Chester and his ideas are full of BULL

Chester Culver, Dummycrat with bullhorn for Governor, has proposed investing a portion of the state's pension program money(IPERS) in venture capital for homegrown companies.

Mr. Culver is proud of his teaching past, history and government, but appearantly needs schooling on recent history.

Since 2003, The Iowa Values Fund has spent hundreds of millions taxpayers money on private business and there has been no accounting of jobs that were to be created.

In 1991, Iowa Senate President Joe Welsh, Dummycrat Dubuque, helped market the Iowa Trust, an investment fund, to cities and counties in Iowa. $70 Million was stolen from that investment fund by its manager Steven Wymer.

I believe IPERS was also involved in that investment. I have sent an e-mail to IPERS and State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, he serves on IPERS board, seeking that information.

It should be noted that the Legislature took steps to shore up the IPERS fund, which as of last year was $2.2 billion short of being able to pay all of the benefits it had promised to pay.

**********UPDATE**********

I received this response from Georganna Madsen in Michael Fitzgerald's office...

There were no State funds invested in the Iowa Trust Fund.  There were some Counties and Cities that invested, but absolutely no "State" funds.

The quotation marks around State seems fishy, so I naturally had to ask why and here's the response.

Just to make it clear that no State funds were invested.

Seems to me you would have put the emphasis on the "NO" part.

Motley Crew

That was a pitiful performance the Big Lug Nut and Posse delivered last week in a feeble attempt to reassure Iowans their financial bumbling, fumbling, stumbling haven't put the state in purgatory.

Fatty Judge was in attendance, apparently the Capitol was on the Travel Iowa schedule for that day.

Speaking of which, how do you travel to Dyersville and not include the Field Of Dreams movie site on your schedule?

After all, "If you build it, he will come".

But, I digress.


Budget Director, and Super Nerd, Dick Oshlo was there.













Hey Dick, Ichabod Crane called and wants his look back and the scientific community is united in that fact!

How about trudging out State Treasurer Michael "Ponzi" Fitzgerald for comfort?









Ponzi's on the IPERS investment board that lost over $300 Million invested in funds managed by two New York brokers who have been arrested on federal criminal and civil charges in an alleged investment scam.

IPERS assets have also lost over $4 Billion in the last year and was already facing a long-term shortfall of about $2.7 billion.

This is a guy who can't find the Iowa Beverage Division during his Great Iowa Treasure Hunt!

The disparity over the state's budget boils down to the Legislative Services Agency estimate is based on year-to-date collections.

The BLN's estimate relies partly on money that has not yet been collected.

Treasure-err

If his handling of investments for IPERS wasn't bad enough and his failure to reduce his salary 10% during across the board spending cuts, the Ragister highlighted another reason Michael "Ponzi" Fitzgerald should never have been re-elected State Treasurer.

Iowan's unclaimed 'treasure': $2 million

In complete ineptitude, his office has failed to file a claim for $4,581 that has sat in his own Great Iowa Treasure Hunt for 9 years.

Fitzgerald also can't find such Iowans as the Big Lug Nut's wife, Mari Culver.

We were contemplating a double entendre booty joke, but we weren't going there after the whole headlights issue and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Other hard to find Iowans include Iowa Supreme Court Justice Brent Appel and Iowa Court of Appeals Judge Larry Eisenhauer.

Think how much harder it might be to locate them if they're not retained.

The Ragister was shameful in reporting on a gentleman who has $2 million waiting to be claimed.

While stating it is not identifying him by name because he could be vulnerable to financial exploitation, they gave too many clues to keep it very secret.

Michael You've Got A Lot To Answer For

Looking (picture) and acting every bit of a used car salesman, State Treasurer Michael "Ponzi" Fitzgerald blasted Governor Branstad.

State Treasurer says governor’s health care plan “a bad financial deal”

According to Fitzgerald -- “The governor’s plan is quite frankly a bad financial investment for the state of Iowa”.

Fitzgerald knows first hand about bad financial investment for the state and the scientific community is united in that fact.

The "Ponz" was on the IPERS investment board that lost over $300 Million to $500 Million, four years ago, that invested in funds managed by two New York brokers who have been arrested on federal criminal and civil charges in an alleged investment scam.

Fitzgerald is considered the architect of the Big Lug Nut's $1.7 billion dollar I-JOBS borrowing scam.

The Treasurer and his staff were so inept that they failed to deposit enough money in a reserve account for I-JOBS bonds and had to add $25 million of taxable bonds to its planned sale of $155 million of tax-exempt special obligation bonds to bolster its debt-service reserve on Build America Bonds and fend off a possible downgrade.

Plus, Fitzgerald and his staff failed to file a claim for $4,581 that had sat in his own Great Iowa Treasure Hunt for 9 years.

The "Ponz" and his people could also not locate the Iowa Beverage Division, Mari Culver, Iowa Supreme Court Justice Brent Appel and Iowa Court of Appeals Judge Larry Eisenhauer.

The Chain

Protest of “chained CPI” at Federal Building in Des Moines

I love it went the leftsists protest the President they elected and then re-elected.

And the scientific community is united in that fact.

The Social Security Administration says it has been using the Consumer Price Index to measure inflation for the cost-of-living adjustments since legislation instituting automatic cost-of-living increases was enacted in 1972.

Even when inflation was so low that COLA didn't kick in, the politicians in CONgress could always get a a few more dollars into retirees checks to keep that voting bloc sated.

Also, Danny Homan may not be a good example to hold up to the public as someone worried about retirement.

The Head of ASSME will probably triple dip, receiving dollars from IPERS, his union and Social Security.

The turnout was pathetic too, as these Fiberals (Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans, several labor groups and other liberal entities) had alerted the media at least 5 days prior to the event.

Radio Iowa had the crowd(?) at about 40 and the Ragister was more than generous with its guestimate of about 50.

Per Diem

The Ragister, in conjunction with their corporate clone USA Today, did a nationwide analysis of alleged pension perks received by state legislators.

Per diem pay sweetens pensions of legislators

USA Today shares that in some states, lawmakers add expenses, per diem allowances and stipends to their base salaries.

I'm confused as to why that's an issue?

It's been a few years since I traveled on business, but while doing so my private sector company paid me a per diem that went directly into my base salary paycheck and was taxed as income.

The Ragister article makes it seem as though legislators pay retirement contributions on those per diems (IPERS officials note that employees and employers pay contributions on the per diems).

If that's the case, then I am again confused as to why it's an issue and the scientific community is united in that fact.

The issue for me is, should Iowa’s lawmakers — a job considered to be part time — receive per diems of $100.50 to $134 per day in addition to their salaries?

Performance for Pay

I'm not sure when being a teacher became synonymous with being a saint.

It seems they can do no wrong and one should speak only adoringly of them.

Compared to the average Iowan, whose students they teach, teachers have it pretty good!

Average Iowan's salary for 2005...$31,800

Average Iowa teacher salary for 2005...$40,877

So now Chester wants to add an additional $70 Million dollars
to teacher's salaries for the 2008 fiscal year.

That would make this the largest single increase in teacher pay ever made in the state.

All that and they get the summer off, time off at winter festivus and spring equinox.

Plus, they take time off during the school year too!

Let's not forget health insurance and IPERS retirement.

Teacher activist's will tell you that they work into the evenings, during the summer and they continue their education.

So does the average Iowan, who pays their salary and probably gets two weeks of vacation per year.

I doubt that higher teacher pay will translate to higher graduation rates or improved test scores.

Teachers are people, some good and some bad.

One of my sisters is a teacher and I have long time friends who are teachers too.

They deserve our respect, but no more than any other human being.