A Break

I’ll be on vacation through next week, so the posts will be few and far between, or not at all.

I’ll be back July 13, unless something pressing prompts me chime in sooner.

Have a fine Fourth.

Summer Tunes

Sources close to the solstice claim it’s summer. Judging by our recent Octoberish weather, I can’t confirm that. 

But apparently it’s true. And I ran across Entertainment Weekly’s list of the top 100 summer songs of all time.

It’s a fairly predictable list. “Summer in the City” by The Lovin’ Spoonful is No.1. There are three Beach Boys songs in the top 25. No big shockers.

For some reason, Van Halen is the first band I think of when the subject of summer music comes up. That’s probably due to my age and the amount of time I spent listening to Van Halen and Van Hagar while cruising with the T-tops out in my friend’s IROC-Z.

Throw in Motley Crue, Cinderella and Def Leppard while you’re at it.

But, sadly, Van Halen does not make the EW top 100.

Sam Cook, The Doors and old-school Bruce ”The screen door slams…,” Springsteen, Gregg Allman would make my summer list. The EW list has some Beatles songs, but nothing from the Sgt. Pepper’s album, which I think has a frivolous summer feel. And it came out the same year my parents’ old Malibu convertible rolled out of Detroit. (It’s not the one pictured above, but similar. They sold it. Curses.)

I loved that car, except the fact that it threw a hubcap everytime I took a corner too sharp.

The more I think about it, the more music I could add. But I’d rather find out what you think.

Tea Party Serves CR Media Lumps

Sometimes, an e-mail ends up in some unintended in-boxes.

On Tuesday, Tim Pugh, a driving force behind a Cedar Rapids Tea Party protest event on July 4th,  sent an e-mail providing his personal assessment of several local media types/organizations.

It looks like it was supposed to be for Tea Party eyes only. The bad news for Pugh is that the e-mail was somehow forwarded to most of the  journalists. Now it’s everywhere. I got my copy today.

Essentially, Pugh plays Santa, deciding which reporters are naughty (”liberal”) and nice,  even “very nice.” Most of it is fairly mild, although one reporter is dubbed a “douche,” who the intended message recipient should “avoid at all cost.” Another is called a liberal who “trys to hide it.”

He also warns the intended recipient to  ”Watch your step with the Gazette.”

In all, 13 local journalists, print and broadcast, are mentioned. That list does not include me. I feel left out.

I’m not going to share the whole e-mail, because some of what’s said is clearly unfair to some of the targets. But here’s how the e-mail summed up Iowa Public Radio’s Alex Heuer (who gave me permission to recount it):

Iowa Public Radio, kinda dorky but really nice and does follow through with links to his reports and things like that. Also will go out of his way to talk to you at events

Heuer, to his credit, shrugged it off.

“I appreciate the kind comments about me but I’d be careful, pretty insulting to some. By the way, will dorks and douches be invited to your future events?” Heuer wrote in a follow up e-mail to Pugh.

I also sent an email to Tim P asking about the e-mail, and why I wasn’t included. He hasn’t written back.

And to think, Tea Party backers have complained in the past that they didn’t get enough media attention. They’ve got it now.

Thursday Column — In with a tweet, and lots of questions

So Christian Fong couldn’t wait.

The Republican Cedar Rapids marketing executive kicked off his run for governor with a Twitter tweet. Contrast that with the last GOP nominee, Jim Nussle, who entered the 2006 race with glitzy fanfare usually reserved for presidential hopefuls. We’ve gone from bunting and balloon drops to 140 characters on my BlackBerry.

Nussle burst in with the stature of a congressional power-broker known far and wide. Fong, 32, looks as if he’s still growing into his suit. He’s well-known and well-regarded locally. Elsewhere, he’s a question mark.

And questions swirl. Will Republicans send someone born in the days of disco to the big dance, to go toe-to-toe with the Big Lug? Can Fong’s bid to make history, as the youngest governor and the son of a Chinese immigrant, overcome his troubling lack of an electoral history? Can he convince the agitated right that “progressive conservative” isn’t shorthand for a squishy moderate who contributed bucks to Democrats?

Can a guy whose name rhymes with “wrong” weather the shots he’ll get from seasoned pols eager to take him out?

And will Iowans make a blogger governor?

Many candidates blog. Most offer small treats. Fong blogs in treatises.

Still, for a fresh face, there’s plenty of boilerplate. There are calls for investments and zones and a task force on tax policy. Big government is “too often the problem.” Teachers should be paid more if they meet higher standards. Rural schools are great. Marriage is between one man and one woman.

It’s not all bad. Just not all new. But there are glimpses into how Fong might shake things up.

He warns against practicing single-issue, ideological politics and urges the rejection of a “bizarre stream of conservatism that values ideological loyalty above all.” Fong decries labeling opponents as “extremist” in what he calls a “playground insult war.”

He might want to share that with one of his top backers, Iowans for Tax Relief chief Ed Failor Jr., who recently told a GOP crowd the Democrats’ agenda is Nazi-like.

Fong toes the party line on marriage, but he also wrote this before the Legislature adjourned: “The GOP needs to stop playing political games. Their frantic calls for a marriage amendment, ‘or it’s too late,’ are counterfactual to the realities of how the constitutional process works … let me suggest that turning a moral issue into a political chip is both disrespectful to the people involved and trivializes an important debate.”

But will he say that at a Sioux County soup supper? We’ll have to wait and see.

Good News, Bad News, Pass the Tenderloins

First, the good news.

Iowa has the eighth-lowest rate of overweight kids in the nation, according to a new study by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  Still, at 26.5 percent that’s hardly a reason to get up and do jumping-jacks.

Or actually, that might be a good idea.

The bad news? Iowa has the 22nd highest rate of adult obesity, 26.7 percent. Oof. Hey, at least we beat Illinois, and our weight held steady compared to last year.

Mississippi had the worst rates of both adult and childhood obesity. Minnesota had the best rate for kids. Colorado topped the list for adults.

Fong’s In

Christian Fong just tweeted that he’s entering the campaign for governor:

christianfong Today I announced & filed that I am a candidate for Governor of Iowa

So I guess Eastern Iowa now has a candidate.  He talked to James Lynch of The Gazette first.

Krusty Calls it a Krush

Krusty Konservative today expands on his misgivings about the possibility of Christian Fong jumping into the GOP race for governor.

Krusty contends that service on the Generation Iowa Commission does not make a hefty gubernatorial resume, he’s a young unknown and would be better off seeking a legislative seat first — all valid, fair points.

Krusty also thinks I was too, uh, affectionate, and not thorough enough, when I wrote about Fong last week:

Since Todd “man crush” Dorman is unwilling to do any research on the guy, and fellow TIR blogger Constitution Bi-Weekly (kidding…well kinda) seem to think Fong’s musings on a blog somehow merit gubernatorial consideration, I thought I’d take the 30 seconds needed to do a little research on this guy.

Granted, since he is only 32 years-old, you can’t expect to find a whole lot out there, but I did find a couple interesting contribution Mr. Fong has made. In the fall of 2008, Fong made a $100 contribution to Democrat State Representative Tyler Olson, and a $50 contribution to Democrat State Representative Elisha Gayman. Both Olson and Gayman are pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and vote in lock step with the labor unions.

Actually, I didn’t intend to suggest that I think Fong is clearly ready to be governor or even the GOP nominee. We’ve got a long campaign to settle that question, if he takes the plunge.

I wasn’t looking for love, honest. Just a column. 

Make sure to read Krusty’s whole post.

Tuesday Column — Culver Visits Denial

Misplacing a governor is never good, as we’ve learned in recent days.

You think he’s hiking and it turns out he’s crying in Argentina. So it’s important for Iowans to keep track of our governor, for his sake and ours.

So where is Gov. Chet Culver?

“It’s just like he’s in a state of denial,” said former Gov. Terry Branstad, who, after serving four terms, is an authority on governor tracking.

But I’m not familiar with Denial. Maybe it’s somewhere between Manly and Fertile.

A second opinion?

“He’s living in Fantasyland,” said Bob Vander Plaats, a Republican making his third try to become a located governor.

It turns out Denial and Fantasyland are suburbs of Whopping Budget Mess. And that’s what our governor is sitting in the middle of right now. I suspect he’d rather be in Argentina.

He insists everything’s fine. Nothing to see here, all is well. But the numbers won’t go away.

Revenues are plunging. Conservative estimates say lawmakers will face a $903 million budget shortfall in January, more than double what the state has in reserves. The budget year that ends at midnight tonight is probably well into the red. The budget that takes effect Wednesday is likely far too big to be sustained. It’s time to start scouring ditches for cans.

Culver may be forced to call a special legislative session later this summer or early this fall to plug the most immediate leaks. He’s desperate to avoid that, so he’s fudging the numbers and hoping for the best. This is especially rich political theater around here. Massive flooding doesn’t rate special legislative attention, but lousy arithmetic is another matter.

It’s a critical stretch of Culver’s governorship. The budget could be his biggest vulnerability. And someone needs to tell him that it’s way too late for “everything’s just dandy!” We expect a reality-based response when it comes to our government and our money.

The reality is things are bad and getting worse. “It makes one wonder if he really has a handle on what’s going on,” said state Rep. Christopher Rants, a GOP candidate for governor.

Another former governor, Tom Vilsack, was back last week. And that reminded me of the last budget crisis. Vilsack was no stranger to big spending and fiscal shuffling, but when the budget collapsed, he played it straight, took control of the situation and projected competence.

That’s why, when Doug Gross tried in 2002 to label Vilsack as a reckless spender, it didn’t stick.

Culver needs to show competence at this moment, or the charges are going to start sticking. He’ll be in Big Political Trouble. That’s just down the road from Denial.

Elect Me. Impeach Me.

Republican candidate for governor Bob Vander Plaats has unveiled a new campaign strategy. If elected, he promises to be impeached.

From The Iowa Independent:

Appearing on the show of controversial Christian radio host Steve Deace, Vander Plaats once again said if elected governor in 2010 he would issue an executive order stopping same-sex marriage until the legislature either passes a law legalizing it or passes a constitutional amendment banning it.

“I can’t give the people the right to vote on this, but I think I can mobilize people like [Senate Majority Leader Mike] Gronstal and [House Speaker Pat] Murphy by saying no more same-sex marriages until you step up and vote to make this law,” Vander Plaats said.

After doing so, he said he fully expects Democrats to try to remove him from office for “promoting lawlessness.”

“I would like to have that debate, because then Pat Murphy has to go back to his people in Dubuque and tell them we’re going to impeach Vander Plaats because he wants the legislature to do its job in the constitution and he also wants to give you the right to vote,” he said. “I don’t think that would play very well.”

I know,I know, this is supposed to be gold with the base. But again, with so many other big problems facing the state (a.k.a stuff most people care about) why is it a good idea to elect a candidate who will spend the opening months of his term fighting impeachment?

Maybe you know. I don’t.

Iowa, You Can Still Make Me Smile

Good news, the state isn’t banning smiling.

The DOT is using new facial recognition software on driver’s licenses. But unlike other states, Iowa won’t require a long face. From Radio Iowa:

(DOT spokesperson Dena) Gray-Fisher says the software Iowa is putting into practice will not require people to put on a blank, stony face. “Any Iowan can certainly have a modest, reasonable smile and that’s not going to affect the software,” Gray-Fisher says. “We’re not going to have any crazy faces or something that might really distort your face, but anybody can have a reasonable smile.”

Several states, including Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia, require people to have a “neutral” face for their photos, something like the people featured in Iowa native Grant Wood’s classic painting “American Gothic.”

I, personally, have never felt like smiling, even modestly, during a visit to the license station. But my license is up for renewal this summer, so I’d better find a mirror and start practicing my reasonable smile.

So what’s an unreasonable smile look like? For that, we’ll turn to my 3-year old daughter, who is often smiling and unreasonable:

Look out folks. She’ll be on the road in just 13 short years. Yikes.