READS: Wednesdau, April 25 is...

Secretaries Day
Flag Day (Swaziland)

Perhaps today you can say thank you to your secretary by getting them a flag from Swaziland. It is a pretty cool one:


I wanted to take a moment today to draw your attention to the legislative session, which may wrap up as soon as Friday, but seems to have enough to do to stretch into next week. There are a couple pieces of legislation hanging out there that still have a chance, but they need our help.

VOICE: Bleeding Heartland has a post up today from the Public Campaign Action Fund letting us know what we can do to help get Clean Elections legislation passed. It's still being held up by leadership in committee, but perhaps if enough of us get behind it was can shove it through this roadblock.

CIVIL RIGHTS BILL: Both Common Iowan and John Deeth have a post up today noting that the bill could come up for a vote as soon as today, and listing people you can get in touch with if you have a story to share or an opinion to express.

These are two great pieces of legislation that would work wonders in helping move Iowa forward. If you've got a moment to spare today, consider lending a hand to help get them passed.

KL

READS: Tuesday, April 24 is...

Children's Day (Iceland)

Apparently in Iceland, every day is not Children's Day.

I'm going to have to make this quick, I'm working on wrestling stuff today:

Presidentials:

John Edwards is the favorite candidate of Thoughts from the Oasis Amidst the Corn, and I think anyone who's voting for a candidate because they're not white or male should read why.

Bill Richardson's TV ads are online. They're both focused on his foreign relations experience, which I think will resonate. If he had talked about foreign relations when he met with bloggers months ago, he may have done more to resonate with me.

Joe Biden is today's topic at Century of the Common Iowan.

Legislative Session:

Iowa sheriffs and prosecutors are upset, and reasonably so, over the failure to do anything to fix the unworkable 2000 foot law.

David Yepsen and John Deeth also have session roundups.

That's all for now. If you're still craving more, I'd recommend trying some ice cream.

KL

More on Dodd

Seeing as I mentioned this morning that I don't know much about Dodd, I think it's only fair that I also point out that I just received the chance to learn a bit more.

This USA Today piece caught my eye while I was putting gas in my car this morning, so I picked it up. If you don't know much about Chris Dodd, or perhaps even if you do, it's worth reading.

KL

READS: Monday, April 23 is...

Independence Day (Israel)

Ok, it's been a while, but I think it's finally time to bring the blog back. I've missed an awful lot, but I'm not going to go through it all in one sitting, so here are the reads I found notable from the past week or so:

According to Bleeding Heartland and others, Bill Richardson will be going up on TV today with an ad that's "Very out of the box and funny." I still don't like Richardson's Iowa chances, but if he can separate himself from the other candidates with some humor it will dramatically help him. I'm a firm believer that humor in political ads is both refreshing and attention grabbing. To stand a chance, Richardson needs to be both of those things.

My job search (which is ongoing, by the way) has taken me downtown several times over the last couple of weeks, giving me plenty of opportunities to drive past the Chris Dodd for President office set up on Grand. The first time I drove by it, I had a "He's still running?" moment. Apparently most voters in Marshall County's bean poll didn't know either. Dodd's 1 bean gives him slightly less than 1% in the poll, putting him even with Mike Gravel, and behind Dennis Kucinich. I recognize the highly unscientific nature of these polls, but when 105 people vote and only one of them votes for you, that typically means you've got a problem.

Apparently some people are concerned that John Edwards spends too much on his haircuts. I'm going to make this real simple:

If you're the kind of person who picks a candidate based on their hairstyle, close this blog and feel free to never come back.

Who cares where John Edwards gets his haircut? This quote from Dubuque barber Gene Sand is asinine:

"You know, I contributed to Edwards' campaign four years ago," says Sand, who has been cutting hair in this downtown shop since 1964. "I don't think I'll be going down that road again. He kind of blew it with me over this. I had my picture taken with him and they put it in the newspaper. I gave him money. You're sure about $250? You're not kidding me about that?"

Gene, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your donation didn't buy you the right to cut John Edwards' hair in perpetuity. Apparently it did buy you some free advertising in the Register, though.

One last presidential note for today: Common Iowan remains the Iowa blogosphere's best voice on immigration issues, check out this post he wrote on his recent Tom Tancredo experience.

As it turns out, today's post is a bit light on local issues, but I do need to touch on VOICE. I think it's encouraging that the bill has gotten as far as it has this session, even if it does appear to be on its last legs. It's discouraging, however, to hear that my State Rep., Jo Oldson, is holding it up in committee, and it's even more discouraging to read reports that Mike Gronstal is cursing out supporters of the bill in the Capitol. Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Apparently a Democratic trifecta isn't enough to get VOICE legislation debated on the floor. There's still too much big money floating around.

KL

Don't call it a comeback...

But I'm almost ready to come back.

Don't get me wrong, a break has been nice, but I've been hearing every so often that there are people out there who miss me.

I just need to find a new job, then I'll be good to go.

Maybe Monday? We'll see.

KL

REACTION: Jim Leach will not get to play Chief Illiniwek

In August two stories were running simultaneously with a mild connection:

1) Jim Leach was being accused of racism for handing out fake Native American headdresses at parades.

2) The University of Illinois was considering retiring its own mascot and long-time wearer of Native American headdresses, Chief Illiniwek.

I suggested a compromise: Retire Jim Leach instead and allow him to replace the Chief.

Jim Leach did his part, but the U of Illinois isn't doing theirs. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Chief Illiniwek will perform at his last home game on Wednesday, when the men's basketball team plays their final home game of the season. So it appears Leach will have to settle for one of the other 7,000 jobs he's being offered.

KL

READS: Thursday, February 15 is...

Fiesta de Menendez (St. Augustine, FL)

I have no idea what that's about, and the web doesn't appear to know either, so we'll move on.

UPDATE: From Commenter NotATurtle:

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in the mid-1500s. He was born on February 15.

So there you go.

I'll start off with the day-late read: I had never heard of Queah's blog before yesterday, when a Google Alert popped up to let me know she had written something about Ed Fallon. Turns out it was a Valentine's Day collection of quotes on the gay rights movement. It's worth a read. I've seen some of these quotes before but most were new to me.

According to the Register, 50 Iowans have applied to fill one of as many as four spots that could open up on the Board of Regents. The Register has an article on it and the full list. There's no one on the list that I'm exceptionally excited about. The story also mentions that Culver is encouraging another 10-15 people to apply. I'd be curious to see that list.

The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque has been awarded $8 million in Vision Iowa money as part of a plan to expand. I'm torn on this. I've been to the museum, and it's great. Laura and I spent most of a day there and I'd do it again. But $8 million seems like an awful lot of money.

Finally, the Iowa legislature handed down a massive disappointment yesterday. A quick history lesson: Last year, after five straight years of giving Iowa schools allowable growth rate of 2 percent or less, the state legislature finally approved 4 percent allowable growth. A Democratic movement to raise it to 6 percent didn't come up with the votes. Democrats across the state campaigned on the issue of doing more to fund education.

Then they came back to Des Moines and voted unanimously to do 4 percent again. Furthermore, every single Democrat in the Iowa House voted against an amendment that would have made it six percent.

It already appears that campaign promises for local control have been forgotten. Now they're passing the same education bill we complained about last year and calling it progress. There's little positive one can say about that.

KL

READS: Wednesday, February 14 is...

Evil. Pure evil. Or, if you prefer to use its long name, you can call it Valentine's Day.

Only one read today, and if you're a longtime reader of the blog you've seen it before, but it bears repeating.

Here's what I consider one of the greatest rants I've ever written. It happens to be about today. Give it a read.

KL

READS: Tuesday, February 13 is...

George Fox Day
Hobart Regatta (Tasmania)

From Wikipedia:

George Fox (July 1624 – January 13, 1691) was an English Dissenter and a major early figure — often considered the founder — of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers.

While my mind's on the subject, greetings to the (literally) six new readers who stopped by last night immediately after my news story on WOI, if any of you came back for a second day. I guess the viewership of WOI news is even lower than I had imagined.

Today's reads:

Gov. Pataki is out of the race for president, and Cyclone Conservative has a post up thanking him for his contributions to the discourse and other campaigns. This may be the first post he's written that I'm not embarrassed to link to.

One of these days, you'd think Git-n-Go would improve their security. If they don't do it soon, they may have to change their name to Got-n-Gone.

Shortly after my story last night, a story on this press conference aired on WOI as well. The Patty Judge quote they used was about as worthless as it gets:

"Drugs are dangerous. Child abuse is intolerable."

Be sure to join us tomorrow when she reminds us that the sun is warm, but ice is still slippery.

Finally, Geraldine at Iowa Progress notes the difference in press coverage between the recent campaign visits of Clinton and Obama. When I still worked for Ed Fallon, I used to hear the same complaint from irate Iowans who didn't live in Des Moines all the time. They were always upset that politicians don't think they exist and never hold events in their area. This is a perfect example of why they do it that way.

Clinton held a large rally in Des Moines, probably less than 5 miles from the headquarters of every major news organization in Iowa. It got covered. Obama held a significantly larger rally in Ames, where most major media would have had to travel to cover it. They opted out. I don't think the average Iowan realizes how hard campaigns have to work to make it incredibly easy for the media to attend their events, or risk non-coverage. I've held press conferences at the capitol before and had some of the media on hand refuse to leave the press room to cover it. It's one of the most challenging below-the-surface issues campaigns face. And it's why they don't hold major events in Fort Dodge.

KL

REACTION: Check me out on Channel 5 tonight at 6!

So I woke up this morning thinking I was going to be working by myself all day. As a result, I didn't shave and I passed up the normal nice polo shirt in favor of an old Packers shirt. Shouldn't be a problem, right?

Wrong. About noon I got an email from a reporter at Channel 5. She wanted to know if I'd be willing to be interviewed for a story they're doing on bloggers and the 2008 election.

"Don't you want someone more active?" I asked. It's been 3 and a half weeks since my last post, which was about pro wrestling. But no, they wanted me. So if you're wondering why I'm going to look mildly unkempt with my jacket on indoors during my interview for tonight's Channel 5 News at 6, that's why. As for why they wanted me more than my more active (and widely read) colleagues, I'm still unsure.

With that said, if you're interested in seeing what David Yepsen and I have to say about bloggers and our capacity to influence elections, tune in to the 6 pm WOI newscast. I think the interview went well, all told. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Normal posting will resume tomorrow, in all likelihood.

KL

A QUICK ASIDE: What're you doing tonight and tomorrow?

Yeah, I know, I've been gone for a while. I could make excuses about being busy or the volume of time it takes to be a consistent blogger, but neither of those are really the problem. I'm bored. Posting will resume when I return from my mental vacation.

In the meantime, here are the two things I'm doing this weekend. First, tonight:

On January 26th, live from Don's Pub in Donahue, IA, Scott County Wrestling and Lederman's Bail Bonds presents Winter of Discontent 2007!

At SCW Genesis, Marek Brave successfully defended his SCW Championship against Danny Daniels in one of the most brutal matches in the history of Scott County Wrestling. It was back and forth, toe-to-toe and no disqualification in a match that closed the door on a feud that has been raging on for two years. Now that one of the greatest rivalries in SCW history is said and done, what's next for SCW Champion Marek Brave? Will somebody in the SCW locker room step up to the plate? Perhaps at Winter of Discontent, we'll find out.

At Genesis, Shane Hollister & Ben N. Sane became the new #1 contenders to the SCW Tag Team Titles defeating The Origional S&M (Montoya X and AJ Smooth) and are entitled to an SCW Tag Team Title match against reigning champions The Mississippi Madman and Krotch.

Tony Scarpone defeated the debuting Adam Evans at Genesis, but was immediately confronted by Mark Storm after the match. Storm proclaimed that now that SCW stars Keith Walker and Rob Anthony have both left for WWE, Tony Scarpone is on his own and he's #1 on Mark Storm's hit list. What will Mark Storm have waiting for Tony Scarpone on January 26th?

"Metal Head" Steve Stone made his return to Scott County Wrestling and welcomed himself back with a tag team victory over Tyler Black and Mikey Maxim with the help of midwest wrestling star, Silas Young to continue his impressive winning streak. Stone will be in action and looking to keep is current success continuing.

Also scheduled to be in the house on January 26th: Danny Daniels, Mikey Maxim, "The Glamazon" Bobbi Dahl, #1 Playa Woody Maguire, The Origional S&M, Boris, Johnny Wisdom, Steven Youngblood, Tony Rican, Hardcore KC and QC Champion Kyle Rich.

SCW Winter of Discontent 2007
January 26th, 2007
Doors Open: 6pm - Bell Time: 7pm

Don's Pub
101 Main St.
Donahue, IA

And on Saturday:

3XWrestling - A New Beginning

January 27th, 2007

Waukee Middle School
905 Warrior Lane
Waukee, IA

Doors open 7:15 pm, Bell time 7:30 pm

Featuring :

The 2nd Round of the 3XW Heavyweight title tournament:

Gage Octane vs. "Delicious" Devin Carter

Brian Ash vs. Tony Scarpone

Other matches:

MTV Wrestling Society X star "The Anarchist" Arik Cannon
vs.
Danny Daniels

3XW Tag Team Championship
Ben Sailer & Nate Bash (c)
vs.
The Northstar Express - Darin Corbin & Ryan Cruz

Hunter Matthews vs. Tyler Cook

Six Man Tag Team Action
Casanova, Ryan Slade & Zach Thompson
vs.
Dan Lawrence, Jimmy Rockwell & Ricky Kwong

Plus the 3XW debut of Ring of Honor, Chikara, AAW & IWA-MS star Trik Davis !!!

Also in action : Bryce Benjamin, "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt, Krotch, Aaron Masterson, Kraig Keesaman & more.

Tickets - $15 Front Row, $10 General Admission in advance or $12 the day, Kids 10 & Under $6, Kids 3 & Under are free admission.

Ticketinfo@3xwrestling.com

www.3xwrestling.com

So c'mon out and see a show. It'll be fun.

KL

READ: Thursday, January 18 is...

Foundation Day (Lima, Peru)
St. Prisca (Texco, Mexico)

Interestingly enough, today's lone read deals with the foundation of the caucuses.

John Deeth has a great post up this morning, possibly the best one I've ever seen him write, on the potential impact of non-anonymous voting in a Democratic presidential race where a woman and a black man are top contenders. Absolutely worth a read, and possibly worth picking up again to reconsider after the caucus.

I've heard several arguments against the caucuses lately, not the least of which is this whiny one from Geraldine at Iowa Progress about how poor Poweshiek County only gets to send 21 delegates to state convention. (The logic is pretty simple. It's the DEMOCRATIC Party's state convention, so they decide representation based on how many Democratic voters are in your county. More votes in the election = more votes at state convention.)

Another argument is that they don't accurately represent the vote totals of lesser candidates. For example, I've had several people tell me that Kucinich was only a vote or two away from getting a delegate in several Des Moines precincts in 2004, but didn't reach the threshold and therefore got nothing. It's a fair argument and I think it's relevant to a point, but at the end of the night Iowa Democrats have bigger concerns than accurately displaying the support of candidates who finished fifth or worse.

Deeth's argument, on the other hand, is probably the most credible threat to a fair caucus. I think the possibility that voters going against Clinton or Obama will be labeled prejudiced will net them some votes. But there's more to it than that. How many voters won't want a fight when they get home so they'll just follow their spouse into a preference group? Or their boss?

In the end, I like the caucus structure for its unique nature and feel, which is what drew me to my first caucus as a student in 2004. But I worry about the accuracy of its results if voters feel the need to go along with others in the room.

KL

READS: Wednesday, January 17 is...

Skanderbeg Day (Albania)

From Wikipedia:

George Kastrioti (born Gjergj Kastrioti, May 6 (disputed), 1405 - January 17, 1468), better known as Skanderbeg (Turkish:İskender Bey), is one of the most prominent historical figures in the history of Albania and the Albanian people. He is also known as the Dragon of Albania and is the national hero of the Albanians. He is remembered for his struggle against the Ottoman Empire, through the work of his first biographer, Marin Barleti.

Moving on. Short reads today, as I need to get to work:

Two important questions today, and they both involve Sen. Obama's presidential "exploration." First, Popular Progressive answers the question I've asked before: "Aside from being a rock star, what does Obama stand for?"

Then, Leftist Logic asks another interesting question: Is this the right time for him to run?

That's all for now. No, I'm not going to waste your time with CIETC crap today. You could get that anywhere.

KL

READS: Monday, January 15 is...

Dr. Martin Luther King Day (US)
Thai Pongal (Hinduism)

From Wikipedia:

Pongal (Tamil: பொங்கல்) is a Hindu festival to give thanks for the harvest. Pongal in Tamil means 'boiling over'. Traditionally celebrated at harvest time, it is a celebration of the prosperity associated with the event.

Pongal is celebrated by all people in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu as well as Tamils worldwide, including Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore.

While Pongal is predominantly a Tamil festival, the same festival celebrated in several other places under different names. In Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka, the harvest festival Sankranthi is celebrated. In northern India, it is called Makara Sankranti. In Maharashtra and Gujarat, it is the date of the annual kite-flying day, Uttarayan. It also coincides with the bonfire and harvest festival in Punjab and Haryana, known as Lohri.

I've spent the last couple of hours harvesting some reads for you. No festival necessary.

I'm pleased to see state legislators working on strengthening and freshening the Open Records and Open Meetings laws. There are two major disappointments in the article, though:

1) According to the story (and there's no source quoted on this), the process might take two years.

2) People like Susan Judkins of the Iowa League of Cities seem to think this is a tremendous opportunity to limit their accountability:

Judkins also said that the cities want the Legislature to review a decision made last year as part of the CIETC scandal, requiring intergovernmental agencies to publish financial records and other decisions made by the agency.

"Many of these agencies really have no money and are used by governments to hold down costs on joint efforts," Judkins said. "We think the Legislature went too far on requiring the publishing of this information and would like them to reconsider it."

If these organizations really have no money, then why should they be afraid to publish that? These are organizations run on tax dollars, presumably for the public good. They should be accountable at every turn of the road. But apparently the Iowa League of Cities doesn't want you to know about them.

The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Bureau has fined the Iowa Department of Corrections $92,000 for four workplace incidents resulting in injury, three of which resulted in injuries to inmates. The DOC is appealing the fines. Again, I take issue with a quote:

Money to pay the fines - $12,000 at Fort Madison, $80,000 at Newton - would come from the corrections department and be deposited into the state's general fund, "which is a lot like robbing Peter to pay Paul," said Gail Sheridan-Lucht, a state lawyer for the safety bureau.

This is not robbing Peter to pay Paul. This is fining a negligent state organization for leaving inmates and state employees in situations that resulted in injuries, including the loss of a finger. And that quote didn't come from the Department of Corrections. It came from the people who handed down the fine in the first place. That's hardly the attitude to take when promoting workplace safety.

On Thursday, I admitted in a post that I don't know a lot about Jimmy Carter. I'm pleasantly surprised by the level of discussion that one comment created. There's ten comments up now from both sides of the political spectrum discussing Carter's legacy. Definitely worth a read.

The Republican Party of Iowa has lost control of both houses of the state legislature, lost a race for governor, lost two seats in Congress, and ran a joke of a race for Secretary of State, but party chair Ray Hoffman was re-elected by the state central committee over the weekend. I'll defer to Common Iowan on this one, I think he did the best job of summing up the situation.

But finally, while we're on the subject of party chairs, I'm greatly disappointed, angered and disgusted by something Polk County GOP chairman Ted Sporer had the balls to say on Friday:

What do birds do? They flock together. So what do the Syrian Baathist dictator Bashar Assad, Iranian Islamofacsist President Mahmoud “Israel’s Days Are Numbered” Ahmadinejad and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin have in common?

They all oppose U.S. victory in Iraq. Kind of makes you wonder whose side Harkin is on doesn’t it.

Ted, it's moments like this hyperpartisan, reckless, oversimplified statement about a US Senator that make me happy we're on opposite sides. Because when I'm on the same side with someone who says something this ridiculous, I'm typically embarrassed to admit it.

KL

READS: Friday, January 12 is...

Zanzibar Rev. Day (Tanzania)
Memory Day (Turkmenistan)

Sadly, it's not a real memorable news day.

Stivers Ford in Waukee hit the jackpot today, though: They bought some air time late at night on a channel that Mediacom customers can't get and early in the morning on a station no one watches, and the Register wrote a story on it. Maybe I'll buy half an hour of airtime at 3 in the morning to talk about how awful the Register is and get some coverage.

One positive on the editorial side of today's Register, though: They're finally getting back to talking about the importance of government oversight. It's about time.

I had been wondering how Culver and Blouin were going to coexist: I guess now I know.

I think it's possible that Sinclair and KDSM are enjoying the level of free publicity they're getting by being in the Register every day now that they're no longer on cable. They got another story in the Register today by refusing to go to arbitration.

I'm sick of this problem, so I'm making this my last word on it. I don't have an antenna and I don't plan to get one. I would watch several Fox shows if they were available to me, but they're not so I'll live without them. And this is the last time I'm going to mention Sinclair or KDSM in this space until they're back on cable. I'd like to take this opportunity to challenge other media outlets to do the same. If you want this story to end, let it die.

Finally, I'm not entirely sure on the meaning of this post from Iowa Ennui, but I think it's worth pointing out.

KL