Senator King was crying on the KCPS's Big Show 1150 AM this morning. It was absolutely pathetic.

King opined that Councilman Campbell promotes openness in government but somehow Campbell conducts it in a more open nature than King thinks it should be. I guess Campbell is supposed to submit to King's rules for closed session meetings. Along with the rest of Cry Baby's rules.

I wonder how King can do radio reports for Pritchard when he can't report the facts with his slanted biases against anyone who confronts him when he is wrong?

Pritchard is going down a road filled with potholes. And those potholes will bottom out like a Buick with no shocks.

Spike,


Since Edwards missed the council work session last night I wonder if he was out asking his 270 fellow advisors down at Case what he should do next?

BL

If our total lack of Edwards support mail is any indication of public opinion, I would have to say our readers outweigh Edwards 270 advisors' opinions by a factor of 3:1. And if you factor in the advertiser’s letters to the editor, that factor goes to 10:1.

People are mad and scared. Retribution comes in many forms in this town.

Spike

I think we need to ask the Burlington City Council to sign a contract with the citizens. Especially in light of these recent events.

All the contract needs to say is that Council members agree to random drug testing without advance notice, agree not to take any illegal drug(s), agree to remain morally fit, waive their right to option the field sobriety test and if they screw up, the councilman agrees to resign.

Cuts the fat to the bone. They either live right or go down breaking the contract.

If they can make the NBA do it, it should work here. Just don’t let Scott Power screw with it. It’ll wind up costing $50,000 in unneeded legal fees.

We are paying for this mess. We should have some say in how it is run. And we can't expect an election to fix it.

Run a Records Check?

Spike,

Has anybody run one of these on Mayor Edwards? The police department should be able to pull one up free of charge. Click here to check it yourself.

With all the stories floating around concerning His "Honor's" previous transgressions, perhaps the Mayor's rap sheet should be posted on the City of Burlington web site. It would settle a lot of arguments in Burlington's watering holes.

PD

You can also click here to go to Iowa Courts Online to do a record check.

Spike

Fear Of Retribution Major Factor and Readily Known

The Edwards’ mess should tell all of Spike’s naysayers why BurlingtonDerailed.com works. It works because people can write to us and complain about the way things are and we won’t disclose their name.

The number of emails we’ve posted is far above anything you will ever see at the advertiser. People know that it is at the whim and fancy of the editors what gets printed in the letters column. The only people to post anonymously at the advertiser are the editors. Everyone else is name, rank and serial number.

People are fearful of retribution. They are fearful of being ostracized for taking a stand against the way things have deteriorated with Edwards, King, Ell, Slagle and Power driving the bus.

People know how things work in this town. The years of not having Spike and the internet fell on the shoulders of the local advertiser. And we all know how that turned out.

This behavior from City Hall depresses people. They see no future. They see no change. They are fighting the consequences of a DUI conviction and they aren’t the mayor. The children have no future until they move away.

People want something better and they could care less who Spike is; they only care that something gets done to improve their life. Spike offers just a glimmer of hope that there might be some change.

The governor told everyone the direction to the future had to come from within. No one expected that to happen so soon.

It needs to come from within right now so this city can heal and get on with surviving the 21st century. We can't wait a year to make a decision on who to invite.

The freedom to freely pass on information must not be restricted to "journalists." Unfortunately, that is what some in Congress are up to. Click here.

Just what is a journalist? Is the high school student collecting sports scores for a county seat ink on paper operation a journalist? Does the term journalist apply to a high school student running a tell all blog site where the power structure of said county seat does not like anybody threatening their monopoly of local information? If the issue ends up in court, guess who has the resources to win?

Extending 1st Ammendment rights only to those defined as "journalists" is a trick of troubled media monopolies. The mask of "responsibility" is really a ploy to protect their position. 100 years ago in an era of newspaper competition, the community learned over time whom to trust. Having a choice produced a better product. Consolidation removed choice. Technology is bringing choice back to consumers of information.

Tell your elected Federal reperesentatives the free exchange of information must not be hindered. The dinosaurs are trying to trample the mammals. Technology should not be restricted to promote reverse evolution.

SB


Sounds like the Tom Courtney School of Narrow Minds. For all our new readers, last spring Iowa Senator Tom Courtney was in absolute turmoil (more like a tizz) to find his name on BurlingtonDerailed.com in a somewhat less than positive light for his role in the railroad lawsuit. Something Courtney didn't want anyone to know.

So Courtney tried to add an amendment to pending legislation to make it mandatory that all blogs had to identify themselves on the internet. We all know where that stunning idea went.

I wonder as Des Moines County Democratic Party Chairman what he thinks of Edwards' free pass from jail? Afterall, Edwards is the #2 Democrat in Des Moines County. It can't be good.

Spike

Perhaps the next Hawkeye Poll should be "If you were arrested for DUI in Burlington were you given the option to call someone to pick you up instead of taking a field sobriety test?"



Smart Enough To Leave Burlington