State 29

The box of 500 condoms that spurred an investigation and partial evacuation at Des Moines Area Community College was intended for a human sexuality class.

DMACC President Rob Denson said today that the box was sent by someone who was previously a speaker at the class. It was sent to the faculty member who teaches the class.

The “suspicious package” led school officials Thursday to call police and postal investigators, who evacuated several classrooms but determined it was not a bomb.

Last December, another bomb scare at the college turned out to be a plastic exercise step wrapped in several layers of duct tape.

Looks like officials at DMACC are suffering from premature evacuation.

Upper Iowa University Contains Weenies

From the Waterloo Courier:

Upper Iowa University locked down Thursday after a student reported a man with a gun. Officials later determined the person was an off-duty police officer visiting campus as a guest.

"He entered the building, and they noticed he had a gun," spokeswoman Sheila Miller said.

The incident began about 10:50 a.m. at Colgrove-Walker Hall, the school's liberal arts building. Miller said Fayette police told the university to send an e-mail alert to staff members and students, and all buildings on campus were locked down.

Miller said the university followed its safety policy and conducted a campuswide sweep. Officials then verified the identity of the police officer...

...The officer, not a member of the Fayette Police Department, was a guest speaker in a class on campus.

Jeez.

The University of Iowa Is Run By Fashion Nazis

Update: Justin Walker has been allowed back on the University of Iowa campus.

From the Daily Iowan:

When UI junior Justin Walker left his Introduction to Environmental Science class at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday, everything seemed normal.

The economics major walked past a police officer, chatted with a friend in Schaeffer Hall, and checked the NBA schedule at Buffalo Wild Wings in the Old Capitol Town Center. All this time, he was planning a trip to Illinois to pick up his girlfriend and 10-day-old son for a visit.

But on Walker's way back to his car - parked on Clinton Street - police stopped him.

"They just grabbed me, pushed my hand behind my back, and then they searched me," Walker said in an interview with The Daily Iowan, adding that officers didn't tell him why he was being searched until they determined he was not armed.

Later in the afternoon, UI officials released Walker's name and home address to all faculty, staff, and students, and banned him from campus for five months because he had raised suspicions after wearing a ski mask to his lecture.

In response to a student's 911 call - made roughly around noon - about Walker's appearance, Iowa City, Johnson County, and UI authorities responded to reports of a "suspicious" person and locked down the Old Capitol and Macbride Hall.

"He was a student attending class," Iowa City police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said. "It was totally innocent."

By Thursday night, officials had not decided what charges, if any, the 20-year-old could face.

Walker, who said he wore the head covering to class because it was rainy and cold outside...

...After searching Walker, authorities took him to UI police headquarters, where he stayed for about two hours, after which he was notified that if he set foot on UI grounds before Sept. 25, he could be charged with criminal trespass.

This is insane. It's like after Columbine when stupiderintendents were banning trenchcoats.

Hmmmm.... it was raining and in the mid 40s on Thursday in Iowa City according to the Weather Underground. Not exactly a ski mask day.

Maybe he actually had one of those balaclava things on.

Or perhaps he was a Muslim cross dresser wearing his burkini to class?

Well, you can do what you want to Justin Walker, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!

Gentlemen!

Update: But if you're a star basketball player who was originally charged with third-degree sexual abuse and was given a special sweetheart deal to plead to assault causing injury, given deferred judgment as a sentence, and allowed to red-shirt a season and keep a scholarship, then that's perfectly OK.

And if you're a lousy professor who fraudulently changes student evaluations to make yourself look better, why the University of Iowa will write you a $226,000 check!

Mike "Kiss My Ass!!! Fuck You!!!" Gronstal

Sure, I'm late to the game, but something like this is always worth piling on about.

From the Blog For Iowa:

At [the Thursday, April 19th) VOICE Rally at the Capitol in Des Moines, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal stunned Iowa citizens advocating Clean Elections with his arrogance and use of obscenities.

A group of women and elderly men had gathered in the Rotunda after a peaceful rally calling for an end to the use of big money in Iowa's political campaigns, when Gronstal, who has been called "the most powerful man in Iowa politics," came strolling by.

Seizing upon the chance to speak with "the powerful one," members of the group caught his attention and began asking him where he stood on the issue.

When told of the citizen's concerns about how corporate money was impacting elections, Gronstal told them that's the way things work. When asked about the chance of Clean Election legislation reaching the floor he flatly said, "Not a chance."

Gronstal then went on a rant about how "naïve" these Iowans were, thinking that big money could be removed from Iowa elections, warning that "Republicans could just outspend us (Democrats) with a 527."

When someone in the crowd asked Gronstal about the half a million dollars that he raised during the last election cycle and doled out to Democratic candidates, he scoffed at the figure, saying, "I raised twice that much!"

Eventually some 20 citizens gathered around Gronstal, eager to hear the bill's fate during the final days of the 2007 session. What many of them heard was not only disheartening, but ultimately insulting.

Rather than listen to their reasonable concerns about the influence of money in politics, Gronstal arrogantly claimed that the votes for Clean Elections "weren't there." When a woman challenged this claim, Gronstal launched into her. "I make the decisions of what bills come to the floor…I'm the best vote counter in this building. I got 25 years of experience."

At some point, an older gentleman interrupted the Senate Majority Leader, saying, "You're nothing but a Republican in Democrat clothing."

Like a petty tyrant who has finally been called on his bad behavior the Senate Majority Leader lost it. Gronstal squared off with the older gentleman and said, "That's the lowest blow that anyone's ever dealt me. You can kiss my ass!"

Visibly shaken, Gronstal stormed off. He walked a short distance away from the group and then lifted his head up to the top of the Capitol and SHOUTED "F*ck You!" A large group of elementary school children were touring the Rotunda while this was happening.

It's not surprising that Iowa's lamestream media missed this one.

Do a Google News search for gronstal fuck or gronstal expletive or gronstal swear and there's nothing. I didn't even see anything about this until I checked Jan Mickelson's feed from this week and discovered mention of it on Wednesday and I guess Gronstal's belated apology yesterday. Oh well, better late than never.

What's amazing is that Gronstal said this to fellow Democrats.

Can't handle a little inter-party debate, Mr 25 Years Experienced Entrenched Fat Assed Nicotine Addicted Corrupt Piece Of Shit Need Your Moustache-Riding Ass Kicked Out Of Office Majority Leader?

Common Iowan had a post recently about the VOICE legislation, along with some links.

As I said before, I'd be in favor of taxpayer-financed campaigns, but only if the campaign season was whittled down from two years to about two weeks.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Tom Harkin Is Clueless About Iraq

The U.S. Senate is starting debate this morning on an Iraq war funding bill that would start the pull-out of U.S. troops in October. The measure passed the House on Wednesday. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, says it's important that the issue be debated and voted upon, even though President Bush has promised to veto it.

Harkin says: "We are a separate branch of government, I needn't remind people. We're here to represent, as best we can, the will of the American people from our different constituencies. Frankly, when I hear from the people of Iowa, more and more every day, is that we've got to set a timetable to get out of Iraq. We're hearing that all over the United States."

Next Tuesday will mark four years since Bush declared "mission accomplished" and an end to the major combat operations in Iraq. Harkin says the troops are long overdue to come home. Harkin says, "People are fed up and they want us to do something about it. Here's what we can do about it and we're trying to do it today. I think we have an obligation to speak, to pass legislation, to try to end this war in Iraq. That's what we're going to do. The president has his own constitutional rights and his rights are to sign it or to veto it."

Harkin says if Bush does veto the measure, it would send "all the wrong signals" to the Iraqis and to the American people that what we're doing in Iraq is an open-ended effort.

Just a couple days ago, Tom Harkin was quoted at the Politico:

When asked what troops were doing in Iraq, Harkin said: "That is a good question. I don't know what they're engaged in, what they are trying to do. Our military is being abused, abused by this administration. Abused."

As I said yesterday, it's not like Tom Harkin couldn't get his butt on a plane and fly over to Iraq and find out.

Meanwhile, as shown over at Hot Air, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips and CNN Baghdad correspondent (and occasional waterboy for the enemy) Michael Ware had this to say about pulling out of Iraq:

KYRA PHILLIPS: It would be a disaster. I mean, I had a chance to sit down with the Minister of Defense, to General Petraeus, to Admiral Fallon, head of CENTCOM. I asked them all the question whether Iraqi or U.S. military — there is no way U.S. troops could pull out. It would be a disaster. They’re doing too much training, they’re helping the Iraqis not only with security, but trying to get the government up and running. I mean, this is a country of ‘Let’s Make a Deal,’ there’s so much corruption still. If the U.S. military left — they have rules of engagement, they have an idea, a focus. It would be a disaster.

MICHAEL WARE: Well, even more than that, if you just wanted to look at it purely in terms of American national interest, if U.S. troops leave now, you’re giving Iraq to Iran, a member of President Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil,’ and al Qaeda. That’s who will own it. And so, coming back now, I’m struck by the nature of the debate on Capitol Hill, how delusional it is. Whether you’re for this war, or against it; whether you’ve supported the way it’s been executed, or not; it doesn’t matter. You’ve broke it, you’ve got to fix it now. You can’t leave, or it’s going to come and blow back on America.

Gee, it looks like a couple of reporters from CNN know more than Senator Tom Harkin, the same fella who introduced a resolution Calling for Congress to consider and vote on a resolution for the use of force by the United States Armed Forces against Iraq before such force is deployed and who later voted in favor of Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq in 2002.

I can see you anti-war clowns theorizing. You'll be saying, "But, but, but, if we hadn't gone to war with Iraq to begin with then none of this would have happened!" Instead, we'd have Iraq continuing to break UN Security Council Resolutions, paying the families of suicide bombers to kill Israelis, attempting to acquire nuclear weaponry just like Iran, killing political enemies, oppressing women, and so forth. I guess if you're comfortable excusing that sort of behavior then maybe your theory is correct. You pussies. You cut and runners. You wimps. You defeatists. You cavers. You jihadi cheerleaders.

Des Moines Is Flooded Again, So Where's Archie Brooks?

Fleur Drive, looking north during the 2004 flood

From the Des Moines Register:

Des Moines and West Des Moines public works officials closed the following roads due to anticipated flooding from creeks and rivers. Here is the list as of 10 a.m.:

George Flagg Parkway from Fleur Drive to Park Avenue
S.W. 30th Street from Bell Avenue to George Flagg Parkway
Walnut Hill Drive from 61st to 62nd streets
62nd Street from Walnut Hill Drive to Grand Avenue
Williams Street from Jefferson Avenue to University Avenue (local traffic only)
Four-Mile Drive from E. 38th Street to Williams Street
Jefferson Avenue from E. 38th to Williams streets
Fleur Drive from Bell Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway

These roadways are closed until further notice.

The current level of the Raccoon River at Fleur Drive is just over 5 feet above flood level, according to city officials...

Walnut Woods Drive and S. 42nd Street from Army Post Road to S. 14th Street has been closed by the city of West Des Moines due to potential flooding.

The city said the area could be closed for up to five days

Perhaps Archie Brooks is hoping to be another hero like he was in 1993 when, as the building manager for the 36-story Ruan Building downtown, he angrily shut off power to the area's 911 Emergency antenna towers housed on the roof during that year's devastating flood after the skyscraper was denied the ability to keep water flowing following the flooding of the Des Moines Water Works.

Iowa Senate Approves Google Corporate Welfare

While the Iowa Senate bent over and approved an insane tax giveaway to (shhhhhhhh!) Google in order to entice them to build some data center in Council Bluffs, here is a story from the Charlotte Observer via ZDNet's blogs on how Google treated lawmakers in North Carolina:

Google tried to silence lawmakers and pushed, at times with a heavy hand, to influence legislation designed to bring the company to Caldwell County.

The company demanded that legislators never speak its name, and had them scolded when word of its interest in North Carolina leaked out, according to records made public this week.

As work proceeded on the bill to remove much of its tax burden, Google threatened to end negotiations because legislative staff didn't write exactly what it wanted. State Commerce Secretary Jim Fain was asked to "prevail upon" the bill writer.

Indeed, the first set of state documents released from the 13-month negotiations reveal a company obsessed with secrecy and not above bullying, tactics that helped get it tax breaks that could top $100 million over three decades.

"I sort of had to work in the dark," said Sen. Jim Jacumin, a Republican who represents Caldwell County. "That bothered me. They need to respect the laws of the land, even if they're business."

It appears that Google's butt-licking boy in Iowa was Waterloo Democrat Bill Dotzler, the corrupt idiot who still thinks giving away shitloads of taxpayer money to con man David Oman is a good idea.

Want to know why your property taxes are going through the roof, Iowa? It's because of the pro-corporate welfare, bought-and-paid-for, and crooked politicians in the Iowa Legislature. They exist on BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE.

Related: I'm Shocked SHOCKED To Find That Many Out Of State Corporations Don't Have To Pay Property Taxes In Iowa

Update: I got an email from a clearly Democrat-siding reader asking about whether any members of the Iowa GOP are working on rights legislation or campaign finance reform. Like I would know. All I know about the Iowa GOP is that they're a bunch of spineless corporate welfare enthusiasts or bank robbers who take money from mob-affiliated companies that prey upon the stupid poor. As far as I'm concerned, the only somewhat sane fiscal conservative in the Iowa Legislature in recent years was Ed Fallon, but he no longer holds a seat. Don't go off on me about Fallon's socialized medicine desires. You already have the State (and Feds) paying the medical bills of the poor/poor children. Regifting socialized medicine into a neat little marketing package is a far different astral plane than letting big companies opt out of paying their fair share of property and other taxes or giving away tax break packages left and right to finance risky schemes that the private sector won't smell. The only positive thing I can say about the GOP (and this is while holding my nose and wallet simultaneously) is that they occasionally are interested, when in power, in lowering income tax rates for all. Democrats can't even handle that. When was the last time in recent history the Democrats ever proposed lower tax rates? Never, that's when. And Project Destiny doesn't count because it's a tax increase on everybody, especially the poor.

Mike Jones Is The Type Of Nigga VEISHEA Needs

By John Bresnahan and Carrie Budoff in The Politico:

Rapper Mike Jones was one of three headliners at the Live @ VEISHEA concert series, along with alternative rock act Story of the Year and country artist Chris Cagle.

Mike Jones performed for 34 minutes in front of an estimated crowd of more than 9,000 people. He began the show at approximately 2:15 a.m. Sunday, about a half hour past his earliest scheduled time of 1:45 a.m. He was accompanied by a single disc jockey, playing tracks from an Apple laptop computer onstage. Jones executed a selection of his own songs and covers, and cut many songs short. The mix at the beginning of the show was also lacking in bass, spectators said...

...Mike Jones was paid a $21,000 flat fee for his appearance - $617 per minute of his show.

Here's some more Mike Jones lyrics. This is from "Type Of Nigga U Need":

Before the fame and change came you were holdin me down
when I need me a rise you would roll me around,
she kept the sunshine and when the rain came around
and from then on I went on I told her for being down,
'Im gunna forever be around with her' cause I aint putting all this time just to leave her she needs me and I know that I need her, Yeah Mike Jones, WHO? Mike Jones, Jones, and Im the type of nigga you need

Know what I mean?:

I sip on purple barre,
ride around town in my candy car,
diamonds shine like a star.
I love to grip that wood grain,
love to talk that texas slang,
I spend change like it ain't no thang nigga.
Because down south we be tippin on fo's,
in the parking lot pimpin these hoes,
its M.O.B. on every hoe nigga.
Down in H-Town we grippin on grain,
flippin on swangs sippin that drank,
causin pain in the turnin lane nigga.
(Holla at me) 281-330-8004
Hit Mike Jones up on the low (Yeah)
I said 281-330-8004
Hit Mike Jones up on the low (Yeah)

I guess if you're unhappy with Mike Jones, you can call the nigga up at 281-330-8004, but he might be busy pimpin those hoes.

And Mr Jones's pants stay saggin’ from them hundred dollar billz.

Vilsack To Co-Chair Hitlery's Campaign With Barbara Mikulski

From the Examiner:

Hoping to firm up her support among women and hard-core liberals, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., announced Tuesday that Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland will be co-chair of her presidential campaign with Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

“She has literally paved the way for me and countless other women who now serve in the Congress,” Clinton said of Mikulski in an e-mail statement.

Mikulski’s support will help Clinton reach out to pro-abortion rights women in the Democratic primaries, Washington political consultant Rosemary Reed said.

At least she didn't pick the cursed Bob Shrum to run her campaign into the ground.

I do question Hitlery's need to pick Barbara Mikulski as somebody through which to connect better with baby-killing, hard-core, female liberals. Doesn't Hitlery have that demographic wrapped up already?

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Tom Harkin Says His Pro-War Vote In 2002 Wasn't A "Green Light" To Invade Iraq

Several leading Democrats said this week that they did not agree with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's recent statement that "the war is lost" in Iraq, even while they support his broader message.

But they did agree that Reid's wording was clumsy and potentially damaging. Even the Nevada Democrat himself appeared to be backing away from his remark...

...Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) deflected the question, saying that the war was never defined and that his 2002 vote should not have been construed as a green light to invade Iraq.

Tom Harkin voted for H.J. Res 114 on October 11, 2002. It was called Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

I don't know. That sort of sounds like a green light to invade Iraq.

Maybe Tom Harkin also forgot about his joint resolution introduced with Arlen Specter on July 18, 2002 (S. J. RES. 41) that was Calling for Congress to consider and vote on a resolution for the use of force by the United States Armed Forces against Iraq before such force is deployed.

Harkin co-introduced that legislation, and then voted for H.J. Res 114 just a few months later!

Then Harkin, in the Politico article, pulls this pathetic crap:

When asked what troops were doing in Iraq, Harkin said: "That is a good question. I don't know what they're engaged in, what they are trying to do. Our military is being abused, abused by this administration. Abused."

What a liar.

Harkin can fly his butt over to Iraq anytime he wants to find out what's going on, but he won't. And you know why. Harkin doesn't want to hear anything opposite to he and the Democrats' plan to lose the war in Iraq and make political hay out of it.

I don't care whether you're pro-war or anti-war, but don't you think that Tom Harkin is being a complete and total weasel about the issue? Seriously! He is phony baloney.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

My Life Was So Much Simpler When I Was Sober And Queer

The Iowa Senate just passed a law (49-0) mandating the sale of self-extinguishing cigarettes as of January 1, 2009.

You know what else they need to mandate? Some kind of alcohol that doesn't make you fat or pregnant. Maybe Staci Appel can force beer companies to finally sell that Birth Control Beer.

Take it away, Two Nice Girls:

When I was a young girl like normal girls do
I looked to a woman's love to help get me through
I never needed any more than a feminine touch
I hated the thought of kissing a man it really was too much

I did not drink, I did not smoke I did not say "goddamn"
I was polite I was sensitive before I loved a man
My family, they were proud of me were proud of what I am
But then along came Lester and my tale of woe began

(Chorus)
I spent my last ten dollars on birth control and beer
My life was so much simpler when I was sober and queer
But the love of a strong hairy man has turned my head I fear
And made me spend my last ten bucks on birth control and beer

It was June 1983 when Mary Lou and I did part
She said she loved another dyke my god, it broke my heart
I was bitter and disillusioned to lose another girlfriend
Lester came to work at Papa's store and decided to ease on in

Before my last heartbreak nothing made me more sick
Than a hairy-chested, cheap double-breasted suited man with a hard dick
I guess that I was curious I guess that I was young
I guess it was that rum and coke I guess that I was dumb

(Chorus)

For of course, for a woman to love a man she must also love to booze
If a woman don't drink beside her man then she will surely lose him
As I sit in this hetero honky-tonk and reflect upon my past
I think about those girlfriends and why they didn't last

For there's certain thrills that lesbian love simply cannot supply
Like paying for abortions from sperm gone awry
And so I say to you my friends without this man I'd die
So listen to my tale of woe and hang your head and cry

(Chorus)

The Institute For Inequality Studies

A University of Iowa sociologist is studying how middle-class Americans might appear to be thriving financially — driving new vehicles, living in large homes and wearing snappy clothes — but in reality are increasingly dependent on credit and debt to support their lifestyles.

Kevin Leicht, professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and co-director of the UI Institute for Inequality Studies, says the economic standing of the American middle class has plunged in the past three decades.

Leicht writes about the issue in his most recent book, "Postindustrial Peasants: The Illusion of Middle-Class Prosperity"

The UI Institute for Inequality Studies????

WTF is that? Oh, here it is.

I don't understand these sociology types. Middle Class People would be doing just fine if they lived within their means. Instead they do crazy shit like get adjustable-rate and interest-only mortgages in order to live in a big phat house. They drive around in a gas guzzling pickup truck or giant SUV in order to look snazzy to the Joneses. They've got 15 different credit cards because some 17 year old checkout girl offered them 10% off today's purchase. They don't save up any money for their children for college. They need a fancy kitchen, but eat at restaurants 15 times a week and are fat. They job hop. They Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today. They declare bankruptcy.

Maybe this professor of inequality studies ought to ask why middle class people are so frickin stupid with their money. I think it starts parents pushing their 18 year old kids into taking many tens of thousands of dollars in student loans in order to get a socialist worker job.

Is Google Going To Get Iowa Taxpayer Corporate Welfare?

The director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development is subtly asking lawmakers to help "Google" before they go. Last week, legislators disclosed that a "web portal company" like Google is considering Iowa as the location for a facility. Iowa Department of Economic Development director Mike Tramontina won't confirm that Google is the company, but he's urging legislators to pass a package of tax incentives for a "web portal company" before they adjourn for the year.

"That web portal bill is potentially huge," Tramontina says. On Friday, the House voted 95 to one to provide a tax exemption on equipment and electricity for web portal firms. Tramontina is hoping for quick action in the Iowa Senate. He says targeting computer companies for state incentives makes sense because they're "huge, non-polluting industries" that offer high wages.

Well, Mr Mike Tramontina, Mr Taxpayer-Financed Corporate Welfare, who the hell is going to pay the taxes if a wildly profitable company like Google gets a tax break for the next 30 years?

Democrats In Iowa Love To Tax The Hell Out Of The Poor

James Eaves-Johnson, writing in the Daily Iowan on January 24, 2002:

Patrisha Dean is still trying to figure out what the county assessor sees in her home. Maybe it's the bright exterior.

You can't miss it, that's for sure. I'm not saying canaries could use it for camouflage, but the house is irrefutably yellow, which seems to fit the personality of the owner.

Dean is a 74-year-old widow who lives in the Highland Park neighborhood of Des Moines. She has blond hair and a laugh that will not be contained, unless she's talking about her latest property assessment.

In just two years, it went from $80,400 to $105,100 - a 30.7 percent increase for Dean's little yellow bungalow. And she swears she didn't make a single improvement.

"When I saw that, I had trouble sleeping," she says. "The first assessor who wants to come out and give me $105,000 for this house can have it today."

You don't have to tell her it could be a long wait. She knows.

The new assessments started showing up in mailboxes last week. I can't remember the last time I heard so much grumbling, unless it was two years ago.

Jim Maloney, the Polk County assessor, has been hearing it, too. And not just from strangers who wonder how home values can increase so much in such an allegedly soft market.

I believe that this is all a conspiratorial effort by local crooked politicians in order to sell "property tax relief" to voters in the form of the sales tax increase called Project Destiny.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Do I Feel Lucky?

Last week, a disgruntled student at Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., went on a shooting spree. Peter Odighizuwa tragically shot six people, killing Dean Anthony Sutin, Associate Professor Thomas Blackwell, and student Angela Dales.

Most news reports pointed out that the situation ended when several students "confronted," "tackled," or "intervened." However, Tracy Bridges, Ted Besen, Todd Ross, and Mikael Gross did not merely "confront" Odighizuwa. Bridges and Gross separately ran to their cars to get their handguns once the shooting began. Bridges approached Odighizuwa with Besen's and Ross' aid. Gross was close behind. According to Bridges, "I aimed my gun at him, and Peter tossed his gun down." Bridges, Besen, and Gross had previously received police or military training.

Unfortunately, the media did not point out that the "intervening" students were armed. A Lexis-Nexis search revealed 88 stories on the topic, of which only two mentioned that either Bridges or Gross were armed. A Westnews search exposed worse results. It revealed 112 stories, of which only two mentioned the armed students.

With media bias like this, it is no wonder that people fail to see the benefits of gun ownership. This was a very public shooting with a lot of media coverage. Even here, reporters rarely presented the positive side of firearms. Instead, they preferred to default to the politically correct story portraying guns as something only the bad guy uses.

Of course, this media bias is not unprecedented. A more thorough Lexis-Nexis search by a Yale researcher revealed 687 articles on the school shooting in Pearl, Miss. Of those, only 19 mentioned that Assistant Principal Joel Myrick retrieved a gun from his car and stopped the shooters four-and-a-half minutes before police arrived.

Few will remember that an armed guard helped many students at Columbine escape and was thwarted only when shooters began using explosives. Fewer still will remember that a restaurant owner who was hosting a school dance for students in Edinboro, Pa., stopped a student shooter 11 minutes before police could arrive.

Our myopic view of guns leads too many of us to believe that if we disarm people, we will be safer. Unfortunately, mandatory disarmament only disarms those who are interested in obeying the law. Laws against gun ownership and possession are ineffective against those who would do us harm.

More about this at Classically Liberal

The Final Final Nail In The Coffin For The Earthpork Rainforest

From the Des Moines Register this afternoon:

Governor Chet Culver is against the 11th-hour bid to help the embattled "Earthpark" project planned for Pella. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would give Earthpark, a sort of indoor rainforest, a rebate on state sales taxes -- the same kind of state tax incentive given to the new Iowa Speedway near Newton.

Last fall, Culver ridiculed the 50-million dollar federal grant for the Earthpark as an example of pork barrel spending. Culver and his running mate Patty Judge laughed and wore yellow rain slickers as water poured from above in a campaign ad that mocked the indoor rain forest concept.

"Throughout the campaign, I said that we had so many other priorities," Culver says. "It was not helpful in terms of our federal deficit." Culver says no one from the Earthpark board has contacted him to plead their case and he's not prepared to provide any state support to the project.

Good.

Back on October 26, 2006, this blog predicted that a Culver victory would be The Final Nail In The Rainforest Coffin, so read that post again.

Thank God Jim Ross Nussle lost!

Once this thing is dead and buried, I'd like to know who is responsible for paying back the $2.9 million in Federal deficit dollars that chief con artist David Oman blew through. Maybe through some sick twist of fate David Oman will get Des Moines-area taxpayers on the hook for it!

Paul Shomshor Supports Earthpork Taxpayer Welfare

A proposal to give an Iowa rainforest project millions of dollars in tax breaks is likely to move forward this week despite its late introduction in the legislative session, a key lawmaker said today.

“It probably will” be considered, said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Democrat from Des Moines. “That is more likely than unlikely” to be debated this week.

This year’s legislative session is expected to end this week. An incentives package must gain approval by the Iowa House and Senate as well as the governor’s signature before the breaks could be officially granted...

...Earthpark developers have until the end of this year to match approximately $48 million that Congress has allocated for the project. If the matching money is not raised by then, the federal grant would be rescinded.

The House’s Ways and Means committee might discuss the issue Tuesday, said the Rep. Paul Shomshor, a Council Bluffs Democrat who is chairman of the that committee.

“I thought it was a good project but you have to weigh that into how much money you’re putting into it,” Shomshor said today.

Is Shomshor retarded?

Just over the river from his Council Bluffs home is the Lied Jungle at the Henry Doorly Zoo. Perhaps Mr Shomshor isn't aware of how many visitors the zoo and jungle bring in, but here are some links to figures that he ought to review.

The Omaha metro area has about 822,000 people living there.

Pella has less than 10,000.

West Des Moines to Pella is about 55 miles.

Does anybody know if this "tax break" would count towards con artist David Oman's $50 million matching? Oh, wait, no, the Des Moines Register article says that Oman needs $48 million in matching funds. What happened to the other $2 million? Actually, the last I read, $2.9 million was scammed by Oman for day-to-day expenses. Where's the Des Moines Register's crack reporters to investigate this malfeasance? Sitting on their thumbs, it seems.

Oman can't raise a private dime. He's had nearly 10 years to come up with fundraising besides Ted Townsend's original pledge and it's been nothing but delay tactics and empty promises. Why are so many politicians unable to smell him out?

And, somehow, I just can't see Governor Chet Culver allowing this legislation to pass:

Obama's 10,000

Could Hitlery pull in 10,000 white people on a Sunday in a town of about 50,000 people?

I doubt it.

John Edwards might.

Greg Alan Blog

The Greg Alan blog has an updated address that is easier to reach now. Visit http://blog.gregalan.net/

Anti-Earthpark Comments

Some of the anti-Earthpork comments on today's story in the Des Moines Register:

I've been closely following Iowa CHILD, a.k.a. the Iowa Environmental Project, a.k.a. The Environmental Project, a.k.a. Earthpark, since the beginning years ago. (Which is more than can be said for most people in Pella and most state legislators, I'd bet money.) I am still amazed that such a poorly-thought-out, poorly-planned, non-reality-based, constantly-shape-shifting idea managed to persuade Grassley to hand over $50 million of our tax money. But it's no surprise that having failed to persuade private investors that this turkey is a good investment (they've been trying and failing to raise private money for years), the planners are back at the public trough, figuring that taxpayers are dumber than the private sector.

I'd also bet that Grassley is secretly regretting his support for this project. In any case, the Iowa Legislature should not follow his bad example by pouring even MORE tax money down this rathole. Some recreation projects are well-thought-out, are worth tax dollars, and will more than repay public investment over time. This project is not one of them.

How many new schools could we build for what it will cost to build Earthpark? It is time to say no to this ridiculous waste of tax dollars.

First, the project begged for and received federal funding. Then, it kept moving around the state due to a lack of local funding. Now, the project seeks state funding. I have yet to hear any truths come from David Omen's mouth.

Our state legislators need to read the complete synopsis of this project, written by a well-respected law professor at the University of Iowa. Nick Johnson has spent hundreds of hours evaluating the merits of the project, as well as the identifying the unresolved challenges.

Check it out here: http://nicholasjohnson.org/politics/IaChild/

The state would be wise to run away from this project. Any votes for this project signify a true ignorance to the details of the project.

Dave Oman & Co.:

I won't say your plan doesn't have attractive features, and I won't say the initiative was fatally flawed from the start. (Maybe laughable but not impossible.) I was a big fan of 2010, and I applaud much of what's being done with CAT and Vision Iowa funds.

I do say your federal earmark is a continuing embarrassment for Iowa, and it appears you still haven't made your case to private investors. (If they won't bet on you without government playing a mammoth role, they're not very sold.) Your own investment of effort and ego are excusable (I admire your tenacity), but you blew it with me for this scheme when you bulled ahead after failing to make it work at Coralville. A little humility and rethinking at that point might have paid back big.

Come on, pull the plug. Iowa can do better. The last thing we need is an overhyped, undercapitalized white elephant decaying at Pella.

EarthPark or EarthPork? Let the federal dollars revert. Maybe setting a good example for other states will give us standing to lead the way for better priorities.

Besides, compared with so much of the rest of the planet, Iowa already is Earth Park--or was. Let's restore what Nature gave our predecessors. Let's take care of the many wonderful parks and "environmental education" sites we've already got. Let's push for public priorities and private investment that reward good stewardship of this gem of a garden park stretching from river to river. A park our grandchildren will be proud to inherit, providing the best work anywhere. A park all will want to share, and none will want to leave. Earth Park, the real thing!

One day, it's Project Destiny looking for a 17% sales tax increase for "fun and culture stuff" that may or may not (depending where you live) help lower property taxes.

The next day developers want millions to build a hotel near Wells Fargo Arena for "fun". The day after that they say the brand new Hy-Vee Hall needs a multi-million upgrade for "meetings and fun conferences".

And today, the Register features a story of the Pork-Dome looking at our wallets for "fun and education".

Look, the place just had a 20% drop in attendance...and it isn't even open yet! Jobs will pay $40,000 at the place? Sorry, but in my mind I see a couple of ticket takers and a concession stand where teens sell "collectible" plastic bottles filled with Earth Juice.

Here is an idea: if the lure of profits (which seems to be very attractive to a lot of people still) is great enough, then let the developers finance their own business plan with banks and private investors. It makes no sense to charge 2 million Iowans with a $300,000,000 bill and then expect us to show up and pay $15 at the door once every 10 years...about as often as I drive over to Omaha to see their zoo.

If we were talking about low-income housing, or medical insurance ideas, then that would be one thing...but a bubble dome and resort in Pella???Sorry, not with my tax dollars. And I mean that - one way or the other you will NOT use my tax dollars...when I'm living in another state that has a grip on reality.

I would think that simply waiting to the last minute to ask is enough to tell us that this national laughing stock should tell us the proper thing to do. Put those millions towards real problem

I just looked up the email addresses for the entire Iowa Senate and sent them all an email. Even if they ignore me, they know how i feel. Now I have to find the email addresses for the Iowa House........

I wonder if any of our lawmakers read these online comments.

Then there's always one total idiot retard:

This money is not just for Pella. Earth Park will be attracting visitors from all over the country, so it is money well-spent. Not to mention the biotech jobs that will be located there. Those jobs are the best reason to support it.

Biotech jobs? WTF does Earthpork have to do with biotech companies?

Back Then Hoes Didn't Want Me. Now I'm Hot Hoes All On Me

From Monday's Des Moines Register:

It is with heavy heart that I decide to inform the Veishea committee that its decision to have Mike Jones be its headliner was beyond a bad decision.

The 3,000-plus crowd of ISU students deserve better than a 35 minute set preceded by a 45 minute delay from a performer that boasts he's "'rolling up in a car that's more than ya'lls tuition."

If that emcee wants to put his "ride" against my student loan payments for the next 20 years, I would appreciate the effort.

I feel that the students of Iowa State deserve better from a "headliner," given the fact it is the students that put on the largest student-run festival in the nation.

I understand the fact that the chairpersons of Veishea want to put together the best lineup possible, but when you rely on a half-baked rapper to headline the largest student-run festival in the nation, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Greg Currie
Senior
Management Information System

Gee, they fired Don Imus for a hell of a lot less:

Still Tippin' lyrics:

[Hook - 2x]
Still Tippin' on four fours, wrapped in four vogues
Tippin' on four fours, wrapped in four vogues
Tippin' on four fours wrapped in four vogues
Pimping four hoes and I'm packing four fours

[Slim Thug]
Now look who creeping look who crawling still balling in the mix
It's that six six long dick slim nigga sticking your chick
Pullin tricks looking slick at all times when I'm flipping
Bar sipping car dipping grand wood grain gripping
Still tippin' on four fours wrapped in four vogues
Pimping four hoes and I'm packing four fours
Blowing on the endo Game Cube Nintendo
Five percent tint so you can't see up in my window
These niggaz don't understand me cuz I'm Boss Hogg on candy
Top down at Maxi's wit a big glock nine handy
Pieced up creased up staying dressed to impress
Big boss belt buckle under my Mitchell and Ness
Oh, Gucci shades up on my braids when I Escalade
When I'm riding Sprewells sliding like a escapade
I got it made the big boss of the north
Ain't shit changed I still represent Swisha House (Ha!)

[Hook - 2x]

[Mike Jones]
Four fours I'm tippin'
Wood grain I'm gripping
Catch me lane switching with the paint dripping
Turn your neck and your dame missing
Me and Slim we ain't tripping I'm finger flipping and syrup sipping
Like do or die I'm po' pimping Car stop rims keep spinning
I'm flipping drop with indvisible tops
Hoes bop when my drop step out
I'm shaking the block with four eighteens'
Candy green with eleven screens
My gasoline always supreme
Got do-do the brown with a pint of lean
It takes grinding to be a king
It takes grinding to be a king
First Round Draft Picks coming
Who is Mike Jones coming
Slab shining with the grill and woman
Slab shining with the grill and woman
I'm Mike Jones (Who) Mike Jones the one and only you can't clone me
Got a lot a haters and a lot of homies some friends and some phony
Back then hoes didn't want me Now I'm hot hoes all on me
Back then hoes didn't want me Now I'm hot hoes all on me
Back then hoes didn't want me Now I'm hot hoes all on me
(I Said!) Back then hoes didn't want me Now I'm hot hoes all on me

[Hook - 2x]

[Paul Wall]
What it do it's Paul Wall I'm the people's champ
My chain light up like a lamp cuz now I'm back with the camp
I'm crawling similar to an ant cuz I'm low to the earth
People's feelings get hurt when they figure out what I'm worth
I got eighty fours poking out at the club I'm showing out
I'm a player ain't no doubt hoes want to know what I'm bout
Biggest diamonds off in my mouth princess cuts all in my chain
Wood grain all in my range dripping stains when I switch lanes
Switched the name It's still the same Swisha House or Swisha Blast
Mike Jones he running the game and Magnificent bout his cash
Michael Watts he made me hot hard work took me to the top
G. Dash took me to the lot he wrote a check and bought a drop
I got the internet going nuts
But T. Farris got my back so now I'm holding my nuts
It's Paul Wall baby what you know bout me
I'm on that five nine Southle baby holla at me

Or watch the video:

Does that niggaz bitch look like she's sucking Mike Jones's cock while he's driving in the video? Why, yes it does!

Nice job, ISU. First you hire a cunt as provost, now this.

At least there wasn't any rioting this year:

Bill Dotzler Supports Con Artist Oman's Rainforest Scam

Developers of two projects planned for the north shore of Lake Red Rock are quietly trying to cultivate support in the Iowa Legislature for up to $75 million in state government assistance...

...Earthpark developers want the Legislature to extend a state tourism grant program so they could apply for $25 million to $35 million to help with the cost of building the environmental center.

Today, the Iowa House Ways and Means Committee is expected to discuss the Point's sales tax proposal. The request is similar to a $12.5 million sales tax incentive package lawmakers approved in 2005 for the new Iowa Speedway in Newton.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, a Council Bluffs Democrat, also expects lawmakers to discuss extending the state's Community Attraction and Tourism fund, known as CAT, so Earthpark could apply for money from that program. Because of the amount Earthpark wants, its grant might have to be spread over four or five years...

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, an Iowa City Democrat and chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, is skeptical about the chances of putting together the incentive package the two developers want...

...Dotzler said Earthpark "has the potential to be a huge tourism draw." He said, "I think this is going to be a huge economic engine for central Iowa."

Kudos to Bolkcom for being skeptical.

What is the matter with idiots like Bill Dotzler? Earthpork is guaranteed to be a huge financial disaster, and all on the backs of the taxpayers. And who will be accountable? Nobody!

Even former Governor Tom Vilsack said "With all due respect to those who support the rain forest, it’s nuts"

Chet Culver On The Iowa Power Fund

From Governor Chet Culver in the Des Moines Register today:

"Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world." These are the words of fellow Iowan and Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, who launched a 20th century expedition to eradicate hunger. He saw a problem facing the world and used the natural resources and skills developed here in Iowa to help feed the world.

Well, today our world faces a new energy challenge that calls for a 21st century Iowa expedition.

Borlaug proved that our vast natural resources here in Iowa can help solve the world's most pressing problems. The eyes of the world are upon us once again to use these resources to develop new forms of renewable energy to reduce, and perhaps eliminate, our dependence on fossil fuels.

Now is the time for Iowa to take the lead in the race to become the energy capital of the world.

What we need is an exciting, forward-thinking plan and coordinated effort to explore our new energy frontier. We can create the jobs of the future in Iowa that will keep your kids and my kids at home where they belong.

Simply put, what we need is the Iowa Power Fund.

What Chet Culver is doing here is basically saying "Fuck You" to Norman Borlaug by taking all that food Iowa is growing and burning it in our cars and trucks.

So much for the rest of the world's moral right.

And what is this bullshit about Iowa becoming the energy capital of the world? Iowa imports nearly 97% of the fuel necessary to create electricity, power your home computer, or drive a car. When is some non-ass-kissing Iowa reporter going call the Big Lug on his misinformation? Oh, that's right. NEVER.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all in favor of turning NW Iowa is a giant windfarm and upgrading the grid in order to export electricity to nearby metropolitan areas, but it costs a pretty penny to do so. The Iowa ~~Pork~~ Power Fund will likely be about doling out taxpayer-financed checks to politically-connected ethanol producers and Big Agriculture rather than doing anything substantive to make Iowa energy independent.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

David Oman Thinks Earthpork Can Get Money Out Of The Iowa Legislature

Chief rainforest con artist and Republican David Oman

From the Des Moines Register:

At the Iowa Statehouse those are very real tasks - not mental exercises - for legislators hoping to bring the 2007 session to a close by the end of this week.

The session began in early winter with a new Democratic governor - Chet Culver - exhorting a Legislature controlled by his party for the first time in 15 years...

- Community project incentives. Lawmakers say a large Internet company such as Google is weighing whether to locate part of its operation near Council Bluffs. The Senate will weigh proposed tax incentives to lure the company, approved by the House last week. Backers of Earthpark - a combination rain forest, aquarium and education center to be built near Pella - are trying to build support in the Legislature for a package of financial incentives for that project.

I guarantee that Republican David Oman will not get a single dime from this Democrat-run Iowa Legislature, much less Democratic Governor Chet Culver, especially after this:

As of Monday, Oman only has 223 days (December 1st) to come up with cold hard cash matching funds in order to get the rest of weasel Senator Chuck Grassley's deficit-financed $50 million pork pledge.

One thing that no reporter has bothered to ask is what happens to David Oman if the project completely falls through (again). Remember that $2.9 million of Grassley's $50 million grant has been drawn down to pay for day-to-day things. Seriously, what happens?

Update: There a more expanded story in Monday's Des Moines Register on this scam.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Hitlery: "My Husband Has Been So Experienced"

From the ASSociated Press:

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa

Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that if she is elected president, she would make her husband a roaming ambassador to the world, using his skills to repair the nation's tattered image abroad.

"I can't think of a better cheerleader for America than Bill Clinton, can you?" the Democratic senator from New York asked a crowd jammed into a junior high school gymnasium. "He has said he would do anything I asked him to do. I would put him to work."

Clinton spoke at a town hall-style meeting Saturday where she took questions from about 200 people. When asked what role the former president would play in her administration, she left no doubt it would be an important one.

"I'm very lucky that my husband has been so experienced in all of these areas," said Clinton

Mmmm, what a purdy mouth you got! You like cigars?

John Edwards Pays His Hair Share

From the Quad City Times:

As a gusty spring wind tousled his neatly trimmed locks Friday, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said he’s embarrassed about his now-famous $400 haircut.

Campaign finance records show that Edwards’ campaign paid a Beverly Hills stylist $400 for his haircuts. Those pricey snips have undercut Edwards’ image as a populist crusading for the little guy.

“It’s a ridiculous amount of money for a haircut,” Edwards told reporters after a campaign stop on Adel’s town square. “I’m actually embarrassed by it.

You know, John Edwards has nothing to be embarrassed about. Rich people like him should be forced to pay their fair share, especially in proportion to how much money they have. Isn't that the progressive way?

If John Edwards kept his spending in proportion to what he bills his campaign for a hair cut, he should be paying $110 for a gallon of gas, $20 for a package of Wrigley's chewing gum , and one million dollars for a Toyota Camry.

Maybe if other rich guys set an example like John Edwards rather than running around with their hands out to get a bunch of taxpayer-financed corporate welfare, our deficit would be history and the world would be a nicer place.

What's That About Two Americas?

The Iowa House on Friday approved tax breaks in an effort to lure a large Internet company to Iowa.

Essentially, the incentives would offer sales-tax and use-tax breaks on equipment, machinery and electricity on an investment of at least $200 million.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Google was creating a $600 million data center in North Carolina - after receiving an estimated $260 million in incentives over 30 years. That announcement has led to speculation that the company may be eyeing a Midwest location.

Legislators have declined to say what company is looking at Iowa.

So the rich companies worth zillions of dollars get tax breaks, but not you downloading plebs:

A bill containing what critics described as an "iPod tax" was approved by the Senate on Thursday.

The catch-all revenue department bill includes a provision that would raise $4.3 million or more annually by applying the 5 percent state sales tax to digital material that's been downloaded from the Internet: songs, audio books, cell-phone ring tones, movies and computer software.

"This tax is impractical, unenforceable and it is highly unpopular," said Sen. Jeff Angelo, a Creston Republican, in opposing the measure.

Supporters say the state is simply treating the taxation of such items the same - whether the purchase is from a business on Main Street or on the Internet.

Senate File 596 was passed by the Senate on a 29-20 vote and sent to the House for more debate.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Today Is 420

Another manifestation of 420.

I don't know why this event isn't held on April 20th rather than March.

Now for some entertainment that reminds me of the Rock In Prevention scam:

And if you want to learn a little Spanish today:

Why Can't Iowa State Hire Dr Bruce Banner?

From DailyIndia.com:

Iowa State University researchers have created the new gamma ray VERITAS telescope system, regarded as the northern hemisphere's most sensitive instrument for finding gamma rays from space...

...Gamma rays have lots of energy. The energy of visible light is one electron volt and gamma rays have energies of one million to one trillion electron volts. While even with all that energy, the rays can't penetrate the earth's atmosphere, but when they hit the atmosphere, they create showers of electrons and positrons that create a blue light known as Cerenkov radiation.

Maybe I should start selling gamma ray offsets. The last thing the glaciers need is billions and billions of electrons and positrons melting them further.

This sounds like a job for Dr Bruce Banner, although I suspect his proclivity for freaking out and turning into a violent green monster might not fit too well with our favorite cunt at ISU.

John McCain Is Insane In The Membrane

How could anybody possibly support this nut? This is McCain campaigning recently in South Carolina:

Insane is McCain:

Helen Thomas: Every Day In Iraq Is "Blacksburg, Five Times Over"

From the Sioux City Journal:

Helen Thomas advised a full-capacity crowd in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union on Thursday to question their country.

"You have to ask who are we and where are we going for our current deeds," she said. "We are despised in the world. We have lost our halo."

Thomas, former White House Bureau Chief for United Press International and current Hearst Newspapers columnist, indicted the current presidential administration as being "rudderless" and lacking direction.

More than 600 people came to hear "The First Lady of the Press," who is known for her work at the White House with the previous eight presidents.

Thomas said President George W. Bush was determined to go to war in Iraq but has yet to give a reason why. She said every day in Iraq is "Blacksburg, five times over."

That smelly old bag. When is she going to die? Why is she even allowed in the White House Press Corps? Nobody reads her column.

Blacksburg, of course, was the town where the Virginia Tech massacre took place.

Michael Gartner Is Suddenly Concerned About Security

From WOI-TV:

The Board of Regents has ordered Iowa's three public universities to review its security amid concern over the recent deadly shootings at Virginia Tech University.

Board President Michael Gartner said the schools should conduct a thorough analysis before enacting any changes. He said he understands the public outcry for immediately bolstering security at the schools, such as arming campus security officers.

The Senate rejected that proposal on Wednesday, but the regents still have authority to enact the plan.

``While it is natural for caring citizens and policy makers to have immediate and strong opinions about how to react to horrible events like the one at Virginia Tech, it is very important that decisions ... not be made too quickly,'' Gartner said in a statement issued Thursday.

Yeah, don't act too quickly everybody. All schools in the Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences have gun-totin' campus police officers except the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

Michael Gartner, of course, is the same fella who, when he was the head of NBC News in the early 1990s, ordered reporter Arthur "The Scud Stud" Kent into a war zone without anything (the following is by author Ken Auletta):

Now reluctantly working for Dateline NBC in Rome, Kent's foreign stories were being butchered and dropped altogether and Kent wanted to know why. In his attempts to find out what was happening, Kent wrote several letters to Don Browne, vice-president of NBC news. He was becoming an ever-present thorn in the side of one of the world's largest corporations.

Fed up with Kent's persistent requests for some justification as to why his stories were being dropped, David Verdi, under the orders of Michael Gartner, assigned Kent and his team to Zagreb and then to move immediately into Bosnia.

It was an extremely dangerous assignment. Twenty-seven journalists had been killed in Bosnia the year before. Kent and his team were sent in without bullet-proof vests and helmets. They were provided with no translators or guides, no first-aid gear, no maps and no background files. Kent refused the assignment. NBC's own policy book stated that all hazardous assignments were purely voluntary. Kent also had a contract with NBC which stated that reassignment from Dateline could only be to the senior Europea n posts at NBC's Nightly News.

He was sent letters from Michael Gartner, threatening him with suspension. Kent was eventually suspended and fired. Gartner wasted no time in launching a publicity campaign claiming that Kent had been suspended for refusing a legitimate and safe assignment-to Zagreb, Croatia with no mention that Kent had been assigned to go into Bosnia.

Kent's case never went to trial, but the book takes on a dramatic turn from the world theatre to the boardrooms of NBC where Kent tells his story through depositions. Here, the various people involved in the Kent vs. NBC case tell their side of the story to the defendant and the plaintiff (and their lawyers) under oath.

If the book up until this point is fascinating, it reaches the realms of the un-put-down-able in these later chapters. In just under 75 pages, the upper management of NBC comes tumbling down. An organization, when called to account for what appeared to be lies, irresponsible decision-making, compromised news reporting and sensationalistic tendencies, simply cannot defend itself. Many of NBC's executives come across as-for lack of a better word-morons. Kent's case seems so strong from the beginning that it is hard to believe his opponents manage to run a network.

David Verdi, who was responsible for assigning Kent and his partner to Bosnia, admits that he doesn't know the Serb capital of Bosnia or the Muslim capital. He also admits that no equipment was available to Kent when he was assigned to go into Bosnia. More digging revealed that, contrary to Gartner's claims in the press release denouncing Kent, there was never an assignment to "peaceful Zagreb." (Ironically, Kent ended up in Bosnia anyway, filming an award-winning documentary sold, in part, to the BBC and CBC.)

From beginning to end, it is clear that Kent is in the right and NBC is terribly, terribly wrong. Kent initially asked for $25 million plus a full apology. The cash settlement Kent received remains confidential, but by the end of the book, Kent achieves three consequential achievements. Not only does he clear his name and show that his dishonourable discharge was based on completely false charges, but he has demonstrated something to which everyone who considers news of some importance should pay close attention: NBC news was (and very well may still be) driven by its entertainment division-as appalling a revelation as can be imagined.

And don't forget Gartner's past thoughts about guns. This is attributed to him via USA Today on January 16, 1992:

There is no reason for anyone in this country, for anyone except a police officer or a military person, to buy, to own, to have, to use, a handgun. The only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns. And the only way to do that is to change the Constitution.

Also from the April 1991 issue of Shooting Industry:

Headlined "Tell Me a Good Reason for Handguns," the column began with Gartner declaring, "This is another of those columns about guns. I'm against them.

"I'm especially against handguns..." After spending most of the column citing Handgun Control Inc. statistics and advocating passage of the Brady Bill with its nationwide seven-day waiting period for handgun purchases, Gartner arrived at his real objective when he stated, "That doesn't seem too much too ask (passage of the Brady Bill).

"Indeed, it isn't enough. In fact, only police and soldiers -- and, maybe, licensed target ranges -- should have handguns. No one else needs one."

What a dilemma, eh?

It's hard to see Gartner going against the Democrats who control the Iowa Legislature. The Iowa Senate just recently voted to not allow public campus police officers in Iowa from carrying guns. The Board of Regents can vote to allow officers to carry guns, but I doubt that will ever happen because the board is so full of Democrat appointees.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Iowa Senate Passes A New Pork Fund

Gov. Chet Culver's push to create a $100 million Iowa Power Fund took a big step forward Thursday.

The Iowa Senate voted 36-13 in favor a bill creating the fund, an new state Office of Energy Independence and an 18-member board to hand out dollars...

..."The Power Fund is about research and development of new technologies around the renewable fuels industry," said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo.

Culver wants to move quickly. So lawmakers would fill the Power Fund with an immediate $25 million this year and $75 million over the next three years.

Backers say they money would be invested in renewable energy research lawmakers hope will lead to lucrative commercial ventures. Energy efficiency and public education efforts also get a share.

Pork, the other biofuel!

Pork stops global warming!

Er, but nevermind that Iowa imports 97% of all energy sources that it uses.

Staci Appel Is Costing Taxpayers A Lot Of Money

State Senator Staci Appel and her husband, Iowa Supreme Court Justice Brent Appel, who basically bought his appointment.

From Radio Iowa:

The Iowa Senate has given final legislative approval to a 15-million dollar preschool program, sending the measure on to the governor for his approval. The bill would provide grants to school districts that begin offering four-year-olds at least 10 hours of classroom time each week with a qualified teacher. Kids attending in-home daycare could go to a local elementary school for those 10 hours, or the teacher could work out of an existing preschool.

Senator Staci Appel, a Democrat from Ackworth, says either way, the move will help shrink the so-called "achievement" gap. "We've got kids coming into kindergarten who can read at a first and second grade reading level, and then we have children coming in that don't know what their last name is, can't tell you what color they have on and that's a huge achievement gap that no teacher can shrink," Apple says. "I'm hoping that this early childhood program will help do that."

And if it doesn't can taxpayers get rid of it?

Ha ha, just joking.

This scam is all based on a very small study of poor black children in Michigan in 1962 called The Perry Project. It's also a payoff to school districts and ~~campaign donors~~ the unions that represent teachers.

If kids are going into kindergarten unable to know their last name, then perhaps DHS should be sniffing around the child's apartment and checking the DNA and criminal record of the sperm donor the child's mother is fucking and making more worthless bastards with.

No, they won't do anything like that. DHS certainly doesn't want to look like anybody has an ax to grind.

Isn't it strange? School districts get more money than ever before. Teachers do the best with what they have. And there's all this special ed and alternative high schools for loser kids to attend and things like Ritalin and Prozac to drug the little mouthy brats into compliance. But despite all these efforts the do-gooder idiots like Staci Appel, who I can only guess isn't around to see her kids grow up, have to soak the taxpayers with what will eventually be billions of dollars of wasted money on a small number of 4 year olds who really would thrive better with a stable two-parent-married family rather than living in lice/drug/fast food/swearing/pit bulls/drugs/porn filled lifestyle that their shitbag "parents" engage in. I'd rather see these little brats rounded up and sent to some State institution where they could at least be turned around. Wouldn't that be cheaper than this?

And this "middle income families" bullshit that Staci Appel talks about, come on. Has she even bothered to find out how much a decent pre-school costs? I called a buddy of mine whose son went to a preschool in a church last year. Know how much he paid? It was around $100 a month. If "middle income families" can't afford $100 a month for pre-school for junior then the family has a serious budget and lifestyle problem.

Staci Appel is public enemy #1 against the taxpayers and anybody who is objects to her pro-authoritarian and pro-voter fraud agenda. If the Republican Party of Iowa Wimps can't bother to concentrate resources to get rid of her well-used uterus in 2008 then they deserve to continue to be the permanent minority they are becoming.

John Edwards Needs Universal Haircare

From the QC Times:

Quad-City barbers put down their shears and sputtered words like “preposterous” and “impossible” Wednesday when they heard of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards spending $400 for a haircut. In the Quad-Cities, $10 or $12 is about average.

“If I charged $400 for a haircut, they’d come after me with white coats,” said Leo Fier, who has been cutting hair for 49 years at his shop in DeWitt, Iowa.

Edwards’ campaign committee filed a financial report with the Federal Election Commission noting that the White House hopeful paid $400 for haircuts in California and New Hampshire, and $248 for salon services in Dubuque, Iowa.

“That’s impossible, $400,” said Don “Dutchman” Braafhart, who runs Dutchman’s Barbershop in Davenport.

Believe it, Dutchman. Don't you know there are Two Americas?

And from the most comments I've ever seen on a QC Times story:

"This is why our country needs Universal Haircare! There's no other way to counter "Big Barbershop" and their stranglehold on America."

Now for your entertainment:

Democrats Don't Want Cops To Have Guns

A proposal to require campus police officers at Iowa's state universities to carry guns was narrowly defeated Wednesday by the Iowa Senate.

The proposal was prompted by the massacre at Virginia Tech and news reports that all schools in the Big Ten and Big 12 conferences except the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have officers who routinely carry guns.

That really says it all, doesn't it?

Democrats are soft on crime, period.

Democrats are such a bunch of weak fairies that they won't even allow the police to carry guns.

That's really insane, isn't it?

Look at the University of Iowa. They've got about 30,000 students. With all the support staff and other workers, you've likely got about 40,000 students, professors, employees, and associated people running around on the campus throughout the day. That's basically the population of Ankeny but without any cops that are armed.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Remember Charlie Little, Jr?

When I read this story about Cho Seung Hui in the Washington Post today, it made me think back to a murder case about 20 years ago in Des Moines involving then-named Charlie Little, Jr.

Charlie Little, Jr murdered his adoptive parents, Charlie Little, Sr and Arlene Little, back in 1986. Junior got off by having his lawyer convince some dumbass judge to throw out key evidence like the shotgun residue discovered on Junior's hands.

Little later changed his name to Alexander Morgan and moved away from Iowa. Junior/Morgan eventually committed suicide by driving his car into a stone wall at very high speeds in Tennessee in 1992.

The thing about the Charlie Little case I've always remembered was that he would turn in very graphic, disturbing, and violent stories in his writing classes at school. They were so disturbing that it freaked the teachers out. If I remember correctly, some of these teachers testified during Little's trial.

As you'll read in the WaPo story, the same sort of thing was going on with Cho Seung Hiu:

Cho (whose full name is pronounced joh sung-wee) appears first to have alarmed the noted Virginia Tech poet Nikki Giovanni in a creative writing class in fall 2005, Giovanni said.

Cho took pictures of fellow students during class and wrote about death, she said in an interview. "Kids write about murder and suicide all the time. But there was something that made all of us pay attention closely. None of us were comfortable with that," she said.

The students once recited their poems in class. "It was like, 'What are you trying to say here?' It was more sinister," she said.

Days later, seven of Giovanni's 70 or so students showed up for a class. She asked them why the others didn't show up and was told that they were afraid of Cho.

"Once I realized my class was scared, I knew I had to do something," she said.

She approached Cho and told him that he needed to change the type of poems he was writing or drop her class. Giovanni said Cho declined to leave and said, "You can't make me."

Giovanni said she appealed to Roy, who then taught Cho one-on-one. Roy, 51, said in a telephone interview that she also urged Cho to seek counseling and told him that she would walk to the counseling center with him. He said he would think about it.

Roy said she warned school officials. "I was determined that people were going to take notice," Roy said. "I felt I'd said to so many people, 'Please, will you look at this young man?' "

Roy, now the alumni distinguished professor of English and co-director of the creative writing program, said university officials were responsive and sympathetic to her warnings but indicated that because Cho had made no direct threats, there was little they could do.

"I don't want to be accusatory or blaming other people," Roy said. "I do just want to say, though, it's such a shame if people don't listen very carefully and if the law constricts them so that they can't do what is best for the student."

There's a fine line between being accepting of oddballs in society and coming to the realization that some people are simply lunatics. You don't want to come off as "zero tolerance" like so many school officials did after Columbine, even to the point where 7th graders got expelled for shooting a rubber band.

But if 63 of the 70 students in the class refused to go because of a particular nutjob and what he wrote or did then that ought to get the attention of the officials at the university. It's a tough call. Where do you draw the line?

Update: More on Seung Cho as a student and his writings here.

Iowa: A State Of Taxes

From some press release at Earthtimes.org:

The Iowa Department of Revenue wants to being collecting sales tax on the books, songs and ring tones Iowans buy on-line. Officials argue it's only fair to tax on-line transactions because traditional Iowa retailers collect sales tax from folks who buy stuff in their stores.

From the way the story is written I can probably guess that this is one of those taxes in which individuals have to comply and send the money in on their own. If that's the case, $5 million in revenue is some figure that a state official dreamed up. In reality, it will be almost nothing.

The Department of Revenue, if I'm not mistaken, cannot impose the tax on a business if it doesn't have a bricks-and-mortar storefront or is a home-based business within Iowa borders. Many of these companies are nothing more than computer servers located on a rack in California, Malaysia, or the Russian Federation.

You can see what the Iowa Department of Revenue is trying to do here; force individuals into becoming hyper-compliant tax collectors for the State. Whoever dreamed this stuff up needs to taken out and publicly whipped.

Update: On a somewhat-related note is this letter in the Des Moines Register:

The Iowa Legislature is now proposing a tax on satellite signals. It claims it is only "fair" to impose this tax in order to level the playing field with cable companies, which are required to pay franchise fees.

Unless the cable franchise fee is a tax, the playing field is already level. Fees can be imposed only to reimburse the city for its costs of allowing the service.

If the money is used to pay for general city services, then it is by definition a tax.

The Iowa Supreme Court addressed this very issue when utility users sued to recover illegal taxes that were named franchise fees by the city. The cities have no costs associated with satellite signals, radio signals or wireless telephone signals.

They should not be able to impose a tax. However, we have a Legislature and a newspaper that love to see new taxes imposed on citizens.

- L. L. Snyder, Pleasant Hill

Even if the satellite tax passed and was signed into law by the governor, it would likely be challenged in court. The State would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers defending it, but I'm guessing it wouldn't hold up. Either way, the taxpayers are still getting fucked and satellite subscribers would see their fees go up due to litigation costs challenging the tax. Isn't it amazing how that game works?

Iowa Democrats Still Lying About And Hating Wal-Mart

Today, State Senator Jack Hatch and State Senator Joe Bolkcom joined with leaders of the WakeUpWalMart.com campaign to hold a press conference at the Iowa Statehouse calling on Wal-Mart, one of the state's largest employers, to stop shifting its health care costs on to Iowa's public health care programs and taxpayers.

At the State Capitol press conference, the speakers released a joint letter, signed by 27 Iowa elected leaders, including 17 Iowa State Senators and 10 Iowa State Representatives, which called on Wal-Mart to end its "inexcusable" behavior that leaves over half of its employees and their families without company health care. Among the Iowa elected leaders that signed onto the letter were Senator Staci Appel, Senator Daryl Beall, Senator Dennis Black, Senator Mike Connolly, Representative Marcella Frevert, Representative Mary Gaskill, Representative Elesha Gayman, and Representative Bruce Hunter.

The letter, addressed to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, emphasized that "because of rising health care costs and the fact that companies like Wal-Mart are failing to live up to their health care responsibilities, the Hawk-I program is facing a federal budget shortfall of $13 million and Iowa is facing the grim reality that 15,000 Iowa children may have to be dropped from the program by the end of June 2007."

I find the above statistic impossible to believe. Over half of Wal-Mart employees and their families do not have company health care?

It's likely that a lot of those people have health care through a spouse's full-time job somewhere else. Students likely obtain insurance through their parents. Seniors who work a very small number of hours each week might still qualify for Medicaid under the rules that Congress wrote.

Wal-Mart is a company that cut prices on over 330 generic prescriptions to $4. This program is now rolled out in over 3800 store pharmacies.

Here are some additional facts:

Wal-Mart provides health insurance to full- and part-time associates after a waiting period considered standard in the retail industry. For many associates, a job at Wal-Mart means new access to health coverage. Surveys of hourly associates showed that 30% had no health coverage before coming to work for Wal-Mart. After joining Wal-Mart, the percentage of associates who are uninsured drops. By our estimates, we have helped over 160,000 associates get off the rolls of the uninsured.

...According to a survey by The Segmentation Company, 7% of associates join Wal-Mart on Medicaid. Only 3% of associates remain on Medicaid after working for Wal-Mart for two years...

...Many associates – such as students looking for work experience, seniors supplementing their retirement income and individuals working a second job – join Wal-Mart with existing health care benefits.

...In some markets, associates can choose from as many as 18 medical coverage options.

...Wal-Mart offers Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to our associates, which provide yet another option for families to gain access to health insurance and save for future health care needs. Wal-Mart matches associates’ contributions to their HSAs dollar-for-dollar up to certain amounts, and associates own the accounts. (The match ranges from $250 to $1,000, depending on coverage level selected.)

...Based on input from associates, in 2006 Wal-Mart introduced a new Value Plan – specifically designed to provide more affordable access to health care coverage with some first dollar coverage for doctor visits and prescriptions – all before associates have to meet their deductibles.

...Unlike the employees of many of our retail competitors, both full- and part-time Wal-Mart associates can become eligible for health coverage.

...After one year, there’s no lifetime maximum on health care expenses—protecting employees and their families from catastrophic loss. Wal-Mart is one of few retailers to offer this benefit.

...After an annual deductible is met, Wal-Mart’s medical plan typically covers 80% of charges for all services included in the plan. After an associate reaches an annual out-of-pocket maximum, the plan pays 100% of all eligible charges.

...In some markets, premiums for the new Value Plans are as low as $11 per month and 30 cents more per day for children, no matter how many children an associate insures. Nationwide, every eligible associate – both full- and part-time - has access to individual coverage for no more than $23 per month and 50 cents more per day for children. Family coverage starts at $65 per month.

...During our recent open enrollment, about 70,000 associates who had previously waived coverage signed up for Wal-Mart plans. Of these associates, 78% of those surveyed said they were previously uninsured.

...Currently, Wal-Mart is conducting a pilot project that puts health clinics in our stores. With an emphasis on affordability and convenience, these clinics will give the communities we serve access to quality care while providing an alternative to expensive emergency room visits.

Much more here.

What is the matter with these idiot Democrats? Have they totally lost their minds? Do they think that we can't read and research their lies?

Do me a favor and email this blog post to the assholes whose names are highlighted above.

jack.hatch@legis.state.ia.us
joe.bolkcom@legis.state.ia.us
staci.appel@legis.state.ia.us
daryl.beall@legis.state.ia.us
dennis.black@legis.state.ia.us
mike.connolly@legis.state.ia.us
Marcella.Frevert@legis.state.ia.us
Mary.Gaskill@legis.state.ia.us
Elesha.Gayman@legis.state.ia.us
Bruce.Hunter@legis.state.ia.us

Can't We All Get Along?

An excellent post by Nicholas Johnson directed to the new members of the Iowa Board Of Regents ("An Open Letter to Regents on 'Governance'").

I didn't know that the upcoming Hawkeye men's basketball team doesn't have any actual Iowans on it. You really have to blame all that on Steve Alford, not pin it on new coach Lickliter.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

"I Hate Those Guys"

From the Letters section of the Des Moines Register:

A capture-the-flag game pitting “illegal immigrants” against the “Border Patrol” organized by University of Iowa College Republicans is being called “sophomoric,” “immature” and “tasteless.”

“I find it tasteless,” University of Iowa interim President Gary Fethke said. “It is juvenile. It doesn’t strike me as something one can support. That is part of the wonders of this nation; people are entitled to do tasteless and immature things. I don’t support it.”

The 5 p.m. event at City Park on Thursday, or what is being called Teddy Roosevelt Day, is part of Conservative Coming Out Week April 15 to 21. There was also a reenactment of the Civil War using water pistols on Sunday or Abraham Lincoln Day, and there will be an anti-terrorism themed George W. Bush Day on Friday.

A reenactment of the Civil War using water pistols!

That's funny.

Perhaps they could make some kites with Professor Kenneth Kress's picture on them and in the form of a $226,000 check and then fly them around campus.

Heh.

Those college Republicans sure have a lot more fun than the college Democrats. That's for sure. Maybe the Republican women aren't as loose, but at least they don't smell bad and have hairy legs.

Ron Van Fossen: "It’s not like I went out and robbed a bank or anything"

From the Quad City Times:

Embattled 1st Ward Alderman Ron Van Fossen walked out of the Scott County Jail shortly before 9 a.m. today, clean and sober and ready to get back to work.

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the loop,” said Van Fossen, who has missed more than a month of meetings because of a stay at an alcohol rehabilitation facility then serving jail time following a guilty plea on domestic assault and for violating a no-contact order.

The alderman was sentenced last week to 20 days on the assault charge but all but seven days were suspended.

Van Fossen, who had minor heart surgery two days before entering the jail, said he’s feeling well and — despite a petition urging him to be removed from the council that has at least some support from other council members — plans to finish out his term.

“I’ve received cards and letters from 1st Ward people who are totally behind me,” he said. “It’s not like I went out and robbed a bank or anything. I had a problem with my ex-wife to be, and that’s over with now.”

He said he’s eager to give testimony on accusations of sexual harassment filed against him by council administrative assistant Cyndi Webb.

Gee whiz.

Read the comments, they're always interesting.

I'm Shocked SHOCKED To Find That Many Out Of State Corporations Don't Have To Pay Property Taxes In Iowa

From the Kansas City Star:

Kansas City-based Alternative Energy Sources Inc. today said it has been awarded tax abatements totaling $7.5 million for the 110-million gallon ethanol plant it plans to build near Ogden, Iowa.

The Boone County (Iowa) Board of Supervisors awarded the abatement over the next 12.5 years, the company said in a news release. The abatement will defer local property taxes.

Alternative Energy Sources said it plans to break ground on the plant this summer and have in operation by late fall 2008.

They just hand out tax abatements like candy, don't they?

Who ends up paying the property taxes once out-of-state corporations have been successful at avoiding taxes in exchange for a handful of mediocre paying jobs? Low-income homeowners, that's who.

HSAs

There are two things a small business or a self-employed person dreads the most: taxes and health-care costs. The April 17 tax-filing deadline is a painful reminder of both.

However, the small-business and self-employed sector have been increasingly turning to a solution that provides a much-needed break: Health Savings Accounts. HSAs help control costs and provide attractive tax advantages, both for people who purchase their own insurance and for small-business owners...

...The HSA allows a self-employed business owner to put money into the account tax-free, where it grows tax-deferred, and can be withdrawn at any time for qualified medical expenses without any tax penalty.

According to Golden Rule Insurance Company (which pioneered the HSA concept), as of the middle of last year its HSA customers had saved $165 million in their accounts, and that's just since early 2004. In total, HSA policyholders nationwide have accumulated over $5 billion in the accounts at the close of 2006.

- Karen Kerrigan, president, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council

Some people think taxpayer-subsidized Socialized medicine is the way to go, but I believe that HSAs, coupled with a high-deductible catastrophic policy, is the wave of the future so that health care costs can be controlled.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Cracking Down On Loud Motorcycles In Muscatine

A couple weeks ago in the Muscatine Journal:

Why are motorcycles in Muscatine allowed to break the law (city noise ordinance and state code) with their illegal mufflers or straight pipes when cars are not? Legally, they are disturbing the peace, according to the police department.

Lt. Brett Talkington of the Muscatine Police Department said the motorcycle mufflers that the Department concentrates on are the after-factory pipes that are made to be excessively loud.

Violators are written an equipment memorandum which means they have three days to correct the muffler or tailpipe issue. After correcting the problem, the violator must bring the vehicle in question to the police station and have an officer listen to the noise from the muffler or tailpipes. If the officer feels the issue has been rectified, then he or she will sign off on the memorandum. If it is not taken care of, the officer will issue a ticket.

According to court officials, only one person has been cited for disturbing the peace with a motor vehicle in the last 4 years. On March 31, a Muscatine man was issued a citation on a loud motorcycle complaint.

Records at the Muscatine County Courthouse indicate that there had not been a citation issued under city code 7-9-3A (disturbing the peace with a motor vehicle) since May 29, 2003, and that was for a car noise violation. Prior to that, there were only 28 such citations filed under the code since 1995. None were filed from 2000-03.

These particular violations could also include such nuisances as squealing tires and improper use of a horn.

According to a news release issued by the Muscatine Police Department on March 28, officers will be cracking down on all vehicle-related noise violations including motorcycle noise, vehicle mufflers and vehicle stereos.

In the release, Police Chief Gary Coderoni said that the crackdown is related to the number of complaints the Department received last year. Noise violations impact the quality of life as people have the opportunity to enjoy the nice weather and leave their home windows open, he said.

It's about time the cops did something about all these deaf, pea-brained, and small-penised dickheads riding around on motorcycles that can sound louder than a Who concert.

Two years ago I was at a gas station in West Des Moines when a bunch of these "weekend executive outlaws" stopped for some gas near my car. Naturally, they had to rev their engines way up before stopping. I just about went deaf. I wanted to take a 2x4 and bash their helmet-less bald and gray heads in for that bullshit, but instead I just paid at the pump and got the hell out of there.

These dildos go around repeating the phony manta "loud pipes save lives", but that's complete bullshit. Most motorcycle accidents happen in front of the bike, not behind, and you don't see any of these dirtbags pointing their pipes towards the wind.

I'm surprised that Democrats in the Iowa Legislature haven't pushed to get a helmet law re-acted throughout Iowa. Not even children are required to use a helmet.

Do motorcycle enthusiasts realize what a negative opinion most normal people have of them ever since the explosion of after-market and custom pipes in recent years? I think a lot of us out there would love to see local police departments cracking down on these shitheads.

Gang Lu Redux?

The massacre at the Virginia Tech campus today brings back thoughts of the 1991 shootings by disgruntled PhD student Gang Lu at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

From Wikipedia:

On Friday 1-Nov-1991, using a .38 caliber revolver and also carrying a .22 caliber handgun, he shot five people to death, seriously wounded another, and then committed suicide in what is sometimes called the Gang Lu Massacre.

The people he killed were Christoph K. Goertz (his advisor), Linhua Shan (a fellow PhD student from China), Dwight R. Nicholson (department chair), Robert Alan Smith (associate professor and Lu's co-advisor), and T. Anne Cleary (Vice President for Academic Affairs). A student employee, Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, was shot in her spine; this permanently paralyzed her arms and legs.

Months before, Gang Lu wrote five letters explaining the reasons for his planned actions. The university has these letters. According to university officials, four of the letters are in English and were intended to be sent to news organizations. One is in Chinese.

The real reasons for the tragedy are still unknown today because Lu's letters have not been released to the public. According to the university, Lu said in the letters that he was angry and jealous that his doctoral dissertation had not received a prestigious academic award. Linhua Shan had received the award.

And this I didn't know:

Based on Gang Lu's story, director Chen Shi-zheng made a feature film, "Dark Matter," starring Liu Ye and Meryl Streep. The film won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.

ISU Hippies Are Smoking Something

From Rekha Basu in Sunday's Des Moines Register:

Approximately 300 students and community members took part in a march and rally Saturday afternoon to show local support for an international commitment to controlling global climate change as part of a national "Day of Action" that mobilized thousands of supporters across the country.

A throng of 150 activists, some carrying signs and banners, marched from the ISU Power Plant to the Ames Power Plant before joining the crowd gathered at adjacent Bandshell Park for the local installment of a national global warming event Step It Up 2007...

...Julia Olmstead, graduate assistant in agronomy and organizer of the Ames rally, underscored the significance and mission of the national effort.

"You are a part of something historic," Olmstead said. "Tens of thousands of people are doing the same thing today. The debate about global warming is over. Today, a movement has begun to halt the most serious threat our planet has ever faced."

The debate is over!

It was a warm winter in Iowa, except when it was average or the third coldest on record.

Manbearpig is real!

Pork-barrel spending stops global warming!

No, really, it does!

And if you don't believe it, why... why... you're like a Holocaust Denier!

Let's go Cyclones!!!

Rekha On College Tuition

We're coming up on graduation season, and high school seniors are making hard choices about where to go this fall. But more than ever, those choices are complicated by tough questions about how to pay.

The fact that it's gotten harder than ever to pay for college has caused a disturbing change in the demographics of incoming college students. Today's are about 60 percent richer in household income than the population average, according to a new study. That means the gap between those who can and can't afford college is growing. And it means that income inequality is bound to intensify since college graduates earn on average 60 percent more than those without a degree.

I was recently among a group of parents, counselors, graduates and admissions officers to speak at a local high school panel on planning for college. We all had good stories to share. Our kids had done well; they were happy with where they ended up. The admissions officers had sound advice on how to get into a good school. But then there was the elephant in the room: Cost.

The median parental income is $73,400 for students at public universities and $83,500 at private ones. The median household income in Iowa and nationally is around $46,000.

You know where the MILF widow Basu is going with this column: more government aid, taxpayer grants, low-interest loans, and all that.

Which is all kind of odd because you'd think the parents who earn more money would actually save a bit of it for junior's college expenses rather than saddling him with debt hell for 20 years.

Near the end, she reveals:

My son's college costs 45 grand a year, and few of us have that kind of money to spend. You do what you have to - beg or borrow - because it's a priority. But let's face it, it's a big hit.

Rekha's been down this road before. In the last column she wrote about it, she blamed Ronald Reagan.

You know what, Rekha? If you and Rob didn't plan for your son's college education to the point where you had $180,000 saved up or the equivalent in a term insurance policy, that's your problem. Quit bitching about it.

Personally, I think it's obscene to think that people should "beg or borrow" because a $45,000 a year college education is a "priority" in this day and age. Unless you're going into academia or some Board certified field, a degree really doesn't matter as much as experience does. And as for the "pedigree" of a place like Amhurst, that sort of joint is only for elitist types.

Could Rekha's son have gotten as good of an education at UI or ISU for $40,000 a year less? Likely.

You know, I don't think it helps that parents push their children to signing themselves into tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt before they're 21 years old. I'm talking 18 year olds who just graduated high school signing loan papers for $5000 or $10,000 or $20,000 or more for their first year of college. People think underage drinking is such a problem, well no wonder. I'd be drinking heavily too if I knew that someday I'd have to pay back $20,000 or $50,000 or $100,000+ in student loans with little more than a worthless poly sci degree under my belt.

Related: On Higher Education And Debt

Michael Gartner Is Suddenly Concerned About Ethics

From the Daily Iowan:

By the time the next state Board of Regents meeting arrives, the members will consider a new policy that would stipulate informing them of any and all state university expenditures involving "ethical issues," officials said Sunday.

The call, initially proposed by Regent President Michael Gartner, was prompted after an outside source alerted him to a UI scandal in which former university law Professor Kenneth Kress, who had allegedly altered five of his 10 students' performance evaluations, was given a cash payment of more than $200,000.

"We need to know what is going on," Gartner said. Is this "microgovernment? No. It is our duty to be informed with what is going on. We are not going to be passing judgment; we just need to be informed after the fact."

Did Michael Gartner get religion in the past 15 years? What else could explain his transformation from a tyrannical, reckless, and lawsuit-riddled network executive to stand-up fella.

This is from a quoted section on this blog about two years ago and originally written by Ken Auletta:

Michael Gartner, the beleaguered president of NBC News, has fallen on his sword because of the faked crash of a General Motors truck on "Dateline NBC." While Gartner's bosses did not hold him personally responsible for the story about the crash, the network did hire two outside lawyers to investigate the behavior of NBC News and consider the question of account-ability, including what action Gartner took, or didn't take, after the specious report was broadcast. A key decision-maker at NBC says that it was "outrageous" for Gartner to stonewall G.M. and to defend his own news staff even after he learned that someone had hidden miniature rockets on the truck and detonated them just before the collision. Even before Gartner resigned, on March 2nd, he was about to be fired. "He knew about this incident for several days," this man said. "He didn't investigate it in depth. He should have looked into it more, because he was aware that he was being sued before he issued a statement defending News." Then, the last week in February, questions were raised about another report broadcast by NBC News, this one on the effects of logging in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest, and that situation made it even more difficult for Gartner to stay.

Gartner came to NBC News from the Gannett Company in 1988, and he was required to perform three conflicting roles: editor-in-chief, publisher, and producer. He did some of what was asked of him: reduced News costs, streamlined management, and after some false starts finally got on the air a magazine show ("Dateline NBC") with respectable ratings, if not always respectable stories. One of the men who held Gartner's fate in their hands praised these accomplishments the other day and said, "This man is the rock of integrity," but added, ominously, "The facts are these: Michael has an unpleasant personality..."

The other lesson is that a fixation on costs at the three network-news divisions may lead to the kind of problem that has come to light at "Dateline NBC." NBC News hired an outside firm--not an unusual practice--to do the testing of the G.M. trucks involved in the "Dateline" report, but gave the firm a limited budget to work with. A person close to the internal investigations admits, "The demonstration was quite cheap." NBC may have saved money, but it also surrendered quality

And don't forget how Michael Gartner treated serious reporter Arthur "The Scud Stud" Kent (also written by Auletta):

Now reluctantly working for Dateline NBC in Rome, Kent's foreign stories were being butchered and dropped altogether and Kent wanted to know why. In his attempts to find out what was happening, Kent wrote several letters to Don Browne, vice-president of NBC news. He was becoming an ever-present thorn in the side of one of the world's largest corporations.

Fed up with Kent's persistent requests for some justification as to why his stories were being dropped, David Verdi, under the orders of Michael Gartner, assigned Kent and his team to Zagreb and then to move immediately into Bosnia.

It was an extremely dangerous assignment. Twenty-seven journalists had been killed in Bosnia the year before. Kent and his team were sent in without bullet-proof vests and helmets. They were provided with no translators or guides, no first-aid gear, no maps and no background files. Kent refused the assignment. NBC's own policy book stated that all hazardous assignments were purely voluntary. Kent also had a contract with NBC which stated that reassignment from Dateline could only be to the senior Europea n posts at NBC's Nightly News.

He was sent letters from Michael Gartner, threatening him with suspension. Kent was eventually suspended and fired. Gartner wasted no time in launching a publicity campaign claiming that Kent had been suspended for refusing a legitimate and safe assignment-to Zagreb, Croatia with no mention that Kent had been assigned to go into Bosnia.

Kent's case never went to trial, but the book takes on a dramatic turn from the world theatre to the boardrooms of NBC where Kent tells his story through depositions. Here, the various people involved in the Kent vs. NBC case tell their side of the story to the defendant and the plaintiff (and their lawyers) under oath.

If the book up until this point is fascinating, it reaches the realms of the un-put-down-able in these later chapters. In just under 75 pages, the upper management of NBC comes tumbling down. An organization, when called to account for what appeared to be lies, irresponsible decision-making, compromised news reporting and sensationalistic tendencies, simply cannot defend itself. Many of NBC's executives come across as-for lack of a better word-morons. Kent's case seems so strong from the beginning that it is hard to believe his opponents manage to run a network.

David Verdi, who was responsible for assigning Kent and his partner to Bosnia, admits that he doesn't know the Serb capital of Bosnia or the Muslim capital. He also admits that no equipment was available to Kent when he was assigned to go into Bosnia. More digging revealed that, contrary to Gartner's claims in the press release denouncing Kent, there was never an assignment to "peaceful Zagreb." (Ironically, Kent ended up in Bosnia anyway, filming an award-winning documentary sold, in part, to the BBC and CBC.)

From beginning to end, it is clear that Kent is in the right and NBC is terribly, terribly wrong. Kent initially asked for $25 million plus a full apology. The cash settlement Kent received remains confidential, but by the end of the book, Kent achieves three consequential achievements. Not only does he clear his name and show that his dishonourable discharge was based on completely false charges, but he has demonstrated something to which everyone who considers news of some importance should pay close attention: NBC news was (and very well may still be) driven by its entertainment division-as appalling a revelation as can be imagined.

I give Michael Gartner shit because of his past, but in the case of Professor Kenneth Kress and the lack of ethics with the 30-member "Faculty Rubber-Stamp Commission" at the University of Iowa, his call for stronger ethics makes sense. Gartner does has considerable experience being an unethical pile of crap in the past.

Linda Lantor Fandel Wants Laptops For All Students

By Linda Lantor Fandel (say that quickly three times), the deputy tax-raising enthusiast at the Des Moines Register:

After reading this, some Iowa parents might wish their children were going to school in South Dakota:

A growing number of that state's high school students get laptops for use in class and at home. By next fall, a quarter of ninth- through 12-graders. Carroll checks them out to seventh-graders for the year. Other districts allow kids to take them home overnight, or sometimes longer. Laptop carts circulating in schools are more common.

And, of course, desktop computers have long been in many classrooms, and just about every school has a computer lab. Virtually all schools have Internet access, too.

But Iowa's pace on school technology is relatively slow. The Legislature slashed the annual $30 million school-technology fund in 2001. The state now spends $500,000 annually on pilot projects to see how to best use school technology.

Laptops for each high school student should be a priority because of the curriculum needs and because students that age are more likely to take care of them.

Is she crazy? This is such an utterly bad idea, I don't know where to begin:

It takes a school district at least two years to price and order equipment this expensive.
Many people will have to be hired and trained to image the hard drives, handle security, and maintain the equipment.
A lot of the laptops will be stolen or broken in the first month. Then what?
Ever send a laptop not under warranty out for repair? It takes weeks to come back.
Because most people running school districts don't have a clue about technology, specs, or pricing, they will likely order the wimpiest laptop at the most expensive price possible.
Corruption and fraud will increase.
Where are you going to get the money? Raise taxes again? Increase the deficit some more?

Friday, April 13, 2007

How Shit Happens In The Iowa Legislature

From the Mason City Glob-Gazette:

Something just doesn't smell right at the Capitol — but what is causing the stink remains a mystery.

Some staffers and lawmakers have complained about a sewage-like odor. In response, a team of private engineers and building maintenance crews is trying to root out the cause of the odor, which was first noticed in January.

While it's strongest in the back of the House chamber, some have noticed it elsewhere — such as in a second-floor ladies' room, near the first-floor employee staircase and on the ground floor near the rotunda.

``It'll appear in different places on different floors on different days,'' said Deb Madison-Levi, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Administrative Services. ``It's really kind of perplexing.''

Reminds me of this (adapted for the Iowa Legislature):

In the beginning was the Plan.

And then came the Assumptions.

And the Assumptions were without form.

And the Plan was without substance. And darkness was upon the face of the Lobbyists.

And they spoke amongst themselves, saying, "it is a crock of Shit, and it stinketh."

And the lobbyists went unto the politicians and said 'It is a pail of dung, and none may abide the odour thereof.'

And the politicians went unto the committees, saying 'It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it.'

And the committees went unto their party leaders saying, 'it is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide it's strength.'

And the party leaders talked amongst themselves, saying to one another, 'It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very powerful.'

And the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader went unto the Governor, saying unto him, this new Plan will actively promote the growth and vigour of the State, with powerful effects.'

And the Governor looked upon the Plan, and saw that it was good.

And the Plan became Policy.

This is how shit happens!

Sex Farm Woman, I'll Rake And Hoe You Down

From the Kaiser Network:

The [Iowa] Senate on Tuesday voted 30-19 to approve a bill (HF 611) that would require all sex education classes taught in Iowa schools "be age-appropriate and research-based," the Des Moines Register reports. In addition, the bill, which was supported by Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, would require that all information in sex education classes be free of racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender biases (Roos, Des Moines Register, 4/11). According to the AP/KWWL.com, critics of the bill are concerned that private schools will be unable to teach sex education that does not interfere with their religious teachings (AP/KWWL.com, 4/10). In addition, critics have said that there is no proof that students are being taught inaccurate information in sex education classes. Sen. Joe Bolkcom (D), who led debate on the legislation, said the bill "does not take away local control," adding, "Local schools and parents will decide what materials are used. The difference now is that those materials must be research-based and accurate" (Des Moines Register, 4/11). Bolkcom added that schools can teach abstinence-only sex education classes, as long as the information is medically accurate. Brad Anderson, spokesperson for Gov. Chet Culver (D), said the governor will sign the measure into law (AP/KWWL.com, 4/10).

This all goes back to late 2004 when Henry Waxman did some checking up on various Federally-funded abstinence programs that were green-lighted after Bill Clinton signed some bill in 1999 allowing all the sex pork juices to start flowing and which fauxscal conservative George W. Bush kept going.

How likely that the misconceptions were taught in Iowa is rather suspect to me. Joe Bolkcom cites the examples mentioned by Waxman, but doesn't indicate in this Des Moines Register story which, if any, school districts in Iowa ever provided or taught this misinformation. If Bolkcom is going to open his mouth about the matter, he should be naming school districts that would teach such bullshit-detector-alarm nonsense as "Ninety-nine percent of all high school girls who have sex become pregnant" and "Half of gay male teens have tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS."

Democrats In Polk County Raise Taxes On The Poor

More than 134,000 Polk County homeowners will begin receiving notices in the mail today that their property tax assessments are increasing by an average of 6.9 percent, or about $9,000 for an average home.

Owners of lower-priced, older homes are more likely to see larger percentage increases than are owners of higher-priced, newer homes, said Polk County Assessor James Maloney.

The reason, he said, is because market demand has pushed up the value of the older homes more quickly than the newer ones.

In fact, there were slight declines in value on three of the county's five most expensive homes, which are valued at between nearly $2 million and more than $4 million.

Des Moines, which has an abundance of older and lower-priced homes, had the highest average increase in residential values, 9.2 percent, followed by Windsor Heights at 7.6 percent.

The lowest average increase, 2.3 percent, is in Johnston, where the average sale price in 2006 was the highest in the county at $257,750, according to the assessor.

Doesn't it strike you as kind of odd that the assessor would raise property taxes on the poor at a rate several times that of inflation? And hasn't the housing market sort of stood still in the past year or so?

And doesn't it look like the Polk County Assessor's office is jacking up property taxes prior to the Project Destiny tax-increase vote? How convenient.

Ramona: "Gee, my property taxes went way up this year."

Tom: "Maybe we should vote for Project Density so that they'll go down."

Do the Democrats who control Polk County think you're that dumb? You bet they do.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Hitlery The Hypocrite Ho

Yes, Don Imus was fired. Big deal. Not like anybody watched or listened to that senile cadaver.

But this is on Hitlery Clinton's web site:

Don Imus's comments about them were nothing more than small-minded bigotry and coarse sexism. They showed a disregard for basic decency and were disrespectful and degrading to African Americans and women everywhere.

Meanwhile, just a couple weeks ago, Hitlery Clinton raised a lot of money at a fundraiser at music producer Timbaland's house:

There's Buzz that Hillary Clinton raised $1.3-million in Florida Saturday, including $900,000 for events with producer Timbaland and Chris Korge.

Perhaps it's a good time to review some of those Timbaland lyrics.

Here's lyrics from a song called Fat Rabbit that Timbaland did with Ludacris:

I be that nigga named Ludi
a k a L-O-V-A L-O-V-A
Fuck that shit
Nigga what you wan say one time
Southside let's ride (say what)
And if you love what you do, do what you feel
Then I know you gonna mark my words
Yall drop shit like birds
Then it's about the time for yo ass to get served
Just lay it on down
Just lay it on down
While we relax to the tight raps
And the phat tracks
That that nigga Timbaland put down
Oh yes, let's get it on down to the nitty grit
Don't have no time for the patient
Cuz I got more dick than a lil' bit
And time flies, when I'm havin' fun
I can make a hoe get like Forrest Gump and just "run baby run"
I guess that they can't handle this
Brothers just to scandalous
If you don't wanna get freaked
then get out my way like an ambulance (say what)
Gitty up gitty up ride up on the real, let death to the fake
And tell you boyfriend just to chill, don't playa hate
Kick back relax, and just take off yo shoes
Cuz I gotta tell you what I wants to do (uh oh)
Yea

Then there's the song "I Get It On":

I'm the top nigga, watch nigga, hot nigga, yo (Yo)
Shit that I dropped, nonstop nigga, whoa (Whoa)
Meet the futuristic unpredicted by the psych (Uh huh)
Either nigga's vibe or they make shit light (Whew)
Hip to the hop when I came in the do' (What?)
Missy went platinum then I came in some mo' (What?)
Aaliyah, then Ginuwine, Mag and two O's (Uh huh)
Outside production on Coko and Total
Fugitive wanna buy the man for real
Got warrrents beats and program to kill
Timbaland nigga, and I'm Ill
Don't believe me? Take the back of your hand and feel

And "Smoke In Da Air":

To my niggas
How you feel?
Can we chill?
Or do we have to pop that steel?
Cause it's a hot day around our way
We got the pistols around our waist
Hate to kill a nigga, why?
Cause my nigga style he's got that killa, what?
What do you mean killa?
I mean that
Those ganja trees
Those cut up leaves
Please... can I get a puff? What?
Please... can I get a puff? What?
With my wiatch
Pretend that I am riach
Please, please, can I, can I lick that cliat
You can go down
You can go down, go down
You can go down, girl I was just playing around
Now
Back to my focus
Y'all gonna be my soldiers
And I'm gonna be the bank broker
What?

And don't forget "Kill Yourself":

Im Tired Of Niggas, Niggas Is Tired,
U Aint A G, I See Bitch In Ur Eyes,
If U Close To Me, U Suposed To Be,
But Most Of U Rap Niggas Is Hoes To Me,
Wherever U From, The Question I Ask,
Is Do U Think I Give A Fuck, Riddle Me That,
Cuz In My Hood And U Jump Into Hell And Back,
This Industry Shit, To Hell Wit That,
I Seen Em Come, I Seen Em Go,
I Doubt If U Can Show Me Sum'in I Aint Seen Before,
Who Suposed To Be In Charge? I Need To Know,
When I Shake Ur Hand Ima Step On Ur Toe,
Go Getcha Gun, Go Getcha Click,
Imma Be Rite Here Chillin Wit Yo Bitch,
U Mad At Me? Cuz Im Gettin Rich,
Well Put The Pistol To Ur Head And Empty The Clip, Pop Nigga!

What sort of moron politician associates with and accepts campaign contributions from people who spew these lyrics? I'm not getting all Tipper Gore PMRC here, but you'd think Hitlery's people would do a fucking Google search first.

Chet Culver Has A Lot Of Energy

Imagine not wondering what the price of gasoline may be from one week to the next - with Gov. Chet Culver's new goal for Iowa, this may become a possibility. Culver recently made the goal of Iowa energy independence by 2025.

Many have praised his ambitious efforts, while others remain skeptical of whether the goal can be achieved at all.

"It's probably technically feasible, but there are a lot of questions of whether it is economically feasible," said Floyd Barwig, director of the Iowa Energy Center, 2521 Elwood Drive #124. "It can be done, but at a price."

Currently, Culver is asking the Iowa Legislature for $100 million to spend over the next three years to promote alternative energy research in Iowa. This research would help create jobs and eventually lead to technology to lessen dependence on energy sources outside of Iowa.

However, complete energy independence is questionable.

"The issue is that you're talking about replacing the entire energy infrastructure of the state," Barwig said. "In 18 years, you would have to switch out the entire electricity system."

Iowa imports nearly 97% of the fuel it uses, whether it be for your car's gas tank, to heat your house, or to generate electricity.

$100 million in taxpayer-funded Ethanol pork for Democratic campaign contributors won't do much to lower that number.

$100 million would only pay for about 100 one-megawatt wind turbines. That ain't much.

Maybe we could tap the big lug's gut or Ron Van Fossen's liver as an alternative power source.

Iowa Legislature Wants To Tax Outer Space

From the second part of a two-part story on payday and car-title loans in the Quad City Times:

A new tax could be in store for Iowa's satellite television users.

Lawmakers are considering a 5 percent "equalization tax" on satellite bills, which would be similar to the 5 percent franchise fee currently added to the bills of many cable customers.

The tax would cost Iowa's estimated 200,000 families that use satellites an extra $2.5 million to $3 million each year, according to information from the Iowa Cable and Telecommunications Association.

Satellite users, such as customers of DirecTV, for years have avoided paying the franchise fee, which has traditionally been viewed as payment to use city-owned rights of way to lay cable lines.

Satellite companies do not typically use rights of way, and - as families make a switch from traditional cable - cities are increasingly seeing their cut of the revenue shrink.

Des Moines, for example, collected more than $1.7 million from the fees in 2002. Last year, the city collected roughly $400,000 less.

Prairie City resident Ed Gillman switched from cable to satellite in 1999. Charging satellite customers an extra tax doesn't make sense, he said.

"All we're getting is a signal from the air," Gillman said. "It has nothing to do with streets, poles, wires or anything else."

Advocates, however, say the tax would create more fair competition. Franchise fees put cable companies at a disadvantage, they say.

Er, cable companies are at a disadvantage because technology has evolved from stringing wires up on power poles?

And why aren't the cable TV companies lobbying to eliminate the franchise fee? Wouldn't that make it just as fair? Oh, no, you can't do that. It's always better to spread the misery and raise taxes on everybody. That's called fairness.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Bloggers Were At The Masters, But Not Any Des Moines Register Sports Reporters Like Blogger-Hater Nancy Clark

Updated more times than a human being should be allowed:

A longtime reader tipped me off that the Des Moines Register didn't have any sports reporters at Augusta to cover Iowa native Zach Johnson's victory.

Indeed, the first report in the Des Moines Register about Johnson's win was from a wire news service.

Not only were people blogging the Masters, but Masters participant J. J. Henry kept a blog.

Just to rub some dirt, here's Nancy Clark's infamous now-deleted column from June 8, 2005:

Today I'll be talking with Dan McCarney.

The bloggers won't.

I'll also be posing questions during Iowa State's media day to Bret Meyer, Todd Blythe and Jason Scales.

The bloggers won't.

Monday, I'll be chatting with Kirk Ferentz.

The bloggers won't.

I'll also get in a word at Iowa's media day with Drew Tate.

The bloggers won't.

Tuesday, I'll interview Mark Farley at Northern Iowa's media day.

The bloggers won't.

Wait! Come back! This isn't an exercise in name-dropping.

It's about you, and what you should pay attention to as we enter the thick of the college football media days season.

Of course you're going to hang on every word the stars say. But are you also going to take note of who's taking the notes?

You really should know who's asking the questions. It's important. It's the only way you can discern fact from fiction.

Too often you can't tell the two apart, according to some "light" reading I did over the summer.

The State of the News Media Report is an annual review by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, part of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York.

The conclusion of the 600-page report was that the traditional "journalism of verification," in which reporters check facts, is being infringed upon by a new model of journalism that is "faster, looser and cheaper."

In the new "journalism of assertion," as the report calls it, information is offered with little time and little attempt to independently verify its voracity.

In other words, bloggers and some radio and cable talk show hosts make up stories and spread rumors. Too often, consumers don't know the difference between these lies and mainstream news reports.

Because of this shift, there is no longer widespread agreement on basic facts. We don't all know the same thing.

Some Iowans "knew," for example, that Tate, the Iowa quarterback, had a broken leg before last season's Capital One bowl, while others knew he was healthy.

The report on the threat to traditional journalism focused on political reporting -remember the allegations by the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" that, after weeks of reporting, were found to be unsubstantiated?

But I think "journalism of assertion" is just as pervasive in sports. Lies and rumors about coaches and players in Iowa City -accepted as fact until proven otherwise by the mainstream media -have sadly become routine. Ask Steve Alford. Ask Jennie Lillis.

Read the blogs if you want. Read the message boards. But do it for entertainment, not information. Don't accept anything you read on them as truth unless it has been independently verified.

Usual scenario: A loser tries to make himself seem important by posting information that makes him appear to be an insider, "in the know."

Worse case scenario: Gambling interests, bookies, the mob pass off inaccurate information about a player or team as truth to try to influence wagering or the outcome of a contest. They're counting on readers and viewers to be gullible.

Don't be.

Know that if the information is coming from the mainstream media -the accredited reporters, broadcasters and photojournalists -they are following strict professional guidelines that the looser outlets don't require. The information has been verified, has been scrutinized by editors, has been fact-checked and proofed.

Know that my colleagues and I really will be talking to McCarney and the stars in the next few days, and that they said exactly what we report.

Columnist Nancy Clark can be reached at (515) 286-2517 or nclark@dmreg.com

Maybe the Des Moines Register didn't want to pay for two seats in order to fly Nancy Clark's double-wide butt down to Georgia.

First AND THIRD update: ~~It looks like Erin Crawford issued some story from Augusta. She's not a sports reporter.~~ 4/11/07 correction: ALL RIGHT I CAN'T PROOFREAD, turns out it was a reporter named ERIC CRAWFORD, not ERIN Crawford. Unless Erin Crawford had a sex change, the Des Moines Register definitely didn't have ANY reporters at the Masters.

Second Update: The Cedar Rapids Gazette had a sports reporter, Mike Hlas, at the Masters. He seemed very grateful to be there:

The Masters embraces sportswriters, which is one reason so many sportswriters fawn over it.

The people who stage this golf tournament love tradition and history and freely admit sportswriters had a large role in building the mythology of their tourney.

Anyone wearing a Masters badge with a green (media) stripe has a lot of access here, probably more so than at other major tourneys. That's how I found myself able to dine in the storied Augusta National clubhouse Saturday afternoon while waiting for Zach Johnson's 2:40 p.m. (Eastern time) tee time...

Good work. Nice to see at least one Iowa newspaper sports reporter there.

April Snowstorms In Iowa

The above picture is taken from an I-35 webcam near West Des Moines this morning.

Spring snowstorms in Iowa are not uncommon. I'm sure many of us old farts remember the April 9, 1973 snowstorm that blanketed much of Iowa with over a foot of snow and deep drifts.

Ron Van Fossen Is Now In The Hoosegow

From the QC Times:

Davenport Alderman Ron Van Fossen, 1st Ward, was booked into the Scott County Jail on Tuesday less than an hour before a special City Council meeting.

Van Fossen — scheduled for trial Friday on charges of domestic abuse assault — was sentenced to seven days in jail Tuesday on contempt violation of a no-contact or protective order for a February violation of the no-contact order involving his estranged wife.

He was booked into the jail at 4:18 p.m., shortly before the council began meeting on whether to reorganize the city’s legal staff.

Van Fossen, who recently returned from an alcohol rehabilitation center in Minnesota, has said he will not resign his council position. Along with the criminal charges, he is also involved in a complaint by a city employee alleging sexual harassment.

Van Fossen has been criticized by former Mayor Pat Gibbs, who has called for the alderman’s resignation. Gibbs, who was narrowly defeated by Van Fossen for the seat in 2005, asked Mayor Ed Winborn to appoint him and promised to petition for a special election if he was not appointed.

Van Fossen, 63, was arrested Feb. 13 at the Enchanted Inn, 4815 S. Concord St., for the violation of a no-contact order related to an incident from the previous night when he allegedly forced his way into his estranged wife’s home and shoved her, causing her to strike her head on a refrigerator.

I like how the Quad City Times has a timeline:

Davenport Alderman Ron Van Fossen’s recent incidents:

Feb. 12 — Arrested for allegedly forcing his way into his wife’s South Concord Street home and shoving her into a refrigerator. He denies the allegations.

Feb. 13 — Arrested again for allegedly violating a court order of protection by entering the Enchanted Inn on South Concord where his wife was.

Feb. 21 — Reports a burglary at his Enchanted Island home after discovering an attache case containing $5,000, a shotgun and a box of ammunition are missing.

Feb. 27 — Suffers a mild heart attack and is hospitalized.

March 2 — News becomes public of a civil rights complaint alleging sexual harassment filed by Cynthia Webb, an administrative assistant to the City Council.

March 3 — Enters an alcohol treatment program at Hazelden Foundation’s Center City, Minn., campus.

April 2 — Leaves alcohol treatment and attends the City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

April 10 — Sentenced to seven days in the Scott County Jail for violation of a protective order.

I'm almost half-expecting to see the following in the future:

April 11 - Claims in an exclusive interview with KWQC that he, not Larry Birkhead, is the father of Dannielynn.

April 17 - Leaves jail, shaves head.

April 19 - Begins dating Britney Spears.

April 21 - Breaks up with Britney Spears. Begins dating Kim Kardashian.

April 29 - Announces plans to release sex videotape with Kim Kardashian that will be filmed in Iowa because of a special new tax credit for the film industry.

The Bollywood Of The Midwest

Joe Kristan at the Tax Update blog has a very negative opinion of a tax break passing the Iowa House for the film industry ("Harold Hill Gulls The House"):

Like rubes rushing the patent medicine wagon, the Iowa House almost unanimously voted for a rich special interest giveaway for the film industry yesterday. By a 95-1 margin the House approved HF 892 to provide a 50% subsidy to film projects, and then some:

- A 25% tranferable tax credit for expenditures on a film project;
- A 25% credit for investors in film projects; and
- a tax exemption for sales of goods and services to film projects.

Because the credits are transferable, the filmmakers can sell them to finance their projects. This feature makes this tax credit a subsidy, rather than just a tax break.

If it weren't tax season, I would spend more time pointing out just how absurd this thing is. Why is this one industry - an itinerant one that leaves nothing behind but empty fast food wrappers - somehow worthy of being subsidized by every other business? The standard line about how much the filmmakers bring to the economy can be said about any business - more so, in fact, about the ones that stay here and provide permanent jobs, and who end up paying for this subsidy.

I'll bet you anything that most other states are passing these sorts of breaks/subsidies using the same bogus promotion.

Here's an incomplete rundown of subsidies that a blogger compiled last July. It looks like Iowa was trying to one-up Illinois.

Here's also a recent story in the Chicago Tribune on Wisconsin's efforts.

And don't forget that a couple years ago President George W. Bush's then-unused veto pen didn't stop this.

Des Moines Register Reprints James Zogby's March 30th Blog From Huffington Post

Jimmy Carter-loving, PLO non-critic, and veiled Jew-hater James Zogby has a column in today's Des Moines Register that is the same as his March 30th blog entry at Huffington Post.

My, my, how times change.

Two years ago, columnist Ken Fuson wrote in the Des Moines Register:

Perhaps you have not heard of blogs. The name derives from a combination of "blather" and "logorrhea."

One of the unexpected benefits of the Internet, other than the ability to look really busy at work while filling out your NCAA tournament brackets, is that people can design their own personal Web sites and then report and comment on the big issues of the day as often as they want. These are called blogs.

This has proved to be a boon to people who apparently are (A) unemployed, (B) independently wealthy, or (C) no longer content to wait on hold to get their daily fix of attention from a radio talk-show host.

Let's put it another way: You know those people who like to write letters to the editor? A blog allows them to write letters all day long, on any subject they choose, without worrying about having the profanity removed or having any of their lunatic rants checked for accuracy.

Write all you want? No editors? More profane than a David Mamet character? We reporters have a word for this: E-mail. No, wait: Heaven.

Then in August of 2005, Register Sports columnist Nancy Clark wrote:

Today I'll be talking with Dan McCarney.
The bloggers won't.

I'll also be posing questions during Iowa State's media day to Bret Meyer, Todd Blythe and Jason Scales.

The bloggers won't.

Monday, I'll be chatting with Kirk Ferentz.

The bloggers won't.

I'll also get in a word at Iowa's media day with Drew Tate.

The bloggers won't.

Tuesday, I'll interview Mark Farley at Northern Iowa's media day.

The bloggers won't...

...Know that if the information is coming from the mainstream media - the accredited reporters, broadcasters and photojournalists - they are following strict professional guidelines that the looser outlets don't require. The information has been verified, has been scrutinized by editors, has been fact-checked and proofed.

The Register later deleted Nancy Clark's column, one in which she called most bloggers "losers".

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Generalissimo Michael Gartner

From JD Mendenhall's final blog post:

"I wish Michael Gartner would just name himself President of UI and get it over with."

Hat tip: Nicholas Johnson's blog.

I also noticed that it looks like Daily Iowan reporter Terry McCoy has been reading Johnson's blog, what with the "Day 444" thing and all. That's a good thing.

A lot of people have accused Michael Gartner of being a tyrannical micromanager over the years, but sometimes it's warranted:

The Iowa Board of Regents is demanding more information about the legal settlement paid to a University of Iowa law professor who resigned amid controversy last year. On Sunday, the Des Moines Register reported the U-of-I paid Kenneth Kress more than $200,000 in cash after he resigned after admitting he faked some student evaluations.

The university also agreed to continue providing Kress with health care benefits, on-campus office space and a research assistant. Iowa Board of Regents president Michael Gartner says one of the lessons here is that such things shouldn't be swept under the rug.

"It's quite ironic that this is the university that has attacked the Regents for not being open," Gartner says. "...This is taxpayers' dollars that we're talking about here." Critics on the University of Iowa campus have complained about secrecy in the Regents' process of selecting a new president for the institution. Gartner says the public might never have known about the university's high-dollar pay-out to this law professor if a reporter hadn't dug into it. "You cannot pretend that it doesn't exist. You must face up to it," Gartner says. "Early and full disclosure is very, very important."

Iowa Board of Regents executive director Gary Steinke says the board knew nothing about the settlement until they read about it in the newspaper. "When I read it in the newspaper and I know that when several Regents read about it in the newspaper on Sunday, we were all very surprised,"

The Kenneth Kress scandal, and the subsequent total capitulation by the 30-member-weak "Faculty Rubber-Stamp Commission" demonstrates what a disaster things are there at the University of Iowa.

Where's Steve Alford?

Communist Angela Davis Giving The Commencement Address At Grinnell College In May

Although I knew about this from Rekha Basu's blog last week (the MILF Widow Basu practically soaked her granny panties with excitement), another reader pointed me in the direction of Grinnell's own press release:

Angela Y. Davis is an activist. Known as an organizer and philosopher, she was associated with the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the Communist Party of the United States of America. Still an activist, she now works for racial and gender equality and for prison abolition.

Did ya read that? Prison abolition.

You know what that means? That means all the murderers, rapists, and robbers in Fort Madison won't be in prison anymore. They'll be back to murderin', rapin', and robbin' people.

It boggles my mind that the big brains at Grinnell would host such a commie lunatic to give the commencement address, but I guess they are free to go off the deep end.

If I was graduating and had to hear that nappy-headed jigaboo talk before I received my diploma, I'd pissed off to the point where those in charge of Grinnell College would probably want my ass in prison.

Monday, April 09, 2007

The Iowa Legislature Loves Drunken Boaters

Kevin McCarthy, Iowa House Majority Leader

From the Des Moines Register:

A proposal that would hold drunken boat operators in Iowa to nearly the same standards as drivers is unlikely to become law, a top House Democrat said today.

The proposal, approved unanimously vote by the Senate in January, changes the blood-alcohol limit for boat operators from .10 to .08, which is the current standard for operating a vehicle on Iowa roads.

Senate File 49 must gain approval from the Iowa House and the signature of the governor before it becomes law.

It was slated for a vote today but House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said it was added to the debate calendar by mistake.

Some legislators have concerns that the bill is too tough and would strip commercial licenses away from people and cause them to lose their jobs.

“It may not be politically correct or politically popular to say so but there’s a day-and-night difference between driving on the road and on the water,” McCarthy said.

“Accidents rarely, rarely, if ever, happen on the water due to alcohol consumption. It’s just a fact.”

...Last year, 20 percent of reported boating accidents across the state involved alcohol. That’s up from 16 percent in 2004, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said.

In 2005, Iowa had 53 boating accidents that resulted in 9 deaths. This blog even mentioned a drunk hit-and-run boater who killed a man and seriously injured his wife in 2005.

It's kind of odd that McCarthy is suddenly worried about whether a beefed up anti-drunk-boating law will have any effect. McCarthy had no problem getting an anti-flag desecration bill rammed through the Iowa House last week. How many flags were desecrated last year and how many of those desecrated flags killed or seriously injured people? And what about Iowa's weird sex offender residency law that practically every county prosecutor and law enforcement group says doesn't work. That won't be repealed anytime soon.

Dick Schlitter Is Against Rudy Giuliani

From LifeNews.com:

More than one hundred conservatives in Iowa, including many local officials and Republican activists, have signed a petition against Rudy Giuliani. They say the pro-abortion former New York City mayor isn't qualified to be president because of his pro-abortion position and his views on other issues. A Christian Coalition organizer spearheaded the petition drive and issued what he called "The Conservative Declaration of Independence" just before Giuliani was due to visit Iowa. Onawa City Councilman Dick Schlitter signed the petition. "I'm a social conservative and I really don't think I should apologize for that," Schlitter says. "That's the reason I'm involved in politics is because I believe in the conservative issues." Schlitter admires Giuliani's leadership as Mayor of New York after the terrorist attack on September 11th, but Schlitter disagrees with Giuliani on abortion. "I think the reason that the election went the other way this last time was because we didn't live up to those basic, conservative, Republican principles," Schlitter says. "I'm not willing to compromise those...You either stand for principle or you don't." Giuliani came under fire this week for saying he supported taxpayer-funded abortions and then backing off of the position just one day later.

Dick Schlitter probably likes Sam Brownback.

Not that there's anything wrong with it.

Car Title Loans Will Costya A Nostril

Past efforts to regulate title loans were blocked in the House by former Speaker Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, according to state Sen. Joe Bolkom, D-Iowa City.

State and federal disclosure records for 2005 show that Rod Aycox, owner of the holding company that includes LoanMax stores in Iowa, contributed $500 to Rants’ re-election campaign and another $40,000 to the Iowa Leadership Council, a conservative political organization with ties to Rants.

In the same year, Aycox gave another $14,250 in campaign money to 12 other powerful state lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, and to former U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle, who waged an unsuccessful campaign to become Iowa’s governor, reports show. Reports for the same lawmakers from 2006 showed no contributions from Aycox.

Rants said the money had no influence on decisions in the past to keep the bill in committee, preventing debate in the House.

“If you can’t vote against someone you took money from, you shouldn’t take the money,” he said.

His reason for blocking the rate-cap bill, Rants said, is that he thinks it is meant to put title lenders out of business, “and I’m opposed to any legislation that puts a business out of business.” As long as title lenders clearly disclose rates and terms to borrowers, that should be enough.

There is also the matter of allowing borrowers to have freedom of choice, Rants said. As long as they are fully informed, it should be up to them to decide if they want to borrow against the title of their car. Banks and credit unions are unlikely to offer the small loans that alternative lenders offer.

Aycox said he expected nothing for the money he contributed to Iowa elected officials “other than good government. If you don’t get involved, you can’t complain about bad government. I’ve never asked for any specific voting activity. I never asked (Rants) to handle car-title loan legislation in Iowa.”

But the North Carolina-based Center for Responsible Lending, which issued a report in 2005 criticizing practices of the title-loan industry and recommended interest-rate caps as one among several steps to protect consumers, noted that Aycox has shown a pattern of contributing heavily to races in states where laws affecting title lending were up for debate.

“The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported that Mr. Aycox, his companies and his close relatives had donated over $300,000 to 130 state and federal candidates and political committees in 10 states since the year 2000,” the report said.

Not only that, but the car-title and payday loan industry have deep ties with organized crime figures. Thankfully, Iowans will soon be rid of the car-title loan "industry" that preys on the stupid poor.

Perhaps someday the voters of Sioux City can put Christopher Rants out of business.

Update: What's the quick and dirty guide to financial happiness? The Tax Update blog and Dilbert creator Scott Adams have some excellent points.

The DeCosters Are Dumping Shit Into Iowa Rivers Again

From the South Of Iowa blog:

According to the Iowa DNR, the Iowa pork industry's poster boy of poor management, Austin "Jack" DeCoster, made another boo-boo again. One of his facilities, located about 8 miles from here, had a manure spill of about 10,000 gallons, which ran through a tile line and into a tributary of the Chariton River. This same Chariton River is where we get our water from.

Don't forget that the DeCosters also employ illegals and gave $10,000 to Lt Gov Patty Judge's gubernatorial campaign.

University Of Iowa Professors Are Practically On Welfare

Kay Henderson at the Radio Iowa blog:

Low faculty pay has forced University of Iowa colleges to "cannibalize" faculty positions to keep other professors' pay competitive, university officials say...

...Based on fiscal year 2005 data, UI professors accounted for 85 of the state's top 100 public salaries with annual wages ranging from $272,000 to $668,160. Despite this, UI's 1,600 tenure and tenure-track faculty averaged $84,409 in 2006, which ranked 13 out of 14 schools in their peer group, a mix of other Big Ten and comparable schools.

Good luck selling that pay raise to Iowans whose median household income is $46,000.

Speaking Of The Polarization Of Debate

I went to Drake University's Law School this morning for a forum on the constitution. Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was the keynote speaker.

Drake University president David Maxwell opened the proceedings by reflecting on what he termed the "polarization of debate" on campuses across the country, suggesting "more and more students are replicating" what they see and hear on the national political stage. That means, according to Maxwell, that students are trying to make "assertions and beliefs" into "knowledge and facts" -- leading to a "rise in irrationality."

Yeah, assertions and beliefs like Jews are to blame for everything, the war in Iraq is going bad but we support the troops, or global warming is manbearbig-made.

What sort of things have people heard Vilsack say? Well, if you remember after the murder of 5 year old Evelyn Miller, Vilsack had this to say to relatives who had complained to DHS repeatedly about the child's living conditions:

"...Vilsack reviewed five-years-worth of files kept by Department of Human Services social workers who investigated complaints about the child's welfare. On Monday, Vilsack said the complaints came from family members who had 'an ax to grind' and whose 'credibility' was 'a bit suspect.'"

Can you imagine being a family member of a murdered little girl and hearing that from the Governor after you repeatedly contacted The State Of Iowa DHS to intervene?

I'm surprised that Vilsack didn't have an attempt or two on his life during his term, especially for all the bitterness and grief he stirred up as the Governor of Iowa. I guess he forgot that former Mount Pleasant Mayor Ed King was murdered by Ralph Orin Davis just because of a backed-up sewer.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Masters Winner Zach Johnson Was Denied A Golf Scholarship By The University Of Iowa

From Furman Bishner's column in the Atlanta newspaper:

Mild isn’t always a big seller on this moneybags golf tour. But it’s the nature of Zach Johnson’s roots. He was born within a whoop and a holler of the University of Iowa campus, in Iowa City, but wasn’t offered a scholarship and went to Drake University in Des Moines instead. Still, the press guide identifies him as “an avid Iowa Hawkeyes fan,” and that’s legal. His father is a chiropractor, and I’d guess he has seen “Field of Dreams” a few times. Ten good Iowa men invested in his future as a golfer, and they were still with him in Atlanta. And I’d guess they still are, and very proud of it. Iowa proud.

I don't think I need to elaborate on this one. That says it all.

Vilsack Wants Taxpayer-Financed Campaigns

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack says it's time to think about another way of financing presidential campaigns.

Vilsack was the keynote speaker during a weekend forum at Drake University's Law School. Vilsack told the crowd that under the current system, presidential candidates must depend on "about 1500 to 2000 people who have the capacity to bundle" campaign donations. Those are the people who know people -- and who are key to a candidate raising the kind of cash necessary for a run for the White House.

Vilsack himself dropped out of the presidential race in February, citing an inability to raise enough money.

Vilsack told the weekend crowd at Drake that if voters want "competitive elections" then it's time to consider taxpayer-financed campaigns.

I'd be in favor of taxpayer-financed campaigns, but only if the campaign season was whittled down from two years to about two weeks.

Proverbs 22:7

From the Quad City Times:

When payday loans came on the scene in Iowa in 1995, their novelty masked what many now say is the exploitation of the working poor and the financially unsophisticated, said Kathleen Keest, a former assistant Iowa attorney general for consumer affairs who now works for the North Carolina-based Center for Responsible Lending, one of the industry’s foremost watchdogs and a lightning rod for attacks from industry officials.

“They charge interest rates that would make a loan shark blush,” Keest said, noting that borrowers paid an average APR of 382 percent in 2005.

Iowa has limits on rates for the short-term, high-APR loans, but users get around a limit that allows no more than two loans at a time for a maximum of $500 at any one store by borrowing from several stores at once.

The center and others who want to see tighter reins on the loans say the industry targets minorities and the working poor. It operates on a business model designed to keep customers in debt through frequent “roll over,” or renewal of loans.

Since 1995, the number of payday loan offices in Iowa has grown from eight to 237 at the end of 2005, according to the state Division of Banking, which regulates financial institutions and services. That is an increase of nearly 3,000 percent. Illinois does not keep historic data on the number of offices in the state. In 2005, it had 1,357.

While data on the total amount of loans made in Iowa does not go back as far as 1995, from 2000 to 2005 the volume of payday lending in the state went up by nearly 50 percent, from $200.9 million to $297.1 million, according to the division.

In the Iowa Quad-Cities alone, there are 24 payday loan shops. The Illinois Quad-Cities has another 17. Most are located in strip malls on prominent commercial corridors with high traffic counts where they aim to attract walk-in clients.

That is the model for the industry, Schlein said. Its average customer earns $25,000 to $50,000 a year, works and has a bank account.

Think about how far down the hole you have to be to resort to getting a payday 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 or you don't qualify for it.
15. And you have no friends, parents, or children who will loan you money.

That's pretty low.

A November report by the Center for Responsible Lending said 90 percent of payday borrowers are unable to pay off their loans when due. The typical borrower pays back $793 for a $325 loan. Only 1 percent of borrowers take out one loan per year and walk away free and clear after paying it off.

“Our analysis found that the industry relies almost entirely on revenue from borrowers caught in a debt trap; 91 percent of payday loans go to borrowers with five or more loan transactions per year,” the report said.

This is the first of a two-parter. The conclusion will be in Monday's newspaper.

Crooked Law Professor Kenneth Kress Was Paid $226,000 To Leave The University Of Iowa

From Matt Lewis's blog at Townhall:

The University of Iowa has given $226,000 to a law professor accused of forging students' evaluations of his effectiveness as a teacher.

Kenneth Kress, 55, of Iowa City taught in the U of I College of Law from 1989 until last year, when he resigned after allegations that he had doctored evaluations that students wrote.

Recently released records from the Grievance Commission of the Iowa Supreme Court show that Kress is facing a possible suspension of his law license as a result of his admission that he forged surveys in which students scored his effectiveness. The surveys were one of the tools used by the university to award pay raises to members of the faculty...

...Among the provisions it contains:

- Kress was promised "cash payments" of $203,400.

- The university agreed to deposit $22,600 into Kress' retirement account.

- The university agreed to provide Kress with health insurance through June 2008.

- The university agreed to place Kress on paid sick leave at the beginning of the 2005 school year. While on sick leave, he was not to teach or have any "employment duties" at the school, although the university promised to provide him with an office on campus, secretarial help and 300 hours of research-assistant time at public expense. It's not known how much sick leave Kress was able to use before it ran out.

- Kress promised to resign effective Jan. 9, 2006, and to release the state from any legal claims arising from his employment at the university.

The document indicates the university entered into the settlement agreement to avoid "the expense and time of further proceedings with the Faculty Judicial Commission" - a 30-member panel that handles ethics complaints. In theory, a decision to fire Kress, who had tenure at the university, could have resulted in costly litigation.

The university's lawyer, Marcus Mills, said the decision to provide Kress with an office, secretarial support and a research assistant while barring him from doing any work for the university was intended to help Kress complete some of his research projects.

What a stinking pile of crap.

If I pulled that shit at my company, I would be shown the door immediately. Who gives a rat's ass if Kenneth "I'm Bipolar, so dammit you have to pay for my health insurance, waaa waaa waaaa!!!" Kress has tenure? What a goddamn baby. He's only bipolar because he got caught. What a fucking phony. No wonder the price of tuition continues to skyrocket. You have lunatic con artists like Kress running the show and all these unnamed cowering enablers shoveling the taxpayer's money at him in order to avoid litigation.

Really, now. How far off is this from the CIETC scandal? Not very far, in my opinion. Nothing but fraud and deception and a continuing raping of the taxpayer.

It is sort-of like CIETC because there was a 30 member ethics board ("Faculty Judicial Commission") involved who did jack shit except rubber-stamp a check. What a pathetic bunch of slimeballs. I can only hope that some newspaper starts outing these supposedly unaccountable scumbags too. Fuck them all.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

"Perhaps you have not heard of blogs..."

Two years ago, columnist Ken Fuson wrote in the Des Moines Register:

Perhaps you have not heard of blogs. The name derives from a combination of "blather" and "logorrhea."

One of the unexpected benefits of the Internet, other than the ability to look really busy at work while filling out your NCAA tournament brackets, is that people can design their own personal Web sites and then report and comment on the big issues of the day as often as they want. These are called blogs.

This has proved to be a boon to people who apparently are (A) unemployed, (B) independently wealthy, or (C) no longer content to wait on hold to get their daily fix of attention from a radio talk-show host.

Let's put it another way: You know those people who like to write letters to the editor? A blog allows them to write letters all day long, on any subject they choose, without worrying about having the profanity removed or having any of their lunatic rants checked for accuracy.

Write all you want? No editors? More profane than a David Mamet character? We reporters have a word for this: E-mail. No, wait: Heaven.

Then in August of 2005, Register Sports columnist Nancy Clark wrote:

Today I'll be talking with Dan McCarney.
The bloggers won't.

I'll also be posing questions during Iowa State's media day to Bret Meyer, Todd Blythe and Jason Scales.

The bloggers won't.

Monday, I'll be chatting with Kirk Ferentz.

The bloggers won't.

I'll also get in a word at Iowa's media day with Drew Tate.

The bloggers won't.

Tuesday, I'll interview Mark Farley at Northern Iowa's media day.

The bloggers won't...

...Know that if the information is coming from the mainstream media - the accredited reporters, broadcasters and photojournalists - they are following strict professional guidelines that the looser outlets don't require. The information has been verified, has been scrutinized by editors, has been fact-checked and proofed.

The Register later deleted Nancy Clark's column, one in which she called most bloggers "losers".

Today the Des Moines Register hosts more than 125 blogs.

Ironically, they're all written by losers:

Hey,

So a reader had a very good question to my last blog, “Which is easier, Improv. or Scripted?”

I would have to answer that they both have pros and cons.

With a script the words are there and you have to do your best to make them natural. You have to make them your own and convince the audience that it’s YOU coming up with the words.

Make sense?

With Improv., you don’t have the words, so everything you say is going to be natural, and “yours”…. but like I said… you don’t have the words, so that’s challenging. You have to make sure that you are really “in the moment” and what I mean is, you really have to know what’s going on in the situation. You have to be able to adjust quickly with everyone else in the group. Remember, they don’t have scripts either, so if you start going on about something, they have to follow you and then lead and you follow and around and around… that’s not necessarily how it goes ALL the time… but that’s kind of a basic example.

So to answer the question… they are both challenging. And both are fun. I like improv. because I feel like I can’t really mess up. I certainly can mess up, but when I’m doing it I like the feeling of going off of other peoples ideas and making up my own. Not to say that you can’t do that with a script… it’s just the feeling I get.

Well, I better go do the dishes.

Thanks for the comments. I’ll talk to you later.

Jacob

Or simply neglected:

Tue 1.30.2007 11:59 AM
Capitol Comments

This week I took my first record vote on the house floor. I pressed the green button on my desk and joined 78 other members of the house in voting to raise Iowa’s minimum wage...

...As always, I invite you to contact me anytime with any questions or concerns. It would be great if you could come visit me here before the session ends in late April. I also invite you to legislative forums on Saturdays throughout the district. As of right now there is a forum scheduled for the last Saturday of every month, 8:30 AM at Iowa Central Community College, Varied Industries building in Fort Dodge. There will be others and when I get the details, I will pass them along.

Don't hurry, I'm sleeping. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Friday, April 06, 2007

Rudy Giuliani Blames Bloggers For All His Problems

Is Rudy blaming bloggers for his recent bad publicity?

Rudy's recent problems have arisen from interviews he granted or speeches he gave.

The most damning information has come from YouTube videos, which merely give the voters a chance to hear Rudy -- in his own words. His primary problems -- the ones that have stuck -- have not come from bloggers scurrilous accusations -- they have come from bloggers reporting his own words.

While a majority of people in America believe that abortion should not be criminalized and constitutionally banned, I'd be willing to bet that a majority of Americans would also be against taxpayer financing of abortions for poor women:

Yeah, I think the Republican base will have a problem supporting the nomination of a guy for President who talks like this.

Democrats, on the other hand, don't mind too much if their politicians vote for things like wars because they can change position all the time. That's called nuance! And it makes ya more intelligent than everybody else!

Sure, you get a few cranks coming out of the closet to bitch about things, but it doesn't matter because they'll still vote for you anyway.

Once Fred Thompson comes along and announces his candidacy, you can wipe Rudy and McVain and all the fringe candidates like Brownback and Tancredo off the map.

Generation Brain Drain

Via Common Iowan, here's something from State Representative Elesha Gayman's blog at the QC Times:

You’ve all heard about Iowa’s “brain drain” and the story is all too familiar to most of us. Whether friends, grandkids, nieces, or sons we all know someone born, raised, and educated in our great state only to leave for a better job somewhere else.

As one of eight legislators age 30 or under serving in the Iowa House this year, I’m working with my colleagues to reverse that trend. We all grew up here and were educated in our great state. We also decided to live and work here...

...With the help of State Representatives Andrew Wenthe (29), Tyler Olson (30), and McKinley Bailey (26), we put together a proposal that I believe can help us figure out how to stop the “brain drain” – Generation Iowa.

We know we need young people to stay and contribute to our state. But what comes first, the young people or the jobs? Generation Iowa is a great opportunity for us to come up with a plan and begin to reverse the “brain drain.”

Our Generation Iowa bill was signed by the Governor today. It creates a Generation Iowa Commission comprised of 15, 18 to 35 year olds from diverse backgrounds who will be charged with three tasks: make recommendations to the legislature on how to keep and retain young people; promote and market Iowa to help recruit business, new industry, and young people; and create best practices for employers who are looking to keep and retain young talent.

You know, you don't need to create some State Commission full of the young adult children of politically-connected types in order to come up with ideas. Maybe some of us out here in blogland can come up with ideas.

As an Iowan who moved out of state for a (much) better job opportunity, I have a few things to suggest, and I'll refrain from internal hyperlinking because I don't have much time today:

End taxpayer-financed corporate welfare. Quit subsidizing politically-connected companies and people at the expense of competition that's already here in Iowa. The State has a bad track record at doing this.
Fix the goddamn tax code so that it's not so insane. Have any of you legislators in the statehouse ever tried to fill out the State of Iowa's income tax form if you have a business, kids, a mortgage, or you've spent part of a year working in another state? It's impossible. Two words to think about: flat tax.
Government is way too big in Iowa. It needs to have an arm or a leg chopped off. Do we need 99 counties and all the fifedoms that go with it? No way. Maybe 125 years ago we needed a county seat that was a day's journey by horseback, but not anymore. You see, we have these things called cars now...
Colleges and universities need to cut back on the number of kids enrolled in worthless degrees. There's enough political science, art history, English, African-American history, Feminasty, and communication types running around to last us about 30 or 40 years. Meanwhile such professions like health care, elder care, animal care, computer programming, bio-sciences, and the trade skills are desperate for qualified professionals.
Lower the damn taxes. Somehow, Iowa was able to survive up until the early 1980s with a 3% sales tax rate. With the proliferation of gambling, almost 7% sales tax rates in some places, and property taxes going through the roof, you'd think state coffers would have enough dough to do the job.

What you need in Iowa is a climate favorable towards businesses starting or relocating and people staying as a result, and you can't do that with everybody else's tax money. You can't be doing stupid shit like building Rainforests or supporting every group's pet project that will result in endless tax increases. You don't want industries that encourage illegal immigration in order to exploit workers with low wages, much less dead end jobs like working in a call center.

I predict that what you'll get from your state commission of young politically-connected types is a laundry list of government projects and wannabe-Chicago/Mpls/Omaha/Kansas City/New York bullshit that will only result in higher taxes.

Short of protectionism for Iowa residents under a certain age, I don't know how else you're going to stop the brain drain. Unless the commission is interested in talking about any of the above issues, I don't know why you're even bothering to waste the time.

Free International Phone Calls From Iowa Are History

A longtime reader suggested a followup to this blog's post from last October called Make Free International Phone Calls From Iowa.

As it turns out, the "free" international phone calls from Iowa thing was a scam. This is from Christopher Herot's blog:

Last month I wrote about the loophole in the telecom settlement scheme whereby companies such as AllFreeCalls could strike deals with CLECs in sparsely populated regions to split the higher-than-normal termination charges they collected from ILECs. A lot of people speculated that this scheme only succeeded because the amounts being paid were still round-off errors in the grand scheme of the ILECs costs. Apparently AT&T noticed when their monthly bill from the Superior Telephone Co-operative in Iowa went from $2,000 to $2,000,000 and they have sued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. Their argument is that since the calls aren't really terminated in Iowa, they don't owe Iowa's termination charges.

There's even more detail on this issue, particularly with Futurephone, at the Gigaom blog.

You can also read a PDF of the lawsuit thanks to the Herot blog.

This blog was hoping that Chet Culver could have raided the IPERS pension fund and "invested" some of that money into hi-tech start-'em-up businesses like Futurephone in order to allow Iowa to become the Silicon Valley Of The Midwest. Oh, well, maybe Chet Culver can raid the IPERS pension fund and buy a few shares of the latest McLeodUSA scam.

Now, for your entertainment:

Jew-Haters Pester Loebsack About Their U-Bills

From the Register Editorial Board:

A forum at the University of Iowa with Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, to discuss federal support of student financial aid was met with anti-war protesters saying Iraq war funding is hurting the education budget.

Members of the UI Anti-War Committee, who were kept out of the room except to make a statement, criticized Loebsack's vote for supplemental funding for the war in Iraq, saying it "raises serious questions about your true commitment to education."

"Even though there is not a draft, college students are feeling this war," UI junior and committee member David Goodner said afterward. "The war is pinching and squeezing the funding for education."

Goodner is a 26 year old junior at the University of Iowa. At the rate he's working on his degree, he'll probably be about 40 or 45 when he completes his Master's and begins working for Al Jazeera or Hamas.

You already know my opinion about the cost of higher education.

Des Moines Register Global Warming Gangbang

As a new installment of a United Nations report on global warming is released, sentiment for U.S. action moved to a new level this week following a U.S. Supreme Court decision on greenhouse-gas regulations.

The question no longer is whether government and industry will act, but what form the regulations will take and where they will be written. For now, the states are taking the lead, but eventually the president and Congress must step up to the plate with a national global-warming strategy that is part of a global solution.

What timing. Everybody in Des Moines this morning woke up to it being a balmy 18 degrees outside.

Meanwhile, Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie is full of fearmongering:

"Climate Change in the Hawkeye State," a 2004 report prepared by Midwestern university scientists, showed what would likely happen if heating-trapping emissions continue unabated. By 2100, Iowa's summer climate would generally be more like that of current northwest Mississippi. Seasonal precipitation would increase in winter and spring by as much as 30 percent and decrease in summer by 10 percent to 35 percent. The number of days in Iowa above 90 degrees is projected to at least double, and heat waves could occur 15 to 25 times a year by the end of this century.

Some climate change is now inevitable. But global warming is not a problem we can simply address by adapting. Reducing global-warming emissions must be our highest priority to avoid leaving our children and grandchildren a world we wouldn't even recognize.

Frank Cownie is such a liar that I don't even know where to start. Oh, sure, he's partnered up on the op-ed with some post-doctoral nutcase who wants to strengthen Federal climate legislation. Nevermind that Cownie's crutch, Dr Brenda Ekwurzel, writes alarmist bullshit about hurricanes with an obvious political bent.

Even if temperatures increased because Man, particularly you fat Americans, were responsible (which is not the case, the sun is), would that really be a bad thing for Iowa? Wouldn't farmers enjoy a longer growing season? Wouldn't seed companies be able to engineer plant hybrids that would withstand increased temperatures and produce more?

Just once I'd like to see these Socialists and Marxists explain why the sun's energy isn't a factor. They can't, of course.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Granny Basketball

A few dozen Iowa grandmothers have found an unusual way to keep the bounce in their step and have fun while exercising, by playing league basketball. Granny Basketball League director Barbara McPherson of Lansing organized the first game a few years ago as a one-time novelty fundraiser, but the other ladies didn't want to quit. Now with eight Iowa teams, they play six-on-six by 1920s rules -- while wearing hand-sewn uniforms with bloomers.

McPherson says "The rules are kind of reminiscent of the 1920s. There's no running, no jumping and no physical contact. We get two dribbles per possession and we play in three courts like they did in the 1920s, so we have two forwards, two centers and two guards. Each of those people have to stay in their third of the court. You can't cross the line." She says the grannies range in age from their 50s to their 80s and do they draw crowds? "Yes," she says, laughing. "Most people say, 'I have to see this. I just can't picture an 81-year-old woman playing basketball.' We don't feel our age inside, I guess that's what's important. We're still 16 on the inside." McPherson says there's plenty of room for more teams to join in the fun.

Iowa was one of the last places to end six-on-six women's basketball from high school sports, but tournaments being held in that style of game occurred until the 1993-1994 school year.

What killed this interesting game? Was it Title IX? Was it feminist nonsense? Nowadays I find myself uninterested by basketball games of either sex, mostly due to the laziness of the 3 point line and the game that results: run down the court, shoot, attempt to rebound, run back and try another 3-pointer. BORING! It's not a team sport anymore. It's just hot dogging, long shots, and tattoos.

Here's a video of the Granny Basketball players on the Megan Mullally Show:

Generation A

From Kelsey Wilson, editor in chief of the school newspaper at Davenport North High School, and printed in the Quad City Times: (emphasis added by State 29)

I’m a senior about to graduate from North High School. I’m the editor in chief of our school newspaper and this was the editorial column that I wrote for our last issue. I felt that it was a timely response to the “juvenile problem” editorial in Tuesday’s paper.

I believe the most important issue facing American high school students today must be the societal acceptance of apathy. I choose apathy over any of the many other compelling issues that could be presented, because an apathetic attitude, in and of itself, inevitably allows any other issue to remain intact. Without apathy, any problem arising before the youth of today would be addressed and overcome, thus rendering it a non-issue.

As editor in chief and editorial editor of our school newspaper, I am continually appalled at my peers’ lack of concern with student affairs.

Often, attempts to collect student opinions are scoffed at or waved away with indifference, polls reflecting areas of concern are dismally shallow, and copies of Davenport North High School’s The Pursuit of the Wildcats lay unread regularly. Teens are more than happy to complain about or ridicule school policy, but the line that forms to actually appeal, debate or take action is virtually non-existent.

As a student who has been highly aware since my freshman year of how my every action has a consequence upon my future, I continue to be mortified at the lethargic attitude displayed by students at where they are, where they are going, and how they plan to get there. Their lack of concern over the lifestyle that they and their future families will be forced to maintain is dismaying, especially when one observes generation upon generation settling for a continual state of economic stagnation.

As an incoming education major, I cannot help but consider how adversely the apathetic attitudes I see around me will affect my ability to do my job. Reaching students with a willingness to learn, I expect, will have times when it is difficult enough. I cringe, though, at the thought of trying to reach students who are surrounded by others who ridicule them for showing interest, pegging them as teachers’ pets or worse. In the current environment that accepts and even prizes ignorance, whether genuine or feigned, a teacher’s mission appears a frightfully uphill battle.

What begins as simple showing off in school, if allowed to run rampant, will permeate all aspects of a person’s life. It will manifest itself in a dysfunctional home life, poor performance on the job, and improper or even illegal social activities.

However, the most prevalent threat, and most frightening, I feel, would have to be the inept parenting of what will quite possibly be yet another generation of untapped talent.

Great piece.

You know, I talk a lot about my disgust at parents who can't be bothered to save a single dime for their child's college education. It leads to extremely bad decisions where many college graduates (and dropouts) are indebted into the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for the next 15, 20, 25, or even 30 years. It's insane.

So what happens is that university flunkies and politicians come up with stupid ideas like the indentured servitude bill; essentially trying to pawn off tuition increases several times the rate of inflation for a generation onto the private sector. Or you have Congressman Bruce Braley wanting to lower college loan interest rates while jacking up the amount a student can borrow. That won't solve the problem.

Meanwhile, Iowa has way too many morons with political science degrees and not enough food animal medicine graduates.

Don't ask me what the answer to all this is, but one thing I'm not is apathetic about the matter.

Age Appropriate Sex Education For 5 Year Olds In Iowa City?

From the Daily Iowan:

Iowa City School District health coordinator and kindergarten teacher Jude Jensen makes sure the 5- and 6-year-olds in her class learn about sex - at an age-appropriate level, of course.

"It's based on how we're all human beings. We've got bodies, and isn't that a cool thing?" she said. "We celebrate being a boy and being a girl."

In succeeding years, students learn the stock topics - condom use, abstinence, sexually transmitted diseases, and AIDS - by the time they graduate.

But Jensen said some curriculum changes may be necessary if a bill in the state Legislature working for uniform sex education with "age-appropriate" and "scientific-" or "research-based" topics passes. The legislation came out of subcommittee April 3 and is eligible for debate in the Senate.

"We're going to have to tweak ours. And I'm OK with that. We're up for it," Jensen said. "I love that they're talking about research-based education. It arms me better as a teacher."

Jensen, who has been the district's health coordinator for six years and a kindergarten teacher for 10, said the district's sex education curriculum is "comprehensive" and includes all viewpoints.

Isn't that great? Let's celebrate diversity!

Wait a second. All viewpoints?

Do they cover DVDA?

The Iowa Legislature Wants To Regulate Your Ass

Greenhouse gases would be tracked by the state under a proposal that passed out of a House committee Wednesday.

Senate File 485 requires the Department of Natural Resources to work with an environmental protection commission to create a greenhouse gas inventory and registry.

The registry is voluntary. The data would be shared with other state and federal governments for purposes of tracking.

Well, let's see. Everybody breathes and farts, so it looks like the politicians will be regulating your ass from cradle-to-grave and from first bite to final poop.

What I don't understand about the theory of global warming (and trust me, it's still a theory, despite what Al "Manbearpig" Gore says), is that the Iowa Capitol building is full of bloviating buffoons. You'd think some of that carbon dioxide and methane would cause enough of a greenhouse effect under that gold dome in Des Moines to keep the water pipes from freezing in winter.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Wells Fargo In Des Moines Is Really Diverse, Except For the 88% Who Aren't Diverse

From the Mason City Glob-Gazette:

About 1,300 Wells Fargo employees from central Iowa attended an annual diversity conference in Des Moines on Wednesday, an event that top executives said celebrates one of the company’s core values.

“It’s woven into everything we do,” said John Stumpf, president and chief operating officer. “It’s part of our entire thought process.”

Stumpf, who works at Wells Fargo’s headquarters in San Francisco, delivered the keynote speech at HyVee Hall and said he was proud of the way employees embrace diversity. Corporate-wide, Wells Fargo has more than 75 employee resource groups that each share a common background, experience or ethnicity, lifestyle choice or interest.

“When we talk about diversity, we must consider all types...so that at the end of the day, people feel valued at work,” Stumpf said. “The world is changing, Iowa is changing. So as the world changes, we need to change with our markets, too.”

The event was the second annual conference hosted by Wells Fargos’ Central Iowa Diversity Council, a 21-member group that formed in 2005 to coordinate diversity efforts here.

Stumpf credited the team for raising awareness throughout the community and contributing to the “common culture” of inclusiveness at Wells Fargo.

In Iowa, about 12 percent of Wells Fargo’s 12,900 employees are ethnically diverse

I've always felt that the chest-thumping about diversity by a company is really irritating. I don't give a whiff if you're diverse. Are you ethical?

The answer is that Wells Fargo is not an ethical company. They take money from Iowa taxpayers under the guise that it will help create jobs. Some of the incentives were expected to cost taxpayers nearly $50 million. Then they turn around and spend $10 million on the naming rights to the taxpayer-subsidized Giant Carbuncle in downtown Des Moines.

Beyond that, it must be nice for a company to allow 1300 employees the day off in order to talk about this BS. How come they didn't use WELLS FARGO ARENA to host the event? Did the Hy-Vee employees have something going on there today?

Why no love for Wells Fargo? I used to be a Brenton Bank customer for years until the merger. After the switch was announced, I wisely took my business elsewhere. No thanks, I don't like McBanks.

Coach Eddie Robinson Died

From ESPN:

Eddie Robinson, the longtime Grambling coach who transformed a small, black college into a football power that sent hundreds of players to the NFL, has died. He was 88.

The soft-spoken coach spent nearly 60 years at Grambling State University, where he set a standard for victories with 408 and nearly every season relished seeing his top players drafted by NFL teams.

But did you know that Eddie Robinson was an alumni of the University of Iowa?

Eddie Robinson earned his M.S. in Physical Education from the University of Iowa in 1954.

Robinson was the honored guest at the University of Iowa Homecoming in 2000.

Not related, but related: Dr Homer Harris died

Arrogant, Money-Soaked Politicians Showing Up Everywhere And Pissing Off Iowans

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill,, has raised at least $25 million in his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination, his campaign announced today.

The report is for the first quarter of 2007 and reflects contributions from 100,000 people, his campaign staff said. Nearly $7 millon was raised over the Internet from 50,000 donors.

Obama is speaking at 6:30 p.m. today at a rally at North Iowa Area Community College in an event that is open to the public. On Thursday, he will hold an invitation-only health care forum at NIACC at 9:30 a.m. and will hold a rally at Algona High School at 12:50 p.m.

I don't understand why any politician would host a campaign rally at a high school during the middle of classes. How arrogant is that?

It's sort of like Rudy Giuliani and his entourage showing up at the Ghetto-Vee in Cedar Rapids and interrupting the welfare bums who live in that part of town from getting their baby formula, diapers, cigarettes, alcohol, and lottery tickets. WTF is that all about?

More Perez Hitlery From Yesterday

From a reader, who is willing to do a whole bunch of these sorts of things:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., talks to potential supporters during a breakfast gathering at the home of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and his wife, Christie, Tuesday, April 3, 2007, in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, home. (AP Photo/Steve Pope)

Related: Perez Hitlery

College Babes Might Be A Little More Broke Or A Little Bit Pregnant

Many college women experience "sticker shock" with cars, handbags and jeans. Soon, ISU women may feel the same shock when it comes to birth control pills.

At the end of 2006, federal legislation changed the policy that allowed oral contraceptive suppliers to give discounts to college health centers. A change in a Medicaid policy, the federal program that assists the poor with health insurance, has also affected Thielen Student Health Center at Iowa State.

"We used to offer about 12 to 20 different brands of birth control pills for 10 to 12 dollars, but now the same products are doubled or tripled in price," said Greg Yeakel, chief staff pharmacist at the Student Health Center...

...At Iowa State, about a third of students pay cash for prescriptions while the other two-thirds have insurance, or are covered through a similar plan, Yeakel said.

The change in rates "wouldn't make much of a difference for most students unless they were paying for birth control pills with cash so that their parents wouldn't find out on the insurance bill," Yeakel said...

...Price comparisons for one month's supply

NuvaRing:

Student Health Center - $39.53
www.walgreens.com - $52.66
www.drugstore.com - $46.24

Ortho Evra Patch:

Student Health Center - $35.40
www.walgreens.com - $54.99
www.drugstore.com - $51.39

Ortho-Tri-Cyclen Pill:

Student Health Center - $45.40 (generic $20)
www.walgreens.com - $52.99
www.drugstore.com - $48.07

This is chump change compared to the student loan debt that most ISU students get themselves into these days.

If they were really upset about the price increase, they'd do what comes naturally to ISU students:

Million Dollar Playground For Downtown School Nixed In Des Moines