Spike:

Des Moines County voters are the biggest fools in Iowa for constantly electing self serving dimwits to run the county. Now we have massage day down at the court house.

How long has massage day been going on at the court house? Who’s involved and why, just why would anyone supposedly working down there need a massage on taxpayer time? What else goes on at the court house the public doesn’t know about?

It really appears that Des Moines County is on a par with the City of Burlington when it comes to incompetent, unprofessional, unaccountable to the taxpayer fools running our county.

Who’s in charge down at the court house? We have three supervisors being paid for full time work while only on part time work with benefits; so how come they aren’t being accountable for their charges or are they in on the massages also?

Just makes me sick to think those are the same people that got raises and probably bonus money stolen from the taxpayer who gets nothing in return but higher taxes and just plain misery.

Government as we know it in Des Moines County is out of control and it should be cleaned out with one sweep and re-staffed with people needing jobs from all over the county and any unions should be busted because they’ve run the cost of government far beyond comprehension while they themselves are now known as the “Privileged Class of Iowa.”

This whole situation just makes me sick to my stomach. To think we are being robbed through taxes to support this type of behavior by elected officials.

Vomit

Spike,

Don't you get it? After your massage and you're feeling all loose and goosey, what a great time to go pick the taxpayer's pocket.

I know I've been massaged and my tax statement proves it.

CW

I guess I'm just used to Heland and Hoschek just rippin' the dough from my hands.

Spike

Spike,

Carol Copeland has been in office far too long. This latest stunt proves she has no clue what's going on or how it affects anyone other than herself.

Maybe she can afford a massage but I can't. And I don't like it shoved in my face at work that I can't.

XX

Spike,

Can you get the name of the masseuse? I'd like to get a 15 minute massage at my work place for $15.

The only problem is my kids would be short on lunch money for the week.

Spend It

Spike,

The only thing missing out front of the court house were the crack whores and pimps.

I don't understand any of this. What in the world have the taxpayers done to get treated like this? I'm sure it is a great perk to have someone come into the workplace and reduce the stress of being overpaid and under worked.

Regardless of how "right" we will be told this was and violated no laws, this is not what the taxpayers needed to hear. If the supervisors had any balls they never would have let this happen.

TL

Taxpayers need to vote. Vote out Jeff Heland in the next election and replace him with a candidate that doesn't play blackjack with play money.

Spike

Spike,

"The decline in corporate income tax concerns REC member Richard Oshlo.

It’s expected to drop 24 percent this budget year compared to what the state actually received last budget year. And REC projections call for it to drop another 11 percent next budget year."

Senator Courtney, Governor Culver, Senator Faise and other members of the Des Moines chapter of MENSA ain't calling me certainly enjoyed themsleves.

Fiduciary responsibility based on if it feels good, do it, is coming due. No longer may they run to the bank and cover their black jack loses. There is not enough money to make book. It is getting worse.

Corporate income tax is dropping faster than sales tax revenues. Senator Courtney openly vowed he would get even with business in Iowa.

Normally, Senator Courtney delivers primarily for his real friends. It is the devious he does want anybody to know about. Think back to the Manor Mall amendment and the railroad lawsuit.

We can all take pride in our State Senator for finally delivering on a public promise.

Fielding Potters

Someone Worse Than Van Jones? FTC's Marxist Robert McChesney!

Spike,

"A Japanese company, Haruyama Trading Co., has developed a suit that it claims protects the wearer from the deadly H1N1 strain of influenza."

Will Jimmy Olson soon be dressed to avoid being killed?

The local Ad Vertiser has hyped H1N1 to hysteria. There has been a regular ring around the rosy of reporting on our impending flu doom. Ignore the horrors local elected friends of the Ad Vertiser inflict. Find a distraction.

H1N1 is reasonably seen as a serious threat. Ditto the Ad Vertiser according to more than one economic development study of Southeast Iowa.

Is there evidence this flu suit is anymore effective than filling a Salvation Army leisure suit's pockets full of posies? No matter. There is money to be made.

Has the Ad Vertiser contacted the Haruyama Trading Company? There is a terrified market waiting. Ad Vertising is all it will take to make it profitable for both parties.

KW

Spike,

"For generations, small-town rural America was the iconic face of America. Main Street. Parades. Values. The heart of the nation. The ground beneath everything else.

Not now, says my guest today. Small-town rural America is hollowing out."

"Those communities that were still relying on the mid 20th century economy factory and farming never saw anything coming back to replace it.....This vast expanse of anonymous mega farms and meth labs."

It all sounds familiar.

GH

Spike,

"A former longtime Chicago Tribune correspondent, Longworth is a realist who will argue individual Midwestern states, locked within borders drawn more than 200 years ago, are too small, parochial and incompetent to compete in a globalized world."

A seminar on economic development in the Midwest is on tap at Monmouth College. Will anybody from Burlington be in attendance?

If states are guilty as accused above, what about regions within Midwestern states? What about the City of Burlington?

If this session has an audience Q & A, there is a pertinent question for Burlington and Southeast Iowa. What should be done about a small, parochial, and incompetent newspaper several consultants have highlighted as a major stumbling block to development?

If anybody in attendance gets an answer, please send it to Spike. Otherwise, we will never hear of a possible solution.

If the Midwest is indeed America's bell weather, pray Burlington is not the clapper. If so, there is no need to ask for whom the bell tolls.

EH

Spike,

* A one-year freeze on public sector pay from 2011 for all those earning more than £18,000, except members of the Armed Forces.

* A £50,000 cap on the maximum pension payments for senior civil servants

* Reducing the cost of Whitehall bureaucracy by a third, saving more than £3billion.

* The abolition of £250 baby bonds and tax credits for families earning over £50,000.

The Party of Margret Thatcher in Britain is offering tough love. Will voters buy it?

BN

Spike,

"Dr. James said his bank had tripled the size of his line of credit, but that money is now all gone. Dr. James said Illinois owes his agency $900,000, about $700,000 of it past due by up to five months."

Illinois is broke. The brain trust that helped make it happen have moved onto bigger and better pastures, Washington, D. C. Our turn is coming from more than this bunch.

Iowa can not look down its nose towards the east. Years of tax and spend in Des Moines have Iowa headed down the same path. Kudos all around from the Governor's office right down to Senator Courtney and Representative Cahoon.

Get ready for another round of "contributions" to pay for it all while they promise more. Sit back and enjoy the show.

Lady Godiva