Posts Tagged iowa

The Chief Justice Was Sleeping

Oct 21

Posted by Parched in In the states | No Comments

This is a priceless defense when your husband, underage son and his underage friends, are drinking a case of Bud by the bonfire.  Oh, and you’re the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court – yeah that helps too.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus says she was home sleeping the night her husband, her son and a group of teenagers were charged by Polk County sheriff’s deputies investigating an underage beer party on Ternus’ property.

Ternus says she was unaware of the party until a deputy arrived at the house to investigate a complaint of loud noises on her 29-acre property near Grimes.

The I was sleeping defense is almost as good as…”Ooops – sorry dude.” The Des Moines Register has the rest.

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Politics P.G.

Oct 20

Posted by Parched in Governor, In the states | No Comments

Yes, there was a time when opposition research didn’t include sitting down, opening up Internet Explorer, or Firefox, or Safari, and firing up your search engine to look for tidbits on a political candidate.  This time shall be known as P.G. (Pre Google).  Kind of a funny thing when you think about it, and according to Ed Tibbets, Republican candidate for Iowa governor Chris (or Christopher) Rants thought about it and is drawing attention to the fact that one of his opponents, former Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad, last made news in the P.G. era of politics.

He has a good point. Today’s politics is a lot different than it was in Branstad’s hey-day. Today, opposition research is pretty easy. Google makes it so. Even looking for the really embarrassing courthouse stuff is easier, thanks to the Internet and the increasing willingness of courts to post documents online.

But, as Rants pointed out, Branstad is shielded from some of this because the stories written about his four terms are all pre-Google.

Well, today it looks like Rants is trying to even the scales. He’s added a new feature to his web site — an archive in which he’s scanned “news from the 80s and 90s,” as he puts it.

Don’t expect a lot of stories about Duran Duran, Big Hair or the A-Team.

Man who couldn’t do with a dose of some B.A. Baracus! See all of Ed Tibbetts’ post here.

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Where Good Ideas Go to Grow

Aug 27

Posted by Parched in Governor, In the states, Rising Stars | No Comments

Maybe Washington should be paying more attention to what’s happening in the states when it comes to finding solutions to solving the health care issue in this country.  Chris Rants is running for Governor of Iowa, and he’s come up with 4 ideas to improve health care.  You know he’s not the only candidate out there trying to create or identify solutions that Washington might be missing – but he’s the one in the news right now. The truth is, Washington can work better if it works harder at looking for solutions to the nation’s problems by looking where they grow more plentiful….out in the nation.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Rants is touting four ideas he says could raise the quality and lower the cost of health care in Iowa. “Some of these proposals are common sense, practical solutions (like) electronic health records,” Rants says. “Making a commitment that the state should enable that is something that I think both parties should be able to agree upon.”

In addition to calling for all medical records in Iowa to be digitized within four years, Rants proposes adjusting the system of reimbursing hospitals for the care provided to Medicare and Medicaid patients. Rants says high-quality care should be rewarded with the highest payments.

You can read the entire article at Radio Iowa dot com.  Check out Rants entire press release here.

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Cool Building…Clueless Governor

Aug 21

Posted by Parched in Uncategorized | No Comments

Iowa Governor Chet Culver gets caught being unprepared for class.

It’s a safe bet that whoever did the governor’s briefing book on this event got an earful.  This episode creates an opportunity for Republicans Christian Fong, Paul McKinley, Christopher Rants, Rod Roberts, and Bob Vander Plaats to paint Culver as not all that engaged, and gives more questions likely to be raised about his management on other issues a better chance at sticking.  Bet Iowans hear about this one once the primary is all settled again.   Of course, they’ll hear about it nonstop prior no doubt.  UPDATE:  Had to replace the original story since the local T.V. station pulled the story off the web…but, you do have the raw footage now…little bit longer, but just as fun.

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Got Iowa on the brain

Jul 9

Posted by Parched in Governor | No Comments

Came across this headline earlier today: 53% of Iowans Want a New Governor and thought, well that’s a pretty not nice thing to say about a mid-western governor.  Then after reading the article you start to think, well, Governor Chet Culver hasn’t exactly been a pillar of leadership on the really rock-hard place issues so far for 2009.

A lot of his problems stem from fiscal matters, whether it’s hoping for the best on the $161 million budget deficit instead of making cuts and upsetting some core political allies, not standing up for taxpayers thrown out of a public hearing because they demanded their voices to be heard (literally hundreds of Iowans were escorted out of the House chamber by state police), and a little splash of social issues by folding on a key family values issue he had earlier pledged to stand strong on (he said he’d do whatever it took).

Some other little bits and pieces that make the case against Culver stronger.  Iowa families impacted by flooding continue to feel a real tax pinch because Democrats under Culver’s leadership blocked giving flood victims the ability to deduct their losses.  That cuts in a poll like this one.  Or jobs missed by Iowans that could’ve been had by offering tax incentives to green companies that can build components for wind farms.  Others states need the business more than Iowa one would surmise.  That also cuts pretty good.

So right there, 5 real issues that will continue to drive Chet Culver’s numbers down, and give Republicans like former House Speaker Christopher Rants, and Bob Vander Plaats the opportunities to offer Iowans real change in the office of Governor.

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