I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Can I get Congress to pay for some of my childhood guilt trips too?
Great, phony rainforests while they destroy the real ones. Typical Republicans. And remember, Grassley is one of the "responsible" ones.
Gibbons' constituents should have an enormous guilty conscience for putting this toad in office.
Oh, um, when I was a kid I accidentally set fire to one of Rembrandt's paintings. It was worth, uhh... about $50 million. Yeah.
So if I join Congress, can I buy myself a replacement?
In their eyes there's something lacking,
What they need's a damn good whacking!
Not excusing this, but Iowa is short on museum and zoo experiences compared to lots of other states. If it's actually built, it will be located near the University of Iowa. Actually, the Omaha Zoo has a fabulous rainforest building, but that's about a 5-hour drive from Iowa City.
Turn W loose in the ersatz rain forest and let him revert to his feral state.
OT... But even Fox are having difficulty keeping the chimp popular......Fox news poll says 43% re elect.... 47% says kick him back to Crawford.
Also, there is about to be a huge storm coming.....Kerry uses the F word in description of Bush. Stand by for all the fundies going crazy
sally, got a link?
pie - I'm all for museums, botanical gardens and all the rest. But I have to say I admire a community that does it without getting a congressman to pony up several mil of our money for one. In Gunnison, Co., a man (whose name escapes me,) decided that an observatory would be great there. He started a grassroots campaign, with jars all over town for donations, and they are building it. It's won't be finished for about 10 years, but still - a really cool thing, and no pork.
Yah, we're not talking about a couple hundred grand we're talking 50 million bucks.
The NEH which they're always bitching about only gets 2-3 times that
"they took all the trees and put them in a tree museum, and the charged the people a dollar and a half just to see them."
joanie was right!
Organizers call the project an unparalleled opportunity to teach children the wonders of the jungle
Haven’t these people ever heard of a diorama?
Does he feel "guilty" for killing the frogs or clogging the drain?
Does he feel "guilty" for killing the frogs or clogging the drain?
Like most Republicans these days, he feels "guilty" for getting caught.
I have an idea: let's buy $50 million dollars worth of round-trip bus tickets from Iowa City to Belize.
I know, Tena, I know. It's just that one of Iowa's big draws is the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, which also boasts the National Farm Toy Museum. Did I read once that the largest percentage of the population in Iowa is the above 80 crowd? There's money there, to be sure, but nothing compared to most states.
But, yes, $50 mil is over the top. I'm sure Grassley could come up with something that would really benefit the population that didn't cost that much.
OTOH, look at the money that's going to our newest 51st state.
*sigh*
Pie, the plans are to build the rainforest museum way out in the suburbs, only accessible by car, out near a shopping mall. So it's not really "near" the U of Iowa. I know this because I live in Iowa City. It's not There is considerable opposition to this project as a massive boondoggle. There's already one underfunded-and-dying children's museum right next to the planned site.
I used to work at my father's greenhouse when I was a kid, and I know the whole scenario. Greenhouses, even a modest one-story commercial greenhouse, take massive amounts of energy to keep warm in the winter and cool enough in the summer. There used to be commercial greenhouses spread all over the USA, but after the energy crisis in the 1970s, many of the sites in colder climates were unprofitable and closed (like my dad's). They mostly exist now in milder climates across the south and southwest.
The big flaw in this rainforest project is the cost of heating a huge multistory greenhouse that must be m
(sorry, haloed again)
..maintained at a constant tropical temperature range, in a climate that I've personally seen range between 106 degrees and -38 degrees. Sure the feds might kick in the money for construction, then I get stuck with the heating and cooling bills.
Iowa was once a wonderful land full of natural wonders, there is an old legend that at one time, a tree-climbing squirrel could leap from branch to branch and cross the entire state without ever touching the ground. But farmers levelled all the trees and now it's all mega-agriculture, and the attendant pesticide and fertilizer pollution. People say they want to live in Iowa to get closer to nature, but it's got the most polluted land and water of almost anywhere in the US. There's even a EPA Superfund cleanup site right in the middle of downtown Iowa City.
So my point is, it is sheer idiocy to plop a rainforest down in the middle of Iowa. The massive amount of energy it takes to maintain the greenhouse will actually
(and again)
...will actually CONTRIBUTE to global warming and the destruction of the REAL rainforests. It would be better to spend the money restoring the natural Iowa environment.
Better to put frogs in the pool than blow them up with firecrackers, like Bush did!
Ah, childhood's happy hours...
cat- the kerry quote is in rolling stone magazine- it's mentioned on buzzflash.
http://tinyurl.com/y1m1
sally's right- some geezer called into washington journal this morning complaining the liberal media isn't mentioning kerry used the "f" word in reference to the Resident.
And BTW atrios, can't you just pony up the dough for a Halo pro account? Then we could stop this 1000chr foolishness.
Thanks for the info, Charles. I'm not saying it should be done, and Iowans have always seemed to have a lot of common sense about such things. Is Grassley getting much criticism? Coralville's not that far from Iowa City, is it? A couple of miles? And that area probably leans dem like Ames, right?
charles,
does haloscan pro not have the limit?
last time I checked I didn't see anything about that...will look now.
...some geezer called into washington journal this morning complaining the liberal media isn't mentioning kerry used the "f" word in reference to the Resident.
I applaud Kerry for his restraint.
Well, putting aside for a minute the rain forest museum project, that swimming pool thing is one of the more outrageous things I've ever read.
They closed most of the swimming pools in the less affluent areas of Dallas several years ago because they were in terrible shape and there was no money to fix them. It's 110 in the shade here in the summer, there are a lot of children who used those pools, and they shut them down. It kills me that they shut down safe, fun places where kids who live in housing projects and substandard rental property could go and enjoy themselves.
And some fucking damned Repug wants to unclog the drains in a pool in Nevada. At least it's less than a million, and it is in a working class neighborhood. But why couldn't the bastard just say the kids there need a pool? Why did he have to make it about him?
I like the 1000 character limit. That's probably what keeps most of the wingers away. They can posit a thought themselves so they always post huge articles from sources like World Nut Daily.
cat
It is in the latest copy of Rolling Stone magaazine....
" I voted for what I thought was best for the country. Did I expect Howard Dean to go off to the left and say ' I'm against everything'? Sure. Did I expect George Bush to Fuck it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did"
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...cle.asp?
ARTICLE ID=35997
Also.... the company making the GWB action doll has made a new one, THE TOP GUN MODEL..I kid you not.......The new doll comes with helmet and visor and oxygen tank.....Phrases in the presidents own voice placed on the dolls sound chip include.... "terrorism against our nation will not stand"...and...."working to put food on your family"
The dolls are made in China!!!!!
They "can't"....
Ok, I have to say that I'm totally stupid. Which "f" word are we talking about? Fundamentalist? Fool? Fuckwit?
Freedom Fries
OOPS! - crossed posts. Nevermind.
Yes pie, Iowa residents have the second oldest average age, second only to Florida. All the young kids leave Iowa, and all the old folks go to Florida. That's because there's nothing for kids to do here, and there's lots of stuff for oldsters in FL.
Atrios, I'm just assuming the 1000chr was a ploy to push people over to paying pro accounts. I could be wrong and you just can't do >1000chr no matter what. I'd consider offerring you free comment space on my own CPU but I don't think I could afford the extra bandwidth, and my DSL ISP's not that reliable anyway.
To the Moon!*yay* c'mon,it's only $400bn
Well, I'll pay haloscan $10, seeing how I've mooched off them enough, and see what happens..
Crap, it looks like the 1000chrs is fixed, no matter what level of service. Haloscan sucks. But I can see Nemo's point about liking the limit to keep the trolls down.
I'm having my own troll war on my blog. Some neocon pro-military idiot found by blog by googling for a silly article I wrote about "Cher Ami," a famous military carrier pigeon. Then without reading anything else on my blog, he noticed I linked to Tom Tomorrow, and he announced his jihad against my blog, he started flooding the comments. I had to turn off all comments blogwide to keep him from trashing everything. I couldn't just ban him because he apparently has an unlimited number of IP addresses available. I figure he'll lose interest after finding the door locked for a week or so, then I'll turn comments back on.
how about Fascist?
Charles - I would expect more of that kind of thing as the campaign heats up, too.
Sorry for your troubles.
FYI, the F word (from the Lexicon of Liberal Invective).
I [hear ya] Tena. It's going to be a really nasty campaign. And I'll make a prediction right now and right here: Expect violence in 04 from the wingers.
Yeah, Coralville is right next to IC, I live right on the border between Coralville and IC but it would still take me 15 min by car to get to the site, 30 if I drove from downtown. The site's near the interstate highway to attract tourists.
Iowans never struck me as having much common sense, I always say that "Iowans can't see farther than the horizon." IC is a Democratic stronghold (we even had a Socialist on the city council recently) but everyone loves Grassley, he's a fool but a fool with massive seniority.
How about.... Fraud, or Fake, as in, fake turkey!
sally -- ALL toys are made in china now. with the exception of shitty water guns, balloons and the like that you find in that bizarre rat-trap / mop and broom aisle at the supermarket.
while there are still supermarkets, before they all become wal-marts.
i used to work in the toy industry during the wholesale transition from US / Mexico manufacture to Chinese. it was the saddest thing to see -- and an omen of things to come for our entire economy.
this article in the LA Times today sums it up: we're completely dependent on china now and even our BS "trade wars" are just bread and circuses for us masses.
ugh.
...but everyone loves Grassley
Because he brings home the bacon!
And, yes, I'm also sorry you're being bothered by a nitwit who nothing better to do, obviously. He probably couldn't keep his job at Mickey D's.
What about....FRAUD.....or....FAKE...
As in, Fake Turkey fed to fed up GI's
Mr. Gibbons, why exactly am I paying for your guilty conscience?
Fiscal responsibility... meet open window. Ground outside open window... meet fiscal responsibility.
And I really believe that putting tadpoles in the drain of the swimming pool when he was ten is the last bad thing this scrotum blossom ever did. But this is the one that keeps him awake at night.
Ye Gods!
Jeebus, can't Gibbons go to therapy for his tadpole issues? That's covered by his health plan. 
"I have an enormous guilty conscience for putting frogs in the swimming pool when I was about 10 years old," he said.
Then why aren't Gibbons and his *friends* paying for it?
Hahahahahaha...
I am a constituent of Jim Gibbons and I can attest to his callousness. He is a typical lockstep GOP zombie willing to sell his constituents down the river to favor the fat cat corporations that fund his campaigns. Regardless of how many contacts I make he sends the same shitty form letters that say "I appreciate your views but fuck you". The only time his staff ever contacted me was when I had a letter published in the Reno Gazette-Journal exposing his hypocrisy and advising folks to contact him. Apparently some folks must have called and he didn't like the heat because I got a call from his office within days to let me know how wrong I was. Ooooh, touchy, touchy, touchy! I am currently working on a complete expose of his voting record for publication next summer to educate people to exactly who "represents" them here in northern Nevada. While I don't expect him to be defeated as this is a reliably reactionary district, I do hope to make him just a little uncomfortable.
there is an old legend that at one time, a tree-climbing squirrel could leap from branch to branch and cross the entire state without ever touching the ground
Dude, that's Ohio. Iowa was a swamp. At least the eastern half was. How do you think your state wound up with four feet of premium-grade topsoil after settlers moved there in the C19? The first thing they did was drain the swamp.
The water *is* poison in Iowa City. Gotta agree with that.
Downtown IC once had a really cool rainforest butterfly shack. Probably cost $10,000 to construct. The children loved it.
I like the 1000 character limit
Ok, I have to applaud Kerry for being frank, but with all the wonderful "f" words he could have chosen, why that one? I was looking for something like fascist, felon, fraud, freebooter, or failure.
libdevil - Oh I don't know - "fuck up" pretty much says it.
no, peasants, that's "small government for you." Socialism has always been acceptable in America (indeed, has always been doctrine)as long as it only benefits people too wealthy to need it.
newty - that isn't called "socialism," it's called "Stalinism."
You know, Tena, it occurs to me that all the *isms* benefit the wealthy, if truth be told.
Even, lately, democrac-ism.
pie - hmmm - good point. At least, most every -ism can be "adjusted" so that it benefits the wealthy.
No, Iowa was never a swamp. All that topsoil came from the glaciers up north that scraped Canada and deposited it on Iowa when they stopped moving south at the end of the ice ages. Iowa was pretty much the southwest extent of the natural American forests, after that it's all Nebraska prarie grass. Believe me I could bore you to death with geologic data because I used to work at the US Geological Survey.
Give me an -ism that hasn't been.
onanism
good, i'm glad kerry is telling it like it is.
"fudge it up" does not convey the level at which bush made iraq FUBAR.
i think we're all grownups here.
fuck. fuck. fuck
shit. fuck. sluts. whores. fuck. fuck. shit. ass.
fuck.
Charles - it is too cool that you worked for the USGS. What a job! Or at least, from the histories of some of the first USGS expeditions into the San Juans, it always sounded like a really interesting way to spend one's time.
Is there a Republican office-holder who *didn't* torture animals in his youth, or is it a necessary phase of the pathology?
Ev'rybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism,
Dragism, Madism,
Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, That-ism,
is-m, is-m, is-m
All we are saying...
what's it going to cost for frist's
cats?
Can no longer resist, here's a couple of off topic comments from an Iowa dirt farmer guy...first, there's lots of trees up here in the relatively mountainous northeast part, if there were ever swamps I'd guess NC-NW Ia, where they did all the draining projects and now are trying to restore wetlands. BTW, Charles, it isn't all mega-agriculture yet, though I do feel it breathing down my neck...
Back on topic- the rain forest thing is just a big boondoggle, all right- sort of like letting people with $ "adopt" Bengal tigers. "See? There are too rain forests." and "Look at that, doesn't GE have a nice array of tigers?" As if that makes up for the real ones being destroyed...aarrgh...
Lastly, regarding Grassley (our idea of what Abe Lincoln would look like with a good haircut and expensive suit)- he's a pretty standard Republican- he made his rep as a "maverick" over defense issues. He couldn't get "punished" in any meaningful way over that because we don't have a lot of defense/military presence here. Safe game for him to play, he always raises lots of dough for "laugher" re-election campaigns, probably Senator-for-Life. At least we have Tom Harkin.
towndrunk, i thought he was a feral texan now?
i have driven through Iowa, it certainly has a dearth of national/state parks and there 'last patch of natural grassland' was PITIFUL.
and maybe if they got rid of the pig factories it would SMELL BETTER.
but iowa is nice.
and it sounds like they are PRESERVING an old swimming pool and not building a new HOOTERS.
"Give me an -ism that hasn't been."
Nothingism
Neverism
Ifonlyism
isms, good to rail against
But try hammering a nail into one of them
Talk about broken mirrors
ALL ISMS ARE BAD!!!
But that's just anti-ism-ism
Surely isms should be enveloped more fully
To see if they take purchase
read the LATimes' pork story in Sunday's gazette.
I also live in Iowa City and this whole rainforest thing is way out of hand. I don't know a single person here who is actually interested in the whole thing. . . except of course the people who are interested in the convention center they plan on building next door. . .
I live in Sparks, NV, and I know the pool Gibbons is talking about. While I think he's a tool and a typical Nevada wingnut, I have mixed feelings about the project. Who doesn't want their local facilities fixed up? Really, you wouldn't? The facility is adequate, but if the fieldhouse and the equipment were spruced up a bit I wouldn't mind at all. Government largesse in the form of public services is good, whether pushed by a Dem or a Rethug.
Reid for Senate.
Damn, how many people in/from Iowa read this blog? I'm from S.E. Iowa. (Burlington, W.B., Mediapolis)
it's a good thing to be dependent on China. China is far more dependent on us than we are on them, and this is the sort of dependency that stops wars.
Wouldn't it make more sense to try to restore a chunk of the prairie which must have occupied some space in Iowa at one time. At least Iowa's children could then learn what their Reptilian politicians have trashed forever.
mongbat
I don't know much about it. What does China depend on us for?
Chuck Nevitt - see my comment above, in which I say that at least the pool is in a working class neighborhood and isn't going to cost a million dollars. But why in the fuck did Gibbons have to make it all about him?
And since when is fixing a pool in a community a federal matter? Why should my tax dollars go to fix your pool? We have pools in Dallas in underpriveleged parts of town that need to be fixed. That's where my tax dollars should go - not to fix some damned pool in Nevada.
I also live in Iowa City and this whole rainforest thing is way out of hand. I don't know a single person here who is actually interested in the whole thing. . . except of course the people who are interested in the convention center they plan on building next door. . .
benh
This is where everyone says, "Ah-ha!" What other crony-capitalist tie-ins are there with the rest of these responsible Republican projects? Don't hold your breath for Stone Phillips et al to do an in depth investegation of the matter.
I had an experience with Jim Gibbons back when the FCC was trying to sell the airwaves to Clear Channel. He, of course, was all for it. His reasoning, from his letter, explained that the current law dated back to The New Deal era, and was out of date. But the old laws, as he explained them, seemed to promote the smaller businesses, so I never really saw his point. My conclusion was the same as Vinnies. Another rubberstamp conservative.
Characters Remaining:
Commenting by HaloScan
