Microsoft, If They Want, Will Not Have To Pay Their Fair Share Of Taxes In Iowa

From the Roth CPA Tax Update Blog:

Governor Culver yesterday signed the big tax break for the server farm Microsoft has been dangling over the state. Meanwhile, the Iowa House yesterday passed two bills that show their attitude to the businesses that are already here.

The House passed a bill to exempt the federal individual tax stimulus checks from Iowa taxes yesterday (HF 2417). The bill doesn't extend to Iowa the federal bonus depreciation and Section 179 asset expensing provisions of the federal stimulus package; nor does the "code conformity" bill passed yesterday in the House (SF 2123) that otherwise adopts federal tax computation rules to Iowa. In doing this Iowa repeats the mistake it made in failing to conform Iowa to similar provisions in the 2001 stimulus bill, a mistake that required a special session to only partially correct. As a result, taxpayers filing Iowa returns will have to keep different sets of fixed asset records for Iowa at their own expense. They will also have to pay for years of idiotic Department of Revenue notices that the differences between federal and Iowa taxes will cause.

The Moral? The politicians love big, headline generating business openings, but they care a lot less less for the small businesses that don't have lobbyists -- the ones that pay the costs of running the government on behalf of Microsoft and Google.

Ouch!

I totally agree.

So Microsoft can avoid many millions of dollars in property and sales taxes for 50 or 60 server-watching jobs?

Why, just a few years ago, Attorney General Tom Miller joined in a lawsuit suing Microsoft for being all monopolistic because of their Internet Explorer browser. The case was settled and a few State Trooper cars were bought out of the $2 million.

Every member of the Iowa Legislature who voted for this and the Governor should have a computer dropped on their heads for authorizing this corporate welfare.

Here's what Iowa residents, taxpayers, and small business owners ought to be doing to the Capitol building:



Just remember that Ted Waitt, after being turned down by numerous Iowa banks, convinced his grandmother to put up a $10,000 CD as collateral so he could get Gateway Computers started in the Sioux City area in 1985. Waitt later moved the company from Iowa to South Dakota because of that state's lack of personal or corporate income taxes.

The Des Moines Register Will Be Profiting From The Sour Mortgage Foreclosure Meltdown

From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa is ramping up its battle against mortgage foreclosures with a plan to provide money management advice for people with financial problems, and add Spanish language services.

Under plans announced Thursday by the Iowa Attorney General and Iowa Finance Authority, $500,000 in federal funds will be allocated to a West Des Moines mediation company that has so far fielded 8,000 calls from homeowners concerned about their loans.

Iowa Mediation Service is expected to use the money to add staff, including Spanish speakers, in the face of what Attorney General Tom Miller called a “foreclosure avalanche.”

The finance authority, which supports home ownership in Iowa, learned earlier this week that $1.5 million in federal aid will come to the state to help fight foreclosures.

Much of that money will be spent on an awareness campaign, since Bret Mills, executive director of the authority...

So the Federal government is funneling money to a company so that they can advertise their services. No wonder the Des Moines Register is happy with all the bad news! That's more money in the Register's pockets!

And seriously, what kind of writing is this:

Iowa has been in the thick of a national mortgage meltdown that began in 2006 when loans, many with high interest rates, or monthly payments that jumped over time, began to go sour.

How does a mortgage go sour?

Oh, yeah, you've got to stop paying your mortgage!

Not only that, but you've got to stop paying for mortgage for quite a while before a lender initiates foreclosure proceedings.

And many lenders will go to great lengths to not let a property get into foreclosure because it's an expensive and drawn-out process.

As I've said before:

Two kinds of people get subprime mortgages: 1) wannabe rich people who buy homes way too expensive for their budgets and live life on the bleeding edge of being 90 days behind on everything - and 2) poor shitheads who move into a middle class neighborhood after being evicted from every apartment complex in town for nonpayment and who quickly stop paying their mortgage and let the property go to rot and into foreclosure within 2 years.

There's a third kind who get into trouble. They're the dummies who refinance every couple of years in order to extract any equity they can in order to feed their charge-o-holic behavior, and then either the bills come to a head or they try to sell their house and it doesn't fetch what they've taken out of it.

There's also a scattering of older or stupid people who are duped into adjustable-rate mortgages due to con artists, but that's a relatively low number.

And then there's Iowahawk's classic take on the matter.

Build More Giant Carbuncles

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

CORALVILLE - The City Council is looking at adding a 5,000 to 7,000 seat arena to the Iowa River Landing District.

The council approved a $35,000 contract on Tuesday with Minneapolis-based Conventions, Sports and Leisure International — a consulting firm specializing in large public facilities — to study whether the arena would be practical.

"This would serve as a major anchor," City Administrator Kelly Haywood said, adding that Johnson County residents asked for more sports and entertainment amenities during initial brainstorming sessions for the Iowa River Landing district project.

"The more entertainment options we have, the more we can bring people into the district for restaurants and other things," he said.

This is an absolutely idiotic idea.

Coralville only has 17,000 people living there. Sure, Iowa City is next door with 62,000 people, but then you've got to go another 25 miles to the north to Cedar Rapids to find another major population center. Even then, Cedar Rapids couldn't support an IMAX Theater. Besides, Iowa City already has Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Hancher Auditorium, and, on a much smaller scale, the restored Englert Theater.

How often are those residents going to attend some event at a 5000 to 7000 seat arena? Maybe once or twice a year? If that?

It should be noted that other regional arenas are big money-losers.

In 2005, this blog mentioned how the Five Sullivan Brothers Conventional Center in Waterloo was losing $100,000 a year and was in need of over $800,000 in maintenance.

The US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids was projected to lose $600,000 in 2005. It's always been a money-loser.

And Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines lost over a million dollars in the first year after it was built. It will always be a drain on the taxpayers of Polk County.

If you can't make money charging $55 for a concert ticket and $6 for a beer, you're in trouble.

Oh, I can hear it now. If we build it, maybe they will come. Convention business, that is. What a pipe dream. Who in their right mind is gonna go to Coralville? It's 25 miles from the nearest commercial airport. I-80 has been a disaster this year with all the snow. If it's something to do with the University of Iowa and not during basketball season then they can likely snag Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

I really don't get it, but Coralville is the same town who thought the Rainforest was a good idea, so clearly the town is run by complete idiots.

Coming In June: The Iowa City *****-Citizen

Susan Patterson Plank, GM of the Iowa City *****-Citizen

From the Press-Citizen:

The Iowa City Press-Citizen will be printed at the Des Moines Register’s printing facility effective June 2, Susan Patterson Plank, Press-Citizen general manager, told employees this afternoon.

Eleven full-time staff and 13 part-time staff will lose their jobs and be offered severance packages based on experience, she said.

Didn't I just say a few days ago, "Why Do Newspapers Exist?"

I guess they shouldn't really call it the "Press-Citizen" after June, seeing how there aren't going to be any more printing presses to make the newspaper in Iowa City!

At this rate, why not just print the thing in China? Or India!

And, hmmmm, what are they going to do if the next winter is like this one? I heard Interstate 80 between Des Moines and Davenport has been a disaster for the past couple of weeks.

Maybe they should make it an evening newspaper, like the Des Moines Tribune used to be. You know it's going to be constantly delayed.

It's not as if Susan Patterson Plank, the Gannettoid who is the new General Manager of the Press-Citizen, shows up to work very often. She's lucky to make it to Iowa City once a week.

Giant Sucking Sound Out Of Des Moines

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette's Editorial Dept:

Iowa legislators are seriously considering legislation that would convert a 1-cent, local-option sales tax for school buildings into a statewide, permanent penny tax. We think they should reconsider, and keep the tax local and optional.

We acknowledge that the local tax already is being charged in all of Iowa's 99 counties. And we understand the laudable objectives of those seeking to make the tax statewide and permanent.

Backers of the idea argue that a statewide penny could be used to level the playing field between what urban and rural districts get from the infrastructure tax. A permanent tax, they insist, would help districts plan for infrastructure needs, especially in growing suburban districts. Supporters argue that local voters would still have considerable say over how building funds are spent and that the Legislature couldn't touch the tax dollars unless two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate agreed to do so.

And pennies not spent on buildings would be used to cut local property taxes, backers contend.

But our agreement with those worthy goals cannot overcome our strong misgivings.

For starters, we believe the legislation would break faith with voters all over Iowa who believed they were signing off on a 10-year, temporary local tax. It's wrong to interpret their support for a local tax as an endorsement of a statewide tax.

The statewide tax bill may provide voters with a path to protest the way local dollars are being spent, but it does not give them a way to turn off the tax tap. That power would be grabbed by the Legislature.

We're also skeptical of vows that lawmakers won't scoop infrastructure tax funds for other uses.

The same lawmakers who make spending rules can break them easily. We've heard promises before from Statehouse politicians on how they would spend gambling revenues, funds for expanding senior living options and tobacco settlement proceeds. Those pledges were abandoned swiftly when budgetary circumstances changed.

This week, Gov. Chet Culver underscored our worries by saying he would be open to the idea of using proceeds from a new statewide tax for teacher salaries. Teachers may deserve a raise, but local voters approved their pennies for school buildings, not salaries...

This is a good editorial and all, but why doesn't a newspaper come out and really lay it on the line?

The only reason the Iowa Legislature is paying any attention to the matter is because the Des Moines School District totally screwed up, lied to voters after the Local Option tax was passed in 1999 (for the fourth time, and by only 43 votes), so now Des Moines wants everybody else to pay for their mismanagement AND take away a community's power in rescinding a "temporary" tax increase!

Why not come out and declare war on Des Moines? It's easy to bash them. How are they going to defend their screwups? Des Moines is just going to TAKE from every small school district around Iowa and waste it on their poorer schools and bloat-heavy central administration. That's the truth!

This has been done before, although the setup was quite different, just over the border in Kansas City. It's the infamous Kansas City "desegregation" case that lasted for decades and wasted a couple billion dollars in 1980s/1990s-era money. You can read the Cato Institute's anaylsis about the case. Here's the intro, followed by a couple of excerpts from deep within:

For decades critics of the public schools have been saying, "You can't solve educational problems by throwing money at them." The education establishment and its supporters have replied, "No one's ever tried." In Kansas City they did try. To improve the education of black students and encourage desegregation, a federal judge invited the Kansas City, Missouri, School District to come up with a cost-is-no-object educational plan and ordered local and state taxpayers to find the money to pay for it.

Kansas City spent as much as $11,700 per pupil--more money per pupil, on a cost of living adjusted basis, than any other of the 280 largest districts in the country. The money bought higher teachers' salaries, 15 new schools, and such amenities as an Olympic-sized swimming pool with an underwater viewing room, television and animation studios, a robotics lab, a 25-acre wildlife sanctuary, a zoo, a model United Nations with simultaneous translation capability, and field trips to Mexico and Senegal. The student-teacher ratio was 12 or 13 to 1, the lowest of any major school district in the country.

The results were dismal. Test scores did not rise; the black-white gap did not diminish; and there was less, not greater, integration...

...District expenditures took quantum leaps from $125 million in fiscal year 1985 to $233 million in FY88 to $432 million in FY92....

...To parents in [Missouri's] 529 other school districts, it seemed extraordinarily unfair that Kansas City was awash in money while their districts had to cope two years in a row with funding declines that forced them to hold bake sales and car washes to finance programs, sell hot dogs and sodas to buy school athletic uniforms, and clip soup coupons to buy computers.

To replace the money that the state sent to St. Louis and Kansas City, other districts in the state had to cancel field trips and extracurricular activities, defer maintenance, fire teachers, and freeze salaries. The decline in state revenue cost the Springfield school district $4 million--4 percent of its entire budget. As there was no slack in the budget, Springfield had to fire 19 employees; defer grouting the mortar on 100-year-old brick buildings; cancel public speaking classes; dispense with water safety courses; and beg for money to send students to the Civil War battlefield at Wilson's Creek, an annual trip that had been made for decades. In the meantime, the KCMSD was spending $50,000 a month to bring students to school in taxis, sending its fencing team to Senegal, and dispatching the district superintendent on a goodwill mission to Moscow.

If Des Moines gets their way and the Iowa Legislature approves this permanent sales tax for schools (and god forbid if the Teacher's Union gets their way via Governor Culver for using it on salaries), you'll see the same sort of thing happen.

Everybody outside of Des Moines won't get the money they had planned on down the road. Des Moines will be skimming off what the other smaller and rural districts had planned to spend on building maintenance.

Why dance around this fact?

Is every other school district in Iowa just going to roll over and let Des Moines screw them out of their money? Or are these other districts wondering how much they'll get if the permanent tax is in place? The will of the people be damned, of course!

When They Got Home At Night Their Fat And Psychopathic Wives Would Thrash Them Within Inches Of Their Lives

From the Des Moines Register:

The West Des Moines school district is believed to be the first in Iowa to adopt alcohol and illicit drug testing for all potential employees.

The new policy was approved Monday and mimics private sector drug screening. It is uncommon for public schools nationwide.

“We can say with a fair amount of confidence that this is the first such policy in Iowa,” said Lisa Bartusek, associate executive director for the Iowa Association of School Boards.

The West Des Moines district hires between 80 and 130 new employees each year, and drug tests for those applicants are expected to cost less than $5,000 annually, Associate Superintendent Lisa Remy said.

Well, isn't that wonderful?

A school district has finally found the kind of testing they can get behind!

“It was surprising to me that other districts don’t do this,” said board member Susan Moritz, who helped craft the policy. “It came out of the idea that our bus drivers were already being tested, and if we felt that was important for our bus drivers, wasn’t it also important for the people who were in our buildings?”

Mortiz said the change wasn’t in response to any particular incident and that its purpose is to “help new applicants understand that we simply don’t tolerate any kind of drug abuse on the job.”

You could just saved the taxpayers $5000 a year and said upfront: "If you're a drunk or a druggie on the job, you'll be fired."

Naturally, they're not going to be testing the psychos who are hopped up on mood-altering "legal" meds. They'll get in under the radar.

Oh, Who Cares? Just Soak The Rich!

Joe at the Tax Update Blog, commenting on a Tax Analyst who is sympathetic to Governor Culver's plan to push "combined reporting" in Iowa:

All of this ignores the elephant in the room: Iowa's highest-in-the-nation corporation tax rate of 12% - a top rate that is 20% higher than in any other state. When a tax rate is way too high, the only salvation is for the tax to not work very well. The estate tax works, or doesn't work, much the same way. Were the combined reporting combined with a serious effort at tax reform - which hasn't been seen in Iowa maybe ever - combined reporting would have a chance. At a 12% marginal rate - no way.

Emphasis mine.

Joe's right.

And even if you don't understand all the business terms, trust me, he's still right.

Why Do Newspapers Exist?

Two people wrote letters complaining to the Des Moines Register about their decision to drop the daily TV schedule.

Gee, I'm surprised anybody takes the newspaper these days, much less relies on it for things such as the TV schedule.

Besides, the Register long ago replaced "news" with Hollywood gossip and slanted political hit pieces from the AP.

They dumped local movie reviews a few years back.

If you want to read a restaurant review, there's no Grumpy Gourmet. There's the impossible-to-find-anything DM Juice site.

Heck, why bother paying all that money for a classified ad to try to sell your car, hold a garage sale, or find an "escort" when there's Craigslist?

Why does the Des Moines Register exist? To print legal notices? Eventually that legally-required gravy train is going to end.

Why Shouldn't An Economics Book Cost $159?

From the Mason City Glob-Gazette:

The Iowa House has passed a bill designed to let college students shop around for the best prices on textbooks.

What a lead sentence!

It almost seems like a joke.

It's not:

The bill, introduced by Rep. Bill Schickel, R-Mason City, would require Iowa universities and community colleges to provide students with the international standard book numbers (ISBNs) of the textbooks that will be used in their courses...

...Schickel said he got the idea for the bill from a Sept. 5 story in the Globe Gazette about prices at the bookstore at North Iowa Area Community College.

Some students were having a problem shopping online for textbooks because the college’s policy at the time was to not list the ISBN number, which can be used to make sure the student buys the correct version of a textbook being used in class.

The day after the story was published, NIACC announced that college officials and the bookstore had agreed to provide the ISBN numbers.

Schickel said he discovered colleges not providing ISBN numbers was a problem statewide.

When addressing the House about the bill Thursday, Schickel said in some cases students are paying more than $1,000 per semester for textbooks.

“If the price of milk had risen as fast as school textbooks we’d be paying $17 a gallon,” he said.

Schickel’s bill would require community colleges and Regents universities to provide the ISBN numbers both at the bookstore and online at least 14 days before the first day of classes each semester.

The bill would not apply to private colleges.

Good for Schickel. This sort of thing is long overdue.

It's hard to believe that community colleges and Regents universities in Iowa would not allow the ISBN to be disclosed as late as 2007, and that it would require legislation in 2008.

But those schools have a vested interest in keeping information embargoed that would help the consumer by forcing students into their monopoly bookstores.

Narcisse At The Real Sporer

Des Moines School Board member Jon Narcisse guesting at The Real Sporer:

Violence, discipline problems, bullying are rampant in our district. We represent just over six percent of the state's enrolled student population yet nearly 20% of the students suspended or expelled in this state are enrolled in the Des Moines School District...

...Since the arrival of our new superintendent the board tripled the number of superintendents, created three executive director positions, have tons of administrative staff yet not a single one of our three dozen elementary schools and only one of our middle schools has a full-time librarian. Why hasn't the Register addressed the top heavy nature of our district and the role it plays in our current academic crisis?

As a student of history I understand that at times the 4th estate has not been the independent voice informing and educating the public but the "champion" of the status quo. Although our local media in general has failed to cover a number of major Des Moines School District storylines, The Register has singularly failed this community by going the extra step of shielding this community from fundamental truths regarding our District.

I can understand the political motives of a Board that has been silent on key academic concerns crippling this District for years. The voters will decide if this has been acceptable.

In recent years Des Moines School Board incumbents have found the public isn't happy with the board's failures. Name the legislators representing districts covering Des Moines defeated in re-election bids, the county supervisors or the city council members? I can but most can't because such defeats are so rare.

Now name the incumbents of the past few years running for re-election on the Des Moines School Board that haven't been defeated, especially sitting board presidents? On the other hand the voters don't get to weigh in on The Register's manipulation of the flow of information regarding the Des Moines School District. I did a search of The Register's archives. In the last six months I've been in the paper about 50 times, including a Duffy spoof this past Friday. Yet the litany of concerns expressed in this instant commentary, and many other pressing concerns, have rarely warranted Des Moines Register ink or investigation.

Why aren't these issues important to The Register? That's the question those of you that care about this district, and the education of our children, now need to start asking The Register.

This is Narcisse at his best.

I can tell you why the Register doesn't explore these issues: because they believe the racist "liberal" party line that champions race-based diversity number games over equalizing the educational opportunities within each neighborhood's school. Forget the individual child. Forget the neighborhood. Let's throw them all into groups, shuffle them like cards, and move them down the conveyor belt.

Long gone are the days of unequal schools in "black" and "white" neighborhoods, if even that ever existed in Des Moines. I remember when busing started in the 1970s in Des Moines. It was all a numbers game fueled by white northern liberal guilt for wanting to have the same alleged problems as other parts of the country.

But what are you going to do? Run for the school board? It's an unpaid, thankless job filled with endless criticism if you don't toe the party line. Just ask Jon Narcisse.

We Hate It When Our Depressed And Reclusive Stripper Blogger Friends Who Once Lived In Iowa Become Successful

Updated 10:38pm



I am bemused at the current Iowa media gangbang of Juno screenwriter "Diablo Cody" (nee Brooke Busey-Hunt), up for an Oscar tonight, and who went to the University of Iowa from 1996 to 2000.

Especially her story as portrayed in the Des Moines Register:

In Iowa City, she went into a deep funk.

Cody moved out of the dormitories and into an Iowa Avenue apartment without roommates her sophomore year.

She spent most of her days holed up alone.

"I probably did the most writing of my life at Iowa. I wrote all day, every day. I wasn't a social student. I didn't have any friends or go out and party.

"Iowa City is a hard place to be depressed. You're surrounded by wholesome, well-adjusted Midwestern students. I had a nervous breakdown my sophomore year."

It didn't come out of nowhere. She had suffered with mental issues earlier in life but they profoundly surfaced in college.

"I had lived in the same house all my life in Chicago in an extremely stable family," she said. "Nothing ever changed. I had the same group of friends. Did the same things. I took that for granted.

"When I came to Iowa, I just didn't know how to deal with change. It tore me apart. ...

"I've never talked about this before. It's weird. We're in a culture where it's cool to be a cutter and be on Prozac but at the time, not so much.

"There was no real Internet culture at the time. Back then, when you were alone, you were really alone."

Cody, 30, sought mental health treatment, and that summer returned to Chicago, where she worked as a volunteer Russian translator for children who had survived Chernobyl.

"I remember feeling I had nothing to complain about," she said. "It really changed me."

Even today she still works on a novel and a book about her mental problems that she started at Iowa.

Her ascension to stardom hasn't propelled former students and professors to come forward with Diablo Cody stories or sent the university's publicity department scurrying for credit. After all, numerous famed writers have graced the halls. And Cody was an unknown, self-described recluse.

Nervous breakdown? Loner? Recluse? No friends?

These days, media pundits would consider her to be some sort of psycho headed down the path of campus mass murderer.

Following her graduation with a worthless degree in communication studies, she did what any normal, sensible young person stuck in Iowa would do and fled the state:

After moving to Minneapolis and working in a dull advertising agency office job, she had an epiphany.

"I had made the requisite choices for someone of my academic background," she said. "But, I wondered, what would happen if I did all the wrong things on purpose? So I reversed all my positions."

The formally shy, nerdy Catholic girl applied for a job as a stripper at one of the seediest strip clubs in Minneapolis. For a year, she stripped and wrote a blog with an unprintable name about her experiences. She lap-danced, worked for a time on sex-phone calls and bragged that it was more fun to work in totally nude clubs than those where strippers wore G-strings.

Pussy Ranch is an unprintable name?

She's now over at MySpace, where she lists her occupation as "Masturbator". Glad to see she has a sense of humor about Hollywood!

Too bad Iowa didn't have that tax break for Hollywood bombs all those years ago. Oh, right, that wouldn't have mattered in this instance.



Update 10:38pm: Holy shit, she won! Well done, girl! Now the uptight Christians can be pissed at you for writing that kind of movie while the unctuous assholes at the University of Iowa can try to claim you as theirs. Whatever you do, stay the hell away from Iowa unless you're getting paid.

The $3 Billion Ethanol Pipe Dream

From the Mason City Glob-Gazette:

Granting federal loan guarantees to support a proposed $3 billion ethanol pipeline would be an “unconscionable act,” according to a partner in the Manly Terminal.

Mason City is considered a likely hub for a proposed pipeline that would ship ethanol from Iowa to the East Coast in a joint project of Magellan Midstream Partners, Tulsa, Okla., and Buckeye Partners, Breinigsville, Pa.

The Manly Terminal, with which the proposed pipeline would compete, is a new business at Manly started entirely with private funds that is a stopover point for trucks hauling ethanol where the fuel can be loaded, reloaded for rail transportation or stored.

Magellan already has a terminal in Clear Lake and could build an additional one in Mason City, according to a Magellan official.

Bruce Heine, a Magellan spokesman, said Mason City would be an ideal spot for a terminal that would receive ethanol by truck and ship it out by pipeline at a rate of 300,000 barrels a day, 4.5 billion gallons a year.

Heine said the crucial factor in making it happen is securing loan guarantees from the federal government.

Dan Sabin, president of Iowa Northern Railroad, is a partner in the Manly Terminal.

“The Iowa Northern Railroad has spent $35 million so far and has plans to spend an additional $65 million to put our products on line,” he said.

Sabin said the company has done it on its own without seeking any federal money.

Regarding Magellan, he said, “It’s their world and their business, but it would be unconscionable for the federal government to provide loan guarantees to a company competing with those of us who are paying our own way. I find that extraordinarily offensive.

“I don’t think Sen. Harkin wants to be a part of hurting a small business that hasn’t asked for a thing by giving loan guarantees to a big corporation.”

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has expressed support for the Magellan plan.

Hello, wake up!

It's business as usual in Washington DC, my friend.

You think Senator Tom Harkin gives a crap about Iowans or their home-grown businesses? Harkin almost gets more campaign contributions from Californians than he does from Iowans.

You've got to wonder how much the people involved with Magellan Midstream Partners and Buckeye Partners have contributed to Tom Harkin's campaigns or Harkin's buddies in the rest of Congress. Any reporter want to look that up?

It's funny how nobody blinks at the idea of the Federal government "guaranteeing" $3 billion in loans for a company.

I remember all too well the outrage by so many people (Republicans and Democrats) at the notion of the Feds "guaranteeing" loans to Chrysler back in 1979 for HALF of what this pipeline is proposed to cost.

Yep, that's right. The Chrysler bailout loans by the Feds were only $1.5 billion dollars, at the time.

Even when you factor inflation from 1980 (when Carter signed the bill) to today, that's still only $4.2 billion in 2007's dollars.

My, how times have changed.


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

Governor Flounder's Special Interests

From the Des Moines Register on Saturday:

Gov. Chet Culver says special-interest groups, which have donated thousands of dollars to top Iowa lawmakers, are sinking an idea to expand the state's bottle deposit law -- contrary to the wishes of a majority of Iowans.

Right, and I guess the Sierra Club, the League Of Women Voters, and especially the Iowa DNR aren't special-interest groups.

The Culver hypocrisy is staggering considering that just last week he began to wreck the proposed penny hike in the state sales tax (designed only to help the Des Moines Public School District) by opening up his big mouth and saying that maybe school districts could use the extra dough for teacher salaries.

Which special-interest group put that politically tone deaf idea (many Democrats instantly balked at such an addition...) into Culver's big fat head? Undoubtedly it was the Iowa State Education Association - aka the teacher's union - the same bunch who endorsed Culver.

Well, look at the bright side of things. Democrat Chet Culver deep-sixing tax raising proposals that had support from the Democratic-majority in the Iowa Legislature is the best friend the idiot Republicans could have ever prayed for.

And, honestly, it's probably better to have a retarded "Kent Dorfman" type in Terrace Hill than that angry and vindictive leftist asshole Tom Vilsack. At least so far.

More Criminal-Athletes At The University Of Iowa

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Two University of Iowa football players were arrested early this morning on different drug charges, including one felony.

James Lee Cleveland, 19, and Arvell M. Nelson, 19, were arrested overnight on different charges. Cleveland faces up to seven years in prison for tax stamp violation, a Class D felony, and two counts of unlawful possession of prescription drugs, both serious misdemeanors. Nelson was arrested for possession of marijuana, a serious misdemeanor carrying a maximum of one year in prison.

Both players reside at N101 Hillcrest Hall.

According to police reports, University of Iowa public safety officers found marijuana in plain view on top of Nelson's desk at 2:41 a.m. Nelson admitted the marijuana was his, according to the complaint.

At 3:01 a.m., Cleveland consented to a search of his room, according to the complaint. Police founds 21 units of oxycodone and 24 does of carisoprodol in his desk. Cleveland admitted the pills — for which a label or prescription was not found — were his, according to the complaint. Oxycodone usually is prescribed for pain relief, while carisoprodol is a muscle relaxer...

...Cleveland, a 6-foot-1,195-pound red-shirt freshman wide receiver from Baytown, Texas, finished second in the team in catches in 2007, with 36 for 464 yards. He started 11 games last year. Nelson, a 6-foot-4 backup quarterback from Cleveland, Ohio, played sparingly at quarterback and wide receiver last year. Nelson, a red-shirt freshman, is expected to challenge for the starting quarterback position this spring.

­The legal troubles continue to mount for the football team, Since April, 14 different players have been arrested for different crimes. In December, Dominique Douglas and Anthony Bowman pleaded guilty to credit card fraud, an aggravated misdemeanor reduced from a felony. Douglas, Clint Huntrods (public intoxication), Ryan Bain (drunken driving) and Dana Brown (domestic assault) either left or were removed from the team. Other arrests or citations included Bradley Fletcher, Ben Evans and Lance Tillison ­­— all drunken driving; Ricky Stanzi, Ryan Donahue and Tyler Gerstandt — possession of alcohol under legal age; and Brandon Myers — interference with official acts.

Nelson was also arrested last August for failure to appear after an arrest for driving under suspension.

Four players busted just for drunk driving in the past 10 months!

Meanwhile:

Kirk Ferentz will be around for another year. The Iowa head football coach had back-to-back seasons with less than spectacular records, but athletic director Gary Barta calls Ferentz a "proven winner."

Barta adds one year to Ferentz' contract, extending it through 2013. There was no raise involved in the contract extension, but he hardly needed one. Ferentz makes a minimum of $2.8 million a year.

Ferentz actually earns about $4.7 million a year, when all is said and done. That's pretty good money for having crap season after crap season.

Yeah, Barta, you don't want to lose that "proven winner" Ferentz. If you did, maybe you'd blame that on Photoshop, too.

God knows how much Barta would have to pay the next obscenely-overpaid football coach so he can have .500 seasons, finish in the basement of the Big Ten, and recruit lots of criminal screwups who will embarrass the school and cost taxpayers countless dollars by being involved with the legal system. $4.7 million wouldn't be enough. Maybe $8 million or $10 million? Perhaps Iowa could increase their sales tax 1% more just to attract "star" college athletic coaches?

This is the problem with paying coaches way too much money. They become insulated and isolated. What do they care if their team is comprised of criminals? He's still getting paid. Ferentz lives way out in the country, in the middle of nowhere, whereas former Hawkeye men's basketball coach Dr Tom Davis, who earned in the late 1990s about 5% of what Ferentz does today, lived along Melrose Ave, right in the thick of things.

You all should have known Ferentz had jumped the shark when he thought it was perfectly OK for his son to apply for and live in taxpayer-subsidized Section 8 housing.

Mike Hunt To Apply For City Manager Job In Iowa City

Socialist, abortionist, and former Iowa City council member Karen Kubby, writing in the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

This past week was filled with rehearsals and two performances of "The Vagina Monologues" (TVM). This week residents also had the opportunity to meet the five finalists for the city manager position in Iowa City. I knew there was some connection between these two performances. I finally figured the thread that linked them for me. It is about finding our own voices in our lives and in our communities...

...Medical and theater students were kind enough to allow me to join them in the cast of 17 actors who performed TVM as a benefit for the Emma Goldman Clinic. The theater was filled both nights and there was great discussion among the cast and the audience after each performance. Some were more comfortable with the topics brought up in TVM than others. Even with this discomfort, people engaged in conversation.

There were similarities with the public process in selecting the new city manager in Iowa City. On Feb. 22, city residents had a chance to meet the five semi-finalists, hear their brief introductions, and talk with them informally. I had three questions for each candidate to which I was hoping to get answers...

...And lastly, I wanted to know that under their leadership, if the local abortion provider, the Emma Goldman Clinic, would continue to receive equal fire and police protection under the law? It was irrelevant to me if they are pro-choice or not and I didn't want to know.

Observing and listening in on conversations at both the city manager finalist and at TVM receptions were both quite informative. How did people maneuver around or through touchy subjects? Were they open to speaking about the unspeakable?...

I'll let Jane Fonda answer this one:



And then there's the Top Ten excuses:



Hoffman

Naturally, the C-word can't be mentioned on this blog without the obligatory reference to Elizabeth Hoffman, ISU's overpaid Provost:

From Wikipedia:

In 2004, University of Colorado president Elizabeth Hoffman fanned the flames of a football rape case when, during a deposition, she was asked if she thought "cunt" was a "filthy and vile" word. She replied that it was a "swear word" but had "actually heard it used as a term of endearment." A spokesperson later clarified that Hoffman meant the word had polite meanings in its original use centuries ago. In the rape case, a CU football player had allegedly called female player Katie Hnida a "fucking lovely cunt".

And from the Des Moines Register a while back:

Regina Cowles, president of the Boulder Chapter of National Organization for Women, was a frequent critic of Hoffman's handling of the recruitment controversy and the rape allegations...

M$ BS From The Register's Archive

The Des Moines Register Editorial Board, June 30, 2001 "Microsoft Broke The Law":

The problem is how to fashion an appropriate punishment. In the finest tradition of declaring victory in the face of defeat, Microsoft honchos pronounced themselves pleased with a unanimous ruling by the second-highest court in the land that the computer-software company violated antitrust law.

Microsoft may have cause to celebrate the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which overturned the trial court's order that would have carved Microsoft into two separate units. It also regained some moral standing with the seven-judge panel's harsh criticism of U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's extra-judicial comments to reporters about the case, and removing him from the case.

Beyond that, the court upheld Judge Jackson on the most important issue: Microsoft broke the law. What's more, the appeals court did not foreclose a breakup it said only that the trial judge applied the wrong legal standard and that he should have first held an evidentiary hearing.

In other words, the U.S. government won its case: The Microsoft Corp. is guilty of anti-competitive conduct under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

It is worth reviewing why this is important. It is not about government lawyers jealous of Bill Gates' wealth it is not a government effort to topple a hugely successful American business enterprise it is not an effort to relegate desktop computing to a Tower of Babel it is not even about the relative price of Windows software.

The antitrust action against Microsoft is all about preventing a company that has come to almost totally dominate the desktop-computing industry from using that awesome power to stifle competition and innovation.

The power of such a monopoly to smother competition is bad for consumers and the health of the economy. Such monopolies prevent markets from keeping prices low, deny consumers choice and discourage risk-takers from coming up with a better idea.

Although the D.C. Circuit affirmed Judge Jackson's core finding that Microsoft broke the law, the court ordered several issues to be considered on retrial under different standards. With that, and the change of management in the Justice Department, settlement is more likely now than ever.

The question remains: What is an appropriate remedy for Microsoft 's illegal behavior? None of the options -from breakup to punitive fines to court orders that it behave -seems likely to have the desired benefit without destroying the magic that has made Microsoft so successful in revolutionizing the computing world.

Still, the Bush Justice Department and the courts should persevere in the pursuit of a truly open marketplace for computer systems. If antitrust law is still valid -and it is -the courts must find ways to apply it to the Internet age. The Microsoft case provides the opportunity to figure out how that might be done.

What is an appropriate remedy for Microsoft's illegal behavior?

Iowa taxpayers, courtesy of 99 out of 100 members of the Iowa House and 48 out of 50 of the Iowa Senate, are going to maybe give Microsoft tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks for maybe building a server farm with maybe 60 low-tech jobs.

Burn, baby, burn

BS That The Des Moines Register Told You In 1999

From the Des Moines Register on November 7, 1999 by Kathy Bolten:

[Des Moines Register] EDITORS' NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles detailing how Polk County school districts plan to use sales- tax money...

...Voters delivered a succinct message to Polk County school officials in March's defeat of the sales- tax proposal:

Provide specifics on how tax proceeds will be spent. Ensure the money will be used appropriately. Convince Des Moines voters that schools won't get run down after being renovated and modernized.

"We understood what voters were saying," Des Moines schools Superintendent Eric Witherspoon has said numerous times since March. "We got the message."

Although school leaders have gone a long way, skeptics still say they need more information about how money would be spent.

In March, voters decided by a slim margin that they did not want to raise the sales tax to 6 percent from 5 percent to pay for school construction. In the election's aftermath, tax supporters learned that many "no" voters agreed that schools needed repairs and updating. They simply wanted more information.

In late summer, tax supporters asked Polk County supervisors to put the issue before voters. On Nov. 23, voters again will decide whether to increase the sales tax .

State 29 comment: The November 23, 1999 local option sales tax passed by only 43 votes.

Back to the story:

THE VOTE: This is one in a series of question-and-answer articles about the local - option sales tax for schools . Polk County voters on Nov. 23 will decide whether to increase the sales tax to 6 percent from 5 percent. If approved, proceeds from the increase would be used to pay for school repairs and construction.

Q. If Polk County voters approve increasing the sales tax , could the increase be repealed?

A. Yes.

Q. How is an election called?

A. A petition of eligible voters is presented to the Polk County Board of Supervisors. The number of signatures on the petition must equal at least 5 percent of votes cast in the county in the preceding state general election.

Q. When could a referendum on repealing the tax be held?

A. The local sales tax must be in place for one year before an election is held to repeal it.

Q. Would the election be countywide?

A. Yes. A majority of voters must agree to repeal the local sales tax .

Ouch To The Power Of Ouch

Read the Tax Update Blog's post "If Iowa Jumps Off A Cliff, Does That Mean Washington Has To?"

Ouch!

That blog post should be emailed to the 99 members of the Iowa House and the 48 members of the Iowa Senate who approved potential millions in "corporate welfare" property and sales tax breaks for Microsoft. And the Governor who will undoubtedly sign off on this fat corporate giveaway for a freakin server farm with a handful of minders.

Here's what the taxpayers in Iowa should be doing to the Capitol building in Des Moines if this is signed, but they won't:

Vernon Jackson Knows What It Feels Like To "Struggle"

From the Daily Iowan:

Vernon Jackson thinks it's time to provide UI students with a leader they can truly identify with. That leader, he said, is him.

The presidential hopeful is a one-year UISG veteran who heads the Black Student Union and works with Athletes in Action, Students for Obama, and a church youth group. Jackson is also a former Hawkeye football player.

Running mate Hannah Joravsky worked with Jackson in Students for Obama and the Black Student Union.

Jackson said the Student Power Party platform aims to put power in the hands of students to give them a stronger voice on campus. His relationships with a diverse group of students will facilitate this, he said.

"I feel like I can bring people from all different backgrounds together," he said. "I can unite them; I can hang out with anybody."

The senator also noted an ability to relate to many of the hardships some UI students endure.

"I know what it feels like to struggle," he said.

You'd think a profile in the student newspaper for a candidate for President of the Student Government would mention Vernon Jackson's struggles with the law:

Iowa City police on Monday [January 21st] arrested the UI Black Student Union president, who had planned a boycott of Brothers Bar & Grill in December 2007, after he was reportedly involved in a fight at the 3rd Base Sports Bar...

According to police reports, Jackson was in a physical fight with another man, who suffered an injury to his face. Jackson reportedly told police that the man "got rough" with Jackson while removing him from the bar...

...Jackson's record includes a disorderly-conduct charge for fighting/violent behavior and a trespassing charge, both simple misdemeanors stemming from a June 24, 2007, incident at Brothers. Jackson has since pleaded guilty to both charges.

In that incident, Jackson reportedly removed his shirt, refused to leave, and engaged in a shoving match with bar employees, during which one worker was thrown to the ground, according to police reports.

We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Buster at InMuscatine disses Lee Enterprises's Mary Junck's delusional positivity about the newspaper business from an article in Lee's Quad Cities Times.

As you can see, over the past year LEE's performance is down around 60%.

Maybe some of you still subscribe to your local newspaper. I did for decades, but then one day I realized, "Why am I buying this? I rarely read it, I don't agree with their editors, I never use it to buy anything, and it just creates a lot of garbage every week." So I canceled my subscription and that was that. I don't miss it at all.

How much are they making off of me when I visit their web sites? I don't click through their ads. I certainly don't use their classifieds when there's Craigslist or Monster around.

The newspaper industry is dead already. It's just that more people haven't realized that they can give it up. You can stop subscribing and the world will be all right. There's depressing news all over the internet for you to read. You don't have to pay their ridiculous classified rates. If you have a favorite store, chances are they are already sending out weekly ads via email.

Isn't it about time you made the leap?


Update: I just read about how the Gannettoids at the Des Moines Register relocated their customer service call center to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Missed paper? Call Tulsa!

You think anybody in Tulsa gives a shit about Des Moines? You think they know the roads, the neighborhoods, or the weather conditions?

You think Iowans like hearing that northern Oklahoma accent?

When you locate your customer service to some far off distant city, country, or subcontinent, you are just being cheap. It will compound all our your business screwups even more and accelerate the loss of your customers!

Now for this morning's entertainment: the venerable and now-retired Don Williams:

I Am Cornholio!

You taxpayers need to pay for an ethanol pipeline to the East Coast.

Mason City's Sidewalk Gestapo

From the Mason City Glob-Gazette:

If the city receives a complaint about someone not removing snow and ice from his or her sidewalk, the entire neighborhood could be subject to fines if other violators are discovered.

That’s one possible result of a City Council discussion Tuesday night concerning the complaint of one resident.

Lisa Trewitz told council members she thought the $71.50 bill she received recently for about $5 in sand and $10 in labor was excessive.

Not only that, she said, it was unfair that her sidewalk was singled out when every other walk on her block had just as much snow and ice...

...[City Administrator Brent] Trout said in other communities, when a crew gets called to investigate one sidewalk complaint, it has the authority to apply salt and sand to all other violators in the same neighborhood and bill them accordingly.

Don't get me wrong, people who live in neighborhoods who fail to clean the snow and ice off their sidewalks are lazy bums who deserve to be hit with a healthy fine to remind them of the responsibilities.

But empowering city crews to just go around and randomly shovel/salt/sand and bill excessively - without a complaint lodged - is extremely unfair. The homeowner or resident should at least be notified first so they have a chance to fix the matter themselves.

The Planned Obsolescence Tax

From the clearly objective (/sarcasm) Duane Van Hemert, former facilities manager for the Des Moines school district, and current vice president of Construction Management for the Hansen Company, Inc., Johnston, and in today's Des Moines Register:

School buildings today are driven by complex building codes and require modern safety systems that include elevators, fire alarm and suppression systems, fire sprinklers, advanced roofing and insulation techniques, security alarms, energy-management controls, updated technology, advanced heating-and-cooling systems, improved environments and energy-efficient geothermal wells. None of these modern building systems played a very significant part of school buildings constructed 50 to 100 years ago when districts needed only to maintain boilers and basic mechanical systems in addition to caring for masonry.

Today's modern building systems all have a life expectancy that will eventually be very expensive to maintain or replace in 25 to 30 years. This should be of great concern for all Iowa taxpayers and school boards that have literally invested hundreds of millions in new buildings and renovations. Without a reliable funding source, school districts will find themselves in much the same place as the late 1990s - with buildings that were neglected and critical maintenance deferred.

Duane Van Hemert is full of shit, to put it mildly.

This would be a permanent tax gravy train for building contractors to fleece school districts. No more, no less. A few years down the road, districts will be knocking at the door crying for another percentage point.

My god, how did we build all those schools during the 1950s and 1960s during the baby boom while maintaining all those built in the early 1900s? Property taxes weren't out of control like today. The state sales tax was 3%. We didn't have gambling. It's a wonder that any of us made it to graduation knowing how to tie our shoes. What wretched conditions we must have endured to not have access to broadband Wi-Fi or central cooling. Yet, somehow we managed.

Des Moines only wants the permanent tax because they know the local option sales tax won't be renewed by voters. The school district blew it and lied to the voters, who aren't so forgiving after the Project Destiny beatdown, so now they expect the Iowa Legislature to screw state taxpayers for their incompetence.

Welcome Back, Ice Age

While this winter hasn't been the kind that global warming fanatics are looking for down here in suburban Kansas City, at least I'm going to enjoy party cloudy skies and temps in the low 40s on Tuesday. Des Moines will be lucky to see the teens tomorrow, and will be -8 Tuesday night. And from the emails I've received and photos I've seen, eastern Iowa is a disaster.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette has numerous photos from the aftermath of the latest storm. That looks pretty bad. Those county roads are closed from blowing and drifting snow. You aren't going anywhere anytime soon. The forecast just calls for more wind, more super frigid temps, and possibly more snow next weekend.

The Iowa State Patrol is warning people to not travel and to stay off rural roads in central, northern, and eastern Iowa.

And you know you're totally screwed when a semi jackknifes on the interstate like this in front of you: (photo by Rob Peacock)

Just Admit It, You Hate Black People

From the Waterloo Courier's Letters section:

I don't understand why so many people are for (Barack) Obama. He does not appeal to me. He has yet to tell the American people what he will do for America. He always says we will do this or that, never what he will do for us.

He also has admitted in his book that he has used drugs. We don't need that in the White House. Hillary tells the American people what she will do, not what we will do. We all know what we have to do --- die and pay taxes.

As for the caucus in Iowa, it was a joke, and Waterloo was one of the jokes. I am a former resident of Waterloo, 56 years. All I want to say is I hope Hillary is our next president, because I don't think I can vote for Obama, unless he is drug tested.

I hope America gets smart. We ask for drug testing by employers so why not our president.

Donna Debban, Osage

This letter is so ridiculous.

What's Obama going to do for meeeeeeeeeee?????

I bet she would have hated Jack Kennedy, too, "Ask not what your country will do for you...."

Hillary Clinton doesn't say what "we" will do. She tells us what she will do!

So did Adolf Hitler.

That Obama, he used drugs!!!!

Yeah, well, Hillary Clinton's husband used cigars on an unpaid subordinate in the workplace.

Then the letter writer wants Obama drug tested!

If you are a Democrat, this letter has got to make you cringe. This is weirder and crazier than practically anything those old right-wing nutcase Republicans could come up with.

Anti-Choice Zealots Take On "Paper Or Plastic"

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Rebecca Bergus, store manager of the Coralville New Pioneer Co-op, said when some people come through check-out lines there, they have a mild guilt trip about the way their groceries are bagged.

"They think, 'Ah, plastic bags are bad, so I think I should choose paper,'" she said.

But the reality is, paper bags aren't much better, Bergus said.

The Iowa City-based National Co-op Grocers Association, which represents 109 natural food co-ops across the country, is urging its members to do more in the fight against paper and plastic.

Maybe the Co-op should stop selling anything packaged in plastic or paper. You know, like their frozen stuff and about 90% of their grocery store as I remember it. Who needs cans or bottles or packaging? That's destroying our precious Gaia! They should get back to their original ideals of selling bulk food and marijuana to hippies. Yeah, that's the ticket!

For your morning's enjoyment, here's Chris Rock from I'm Gonna Git You Sucka saying "Alright, f*** the cup, just pour it on my hand for a dime!"

Coma Patient Of The Year

From the Des Moines Register's Letters section:

I have just found out that we have "superdelegates" who may decide for us who will go on to be the Democratic nominee in this presidential election ("Group May Decide Democrats' Race," Feb. 10). Once again, I feel the Constitution, Democrats and the people of this state and nation have been low-balled by our political process.

Michael Maglinger, Des Moines

Lawyers, Guns, and Money

From Newsweek, in a story about efforts to allow teachers and students to conceal-carry on campus:

There are reports that the police arrived within two minutes yesterday.

A skilled shooter with a bolt-action hunting rifle or a pump-action shotgun can still fire about one shot a second. So you're talking about firing off a lot of shots in two minutes before police arrive. So basically it boils down to the simple fact that police and security officers can't be everywhere at once. It sounds to me like the police had an amazing response time … But they just simply were not in that classroom when the shooting started, and the only person who really could have mitigated this situation is somebody who was in the classroom when the shooting started.

One of the Virginia Tech victims has come out and said he opposes this idea because of college students being young, drinking heavily … it could open the door to even more violence.

This is not a debate about keeping guns out of the hands of college students. What we're proposing would not change who is able to obtain a concealed-handgun license. It would not change who is able to buy a firearm. College students over the age of 18 can already buy firearms in most states. College students over the age of 21 can already obtain concealed handgun licenses in some states. Basically, under our proposal the same trained, licensed individuals who are not getting drunk and shooting people off of college campuses are the same trained and licensed individuals who are not going to be getting drunk and shooting people on college campuses.

How are you bringing this [effort] to the attention of legislators?

We're getting our campus leaders and our regional directors and our general members—we have members in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. We also have members in Canada, the U.K. and Israel (they've got a long fight ahead of them). As for U.S. members, we're basically just having these students and faculty members and parents and concerned citizens lobby their state legislators and write letters. We're trying to get out op-ed pieces and information packets and fliers and everything we can to educate people on the facts of this issue. That's really our biggest hurdle right now: ignorance of the issue. There's a lot of statistics out there that show that concealed handgun license holders are five times less likely than nonlicensed holders to commit violent crimes. You can look at the 40 right-to-carry states with liberal concealed-carry laws, where they have not seen any escalation in gun violence, gun accidents, etc. as a result of allowing concealed carry. There are currently 11 U.S. universities that have for a combined total of 60 semesters allowed concealed carry on campus without an incident. You haven't seen an incident of gun violence, an incident of gun theft, no gun accidents … Although you can't say in any particular situation whether or not concealed carry might have prevented or mitigated a school shooting or a sexual assault or anything of that nature, you can say that allowing concealed carry would even the odds. And that's what this is really about: evening the odds and taking the advantage away from these dangerous criminals.

There's a famous example in Luby's Cafeteria in Texas. A woman with a concealed-carry permit was unable to stop a gunman from killing her parents and 21 others in 1991 because she had left her gun in her car to avoid breaking the state's law at the time, which banned gun owners from carrying their weapons into public places.

She went before the state legislature and she said, "Look, if I'd been allowed to have my gun on me I could have stopped this guy. He had his back to me. He was only a few feet away. I didn't need lightning-fast reflexes. I didn't need dead-eye accuracy. I just needed my gun" … She had been carrying the gun for several years for personal protection, and because she was a chiropractor she had become worried that because there was no legal provision for concealed carry in Texas at the time that if she got caught carrying that gun she might lose her chiropractic license, so she started leaving it in the car. When this shooting started she reached into her purse for a gun that wasn't there and basically watched both of her parents be gunned down by this madman because she was unable to defend herself.

There was the example at the church in Colorado Springs back in December where they actually allowed members, encouraged certain members who had a concealed-handgun license to carry their guns at church. These people were not licensed security guards. They had not been through the state-mandated security guard training or any of that. These were simply people who had concealed-handgun licenses, and the church said, "You know, we'd appreciate it if you would carry your guns at church for the protection of this church." And this woman actually managed to shoot a guy as he was walking through the door armed to the teeth, like Rambo. So concealed carry has mitigated dangerous situations like this in the past.

There's also the Appalachian School of Law shooting in 2002.

And then you have Nicholas Johnson's opinion from Friday:

And so it is this morning that we read of yet another incident of inexplicable random gun deaths in a classroom at the near-neighbor Northern Illinois University... It's tragic; it's sad; but whether NIU has armed campus security or not, their guns would not have prevented this tragedy -- nor would the guns of our campus police should, God forbid, a similar incident occur here. As the Trib quotes NIU President Peters as saying, ""I don't know if any plan can prevent this kind of tragedy." And see Erin Jordan, "Regent: Steps to Protect Students Carry No Guarantees," Des Moines Register, December 15, 2008 ("[A] member of the Iowa Board of Regents [Craig Lang of Brooklyn] said there are no guarantees the steps [taken by the Regents and university administrators] are adequate [to guarantee student safety]. 'Unfortunately, that [the procedure put in place] doesn't mean we can protect everybody from someone like that who wants to kill.'")

How illiberal can you get?

I'm talking about the Regents and university administrators here.

We already know Johnson is anti-gun when it comes to arming police stationed on a college campus, so there's no real point in criticizing his view any further. I think I already have an idea of his opinion about allowing teachers and over-21 students with the proper training and background checks to conceal-carry on campus.

It's akin to the alcohol "crisis" on college campuses these days. Let's raise the drinking age from 19 to 21 in Iowa because nanny-state RINOs like Elizabeth Dole and Ronald Reagan thought it would be a good idea to abuse the Commerce Clause and force states to raise their drinking age or face loss of Federal Highway dollars. Just go and let the government take away your rights and then wonder why you've got so many "underage" drunks out and about. And for what? Money???

Sure, that's not the only factor working here. When you do have things like the 6 commercial movie screens in downtown Iowa City close over the course of a decade and a half and nothing new shows up on the scene except bars, well what do you expect 30,000 students to do for kicks?

I've never understood why there's so many people out there who wring their hands about these matters and always choose the dumbest option: "Well, we can't have law-abiding adults with guns running around campus! What if they get drunk and start shooting up the place?" How moronic is a thought like that?

Gosh, if only we could ban all guns and alcohol and cigarettes and cars and jaywalking and force you to not be fat, then the US would be a perfect utopia!

I think another thing being overlooked in the latest shooting is that the guy who did this was supposedly "coming off his meds".

You know how some people have become concerned about the rise in over-medicating ourselves and especially our children with anti-depressants? Here you go. Reap what you sow, you know?

If it's true that the shooter had issues and was not taking his meds then this is really an issue with psychiatric medications. What are you going to do about that, Regent Lang? Force everybody on meds to keep taking their meds? Have TV news people talk about how everybody needs to look for the "warning signs" in slightly depressed individuals?

And was Gang Lu depressed? No, he was pissed!!! It wasn't enough that he got his doctorate, but he wanted an additional prestigious award! What do you do about those people, Regent Lang? Give everybody an award who demands it? Come on, man.

Rockwell To Iowa Engineers: Drop Dead

From the Des Moines Register:

Rockwell Collins Inc. plans to open a center in India this fall that the company said will help meet future needs for engineers.

The Cedar Rapids-based company, which already has about 20,000 employees in 27 countries, plans to open the engineer design center near the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Rockwell Collins officials planned to announce the move next week but confirmed it Thursday after reports in Indian news media.

The center is set to open in October with about 20 employees and could grow to 500 workers.

A company spokeswoman said no U.S. jobs would move to India because of the new center, which will focus on display and flight management applications.

Nice spin!

Yeah right, no US jobs are going to India...

These are jobs that will never be in Iowa in the first place!

Instead, Iowa needs to give away tens of millions of tax dollars to bribe some of the most profitable companies in America in order to secure a handful of jobs and political bragging rights.

Instead of hiring or recruiting local talent, or working with the local community colleges or universities to ensure that more engineering or software types get properly trained for the workforce of tomorrow, Rockwell will just hire over in India where it's vastly cheaper.

Cheaper.

And they'll keep doing this for new projects and systems that they get contracts for in the future. Why? To fatten the bottom line for a bunch of overpaid executives who worship at the altar of greed.

And what's Hyderabad like? Oh, it's a lovely town of about 6 million people.

Here's what it's like to cross the street in Hyderabad. Watch the whole thing!



And if you think traffic is bad in Des Moines, drive over by the Charminar:

Huh Huh. He Said "Stimulus"

Via the Roth CPA Tax Update Blog, this is a scan of the Des Moines Register newspaper from this morning.

Click to "enlarge" it.

So far there's been no "sloppy seconds" by the frigid Democrats to ram through their proposed 25% increase in the dildo tax like they tried in 2004.

Iowa House Voted 99-1 To Give Microsoft Tens Of Millions In Tax Breaks And Corporate Welfare

24-Hour Dorman is reporting that the Iowa House voted 100-0 [correction, it was really 99-1] to give Microsoft tens of millions of dollars in sales and property tax breaks in exchange for the promise of 60 jobs at a proposed data center.

Just a few years ago, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller joined in a lawsuit suing Microsoft because they supposedly overcharged buyers of Word and Excel about $12 back in 1994. I remember all the handwringing by Miller and various other politicians back then. Boy, Microsoft was the eeeeeevilest company on the planet!

Iowa's share of the settlement was $2 million.

Now, suddenly, politicians want to get their kneepads out for Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer!

When the Iowa Senate and Governor Chet Culver finish giving one of the most profitable companies in America (one with nearly $20 billion in cash and a company value over a quarter of a trillion dollars!) all this unnecessary corporate welfare, that means less money for computers for schools, less money for parks, less money for roads and bridges, and less money for cops.

60 jobs costing tens of millions of dollars in corporate welfare in order to proclaim the state "The Silicon Valley Of The Midwest" is downright insanity.

Don't forget what Governor Chet Culver was recently complaining about:

"It's just not fair that big, out of state, multi-billion dollar corporations that do tens of millions of dollars of business in Iowa avoid paying Iowa income taxes because of an outdated tax loophole."

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but won't Microsoft become one of those big, out of state, multi-billion dollar corporations that does tens of millions of dollars of business in Iowa and yet avoids paying Iowa taxes???

And this is going to be sanctioned by the Iowa Legislature and the Governor himself!

Here's the retard you elected:



And this is what taxpayers ought to be doing to the Statehouse:

A Second Hot Karl

I was thinking about that Register story today again and how it's so convenient that the lazy monopoly corporate media in Iowa goes to the usual Useful Idiots to gin up outrage and protest about Karl Rove speaking at the University of Iowa.

The outrage ought to be over the $40,000 paid to Rove, and the high fees that many other pimped out radicals (both Left and Right) command on the "campus circuit" racket.

Even if Rove draws 1000 people to hear him speak (and a handful of smelly kooks to yell things and get kicked out, aka "the sideshow"), how many of those people would pay $40 to attend? I bet not many.

It's the same racket that shoehorns an $830,000 golden parachute severance package into a contract.

It's the same racket that pays college football coaches over $4 million a year when just a decade ago they were getting around $260,000.

It's the same acket that pays clueless and disgraceful ex-college heads $275,000 as one of the most costly provosts in the cuntry.

And on and on and on.....

Jew-Hater Upset That "War Criminal" Karl Rove Is Coming To Speak In Iowa City

Updated Below:



From the Daily Iowan:

It was Feb. 7, and UI Antiwar Committee member David Goodner had just been informed that President Bush's former deputy chief of staff and aide, Karl Rove, was coming to Iowa City for a Feb. 17 talk.

And he was infuriated.

"I can't remember the last time I was that angry," he said. "I was, like, just seeing red. It wasn't even that he was coming here, it was that he was being paid $40,000 to come here."

UI Lecture Committee Chairwoman Sharon Benzoni said the tab for Rove was a "bargain" compared with the $50,000 the committee spent on bringing former President Clinton a few years ago.

Fellow Antiwar Committee member Megan Felt's thoughts are similar to Goodner's.

"He definitely has a right come and speak," she said. "But I really don't think it's OK to pay a war criminal."

Yeah, well. Some of us didn't think it was a good idea for the Des Moines Register to give a blog to a known Jew-hater.

Don't forget that Goodner once said:

What’s the big deal about Ahmadinejad anyway?

And then followed that up with:

I’m not saying Ahmadinejad is Mother Teresa reincarnate or anything. But let’s face it: Ahmadinejad, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, even Vladimir Putin, all have less blood on their hands than Bush does.

The international public enemy #1 is the president of the United States of America.

Both Goodner and Feld were arrested protesting the war at Chuck Grassley's office in Cedar Rapids last year.

I guess they didn't have enough student loan/bail money to continue their fight over at Dave Loebsack's office.

You know, I bet they were probably part of the 33 people who protested the war near the University of Iowa campus right after classes started in the fall of '07.

Gee, I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that "Hot Karl" speech. I wonder how many of those 33 anti-war protesters on a campus of 30,000 students plan to cause a ruckus and get arrested? I bet they're donating a lot of plasma this week in order to get enough bail money.





Update on Thursday morning: Looks like Goodner is making the rounds, calling up the Des Moines Register and getting Erin Jordan to write a piece on his schtick.

I think the fact that the Register allowed Goodner to be on the Young Adult Board of Contributors and gave him a blog after what he wrote in the Iowa City Press-Citizen says it all about Carolyn "Caboose" Washburn and Carol Hunter.

Washburn and Hunter undoubtedly Hate Bush more than they love the Jews or are against terrorism, so naturally they would give such an obvious Jew-hater a platform from which to spew his crap. Anything to push the agenda.

Silicon Gravy Train Of The Midwest

You've got to love the Roth CPA Tax Update Blog.

Tax Update Blog writer Joe Kristan notes Iowa Governor Chet Culver's recent speech:

"It's just not fair that big, out of state, multi-billion dollar corporations that do tens of millions of dollars of business in Iowa avoid paying Iowa income taxes because of an outdated tax loophole."

And then incorrectly-surnamed Democrat state representative Phil Wise of Keokuk recently said:

"I've been given quite a bit of confidential information by Microsoft"

Wise is referring to a possible plan by the Iowa Legislature to bribe Microsoft with millions in sales and property tax breaks (in other words, no more money for your school district to buy more computers loaded with Windows on them...) in exchange for maybe 60 jobs.

And even though the State of Iowa joined a lawsuit against Microsoft a couple years ago because supposedly that greedy Bill Gates was overcharging customers $10 for a copy of Word or Excel bought in 1993, or something like that, now the Iowa Legislature wants to give Microsoft millions in sales and property tax breaks!

And when Microsoft moves to Iowa, won't they then be one of those "big, out of state, multi-billion dollar corporations that do tens of millions of dollars of business in Iowa avoid paying Iowa income taxes because of an outdated tax loophole"?

No, according to Governor Culver, suddenly Iowa will become The Silicon Valley Of The Midwest!

Pfft.

The computing industry has had about as much sway on the Iowa economy as oil drilling and exploration.

The Atanasoff-Berry computer was built at Iowa State University during the 1930's, but that's old history.

Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated circuit and The Mayor Of Silicon Valley, was born in Burlington and graduated from Grinnell College. About all he did in Iowa was steal a pig and slaughter it in Clark Hall! All his later stuff happened in California!

Ted Waitt, after being turned down by numerous Iowa banks, convinced his grandmother to put up a $10,000 CD as collateral so he could get Gateway Computers started in the Sioux City area in 1985. Waitt later moved the company from Iowa to South Dakota because of that state's lack of personal or corporate income taxes.

That's pretty much it, unless you want to include Christian Accounting Software-turned-domain name hawker Bob Parsons into the mix, although Parsons sold his first software biz (Parsons Technology) off years ago and fled to Arizona to start GoDaddy.com.

So, that's basically Iowa's legacy when it comes to being the Silicon Valley Of The Midwest.

Except that Governor Chet Culver seems to think giving away taxpayer money in exchange for 60 jobs is going to turn low-wage Iowa into a geek mecca.

Culver is also the same dimwit who thinks the IPERS pension fund should be the next Sequoia Capital or Kleiner Perkins.

Hancocked

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

State Auditor David Vaudt said Tuesday he gets a serious case of heartburn when he looks at the long-term implications of Gov. Chet Culver's $6.4 billion budget plan...

...While Culver seeks to slow the growth of spending to 5.7 percent next year, the aggressive commitments made last session fuel expenditure growth of 16 percent over a two-year fiscal period that outpaces the 12 percent growth rate for revenues.

"Considering 80 percent of that two-year revenue growth comes from tax and fee increases," the auditor said, "it's obvious the trends in expenditure growth are unsustainable through economic growth alone.

"To spend at such a torrid pace, we must increase taxes and fees at a torrid pace," he added. "That, in turn, could adversely impact economic growth in our state."

When the enacted and proposed tax increases are factored out of the $835.5 million, two-year boost in revenues through June 2009, the actual growth in state receipts is 2.9 percent at a time when many national experts are warning of recession, Vaudt said.

The problem is further exacerbated if the Democratic-run Legislature does not approve Culver's proposals to raise more than $113 million by expanding the bottle-deposit law and closing the combined reporting tax loophole for out-of-state corporations doing business in Iowa, he said.

It is amazing to me that almost nobody gives a crap about this.

Tom Vilsack failed math class.

Chet Culver failed math class.

The Iowa media can't get anything straight.

Missouri has a thing called the Hancock Amendment, which limits the amount of spending and tax revenue using a certain formula - a formula which has been abused occasionally by lawmakers since enaction in 1980. There is legislation in the Missouri legislature attempting to close any loopholes that the politicians abuse.

Between 1995 and 1999, nearly a billion dollars in state tax revenue was returned to Missouri taxpayers thanks to the Hancock Amendment. What did Iowa get through those years? Expanded government and more taxpayer-financed corporate welfare.

Since the spendaholics in the Iowa Legislature and math dunces in Terrace Hill don't have any restraint with the taxpayer's charge card, perhaps Iowa needs a version of the Hancock Amendment.

Taxpayer-Financed Corporate Welfare For Microsoft Coming To Iowa?

From the Des Moines Register:

Microsoft Corp. is considering Iowa for a data center that would offer high wages and employ more than 60 people, state lawmakers said today.

Lawmakers have been sworn to secrecy on most of the details of the software giant’s plans for its planned Web search portal facility — and Iowa is not the only state competing for the project.

“I’ve been given quite a bit of confidential information by Microsoft,” Rep. Phil Wise, a Keokuk Democrat, said today. “I can’t tell you the size of the investment, but it is indeed hundreds of millions of dollars. I can’t tell you the number of jobs, but it is in the hundreds of jobs. I can’t tell you the nature of the wages for the jobs, but it would be one of the best sets of jobs ever created in the history of Iowa.”

Lawmakers are trying to fast-track a set of tax breaks for Microsoft through the Iowa House this week, Wise said.

Rep. Paul Shomshor said construction materials for the data facility would be exempt from sales taxes, and the technology equipment inside the building would be exempt from property taxes.

“I think it’s great,” said Shomshor, a Democrat from Council Bluffs

Last year, the Iowa Legislature gave away the tax goose to Google, so I'm not surprised that the Iowa Legislature wants to get their kneepads out for Microsoft.

Wildly profitable companies like Microsoft should naturally be exempt from paying their fair share of property and sales taxes. Don't cha think?

Only the "little people" pay taxes, right Phil Wise and Paul Shomshor?

Talk about DINOs: Democrats In Name Only.

Are these the same Democrats who didn't mind suing Microsoft a few years ago for "overcharging" people $10 for Microsoft Word back in the early 1990s?

Now, suddenly, Microsoft is a company they want to throw taxpayer dollars towards!

Notice how the Des Moines Register doesn't compute how much tax revenue might potentially be put in Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer's bank accounts rather than your local schools.

And all to claim they helped create "60 jobs".

For crying out loud.......

Oh well, at least it gives me another excuse to show the hottt Google chick again:

You're So Money

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

The Hawkeye Labor Council, a coalition of 39 unions in Linn and six other counties, has suspended its two-member staff and has asked the government to investigate "financial irregularities" involving council funds.

The suspensions, which took place last Wednesday, include the council's high-profile executive director, Alan Bernard, 54.

In a news release Monday, the labor council stated that the suspensions followed immediately after Justin Shields, labor council president, "confronted" Bernard about "the priority of payments made by the staff on behalf of the council."

Shields, a Cedar Rapids City Council member and longtime president of the labor council, on Monday clearly was not happy about developments with Bernard, who often has been at Shields' side the last couple of year at public and political events.

But Shields declined to elaborate, other than to say the investigation was ongoing by "the appropriate government agencies."

The labor council problems jumped into the public arena Monday morning when Bernard found himself on a commercial flight from Cedar Rapids to Chicago with part of the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City delegation of elected officials and business leaders headed to Washington, D.C., for its annual lobbying trip.

Just a few days ago, Bernard had been scheduled to make the trip with the delegation, but he canceled those plans, according to the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.

On Monday, though, the pilot of the United Airlines flight asked Bernard to leave the plane after he had boarded and the plane was readying to depart after 8 a.m.

Megan McCarthy, a spokesman for United Airlines, said Bernard was asked to leave, not for any behavior on the plane, but rather for issues unrelated to the airline. She said to call "local authorities" for more information, but no law enforcement agency, local or federal, acknowledged any participation in any investigation that might involve Bernard.

Those among the local delegation headed to Washington, D.C., said that members of the Hawkeye Labor Council learned that Bernard was on the plane Monday morning and expressed concern that he was leaving the city even as investigators were working to get to the bottom of alleged financial irregularities at the council.

Bernard's ticket had him heading to Las Vegas, those on the plane said.

Gee, a union boss with "financial irregularities" - how cliche!

What do you expect from a Hillary supporter?

Now watch this clip with headphones or the volume down and have a laugh this morning:

Get Me Out Of This $245,575 A Year Job

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

University of Iowa Vice President for Research Meredith Hay is one of four finalists interviewing for the University of California-Davis provost position, and will have a public forum on Thursday.

Hay, who came to UI in 2005, is also one of three finalists interviewing for the provost position at the University of Arizona. She had a public campus interview in Arizona on Jan. 29. No selection has been made yet for that position...

...Hay was one of five finalists for the University of New Mexico president position in 2007.

Wow, Meredith, what do you do all day long? Apply for jobs somewhere else?

Is the pay too low?

They do like to leave, don't they?

Well, you can't blame them. Can you?

From Iowa To DC

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

More than 50 members of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area chambers of commerce leave Monday for the ninth annual combined lobbying trip to Washington, D.C.

Business and government leaders will be in the capital through Wednesday, presenting local viewpoints on issues.

Ralph Russell, chairman of the Cedar Rapids chamber board, said the top priorities are two building projects — the new federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids and a new intermodal facility in the Coralville area.

People can track the group’s activities by following a blog with comments contributed by Lee Clancey, the Cedar Rapids chamber’s president and CEO, and Sara Mentzer, the chamber’s vice president for public affairs.

50 people! How expensive is that going to be?

And haven't they gotten the money for that new Federal courthouse yet? I thought that was a done deal a few years back. How many trips has this group taken to DC over the past decade to lobby for more dough and come up empty-handed?

As for the blog, here it is: "Chambers 2 D.C.". From the first post:

On the agenda will be a White House briefing, and discussions with our Congressional representatives on issues related to the new federal court house for the Northern District of Iowa, Medicare and Medicaid, transportation, downtown revitalization, entrepreneurialism, education, recreation, brownfields, and immigration among others.

Immigration, yes.

I remember old Lee Clancey.

She was the RINO mayor of Cedar Rapids who endorsed Al Gore in the 2000 election. Then last year she came out in favor of illegal immigration, presumably to drive down wages in her part of Iowa and get more people hooked on government handouts.

And if the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Chamber contingents are going, that means Nancy Quellhorst (CEO of the Iowa City Chamber) is likely along for the ride. Quellhorst, if you've forgotten, was likely one of the recipients of the $3 million that David Oman stole and spent from Chuck Grassley's "matching grant" request for the Rainforest because she was working for that project at the time.

These teet suckers. That's all they are.

You don't see these groups lobbying the Statehouse for a simplified tax form, ending playing favorites with businesses with taxpayer financed corporate welfare, or the consolidation of counties. No, no, no, no, no. They're flying off to DC with a group of 50, armed with kneepads, and aiming for your grandchildren's grandchildren's wallets.

We're on a Hiiiiiiiighway to Hell!

Oh The Irony

I can see where all this super-delegate stuff is headed.

When Hillary brokers or steals the nomination away from Obama, Democrats will be facing the cruelest of ironies.

For years, the nutroots and other Democrats have babbled on about how George W Bush "stole" the 2000 election in Florida thanks to the Supreme Court awarding him the victory and hence the electoral votes, even though in the overall election he got fewer votes than Al Gore. These nutroots and Democrats have been wanting to get rid of the Electoral College since that time. They can't move on.

Trust me on this one: there will be a civil war inside the Democratic Party if, upon arrival at the convention, Obama has more delegates than Hitlery but then she cashes in her super-delegates to technically outnumber him.

You think it's bad now that the fiscal and social conservatives have to deal with RINO John McVain as their potential Republican nominee? How many Republicans are praying today at church that McCain's cancer comes back and eats away his organs like an unstoppable rebel force? I bet a lot.

Well, I guarantee that there will be more Democrats demanding the head of Hitlery Rotten Clintoon on a platter if she were to steal away Obama's nomination due to some inter-party technicality.

And how about the irony of that, if it were to happen!

We'd no doubt see some totally hypocritical and scum-sucking Democrats who were pissed at Bush "stealing" victory from Gore in 2000 saying that it's OK that Hitlery "stole" the nomination from Obama because, hey man, that's the rules.

The Uneven Parallels Between 1968 and 2008

Passing the angry, vindictive, and paranoid RINO torch.......

I was thinking about some of the parallels and uneven parallels between the US Presidential Election in 1968 and today's.

1968: Angry, vindictive, foul-mouthed, and paranoid RINO gives it another try.
2008: Angry, vindictive, foul-mouthed, and paranoid RINO gives it another try.

1968: A Romney ran and, while leading at one point, gave up on the Republican nomination.
2008: A Romney ran and, while leading at one point, gave up on the Republican nomination.

1968: Midwestern anti-war candidate stirs up interest in the primaries.
2008: Midwestern anti-war candidate stirs up interest in the primaries.

1968: Another politician originally from the midwest, also a Senator, sort-of pro-war, tries to win the Democratic nomination, and expects a coronation.
2008: Another politician originally from the midwest, also a Senator, sort-of pro-war, tries to win the Democratic nomination, and expects a coronation.

1968: Racist, Southern, and third-party candidate pledges to run over any demonstrators who get in front of his limousine.
2008: Racist, Southern, and third-party candidate hits cop with fist.

1968: Embattled Texas politician who is the President endures backlash from own party and decides not to seek re-election.
2008: Embattled Texas politician who is the President endures backlash from own party and cannot seek re-election.

1968: First black nominated for President at a major party convention.
2008: First black running for President who will do well if he makes it to his party's convention.

1968: Third party candidate who said: "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrat and Republican Parties."
2008: Potential third party candidate who doesn't think there's ever been much difference between the candidates running for nomination for the Democrat and Republican parties.

1968: Pigasus
2008: "Iron My Shirt"

1968: Barbra Streisand running her big fat mouth.
2008: Barbra Streisand running her big fat mouth.

1968: WFB vs Gore Vidal: "crypto-nazi" vs "goddamn thief"
2008: Ann Coulter vs Al Franken: FDR vs Hitler

1968: Unqualified felon running on tiny third party ticket.
2008: Unqualified felon running on tiny third party ticket.


Things that don't quite have parallels yet:

1968: Undeclared college football coach receives votes at the Democratic Convention.

1968: Presidential candidate assassinated by Palestinian Jew-hater.

1968: Dan Rather

2008: Elizabeth Kucinich

Welcome...... To Generation Iowa........ MFers!!!!!!!!!!

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

State officials plan today to unveil a new Web site geared toward young people in Iowa.

GenerationIowa.com and described as "the one-stop Web site for everything young Iowa" and is slated to be launched as part of the Generation Iowa Commission's meeting at Iowa State University, officials said. Commissioners will be joined by members of the Iowa Careers Consortium and the state Department of Economic Development.

"For the very first time, everything young Iowans want will be in one spot," Economic Development Director Mike Tramontina said. "Young people will be able to connect to Iowa events, recreation, careers and each other."

GenerationIowa.com offers social networking opportunities, career advice, job search databases, links to upcoming events, festivals and young professionals groups, the latest Iowa news, and users can even create their own virtual cubicle.

The web site is up already, and it's frightening.

Virtual cubicle???

And you've got to hate the subheading on the web site: "Not a single outbreak of bubonic plague".

How much is this embarrassment costing taxpayers?

This is what you end up with when you let a crybaby liberal like Kyle Carlson and all his lefty friends get their way.

Carlson, of course, is the politically-connected abortion lawyer who went $200,000 into debt to get a law degree at Drake and now wants taxpayers to pay his student loans.

Here are some suggestions I made in April 2007. They remain ignored by the Generation Iowa commission:

• 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.

Here's the real Generation Iowa:

Hot Karl

Karl Rove will be speaking at the University of Iowa on February 17th. Admission is free.

Can you feel the love?

From the comments on the Des Moines Register article:

That $40,000 payment for Rove's speech could be better spent paying for him to spend some time behind bars...

...Thank you Mr. Rove for keeping me and this country safe from the economic instability of not just one recession, but two!!! Thank you Mr. Rove for keeping us safe from dishonest, smear tactic campaigns as you so brilliantly demonstrated in South Carolina! Thank you so much Karl Rove!!! ps i think i really might have to fill some of you in... this is sarcasm i dont mean it...

And where is Rove's "McCain has an illegitimate black child" whisper campaign now?

...I hope a steal beam falls and painfully crushes the evil son of a...

...I hope someone asks him about being called in front of a Grand Jury 5 times because he kept conveniently leaving out details about his involvement with leaking the identitiy of a CIA operative. I hope someone asks him about the 939 documented instances of the Bush Administration lying about the Iraq war and WMD's. I hope someone asks him about his "hot headed" style were he is quoted as saying; tell him we will F* him like he has never been F*'d before. A real class act you are bringing into our state U of I. Who's next "I do not recall" Alberto Gonxales for 40,000? I heard he needs money for his legal defense fund also...

...Does the University Lecure Committee get the honor of wiping Rove's nose while he is in Iowa City too?

...What a bad example for young people. He is so full of himself. How awful that my tax money will pay him more for one lecture than many make in a year...

And over at the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Is it April Fools Day already?

OMG, this is one freebie I will not be taking advantage of...

I can't say the man's not a talent. As were the smartest guys in the room that gave us Enron...

...I'd rather extinguish a cigarette on my tongue than sit and pander to that corpulent pusbag. Who's next...Ann Coulter?

And if you can handle it, "Hot Karl" as a term as defined over at UrbanDictionary.com. Don't say you weren't warned.

Juan McCain

So Romney dropped out. Not a shock.

Wow!

Look at this: juanmccain.blogspot.com

Everything you wanted to know about John McCain.

Or maybe everything you didn't want to know about John McCain!



Check out this headline in the Washington Post: "McCain Pledges to Work for Party Unity"

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!

The Republican Party is destroyed!

McCain has been sucking Democrat cock for so long that no Republican wants to kiss and make up with him, except maybe goobers who don't mind a Ted Kennedy or Russ Feingold snowball.

But watch out. It ain't over.

Ralph Nader is going to enter the race if Queen Bitch Hitlery steals the nomination away from Barack Hussein Obama at the convention.

If she does steal it, she'll have to pimp Bill Clinton out as a wigger in order to get all those black votes back!


Related: "Who Said It? Part Deux"

and

Related: John McVain or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the RINO



Passing the angry, vindictive, and paranoid RINO torch.......

Chuck Grassley: "RINO John McCain Is A Miracle"

From the Des Moines Register in a story amusingly headlined "Grassley defends McCain's conservatism":

Republican presidential front-runner John McCain really is a conservative, despite continued attacks from conservative talk show hosts and pundits, GOP Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Wednesday...

..."I think John McCain's political revival, that you might call the second coming of John McCain, is a miracle not quite the same as when Jesus Christ comes again, but still a miracle and we ought to be proud of John," Grassley said...

...He said that if his voting record and McCain's were placed side by side, they'd likely be very close and McCain may be "even a little more conservative, to some extent."

As Jimmy Breslin put it perfectly: "Chuck Grassley is a moron."

Related: "Who Said It? Part Deux"

PAC-Puppet Loebsack Bends Over To The Crooked Recording Industry

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Rep. Dave Loebsack said Wednesday he supports a higher education bill that addresses the rise of Internet piracy on college campuses, including the University of Iowa.

The bill, co-sponsored by Loebsack, D-Mount Vernon, would require colleges that receive federal aid to report what they are doing to stem intellectual property theft. The House is scheduled to vote today on the measure.

The bill also requires schools to inform students that illegally downloading copyrighted material is a crime that could subject them to civil and criminal penalties.

I warned you that Loebsack was turning into a PAC Whore.

This is the same bunch of stupid Luddites who wanted the VCR outlawed.

And what was left out of this totally one-sided Gannett story? Read this from the EFF about the bill (HR 4137):

Advocates of the bill stress that the language stops short of demanding implementation -- that it only requires universities to "plan" -- but this argument misses the point entirely. The passage of this bill will unambiguously lead universities down the wrong path. For the sake of artists, administrators, students, and consumers better approaches exist.

The bill also would hang an unspoken threat over the heads of university administrators. In response to concerns that potential penalties for universities could include a loss of federal student aid funding, the MPAA's top lawyer in Washington said that federal funds should be at risk when copyright infringement happens on campus networks. Moreover, earlier versions of "Campus-based Digital Theft Prevention" proposals nakedly sought to make schools that received numerous copyright infringement notices subject to review by the US Secretary of Education.

In October 2007, the MPAA even tried to supplement its efforts in Congress by giving away custom-built network monitoring software to universities it had flagged for having the most file-sharing traffic. The software, which they called "University Toolkit," was exposed by researchers to have egregious security and privacy flaws. And, in an ironic twist, the University Toolkit was removed from the MPAA website following allegations of copyright infringement -- the MPAA had failed to comply with copyright licensing terms that required the source code for the toolkit software to be freely available.

Oh, I can hear some of you out there. You will reflexively say, "State 29, are you for illegal file trading that deprives artists of royalties?" Absolutely not.

I just don't think it's right that the RIAA is paying off politicians to make universities a sort of proxy footcop and evidence gatherer for their legal department.

As for this notion that artists are losing royalties, are you are aware of how major label recording contracts are constructed? Courtney Love did the math. And Steve Albini has seen many bands swim the trench filled with runny, decaying shit. Until the recording industry stops the legalized slavery of their artists, fuck them. I don't want to hear their bellyaching.

Holy Joe

"Blah blah blah blah blah, listen to all the bi-partisan hot air I create......"


John Deeth talks about how Slow Joe Lieberman's endorsement of RINO McVain disqualifies him as a "super delegate" within the Democratic Party.

I love this line:

And to everyone who gave me a hard time about bashing Lieberman when he was the running mate in 2000: Told ya so.

This year is going to be a Battle Royale, isn't it?

John McVain or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the RINO

Passing the angry, vindictive, and paranoid RINO torch.......


Nicholas Johnson is annoyed at the media for not indicating how many delegates each candidates picked up on Super Tuesday.

Why would they do a thing like that? They're too busy with their fancy graphics, green screens, early predictions, and endless yapping by the usual spinsters.

I tried to watch CNN's coverage last night and it was just impossible. After 5 minutes I had a headache from Wolf Blitzed and his condescending manner. I switched to FOX News for 30 seconds before some frightening pundit scared me over to the Weather Channel.

The Real Sporer has some Republican delegate numbers.

And O. Kay Henderson at the Radio Iowa blog has some data on Iowa "Super" delegates.

24-Hour Dorman has a media-snarky take on things.

In Muscatine rails on John McVain.

You know, I don't know why so many Republican bloggers and pundits are concerned about having a RINO as their candidate. Most of their recent candidates have had a history of bending over on demand for Democrats and "moderates".

They elected and re-elected Bush 43. How many spending bills did 43 veto in the first 6 years in office? How many times did you see Ted Kennedy slapping the back of 43 in a photo op? 43 was for shamnesty! Did 43 outlaw abortion? Nope, didn't happen. Why did you vote for him again? Oh yeah, the choices were either a retard with a messiah complex (Al Gore) or an elitist douchebag (John Kerry).

What about Bob? No, not that Bob! Bob Dole. Old Bob Dole who spoke about himself in the third person all the time. Old Senator Bob from Liberal, Kansas! Oh, he's a funny guy, but did you ever see him filibuster anything? Nah, he was bi-partisan to the core. He was Nelson Rockefeller's replacement for Ford in '76, Bill Clinton's sparring partner on 60 Minutes (briefly), and is now the go-to guy for when a Republican is needed for "co-chairing" something with a Democrat.

How about Bush 41? Can anybody say, "Read My Lips, No New Taxes"? What did he do when presented new taxes? He bent over and authorized new taxes that the Democrats pushed in front of him. He was also against something Dee-Oh-Oh economics.

Reagan? Reagan was kind of a RINO. He supported shamnesty. He supported an expanded Federalistic Nanny State. You ever heard of the term "Reagan Democrats"? What are they? Basically, they were the flip side of the RINO coin. Not much difference, ya think? Sure, Reagan lower tax rates, but he couldn't have gotten stagflation under control without Paul Volcker, who by the way was a Jimmy Carter appointee.

Ford? Bwaaahahaha! "Whip Inflation Now" buttons. Supporting the stupid Equal Rights Amendment. Appointing John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court. He was a RINO, for sure.

Nixon? Nixon was far from a conservative. He was an economic retard. Wage and price controls, anybody? Expanded war on drugs, anybody? He took America off the Gold Standard. Expanded government. The Philadelphia Plan. Oh, and imposed the wretched 55 mph speed limit on this country. That's beyond RINO-ism.

The only way I could pull a lever for John McCain as a Republican nominee would be if he had a decent fiscal conservative type of person as his running mate. I doubt McCain could live out a first term, much less a second as he is riddled with cancer and has a bad temper. You don't live forever with those strikes against you. Sure, his mother is alive, and he gets his ego stroked all the time, and that helps.

Ralph Nader is gonna run, folks. You just watch. It's gonna be RINO McCain, pissing off the conservatives by trying to kiss their ass after running over their feet. It's gonna be Queen Bitch Hitlery, pissing off the blacks and suburban Oprah whites after stealing it at the convention. Oh, god, I can't wait to see this!

Poverty In Iowa: Family Of 5 Earning Under $75,000 A Year

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Legislators announced a health care package Tuesday that would extend coverage to all Iowa children.

Supporters said they hoped to achieve that goal within about three years.

Under the measure, the state would extend existing programs to an additional 25,000 youngsters who are eligible for health care but excluded because the state can't afford to pay for their coverage. An additional 19,000 children without coverage would get a state subsidy to enroll them in private health care plans...

...In essence, the legislation would expand programs like Medicaid while putting in place funding to cover more children from low-income families. Families with incomes ranging from 200 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level would likely be eligible for a subsidy to purchase private health coverage, [Representative Ro] Foege [D-Mount Vernon] said.

Taking the high number (300%), and basing it off the 2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines, that means a family including two parents and three children would qualify for a subsidy to purchase private health coverage up to $74,400 a year.

Considering that the median household income for Iowa in 2006 was $44,491 a year, that's quite a leap for a program that was originally intended to cover "poor" children whose parents couldn't afford health insurance.

So what happens when the parents who qualify decide that going gambling, buying cigarettes, getting drunk, financing giant HDTVs, and wasting their money on all manner of crap is more important than budgeting for health insurance? Is Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party going to garnish their wages?

And what happens if the kids are regularly taken to the doctor, but the parents decide to just pay out-of-pocket and forego insurance? Those parents will be burned at the stake for not bowing down to government-mandated corporate health insurance.

Ban Cell Phone Usage While Driving In Iowa

From the Des Moines Register:

All Iowa drivers - including adults - would be prohibited from using cell phones while behind the wheel, under a proposal being considered at the Statehouse.

The idea expands legislation introduced last month that bans cellphone use behind the wheel for new drivers. House File 2059, would make it illegal for drivers with a learner’s permit or intermediate license to use a cell phone or send text messages while driving.

But a few lawmakers say that all drivers, regardless of their experience, are distracted by cell phones.

“We are doing it from a public safety point of view,” said Rep. Swati Dandekar, a Marion Democrat who took a call on her cell phone while driving to the Capitol today. “This is a public safety issue.”

Dandekar, a member of the House Transportation Committee, is leading talks about the ban in a subcommittee. The panel has not yet altered the original proposal to include adults, but she said that some form of ban that applies to adults is likely. She noted, however, that she is open to talks that would allow adults to talk on devices that are not hand held.

The proposal was panned by Des Moines City Councilwoman Christine Hensley.

"Oh my God, that would be awful,” Hensley said via cell phone while driving today.

She said lawmakers have other priorities to address besides cell phones. "That would be horrendous for me, to be perfectly honest," Hensley said.

Poor, poor Christine Hensley. She'll have to take all those phone calls from pro-illegal/pro-slave labor groups asking Des Moines to become a "shamnesty city" at her desk or while walking, providing of course that she's smart enough to walk and use a cell phone at the same time.

Drivers should be banned from using a handheld cell phone while operating a motor vehicle, for sure. Hands-free devices, such the type those Bluetools use have been around long enough. I've had enough close calls with phone-toting assholes to last me a lifetime.

I will admit that I tried it once and it was most godawful experience. I didn't like it and I didn't inhale. I'm much better at blogging and driving. The secret is velcro-ing the laptop to the dashboard.

Social Engineering Instead Of Education In DSM

From the Des Moines Register:

Des Moines school officials, faced with less than a month to either scrap or rewrite a 30-year-old racial desegregation plan, will get their first look Tuesday at three options proposed by Superintendent Nancy Sebring...

..."What we're trying to do is really look at all the factors that pertain to our kids today: language, poverty, race, achievement," Sebring said. "Maybe we're already there. Maybe we already have diversity, but we don't know that for sure."

You're the Stupidertendent and you don't know???

The district has had 30 years and countless millions of dollars to tweak things to their heart's content.

This alone demonstrates what a cancer administrators are within "big city" school districts. They all have this endless diversity fetish, based on the notion that all white people are racists and all black kids get a crappy education if they go to school in the neighborhood where they live. The same school that is run by the administration.

I never understood this: If the kids in a school aren't learning, do something about it other than shuffling them around town in buses and cabs. They tried busing, but that didn't work. They tried magnet schools, but that didn't work. They gave them free breakfast and free lunches, but that didn't work. Now they want to reshuffle based on what the parents earn. You know that won't work!

Why can't the district make every school equal in terms of teaching, curriculum, facilities, and opportunity? WHY??? Because the Socialists running the school district don't want to admit that some kids don't learn because "daddy" is off fucking and impregnating other women, is in prison, or mom don't give no shit that they child caint read, that's yo job, biatch!

But who cares what I have to say? Listen to George Carlin, he says it better:

Thank God The Campus Police Now Have Guns

Tiny Bubbles has banned smoking on the entire University of Iowa campus as of July 2009, according to the Press-Citizen:

"A smoke-free campus will provide a healthier environment for employees, students, and other constituents," Mason wrote in a mass e-mail to the campus community. "I believe, as well, that a smoke-free environment can play a significant role, along with other important support mechanisms, in helping smokers quit. Finally, I expect that this action will contribute to lower health care costs and increased employee productivity across the University."

Well, thank god the campus police finally have guns! Now they can enforce anti-smoking bans with bullets!

They banned alcohol and that worked. Right???

They've banned Republicans.

What's next?

I can just imagine the future under President Tiny Bubbles:

Farting will be banned on the University of Iowa campus due to increased CO2 emissions. Take your Beano or else the world is going to burn!

Fat people will be banned. Either lose the weight or your job! You can't graduate unless you step on a scale, ya big loser!

Don't drink? Don't smoke? What DO you do????

Combine-d Reporting

Take at the look of a whopper of a tax increase that Governor Culver and the Iowa Legislature is proposing on "big, out of state, multi-billion dollar corporations" and (not mentioned) all the big, in-state, multi-billion dollar corporations still left in Iowa.

That South Dakota sure is lookin' might purdy.

You know, it also doesn't help that the hypocrites in the Iowa Legislature bent over to give a big, out of state, multi-billion dollar (profit) corporation called Google a huge tax break to put a data center in Council Bluffs. Oh well, it gives me another opportunity to show a picture of that hottt Google Chick again.

Letter Of The Year

From the Des Moines Register:

There are two things that I really dislike about Congress' idea regarding economic stimulation. If Congress can give back $150 billion in collected taxes, did it really need to collect the money in the first place? And what programs will be cut to reduce spending in order to balance this huge giveaway?

The other glaring problem with this package is this: Our government has been funding studies for years and has been telling us that we are carrying too much debt and are not saving enough money. Now it is telling us to go out and spend the money and not save it or pay off loans. Perhaps it's time for the wheels to fall off this wagon.

Jim Kilmer, Marshalltown

Perfect.

Con-Tractors

From the Des Moines Register:

Mike Speight realized something was wrong with his $250,000 Clive home when he was able to puncture the waterlogged siding with his fingertip.

Speight and his wife, Bev, who spent $25,000 on home repairs over two months, learned Friday that they can sue the company that constructed the house, even though it was custom-built for someone else four years before the couple bought it in 2000.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that homeowners who find work-related defects years after the fact can file claims against contractors, even if they are not the original buyers.

The 6-0 decision reversed two lower-court rulings against the Speights, the third owners of the house in question, and overturned a similar case in Linn County.

This is a good call by the Iowa Supreme Court.

And then there's the defense's spin:

Brian Rickert, the attorney for the contractor, said the ruling could "flood the courts with lawsuits" from homeowners and dumps a significant burden on legitimate builders. He fears frivolous claims and costly court battles over damage that might have been caused by previous owners.

"It couldn't have come at a worse time, especially considering the state that home builders are in right now," Rickert said. "The market is just terrible, and this ruling basically says builders have to warranty a house for 15 years."

Well, gee, Brian Rickert, maybe you'd like your industry to be given a free pass to build shitty-quality houses in Iowa with no recourse, but I think few homeowners want that.

There are so many industries where you can't get away with defective products: automobiles, child safety seats, pharmaceuticals, meat, and toys. That's just off the top of my head. If you build something defective that can affect the health or well-being of people then the government will mandate that you recall or fix your product.

I will say this in defense of the contractors: they are asked to build more and more complex homes these days. If you look at a lot of older homes, most of them have fairly simple roofs. The past 20 years or so, particularly on the upmarket homes, you've got all flavors of cross gable, hip on gable, dutch hips, hips with cross gamble roofs, or various combinations of these types of roofs being built. Every time you add a valley it is an invitation for trouble because the water, snow, and ice are just looking for a way to get in. Any minor glitch in the construction can cause a leak that will take a few years to appear, months to diagnose, and weeks to fix.

Who should pay for that? Well, if you're buying a "used" house I would definitely consider purchasing a home warranty for a few years. When we bought ours here in Overland Park, I insisted that the seller cough up an extra $350 or so for what is a plain vanilla home warranty that covers most things with a $100 deductible. It only covers the roof (which is about 10 years old) if there's a leak, and even then they won't replace the entire thing, just repair. I'll have to wait for a hail storm to come through for my homeowner's insurance to kick in on a new roof. Otherwise I'm paying out of pocket.

Although I advocate that home purchasers buy a comprehensive warranty for a few years, I can definitely see the Speight's side on this one, and also the Teggatz family's woes in Cedar Rapids. If it's built wrong, it should be fixed. Any honest contractor who is concerned about their reputation should go in and have a look and, if necessary, eat the problem instead of fighting it in the courts. What's your reputation worth? Now everybody with a home touched by Walters Development in the Des Moines area and Sattler Homes in Cedar Rapids is going to be leery. People sniff around these days on Google to check a builder's reputation, you know. Better watch it.

"Tiny Bubbles" Mason To Chair Climate Fraud Group

From the Des Moines Register:

University of Iowa President Sally Mason will lead a national task force exploring how expected energy and climate change legislation will affect Midwestern economic competitiveness...

...The task force will meet over a year, beginning this spring, and will produce a report of findings and recommendations that will be used to shape federal energy and climate change policy in 2009 and 2010.

Chicago Council officials say the task force will develop regionally-beneficial recommendations on issues likely to be included in future federal legislation such as cap and trade programs to reduce greenhouse gases; higher fuel economy standards; increased use of biofuels; the role for renewable power sources; carbon sequestering; improved regional transportation infrastructure; and methods to increase economic competitiveness in the auto industry and manufacturing as well as newer industries related to energy efficiency.

The U of I was among the first universities to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, North America's only greenhouse gas emission registry, reduction and trading system for all greenhouse gases, the university reported.

Oh dear god. Does anybody want to guess what this bunch of con artists and fraud merchants are going to recommend?

I predict at least a few of the following:

• No new coal power plants - ever!
• No new oil drilling in the US - ever!
• No new oil refineries to be built in the US - ever!
• Raise gas taxes to European levels.
• "Invest" more tax money in monorails and mass transit.
• Increase the cost of energy to US homes and businesses by imposing a carbon surtax.
  
• Demand that the government be able to control the thermostat in your home.
• Give farmers more taxpayer-financed corporate welfare in order to turn corn into inefficient hooch so that US automakers can subvert rising CAFE standards.
• Force governments to "invest" state pension money into carbon trading businesses like the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Sally Mason has a lot of experience with managing outright fraudulent bullshit like global warming. While the provost at Purdue, she did the following (via Nature, the International Weekly Journal Of Science):

An inquiry has exonerated nuclear engineer Rusi Taleyarkhan of misconduct with respect to allegations made internally at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, officials announced last week. But the announcement may raise more questions than it answers: researchers in the field have criticized the university for failing to say whether the inquiry considered their concerns that the work may be fraudulent.

Taleyarkhan claims to be able to produce fusion by collapsing bubbles in deuterated liquids. His work promised to improve prospects for developing a clean source of energy, but independent scientists have not been able to replicate the result. The work had been subject to several internal allegations of misconduct, including the fact that Taleyarkhan cited a paper by his student and postdoc as "independent" confirmation of his findings.

Purdue announced on 7 February that "the committee determined that the evidence does not support the allegations of research misconduct and that no further investigation of the allegations is warranted". It has refused to specify the content of the allegations that it considered, except to say that they were "internal".

Institutional proceedings involving Taleyarkhan began in March 2006, after concerns about his work were reported by Nature3. Purdue's provost, Sally Mason, responded by saying that the university would undertake an objective review. In June 2006, the university said that the review was complete, but declined to make its findings public. Last week's announcement referred to the findings of a second internal inquiry subsequently appointed by Purdue's dean of engineering, Leah Jamieson.

Taleyarkhan has told several news outlets that he feels "vindicated". But critics have questioned the validity of Purdue's proceedings, and in particular, the apparent decision to limit its inquiry to internal allegations, yet possibly ignoring the concerns, including fraud, communicated by external researchers in the field.

"They apparently narrowly focused the charge and avoided the question of whether the research was doctored," says Ken Suslick, a chemist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who has been attempting to replicate Taleyarkhan's claims. Suslick is one of several researchers worried that Taleyarkhan's work may be fraudulent, and he wrote to Purdue about his concerns in June 2006. These include the apparent duplication of data between reports of supposedly independent experiments (first raised by Nature), and a report that the spectrum of neutrons that Taleyarkhan claims to have detected from bubble fusion exactly matches that of a standard radioactive source called californium. Taleyarkhan has since replied that when he measures neutrons emitted by californium in his lab, he finds something quite unlike what he sees from his fusion experiments. But a recent preprint points out that Taleyarkhan omitted some of the original spectral data in his reply, and that the full data set still looks like californium.

The university never responded to Suslick's concerns...

...Lefteri Tsoukalas, who asked Purdue to investigate Taleyarkhan in February 2006, has called the announcement "an outrage". Tsoukalas was head of Purdue's nuclear-engineering school until he resigned in October 2006 in protest at the way the university was handling the concerns. He notes that the usual procedure for handling allegations of scientific misconduct is to hold a preliminary inquiry, then either proceed with an investigation or close the matter. That did not happen in this case; instead, the university ran a second preliminary inquiry. Apart from Tsoukalas, calls by Nature have failed to locate anyone who raised concerns about Taleyarkhan's work who was interviewed during either inquiry. "Purdue's finding is as mysterious as bubble fusion itself," says Tsoukalas...

...Purdue's announcement appeared on the same day as Suslick, Putterman and others reported their attempt to replicate Taleyarkhan's claims in an experiment built to his specifications. They did not find any evidence that fusion was occurring.

Sally Mason was obviously Regents head Michael Gartner's pick. They're sort of like peas in a pod:

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...

...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

These scumbags are all alike. Pure, unadulterated frauds, they are. Now they're in power and trying to scam the public with this global warming bullshit, which only empowers government and makes fatassed hypocrites like Al Gore rich. Fuck them all.

Byzantax

Via the Roth & Company CPA Tax Update Blog:

The noise this week [in the Iowa Legislature] mostly has to do with the federal stimulus bill. The governor promised not to tax the federal tax rebates on Iowa returns. He hasn't committed to conforming with the business stimulus proposals, which has caused an outcry on the GOP side. It would be good policy for Iowa to conform with whatever Congress [decides]. The Department of Revenue still struggles with the effects of Iowa's failure to conform right away with the 2001 stimulus package, and we still get notices from them for clients because the department can't be bothered to read supporting schedules to 1040s that disclose differences between federal and Iowa depreciation.

It would be good if the legislature stopped there on the stimulus front, but there is also talk of doing more with sales tax holidays. These are bad policy for a number of reasons and should be eliminated altogether, rather than expanded. But if Iowa really wants to stimulate its economy long-term, they should try real reform of Iowa's' byzantine income tax.

You simply have not lived until you've worked in two different states with income taxes over the course of a year (one of them being Iowa), earned money working for different companies residing in both states, and dealt with attempting to figure out "Iowa's Byzantine income tax".

I endured that torture last year until giving up and shelling out an obscene amount of money to a local tax preparer who had never done a partial-Iowa/partial-Kansas return before. Needless to say, the preparer hated every minute of trying to figure that nightmare out.

It wasn't the Kansas side that freaked her out. She was used to doing partial returns between people moving from Missouri over to Kansas and vice versa (more MO to KS than KS to MO, to be honest.....), which is a regular thing down here because it's a metro area straddling two states. It was the Iowa side that caused all the nightmares.

Seeing the word "Byzantine" again reminded me of something I read a long long time ago and which I'm going to the library this weekend to seek out. I'm talking about the book The Spirit Of The Laws which was written by the Baron de Montesquieu (Charles de Secondat), one of the people who gave credence to the derogatory use of the term Byzantine.

I also had forgotten that The Spirit Of The Laws was originally published anonymously because the Montesquieu's written works were regularly censored. He spent 20 years writing that book, and it had enormous influence on the framers of the US Constitution. I'm sure if I read it again it'll just make me depressed considering all the despots running for President and the idiots controlling the rest of elective government.

Just in case you're curious, The Spirit Of The Laws is available in the public domain on the internet, but I hate reading books on the web.