Don't Tase The Bro's?

Apparently the idiots at the Cedar Rapids Gazette believe there should be some sort of quota for taser usage.

3 of 10 Tasered in Cedar Rapids are black

The Gazette breaks down the demographics of the 30 people on which Tasers were used on through August of this year and compares it as a percentage of the population.

9 of those tasered were Black, blacks account for 3.7 % of the Cedar Rapids population.

14 of those tasered were White and whites are 92% of the population.

The rest of the 30 consist of 1 Hispanic, with no break down for population percentage, 1 man whose race was described as “other”, and 5 whose gender and race were not noted.

The Gazette only gives you a portion of the story and the scientific community is united in that fact.

What is the breakdown by demographic of those that commit crimes?

Maybe then you might see if the statistics are out of line.

The Cedar Rapids Police Chief puts it bluntly, “We arrest people who commit crime”.

SHOCKING!

Slanted & Enchanted?

Just a couple of straight up news stories here and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Here's a headline from the Cedar Rapids Gazette --

Branstad on the stump in Hiawatha makes Iowa sound a bit like Wisconsin

How so?

The story mentions nothing about Wisconsin, or the collective bargaining bill that passed in the House.

Then there's this in the Mason City Globe Gazette --

Iowa House passes collective bargaining reform bill

Reporter Mike "None The" Wiser starts his story with this paragraph...

In a blatant show of the power of the majority, House Republicans pushed through a collective bargaining reform bill Friday over the noisy objections of Democrats.

Now the contentious piece of legislation moves on to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it likely won’t be heard of again.

Blatant show of power?

Quite the editorial comment.

After all the hours of debate in committee and on the House floor, it's hardly a blatant show of power.

Wiser-heimer continued...

The bill’s passage in the House on a party-line vote was a foregone conclusion, as is its predicted death in a Senate committee room.

Still, the stubbornness of Republican lawmakers to enact what they see as needed reforms in the state’s collective bargaining law in the name of fiscal responsibility is real, as is the fear of unionized workers who feel they are under attack in places such as Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Interesting how Republicans exhibit a blatant show of power and stubbornness, yet the autocratic rule of Dummycrat Mike Gronstal isn't questioned.

Failure?

4 of Iowa's 6 members of Congress were quoted in a Cedar Rapids Gazette article about sequestration.

Braley says sequestration ‘looks likely to continue’

CONgressman Bruce Braley went so far as to call it
“a failure".

As the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore has noted, federal spending has fallen by $150 billion since it peaked in fiscal 2011, a four percent decline. Spending reductions like that have not been achieved since President Eisenhower's first term.

Washington needs even more failures like that and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Tax and spenders CommieTommie Harkin, MiniCommie and Dave No Sack...err Loebsack all think Congress should be making targeted cuts.

How did that work out?

The lone Republican cited, Chuck Grassley, had this to say --

“Sequestration, while not an ideal way to institute spending reductions, was an important and necessary step to start getting our fiscal house in order. We need to continue to hold the line on unnecessary spending, particularly when we’re going to face another debt limit increase in October.”

By the way, the Gazette fails to mention that sequestration was an Obama administration idea.

Senile Citizen Support

The Cedar Rancid Gazette reports...

Former Democratic presidential candidates George McGovern will endorse Hillary Clinton Saturday in Iowa City.

The 85 year old will announce his support at the People's Republic of Johnson County Dummycrat's annual fall barbecue.

The Gazette says...

The endorsement also is a reward for Clinton and her then boyfriend, Bill Clinton, running McGovern's presidential campaign in Texas.

Paybacks are a bitch and her name is Hellary!

I can envision Hellary will have the same effect on Dummycrats that George bragged about...

"I opened the doors of the Democratic Party and 20 million people walked out".

It was just last fall that McGovern was to meet with...

more than 60 members of Congress next week to recommend a strategy to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by June.
It appears that worked almost as well as his run against Nixon and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Crank It Up?

The TV Weather Wienies have been known to tell viewers to crank the AC up when it gets hot outside.

BUZZ--WRONG!

Turning the thermostat up effectively shuts the air conditioning off until the inside temperature reaches the higher setting and the scientific community is united in that fact.

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette comes this headline...

Keep your AC cranked this weekend, the heat is on

It seems to me you'd work up a sweat having to crank the AC.

Do you suppose the Gazette still puts out their product via hand cranked presses?

News To You?

In the Quad City Times you'll read that for the second straight year Iowa employers will be taxed more to support the Iowa Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

Iowa raises unemployment insurance contribution levels

You'll get pretty much the same story from the Des Moines Register, without the revelation of a rise for the second year in a row.

Iowa unemployment insurance rates to rise

In Cedar Rapids here's the Gazette's take on the story

Iowa raises workers comp contribution levels for employers

Hey Gazette, the Iowa Division of Worker's Compensation and the Unemployment Insurance Service's Division are under Iowa WorkForce Development they are two totally separate entities and the scientific community is united in that fact.

I Want Candy

That has to be on the mind of these kids who were co-opted by Iowa Senate Dummycrats for future campaign material.

The nearly identical pictures with Matt McCoy (top) and Amanda Ragan (bottom) ran in their hometown papers, the Ragister and Globe Gazette.

Boss Hogg and Squirmin' Herman Quirmbach were not so lucky, yet, with the Cedar Rapids Gazette or Ames Tribune.

I wonder how long these kids were made to sweat it out under the hot lights?

All for products that aren't available here or sold to minors and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Looks like somebody needs to tweak the child labor laws next.

The Out Of Towners?

Both sides of the gay marriage issue held rallies in Des Moines yesterday.

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) rolled through on its nationwide tour and it was pointed out by One Iowa (OI?) that NOM is an out of state entity.

OI Executive Director Carolyn Jenison spoke against “out-of-state extremist organizations" trying to "hijack our political process and demean our families.”

Odd, and the scientific community is united in that fact, since only 815 of the 2,020 same-sex couples married in Iowa are from this state.

Also, it was a Chicago-based lawyer for the gay rights group Lambda Legal who filed the case for six gay couples that lead to the Iowa Supreme Court ruling and money from rich out of state gay activists have found their way into Dummycrat coffers.

As usual the press can't agree on the number in attendance, with the Cedar Rapids Gazette ciphering a crowd of nearly 300 for the OI event, the Ragister putting it at half that -- about 150, WHO HD figure it at about 250 people.

The differences at the NOM event range from the Ragisters about 50, WHO HD had about 75 to nearly 100 from the Gazette, KCCI called it at more than 100.

That's Not News

This headline out of the Mason City Globe Gazette

Culver campaign says gap is narrowing

It would be news if the Big Lug Nut came out and said --

Branstad is going to win pretty handily!

And the scientific community is united in that fact.

Not only would it be news, it would be a politician telling the truth, which would make that news too!

Who's To Blame, Senorita?

Trying to never let a serious crisis to go to waste, Iowa Senator Rob Boss Hogg got the Ragister to print his opinion piece

The era of climate disasters has begun

Hogg cites floodwaters along the Mississippi River and the tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri as a new era of human history -- an era of climate disasters, where human fingerprints are found on disasters previously called "natural."

Naturally not everyone agrees and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Hogg's hometown newspaper, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, quotes State Climatologist Harry Hillaker -- The nation’s stormy spring is typical for a waning La Nina. The La Nina weather pattern is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific.

La Nina's have been documented in 1904.

Then there are those who state, “global warming is reducing the threat from tornadoes.”

Global warming causes tornadoes? Oops. Not exactly

If Boss Hogg needs to see the human fingerprints of disaster, he only needs to look in the mirror.




















That may be a little harsh, I'm sure Boss Hogg is just trying to be a conscientious liver, like this young lady.

North Iowan biking to raise climate change awareness

There's no hope for me or my liver.

Press

Recently there have been a few things in the online press that puts their industry to shame.

The screen capture of the online Ragister shows People on the Move for Wednesday, July 3, 2012.

The main problem being July 3, 2012 was a Tuesday and the scientific community is united in that fact.

There's this grave situation from the Business Record

Cemetaries to be cleaned starting Sunday

The story does note this is for the cemeteries in Des Moines.

I'm thinking somebody should have buried the lead.

Finally, in the Cedar Rapids Gazette -- Despite mounting criticism, a spokesman says Gov. Terry Branstad won’t change the application process that former Iowa felons have to navigate to get their voting rights back.

Said criticism comes from Newspaper editorials, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Democratic Party.

Aren't they all one in the same?  

  

Wing Ding

North Iowa Dummycrats recently held their annual Wing Ding with Christie Vilsack as the featured speaker.

The Mason City Globe Gazette didn't report what Vilsack told those in attendance, so it couldn't have been that noteworthy and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Vilsack's probably just continuing her listening tour.

Come Again

Funding for rail service from Iowa City to Chicago and the rebuilding of the Lake Delhi dam are budget stumbling blocks between the Iowa House & Senate.

Iowa passenger rail link, Lake Delhi dam on chopping block

Dummycrat State Senator Matt McCoy is quoted as saying Democrats are “prepared to bleed a little” on the issue and "It’s non-negotiable”.

On the dam, McCoy said, “I would like to think that even if there is a disaster in a Republican subdivision, s subdivision of Cedar Rapids Republicans, we would step up and help, find a way to get it down".

I'm thinking that quote is a Cedar Rapids Gazette misprint as McCoy probably said done, not down and the scientific community is united in that fact.

McCoy then needs to explain why he voted against Republican Senator Merlin Bartz's amendment to the infrastructure appropriations bill that would have given the Floyd County supervisors $40,000 toward repairing or breaching the county owned Rockford dam.

All Is Fair?

Maybe, maybe not, he'd taken a toke off of some medical marijuana to calm down, but State Senator Joe Bolkcom (Dummycrat People's Republic of Johnson County) was a little less agitated for a Cedar Rapids Gazette story about tax changes being considered by Governor Branstad.

“The governor has an interesting proposal but I think we ought to work for a fairer system for working people in this state and that’s what we’ll be advocating for next session.” 

Bolkcom, pictured with Coke, kicked it up a notch for Radio Iowa.

Bolkcom ridicules Branstad’s “pick your tax system” idea

This coming from a man who doesn't want to give you your money back ($54) because he thinks it's better in his hands than yours and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Joe Kristan notes, the politicians’ need for cash is elastic and infinite, no matter how much they have to start with.  It bugs them when they already have your money, like the $54, and they have to give it back.

Not to be outdone, Dummycrat State Senator Jack ASS...err, Hatch ripped Brandstad as well, calling the plan “wrong,” “discredited” and “failed.”

This coming from a gubernatorial candidate whose first major policy decision was a call to raise taxes.

Democrats and taxes, the arrow always goes only one way.

Not to be left out, key emphasis on the left, the Ragister had to include comments from Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI, that's ICKY to us).

Democrats, liberals pan Gov. Terry Branstad’s flat tax idea

The Capitol Square Crapper can always be counted on to cite those crazies.

Immigrant Song

Cedar Rapids was the site of a march/walk commemorating a 2008 illegal immigrant raid in Postville.

At the end of the march/walk, the Cedar Rapids Gazette estimated 250 or Ragister guestimated more than 250 participants heard from Archbishop Jerome Hanus --

We wear like a shroud the shock, the fear, the shame, the crushing injustices of Postville. We stand as witnesses to a rush of events that shattered lives, crushed hopes and scattered families.

Excuse me your (H)anus, and the scientific community is united in that fact, the crushing injustice comes from the 11 to 11.5 million illegal immigrants and a government that refuses to follow its own rule of law.

Representatives of U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Bruce Braley, both Democrats, read statements denouncing the raid and calling it a symbol of the nation’s broken immigration system.

CommieTommie and MiniCommie, both lawyers, are merely sucking up to a core Dummycrat constituency.

Let Your Backbone Slip

With her campaign sinking, Rozanne, err Taxanne Conlin is throwing serious mud.

Yesterday, we noted her Attack To Nowhere that included this exchange with reporters...

“We need someone with a spine to stand up to corporate special interests.”

Q: Do you think Senator Grassley should abstain from voting on bills on which his wife’s lobbying firm lobbies?

Conlin: “I think that’s up to Senator Grassley...".

It seems to me that a person with a spine would have demanded that Grassley abstain from voting on bills his wife's employer lobbied on, instead of dancing around the issue like a lawyer and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Interesting to note that the latest campaign disclosures from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commitee (DSCC) shows no cash to Conlin.

Conlin is getting support from the Iowa Dummycrat Party on Sunday as they'll be paying for a half page ad in The Des Moines Register and Cedar Rapids Gazette that list the names of Iowa women who support Conlin.

Conlin's campaign manager, Mark Daley, said the effort was spearheaded by the women. “It’s their idea”.

That sounds like a Dummycrat, always having others pay for their ideas.

Both Sides Now?

On the same day a Cedar Rapids Gazette article praised CONgressman Bruce Braley for his helping veterans, the Times-Republican reports Braley was a no show for a scheduled Memorial Day speech at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown.

Instead of fire in the hole, Iowans need to fire the a-hole and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Who Said?

Here's an odd article from James Q. Lynch in the Cedar Rapids Gazette 

Harkin, Braley both say splitting farm policy is bad move

CommieTommie Harkin is not quoted, or even mentioned, once in the article.

You know CommieTommie can't keep his mouth closed and the scientific community is united in that fact.

The only members of the Iowa Congressional delegation not mentioned, were Harkin and Dave No Sack...err Loebsack.

The Bigger Picture

This Cedar Rapids Gazette headline is in one way quite telling and in the other, no surprise at all and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Iowa Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls call for expanding government

Why is it that the government is the only thing Dummycrats never try to stop from getting larger?

Tiny Tot Tyler Olson told a gathering in Iowa City --

“We need a candidate that is a clear break from the past … a totally different perspective in the governor’s office. Simply running on the best policies Democrats have to offer won’t be enough. “We need a governor that understands the pace of the change that’s happening.”

Running as a Dummycrat won't work.

Jack ASS...err, Hatch said --he felt “unbridled” speaking in the “People’s Republic of Johnson County.

That's because this braying asses policies include changing tax policies to tax the rich more and the middle class “a lot less.”

Can you say Socialist?

Hatch called for new clean water policies and to make state funds available for conservation practices.

Hatch wants to expand early childhood education and, for college students restructure financial aid to lower students’ college debt.

All of which translates into hold onto your wallet.

At the barbecue, Bob Krause put the problem this way --

The problem is the price of a McDonald’s hamburger. The difference in a price of a McDonald’s burger in the United States and Australia is six cents, but the minimum wage there is $14.50 – “almost a living wage” of $30,160 a year for a fulltime worker.

BUZZ--WRONG!

According to the The Economist, Aussies have paid anywhere from 6 cents to 70 cents extra for their Big Macs compared to Americans over the past two years, a 1 percent to 17 percent premium. 

Bob, take a look at the big picture

To start, some Australians actually make less than the adult minimum wage. The country allows lower pay for teenagers, and the labor deal McDonald's struck with its employees currently pays 16-year-olds roughly US$8-an-hour, not altogether different from what they'd make in the states. McDonald's relies heavily on young workers in Australia. It's a specific quirk of the country's wage system. But it goes to show that even in generally high-pay countries, restaurants try to save on labor where they can.

Or if not, they've at least managed to replace a few of them with computers...fast food franchises in Europe have been some of the earliest adopters of touchscreen kiosks that let customers order without a cashier. As always, the peril of making employees more expensive is that machines become cheaper in comparison.

Lastly, Paul Dahl warned against nominating either Hatch or Olson. The former has “skeletons in his closet” that will be exploited by the Branstad campaign and Olson, he said, “is too young at 37 to be governor.”

Gee, maybe we've been too darned hard on Dahl?

NAW!

Change In The Weather

Out of the online Cedar Rapids Gazette comes this article. 

ISU climatologist predicts volatile weather, crop yields

Odd, but refreshing, that there was not one mention of Greenhouse Effect, err Global Warming, err Climate Change.

And the scientific community is united in that fact. 

What is mentioned is El Nino and La Nina patterns which are a naturally occurring climate cycle.

According to the climatologist, the way the weather has behaved since Oct. 1, the beginning of the climate year, parallels the weather during the same period in 1947

Look what occurred in this time period in 1947

The Nearly Forgotten Snow Storm of May 27-29, 1947

And I thought the snow in the early part of May was bad.