I'll keep this one brief.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the pink locker rooms at Kinnick Stadium (U of Iowa), and whether they're sexist, or an appropriate continuation of tradition, and whether Hayden Fry was a redneck or some super-genius, and whether blogs should or shouldn't allow anonymous comments, and whether Iowa should/shouldn't be held responsible for policing its neanderthals. I've been asked for my thoughts a few times now. I'll put them here so no one else has to ask.

I don't give a flying fuck.

If your life is so tedious that something this small occupies more than 5 minutes of your time, find something better to do.

KL

OK, we're back to the OINK rating.

I'm openly looking for new Iowa-focused political blogs this week after new friendRandom Mentality decided to take some time off as well. Iowa Ennui has returned, thankfully, but I'm starting to wonder if being linked here isn't a kiss of death.

With that said, however, I'm acknowledging two more blogs today that fit my criteria:

I know Chris Woods, the primary poster at Political Forecast, a little bit, we've had classes together. I don't agree with his opinions on a fair number of things, and his blog is a little national for my taste, but Chris is a good guy, and after our conversation last night, I'm interested in seeing how he covers the governor's race.

Iowa Ramblings appears to be the new "anonymous poster who bashes everything" blog, but right now, State 29 appears to enjoy their work and anyone who uses pictures like this of insane Congressman Steve King is good enough for me.

The two debut at the bottom of the rankings, just above the inactive, with Political Forecast getting the edge cause I know who writes it.

KL

Non-OINK:

Whoever told me "Love is having someone to share your dreams with," probably didn't have this in mind:

AN ALL NEW ONE ACT PLAY BY KL SNOW!

KL and LAURA just woke up, and are getting dressed.
LAURA: You definitely talked in your sleep last night.
KL: When?
LAURA: I don't know.
KL: Was it before or after I got up to check my e-mail?
LAURA thinks for a second.
LAURA: After.
KL: OK. Cause before I got up, I had a dream I was watching Larry King, and he was doing a phone debate with a Republican and a Democrat, and the Republican wouldn't shut up, and was talking over people and going on and on, and finally Larry King hung up on him. I can see talking in my sleep on that one, cause I was shouting at the TV.
LAURA stares blankly.
KL: But after I came back, I dreamt I bought snails for the fishtank, so that must've been it.
LAURA: Wow, those are some boring dreams.

This is the part where being a political madman comes in. After the Larry King dream, I woke up all tense, like something was wrong. I had to get up, check the apartment, check my e-mail, and pee before I could go back to sleep.

Side note: this post over at Big Cheese Press is absolutely hilarious. Would I think it was funny if I was a Republican? Maybe not as funny, but yes. Still funny.

KL

Update: I just remembered one more dream. It was Christmas break from college, but for some reason, one of my fellow staff members was in college with me. He knew I was going home for Christmas, and wanted me to give him a ride on the way. Not knowing where I was going, I agreed. He printed off maps and stuff for me, and I was almost home when I realized I still had him in the car. So I asked him where exactly I was taking him again, and he reminded me: "Bolivia." If that's not a metaphor for my job lately...

Today in 1941:

Ted Williams enters the last day of the season with a batting average of exactly .400, and a meaningless doubleheader left of the schedule. His manager offers him the day off to preserve the feat, but Williams declines. He goes 6-for-8 in the doubleheader and finishes the season batting .406.

Today, more than ever, I wonder how he could do it.

In terms of political schedules, my recent work has been average...or less. I've worked 47, 50 and 50 hours the last two weeks. Last weekend I had Saturday off for the first time in a month. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I love my job, I love the chance to make a difference and I love having teammates who believe in and count on me, day after day. But it's exhausting.

I'm still trying to find the mix of fun time/rest time/work time to recuperate effectively. Take last week for example:

Sunday - 5 hours
Monday - 11 hours
Tuesday - 8 hours
Wednesday - 11 hours
Thursday - 8 hours
Friday - 7 hours

Coming off a 51 hour week, I really didn't feel like doing much of anything on Saturday. And I didn't. I laid around my apartment all day Saturday. Sunday, I laid around someone else's apartment and watched football. You'd think, given that much rest, I'd have been fired up and ready to go Monday morning.

I almost fell asleep at my desk Monday morning. I snored endlessly through the night last night (or so I'm told). I couldn't answer the bell this morning. I managed to get in 6 hours during the day today, and will put in another 2 tonight. But I'm absolutely exhausted.

Someone out there must have gone through this before. How'd you get through it?

KL

Iowa Ennui is back!

Welcome back to politics, fellow blogger. You've earned back your place at #2 on the list of blogs.

Also, I certainly have read enough about Random Mentality, I'm not sure what took me so long to check it out. She debuts at number 3.

KL

Today's post, and all from this point forward, barring further notice, are rated OINK:

What makes a terrible congressman?

I'm a registered Dem, but I'd like to think this is a bi-partisan issue. What makes a Congressman so bad that you'd consider crossing party lines just to get them out of office?

I've spoken before about Leonard Boswell, my slimy US Rep, who I helped get re-elected in 2004. Make no mistake, he's slimy, his views are wildly different from mine, he's a Democrat in name only, etc. That's not my particular problem with him. At least not this time.

Leonard Boswell is old. As I mentioned in my previous post about him, when staff members and I met him months ago, we were surprised he was still with it...we've heard rumors to the contrary. I realize Congressmen have staff to properly consult their corporate donors and whatnot, but nonetheless, I'd like to believe my Congressman is lucid enough to make his own decisions.

Things took a turn for the worse this week for Boswell, however. On Tuesday, Boswell had surgery to remove an abdominal mass. That by itself isn't a big deal. In fact, I'm less than a third of Boswell's age and I've had two surgeries to remove abdominal masses. The big deal is Boswell's scheduled hospital time, which spokesman Eric Witte said "will probably be a few weeks."

That's a problem for me. You see, the House is in session right now. Here's some of the things they voted on this week:

Head Start — Approved, 231-184, a bill that would reauthorize Head Start, an early-childhood program, and allow faith-based charities operating local programs to hire staff based on their religious preference.

Hurricane relief — Approved, 384-24, authorization of more than $2 billion over three years for programs in manufacturing research and development, and help for small businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Both bills have interesting subplots, but the first one scares me a bit. Head Start is a critical program for low-income families, and no parent should have to make the decision between holding their children back from education and exposing their children to religious education.

Boswell missed both votes, and others. He'll presumably miss several more as he recovers from surgery. But this is the line that really sickens me.

Boswell said nothing in his health will prevent him from running again and he fully intends to do so. "I have every expectation of continuing to represent Iowa for years to come," he said.

Yes, Representative Boswell, your health is preventing you from doing your job, and seeing as you're already 71, your health will presumably continue to prevent you from doing your job. In fact, you're missing work right now. But it's good to know that your inability to do your job won't prevent you from running for re-election so you can be incompetent, inconscient or just absent for another two years.

As always, click the ads at the top to support Fallon for Governor. Also, if you'd like to co-sign a letter asking Rep. Boswell to retire, add your name to the comments.

Finally, here's a cool quiz:

You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (25% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating

KL

This blog is rated OINK:

Last week Iowa Ennui fell out of the realm of politics and into a realm where we just post synonyms for extortion and talk about what we made from our gardens. I was sad.

This week, Drew Miller has fallen off the face of the Earth. I'd say the pressure is on me now to hold up my end of the political spectrum.

Something came way out of nowhere today. When I started watching the Governor's race, Gregg Connell would get a mention every now and then as someone who "might" consider running. I can't link him, he doesn't even have a website. Then people stopped talking about him, and he disappeared. Today, months later, he announced his candidacy. If you'd been putting odds on the next person to announce, they'd be something like:

Blouin 3:2
Culver 5:1
Connell...who?

Gregg Connell is the mayor of Shenandoah, which isn't close to anywhere you've ever been or would even consider going under most circumstances. It's a town of just more than 5000 people in a highly Republican county in the middle of nowhere. His move makes no sense for 3 reasons:

1) He's the mayor of a small town in the middle of nowhere.
2) He announced on a Friday. Any news of his decision will be swept under the rug before the weekend's over.
3) He announced on a day when one of the frontrunning candidates, Ed Fallon, IS IN HIS TINY TOWN.

I don't get it.

This has been KL Snow

What is that?

This post is rated E for Everyone.

As some/most of you know, my Yahoo mail has a problem. Y'know those virus links you get from people over IM sometimes cause people are dumb and don't use Trillian? Yeah, I clicked on one. Wasn't thinking. So some asshole got my Yahoo username/password, and had control over my account for a week or so. I busted back in, changed the password, but one remnant of that era remains. My e-mail is still in traditional Chinese. As such, I also still have traditional Chinese ads.

That's where the picture up above comes in. It's a Domino's Pizza ad from China. Apparently Domino's in China is also an excellent source of fried chicken and tater tot lookin things. But more intriguing to me is this: What the hell is on that pizza?

I've magnified it several times now, and I see shrimp. That's not that weird...I guess. The red things and the green things are open to interpretation. Any guesses?

KL

Ok, first, the political stuff. Ryan has been nice enough to supply me a new acronym. The following paragraph is labeled OINK, or Only Iowans Need to Know.

Iowa Ennui decided today to stop posting for a while. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I've been considering moving them down the list of blogs on the right for a while. I've never really said this on the blog, but that list reflects the order in which I read them, most days. Bear in mind, no one else is even close to State 29, I check with them at least 4-5 times a day. Furthermore, Iowaennui's content has been fading. Their level of coverage is good but their choice of issues makes me yawn a bit lately. Certainly, Katrina was going to dominate the news, and is for a long time, but mainstream media covers that to no end. The blogosphere really serves as my means for catching other stuff. Stuff I'd miss cause it's buried on page 10 of the Cedar Rapids Gazette (subscription only), but should know, and should care about. State 29 and Drew Miller do a much better job of that.

OINK Concludes.

If you're ever trying to make a decision on the question "Am I strange?", the answer may very well lie at an anime convention. If you're too scared or poor to go inside, stand outside. The effect is similar.

A long time online friend of mine who I had never met in person IM'ed me tonight to let me know she was in DSM and we should meet. She was at Hotel Fort Des Moines for Anime Iowa. I had been to Hotel Fort Des Moines for parties before, most recently for the Election Day Party for the IDP in November, which wasn't much of a party at all, really. See this post if you've forgotten.

This one was a little different. I wore my black pirate shirt, and asked how I'd know her. She told me "I'm wearing red boots." So I arrived in front of the Hotel Fort Des Moines, and sure enough, there's a girl with red boots standing there, looking a little older than I expected, but I went up, said hi, and tried to solicit a hug. This girl definitely didn't know me and probably thinks I'm a creep now.

The girl I was waiting for came out a few minutes later. It went similarly to every meeting I've ever had with people I've met online. We had a 5-minute, exceptionally awkward conversation, I excused myself and went to the car and cursed at myself for being so boring. Then I went home. But in those five minutes, I saw:

-- Four different colors of neon hair.
-- Two pocket protectors.
-- Three girls wearing tags with "minor" written on them. None of them looked old enough that I would've had to ask. And if you get drunk enough at an Anime con to "accidentally" fuck a 13 year old, perhaps you deserve the consequences.

Aside from the pocket protectors, everyone I saw was dressed in a manner that normal society would deem as "weird." Some of them were friendly, one guy coming out for a cigarette did stare at me talking to two girls for a long time before saying "hey," and two girls did say they'd vote for me. Even though I'm not running for anything. (Anymore.) Neither of them were 18, though.

Most days my concern isn't really the question "am I strange?" But today it was. And after standing outside Anime Iowa for 5 minutes, the answer is a resounding no.

KL

Just a quick thought today, I need to get back to work:

I was paging through old news stories this morning about the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) and the Iowa Values Fund (IVF), and I was bored. I decided the department and the program needed an acronym that fits what they're really doing.

My first thought was simple. I added "agriculture" to the formula and produced the Iowa Department of Economic and Agricultural Development, or IDEAD. Some people would say that sums up the problem nicely.

But then I remembered this quote from Mike Blouin, former head of the IDED, and also former head of the Greater Des Moines Partnership:

“Look beyond agrarian stereotypes of Iowa, acknowledge stereotypes with humor, and vigorously refute them.”

So I don't think agriculture really fits into his field at all.

I was ready for this challenge, though, and five post it notes later, I came up with this one:

Iowa's
Notion to
Create
Economic
Status
Through
Unnecessary
Actions and
Laws

How many businesses would needlessly extort taxpayer money if they had to do so by applying for an INCESTUAL grant?

My only problem with this new name: it's a bit of a misnomer. Through the Values Fund, Iowa isn't really screwing its sister. It's screwing itself.

KL

Some thoughts while I wait for my laundry:

There's two new links on the right hand side in the "political, non-crackpot" section. They're related in one way.

I learned about Brian Schweitzer, the Governor of Montana, through this post at Jason Boothe's blog that links to this article.

In terms of actual platform, Schweitzer is a little closer to the center than I am. But if you're looking for electable (cause we never seem to learn from that mistake) Schweitzer may be your guy. And we do agree on my biggest issue, campaign finance reform. Do you realize, at a price of less than $3 million per year, Iowa could completely negate the impact of special interests? That's about 1/40th of what we give to insurance companies annually in tax breaks.

Schweitzer wins without big money too. He goes out, he talks to people, he listens, he knows his constituents, and he might just be the most likeable man to run for President in my lifetime, if he runs. Go to the Schweitzer for President blog and sign the petition to get him to run. Do it now.

KL

Several thoughts today, in no particular order:

I put a Google Adbar at the top, and I feel a bit like a whore for doing so, but it is for a good cause. All revenue generated will be donated to Fallon for Governor. So if you want to help support the cause but are too cheap to do so yourself, click the ads and donate a few cents to Fallon for Governor. We'll get more out of those few cents than Culver or Blouin would have, I can promise you that.

Other blogs I should note this week:

Wikipedia doesn't really count as a blog, but they do have a page on Ed now, which I...umm...might have had something to do with.
State 29 mentioned it too.
Ed spoke at the Associated Press Managing Editors Conference in Ames this morning, and to say Drew Miller was all over it would be an absolute understatement. BTW - if anyone would like to see the full text of today's speech, I've got it. I disagree with Drew's prognosis on what we had to say, but seeing as I wasn't there to see it, I can't argue with the delivery.
One more link to Drew, this week he got so bored he name-dropped me.

This week was my first real foray into the realm of employer, as we interviewed candidates for our organizer positions. I'd been on the other side of that table many, many times, but interviewing candidates is tougher than I'd expected, and deciding on a final candidate is much tougher. I can't give too many specifics, because we haven't informed our winners/non-winners yet, but our last interview was yesterday morning at 10, we started to debate which candidates (and how many) to hire shortly thereafter, and two days later, the debate is still raging on. I guess I always figured this process was a little more cut and dry.

Anyway, weekends are good. I'm going to miss them when I don't have them anymore.

This has been KL Snow

FYI - If you haven't Google Alerted yourself, go do it now. Sometimes you'll find interesting stuff, sometimes you'll find crazy stuff, but at least you'll know if someone puts your name online.

Today's case in point: My Google Alert sent me to this page at Opensecrets.org. I think we can safely file this one under "Get a life." Someone took the time, and apparently a lot of it, to figure out, expense by expense, who the Democratic Party paid, and for what, during the last election cycle. Strangely enough, I show up on the list twice. The first one is my first paycheck, with my middle initial. After that, we dropped the middle initial, really, the "J" was just getting between me and my fans.

Anyway, I clicked on the other entry under me and found this. Here's the item-by-item analysis of my short period with the IDP. As you can see, I was a glutton for election day expenses.

But honestly, beyond checking to see what my co-workers made, I couldn't find any useful use for this site. and i'm a political geek. Does OpenSecrets.org really think anyone cares about the $5 the Dems spent at Loaf N Jug #28 on July 22 for "travel?"

I don't.

This has been KL Snow

Strange moment from this week: I met someone I used to work for.

Leonard Boswell (pictured) is my US Rep. I bet I asked 5000 people if they planned on voting for him last fall. He won (again) relatively easily, and I saw him for the first time on Election Night, giving his victory speech to a generally bummed room of Democrats. I've thought about it since, and only someone with an extreme ego would see a room full of people that dejected and decide to cheer them up by reminding them that he was their one success.

He used that speech to announce his intentions to run again in two years. Yeah, he's that kind of politician. He didn't tell us what he'll do or how he'll do it, he thanked us for re-electing him and announced his plan to get re-elected again.

Anyway, on election night, he entered the room for about 3 minutes, gave his speech, left, and was not seen again.

Flash forward to Friday: State Rep. and Gubernatorial Candidate Ed Fallon took his staff to lunch at Tumea & Sons, mainly so he could kick our asses at some bocce ball. On our way back to the court, we come across, of course, Boswell. The following conversation ensues:

Ed: Rep. Boswell, welcome to Congressional District 66.
Boswell: State Rep. Fallon, welcome to Congressional District 3. How goes the war?
(he was referring to the campaign for governor, I hope.)
Ed: We're trying not to call it a war. We're sticking to "the struggle against politics."
Boswell doesn't laugh.
Ed introduces his staff.
After working for Boswell for months, quitting, and now working my fourth "other job," I finally get to shake hands with my former boss.

I left thinking Boswell was somehow slimier than I had earlier envisioned. Ed and the other staff, who had met Boswell before, were just happy that he hadn't lost his mind to age. Apparently there's some concern on that subject.

There's a new link on the right hand side: It goes to another former boss, but Shawn was a good boss. He's working in DC now. The blog does a pretty good job of chronicling his adventures.

That's all for today. This has been KL Snow.

My favorite links from the week that was:

Drew Miller watched his roommate get robbed yesterday.
Headline of the week: Vilsack wants to destroy summer forever! Mwa ha ha!
He also wants us to be more like the Chinese.
Brian Schweitzer hasn't announced his candidacy for President yet, but I (and the people who run this blog) keep working on it.
If you can't beat em, just make fun of who you have access to and they don't.