New strategies in Clarke County lake issue

Posted on February 5, 2010 by callmecrusader

Imagine spending years of your life fighting to keep YOUR land from being grabbed up by those who covet what you have for their personal gain.

Imagine hard feelings with your neighbors and people you thought were your friends because you would not roll over and give in to the greed of others.

Imagine the price paid  in your sense of well-being, belief in fairness, and cost in personal finances that years of fighting for what is yours takes on your life.

Imagine what it would be like to find out that there was an alternate, less expensive way for water to be provided for the county where you live.

And then imagine what it would be like to uncover information that exposes the twisted, underhanded, and conniving “ramblings” of those who are desperate to grab your land away.

Yes, envision what life is like for those who are at risk of losing their  land and homes.
According to an article in the Osceola Sentinel – Tribune there is an alternate way to get water to Clarke County.

Pipeline costs were also discussed at the meeting. The construction of this alternative to the reservoir would mean pumping water from McMullen Water Treatment Plant in southwest Des Moines to Osceola.

The pipeline would be constructed along country roads for the majority of the route. The 38 miles of pipeline is estimated to cost $32 million.

Doug Robins, Clarke County landowner, states the following in a letter send to Richard Simms of the NRCS.

The reason I am writing you today is to ask if you are aware that an alternative to a water supply for Clarke County is a pipeline from Maffit reservoir west of Des Moines. At the last CCRC meeting a cost estimate was presented to the commission at a cost of just under 32 million dollars. The last estimate of the reservoir was 42 million dollars and that is not including the cost of the stream mitigation that the EPA is requiring which could run into more millions of dollars.

My question to you is, as the head of the Iowa NRCS, why are your employees still pursuing the reservoir when Clarke county can have an adequate water supply for at least ten million dollars less. As a taxpayer of this county and state I have seen this project spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with the NRCS charging the county close to $350,000 for your services.

And here is an e-mail that was written by Dan McIntosh, Manager of the Southern Iowa Rural Water Association. The document was requested by Doug Robbins through the Freedom of Information Act.

“My ramblings on new proposal.”
Possible New CCRC Strategies
Water Needs Assessments Reviewed
SIRWA & CCRC Water Needs Assessments will be reviewed by an independent engineer
*Possibly DNR
The findings will determine how the lake is sized
No Recreation
Recreation will not be a part of the CCRC plan to build the lake
*Lake would be fenced in so no one could use it for recreation
Positives
Those most vocal against current plan have said they would be “willing sellers” of their land if these two changes were made
Much less opposition from land owners & others around the state
*Takes the CCRC out of the “Hot Seat”
Less acres to buy because we only need to purchase the buffer strip & possibly land to square up property lines.
Legislature will not need to modify the current Eminent Domain law
*It works as they want it to
Negatives
NRCS will have to develop new Draft Plan
Costs for CCRC will increase due to less funding from NRCS because this will not be a multi-purpose lake anymore
*LOSST Tax will be in effect years longer
Positives
Area Citizens will be upset at the thought of no recreation
*CCRC Board can deflect blame to:
* Certain stubborn landowners
* Representatives Kaufmann & Tymeson
We will finally get the “Silent Majority” of the citizens to express their feelings
*They WANT RECREATION on the new lake

Negatives
It will probably add time to the planning stages of the lake

“Deflect blame to certain stubborn landowners”?

“Deflect blame to Representatives Kaufmann & Tymeson”?

Twist things around to say NO RECREATION because you know that “they WANT RECREATION”?

Readers, can you see what the ‘certain stubborn landowners’ are up against?

These people must be exposed for what they are doing before  more tax dollars are spent to create a lake when there is an alternate water source.

Iowans and Americans: What will you do to put those working to find ways to unscrupulously take this land and put them in the “hot seat”?

The time is now.

Your land could be next.

Taylor County, I hope you are paying attention to the struggles that may be coming your way.

Filed under: Politics, callmecrusader | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

So Much For Inevitibility

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Al Bregar

In the wake of the off year caucus it would not be unreasonable to assume that all of the Republican Party’s declared candidates would have garnered the required number of signatures. However, that does not seem to be the case. On two consecutive days this week I have received emails from two prominent campaigns asking for help in acquiring the signatures needed. This indicates to me that these campaigns have failed to garner the required signatures. Now I admit that they could simply be trying to gather more signatures than is needed, however I couldn’t see them going through the added expense of generating an email to do this.

The first candidate that I spoke of is 3rd Congressional candidate Jim Gibbons. In the email that the Gibbons camp sent out it specifically mentions an increased number of caucus goers this year over previous off year caucuses. I find this comment especially interesting considering Gibbons appears to not have garnered enough signatures at the caucuses to get his name on the June primary ballot. In fact the headline of the email sent out is “Next Step: Get Jim on the Ballot.” This clearly points to a feeling among the party base that Gibbons is not their guy.

The second candidate that appears to have failed at getting nominating signatures has been promoted as the inevitable gubernatorial nominee. In an email sent out by the Branstad campaign they are soliciting their supporters to get out and promote him. However the tool that they are using to do this is the nominating paperwork. It would seem that Terry Branstad has failed to garner the required number of signatures at the various caucuses around the state. Another thing that I find interesting about the Branstad campaigns effort is that they felt the need to “bribe” people into getting the papers signed. This would indicate to me that not only is the prospect of another Branstad administration not appealing to the base of the party, but his supporters are not all that thrilled to go out to do the dirty work to get their guy nominated. It is clear that contrary to what Branstad’s supporters want you to believe, his ascension to Governor is anything but a foregone conclusion.

There is little doubt in my mind that both of these candidates will manage to acquire the required number of signatures to file with the Iowa Secretary of State. However what is in doubt is how they would fare against their competitors. Both of these gentlemen should have been able to gather their required signatures last Saturday, but they failed at that endeavor. So much for inevitability.

Filed under: Abregar, Politics | Tagged: , , , , | 15 Comments »

Dave Funk on President Obama’s State of the Union Address

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Al Bregar

The following is a press release released by 3rd Congressional District Candidate Dave Funk

Dave Funk, Candidate for Congress; Iowa-03 Responds to SOTU and Unsuccessful Job Creation of 2009

Job creation is the biggest myth in the economy right now.  That is, those jobs “created” by the government.  Job creation, when done as direct investment by the government in the government, is no more than a long term unfunded mandate on the local level.  Here’s why:

Last night President Obama said, “Because of the steps we took, there are about two million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. 200,000 work in construction and clean energy. 300,000 are teachers and other education workers. Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, and first responders. And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year.”

That’s right, jobs created in law enforcement, education and construction (roads & infrastructure).  These are government related jobs! Gov. Chet Culver as well has been following the same logic as Leonard Boswell in Iowa and President Obama.

How will the schools pay for these new jobs when their budgets are being cut?  How does the police force justify their budgets when the number of officers increased and crime did not?  What will construction workers do when their projects are done?  All they have done is place financial liabilities that cannot be avoided on state and local governments.  There is no way around this burden and now either the greater population suffers because the state and local governments have to find the money to cover it or our state’s lose even more power and are dependent on the welfare of the federal government.

When the government makes a direct investment in jobs that add no economic productivity to the underlying economy it is impossible to turn a job created into more jobs created.  When you make a financial investment, your intent is for your money to make you more money.  This is the same logic.  When the government stimulates job growth it should be creating jobs that will help create more jobs indefinitely.

In Iowa, the government has spent $1.5 billion on 5,336 jobs.  These jobs were also in education, law enforcement and infrastructure.  The state of Iowa already has had to make a 10% budget cut across the board.  Now they’ll either have to find ways of supporting this increase they’ve accrued in annual costs or they will have to cut pay or layoff more to make up for it.  And here’s the saddest thing of it all.  Even if the state of Iowa or any area were to just lay off the people they hired from the stimulus package they are still stuck paying unemployment benefits.  There is no way around this cost burden – this unfunded mandate from the Federal government.

We need to get away from creating jobs for the sake of creating jobs and start pushing private investment in the private sector.  This could have been funds managed by private equity and venture capital to grow businesses in high growth industries.  It could have been done through private investment tax incentives or simply doing away with capital gains taxes.  There were so many ways the government could have created more jobs with that money and they have now borrowed from our children’s and grandchildren’s futures for unsustainable jobs.

The government needs to follow one rule of thumb:  The government should NEVER invest money in itself for the sole purpose of growth and job creation. It’s like creating 1,000,000 widgets for a market of 500 people.  It’s too much!  We cannot let them be stupid with our money anymore.  Time to stop the Stupid Spending! Vote these people out!

www.CongressNeedsFunk.com

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Christopher Reed on Obama’s State of the Union Address

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Al Bregar

The following is a commentary on last nights State of the Union Address from 2nd Congressional District candidate Christopher Reed.

1/28/10

Cedar Rapids- Christopher Reed, conservative candidate for U. S.  House of Representatives for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional district, released the following in response to President Obama’s State of the Union address.

President Obama continues to dazzle the American public with his speaking skills, even while Americans continue to lose their jobs, their homes and their confidence in our federal government.

I am in total agreement with President Obama’s statement, “There is a deficit of trust [in the Government] by the people”.  I believe this mistrust stems from a generation of politicians going to Washington DC and not holding true to the principles upon which they campaigned. The time has come for Americans to hold candidates to their words and demand that they are held accountable for their promises.

President Obama talked about the need for additional nuclear plants, more offshore drilling, and bio-fuel and clean coal expansion, which are all solutions to our nation becoming energy independent. But immediately after making this statement Obama pushed the need to pass the “Clean and Safe Climate and Energy Bill”, commonly known as “Cap and Trade”.  In my estimation, this bill will do much to eliminate those energy-producing technologies he previously mentioned.

The President made several other statements I disagree with:

  • Our President suggested, “People are upset because Washington is not fixing their problems.” I believe it’s not the government’s job to fix people’s problems. It is the people’s job to be responsible for their own lives.
  • Obama mentioned he wants to “forgive” college debt for anyone who goes into “public service jobs”. This will only serve to grow an already over-sized government and create even more bureaucracy.

  • President Obama stated that Health Care Reform is a “complex issue” and he threatened there will be lost care, employers will shirk their responsibilities, and health care costs will rise if reform is not passed. He also said he understands there is a lot of opposition to the bill, yet he demanded Congress “get it done”. So, even though the majority of Americans do not support the current health care reform being considered, Obama will make sure it happens.
  • Mr. Obama said he came to Washington to open the government to the people and keep lobbyists from decision-making positions. Yet he chose to ban C-SPAN from televising health care debates and his cabinet is filled with no less than twelve lobbyists!
  • In one breath Mr. Obama promised new incentives to open pathways for small businesses to access loans, but in the next breath he threatened to tax and fine any lending institution that dares to make a profit. True leaders take ownership in the face of adversity, not blame others for a mess they willingly accepted responsibility for.

  • Our President continues to blame the previous administration for this country’s economic problems. I believe it is time for Obama to end the blame game and focus his time and energy on fixing our economy and creating jobs.

Overall, our President seems determined to pass blame to others, ignore the will of the people and force-feed his agenda on the American people.

I believe this philosophy is in exact contrast to what has made this country great.  The people are the solution to problems, not the government. I believe its time to take back our country and return the control of our government to “We the People” as our constitution states!

For more information about Christopher Reed, visit www.ReedforIowa.com or call Campaign Headquarters @ 319-241-0565

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“Shame on Massachusetts” via Ames, Iowa

Posted on January 24, 2010 by amesvoter

It can be an interesting past time to attempt to understand the mind/thought process of liberals. Opening the Opinion section of The Tribune today gave me the occasion to see the current thinking of one such liberal.

As I am not certain how many Iowans will have the opportunity to read a letter such as this one by Dan Douglas, I will post it here.

Perhaps there are Iowans who are feeling “shamed” by electing someone like Scott Brown to replace “one of the greatest legislators in our nation’s history…”

For the record, I am not ashamed and my conservative brain is very pleased that “so-called independents voters” had the intelligence to vote for Scott Brown.

Read on:

Shame on Massachusetts

The people of Massachusetts should be ashamed. On Tuesday they gave a metaphorical slap in the face to one of the greatest legislators in our nation’s history, an advocate for the poor and disadvantaged, and replaced him with a man who will go to Washington and do nothing but mindlessly cast negative votes on all bills proposed by the Democratic majority or the President and jeopardize final passage of the hard-won health insurance reform bill.

This should serve as a lesson to all of us. If you want a legislator who will do nothing but sit on his or her hands and obstruct progress, vote for a Republican.

If you want someone whose only policy is to vote against any bill presented by a Democrat, vote for a Republican.

If you want negativity to return us to the deregulation of the financial industry that got us into this economic mess in the first place, vote for a Republican.

If you want someone whose negative mantra of lowering taxes and cutting government spending gave us crumbling highways and collapsing bridges, vote for a Republican.

If you want a Congress that will take us back to the negative isolationism of the previous eight years, vote for a Republican.

The so-called independent voters of Massachusetts have a lot to answer for.

Dan Douglas

Ames

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The Sound of Madness

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Al Bregar

Madness. According to The American Heritage Dictionary the definition of the word madness is

  1. The quality or condition of being insane.
  2. Great folly.
  3. Fury; rage.
  4. Enthusiasm; excitement.

And according to the Collins English Dictionary the definition is:

  1. Insanity; lunacy.
  2. Extreme anger, excitement, or foolishness.
  3. A nontechnical word for rabies.

Madness is a disorder that can afflict any individual without regard to their background, without regard to their education. Madness discriminates against no one. Even our elected officials can suffer from madness as has been clearly demonstrated by a certain Linn County Supervisor. On January 7th Republican Brent Oleson clearly lost his mind. For on this day Oleson not only launches into a tirade, he blatantly lies in an attempt to discredit a fellow Republican.

As most of you are no doubt aware State Representative Kent Sorenson publically endorsed Bob Vander Plaats for Governor. In the process of endorsing Vander Plaats Sorenson very publically vowed that he would not support Terry Branstad should he win the nomination. The problem arose with Oleson when he posted his comments on his blog, The Marion Contrarian. In his comments Oleson stated that Sorenson would not support any of the Republican nominees other than Branstad. This was clearly not the case and at first I assumed that it was simply an honest mistake on his part. However after presenting evidence to the contrary I quickly came to the realization that the misrepresentation was intentional. As interacted with Oleson it became quite clear the man was mad.

Then on January 18th Oleson presented the Linn County Republican a draft of a resolution that would ask Gubernatorial candidates to place their intelligence on hold in order to receive the support of the county party apparatus. Astoundingly the members of the Linn County Republican Central Committee fell in line and approved the resolution. This resolution is dangerous in many ways, but most importantly it asks the other candidates to support their opponent even if they do not agree with their positions. This would have the unintended consequence of making liars out of some of our candidates.

Personally I could understand a litmus test at the local level if it asked the candidates to pledge to support the platform as set forth by base of the party at the caucuses and conventions. However that is not what these people want. Instead it seems that these people want to encourage the blind faith that having an R behind a candidate’s name is all that truly matters. It is extremely disconcerting the rhetoric coming from Linn County because it is truly the sound of madness.

Filed under: Abregar, Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | 24 Comments »

The New Patriots

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Al Bregar

When one views history through the lens of time you can see certain series of events that lead to the rise of heroes. These are usually ordinary individuals that go above and beyond what is expected of them to do great things. More than two hundred years ago in this very nation we can see the events that led to the ascension of an ordinary man, George Washington, into a great leader that led his countrymen to true freedom. In the 1800’s we can see the circumstances that led Abraham Lincoln to become the great leader that he was. These men were not just great leaders, they were true patriots that placed the nations well being far above their own. If ever there was a time that our nation needed patriots of this caliber it is now.

Enter Dave Funk. At first glance you see nothing more than a man. A former airline pilot who served in our nation’s armed forces. While there he served as a mechanic on a variety of planes, then he moved on to piloting attack helicopters. Upon leaving the service he joined up with Northwest Airlines where he worked with the airline pilots union as a security coordinator. After retirement he just couldn’t shake the urge to serve the community in which he was a part of, so he joined up with the Pleasant Hill Police Department where he currently serves as a reserve police officer. After many years he still could not give up the desire to serve his fellow citizens. Now in 2010 he is campaigning to serve the community even further. He is one of many Republican candidates vying for the opportunity to challenge Democrat incumbent Leonard Boswell for the privilege to represent Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in Washington, DC. Recently I had an opportunity to sit down with Mr. Funk to discuss his campaign to defeat Leonard Boswell.

The first thing that anyone will learn about Mr. Funk is that he is a patriot. He loves his country. He loves the Constitution upon which it was founded. That is why he is running for Congress. He sees the nation on the fast track toward ruin. He sees our nation’s politico’s continuously ignoring the documents that founded our nation in their never ending quest to continue their political careers. His goal, if elected, is simple. He wants to return our nation to the governance set forth in writing when our nation was born. He wants to return Washington to a more Constitutional form of government. In explaining his position he touched on a couple of issues that illustrated his point.

I am sure most of you can recall the legislation banning the use of regular incandescent light bulbs effectively mandating the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs. Funk explained that this is an issue that should have been dealt with at the state level, not the federal level. He pointed out that for the most part, solutions that work in one area of our nation may not work in another region. It is for this reason that we need to maintain the balance first set forth by those that drafted our nation’s constitution. They understood this concept where many of those in power today do not.

Our nation is in desperate need of a new breed of patriots. Americans that are willing to put their life on hold for the betterment of their country. American’s that are willing to go the extra mile to the good of their country. I believe the current events unfolding in our nation’s capital is going to be the call to arms, so to speak, that will prompt individuals with a love for their country to step forward and put the interests of their neighbors above their own. I believe that Dave Funk is one of those patriots.

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“Shame” on Senator Schumer

Posted on January 19, 2010 by callmecrusader

So many liberal elected officials, pundits, and reporters have taken glee in using the term “tea bagger” that it has become sick OLD news. Perhaps they think they are being cute, shocking, and or just delight in being mean and nasty.

It was not a surprise to learn that yet another liberal could not resist poor manners and the use of a crude term to describe Scott Brown. This the same liberal who called a flight attendant a non flattering word when she asked Schumer to turn off his phone. Here is a part of  an article about Chuck Schumer’s use of the term “tea bagger”:

The two-term Democrat, in accusing Brown of being aligned with the conservative “tea party” movement, used a term that every tea party critic knows refers to a sexual act.

“Chuck has a way of saying things that I don’t think he really understands or means, and it’s unfortunate,” Brown told Fox News Thursday when asked about the e-mail. “I’m not into name-calling. … so shame on Chuck.”

Liberal television hosts had a field day with the “tea bag” term last year when the tea party movement gained steam. It seemed to lose its luster after the joke got old, but Schumer brought it back as he urged supporters to vote for Democrat Martha Coakley in next Tuesday’s high-stakes special election.

“Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy’s term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican,” Schumer wrote.

Scott Brown was being way too understanding of Schumer’s choice of a disgusting put down comment. I am quite certain that Schumer knew exactly what he was writing and his words  say volumes  about his character.

I do agree with Scott Brown and his words “so shame on Chuck”! Yes, shame on a man who represents American people in an important elected office. I doubt that shame works for a foul-mouthed, Harvard Law School graduate like Senator Schumer.

Perhaps being voted out of office will help his nasty vocabulary.

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Danny Glover shows how stupid he really is.

Posted on January 19, 2010 by iowanforabetteriowa

I used to enjoy watching Danny Glover in movies. Silverado, the Lethal Weapon’s movie’s. But what I heard come out of this idiot’s mouth shows me just what Michael Savage meant by saying Liberalism is a mental disorder. I  haven’t liked Danny Glover  a lot lately anyways since he had decided to stab his own country in the back and go down to Venezuela and become buddy, buddy with a communist dictator and say bad things about the United States the place he made a nice living and rich and free. But now he claims that global warming has caused the earthquake in Haiti that’s right it’s no typo you heard it right and it came from his mouth. Say’s Glover: “When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?” I have heard it all now global warming causes everything. Its morons like this that believe crap like that and try to spew their garbage to the rest of the world. I’m sure there are enough people out there that drank the stupid kool aid  by the case to honestly believe this man. Does he believe he is a expert now? It’s become obvious to me that this global warming has cause brain damage amongst the believers.

Global warming caused the volcano to blow its top in the Philippines. Its caused the deep snow and brutal cold all over Canada and the United States and Europe.  It’s caused the poor little oranges to freeze off their Florida citrus tails. And they wonder why we don’t believe this. I don’t believe it because one I simply do not see any warming and haven’t seen it major warm in 22 years. And the hottest summer day I ever seen was August of 1983 when it got to 108 degrees. But now I can die happy knowing that global warming will be the cause of my death not smoking cigarettes, or driving a car, or eating fat foods, or playing with a gun having cancer or dying from a heart attack or stroke. We can all rest better tonight to know now there is no more weather there never has been we all have been living a life of a lie. Earthquakes, tornado’s, hurricane’s, typhoon’s, cyclone’s, flood’s droughts were simply natural disasters they occur naturally. Thank you Danny Glover for making a total Ass of yourself and showing us how really stupid you really are. For those comments I nominate you the Air Head of the Month Award.

Filed under: Iowanforabetteriowa, Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Two Days for Marriage Begins on January 12th

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Iowans Rock

Tomorrow Let Us Vote Iowa kicks off their campaign this legislative session.  Traditional marriage supporters will be visiting the lawmakers twice this session in order to encourage them to give them their constitutional right to vote on a Marriage Amendment.  Iowa Family Policy Center Action is responsible for LUV Iowa and has done an exceptional job of organizing activists statewide and the President, Chuck Hurley, is “encouraging those people, and all Iowans who care about preserving marriage and the constitutional separation of powers, to come together to take a stand, and once again ask Iowa lawmakers to ‘Let Us Vote’ on the Iowa Marriage Amendment.”

Details for the rally tomorrow:

•7:00 am – Doors open at the Iowa Capitol

•10:00 am – Governor Culver delivers “Condition of the State” speech

•11:00 am – LUV Iowa Supporters talking with Members of the Iowa Legislature

•12:00 Noon – Press Conference and Rally on the West Steps of the Capitol

 Most days it is possible to enter the Capitol as early as 6:00, but the official hours of operation begin at 7:00. We are encouraging everyone to come as early as you can, and to stay as long as you are able.

 Please make every effort to be inside the capitol no later than 9:30. While we will not all fit in the gallery for the Governor’s speech, the idea is to make a visible statement when he walks from his office to the House chambers. Remember – no signs inside the capitol. This is an opportunity to respectfully request that the Iowa Legislature would “Let Us Vote.”

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