Probably, the problems in the Middle East have escalated from the time of the Old Testament’s “Genesis” when Hagar, Sarah’s maid, gave birth to Ishmael, and fourteen years later, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Abraham sired both boys. So, maybe the “Hagars” and the “Sarahs” of Asia should be permitted to meet in some type of a koffee-klotch round-table discussion and solve their ego-rotting revengefulness.
Arlene Jens, Davenport
The tar baby is a form of a character widespread in African folklore. In various folktales, gum, wax, or other sticky material is used to trap a person.The entry at Random House goes on to say that it has been used as a derogatory term for black people, but doesn't put this use into context.
The folktale achieved currency in the United States in written form in one of Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories, a collection of stories based on African-American folklore, narrated by the fictional Uncle Remus, a former slave. In the story "Tar-Baby," the character Brer Fox makes a doll out of tar, which he places by the road to entrap his enemy Brer Rabbit. Brer Rabbit talks to the doll, and when it doesn't answer, he hits it, and gets stuck in the tar. The more he struggles with it, the more he is entangled in it.
In the tit-for-tat counting of rockets launched into and out of Israel, the number killed in each locale, and the discussion of the rights of a nation to defend itself against terrorism, we tend to think there is a level playing field, equal riskand no important history between the involved combatants and unfortu-nate victims. There is no acknowledgment of the intense suffering of Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, nor of the overwhelming military capability, including an arsenal of nuclear weapons, of the Israeli defense force.This is just another spin of the "disproportionate violence" talking point that the Jew-haters have been using for the past couple of weeks.
We are continuously reminded about the role of Iran and Syria in supplying military personnel and hardware to Hezbollah and Hamas. Yet there is no acknowledgment or debate about the massive amount of military aid that flows from the U.S. into Israel.
Iowa State University officials say there is no evidence to support "any allegations of improprieties" pertaining to the university's study of Rock In Prevention...I really could quote the entire article, so read the whole thing yourself.
Spokesman John McCarroll said the detailed findings of the report will not be made public because they relate to "personnel" information.Nice job of trying to bury this, ISU, by making it "classified" via HR.
Clark McLeod, who had been chairman and chief executive of McLeodUSA, agreed to turn over $4.4 million in profits he was accused of receiving from the so-called act of "spinning," Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said. The deal was to be formally announced on Monday.Funny how this article doesn't mention the dirtiest bastard of all, Salomon Smith Barney's Jack Grubman, the Worst Analyst Ever.
The former executive was accused of directing more than $77 million of McLeodUSA's investment banking business to Salomon Smith Barney. In exchange, the company "secretly" gave McLeod shares of 34 stocks before its initial public offering, which resulted in a windfall of $4.8 million on the first day of public trading of the stock, according to Spitzer's 2002 civil lawsuit.
There was no finding or admission of liability in the settlement, which dismisses Spitzer's action against McLeod.
History repeats itself. The phrase is sickening when used in the context of the Middle East.This time, the anti-Semites use the talking point of "disproportionate violence" to describe Israel defending itself against a terrorist group, Hezbollah, dedicated to killing Jews and eradicating the State of Israel. They are funded by terrorist regimes in Syria and Iran, as are the missles that Hezbollah launches indiscriminately into Israel. The Jew-haters like Dennis Olson never mention that, do they? No, they don't.
Violence begets violence, and when Israel is involved it typically escalates. I, for one, am sick of the repeated disproportionate violence unleashed by the Israeli military. Last week it happened again. A handful of terrorists kidnapped three Israeli soldiers. It escalates and scores are killed at a disproportionate rate, probably 10 to 1 Arab to Israeli, mostly innocent civilians.
Of course, there will be a multitude who will say “they have the right to defend themselves.” That, of course, is true, but even a casual observer can see that time and again Israel responds with force that victimizes the innocent.
There are options. Diplomacy, along with small covert military actions would have been more appropriate and more effective at returning their troops. The actions taken, I suspect, were not intended to secure the captured troops. Rather, they were intended to punish and intimidate their Arab neighbors, thus perpetuating further hatred and violence.
I cannot remain silent. The media and our politicians are reluctant to speak for fear of being called anti-Semitic. We cannot however, in the name of justice and peace, condone this disproportionate violence. After all, the old Jewish texts tell us, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” As a world leader, we must demand and demonstrate restraint.
Board members asked Duty, who was convicted of second-degree murder, why she passed on an offer to plead guilty to significantly lesser charges. Duty said she was ignorant of the court system and was unclear about her options.Rude there, Mrs Ian Binnie.
"You were offered the deal of a lifetime," said parole board member Barbara Binnie. "In four and a half years, you would have been out and a free woman. But you did not do that because you felt you could get away with something."
Officials were incredulous that Duty had left Shanahan's body undisturbed for more than a year until sheriff's deputies made their grisly discovery at the couple's house.When you've been repeatedly beaten up, had guns pointed at you, and told that you will abort the baby that you're carrying and then you're punched in the stomach, perhaps you're not in the most reasonable state of mind. Huh, Elizabeth Robinson?
"On your application for clemency, you said, 'I did what any reasonable person would have done.' You know, no reasonable person would leave a body rotting for 14 months in their bedroom," said the board's chairwoman, Elizabeth Robinson. "How cruel can it be to let a father rot in the same house with his children?"
Board member Karen Muelhaupt said she had "no doubt" that Shanahan had been "horrifically abusive." But she agreed that his killing was unjustified under the circumstances, and encouraged Duty to participate in prison programs that would help her cope with the trauma.Unjustified under the circumstances?
At trial, Dixie explained her relationship with Scott at the end of August 2002 was “[v]ery, very rocky” and she was being “[v]ery badly” abused by him three to four times a week. She said when she found out she was pregnant with Brittany, Scott “went ballistic” and told her to have an abortion. She refused. She testified they fought for several days, with Scott beating Dixie. During the beatings, Scott would tell her he would make sure she would not have the baby and there was nothing she could do about it.Dixie Shanahan's main crime seems to be that she didn't call the police after it happened because she was physically abused and mentally fucked up.
She went on to testify that on August 30, 2002, Dixie woke up around 6:30 a.m. and woke her children. She sent Zachary to school before Scott awoke. When Scott woke up, he became enraged because Dixie did not wake him before Zachary left. She stated he then pulled Dixie by the hair and beat her in the stomach, hollering he was going to kill the unborn baby one way or another. At this point, Dixie sent Ashley to a friend’s house nearby. Dixie testified as she tried to leave, Scott followed her, took the car keys from her, and prevented her from leaving. He then knocked her on the ground, dragged her by her hair back into the house, and punched her in the stomach saying, “I’m gonna kill this baby. You’re not having this baby.”
Dixie said while she laid there crying, Scott went into the other room and came back with the shotgun. She said he was in a rage, physically shaking, and calling her names. He put two different shells in the gun and pointed the gun at her. He threatened her by saying, “This day is not over yet. I will kill you.” He then walked away. As she sat in the living room chair, he came back in a rage and beat her again, threatening her and the unborn baby’s lives.
Scott took all of the telephones out of the telephone jacks except the one in the bedroom. He took the telephones with him into the bedroom, where he laid down. Dixie thought the telephone in the bedroom was still working. Despite being dressed and sitting in a chair right by the door with nobody around, Dixie decided to call the police instead of leaving the house. She went into the bedroom to get the telephone. She said Scott was awake lying in bed on his side. As Dixie entered the bedroom to get the telephone, she saw Scott make a movement at her or the gun sitting beside the telephone. Dixie said she saw the gun, grabbed it, pointed it at Scott, closed her eyes, and shot him in the back of the head. She claimed she needed to protect herself and did not have any other choice but to fire the gun.
Dixie said she set the gun down, walked out of the bedroom, and sat in a chair for a couple of hours. She described herself as “[v]ery upset,” thinking about what she did and what she was going to do. Still unsure about what she was going to do, Dixie went back into the bedroom, pulled up the sheets to cover the body, retrieved the telephone and the gun, shut the bedroom door, and put a towel underneath it. She put the gun in the children’s bedroom closet.
Dixie never did anything else with Scott’s body and never told anyone what happened. She and her children continued to live in the house trying to live a normal life. She told people lies about Scott so she could avoid going to jail. She said she went into the bedroom three times after the shooting, all in the same day. She said at the time of the shooting the windows were open in the house, but she was able to close the bedroom window from the outside.
Dixie Shanahan Duty, the Defiance woman who shot her husband as he slept and let his body decompose in the couple's bedroom for more than year, will not get an early release from prison, the state Board of Parole voted unanimously today.More background at CourtTV.
Duty, 38, is serving a 50-year sentence after her 2004 conviction for the second-degree murder of Scott Shanahan, who was described at her trial as an abusive husband.
Shelby County authorities say Duty shot Scott after an argument in August 2002. She then left Shanahan’s body in the couple’s bedroom for more than a year
U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts hopped on a bike and is riding part of the RAGBRAI route today, RAGBRAI organizers said. He joined the ride at Williamsburg.John Kerry is likely the only douchebag riding RAGBRAI on an $8000 Serotta Ottrott.
• Upgrading the MaxFire into a 100,000-BTU furnace system that not only would heat a home, but also convert heat into electricity to furnish much of the home's power.Off-the-grid completely by burning corn, wood pellets, and other biomass? And heating at a fraction of the cost of propane, oil, and natural gas? That's cool.
• Building a plant to produce fuel pellets, probably containing readily available waste from sugar-beet and ethanol processing and litter from turkey-production operations.
While Sal Mohamed of Sioux City placed an advertisement in the Journal Thursday inviting the public to his press conference to announce his run for President of the United States, he knows his candidacy could be halted, but is hoping it won't be.It was nice to see the Democratic Party and the media accept Sal's candidacy in the primary and invite him to debates, some of which he attended.
As an Egypt-born man who became a U.S. citizen in 1983, Mohamed could be tripped up by the Constitution wording that "no person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States... shall be eligible for the office of President."
President Bush today signed into law new mandatory minimum sentences that would guarantee punishment for criminals who prey on children, inspired by Jetseta Gage’s suffering and death.
The 10-year-old Cedar Rapids girl was raped and murdered in March 2005 in a crime that stunned and horrified Iowans.
The provisions are named “Jetseta Gage Assured Punishment for Violent Crimes Against Children.”
They are part of a larger bill that also strengthens state sex offender registries, creates a national offender registry and protects children from Internet predators.
Oh dear, the poor mother didn't know Roger Bentley was on the Iowa Sex Offender list, but HIS BROTHER HAD BEEN SEXUALLY ABUSING HER 10 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER FOR OVER TWO AND A HALF YEARS AND HAD BEEN CHARGED WITH IT. Come on. These stupid white trash mothers with their "boyfriends" and "friends" who are fucking around with children, what is with this particular clay-eating subculture of deviancy?
The newest sponsor for the Iowa Speedway in Newton is the Iowa Pork Producers Association. The commodity group's president-elect Scott Tapper says the partnership's a natural fit. Tapper says since Iowa's the number-one pork-producing state, the organization wanted to make pork the "official meat of the Iowa Speedway."That makes sense, considering that the Speedway was financed in part by Vilsack giving the owners of $12.5 million sales tax break, millions in tax-increment financing by the residents of Newton (a more thorough list is located here), and a $6.8 million RISE grant from Iowa taxpayers.
State environmental experts say they've detected -no- toxins in the smoke rising from a huge fire of thousands of junked cars at a Mason City scrap metal facility. Iowa Department of Natural Resources spokesman Jeff Van Steenberg says they've done air sample tests in a number of areas downwind of the blaze at Behr Mason City and have found nothing hazardous. Van Steenberg says "There wasn't any detectable levels on the ground. Obviously, lots of different things are released in that kind of fire, but we were getting some dispersion in the atmosphere." The air was checked for levels of hydrogen sulfide, benzene, chlorine, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Oxygen levels were also found to be normal.
House Vote 190 - Dairy education in Iowa ($229,000)
House Vote 191 - Hydroponic tomato production in Ohio ($180,000)
House Vote 192 - National Grape and Wine Initiative ($100,000)
House Vote 204 - Virginia Science Museum ($250,000)
House Vote 205 - Juniata Locomotive Demonstration ($1,000,000)
House Vote 277 - Swimming pool in Banning, CA ($500,000)
House Vote 278 - “Facilities” in Weirton, West Virginia ($100,000)
House Vote 279 - Multipurpose facility in Yucaipa, California ($500,000)
House Vote 280 - Strand Theater Arts Center in Plattsburgh, New York ($250,000)
House Vote 298 - Mystic Aquarium in New London, Conn. ($1,000,000)
House Vote 299 - The Jason Foundation in Ashburn, VA ($1,000,000)
House Vote 302 - Northwest Manufacturing Initiative ($2,500,000)
House Vote 303 - Lewis Center for Education Research ($4,000,000)
House Vote 304 - Leonard Wood Research Institute ($20,000,000)
House Vote 334 - Arthur Avenue Retail Market ($150,000)
House Vote 335 - Bronx Council for the Arts in Bronx, N.Y. ($300,000)
House Vote 336 - Johnstown Area Regional Industries ($800,000)
House Vote 337 - Fairmont State University ($900,000)
House Vote 338 - Tourism Development Association in Kentucky ($1,000,000)
I have to watch what I say around the office tea stand. Editorial writer Andie Dominick might quote me.
When I casually asked her last week if she was going on RAGBRAI, she wrote a Saturday item reporting my comments about how we overdo our coverage. She quoted me as saying it was a waste of resources.
Actually, I said it was a "monumental" waste of resources.
It's a bike ride. It's not the Second Coming. It's a great tribute to Spandex, pork chops and rhubarb pie. It's not hard news. It's a feature story. And after 30-some years, it's not a particularly novel feature story anymore.
I write this column with some trepidation because by doing it, I'm just adding to the RAGBRAI glut in the daily paper. But I am a disciple of the Jack Germond school of political reporting. We believe in bending our elbows, not our knees...
...So enjoy the ride, Andie. May the wind be at your back and not from a hog lot. May you not be gouged by the country folks overcharging you city slickers for the granola. And enjoy the countryside. Most of it is private property that shouldn't be eminent domained.
But hurry back. You've got serious opining work to do to convince Iowans they should be for higher taxes and socialized medicine.
Lloyd Rose, who moved to Des Moines from the East Coast for his job with AmerUs Life, said Des Moines has more new-home choices than New York City, where density limits new construction.Oh, really?
Rose and his family planned to make an offer on a new home in Waukee on Monday. "You're not necessarily spending less than you would in New York, you're just getting twice as much space for your dollars," said Rose.
Firefighters from five departments battled a mountain of between 6,000 and 8,000 crushed cars at Behr Mason City, 12050 W. State St. early this morning.
The fire, which was reported at just after 5 a.m., created a massive plume of smoke that floated northwest of Mason City. At times the flames shot a couple of hundred feet in the air.
Critics of the project have dubbed it the Iowa Pork Forest and question whether it will deliver the economic side benefits backers claim.Not only do we critics question whether the economic side benefits will happen, but also whether the project will be able to sustain itself without taxpayer dollars supporting it after being built.
Our legislative leaders need to allow the DNR's pending environmental-evaluation rule to take effect next month. We need to give a meaningful voice to citizens who are having their property rights taken by developers of new CAFO sites. This can be done with a simple law change authorizing counties to zone where these facilities can be built — or cannot. Finally, we need to require developers to compensate adjacent landowners for loss of property values when a new facility is built.Vonk has a lot of good points in this op-ed.
Governor Tom Vilsack today asked Iowans to join him in calling on President Bush and Congress to address the problem of record high gas prices. The Governor launched an online petition for citizens to join him in his effort. The petition encourages President Bush to follow Iowa’s example of investing in renewable fuels in order to lessen America’s dependence on expensive and unstable foreign oil and to bring down the cost of gasoline in the long-term...If every acre of corn was used in the United States, ethanol would only supply 12% of this country's fuel needs.
...The average cost of regular unleaded gasoline is currently about $2.88 in Iowa, 70 cents higher than this time last year, and $3.00 nationally, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report. Three other governors (Granholm of Michigan, Doyle of Wisconsin, and Napolitano of Arizona) have launched petitions to galvanize public support.
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack today capped his first year as chairman of a national Democratic policy group telling an audience of the state and local elected officials from all over that Democrats could win in November with good ideas.Here are some good ideas of Vilsack's:
"The reality is that many of the great solutions to the problems that we face as a nation today are not going to be found on K Street," Vilsack told the annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council, a policy-focused party group, at its annual meeting in Denver. "They are going to be found on the main streets of our communities."
Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, received a deferred judgment after pleading guilty late last week to drunken driving from an April traffic stop in Des Moines.This is probably a typical sentence for first time drunk drivers. At least nobody got hurt, except Dvorsky's cost of automobile insurance in the future.
Dvorsky, 57, also was ordered to complete a two-day educational program for first-time drunken drivers, undergo a substance abuse evaluation and complete 30 hours of community service, online court records show. A deferred judgment means that if Dvorsky stays out of trouble for one year, the drunken driving charge will be cleared from his record.
I am one of countless Iowans that proudly fills my gas tank every week with ethanol blend fuel. That is why I was appalled to learn that Mike Whalen served as policy chairman for a group that proposed cutting funding for all ethanol programs and concluded that, “corn deserves a place on the nation’s dinner table for its nutritional value, but it doesn’t belong in the gas tanks of millions of U.S. motor vehicles.”Considering that gasohol (E10) is currently 10 cents a gallon more expensive than 87 octane unleaded 100% gasoline throughout most of Iowa, especially after a couple decades of E10 being priced cheaper than the non-hooch blend, it's likely that some of the "countless" people buying fuel are no longer choosing E10.
Eastern Iowa needs a strong representative in Washington who will stand up for agriculture and our livelihood. With his opposition to ethanol, Whalen does not represent my Iowa values.
[According to a new report by the Iowa Taxpayers Assocation], despite all the promises of "property tax relief" made by state and local politicians in recent years, Iowa has made little, if any, progress...I don't think the false promise of property tax relief through the raising of sales taxes is a good idea. People aren't going to be fooled anymore.
Iowa had the 10th-highest property taxes for nicer homes in a typical rural community. It's 14th highest for those in Des Moines. Taxes on Iowa's business and apartment properties rank among the top five states in the country, the group said.
Higher property taxes work to depress the sale value of homes. Or, they could be a reason not to improve it...
...So what's to be done?
Property taxes are levied largely by cities, counties and schools. With 99 counties, about 950 cities and 367 school districts, there is room to save through mergers and sharing services and administrators.
State dollars can replace local property tax dollars. Property taxes can also be replaced by local-option income or sales-tax dollars — or by fees. Lawmakers could allow local governments more of these options.
It seems like a miracle that Sgt. R.J. Mitchell survived his second combat tour in Iraq, based on the Iowa Marine's citation for the Navy Cross.
During a ferocious firefight with six insurgents inside a heavily fortified house in Fallujah, Mitchell courageously attacked the enemy strong point to help rescue five wounded Marines trapped within the house, according to Marine Corps officials.
Disregarding his own safety, he charged through enemy AK-47 rifle fire and hand grenades to assist a critically wounded Marine in an isolated room. Then he moved to another room to assist others.
After he was struck by a bullet ricochet in his left leg and by grenade fragments on his legs and face, Mitchell saw a wounded insurgent reach for a weapon.
"With his rifle inoperable, he drew his combat knife, stabbed the insurgent and eliminated him instantly," the citation reads. "Limping from his own wounds ... Mitchell assisted in the evacuation of the last casualty through the impact zone under enemy fire, ultimately saving the lives of multiple Marines."
Iowa Congressman Jim Leach says "timely and aggressive" diplomacy needs to be put in place in the Middle East.Leach, a Republican who represents Iowa's second congressional district, wants the Bush administration to establish a peace negotiator for the region. "We can't just let things go on hold," Leach says. "We have to lead." Leach if the United States fails to lead toward peace, other nations will lead the situation in the direction of war and anarchy. "I consider this the most dangerous week in the last generation of American foreign policy," Leach says. Leach says the Secretary of State has hundreds of issues to deal with and, as a member of the House Committee on International Affairs, his suggestion is that a negotiator be chosen whose sole responsibility is to press for reconciliation.Jim Leach wants to negotiate with Hezbollah, a terrorist organization committed to getting rid of Israel and killing Jews? He's crazy.
In 1992, Ron took a job with McLeodUSA, then a small telecommunications start-up. Compensation included stock options, which he saved for a family nest egg. In 2000, he and June consulted a financial adviser on the best way to cash out the stock. The adviser told them to exercise the stock options and hold the stock for a year to take advantage of low tax rates on capital gains.Andie Dominick, who wrote the editorial, left out a lot of information about Speltz.
Then the stock price fell. What was once worth about $700,000 became worth about $2,000. Yet, they owed more than $250,000 in state and federal taxes due to a quirk in the Alternative Minimum Tax law that targets Incentive Stock Options (ISO-AMT).
When we wrote about the Speltzes and other Iowans in similar straits earlier this year, we received a few letters to the editor stating it was their greed and desire to avoid paying taxes that landed them in such a predicament.
Yes, they tried to take full advantage of tax law. Who doesn’t? But at the end of the day, Americans should not have to pay taxes on money they never collected. It amounts to the U.S. government taking money from people it shouldn’t be entitled to. It’s hard to believe Congress intended such consequences for people whose employers, like McLeod, go bankrupt.
Here’s a glimmer of hope: When we checked with Sen. Charles Grassley’s office last week, his aide, Jill Kozeny, said the senator was “working to get included some ISO-AMT relief for middle-income taxpayers” in what’s called the “extenders” tax bill being negotiated in a conference committee...If I'm not mistaken, I don't think the Speltzes would get anything if new legislation passed. A law changing the computation of the "bargain element" as a basis for income certainly wouldn't be made retroactive back to 2000. Who is Andie Dominick and the Register Editorial Board kidding?
...The senator is the Speltzes’ last hope.
Iowa's laws restricting where sex offenders can live are causing some of them to live at campgrounds around the state.But don't worry, Mike Gronstal isn't going to tamper with the law.
Some sex offenders are listing campgrounds in county and state parks as their home addresses...
Linn County Sheriff Don Zeller said that sex offenders have been in all of the county parks and some of the state parks.
A controversial, publicly financed Des Moines charity routed $315,732 to its executive director last year - an amount that represents almost 39 percent of the agency's total spending.And from the sidebar:
The money was paid after state lawmakers agreed to directly finance Rock In Prevention Inc. with $600,000 in Iowa taxpayers' money. The Legislature's action enabled the charity to bypass the normal, grant-application process through which private organizations typically must compete for public money...
...In recent years, the government has been Rock In Prevention's single biggest contributor. The biggest private donor has been Don Lamberti, the father of Senate Republican Co-President Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny. The senior Lamberti is founder of Casey's General Stores and last year gave the charity $98,392 in Casey's common stock.
...After federal officials cut off financing for Rock In Prevention due to questions over the program's effectiveness, state lawmakers stepped in and awarded the agency $600,000 in public money through a no-compete contract.What's missing from the Kauffman piece is an explanation of how McManus was able to convince State legislators to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on his taxpayer-leeching scam.
Taxpayers were billed $298,000 for a recent evaluation of the agency's effectiveness. But that study was conducted by researchers who previously worked for Rock In Prevention. The lead researcher redesigned the program, then evaluated it and declared it a success.
We chuckled earlier this month when Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie said that on occasion he had scooped up small critters like dead rabbits outside his home and tossed them into the garbage. As Des Moines residents usually do, he saw a job that needed done and took matters into his own hands.
In 2003, city budget shortfalls resulted in eliminating half the animal-control force at the Des Moines Police Department.
Now there are only five officers responsible for everything from dog bites to injured animals to responding to animal complaints.
Iowa cities need more options than taxing homeowners to cover basic operating needs. The Legislature should allow cities to raise dollars through alternative sources, like franchise fees, to cover general expenses.Franchise fees? Everybody would have to pay those as long as they had natural gas or electricity lines hooked up to their house. So what's the difference?
Register columnist David Yepsen recently asked me if I was riding RAGBRAI again. When I told him I was, he replied that sending editorial writers on the week-long bike ride was a waste of resources. Instead, I should be at the office doing something "more important," as I recall his words.
Thankfully, our editor doesn't share his opinion. Senior editorial columnist Richard Doak and I are heading to Sergeant Bluff today. During the upcoming week, we'll share our RAGBRAI experiences in a diary on the editorial page...
...But to answer David, pedaling our way across the state on RAGBRAI is in perfect keeping with a guiding principle of this page, which states: "We are dedicated to progress and to Iowa."
...But since David apparently will be missing our typical editorials, as soon as we dip our tires in the Mississippi, we'll rush right back to the office and start writing on Medicare and taxes again.
Dominick also will catch up with Ron and June Speltz of Ely, who have faced financial ruin, caught up in the red tape of the federal Alternative Minimum Tax law. They’re being taxed on stock-option gains they never collected.I think we know which way Carol Hunter and Andie "Creative Writer" Dominick are going to spin the Ron Speltz story.
There’s at least a chance that Iowa’s Sen. Charles Grassley can squeeze some relief from unfair AMT rules in a tax bill that’s in a conference committee.
Ronald J. Speltz, of Ely, Iowa, was earning about $75,000 annually as a senior manager for McLeodUSA. He exercised McLeod ISOs in 2000 with a bargain element of $711,118, resulting in $206,191 of AMT. Mr. and Mrs. Speltz also owed Iowa AMT of $46,792Speltz exercised the options, but didn't sell his stock. Don't expect the Register to explain the finer points of all this.
As many Iowans know, McLeod's stock collapsed. Mr. Speltz found himself with a $206,000 tax bill on now nearly-worthless McLeod ISO shares.
They had checked their bags at the Beirut airport and headed toward the departure gate. It had been a wonderful vacation for Dr. Clark W. Griswold and his family.(quote source)
Then they heard the explosions.
"We're ten hours from the fucking fun park and the bombing starts. Well I'll tell you something. This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun. I'm gonna have fun and you're gonna have fun. We're all gonna have so much fucking fun we'll need plastic surgeory to remove our godamn smiles. You'll be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of you're assholes! I gotta be crazy! I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose. Praise Marty Moose! Holy Shit!," Griswold said.
Griswold and his family - wife Ellen, son Rusty, 17, and daughter Audrey, 15 - were in a hotel room in Cyprus Thursday after spending a harrowing six nights listening to Israeli warplanes drop bombs on Lebanon.
Soon they were out of cash.
"I told the hotel desk clerk that I'm making out a check for $1000, all you have to do is give me $300 in cash and keep the $700, all for doing nothing more than acting like a total creep. ," said Griswold, a pediatrician at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines. "I just want you to ask yourself one thing. If you were... if you were me, wouldn't you do the same thing for your children?"
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack today criticized the U.S. effort to evacuate Americans from Lebanon, calling it slow and a result of the Bush administration being “asleep at the switch” in its diplomatic efforts in the region.
“Clearly other countries appear to have been better prepared to evacuate their citizens than America was,” Vilsack said in an interview.
Not everyone is an art critic, but most people claim to know what they like when they see it. And the thought of a 25-foot-high push pin sculpture marking the spot on Davenport’s riverfront where two major bike trails intersect curdled the blood of some Levee Improvement Commission members Wednesday as the panel got a look at computer-generated images of it.
“I think it’s hideous,” Kelli Grubbs of the commission blurted out as the images were projected on a wall screen.
“I thought it was a joke when you put it up there,” said Mary Dubert, another member of the commission.
But Mayor Ed Winborn called the notion of a jumbo stick pin marking the intersection of the Mississippi River Trail in Davenport and the American Discovery Trail across River Drive from the soon-to-be-completed Bechtel-Lincoln Public Park a “fun” idea.
As thousands of refugees flee from Israel's war of terror against the Palestinian and Lebanese people, two University of Iowa students and a group of Iowa City residents are preparing to jump headfirst into the sandstorm.
The first sentence of David Goodner's column ("Into the fire: Local residents off to Israel," July 20) describes the current battle being played out by Hezbollah and Israel as "Israel's war of terror." There are a few things Goodner apparently needs an education on in regard to what is considered terrorism.
• Israel has not hijacked planes, used suicide bombers or otherwise targeted civilians as a response to Hezbollah's attacks. Hezbollah purposely stations its rocket launchers in highly populated civilian areas. These are what are being targeted. They are undeniably military targets.
• Israel's response is due to Hezbollah's invasion of the Israeli state in the process of taking soldiers hostage and its consistent attacks on Israeli civilians. It is not being done because Hezbollah has not converted to Judaism or because Hezbollah holds land they desire to take.
• Hezbollah holds 21 of the parliamentary seats in Lebanon's government. Much as Hamas was elected to power by Palestinian citizens, so the Lebanese have elected their representative government. That government is responsible for the actions of Hezbollah, because they allow it to exist and attack Israel freely.
• Israel gave advance notice of its intentions to attack Hezbollah to southern Lebanese citizens by dropping fliers. Terrorists do not give advance notice. They specifically target civilians. They attack, not in defense of their country or family, but for radical religious and political purposes.
Goodner's disagreement with Israel's action as "disproportionate" is his right. Many people think there should be less bombing and more talking. I wish Andrew Swift and the others well on their trip.
His attempt to discredit Israel's right to self-defense as an act of terror, however, is a perfect example of the partisan rhetoric and venom that speaks to the polarization of the country. He and others would do well to stop vilifying people they disagree with and take their own advice by joining in "peaceful" dialogue.
Mark LeRette
Muscatine
David Goodner has demonstrated hate for liberal Western values and Israel once again ("Into the fire: Local residents off to Israel," July 20). He referred to "Israel's war of terror" without mentioning that its intended targets are not "the Palestinian and Lebanese people." Rather, Israel targets terror organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah, which regrettably operate from dense population centers.
It is because these organizations operate outside international law that causes unfortunate civilian body counts. These terrorists violate the laws of war not only by targeting civilians, but also by hiding among civilians and refusing to wear identifiable insignia. This latter conduct is what causes so many civilian deaths despite Israel's perseverance in preventing civilian casualties.
Goodner's column ordinarily would be shocking. However, he revealed earlier in the week to a group rallying in support of Israel that he thinks Hamas and Hezbollah are morally superior to Israel. To him, the one with bigger weapons is wrong without regard to the evil intent of the other side. Even key members of the Arab League, who sought to annihilate Israel three times in the last century, have chastised Hezbollah for their disruption of years of peace between Israel and Lebanon.
Goodner's moral confusion puts him in an extreme minority. His values are closer to those of the terrorists he supports than those of the Arab League or the liberal West.
James Eaves-Johnson
Coralville
A plan that would have asked voters in November to approve a 1-cent sales tax in Polk, Dallas and Warren counties has been put on hold for a year.Like sentiment is going to change in the next year?
Advocates of the plan generally agreed that the political climate was not right for the proposal to gain the majority vote needed to pass. They cited the cesspool of mistrust in elected officials created by the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium salary scandal.
Controversy over how Polk County school officials have spent sales tax money also has hurt the chances that the proposal would pass, they said.
There were other strikes against the sales-tax proposal besides the poster child for government ineptitude. It did not help when local governments were unfairly thrashed during the Legislature's battle with the governor over eminent domain...
The basic concept is a good one...
The decision to push the sales-tax referendum until next summer was a recognition of an altered electoral climate.
It was destined for defeat...Er, was there a Republican consultant for the campaign?
But recent polls taken by the organizers showed a dip in support for the idea in the wake of the CIETC scandal. The atmosphere is "poisoned," said Jeff Link, a Democratic consultant for the campaign.
So, the Destiny folks opted for a new destination. They now plan to let voters cool off and place the idea on a special-election ballot in the summer of 2007.Can you imagine how nasty the climate will be then? Archie Brooks and Tom "Rubber Stamp" Vlassis will probably still be on the Des Moines City Council because they'll have to die before they'll resign. More CIETC scandal stuff will keep trickling out. People will continue to talk about this, especially us bloggers. Project Density is so fucked.
For years, the secretary-treasurer of the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium board of directors signed off on agency spending without seeing the expenses.
Sherry Howard, who told her story to state lawmakers Wednesday, would come to CIETC offices every three to six months to sign a sheet of paper that said only: "Approved by."
Howard said she was told her signature was signing off on claims and invoices for operational expenses for the government agency responsible for job training. "I did not physically see each claim that came into CIETC," she said. "... My understanding was that I was signing the bills."
...Howard, who is the Story County supervisors' administrative officer, said that when she became the consortium's secretary-treasurer in January 2003 she routinely inspected the agency's expenditures and physically signed off on every invoice that needed to be paid.
But in July 2003, she said, Cunningham and Bargman told her that the state was requiring a new accounting system and that she would stop the detailed inspections. Instead, Howard said, she was told to come to the office in irregular intervals, often between three and six months, to sign off on the invoices, which were not listed on what she signed.
At the time, she said, she never questioned the new procedure but noted that "most recently" the practice has bothered her.
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., appeared together here Wednesday to tout a new $220 billion Democratic initiative to send more students to college in the face of soaring tuition rates.
It would be paid for bypicking it off the money treecutting corporate subsidies, Clinton said.
Quincy Collins, 20, a junior at Alabama A&M University and an intern Capital Hill, said that "too many students don't go to college because it costs too much"BS.
...what baffles me is how legislators who bring such passion to being against the transfer of one individual's property to the private profit of another through the use of eminent domain -- with this near-unanimous, first veto override in 43 years -- can become so huffily hostile and defensive when asked to justify their enthusiasm for the Iowa Values Fund or TIFs.
What, exactly, is the difference?
Organizers of the “Project Destiny” plan for a local option sales tax vote in Polk, Warren and Dallas counties this November said Wednesday morning they are likely to postpone the effort for a year.
Sources close to the campaign say their polls show public support for the idea has tanked in the wake of the controversy over the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium (CIETC.)
In light of break-ins and thefts over the past couple of years, The Daily Iowan once again performed a late-night spot check on campus buildings to discover any shortcomings in security.It seems the University of Iowa has learned nothing since animal rights terrorists did $450,000 worth of damage to a building in 2004.
Last summer's late-night lock check uncovered six unsecured doors at UI administrative and academic buildings. This year's check - performed Monday between 11 p.m. and midnight - found unlatched or unlocked doors in the Pappajohn Business Building and the Chemistry Building. Both buildings are repeat offenders from last summer's check.
Four buildings that were unsecured last year but safely locked this year include the Pomerantz Center, MacLean Hall, Gilmore Hall, and Calvin Hall...
Every one of the Chemistry Building's east side doors were both unlatched and unlocked. On Tuesday, the UI police refused to comment on the security issue.
Security deficiencies may have contributed to previous break-ins at UI buildings, some of which yielded thousands of dollars in stolen property.
Opportunistic thieves and vandals have hit the university hard in recent years, particularly in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the communication-studies department. The Becker Communications Studies Building and the Adler Journalism Building have suffered $72,546 in stolen or damaged property since 2004, according to UI police records. Thus far, unlocked doors have yet to be indicated as a factor in the thefts.
Hapless "hoosegow honey" horndogs
Oh good God. This is just moronic. Yesterday Boing Boing picked up a story about some online brainiac (also known as conservative blogger David Burge of Iowahawk) who gets his rocks off by publishing the mug shots of women who have been arrested and brought to the Des Moines Polk County Jail. Recently, he decided to hold a contest, publishing photos of the arrestees he deems attractive enough and asking readers to vote for the "Hawkeye Hoosegow Honey of the Year."
Jessica at Feministing calls the whole contest "so classy it hurts," but I was particularly moved by Boing Boing's post, which -- correct me if I'm wrong -- seems pretty freakin' charmed by the whole pathetic episode and blithely reports "Jesika" as the winner of the contest.
Meanwhile, Iowahawk has already posted a photo nomination (from someone named "Cletus of Des Moines") for next year's contest: a sad young woman whose age, height, weight, alleged crime and bail amount he also reveals. Because that is exactly what passes for titillating thrills in Iowahawk's and Cletus' world.
Boys, get a hobby.
The fact that President Bush was caught on tape using the “s-word” isn’t really the appeal of this story. It’s the video, which I’ve seen a few times now. It’s the open-mouthed chewing. It’s the talking with his mouth full. It’s the way the President of the United States, well, conducts himself at a lunch with world leaders that makes the story so entertaining.
Leaning over the seat, chewing away, cussing. Just like “us” out here, right? Isn’t that what people say makes this president so darn personally appealing–because he’s just the kind of guy you’d want to have a drink with?
But maybe not lunch.
Frank Durham, a University of Iowa assistant journalism professor, leads a 240-person lecture where he said more than half the class indicated "The Daily Show" was their only source of news. He said in other classes some students only read the newspaper if it is required for an assignment.
"What Jon Stewart produces is the news," Durham said. "Someone who only watches 'The Daily Show' still knows the daily events of the day as the agenda is set by that show."
In tomorrow's Register, read about how Johnson went to China, reviving trade and diplomatic relations and how Jimmy Carter won the Cold War.That's a great quote.
Hat tip to the insightfully vulgar State 29.
Letters elsewhere on the page take us to task for saying that Democrats produced a budget surplus the last time they controlled Congress.I remember watching Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Clinton's national economic advisor, on CNBC/FNN in early 1995, talking about the deficit. She had a chart which detailed the Clinton economic plan concerning the deficit. The chart had $200 billion deficits that rose slowly until about FY 2001-2002 when the yearly deficit was expected to hit about $300 billion a year.
We’ll stand by our assertion.
It’s true that Republicans happened to hold majorities in Congress in the late 1990s, when a budget surplus was finally achieved, but they weren’t responsible for it.
The surplus was a consequence of President Clinton’s five-year economic program, which was approved in 1993, when Democrats were in the majority. Not a single Republican voted for the plan.
The five-year plan succeeded in balancing the budget right on schedule, in 1998.
A review of the budget data shows that the 1993 tax increase was devoted to federal spending increases, and that the decline in the deficit since 1992 is accounted for by factors unrelated to the 1993 tax increase. The largest single reason the deficit has declined in recent years is a continuation of the business cycle upswing underway since 1991. Special accounting factors and a reduction in discretionary defense spending explain the balance of the deficit decline since 1992.
In recent months a variety of officials in the Clinton Administration have asserted that its policies have been responsible for the reduction in the budget deficit and continued economic expansion in recent years. While such claims from an incumbent Administration are to be expected under current circumstances, a review of the facts is needed to determine whether such assertions are credible or not.
The key to appraising such claims is the extent to which Clinton policies reduced the budget deficit, and the extent to which lower interest rates and higher economic growth followed. This paper will examine the Administration rationale for President Clinton's 1993 tax increase, and subsequent changes in interest rates and economic growth.
An analysis of the relationship between the deficit and the current economic expansion finds that Administration arguments reverse cause and effect. Deficit reduction did not cause an economic rebound; instead, a cyclical upswing already underway in 1992 was the largest single reason the deficit has declined in recent years. Furthermore, a nonpartisan appraisal would suggest that neither President Bush nor President Clinton deserve credit for the business cycle upswing that began in 1991...
[conclusion:]
...all of the 1993 tax increase has been used to finance additional domestic and entitlement federal spending increases. Since 1995, the more recent progress in fiscal 1996 is due to faster than expected revenue growth and slower outlay growth, especially the savings due to Congressional actions to restrain spending. This more stringent approach to domestic discretionary appropriations by the new Congress has resulted in further progress on reducing the structural deficit in 1996.
The analysis in this paper is based on cash accounting concepts from actual budget data, as opposed to changes in hypothetical budget levels postulated in baseline budgeting. The disuse of baseline budget concepts means that changes in spending levels from one year to another are the basis of analysis. For example, if a spending level has increased from 1992 to 1995, this is regarded as an increase, regardless of whether use of a baseline concept would designate it as a cut because the increase was below some hypothetical growth path. Baseline budget concepts have been questioned by many, including President Clinton. Recently when asked about the term "cuts" applied to slower than projected increases, President Clinton said, "When I came to Washington, I was amazed when I proposed budgets that that was the language that was used. The press used it. We all learned to use it from the press."Beautiful! Classic Clinton! That's what I liked about Bill Clinton. Too bad about his personal life.
Iowa City ranks as the No. 74 best city in which to live in the United States, according to the latest survey by Money magazine.
Cedar Rapids came in the highest of all Iowa cities at No. 64. West Des Moines clocked in just ahead of Iowa City at No. 71...
1. Fort Collins, Colo.
2. Naperville, Ill.
3. Sugar Land, Texas
4. Columbia/Ellicott City, Md.
5. Cary, N.C.
6. Overland Park, Kan.
7. Scottsdale, Ariz.
8. Boise, Idaho
9. Fairfield, Conn.
10. Eden Prairie, Minn.
And though some in Vilsack’s party say the friction caused by the veto is not enough to damage his chances of winning their support in a possible campaign for the 2008 Iowa caucuses, it did little to help his cause...
Vilsack has company among governors who are weighing 2008 presidential campaigns and who have had vetoes nullified.
But Vilsack is the only one from Iowa, where he alone would be expected from the outset to win the lead-off Iowa caucuses, should he run...
...few Democratic lawmakers are ready to commit to Vilsack for president — or anyone, although prospective candidates have already begun soliciting them for their support — 18 months before the caucuses are expected to be held...
...Vilsack pointedly told a roomful of Senate and House Democrats in private Friday to refrain from characterizing the override as striking a blow for “the little guy,”
...Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs said that Vilsack has explained that the veto was intended to protect communities’ ability to pursue economic development, a hallmark of Vilsack’s two terms.
“I know my members respect him for that, though they disagree on the veto,” Gronstal said. “And I have no doubt that if Gov. Vilsack runs for president, he would enjoy wide support among Democrats in the Legislature and win the Iowa caucuses.”
Current Internet providers are doing the job
This is in response to a letter to the editor written by Thomas Dorr from the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding a loan program to extend broadband services to rural communities (“USDA Works To Wire Rural America,” June 18).
Qwest is committed to customers in Iowa, and we currently serve 124 exchanges. Of those, we provide high-speed Internet service to 107 exchanges. By the end of this year, Qwest will have high-speed Internet service deployed to every exchange that we serve in the state.
I, too, have some concerns about these loans and our tax dollars going to new companies. The most recent Iowa Utilities Board Broadband Survey found that nearly 93 percent of Iowa’s communities already have access to high-speed Internet services.
It does not seem justified to incentivize another provider for areas already served with high-speed Internet service. Instead, funds should be made available to existing providers to service the most difficult and costly customers.
Consider all existing broadband competition, from providers of high-speed Internet, cable modem, wireless and WiFi networks, in a given community before granting a subsidized loan to yet another new entrant.
— Max Phillips, president, Qwest in Iowa, Des Moines.
Money for rural broadband squandered by USDAThis blog has always kept up with the ripoff that "rural broadband" has become.
There is a federal government program that cries out desperately for public scrutiny: It’s a little-known federal loan program created to help build high-speed Internet connections to rural areas.
The program’s goal is to close the digital divide in rural America — a goal shared by members of our association.
But according to a report by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General, the program has misdirected many millions of taxpayer dollars by funding companies that serve suburban customers in areas where broadband service is already available.
The 2002 farm bill created the Broadband Grant and Loan Programs within the USDA to fund broadband facility construction in “eligible rural communities.” Since 2003, the USDA has awarded $850 million in below-market-rate loans, with millions more in the pipeline.
In a June 18 letter to The Des Moines Register, USDA Under Secretary Thomas Dorr acknowledged that millions of taxpayers’ dollars are at stake, and that his agency has a responsibility to ensure the taxpayers are not saddled with bad loans.
The recent inspector general’s audit concluded that the broadband loan program has been plagued by lax procedures and vague criteria.
Rather than targeting rural, unserved areas as lawmakers intended, the USDA has given away the farm. The audit revealed that nearly 60 percent of the communities where low-interest loans were approved already had access to broadband services. Thus, tax dollars subsidized areas with no need, and enriched a few companies. Many communities were anything but “rural” — more than $100 million in loans went to communities adjacent to large cities.
It gets worse. In one example, the auditors found funds distributed to 19 subdivisions near Houston, Texas, with pricey homes and median household incomes approaching six figures. And, according to the audit, companies seeking federal loans and grants even went so far as to disguise their intended service areas by displaying photographs of other rural communities in the applications. In one case, a photograph of the same tower was attached to three different applications.
It seems clear that the USDA is granting low-cost government loans without properly investigating claims made in the loan applications or applying the kind of oversight that commercial banks routinely follow.
The USDA Inspector General recommended that no more loans be granted until the major program deficiencies its audit identified were fixed. Unfortunately, an agency of the USDA has ignored that recommendation and is rushing to disburse millions more.
Taxpayers deserve better. Quick action can and should be taken to fix the problems and prevent further misuse of taxpayer dollars.
— Thomas P. Graves, executive vice president, Iowa Cable and Telecommunications Association, Des Moines.
“I’m just going to be very blunt,” Neil told the CIETC board. “I think CIETC has lost the public confidence, and it’s time that, you know, we move forward and assure the public that things are done in a proper way.”
After the meeting, Neil said: “If they’ve lost the public confidence, they’ve lost my confidence. The effect of that, without me saying it, is that unless we see dramatic changes — and quickly — the Promise Jobs piece of the funding is going to go away.”
Another concern is the agency’s growing stack of legal bills. The agency’s longtime attorney, Carlton Salmons, is billing CIETC $125 an hour . But because Salmons could end up being a witness in future litigation involving the agency, CIETC has hired another attorney, Jonathan Wilson, who bills CIETC at a rate of up to $260 an hour.You remember Jonathan Wilson? He was the Des Moines School Board member who had been married, very publicly came out of the closet, and was not re-elected to his position back in 1995. Governor Tom Vilsack then tried to get Wilson appointed to state school board in 2004, but his nomination was rejected.
Neil’s remarks about CIETC’s loss of public confidence prompted Wilson to defend the agency at Thursday’s board meeting.Trying to defend all these politically-inbred ass clowns is sort of like trying to defend the practice of letting the government come in, threaten to take your property for a pittance, and then give it to lawyer buddy who will reap millions or build a fancy home on a newly-created lake.
“With all respect, there probably has been some loss of public confidence and credibility at (Workforce Development) ,” Wilson said, referring to that department’s failure to oversee spending at CIETC. “So there’s lots of that to go around. And if (Workforce Development) doesn’t do its proper role in the future, of supervision and oversight, and if CIETC doesn’t do that going forward, similar kinds of problems will surface all over again. And I believe the board has committed to cleaning up its act, getting its house in order, and setting things right and doing things right going forward.”
Cedar Rapids Mayor Kay Halloran, who attended the news conference in support of Vilsack's position, said the effect of today's expected override would be a chilling effect on development.But who gives a fuck about people and their property, eh? Not Kay Halloran.
"It's going to mean that it will take longer and cost more, and some things won't get done that are conceptually very good if they override and the override is upheld," she said.
“We’re disappointed in the legislators, but not surprised,” said Robin Anderson, executive director of the Mason City Area Chamber of Commerce.And another:
“It’s still a bad bill for the state of Iowa,” said Dennis Lauver, president of the Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce.And some people are just retarded:
“Some people see this as a great political opportunity to embarrass the governor,” said Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal.And then there are wafflers, like Johnston Republican Walt Tomenga:
...one of great things about House provides opportunity to listen to minority. I will give minority report. I stand in opposition (to override) not because I'm concerned about the many untintended consequences that we can perceive and not perceive. I'm not in oppoistion because I believe there's a better way, a better bill that we can produce. Let me share concerns about unintended consequences: e.d. an important tool in our democracy. States that the gfood of the majority at times and for necessary reasons need to prevail over the rights of the minority. That's been the case for years and years since the history of our country started. It's a delicate balanced because by it's nature it poses one entity against another. I find is unique that we use e.d. that we're upset and surprised that somebody finds it an abuse of power. I would be surprised if they didn't. It's taking something that somebody doesn't want to give so that the body politic can have a variety of things. I think one of unintend consequences is this bill destroys that balance. It will icnrease the cost of acquistion of private property. That doesn't sound like a bad deal if it's my property being acquired but going back to the common good purpose, that means all of us pay more for something we need. I'm concerned projects that are for the common good -- potable water for communities through reservoirs -- may be out of reach because of increased cost that goes beyond what is fair. I have no illusions that House will vote to override...but just think about what impact will be.Really, Tomenga's only complaint is that it's going to possibly increase the cost of projects. Is that his only concern? Johnston, vote his ass out.
Continue the eminent domain fight by fighting back at your city councils and chambers of commerce. These councils are largely populated by Democrats and they want to build things they can tax.Actually, I think this commenter would be surprised how many Republicans on the various chambers of commerce around Iowa supported Vilsack's veto.
They are the drivers behind Vilsacks veto. Punish them too by voting them out.
War People Power
Next, Lundby spoke and she talked about waiting for 40 days and the governor never once raised an objection about the bill with her, until he vetoed it. She said legislators weren't embarassing the governor, he was embarassing them by galavanting around this country and other countries and not talking to legislators about his concerns about the bill until it was too late -- and they'd put in months crafting the thing.
Her comments about the 40 day no-contact period raised the ire of Hatch and Quirbach, both of whom had to speak again and tell her they had been working with other people and the governor wasn't AWOL, etc. Most interesting that Gronstal didn't stand up to defend his governor from Lundby's rhetorical sally about being away running for president...
...Kreiman closed by praising the Iowans who put Democracy in action on this, writing letters, showing up and talking face-to-face with legislators about their concerns that cities and counties are running roughshod over property owners on certain projects. Kreiman told the folks in the gallery it was their action that brought about today's override.
The last time the Iowa Legislature voted to override a governor's veto was in 1963.
Fallon: Rise to add my Democratic voice to this bipartisan effort. I'm sorry we're back but pleased to see a strong showing from the public. They feel very passionate about this issue...many have sacrificed to try to stick up for their property. What has frustrated me is when someone tells me there is no abuse of e.d. -- I've seen the faces. The threat of e.d. is as powerful as e.d. itslef. Compare it to the bully at school who threatens to beat you up for your lunch money. He gets the money without beating you up -- a little bit harsh, perhaps, but e.d. has been the bully. Let me be clear there is a rightful place for e.d. and condemnation. That's good. That's appropriate and that will continue. if we've done anything that needs to be fixed, next year legislators will fix. In 1999 we passed an e.d. bill that had a lot of problems in it -- the one bill I floor managed. it was exciting to me to work through the process but that bill was about 20 pages long. Hopefully you won't have a 20 page bill to fix this but I don't think you will. This is a compromise in a big way but gets to the heart of a lot of problems. Brought up in response to Kelo, but brewing in the background for a lot of years are issues that needed the spark that Kelo provided to get a fair hearing here. I'm really, really excited that we're finally getting around to doing that. This bill isn't perfect. It's a compromise. Hope changes are all with the idea of defending the little guy because this bill is about making sure little guy has a voice. I don't want to talk for too long. A lot of us who want to get out of here for lunch. Respect the time of those who've taken a day off. One person's here missing their kid's birthday. I think we're poised to do the right thing. Fallon talks about lot in his district. Roads are a public purpose, but there are some cases where a proposal for a new road has acted more on behalf of development interest than public interest. Let's vote to override this veto. There's some pain in doing that as a Democrat because those of us who are Ds have some respect for our governor, but this is the right thing to do.
Lori Kirk of Madison County is concerned about a proposed lake that would submerge her home. "We're here today as property owners, not radicals, just simple people scared of losing our property," she said.
Dave Ryberg of Page County is fighting against having his farmland condemned for a lake near Shenandoah. "I'm a fourth generation family farmer. Farming is my business and my heritage and a way of life for my family and me," Ryberg says. "If this Page County lake project which is now proposed to be 6100 acres moves forward, I would lose two-thirds of my farm." He figures he'd lose three-quarters of his income in the process. Ryberg charges that the project is "condemnation without representation" because he does not live in Shenandoah and he says it's Shenandoah's City Council that's the driving force behind the lake.
A lake for the Osceola area is what Kathy Kelly is fighting. "There is no available ground in Clarke County like our acreage. Our home is irreplaceable. It is part of the farm my husband grew up on," Kelly says. "It's our American Dream. We did not even become aware that we were slated for condemnation until a year ago this month and then only verbally by a reservoir committee member with a conscience." Kelly made a direct appeal to lawmakers during a morning rally at the statehouse. "I ask you all to do only what you would have so done unto you because it may be you or someone you love who is under the gun in the future," Kelly said. "The indiscriminate use of eminent domain to take other's properties must be restricted now."
Steph Vos of Mahaska County is fighting to keep her farm from being seized to make way for an expansion of the Pella airport. Vos says they told the City of Pella they weren't willing to sell their land and were told the ground would be "forcibly taken" with the city's "eminent domain" power. During that morning rally at the statehouse, Vos issued this personal appeal to lawmakers to override the governor's veto of the property rights bill. "Today is my son's first birthday and where am I spending the day? Still fighting," Vos said. "Do the right thing. Override this veto."
I'm back. I did a little chatting with Democrats just now, and they tell me their private 9:30 a.m. meeting with Governor Vilsack was tense. He "lectured" them that he (Vilsack) did stick up for the little guy and he was tired of having people poke him in the nose. (I heard about the nose poking from three and the lecture part from four.) It was a talk at them kind of moment. The Democrats I talked to say no one in the room talked back..Last I saw, Vilsack was a lame duck, out of state most of the time, and polling fourth amongst Democrats when it came to possible candidates with presidential aspirations.
...And so to just wrap up this construction, this’d be an example, then, of how that wall would look. Now you could also deconstruct it the same way. You could take it back down. If somehow they got their economy working and got their laws working in Mexico we could pull this back out just as easy as we could put it in. We could open it up again or we could open it up and let livestock run through there, whatever we choose.
I also say we need to do a few other things on top of that wall, and one of them being to put a little bit of wire on top here to provide a disincentive for people to climb over the top or put a ladder there. We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would simply be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time.
At 8:30 am, Governor Vilsack held a news conference near downtown Des Moines to say what he's been saying for the past few weeks -- work with me, let's strike a compromise.You don't really need a high-speed line in order to post text, but I understand her concern.
At 9 am, hundreds of people -- many from Madison County wearing white t-shirts decrying the lake project planned there -- stood in the statehouse rotunda as a few were called to the mic by Rep Jeff Kaufmann to tell their stories about how they're fighting government condemnation of their land for projects like an extension of the airport runway in Pella and lakes in Madison and Page Counties.
At this time there are still no high-speed lines available on press row in the House or Senate (they invited to the media to their party but didn't make accommodations for us to tell folks about it), so my plans to live blog from the floor during debate are probably shelled. I'm posting this from my computer in the statehouse press room on the ground floor (hooked up by DSL).
This is government out of touch with the people. It's making a mockery of concerns about ethics and wrongdoing at a time when the big challenge is voter apathy...
The council needn't go so far as to remove Brooks permanently, but it ought to at least put him on leave until questions are answered. A teacher accused of impropriety is put on leave. So is a police officer accused of a wrongful shooting.
Council member Christine Hensley says if Brooks were on leave, there would be no one to represent his district. There are no provisions in the Iowa Code for appointing someone to fill a temporary vacancy, according to William J. Sueppel, a municipal law attorney in Iowa City.
Still, having no one would be better than having someone people can't trust. The scandal is keeping some city residents from even contacting their elected official, notes Hensley. "We are not doing business as usual. Based on the impact I see it having on the city of Des Moines, I would hope he would do the respectful thing and step aside."
And if he doesn't?
A judge could rule to remove him, if residents of his district file a legal challenge. Pete Rose, the man behind the petition drive, has said that would be next. But that requires posting a bond, and the records needed in court are tied up in the criminal probes.
It's the city council's responsibility to stop acting like a good ol' boys club, more concerned with protecting its own than with doing what's right. It needs to deal with its own dysfunctional state.
Recall that the last time the Democrats controlled Congress, they produced healthy budget surpluses that put the country on a path toward paying down the national debt.
Recall that the last time the Democrats controlled Congress, they produced healthy budget surpluses that put the country on a path toward paying down the national debt.
Know that if the information is coming from the mainstream media - the accredited reporters, broadcasters and photojournalists - they are following strict professional guidelines that the looser outlets don't require. The information has been verified, has been scrutinized by editors, has been fact-checked and proofed.
The Republican candidate for governor says his Democratic opponent should be careful about using his state office to distribute ballots for the fall election.Chet Culver, the Democratic candidate, is Iowa's Secretary of State which means he's the state commissioner of elections...
...Nussle's campaign, though, says Culver has an "embarrassing track record" of running the Secretary of State's office in a "politically-motivated" way. For instance, in 2004 Culver waited for several days before declaring that President Bush had carried Iowa. "I happen to think that because the rest of the 50 states were able to figure it out, Iowa looked kind of silly,"...
...Congressman Jim Nussle, the G-O-P candidate, says Culver needs to tread carefully when it comes to sending out absentee ballots. "The concern that many people have is the last election (Culver) sent out at taxpayers' expense absentee ballots to Iowans, a typical job done by the parties," Nussle says...
...Culver's also been criticized for posting confidential information on the business section of the Secretary of State's website, data that was removed after the State Ombudsman threatened to issue a negative report on the situation...
...Culver campaign manager Patrick Dillon responded. "As badly as Congressman Nussle has mismanaged the federal budget while he's been in office, maybe he should spend more time focusing on his work than trying to tell Secretary Culver how to do his job," Dillon says...
...Dillon, meanwhile, says Congressman Nussle should refrain from using taxpayer dollars to send out newsletters to residents of Iowa's first congressional district...
Iowa lawmakers gather Friday for a special session to consider an override of Gov. Tom Vilsack's veto of a bill strengthening the property rights of Iowans...
This bill also limits something else, and that's the ability of local politicians to threaten people with eminent domain. Often, just that is enough to prompt someone to sell. After all, you can't fight City Hall, right? And you get guys like Archie Brooks threatening East Village businesses with eminent domain because he doesn't like their storefronts. This bill would help limit such civic extortion.
Police said Troy Bresley, 34, walked into the police station Tuesday night and admitted that he had killed his girlfriend, Tracy Davis, 32.Luckily, both Democrat Chet Culver and Republican Jim Nussle are in favor of bringing back the death penalty in Iowa.
She was found under a blanket in the couple's east-side apartment, dead from multiple stab wounds, police said.
Two of the three children who lived with the couple were home when the slaying happened, police said...
Police said Bresley admitted that he had thought recently about killing Davis, with whom he had what a relative described as a rocky two-year relationship.
Republican candidate Jim Nussle is promising to create an "Iowa Taxpayer Refund Account" if he's elected governor. Under current law, excess state tax revenues are deposited in a rainy day savings account for emergencies, but Nussle wants to appoint a new commission to come up with ways to return a portion of that to taxpayers.Across the border in Missouri, they have this thing called the Hancock Amendment in the state's constitution, which limits state revenue to a certain percentage of some figure. If revenue goes over that figure, corporations and individuals who pay state income taxes get a refund. Nearly a billion dollars was given back between 1995 and 1999, but the politicians have tried to nuke it with court challenges and loopholes over the years.
"So that 30 percent of that surplus will be set aside for the purpose of allowing that Tax Commission to look for reforms to provide relief to taxpayers," Nussle says. "It could be in the form of property tax. It could be in the form of income tax."
...If such an Iowa Taxpayer Refund Account had been in place for the past three years, Nussle says there would be about 150-million dollars in it now.
I learned Valerie Plame's name from Joe Wilson's entry in Who's Who in America
Columnist Robert Novak said publicly for the first time Tuesday that White House political adviser Karl Rove was a source for his story outing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.Surprisingly, there's no mention of Novak learning Plame's name from Who's Who in the Pete Yost/AP story.
Iowa businessman Ted Townsend will contribute $1 million to kick off fundraising for a new U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy that would be headquartered in Des Moines, it is expected to be announced here today...There's also a related op-ed on the editorial page today by John Menzies and Harriet Mayor Fulbright.
Schodde said that business plans are far from firm, but it's envisioned that the center eventually could have a budget of $9 million a year. That would involve private and government money.
Under discussion is whether the center eventually could become an authorized federal entity, similar to the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent and nonpartisan organization established and paid for by Congress...
City officials in Dallas, Polk and Warren counties have begun to put together plans on how they will spend an estimated $25 million that would be generated from an sales-tax increase to 7 percent.Des Moines sure is messed up, isn't it?
The money is about one-third of the estimated $80 million the sales tax is expected to generate in the tri-county region. Shoppers in those counties would pay an extra penny per dollar on most things they buy as part of a plan by civic leaders called "Project Destiny" to build more recreation trails and boost metro-area cultural attractions.
The remainder of the money, according to a regional agreement that leaders from 48 cities and counties have been asked to sign, will go toward property-tax reduction and to a regional authority to distribute to attractions, arts and cultural opportunities in Central Iowa.
City leaders in the Des Moines area have said they would spend the money on new recreation/community centers, expanded library hours, enhanced public safety services, water treatment facilities and roads.
The largest owner of the Iowa Lottery’s now-defunct TouchPlay devices filed a lawsuit today against the state for breach of contract over the recently enacted ban of the slot machine-like games...I'm just guessing here. Pure speculation..
Royal Financial, a West Des Moines company tied to the convenience store chain called Kum & Go, filed suit claiming that Ed Stanek, the lottery’s chief executive, personally asked company owner William Krause to get involved in the TouchPlay program.
“Dr. Stanek stated he needed one private party to take the lead and purchase one thousand (TouchPlay devices) in order to make the TouchPlay program viable. Without such a purchase, the entire TouchPlay program could fail. He requested that Krause be that party,” the lawsuit filed this afternoon said.
“... The Lottery Authority represented to Royal Financial that the TouchPlay program would last for a minimum five-year period, that Royal Financial would recoup its investment and expenses.”
State officials declined comment beyond saying they were reviewing the suit.
Former Iowa Hawkeye basketball player Pierre Pierce cleared a major hurdle today toward being granted parole after serving eight months in prison for assaulting and terrorizing his former girlfriend.
The Iowa Board of Parole, meeting at the Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility, voted 3-0 to grant parole to Pierce. However, because he is considered a high-risk offender, he still needs affirmative votes from two other parole board members. That decision is expected within 30 days.
The board refused to approve Pierce's request to be paroled to Iowa City, concluding he should be with his family in the Chicago suburb of Westmont, Ill. The board said he may not have contact with his victim and he must participate in a sex offender after-care program...
Parole board members grilled Pierce about the details of the January 2005 incident in West Des Moines and expressed dissatisfaction with many of his responses to their questions. But the board members said they plan to parole him because he is due to discharge his sentence in September and they want him to be under correctional supervision in the community.
Fallon: ARE WE GOING TO DECLARE ALL OF IOWA A SEX OFFEND --
Yepsen: WHY NOT?
Fallon: SEX-OFFENDER-FREE ZONE?
Yepsen: WHAT'S WRONG WITH SUGGESTING TO THESE PEOPLE THAT THEY LEAVE IOWA?
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is optimistic his legislature will quickly reinstate a ban on same sex couples serving as foster parents, conceding that it would prevent Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter from serving in that role...Glover doesn't say who asked that question. Maybe it was John Kerry?
Cheney has a lesbian daughter, a fact he has been public with. That issue was raised in the last presidential campaign.Raised?
Seattle's new apartment complex that gives free, permanent shelter to homeless people, no strings attached, has critics fuming. They argue it's hopelessly expensive, as well as unfair, to hand out homes for nothing...So.... alcoholics and drug addicts should be given free apartments courtesy of the taxpayers, regardless of how messed up they are?
By supplying free apartments, cities can actually save money. A chronic alcoholic who is left on the streets may be picked up by the police and brought to the emergency room dozens of times per year, costing the city thousands of dollars. In his article "Million-Dollar Murray," New Yorker columnist Malcolm Gladwell described a homeless man in Reno who cost the city more than $1 million. As satisfying as it may feel to deride the Seattle program as just a handout, other cities are already giving the homeless a huge handout. It's just not a very helpful one.
Although every effort should be made to help people combat their alcohol or drug problems, we should recognize they will need a place to live regardless of their problems. The uncomfortable reality is some of these people cannot or will not stop drinking or using drugs. To make sobriety a condition of having shelter is tantamount to turning them out on the street.
Exercising the power of eminent domain is always the last option, but there are times when it is necessary, whether for a highway project, a public-recreation area or a downtown-redevelopment project that benefits the entire community with a growing economy and tax base. Those decisions should be made at the local level, not in the Legislature in Des Moines for all 99 counties and 950 communities. Leaders in those communities know best what is needed, and if they abuse the power, the voters have the power to remove them.Basically, the Register Editorial Board embraces corrupt civic thugs who want to put funky record shops out of business in favor of creating McEast McVillages so that some politically-connected lawyer from Urbandale can clean up.
According to a new report from Citizens for Tax Justice, based in Washington, 99 percent of Iowans end up losing ground as a result of federal tax cuts and deficits. Between 2001 and 2006, the tax break for a middle-income Iowan was $2,011. Yet that person's share of the added national debt burden was $9,173 or nearly $30,000 for a family of four, the report found.The Des Moines Register Editorial Board and the Citizens For Tax Increases must be assuming that 100% of Iowans are paying Federal taxes.
Tax breaks financed by deficit spending are no break at all.
During 2006, Tax Foundation economists estimate that roughly 43.4 million tax returns, representing 91 million individuals, will face a zero or negative tax liability. That's out of a total of 136 million federal tax returns that will be filed. Adding to this figure the 15 million households and individuals who file no tax return at all, roughly 121 million Americans—or 41 percent of the U.S. population—will be completely outside the federal income tax system in 2006.1 This total includes those who pay no tax, and those who pay some tax upfront and are later refunded the full amount of the tax paid or more.Since so many young, single, and poorer people don't pay any Federal taxes anyway, or the fact that poorer people are reaping benefits from things like the Earned Income Tax Credit, I guess it doesn't really matter to them if the deficit and National Debt keep growing. Right? They don't pay anything. Why should they care?
Who Are the Non-Payers?
Using IRS data, we are able to create a profile of these individuals who are outside the federal income tax system. As Table 1 shows, those who file as single or head-of-household are much more likely to be non-payers. One-third of single filers pay nothing in federal income taxes, and almost two-thirds of those who file as head of household pay nothing. In contrast, just 22 percent of married filers are non-payers.
Why do many single filers face zero tax liability? One reason is that single filers tend to be younger and earn lower incomes than married filers—especially single parents who file as head-of-household. As a result, married taxpayers pay roughly 75 percent of all federal income taxes, despite filing only 40 percent of returns.
...the accusation that poor families are shouldering more of the tax burden while receiving less of the spending is empirically false. From 1979 through 2003, the total federal tax burden on the highest-earning quintile (one-fifth or 20 percent) of Americans—who earn 52 percent of all income—rose from 56 percent to 66 percent of all taxes. Their share of individual income taxes jumped from 65 percent to 85 percent. On the spending side, antipoverty spending has leaped from 9.1 percent of all federal spending in 1990 to a record 16.3 percent in 2004.Why would the Socialists on the Register Editorial Board bother with anything like facts? Right? They have statistics to manipulate for their own political benefit!
An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year, even though spending has climbed sharply because of the war in Iraq and the cost of hurricane relief.Spending growth is the big problem. Just ask Tom Vilsack, who appears to have failed math class. So is all the pork that fauxscal conservative Chuck Grassley allows. And then there's Jim Ross Nussle's problem.
On Tuesday, White House officials are expected to announce that the tax receipts will be about $250 billion above last year's levels and that the deficit will be about $100 billion less than what they projected six months ago. The rising tide in tax payments has been building for months, but the increased scale is surprising even seasoned budget analysts and making it easier for both the administration and Congress to finesse the big run-up in spending over the past year.
Tax revenues are climbing twice as fast as the administration predicted in February, so fast that the budget deficit could actually decline this year...
Corporate tax payments are expected to exceed $300 billion, up from $131 billion three years ago. The other big increase is an extraordinary jump in individual taxes that were not withheld from paychecks, usually a reflection of taxes on investment income and executive bonuses.
The jump in receipts is providing Mr. Bush and Republicans in Congress with a new opportunity to assert that tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 are working and that Congress should make them permanent.
Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth, a conservative political fund-raising group, said: "The supply-siders were absolutely right. All the major sources of revenue have grown, especially in areas where we said they would."
...Government spending under Mr. Bush continued to climb rapidly this year, more than twice as fast as the economy.
The state's [Nebraska] flexible fuel vehicles are the only consumers of E85 fuel in Columbus, which is priced about $2.80 per gallon - for supplies that have been on hand since April.$3.60 a gallon for government E85 fleets based on current prices is a bad deal. Considering that burning E85 results in a 30% drop in efficiency, to get the same miles as a 100% gasoline-fuelled car you'd have to spend almost $4.70 a gallon for E85.
If E85 were purchased based on today's wholesale prices, the price at the pump would be about $3.60 per gallon.
Because of the high cost of ethanol and vehicles receiving lower mileage with the fuel, the flow of E85 has slowed to a drip a year after three area stations installed the pumps...
Jeff Johnson, general manager of Sapp Bros.' Sinclair, 4300 23rd St., said when the pumps were opened last July he hoped the station would be one of the first to offer an innovative and lucrative product. When the pumps opened the price for E85 was set at $1.899, but since then pure ethanol has increased by $2.30 a gallon, more than double the price a year ago...
“Since we have gotten into the E85 business, ethanol has gone through the roof,” he said. “Ethanol prices are killing E85.”
White Star in Albion and AJ's C Store in Duncan, both owned by John Sellhorst, installed E85 pumps in April and June 2005, respectfully.
Sellhorst said ethanol prices have hurt sales to the point that he has not ordered E85 since April, when a price boom occurred...
Phyllis Stopak, manager of AJ's, said E85 sales were extremely slow.
“I don't think we have sold any in the month of June,” Stopak said.
Joan Sokol, manager of White Star, said there were no sales of E85 last week, and less than 20 gallons were sold the week before.
“People won't pay higher prices to get less gas mileage,” Sokol said, except for state vehicles.
Johnson said he also noticed a trend of state vehicles being the primary consumers of E85 fuel.
“The sad part is the only people we are selling to are government entities,” he said.
Nancy Walker still has headaches and earaches from a June 28 close call when carbon monoxide from a generator almost killed her and her Des Moines family.A $3075 energy bill? How many years of non-payment is that?
But an even bigger headache is how she and her family are going to pay their $3,075 MidAmerican Energy bill to get the power restored to their home near the Iowa State Fairgrounds...
Allan Urlis, spokesman for MidAmerican Energy, said the average natural gas bill jumped to $803 for the period of October 2005 through April of this year...Looks like the Walkers are also a bunch of deadbeats:
"I'm behind in the rent, too, but thank God the landlord is understanding about that," a tearful Nancy Walker said Wednesday. "At some point, I suppose we could be evicted."How much could the rent be? It's a 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom house with 936 square feet on the East Side. The tax assessor's web site has the house valued at $60,000.
On June 28, Walker and nine other people sleeping in her house nearly died of carbon monoxide poisoning.Tom Alex, the "reporter" who wrote this article in the Des Moines Register, can't resist editorializing:
The problem is not only the high cost of energy, but also rising costs of milk, gasoline and vegetables. Low-income families' financial struggles increase as prices rise through inflation.That's unnecessary commentary.
The number of fatalities on Iowa's Interstates has increased in the past year.This blog kept track of some interstate fatality data for a while. Last November there were a lot of cars crossing the median, people standing on the interstates getting whacked, and unlucky people on ice-covered roads.
The posted speed limit on most miles of four-lane, divided highways in Iowa was raised to 70 miles an hour on July 1st of last year. In the first 12 months under that higher speed limit, there were 48 fatal traffic deaths on the Interstates. In the previous 12-month period, there were 41.
Iowa State Highway Patrol spokesman Jim Saunders says it's too early to tell whether increase in fatalities had anything to do with the hike in the speed limit. "The 70 mile an hour speed limit is only on selected stretches of rural Interstate and a number of these accidents occured on stretches of Interstate where the speed limit didn't increase," Saunders says. "It's also very feasible that these fatalities could have occured for other reasons such as drivers being intoxicated and people not wearing their seatbelt."
The Iowa State Patrol says 80 year old Amparo Chavez of El Salvador was killed when the driver of an SUV lost control after a wheel came loose.
Eight other people from Storm Lake were also in the vehicle when it rolled.
I'm not sure how Pella could come up with the money for EarthPork without a casino to supply the dough, unless they're planning on trafficking cocaine or winning the European International Lottery every month for the next 26 years.
Your blog is one of my required daily readings and I appreciate the effort you put into it.Thanks for the additional information.
Today's "Iowa Starts E85 Pump Grants" you tell of ethanol being higher priced than gasoline saying , "This is going to be a gigantic disaster." The higher price of ethanol is going to be a short term problem.
I am one of the farmers who put money into the ethanol plant at Lakota, IA and voted to give 60% control to Global Ethanol of Australia last spring. At the information meeting it was pointed out right now there is a billion gallon ethanol shortage. There is two billion gallons of ethanol coming on line in the next year between new plants and expansion of existing plants. That means in a year we will have a billion gallons of surplus ethanol and we would be in the position of exporting ethanol, probably to southeast Asia where demand is growing.
The number of Iowa retailers that offer E85 will grow as automakers plan to boost production of vehicles that can burn fuel blended with 85 percent ethanol, industry experts said Wednesday.
The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association also announced it will award $300,000 in grants to increase the number of pumps where E85 is available...
The grants come after lawmakers this spring approved $13 million over three years to install E85 tanks. Shaw said he expects demand to increase.
“I really think over the next three years we could do 500 stations, and it could be double that,” he said.
There are roughly 2,700 gasoline retailers in the state, and if that prediction is realized, availability of E85 would be enough for more people to buy flex-fuel vehicles, officials said.
1. The Bush administration has been secretly monitoring phone records, e-mails, Internet traffic and international banking transactions in search of information about terrorists and anyone who might be remotely connected with terrorist activity.To which they concluded:
8. If these programs continue unchallenged, all future presidents will be free to spy on Americans in ways never envisioned by the founders. The excuse is that we are at war against terrorism. But it is not a war as is commonly understood, where liberties are temporarily sacrificed until hostilities end. The world has always confronted terrorism to some extent, and it always will. We should not sacrifice cherished American liberties forever, however. And so long as we still have a Constitution, it should be enforced.You know how the Register gets their marching orders from papers such as the New York Times? Check out this post from Villainous Company concerning backpedaling and hypocrisy by the Times. And don't miss the Chuck Grassley quote from last November towards the end of the article.
Know that if the information is coming from the mainstream media - the accredited reporters, broadcasters and photojournalists - they are following strict professional guidelines that the looser outlets don't require. The information has been verified, has been scrutinized by editors, has been fact-checked and proofed.
David Roberts at Gristmill may have well summed up all of our responses to the news that Ford Motor Co. is moving away from recent "keen interests" in hybrid technology, and choosing to focus on "flex-fuel" vehicles: WTF? During the taping of the most recent theWatt Podcast today, host Ben Kenney came across a line in the New York Times' article on this development that may hold the key: "Car companies receive a credit for each vehicle they produce that is capable of running on ethanol or a similar bio-fuel." Did you know that? We certainly didn't.So, what have we got here? Let's do it Register Editorial Board style:
It turns out that Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988, which was renewed as the Alternative Fueled Vehicles Rule of 2004, does just that. According to the US Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center, these laws create an incentive for auto makers to build cars capable of using alternative fuels by "[giving] a credit of up to 1.2 mpg toward an automobile manufacturer's average fuel economy which helps it avoid penalties of the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards." The Union of Concerned Scientists calculates that this results in a "...roughly a 65 percent bonus in credited fuel economy" (see their table for exact figures). While Ford denies this credit played a role in its decision, it is clear that cars running on biofuels automatically raise the company's corporate average fuel economy. While hybrids would help here, too, almost any car in Ford's fleet can be made a flex-fuel model with relatively simple modifications, while hybrids would require major new investment in the manufacturer's infrastructure.
Of course, developing cars with flex-fuel capacity could be a major step towards reducing automobile emissions, but the key here is the "flex" part of the equation: if a driver has plain old gasoline available conveniently, but has to drive across town for E85 or other biofuels that might work in his/her car, which option do you suppose s/he'll choose? Yeah, exactly... UCS notes "More than a decade after the program was introduced, government data showed that dual-fuel vehicles used an alternative fuel less than one percent of the time."
On June 27, 1931, a sparkler dropped in a drugstore fireworks display started the devastating Spencer fire that destroyed 50 downtown stores. Buildings were blasted with dynamite to create a fire barrier, but not before there was $2,000,000.00 damage. Within a year, in the midst of a major depression, every building had been rebuilt and Mainstreet had been repaired and repaved.Iowa does allow a few things like sparklers, snakes, and certain kinds of poppers, but that's about it.
4. So far, we know the Bush administration has been tapping international telephone calls, seizing telephone records of millions of Americans and, most recently, secretly examining records of global banking transactions. But has it stopped there? Each time a new privacy breach is revealed, administration lawyers confidently assert that they have exhaustively researched the law and concluded it's all perfectly legal. We therefore must assume the administration believes it has the unilateral power to search virtually anything without the express approval of Congress or the courts.
The newspaper reported Friday that lawmakers on congressional intelligence committees have said that while the NSA has amassed a huge database of calling records, cooperation with the NSA by telephone companies was not as extensive as USA Today said May 11, when it reported that, according to its sources, AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon all agreed to provide the agency with domestic call records.
The newspaper said Friday that Verizon and BellSouth deny they contracted to provide the NSA with records of customers' calls. AT&T has neither confirmed nor denied the report.
Know that if the information is coming from the mainstream media - the accredited reporters, broadcasters and photojournalists - they are following strict professional guidelines that the looser outlets don't require. The information has been verified, has been scrutinized by editors, has been fact-checked and proofed.
When I first started posting the comely mugshots of selected arrestees from Des Moines' Polk County Jail (h/t State 29), I had no idea so many readers shared my fascination with caged pulchritude. To commemorate the anniversary of this popular feature, I think it's finally time to select the official Hawkeye Hoosegow Honey of the Year.
But make no mistake: this will not be a beauty-only pageant. It is important that the winner be well-rounded, and that is why I have added a talent portion to the program. In addition to the raw votes she receives from readers, each candidate will receive 1 bonus point for every $100 in bond set by her assigned magistrate.
So please review the cavalcade of incarcerated corn country cuties, and vote for the one that sets your heart a-twitter. If you'd like more information on the candidates, Google "Hoosegow Honey" or simply rifle through the archives. Voting closes Friday July 7. Good luck, and may the best gal win!
Energy market analysts say various factors have driven E10 prices higher, including a federal mandate requiring increased use of ethanol and soaring demand for the renewable fuel, particularly from more populous areas on the East and West coasts.That's it.
Some analysts believe investors who have been pouring millions of dollars into new and expanding ethanol plants have contributed to elevated prices.That's just bullshit talk and he knows it. The Register, on the other hand, might not know it's bullshit because the place is crawling with stupid Socialists.
"There is just so much money going into it, that it is causing the price to go higher,'' said Glen Falk, retail pricing manager for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. "It's speculation."
