99counties.org

Tags: tourism

On a lighter note, I have been searching high and low for a youth football uniform set since before Christmas.  Kinda like the one on the left which can be found everywhere in store and online, except I would like mine in Cardinal and Gold with Cyclone on it.  Is that too much to ask?  Apparently it is.

Has it always been this difficult to raise ISU Cyclone fans?

Compare:

Hawkeyes:

http://www.google.com/products?q=Franklin+Iowa+Hawkeyes+Youth+Football+Uniform+Set&hl=en

Cyclones:

http://www.google.com/products?q=Franklin+Iowa+State+Cyclones+Youth+Football+Uniform+Set&hl=en

I have called most local merchants in Ames and they have been unable to help as well.   Does this just not exist?  Or do I suck at the internet.

Monday brings day four in the longest attempt to keep a bill vote open in the history of the Iowa legislature. House speaker Patrick Murphy decided to keep sitting in his chair, around-the-clock over the weekend, to keep the vote open on a prevailing wage bill.

It would set a standard for the wages paid to workers who build state projects, but Murphy is failing at his mission to get one last vote to pass the bill. Sunday night, the final state representative cast his ballot, but it wasn’t enough to push the bill over the 51 required votes.

If Democrats can’t sway a “no” vote their way, the bill will be considered dead at 1:00, Monday afternoon.

Their best hope is Representative McKinley Bailey. The Hamilton County Democrat took away his support Friday, after an amendment was tacked-on to the bill.

Bailey says the sleepover tactic won’t work and his vote won’t change, “They learned two years ago that strong-arming me doesn’t work. I went to war twice and I was shot at, it doesn’t scare me.”

Republicans say Murphy’s sit-in is delaying talks on flood relief. Democrats say prevailing wage would ensure flood dollars are spent properly.

Tags: iowa house

An email from the IowaGOP:

Democrats who control the Iowa House of Representatives have scheduled debate for later this morning on the so-called “prevailing wage” bill that will create state mandated wages and benefits for those working on public construction projects and raise property taxes (House File 333).

HF 333 would require contractors and subcontractors who work on public improvements to pay wages and fringe benefits that have been established by collective bargaining agreements. Even those supporting the legislation acknowledge it will result in higher construction costs for public projects and that it WILL raise property taxes.

Labor union lobbyists have flooded the State Capitol today to lobby for this bill and secure the 51 votes needed for passage.

Organizations fighting for small businesses and property taxes are working hard to defeat this bill, but they need your help.

Iowa Republicans must stand up against this power grab and tax raising scheme and contact their State Representatives, TODAY! Call your State Representative and ask him/her to vote NO on HF 333.
Please call your State Representative: 515.281.3221

“At a time of economic stress, it makes no sense to saddle Iowa taxpayers with a big increase in the cost of public improvement projects. Due to the economic downturn and the floods, state and local governments are facing significant economic hardships. They cannot afford the additional costs of a prevailing wage law. Because of the increased cost of public projects to taxpayers, nine states have repealed prevailing wage laws since the last state passed one. No state has passed a prevailing wage law in the last 30 years.

As former governors, we believe that an Iowa prevailing wage law would be bad public policy and we urge Iowa legislators to vote against it.”

Governor Terry E. Branstad
Governor Robert D. Ray

Tags: iowa house

AP reports :

Iowa lawmakers are considering changing the way the state’s presidential votes are counted as part of a national effort to break from the Electoral College system.

The proposal is moving through the state Senate and so far has generated little opposition.

“This is the real deal,” Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, said Wednesday.
Jochum is an expert on elections and campaign financing and a leading backer of the effort. The measure also has the backing of Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal.

E-mail: Pam.Jochum@legis.state.ia.us
Home Address: 2368 Jackson Street, Dubuque, IA, 52001-3521
Home Telephone: 563-556-6530

This proposed end-run around the constitution would require Iowa to enter into a compact with other like-minded (suicidal) states and pledge to direct Iowa’s electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who wins in Iowa.

“I think there’s broad support for the concept that a majority of the people in the country should elect a president,” Gronstal said. “This is a mechanism to get there and it doesn’t require a constitutional amendment.”

“If states that represent a majority of electoral votes in the country pass this compact, we can get a national popular vote without Congress, without a constitutional amendment, without any of those folks,” he said.

E-mail: mike.gronstal@legis.state.ia.us
Home Address: 220 Bennett Ave, Council Bluffs, IA, 51503
Home Telephone: 712-328-2808

Tags: electoral college, iowa senate

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin appeared on uber-liberal Bill Press’ radio show and stated his support of the “Fairness Doctrine.”  Which, of course, should be called the “force radio stations to continue employing Bill Press despite losing money in the process” Doctrine.

BILL PRESS: …And, thanks for your leadership, thanks for your good work, it’s great to have you there Senator. And, great to have you on the show. Appreciate it.

SENATOR TOM HARKIN (D-IA): Well, anytime – just let me know Bill. I love being with you, and thanks again for all you do to get the truth and the facts out there. By the way, I read your Op-Ed in the Washington Post the other day. I ripped it out, I took it into my office and said ‘there you go, we gotta get the Fairness Doctrine back in law again.’

BILL PRESS:  Alright, well good for you. You know, we gotta work on that, because they are just shutting down progressive talk from one city after another. All we want is, you know, some balance on the airwaves, that’s all. You know, we’re not going to take any of the conservative voices off the airwaves, but just make sure that there are a few progressives and liberals out there, right?

SENATOR TOM HARKIN (D-IA): Exactly, and that’s why we need the fair — that’s why we need the Fairness Doctrine back.

BILL PRESS: We’ll work on that together. Hey, thanks, Senator! Always good to talk to you.

SENATOR TOM HARKIN (D-IA): Thanks Bill, see you, bye.

BILL PRESS: There it is – you heard it here on the Bill Press Show. Senator Tom Harkin: bring back the Fairness Doctrine!

Tags: harkin

Congressman Steve King says he’s mulling the idea of running for governor rather than for reelection to congress in 2010. “I have a job today that I very much enjoy and I’m eager to start every day and I’m sorry to have to give up on each day,” King says. “…It’s a wonderful privilege to serve the people of this country and the state of Iowa, but I’ve made no decision.”

King, a Republican from the western iowa town of Kiron, considered running for governor in 2006, but decided against it. Democrat Chet Culver was elected in 2006 and has made it clear he intends to seek re-election to a second term. A handful of Republicans already have expressed interest in running for governor in 2010, and King’s not ruling out joining that list. “It’d be foolish to foreclose options,” King says. “And I think it’d be constructive, though, at this point for me to say that our most important job right now is to bring together and reunify the Republican Party in this state.”

King met privately today with Republicans who serve in the state legislature and new Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn joined King in one of those meetings. “And I said this to the Republicans this week in the statehouse: I think that we will gain seats in 2010…in the Iowa Legislature and in congress,’” King says. “And I say that for a number of reasons, but we have people that are coming out today that said they didn’t want to commit themselves to a life of public service. Now they’re frustration’s driving them. Our recruitment is better. They’re seeing the cliff that we’re being driven over, economically, and they want to pull us back from that.”

From RadioIowa.com

Tags: governor, Steve King

UPDATE:

Glenn Beck interviews Matt Prescott, spokesman for PETA regarding the King/RFK exchange below(emphasis mine):

BECK: You know, look, here’s the thing. I have no problem with people who actually believe in something and are not hypocrites about it, actually will do something in their life. The IPCC report says that animal farms, just if we all became vegans, that we would dramatically change global warming. Do they say it is the fastest solution or the biggest problem or both?

PRESCOTT: It’s the biggest contributor to global warming that — the U.N. report found that the meat industry causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, planes, ships — all of the world’s transportation systems combined.

BECK: Could you say that again, Matthew, please?

PRESCOTT: Yes. Well, I’ll emphasize it here for you. The U.N. report found that the meat industry causes more global warming emissions than all of the world’s transportation combined.

BECK: So why do you suppose that when we called RFK, Jr.’s office today — by the way, he didn’t come on the show. When we called RFK, Jr.’s office and we asked him if he was a vegan, he said no. He is not a vegetarian.

PRESCOTT: Oh, it’s very surprising. Shocking. Shocking.

BECK: Yes. Why do you suppose that people like Al Gore who is also not a vegetarian or a vegan — why are they eating meat if they truly believe that, you know, the world is going to come to an end in some sort of a fiery flood?

PRESCOTT: You know, we’ve been trying to find that out for years and we’ve never actually gotten an answer. I mean, personally, I’ve got to say, you know, if you’ve got a belief and out there trying to change the world and make it a better place, I got to give you support.

But I also have to ask questions. I mean, why, if somebody who is so vigorously fighting against global warming — they haven’t even looked at their own plate. There is another report out of the University of Chicago that found that if you switch from a standard American car to a Toyota Prius, it’s not even as good as switching from a meat-based diet to a vegetarian diet.

So just switching from meat to vegetarian food, you can save more greenhouse gas emissions from going up there into the atmosphere than you could by switching to a hybrid car.

BECK: So wait a minute. You said a minute ago — you said, “I have respect for you if you’re out there trying to change the world.” I don’t have respect if you’re trying to change the world if you’re not living by your own principles, if you’re being dishonest.

PRESCOTT: Well, yes. Yes, and hat’s the key thing here. I think Gore and others who aren’t vegetarian, who are fighting this fight, need to look at their own plate before they go out and, you know, tell anybody else to change their ways. Because, really, it’s the biggest thing that you could do.

There is a major environmental group found recently that if every American just replaced one meal of chicken, just one meal of chicken one time each week with vegetarian food, it would be the same as taking about 500,000 cars off of American roads. That’s a huge number.

BECK: May I ask you, could I replace it with a bowl of ice cream or are you going to take my ice cream away?

PRESCOTT: Well, if it’s soy ice cream -

BECK: Let me ask you this question — do you think that pig farmers are more of a danger than Usama bin Laden?

PRESCOTT: Well, I think it’s two totally separate issues here. I mean, we seem to have done pretty well fighting Al Qaeda threat.

BECK: Well, I will give you that.

PRESCOTT: But we haven’t done anything — we haven’t done anything to start tackling what is a very serious threat, effect of farming. I mean, this industry is the leading cause of global warming. This industry is the biggest threat to Americans’ health that causes — the meat and cheese and yogurt…

From WorldNetDaily.com:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today turned a congressional subcommittee hearing into a diatribe on the dangers faced by the United States, affirming that hog producers are a far greater threat to the nation’s future than Osama bin Laden and his terror network.

Kennedy’s comments came in response to a question from U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

King asked whether a comment attributed to Kennedy in a published Iowa report in 2002 was accurate. According to the report, Kennedy stated, “Large-scale hog producers are a greater threat to the United States and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network.”

“Is that an accurate quote?” asked King, whose state includes thousands of small businesses producing pork.

“I believe it and I support it,” Kennedy said.

Video Below:

Tags: Steve King