Same Day Voter Fraud

Beth Wessel-Kroeschell wants to bring voter fraud to Iowa.

From Radio Iowa:

A House committee voted Tuesday in favor of allowing voters to register at the polls on the day of an election. Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, a Democrat from Ames, says the measure could boost voter turnout.

Wessel-Kroeschell says: "Making voter registration easy and convenient is an effective way to increase civic participation. In fact, voter turnout in the seven states that allow election day registration is consistently 10 percent higher than in states that don't permit it." Iowa now requires voters to register 10 days before an election to be eligible to vote.

Wessel-Kroeschell says most voters "tune in" as election day nears. She says ending the registration 10 days before an election "cuts of the opportunity for some individuals to participate just when a race is getting the most interest from a voter."

Representative Libby Jacobs, a Republican from West Des Moines, says she's worried same day registration would corrupt the system.Jacobs says there are no safeguards to prevent someone from committing voter fraud by going around and registering at several locations.

Wessell-Kroeschell says Jacob's argument is a "Red Herring" as she says most votes would not be willing to risk the five-year prison sentence and 75-hundred dollar fine to vote multiple times.

What a great way to allow more voter fraud in Iowa. If it works in St Louis, maybe it'll work in Des Moines.

If the far-left Democrats could just give illegal aliens a driver's license, then they could sign them up through Motor Voter.

Bring up the topic of requiring a voter to show a picture ID before voting and many Democrats go absolutely apeshit. It sure puts a monkey wrench into their plans to commit voter fraud. All they'll have left is absentee ballots to abuse.

Sources Of Sexual Abuse Of Minor Children

From the Des Moines Register's Letters section:

Rekha Basu avoided mentioning one of the major factors in sexual assault in her Feb. 18 column: the breakdown of the family.

Studies have shown that only 1 percent of child sexual assault cases are by a parent. A child living in a home without the biological father is 20 times more likely to be assaulted. If the mother has a live in boyfriend, the rate of sexual assault rises to 33 times. Even when a woman remarries, the risk to the children is still much higher. Although stepfathers are only 10 percent of the population, they account for 27 percent of the cases of assaults on children under 16.

Child abuse and sexual assault has been increasing as the divorce and single-parent-family rates have increased. We need efforts such as the covenant marriage act. Divorce for parents should not be as easy as that for childless couples. If many parents knew the damage they were doing to their children by their divorce they might think twice.

- David C. Hammel, Urbandale

And then there's this from the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Richelle Bentley found a stack of pornographic pictures of 9-year-old Jetseta Gage and a baby girl in her husband's coat pocket.

She put them back and walked away.

She showed them to her aunt and a friend.

They put them back and walked away.

The next day, she confronted her husband, James Bentley, about the pictures. He told her he'd found them while packing for a move from Cedar Rapids to Arkansas.

Richelle Bentley told him to mail the pictures to Jetseta's mother, so she could take care of them. She never saw the pictures again.

That was nearly three years ago...

...``She was laying back on my bed. Some of them had her legs up in the air. Some of them had her legs up on the bed. She was, like, posing,'' Richelle Bentley said.

She was naked with her pubic area exposed. The then-9-year-old girl was looking right into the camera.

There was also a picture of a naked infant, Richelle Bentley said. And the hand holding the infant's legs apart was, she said, the long, skinny hand of her husband, James Bentley.

``I knew something was wrong. I didn't know what. I didn't know where the pictures had come from, how they ended up in the pocket. I forgot about my sister's camera. There was a lot going on at that time,'' Richelle Bentley testified.

The next day, she showed the pictures to her aunt, Tina
Hartson, and a friend, Stacy Lindsey. Hartson, who had dated James Bentley's brother Roger, recognized Jetseta in the photos.

``She was in sexual poses,'' Hartson testified.

A day or two later when Hartson asked James Bentley about the photos, he said he had found them under an air conditioner. Hartson had helped the Bentleys pack a couple of weeks earlier and had even moved the air conditioner, which had a lot of dust around it.

``And there was nothing underneath it,'' Hartson said.

Lindsey, who also saw the picture, discussed them with her husband, Roger Lindsey, James Bentley's longtime friend. Roger Lindsey testified James Bentley told him that he had found the pictures in the basement of the Cedar Rapids house they had lived in.

But jurors also were shown a videotaped interview with James Bentley at Cedar Rapids Police Department in November 2004, in which James Bentley denied knowing anything about pornographic Polaroid pictures. He did say that during the two years before, Jetseta, whose mother he had dated before his marriage, often stayed at his home overnight.

Sick.

These people make me want to vomit.

They all (except Roger Lindsey) see Polaroid photographs of a 9 year old and a baby being posed for sexual photographs and they don't go to the police. Instead, the wife confronts the monster and tells him to get rid of them. They are all, especially Richelle Bentley, just as liable for the ongoing sexual abuse of these children as is James Bentley.

Nothing short of being publicly whipped and thrown into an icy river is good enough justice for Richelle Bentley, Tina Hartson, Stacy Lindsey, and Roger Lindsey. Scumbags, all of them. They all knew about it. Where's a mob with baseball bats when you need them?

And the Bentley brothers? Both should executed. Tomorrow.

Don't forget that both of your 2006 candidates for governor in Iowa would keep the stupid and arbitrary 2000 foot sexual offender residency law. How would that have prevented the exploitation and death of Jetseta Gage? It wouldn't.

And as far as the death penalty is concerned, you haven't heard a peep out of Governor Culver so far, have you? No, you haven't. And you won't. He's too busy stuffing his face and bending over for the unions.

Chet Culver: If You're Out Of Power, Visit Our Web Site

From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver today demanded that Iowans still without power from the weekend ice and snowstorm leave their houses and relocate to one of their area's emergency storm shelters.

An anticipated ice storm, expected to pound Iowa Wednesday and worsen an already dire situation, has so greatly raised concerns about the medical, food and heating needs of residents, that staying in a house without electricity is "unacceptable," Culver said.

State officials said many of the nearly 200,000 residents statewide without electricity, many of them elderly, are trying to brave the storm alone.

"It's not at this point, frankly, a choice," Culver said at a noon press conference at the National Guard Armory in Johnston. "We need you to go to a shelter and we need you to go now."

Culver said residents needing shelter or facing other emergencies should call 911, despite assertions from at one least one local official that the influx of calls was jamming phone lines. Anyone who cannot through that line, state officials said, should call 211 or their city or county's emergency services agency. They said information is also available at www.iowahomelandsecurity.org.

That's funny. Chet Culver wants you to visit that Iowa Homeland Security web site even though you don't have power, your neighbor doesn't have power, your town doesn't have power, and all the cable and telephone lines are down.

Why is staying in a house without electricity "unacceptable" in this day and age? 70 years ago, only about 11% of farmers had electricity, yet they didn't die. If somebody has a fireplace, drinking water, food, and supplies then they can manage just fine in 30-degree weather for the next week or two. Who wants to go to some Armory building and sleep on a cot with hundreds of other cell phone-yapping scumbags who couldn't manage to wipe their butts without the government coming by and doing it for them?

Maybe the Big Lug can get the National Guard to round up all the Old Order Amish and put them in the prison camps for not using electricity.

George Bush Doesn't Care About White People

(Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Downed power poles line 130th Street west of Eldridge, Iowa, on Monday, offering evidence of how powerful the weekend storm was. Thousands of Quad-City region residents, particularly those who live in small towns and rural areas, were still without power Monday night.

It's all Bush's fault!

Where's FEMA?

Where are all the generators?

The National Guard can't put the power poles back up because they're dying in Iraq!

We've got people starving and drinking their own urine. Raping babies. Feces everywhere.

Where's Queen Oprah and queen Anderson Vanderbilt?

Isn't there going to be a telethon to raise money for all the spoiled meat in everybody's freezer?

Maybe Sean Penn can show up and shovel some snow and ice.

I think it's because George Bush doesn't care about white people.

Whitewashing Black (Criminal) History

The Des Moines Register "recognizes" Ako Abdul-Samad for Black History Month and reprints a Creative Visions press release that lacks any mention of Steven Green's recent scandals with CIETC or Creative Visions, much less anything about his radical and criminal past.

Read the comments, they say it all.

All The Usual Useful Idiots Get Arrested At Grassley's Office In Cedar Rapids

Some female war protestor is off to get laid rather than get arrested.

From the Daily Iowan:

Police arrested at least 11 protesters, including eight UI students, when they refused to leave the Cedar Rapids office of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley late Monday, ending a three-hour display of civil disobedience contesting the Republican senator's unbridled support for the Iraq war.

Assembling at 3:30 p.m. in the downtown Federal Building, protesters - predominately UI Antiwar Committee members - demanded that Iowa's senior senator, who at the time was traveling to Washington, pledge to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. After the petitioners said they wouldn't leave the building at its 5 p.m. closure unless Grassley communicated with them via telephone, U.S. marshals overseeing the complex notified the Cedar Rapids police.

The authorities charged 11 protesters - a group that included priest-turned-antiwar activist Frank Cordaro, Iowa City resident Rosemary Persaud, and eight UI students - with criminal trespass. As of 8:30 p.m. Monday, those individuals were being held in the Linn County jail on $325 cash, or surety, bond.

Among the student protesters was Joshua Casteel, a member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War who received Grassley's 1998 nomination to attend the prestigious West Point Academy. Last week, Casteel's play The Abu Ghraib Missive - a fact-based piece about his role as an Army interrogator at the notorious Iraqi prison - premiered at the UI...

...David Goodner, a UI undergraduate and Antiwar Committee member, said in an e-mail before the event that the group decided to employ extralegal means after failing with "traditional lobbying tactics" to persuade Grassley to alter his policy stands. That statement, which chastised the senator for voting to block Senate debate on an Iraq war resolution, noted that 15 dissenters had pledged to risk arrest...

Cited for criminal trespass Monday night in Cedar Rapids...:

- Andrew Alemao, UI student
- Frank Cordaro, Des Moines Catholic Worker, former priest
- Joshua Casteel, UI graduate student; The Abu Ghraib Missive creator
- John Paul Hornbeck, UI graduate student; member, Iraq Veterans Against the War
- David Goodner, UI student
- Timothy Gauger, UI employee
- Megan Feld, Iowa City resident
- Conor Murphy, UI student
- Ryan Merz, UI student
- Rosemary Persaud, Iowa City resident
- Justin Riley, UI student

Wow, all the usual suspects!

Josh Casteel's trying to extend his 15 Minutes a little further.

You remember David Goodner from his Jew-hating columns in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. He now blogs, naturally, for the Jew-hating Lefties at the Des Moines Register. Sieg Heil! Allah Akbar!

And it's not a party until Frank Cordaro gets arrested!

Today's Headlines

Quad City Times: Davenport police shoot suicidal man

The "suicidal man" was only trying to attack the cops with a knife.


Quad City Times: Black History Month: Students celebrate diversity

If you really wanted to celebrate diversity, wouldn't you just have a History Month for everybody?


Mason City Glob Gazette: Politics is big part of Iowa landscape

I thought it was mostly farms and corn and beans and pigs and pig shit.


Des Moines Register: Controversy follows Jane Fonda on Iowa visit

Controversy follows Hanoi Jane wherever she goes.


Des Moines Register: Iowans find refuge from blackout in warmth of hotels

Hotels with power, that is.


Des Moines Register: Simpson seeks revenge in women's opener

Is that OJ Simpson? And what's a "women's opener"? Gross.

Paper Trail For Electronic Voting Machines In Iowa?

From Radio Iowa:

An effort to require a paper trail for all votes cast at Iowa polling places is beginning to gather steam at the statehouse. Proponents say votes have disappeared from electronic voting machines elsewhere in the country and they want to prevent that from happening here by requiring a paper copy of each vote cast.

Senator Mike Connolly, a Democrat from Dubuque, is sponsoring the bill to require a paper trail. Connolly says with all the controversy around elections nationally, this is a top priority in election law this session. Currently, most Iowa counties have at least one electronic voting machine and most do not include a device for a paper backup for the vote.

Electronic voting machines are an expensive disaster and should be banned, paper trail or not.

Optical scanning of manually filled-in ballots is still probably the best way to go when it comes to a "medium tech" solution.

Power Out

From the Des Moines Register:

Power crews scrambled Sunday to restore electricity to more than 250,000 customers, after ice, snow and wind caused the most widespread Iowa power failures in at least a decade — possibly in history.

Some Iowans could remain in the dark for a week or more.

The blackouts were caused by up to three inches of ice, which weighted down power lines, and gusty winds, which whipped the lines until they snapped.

What a mess.



And

Manbearpig Shuts Off Power To Nearly 100,000 Throughout Iowa

It's mid-40s and raining here in Opieland tonight.

In central Iowa, however, nearly 100,000 people can't even get on the internet:

A dangerous winter’s brew of freezing rain, high winds, sleet and snow has resulted in treacherous travel conditions throughout the state.

In addition, at least 95,000 Iowans were without power, a number that is expected to increase as more snow sweeps across the state tonight and Sunday...

...Alliant reported 500 downed power lines. MidAmerican Energy, which serves the Des Moines metropolian area, said at 3:45 p.m. today that about 25,000 customers were without power.

Towns hardest hit include Newton, 9,000 customers; Marshalltown, 8,000 customers; and Grinnell, 7,000 customers...

...National Weather Service meteorologists said rain and freezing rain would turn into show by Saturday night and into Sunday.

“This very well could be the worst winter storm we’ve seen this year, in terms of the overall impact,” said Rich Kinney, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Johnston.

Kinney said a severe storm is possible in portions of central Iowa, generating penny-sized hail.

“We’ve already got wet to icy roads, depending on how well the roads have been treated,” added meteorologist Brad Fillbach. “Any time you get snow on top of ice, you don’t know where the ice is.”

Polk County could see between 5 and 8 inches of total snow by noon Sunday.

Northern Iowa could see much more, with cities like Algona expected to get as much as a foot of snow. The winter storm warning expires at noon Sunday for Des Moines.

Sure glad the Register Editorial Board told you yahoos in Iowa to Step Up On Global Warming.

And wouldn't it just be ironic that tens of thousands of Iowans won't be able to watch the Oscars on Sunday night and see Al Gore win an award for his phony, bullshit, and lie-filled "documentary" (what a fucking mockery they've made of that category over the past few years what with that fat asshole Michael Moore winning) about global warming because their power is out due to an ice storm and blizzard?

Gordon Fischer Is No Carnac The Magnificent

From Gordon Fischer's IowaTrueBlue blog on November 9, 2006:

Prediction: Tom Vilsack Will Be The Next President of the United States

Flat out.

Now, this will sound like I'm bragging, but I'm really not. I am a quite humble person (frankly, I have many, many, many reasons to be humble). But I do have a solid track record for accurate predictions.

In 2005, before spring training, I predicted the Chicago White Sox would win the World Series.

In 2006, as you can see from this site, I was pretty dead on with my political prognistications.

I will write much, much more over the coming days, weeks, and months, but a few reasons for my prediction (in absolutely no particular order):

1. Tom Vilsack's personal story is simply incredible, and will both help readily distinguish him from the pack, and allow him to connect with working families.

2. He has never run in an election he was favored to win, but has never lost an election.

3. On the stump, when he is on, Tom Vilsack is as good or better as any politician out there.

4. He helped -- in fact, I think he was the single biggest reason -- Iowa turned from purple to solid blue. That's a huge feather in his cap, and one that will attract Dems nationally.

5. Tom Harkin. He is simply amazing, and will be a gigantic help.

6. Ditto Sally Pederson and Jerry Crawford.

7. He is a governor. The last time a sitting member of Congress was elected President? John Kennedy in 1960. With all due respect to the other candidates, that is no historical accident.

8. Not only is he a governor, Tom Vilsack has been a great Governor. Especially on issues like schools, health care, clean air and clean water, jobs, and other issues Dems are really passionate about.

As I said, I'll be blogging much more about this, obviously, but for now, I'm predicting it flat out: President Vilsack.

Go give him some shit in his comments section.

More about Tom Vilsack's true legacy here.

Vilsack To Cut And Run From Presidential Race

Vilsack's going to drop out.

It's not really a big surprise. He only had committed supporters from 71 of Iowa's 99 counties.

Time to review his legacy.

Loebsack In Bed With Crooked Abscam Murtha

From the Des Moines Register:

Fresh back from his first trip to Iraq, Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack of Iowa said Thursday night that he is more convinced than ever that the United States needs to end its involvement in the war.

But he also said he was "amazed" by the spirit and dedication of U.S. troops deployed there.

"The troops are doing a heck of a job," said Loebsack, of Mount Vernon, in a brief interview from the airport here as he boarded a plane to Iowa.

Wow, no specifics as to why Loebsack thinks the war should end. But he sure does want the media to know that he supports the troops.

Actually, Dave Loebsack wants to shit all over our troops:

As a next step, he said he is looking toward helping support legislation by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., that will put conditions on money for the war and "we can begin to be serious about disengagement and send a very serious message to George Bush, not just a nonbinding resolution."

Murtha, the chairman of a defense appropriations subcommittee, wants to effectively stop the increase by blocking extensions of deployments and other means.

Actually, Jane Norman at the Des Moines Register is lying to you. John Murtha wants to cut off all funding for the troops:

Murtha has said that he and the House Democrat majority will now work to pull all the financial plugs from the military and place our troops in Iraq in extreme harm's way. While advising that the Democrats will vote to defund our troops, Murtha said jubilantly: "They [our troops] won't be able to continue. They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment, they don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work!"

Why, it wasn't that long ago when Democrats were bitching about body armor. Now they're willing to take away funding for troops who are already there.

Of course, Murtha is dirty and has been in bed with Arabs before. He was back in 1980 with the ABSCAM investigation. Murtha was indicted but not prosecuted. The House Ethics Committee declined to file charges against Murtha in a vote that fell on party lines.

Legalize Extortion, Buy A Governor

Via email from a reader, and appearing in yesterday's Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Gov. Chet Culver and Sen. Mike Gronstal say unions represent and work for everyone in a workplace, and that they should be paid by everyone, even those who don't want to join a union. Culver and Gronstal want to replace Iowa's right-to-work laws with union rules.

When the union first came to my employer, I gave it a chance to represent me. I signed up for payroll deduction and tried contacting stewards. For six months no one returned my calls. I was notified of meetings after they were over.

When I called payroll to stop dues payments, I got some nasty surprises. By union rules, payroll couldn't tell me at the outset that I'd signed up for 12 months. By union rules, I could not stop paying them. By union rules, there was a four-day window at the one-year anniversary of my sign-up when I could stop payments. If the paperwork wasn't done right or didn't reach payroll in time, I would pay another 12 months. My call to payroll was the only notification I would get, by union rules.

The union didn't care about my participation. It just wanted my money. The union's rules showed what was really important to them.

Over the years, I've seen the union attack hard-working, long-time, dedicated employees. I've seen horrible behavior rewarded. I've seen issues blown way out of proportion. I don't want them representing me or using my money for their so-called issues.

Union membership is at an all-time low of 12 percent because unions do not represent the average worker.

Culver wants new laws requiring the unwilling 88 percent majority to pay union dues. These new laws would legalize extortion. Unions will do anything for money, power and political influence. Buy a governor? Sure. Represent workers? No way.

Diana Johannes, Wellman

Ouch!

An Alternative Obama Interview

An alternative Obama interview to the original at Radio Iowa:

Fay K. Henderson of Radiowa: "Senator, the Clinton campaign is asking you to apologize for remarks made by Mr. Geffen. Do you intend to do so?"

Obama laughed. "I just heard about this as I got off the plane. I'm jonesin' for a smoke. Can I bum one? They're still cheap here in Iowa. It's not clear to me why I would be apologizing for someone else's remarks. I mean, I don't know the entire story."

Henry Onbeef of AyPee: "Do you agree with what he said?"

Obama: "Are you deaf, motherfucker? I confess that I haven't read the full article. My sense is Mr. Geffen may have differences with the Clintons. Maybe the Clintons are upset that he signed Yoko Ono to a record contract back in the 1980s. That really doesn't have anything to do with our campaign."

Henderson: "He suggested she was arrogant and polarizing..."

Obama: "...And the sun rises in the East. You know, I have said repeatedly, you know, I have the utmost respect for Senator Clinton, you know, have considered her an ally in the senate, you know, and will continue to, you know, consider her that way throughout this campaign."

Char Lotteby of Lee Press-On Newspapers: "There was a surrogate here in Iowa that said you talk about the politics of hope and changing the tone in Washington and they say you should renounce these statements if you really believe that."

Obama: "Look, you know, why don't you ask the bitch when the last time she did her husband. I can almost guarantee that it was before I got married in 1992. No wonder she's so damn uptight. I can't be responsible for the statements of every single individual who contributes to our campaign. Maybe Senator Clinton hates successful gay men. I mean, we've got thousands of people who are contributing, some who may have real differences with the other candidates. It doesn't reflect my views. They didn't come from me or my staff and my suspicion is that the voters of Iowa are probably more concerned about you know what both myself and Senator Clinton think about Iraq and health care and jobs and they are the issues that matter to us."

Onbeef: "Are you proud to have David Geffen as a supporter?"

Obama: "The little fucker's a billionaire, you know what I'm sayin? He knows a lot of other billionaires. Know what I'm sayin'? He hosted an event for me yesterday. Those twinks in California know how to throw a good party. Absolutely."

Speed Kills

From the Des Moines Register:

Authorities investigating the death of a Des Moines police officer determined a piece of sheet rock in the middle of the road may have caused the officer to swerve.

Sean Wissink, 35, of Granger, died Feb. 11 from injuries he suffered in an automobile accident on Iowa Highway 141. He was enroute from his home to the Des Moines Airport.

Jim Saunders, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, the agency which investigated the accident, said Wissink was going 81 mph at the time of the crash. Saunders said he believes the highway has a speed limit of 65 miles per hour.

Wissink was a 10-year veteran of the Des Moines Police Department.

Saunders also said a piece of sheet rock in the middle of the highway may have been the reason why Wissink suddenly swerved, then overcorrected, though he added the officer may have been trying to avoid a deer.

“We don’t know exactly what caused him to swerve,” Saunders said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, we’ll likely never know.”

A piece of sheet rock looks just like a deer, you know, so you can understand how the guy might have been confused.

And 81 mph? The speed limit on that stretch of road is 65 mph, if I'm not mistaken. Well, isn't it just typical of cops to ignore the laws that the rest of us little people have to abide by?

Global Warming Theory, Iowa Style

From the Mason City Glob-Gazette:

Iowa Lawmakers hoping to combat global warming conceded Tuesday they face some inconvenient truths.

State Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, acknowledged that state government lacks both a comprehensive plan to deal with greenhouse gas emissions and the updated scientific data needed to craft such a strategy. He and other legislators hope to address both issues over the next two months.

“Climate change is real,” Bolkcom said after a Senate subcommittee discussed the idea of setting emission standards for power plant projects. “It’s going to have an impact on Iowa agriculture and the economy.

OK, I have proof that global warming or climate change or whatever the hell the Socialists want to call it is fake.

Carbon dioxide is emitted from our bodies when we exhale. Correct?

We can all agree a lot of talking occurs under that gold dome in Des Moines.

You'd think all that carbon dioxide would float up to the top of the gold dome and coagulate into a major source of warmth.

However, that's not the case as witnessed by all the water pipes in the Capitol's attic that keep bursting due to cold weather, terrible engineering, shoddy construction, and poor insulation.

In Iowa, if the weather is too cold, then that causes all the lower portions of buildings to flood. It's the exact opposite of what divinity school-dropout Al Gore says.

Despite this evidence, politicians, particularly the Lefty ones, think they're God.

And policy, provided somebody has shoved a lot of green cash into their re-election funds, is nature.

Clueless Liar Joseph Wilson Is Coming To ISU

From the Iowa State Daily:

The World Affairs Series, funded by the Government of the Student Body, will sponsor former ambassador Joseph Wilson as the series' keynote speaker of the spring semester. Wilson is to speak at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

Wilson's speech, "Dissent in our Democracy," is expected to address a range of topics. However, it the focus of the discussion will likely be on the current perjury and obstruction of justice trial that was the result of the investigation into who exposed Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA agent.

Wilson's also there to hawk his book.

Joesph Wilson, of course, is a liar.

Wait, no, Joesph Wilson is a clueless liar.

And anybody with a copy of the 1999 edition of Who's Who can discover that Wilson's wife is named Valerie Plame.

WINO Forever

From the Radio Iowa blog:

Soon, you may be able to hear the death knell for what was initially billed as "riverboat gambling" in Iowa. The Senate State Government Committee will meet tomorrow at 11:30 am in room 22 at the statehouse to take up a bill that will be another big moment in the long-running debate about gambling in Iowa. The bill would erase the requirement that those floating casino "barges" which are sitting on lakes be required to maintain the fantasy that the gambling casino is floating on water.

According to Senator Mike Connolly, some of the operations in Iowa pay big money to construct and maintain what the industry calls "bladders" under the boats/barges to follow the law which requires the casinos to sort-of float on water. As you may know, a few years ago the state's then-failing race tracks convinced lawmakers to allow slot machine casinos to be built right next to the tracks, and then a couple of years ago legislators voted to allow table games at those "dry" casinos -- and when I say "dry" I mean they aren't "floating." It's not a reference to the availability of alcohol.

I have been reporting statehouse news for so long I can remember when Represetnatives Bob Arnould and Tom Fey argued gambling would revive Iowa river towns like Davenport (where they both resided at the time). I was there when Representative Greg Spenner, a Republican from Mount Pleasant, cast the deciding "yes" vote on the bill that legalized riverboat gambling.

The original legislation not only required all the casinos to be riverboats, but the boats had to cruise up and down a river. There were also wagering limits -- five dollars per bet. The enterprise was billed as tourism with gambling thrown in.

Not only was riverboat gambling going to increase tourism and revive river towns, it was going to rain money down on our schools!!!

Instead, gambling expanded to WINO (Water-In-Name-Only) towns like Riverside and Waterloo. And for you nitpickers who point out that Waterloo resides on the Cedar River, when was the last time a frickin barge delivered goods up and down it? Seriously, would you go swimming in that shithole?

Getting rid of the "water" requirement will just help paid-off/crooked politicians with their plans to install at least 99 casinos throughout Iowa. The cannibalization continues.

And don't forget, Chet Culver wants more casinos.

Nationwide Is On Yo Side

From the Des Moines Register:

Nationwide Insurance will break ground in April on the second phase of its $142 million expansion in downtown Des Moines.

The new building, which will be in the 1200 block of Locust Street, will accommodate offices of Nationwide, Allied Insurance and Nationwide Agribusiness. The latter two are based in Des Moines and are subsidiaries of Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide.

The 350,000-square-foot, five-story building is slated to open in December 2008.

Maybe they can bring their spokesrapper Kevin Federline to the Grand Opening!

Ron Dardis Is A Democratic Party Tool Who Supports Abuse Of The Flag For Political Purposes

From Radio Iowa:

The leader of the Iowa National Guard says the Guard is "quite possibly the strongest" it's been in generations. Iowa National Guard Adjutant General Ron Dardis delivered the annual "Condition of the Guard" address this morning at the statehouse. Dardis told lawmakers the Iowa Guard is setting recruiting records, but Dardis warned soldiers are worried the public's support for the military may wane as the war continues...

...Dardis also thanked Governor Chet Culver for ordering, just after he took office in January, that flags be flown at half-staff on the day of funerals for Iowa soldiers who are killed on active duty. Dardis began his speech with a moment of silence for the latest Iowa soldier to die in the war.

Even though Ron Dardis doesn't apparently have a party affiliation, he's been appointed to all sorts of positions by the Vilsack administration: Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard in 1999, the head of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Military, the Information Technical Council, and was on the search committee to find a new executive director of the Iowa Communications Network. As we all know, Vilsack was hyperpartisan to the core, stacking the deck with Democrats as hated and awful as Michael Gartner at every chance he could. And if you wanted a seat on the Iowa Supreme Court, all you had to do was be a Democrat and pay for it. So it's pretty safe to deduce that Ron Dardis is a Democrat, or at least a willing tool of the Democrats.

Chet Culver and the Democrats are abusing the flag for political purposes. Ron "The Tool" Dardis supports the flag continuing to be be abused in such a manner.

Oh, I can hear the clicking of keyboards of all the anti-war lefty bloogers right now. They'll be upset with such comments because "their man" is being criticized and he just so happens to be in a uniform. They're the usual bunch of "we support the troops, but not the war" types.

But as former Marine Warrant Officer Dan Abolins said at a John McCain rally in Iowa City: "These people saying they actually support the troops is crap."

"Honoring" fallen troops by lowering the flag to half staff in their home state or adopted home state or childhood home state or some relative's home state is bullshit. It's a political statement. It's a continuation of the "bring the troops home today before the job is done" surrender/loser/French/I-Hate-America mentality.

Put the fucking flag back at the top of the pole, you Democrats, or we're going to shove that flagpole up your asses in the next election.

E Pluribus Unum

From the Des Moines Register's Letters section:

Don't tell U.S. Rep. Steve King, but Spanish was once the official language of Iowa. Spain acquired the land that would become the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1763 and held it until 1800. It then reverted briefly to France before being sold to the United States in 1803.

Of course, well into the 19th century, most Iowa residents spoke languages other than the "official" one.

- Robert Nicholson, Des Moines.

Spanish was never the "official" language of Iowa at any time. That's a bullshit lie. It's not like Spainards (as opposed to Mexicans) came to Iowa in any significant numbers between 1763 and 1800. Most Europeans in the Iowa area west of the Mississippi during those years were French.

In fact, the main languages spoken in Iowa before Europeans arrived are categorized as Siouan, also known now as Siouan-Catawban, which encompasses the various dialects, tribal, and familial changes to the overall language.

All Garlic, No Pork

From the Des Moines Register:

Michigan-based Cole’s Quality Foods will celebrate the opening of its North Liberty frozen garlic bread plant at 11 a.m. Wednesday with a site tour and comments from company and community leaders.

Last year, the food manufacturing company announced it would invest $15 million to upgrade the existing commercial baking facility at 1420 Progress St. The 35,465-square-foot plant, now operational, will employ 60 workers once hiring is complete.

And this is from the Cedar Rapids Gazette last June, via NicholasJohnson.org:

No tax abatement will be provided by the state or North Liberty.

Seckman said Cole’s employees will be trained at Kirkwood Community College under the Iowa Industrial New Jobs Training Program. The city of North Liberty will provide some funding for site upgrades.

Rudi’s Organic Bakery of Boulder, Colo., closed its North Liberty bakery in early 2002 after less than a year of operation. Another company, Dare Devil Shells of Phoenix, Ariz., announced plans to take over the Rudi’s facility but never began production.

Iowa taxpayers have already spent $13 million on the facility. The original money came from the Iowa Agricultural Finance Corporation, which was essentially the Iowa Legislature authorizing state government employees to use taxpayer money as venture capital.

Venture capital? More like kindling:

• Rudi's Organic Bakery. $13 million. Failed and moved to Colorado.
  
  
• Wildwood Harvest. $7.1 million. The company has never generated a profit.
  
  
• ProdiGene. $6 million. No employees in Iowa. "Struggled" and was fined by the USDA.
  
  
• Sioux-Preme Packing Company. $5 million. Profitable.
  
  
• Iowa Quality Beef. $3 million. Shut down in 2004 and 540 employees laid off.
  
  
• Ag Waste Recovery Systems. $150,000. No sales, no employees, and is considered an "idle corporation".

Good luck to Cole's Quality Foods. I hope they can find some success in that location. They make garlic breadsticks for Sam's Club, you know, so if you're a Democrat you have to be hoping they'll fail for just being associated with that evil Wal-Mart. They also sell their products to Hy-Vee (the #4 state-wide employer of Medicaid recipients) and Fareway (not open on Sundays).

A Job Tip For All You Heavily-Indebted ISU Students

From the Iowa State Daily:

The College of Veterinary Medicine and other organizations across the country hope to set the record straight about how large animal veterinarians live, work and get paid in order to draw students and satisfy the nation's serious need for their skills.

"A lot of students still think that [large animal vets are] going to be outside all day today running from farm to farm, wet and cold and frozen, pulling calves," said Locke Karriker, assistant professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine, "and that's just not the typical practice environment anymore."

Karriker said misconceptions not only exist about a large animal vet's working conditions, but also about the profession's pay scale and career opportunities.

While some people have the idea that large animal medical careers are limited and low-paying, many employers across the nation approach ISU Vet Med students directly, some as early as their second year, with promises of lucrative positions after graduation, he said.

"I can't imagine job security like there is in food animal medicine," Karriker said.

"There's virtually no ceiling to the number of large animal or food animal graduates that we could get employed; there's just so many job opportunities out there. I think we could accommodate several classes consecutively where they all wanted to do that."

All you six-year Political Science majors, take heed.

"Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father."

Krusty has a recap of McCain's Iowa visit this past weekend.

I can't see why any Konservative worth his or her salt would ever consider John McVain.

Besides being corrupt, a massive flip-flopper, and someone who regularly shits all over the First Amendment, McVain is also responsible for the abortion called Campaign Finance Reform.

Then there are the downright mean jokes. Come on, lots of people think that Chelsea Clinton looks a lot more like Webb Hubbell than Janet Reno.

Speaking Of Getting Their "Fair Share"

GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

From Christopher Rants, guesting over at Krusty Konservative:

Before I leave the topic of the hearing one thing deserves special mention. Dan Albritton, president of the South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, spoke in favor of “fair share.” You may all remember Mr. Albritton from his CIETC fame. You see Mr. Albritton took the 5th amendment when he was asked to testify before the Legislative Oversight Committee last spring. He “allegedly” is/was Ramona Cunningham’s boyfriend and co-owned one big ol’ house boat called “The Good Life” with her. Ramona has been indicted for stealing taxpayer cash. Mr. Albritton compared the “fair share” debate to someone who goes golfing at the country club for free without paying their dues. Well, if anyone knows about getting something for free I guess it would be Mr. Albritton.

Ouch!

Dick Doak Failed Math Class

Far-lefty criminal-lover Dick Doak, writing in the Des Moines Register:

Something in Iowa has gone dreadfully awry.

At the least, something is dreadfully different than it used to be, and Iowa is a lesser place because of it.

The change isn't immediately apparent. It has occurred so gradually that nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening.

Perhaps that's the way it is with profound change. Everything seems normal until you look back over the decades and realize how different things are.

So it is with the way we keep putting more and more of our fellow Iowans behind bars for major portions of their lives...

...But the number [of people in prison] did grow, beginning in the 1980s. Iowa's population actually declined in that decade, but the number of Iowans incarcerated began to shoot up. By the mid-1990s, more than 6,000 Iowans were behind bars - triple the historical number.

The number keeps growing. Now, nearly 9,000 Iowans are in prison.

According to this site, crime in Iowa quadrupled in practically every category between 1960 and 1975. What was the response? By the 1980s, people were demanding that more criminals be put away for longer terms.

The result? A decline in crime in most categories! Burglaries, in particular, have dropped by almost 50% from 1980 to 2005.

Amazing how that correlates.

Doak points fingers at the emptying of mental institutions in the 1970s and 1980s. Well, whose bright idea was deinstitutionalization? Liberal crackpots and the trial lawyers who love them, that's who.

Doak also talks about all the people sentenced for drug-related offenses. Who was doing all the robbery, burglary, larceny, and other violent crimes? A lot of them were the same people who were dealing drugs or needed money in order to continue their addictions.

It's sad to read an old fart like Doak who just doesn't get it. Luckily, he's retired, so we don't have to hear about it as often.

Selling The Iowa Lottery?

Gronstal and Kibbie are using the Des Moines Register as a trial balloon for their idea of selling the Iowa Lottery to some private company in order to get a huge money grab.

Don't you just love how they wrote Petroski's story for him? It contains all the usual BS talking points:

Two legislative leaders in Iowa say they are intrigued by an idea to sell the Iowa Lottery to private investors because it could generate a jackpot-sized payout for state programs such as education and road construction.

It's for the children! It's for the roads!

It's a floor wax!!! It's a dessert topping!!! It's anything you want it to be.

It's probably a terrible idea.

More Deer Deaths In Iowa

From the Des Moines Register's Letters section:

In recent years our family has had many heart-stopping close calls, destroyed cars and now a death from deer strikes.

We recently buried our 33-year-old son, father of two young children, following an accident involving a deer. The problem is widespread and affects rural and urban areas alike. Insurance companies estimate that deer-caused accidents cause $1.1 billion in damage, kill 150 and injure 29,000 people every year.

If we had a group of individuals causing this much destruction, they would be classified as terrorists and hunted into the ground. At the very least, these animals should be identified as a menace to our safety and efforts made to control the population.

I've heard that Iowa turns away many hunters who could potentially bring dollars to the state and help eliminate some of this problem. I support maintaining a deer population, but we need to keep them off our roads and out of our communities.

- Tim Ricklefs, Gilmore City.

Iowans could start by demanding that every idiot at the Iowa DNR be fired and replaced by people who aren't fleecing the taxpayers with expensive and failed solutions like deer contraception.

Former DNR head Jeff Vonk wasn't retained by the Culver administration and left to bring his mismanagement skills to South Dakota. He was the insensitive Big Government asshole who once uttered: "When you shoot them, they are our [The State of Iowa's] deer, but when you hit them with your car, they are your deer". Vonk was one of the many idiots over the past 25 years who allowed the deer population to explode from around 55,000 head in 1980 to over 600,000.

That's not management, that's mismanagement.

Ankeny Is A "Rural" Town?

I don't know about you, but I've never considered Ankeny a "rural" town. It hasn't really been one for about 45 years.

Threeway Action

A three-judge panel on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld an Alabama statute banning the commercial distribution of sex toys.

Repressed Democrats in the Iowa Statehouse attempted to tax them at a rate of 25% a couple of years ago, but that bill petered out.

It had no buzz. Republicans were not turned on. It was a hard bill to get excited about. It just was another way to screw people out of more money.

Digitized Back Alleys

Preserving the digitized back alleys over at the FromDC2Iowa blog.

Iowa Governor Chet Culver Is Using The American Flag For Political Purposes

From a letter in the Des Moines Register today:

I proudly served in Operation Desert Storm and am the first to honor all who proudly serve our country. Gov. Chet Culver is disguising his political views against the war in Iraq as compassion by ordering flags flown at half-staff when an Iowa soldier dies.

If the governor is against the war, then he should say so. Don't hide behind false compassion and attempt to capitalize politically off grieving families. Despite what the news media feed us each night, a majority of Americans support both the soldiers and their mission.

Only when the liberals in Washington, D.C., untie the military's hands will it be able to complete its mission. Therefore, I will not fly my flag at half-staff when an Iowa soldier dies as Culver has directed. I will continue to fly Old Glory high above my house to honor my country.

- Timothy Fribley, Pella

Culver lowered the flags to half staff after Command Sgt. Maj. Marilyn L. Gabbard was killed ("Politically-Motivated Half Staff Flags") and he kept it up last week after U.S. Army Cpl. Stephen Shannon was killed.

It's clear what Culver and the Democrats are doing here. They are politicizing the flag with continued executive orders.

It's time for individuals and companies to defy Iowa Governor Chet Culver and the loser Democrats. It's time to create acts of civil disobedience by refusing to lower the flag to half-staff on the Democrats' political whims.

What's Chet Culver going to do? Fine or imprison people who don't follow his politically-motivated executive order? Screw him.

President Jack Kibbie

The Iowa Senate thinks they're part of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

What a bunch of small-town losers.

They really are the party of defeat, the party of cut and run, and the party of surrender. A bunch of cheese-eating surrender monkeys who loathe the military, except when there's a funeral to exploit.

The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Democratic Party

Found via the Tusk And Talon blog, a letter in the Quad City Times:

Gov. Culver’s recent proposal to steal money from non-union members is indicative of how two-faced the Democratic Party is in Iowa. Legislation designed to force employees to give money to unions they do not support seems to have nothing in common with the party that passed anti-bullying legislation for schools. Do we have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Democratic Party?

On one hand they propose protecting people’s right to clean, smoke-free air and no name-calling at schools, and then propose to turn their heads as union thugs steal money from their workers in the parking lots and offices of their jobs. Maybe it is because the money is skimmed and given to said Democrats.

As for the Governor’s reason that “unions have to represent non-union employees when they’re fired,” so they should be forced to pay union dues, well, Governor, the unions got that responsibility when they won the right to negotiate all employees’ pay and retirement regardless of merit. As a former member of Teamsters Local 710 and supervisor of same membership, the ability to withhold dues is the only leverage members have on lifetime elected and appointed union officials.

Mark Riley, Davenport

The comments section is rather lively because Riley responds to critics in that forum.

Democrats are squandering their victory last November by this "Fair Share" (Orwellian doublespeak) crap, trying to enact endless tax increases, and also forcing 12 year old girls to become knowledgeable about the abortion pill. I'm surprised Chet Culver hasn't given the entire IPERS fund over to Tony Rezko to manage. Oh, but it was all about President Bush and the War in Iraq, right? No, it's a money and power grab happening right now. Look at how Dave Loebsack has put himself up for sale to the special interests.

The only thing some unions are doing right is to encourage enforcement of immigration laws in order to keep out wage-killing illegals. But even that is facing negative spin from the media.

Doing The Math On The Acciona Corporate Welfare

Yesterday in my post Iowa Taxpayers Supporting Corporate Welfare For Foreign Companies I mentioned how some Spanish company (Acciona) is going to get up to $5,150,000 in corporate welfare thanks to the State of Iowa taxpayers in order to create up to 110 jobs that pay an average of $15.14 an hour. In other words, Iowa taxpayers will be spending almost $47,000 for each of the 110 jobs that pay an average of $31,500 a year if Acciona get all the taxpayer-financed corporate welfare they seek.

I asked you readers to do the math on the State of Iowa recouping their initial investment and got this from a longtime reader:

Iowa's average state and local tax burden is approximately 10.4% of income. Of course, I would guess this would be somewhat less for incomes hovering around $31,000, but let us use the 10% as a ball park.

Allegedly, the company will pay approximately $3,465,000 in annual wages. 10% of that is $346,500 in state and local income taxes, or $3,150 per year, per employee. Therefore it will take 15 years for the state to recoup its subsidy of $47,000 per employee.

That is...If the company a) stays in business b) pays what it says it is going to pay and c) doesn't get enticed to another state or country to assemble the wind turbines by the next sweetheart "incentive" deal they are offered.

Again, the 15 years [is] only [if] these employees do get socked locally for the whole 10%. If they have kids or other deductions/exemptions/credits it could take 30 years.

Another thing we don't know is what sort of sweetheart deal Acciona is getting on the property taxes for taking over an old factory and adding 95,000 square feet. I'd guess that it's unlikely Acciona will be paying the full property tax bill that other area business owners do, but that hasn't been revealed.

And I like Roth & Company's Tax Update Blog's separate take on things:

Grow the Iowa economy by subsidizing Spain?

That's about right.

Circular firing squad, commence firing!

Sex Offender Residency Law To Be Challenged In Johnson County

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

With encouragement from the county attorney, sheriff and statewide law enforcement agencies, Johnson County supervisors will consider a resolution next week supporting the repeal of residency requirements for certain sex offenders.

Currently, certain sex offenders in Iowa are required to live at least 2,000 feet away from schools and day care centers, a law local officials said is ineffective and leads to a false sense of security.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said county governments are encouraged to pass a resolution to join with other elected officials in a united front against the residency requirement. The law would have to be changed by the state legislature.

“The intent of this was somehow it would protect children,” County Attorney Janet Lyness said. “What it created was a lot of people who didn’t want to register anymore.”

...Pulkrabek said four counties have already approved resolutions similar to the one the Johnson County Board of Supervisors will consider.

Good.

David Yepsen sure looks like an idiot these days, doesn't he?

And don't forget about Ed Fallon's opinion:

Fallon: The current law is unfortunately unworkable. And I was the only NO vote in the House. I don't know if you remember that.

Related: Cops Hate Iowa's Weird Sex Offender Residency Law and Tough On Sexual Predators, Or Tough On Sexual Predator Enablers? and Nussle And Culver Would Keep The Failed 2000 Foot Sex Offender Law and Lance Horbach Has Successful Brain Transplant and Iowa Sex Offender Residency Law Costing Taxpayers Millions and many many more posts.

Iowa Taxpayers Supporting Corporate Welfare For Foreign Companies

From the Des Moines Register:

A Spanish wind energy company plans to invest $95 million to build and operate a wind turbine assembly plant in West Branch.

Acciona Energy North America, a subsidiary of Pamplona-based Acciona Energia, received $2.85 million in loans and forgivable loans from the Iowa Economic Development Board on Thursday. It also will seek $2.3 million in tax breaks from the state for high-quality job creation.

Acciona plans to create 110 jobs that will pay an average of $15.14 an hour.

Iowa taxpayers will be spending almost $47,000 for each of the 110 jobs that pay an average of $31,500 a year if Acciona get all the taxpayer-financed corporate welfare they seek.

Anybody want to take a stab at figuring out how long it would take to recoup the initial "investment" in future state coffer income?

Separated At Birth: Tom Vilsack and Henry The Eighth

more pictures here

Ringers Lactate

David Yepsen in the Des Moines Register:

Obama's crowds in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Ames this weekend were huge - a couple of thousand at each stop in eastern Iowa, around 5,000 in Hilton Coliseum. (Some of them were ringers who trekked in from Illinois. They can't vote in an Iowa caucus, although being from Illinois, they'll probably figure out a way to try. Let the record show that the first question Obama took at an Iowa town meeting was from some guy from Naperville.)

Totally staged, just like Hitlery.

Import your crowd. Pre-select individuals from your area to take softball questions. Then tell the crowd what you really think of the military.

Why Do The Trees In Iowa Lean To The North?

Because Minnesota sucks.



The Political Forecast says that Al Franken is going to run for the Senate in 2008 against Norm Coleman.

I can't imagine anybody that horrible running for political office in Iowa, unless Tom Arnold released an old sex videotape with Rosanne Barr and then decided to run for governor.

About the biggest embarrassment would be somebody like former ISU men's basketball coach Larry Eustachy returning to be a carpetbagging politico, but that's unlikely.

Politicians Really Love To Name Buildings After Themselves

From the Des Moines Register:

The Federal Building in downtown Des Moines would be named the "Neal Smith Federal Building" in honor of a longtime Democratic congressman, under legislation introduced in the U.S. House today.

Rep. Leonard Boswell, a Des Moines Democrat, introduced the bill with Rep. Ralph Regula, an Ohio Republican. Aides to Boswell said he has long been interested in seeing the building named for Smith.

Is this the most important work Leonard Boswell has to do these days?

They've already named a frickin wildlife preserve after Neal Smith, complete with gigantic signs along I-80.

Why do entrenched, out-of-touch, and corruptable politicians always get buildings and things named after them? There's the Archie Brooks Community Center in Des Moines. Tom Harkin tried to get some "global communications center" in Atlanta named after him, but failed. It's like a gigantic mutual masturbation contest with these idiots, only with our tax dollars.

Cougars

"When you shoot them, they're our cougars; when they eat you, they're your cougars."

Heh.

That's good.

Not to be mistaken for these cougars:

Who Left The Refrigerator Door Open?

From the Des Moines Register:

Due to favorable ice conditions over most of the state, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has delayed the deadline for removing permanent ice fishing shelters from public waters. The deadline, normally Feb. 20, will be March 1 this year.

“We had a slow beginning for ice fishing, with poor conditions and open water over much of the state until late January when the current cold spell began,” said Marion Conover, chief of the department's fisheries bureau.

“Lakes in central and southern Iowa are reporting between 14 and 16 inches of ice, and below freezing temperatures are forecasted over the next week." he said. "Lakes to the north have even more ice. With these conditions, we felt extending the deadline was reasonable.”

Why just three weeks ago the Des Moines Register was complaining about how Iowa Should Step Up On Global Warming. Thanks for reacting so quickly.

However, until farmers get more taxpayer welfare from Senator Tom Harkin the problem of global warming will never truly be solved.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

From the Des Moines Register:

A settlement was announced Wednesday in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of Iowans who purchased Microsoft software between 1994 and 2006.

Terms were not immediately disclosed. Details would be released at a hearing on April 20.

Roxanne Conlin, attorney for the plaintiffs, said half of the unclaimed amount of the settlement will be used to "close the digital divide in Iowa."

She said it will "make sure Iowa's great schools will have opportunities they otherwise would not have."

Conlin filed the lawsuit, claiming Microsoft engaged in illegal monopolization and anticompetitive conduct that caused customers to pay more for software than they would have if there had been competition.

You were overcharged somewhere between $10.50 and $57 all those years ago when computer hardware cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Iowans will be lucky to get $40 while Roxanne Conlin the tsetse fly of Des Moines Democrat lawyers gets millions.

...walk the streets for money, you don't care if it's wrong of if it's right...

Price Sells Cars, Debt Sells Education

From the Roth & Company Tax Update blog:

Don't Mess With Taxes brings us a shocking story: the elimination of the tax credit for Toyota hybrid cars has reduced demand for the Prius. As a result, prices are coming down!

This could lead to a radical new approach to pricing hybrid cars: setting the price at what people will pay for them. It's a bitter pill, but desperate times are leading Toyota to desperate measures.

Sellers of other subsidized products should watch this development closely...

...This theory could also apply to the higher education industry. It appears to the untrained eye that every initiative to make college "more affordable" was immediately absorbed by higher tuition prices. Maybe someday we'll find out if the ultimate way to make college more affordable is to eliminate the rat's nest of tax credits, deductions and tuition subsidies for the college industry.

I saw a story on the evening snooze the other night about how Priuses aren't selling and Toyota is using discounts and cheap leases in order to entice buyers. I guess the general population has finally figured out that it's stupid to spend $20,000 in order to save $226 a year.

Don't forget that the EPA will soon be revising the Prius's mileage amounts. Originally rated at 60 city and 51 highway, many people found themselves getting only 34 mpg.

Along the same lines with higher education, what would happen if a doctor's office only accepted cash? Even better, what if the doctor's office posted their "menu" of prices outside or on the web? Would the lower overhead of not having to send and re-send claims to insurance companies, manage co-pays, and deal with paperwork affect prices? Surely, it would.

I'm From The Government And I'm Here To Help

This caught my eye in the Daily Iowan:

Cub Foods has yet to respond to the city's inquiry about how it would help the roughly 75 employees who will lose their jobs when the supermarket closes, City Manager Steve Atkins said Tuesday.

The Iowa City City council asked city staff to call the company during its Feb. 6 meeting. The 855 Highway 1 W. grocery announced earlier this month that it will close the Iowa City store by March 17.

Councilor Bob Elliott said on Tuesday he understood why the business might want to keep things quiet but noted that the city councilors would have appreciated it if Cub Foods had given them more information.

Considering that the unemployment rate in Iowa City is 2%, I doubt the workers at Cub Foods will have a hard time finding a job in another grocery store in the area.

It's kind of funny/sad how these micromanaging Socialists stand on the sidelines with offers of help to people who probably don't need any.

Wally Horn Wants To Bring Back Those Touchplay Slottery Machines

From the Des Moines Register:

TouchPlay machines banned by the Legislature last year would make a limited comeback under a bill introduced in the Iowa Senate.

Sen. Wally Horn, a Cedar Rapids Democrat, proposes that the machines be allowed in taverns or other adult establishments in counties that do not have state-licensed casinos.

"There are still people out there that want it," Horn said. Permitting the Iowa Lottery's TouchPlay machines in counties that don't have casinos would "help level the playing field."

Taverns, he said, have been subjected to more and more state regulations. "They're trying to survive, and a lot of them were doing pretty good with the TouchPlay."

Horn may have better luck winning the lottery, however, than getting his bill through the Legislature.

Senate File 148 "is dead. It's not coming through my committee," said Sen. Michael Connolly, a Dubuque Democrat who heads the Senate State Government Committee.

Pork Stops Global Warming

GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

Tom Harkin might be one of the winners of the $25 million prize that Richard Branson and Al Gore have proposed in order to reduce global warming kill Manbearpig. This is from the AP:

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is urging the Senate Agriculture Committee chairman to include a host of provisions in the next farm bill aimed at helping to reduce global warming, arguing that agriculture can play a constructive role in helping the environment.

In a letter Tuesday to Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Klobuchar wrote, "I respectfully request that agriculture's role in fighting climate change be made a major new focus of the next farm bill."

Klobuchar, a freshman Minnesota Democrat, said she will introduce a package of incentives in the coming months with an eye toward including them in the farm bill. Those include:

* Helping farmers improve the energy efficiency of their equipment and buildings, and increase their use of renewable resources for their farms' energy needs,

* Incentives for farmers to grow perennial grasses and other biomass crops for cellulosic ethanol production, and

* Funding for research aimed at helping farmers come up with ways to store carbon in the soil.

Wow, who knew that giving more taxpayer money to farmers could eliminate global warming kill Manbearpig? These Democrats are really onto something.

$300 Reward Still Waiting For Minimum Wage Earning Family Breadwinner In Iowa

From the Greg Alan blog:

I still have yet to hear from one single solitary person who raises a family [in Iowa] on the minimum wage. Not one. And I'm offering a reward of up to $300 dollars (more than a week's wages) reward in order to find one.

Don't forget the original set of rules in order to qualify for the basic prize of $100:

1. Person must be human.

2. Person must be a citizen of Iowa and the USA (no illegals).

3. Person must be the sole breadwinner of their family. Defined as: the single and only source of income in the family.

4. Family must consist of themselves, 1 or more children, and spouse or partner (includes non-traditional arrangements).

5. Person must work an average of 40-hours per week for a period of at least 1 month.

6. Person must earn exactly $5.15 per hour as an hourly wage during the same period of time.

7. Person cannot be a member of a wait staff or any other occupation excluded from current federal minimum wage regulations.

8. The prize awarded will go to the first person to forward me the name of a confirmed qualified employee as determined by the receipt time stamp on the original email sent to my email address: greg@gregalan.net

9. If the unthinkable happens and there happen to be two individuals in the same household who meet all of the criteria above, an additional $100 dollars will be awarded.

10. Contest deadline. Contest eligibility ends on the day the President of the United States signs a bill into law enacting an increase in the minimum wage.

11. Contest rules and eligibility subject to alteration at any time should the author and provider feel or suspect anything nefarious.

Gee, you'd think Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal could have found at least one of the 70,000 to 80,000 family breadwinners he was talking about to come forward and collect the reward.

That's So Gay

Via a longtime reader, this is from the March 2007 edition of The Atlantic:

[Now-former Iowa Statehouse Republican speaker pro tempore Danny] Carroll was just sitting down to dinner but agreed to talk about his loss, which he attributed to the activism of Grinnell College students. A suggestion that he’d been targeted by a nationwide network of wealthy gay activists was met with polite midwestern skepticism. But Carroll was sufficiently intrigued to propose that we each log on to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board’s Web site and examine his opponent’s disclosure report together, over the telephone.

Scrolling through the thirty-two-page roster of campaign contributors revealed plenty of $25 and $50 donations from nearby towns like Oskaloosa and New Shar­on. But a $1,000 donation from California stood out on page 2, and, several pages later, so did another $1,000 from New York City. “I’ll be darned,” said Carroll. “That doesn’t make any sense.” As we kept scrolling, Carroll began reading aloud with mounting disbelief as the evidence passed before his eyes. “Denver … Dallas … Los Angeles … Malibu … there’s New York again … San Francisco! I can’t—I just cannot believe this,” he said, finally. “Who is this guy again?”

Read the whole thing.

I've always felt that money for political candidates, regardless of which side of the aisle they sit on, should only be raised from individuals within their particular city, county, district, region, or state, depending on what office they're seeking. And there should be reasonable campaign limits to eliminate influence peddling.

Greedy Union Thugs

From Radio Iowa:

Tempers flared at the statehouse when some of the opponents of a pro-union bill were unable to sign up to speak at a public hearing. The bill requires non-union workers to pay fees to the union. With most lawmakers gone from Des Moines last Friday, Representative Rick Olson, a Democrat from Des Moines, scheduled a public hearing for this Wednesday and within a few hours union members had taken 60 of the 70 available slots to speak.

Also, from the Des Moines Register by Dan Clute:

In 1947, Iowans enacted a law that allowed its citizens to work without being required to join a union or to pay fees to a union as a condition of employment.

Senate Study Bill 1120 changes that. It forces non-union workers who work in an organization that has a union to either join the union or pay fees to it, or be fired.

The proponents of this legislation call it "fair share," but there is nothing "fair" about it.

The basic issue boils down to this. When a union is organized in a business or other entity, it is not required to represent all of the employees.

However, it is in the union's self-interest to do so for two fundamental reasons.

First, by becoming "certified" to represent all of the employees in the bargaining unit, it precludes other unions from organizing the same employees and competing against it for members and dues. In effect, it becomes a monopoly.

Second, by representing all of the employees, it stops individuals from getting a better wage or benefits package from their employer based on their individual performance.

Looks like the union thugs are out for a money and a power grab.

Nice Orwellian spin on the term "fair share", too.

Unions are soooooo 20th century.

Once A Hussein, Always A Hussein

Updated below:



From the Quad City Times:

A day after jumping into the presidential race, Democrat Barack Obama began courting Iowa party activists Sunday with a blistering critique of the war in Iraq.

More than 6,000 people who came to hear him at Iowa State University saved their biggest cheers for his criticism of the war.

“We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted,” Obama said.

So what would have been Barry Hussein Obama's plan to deal with Saddam Hussein's thwarting of all those UN Security Council resolutions passed after the first Gulf War?

Does any reporter want to ask that question? Let's only ask questions about Obama's awakening and message of hope and all that other Oprah Bullshit.

Would supporters of Hot Chocolate even care to hear that answer?

And does any military action that results in the death of a volunteer soldier qualify as a waste? Is that how Barry Hussein Obama looks at the US Military? Of course he does.


Updated:

From WHO-TV:

Obama tells the Des Moines Register he regrets using the term "wasted" and what he meant to say was "those sacrifices have not been honored by the same attention to strategy, diplomacy and honesty on the part of civilian leadership that would give them a clear mission."

What a liar. Barry Hussein Obama is just another crooked soldier spitter who loathes the military. Barry meant what he said because he was playing Stepin Fetchit to the kooky anti-war lefty primary crowd of Democrats.



Which reminds me of this recent clip by the Elitist Douchebag:

Tom Harkin Is Fundraising For Re-Election In 2008

GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

From the Des Moines Register:

Sen. Tom Harkin has said he is doing everything to indicate he is running for re-election, and his latest campaign finance report certainly makes it seem that way.

Harkin currently has $1.1 million in the bank, an almost required starting point for fundraising for an incumbent senator whether there is a challenger in sight or not. Through 2005 and 2006 he raised $2.1 million and spent $1.2 million, according to his most recent reports filed at the end of January.

This is going to sound crazy, but I think Tom Harkin is beatable.

And I don't think the answer is running a hardcore Republican right-winger like Steve King against him, although that would be a good show. I'd rather see Steve King save himself for a primary run against fauxscal conservative Chuck Grassley in 2010, although that would never happen.

Entrenched, out-of-touch, corruptable, and heavily-financed incumbents from either party are a bad thing. But after 2006, anything's possible. Look at Republican Jim Leach. Even though Leach was always a Bush critic and anti-war, he still got knocked off by also-anti-war professor and Democrat Dave Loebsack. The local voters just wanted somebody different.

I think the same thing is possible against Tom Harkin, especially in central Iowa where anger concerning the CIETC scandal will continue to stay high through 2007 and 2008.

I'm not even going to guess who's a good Republican to run against Harkin, because frankly I think there aren't any in Iowa. They're all a bunch of inbred losers in the Statehouse. And running Jim Ross Nussle or some religious type against Harkin would be an unmitigated disaster. Nussle would be creamed.

Harkin's fight would have to be on the Democratic side, in the primary.

And who do I think would be a good choice for that?

Nicholas Johnson.

He'd never do it, but he's the kind of guy who I think could beat Harkin. Especially in this current political climate.

Des Moines Register Editorial Board: Give Driver's Licenses To Illegals

From the Des Moines Register Editorial Board:

People in Iowa who are in the country illegally still need driver's licenses. It's a matter of public safety. Traffic accidents are bound to occur, and it is better for the police and everyone else involved if identification is not a problem.

I can't wait to read the comments on this opinion piece as the day progresses. I can't imagine anybody being for this.

Weak Hot Chocolate

David Yepsen reports on a recent lukewarm Q&A session between Barry Hussein Obama and Iowa Democrats. Definitely a Must-Read.


Related: Hot Chocolate

I believe in miracles
Where you from
You sexy thing
I believe in miracles
Since you came along
You sexy thing

It's Never Enough

It's never enough, is it?

According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Johnson and Linn counties in Iowa are voting tomorrow on a 20% hike in the sales tax in order to fund school improvements and the lie of property tax relief. Both areas are controlled by Democrats, so it's likely that the measures will pass. The weather's going to be pretty crappy, so I'm not sure how that might affect things.

Des Moines eventually got a 1% local option sales tax passed in 1999 thanks to Eric "The Liar" Witherspoon's promise of not closing any schools. Of course the first thing Eric The Liar did after getting his money was to propose the closing of numerous schools.

And what about that property tax relief for Des Moines residents? Well, if you farted then that's all the relief you got.

The Des Moines School Board, last summer, proposed imposing a statewide sales tax increase because they know that the local dupes won't renew another 10 year local option tax due to all the financial mismanagement, lies about property tax relief, and other fraud that con artists like Eric The Liar used to get the first tax passed. It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out. Do some Iowans want to be paying 7% in sales taxes, in addition to all the property and income taxes?

As I said last August:

You know, how did Iowa manage to educate anybody before 1983? Before 1983, the sales tax in Iowa was 3%, gambling was limited to Bingo Night, and most working people could afford a middle class home without having to pay skyrocketing property taxes in order to support every greaseball Democrat's relatives in Polk County and pay corporate welfare to all the Friends Of Mike Blouin.

Yet Another Deer Kills An Iowan: This Time A Policeman

From the Des Moines Register:

A 10-year veteran of the Des Moines Police Department was killed Sunday morning in a traffic accident while driving into the city to catch a plane to New Mexico for anti-terrorism training.

Senior Police Officer Sean Wissink, 35, died from the mishap that took place at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday when he lost control of the city-owned sport utility vehicle he was driving on Iowa Highway 141 one mile north of Grimes.

Investigators believe he swerved to avoid a deer, causing the vehicle to collide into a guard rail and roll several times down a steep embankment.

Wissink was driving from his home in Granger to Des Moines International Airport.

An off-duty Windsor Heights Police Officer was first at the scene and called for assistance.

Wissink, who was wearing a seat belt, was flown by helicopter to Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Wissink, who lived in Granger with his wife, son and daughter ages 9 and 12, was a member of the MetroStar tactical unit. He and five other MetroStar officers were scheduled to fly out of Des Moines International Airport at 6:30 a.m. for weapons of mass destruction training.

The trip was cancelled following news of the accident.

What were those words by former Iowa DNR head asshole Jeff Vonk? "When you shoot them, they are our [The State of Iowa's] deer, but when you hit them with your car, they are your deer"

And what are the idiots at the Iowa Deer-N-R doing to combat the population? They want to spend $300 to $1000 a deer every two years to shoot anywhere from 350,000 to 600,000 deer with contraceptives.

Iowa needs to have an open season on deer. Get the population down below 1980-era levels, which was estimated at around 55,000 then.

Before that takes place, we need to purge every moron from the Iowa DNR who is against reducing the population of deer to reasonable levels.

This was a death that should have been avoided if the Iowa DNR had been managing the deer population rather than mismanaging it by allowing it to become out of control.

Sure, state officials say that if you can't stop in time that you should just hit the deer. They don't weigh that much and insurance takes care of most expenses (even if that asshole Jeff Vonk won't). But when you're driving at 3:30 in the morning at highway speeds and see something running across the road immediately in front of you, the natural reaction would be to try to avoid it.

Hot Chocolate

From the Quad City Times:

Standing before the frigid stonework of Illinois’ Old State Capitol — the same place where the nation’s 16th president gave his landmark “House Divided” speech nearly 150 years ago — the freshman senator told an estimated 15,000 people on hand that his inexperience shouldn’t deter him from being president.

“I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness — a certain audacity — to this announcement,” the 45-year-old Chicago Democrat said. “I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.”

...He said he would work for a universal health-care coverage program, a pullout of troops from Iraq by March 2008 and higher pay for teachers.

Higher pay for teachers! Yeah, that's a real important issue when you're running for President.

Nice to see he's appealing to the anti-war crowd, even though you just know Barry Hussein Obama would have voted for military action against Saddam Hussein back in 2002.

And how could a lefty Democrat not be for socialized medicine?

I have permanent nickname for Barry Hussein Obama: Hot Chocolate

Why Hot Chocolate? Like Barry Hussein Obama, hot chocolate is mostly made with white ingredients:

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup dry milk powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a blender or food processor, combine sugar, powdered creamer, milk powder and cocoa powder. Mix well, and store in an airtight container.
2. To serve, put 2 to 3 tablespoons of powder in a mug, fill with hot water, and stir.
3. Wow white suburban liberals with your sexy youthful looks and bland stances on serious topics.

I believe in miracles
Where you from
You sexy thing
I believe in miracles
Since you came along
You sexy thing

1159 Iowans Down, 2,965,175 To Go

From the Des Moines Register:

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack made public Friday a list of 1,159 Iowans who have committed to supporting him for the Democratic presidential nomination, and he repeated his prediction that he will emerge a victor in the Iowa presidential caucuses next January.

"I am not going to be satisfied with anything but winning, and that's what I intend to do," Vilsack said in a conference call with reporters when asked what he would do if he finishes behind other candidates in the caucuses.

Vilsack, who lags in polls of Iowa Democratic caucus-goers, said that his 1,159 committed supporters come from 71 of Iowa's 99 counties and cover a diverse range of Iowans.

He was the governor of Iowa for 8 years and he's only got committed supporters from 71 of Iowa's 99 counties?

Ellen Goodman Says If You Don't Believe In Manbearpig Then You're A Holocaust Denier

From Ellen Goodman's column at the Boston Glob:

I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

According to the chart above, it looks like global warming really took off after 1980, the year in which she received a Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary. Must be all that hot air she spews.

Let's see what Ellen Goodman's qualifications are for saying that "global warming is impossible to deny": She graduated in 1963 with a degree in modern European history from Radcliffe College. Since 1967 she's been working for the Boston Glob as a babbler.

Compare Ms Goodman's CV to some "Holocaust Denier" like Dr Timothy Ball, one of the first Canadian Ph.Ds. in Climatology with an extensive background in climatology, especially the reconstruction of past climates and the impact of climate change on human history and the human condition. Clearly, a modern European history major from Radcliffe carries more weight than somebody with a Ph.D from the University of London, England and was a climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg.

And what's the weather going to be like in Des Moines for the next week?

This Afternoon: A slight chance of flurries. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 13. Wind chill values between zero and 5. Northwest wind around 7 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 2. Wind chill values between -5 and -10. Northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph.

Saturday: Scattered flurries after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 16. Wind chill values between -10 and zero. West northwest wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm.

Saturday Night: Scattered flurries before midnight. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low around 10. Wind chill values between zero and 5. Calm wind becoming southeast between 4 and 7 mph.

Sunday: A 50 percent chance of snow after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 25. East wind 6 to 9 mph becoming south.

Sunday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 14.

Monday: A 40 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 22.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 9.

Tuesday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 16.

Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 4.

Wednesday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 17.

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 2.

Thursday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 19.

Related: Manbearpig Is Real, Where's Manbearpig When You Need Him?, Half Man, Half Bear, and Half Pig

More Great Letters And Ideas About Deer Contraception

From another longtime reader along the same lines as "Letter Of The Year":

Hiya State:

Let me get this straight - if I pimp my all-terrain muddin' truck with barbs, claws, gates, cowcatchers and other sundry deer-killing accoutrements, and drive around my land running down Bambi at every opportunity to control the burgeoning population, I'm okay? But if i take a licensed gun and do the same, I'm in violation?

Secondly, if they are going to invest in birth control, why not deer abortion? I mean, shouldn't animals have reproductive rights too? Maybe then we can just extend shotgun season and pass it off as one long botched (but effective) abortion. "I swear Mr. DNR Enforcement - I was providing a free abortion service to what I thought was a pregnant mother. How was I supposed to know it was a 14-point buck?"

Once we get that passed, my long-held dream can finally be realized: landmines in the ditches along I-80. Deersplosions could be a real tourist attraction.

Former Iowa Deer-N-R head dimwit Jeff Vonk did say: "When you shoot them, they are our deer, but when you hit them with your car, they are your deer", so I guess, Yeah, you could outfit a vehicle specifically to run down and kill deer. The problem with that is weight and expense. I propose that Chet Culver take part of the IPERS pension fund and invest it in creating a Roomba-like outdoor robot for farmers and landowners to use in finding, running over, and then transporting crop-wrecking deer. Model it on something like the robot Vladiator.

I like the land mines idea even better. This could serve a threefold purpose: 1. Kill deer hanging out on the roadside. 2. Explode any litter into smithereens, particularly jugs of urine that truck drivers are known to pitch. And 3. Blow to bits some of the 15 or 20 illegal Mexicans shoved into a minivan and on their way to work at the Swift plant in Marshalltown, but who are forced the scatter once the local sheriff pulls them over.




Related: Deer Contraception Comments

Run For The Border

Thomas Brant, Executive Director, National Association of Tobacco Outlets, Minneapolis, writing online in the Mason City Glob-Gazette:

With a $1 increase, five bordering states will offer significantly lower prices on tobacco. Consumers from neighboring states like Nebraska will no longer cross the Missouri River to buy cheaper cigarettes and gas if prices skyrocket in Iowa.

Iowa's tax would go from 36 cents to $1.36 a pack.

South Dakota is $1.53 a pack. Minnesota is almost $1.50. Illinois is 98 cents. Wisconsin is 77 cents. Nebraska is 64 cents. (source)

And Missouri's tax is only 17 cents a pack.

One thing you can't miss on I-35 south is the town of Eagleville, Missouri. It's the first exit with a town south of the Iowa border. Eagleville basically sells three things: cigarettes, fireworks, and fuel. I bet once Chet Culver signs the tobacco tax increase into law, their business should go up even further.

And don't forget: Come in and say you saw our web page on the Eagleville Website, and get a free gross (144 count) of bottle rockets with a $10.00 purchase!

Now, for your day's entertainment, Fred & Barney smoking Winstons:

Ed Fallon To Guest Host The Jan Mickelson Show on WHO-AM Today

From an email I received overnight:

I’d like to introduce myself, Lynn Heuss, and tell you why I’m involved with I’M for Iowa.

I met Ed three years ago while serving as director of a free meal program for the homeless, low-income and working poor in downtown Des Moines. He was one of a handful of “dignitaries” that attended the event and the only state elected official. I was a political cynic at the time, but because Ed showed up, I thought it earned him the right to question my cynicism …which he promptly did! We had a spirited conversation that eventually (over a period of several months) led to my own re-engagement with the political system because he convinced me that it wasn’t the system that didn’t work, but it was the people in it that created the problems.

My greatest cause of frustration was the seeming lack of compassion and concern by those in politics for the well-being of the poor. I had, up until my conversation with Ed, simply believed that one could work more effectively for justice through religion. Naively, I didn’t anticipate the level of politics involved in our religious institutions. That, then, is what led me to jump back into governmental politics with both feet, including working on Ed’s gubernatorial campaign, as his clerk for the 2006 session, and now in I’M for Iowa. If it takes getting involved with the system to change it – I decided I wanted to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

LISTEN!

One way to be part of the solution is using the voices we’ve been given – to speak up and to speak out – about issues that are important. Tomorrow, Ed will be doing that as he hosts the Jan Mickelson show on WHO Radio (1040AM) from 9:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Please listen and call in (515-284-1040 or 1-800-469-4295) with your questions or comments.

It'll be impossible for me to listen live today over the internet, but Mickelson's shows are archived here as a MP3 audio file usually by the end of the day or within 24 hours of broadcast.

John Mauro May Be A Liar

From the Des Moines Register:

Polk County Supervisor John Mauro was directly involved in his company's being named the insurance agent for the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium, agency records show.

Mauro, a former CIETC board member, has previously denied any involvement in his company being hired seven years ago to act as CIETC's insurance agent. He has also said the arrangement was made through a competitive bidding process.

But documents recently obtained from CIETC through the Iowa open-records law indicate that Mauro personally solicited the agency's business and asked that the deal be handled in a way that would bypass the competitive bidding process.

Mauro's company, Insurance Networking Systems, has served as CIETC's insurance agent for most of the past seven years. The company was named CIETC's insurance agent in June 2000 at a time when Mauro was between stints on the board of directors at CIETC, which is a taxpayer-funded government agency.

Mauro has not been accused of any crimes. But some have questioned whether he used his position as a former CIETC board member and county supervisor to have his company named CIETC's insurance agent. Mauro denies that, and says there was nothing improper or illegal about his actions.

Read the whole thing for all the details.

Gee whiz they're all dirty and inbred, aren't they?

Keep digging...

Dr Tom's Drake Bulldogs Sweep The State

From the Des Moines Register:

Drake's 67-59 victory over Northern Iowa gave the Bulldogs a 4-0 record against the state's other three Division I schools this season.

The Bulldogs hadn't won a piece of state bragging rights since the 1978-79 season, and they hadn't gone undefeated in the state since beating Iowa and Iowa State in 1970-71.

"It's a nice thing to do," Davis said. "Any time you beat a Big Ten team, and a Big 12 team, and a Missouri Valley Conference team twice, that's pretty good."

Even though the classy Dr Tom would never say it, the victories are the just desserts for a guy who was shit all over at the University of Iowa by that asshole Bob Bowlsby.

The 280% Tax Increase On Fags

From Kent Carlson of DM City View:

...the Big Lug recently presented the Iowa Legislature with his budget plan. Normally such an event would cause my eyes to roll back in my head and I would awake sometime later with a little drool at the corner of my mouth. But this time I got excited. Pissed off, actually. As Chester presented his plan to spend an additional $400 million to appease his constituents, he proposed raising the cigarette tax by $1. You’d have thought that another water pipe broke in the Capitol ceiling. The Lug Nuts (Democrat legislators) sprang to their feet. Then they exploded into thunderous applause — a long, noisy standing ovation.

That’s when I really got pissed-off. When the proposal of a 280 percent tax hike excites a bunch of political weasels enough to get them up off their asses and clap and cheer, something is terribly wrong. I don’t smoke and never have, but I was fuming. If I owned a gun I’d have pulled an Elvis and blasted my Samsung to smithereens. The Lug’s plan was just a modified version of the same garbage Vilsack tried to push, and just as misleading. Culver claims the 280 percent tax increase for cigarettes would provide $140 million for health care and other programs. He fails to mention that tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes generate $143.5 million annually in Iowa, yet only 3.6 percent of that revenue goes towards tobacco prevention. The General Accountability Office projected that of the $11 billion dollars the states received in 2005 from tobacco settlement funds only 17 percent went to health-related programs.

According to Attorney General Tom Miller’s official Web site, “Iowa’s share of the (tobacco industry) settlement is estimated at $1.7 billion.” Yet Tom Miller was slapping his hands together with his big, toothy grin on the floor of the Capitol when Culver proposed another smoker’s tax.

I don’t know about you, but I resent the hell out of politicians frothing, at the thought of getting into taxpayers pockets. Any politician stupid enough to publicly applaud a tax hike should be tarred and feathered. On second thought, tar is a petroleum-based product and I’d hate to waste such a valuable commodity on something as worthless as a politician. Maybe flogging. Now there’s an idea. Any takers?

Don't forget that even Rekha Basu was against higher cigarette taxes.

Attorney General Tom Miller, former governors Terry Braindead and Tom Vilsack, current crybaby Christopher Rants and the rest of the Iowa Legislature should be brought up on fraud charges for their mismanagement of the tobacco company shakedown money.

Deer Contraception Comments

Read this story about the Iowa DNR/Deer contraceptive plan at the Waterloo Courier's web site specifically for the comments. They're hilarious.

There's other comments in this story a few days ago at the Des Moines Register. It's really amazing that the Register prints that shit with a straight face, but then the writer of the story is the notorious Jennifer Jacobs.

What was that quote by former Iowa DNR head Jeff Vonk?

"When you shoot them, they are our deer, but when you hit them with your car, they are your deer," Vonk said with a nervous chuckle at a meeting.

Yeah, but when the Iowa Deer-N-R wants to spend $300 to $1000 a deer every two years to attempt to shoot them full of contraceptives, whose deer are they again?

We ought to start shooting DNR officials in the ass with that contraceptive so they can't reproduce any further.



Related: Iowa Deer-N-R Looking At Expensive Contraception Drug For Deer Overpopulation and Letter Of The Year

Fire All Greedy Lawyers: "I'm Gay" Wilson Won't Remove His Billing Records From The Closet For CIETC

$210 an hour whitewashing lawyer Jonathan "I'm Gay" Wilson (left). GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin (right) at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

From the Des Moines Register:

The attorney for the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium has refused to make public copies of his law firm's bills to the government agency.

On Jan. 12, The Des Moines Register asked CIETC for copies of bills from the law firm of Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts, which employs CIETC's hired attorney, Jonathan Wilson. On Monday, Wilson responded to that request by saying he believed all of CIETC's billing statements from his office are "attorney work product" and thus not required to be disclosed under the Iowa Open Records Law.

He told the Register that any billing statements related to litigation or legal claims "will not be released to you absent specific authorization to do so by the CIETC board."

Wilson said he was unable to discuss the matter with the CIETC board at its last meeting, but said he would be willing to do so at the next meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 15. Any board discussion over whether to make the bills public would likely be in closed session.

Wilson said he would be willing to release copies of legal bills that relate to nonlitigation matters such as general legal work. However, he said those billing statements would have to be reviewed and redacted, and the Register would have to pay "my discounted hourly rate of $210 an hour" for that work to be done.

Typically, a private company that bills a government agency like CIETC for its services doesn't have a say in the agency's decision to make public the company's billing statements. But as CIETC's legal adviser, Wilson can bill CIETC for his services and also recommend that those bills be kept confidential.

As of December, CIETC's legal fees totaled more than $297,000, and they currently represent the agency's biggest ongoing expense, averaging $1,200 per day.

Many of CIETC's legal expenses are tied to the agency's refusal to pay back the state $1.5 million that it allegedly misspent on salaries. It's expected that central Iowa taxpayers - particularly those in Polk County - will wind up paying those legal fees.

What a clusterfuck.


Related: Jonathan "I'm Gay" Wilson Bills Iowa Taxpayers $1193 for Writing A Letter To The Des Moines Register

Letter Of The Year

From a longtime reader in reaction to my post "Iowa Deer-N-R Looking At Expensive Contraception Drug For Deer Overpopulation":

Are. You. Fuckin'. Kidding. Me? $300 to $1000 per deer for TWO YEARS of contraception? Wouldn't it be cheaper to hire Ramona Cunningham & her old buddies from CIETC to drive around Iowa in Chevy Suburbans (powered by, you guessed it, E85) and intentionally try to hit deer on the highway? This is ridiculous.

Manbearpig Is Real

The weather report for Des Moines for the next few days:

Overnight: Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low around 2. Wind chill values between -5 and -10. North northwest wind between 7 and 9 mph.

Thursday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 15. Wind chill values between -10 and zero. Northwest wind between 7 and 9 mph.

Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of snow after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 4. Wind chill values between -5 and zero. North northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph.

Friday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 14. Wind chill values between -10 and zero. North northwest wind between 3 and 8 mph.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 1. North northwest wind at 6 mph becoming west southwest.

Saturday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 15.

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 0.

Oh yeah, here's Newsweek back in 1975:

There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon.

The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. During the same time, the average temperature around the equator has risen by a fraction of a degree – a fraction that in some areas can mean drought and desolation. Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars’ worth of damage in 13 U.S. states.

To scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world’s weather. The central fact is that after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth’s climate seems to be cooling down. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change is as profound as some of the pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic. “A major climatic change would force economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale,” warns a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences, “because the global patterns of food production and population that have evolved are implicitly dependent on the climate of the present century.”

A survey completed last year by Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals a drop of half a degree in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968. According to George Kukla of Columbia University, satellite photos indicated a sudden, large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in the winter of 1971-72. And a study released last month by two NOAA scientists notes that the amount of sunshine reaching the ground in the continental U.S. diminished by 1.3% between 1964 and 1972.

Just a reminder of the bullshit aimed at me in the past week:

And the ridiculous statements continued over at State 29. State 29 has recently had a couple posts attacking Al Gore and basically saying global warming can't exist because it is cold outside. This statement shows how ignorant State 29 is. If State 29 actually spent 5 minutes researching global warming, he would know that global warming increases extreme weather patterns such as hurricanes, tornados, droughts, heat waves, and cold spells.

Global warming increases cold spells! It's a floor wax, it's a dessert topping. It's anything that you want it to be, so long as the corrupt UN can impose a tax on "rich" and successful countries like America so Kofi Annan The War Criminal and his worthless family, friends, and various dictators and Communists around the world with their Swiss Bank Accounts can continue to live their lifestyle of Armani, cocaine, and underage prostitutes.

Yet the media continues to lie:

The original research was bad enough, but the reporting of it was horrendous. No telling where NBC's Andrea Mitchell got the figure that "nearly half [the scientists] were pressured to eliminate the words' climate change' or 'global warming,' but it clearly wasn't from the survey, which said no such thing. Not to be outdone in the patently wrong department, the New York Times reported that 60 percent of the scientists "personally experienced" interference. ABC's Jake Tapper said, "scientists say their work on global warming has been watered down and twisted by the White House..." even though such hyperbole is not a conclusion warranted by the survey.

Naturally, editorial writers, egged on by faulty science and faulty reporting, raised the usual alarms, such as the Minneapolis Star Tribune's "Bush's blatant abuse of climate scientists."

One explanation for such appalling journalism is the industry's willingness to be spoon-fed by the likes of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who gladly sanctified the bad science by giving it a platform on his Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "It appears there may have been an orchestrated campaign to mislead the public about climate change," Waxman said.

And if anything makes Bush look bad, some in the media will show up. Like NBC's Brian Williams, for example, who intoned on his nightly newscast: "The question in Washington was this: did the Bush administration...try to cook the books on the topic of global warming?"

Meanwhile, Al Gore flew to Spain in order to spew some more hot air:

"They've lost the argument and they don't want to stop dumping all this pollution into the Earth's atmosphere," Gore said in a short interview. "The only thing they have left is cash and now they're offering cash for so-called skeptics who will try to confuse people about what the science really say. But it's unethical because now the time has come when we have to act. And it's always easier to pretend that a big problem does not exist, because then you have no moral obligation to solve it. But our responsibility to our children and those who come after is sacred and we must discharge our responsibility. And the good news is the changes we need to make are ones that will improve the quality of life. They're things that we should be doing anyway."

Al Gore deserves an Oscar just for his acting job alone. They gave Oscars to John Wayne and Reese Witherspoon, so it's not like the award really means anything anyway.

Iowa Deer-N-R Looking At Expensive Contraception Drug For Deer Overpopulation

From Canada.com:

Iowa wildlife experts are looking into a new deer contraceptive that could curb the state's multimillion-dollar-a-year overpopulation problem.

The new, single-dose birth control vaccine would neutralize sex hormones in the famously fertile and polygamous animals. It would result in infertility in both males and females. It's not something you want anyone or everyone to use, said Dale Garner, wildlife bureau chief at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. We want to make sure it's not used willy-nilly in the state.

In order to do that, there's a bill before the state Legislature aimed at regulating wildlife contraceptives. The proposed legislation would also restrict the use of growth hormones in deer, as well as drugs for sedating animals or treating them for disease.

The contraceptive vaccine, called GonaCon, is being developed by researchers at the National Wildlife Research Center, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is expected to be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency in March, said Gail Keirn, a spokeswoman for the research center.

The EPA wouldn't likely approve the drug until early 2008, making it the first wildlife contraceptive available for nonresearch purposes...

Use of wildlife contraception in Iowa is not a common practice, so far, said Chad Machart, president of the Iowa Whitetail Deer Association. Other vaccines have seemed impractical because they required singling out females for an injection, then finding the same animals again later for a booster shot.

Garner said it could cost anywhere from $300 to $1,000 to capture and inject each deer with the vaccine, adding that its effect lasts only two years.

Oh deer god, is that for real? We're spending tax money in the US Dept of Agriculture to develop this crap? And Iowa DNR officials are seriously thinking about using something that costs $300 to $1000 a deer to administer, and it has to be done again every two years? Iowa currently has somewhere between 350,000 and 600,000 deer.

Why not declare open season on all deer until the population is below the level estimated in 1980? Back in 1980, there were about 55,000 head of deer in the entire state of Iowa. Is that too difficult to allow? I guess it is for these brain-dead idiots at the DNR who have been mismanaging the deer population in Iowa over the past 30 years.

I know, follow the money. Some enterprising reporter ought to find out who appropriated money for this "deer contraception" funding at the USDA and the National Wildlife Research Center, as well as who voted for it, and write a story. What a ripoff.

Burlington's Ongoing Eminent Domain Issue

From the Burlington Hawk Eye:

A day in court is on the horizon for some Flint Hills Manor property owners who refuse to sell their properties to the city of Burlington.

Despite a plea from one of the affected property owners, the city council voted 5–0 Monday in favor of moving forward with eminent domain proceedings against 10 Manor property owners.

Middletown resident Robert Brent, who owns two four–plex units at the Manor, presented documentation and photographs supportive of his belief that what the city is offering for his properties at 210–216 Ordnance Court and 222–228 Ordnance Court isn't enough.

The city's appraisal of Brent's properties indicate he should be paid $260,000 for them.

A report prepared by local real estate agent Mary Wiegard for Brent indicates the combined worth of the properties as $458,000.

Brent asked the council to postpone its decision until council members have a chance to review the information.

"You've paid three of my tenants to move out," Brent said. "Do you have any intention of reimbursing me at all for that? ... It's pretty hard to re–rent these apartments when everybody in town knows what you guys are trying to do here. It's just not very fair, either."

City Manager Bruce Slagle said when the city initiated the Manor project last year, it was required by law to inform tenants of what was happening.

"That's fine, but what are you going to do for the landowners?" Brent said.

Eric Tysland, the acting development director, said the city has been recommending to Manor tenants to stay where they are until the city purchases their respective properties.

"But those that desire to move out on their own ... we've been paying them the minimum amount to relocate," Tysland said. "If they break their lease, then that's something they're doing willingly."

Brent said "as it stands, there's no possible way I can accept that."

Mayor Mike Edwards encouraged Brent to obtain an appraisal from a certified appraiser.

Councilman Tim Scott told Brent the city does "want you to get a fair settlement."

"There may be some problems with some appraisals that our appraiser has done," Scott said. "The best thing to do is to get to a point where you get your appraisal and sit down and negotiate through us, or if it goes into an eminent domain situation where you sit down with a third party and a third party decides which appraisal is the appropriate appraisal."

Scott said he and the council are "committed to the project."

"There's no feel good feeling about putting a businessman like yourself out of this portion of his business, or putting an individual homeowner out of his home," he said. "But I feel that the end results are going to be the best for the community."

The city's project, which started last year, involves purchasing all Manor properties east of Roosevelt Avenue and selling the entire 23.7 acres to Minnesota commercial developer Robert Muir Co.

Isn't that great? Flint Hills was one of the exceptions in last year's eminent domain law that was passed by the Iowa Legislature, vetoed by then-Governor Tom Vilsack, and then overridden by the Iowa Legislature.

This is the sort of crap that Tom Vilsack wanted to allow all around Iowa thanks to his veto: have a city lowball property owners and renters, drag them through a horrible process where the rules are stacked against the little guy, and then sell the land to some politically-connected out-of-state developer so another strip mall can be built.

Send Your Kid To School In Mason City Or Go To Jail

From the Mason City Glob Gazette:

A Mason City woman has been sentenced to 14 days in jail for violating the state’s compulsory school attendance law.

Sherri Marie Sadler, 41, was sentenced in Cerro Gordo County District Court on Monday after her sixth conviction on the charge.

In the most recent case, Sadler was convicted of not sending her 15-year-old daughter to Roosevelt Middle School for the required number of days during the first quarter of the 2006-07 school year.

The initial document, a truancy complaint filed by Mason City Assistant Superintendent Hal Minear, said the student had seven days of unexcused absence.

A document filed by Assistant Cerro Gordo County Attorney William Hoekstra stated that Sadler’s daughter missed 111 periods, totalling more than 13 days of school.

Sadler’s first conviction on the charge came during January 2005. She was convicted of the charge two more times during 2005 and twice during 2006.

“Because of her prior convictions,” Hoekstra said, “Mrs. Sadler’s case qualified as a serious misdemeanor. In theory, she could have been sentenced to 30 days in jail.”

Wow. I don't know what to say about that story. Although I can't imagine that the student is the type that teachers actually want in their classroom.

How Many Licks Does It Take To Get To The Center Of The CIETC Scandal?

GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

From the Des Moines Register:

The Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium governing board, responding to a demand it repay the state $1 million, is arguing that it's "virtually impossible" for anyone to say how much excess pay was collected by Ramona Cunningham and her former colleagues at CIETC...

...CIETC's governing board has so far refused to pay back the money, saying the state is partly to blame because it failed to adequately oversee spending at the agency.

In a 13-page letter sent to state officials in January, the CIETC board, through its attorney, outlined a broad array of other reasons why the agency shouldn't be required to pay back the money. In the letter, the CIETC board says any attempt to determine the extent to which CIETC executives were overpaid is "premature" given the continuing criminal investigation.

"The mathematical calculations and applications of formulas involved in the financial computations at issue are more akin to art than science," the letter says. "It is virtually impossible to identify an exact dollar amount of any unreasonable compensation at this time."

As CIETC's chief executive officer, Cunningham was paid $368,000 annually. State officials are saying that a more appropriate salary for someone heading the 41-person agency would have been $102,378...

...The fight over the precise amount owed by CIETC could drag on for a year or more.

Your tax dollars, still hard at work.

And the politicians want more money, you know. And that's different from this tax increase, which will allow Des Moines to be a virtual utopia of loveliness and slightly lower property taxes, maybe.

Where's Manbearpig When You Need Him?

From the Des Moines Register:

The cold weather didn't break records Monday, but knowing that didn't make braving Dubuque's wind chill index of 33 degrees below zero any easier. In Des Moines, temperatures hovered around the single digits.

None of the recent weather data seems to have an impact on Common Iowan:

And the ridiculous statements continued over at State 29. State 29 has recently had a couple posts attacking Al Gore and basically saying global warming can't exist because it is cold outside. This statement shows how ignorant State 29 is. If State 29 actually spent 5 minutes researching global warming, he would know that global warming increases extreme weather patterns such as hurricanes, tornados, droughts, heat waves, and cold spells.

How come there's "global warming" on Mars? How come there's global warming on Pluto? How come not every scientist agrees with the global warming theory? What sort of excuse-making are you going to come up with on all those heretic scientists who don't believe your newfangled religion?

And what's always the answer to reverse global warming? That's right, higher taxes on "rich" countries as mandated by a bunch of Socialists and Communists through the United Nations. If that doesn't make your bullshit detector go off, then you don't have one.

Global warming advocates sound worse than Chicken Little. They remind me of TV preachers always asking for money. It's an ongoing "scientific" Medicine Show starring dumbfucks like Al Gore and Hollyweird stars.

I'm Shocked SHOCKED To Find That Estimates Were Too Low For The New Polk County Jail

I'm in Des Moines today and tomorrow on business and saw this news story on WHO-TV at 10pm. This made me laugh:

Halfway through construction on Polk County's new $64 million jail there's still one nagging question; how will the county come up with an estimated 11 million dollar a year shortfall for the operational costs at the new facility?

County Supervisor E.J. Govenetti said he supported the jail referendum because he thought the facility would be self sufficient, supported by the intake of federal prisoners. Now it seems that revenue won't offset the true cost of day to day operations as many expected.

Polk County Sheriff Dennis Anderson says he did not intentionally mislead or underestimate the true cost of the operations and never said taxpayers would be entirely off the hook for the project. Anderson said, "I was asked this in town meetings. I looked everyone in the eye and said I can't promise you it won't be a tax increase. I said I can promise you if we do nothing there will be."

Right. Dennis Anderson did not intentionally mislead or misunderestimate the true cost of the new jail. Yeah, we believe you. No way would that happen in Polk County!

The news story then went on to talk about how a property tax increase for the jail might affect Project Density, the multi-county metro area tax increase that will go down to major defeat later in 2007. You should have heard them talk. Polk County residents will probably see their property taxes go up another $25 a year on a $100,000 a year house just for the jail budget screwup, but wave the magic Project Density wand and lo and behold your property taxes will go down once they jack the sales tax up to 13% of whatever the hell it will be when all the inbred Democrats get done.

Vilsack Wants To Give Iowa Farmers A Brazilian

From Radio Iowa:

Former Iowa governor and Democratic presidential candidate Tom Vilsack says it's time to end tariffs that block the import of ethanol from Brazil.

During an appearance on CNBC Monday night, Vilsack argued that move would help build demand for the higher-concentration of ethanol fuel. "Bring the Brazilian ethanol into this country, create a demand for E85, put pressure on Detroit to create more flexible-fuel vehicles," Vilsack said.

A spokesperson for the Iowa Corn Growers Association was not immediately available for comment.

If there's one way to totally screw midwestern farmers, and especially everybody who has invested in ethanol plants around Iowa, it would be lifting the tariff on cheap, deforested, environmentally-destructive Brazilian ethanol. Tom Harkin has already suggested it.

Isn't it funny how these dimwitted dickhead Democrats want to end America's dependence on foreign oil and replace it with dependence on foreign ethanol?

Actually, it's not funny. These sorts of decisions could bankrupt thousands of Iowans. And it's all on the basis of who's paying off the Vilsack and Harkin campaigns.

B-b-b-baby, you just ain't seen n-n-nothin' yet

From LifeSiteNews.com:

A nation-wide campaign to introduce mandatory vaccination against the sexually-transmitted Human Papilloma Virus for girls as young as nine is being funded by the drug company that produced the vaccine.

Gardasil, the highly-publicized vaccine recently developed to prevent HPV infections in sexually active young women, has been aggressively marketed in the US as a protection against the disease responsible for the vast majority of cervical cancer. HPV is contracted through sexual activity, with sexually promiscuous behavior greatly increasing the likelihood of infection.

The massive drug company Merck and Co. developed the vaccine. Merck is helping to fund efforts to establish state laws mandating immunization of 11 and 12 year olds, according to a report released by the Life Issues Institute Jan.31. The company has admitted to funneling money through the advocacy group Women in Government, with a membership of female state legislators. Members of the group have backed many of the state measures to introduce mandatory immunization with Gardasil.

Merck has refused to say how much money is being spent on the lobbying efforts, but reports say their budget in Texas alone has doubled to between $150,000 to $250,000.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil in July 2006 for sale and marketing to girls as young as nine. Later that month a CDC committee voted unanimously to recommend that girls ages 11 and 12 receive the vaccine.

Legislation has been introduced in five states that would make vaccination for HPV mandatory for young girls, including Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A similar bill in Maryland is to be withdrawn, but will likely be reintroduced during the next legislative session, according to a report by the Kaiser Network.

Most of the bills would require girls to receive the immunization by age 11--some contain parental opt-out clauses that would allow parents to refuse the vaccine for their daughter by signing a document indicating they were informed on the issue.

If the state measures are ratified, the financial boon to Merck would be significant. As it stands the company stands to reach at least $1 billion in sales per year, according to estimates by drug-industry analyst Steve Brozak with WBB Securites.

If such a bill is going to be introduced in Iowa, it'll be either by Delores Mertz or Staci Appel.

Mertz is a National Director of Women In Government.

Staci Appel wants 12 years olds indoctrinated on sexual matters, including the morning-after pill, aka Plan B.

Merck's got a billion bucks to bring in, and they'll force laws everywhere so they can get access to vaccinate your daughters against something they should be taught to never get in the first place. And they'll pay off every lefty woman in legislatures nationwide in order to get it done.

Now, for your entertainment, one of the best "catching a disease" songs ever, Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet"

Hitlery Wants To Nationalize Oil Companies

Wait a second. Isn't the DNC supposed to be the "moderate" wing of the Democratic Party? And there they are, applauding Hitlery as she talks about how she wants the government to steal the profits of a worldwide company.

Do you think any newspaper reporter worth their salt is going to corner Hitlery about this? Or are they all going to lay down and let her fuck them with the strap-on?

Iowahawk: "Should Washington Post Military Analyst William Arkin Be Beaten Like the Repulsive Sack of Shit He Is?"

From the latest Iowahawk column:

In compliance with the Fairness Doctrine and other proposed federal rules aimed at balancing online media opinions, I am introducing Iowahawk's new "Equal Time" feature. From time to time, I will be opening these pages to those with opposing viewpoints, where we will be debating the various top issues of the day. Please welcome today's guest dissenter, retired US Marine Corps LTC Mike Williams, as we debate today's Equal Time question: "Should Washington Post Military Analyst William Arkin Be Beaten Like the Repulsive Sack of Shit He Is?"

Read the whole hilarious thing.

House Passes Car Title Loan Interest Cap Bill

From Radio Iowa:

The Iowa House Thursday night voted to crack down on so-called car title loans. Democrats say limiting the interest rates charged on such loans protects consumers, but some Republicans opposed the bill. Representative Jamie Van Fossen, a Republican from Davenport, says there's a demand for such loans by consumers who can't get credit elsewhere.

"My district borders Illinois. These people are just going to go across the river and get their loans," Van Fossen says. But Democrats like Representative Dave Jacoby... says charging more than three-hundred percent on a loan against your car is excessive and too many Iowans have lost their cars because of it. "...their only means to get into work," Jacoby says. "Their only means of getting their kids to school or day care."

...The bill would limit interest rates on car title loans to 21 percent.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which has approved similar measures before. In past years the car title loan bill stalled in the House, blocked by Republicans who said the industry was unfairly being targeted and served a class of consumers who cannot get loans elsewhere.

This is the biggest problem with so many post-Contract With America Republicans. They're fauxscal conservatives. They're phonies. They talk about conservatism, except when it comes to common sense fiscal matters.

Who in their right mind thinks 300%+ interest rates being charged on the poorest of the poor is a good idea? The only people who think this is a good idea either have a monopoly on the car-title loan industry in Iowa (Loanmax, a business with past ties to organized crime figures), or the disgusting, filthy, and diseased politicians who accept the dirty money from these scumbags in exchange to allow legalized loansharking.

Think about how far down the hole you have to be to resort to getting a car-title loan. This means you have:

1. No cash
2. No savings
3. Nothing in the checking account
4. You own no stocks
5. You own no mutual funds
6. You have no college savings accounts for your kids to tap
7. You have nothing in your 401K in which to borrow from
8. You have no IRA in which can take money from for 60 days, penalty-free.
   
9. You have no mortgage equity to tap.
   
10. You have no credit cards available.
    
11. You don't have anything to sell in a garage sale or on Ebay.
    
12. You don't have anything to pawn.
    
13. You can't get an advance from your employer.
    
14. Your welfare is spent.
    
15. And you have no friends, parents, or children who will loan you money.

That's pretty low.

And, to numerous Iowa statehouse Republicans, especially minority crybaby Christopher Rants, 300%+ interest rates is perfectly normal! Why, it should be celebrated! And promoted!

As I said before, if the Democratic majority of the Iowa Legislature passes and the governor signs this interest rate cap on car-title loans, which will wreck the monopoly "industry" within Iowa, it'll be worthwhile compared to all the other crap the Democrats will try to pull over the next two years. Protecting poor people used to be one of the things that Democrats did. They've gotten way the fuck off course lately, but at least on this issue they are actually helping poor people out by not letting them get into a situation that will bring further poverty, misery, and the possible loss of their car.

Meanwhile, you Republicans, especially you Konservatives, need to figure out your priorities and purge your party of the likes of Christopher Rants.

Martin Crutsinger From The AP Failed Math Class

Yesterday I wrote a post in reaction to an AP story about how the rate of savings in the US was worse than any time since the Great Depression. I've since deleted that post after learning that the author, the AP's Martin Crutsinger, used "fake but accurate" data:

Martin Crutsinger of the AP scored big on the Bush administration with a deceptive story about the nation’s savings rate.

After-tax savings rate, that is.

The rate that does not include the $3.2 trillion Americans have socked away in 401 Ks and other pre-tax savings plans.

But Crutsinger’s report led to the headlines sought, like this one in the Columbus Distatch: “Savings rate lowest since Depression.”

It is the Depression all over again to the liberals who run big-city newspapers.

Except for the part where 136 million people have jobs.

And except for the part where exports are at an all-time high.

And except for the part where we have $3.2 trillion socked away in 401 K-style plans.

In fact, it was just last Saturday that Damon Darlin of the New York Times told us we have too much money socked away for retirement

The Associated Press and other "news" outfits have a huge boner for disinformation and fake news lately. Witness all the Manbearpig stories lately about global warming while I woke up this morning to a wind chill of -8 here in Opie.

When is the media going to cut this BS out?

I think the media is just trying to get away with whatever crap they can lob at the American Idle public. They want you to believe that Muslims are the "religion of peace", that the USA is the bad guy in Iraq, that it's a bad thing that dictators and thug regimes from around the world hate us, that Hillary is liked by anybody other than the completely deranged, and that global warming is real because Al Gore or Leonardo DiCaprio say so. Fuck them all. The general public has done a good job of decimating the newspaper and media industries by not subscribing to newspapers and turning off the evening news. We just have to keep it up until they no longer get any funding in order to promote their lying crap.

CIETC's Ramona Cunningham's Abilities Were Just Like Bill Gates's

GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

From the Des Moines Register:

The lawyer for a woman at the center of a $1.8 million federal fraud case insisted Thursday that a 27-count indictment against her is much ado about nothing.

William Kutmus contended that his client, former CIETC Chief Executive Ramona Cunningham, was being picked on because she earned a six-figure salary with only a General Educational Development diploma.

Cunningham, 52, pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday to charges that involve various forms of theft and embezzlement from government agencies. Prosecutors allege that she and two co-workers pocketed roughly $1.8 million in unwarranted compensation from the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium in less than three years.

"The criticism is that she is female and she has a GED," Kutmus said. He called such criticism unfair because "the richest man in the world is Mr. Bob Gates."

Bill Gates, a Harvard University dropout when he formed Microsoft Corp., was estimated last year to have a net worth of more than $50 billion.

Cunningham's paycheck, like Gates', was the product of her ability, Kutmus argued after Thursday's arraignment.

Wow, Kutmus is getting so old that he doesn't know the difference between Bill Gates and the current Secretary of Defense. Although I'm sure if you give the old shyster enough time he'd probably spin some tale about how Ramona Cunningham performed her job better than the Secretary Of Defense. Just what we don't need...

Actually, Bill Gates's salary, before any bonuses or stock options, is less than Iowa Hawkeye football coach Kirk Ferentz's. Ferentz earned a base salary of $1,300,000 in 2006. Total compensation has been estimated at about $4.4 million.

Bill Gates drew a salary of $616,667 in 2006. That's not much more than Ramona Cunningham's $360,000. And CIETC doesn't have 60,000 employees and $40 billion in sales.

Sure, Bill Gates gets lots of stock options, but his company has to perform. And Gates is giving away practically all of his fortune to the poor.

CIETC didn't have to perform, other than lobbying Feds for more deficit-financed pork and giving each other bonuses.

Yeah, that's the height of hubris on the part of Kutmus and Cunningham for a defense, but Kutmus does get results. If you can afford Kutmus, he's probably the way to go.

Kutmus defended Phyllis Nelson a few years ago after she murdered her doctor husband by stabbing him in the chest during a divorce. He got her out in 3 1/2 years, just proving that if you're rich and can afford a good attorney then you get a real sweetheart deal. If you're poor and a physically abused wife who has killed in order to save your life and also your unborn child, well, you're fucked.

Anyway, I can't wait to read the comments on the Register's story as the day progresses. It'll be fun reading all that.

Pat Murphy: "You know how Christopher likes to overdramatize. He’s winning an Academy Award today"

From the Des Moines Register:

The Iowa House will debate the merits of a car-title loan bill tonight — and the late notice from the majority party upset Republicans, then spiralled into a conflict with black legislators.

Although the bill has been on a calendar of legislation eligible for debate, the Democratic leadership didn’t disclose that the bill would be debated today until this afternoon. Because of the late notice, Republicans said they had missed the deadline for filing a long amendment they were polishing up with the help of six Democrats.

Steamed at that news, House Minority Leader Christopher Rants called for an immediate meeting of House Republicans. This postponed a presentation by a national delegation of African-Americans, who were in town to hand over historic legal archives to Drake University on the first day of Black History Month.

After waiting 45 minutes, the group, from the National Bar Association, had to leave for its next appointment. One black legislator, Rep. Helen Miller, a Democrat from Fort Dodge, was in tears, frustrated that the group didn’t get to speak.

When Rants emerged from his meeting, he heatedly told reporters that the Democratic leadership had misled Republicans and used “strong-arm tactics”
to squelch public debate.

In response, House Speaker Pat Murphy told reporters the car title loans bill has been on the debate calendar for the better part of two weeks. “We told them to be ready for two bills,” he said, referring also to an antibullying bill. “It’s not like we had 47 bills sitting out there.”

Murphy added, “You know how Christopher likes to overdramatize. He’s winning an Academy Award today.”

Three other black legislators — Democrats Rep. Wayne Ford of Des Moines, Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad of Des Moines, and Rep. Deborah Berry of Waterloo — admonished Rants. Berry called his disruption “childish” and Ford called it “embarrassing.”

I've got a couple questions directed towards Rants.

1. Why did an organization Rants is heavily involved with take $40,000 from car-title loanshark kingpin Rod Aycox, a fella with known ties to people involved with organized crime?

2. What's conservative about a business designed to prey upon the dumbest of the poor with 360% interest rates?

Dirty, dirty, dirty. That's all Christopher Rants is. A totally fake Konservative who's on the take of people with ties to organized crime; the very same people who want to fuck the stupid poor with their monopoly on legalized loansharking in Iowa. Ain't nuthin' KONSERVATIVE 'bout that.

$45 Million For The Rainforest Scam?

Via the Greg Alan blog, which you should be reading everyday, and also published at CNN:

House Republicans complained bitterly Wednesday that they had been shut out of the secretive process in which Democrats assembled a huge spending bill to sweep clear a budgetary mess they inherited...

...Then there was the Senate's refusal to kill $45 million in funding for an indoor rainforest project in central Iowa, even though local backers have yet to come up with their required share of funding.

So Chuck Grassley, the fauxscal conservative, gets his pork thanks to the Democrats in charge now.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

What is this $45 million? Grassley had originally secured $50 million a couple years ago, of which nearly $3 million was spent by head con artist David Oman before the project was kicked down the road from Coralville to backwater Pella.

Half Man, Half Bear, and Half Pig

Al Gore was nominated in the past week for an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize for his global warming BS.

Meanwhile, the weather in Des Moines this next week is:

This Afternoon: Partly cloudy, with a high near 17. Wind chill values between 5 and 10. West southwest wind around 7 mph.

Tonight: Areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow, mainly after midnight. Increasing clouds, with a low around 3. Wind chill values between -5 and -15. Blustery, with a southwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming west northwest between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Friday: Scattered flurries before noon. Partly cloudy, with a high near 12. Wind chill values between -5 and -15. Blustery, with a west northwest wind between 11 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.

Friday Night: A 30 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around -2. Wind chill values between -10 and -20. Blustery, with a west wind between 10 and 17 mph.

Saturday: Partly cloudy and cold, with a high near 2. Blustery, with a northwest wind between 10 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around -6.

Sunday: Scattered flurries. Partly cloudy and cold, with a high near 9.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around -5.

Monday: Partly cloudy and cold, with a high near 7.

Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around -7.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 11.

Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around -2.

Wednesday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 20.

I blame global warming.

Or maybe Manbearpig:

The Media Failed Math Class

Via the Roth And Company Tax Update Blog:

Headlines on stories about Governor Culver's new budget:

Culver seeks 6 percent budget hike based on cigarette tax (WQAD, Moline)

Culver seeks 7.5 percent budget hike (Marshalltown Times Republican)

Culver Asks For 8.6 Percent Spending Boost (IowaPolitics.com)

Related: Chet Culver Failed Math Class

"Tom Sawyer" Is No Longer A Must-Read In Cedar Rapids Schools

Via email from a reader, and in today's Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Mark Twain's classic American tale, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," won't be taught to all the eighth graders in Cedar Rapids schools this year out of concern the book's language and racial issues might be inappropriate for middle school students.

Copies of the book for all the eighth-graders had been purchased at a cost of $5,000, but three administrators on Jan. 10 pulled the text from the must-read list.

Ann Elmborg, the district's secondary language arts facilitator, said teachers last spring selected "Tom Sawyer" for all the eighth graders to read this year.

But Elmborg said she re-read the book in January and went to her supervisors -- Sandy Stephen and Christine Rauscher -- with her concerns. They elected to pull the book as required reading; other novels will be substituted.

"Tom Sawyer" remains on library shelves, and students can read the novel on their own or self-select the book for small group discussion, Elmborg said.

In retrospect, Elmborg said, the process of selecting "Tom Sawyer" as the district's "common novel" was rushed, and her error, she said, was in not re-reading the book before the books were bought.

"It was my oversight," she said. "When I re-read it recently, I discovered it troubling, not only language, but depictions of African Americans."

Oh, gee whiz, not again.

What kind of backwards-ass losers with too many degrees are running that school district?

Down here in Kansas, the politician named Tom Sawyer was a bit of a blessing, especially after he beat out Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1998.