Monday, January 29, 2007

Hillary, the Prof and the Leak


I admit, I didn't know what to do with it. First, a little background on our television cameras. Typically, our cameras use two different audio channels. One channel picks up the "natural sound", the background noise, in a room. The other picks up sound from the microphone hooked up to our person.

Guess what? When we turned off the one channel to hear our "person", we could hear her singing. Yes, Hillary Clinton, the candidate for prez herself, was singing the national anthem. And it wasn't pretty. Far from it, actually. Off key? No, that would probably be too kind (I sympathize. I used to play a pretty mean trumpet, but I've never been much of singer). No offense, Senator.


Question was, what do we do with it? Is it news that the former First Lady is somewhere between Roseanne Barr and the Singing Senators on the scales? We decided not to use it. Someone else opted to post in on You Tube. As I write this, it's had nearly 800,000 hits. Interesting.



For months, people speculated what Tom Vilsack would do when his term as Governor of Iowa wrapped up. Here's the release from Drake University...


VILSACK APPOINTED VISITING LAW PROF AT DRAKE LAW SCHOOL

Drake University Law School announced today the appointment of former Iowa Gov. and current Democratic presidential candidate Tom Vilsack as visiting distinguished professor of law for the 2007 calendar year.

"Governor Vilsack has been a thoughtful and knowledgeable voice on issues of importance at the local, state, regional and national levels," said Drake University President David Maxwell. "We are very grateful for his willingness to share his knowledge, expertise and experience as a member of the Drake University community, and we are excited to have him with us."
Along with Neil Hamilton, Drake’s Dwight D. Opperman distinguished professor of law, Vilsack will teach a May interim course focusing on legal issues relating to rural development and renewable energy. The course will consider policies being proposed for the 2007 Farm Bill as well as current state and USDA rural development programs.

Vilsack will give the keynote address at Drake Law School’s Supreme Court Celebration on Saturday, March 10. He will also convene a major symposium on risk and responsibility in the 21st century this spring and present a public lecture next fall.

"Drake Law School recognizes in Gov. Vilsack a distinguished and outstanding lawyer, leader and public servant. With his demonstrated record of leadership and broad background and experience in private practice and public service, he will enrich the learning experience of Drake for students and all of us. We are delighted to have him join us," Law School Dean David Walker said.
Vilsack will be in residence at the Law School for several days throughout the year to engage in the life of the Drake community through informal meetings with faculty and students. "I’m very proud to be part of Drake University and the Law School," Vilsack said. "It’s a great university, and it’s a great law school. I look forward to teaching, to meeting with faculty and students there, and simply being part of life at Drake."

So, is he expanding his classroom or just preparing for his next chapter?

And, finally...

"The Pipe's Revenge " brought an unexpected sequel to the Statehouse Monday. Early indications are the same area of pipe has burst for the second time and sent an unwanted waterfall cascading from the third floor to the second floor to the first floor.

We wondered what was happening. The fire alarm sounded twice or so about 11a.m. Then, a few minutes later, it started up again and kept going. Everyone slowly, very slowly, evacuated the building. After about 20 minutes, we were allowed to go back inside. By the time we made it to the Chief Clerk's office on the second floor, the water was gushing in. Speaker Pat Murphy and others were grabbing what they could to get things away from the water. It's a mess inside, but it doesn't look as bad as it did two years ago.
The building had a similar leak on Christmas Eve, 2004. When that happened, no one was around. The water flowed for hours. This time, workers caught it early and turned off the water. No estimates on damage yet. But more than one legislator I talked with was extremely miffed this has happened a second time. Who's to blame...the private contractor or the Dept of Administrative Services? No word yet.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave, Dave, Dave. I wouldn't expect WHO to report something like that. You'd lose any access you have.

With Tommy Boy: Now does this really surprise you? Doesn't me one little bit. He is a lawyer, which we already knew. But lawyers teech prospective lawyers on how to lie and manipulate the system, so they can go on to conduct their devious act too and further the cycle of corruption.

Like Culver. Real winner on this one. Tax Tax Tax. Sheesh people, are all of us Iowans that bad of suckers. Culver wants to raise taxes, increase budget by 7%, and we for some reason now have a surplus that has appeared out of thin air once again. Someone want to tell me where the surplus came from? Because for the last 6 years, our state government says they have been broke and barely able to pay the bills. While they cut some areas, they spend boat loads on stupid stuff. So, yet another giant lie. So, where is this 7% coming from... Easy, more taxes. And then next year, more taxes, then the next year, more taxes. I didn't vote for him, but the ones who did I don't feel sorry for. They're gonna get what they deserve, nothing except an empty check book.

It should be noted, you can only tax so much before you cannot tax any longer. Because when that happens, it all collapses. But there is no end in sight. More taxes ruin economies. This is dumb dumb thing. Becuase anyone who says it doesn't, likely has their hand in that till anyways.

Now for pipes. I'll fix it for 40 million dollars. Granted, the fix will only cost a few thousand tops, but our state gives it away freely. So let me have it. I can do more with 40 million than the state can do with 400 million.

Anonymous said...

Boy that first anonymous poster is grumpy.