iowa's current unemployment rate is 3.6%, and there's a lot of jobs that Iowans won't do because they once paid $18 an hour but today they only pay $8 an hour. Would you like some improperly obtained Social Security? Some EITC money? A driver's license? How about a voter registration card? I've already pre-filled some sections. You'll be a Democrat and we'll cast your vote for you. Entienda?

• Health care. He said McGuire will be in charge of straw-bossing his plan. It basically involves expanding existing efforts to cover more people. Like other candidates, he's a little vague about the price tag.

Who cares about the price tag? Poor people don't care about the cost of insurance. If they did, they wouldn't be 150 pounds overweight, using the emergency room as their primary care provider, and spending their days constantly looking at their cell phone.

The challenge for Blouin in the closing days of this campaign is the same challenge he faced when he entered: Getting beyond his weakness on the abortion issue so he can focus Democrats on his strengths.

Blouin's weakness isn't abortion. It's that he'll raise taxes on all the little people in order to fatten the coffers of Iowa's rich-and-connected Democrats so that we can import more wage-wrecking illegal Mexicans who will be given free insurance by "Dr" Andy McGuire, MBA and insurance executive.

Deacon Blouin, of course, doesn't have a chance in hell of getting the nomination. This column is mostly to point out how lame Yepsen's analysis can get. Yepsen thinks Blouin's weak point is his personal opinion about abortion, when anybody reading this column can see that Blouin's weak point is his financial shell games and the desire to screw the working poor by constantly raising their taxes.

Iowahawk: Stop The Lies

Two or three paragraphs in you realize that Iowahawk has hit a 9-run homer, punted the football 200 yards for a game-winning field goal, and banged every MySpace user in town.

Was Senator Tom Harkin's Mother An Illegal Alien?

Probably not, but he'd like you to think that:

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., pushed for a proposal today that would have allowed anyone who entered the United States illegally prior to Jan. 1 to apply for legal status.

The amendment to an immigration overhaul bill failed on a 61-37 vote as the Senate moved toward a final decision on the legislation later this week...

Harkin said his own mother was an immigrant to the United States, arriving from Slovenia with nothing but $7 in her pocket and a one-way train ticket to Des Moines. "Was she legal? I don't know," Harkin said.

Well, Senator Harkin, you could certainly find out by searching the Ellis Island Records web site.

If she came through Ellis Island, as most Eastern European immigrants did up until 1924 (Tom Harkin's mother arrived in the US in 1920), there would be a record.

Tom Harkin has had a tendency to knowingly lie in the past, like the time Harkin told David Broder in the 1979 about how, during his stay in the military: 'One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions.'

Harkin's use of his long-dead mother as a political prop to give millions of illegal aliens amnesty is just as despicable.

Archie Brooks Is A Liar

From the Des Moines Register:

In public Monday, Archie Brooks said he never wrote or even saw a copy of a memo allegedly written by him that attempted to discredit government whistle-blowers.

Speaking with a reporter minutes later, Brooks acknowledged that he sent the memo.

Read the whole thing.

Don't we have enough evidence to charge Archie Brooks with something and put his lying face in a Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison for the rest of his life?

The U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Polk County attorney's office are investigating.

Dirty, corrupt, and a civic thug, that's Archie Brooks - the worst sort of Machine Democrat.


Update: More at Radio Iowa:

"Mr. Quinn, I want to thank you for coming down. You were supposed to ask me a question. I'm going to answer you even though you didn't ask it," Brooks said. "That memo was a request that I made to the staff to notify all board members that an audit was coming. I did not author that...so I'm sorry about that, but I did not do that...and you did not see my signature on that and I never did I ever receive a copy of it."

Back to the Register's story:

Less than an hour later, after the meeting, Brooks' recollection was jogged when a reporter from The Des Moines Register informed him that another government agency had obtained e-mails that show he sent the memo to be proofed before it was widely distributed.

"I never wrote it. I've seen the e-mail," Brooks said. "I don't remember reading it, but she (Ramona Cunningham) sent it over, yeah."

I'm Just The Girl Next Door

The Hawkeye Hoosegow Honeys have been slim pickins lately, so why not turn our attention to other services like MySpace?

From MySpace, here's Ashley Ann:



"I'm Just The Girl Next Door" in Clarinda with 11 piercings and 4 tattoos.

Hey guys! My Name is Ashley Ann *if you haven't figured that out yet* but anyway. So I just started my first semester at Iowa Western here on the Clarinda Campus. I moved back to Clarinda just this past month. Before I was up in Ames going to Iowa State and long story short, they didn't offer my major, so I had to leave. I am majoring in Criminal Justice and plan on being some kind of detective or helping with rape and assalt cases. I'm a very fun loving and outgoing person. I love going to Molly's Bar in Maryville and going dancing. I love singing and hanging out with my friends too. My friends are everything to me, fuck with them, I'll fuck you up biotches!

The Family Friend

From the Des Moines Register, via the AP:

A man serving life in prison for a kidnapping and killing a young girl in the 1990s predicts Roger Bentley will face a similar fate — locked up in his own cell for nearly 24-hours a day because of fears for his life.

Lary Lane Morgan, in an interview with The Gazette, said he's nothing like Bentley, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing 10-year-old Jetseta Gage in 2005.

"I can see how people are drawing comparisons," Morgan told the newspaper in a recent interview at the Anamosa State Penitentiary.

Bullshit.

Lary Lane Morgan should have been executed. Or at least murdered in prison.

From a State 29 post a year ago:

Anna Marie Emry was 9 years old when she was taken from her uncle's home in Brighton during an overnight stay in 1994. Lary Morgan, a "family friend", who was also accompanied by his 9 year old son, took the girl to the country where he raped her in a couple of different locations, stabbed her to death, and left her body in a cornfield. The Iowa House passed a bill which reinstated the death penalty and then-Guv Terry Branstad would have signed it, but the bill died in the Iowa Senate in 1997 on a vote of 39-11.

Why does the media interview these slimeballs? Lary Lane Morgan saying he's nothing like Roger Bentley is just bullshit.

What is the purpose of this story? Morgan is clearly unrepentant. It does nothing but stir up bad memories for the families involved.

Des Moines Restaurants Blog

Via this Tax Update Blog post, I discovered the Des Moines Restaurant Blog.

The Register used to do a great job of this many decades ago with the Grumpy Gourmet, but those days have long passed. When you're the monopoly corporate newspaper that depends on Central Iowa advertisers...

While you can search through old reviews on the Register's web site, why bother? An example would be the difference between the Register's review of Jimmy's American Cafe from 2002 and the Des Moines Restaurant Blog's review from December.

Iowa Ennui On The Governor's Race

Don't miss this Iowa Ennui post from Friday on the Iowa Guv's race. It's based initially on a Waterloo Courier story about how statehouse Democrats are asking Kent Dorfman to come clean and admit to being a lobbyist for Iowa's Big Polluter.

Then there was this curious paragraph:

The sad reality is that Ed Fallon is the candidate for the times. He’s not the ‘best’ candidate and would likely get pasted in the general by Rep Jim Nussle and his juggernaut of a GOP campaign, but he’s saying the right stuff. What’s not to love about his tag line “I’m Ed Fallon, and I am not for sale”? It could be that people don’t seem to want to buy what Ed is usually selling, but that’s another story.

As I've said before, I think Ed Fallon is the perfect candidate for Democrats.

Sure, he doesn't poll well against Jim Ross Nussle when you factor other candidates such as that pseudo-moderate legacy puppet Kent Dorfman or that corporate welfare shill and Cafeteria Catholic sellout Deacon Blouin.

Democrats like to get behind somebody who can "win" - because the party philosophy is "winning isn't everything; it's the only thing," even if your main guy is a notorious elitst douchebag.

Democrats have to ask themselves a question:

Who in the Democratic Party is not going to vote for Ed Fallon if he is the candidate?

Really now. Think about it. Again.

Greed Is Good

State Auditor Dave Vaudt is going to look into the Dirty Knappy deal after Attorney General Tom Miller's whitewash of an investigation failed to ask important questions.

Archie Brooks Plans To Have Another Stroke Soon

From the Des Moines Register:

Two government whistleblowers plan to attend a public meeting Monday to confront Des Moines City Councilman Archie Brooks about his apparent attempts to discredit them.

Just days before a March 31 state audit validated James Quinn’s and Kelly Taylor’s allegations of excessive executive pay at a controversial job training agency, Brooks apparently sent a memo calling the men’s claims “baseless” and characterizing them as troublemakers. Brooks was chairman of the agency’s board.

Just days before a March 31 state audit validated James Quinn’s and Kelly Taylor’s allegations of excessive executive pay at a controversial job training agency, Brooks apparently sent a memo calling the men’s claims “baseless” and characterizing them as troublemakers. Brooks was chairman of the agency’s board.

The March 27 memo to members of a regional work force investment board defends the bonuses paid to three executives at the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium, known as CIETC. The memo seems to contradict Brooks’ later comments that he was unaware of how much money he had given away in bonuses.

Archie Brooks is going down! The "Civic Thug" is going to get torn a new one!

What will it take to get Archie off the DM City Council short of a prison sentence or another stroke?

Some background on the CIETC scandal here, including Senator Tom Harkin's backpedaling and distancing.

And I can't resist showing that photo of former CIETC head Ramona Cunningham and Senator Tom Harkin:



You've got to wonder how long it will be before Archie uses the "bitch set me up" defense?

Chet And Eve, Not Chet And Steve

From the Des Moines Register:

Chet Culver, Iowa secretary of state, said he would not support allowing civil unions, saying Iowa’s marriage laws should be left alone.

The other two candidates, Mike Blouin and Ed Fallon, however, said they would support civil unions.

Cigarette Tax Hike Consequences

Vilsack never did get his 80-cent-a-pack tax hike on cigarettes passed, but last summer Minnesota hiked their cig taxes 75 cents to $1.23 per pack, spurring massive smokes sales in stores along the Iowa border.

There was also a lawsuit, mostly because the Minnesota Guv called it a fee rather than a tax. The MN Supreme Court upheld the fee this past week.

But the big story in Minneapolis is that thieves are now stealing cars, ramming them into convenience stores, and stealing smokes:

Ryan said the retail price of cigarettes alone, about $5 a pack, is fueling the crime wave that has also been detected elsewhere in the metropolitan area. The cigarettes are selling on the street for about $1 a pack.

$5 a pack!

Here, in my neck of the woods, if I wanted to smoke, I could drive across State Line Rd and pick up a pack super-cheap since the tax in Missouri is only 17 cents per pack, although there currently is a ballot proposal by anti-smoking groups to hike it up to 80 cents per pack.

Hydrogen-Powered Engines Being Developed In Algona

From the Waterloo Courier:

While much of the world fumes over escalating fuel prices, a small company in north central Iowa is quietly hoping to make gasoline obsolete as an engine fuel.

Research at the Hydrogen Engine Center Inc. is done in an early 1900s red brick armory at the Kossuth County fairgrounds.

There, a clean six-cylinder engine that looks like it could have been pulled from a Ford pickup has been running for 110 hours, not quite half the 300 hours it must continuously run for certification. The company, led by a retired Ford Motor Co. engineer, hopes to meet Environmental Protection Agency automotive 2007 emission standards.

All 81 parts are original Oxx Power, the brand name the company has given all its engines.

The engine can run on a number of fuels including hydrogen, ethanol, natural gas, propane or digester gas from landfills.

The company, started by Ted Hollinger, 65, is initially focusing on making more efficient, environmentally friendlier engines to replace those used in generators and in forklift trucks, airline ground equipment, irrigation pumps, tractors and buses.

Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have dropped industrial engine production as they've cut costs, leaving what Hollinger said is a ready-made market for his fledgling company.

Read the rest of the story. You can also visit the Hydrogen Engine Center's web site.

They're even attempting to develop an engine that runs on ammonia.

Jim Leach Wants To Talk With Iran

From Radio Iowa:

Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa City says it's time for a "reversal" in U.S. foreign policy. Leach was the commencement speaker at Indian Hills Community College last (Thursday) night. He told the crowd in Ottumwa that “there has never been a more important time to give diplomacy a chance."

Leach suggested "confrontational approaches" with Iran and North Korea won't work in an era when our foreign foes have nuclear weapons.

So what kind of "diplomacy" can you have with somebody who advocates the complete destruction of Israel?

Or a country whose Muslim politicians want to force all Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities to wear colored badges?

And how can you talk to a country who keeps defying the International Atomic Energy Agency concerning nuclear weapons capabilities?

Getting The Gas Face

Last fall and winter, Iowa Democrats were freaking out about the rising price of natural gas and predicting a brutal winter for the wallets and pocketbooks of Iowa families.

Today there is this story going around:

Following a warm winter that sapped home-heating demand, U.S. natural-gas inventories have bulged to record springtime levels, and that has caused prices to plummet roughly 60 percent since their mid-December high. Many analysts anticipate a further swelling of inventories in the months ahead and say prices are susceptible to another 20 percent decline.

To the extent local utilities can buy and store cheaper fuel, "those are savings that go to the consumers," said Chris McGill of the American Gas Association, whose members deliver natural gas to some 56 million U.S. homes.

Data maintained by petroleum services provider Baker Hughes Inc. show 1,367 natural gas rigs operating onshore and offshore in the United States, or 209 more than a year ago.

I'll admit that I cherry-picked the story, which was cautionary in tone, but anybody with half a brain in their head knows that energy commodity prices sway with all sorts of supply and demand issues.

I'm certain that when natural gas demands escalate next winter, we'll hear the same old shit from Harkin again when prices go back up.

Tom Harkin Voted To Give Illegals Social Security Benefits

From the Washington Times:

The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment -- even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents.

Here's Leaky Leahy's comments:

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said it would be unfair to deny illegals the benefits.

"We should not steal their funds or empty their Social Security accounts," he said. "That is not fair. It does not reward their hard work or their financial contributions. It violates the trust that underlies the Social Security Trust Fund."

That's par for the course for a super-lefty like Leahy.

But here's John McCain:

"We all know that millions of undocumented immigrants pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for years and sometimes decades while they work to contribute to our economy," said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican.

"The Ensign amendment would undermine the work of these people by preventing lawfully present immigrant workers from claiming Social Security benefits that they earned before they were authorized to work in our community," he said. "If this amendment were enacted, the nest egg that these immigrants have worked hard for would be taken from them and their families."

What part of illegal do you not understand, McCain?

Seniors needs to be torturing McCain's staff with phone calls, faxes, and letters until he's booted out of office.

McCain dares to call this money a nest egg for the illegals? He is simply deranged. Most illegals who "pay" Social Security do so under fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers!

And here's a sneak peek at a major issue in the next election:

Within hours, the vote had become an issue in this fall's elections, raised by a Republican challenger to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat.

"Instead of protecting the retirement security of Americans who are earning an honest living and abiding by the laws of our country, Debbie Stabenow sided with people who are here illegally and abuse our Social Security system," Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press release. "Allowing illegal immigrants to use their illegal work history as credit towards receiving Social Security benefits shows that Debbie Stabenow has forgotten who she is supposed to be working for in the U.S. Senate."

Conservatives have been pissed at President Bush for his waffling attitude about illegal immigration. While a lot of pundits seem to think Congressional Republicans will be hurt in the next election, I think Democrats will be hurt far worse.

Almost all of the Democrats in the Senate, Harkin included, voted to give illegals a pass concerning (fraudulently) obtained Social Security numbers and future benefits. How do you explain that vote to senior citizens or the current rising tide of aging baby boomers? You can't without coming off as being in favor of amnesty for illegals, which the vast majority of Americans aren't. Consider kissing your future political career goodbye. You screwed up.

$10 Million In Corporate Welfare For Newton

From Radio Iowa:

The Iowa Department of Economic Development board this (Thursday) morning unanimously voted to set aside 10-million dollars worth of grants for businesses in Newton...

Newton Mayor Chaz Allen says it will help the community recover from the loss of jobs at Maytag. "To help expand the businesses we have and then try to get new business," Allen says. The mayor says the money can be used to try to retain jobs, too. "I'm hoping that we can get some of the businesses around that we have right now help to expand their businesses into new markets using this money," Allen says.

Here's some ideas:

If you have a convenience store, consider quadrupling the liquor section. Add a drive-through for booze and cigs. Create Iowa's largest Touchplay arcade.

If you sell used cars, consider a side business involving car-title loans. You might need a state grant for a 20 foot high fence around your lot fitted with concertina wire since you'll be dealing with a lot of repos.

Own a bank? Do you have a subprime lending department? You will soon. Transition your mortgage department staff over.

If there's an empty building with at least 2000 sq feet on the edge of town, consider opening a juice bar. Make sure you pay off the local police and the county sheriff so that it gets a reputation as the "touchiest" joint in the state.

Are you a lawyer? There's no better place for a solid income than a town where crime rates are expected to go up.

Newton has a lot of growth opportunities available in the coming years. Take full advantage of the corporate welfare that Governor Vilsack and the IDED have allotted and you can have a very comfortable life. Just make sure your corporate office is located somewhere nicer and further away, like West Des Moines.

Dan Ehl Really Hates Republicans

A longtime fan of the blog points to this opinion piece by Dan Ehl, who is the managing editor of the Centerville Daily Iowegian:

Politics confuse me, a lamentable admission from someone supposedly writing an occasional political column.

It doesn’t help when I cover a Republican caucus. I’ll circled the area for 15 minutes looking for parking. All the street-side spots will be filled with shiny new cars, not a rusting ’84 Monte Carlo or trashed-out Plymouth Valarie station wagon in sight — a sure sign this is no gathering of Democrats.

What does surprise me is the familiar faces I’ll spot once inside. They belong to a number of friendly people I know and other amiable, causal acquaintances. I am aghast. It’s like stumbling into a secret Klu Klux Klan meeting and discovering the kindly librarian is the Imperial Grand Cyclops of the Invisible Empire.

My sense of reality is momentarily shattered, a vulnerable state for a bleeding-heart liberal stuck amidst a rabble of card-carrying, clamorous Republicans.

Let’s face it, this is the party of Bill O'Reilly, who if he hadn’t gotten into journalism, would have remained in his old neighborhood getting drunk and sucker punching people of non-European descent.

This is the party being taken over by the Christian Right, which is determined to make the Spanish Inquisition just a warm-up session.

This is also the party of tax breaks for the rich and a fraudulent war for oil.

How can this be? How can these sweet people I know continually vote for politicians trying to end funding that feeds children in homeless shelters?

Can I ever trust anyone again, knowing that behind a cheerful countenance could beat the heart of a Republican who supports torture and illegal wire tapping? Does that genial smile hide a soul bent upon flooding the environment with toxic wastes in the name of economic development? Then again, I’m sure Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot made a great drinking buddy when he wasn’t out slaughtering millions of Cambodians.

I’ve tried not thinking about it — that road leads only to horror and madness — yet I can’t stop imagining our Republican legislators relaxing after hours.

“Guess what?” I can see a congressperson with eyes just a bit too close together asking his cohorts. “I just managed to introduce legislation that will probably mean the extinction of 13 species of birds and the decimation of an irreplaceable stand of 2,000-year-old Redwoods.”

“Oh yeah,” another will chortle. “I just defeated an attempt to make tobacco officials responsible for their flagrant deceptions dealing with the millions of people they are poisoning.”

”That’s nothing, yah loafers,” a particularly contemptible congressperson boasts, “I’m working on allowing manufacturers to dump toxic wastes in all national parks.”

A moment of silence descends upon the group as each member enviously considers their colleague’s outstanding coup.

“I’m trying to pass legislation that would make it mandatory that all elementary students carry handguns to school,” interjects another legislator.

“And I’m drafting a bill that would make English the official language and outlaw the use of any foreign words. That goes for those damn French restaurants — let’s call a snail a snail.”

The hacks who have yet to speak are sweating bullets, wondering how they are going to top those.

Finally a corpulent, influential Washington lawmaker coughs and the others lean eagerly forward as he prepares to speak, “I am drafting a bill that will force poor people to go into debtor‘s prison while at the same time doing away with all income taxes for people who make over $500,000.”

A hush follows, then someone makes a Bronx cheer and says, “Big deal, Jim and Bob co-sponsored something like that last week.”

The humiliation of a cohort both excites and intimidates the remaining members of the pack.

“Well,” one hesitates, “I’m working on diverting funds for the immunization of poor children to a mall being developed by one of of my biggest campaign contributors.”

Another pregnant pause settles over the group, then breaks under the concerted cheers of the Republicans as they applaud and clap their colleague on the back.

Maybe that doesn’t happen, but it’s the only scenario that seems to explain things. Then again, there is an old maxim that says, “Politics are like sausage, you don’t want to know what goes into making either of them.” Maybe in this case ignorance is really bliss.

I guess Dan Ehl has to make shit up about Republicans in order for him to get a hardon.

Hey, Dan, buddy, why don't you put all that hate into pill form, patent it, and sell it as a Viagra replacement for moonbat Democrats.

How To Make $2 Million To $5 Million A Year

First, donate $3000 to Chuck Grassley. He'll then turn around and get $50 million from everybody, including our great-great-great grandchildren.

Second, try to get more public money.

Third, spend 10 years snowing and stringing along various communities on your idea. Make sure the big newspaper in the state is in your back pocket and refuses to print anything other than your press releases and the occasional minor criticism by a rogue reporter.

Finally, just make shit up:

Earthpark officials said they expect the center to turn a profit of between $2-5 million a year.

What? Do they plan to attach a casino onto the side of the thing?

Some University of Iowa Law School Students Are Big Babies

From the Des Moines Register:

A professor's use of readings containing racial slurs has alarmed students and renewed discussions about diversity at the University of Iowa law school.

"This incident was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back," said Steven Nelson, 27, a second-year U of I law student from New Orleans. "We're not going to stand for living in an environment that is hostile to us."

The university's Black Law Students Association, a group of 27 students, said in a letter to law faculty, U of I administration and the Iowa Board of Regents executive director that a March 29 incident was "indicative of a much larger problem at the College of Law."

The incident that triggered the larger discussion was professor Gerald Wetlaufer reading aloud two passages that contained racial epithets in his negotiations class, according to law school Dean Carolyn Jones.

The readings, one from Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of former President Lyndon Johnson and another a 1964 speech by a black sharecropper named Fannie Lou Hamer, were in context with the course, Jones said, but students may not have been sufficiently prepared to hear the racial slurs.

What a bunch of babies.

Have none of them read about the South? Did they make it all the way through high school and undergraduate studies without reading any Harper Lee or Mark Twain?

What do you want to bet that at least one of those 27 members of the (self-segregated) Black Law Students' Association has a CD sitting around with "nigger" rapped, spoken, or sung somewhere on it?

And what is it about the University of Iowa Law School? They seem to attract a lot of really extremely super-sensitive types.

Honda Hybrids For Newton?

From the Detroit Free Press:

Honda Motor Co. said on Wednesday it was close to selecting a Midwestern site for a new $400 million assembly plant that would employ 1,300 jobs, part of a strategy to boost U.S. sales by 300,000 vehicles by 2009.

At least 100,000 of those vehicles will be a new, hybrid-only model that Honda says will be smaller and less expensive than the current Civic. Honda also said it would end production of the Insight, the first U.S. gasoline-electric hybrid, in September.

The company had said on Tuesday it was planning a new U.S. plant, but had declined to offer specifics. Honda refused to say which Midwestern states are in the running for the plant, or say when it would make its decision.

Many of Honda’s suppliers are based in Ohio, and officials in Ohio and Indiana have said they were talking to the company about expanding its operations.

“We’re in the final phases of the due diligence process,” said Larry Jutte, senior vice president of Honda’s U.S. manufacturing arm. “The sooner we can do this, we will be making this announcement.”

What does Kent Dorfman know?

This is from Kent Dorfman's web site in early April, five weeks before Whirlpool announced they were closing the Maytag plant in Newton:

“I believe we can become the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. Let’s manufacture the flex-fuel vehicles of the future in Newton or Amana.”

Remember, 1800 jobs will be lost at Maytag in Newton when Whirlpool stops manufacturing there in 2007.

1800. 1300. Those are close numbers.

From the Freep story, it looks like Honda would want the factory producing vehicles by 2009. That would be two years after Whirlpool leaves Newton.

Vilsack's ready to throw nearly $100 million in taxpayer-financed corporate welfare incentives at somebody - anybody - to move to Newton.

Maybe it's speculation, but it does sort of dovetail.


Update:

Some info on the Iowa Interstate Railroad that runs through Newton:

The Iowa Interstate Railroad ("IAIS") was founded in 1984 to operate on the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific mainline between Chicago and Omaha in the USA. This trackage was purchased by Heartland Rail Corporation from the Rock Island's trustee in order to preserve the lines as a through route. IAIS is one of the "oldest" regional railroads in existence with connections to all major Class 1 carriers at various points on its line.

EarthPark: Bat Wings And Nautilus Shells

It used to be Iowa Child.

Then it was called The Environmental Project.

Now it's EarthPark.

From Radio Iowa:

Bill Menner, Executive Director of Poweshiek Iowa Development, says they've announced a partnership with Siemens to be the "technology provider" for the rainforest, and have rolled out a name for the project -- "EarthPark."

Menner says Siemens has been in the forefront of the technology industry and that the new developments have been in the works for some time. Grinnell is one of four communities vying for the project.

Menner says the project’s board will make a decision soon. They're still working on the site selection, talking with the four towns interested in hosting the project, and Menner says by the time the board meets next month they hope for a decision. Pella, Riverside and Tiffin are the other three communities in the running.

EarthPark???

Did they nick the name from this concept called Earth Park?

What is Earth Park?

The Earth Park concept is intended to rescue humankind from ecological extinction by means of a mass exodus from the planet. The posulate behind the concept is that ultimately the only workable method to preserve the biosphere of the planet from the alterations of mankind is to remove humanity from the surface of this world. This will produce a sustainable environment that will preserve the biodiversity of the planet for future generations to enjoy.

Since humans are at present entirely dependent upon the terrestrial ecosystem, a transfer to artificial and sustainable habitats will ensure long term survival. This will serve to protect the human species from large-scale disasters, such as nuclear conflict, asteroid impacts, or an outbreak of a devastating plague.

Under the Earth Park concept, virtually the entire human population of the world will emigrate to artificial habitats, leaving the earth as a wildlife refuge that will gradually recover its proper ecological balance and diversity. To be successful over the long term this must be a universal migration, and no pockets of reproductive humanity can remain on the surface of the earth.

Unintended goof or ironic? You make the call.

Actually, the Iowa "EarthPark" already has a web site (Earthpark.org), which appears to be the same as the old Iowa Child web site, and it boasts that it will be opening on Earth Day in 2010.

Within the EarthPark web site is this bullshit from Ted Townsend:

The attractive power in this idea is strong enough to generate financial self-sustainability. Yes, the full range of earned income opportunities should cover annual operating expenses. Moreover, the ten-year economic impact statewide is quesstimated between one and two billion dollars.

Ted Townsend can't get the thing built without a shitload of deficit-funded pork spending courtesy of fauxscal conservative Chuck Grassley. How does he expect over a million people to come to Grinnell or Riverside or some other podunk town to keep it in the black? The Botanical Center in Des Moines has been running $2 million in red ink over the past three years and it has about a half million people within a 30 miles radius of it.

From the press release today:

Project Executive Director David Oman noted that [the project] has a construction and start-up budget of approximately $155 million.

Somehow this project gets cheaper by the year!

Also from the press release:

Grimshaw Architects partner Andrew Whalley, speaking from London, unveiled two exciting conceptual images of what the Project could look like, each based on an inspiration from the natural world—the bone structure of a bat wing and the curvature of a nautilus shell.

Yes, Iowa is especially known for bat wings and nautilus shells.

Maybe Mr Whalley meant these bat wings?


Update: Side Notes poses a hypothetical and Joe coins a new term: EarthPork

Rainforest Announcement Today

The Des Moines Register is reporting that the Rainforest Con Artists are going to hold a news conference this morning to announce some new bullshit that the media will eat up.

Do you think they're going to announce that they're taking over the Des Moines Botanical Center? You know, the one that has lost $2 million in taxpayer dollars over the past three years.

Not likely.

Maybe Tom Vilsack is going to ream the taxpayers some more and give David Oman $95 million to turn the Newton Maytag factory into the Rainforest after it closes in 2007.

It's anybody's guess, but I'll have a post later this morning after it happens.

Steve King: Iraq Is Safer Than DC, Baltimore, or Atlanta

Alicia Colon, writing in the New York Sun:

I happened to catch Rep. Steve King, a Republican of Iowa, on C-span last week and he rattled off some startling figures that demonstrate how off-base journalists are when it comes to reporting on the war in Iraq. According to Mr. King, the violent death rate in Iraq is 25.71 per 100,000. That may sound high, but not when you compare it to places like Colombia (61.7), South Africa (49.6), Jamaica (32.4), and Venezuela (31.6). How about the violent death rates in American cities? New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina was 53.1. FBI statistics for 2004-05 have Washington at 45.9, Baltimore at 37.7, and Atlanta at 34.9.

Related: Steve King Has A Combover Hair In His Gordita

Iowa Ennui On Burlington Derailed

Iowa Ennui returns from a break with a hell of a post on the Burlington Derailed controversy.

Here's a taste of the letter "Spike" received from Drake Law Professor Charlie Smithson, the Executive Director of the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board:

To be honest with both of you, as a campaign regulator I would prefer that anytime a blog expressly advocated for or against candidates or ballot issues the campaign laws would apply. It seems to me that if we can regulate an individual sending out a letter or placing a newspaper advertisement, that the same regulations could apply to the Internet. However, that is not the view of the courts and the general sway of government regulation.

What an asshole. Smithson reminds me that dickhead John McCain.

Iowa Democrat Odds And Ends

The Drew Miller Blog is taking a hiatus.

Also, a well-reasoned opinion from the Krusty Konservative's comments section:

I do think that if there was ever a time for someone like Fallon, it is now. And if we hope to change some of the fundamental problems with politics, it will start by electing someone like Fallon. Unfortunately, we Dems are too focused on trying to find the most electable candidate. That’s why it’s a real uphill battle for Fallon. I think deep down most Iowa Dems would love to have Ed as their nominee, but they won’t vote for him because they think someone like Fallon can’t win. Too good to be true. This is where I think Dems could really learn from R’s. If you had someone like Fallon with core R values, that person would surely have a better chance of getting the GOP nomination.

The other major problem we Dems have is that we have certain litmus tests that all candidates feel they need to pass in order to have a shot at any kind of Dem nomination. There is certain rigid party dogma that everyone supposedly needs to follow. You must be ideologically pure, a “real Democrat.” Blouin and his abortion stance is the perfect example. If he had actually stood up for what he believes in, I would have considered him. Now he’s just like everyone else (Kerry etc.), saying anything to not offend anyone. Dems need to start standing up for what they believe in, even if it doesn’t follow the rigid party line.

You had me until the "Dems need to start standing up for what they believe in" line.

Too many Dems subscribe to the philosophy espoused by Vince Lombardi and Harry "Red" Sanders. Republicans do this, too. Case in point: Jim Ross Lightfoot.

Dems look at polls and freak out because Ed Fallon doesn't do as well as that dumb tool Culver or Deacon Blouin when up against Jim Ross Nussle. All those polls are BS. You can bet that your die-hard AFSCME union thugs, corporate welfare recipients in Waterloo, and all the inbred Archie Brooks/Polk County Board Of Supervisors/CIETC types are going to poll the lever for Fallon over Nussle on Election Day.

Plus Fallon would grab left-leaning Republicans, the anti-divorce-your-wife-and-marry-a-DC-lobbyist types, the Krunchy Konservatives, more than a few Natural Law types, right-wingers who are against corporate welfare, and a ton of moderates.

Perhaps we are not quite at the end of the days where legacy puppets can be put into office via Daddy Warbucks types, but we are close to them. We just need more online disclosure, more blogging, more digging, and more scandals to get to the next phase. It's going to happen. It's just a matter of when.

A National Example

From a reader in Marion who's very happy this blog is back:

This is Al Gore in early 1998, on his 50th birthday, via the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday that the Osada affordable-housing project in Cedar Rapids "sets a national example" of a public-private partnership that can revitalize inner cities.

"For years in our country we've seen a misguided strategy of abandoning the inner city and using tax dollars to subsidize developments out in cornfields," Gore said in a 20-minute speech that was part of Osada dedication ceremonies.

The vice president spoke to about 200 invited guests in the atrium section of the five-story building, transformed from an old grocery warehouse and soda factory into 67 apartment units by MidAmerica Housing Partnership (MAHP) of Cedar Rapids...

Gore praised developers of the project at 905 Third St. SE, saying it's not just to provide tax breaks to private partners "but to bring the community together." He said the idea of bankers, representatives of the neighborhood, potential residents and government sitting at the same table "has provided the energy for this project."

Gore heads President Clinton's Community Empowerment project, the formal name for revitalization efforts involving residents of inner cities. He said when he and Clinton came to office, "we were hard-pressed to find a single success story in inner urban America."

And this was in yesterday's Gazette:

Former Vice President Al Gore hailed Osada Apartments as "a national example" of inner-city urbanization and public-private partnership during a Cedar Rapids visit that coincided with its dedication ceremony in 1998.

Eight years later, trash litters the hallways and atrium of the the low- to medium-income apartment complex at 905 Third St. SE. Carpets are stained and filthy. Fire alarms dangle from the ceiling. Water fountains are broken. Residents say cockroaches are taking over. Birds can be heard in the ductwork. Fire alarms are frequently pulled as a prank. Water leaks are commonplace. Walls are smeared with unknown substances. Flooring tiles around the edges of the walls are wet and deteriorating.

One day in late April, the stench of urine in the elevator was overpowering.

And what's the problem?

The non-profit organization has been struggling to stay afloat the last couple of years. Low occupancy rates, financial mismanagement, lack of leadership and little board oversight have plagued the organization. MAHP officials say a shortage of money and staff have caused the organization to fall behind on maintenance of properties...

Occupancy rates that had sunk to 70 percent in 2004...

Then Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and Osada took in a number of refugees, which helped bring in more money.

From the story it seems that MAHP recently changed management and they're actually attempting to fix things.

Anyway, it's the same old/same old for Iowa politics and other recent scandals: You have a pseudo-government entity with little oversight and chocked full of do-gooders who are sucking on the taxpayer teet. The only problem is that the economy continues to improve, so people move out and up and maintenance suffers due to declining occupancy rates. Eventually things get so bad that somebody calls a reporter and a PR disaster ensues. Politicians previously associated with it scatter like cockroaches, or some attempt to make their future careers by cleaning up the mess. What a racket.

"I'm going to Iowa tomorrow to help Leonard Boswell"

From Wesley Clark's MySpace blog, here's part an entry from Thursday:

Unfortunately, we can expect the worst from Boswell's opponent, Jeff Lamberti. He is an advisor to a radical right-wing group that worked with the Swift Boat Veterans to smear John Kerry. They called Iowa's decent and hardworking senator, Tom Harkin, "communist loving."

First, I'd like to let everybody know that if I was still living in Iowa and had to choose between Lameberti and Boswell, I'd go with Boswell.

Lamberti is just another tool with dumb ideas and who has been involved with scandals.

Heck, I'd vote for Chris Woods for Congress over Lamberti.

As for Tom Harkin being called a communist lover, this picture says it all:



And this:

During Harkin’s 1982 re-election campaign, his opponent documented that this Democratic congressman had always voted against foreign aid for countries friendly to the U.S., but that Harkin had voted to give taxpayer money to Communist Vietnam, Communist Cuba, Communist Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Marxist Sandinista Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and other Communist nations.

Maytag Builds Crappy Washing Machines

From David Yepsen's column today:

The autopsy of Maytag will reveal multiple causes of death. The company made some bad business decisions. Global competition made it cheaper to build elsewhere. Product quality fell, as illustrated by the mold on the rim of my Neptune washer.

How bad was the mold problem and other issues on the Neptune washing machine? Pretty bad. Here's comments on the subject since September 2004 from numerous owners.

Friday Roundup

The Des Moines Botanical Center has lost nearly $2 million in the past three years?

Vilsack offered a $95 million taxpayer-financed bribe to keep Whirlpoolmaytagamana in Newton?

More Whirlpoolmaytagamana analysis that naturally leads back to a State 29 post from January. Talk about being psychic!

Ed Fallon continues to get respect from Konservatives.

Reader email:

State 29:

Glad you are back. I had some of the same questions about [Iowa Congressman Steve] King’s mendacious figures. Here’s what I found on the various government web sites (DEA, FBI…)

If what King writes is true, a quarter of all the deaths attributed to drunken driving in the United States, just under 17,000 annually, are caused by drunken immigrants. If that really is true we need to ask for green cards at the liquor store.

The Drug Enforcement Agency’s 2004 report says that 80 percent of methamphetamines come from Mexico, but the DEA’s annual survey showed that most of those drugs were surreptitiously shipped north in cars and trucks and not on the backs of illegal aliens slipping across the border.

King’s figures suggest that 4,380 people are killed each year by illegal immigrants. But the FBI says that only 2.5 percent of the 16,000 murders in 2004 (the most recent year statistics were available) were committed by a statistical group that Mexican nationals fall into. Even if we tried to stack the statistics in King’s favor and decided that the 2.5 percent who officially fall into the “Other” category are all illegal Mexicans, my rusty Math skills say that still only equals 400 murders a year or just over one a day.

Iowa Is The Most Polluted State

By Victor Amoroso Sr, and published in the Waterloo Courier:

It is scary that only two people out of 60 approved the DNR's proposal to give the director of the DNR the right to "reject applications and impose additional standards on confinements and open feedlots beyond state regulations, if operations would be reasonably expected to cause pollution or pose an unacceptable burden on natural resources, or the water due to concentration of confinements or associated manure application."

Iowa is now in the state of polluted waters of all kinds, i.e., brooks, streams, ponds, lakes. How much more pollution do we need from adding more hog confinements? Our water table is now full of nitrates and toxic bacteria.

Iowa is an agricultural state, and a farmer can do what he wants with land. However, when does this right give way to the health and safety of the public? Spreading manure ad infinitum over the state will play havoc with our water table even more. Finally the DNR is waking to the dangers of approving large confinements with no attention to ever-increasing pollution.

Wake up, people. Iowa right now is the most polluted state in the nation. Nitrogen, phosphorus and fecal bacteria in Iowa is 50 percent higher than other states in the Cornbelt and 18 times higher than the U.S. median.

I wouldn't mind all the poop if we can easily turn it into oil.

"I Could Do A Lot With $10 Million"

Just as I predicted yesterday, Vilsack wants to throw a ton of taxpayer money at Newton.

It's also going to cause every other shitty business in "company store" towns to hold their beaks up like baby birds, waiting for momma to bring along a worm or two:

Gov. Tom Vilsack's proposal that the state provide $10 million to help Newton replace 1,800 Whirlpool jobs will likely have other job-hungry communities knocking on the state's door.

Already, Vilsack said Wednesday, the state is considering a similar proposal for Webster City, a northern Iowa town of 8,100 that expects to lose 700 appliance manufacturing jobs with Electrolux/Frigidaire cutbacks...

Another hard-hit city is Mount Pleasant, which lost about 330 high-paying jobs this year with the closing of the Celestica electronics plant.

"I could do a lot with $10 million," said Jennifer Daly, executive vice president of the Mount Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance.

Considering that Iowa's state-wide unemployment rate is a ridiculously low 3.8% in March, it's not like the Joad Fambly has to load up and move along.

I think Krusty has good early analysis of the situation. It's the same old story: a fat-assed, union-run Iowa company gets complacent. Executives milk everything out of the old factory, the workers, the profits, the community, and the State taxpayers. The company gets sold. Panic sets in. Eventually the factory closes. The "company store" town freaks out and pins their hopes on some $6 an hour plastics assembly plant from Alabama that is interested in relocating to the hundreds of thousands of idled square feet. Or tourism. Or meth. Rinse taxpayers and repeat as necessary.

Newton Is Fucked

From the Des Moines Register:

Whirlpool today announced plans to close the Maytag headquarters and washer/dryer factory in Newton.

The Newton factory will continued (sic) to operate into 2007, Whirlpool said.

The headquarters employs about 1,200 people and the factory work force is about 1,000.

The Newton washer/dryer manufacturing will be moved to current Whirlpool plants in Ohio.

The Maytag headquarters and administrative operations in Newton will be moved to Whirlpool headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich.

No wonder Tom Vilsack went on a last-ditch cocksucking mission to Michigan last week.

Oh, well. They can always get a job at the Newton Speedway, which I heard is already selling $170 tickets for fall 2006.

Here's a prediction: It won't be long before Vilsack (and Blouinculvernussle) and the Iowa Legislature propose that taxpayers spend more money "retraining" workers and using taxpayer-financed corporate welfare to try to fill the soon-to-be-idled factory. And don't forget that the Legislature and Vilsack gave that $12.5 million tax break for the questionable speedway. What disgusting legacies.

A New Lead In The Jodi Huisentruit Case?

May 10 update: They found rocks, bricks, and pieces of wood.




From KSTP:

There's a new search for Minnesota native Jodi Huisentruit, the Minnesota TV news anchor that disappeared 10 years ago on her way to work at an Iowa station.

An Iowa man says the answer to this mystery is behind his cabin, 30 miles west of Mason City. Duane Arnold's property is on Eagle Lake in Hancock, Iowa. He said he noticed a grave shaped digging there just days after Huisentruit disappeared. A few weeks ago, Arnold paid an engineering firm $2,000 to survey the land with ground penetrating radar. The crews' radar did spot something deep beneath the earth, and Arnold says it's a body.

Arnold wants the Hancock Sheriff's Department to dig to see what lies beneath the earth. He said he's sure he'll find the answers that hundreds have searched for over the years.

"They're drainin' the lake, it's way down now...Now is the time," Arnold said. "It's either now or never. We're in the right area. I think she's there."

Investigators from Mason City have searched that area before, but Arnold says they missed the spot. The Hancock County Sheriff says deputies may dig up that area within the next few days.

It wasn't uncommon for families during the 1800s to bury their dead along the way or on the family property. That may be the case here. But it's worth checking out.

The Gas Face

I'm sure you have somebody like this in your office or family or neighborhood.

Today I was chatting with a co-worker who commutes from Lawrence to Overland Park, about 35 miles away. He was talking about a 60 Minutes segment on Sunday that Dan Rather did on ethanol. I saw the same story.

He knew I was from Iowa, so that was the initial connection, but eventually he discovered that I'm aware of the ethanol industry.

I said the future isn't necessarily with E85 produced from corn because of demand from states like California and New York, which both recently replaced MTBE with ethanol as an oxygenate additive. I said E85 may be part of it, but also consider cellulosic ethanol and bio-diesel.

He didn't want to hear any of this.

As it turns out, the guy commutes from Lawernce in one of those four door Ford F-150 trucks has a flex-fuel motor that can take E85. He gets about 15 or 16 miles to the gallon because he drives so fast on K-10. The speed limit is 70, but he says he normally drives closer to 80.

He said he spends about $350 a month on gas, but if he could just put E85 in his truck then that could ease his financial pain.

I said it actually might cost him more. His E85 truck is EPA rated at 13 mpg for 85% ethanol, and because of the high speed he drives he'd probably get 11 or 12 mpg. The price of E85, if you can find it anywhere, has also gone up recently and is currently in the $2.30 to $2.40 a gallon range. I can drive over the border into Missouri and get a gallon of proper gasoline for $2.51 today.

Then he went into this rant about how the oil companies are keeping things like E85 down. Oh, really? How? He said that it was because we have "two oilmen in the White House" and also to keep the profits going so that the head of Exxon could have a $400 million retirement package. I said if the head of Exxon didn't get $400 million for his retirement package then how much cheaper would gas be? Then I laughed like it was a joke in order to keep in his good graces.

Where do you start with somebody like that? They're too thick to realize that moving somewhat closer to work will cut your gasoline bill. So will driving a smaller vehicle with better mileage.

There's a segment of the population out there that don't want to change their lifestyles. They watch Dan Rather, figure it's a conspiracy, and think taxing oil company profits will bring back the days of 99 cent a gallon gas.

Sure, E85 is viable today, however remote it is, but it's still a commodity and it's in demand. Prices are going to be higher right now. That's just the way it is. If you don't mind paying more for energy independence then E85 or bio-diesel or plug-in hybrids are the future. If you think it's going to be cheaper, forget it.

Steve King Has A Combover Hair In His Gordita

From Steve King's web site:

What would that May 1st look like without illegal immigration? There would be no one to smuggle across our southern border the heroin, marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines that plague the United States, reducing the U.S. supply of meth that day by 80%. The lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day. Another 13 Americans would survive who are otherwise killed each day by uninsured drunk driving illegals. Our hospital emergency rooms would not be flooded with everything from gunshot wounds, to anchor babies, to imported diseases to hangnails, giving American citizens the day off from standing in line behind illegals. Eight American children would not suffer the horror as a victim of a sex crime.

On the negative side, the price of a pound of tomatoes might go up from $0.79 to $0.80. That is unless you have a garden. But I’m guessing that the Mexican drug lords are not taking May 1st off. Neither will the 11,000 illegal invaders that pour over our border every other day of the year. It is a safe bet that the U.S. Border Patrol will have a very busy “Nothing Gringo Day.”

Since September 11th, it remains true that OBL is the greatest threat to America. I will leave it to the reader to decide if the greatest threat is Osama bin Laden or the Open Borders Lobby. The emerging cheap labor “ruling class” in America is the strongest supporter of amnesty for illegals. Their anti-American “new servant class” has chosen to boycott them; the very definition of irony. On May 1st, Primero de Mayo, Americans will observe, as illegal immigrants celebrate, “Bite the Hand That Feeds You Day.”

King is correct that 80% of this country's meth comes from Mexico. This was true even before all those hayseeds started cooking it up in their garage using the Nazi Method. Drug companies manufacture a shitload more of pseudoephedrine than the entire country of Mexico could ever possibly use. It gets sold to drug cartels and comes to the US to keep dirtballs awake for several days. Viva NAFTA!

12 Americans are murdered or killed by illegals every day? That's 4380 over the course of a year. Is that true?

13 Americans killed by drunk driving illegals every day? That's 4745 during a year.

It is possible that these numbers are correct, but it would be nice to know the source and breakdown by state. If the numbers are relatively valid, the anti-illegal immigration types have some explosive data available. Saying that twice as many American citizens are killed each year by drunk driving illegal immigrants than US soldiers died in the latest Iraq war over the past three years is significant.

Robotic-Looking, Special Underwear-Wearing Mormon Mitt Romney Gives Commencement Speech At Coe College In Iowa

I don't get why some Republicans like Mitt Romney, the Governor of Taxachewshits. For me and others, interest in Romney ended when we discovered he's one of those weird underwear-wearing Mormons.

Look at the dude. Lantern-jawed, excellent physical shape, jet black hair with graying temples, crisp suit, and too long in the tanning booth. He's a caricature of your slick and soulless politician. Plus, a girl on MTV couldn't possibly ask him whether he prefers boxers or briefs because he's got that freaky religious underwear on all the time. There's no way to tell which way he dresses.

Anyway, according to the Boston Glob, Romney was in Iowa this past weekend giving a commencement speech at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. You remember Coe College, right? It's the place that hosted a huge anti-Semitic conference last year. Freaks!

Elitist Douchebag On The "Spirit Of Intolerance" And Faking Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Looks like John Kerry was in Grinnell recently, going on about something or other:

Sen. John Kerry accused the Bush administration on Saturday of stirring up a "spirit of intolerance" to suppress dissent over the war in Iraq.

Kerry said the Bush administration is targeting opponents of the Iraq war in much the same way he was attacked for protesting failed policies in Vietnam in the 1970s.

"Dismissing dissent is not only wrong but dangerous when America's leadership is unwilling to admit mistakes, unwilling to engage in honest discussion and unwilling to hold itself accountable for the consequences of decisions made without genuine disclosure or genuine debate," said Kerry, D-Mass.

"Although no one is being jailed today for speaking out against the war in Iraq, the spirit of intolerance for dissent has risen steadily, and the habit of labeling dissenters as unpatriotic has become the common currency of the politicians currently running our country," he said.

A "spirit of intolerance" from the Bush administration?

More like an "essence of douchebag" from a loser who ran out of ideas 35 years ago.


Update: Looks like John Kerry needs his speech fact-checked a little better. From the Volokh Conspiracy:

Like the fake story about the plastic Thanksgiving turkey supposedly served by George Bush to Iraqi troops, the phony Thomas Jefferson quote on dissent just won't die (tip to Tim Blair).

Here is John Kerry, speaking yesterday at Grinnell College in Iowa:

Dismissing dissent is not only wrong, but dangerous when America's leadership is unwilling to admit mistakes, unwilling to engage in honest discussion, and unwilling to hold itself accountable for the consequences of decisions made without genuine disclosure, or genuine debate. As Thomas Jefferson said, "dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

This suggests one of two things; either

• (1) no one at the Kerry campaign reads the Chicago Sun Times, the New York Sun, Mark Steyn, Tim Blair, Betsy's Page, or the Volokh Conspiracy, or

• (2) the Kerry campaign is (in Kerry's own words) "unwilling to admit mistakes, unwilling to engage in honest discussion, and unwilling to hold itself accountable."

It must be the former, though someone in the Kerry campaign should monitor the blogs more to prevent his recycling already debunked urban myths, such as the plastic turkey story and the Jefferson quote.

For more: Ann Althouse questions Kerry's argument in the speech, and Tim Blair points out Kerry's recycling of the mythical Jefferson quote...

What a douchebag.

Bush To Iowa Ethanol Producers: Drop Dead

From the Des Moines Register:

President Bush wants Congress to drop the tariff on imported ethanol to bolster supplies of the fuel additive and lower the price of gasoline.

"Dropping a tariff will enable the foreign export of ethanol into our markets, which will particularly help on our coasts,'' Bush said during an interview Friday with CNBC television's Larry Kudlow. "And, yeah, I've talked to Congress about that."

Suspending the tariff could hurt Iowa farmers and ethanol producers, who could face competition from cheaper Brazilian ethanol

Wow, talk about shooting open the hornet's nest of special interests!

First, Bush has to get by fauxscal conservative Chuck Grassley, head of the Senate payoff Finance Committee. Since Chuck Grassley is so beholden to farm-related special interest groups from the State of Iowa, I'd say the chance of the tariff getting lifted is NEVAH.

Lifting the tariff would also piss off environmentalist groups, mostly because Brazil would have to completely deforest their country in order to fill all those 11 mpg, E85-drinkin' Chevy Tahoes, like the kind that Governor Tom Vilsack drives to the Des Moines Airport.

The Khristian Factor

Krusty has the result of the American Research Group's poll and an analysis.

I am amused at this poll.

26% for McCain? Are there that many insane people in Iowa?

10% for Bill Frist? That makes sense, as the Republican Party in Iowa lacks a spine just like Frist does.

4% for Newt Gingrich? Bunch of Jim Nussle-wannabes, if you ask me.

3% for Mitt Romney? Do they know he has special underwear on?

Factor in Rudy Giuliani and he gets 16%. Whoopdee doo.

Huckabee, Pataki, George Allen, and every other Republican senator got 0%.

This poll does not include some Khristian wingnut name, like Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, Robert Grant, James Dobson, or Jerry Falwell. Stick in any one of those names and they're guaranteed 28% of the vote. Add two of the above names and they'll split it. Include somebody like Joel Osteen and he'd probably poll almost 40%.

While there's currently no "Khristian" name being bounced around right now, it's almost a guarantee that one will come up when primary season starts kicking in. Polls might as well reserve a space for "A Yet Unnamed Christian Candidate" and see how that factors.

Somebody Change The Signs To: "Iowa: Bend Over"

Governor Tom Vilsack, who is apparently drunker than Patrick Kennedy before his recent automobile accident cover-up, flew to Michigan to suck the cock of Whirlpool CEO Dave Swift:

Whirlpool's purchase of Maytag was finalized about a month ago, and nearly 5000 Iowa jobs are on the line with Whirlpool's decision about what to do with its newly-acquired operations here. Twenty-five-hundred workers are employed at the Amana plant in Amana, another 2300 are employed in Maytag facilities in Newton and 100 work at a distribution center in North Liberty. "We have suggested a variety of incentives," Vilsack says. "I put on the table the other day the idea of 'What if we build a state of the art facility that would be the most environmentally-attractive and advanced facility in the country or in the world?' Would that be enough?"

Dave Swift's response has to be something on the order of: "Go ahead and build the facility, but make sure we can staff it with 5000 illegal Mexicans who will be paid $5 an hour. You can kick in the health care, Tommy Boy."

You Look Hot In Orange

This 22 year old honey from Ankeny was booked into the Polk County Jail in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, May 4, 2006 on forgery and 2nd degree theft charges.

To look for more hotties at the Polk County Jail, plus a whole lotta scumbuckets, visit Inmates On The Web.

Bye Bye Touchplay

From the Mason City Globe Gazette:

Lawyers representing TouchPlay operators filed an emergency request Wednesday morning, asking Polk County District Court Judge Glenn Pille to reconsider his Tuesday ruling against an injunction to keep the machines operating. Pille declined.

Louis Rukeyser Died

Even though he's been off the air a couple of years to fight bone marrow cancer, it still seemed like Louis Rukeyser was around. He died yesterday at the age of 73.

Rukeyser was a staple of my PBS viewing on Friday nights on KDIN throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. How could you not love the opening theme song to Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser with the bells, french horns, and electric piano? And every year it seemed the font changed on the title sequence: from 1960's computer-style to modern sleek. And every year his hair got a bit thinner, combed-over, and George Washington-ish.

Like most fans of Rukeyser's dry humor and bullish stance, I was pissed when Maryland Public Television shit all over him several years ago and brought forth the abortion called "Wall Street Week With Fortune" with a younger host and forgettable guests and which eventually failed.

The thing I liked about Rukeyser was that he was always bullish on America and the economy. Bad times were a blip in the road, or a sector to avoid. Bubbles should have been obvious things to avoid, like when the S&P 500 was trading at 27 times earnings in the year 2000. He was right! And he wasn't afraid to humorously discuss matters with a perennial bear like Jim Grant or constantly rib those who thought that gold and silver were going return to their go-go days of 1980.

Rukeyser was, in a way, responsible for heading me in the direction I chose when it came to a career. He's also been influential in my investing habits, ideas, and decisions. He will definitely be missed, but the lessons he taught over the decades will live on through all of us.

Iowa AD Bob Bowlsby Goes To Stanford

See how out of the loop I am? I didn't realize until this morning that the rotten University of Iowa Athletic Director, Bob Bowlsby, the guy who shit all over Dr Tom Davis in favor of the mediocre Steve Alford, got a job running Stanford's athletic programs into the ground.

From Inside Bay Area:

Bob Bowlsby was able to live like a king in Iowa City. He owned a 7,000-square-foot house on 25 acres worth $1.2 million on the local market.

In Palo Alto, $1.2 million might get you a 1,200-foot fixer-upper.

Hello, culture shock.

But in the decision-making end, the opportunity to preside over a regal athletic department was too attractive to pass up.

"I have a degree from Iowa, my family has 19 degrees from Iowa," said Bowlsby, who was introduced Friday as Stanford's athletic director. "We have very deep roots in the Midwest. Stanford is the only place I would have considered. It's a place where athletic excellence and academic excellence are not mutually exclusive. It is a model for intercollegiate athletics. I will work very hard to take an exceptional athletic program and make it even better."

"My family has 19 degrees from Iowa..." only an arrogant dickhead would say that sort of thing.

Look at how stupid the people running Stanford are:

Stanford did a good deal of shopping to find its new athletic director.

"We interviewed a great number of people, more than 50 but less than 100," provost John Etchemendy said. "The person we chose came out head and shoulders above all the others. The depth of Bob's knowledge and the values he holds are just exemplary. We saw many people who had the integrity we were looking for, but very few had done what Bob has done in his career."

You mean destroying one of the best men's college wrestling programs in the country? Wrecking most of women's sports at Iowa? Replacing a distinguished basketball coach with a stellar record and lengthy stadium sell-out record with a coach who repeatedly played favorites and caused excellent players to leave and defended a player with alarming sexual violence problems until he got busted a second time?

What's Bowlsby's big success? Replacing Hayden Fry with Kirk Ferentz? That's sort of like the stockbroker who picked Yahoo to put in his portfolio about 8 years ago and has been bragging about it ever since, meanwhile everything else he's selected has been featured on FuckedCompany.com. Big deal.

Pinko De Mayo: National Take Your Illegal To The Border Day

I am going to celebrate National Take Your Illegal To The Border Day by eating at this Taco Bell.

Long ago, those who run Iowa's meatpacking bizzes decided to eliminate well-paid corn-fed types with meth-smokers and the type of Mexican that doesn't mind sitting 10 to a minivan for 20 hours as long as their destination was Marshalltown or Columbus Junction or Postville.

You know you're in trouble when you're in Marshalltown and the ATMs all say Press 1 For Spanish and Press 2 For English.

I joke. But seriously gringos, those uppity Illegals will be celebrating PINKO DE MAYO on May 1st, organized by all those commie-interest groups.

Don't forget that Carol Hunter, the anti-American Gannettoid broad running the Register in the ground, suggested that illegals should be granted a driver's license. Carol, what part of ILLEGAL do you not understand???????????

What's the difference between Carol Hunter and Wayne Ford, described as "pretty far to the left" by even Rob Borsellino, and who thinks that state and local governments should accept potentially phony IDs from Mexicans as well as giving them a driver's license? ("Hágale quiere una aplicación Motriz de Votante con ese permiso de conducir ilegal, Senior?") I would say the answer is: NOT MUCH.

For all that, I agree with the Krustacean.

May I remind all you people that when you buy that cheap ground beef, that cheap Other Slightly Off-White Meat, and the purchase of most Cargill and Tyson products, you're contributing to the flow of illegals to this country.

On Monday I'm having the bean burrito at Taco Bell. No illegals were compensated in the way my lunch was created or prepared.