Freezing Raining On Vilsack's Potluck Parade

This was actually printed in the Des Moines Register's Letters section:

Your Nov. 10 editorial regarding Tom Vilsack's record as governor included some half-truths ("Vilsack for President?). You stated that "during a downturn in our nation's economy, he helped the state weather the storm without raising taxes or shutting down state government."

You have ignored the more subtle ways Vilsack found money for his agenda. And, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and others have started the campaign rhetoric that Thomas Vilsack will leave Iowa with a $300 million surplus. That is not true.

During Vilsack's term in office, nearly every available special fund was raided to continue spending without raising taxes. Those funds include the emergency fund, tobacco fund, Senior Living Trust Fund and others.

The Senior Living Trust Fund was funded by the federal government. It was provided to help frail, low-income seniors remain in their own homes rather than going into assisted-living facilities or nursing homes.

Over the past three years, Vilsack has promised to return money taken from that fund for unintended uses, but it appears he will leave office without repaying over $200 million of that money.

The suggested $300 million surplus in nothing more than a shifting of funds at the expense of the support system for low-income seniors and the effort to improve the health of our youngest citizens...

- Graham Fee, Knoxville.

Mr Fee is entirely correct.

Speaking of Tom Harkin, listen to this bullshit on his web site:

Social Security is currently on sound financial footing. In fact, every year it is taking in more money than is needed to send checks to current beneficiaries. These reserves should be used to cushion the strain of the large numbers of baby boomers that will soon begin retiring.

And where's that extra money going? Oh yeah, that's right, Tom Harkin is mortgaging it to pay for things like Iowa's Senior Living Trust Fund.

What a bunch of thieves. All of them.

Is Hitlery Avoiding Iowa?

From the Political Wire:

On Fox News last night, the chairman of Iowa's Democratic party said that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is not laying the adequate groundwork for a presidenial campaign in the first caucus state and that many are starting to speculate she may not run if Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) enters the race.

Said Iowa Democratic Chair Rob Tully: "She's been quiet and, you know, there's a question that we all hear is that she may not get in this if Barack Obama gets in. I have never seen a reaction other than Bill Clinton in terms of the excitement that people have to meet Barack Obama. Some people just wanted to touch him."

One other possible reason: According to the Quad City Times, former Democratic state party chairman Dave Nagle said he is concerned candidates might eventually choose not to come to Iowa with Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) in the race.

Considering that Vilsack was finishing fourth in Iowa this past summer (and probably fifth today behind empty suit and the media wonderhype from Illinois, Senator Barack HUSSEIN Obama), I don't think there's much cause for alarm. Has the IDP learned anything from the 1992 race? We'll find out next year.

Where Were You While We Were Getting Hybrids?

From the Roth & Company Tax Update blog via the TaxProf:

Poor Toyota. The tax law that has the government pay a rebate to buyers of "hybrid" cars only subsidizes 60,000 vehicles for each manufacturer. Toyota has hit its ceiling, and sales have fallen off [after the $3600 tax credit expired on October 1st.] Toyota wants more welfare.

What better welfare could Toyota get than having municipalities buying Penises Priuses (Priii?). This is from the Ames Tribune yesterday:

The Ames City Council waived its formal bidding requirements in its meeting Tuesday night, which will allow the city to purchase its first hybrid car.

A Toyota Prius will be purchased from Wilson Cadillac-Toyota-Scion of Ames for the amount of $23,319.

The hybrid will take the place of a sedan currently owned by the city, which is scheduled for replacement this fiscal year.

Usually a newer, pre-owned sedan for an approximate cost of $16,000 would be purchased as a replacement, but because of high fuel costs and in attempt to reduce emissions of exhaust, environmentally friendly efforts are being taken by Fleet Services.

Fleet Services manages all purchases and coordination of Ames' automotive fleet and has initiated a conservation and reduction program, which includes experimentation with a hybrid vehicle.

The vehicle will be primarily used by Don Kom, electric services director of Ames, and its performance will be monitored to use for future vehicle purchases.

"The economics don't really pay out, but the environment is improved because you're burning less fuel," said Paul Hinderacker, director of Ames Fleet Services.

Gee, they're only about 60 days late to take advantage of the $3600 tax credit.

And wouldn't the environment be improved even more if they gave Don Kom a Sunvee, a Xebra, or a Rhoades Car instead?


Related: Hybrid = Sucker

The Great Negotiator

From Nicholas Johnson's FromDC2Iowa blog:

What we do know for sure is that Vilsack has succeeded in substantially suppressing, if not removing, stories in the national media associating his name with a disaster created by a Board to which he has appointed the members. He has the benefit of the appearance of the great negotiator.

I agree.

Donald Kaul Has Very Low Brain Oxygen Security

Nicole Ritchie. Before and after "very low food security"


From the Mason City Globe Gazette:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on the eve of his nomination for president in 1932, said: “I see one-third of a nation ill-fed, ill-housed and ill-clad.”

Ever since, American presidents have promised to end hunger. None of them has.

Not John Kennedy with his plans cut short, not Lyndon Johnson who used them to build his own Great Society, not Ronald Reagan with his “a rising tide raises all boats” philosophy, not Bill Clinton, who felt everybody’s pain. Until now.

George W. Bush, who didn’t even promise to end hunger, has done it anyway. And in time for the holidays.

In fact, mere days before Thanksgiving, Mr. Bush’s Department of Agriculture issued its annual report on food availability and, lo and behold, no one was listed as “hungry.” Take that, FDR!

It seems that the USDA had done away with the “hungry” category in its 2006 report because the word is an imprecise, non-scientific term. Instead, those who can’t afford to put food on the table are now said to have “very low food security.” This year, that group was even bigger than last year — 35 million, or 12 percent of the population. But no hunger.

You have to work pretty hard at going hungry these days in the United States. Unless you're an abused child, an anorexic teenager, or Nicole Ritchie, most people look like they've had no problem finding a few extra meals.

Kay Henderson Makes Scotchies; Shops At Wal-Mart

Kay Henderson has an interesting Radio Iowa blog post about going to Mount Pleasant to attend Vilsack's official launch for his presidential candidacy.

The thing that kills me is that the event is a potluck. Vilsack's a guy who has spent the past couple of years raising zillions with his PAC, but asks everybody attending the event to bring some food. How quaint.

Here's the snarky part:

[Todd Dorman and I] stopped at the Wal-Mart to buy a mouse so I wouldn't have to use the touchpad on this laptop to edit my sound. There were no protesters from the Wake-Up Wal-Mart movement Vilsack has joined in other rallies in other places. There was a brave soul standing by a red kettle ringing a bell, soliciting Salvation Army donations from shoppers dashing into the store to escape the steady stream of cold rain that was later to turn to sleety stuff.

It's always nice to see a jab about Wal-Mart and Tom Vilsack, the guy who shit all over one of the major employers in Mount Pleasant after helping them out for decades when it was politically expedient for him.

Now for the food:

Upon arrival at the middle school where the Vilsack potluck was planned, reporters were greeted by two Vilsack staffers. One of them was Dusky Terry, the Sec of Ag candidate who used to be an aide in the governor's office and who is now working on Vilsack's campaign staff. Dusky spied the plastic container I was holding, learned that it was my famous "Scotchies" (hey, a girl who grew up in Lenox, IA knows you take something to share when you're invited to a potluck), and I opened the container so he could have the first one.

What did Dorman bring? A big bag of Tostitos purchased at the last minute from Wal-Mart? I'm just joking.

Somebody In Urbandale Hates Clark McLeod

From the Des Moines Register's Letters section:

Everyone is ranting and raving about the new McLeod Center in Cedar Falls. Was the naming of that center paid for by the thousands of shareholders who were bilked out of millions of dollars by McLeod? I was one of them.

Are the rabid sport fans aware there is currently a $30 million class-action lawsuit filed by the stockholders against this corporation for fraudulent misrepresentations about the acquisition of Intelispan, Inc.? Do they know McLeod is now bankrupt? Perhaps we should have named it Enron Field, or WorldCom Stadium?

- Lonny Bartels, Urbandale.

McLeod himself isn't bankrupt, but McLeod USA, the last company he ran into the ground with the help of Crooked Jack Grubman's "buy" ratings on the stock all the way to bankruptcy, has been declared busted twice. And still he has found the time to create a new startup, Fiber Utilities, which aims to rip off taxpayers in municipalities all across Iowa.

Clark McLeod is an evil, evil, evil man. And don't get Iowa taxpayers started on the ripoff known as the ICN.


Related: Clark "Spinner" McLeod, The Broadbandit, Pays $4.4 Million Fine

Four In A Row

The Iowa Hawkeye Men's Basketball team lost their fourth game in a row tonight.

A Hawk Forum posting tonight:

Alford is a loser. He set a bad precedent with his arrogance and sense of entitlement. It does not matter what he does--Reggie Evans, the Iowa kids from last year, or the so-called athletes this year, the man cannot get his ---- together. THe program is in disarray. It is a travesty that this proud university continues to tolerate Steve Alford. I don't understand, and count myself among the people who thought he would be an improvement on the Doctor Tom era. Guess what? Some of us would kill to have TD back in the thick of things. These Iowa teams are horrible. After watching Maryland beat Michigan State and Illinois already this year, I am grateful to live in Turtleland and embarrassed that the UI, from which I have two degrees, is so horrible under Alford.

The Big Lie About Tobacco Taxes

Updated below:




From the Sioux City Journal:

An increase in the tobacco tax in Iowa is something members of Siouxland CARES hope finally comes to fruition in 2007.

The same goes for a statewide beer keg registration law.

Both measures have been proposed in recent years, yet haven't come up for a vote, as key lawmakers have not let the measures come out of committee.

Officials of Siouxland CARES, formed in 1987 to address adolescent substance abuse, hope that 2007 is a year of change. They asked Sioux City legislators at a forum Tuesday to look favorably on raising the cigarette tax, putting a statewide keg registration program in place, as well as increasing the beer user excise tax...

...With Republican leadership at the Statehouse giving way to Democratic Party control in 2007, state Sen. Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux City, said the tobacco tax increase discussion "will be viewed on the public health" aspect.

Looks like Steve Warnstadt and other State politicians are just going to lie about the reasons for increasing Iowa's tobacco tax, the same way that Democrat Tom Miller lied about the reasons why he cornholed tobacco companies out of $1.7 billion dollars:

...on November 27, 1996, I stood on these steps to announce a historic lawsuit by the State of Iowa against the tobacco companies and their research associations. The suit alleged that the defendants violated Iowa's Consumer Fraud Act by "repeatedly and systematically misleading the public" about the health dangers of smoking, and failing to disclose the addictive qualities of nicotine. The suit sought restitution and civil penalties on the consumer fraud count.

Our suit also asked the Court to order the defendants to pay the State millions of dollars in restitution for costs the State paid to provide health care and other services to citizens and employees as a result of tobacco-related diseases, illnesses and injuries. We alleged these huge costs resulted from "the defendants' wrongful conduct and unlawful activities."

As Iowans later learned, most of the tobacco settlement money was spent on things other than smoking cessation and health care costs:

[The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids] found that states this year (FY 2005) will collect $20 billion from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes. While only 8 percent of the $20 billion could fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs in every state at the minimum levels recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), states are spending just 2.7 percent on tobacco prevention and cessation.

Iowa is no exception. Annually Iowa generates $143.5 million from tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes, yet is spending just 3.6 percent of that revenue on tobacco prevention. Funding for prevention has also decreased since 2001. In FY 2001 Iowa spent $9.4 million (6.2 percent of tobacco revenue) on tobacco prevention programs, and has committed just $5.1 million (3.6 percent of tobacco revenue) for FY 2005.

In addition, tobacco companies spend nearly thirty times as much for marketing in Iowa than what Iowa spends on tobacco prevention

Talk about consumer fraud.

Attorney General Tom Miller and the Iowa Legislature should be sued for consumer fraud.

The same thing will happen when tobacco taxes in Iowa are raised again. That money will go into the general fund and be spent on anything but the public health costs of smoking. And since mostly poor people smoke, it's nothing but a tax increase on the poor.


Update: The Political Forecast has a post today about the proposed cigarette tax increase:

The fact is, the Culver administration’s budget will likely be predicated, to some extent, on an a cigarette tax increase. During the campaign season, it is how he proposed to pay for a lot of his health care proposals and it is unlikely that will change.

I suspect that a lot of Governor Knapp's budget will be chocked full of health care corporate welfare. You've got to keep the fatcats at Wellmark happy. Doctors around the state need to build fancy multi-zillion dollar buildings with the latest whiz-bang technology, as well as stock their 8000 sq foot houses and $70,000 SUVs with the latest gadgets.

Oh, you never thought of it that way, have you? Think about it that way. The next time you see one of those new and fancy buildings going up for this group of specialists or that bunch of hotshot Grey's Anatomy-age doctors, that's where your money is going. They're mortgaged to the hilt and they want you to pay for it all.

Bill Frist Pulls Out Faster Than A Teenage Boy Without A Condom

Radio Iowa is reporting today that Bill Frist doesn't have the spine to run for President, much less keep an early campaign going in Iowa.

It's not a big surprise. His wimpy behavior as the loss-leader of the Republicans in the Senate is legendary. Plus, the guy is unroastable.

The Iowa DNR Continues To Fight Kevin Kelly

From the QC Times:

The trial of a Cedar County tree farmer charged with killing a deer on his property out of season has been scheduled for March.

Kevin Kelly, 54, was charged in September with shooting a deer out of season and with shooting the deer with a rifle.

Kelly, who owns Kelly Tree Farms, says a 1915 Iowa Supreme Court ruling permits killing deer in defense of one’s property. In the ruling, the court reversed the conviction of a Pottawattamie County farmer for violating a statute prohibiting the killing of deer. The court concluded that under the Iowa Constitution, the farmer was justified to shoot the deer because it was eating his corn.

Kelly said he notified the Iowa Department of Natural Resources after he shot the deer in June. Three months later, the DNR issued citations against Kelly.

If convicted, he faces fines of $100 on each count as well as $1,500 for the deer’s value.

Why is the Iowa DNR acting like a bully towards a man trying to earn a living with a tree farm? The Iowa DNR has mismanged Iowa's deer population over the past 25-30 years. What's the matter with shooting a few of these critters out of season when it affects somebody's livelihood?

A deer has a value of $1500? Where does the Iowa DNR get off with that line of thinking? Deer-vehicle accidents cost at least $25 million a year in Iowa. They cause several deaths a year, usually motorcyclists riding at dusk or night.

But, but, but... tourism, license fees from tags, and having celebrities like Bo Jackson around is more important.


Related story: Shooting Deer

I Don't Want To Work, I Just Want To Bang On The Drum All Day

UI Provost Michael Hogan, who's barely been in his job for two years, has been applying for other jobs at a serious clip.

This is from the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

University of Iowa Provost Michael Hogan is one of two finalists for the presidency of the University of Delaware.

The Wilmington Journal reports that Hogan met with faculty, students and staff of the school on Nov. 20. The other finalist for the job is Patrick Harker, dean of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hogan was a finalist for the University of Iowa's presidency until the Iowa state Board of Regents rejected him and three other finalists on Nov. 17.

It seems like State employees do nothing but apply for other jobs all the time. It's sort of like that woman at Iowa Workforce Development who got passed over for 56 different jobs over a four year period. Except that woman was black, so naturally it was discrimination.

Do You Know What I Mean?

Tom Vilsack sure has made a mess in Iowa, hasn't he?

Krusty has a post today that recaps the Board Of Regents/UI President search situation. Also read Nicholas Johnson's recap from yesterday (Part IX) for even more detail.

I can't begin to speculate on what's what in this entire mess, but it sure seems to me that it all points back to Tom Vilsack.

Michael Gartner, I mean Tom Vilsack, wants a UI President with health-care experience. Well, why is that so important now when it has never been an issue in the past 150-odd years? It all goes back to the Wellmark debacle. Attorney General and Democrat Tom Miller ruled that Vilsack's appointment of John Forsyth, Wellmark's CEO, to the Board of Regents in 2003 was a serious conflict of interest. David Skorton, the only UI President with health-care experience, had problems with a contract the hospital had with Wellmark over reimbursement rates. Gartner, I mean Vilsack, didn't like that, so Skorton was dissed at raise time and was lured away to The Other Cornell.

So what's Gartner, I mean Vilsack, going to do? Gartner, I mean Vilsack, dissolves the search because his candidate, clearly a puppet for the insurance companies, wasn't on the final list. Does it get any simpler than that?

Now Vilsack, and I do mean Vilsack, can ride his white horse into Cedar Rapids (What? Are there no places in Iowa City or Coralville where he could hold meetings?) to hold some pow wow in order to mollify the dupes at the University of Iowa who threatened to impose a UN-style (read: worthless) "no confidence" vote against the Board of Regents, I mean Vilsack, although they mean Michael Gartner, but they should really mean Vilsack.

If you know what I mean.

Anti-Wal-Mart Kooks And Their Disinformation Campaign

From Tom Thoma's blog at the Mason City Globe Gazette:

I got the darndest “holiday card” in the mail.

It was from an organization called Wake Up WalMart, and urged me to “join the fight for good jobs, health care for all and a better America.” It was signed by a woman named Lisa R (no last name, of course).

Now, I don’t know a lot of folks who work at Wal-Mart — maybe a handful — and none of them real well. Some of them have worked there for a good long time. I’ve never gotten the impression they were dissatisfied with their jobs.

I realize this is Iowa, where we have a much different view of work than other parts of the country. The card was mailed in Phoenix.

Just wondering, did you get a similar card? Do you know anyone who works at Wal-Mart and complains about unfair treatment?

And speaking of Wal-Mart, I downloaded a list of their $4 prescriptions off the Internet. All but one that I use is covered; Target and others are matching Wal-Mart.

It's sad that Democrats like Tom Vilsack have decided to shit all over Iowa's largest employer by aligning themselves with a group run by a bunch of union thugs and lunatics.

And Wal-Mart's $4 prescription thing has to be a much better deal for seniors in the long run than any government/taxpayer created mess, like Medicare Part D or Part F or Part Fucked or whatever it's called.

I don't see any union-run businesses expanding these days. All of them are going bankrupt and being sold because they're run by a bunch of thugs, greasers, and fat-mouthed assholes who are enriching themselves at the expenses of their employees. Or they're all government entities. And nobody is happy working for the government these days, except maybe Ako Abdul-Samad and the Mauro Extended Family.


Related: Anti-Wal-Mart Kooks: "Wal-Mart Is Like Something Out Of Dickens"

We’re Going To Keep Hammering Away At Iowa’s Ineffective Sex Offender Residency Law Until Something Gets Done About It

From the Mason City Globe Gazette ("A better, safer way to protect children"):

We’re going to keep hammering away at Iowa’s ineffective sex offender residency law until something gets done about it.

So here we go again.

In Iowa, convicted sex offenders may not live within 2,000 feet of a school or child-care facility. That creates many off-limits areas in a community the size of Mason City. The law forces sex offenders out of smaller towns entirely.

Since this law has been put in place, some sex offenders don’t register when moving to a new area because the 2,000-foot restriction makes it difficult to find a place to live. Law enforcement officers must then find them, which is a time-consuming, difficult and sometimes impossible job.

Mason City’s Sex Offender Review Committee has been studying the law since August. After a thorough period of research that included public forums and input from law enforcement and corrections officers, the committee reached the conclusion that the residency law does not work.

We believe what the committee believes, that the 2,000-foot rule offers a false sense of security, which may make our children less safe...

We also believe that the threat of sex offenders harming random children is overstated. Most of this type of abuse — as much as 90 percent — is carried out by people children know and trust. The 2,000-foot rule can’t stop that.

Bravo, Globe Gazette editors. Thanks for speaking up.

It would be nice to see Governor Knapp, Mike Gronstal, and Pat Murphy come forward with some leadership and admit what practically every county attorney and member of law enforcement already knows: Iowa's 2000 foot sex offender residency law sucks ass and needs to be repealed. Don't bet on that ever happening.


Related: Iowa To Kansas: Sex Offender Residency Limits Don't Work

Dan Ehl Loves The State 29 Blog

Updated below:

From Dan Ehl, the managing editor of the Centerville Daily Iowegian:

Google “dan ehl” and you’ll come up with my stories and columns, as well as a few postings on a blog called State 29, the tormented ravings of an obviously delusionary lunatic. He parrots all the extreme right wing hate mongering and then some. But I can only feel sorry for him because of recent studies that show his ilk should be pitied — and then heavily medicated.

It must have been a slow week there in southern Iowa. Nothing to do but hang out and have a bunch of Drake University interlopers snatch up half the allotted PS3s from the local Wal-Mart.

Poor Dan Ehl didn't bother to look around this blog very much to find that this delusionary lunatic and extreme right wing hate mongerer actually endorsed Leonard Boswell and Dave Loebsack for Congress.

I've been against Republican-allowed tax increases, Republican-endorsed corporate welfare, Republican-excused expansion of gambling, and Republican-approved legalized loansharking.

I side with the Kos-approved libertarian Democrats when it comes to being against Republican Elizabeth Dole-style nanny-state behavior when it comes to alcohol.

Finally, I do admit to siding with the Nazis in one regard. Like Jim Nussle, I am in favor of killing babies in the first trimester. For that I do plead guilty.


Update: A reader notes that Ehl was attacked a few months ago supposedly because the newspaper Ehl runs printed the minutes of the local city council meeting. The meeting in question involved the local cops lobbying the council to deny a particular bar's liquor license from renewal. Ehl suffered a broken leg and a very bloody face from said bar's owners, as you'll see in the photo in the link.

I was aware of all this in the past but I don't think I mentioned it because it wasn't like Ehl wrote some editorial about the bar; Ehl was just reporting the minutes like any small town newspaper would. The local thugs who beat up Ehl must be really petty-minded assholes with exceptionally small penises to pull a stunt like that. I hope the county prosecutor throws the book at these two and surely the local city council has already revoked their liquor license. They won't need it while sitting in prison, where they belong.

It's one thing to joke about saying that Dan Ehl supports the terrorists because he's against torturing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Most people probably think Ehl is a clown for holding such a view. What should we be doing with Khalid? Be giving him a trial? Please.

I'd like to see the far lefties like Ehl come up with some alternatives to dealing with terrorists who want to kill you, rape your daughters, and then cut off their heads, other than granting them full US citizen rights to trial or having them appear in some unaccountable court managed by the French Europeeon Youyun. I think torture is a perfectly acceptable way of extracting information out of them. Fuck 'em, they're terrorists.

18 Is Adult

Tyler Anderson, a freshman at ISU, writing to the Iowa State Daily:

I propose that the United States allow young adults 18 and older to be able to drink in controlled environments. These controlled environments would include restaurants, taverns, pubs and official school functions. Reasoning behind this is that these situations would promote responsible drinking to young adults...

...When we turn 18, we are given the right to vote, get married, buy tobacco products, serve in the military and be tried as an adult in the U.S. court system. So why are we denied the right to consume alcohol?

All of Anderson's other reasonings in his letter, which I've edited out, pale in comparison to his conclusion.

Miss White Iowa 2006

A beauty contest called Miss White Iowa 2006 sounds stupid in this day and age, doesn't it?

Iowa Measures It's Penis Size According To A University President's Salary

From the Des Moines Register:

Some Iowa university presidents who left the state are now among the highest-paid college leaders in the nation, according to a new national survey of executive compensation.

Purdue University President Martin Jischke's total compensation package of $880,950 this year ranks second-highest in the nation among public university presidents, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's latest salary survey.

Jischke was paid $227,000 a year by Iowa State University when he left in 2000 to become president of Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind. He is retiring in June when his contract expires. His current compensation package includes a $400,000 retention bonus for staying until the end of his contract.

Jischke's situation is just one example of Iowa's relatively low salaries among university presidents and the difficulty the institutions have in retaining those leaders, according to national articles that ran Friday with the Chronicle's 2006-07 salary survey.

"The state has developed a reputation as a training ground for hotshot college chiefs who leave the state to run major research universities elsewhere," Chronicle reporter Annie Shuppy wrote.

Annie Shuppy? You mean the Daily Hottie found a job? Good for her. She had a bit of trouble out of school finding a job, if I remember correctly.

What I don't get is that ongoing obsession with penis measurement by the Des Moines Register. Does it really matter whether the head of the University of Iowa makes $300,000 a year or $750,000 a year? Apparently so, to them. It's not like whoever is hired has to find a house to live in, since one that was recently renovated to the tune of $3 million is theirs to use and abuse as long as they hold the job.

Meanwhile, also in the Sunday Register, Regents member Robert Downer speculates on the reasons for the snubbing of Skorton and the halting of the search for a new UI President.

You know, it did seem weird that the Regents voted to give Skorton a 3% raise while the other public university presidents got a 5% raise. Was everything based on the Wellmark thing? It all seems so petty. "Do what Vilsack wants through the Regents, or we will dock you!" So after Skorton asserts himself in his job in Iowa City, Vilsack decides to send his hatchet man, Michael Gartner, in to fuck with everything. Gartner, and teresa wahlert proceed to drive Skorton away and attempt to make the ultimate power grab at the University of Iowa by installing some Stepin Fetchit puppet. It wouldn't surprise me one bit.

Iowa To Kansas: Sex Offender Residency Limits Don't Work

Pamela Dettmann, senior assistant county attorney from Burlington, Iowa

From the Wichita Eagle:

Proposals for keeping sex offenders from living close to schools or day care centers may appear attractive politically, but they won't protect children, a key legislator said Thursday.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Vratil's assessment came a day after Iowa officials warned Kansas legislators against passing such restrictions, saying they actually put communities at greater risk.

Vratil, R-Leawood, and other members of a committee studying judiciary issues this summer and fall had a hearing Wednesday on whether the state should prevent sex offenders from living within a certain distance -- such as 1,000 feet or 1,500 feet -- of schools and day care centers. The study committee took no action.

The idea enjoyed some support early during the Legislature's 2006 session, but backing waned amid questions about whether it would have unintended consequences. Legislators eventually told cities and counties they couldn't impose such restrictions and decided to study the topic.

But with Vratil's opposition and negative reports from Iowa and other states, such proposals have less of a chance of passing next year.

"It sounds good on the surface, and that's why it's politically attractive, but when you really determine what the facts are and the experiences the other states have had, it's a bad deal," Vratil said Thursday.

Iowa officials told Kansas legislators that a 2005 law in their state had such consequences. Prosecutors and law enforcement officials there are working to get the Iowa statute repealed.

"The bottom line is, it doesn't protect children," said Pamela Dettmann, a senior assistant county attorney from Burlington, Iowa.

Supporters of such proposals contend sex offenders who are released from prison should be kept a safe distance away from places where children congregate.

Iowa officials told the committee that their state's law has forced sex offenders to live in remote areas where it is difficult for law enforcement and parole officials to keep track of them.

Also, they said, the number of sex offenders who are unaccounted for has doubled since the law went into effect last year.

In addition, some communities now have clusters of offenders living in motels or other places outside the residency restriction.

Dettmann also said that the law misdirects public attention toward offenders who are strangers to their child victims, when most sex crimes against children are committed by a relative or acquaintance.

I am glad to see county prosecutors from Iowa coming down here to tell other politicians that the sex offender residency laws do not work. Although, in a way, you'd think these politicians would have enough smarts to Google around and discover that they've been a disaster in every place they've been imposed.

2x4s

Duncan Stewart, writing in the Iowa City Press-Citizen on Saturday:

The guys at the gym and I were talking about the Iowa state Board of Regents and its inept search for a new University of Iowa president. We got a good laugh out of the fact that board president Michael Gartner's qualifications for the perfect candidate -- scholar, fundraiser, experience with a large teaching hospital -- all call to mind only one candidate: former UI President David Skorton. What an irony -- the regents drive the most promising president since Sandy Boyd out of state and then turn around and say they want to hire his clone.

In good times if you ask an Iowa Citian who the regents are they will answer without missing a beat, "Isn't that the name of the athletic teams from Regina High School?" But now most Iowa City residents, Iowans for that matter, not only know who the regents are, they also have a nice comfy two by four that they'd like to give Gartner and his sidekick teresa wahlert (who doesn't use capitals in her mass e-mails to the university) a ride on to the Iowa border.

Ouch!

Why We Wimp Out

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Musack, like Sourivong before him, knew full well that he risked being assigned to a hot spot like Iraq or Afghanistan, but he determined that the work was noble and that the task needed to be done. Although his readiness to face that risk doesn't lessen the sting of his death, it should make us that much more thankful for the hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers and civilians who continue to serve our nation and who are dedicated to the idea of spreading democracy.

But another death so close to home also makes us again pause to consider the state of this nearly four-year war. Earlier this month, American voters participated in an election that has been called a referendum on the Bush Administration. In their votes to remove Republicans from control of the U.S. House and Senate, many voters named the mishandling of Iraq as one of their main complaints. Any joy taken in the departure of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, one of the key architects of Iraq policy, proved short-lived, however -- lasting only until news of the next causality.

As of Wednesday, the Department of Defense reported that 2,866 soldiers have died in Iraq since combat began. Musack is the 47th Iowan to die in Iraq or Afghanistan in that time. As important as it is to commend the sacrifice made by so many men and women, it's long past time for Congress and the Bush Administration to work together to find a way to bring all our soldiers home before any more are lost.

Some people hate the United States. Some people just hate the military. And others get all yellow bellied because they can't stand the fact that soldiers die during wars, while mopping up, and during the regular course of service. This is the latter.

It's sad that elitist newspaper types don't understand the role of the military, much less can't stomach the idea that soldiers die through the course of service and action. If America was full of lamers in 1944 like whoever wrote this editorial, we'd all be speaking German, Japanese, or Russian. Or we'd all be dead.

They Hate Thanksgiving

Looking through various newspaper headlines, I saw this at the Cedar Rapids Gazette this morning. Their web site is closed to most stories except for subscribers, but you can tell where this is going in the first paragraph:

Like their fellow Iowans, most members of the Meskwaki tribe will enjoy a big meal today with family and friends. They will not, however, entertain fond thoughts of the Pilgrims, whose 1621 gathering in Massachusetts with about 90 American Indians served as a model for the modern Thanksgiving holiday. Nor will many of them dwell on the injustices -- most notably land seizures and relocation to reservations -- that befell their own ancestors at the hands of the Pilgrim's successors.

This is just more of that "Thanksgiving = Genocide" bullshit that some newspapers offer up every year. If you remember, two years ago an idiot by the name of Jesse Villalobos got his "Thanksgiving = Genocide" piece published in the Des Moines Register. That's been long purged, although the original lives on at the mis-named Tolerance.org web site.

Back to the Meskwakis. Did you know that the Meskwaki tribe aren't indigenous to Iowa? That's right. They were originally from Canada. And it wasn't the British white man and woman seeking relief from religious persecution that drove them out of their areas, it was the French:

The Fox tribe of Native Americans are an Algonquian language-speaking group that are now merged with the allied Sac tribe as the Sac and Fox Nation. The Fox called themselves Meshkwahkihaki or Mesquakie. The name Fox originated in a French mistake applying a clan name to the entire tribe.

The Fox originally lived east of Michigan along the Saint Lawrence River. The tribe may have numbered as many as 10,000 but years of war with the French-supplied Hurons reduced their numbers and forced them west first to the area between Saginaw Bay and Detroit in Michigan and then to Wisconsin. In Wisconsin the Fox gained control of the Fox River system. This river was vital for fur trade between French Canada and the interior of North America, because one could navigate from the Bay of Green Bay in Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. By going down the Fox River to Lake Winnebago, through the Wolf River one could reach a small portage (at the present day city of Portage, Wisconsin) to the Wisconsin River. From the Wisconsin River, traders could reach the Mississippi River and ultimatley the rest of the continent. When the French had first contact with them they estimated that the Fox numbered about 6,500. By 1712, they were down to 3,500 when the First Fox War broke out with the French (1712-1714). The Second Fox War of 1728 found the remaining 1500 Fox reduced to 500 who found shelter with the Sac and brought French animosity to that tribe. The First Fox War was purely economic in nature. The French merely wanted rights to use the river system to gain access to the Mississippi. The Second Fox War was genocidal because the Mesquakie continually refused to allow traders onto the Fox and Wolf rivers.

Members of the Fox tribe spread through southern Wisconsin, and the Iowa-Illinois border. In 1829 the government estimated there were 1500 Fox (along with 5500 Sac). Some of them were involved with some of the Sac in the Blackhawk War when they refused to give up their lands in Illinois.

Fox who had successfully fled west of the Mississippi River were known as the "lost people" by the Dakota.

The Meskwaki later moved to a settlement near Tama, Iowa.

What motivates reporters to write and editors to print this these types of stories? They hate America, that's what. They simply hate America. They push that big "Fuck You" finger back to old Whitey because of some bullshit they read at their elitist lefty colleges. The Evil White Man should have stayed in Europe all those centuries ago rather than intrude on all the Injuns who were busy warring and killing and eating each other. Fuck diversity. That's basically what they're saying, the hippie-crits.

You Can Take The Vegan Out Of Iowa, But You Can't Take The Iowa Out Of The Vegan

From the Quad City Times:

It’s no surprise that Quad-Cities residents are concerned about the welfare of Thanksgiving turkeys (“No turkey? No problem! Vegetarian Thanksgivings are on the rise,” Nov. 15). As a former Iowan, I knew countless families opposed to factory farms due to their poor record with polluting rural communities, putting family farmers out of business and treating their animals inhumanely.

Factory-farmed turkeys are bred to grow so quickly that they suffer from painful health conditions, often dying from complications before even making it to slaughter. The industry has to use artificial insemination for every bird it produces, as factory farm turkeys can not mate on their own due to being bred for unnatural size. Mutilations without anesthesia to the birds’ beaks, toes and skin above their beaks are also common practices.

Consumers interested in more humane holiday fare should visit www.HumaneEating.com.

Alyson Powers, Washington, D.C.

As you might suspect, Alyson Powers and Leana Stormont knew each other at the University of Iowa, forming various Animal Rights groups that attracted a whopping nine members.

These fringe types always complain about factory farming, but as militant vegetarians you don't see them ever promoting the consumption of free range turkey.

Speaking of omnivore behavior, now is the time for everybody to run around dunking frozen turkeys into vats of hot peanut oil for delicious deep-fried goodness in about an hour on Thanksgiving Day. Just be careful with those machines, as this video from Underwriters Laboratories points out.

Bill Frist Is Unroastable

From The Hill:

Retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is apparently un-roastable. He’s not even lightly toastable.

On Thursday, newly minted Senate Minority Leader-to-be Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hosted a little goodbye get-together in the Capitol Building’s Mansfield Room for his buddy Frist and friends both on and off the Hill. Such occasions are usually marked with much ribbing, roasting and good cheer. And, naturally, we thought it would be a good chance to finally get senators to ’fess up about some of their favorite funny Frist moments.

Alas, there don’t seem to be many.

“I don’t think he’s the sort of person you hear anything funny about,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who said some nice things about Frist, but couldn’t seem to cough up any funny tales about him.

That sums up the leadership of the Republican party, doesn't it? Dry as toast. Blander than bland. And as spineless as Ined Loopner's deceased husband.

At least at a Democratic roast, there's always something to laugh about: Bill Clinton getting a blowjob from an unpaid subordinate and him sticking a cigar in her pussy, Hillary's cattle futures and legendary bad temper, Nancy Pelosi's facelifts and botox injections, John Murtha's ABSCAM involvement, the judicial impeachment of Alcee Hastings, Ted Kennedy being drunk and killing a woman, Barney Fag, Christopher Dodd fucking Bianca Jagger, Robert Torricelli fucking Bianca Jagger, Jesse Jackson having an affair and fathering a child, Robert Byrd's KKK past, Dennis Kookcinich, and so on. I'd rather be at that party.

Pre-Turkey Roundup

Mainstream Iowan has a post about a Des Moines Register article on drugs getting into Fort Madison. I swear, we should just tear the entire building down and build a new one. That will solve the problems there, right?

Nicholas Johnson's FromDC2Iowa blog has more on the Regents/UI President thingee. From reading the various articles on this matter lately, it looks like the Regents didn't have any women or blacks or Hispanics or black women or Hispanic women or mixed black/Hispanic women as finalists. Remember, only the liberal elite can judge people for a job based on their sex and the color of their skin. And keep it hidden away from the public.

The South Of Iowa talks about why he puts anhydrous ammonia on his fields. You know, that seems like a rather benign or boring topic, but to all the city slickers it does answer a lot of questions, and he writes it in a very informative way.

Michael Gartner Is A Cranky Guy In A Bow Tie

From the Des Moines Register:

Regents President Michael Gartner issued the following statement to The Register today, in response to the newspaper’s editorial published Tuesday calling for an end to the secrecy in the search.

These are Gartner’s first public remarks about the search since the board halted the search process on Friday.

Here's my favorite part:

Third, you say we have “shrouded the process in secrecy.” It’s true the process was confidential, but five of the seven candidates brought in for interviews told us they would drop out if their names became public, and virtually all of the original pool of 150 or so also demanded confidentiality -- a fact the Search Committee was aware of from the beginning. Right or wrong, that seems to be the way the marketplace works at large institutions these days. David Skorton’s name was not made public at Cornell (a semi-public institution) nor Mary Sue Coleman’s at Michigan (a public institution). Indeed, after being appointed, Coleman told the Ann Arbor News she would not have been a candidate if the search had been open.

No wonder. These overpaid ass clowns are too busy jockeying around the country, switching jobs every few years, and demanding higher and higher amounts of compensation. It's annoying. Why can't they just take the frickin job and do it?

What would the marketplace be like if the names of the finalists were released? We'd probably have less job hopping by greed-seeking and status-seeking climbers like Zero Freedman, Hunter Rawlings IIIIIII, Mary Sue Michigan, and David "Not That Cornell" Skorton.


Related: No Confidence: The End Of Vilsack's Cultural Revolution?

Grapes

Two stories related to grapes.

First is The Political Madman's excellent discovery of a story in the New York Times about an Iowa farmer who makes more money off of two acres of grapes than he did planting 1000 acres of corn and raising 3000 head of hogs. I completely agree with the Madman's analysis.

You know, Republicans in 1988 gave Michael Dukakis shit for suggesting to Iowa farmers that they should diversify into profitable crops like Belgian Endive, but he was right. How right was he? Read this. And don't get me started on industrial hemp.

Second, from the feeds is this story from the Cedar Rapids Gazette about a Carroll school stupidertendent who has banned the book "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" from high school classes because of "inappropriate material" for students.

At first I thought it might be the suicide of Gilbert Grape's father, but I'm betting that it's the sex involved. This is from some bible thumpin' movie reviewin' web site:

Gilbert has an affair with a married woman who openly pursues him. While no on-screen sexual intercourse takes place, it is implied. Also, unconventional sex is briefly implied once. When her husband suddenly dies of a heart attack, the widow leaves town. Her character serves no purpose other than to tarnish the otherwise wholesome character of Gilbert.

The book isn't banned from the school's library, but the stupidertendent just removed it from the course's curriculum. None of this ever makes any sense, but why should it?

TSONGAS

From the Des Moines Register:

Motorists in Iowa could be asked to pay higher taxes at the fuel pump to cope with soaring costs of road construction and declining highway tax revenues, industry officials said today.

The Iowa Legislative Services Agency issued a financial report today which said Iowa's Road Use Tax Fund faces a decline in revenue for only the second time in the past 26 years...

...The other fees could include those charged for driver's licenses, pickup truck licenses or other motor vehicle registrations, or other fees, he said.

"The fact of the matter is that the real money to be generated is at the gas tax level," Scott added. A 5-cent increase in Iowa's fuel tax would generate an additional $110 million annually.

Iowa motorists currently pay taxes of 21 cents per gallon on regular gasoline, 19 cents a gallon on ethanol-blended gasoline; 17 cents a gallon for E-85 fuel; and 22.5 cents per gallon on diesel fuel.

See what happens when you elect Democrats? They instantly want to raise every fucking tax on the planet.

But the fact remains that pickup truck owners in Iowa do not pay their fair share when it comes to vehicle registration fees thanks to an old scam by lobbyists on behalf of farmers. Nevermind that 90% of the nearly 1.4 million pickup trucks in Iowa are driven by city slickers. If you own a gas guzzling pickup in Iowa, like a $35,000 Dodge Ram Hemi that gets 14 mpg in the city, you pay a flat fee of $65 a year while somebody who owns a gas sipping Toyota Corolla can pay nearly $200 a year.

This issue has been mentioned before in the State 29 blog.

Just making pickup truck owners pay their fair share of registration fees would bring in nearly $200 million a year.

Raising gas taxes on everybody in Iowa is not necessary in order to meet projected road building costs in the future. Just eliminate the tax break on fancy new pickup trucks that suburban-dwelling men with small penises lust after.

Drake Students Freeze All Night For A PS3 At Wal-Mart

From the Centerville Daily Iowegian:

It’s dawn on Friday, Nov. 17. Over a dozen young men are standing outside of the Centerville Wal-Mart. Some of them have been standing here since since 7 p.m. on Thursday. Their goal: the purchase of a Sony Playstation 3 - a video game system being touted as the most powerful and technologically advanced home console on the market. It retails between $500 and $600, depending on what features one is looking for.

Due to a number of problems on the manufacturing side, however, Sony’s retail release for the system is plagued by shortages nationwide. That is why almost every person in line is here not with the intention of playing the Playstation 3 - they’re here to scalp the system on eBay for way more than its retail value.

“I like to think of it as profiteering,” Dane Hammer, a Drake University student who was in town to purchase one, responded.

“I took Economics I and II, David Edgeton, another Drake student mused. “I can’t override the low supply with the high demand. It’s not possible.”

It may be a smart move. With nowhere near enough Playstation 3 consoles to go around, and a large number of people willing to pay exorberant prices for it, gouging the system with a large after-market price may be a great way to score some Christmas money. How much profit, you might ask? eBay auctions of the new system are closing between an average of $1500 and $3000. Suddenly, the initial investment of $500 - $600 for a PS3 becomes very attractive to those willing to wade through some obstacles for one.

The Drake University students who came down Thursday night had called a few Wal-Marts, looking for a place where lines hadn’t formed to nab one. When they heard no one was at the Centerville store, they hopped in their car and made the journey.

Three problems occurred once the college boys got here: First, a line had officially started five arrived. Levi Grenko and Dylan Oehler, two Centerville High School Sophomores decided to stand outside and brave the weather conditions.

“I live right across the street,” Grenko stated.

Second, they assumed the Centerville Wal-Mart was a 24-hour Supercenter, and would be selling their Playstation 3’s at midnight. It wasn’t.

“We drove here, when we called in, they didn’t say, ‘oh by the way, we’re not a 24-hour wal-mart,’” Jeffrey Pettit remembers, the third Drake University student who made the trip to Centerville.

One final obstacle: the Centerville Wal-Mart only had 4 PS3’s available at launch. Minus the two the local kids would nab the first two, that meant only two would be left for the rest.

Faced with these problems, the Drake students took it in stride. Since they were already here, and were guaranteed the last two consoles, the decision was made to stay the night in line.

Despite having no gear to camp out in, and nothing to eat or drink, the Drake students found resources available, thanks in part to the kindness of strangers.

“[The two kids in front of us] bought a tent last night,” Hammer explained. “Their mom brought us some blankets. We bought their pizza in exchange, so...the barter system.”

“Last night we were kind of frustrated,” Pettit explained. “but [Wal-Mart] gave us coffee this morning, which was really nice.”

That's a funny story.

A Call For Civility Unleashes A Torrent Of Mudslinging

From the Quad City Times:

We encourage lively debate and challenging questions in the story comments on our Web site. We believe such discussions offer a valuable contribution to the stories we are writing and the major issues of the day. However, we believe this can and should be done in a respectful manner. If you can’t make your case without calling other people idiots or morons, don’t expect your comments to get posted on our Web site. If you can’t make a rational case without dropping the F-bomb or other obscenities, don’t expect to get posted. If you think people deserve, for any reason, to have their houses burn down or to die violent deaths, definitely don’t waste your time posting (and consider getting help).

Thank you for being a valued reader of the Quad-City Times, online and in print. And we ask for your help to make this a better online community. Please help in policing this site for offensive and over-the-top comments that inadvertently get posted by bringing them to our attention immediately. Send an e-mail to onlinenews@qctimes.com.

Keep in mind that we only post approved comments; we don’t edit them.

Steve Thomas, Editor
Quad-City Times

Naturally, the comments on this story are lively:

"Very entertaining... a call for civility unleashes a torrent of mudslinging! "

Comments do keep people coming back, and it can be entertaining, but I can also see how it can turn into a headache if people go off the deep end and the newspaper brass are not used to keeping the children separated.

That's one reason why the State 29 blog doesn't have comments. Besides, if you want to comment, go get your own blog and link up. It's a free world.

As far as newspapers go, I think the Quad City Times is being bold by allowing people to comment on every news story and letter to the editor they publish on the web. I certainly look at their web site a lot more often as a result. Whether it will last....

The Content Of Their Character

I was recently reminded of Mary Sue Coleman, the former University of Iowa President who bolted from Iowa City in favor of a high-paying head honcho job at the University of Michigan.

During this past election, Michigan voters had a ballot initiative called the Michigan Civil Right Initiative (Proposal 2) to vote on:

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), or Proposal 2 (Michigan 06-2), is a ballot initiative in the U.S. state of Michigan that seeks to end programs and policies that give preferential treatment or discriminate based on race or gender in the operation of public employment, education, or contracting. As of midnight on election night, the proposal appears to have passed. Opponents of the proposal label these programs as affirmative action, while proponents suggest that there is a difference between types of affirmative action, arguing that anti-discrimination enforcement, outreach, and non-preferential policies, which were historically considered affirmative action, could continue as long as they were not preferential.

The proposal was passed on November 7th, 2006. Its language derives from the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the "Equal Protection" clause of the 14th Amendment that forbids the United States or any state from denying "equal protection of the law" to any citizen. It is modelled after similar laws in California and Washington.

The initiative passed with about 58% of the vote, far higher than pre-election polls indicated

Mary Sue Coleman was pissed at the outcome:

I am deeply disappointed that the voters of our state have rejected affirmative action as a way to help build a community that is fair and equal for all.

But we will not be deterred in the all-important work of creating a diverse, welcoming campus. We will not be deterred.

Universities are models for the civil exchange of ideas, and the debate over Proposal 2 has been no exception. Still, it has been a particularly difficult campaign, and I regret the pain and concern it has caused people on our campus...

...I will not stand by while the very heart and soul of this great university is threatened. We are Michigan and we are diversity.

I am joined on these steps by the executive officers and deans of our university. We are united on this. You have my word as president that we will fight for what we believe in, and that is holding open the doors of this university to all people.

Today, I have directed our General Counsel to consider every legal option available to us.

In the short term, we will seek confirmation from the courts to complete this year’s admissions cycle under our current guidelines...

...I believe there are serious questions as to whether this initiative is lawful, particularly as it pertains to higher education. I have asked our attorneys for their full and undivided support in defending diversity at the University of Michigan. I will immediately begin exploring legal action concerning this initiative. But we will not limit our drive for diversity to the courts, because our conviction extends well beyond the legal landscape.

It is a cause that will take our full focus and energy as an institution, and I am ready to begin that work right now. We will find ways to overcome the handcuffs that Proposal 2 attempts to place on our reach for greater diversity.

As Susan B. Anthony said in her crusade for equal rights, “Failure is impossible.”

Equal rights. What a bunch of bullshit. What a bunch of Orwellian doublespeak.

Coleman can't accept the fact that most people in Michigan want a color-blind society. And never mind what the people say! She'll take it to court to override the will of the people!

Thank god that Iowa no longer has to deal with the likes of Mary Sue Coleman anymore. Instead, Iowa has to deal with that overpaid cunt Elizabeth Hoffman as the provost at ISU.

I sometimes wonder what would happen if Martin Luther King Jr came back and saw what was being said by all these cracker-ass, hoity-toity, exceptionally paid, ultra-skinny, white liberal biatches like Mary Sue Coleman. After all, he said:

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Maybe in Michigan, but not in Mary Sue Coleman's world.

2-6 Iowa Hawkeyes Bowl Bound?

Even if your school's football coach is the highest paid in the universe, it just doesn't seem right that the Iowa Hawkeyes can be considered for a bowl in 2006.

While qualifying for a bowl with an overall "C-average" record of 6-6, the Hawks finished a pathetic "D-average" 2-6 in the Big Ten Conference.

Mr Blutarsky, zero point zero.

Todd Dorman's Turkey Awards

Todd Dorman's Turkey Awards are in today's QC Times.

My favorite part landed in the "drumsticks" section:

Bloggers – Don’t like ‘em? Make you uncomfortable? Don’t worry, they’re just a fad, like jazz and flying machines. Gone any day now.

Somewhat related: Everyone Wants To Be A Blogger

No Confidence: The End Of Vilsack's Cultural Revolution?

From the Daily Iowan:

Following a vote from the state Board of Regents to dissolve the UI Presidential Search Committee and reject the four proposed candidates, the UI Faculty Council, Staff Council, and UI Student Government plan to pursue votes of "no-confidence" in the nine-member board.

The regents' controversial decision comes after the search committee issued"nearly unanimous" support for four of the seven candidates interviewed Nov. 10-11 in Des Moines, said Katherine Tachau, former committee vice-chairwoman and UI professor.

All four candidates were from academia, but for confidentiality reasons, committee members did not divulge their names.

The presidential hopefuls were vying to replace former UI President David Skorton, who resigned earlier this year to assume the top post at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Former business dean Gary Fethke is serving as interim president.

Members of the search committee, the advisory committee, and the regents were present during the Des Moines interviews. But all four regents serving on the search committee - Teresa Wahlert, Michael Gartner, Ruth Harkin, and Amir Arbisser - voted against the potential candidates in Friday's 6-2 vote.

Regents Bob Downer and Rose Vasquez voted to keep the search committee, while Regent Jenny Connolly abstained.

The move was met with shock, disappointment, and confusion among the 25 people listening in on the telephonic conference in Jessup Hall. No reason was offered by the regents during the brief noon phone conference as to why the candidates were rejected.

"The Board of Regents decision is the final betrayal of a process that has been marked at every stage by hostility on the part of the board leadership," Tachau said. "This reflects a loss of mutual confidence."

UI Faculty Council President Sheldon Kurtz called the move a "stab in the back" while Staff Council President Mary Greer said the regents failed the UI, as well as the state of Iowa.

The Gang Of Four (Wahlert, Gartner, Harkin, and Arbisser) are all Vilsack appointees.

Here's what was said about each appointee when their names were proposed.



Michael Gartner:

“The combination of his intellect and passion for Iowa will allow Michael Gartner to serve with distinction on the Board of Regents,” Governor Vilsack stated in making the appointment. “Michael represents the best of our state—a determined sense of duty with a nationally renowned journalistic and business reputation. I am grateful for his work on the Vision Iowa board and look forward to what I am sure will be a lasting impact on higher learning.”

Teresa Wahlert:

“Teresa Wahlert understands how important our Regents schools are to the overall well-being of our state,” said Lt. Governor Pederson. “Her knowledge and expertise will be an asset to the Board in expanding educational opportunities for all Iowans. We are happy she has chosen to serve the people of Iowa in this important capacity.”

Ruth Harkin:

“[Ruth Harkin] understand[s] the importance of continuing the transformational work underway at the Board of Regents,” Governor Vilsack said in announcing the appointments. “[Ruth Harkin] will provide steady, thorough and thoughtful leadership.”

Dr Amir Arbisser:

[Dr Amir Arbisser] will bring new ideas, energy, and a commitment for making Iowa a better place to live, work, and raise a family,” Vilsack said. “[Dr Amir Arbieer] understand[s] the importance of serving all Iowans - across party and professional lines - as we move Iowa forward.”

Related: The Press-Citizen Wants Michael Gartner Fired

The Press-Citizen Wants Michael Gartner Fired

Updated below:



From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

We were going to ask Chet Culver, when he becomes governor in January, to make some big changes in the membership of the Iowa state Board of Regents.

After yesterday's news about the UI president search, that plan is wrong. We need a Regents overhaul -- and we need it now!

Unsatisfied with its candidates, the board voted to start over with its search for a replacement to David Skorton, who left this summer to become president at Cornell University.

Regents president Michael Gartner said the final four candidates needed more experience leading "complex health-sciences operations as well as the myriad of other academic and non-academic operations of a large university."

The statement doesn't make sense. Either the comments are hot air or the Regents simply botched the search. We can't help but wonder: What were you searching for?

...The fact is, we really don't know what's going on because the Regents have treated the faculty, staff and students like unruly teens rather than partners in this process.

As president, Gartner's approach has been divisive and secretive. Gartner clearly likes a top-down business model and thinks the university system should operate more like a business.

But businesses are judged by performance and results. And here he and his key supporters on the board are on shaky ground. Consider a few items from his tenure:

• We lost our university president.

• We lost our athletic director.

• The staff and faculty have lost faith in the leadership.

• And now we have a failed presidential search.

A CEO with these results would be on the ropes, if not fired. Gov. Vilsack, it's time for a shakeup on the Board of Regents.

And Michael Gartner must go.

Michael Gartner's past history of fucking up NBC News should have been reason enough to not put that little bow-tied twit into power.


Update: I predict that Michael Gartner will be a huge problem for Tom Vilsack's presidential aspirations. This is from the press release in January 2005 when Vilsack appointed Gartner to be the Chairman of the Board of Regents:

“The combination of his intellect and passion for Iowa will allow Michael Gartner to serve with distinction on the Board of Regents,” Governor Vilsack stated in making the appointment. “Michael represents the best of our state—a determined sense of duty with a nationally renowned journalistic and business reputation. I am grateful for his work on the Vision Iowa board and look forward to what I am sure will be a lasting impact on higher learning.”

Meanwhile, over at the Des Moines Register:

The Iowa Board of Regents, which voted Friday to reject four finalists and disband the presidential search, met in closed session several times in the past week without announcing each meeting, a requirement of the Iowa Open Meetings Law. Regents said the meetings were separate sessions of a closed-session meeting that started Nov. 9. Regent Bob Downer said Saturday that the board's lawyer said that meant they did not have to announce the meetings.

Whoops.

Notice how the entire Board of Regents are blamed. Nothing is specifically mentioned of Michael Gartner's involvement. He's only the Chairman.

The Register has also printed very little criticism of former Gannettoid Michael Gartner. I guess they have to keep protecting their own, just like how the Des Moines Register rarely ever prints anything critical or negative of the scam being conducted by con artist David Oman with that Earthpork Rainforest in Pella.

Here's as rough as it got for Gartner in the Register on Saturday. This section starts on the 28th paragraph of the article:

Regent Robert Downer of Iowa City took part in those interviews and was comfortable with the four finalists the screening committee selected.

Downer said he did not know what caused the abrupt about-face by other regents Friday. He was one of two regents to vote against discarding the candidates and starting over.

"This is particularly inexplicable in light of the fact that my principal responsibility on the board is as the chair of the hospital committee," Downer said.

He said he did not think Gartner's explanation of needing more health sciences experience was a justifiable reason for scrapping the search.

Yeah, I think it's safe to say that the Register is protecting Michael Gartner.

Once again, if you haven't read up on Michael Gartner's past history when he was the President of NBC News, you've got a lot to learn. This guy is scum.


Second update: Nicholas Johnson's FromDC2Iowa blog has a lot more on what kind of person should be hired. I think somebody who sticks around more than just a few years before moving along to head another school should be a factor. Actually, a non-compete clause would fix that sort of thing. Signing one is common place in the real world for all sorts of executive and non-executive jobs.

Vilsack Wants To Talk

From the Des Moines Register:

Gov. Tom Vilsack sketched out his views as a presidential contender on Iraq and other world trouble spots during an interview Friday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

The two-term Iowa governor said the U.S. government should be using diplomacy to aggressively engage some of its chief adversaries.

"The fact we're not talking to Iran, to Syria, to North Korea I think has made it a much more dangerous world than it needed to be," Vilsack said.

What do you say to the leaders of countries who deny the Holocaust and advocate the eradication of Israel, sponsor terrorism throughout the Middle East, and who seem to be interested in building nuclear weapons and aiming them at Seoul, Tokyo, and Seattle?

I know what Tom Vilsack would say to our enemies: How much should I make the check out for?

The Bush administration's foreign policy "has alienated most of our friends and somehow united most of our enemies," he said.

Our "friends" the French?

I seem to remember that the Clinton Administration armed our enemies. Didn't the US taxpayers pay for North Korea's nuclear ambitions?

The above statement also shows that our alienated "friends" can't seem to do shit without the US making the first step. When did the French or the Germans initiate anything, or than some oil-for-kickbacks scam that enriched the family of war criminal Kofi Annan?

Craigslist Finally Spreads Across Iowa

There's more cities listed!

From the Des Moines Craigslist, Women Seeking Men:

About me:
Let's just say that you'll never meet anyone quite like myself in a million years...but to elaborate a tad... -I'm short -I like music -I'm very shy at first...it takes a while for me to warm up to people -I'm very random -I'm a major dork -I like to think I have a relatively large cerebral capacity...I mean...I like to think I'm intellegent. I have an I/Q of about 132 which means I'm considered brilliant for my age and gender -I'm pretty athletic -I like to make people laugh, but I don't think I'm hilarious or anything -I like to hang out with friends -I have issues trusting people -I'm easily amused, but also easily bored -I have a very unique sense of style because I don't follow trends or set them...I just wear what is comfortable to me -I am probably the nicest person you'll meet -I like to joke around and have a good time, but I can also be serious if I have to be -It takes a lot to make me mad, but when I do get mad I freak out -I'm not a morning person -I have a parakeet named Patches, and he talks -I am a broke college student at DMACC who is looking to loose her virginity

e-mail me for my phone number so we ca chat
-Jess

Loose her virginity.

132 IQ.

No New Pope At The University Of Iowa

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen ("Regents terminate president search"):

The Iowa state Board of Regents has terminated its search for a new president for the University of Iowa and dissolved the UI faculty-based search committee.

The regents made the vote in closed session on a conference call and announced the results of the vote in open session. UI faculty, staff and student leaders -- along with local media -- monitored the open session conference call from Jessup Hall on the UI campus.

Katherine Tachau, a member of the UI search committee, had harsh words for the regents in a prepared statement she read to the media from Jessup Hall.

"The Board of Regents' decision is the final betrayal," Tachau said. "This reflects a mutual loss of confidence that will be very difficult to restore."

Peter McElligott, President of the UI Student Government, echoed concerns expressed by UI faculty and staff.

"It's an insult to the candidates we looked at," McElligott, said. "We're at a loss as to how to proceed from here."

It's always funny to watch Democrats fighting amongst each other.

Some recent back story in today's Des Moines Register concerning search problems.

I don't know why it has to be such a super-secret event.

Finger Food

From the Iowa State Daily ("Cash, check or finger?")

You've heard of the police using fingerprints to identify suspects in crime cases, but how about paying for your food at the grocery store?

There is a new technology in Ames that allows customers who have set up an account to pay for their purchases by the touch of a finger. The service has been offered at the Ames Cub Foods, 3121 Grand Ave., for about six months, said store manager Mike Lee. Pay By Touch, a biometric payment service, manages the service for Cub Foods and other retailers.

The response has been pretty positive because it makes things easier on the customer, he said.

You know what would be easier on the customer? Passive RFID tags on everything. Then you can just push your cart (except for weighed items like produce) over a reader and the amount is computed right then and there.

As for these fingerprint readers, no thanks. I'd likely get stuck behind some nose picker.

Hogberg On Vilsack and McCain In Iowa

David Hogberg (left), standing next to a 7 foot tall woman.

David Hogberg, writing in the American Spectator, seems to think that Tom Vilsack running for President hurts John McVain in Iowa:

Vilsack's entry hurts McCain because, as in 1992, an uncompetitive race in Iowa will make New Hampshire the first real contest for the Democrats. A host of Democratic candidates will be running in New Hampshire, making the Democratic ballot much more appealing to the independents who can participate in the Granite State's open primary. Thus, many of the independents who contributed to McCain's stunning 2000 victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary will instead be voting in the Democratic one.

Adding to McCain's likely woes in New Hampshire is the Republican contest in the Iowa Caucuses will be competitive. The Iowa Caucus will winnow out some of the less competitive GOP candidates, making the Republican primary in New Hampshire less interesting than the Democratic one. This will give independents even more incentive to participate in the Democratic Primary, further reducing the number of McCain's supporters.

Hogberg cites a lot of other reasons why Iowa conservatives and Bible thumpers might hate McPain.

Honestly, I doubt Vilsack will do that well in Iowa. He was polling fourth in a crowded field this past summer. And a lot of Iowa Democrats remember the mistake of getting behind Tom Harkin in 1992, who got 76.4% of the Iowa Caucus vote then. Bill Clinton finished third with 2.8%. After Iowa, it was all over for Harkin very quickly. Still, you don't want to misunderestimate Tom Vilsack, who has faced uphill battles throughout his political life.

McVain's biggest problem, besides being crooked, old, and having a cancer that's been eating away his brain cells for years, is his ability to offend evangelical Christians. They make up a good 25% to 30% of the Republican Party in Iowa.

Misplaced Priorities

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

After he officially starts his new job in January, Rep. Dave Loebsack plans to get busy on his top legislative priorities: national health insurance, student loans and the minimum wage.

National Health Insurance. That won't increase costs, right? That won't limit choice, right? That won't drive our taxes off the charts, right? Everybody will agree to all that in the next two years, right?

Student loans. Oh, so you want supposedly smart people whose parents haven't saved a dime for college to go further into debt? $100,000 in debt for a social worker degree, anyone? And when colleges and universities see how much more money the kids are getting from the government they can continue to raise tuition at 2X, 3X, and 4X the rate of inflation for another 20 years. Yeah, that'll work.

Minimum wage. Why does every news outlet fail to mention that most union contracts are tied to the minimum wage. Oh yeah, don't want to mention all that. So when the minimum wage is raised, it's not just a bunch of meth addicts and child beaters getting more money, it's all those union thugs who hate Wal-Mart.

What happened to the war, the deficit, terrorism, illegals, and all that? Seems like a distant memory.

Breck Girl Has A Black Thursday At Wal-Mart

Is John Edwards a bigger douchebag than John Kerry?:

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards acknowledged Thursday that amid his criticism of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a volunteer member of his staff asked the world's largest retailer for help obtaining a hot new Sony Playstation 3 for Edwards' family.

Edwards, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, told The Associated Press that the volunteer "feels terrible" about seeking the game unit at Wal-Mart while his boss claims the retailer doesn't treat its employees fairly.

"My wife, Elizabeth, wanted to get a Playstation3 for my young children. She mentioned it in front of one of my staff people. That staff person mentioned it in front of a volunteer who said he would make an effort to get one. He was making an effort to go get one for himself," Edwards said.

"Elizabeth and I knew nothing about this. He feels terrible about this. He made a mistake and he knows he should not have used my name," Edwards said.

Wal-Mart had noted in a news release Thursday that on the same day Edwards was criticizing the company in a conference call with union-backed activists, the volunteer staff member had asked a Raleigh, N.C., electronics department manager to obtain a PS3 for the ex-senator's family.

Earlier Thursday, Edwards had said in a statement e-mailed by spokeswoman Kim Rubey: "We instructed no one to contact Wal-Mart on our behalf."

From Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., company spokesman David Tovar said the Edwards staff member left a voicemail at the Raleigh store and identified himself as an Edwards staff member.

When the manager returned the call, the staff member again identified himself as working for Edwards, and Wal-Mart said it confirmed it with Edwards' office. The retailer issued a written statement Thursday accusing Edwards of not wanting to wait his turn.

"While the rest of America's working families are waiting patiently in line, Sen. Edwards wants to cut to the front," the Wal-Mart statement said.

This summer, Wal-Mart hired Edelman executive Leslie Dach as its public relations director and put him on the company's executive team. Analysts predicted the retailer would likely become more aggressive toward its critics.

Edwards, the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate in 2004, spoke Wednesday to supporters of union-backed WakeUpWalMart.com on a conference call launching the group's holiday season campaign to pressure Wal-Mart for better labor standards.

In the call, he repeated a story about his son Jack disapproving of a classmate buying sneakers at Wal-Mart.

"If a 6-year-old can figure it out, America can definitely figure this out," Edwards said.

First off, I don't believe for a second that John Edwards, who's worth a gadzillion dollars, has a 6 year old child who goes to school with the sort of kid whose parents buy children's shoes at Wal-Mart. I could be wrong, but I have a pretty good bullshit detector. What sort of 6 year old carps about where his classmates' parents buy their children's shoes from? Oh, yeah, that's right, some fucking rich Democrat elitist lawyer's kid, that's who. Maybe the story is true. After all, asshole lawyers and senators like John Edwards think they're better and smarter than the average dumbshit dolt who works or shops at Wal-Mart, and Edwards is probably still in political mode at home so the kid only hears this endless stream of bullshit coming out of dad's mouth and regurgitates it at school.

Oh, come on. Edwards thinks he can lie about what his child says, using him as some sort of political tool so he can score cheap political points and get away with it. Well, there's this thing called Karma, and it will fuck you in the ass if you mess with it. Actually, Karma will make your wife fat and then give her breast cancer, so watch out, pretty boy. The man upstairs is pissed at you. And his name is Sam. And he used to live in Des Moines.


Related: Democrats Still Hating Wal-Mart

Tom Vilsack Is Giving Some Convicted Murderers A Break Before He Leaves Office

From the Quad City Times:

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack moved Wednesday to commute a life prison sentence handed down in a 1982 Scott County murder case.

Vilsack reduced Michael Laverne Marit’s life sentence to 125 years, making him eligible for parole in seven years. Vilsack, in a letter to the Board of Parole, argues that Marit’s prison record warrants a sentence reduction.

How about this line in the story: Vilsack reduced Michael Laverne Marit’s life sentence to 125 years, making him eligible for parole in seven years.

Doesn't that sentence just sum up all that's wrong with the criminal justice system?

There's more:

Vilsack took into account that Marit has been married for nine years, has a strong family and community support system and adjusted well to medium-security custody, according to the statement.

Right. If he's adjusted so well to medium-security custody, why not leave him there?

He's married?



Dixie Shanahan (now Dixie Duty), after her first husband beat her up

You know, Dixie Shanahan was once married. Her husband beat the shit out her for years. She filed reports, but later took them back. Then, one day, Dixie announced to her husband that she was pregnant with another child. Her husband was angry, beat her up, beat her stomach, dragged her around by the hair, pointed a loaded shotgun at her, and was going to force her to have an abortion. Eventually, Dixie Shanahan shot her husband in the head and left his body to rot in a bedroom for a year. Most normal people would say that Dixie Shanahan probably had some mental problems as a result of being in an abusive relationship. Shanahan rejected a deal and was tried, convicted, sentenced to 50 years in prison and wouldn't be eligible for parole until 2039.

When Shanahan applied for early release, the bitches on the Iowa Parole Board gave her a bunch of shit.

Same thing with Tracey Dyess, who was sexually abused for most of her childhood and who later, while still a minor, set a fire in her house that accidentally killed two siblings. Her sentence was a travesty. You should also read Rekha Basu's fairly recent column on the Dyess case, which is one of the rare instances I agree with her.

If Tom Vilsack leaves office without commuting the sentences of Dixie Shanahan and Tracey Dyess, it will be a significant injustice to women, particular those who have suffered from spousal abuse and childhood sexual abuse.

Out Of Control Salaries For College Coaches

Hawk Central has a big story today on the meteoric rise in football coach salaries:

Pick any numbers you like to define college football's premier teams -- points scored, yards allowed.

Or the big money earned by their coaches.

The sport's dizzying salaries spiral has come to this, a USA Today study finds: The million-dollar coach, once a rarity, is now the norm. Head coaches at the NCAA's top-level schools are making an average of $950,000 this year, not counting benefits, incentives, subsidized housing or any of the perks they routinely receive. At least 42 of the 119 Division I-A coaches are earning $1 million or more this year, up from five in 1999.

Jim Tressel, coach of No. 1-ranked Ohio State, and Mack Brown, who steered Texas to the national championship a year ago, are among the nine coaches making more than $2 million. Iowa's Kirk Ferentz will pocket a guaranteed $4.6 million in a 13-month period ending next June, including $1.8 million in one-time payments. With the incentive bonuses he still can earn, he could push his take to more than $4.7 million. That is the most among the 107 coaches for whom USA Today could obtain a contract or other official document showing compensation.

Iowa is currently 6-5 overall, but 2-5 in the Big Ten conference.

Overall, Ferentz has been a good successor to Hayden Fry. Ferentz just didn't have much to work with in IQ-challenged quarterback Drew Tate.

Here's something to ask yourself: What did Hayden Fry earn during his last year as the football coach at Iowa? I think the answer may shock you.

In the 1997 fiscal year, Hayden Fry was paid $264,159 to coach the Iowa Hawkeye men's football team.

Who allowed compensation to go bonkers over the past decade? Nobody put their foot down and said that $4.7 million for a college football coach is an obscene amount of money.

Is society lacking in qualified individuals to coach the Hawkeyes to 2-5 in the Big Ten conference and suffer a humiliating defeat to Northwestern at, say, $500,000 a year?

When does it end? If the football coach's salary was allowed to go up nearly 20 times in the past decade, how much will it be in 2017? Will Kirk Ferentz be earning $90 million a year then? Because that's the rate his salary has been increasing.

IPERS FUNDS GENOCIDE!!!!!!!!!

From the Daily Idiot:

In reviewing stock held by the Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, or IPERS - the state's $20 billion public pension fund - The Daily Iowan found that $28 million in state retirement money is tied to multinational oil conglomerates and other companies under scrutiny for their actions relating to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. The IPERS funds, scholars and nonprofit groups assert, help provide the Sudan government-backed Janjaweed militias with the financing, weaponry, and infrastructure essential for their ethnic cleansing of the country's Darfuri minority.

I suppose anybody could look at an investment portfolio and nitpick or spin things into a frenzy that makes a bunch of campus-bound liberals feel morally superior.

What has war criminal Kofi Annan done about Darfur lately? He's done dick, as he always has. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Kofi Annan or one of his relatives isn't making millions from the conflict and shoving them into Swiss bank accounts.

I can't imagine that divesting a few shares of some Chinese petroleum company is going to make a difference. After all, the US has had an embargo, sanctions, and travel restrictions with Cuba for more than 40 years. Sure has made a difference, hasn't it?

Maybe IPERS should divest their genocide-tainted money and give it to crooks like Clark McLeod to burn right here in Iowa.

One final thing. At least the Daily Idiot is writing stories about Africa. Most kids probably don't know much about Darfur except for what they saw last season on ER. The Register, in contrast, sends the Widow Basu to Africa and the best she can do is complain about the abortion laws in Addas Ababa.

Did Republicans Win The Lotto?

The Real Sporer on the new Culture Club of Corruption.

Free Speech For Me But Not For Those Who Disagree

Charles Edwards, Dean of Drake University's school of journalism, former publisher of The Des Moines Register, and current State Board of Education member.

From Radio Iowa:

The State Board of Education today (Wednesday) tabled a proposed rule that would seek to limit what board members could say publicly after a vote on issues. The change would put into place a board guideline that says "Once formal board action is taken all members shall be publicly supportive of the same."

The proposed change came after months of discussions over changing the academic eligibility requirements for athletes that resulted in one board member calling for the president of the board to resign. There's still disagreement on the board still as to whether the change will come back in its same form.

Board president Gene Vincent of Carroll says the vote was tabled because not all board members could be present for the discussion. Vincent says it's vitally important for all new board members to be present to discuss the issue. Vincent says they need an "open frank discussion" as he says it's "the board's guidelines, not the departments guidelines." Discussion to table the guidelines indicated a committee will review the guidelines and bring them back with changes.

Vincent says he doesn't know if the controversial portion of the guidelines will be taken out. Vincent says he doesn't know that and says all things will be discussed as they're printed now and changes will have to be discussed in the open meeting. Vincent says the decision will be left up to the vote of the entire board, as he says "It's their board, not my board."

Board member Charles Edwards of Des Moines will lead the subcommittee that will review the guidelines and bring them back to the board for discussion. Edwards, the dean of Drake University's school of journalism and former publisher of The Des Moines Register, says there will be changes.

Edwards says, "The issue I that..I object to most strenuously is the fact that board is encourage or told not to talk to the press after a majority opinion. And I don't believe that, I think that is suppression of the First Amendment and our reasonability as public servants. And, and we're supposed to be independent, this is a public board."

Edwards says he doesn't think the original intent of the guidelines was to deny board members of their right to speak publicly. But Edwards says that denying of the right to speak would be the result of the guidelines and, "That's what I objected to, that's got to be out of there. Because I think it violates the law, and I think it violates the spirit of what independent board members, uh, public board members are supposed to be doing. And so I very much object to that."

Here's a dumb question: Who proposed the rule? Anybody want to out the turd who thought that suppression of free speech can be allowed, much less enforced? Because that sort of turd has no place being on the State Board of Education in Iowa.

Democrats Still Hating Wal-Mart

From a Wall Street Journal article (subscription-only):

Union-backed critics of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are launching an advertising campaign, enlisting prominent Democrats and attacking the company's wages, benefits and employment practices in moves that could disrupt the retailer's holiday sales.

The largely grass-roots campaign, titled "Hope for the Holidays," is being coordinated by WakeUpWalMart.com, which is funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The campaign will consist of 30-second television spots, print and online ads, and video postings in places such as YouTube, progressive political sites and elsewhere to reach a wider audience, to influence consumers and to mobilize young people.

Oh yes, this is the same bunch who proclaimed that working for Wal-Mart was like something out of Dickens. Chris Kofinis, the insane spokestool who keeps the media filled with such wild tales of bullshit and lies, is never called on the carpet by the lazy-ass media.

Don't forget that whenTom Vilsack was the Mayor of Mount Pleasant and a State Senator from that area he had no problem helping Wal-Mart's distribution center in Mount Pleasant (which employs about 1200 people) get the Avenue Of The Saints road built. Today, Vilsack is in full Hate-Wal-Mart mode because it's politically correct for him to be this way because the company employs a lot of 70-and-80-somethings who still qualify for Medicare while working 8 hours a week as a door greater.

How about Joe Biden, the hairplug-riddled Senator from Delaware who proclaims "How can you live a middle class life on $10 an hour?" Well, Senator Hairplug, two married adults making that wage is basically the median family income across the USA, and you can live a lot better in Iowa on that than anywhere in Delaware.

I don't understand why Democrats HATE HATE HATE Iowa's largest private employer and a significant driver of the nation's economy. They really sound deranged and stupid by constantly doing this.

Bo Knows Deer Hunting

From the Mason City Globe-Gazette:

When fall hunting seasons roll around, sports legend Bo Jackson can go anywhere in the world.

Jackson’s greatest outdoor passion is hunting for big game with bow and arrow. From elk to bear, alligators to javelina, Bo and his bow have seen and done it all.

Although retired from professional sports, Jackson still refers to his playbook before hitting the field. But these days his strategies for success are focused on white-tailed deer rather than touchdowns or homeruns.

That’s why, when it came time for a three-day November deer hunt, Jackson considered all the possibilities and then chose North Iowa.

“I’d been hearing about Iowa’s giant white-tails for a long time,” said Jackson. “Although I’d had invitations and wanted to hunt deer in Iowa for more than 10 years, this was the very first opportunity I had to actually come here.

“When I learned that I’d been fortunate enough to receive a (nonresident) deer tag, I dropped everything and immediately rearranged my schedule,” he added...

...As Jackson climbed into his tree stand during the first evening of the hunt, he immediately became aware that stories concerning the size of Iowa white-tails were no exaggeration. At the approach of sunset, large numbers of deer began moving along the maze of woodland trails surrounding his stand. After watching the animals for more than an hour Jackson picked his target, bent the bow and successfully harvested his first Iowa white-tail — a hefty mature doe...

After skinning and butchering his deer, Jackson processes a portion of his venison into summer sausage, jerky, etc. Many of the cuts are shared with family and friends or with those less fortunate...

“I met some great people and had a lot of fun here. This was really a great first trip to Iowa,” said Jackson. “I am very satisfied with what I’ve seen here and hope to be back hunting deer in Iowa at this same time next year.”

There's much more. Read the whole thing.

Ambassador Milquetoast

Krusty is in favor of talk of having soon-to-be-former Congressman Jim Leach appointed as the UN Ambassador.

If konservatives think that appointing Mr Softy Vanilla Milquetoast to be the ambassador to one of the most corrupt, unaccountable, money-burning, and worthless regimes ever devised to enrich the appointed elites of various dictatorshits, that's fine if they want to continue to alienate their base and stay a permanent minority party.

I kind of prefer John Bolton, especially his opposition to the so-called International Criminal Court and also because of his quote concerning the UN headquarters: "The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." But everybody knows Bolton is going bye bye once his recess appointment time is up.

My personal opinion is that if some nutjob blew up the UN headquarters, the world would be a lot better off. Kofi Annan is a war criminal who should be tried for numerous crimes, particularly standing by while genocide in Africa occurred and also being involved with the Oil-for-Kickbacks scam between Iraq and other countries, and retroactively executed. US taxpayers ought to mostly de-fund the UN (I'd keep UNICEF around), as it wouldn't survive without our support. And if the UN is allowed to continue in any capacity, they should be kicked out of NYC and the headquarters moved to some place more significant, like Darfur.

Actually, the US would be a lot better off if no UN ambassador was selected. Just leave it empty for the next two years. I can't imagine there would be any difference in performance.

A Saigon Thanksgiving In Riverside

I'm not making this up. I was alerted to an upcoming event at the Riverside Casino by a reader:

Saigon Entertainment presents a Thanksgiving Celebration - Wednesday, November 22

From the other side of the globe, this ensemble of individual Vietnamese musicial artists will wow audiences with their singing talents. The musical stylings range from pop to the classics. Don't miss this opportunity to get a taste of Vietnamese culture in Iowa!

Tickets are available online here now. Also, tickets are available in the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort Gift Shop. Tickets are general admission and are only $22 plus tax and $5 online fee. The online fee is waived if the tickets are purchased at the Gift Shop.

They're also bringing in Kenny Loggins on December 16th to sing Christmas songs for $48 to $53 a head. That should fill up any phone booth.

Meanwhile, the reader mentions:

My wife & I went down there from I.C. a few weeks ago to see Dave Zollo in the lounge- collectively, the 8 people there to hear Dave almost equalled the total number of people there gambling (on 25 cent slots, a BIG moneymaker, I'm sure). I think the customer-to-employee ratio was about 12:1. 2 Coronas cost us $7.50, and my wife's soup was so bad she sent it back. It would take a lot to get us to go again.

Who's Dave Zollo? Oh, this Dave Zollo. He was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno a few months ago.

Jay Leno, as you might recall, had a number of empty $120 seats when he performed at the casino in September.

A Natural Decline

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

In its second full month of operation, revenues at the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort were off by more than $1 million compared with September, Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission figures show.

For October, the casino earned about $6.4 million in adjusted gross revenue -- a 13.6 percent decrease from the $7.4 million brought in a month earlier.

Casino chief executive officer Dan Kehl said Monday the decline was "pretty natural."

"October's numbers were just about what we projected," he said. "We're comfortable with where we're at."

...Figures from state regulators also show that crowds at the Riverside Casino were smaller in October compared with September. The casino, which opened Aug. 31, had 98,280 guests in October -- a drop of nearly 20 percent from 122,655 guests in September.

And, er, what were the original attendance projections? Good luck finding that out in the Press-Citizen's story, because it ain't there.

This is from the Casino City Times on October 24th:

As reported by the Iowa Journal: "After the first month of operation, Riverside Casino and Golf Resort officials report revenues are at the level they should be and they don't foresee a downturn in the future.

"After receiving 125,000 people and making more than $7.6 million in its first month, the casino is meeting its goals for revenue. Last Wednesday, CEO Dan Kehl presented a check for $291,380 to the Washington County Riverboat Commission, the county's share of the profits. Kehl commented this amount was slightly over the amount projected for the commission to receive.

"…Kehl commented that the resort has fallen slightly short of the 133,000 head projection per month of people visiting the casino, but said that is not a problem.

"'Our projections are right on,' Kehl said. 'Our head count per person is a little off, but we are not too concerned about that. It is the revenue that pays the rent.'…"

133,000 visitors a month is about 1.6 million a year. That's close to the number that con artist David Oman has been projecting to visit the Earthpork Rainforest in Pella, of all places.

So Riverside projected 133,000 visitors a month, but now in the second month of operation they're getting 98,000. That's a 26% difference.

What happens when people stop betting losing as much? I guess the casino will have to get the Iowa City Press-Citizen to write more obsequious stories to promote their business to college students.


Update: Nicholas Johnson's FromDC2Iowa blog has more:

When there's nothing to bring tens of thousands of visitors to Iowa City -- when, indeed, during the winter break tens of thousands of Iowa City college students will have left town -- when there's snow on the ground and ice on the roads, it seems unlikely that the casino will be able to maintain October's numbers. We'll see.

Ouch!

What's Missing In The 1930's Image That Is Present In 2005?

From the South of Iowa blog:

Iowa State's GIS website now has some images from 1930's Decatur Co, where my parents' farm is located at. Here's a 1930's image of a farm they own, and the 2005 image...

As I've asked before - what's missing in the 1930's image that is present in 2005? Trees!!! In addition, the concept and use of waterways, contour planting, and terraces. All things that were foreign in the 1930's.

Go look at the photos.

I really like these sorts of posts as they allow technology to demonstrate historical perspective, at least in a small scale situation.

The South of Iowa also has a recent post about his political philosophy. I generally agree with most of it, except for the part about conscripting the family members of politicians who vote to go to war. That really doesn't make any sense.

We Do That With Livestock All The Time

From the QC Times ("Tracking sex offenders becomes 'nightmare' for police"):

A large map of Davenport covers a wall in the office of Davenport police Detective Richard Tubbs and features yellow circles around each of the city’s schools and day-care centers. Nearby is a large metal tape measure.

The map illustrates where sex offenders can live under an Iowa law imposed in September 2005 that restricts them from living within 2,000 feet of such facilities. Tubbs and other police, prosecutors and parole officers say it better illustrates the difficulties they’ve experienced since the law’s inception.

“It has been a nightmare to enforce, it has caused so many problems,” Tubbs said.

Tubbs said the law has been hard to implement and maintain, and in some cases, it is an unfair burden on sex offenders, who use it as an excuse to not register or to lie about their whereabouts.

Davenport police Capt. David Struckman said the 2,000-foot law has made offenders more deceptive and has made it challenging to keep track of them.

Despite Iowa's arbitrary 2000 foot law being a disaster for police departments to enforce, politicians don't show any sign of repealing it ever because they're a bunch of wimps who would rather continue to throw money at bad legislation rather than admit there's a problem. Witness Nussle and Culver's desire to spend zillions in Federal and State money on GPS-enabled ankle bracelets.

I've got a good idea. If Iowa isn't going to get rid of their stupid law, why not invent some GPS-enabled ankle bracelet that will also send 50,000 volts through a sex offender if he ventures within 2000 feet of a playground, daycares, after school malt shops, or a 9 year old girl's pubes? Put radio beacons on all locations of interest and then turn on the juice. It'll be like Steve King's electric fence along the border with Mexico:

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.

What do you think? Maybe Governor Knapp should unlock some of that IPERS pension money for "investment" and Clark McLeod could create another hi-tech start-em up making these things.

Suicide Is Painless

John McCain never did commit suicide, did he?

Only Outlaws Will Have Marlboros

From the Des Moines Register:

The days when college students can roam campus clutching a cigarette might be near an end.

The University of Iowa, Des Moines Area Community College and Drake University are contemplating all-campus smoking bans, while Iowa State University is poised to strengthen its outdoor smoking rules. They follow campuses nationwide that have made their grounds smoke-free zones.

They all banned alcohol from campus and that worked, didn't it?

Here's what a college age girl smoking a cigarette looks like:

Taxing Nothing

From Nicholas Johnson's FromDC2Iowa blog:

When last we addressed the public-private gambling casino in Riverside (that is, public investment, private profit), we were trying to figure out why on earth the voters would want to impose a hotel-motel tax on a community that, among other things, has no hotel or motel to which it would apply -- since they'd already exempted the Riverside gambling casino from ever having to pay such a tax, and the casino owns and operates the only hotel in town. Especially was this confusing given that, apparently, the tax will ultimately end up going back to the casino. Oh, well.

There's more. Read the whole thing.

Belatedly Saluting Our Veterans

While running for his Senate seat in 1984, and again while running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, Tom Harkin has faced criticism for claiming that he had flown combat missions over North Vietnam. In a 1979 round table discussion with other Congressional Veterans, Harkin said of his service as a Navy pilot: “One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions”. These comments were later published in a 1981 book by David Broder. After subsequent inquiries by Barry Goldwater and The Wall Street Journal, Harkin clarified that that he had been stationed in Japan and sometimes flew recently repaired aircraft on test missions over Vietnam. His service flying F-4s and F-8s was later, while he was stationed in Cuba. (source)

Dumb Jocks

From the Daily Iowan ("Athletes break stereotype"):

At 71 percent, the rate of UI student-athletes who graduate within six years of entering college eclipses that of non athlete UI students and of average students nationwide, according to a recent report from the NCAA.

Despite stereotypes pegged to college athletes, the UI non athletes' graduation rate - at 66 percent - was five percentage points behind that of university athletes, according to the NCAA's Graduation-Rates Report.

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." - John Kerry

Did Rob Borsellino Vote In The 2006 Elections?

Updated below:



From Rekha Basu's column in today's Des Moines Register:

Every vote counts.

Many have said that since the 2000 election fiasco. We've seen proof of it in each election cycle since, as razor-thin margins squeaked a candidate into the victor's seat. Tuesday, the country waited breathlessly while close, pivotal races in Missouri, Montana and Virginia left control of the U.S. Senate in a toss-up before eventually landing it in the Democrats' lap.

These slim margins of victory are cause for some concern - about why we're so hopelessly split as a nation, and whether entering office that way gives you much of a mandate. But one thing they show unequivocally is the power of grass-roots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts to affect election outcomes.

My son Raj witnessed that up close this week, and it's left him pretty pumped.

A college junior, Raj belongs to a campus Democrats group. He's been a political junkie from an early age. He goes to school in Massachusetts and votes in Iowa, but he wanted to do something to help get Democrats elected in other states to swing control of the U.S. House. It's safe to say he and his pals were fed up with the Iraq war and the Bush agenda. So on Nov. 7, Election Day, Raj led a team of four students across the state border to campaign for Joe Courtney, a Democrat who was challenging a Republican incumbent for the U.S. House from Connecticut's 2nd District.

The kids started their day at a polling place, where they noted addresses of people who had already voted, crossed them off their list of registered voters and then fanned out to the homes of people who hadn't. They knocked on doors and talked to potential voters.

Raj says he personally hit up about 150 homes. His candidate, Courtney, ended up with a 167-vote lead.

In all, 242,459 votes were cast in that race. Because of Courtney's narrow margin over incumbent Republican Bob Simmons, there will be an automatic recount.

Who's to say if the efforts of that college team actually gave Courtney the edge? But what an empowering prospect to think that they might have.

Um, is that legal?

Can a bunch of Democratic interlopers who aren't even registered to vote in Massachewshits or Connecticult just slip behind the desk on Election Day and thumb through the list of people who have and haven't voted?

I can't imagine how that would be legal.

Maybe they were going off lists of people who had already voted absentee? That's a more likely scenario, although Basu doesn't explain how her son Raj and his friend did it.

Another question: how does somebody obtain a list of people who have already voted absentee prior to election day? Can you (or political party operatives) just call up the county auditor and get that information in the days prior to an election?

Also, does anybody want to check with the Massachewshits or Connecticult Secretary of States to find out if Raj really isn't registered to vote there? Just fact checking, there.

And beyond that, does anybody want to check with Michael Mauro in Polk County to see if Rob Borsellino, Rekha Basu's husband, was still a registered voter in Polk County at the time of the 2006 elections? Borsellino died earlier this year, so it would be interesting to find out if he's still in the system.


Update: A reader writes:

To answer your first question, what Raj did is perfectly legal, although he probably did it in association with a party. When I worked for the IDP in 2004, they made a list of all voters they expected to vote Democrat, both registered D's and identified I's who we expected to vote D. Then, on election day, when someone votes, they fill out a form which produces three copies. One is given to each party and one is given to the county auditor's office. Every few hours during the day, the party takes this list of people who have voted and remove them from their list of expected voters. As such, the party can focus their efforts on driving people insane if they haven't voted yet, without doing it to those who have already voted. Poll watching in this regard is a pretty common practice, I'm pretty sure the Polk County Democrats had one at every precinct, and I'd guess something similar is happening statewide.

Thanks for the lowdown on poll watching. Shows you how much I hang around polling places on Election Day.

Rekha's son attends Amhurst, which costs $41,000 a year for tuition, room, and board. A few months ago the Widow Basu was bitching in her column about how Social Security benefits for ADULT children of a deceased parent do not cover college expenses, and got her knives out to skewer Ronald Reagan for that one. Typical elitist liberal crybaby bullshit. She wanted taxpayers to fork over money so her kid could attend a private college that costs roughly the same as the yearly median household income for a family in Iowa. Talk about out of touch.

I wonder if anybody's going to look into whether Rob Borsellino is registered to vote in Polk County. How long do the dead stay on the voter rolls in Mauro-land? I'm not being mean here, I'm actually curious. Shouldn't you be?

Iowa Crackers Won't Hire Any Negroes Due To "Cultural Bias"

ISU Sociology professor Gloria Jones-Johnson

From the Des Moines Register:

Many theories have been proposed over the years for why blacks encounter such barriers to employment in Iowa - the ideas include lower rates of educational achievement and higher incarceration rates...

[State Representative Wayne] Ford, who works with many unemployed people at Urban Dreams, a Des Moines human services agency he founded 21 years ago, says one in four of his clients failed to finish high school. More than half have some kind of criminal record.

Assuming a cause-and-effect relationship between high dropout and incarceration rates among blacks and low levels of employment is unwise, though, said Gloria Jones-Johnson, a professor of sociology at Iowa State University.

She said she thinks Iowans prefer this explanation because it allows them to dodge the issue at the root of the problem - cultural bias.

"It's hard for whites to talk about racism, especially in a state like Iowa where race is taken for granted," she said. "They can very easily emphasize education and other things. But these numbers suggest that something is structurally wrong. It's very pervasive, and they're in denial."

Yeah, you wouldn't want to make education or other things like, I don't know, a criminal record or past stable work history an important factor in hiring somebody for a job. Iowa should ban those sorts of invasive questions.



It's all good, but make sure you're watching at the 8 min & 15 sec part.

Don't Misunderestimate Tom Vilsack

By Erik Gable, a columnist with the Adrian Daily Telegram in Michigan:

Tom Vilsack announced his candidacy for president of the United States on Thursday, prompting bloggers everywhere to ask: “Tom who?”

But Vilsack, the two-term governor of Iowa, wouldn’t be the first person to go from relative obscurity to the White House in the course of a few years. Just ask Jimmy Carter, who spent some time as “Jimmy Who?” before his 1976 campaign’s improbable success made him the nation’s 39th president.

Vilsack may not be well-known, but he’s no lightweight. And although Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are the big celebrities in the 2008 presidential field, Vilsack might just leave them in the dust.

Orphaned at birth and raised the son of a real estate agent and a homemaker in Pennsylvania, Vilsack has the kind of classic American success story that offers a welcome contrast to the last two presidential elections, both of which were fought between a pair of upper-class twits.

Read the whole thing.

Gable makes some really good points here, but Democrats will have a hard time winning the White House without winning the South. Don't forget that all three Democrats to be elected to the White House in the past 42 years came from Southern states.

Meanwhile, as of this morning:

Participating Saturday morning in his last governor's pheasant hunt, Vilsack filled the sky with lead, most of which landed harmlessly in a sea of Conservation Reserve Program grass near this northern Linn County town.

After one particularly painful miss, in which the governor fired both barrels of his Stevens side-by-side at a straight-away flying rooster, Vilsack bent over at the waist in a gesture of frustration and disappointment.

``Why don't I just give up?'' he said.

Vilsack's two shots were part of a futile fusillade that prompted guide Steve Ries of rural Central City to exclaim: ``This gives a whole new meaning to the concept of wildlife conservation.''

As I said earlier this week, Vilsack's used to uphill battles.

Iowa Republicans Continue To Ignore Conservatives

Democrats must be relishing the continued funk in the so-called Republican "leadership" as Krusty outlines in this post ("Lundby Elected Minority Leader after Konservatives walk out").

An earlier post by Krusty ("Rebuilding Our Party") has a wish list that will surely never be met or addressed by the party's crust for years to come.

I think it's bizarro world as far as State-oriented politics go in Iowa. Republicans basically allowed the sales tax in Iowa to go up 80%, expanded gambling, green-lighted Touchplay, went along with massive taxpayer-financed corporate welfare, and brought in legalized loansharking. About the only thing they've done right lately is the anti-Kelo eminent domain legislation, but even that was a bi-sexual effort.

I don't really understand what Republicans in Iowa are for anymore. They're not about fiscal conservatism, that's for sure. Were they ever? They didn't try to scale back state spending or stop Vilsack's raiding of the Rainy Day Funds to any degree. Republicans just seemed to drop their pants and lube up for the Democrats and Special Interests to have their way.

Democrats haven't been much better. Their disregard for the little guy has been staggering. It's all about sucking off the unions, bashing the state's largest private employer, and championing every single tax increase that can be dreamed up. Why oh why are Democrats in favor of taxpayer financed corporate welfare over properly funding the state's universities? Why should Democrats be in favor of taking somebody's house and giving it to an out-of-state private developer who wants to build another fucking strip mall with the same shitty cell phone, tanning, payday loan, and Subway franchises you see everywhere? I never understood that one at all.

Maybe I should take current party values at face value: Republicans simply want to make deals with Democrats in order to be liked, and Democrats simply hate everything about Republicans except when Republicans cave. I think that's all the two parties stand for these days. That, and the whole abortion nonsense.

Om On The Grange

The Washington Post has a big story on the TM followers in and around Fairfield and Vedic City in their Sunday edition.

Unfortunately there wasn't anything about the Natural Law political party, which fielded a presidential candidate, John Hagelin, in 2000. It's now largely defunct, and Hagelin went on to form the goofy US Peace Government thing.

Last year, the Maharishis came up with some nutty plan to eliminate world poverty and establish worldwide peace. It was only going to cost $100 million dollars. Keep trying, guys.

Dallas Center-Grimes Has Some Really Fucked Up Schools

From the Des Moines Register (headline "Students convict Columbus of atrocities"):

Christopher Columbus sat in the hot seat during his trial for crimes against humanity Oct. 27 at Dallas Center-Grimes Middle School.

Eighth-graders in Joel Rankin's history class at the middle school, 1400 Vine St. in Dallas Center, put on a mock trial of Columbus. They took the side of either the defense or prosecution, researched information for their respective sides, dressed the part of witnesses or lawyers and called witnesses to prove their cases.

"It was pretty fun and I learned a lot about Christopher Columbus and what he really did," said Alec Seei, 13, of Granger, who portrayed Columbus at the trial. "I liked dressing up as Christopher Columbus and the trial part and performing it helped keep what we learned in my mind."

Rankin, of Grimes, who played the judge in the trial, said he hoped kids would learn things about Columbus they wouldn't normally read about in the average textbook.

"I'm trying to get them to think at a higher level," he said. "It's up to the kids to decide what they think of him based on their research. He did a lot of things kids aren't traditionally taught, and they might be surprised about it."

Eighth-graders searched the Internet and found information portraying Columbus not just as a great adventurer and hero, but also as a man who committed crimes against American Indians.

Students read about how the explorer allegedly brought disease and cruelty to the American Indians. Through their research, it was up to the kids to decide whether Columbus was a hero or a zero - as they put it. Columbus was convicted for crimes against humanity at the mock trial.

"I think he's a zero," said Drew Thompson, 13, of Grimes. "The textbook compliments him, but if you actually get on the Internet, it tells what really happened."

Sam Anderson, 13, of Dallas Center played the part of the lawyer for the defense.

"I had fun interviewing the witnesses," he said. "I think Columbus was a zero."

Brooks Ginn, 13, of Dallas Center said this was the most fun he's had in a class in a long time.

"It was a lot more fun than anything else I've done in school," he said. "It's so silly, it's easier to remember and you can look back and say, 'Yeah, that's what happened.' "

Chelsea Lonsdale, 14, of Dallas Center portrayed Queen Isabella during the trial. She said the hands-on method of learning helped her to retain information.

"We pay more attention because we don't have to just read it out of a book," she said. "We got to see both sides of the story - because in the book it just says he's a hero, but on the Internet it tells both sides of the story."

Travis Pullin, 13, of Adel played the part of a priest who was an acquaintance of Columbus.

"We should do more stuff like this at school," he said.

Yeah, maybe they could find some way to stage a play or mock trial about a 9/11 conspiracy theorist who believes Bush brought down the World Trade Center towers in a controlled explosion. Or the people who filmed the Apollo moon landings on some soundstage in Hollywood. Or how Hitler, Pol Pot, and Stalin did really good things for their countries.

It's all on the internet. You can go look it up. Both sides, you know.

I guess these kids, or their teachers and administrators at least, agree with lunatic Jew-hater Hugo Chavez, who once blamed Christopher Columbus for mass genocide of natives. Nevermind the fact that the natives regularly conquered and ate each other before Columbus showed up on the scene.

Marilyn Monroe Is On Chet Culver's Transition Team

From a Chet Culver press release:

Today, Governor-elect Chet Culver and Lt. Governor-elect Patty Judge announced key members of the transition team, including Chair Bonnie Campbell and Staff Director Charlie Krogmeier...

Today’s announcements include:

...

Marilyn Monroe, Senior Advisor: Previously served as Deputy Secretary of State in the administrations of Secretaries Elaine Baxter and Chet Culver, and as Des Moines County Recorder.

Right.

And I'm Gary Cooper, but not the Gary Cooper who's dead:




Update: Too bad it's not Jordan Monroe!

The Biggest Upset Of The Political Madman's Short Lifetime

From the Political Madman's recap:

Make no mistake, Loebsack's victory is one of the biggest upsets of our lifetime, but it's also the biggest turnaround I've ever seen.

I'd have to say that Tom Vilsack's defeat of former Iowa Supreme Court justice Mark McCormick in the 1998 Democratic goobernatorial primary (52% to 48%) was huge. McCormick had a 20 point lead in the polls just a couple weeks before the primary.

Couple that victory with Vilsack's cum-from-behind-and-ass-slapping defeat of two-time loser Jim Ross Lightfoot in the general election later that year and this particular double-shot multi-orgasm has to qualify as the biggest political turnaround in Iowa that I've ever seen.

Only Vilsack winning the Democratic nomination for POTUS in '08 could possibly outdo that.

State 29 Poll: What's the first order of business for Democrats in the Iowa Legislature come January?

You can vote for multiple entries.

What's the first order of business for Democrats in the Iowa Legislature come January?
	Legalizing homo marriage in Iowa
	Increasing the cigarette tax
	Repealing Iowa's English-Only law
	Imposing the 25% tax on dildos and vibrators
	Allowing more casinos
	Forcing Iowa taxpayers to settle Bill Krause's Touchplay Slottery lawsuit
	Implementing local control over hog lots
	Investing up to $666 million in IPERS money into AFL-CIO-approved and Iowa-based hi-tech startups.
	Expanding corporate welfare via the Iowa Values Fund
	Finding some way to import more illegal Mexicans
	Increasing the state's sales tax 1% at the behest of the Des Moines School Board
	Performing a top-to-bottom review of DHS
	Simplifying the Iowa tax code
	Bringing back the death penalty
	Increasing fines for environmental polluters, particularly manure spills
	Significantly reducing the deer population in Iowa
	Keeping tuition increases at state universities to just inflation
	Ending the practice of distributing bonuses to state employees
	Reducing the car-title loan industry's 300% interest rates to 21%
	Repealing the failed 2000 foot sex offender residency law
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Tom Vilsack Only Has 18 Friends At MySpace

Click the image below for a slightly larger screen shot:



Tom Vilsack's MySpace

Cut And Run Bruce Braley

From the QC Times:

For Bruce Braley, Tuesday’s election win was the gift that kept on giving...

On Sunday, he’ll be off for a week of orientation for new members in Washington, D.C., and he’ll be asked to cast a vote for party leadership. He said it will be an “honor” to vote for Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as speaker, the nation’s first female in that job.

Braley also said he would make his views known about the Iraq War.

He’s called for a prompt withdrawal of troops, and when asked how he would work toward that goal, he said he wouldn’t be a “presumptuous freshman” who pretended to know all the answers.

We already know Bruce Braley's views about the War in Iraq. His biggest priority is investigating Halliburton.

On the QC Times web page there's a picture of Braley taken from a height of about 9 feet, and the photographer's name is Kevin E. Schmidt. While the Kevin Schmidt we all know is pretty tall, it's probably not the same person.

Joycelyn Elders Is Coming To Coralville Tonight To Give An Oral Presentation

From the University of Iowa:

M. Joycelyn Elders, former surgeon general under the Clinton administration, will provide the keynote address, “Healthcare in the 21st Century,” at the Woodrow Morris Lectureship, Nov. 9, from 7:30-9 p.m., in the Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

Elders’ address will examine the lack of health care accessibility in the United States, the burden placed on society by unhealthy behaviors, and strategies our country must devise to make America’s health status fit our health care expenditure.

While Elders was in favor of socialized medicine, she was also in favor studying the idea of legalizing some drugs as a way of reducing crime. Even the Clinton Administration freaked out at such a notion.

The most controversy, if you want to call it that, was when:

In 1994, she was invited to speak at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She was asked whether it would be appropriate to promote masturbation as a means of preventing young people from engaging in riskier forms of sexual activity, and she replied, "I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught." This remark caused great controversy, especially among conservative Christian groups and right wing interests in the United States. President Clinton asked for her resignation.

Elders also came up with this great quote:

"We know that more than 70-80% of women masturbate, and 90% of men masturbate, and the rest lie."

Surprisingly, the opinion Elders had concerning abortion didn't get her in any hot water with Democrats. Check out these quotes:

"The number of Down’s Syndrome infants in Washington state in 1976 was 64% lower than it would have been without legal abortion."

And

"We must stop this love affair with the fetus."

Killing fetuses was perfectly OK, especially Down's Syndrome children, but advocating masturbation got her canned by President Clinton. So weird.

I wonder if Elders knows that her fellow Democrats in Iowa supported a 25% additional tax on dildos and vibrators a couple of years ago. The bill eventually went limp. Maybe with a majority Democrat legislature they can get that up again.

Speaking of majorities, some US Senate Democrats proposed a 25% internet porn tax in the summer of 2005. Maybe that will be hot on their legislative agenda for 2007.

Finally, you can still buy Iowa-raised-but-currently-deceased porn star Anna Malle's vibrating pussy and anus. I checked it out. No, I didn't check out the vibrating pussy and anus, I just made sure it was still being sold.

Neighbor Helping Neighbor

From a Wednesday post on the South of Iowa Blog:

While the Democrats were being elected into power yesterday, a group of 17 men from the community got together and harvested the remaining corn for my neighbor. Her husband Jerry was killed in a rollover accident in July. A few of us had harvested the soybeans here and there, and corn at another farm, but this was about 150 acres in two fields at her home place, 1/2 mile from me.

The Small Shit

Iowa Ennui gets it:

For the next two years, at least, we'll be treated to a mish-mash of liberal lite and union-speak emblematic in priority number one: raising the minimum wage. Culver & legis Democrats gravitated to this safe, poll tested issue to stake out their early leadership ground. I assume Democrats will stick to their poll tested issues for quite some time, no need to tempt fate and end up back in the minority too soon.

Ya think Governor Knapp will asking for the death penalty now? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Democrats will be too busy with important issues facing Iowa, like hiking the cigarette tax, building more casinos, suing Microsoft, and doing a shit job of defending Iowa taxpayers from Bill Krause's Touchplay Slottery lawsuit.

Meanwhile, in Congress, Dave Loebsack's first priority will be implementing more socialized medicine while Bruce Braley's is investigating Halliburton.

The Most Popular Republican In Iowa Today

It's Steve King!

While Tom Latham might have received more Republican votes in his district, Steve King won with a larger overall percentage.

King is a polarizing figure, for sure, but voters love a politician with big balls, and Steve King has BIG BALLS.

Jim Ross Nussle didn't have big balls. Jim Leach didn't have big balls. Jeff Lameberti didn't have big balls. Mod Whalen didn't have big balls.

The Republican Party of Iowa is mostly run and influenced by Republicans who have small balls.

Robert Ray has small balls. Terry Braindead has small balls. They want liberals and Democrats to love them. They want their bi-partisan bullshit. They're compromisers. They're not fiscal or social conservatives to any degree.

Greg Ganske should have beaten Tom Harkin, but Tom Harkin had bigger balls.

Tom Vilsack beat Jim Ross Lightfoot because Tom Vilsack had bigger balls.

Some politicians don't always exhibit bigger balls, but they win anyway because their opponent just has smaller balls. That's why Culver beat Nussle.

The only politician that doesn't conform to this theory is fauxscal conservative Chuck Grassley. I think he has fake big balls. You know what I'm talking about here.

And here to entertain you is the world's most popular female AC/DC tribute band, Hell's Belles:

Dave Loebsack's First Order Of Business: Socialized Medicine

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Dave Loebsack’s first order of business will be to vote for a single-payer, universal health care plan, the newly elected Congressman said Wednesday morning.

Good luck getting that through. The Democrats couldn't do it in 1993 when they owned Congress and the White House. And it's mostly been an expensive failure everywhere it's been tried.

Wanted: Numerous Lefty Nannies For Democratic Power Couple

From the Des Moines Register:

Senate District 37: Democrat Staci Appel of Ackworth defeated Republican Julian Garrett, 51 percent to 49 percent. Appel replaces Republican Doug Shull of Indianola, who ran for a House seat.

Wow, I wonder who's going to watch the four kids now that mommy will be away most of the winter and spring in the State Senate and daddy will be busy on the Iowa Supreme Court?

More details about the race at the Iowas Newz Liter blog (never heard of it before, it's based in Warren County). That post is from a couple weeks ago, but it points out how much money Staci Appel spent and what her views are. You can just guess.

Jim Ross Republican

No hyperlinks in this post. It would take too long this morning, I have meetings later today so I'll be busy, and besides if you read this blog you already know the stories or can search for them over on the right-hand side of this page.

I'm not surprised that Republican Jim Nussle lost the Iowa goobernatorial race. He's been in DC forever, he divorced his wife and then married a lobbyist which showed him to be a big "family values" hypocrite, he was in the charge of the House Deficit Committee, and the guy couldn't be bothered to vote against a single Porkbusters earmark. Did Kentucky really need a million tacked on the Federal deficit for tourism? Well, Jim Ross Nussle voted for it.

Once again, the Republican Party of Iowa fucked up. Bigtime. These guys can't field a winning candidate to save their lives. Hello, Secretary of State candidate Hanusa? Get the fuck back to Virginia, you carpetbagger! Now you won't have to switch your license plates.

And it's likely that Democrat and cattle-starver Denise O'Brien would have been the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture if Clel Baulder hadn't done some serious digging on her husband.

As for the Congressional races, it's pretty much what I expected. While I endorsed Mod Whalen, I'm not surprised Bruce Braley won. I don't know how long Braley will last in that job, seeing how his biggest priority in Iraq is investigating Halliburton. He's poised to go off the liberal deep end.

I'm happy to see Dave Loebsack beat Jim Leach. Leach needed to be kicked into retirement. Democratic partisans may rejoice at a seat going to their party, but Leach was basically a Democrat dressed up in a sweater anyway, kind of like Rhode Island's Lincoln Chaffed was in the Senate.

Leonard Boswell looks good these days, doesn't he? Somebody told me there was an anti-Boswell ad accusing him of being the "least effective member of Congress" which, ultimately, was due to his illness and recovery. A lot of Republicans and Independents like a member of Congress who basically does nothing, then they can't fuck anything up.

I didn't really follow the Iowa statehouse races. I saw that Ako The Crooked Dunderhead won, which is not a surprise considering his constituents are also a bunch of welfare recipients and former criminals. Isn't diversity great?

As for Chet Culver, I can easily predict how he'll govern. Vilsack II, only he'll be more of a tool for special interests like puppetmaster Bill Knapp and the state will continue on towards having 99 casinos. There will probably be more corporate welfare, more calls to raise the cigarette tax, and more calls to raise other taxes and further complicate the tax code, but at least the Earthpork Rainforest has been held off. Oman and his gang of Republican thieves aren't going to get a dime out of Des Moines. Hallelujah!

Will there be a secret settlement for Touchplay Slottery "small" businessmen like Bill "Kum & Go" Krause? I guess it depends on how badly the State of Iowa fucks up the defense of all those Slottery lawsuits.

On the national side of things, I honestly haven't been paying attention. A Speaker Botox situation would allow impeached Federal judge and current member of Congress Alcee Hastings to possibly become the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. You've got Charlie Rangel wanting to roll back every Bush tax cut, even the ones that help poor and middle class families. Neither of those are good situations. And you've got lots of Democrats dying to cut and run in Iraq in order to prove the Republicans correct. I think there's a lot of downside for the Democrats in the coming two to six years if they continue their temper tantrum.

As for the Republicans, it's obvious they've lost their direction from the philosophies of Ronald Reagan and the Class of 1994's Contract With America. Didn't Bill Clinton sign into law something like 95% of the Contract With America? Clinton was the best friend the Republican Congress in the 1990s had.

I still believe that the Iraq war was done for the right reasons. There's some 17-odd UN resolutions that had to be enforced, otherwise today we'd be dealing with an Iraq that, along with Iran and North Korea, would be trying to fulfill their nuclear and terrorist ambitions. How would Democrats be reacting to that sort of news today if the US hadn't removed Saddam? I guarantee you would see John Kerry and Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer bitching about how the US had hard data from 1998 on WMDs and how Bush didn't do anything.

The biggest problem with the Republicans is that they allowed themselves to get sucked up into the fiscal irresponsibility game that DC ultimately allows. They stopped being fiscal conservatives and started being fauxscal conservatives. The fact that Bush 43 has never vetoed any spending bill spells that out all too well.

Have a good day, people, and try to think about something other than politics for the time being.

Governor Knapp

Welcome to Terrace Hill, Governor Knapp. Can't wait to see what kinds of ideas you come up with on economic development. At least a rainforest in Pella won't be one of them.

Temper Tantrums

My favorite off-year, post-election analysis was in 1994 by the late Peter Jennings, when he said the following on ABC Radio the week after the Republicans took back control of the House of Representatives after 40 years of Democratic rule:

"Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. It's clear that the anger controls the child and not the other way around. It's the job of the parent to teach the child to control the anger and channel it in a positive way. Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week....Parenting and governing don't have to be dirty words: the nation can't be run by an angry two-year-old."

Surely that has to be the most absurd and preposterous analysis ever, but if the Democrats win big in 2006 will anchormen and anchorettes pontificate in a similar manner?

Who Wants To Be The Biggest Millionaire Loser?

ISU football coach Dan McCarney, perhaps:

But if buzzards were merely circling Mangino, they’ve landed squarely atop Iowa State coach Dan McCarney, whose Cyclones visit Colorado on Saturday (1 p.m., no TV). McCarney is feeling the heat, especially after Saturday’s effort against Kansas, which prompted fans to flee Jack Trice Stadium by the thousands after halftime.

McCarney returned 10 starters on offense entering 2006, and after blowing the Big 12 North title on the last weekend each of the past two seasons, the Cyclones were expected to contend this year. Instead, they’re 0-6 in league play and have been outscored, 213-83, by Big 12 foes.

McCarney and his team might find solutions this weekend against CU, like Kansas did, but that might not be enough to placate restless fans. McCarney said on Monday’s Big 12 coaches teleconference the heat is not a surprise.

“It’s not something I’d wish on anyone,” he said. “I don’t like it. It’s disappointing and frustrating, but it’s the shoes we walk in.

“It’s a different world now with the Internet and radio talk shows and everything. Expectations are high, as they should be, and then when you do have a frustrating and difficult loss, it accentuates everything more.”

McCarney is 55-84 since his hire in 1995. He’s 26-67 in conference games.

His contract, which pays him $1.1 million a year, expires in June 2010. The Des Moines Register reported that if he is fired, the school’s buyout would be $675,000, or $225,000 per season left on his deal.

Over a million dollars a year for a losing season and being dead last in the Big 12?

ISU must be burning paper money to heat their buildings, especially considering they hired that cunt Elizabeth Hoffman as provost for the ridiculous sum of $275,000 a year.

Kirk Ferentz, the Iowa Hawkeyes football coach (2-4 in the Big Ten), is Iowa's highest paid public employee at $2.7 million a year, and he will continue to earn that salary until 2012 no matter how poor his team's performance.


Last week's post: 0-5 Iowa State Has Three More Chances Left To Get Into A Bowl

Des Moines Register Editor Carolyn Washburn Is Great At Rearranging Desks

Via a longtime reader, this is from the Washington Post:

Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper chain, is radically changing the way its papers gather and present news by incorporating elements of reader-created "citizen journalism," mining online community discussions for stories and creating Internet databases of calendar listings and other non-news utilities...

At Gannett's Des Moines Register, for example, editor Carolyn Washburn has moved desks to re-organize her newsroom. She created a Data Desk to build reader-searchable databases on topics from restaurant listings to a recent mumps outbreak.

Moved desks.

Heh.

Typical Gannettoid response.

Here's a related piece from the Register's web site that went up last night:

The Des Moines Register has called itself “The Newspaper Iowa Depends Upon" for more than 75 years. We have a tradition of innovation in the newspaper industry. We innovated in how we distributed the news...

Our reporters and columnists with special expertise are blogging several times a week to share their commentary as news happens and to allow you to talk with them and other readers who respond. We have about 40 bloggers at DesMoinesRegister.com and another 27 at dmjuice.com – a mix of staff and community members -- so there is a ton of conversation about a great array of topics...

We are not less committed to doing our own reporting. Our reporters will play their watchdog role in covering local government. They’ll cover institutions and people no one else in the community will consistently cover...

The Juice blogs sucked a year ago and they still sucked this past summer.

Even the regular columnists at the Register got lazy about keeping up their blogs.

Why, it wasn't that long ago when newspapers regarded bloggers as being "humorless, thin-skinned and have a grandiose sense of their own importance."

In fact, some newspaper columnists explained blogging to the masses in this way: "Perhaps you have not heard of blogs. The name derives from a combination of 'blather' and 'logorrhea.'"

Then came the warning from one newspaper reporter about how the public should "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." and to ignore blogs.

The Des Moines Register continues to decide what is the news. If they don't want to cover anything except con artist David Oman's Earthpork press conferences and not offer any critical analysis of the project, so be it. Remember that it took the Register six days to mention Chet Culver's anti-Porkforest ad after a couple of other media outlets had covered it, and then it was only a quick paragraph or two in David Yepsen's column while he whined about mossback Iowa.

The Register occasionally does some excellent reporting, but overall the newspaper has been on the decline ever since the Cowles family sold it to Gannett in the 1980's. The last time the Register won a Pulitzer Prize was back in 1991 when Geneva Overholser was on a crusade to make it publicly acceptable for newspapers to out the names of rape victims. It also doesn't help that the Register's editorial board is comprised of all far-lefty and imported liberals and one moderate pseudo-RINO, an act of non-diversity that has turned a lot of Iowans off over the years.

Soak The Rich, Except The Dumb Kids From Illinois

The first thing I noticed about this Daily Iowan editorial concerning proposed tuition increases for 2007 was the goofy alarmist headline: Higher out-of-state tuition increases would negatively affect university

From the editorial:

The state Board of Regents will meet Wednesday and Thursday in Ames to discuss possible tuition increases at the three state universities: the UI, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa. The proposed increases at the UI are of particular importance.

Percentage increases for Iowa residents and nonresidents are higher than those of the other two regent universities, and the UI is the only one with an increase for nonresident tuition that is greater than the increase in instate tuition. Raising out-of-state tuition in such a manner will make increasing or even maintaining a diverse student population at Iowa more difficult.

The proposed tuition increases are 6.1 percent for residents at Iowa and 7.2 percent for nonresidents, with yearly tuition costs of $6,273 and $19,445 respectively. In contrast are Iowa State's increases of 5.1 and 3.5 percent and UNI's at 4.7 and 3.3 percent. Both schools also have significantly lower tuition for nonresidents. Nonresident rates are understandably lower at ISU and UNI, because both have a higher instate student composition. For example, UNI is made up of 91 percent Iowa residents, and there just isn't enough of a demand to allow for much higher out-of-state tuition.

The rationale behind the proposed increase on the UI's out-of-state tuition is the makeup of the students; approximately 63 percent of UI students are from Iowa. Given the high percentage of out-of-state students at Iowa, officials reason that there is a greater tolerance for increases in out-of-state tuition without negatively affecting enrollment

So the difference is 1.1%? How much does that work out to on a $19,445 tuition? About $200, right?

The Daily Idiot's final paragraph:

The financial problems of the state shouldn't be shifted onto prospective UI students. It will be a detriment to expanding diversity in students at Iowa, and it is unfair to unload funding difficulties because of state stinginess.

Everybody knows that most of these Illinois students were too dumb to get into Northwestern or Illinois, but rich enough to get into the University of Iowa. If they're stupid enough to pay nearly $20 grand for a neighboring state's public university, another $200 isn't going to kill them.

Harkin and Kerry's Marxist Friend Daniel Ortega To Win Nicaragua's Presidency

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Daniel Ortega, the revolutionary Marxist who battled a U.S.-backed Contra insurgency in the 1980s, was closing in on Nicaragua's presidency, appearing Monday to have defeated four opponents with promises that he was a changed man.

Final results from Sunday's vote weren't released yet, but preliminary results and two of the country's electoral watchdog groups all gave Ortega about 40 percent of the vote.

That's more than enough to avoid a runoff against Eduardo Montealegre, who trailed by at least seven percentage points.

The United States, which has threatened to pull aid from an Ortega government, said it was too soon to declare him a winner.

Nicaragua always reminds me of The Great Cornholio:

Voter Fraud, Thy Name Is Democrat

I forgot that John Deeth worked for the Johnson County Auditor. Being a partisan, he's naturally accusing Republicans of voter suppression. Nevermind all the cases of actual voter fraud by Democrats.

I'm kind of curious what he thinks of the 100.38% of senior citizens in Johnson County, Iowa, who are registered to vote. After all, it's the office he works in that puts out that data.

The Brenton Skating Plaza In Downtown Des Moines

The Brenton Skating Plaza under construction last winter.

You people need a break from the politics. Here's something really cool that's going to open in downtown Des Moines:

The Principal Riverwalk in downtown Des Moines is preparing for a steady stream of ice skaters this fall and winter - after a year of delay.

The Brenton Skating Plaza is slated for an official grand opening on Dec. 12, but fun at the outdoor rink could begin by Thanksgiving if 30-degree temperatures hold and allow for the state-of-the-art refrigerated operation to kick into gear on the 120-by-60-foot ice sheet.

It's something many people have been eagerly waiting for, said Des Moines Parks and Recreation Director Don Tripp.

"In past years the city used to flood rinks on public spaces and they were very, very popular," said Tripp, who also pointed to multiple surveys conducted in the 1990s that determined a high demand for ice-skating options. "With the change in our climate, and I guess you could say global warming and the change of temperature patterns in the winter, we just aren't typically cold for as many consecutive days as we used to be."

Why does the Register have to fuck up a perfectly good article about a positive development for downtown Des Moines with some bullshit about phony global warming?

I was still living in Iowa last December and I remember it was pretty fucking cold outside for the entire month.

Still, an outdoor skating rink in downtown Des Moines funded significantly with private money is a good thing. When I drive up to Des Moines a few times this winter I'll be sure to stop by and use it.

Those Shitty Electronic Voting Machines

One guy couldn't wait to tell me this:

got there right at 7. not a big line. staff were old but professional. my polling place had one of those new electronic voting machines but i took a paper ballot. by the time i filled out my ballot there was a line about 5 or 6 deep at the electronic machine and some old poll worker guy was trying to help a voter figure out how to use it. those machines are a worse idea than touchplay if you ask me.

Technology and old people aren't a comfortable fit. Yet. Give it another 20 years.

Everything should have a paper trail. Optical scanners are a tried-and-true technology and I've never heard anybody, Democrat or Republican, complain about them.


Update: And what do you know? Instapundit has a link to a story about multiple reports of crappy electronic voting machines.

Eat Me

What are you people doing? Visiting for some last minute advice? Go and get a life.

Whatever happens on Tuesday in Iowa, I'm sure it will end up just like the parade at the end of Animal House.

Just Quote From The State 29, Minus The Profane Things

From an email:

Hi, my name is Bradshaw from Mac's World on 98.3 WOW-FM. I was curious if you'd be interested in going on with us sometime between 2:00 and 4:00 tomorrow to talk about the general goings on in Iowa Politics. I've been reading your blog for a while and while I doubt you and I would agree on very much, I like the way you present yourself so if you're interested email me and let me know when and how is the best way to get ahold of you tomorrow.

Are you shitting me?

You want somebody on the radio who curses, endorses members of both parties, and, if I was living in Iowa, would either hold my nose and vote for Jim Nussle or maybe write in Ed Fallon (if Nussle was way ahead in the polls, which he's not)?

Risky business if you ask me, bud. Besides, I've got to work. It would be fun, but you'd have to disguise my voice and have the delay running.

Cult Of The Dead Cow

The South of Iowa blog reprints a letter sent to him via Rob Sand, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture candidate and Democrat Denise O'Brien's campaign manager.

An excerpt:

In 1987, like so many farmers during the farm crisis, Denise and Larry [Harris, Denise O'Brien's husband] were working off the farm to make ends meet. Larry hired a neighbor to take care of some steers and he moved them to that hired hand's farm.

When Larry learned that the steers were being mistreated, he fired the farmer and took the steers into his own care. The steers were not in Larry's care when the reported neglect took place.

These attacks on Denise's family just shows the Republican Party has no shame. This is one of the many negative attacks waged by Denise's opponents in the last few weeks.

A commenter on the South of Iowa blog points out the obvious:

If the calves were truly in the care of the hired hand, then why not file animal cruelty charges against that person instead of Larry Harris? Apparently, after looking into the situation, the Cass County sheriff felt that the ultimate responsibility for the situation fell to Mr. Harris...

Good point.

If the neighbor had neglected care of the animals, wouldn't Larry Harris and Denise O'Brien have also initiated some sort of lawsuit against the so-called hired hand?

When you think about it, considering the way DHS was managed during the Vilsack administration, Denise O'Brien might be a better choice for heading that office.

You People Are Obsessed With Sex

How some people today discovered the State 29 blog:




Related: More Jordan Monroe Pics!



Jordan Monroe, nee Emily Ranheim, Iowa's first Playboy Playmate

100.38% Of Senior Citizens In Johnson County Are Registered To Vote

100.38% of senior citizens in Johnson County, Iowa, are registered to vote.

It's true.

Go to the Johnson County Auditor's web page and scroll all the way down to see for yourself.

I found that after reading the Political Forecast's condescending but amusing post concerning my analysis of the Obamarama Rally in Iowa City this past weekend and then trying to find some data to bolster my theory about young people not voting.

The Johnson County Auditor's data does show that younger people have a smaller percentage rate of voting than even middle age or older voters. Besides that, all the old hippies and baby boomers (50+) in Johnson County are about 60% Democrat and 24% Independent, whereas the 18-29 crowd averages about 38% Democrat and 45% Independent.

Even if more independents tend to vote for Democrats, or are at least leaning towards doing so in this election, the generational shift away from specific party affiliation has got to freak out die-hard Democrats.

Go Loebsack!

State 29 Issues A Poll

How Has The State 29 Blog Been Lately?

Very funny and insightfully vulgar.You are an asshole.I'm trying to find pictures of Jordan Monroe, where are they?

Free polls from Pollhost.com

The Economy Sucks

From the Christian Science Monitor via ABC News:

It is not often that the nation's unemployment rate sinks to 4.4 percent.

It did in 2001, when dotcom entrepreneurs were still writing checks that didn't bounce. Jobs were also plentiful in the early 1970s, when the nation was at war in Vietnam. Ditto for 1957, when the economy had fewer women, teenagers, and minorities in the workplace.

Now, add October 2006 to the list.

A couple of weeks ago, Iowa Workforce Development reported that Iowa's seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate had fallen to 3.4%:

Compared to September 2005, all sectors except information and other services experienced significant growth, resulting in an increase of 30,200 at the total nonfarm level. Manufacturing was up by 5,500, followed closely by gains of 5,300 each in construction and education and health services. Professional and business services grew by 4,900 over the year, while leisure and hospitality and government were each up by 3,400. Rounding out the list of increases were gains in financial activities, which was up by 2,400; and trade and transportation, which was up by 1,600.

If everything's so peachy and rosy, why are so many politicians calling for massive tax increases and expanded government programs at the State level? Well, Iowa has 99 little empires to keep happy, for starters.

Bankruptcy Reform Is A Success, I'm Tellin Ya

From the Des Moines Register:

Betty June Allen and Jack Dean Allen, 5590 S.E. 66th Place, Carlisle, debts $128,511, assets $144,516.

Bryce James Anderson, 532 53rd St., West Des Moines, debts $199,527, assets $206,865.

Donald Charlas Cook Jr. and Susan Ellen Cook, 907 Grandview Ave., debts $95,563, assets $181,900.

Marylou A. McWilliams, 1312 S.W. Burnham Ave., debts $11,880, assets $2,640.

Florence Goldabelle Powell, 1449 E. Court Ave., debts $61,798, assets $60,010.

Jason Ronald Tart and Tiffany Marie Tart, 1675 S.E. 55th St., Pleasant Hill, debts $19,662, assets $9,070.

Samantha M. Smith, 420 N. First St., Milo, debts $21,744, assets $6,274.

Carrie A. Knudsen, 6429 Vista Drive, Apt. 29200, West Des Moines, debts $19,612, assets $15,680.

Looks like nothing has changed.

Are you telling me that some of these people, especially the married couples listed here, couldn't go out and get a part-time job at night or on the weekend and work their way out of debt in a year or two?

The court should be forcing all of the people listed above to work off their debts unless they're severely handicapped.


Related: How Is Fauxscal Conservative Chuck Grassley's Bankruptcy Reform Law Working Out?

ObamaHarkinVilsackCulverLoebsack

Krusty thinks the Des Moines Register's poll is flaky:

I find it interesting that all of the candidates the Register endorsed are now miraculously leading, yet they fail to release the sample sizes, which should make everyone question this poll.

I tend to agree with Krusty. The Register's polls are notorious for being incorrect come Election Day.

Over at the Political Forecast, I see where ObamaHarkinVilsackCulverLoebsack (lets put them in a proper pecking order) had a rally in Iowa City this weekend. That seems kind of pointless. Iowa City is a Democratic stronghold of immense proportions. Most of the time, local Democratic candidates there go unopposed except for the occasional Libertarian or Communist. Besides, young people don't bother to vote.

If you have to constantly rally the troops in Iowa City, and the Democratic Party has been doing this, it kind of leaves me scratching my head about the media bias conventional wisdom concerning a Democratic sweep.

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Although interest is high in this year's election, the projection of people who will vote Tuesday is down from four years ago, Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett said.

Slockett said early voting requests are down 22 percent from 2002...

Hmmmm......

Denise O'Brien Was Misquoted, Cattle Still Died

2:30pm update from Denise O'Brien's campaign via Lee Enterprises:

A report published Friday incorrectly said Denise O'Brien was working for the Women, Food and Agriculture Network in 1987. The O'Brien campaign never said she was working for the group at that time. The error is because a reporter misunderstood a comment from O'Brien's campaign manager. O'Brien worked for several agriculture advocacy groups in the 1980s, but she didn't found the Women, Food and Agriculture Network until 1994. The Lee Enterprises Des Moines Bureau regrets the error.

This was concerning a Dan Gearino story published recently in the Quad City Times and other Lee Enterprises newspapers.

Nevertheless, cattle still died.

Meanwhile, over at the Des Moines Register, "reporter" Lisa Rossi devotes space to the O'Brien campaign's shock and horror that fellow Ag Secretary candidate Bill Northey (take a deep breath here...) supposedly was a member of a group that invested indirectly in Brazilian land in order to create ethanol, or something like that. Whatever it was, it was a pretty awful thing. Maybe. Even Northey isn't sure if he's still a member of the group.

Yep, that's obviously a much worse thing than starving cattle to death.

And at the South of Iowa Blog this morning:

To the folks that think I'm just following the party line: I switched party affiliations in June to vote for both Ed Fallon and Denise O'Brien in the primaries. I serve on a board with Denise (although I haven't seen her at board meetings since the campaign started). I've worked at another organization (now-defunct PrairieFire) where she was on the board of directors. Up until this point I have had nothing but respect for Denise and Larry.

However, the charge and her response (or lack thereof) has caused me to loose respect for her. And out of respect for the position of Secretary of Agriculture of Iowa, I believe it would be wise for her to drop out of this race. She will not garner respect in her office because of this history, and it could tarnish the SOA position for years.

It looks like this O'Brien cattle story will die, or at least be starved to death by Iowa's lamestream monopoly corporate media outlets who are rooting for a Democratic landslide.

Just spin, spin, spin, or bury, bury, bury.

I still contend that if it was a Republican Secretary of Agriculture candidate who had starved cattle to death at anytime in his or her past, the newspapers would be all over this. And the thing is, I'd bet that most Republicans would be calling for that person to step aside. Democrats, as we all know, are obsessed with winning at any cost, no matter how flawed the candidate truly is. That's not to say that Republicans don't do this, they do, but you see more of this happening with Democrats in recent years.

Like A Good Neighbor

From a longtime reader:

My wife and I are going to be out of town for a few days next week. Do you think I should ask Denise O'Brien to come over & feed the cats & dogs while we're gone?

Related: Democrat Denise O'Brien Starved Cattle To Death

Somebody Needs To Ticket Republican Carpetbagger Mary Ann Hanusa's Buick From Virginia

The Political Forecast has pictures of Republican carpetbagger and Iowa Secretary of State candidate Mary Ann Hanusa's car still sporting Virginia license plates.

I like how she taped the bumpersticker promoting her candidacy to the back window. How gay is that?

According to the Iowa Drivers License Manual (page 23), If you are new to the state, you have 30 days from the time you move into the state to register your vehicle in Iowa. Somebody needs to pull her over and issue a ticket.

While this isn't as egregious as a Secretary of Agriculture candidate starving cattle to death, it's a bad thing for somebody wanting to be the Secretary of State. If you're going to be a 4th-rate carpetbagger, at least get your ducks in a row.

Congratulations, Michael Mauro, Iowa's next Secretary Of State. The Republican Party of Iowa continues to be run by bumbling idiots.

Political Payoffs To Keep Ripping Off The Poor

A few days ago, the John Deeth blog had a post that mentioned an AP story about how legalized loansharker Rod Aycox has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians in Iowa to keep his car title loan scam above the law.

While the Mike Glover/AP story relies on Iowa House Democratic leader Pat Murphy to paint Republicans in a bad light, particularly Christopher Rants (and Rants deserves it), the story didn't mention anything about Rod Aycox's 2006 efforts.

Over at FollowTheMoney.org, here's Rod Aycox's contributions to politicians for 2006. I'm not sure exactly what the negative amounts are, although I suspect they're returned contributions because Pat Murphy's name is listed.

As you can see, a lot of Republicans AND Democrats took money from Rod Aycox and didn't return it. Most notably is Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle.

I don't understand why politicians from either side of the aisle think charging 200% to 300% interest rates to poor people is acceptable.

Some Republicans are generally thought of as fiscal conservatives, but there's nothing fiscally conservative about allowing people to put their car title up on a $750 junker in exchange to buy Christmas presents, go gambling, or buy drugs.

Some Democrats are generally thought of as a champion for the little guy, but "easy credit" to the tune of 360% APR and the possibility of losing their car to the repo man doesn't help their situation out any.

Starving Cattle To Death From A Farmer's Perspective

The South Of Iowa blog on the recent discovery that Democratic Iowa Secretary of Agriculture candidate Denise O'Brien and her husband starved cattle to death in 1987:

There is no excuse for these cattle dying and being starved. I don't care if the calves were two counties away; they are living creatures, as well as sizeable investments, and no bridge being out should keep anyone away from checking on them. Where was the feed for these calves? This incident took place over the summer - the time of the year when hay and pasture would have been available.

To be honest, this shows POOR leadership on Denise's part - instead of being at home helping take care of her own livestock (and way to generate income), she was off in Des Moines or wherever else trying to save everyone else's farms but her own.

Anyone who lets animals die on their watch should not be allowed near them again, and sure as hell should not be allowed to be in charge of Iowa's agriculture. It doesn't make any difference if Harris was the one named in the charge - he and O'Brien were partners in this operation.

In the response on The Big Show to the incident, O'Brien's campaign manager (a non-Iowan) tried to change the tune, saying that Bill Northey's $1 million investment in Brazillian farmland is MUCH worse than a few calves dying, and that Denise was not involved. Unfortunately, this is showing the bad side of Denise. Attacking a political opponent while offering a non-apology apology seems to be a common theme in the Democratic party these day.

Having livestock die on you is not unusual in farming - baby pigs get laid on, calves are stillborn, cows die of old age, etc. But, when you simply neglect your duties and your livestock starve and die, it cannot be construed as anything but intentional. Death by starvation takes a long time; it is cruel, and at anytime it can be stopped by providing water and feed. Apparantly, Harris and O'Brien didn't even lift a finger to go drive around the down bridge and check on their cattle for 4 months. What does this tell you?

Some might say that digging up a 19 year old incident is dirty, and what happened then should be left behind. I might agree if the O'Brien had gotten a speeding ticket in 1987. But having livestock die because of your intentional neglect and then running for Secretary of Agriculture is like someone running for State Auditor that has a larceny conviction on their record. It just isn't the thing to have in your background for the position you are trying to win.

Compare and contrast this to the Political Forecast's excuse-making:

Look, no matter how you spin it, what happened is tragic and sad. But the situation was dealt with responsibly and as Sand pointed out, was an isolated incident that happened two decades ago.

Can you imagine what the Political Forecast would be saying if the Republican candidate, Bill Northey, had been busted for starving cattle to death in the past?

The Des Moines Register actually mentions the story in today's newspaper, but they sort of shrug it off.

It was the hired hand's fault!!!!

It was on a piece of land not easily accessible from the main farm!!!!

Denise O'Brien was away doing Really Important Work for women!!!!

Republicans are unable to win on the issues!!!!

[It] was an isolated incident that happened two decades ago!!!!

It is a cheap shot from Northey and his Republican cohorts!!!!

I'm 52 years old, and I don't know much about technology!!!! I don't even know how to send a response to an e-mail, that's how technologically deficient I am!!!!

If I saw it, I don’t recall!!!!

I was there to be a rubber stamp!!!! That was my function!!!!

I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication!!!!

It was a botched joke!!!!

I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it!!!!

I made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo by diving into the strong and murky current but succeeded only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm!!!!

I did not have sex with that woman!!!!

Bitch set me up!!!!

Jews have bought everybody!!!! J-E-W-S!!!!

Did I win the Lotto????


Related: Democrat Denise O'Brien Starved Cattle To Death

Denise O'Brien's Campaign Offers Up A Lot Of Excuses Why She And Her Husband Starved Cattle To Death In 1987

From reporter Dan Gearino at the Mason City Globe Gazette:

The husband of Democratic secretary of agriculture candidate Denise O'Brien was charged with animal neglect on the couple's family farm almost 20 years ago, according to documents circulated Thursday by the state Republican Party.

O'Brien campaign manager Rob Sand said the disclosure is a desperate and misleading ploy by Republicans.

According to court documents, Larry Harris, O'Brien's husband, was charged with a simple misdemeanor after several cattle in his care were found to have starved to death. Harris paid a Cass County court $319.45 to resolve the matter in October 1987...

Sand said the cattle deaths were because a hired worker responsible for the feeding wasn't doing his job. Sand said the cattle were being cared for on land that wasn't easily accessible from the Harris-O'Brien farm, so Harris depended on the hired worker.

At the time, O'Brien was working away from the farm as director of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network.

"They're dredging up something Denise didn't have anything to do with," Sand said.

He said the timing of the disclosure, less than a week before the election, shows Republicans are unable to win on the issues.

It was the hired hand's fault!!!!

It was on a piece of land not easily accessible from the main farm!!!!

Denise O'Brien was away doing Really Important Work for women!!!!

Republicans are unable to win on the issues!!!!

[It] was an isolated incident that happened two decades ago!!!!

It is a cheap shot from Northey and his Republican cohorts!!!!

I'm 52 years old, and I don't know much about technology!!!! I don't even know how to send a response to an e-mail, that's how technologically deficient I am!!!!

If I saw it, I don’t recall!!!!

I was there to be a rubber stamp!!!! That was my function!!!!

I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication!!!!

It was a botched joke!!!!

I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it!!!!

I made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo by diving into the strong and murky current but succeeded only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm!!!!

I did not have sex with that woman!!!!

Bitch set me up!!!!

Jews have bought everybody!!!! J-E-W-S!!!!

Did I win the Lotto????


Related: Democrat Denise O'Brien Starved Cattle To Death

Democrat Denise O'Brien Starved Cattle To Death

IowaPolitics.com has the press release and the PDF containing scans of the complaint of animal cruelty against the husband of Democratic Secretary of Agriculture candidate Denise O'Brien in 1987, the misdemeanor citation, and Denise O'Brien's check to pay the fine.

That looks like damning evidence to me. No wonder she wasn't Vilsack's pick.

Do Iowa Democrats really want a Secretary of Agriculture who starved cattle to death?

Maybe it's not too late for Democrats write in Dusky Terry for Ag Secretary (and Ed Fallon for Governor). After all, Gordon "The Karl Rove Of Iowa" Fischer predicted that Dusky would be in the driver's seat for the Ag job back in January.


Update: Ed Fallon sent out another email asking voters to not write him in. Further down in the email is this:

You’ve probably seen or heard ads paid for by Iowans for Agriculture promoting Republican candidate Bill Northey against Democratic candidate Denise O’Brien. These ads are a perfect example of what’s wrong with our current campaign finance system.

Iowans for Agriculture has raised and spent at least $220,000 on advertising related to the Secretary of Agriculture race. That’s more than either candidate has spent on his or her own behalf. The group has yet to file a disclosure report with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. Simply put, the biggest spender in a race for a statewide elected office is an outside interest group, and we don’t even know where they’re getting their money. It’s just another in a long list of examples of problems with our current campaign finance system.

On top of this, Northey’s own ads against O’Brien have included some very negative, nasty and disingenuous material. See for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlMnag8pCHg

Poor Ed Fallon. He seems like such a nice guy. Honest, trusting, and sensitive. I wonder what he's going to say after he finds out that Denise O'Brien starved cattle to death.


Second Update: Considering some of the comments on Krusty's post, it looks like some Democrats think starving cattle to death and animal cruelty is no big deal.

Of course they would think that way. A lot of Democrats believe that a husband has the right to starve anything to death, including his wife.

This just proves my point that Democrats care more about winning than anything else.

I can't wait to see the Iowa media's reaction to this story. Do you think the Des Moines Register, perhaps David Yepsen, will mention it in a paragraph or two on or after November 8th? It'll probably be wrapped in some article next week about so-called negative campaigning.

Democrat Denise O'Brien's October Surprise

Uh oh.

Krusty has details of a 1987 charge of animal cruelty against Democratic candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Denise O'Brien's husband Larry Harris:

State Representative Clel Baudler, member of the Iowa House of Representatives Agriculture Committee, called on Denise O'Brien to explain the animal cruelty charges filed by the Cass County Sheriff in 1987 before voters go to the polls next Tuesday.

Denise O'Brien and Larry Harris are married and according to her television commercials, have farmed together for 30 years. The Cass County sheriff filed charges of intentional cruelty to animals against Larry Harris which resulted in Denise O'Brien and Larry Harris paying restitution to resolve the charges.

According to the complaint, the Iowa Department of Agriculture contacted the sheriff's office concerning "starving cattle" owned by Larry Harris. The Sheriff writes: "The cattle were very thin and had only water to consume. It was evident from imprints and hair on the ground that there were three dead cattle which had been removed. We took pictures of all of the cattle and in my opinion, as well as the opinion of Norm Rasmussen [Dept of Agriculture], the cattle had been seriously injured and a few had possibly died from the lack of adequate care.

That's not good.

ACORN Democrats Busted For Voter Fraud

From KMBC-TV:

Four people have been indicted on charges of voter fraud in Kansas City, officials said Wednesday.

Investigators said questionable registration forms for new voters were collected by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a group that works to improve minority and low-income communities.

The four indicted -- Kwaim A. Stenson, Dale D. Franklin, Stephanie L. Davis and Brian Gardner -- were employed by ACORN as registration recruiters. They were each charged with two counts.

Federal indictments allege the four turned in false voter registration applications. Prosecutors said the indictments are part of a national investigation.

ACORN-Democrat voter fraud is also under investigation in St Louis, Denver, Philadelphia, and Columbus, OH.

Iowans should be totally suspicious of any ACORN volunteers. They simply cannot be trusted.

Voter Fraud Allegations In Iowa City

From the Daily Iowan:

Allegations of wasted funds and voting fraud have arisen among members of what was formerly known as the UI Community Credit Union, as bad blood continues to boil in the controversial renaming of the financial institution.

Part of the dispute surrounding Optiva Credit Union involves the originality of the name "Optiva." Despite claims that the moniker is "wholly unique in the financial services industry," The Daily Iowan confirmed the existence of a San Diego-based financial company with the name "Optiva Mortgage."

Jeff Disterhoft, the credit union's president and CEO, said the name was selected after a credit-union committee and contracted research firm Weber Marketing Group conducted federal and state trademark searches aimed at procuring the copyright for "Optiva" in the financial sector.

The name, and the credit union's handling of the renaming process, has been criticized by some credit-union constituents, such as Dan Lechay, who points out that a simple Google search for "Optiva" reveals it is also the name of the corporation that developed the Sonicare Electric Toothbrush, a type of catheter, a bank in Estonia, and a brand of cigarettes, among others.

"It has no relationship to anything, whatsoever," Lechay said. "Not the history, not the locality, not the community it serves. It's a phony, made-up, artificial name."

...In a special Oct. 4 meeting, credit-union members voted 198-192 to affirm the Optiva name. But now, some are questioning the company's balloting methods.

Jeffrey Cox - a credit-union member and UI history professor - said that when he voted before the end of the meeting, the envelopes were already filled with ballots, showing that members had already voted. This, he said, contradicts mailed information instructing members to vote at the meeting.

Roger Smith and Jessie McRoberts, employees of the auditing firm McGladrey & Pullen L.L.P., which credit-union officials put in charge of monitoring the vote, corroborated Cox's statement.

As I've said before, this is so nutty and a waste of time and money. Jeff Disterhoft seems like a complete idiot.

The Real Sporer Responds

The Real Sporer walked out of the Republican Party of Iowa office yesterday and debated 15 protesting Drake University students on the subject of stem cell research and Michael J. Fox's recent appearance on behalf of Democratic candidates.

Civility occurs.

It's surely the must-read post of the day:

A few good Democrats still exist and they are at Drake University. Around 4:00 today I stopped at RPI to find a gaggle of young lefties, bright eyed and bushy tailed, actually protesting, well, me. Seriously, signs that read things like “Sporer = Hate”, “Sporer = Fake Morals”, and some other equally loving statements were splattered on homemade posters all over East 9th Street by about 15 Drake Democrats.

I suppose some other, more cautious, personality would have hidden or snuck out the back. Actually, when the kids heard that I had “arrived” about half the worker’s brigade moved to the back door, so that option would have been foreclosed anyway. Since we all know how Kurt Russell handled Ike Clanton when Curly Bill shot old Fred White, I decided to cry havoc, and wade into the crew just to see what would happen.

Well, not surprisingly, the kids didn’t fair very well in the clash of wits, which isn’t really saying a whole lot for me. After all, if a 47 year old trial lawyer, who coached debate for a hobby, and majored in philosophy before serving as three term county chairman in Iowa’s most contentious political environment can’t outwit adolescents, then he’d better find a whole new life, eh? So it wasn’t just my love of argument that made the discourse so much fun.

What was a pleasant surprise was how both polite and sincere and, what’s more, reasonably well dressed were the young Donkeys. This was such a difference from the dirty, hysterical, rude leftists of my college days. There was little interruption and no attempt to shout me down or make a childish drama in evidence today.

Read the whole thing.

Back story here and the post that started it all.

20 Year Old Illegal Alien High School "Student" Had Loaded Gun

From the Des Moines Register:

A 20-year-old student arrested with a loaded handgun after a fight at North High School is a gang member who came to the United States from Mexico two years ago, Des Moines police said Wednesday.

Schools Superintendent Nancy Sebring said Marcelino Aparicio, who denied the alleged gang affiliation and told authorities he was 17, will be expelled under the district's zero-tolerance policy on weapons.

All you have to do is go out to the Iowa Courts Online Trial Search and look up his name. Marcelino Aparicio has five entries as of today: three with a birthdate of February 1, 1986 (he's almost 21 years old!), one with a birthday of February 1, 1989, and a very recent one with a birthdate of January 1, 1987 (probably just a marker) when he was pulled over without a valid driver's license.

Several questions here:

First, what is an almost-21 year old doing in high school?

Second, why is an adult illegal alien attending high school? Why doesn't he go to night school to learn Spanish and get a B.

Also, some of the earlier entries with the February 1, 1986 birth date indicate Marcelino Aparicio had been charged by police in April of 2003. That's 3 1/2 years ago, considerably longer than the two years the Des Moines Police Department believes he's been in the United States.

Distinguished ISU English Professor Neal Bowers Defends A Cunt

From the Des Moines Register's Letters section:

The Register's Oct. 23 front-page article, "ISU's Pick for No. 2 job Stuns Critics in Colorado," is further evidence of how hard it is for a woman in a leadership role. Caught between football economics and the politics of gender diversity, Elizabeth Hoffman pragmatically sided with football and lost her job because of that decision.

Still hounded by her detractors in Colorado, Hoffman is represented as insensitive or unsympathetic to women.

At Iowa State University, however, anyone who remembers her tenure as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences a decade ago knows well that she is committed in a very specific way to the often vague concept of diversity.

She was an excellent dean, prepared to stand behind her decisions and even to discuss them at length with discontented faculty (including me, on one occasion). There is no question that she will be an exceptional provost, and we should pay no attention to those Colorado malcontents who persist in maligning her.

- Neal Bowers, distinguished professor, English
Iowa State University, Ames

Malcontents and detractors like the president of the Boulder chapter of the National Organization for Women?


Related: Iowa State University Hires A Cunt As Provost and See You Next Tuesday

Breaking News: Evil Wal-Mart Can Fire Chronically Tardy Employees

My god, it's like something out of Dickens:

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO AP Business Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

NEW YORK — At Wal-Mart these days, snowy weather is no longer an excuse for lateness. It had better be a natural disaster like a hurricane or blizzard. And being 10 minutes or more tardy for work three times will earn you a demerit. Too many of those could get you fired.

It's all part of a revised attendance policy implemented earlier this fall that makes Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hourly workers more accountable for excessive unexcused absences and formalizes such penalties.

The new rules already are drawing fire from critics who claim they are the latest attempt by the nation's largest private employer to weed out unhealthy and costly long-term workers as it seeks to cut labor costs...

...Documents furnished to The Associated Press by union-backed WakeUpWalmart.com show that employees must call an 800 number to report all absences and tardiness by an hour before the scheduled start time. They also have to call their manager with the confirmation code they received when calling the hot line number. In the past, employees got permission directly from their store managers.

"After a year of adopting antifamily policy after antifamily policy, Wal-Mart adds further insult to injury by adopting a new restrictive attendance policy that treats hard-working associates like children while penalizing them if, God forbid, they face a child or friend with a medical emergency," said Chris Kofinis, a spokesman at WakeUpWalmart.com.

Chris Kofinis is the same union thug-backed lunatic who said that "Wal-Mart Is Like Something Out Of Dickens" last week.

Somebody hasn't been taking their prescription for anti-insanity pills, if this is news.

And it looks like "re-writer" Anne D'Innocenzio is just another lefty tool working for the Associated Press.


Related posts: Revenge Of The Wal-Mart Employees, Joe Biden: "How can you live a middle-class life on $10 an hour?", and Tom Vilsack Helped Wal-Mart Take Over The World Using Your Tax Money

Vilsack Bullies Nussle On Behalf Of Culver

From Radio Iowa:

Outgoing Governor Tom Vilsack and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver are campaigning together today (Wednesday), attacking the fiscal record of Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle.

"It is important for the people of Iowa to know that fiscal responsibility is an important component of this job," Vilsack says.

Is this the same Tom Vilsack who spent a billion dollars in rainy day fund money on corporate welfare and then raided the Senior Living Trust for more moolah while tuition at the state universities went up 87% since 2001?

Is this the same Tom Vilsack who wanted a 6.1% increase in State Government spending while revenues were only increasing by 3.6%?

Is this the same Tom Vilsack who gave a $12.5 million tax break to the rich?

The same Tom Vilsack who was governor when teacher pay in Iowa went from 35th to 41st nationwide?

Let's talk about fiscal responsibility a little more, Governor Vilsack.

Hey Dumbass!

Bruce Braley Digs An Even Deeper Hole

From Radio Iowa:

Democratic congressional candidate Bruce Braley says it's time for a cease fire in the war of words that erupted over comments made by 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's comments.

Braley was to appear with Kerry in Davenport on Thursday. But Braley asked Kerry not to come because Kerry said if you don't "study hard and do your homework" you'll "get stuck in Iraq."

"I believe that Senator Kerry's brief statement was inappropriate and I believe that the Bush White House and Senate Kerry need to stop their partisan bickering," Braley says. "The partisan back-and-forth is getting us nowhere. American citizens are tired of that."

Partisan bickering?

John Kerry called the men and women of our volunteer armed forces a bunch of uneducated dummies. Really, that's what he did. John Kerry thinks everybody in Iraq didn't study hard or do their homework. He thinks they're a bunch of dropouts and losers who got stuck there.

I think there's no doubt that Bruce Braley would shit all over the men and women of our military, especially those in Iraq, if he were elected to the House of Representatives. Why? Here are the three issues that Bruce Braley has on his web site about Iraq:

Investigate Fraud and Abuse in Iraq. We need a Congress that will use its investigative powers to look at the no-bid contracts for Halliburton, how $9 billion in US government cash went missing in Iraq while our troops went without the body armor they need to do their jobs safely, and what role oil companies are playing in Iraq.

Turn the Fighting Over to the Iraqis. Bruce believes that it is time to turn over the fighting to the Iraqis—our troops have done their job. The President needs to develop an exit strategy that includes some sort of timetable for bringing our