Spike,

"The audit faults the state's Department of Economic Development for oversight problems, particularly for failure to ensure that the businesses receiving grants complied with a key eligibility standard established for the program."

What quality legislative oversight of Iowa's bureaucracies? Where is the Vice Chair of the Iowa Senate Government Oversight Committee?

It would be unfair to expect legislators to know every minute detail of every agency. You would expect some questions concerning the Iowa Department of Economic Development. These folks had trouble threading the film in the projector showing where their movie grants went.

How many more installments of the Keystone Cops should we expect? Is anybody in Des Moines paying attention? Does it make any difference? It is not that big a problem.

There is always the Heland solution. Just raise taxes.

GH

Do either one of them read what they scribe to?

Is it the chicken or the egg Courtney? You know what they say about Birds of a Feather? Or was that Bird Brain Brothers of a Feather?

Spike

Spike,

After the post on Worden's over priced staff the council should now know where to start making cuts instead of laying off policemen and firemen.

And they never have to leave the building.

MM

Spike,

The council is always so quick to compare salaries to other communities, how about comparing Worden's secretary's pay to other communities the size of Burlington?

While they're at it, compare the rest of the city staff. Plus benefits.

TL

Oh, that doesn't count.

Spike

Spike,

"Private-industry employers spent an average of $27.42 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December, while total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour."

What is the spread in Des Moines County?

Taxes Due

Spike:

The reason the city and county continue increasing taxes is to offset their stupid decision to constantly give raises and bonuses to employees who are nothing like civil servants at all. Our brain dead government management has created a privileged class of government employees while destroying our ability to survive in this loser town.

I think it’s time city, county and state employees begin to feel the burden their over pay and over benefited jobs have caused the normal low paid private employee. What these employees are causing the average citizen actually verges on criminal and it’s perpetrated by totally ignorant government management at all levels. Government management is complacent and irresponsible in their jobs a fact proven again and again by Burlington and Des Moines County. The single party system is reminiscent of how Stalin ran Russia and we all know what happened to Russia and it is already started here in Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa and the country.

How could any secretary earn $70,000, this is just insane and for a dumpy town like Burlington. It’s nothing more than stealing from the taxpayer, plain and simple.

How would anyone have the audacity to pay a secretary that much money, it’s a sign of insanity within our local government.

We also pay the management far more than their worth because none of them have ever succeeded in any planned or unplanned brainstormed agenda without failure and nightmares for the taxpayer.

Just look at the WreckPlex a constant $100,000 loser every year since it opened its doors. All our local government can do is run their mouths and raise taxes and that’s just what we’re stuck with in this dimwitted part of Iowa.

We have organizations here in town that feed off the taxpayer and have done so much damage to Burlington it will never recover. Being a surrogate for Louisa County has cost Burlington dearly and we can thank SEIRP, the Chamber and Grow Greater Burlington for this demographic mess we now have. These organizations are sucking us dry otherwise we’d be rid of them by now.

Burlington can never recover from its losses over the past 20 years.

T-Bone

Spike,

"Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detailing federal investigations into the alleged corrupt activities of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The documents reference serious allegations of corruption and voter registration fraud by ACORN as well as the Obama administration's decision to shut down a criminal investigation without filing criminal charges."

Rather than waste time and money checking voter registrations prior to election day, just let people register to vote on election day. That is how it is now done here in Iowa. Those who abuse get to vote more than you.

Voting aye to do so, Senator Courtney, Senator Fraise and Representative Cahoon. Party hearty forever.

SG

Would You Give Either One of These Guys $500,000?

Satan's Co-Chief Money Launderer Steve Scheffler and Ralph Reed, fresh from a prison visit to see his running buddy Jack Abramahoff, try to pick each other's pocket at a recent Iowa Christian Alliance tent party. Pots of money reportedly exchanged hands for fresh laundering at the Antioch Church.

“Tonight, when you give, we’re not a PAC and we’re not a candidate,” he said. “Therefore, there is no limit to what you give here tonight. Isn’t that exciting?” (Ralph Reed)

Oh yeah, it's real exciting when I'm gettin' screwed by Satan and a Georgia Cracker.

Crooked Ralph Reed Trying to Fund the New Theocracy

New Laundromat Opens in Marion

Spike,

"Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition and a veteran Republican strategist, told a Des Moines crowd Tuesday night that he was helping establish an Iowa-based Christian political organization, and if he could raise $500,000, Hawkeye State politics would be changed for the better."

Just like a televangelist crying on television, send me your money and the Kingdom of Iowa will be heaven. Where is Rev. Ike now that we need him? Rev. Ike just wants the riches, not the power.

The last new Republican face elected Governor, or U. S. Senator, was Terry Branstad. That was in 1982. Nearly 30 years of theological political purity has produced Tom Harkin, Tom Vilsack, and Chet Culver. Locally, we get Senator Courtney and Supervisor Heland.

Every new Republican face for a generation vying for the brass ring state wide has been whacked by theocrats. Abortion, nude dancing in bars, gay marriage, etc. are not the primary concerns of Iowa voters. We wisely abhor a Ralph Reed, Steve Sheffler theocracy. Doing so comes at a price.

Iowa is sinking deeper into a billion dollar plus hole of socialist created debt. The old warrior has come out of retirement to effect a remedy. Governor Branstad can not live forever. Where is the next generation of responsible leadership?

Unless people step up in Republican caucuses and primaries, our choices will be limited. We can have one nation under Karl Marx, or one nation under Ralph Reed.

Jack Abramhoff for President?

BLB

This type of Satan Stumping with the right hand of a criminal lends so much credibility to the GOP.

These people will never get it. Nor will their candidate win another election.

BTW - where was Satan Jr. Rob Gettemy, Satan Steve Scheffler's hand picked demon? Why was Gettemy conspicuously absent after his church people signed his petition during Sunday School. Were they back at Antioch doin' the laundry?

Spike

Spike:

Our city management is a total disgrace and makes the city appear to rival Detroit for incompetence and being just plain stupid. I suppose Worden will give “Iowa’s Worst Lawyer” a call and straighten out the mess down at Daisianna’s. So, again this lawyer can yellow pad an un-itemized bill to the city and steal some more taxpayer money for his already inflated taxpayer funded retirement account.

When will the citizens who vote learn their lesson about Burlington’s dumbest civil servants who turnstile their way back and forth in and out of office. Just by accident something city hall does should be successful but odds are it will never happen. Everything they dabble in turns out a failure time after time, like what happened to the lights from the Manor ballpark? The city is so incompetent they can’t even explain what happened to those lights after they took them down. Sooner or later it will come out as to what happened to those lights and one can bet it involved a crime of one sort or another by city management.

The Paddle Wheel should take the city to court for their blundering failures and incompetence should their wall need repair. Wake up citizens it’s your fault this constantly happens in Burlington a city where accountability is unknown and responsibility never happens.

Jacob Donner

Spike,

Looking over the city wages it looks like Doug Worden and his secretary cost this city over $200,000 a year, BEFORE benefits.

Worden's secretary makes twice what an entry level policeman or fireman make.

There isn't an employee in city hall worth $70,000 a year let alone paying a secretary twice what a cop or fireman make.

What a total disaster. It's criminal.

MP

This is incomprehensible. Maybe she deserves hazardous duty pay for the occasional fire that breaks out in the waste baskets. But $70,000?

I know some $70,000/year secretaries. They aren't in Burlington.

Spike

“It’s not buildings that count, It’s what happens in those buildings.”

"Teachers union president Andrea Flinders said the long-term health of the district won’t be determined by buildings, but by the success of students. “It’s not buildings that count,” she said. “It’s what happens in those buildings.”

Seems to me the Kansas City School Board gets it. Too bad our highly educated, inexperienced school board could learn from this and understand building more schools doesn't make any sense in today's economy.

We've always advocated circus tents and bales of hay for chairs. Seems that philosophy is now quite appropriate.

Spike

Spike,

"Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull, a Rome-based exorcist, said that Father Amorth had "gone well beyond the evidence" in claiming that Satan had infiltrated the Vatican corridors."

While not necessarily his denomination, could this guy do something about laundering political money through Iowa Churches?

GH

If Satan made his way into the Vatican you can bet the Satan's Disciple Steve Scheffler, Kim Lehman and Ralph Reed are the real Children of the Corn.

Spike

Spike,

"Cisco made headlines today announcing a next generation router that will revolutionize the internet by increasing downloads to unheard of speeds."

Is not technology's advance a thing to ponder? Under four minutes to stream every movie every made is quicker than selecting a video store rental.

Is it all really necessary?

A Univac I could disseminate the collected wit and wisdom of our local leaders in a fraction of a nanosecond. In 1952, a Univac I predicted Americans liked Ike. As far as predicting local election results, Heland wins again in 2010.

This does not mean we will not buy the latest thing in internet technology. All the salesman need do is convince our local elected class their machine will out Spike. In addition, it will require hiring another consultant to show them how to plug it in.

Rand Sperry

Spike,

"The Obama administration has proposed using United Nations-guided principles to expand a type of zoning to coastal and even some inland waters. That’s raising concerns among fishermen that their favorite fishing holes may soon be off-limits for bait-casting."

The socialist nanny that state local voters continually support is hitting home. One world under control freaks could be coming to navigable inland waters. Do not harass the carp.

Our God given right to go out on the father of waters, bake our exposed bloated bellies in the sun, cover fingers and hooks with worm slim while consuming mass quantities of Milwaukee's cheapest is under attack. Where is the great local defender of our rights, Citizen Kane of the Ad Vertiser?

If Kane's hero outlaws fishing, what reason will there be to buy his local newspaper? No fish. No fish wrap. Will this finally stir him to buck his single party bias?

This is what you get when vote for socialists.

I. Walton

Spike,

According to the published report on the delay in demolishing the Daisianna’s building, the city claims additional asbestos abatement is needed before demolition can proceed further.

According to my enlightened coffee shop sources, it seems there are larger problems afoot.

It seems Doug Worden never inspected the demolition contractor’s proof of insurance certificates before hiring the contractor. The contractor supplied forms to the city as per the contract. However, one insurance form was for part of the Manor demolition, another for something else and on top of all that, all the forms were out of date.

This latest saga started when the building owner adjacent to Daisianna’s was worried about his wall collapsing during the Daisianna’s demolition. When documents were checked, the falsified documents were discovered.

Not to be the only problem coming home to roost in Worden’s den of inept stupidity, a brick scavenger was allowed on the Daisianna’s job site and fell off scaffolding or a ladder severely injuring himself in his quest for the perfect brick.

Now the way I see it, if the brick scavenger is hurt, the wall collapses or the demolition contractor bails out; guess who pays the bills and medical claims?

That’s right, we taxpayers do! It’s the Burlington way.

Taxpayers left to suffer the incompetency and thrive on the detritus.

Not Surprised

Spike,

I see our self-esteemed mayor and council think the Manor Revisited great home robbery was a success.

Do you think they might want to endure a public input session to answer questions about the $6 million debt and no one in sight to pay for it?

Why do stupid people become our mayor?

00

Spike:

You can bet your bottom dollar all the organizations mentioned in TM’s letter read Derailed each and every day because they can’t help themselves. Only the lonely would skip reading derailed in Burlington because it’s the only source of accurate news and complete news about the one party of scoundrels who try to run the city and I might add, continually fail.

Burlington would be totally lost without the reporting published in Derailed since the Hawk Eye censors and edits most of its local reporting maintaining its blackout on the one party system of dimwits.

Other than the NYT the Hawk Eye leads the pack on whitewashing local politics and the promoting of the one party system. The Hawk Eye tries to emulate Pravda of the old Union of Socialist Republics. Otherwise they’d report the news on the up and up and stop trying to cover up the constant blunders of the democratic party of losers. Stalin would be proud that some newspapers of old are still publishing their censored versions of the news on a daily basis as the Hawk Eye does.

Just think, without the Derailed web site Burlington’s masses would still be living in the dark when it comes to local political misdeeds and the dimwitted local government.

Thanks Derailed,

Glad

Spike,

"There is now a realization that past glories are never going to be recaptured. Some people probably don't accept that, but that is the reality."

Half the number of people call Detroit home as did half a century ago. Detroit is being forced to accept a heavy industries driven economy and U. A. W. political machine will never be what it was.

All Heland's yakking and 18% increases in taxing will only accelerate what is happening. Tapp, Hinkle and Senator Courtney's welfare based economic development did not work in Detroit. False hope and resulting frustration simply fuels a riotous rise in crime.

Like the auto industry that made its rise, Detroit is being forced to literally downsize. Detroit's experiment in retrenching is being watched with interest.

When will anybody in local leadership accept Burlington's reality?

JB

Spike:

It seems out of place trying to fix and regulate banks problems when we have a known tax cheat as Secretary of the Treasury.

Geithner is a know tax cheat and liar on his taxes but Obama thinks that’s okay and hired him anyway. What kind of a message does this send to the world, the country and our children?

Just how low can our government go when appointing a cabinet? Does this mean Obama will next look at our prisons for cabinet members? Why Obama would appoint a known tax cheat is beyond comprehension and is there a logical explanation? I would sure like to know why he would appoint such a person.

Longing

Spike

In honor of the Alice in Wonderland movie currently in the theaters, we seem to have our very own 'curiouser and curiouser' moment occurring in the 2nd congressional district GOP primary race. The Monday Cedar Rapids Gazette published an article online that Rob Gettemy, who just announced a week ago, already has more than 2,400 signatures and has met the signature requirements to be put on the ballot.

For those not aware, signature requirements in a congressional race in Iowa are 1% of your party's vote in the 2008 election, plus 2% of the vote in at least 1/2 of the counties. On the Republican side that is at least 1,224 signatures in the 2nd district. It usually takes several months, doing things like hitting central committee meetings, the caucus, and the county conventions to name a few. Often it involves the efforts of a contingent of volunteers and door to door work.

Which brings us to the $64 million dollar question - how is it possible that someone could get double that amount in as little as one week? Common sense says that if everyone who attended the March 6th GOP county conventions in the district signed Gettemy's petition - it wouldn't be near enough. It's doubtful they were mailed back in time to be counted for the article anyway.

Gettemy seems to have no volunteer team assembled at this date. It would take a signficant amount of organizing to put one together and mobilize across the district so quickly, a very impressive feat so late in the game when most activists already have their candidate. It's possible there's been an ongoing effort beneath the radar - at least since the caucus anyway. Gettemy's petitions were no where to be found there. Keeping the rumor mill quiet though would be an even more amazing feat, and require expending significant effort to avoid the usual GOP circles.

Either way, there are very few people I know of in GOP politics in the state of Iowa that can pull something like that off - someone bigger than Tim Palmer, Brent and Renee Schulte, and their local church. This has the fingerprints of the Iowa Christian Alliance and Steve Scheffler all over it, which means they've officially dumped their poster child Chris Reed in favor of a new Chosen One.

Keep your eyes open, and as always in politics when curious things happen - follow the money. It will tell you very quickly who's the controlling hand of the puppet.

Publius

Spike,

"A state employee filed a complaint last week that says a union refused to represent her as she faces layoff."

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100308/NEWS10/3080313/1001/NEWS/AFSCME-failed-me-worker-facing-layoff-at-ISU-says

Isn't this against the law?

NB

Spike,

"Just as the healthcare drama in the capitol reaches a grand finale, congressional officials are warning employees to avoid the DRUDGE REPORT!"

Is Derailed considered a "virus" at City Hall, the Court House, the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission, Grow Greater Burlington, etc.?

It could be fatal for some if an epidemic of the whole truth continues to infect the lemming sheep.

TM

We're not so much a pox as a plague.

Spike

Spike,

I agree with the letter to the editor in Sunday's Hawkeye where the writer asks what the governor is thinking of by supporting adding 3 or 4 more casinos to Iowa. The last thing lots of Iowans need is another place to lose/waste their money.

I was struck by the last line though - "How many gamblers does he think live here?" or words to that effect.

I consider myself a gambler extraordinaire a/k/a a Burlington, Iowa resident.

1.Everyday when I wake up here I'm gambling one of the taxing bodies isn't going to make some exceptionally stupid decision that will cost even more money, which in turn will raise my taxes.

2. Then too I'm gambling that the home we built 20+ years ago is worth at least what we've got in it, so if we did decide to sell we could get our investment back.

3. Next, if we were to sell our house and decide to build again, I'd be gambling that the contractors hired to do the construction would be at least somewhat realistic in their charges - Not! Been there - done that. They're not even remotely realistic when you consider cost of living here and possible income potentials.

4. Finally, on a very basic level, when I get in my car to travel somewhere in town I'm gambling that it isn't seriously damaged driving on our streets (a loose use of the term for sure). The one to our house right now has mud ruts in it even though we live in town.

We Iowans are gamblers, trying to eke out a living in a long forgotten state that few people care about or want to visit. We freeze in the winter and deal with snow up our b - - - s , and then when summer arrives we put up with extreme heat, and that's if we haven't been swept away during a spring flood.

We are the original gamblers, and for most of us that makes us losers with a capital "L".

NP