Monday Morning Hodgepodge
Nathan Greene
1 Comment
By Emily Geiger
Is Dave Loebsack Desperate?
So, Dave Loebsack is aware of his own vulnerability. How else do you explain his excessive use of the franking privilege afforded to members of Congress? Loebsack ranked first in the Iowa delegation for use of the franking privilege, having sent out 479,616 pieces of mail for free to his constituents. Loebsack’s mail pieces included statements such as:
"A good teacher knows what it takes to help Iowa's children succeed." [Before becoming a congressman, Loebsack was a college professor,] and
“A good Congressman knows how to provide the tools students need to succeed.” [This statement appeared next to a photo of Loebsack.]
Sounds like a campaign piece (and an abuse of the franking privilege) to me.
Oh, and for all you Steve King bashers, he didn’t use the franking privilege at all.
Dem Deceit?
The Statehouse Dems are claiming they only raised spending by 4% this session. But, while she is retiring, State Rep. Carmine Boal is not going quietly into the night. She has a great op-ed in the Register pointing out that, if you look past the outer layer of creative accounting, the Dems actually raised spending by 17%, or almost $1 billion. Boal writes:
By violating the state expenditure limitation laws, using multiple one-time funding sources, shifting current expenditures to other budget years, and moving general fund appropriations to another fund, the Democrats claim their budget is status quo and only increased spending by 4 percent. This is disingenuous and the reason why I did not vote for any budget bills this year.
I seem to remember press releases from Auditor Dave Vaudt to this same effect a few weeks ago. Are we ever going to start listening to this guy?
Questions for the Faithful
There is a very interesting piece in the Register about some Catholics who are questioning whether Steven Sueppel (who murdered his wife and 4 kids with a baseball bat before driving his van into a concrete bridge support and killing himself) should have had the benefit of a full Catholic funeral. Apparently, there is some pretty clear church doctrine on the matter that would appear to forbid it under these circumstances.
I have to admit, that very question crossed my mind at the time of this tragedy. It seems the local Iowa City church officials excused Sueppel’s conduct on the basis that he had a mental illness. The only time I had ever read anything about Sueppel having mental illness was during the funeral from the priest. This article points out that police have never found any actual evidence of any mental illness.
I know mental illness is a real and serious issue for a lot of people, which is why it really angers me when people throw it out there as an excuse for behavior for someone who has no basis for claiming mental illness.
I know, I know, you say he must have been crazy to do what he did. But that ignores the fact that people can be evil and selfish without being crazy. Crazy is often what people rely on when they don’t want to admit the spiritual truth that evil exists in this world, people are not inherently good, and people actually do go to hell.
I know this was a horrific situation, and maybe this helped the family left behind to deal with it, but I can’t help but wonder if this was a situation of compassion at the expense of truth.
Reader Comments (1)
Well of course Loebsack feels threatened.. He only won 4 of the 15 counties in the 2nd District in 2006
Plus, Loebsack has to make up something to tell people about what he's "done" in DC..considering that its practically nothing..except vote exactly the way Nancy Pelosi tells him to...
Loebsack also received a 4% rating from the NTU in 2007..What the heck do you have to do to get a 4% rating? Show up at a committee hearing?