Photos of the Day

We took this picture whilst on a walk along Sioux City’s Riverfront. On Veterans’ Day, November 11, it was a rather startling 73 degrees…

Dagmar took this picture of Fruitloop. It’s a cool effect – you put your finger over the flash and things look red.

Slow Saturday Indeed!

We woke up this morning, cleaned the house, mopped, swept, vacuumed, dusted, straightened, put things away and even washed things. Then we took a nap; the whole family crashed on the couch in a big pile and snoozed for a while in the most comfortable manner imaginable. After a nice lunch involving roast beef (cooked European style of course), noodles, corn, veggies for Dagmar, and little mouse-flavored kibble for Fruitloop kitty, my beloved Viennese bride started fiddling with her makeup.

“Hey, where are you going?” I asked.

“I’m goink to Mamma’s class,” she replied. “I told you dis yesterday.”

“Oh,” I said. Dagmar and her mother are awfully close; they came to America together and have stuck beside each other ever since. It’s kind of touching. “What’s she teaching today?”

“Women in the Bible. I told you dis yesterday.” Fruitloop looked at me and nodded.

“Oh,” I said. “Is it okay if I stay home and take a nap?”

Dagmar agreed that a nap would be the most harmless thing I could do whilst she was off learning things, so Fruity and I headed back to the couch. Within minutes we were both snoring.

So now the house is clean, the wife is educated, the cat is still happily snoozing, and I’m all relaxed. Life just doesn’t get any better… I even have popcorn!

But They Look So Normal…

I’ve been to Kansas. They have regular paved roads and road signs and, gosh, everything seems so normal… But their school system is STILL mucking about with mysticism. I guess the school board there wants to include “intelligent design” in the curriculum, or at least have a statement read in each science class regarding alternatives to the “theory” of evolution. source

Evolution is a theory in the same manner that gravity is a theory. Trust me on that. But for me, the big issue is simple – parents need to take responsibility for teaching religion to their children and NOT expect the state to do so. The state is already hard-pressed to teach readin’, ritin’ and ‘rithmatic.

The Ship is Sinking

It seems that the republicans are drilling holes in their boat again. (Probably looking for oil, I imagine…) It seems that most of the candidates in last Tuesday’s elections who supported U.S. President George Walker Bush, or were supported by Mr. Bush, lost their election. In fact, many candidates were actively ducking the President before election day, fearful that his influence would be detrimental. It was.

I realize that this news is several days old (hey, I’ve been busy), but it bears repeating…

Mr. Bush stopped off in Virginia the day before the election, campaigning for republican nominee Jerry W. Kilgore. Mr. Kilgore lost his bid for governor to democrat Timothy M. Kaine. The republicans were hoping for a late surge of conservative voters to save the day for them, but it didn’t happen.

Democrat Jon Corzine won the governorship in New Jersey over republican Douglas R. Forrester. That makes me happy…

The mayor of St. Paul, MN (a democrat) supported Mr. Bush last year. He was voted out of office by a two-to-one margin, replaced by another democrat, Chris Coleman. Hmmm…

In California, republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger embraced four ballot initiatives. Mr. Schwarzenneger has been, until recently, rather close to Mr. Bush. However, Mr. Schwarzenneger found himself in the unenviable position of trying to KEEP the President of the United States from coming for a visit. All four initiatives were voted down (a victory for unions, as one of the initiatives was anti-union).

Three mayoral races were won by eighteen-year-old high school students, and two high school students have been elected to city councils. Said Hillsdale, MI mayor Michael Sessions, “…From 7:50 to 2:30 I’m a student. From 3 to 6, I”m going to be out fulfilling this job as mayor.” source

Closer to home, Sioux City has elected Mr. Jim Rixner to the City Council. However, the other democratic nominee did not make the cut. But, the city is now one Council member closer to sanity than we were last week…

One of the more interesting things to happen last Tuesday has conservative televangelist millionaire Mr. Marion Gordon “Pat” Robertson (who owns both a refinery and a diamond mine, I think) foaming at the mouth. Again. He seems to do that with surprising regularity, much to my delight. It seems that a nine-member school board in Dover, PA, tried to introduce “intelligent design” to their high school students. Eight of the nine board members were up for election, and all eight were replaced by the voters. Mr. Robertson used his television show, The 700 Club, to say, “I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city.” He continued, “And don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city.” source I guess Mr. Robertson isn’t happy running his own empire, he wants to run everyone else’s as well. (For more reading on my thoughts about Mr. Robertson, and a few of Mr. Robertson’s more interesting quotes, click here.) It seems to me that teaching religion is the parents’ responsibility, not the government’s. And that’s the end of this fairly mild rant.

You’re gonna cut my WHAT?

The House of Representatives postponed a bill recently. They couldn’t get the votes they needed to pass the bill, which, if passed, would allow drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, cut farm payments, cut social programs, increase Medicaid co-payments, restrict food-stamp eligibility, and trim student loans. I can’t really think of anything they forgot to include in that list… Except for a salary cut for Congressmen and Senators. They seem pretty happy to take away from the poor right now. Thankfully the bill was postponed, and the part about drilling in the Arctic was removed (temporarily). Evidently it was a bit much for even some republicans to swallow, as they could have passed the bill had all republicans followed party line. source

Why do the republicans want to think about the budget now instead of when they decided to go to war in Iraq? (And, speaking of war, why aren’t we doing more about Osama bin Laden? Remember him? And just when did our government decide that their definition of the word “torture” is different from everyone else’s? And just when did Vice President Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney start actively campaigning FOR torture? What’s up with that? When did my blood pressure get so high?) What do you think the odds are that Mr. Bush will try to buy goodwill for the republicans in 2007-2008 by announcing a “tax cut” for the people? Where is THAT money gonna come from?

At the moment, the Chief Executive Officers of the five largest oil companies in the United States are hanging out in Washington, D.C., trying to answer some very embarrassing questions from the Senate – such as “Why, when people are struggling to pay for gas and oil due to high prices, have you announced record profits?” The hearings didn’t go well for anyone. Why? According to the Washington Post, “…maybe it was committee co-chairman Ted Stevens of Alaska, so cloyingly deferential to his corporate witnesses one had to wonder if he was auditioning for the job of head waiter at the grille room of the Petroleum Club in Houston.” source Mr. Stevens, a republican, has make quite a name for himself lately. He pushed through an obscenely large bill to give Alaska millions and millions and millions of dollars to build a bridge for around 50 people (no, I’m not making that up). Then the two hurricanes hit. His fellow Senators asked Mr. Stevens to give the money earmarked for his bridge back, hoping to give the millions and millions of dollars to Katrina victims. Mr. Stevens actually BARKED at them. “NO!” I saw it on The Daily Show. It made me laugh, until I remembered that he’s actually in power…

Back to oil… The oilmen told the Senate that high oil prices will lead to the oil companies being able to expand their operations, thus leading to lower oil prices. I find that hard to believe, somehow. Especially since any increase in U.S. production would be so small as to have no effect on global prices (which makes me wonder why they’re so eager to drill in the Alaska Refuge).

I have nothing against a company earning money, and keeping it, but I was a bit upset to see that one of the CEO’s made somewhere in the neighborhood of $21 million last year. That seems a bit ridiculous to me, especially as I have a reel mower and I walk to work because I can’t afford gas any more. (Actually, I probably could afford the gas if I wanted to, but I hate the thought of giving the oil companies more money.) Honestly, does anyone (including professional athletes) really EARN over a million dollars a year? Methinks they get it because they convince people they’re worth it, not because they really are worth it…

Meanwhile, everything that gets shipped by rail, truck or ship, will cost more due to the rising cost of oil and gas.

The Day’s Events

Well, I voted. Then I went to work. At work I worked, sort of. Then I went for the season’s last ride on our pretty motorcycle, it being a very unseasonable 74 degrees and all. Then I took the bike in for winter storage… A sad day indeed. But, not having a garage door, and having had the bike egged this summer, I’m willing to pay to have it in a safe place. Besides, I’m not mechanically ept enough to keep the battery tended and change the oil and all that good stuff…

Now I’m desperately trying to stay awake long enough to get the election results. I’m most interested in our City Council and in California’s ballot initiatives. I’m really hoping California Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger gets his proposals rejected. He has taken a state that was $6 billion in debt and has somehow made it worse. (I heard that on the news today; I have nothing to back that statement up with, other than “I heard it on TV so it must be true.”) An interesting fact: My lovely wife is from the same part of Austria as Mr. Schwarzenneger; she tells me that the Austrians try rather diligently to distance themselves from Aahnold. I guess they’re embarrassed by his politics.

I doubt I’ll be awake long enough to hear any meaningful results… If anyone’s interested, you can keep track of Woodbury County’s elections “live” by clicking here.

Picture of the Day

Yes, I tweaked it. I saw this little guy in Bacon Creek Park today as I was taking a break on my ride. It looks better if you click on it and look at the larger image.

Sleep in? Sure…

I woke up this morning in the same fashion I usually wake up. Startled, cold, and snotty. My little feline buddy Fruitloop has a nasty habit of worming his way under the covers and poking at me with his cold nose at about 4:30 every morning. The cold nose in question usually hits me right in the small of the back, which generally leads me to engage in the normal “startle reflex” of jerking around in the bed making “wha? wha?” noises. Mr. Loop will continue to find warm unprotected parts of my body to put his cold nose on until I get up. It happens every morning, and every morning I’m surprised.

I wasn’t too angry at him this morning, though. The poor kitty was, indeed, out of food. I dutifully poured dried mouse-flavored kibble into his bowl and tottered off to check my e-mail. Within minutes Fruity wandered past me and went into the bedroom. Not too long after that, my beloved wife Dagmar emerged from the bedroom, bleary-eyed and cussing under her breath in German. Fruitloop shot past her and ran to his water glass (he refuses to drink out of a dish like a normal cat) and stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth like he was dying. I do believe he made slight “ack, ack” noises as he pointed to the dry glass. Dagmar dutifully refilled the glass for the cat and sat down on the couch.

Half an hour later, Dagmar watching the news and I toying around on the Internet, we both realized the cat was missing. “Where do you tink der little Fruity might be?” asked Dagmar. Off we went to search. Seeing as how we have a very small house, finding a rather small cat isn’t much of a problem. “Vood you look at dis?” said my beloved, pointing at our bed. “The stupid cat managed to get us both out of bed – now he’s snoozing in our spot!”

We woke the cat up.

Local Politics

In my past few posts I’ve been publicly pondering the local candidates for Sioux City’s city council. Until yesterday, the only information I could find on any of the candidates was through the Sioux City Journal’s web site; if any of the candidates have web sites, I haven’t been able to find them, I’ve seen nothing on TV, and none of them have knocked on my door. However, I found four flyers in my mailbox yesterday from four of the six candidates.

I’ll start with Ms. Karen Van De Steeg. To be honest, I didn’t know she was the Mayor of Sioux City until a few weeks ago – she’s had a very quiet term, I guess. Actually, I thought we had a City Manager, not a mayor. Anyway, the post card I got in the mail, at first glance, struck me as professionally designed and well-printed in simple black and white. (You can click on the photo to see a larger image.)

My problem is with the text of the card itself. Ms. Van De Steeg implies that she’s responsible for the renovation of the Marina, the “revitalization of the stockyards” (by which she means “we tore the stockyards down and sold the land to a national chain store”), and the opening of the Tyson Events Center. Fine and good… But I’d like to know exactly what her involvement in those renovation were – I’m pretty sure that the Tyson Events Center was on the drawing board long before Ms. Van De Steeg came to office. She also states that 900 new jobs were created in the past year, but she does NOT tell us where the new jobs are located (in Sioux City, in Siouxland, or in this corner of Iowa in general?), nor does she mention how many jobs were lost in the same time span. Another point she makes is “reduction in crime rates.” I don’t think the crime rate has gone down at all in the past four years – rather it seems to me that people have simply quit reporting many of the minor crimes because the police force has been under-funded and can’t respond anyway. That’s how it is in my neighborhood, anyway.

Ms. Van De Steeg lists several things that she’s wanting to do in the future (presumably if she’s elected). She wants to “continue to work with city staff to hold city government accountable to the people.” Sounds good… Starting when? Every time I’ve had business with the city government (which is rare) I’ve gotten the run-around. Ms. Van De Steeg also wants to create more softball and soccer fields in the city and get a new museum as well. I have nothing wrong with any of this, but I’d much rather see an initiative to get the children to stay in school. Here’s an idea… Give the teens in the city an hourly wage to pick up the litter and clean up the graffiti. That would give them enough money to pay the bus fare to go to the underutilized soccer fields at Riverside Park.

Now, on to James A. Haigh. On first glance, his flyer seems rather unattractive. It’s a small brochure, printed in one color on very lightweight paper. The entire brochure was done in a sans-serif typeface, which I personally find hard to read as body text. (I have to do this. I’m a graphic designer. I design stuff like this for a living…) There are a few incidental typographical errors and stylistic problems, but I’ve seen worse. When it came in the mail, I almost threw it away without looking at it – it was ripped in several places, badly enough I can’t read part of it. (Again, you can click on the picture to the right for a larger image.)

Mr. Haigh gives us MUCH more information than Ms. Van De Steeg. He lists his personal and civic experience, which is nice. My only problem with that is that there are items I simply don’t understand, such as “1974 Signatory of Smithfield’s first Comprehensive Plan.” I’m not sure what a signatory is, I don’t know where Smithfield is, and I don’t know what a comprehensive plan is, either. I do know that I was six in 1974… But, to be fair, it looks as though Mr. Haigh was simply trying to give us an overview – I don’t know how he could have fit any more details in his flyer.

Most of what Mr. Haigh lists under his “Goals” section involves financial jargon that I’m not qualified to comment on, but it sounds like most of what he wants to do revolves around cutting the budget through “sharp oversight” and bringing new business to the area. Okay… But while Mr. Haigh seems to be pretty keen on finance, he doesn’t say anything about any other issues at all. Nothing about education, poverty, or crime. On the back side of the brochure he says, “The road to Hell is indeed paved with Privatization. When government services are privatized ‘Accountability’ is lost.” I’m not sure if I agree completely with that; accountability is lost if a service is privatized with no competition in the marketplace.

One phrase stuck out at me. “I have no political ambition or intention of serving more than one term on the City Council.” I guess that will free him up to vote his mind without thought of repercussion. But, doesn’t that make him rather unaccountable to the voters? Hmmm…

Interestingly enough, Mr. Haigh was the only candidate to put his e-mail address on his flyer.

On to incumbent Dave Ferris. The post card he put out is by far the most slick and professional of the lot. Two colors, well-designed, on nice glossy, heavy paper – no problems there. But what does he say? Not much…

He seems to be running on his attendance record. His first two points tell us that he has attended 97% of the council meetings from 2002 through 2005, and that he only abstained six times. To be honest, I’m not sure if you should get a special medal for showing up, but it beats the alternative. He also claims to have helped “streamline the city workforce to promote efficiency,” which sounds suspiciously like “I had a lot of city workers fired.”

He goes on to point out that he “assisted local business expansion resulting in strong job growth.” Is that why so many businesses on Hamilton Boulevard have gone under or moved? Granted, we have a new “super Hy-Vee” on the West Side now, but the price was two established supermarkets. People who used to walk to the “old” West Side Hy-Vee to get groceries now have to try to drag their groceries home on a bus or hire an expensive cab to go to the “new” Hy-Vee, which is rather more expensive than before. The new olive bar is nice, but I’m sad whenever I see a retiree walking across town to get groceries.

Mr. Ferris’ last point is that he “prioritized infrastructure improvements – over $18 million in street and sewer improvements in 2005 alone.” Good. I have no problems with that… Except that, despite numerous phone calls and e-mails to the city, my yard flooded all the way up to (and sometimes into) my front porch EVERY time it rained due to a mismanaged storm sewer. Oddly enough, that happened from 2002 to 2005 – Mr. Ferris’ term as Council member.

The last candidate to send me a post card is Mr. Brent Hoffman. His post card is the worst of the bunch – poorly designed, poorly printed, hard to read quickly (my eye doesn’t know where to focus on his design), and it contains almost no information of value. All we learn is that he’s a native of Sioux City, and that he wants to “improve business & jobs climate, restrain city spending, and limit property taxes.” He doesn’t say how he’s going to do these things, however.

Mr. Hoffman does say he’s an “experienced public servant,” but again he doesn’t tell us if this means he was a U.S. Senator for seventy years, or if he was in the police academy for six months. (If I remember right, he actually was in the military, so I shouldn’t tease him about that. Anyone who served in the armed forces deserves to be taken seriously. But serving in the forces does NOT mean a person automatically knows how to run a government.)

All in all, none of these four candidates impresses me much. I’m still voting for Mr. Jim Rixner, even though I’ve not received a mailing from him. As I’ve mentioned in my previous two posts, Mr. Rixner has concrete ideas on how to fix problems that actually exist in my neighborhood.

I am sad, though, that not a single candidate has said anything like, “I’m going to make sure that the city fleet of vehicles will gradually be replaced with fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles,” or “We need to quit cutting bus routes in this city. Instead we need to replace our buses with smaller, fuel-efficient buses or vans and increase the routes.” (Anyone who’s been stuck in traffic behind one of our behemoth, smoke-belching, buses would appreciate that. Especially when you notice that there are generally only four or five passengers on our huge buses. Replace the darn things with something smaller for gosh sakes!)

Why did I entitle this missive “Ham ‘n Potatoes?” Not because any of the four candidates profiled offers anything of substance, but rather ’cause that’s what I’m gonna eat now, whilst watching the Lions beat up on the Vikings. (I’m not even gonna speculate on the poor Packers going against the Steelers…)

Speaking of Football…

Well, the Thugs of the Northland (see my previous post for my thoughts on the stinky Vikings) have successfully beat up the promising Lions. My beloved Packers have won only one game all season (though, oddly enough, they’ve outscored their combined opponents by nineteen points), and are at this point losing to the Steelers by a lousy three points.

I was wondering… Does anyone remember the last time they saw a receiver miss a pass without dancing around like an idiot trying to convince someone, anyone that he’d been cheated? It drives me nuts. Is it in the rule book that if you miss a pass you must, by rule, immediately grab your imaginary little flag and start waving it, pretending to be an official? Has anyone told you that if you do that it makes the official think, “oh, he’s dancing around pointing at the other guy, so there must have been pass interference.” I have a feeling that prancing in front of the official like a lunatic probably doesn’t influence said official one way or the other. Take responsibility for your actions. If you miss a pass, you missed the pass. Deal with it. The officials will call pass interference if it happens, whether you act like a fool or not.

Shoot. Green Bay is now trailing by ten points. They’re playing reasonably well, but they’re still not winning.

The Philadelphia Eagles have benched professional loudmouth Terrell Owens for saying dumb things and generally being disuptive. I applaud that action! As good as T.O. is, if he’s dividing the team, he’s not worth it. I wish the NFL would take a lesson from 78-year-old coach Joe Paterno of the Penn State Nittany Lions. He started coaching there in 1966, and is still the head coach, and is still a class act. During the game yesterday, I saw Coach Paterno take one of his players to task for an end-zone celebration. That made me happy… Yes, the player made a touchdown. Yes, that player deserves recognition and should be happy. But Coach Paterno (rightly so) seems to believe that the recognition will naturally follow the act, and that a player should maintain his dignity at all times.

As much as I enjoy football, I get tired of seeing players showing off every time they do something good. It’s their job to do good. If I jumped up and started screaming and yelling and posing like an idiot every time I did my job, my boss would probably fire me.

Well, the game is over. My beloved Packers lost by ten points. I am ensaddened by that. Sniff. They have won one game and lost seven thus far this season. Reminds me of the late 1970’s.

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The Slide Continues

I just read that in California, U.S. President George Walker Bush’s approval rating has hit an all-time low. Only 34 percent approve of the job Mr. Bush is doing. Sixty-five percent have doubts about Mr. Bush’s trustworthiness. One poll found that just 30 percent of the people polled felt the nation is going in the right direction source. Them’s scary numbers when you’re talking about the president of the United States of America. If we can’t trust our own leaders, how can we expect the rest of the world to trust any of us?

Mr. Bush is in Argentina today at a summit. He was met by thousands of protesters, chanting, “Fascist Bush, you are the terrorist source.” When asked how he was going to handle Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Mr. Bush commented, “Well, I will, of course, be polite. That’s what the American people expect their president to do is to be a, you know, a polite person.” source Actually, Mr. Bush, we expect a lot more than that… We expect you to be accountable for your actions. We expect you to make wise, educated decisions. We expect you to act on OUR behalf, not yours. We expect a lot of things, and I expect we’ll continue to be disappointed.

Speaking of disappointment, the senate passed a bill yesterday allowing drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge source. Mr. Bush has been pushing this issue for five years – he does, after all, have very, very close ties to the oil industry. The pity and shame of this bill is not immediately apparent until the numbers are crunched. It turns out that the major oil companies will now be able to do pretty much whatever they want in the wildlife refuge, and, in about ten years, we’ll start to get oil. The oil we will produce will last the nation for six months. To put it another way, gas prices are NOT going to fall due to this action source. We’re not gonna see any results for ten or twelve years, and what we do get really isn’t worth damaging the environment for, in my opinion. But, Mr. Bush’s friends in the oil industry will profit, and I guess that’s what’s important… The republicans claim that drilling in the arctic will produce up to 736,000 jobs. I have to admit, I don’t know where those jobs are going to come from. That number seems too large.

To name names, democrat Bill Nelson of Nebraska voted for this bill. He has done a few other things lately that go against party line (example – he supports Bush’s latest Supreme Court nominee). A maverick? Or a man who simply votes his conscience over his constituents? It’ll be interesting to see where Mr. Nelson is in a year or two.

Closer to home…

In my last post, I commented on our local elections here in Sioux City. Next Tuesday are the elections, and thus far I’ve not found a single candidate knocking at my door. I’ve been trying to research the various candidates and haven’t really found much.

The Sioux City Journal is running a series of articles on the candidates. You can find the article about Jim Rixner here. I mentioned yesterday that Mr. Rixner is, thus far, the candidate I’m voting for. The article in the Journal confirms that feeling – it seems that Mr. Rixner is, in my opinion, on the right track. Incumbents Dave Ferris and Karen Van De Steeg, on the other hand, don’t seem to have done much in their terms that they can point to and say, “vote for me, I did thus-and-such.” In another article (found here), Ms. Van De Steeg commented on young people from moving away from Sioux City by saying, in part, “You have to go where you can find a job.” That implies that our very own leaders know there are no jobs to be had in this area, and don’t seem to be doing much about it. Spooky.

In both articles, Mr. Rixner seems to be the only candidate that knows what’s happening.

Mr. Rixner is endorsed by the labor movement here in Sioux City, and is mentioned in a rather interesting blog on the Woodbury County Democrats web site, found here.

In the Personal Section…

Just when I start thinking that no one reads this but Dagmar and myself, someone will pop up out of the proverbial woodwork and prove they’ve been paying attention. Last week poor Dagmar was feeling ill, and I mentioned it on-line. Two days later she got a “Get Better” card from some friends across town. That made us both a little misty-eyed…

We’re still struggling with money – we have enough to pay our bills and eat with, but that’s about it. And, you know, we’re pretty happy… We often curl up on the couch with the cat and a bowl of popcorn and watch TV, knowing full well that we’re lucky to have a warm house and a good marriage.

But I still wish my neighbors would calm down… They scare me a little. People coming and going at all hours, screaming in the street on a regular basis, parking in my driveway, throwing trash in their yard – it’s bothersome. I enjoy walking to work (it saves gas and is good for the environment and my health), but if the neighbors are out, I get in the car and drive, just so I don’t have to walk past them.

I’ve not had a cigarette since July 26th (not that I’m counting or anything). It’s getting easier every day. My lollipop consumption rate has fallen to three or four a day, and I haven’t thrown anything at anyone in a couple of months now. I am, however, still waiting for my sense of humor to get back to normal. I had hoped by now that I’d have saved enough money by not smoking to get a door with a deadbolt on it, or to have my teeth fixed (I have a pesky wisdom tooth that’s making an untimely arrival – sideways), but it seems that all we can do is pay our bills and hope to get by until the next payday. Oh well.

DeLay that Indictment!

It seems that Mr. Tom DeLay, a republican Representative from Texas and former House Majority Leader, had reason to smile when his now-infamous mug shot was snapped. Mr. DeLay has successfully lobbied to have the judge in his case removed source. It seems that Mr. DeLay didn’t like the fact that State District Judge Bob Perkins has, in the past five years, donated money to democratic candidates. So, Mr. DeLay went to Mr. Perkins’ boss (a republican, appointed by a republican) and had Mr. Perkins replaced.

It seems odd to me for several reasons. The first is simple: judges are supposed to be impartial. There shouldn’t be any difference between a judge who votes democrat and a judge who votes republican.

The second reason this seems odd to me takes a little reverse engineering of the facts. Doesn’t it seem strange that a man who has not only been arrested for money laundering, but also has had numerous ethical charges and is well known for abusing his power source, can virtually hand-pick the judge who sits on his trial? Does that seem right?

A few facts about Mr. DeLay before I move on… Did you know that Mr. DeLay’s fellow republicans once signed a petition asking that DeLay be removed from office? He has lied to the FBI, he has lied on depositions, and led a power grab in Texas to gain more republican seats via redistricting – which caused Texas to waste millions of dollars in legislation whilst healthcare and education needs were being unmet source.

In general, not a man I’d trust with MY last candy bar.

Local Elections

I was poking about the Internet trying to find out what I could about our local candidates for next Tuesday’s elections. It seems that the Sioux City Journal ran a series of articles about the candidates, but there’s really nothing else of substance out there.

I did learn a few interesting things about the candidates from the Journal, though… It seems that there was a debate recently, but of the six candidates for City Council, only three managed to attend. Brent Hoffman, businessman, barber Donna Jensen and Jim Haigh, engineer, did not show up for the debate. Mr. Hoffman had a prior commitment, but the other two simply declined to attend source.

The three that DID make it to the debate were Mayor Karen Van De Steeg, Jim Rixner – executive director of Siouxland Mental Health, and Councilman Dave Ferris. From what I heard and read of the debate (I wasn’t actually there – I learned of it after the fact), Mr. Rixner would like to help individual citizens of Sioux City by increasing police protection in the neighborhoods, putting street lights up in dark corners, making sure people have enough to eat, and generally making the city a nice place again. Ms. Van De Steeg thought the city needed a better water supply. Mr. Ferris felt that the city should encourage new housing growth for the wealthy.

From what I’ve heard, Mr. Rixner is the only one who seems to understand the city’s true problems (as I see them) and could articulate them. He gets my vote.

If you’ve read this blog before, you know that my neighborhood needs help. Graffiti and vandalism is rampant, there’s a very high number of homeless people wandering the streets, and I think my neighbors are shady. In one night last summer (for example) we had our door knocker stolen, a truck drove through my front yard, and a drunk passed out in the street – all in the space of ten minutes. Something needs to be done; I’ve informed the local police, but nothing much seems to change. The only way to get police presence in my neighborhood is to start calling the gunshots in to 911, but that just seems to irritate the dispatchers these days. (The last time it was just a neighbor shooting at another neighbor’s dog.)

I don’t wanna be a cow!

Yep, yesterday was Halloween. Dagmar and I threw caution to the wind and went to watch small children. You’d think we’d know better by now than to go try to see kids when they’re all jazzed up on sugar and chocolate, but for some reason we thought it was a good idea. So, off to LeMars we went.

We made it to the first intersection. “Oh,” said my beloved bride, “Ve have to go to de drugstore before we go to LeMars. You’re out of tummy pills.” So, we took a right instead of a left and went to said drugstore for the above-mentioned tummy pills. “Okay,” I said, pills in hand. “Off we go!” We fought our way through the ten-to-five traffic and eventually found ourselves in Hinton, some ten or twelve miles north of Sioux City. “Oh,” I said. “We need gas.” That earned me a fairly dirty look from my beloved. “Vell, hurry up, then,” she said. “I vant to see the kidlets while dey still have their scary costumes on.”

I pulled into the first gas station on the left. You know the one… It took about four and a half seconds to get fifteen dollars worth of gas in my car, another two minutes to run inside and pay, and about half an hour to get back on the highway. (Trains, grain trucks, and what passes for rush-hour traffic in Iowa all conspired against us.)

So, eventually, about an hour later than expected, we got to LeMars. We were giddy with glee! We get to see the nephew and nieces, including our beloved Goddaughter, Maddie! Wheee!

We caught up with my brother, Cory, and his family at their friend’s house. Out of the car bolted the hippie and the Austrian. We were immediately attacked by Batman Hunter and Princess Peyton, and what appeared to be a dustmop, minus the handle. After taking the appropriate pictures of the two kids, and figuring out that the dustmop was really a Shih Tzu puppy (“It’s supposed to give the kids a sense of responsibility,” explained my brother, nodding wisely) we started looking around for Maddie, our Goddaughter. About that time a very small black and white cow wandered down the sidewalk, wailing in misery, little tail waddling.

Evidently, Maddie doesn’t like being a cow for Halloween.

The poor child planted herself in one spot and wailed, cried, sniffed, snuffled, and generally made her unhappiness known throughout the neighborhood the whole time we were there. Meanwhile Hunter and Peyton were having a ball chasing each other and the dustmop doggy around the yard, deftly avoiding and ignoring the unhappy sister. It was quite the sight…

After a bit, things calmed down a little. We figured out that the dustmop puppy’s name was really Maizie, and that she is a very nice doggy indeed. (I had to fight the urge to call her “Corndog” all night. You know… “You call her Maizie, I call her Corndog.” I’m sure a few of you out there are old enough to understand that.) Oddly enough, not only did Cory and Dawn get a Shih Tzu Sunday, but fellow Clam Tim and his wife Janet also got a Shih Tzu on Sunday. I think I missed the memo.

Oh well.

Spooky News

Geeze – a glance at the headlines is a scary thing these days, isn’t it? President George Walker Bush’s administration had 34 documented scandals in his first four years as president, most of which were quietly swept under the rug (like when Halliburton was given a $7 billion no-contract bid for services in Iraq – and guess what company subsequently overcharged the government $61 million of taxpayer money), but what’s happening now makes most of those 34 scandals pale in consideration. The Valerie Plame thing is getting serious. It seems that Scooter Libby (vice-president Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney’s head honcho) got his information directly from the vice-president himself, and fibbed about it to a grand jury. So now the list of people with headaches (and litigation) in the administration includes Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Scooter Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney, and a considerable list of other less recognizable names.

I’m not too bothered by this administration shooting itself in the foot – after all, they’ve been aiming at it for five years now. If you were paying attention, you could see it coming. What bothers me is the mess they’re going to leave behind – a mess we’re ALL going to pay for. These guys have wasted, squandered, and in some cases outright taken our money. I do NOT pay taxes for these guys to simply give the money to their friends – I pay taxes for sewers and police and schools and stop lights, and those services are dwindling (look at the amount of trash and graffiti in your neighborhood, and the lack of police). It’s time for a change. Let’s get back on track and get our tax dollars moving the right direction again. Unfortunately, we still have three years left of the present administration (though we may have a new vice-president soon) – but we can change things in the Senate in the midterm elections in 2006.

In other news, Rosa Parks passed away today source. She sparked much of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Alan Greenspan will step down as head of the Federal Reserve in January, to be replaced by Ben Bernanke source, a man who seems to be very qualified (somewhat surprisingly, considering Mr. Bush’s latest nomination for the Supreme Court – his personal lawyer, Harriet Miers).

Quote of the Day…

“A wise monkey is a monkey who doesn’t monkey with another monkey’s monkey.”

– from Mike “Kioti” Gregg

Picture of the Day…

This is a pseudo time-lapse photo of the side of a 45-year-old Heidelberg “Windmill” printing press. (I convinced my “point and click” camera that it didn’t need a flash, so it held the aperture open for a split second longer than it usually does. I like to feel smarter than my camera, even though I have doubts about that.) If you click on the picture, it gets bigger.

‘Tis raining out there. Not hard, not nasty, just a gentle, chilly gray day. It makes me happy that I have a warm house, a good wife, hot cocoa and popcorn. Soon I’ll have to think about taking the bike to Champion Cycle in South Sioux for storage. (I always try to get that done before it snows if possible. I’m not a cold-weather rider.)

Dagmar is snoozing in the other room (she’s not feeling well) and Fruitloop is dozing on the couch. So, I’m trying to type quietly. It’s amazing to me how much different songs sound through headphones rather than through the twelve-dollar computer speakers I have… I just heard “Crazy On You” by Heart – I didn’t know there were flutes in that song! And some of the drum fills are in stereo… Cool!

A buddy of mine wrote me an e-mail this weekend. “I’ve been reading your blog,” he said. “You have a lot of woes, don’t you?” (I’m paraphrasing, actually, but it’s close.) I do have woes, but honestly, I don’t think I have any more woes than anyone else – and a lot less than many people have! I’m just vocal about my particular woes. That’s all. I’m truly pretty happy with life. I just wish my wife were healthy, we weren’t in debt, the government wasn’t crumbling and the neighbors didn’t scare me. I suppose if I made a million dollars we could take Dagmar to more specialists and move out of our neighborhood, but I’m not gonna hold my breath. We’ll get by.

If anyone knows how I can make a million dollars, please let me know! I’d certainly appreciate it…

I’m worried about my beloved bride, Dagmar. She’s been in bed all day. “I have horrible cramps,” she told me. “And it feels like things in my belly are ripping apart.” Dagmar has a very high tolerance for pain; when she complains, it worries me mightily. Especially when there’s nothing I can do for her.

The Thugs of the Northland

My beloved Green Bay Packers are taking their mighty 1-4 record to Minneapolis this weekend to battle the Vikings, who have a lousy, terrible 1-4 record. At the beginning of the season I was pretty excited. Brett Favre decided to stay on as quarterback for the Packers, and the Vikings got rid of their main thug, Randy Moss. “Yay,” I said. “Yay.”

Mr. Moss getting traded to the Raiders did several things for me. First, I could now watch the Vikings play without feeling ill. The Vikings had for years been my second favorite team. Until they picked up Mr. Moss… He brought the morals of the team down to new lows, in my opinion. As an example, he once tried to run over a Minneapolis policewoman in his SUV. That shows class. So I was happy to see him out of the NFC North division. The second thing the trade accomplished was exactly what the Vikings feared – it weakened the their team. That’s good for me, as the Packers are in the same division.

So, I was happy at the beginning.

Then the Packers lost to the Lions. Thus started the Pack’s slide to their current position of being tied for last place in the division with the Vikings. While this bothers me, as a long-time Packer fan I’ve been expecting it. You see, in the 1970s and 80s the Packers were really, really bad. Then Reggie White joined the team, followed by Favre (who was supposed to be the backup quarterback) and a few trips to the Superbowl. Now it’s time for the cycle to continue…

What bother me more, though, is the Viking’s latest fiasco. While the Packers are nearest and dearest to my heart, I have a very big soft spot for the entire NFC North – Green Bay, Minneapolis, Detroit and Chicago. I like to see those teams do well, and conduct themselves admirably, and they usually do. However… It seems that the Vikings didn’t get the memo. Not only are they not playing well, but they have managed to conduct themselves atrociously off the field, bringing shame to themselves, the league, and the entire state of Minnesota. Fans are mailing their season tickets back to the owner of the team.

Why? Well, it seems that the team wanted to go on a three-hour cruise on a Minnesota lake. The cruise lasted under an hour, as the captain of the boat found out about the booze and the hookers from Georgia and turned around. From what I hear, there were women on the boat actually hiding in fear from the Vikings – they found ladies cowering in closets and such.

So far, the league hasn’t taken much action against the team. The team’s new owner hollered at them for a while, and the coach did a fair share of bellowing at people, but so far no one’s been indicted, arrested, fined, or punished in any way (as far as I know). It’s my humble opinion as a fan of the game, a fan of the team, and a fan of Minnesota in general, that ALL the players who were on the boat in question should be benched (without pay) as punishment for a breach of contract – it’s in their contract to conduct themselves as gentlemen. “But what if some of them were on the boat but didn’t participate in the nasty acts?” you may ask. Well, they should have stood up for what they knew to be right and informed the captain and crew as to what was going on. This may well have happened; I don’t know. My point is that I don’t feel the league or the team is taking this nearly seriously enough.

‘Nuff said.

The Goddaughter…

A buddy of mine read my blog recently and said that our little goddaughter, Maddy, is a doll. Couldn’t agree more, personally. That deserves another picture of Maddy, doesn’t it? You can never see enough pictures of cute goddaughters… Especially when they’re strangling pink lawn ornaments.

Polite Robbery

A buddy of mine had his truck stolen the other day. He went to a concert, and afterwards found to his dismay that the truck was gone, along with a ton of CD’s and a bunch of PA equipment for the band. “We’ll probably find it on the other side of town,” the police told him. “But it’ll be torched, most likely.”

A few days later my friend got a phone call – they’d found his truck. Not only did they find it intact, but it was in the exact same parking spot from which it disappeared, nothing was missing, and the thieves had actually filled the gas tank before they returned it! Only in Iowa…

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Our rude neighbors are still at it. Screaming and yelling in the middle of the night, people coming and going at all hours… Now the kid has a new puppy. I like puppies. I like kids. But I really wish this particular kid would take care of his puppy! The poor pooch sits outside, tied to the car with the flat tire (hasn’t moved in months), whining and yipping half the day, wanting attention while the kid rides his bike in our yard.

I’ve quit mowing. Every time I go outside to mow or trim, the neighbors gather around and start playing basketball in my driveway. I wouldn’t mind that so much, but while they’re playing basketball in MY driveway, they still get all huffy if I break up the game by mowing nearby. So now I don’t mow.

Last night I peeked out the window to see what the latest ruckus was about. People were running up and down the street, screaming obscenities at each other, and a car was parked sideways in the street, one tire over the curb in my yard. We turned the TV up and ignored the whole scene. (I kinda wanted to go out and take pictures, but Dagmar wouldn’t let me.)

For a man who based his political campaign on morals and values, President George Walker Bush certainly has surrounded himself with questionable characters. Republican Representative Tom DeLay was released on bail after being arrested on charges of conspiracy and money laundering. A fine role model in this administration! As Mr. DeLay was being fingerprinted, Mr. Bush was giving a press conference in his garden, defending his nomination of Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court. It seems that the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Ms. Miers’ written responses to their queries, saying her answers were “inadequate, insufficient, and insulting.” source

Meanwhile, Republican Senator Bill Frist is being investigated for insider trading.

Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top advisor, is facing indictment for leaking secrets to the press, as is Vice President Richard “Dick” Bruce Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Osama bin Laden (remember him?) is still on the loose, and now there are allegations that U.S. soldiers have been burning the bodies of Taliban fighters – which is sacrilegious to Muslims source. This, following the abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and the woes in Guantanamo Bay, suggests that our leaders are creating an environment where such abuses can flourish. There has been legislation put forward to curb things like this, but President Bush has indicated that if the legislation crosses his desk, he’ll veto it. It makes me sad.

Very sad.

I think I have my contacts in the wrong eyes again today. Everything seems all out of focus…

Some unexpected bills came through yesterday and today; Dagmar and I have twenty bucks in savings to get us through until next week, and I just gave the last ten bucks in my pocket to a bum yesterday. So I have three dollars and Dagmar has a buck and a half… Good thing we have food at home! I suppose we’d have more money if we didn’t give it away all the time, but I don’t think we’d be as happy, either. So, I’ll quit complaining.

Drug Running

I just heard something interesting on the Al Franken Show. I guess the big drug companies in the United States spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 billion on researching new drugs. But two-thirds of that is spent trying to develop “copycat” drugs – one company develops Viagra, so all the other companies have to have their own versions of the drug. (This has something to do with the patent laws – and the US is the ONLY nation in the world where this is true.) Many companies actually spend more money on marketing than they do on research. The kicker is this: the US government spends $30 billion researching new drugs, but the government shares its research with all the drug companies.

So, a wise strategy for a drug company would be to let the government do 98% of the work, then step in at the last minute, finish the research, and get a patent on the drug, thus ensuring that for very little research money the company will have a patented drug for which they can charge anything they like. So, our tax money goes into researching a drug that a drug company effectively steals (legally) from the government and sells to us for exorbinant prices.

I wonder how many lobbyists the drug companies have on Capitol Hill, and how much they get paid.

Avian flu is looming on the horizon. Our government has done little to get ready – we have nowhere near the amount of vaccine we need (thanks in part to Mr. Simonson – click here for more details on him). A Swiss company makes the best vaccine for avian flu, but they have the drug patented and won’t share. They’ll make all the vaccine they can in their small factory and sell it for as much money as they can get.

Back to Mr. Tom DeLay, Republican, for a minute. I just read in the New York Times online that Mr. DeLay’s lawyer asked the judge of DeLay’s trial to remove himself from the case. I guess the judge, Bob Perkins, has supported Democratic organizations. The judge that will rule on whether Perkins will remain involved with the trial is Republican B.B. Schraub, who was appointed to the bench by Republican Governor Rick Perry. source

No wonder Mr. DeLay was smiling when they took his mug shot.

“Membership in a political party does not determine the quality of justice in this country,” said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earl. source I hope he’s right!

Where else but Texas would the main characters in an important trial be named Bob, B.B., and Ronnie? It seems a little, well, informal.

Speaking of trials – Saddam Hussein has made his appearance in court. And, guess what? The next morning they found his lawyer, dead. (Apparently it’s bad for your health to get shot in the head.) This brings up two questions. The first is: Why aren’t they treating this as a war crimes trial, with bullet-proof glass and stuff? The second is: Why isn’t this a war crimes trial anyway – why is the trial in Iraq and not at The Hague? In any case, the authorities are now providing security for all lawyers, not just the prosecutors.

“Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.”

– Isaac Asimov

“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

– Isaac Asimov

“I’m not a member of any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”

– Will Rogers

“What this country needs dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.”

– Will Rogers