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Saturday, November 7
Jon Stewart Impersonates Glenn Beck for Entire Segment
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 07 Nov 2009 07:11 PM CST
Jon Stewart Impersonates Glenn Beck for Entire Segment
 Huffingtonpost.com
"You know who else didn't answer medical questions? Hitler." ~ Jon Stewart
The "Daily Show" host spent an entire segment acting like, talking like, crying like, dancing like, and gesticulating like Glenn Beck. He was inspired by the fact that Beck recently had his appendix removed to create the 11/3 project-taking America back to a time before Beck lost his vestigial organ.
"Apparently the medicine that was good enough for our founding fathers is now considered politically or medically incorrect," Stewart said employing both air quotes and crazy voice registers that left the viewer wondering who and what he was quoting. "I'm not saying this is a plot by Hitler to steal Glenn Beck from all of us internal organ by internal organ by internal organ and then reprogram him to use as a weapon. But isn't it fascinating that I'm the only one with the courage to ask these questions?" He proceeded to jump up from his seat and run over to a chalk board that had the human anatomy scrawled on it alongside Cheney, acorns and the Russian flag. It only got better from there.
Watch the amazing, hilarious, eight-minute video at Huffpo
**BFIA ACTION ALERT**
Did you know Glenn Beck airs daily on six Iowa stations, reaching almost everywhere in the state? These Iowa stations all carry Glenn Beck:Burlington KCPS-AM 1150 Ph (319)754-6698/email kcps@aol.com
Des Moines KWQW-FM 98.3 Ph (515)331-9200/email webform
Fort Dodge KVFD-AM 1400 Ph (515)955-5656/email pkolar@kiaq.threeeagles.com
Sioux City KSCJ-AM 1360 Ph (712)239-2100/email sarthur@powelliowa.com
Spencer KICD-AM 1240 Ph (712)262-1240/email dputnam@ncn.net
Waterloo KXEL-AM 1540 Ph (800)584-7024/email tim@radiogroup.net
What you can do: Write - call - e-mail - go visit - your local Glenn Beck-carrying station. Demand rational radio. Suggest a progressive alternative: Thom Hartman, Stephanie Miller, Rachel Maddow, Jim Hightower, Ed Schultz... If your station won't listen, complain to the new, Obama-appointed, public interest-friendly FCC.
Sunday, June 21
Interstate 80 Iowa
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 21 Jun 2009 05:00 AM CDT
Monday, January 12
The Obstructed View: GOP, Bailout, Health Care, Death Penalty
by
Sam Osborne
on Mon 12 Jan 2009 05:00 AM CST
The Obstructed View
 Random thoughts from an idle mind for the beginning of 2009
by Sam Osborne
WILL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FURTHER DISINTEGRATE, FADE TO THIRD-PARTY STATUS, AND EVENTUALLY ON INTO OBLIVION?
If it does,the party that replaces it will likely be positioned to the right of the Democratic Party and still reflect a Hamiltonian-Federalist preference and trust in the power of an economically positioned minority over the concerns democratically expressed by the elected representatives of a common citizenry.
In the past election, a dwindling number of progressive Republicans joined with the populist sentiment within the political center and voted with Democrats and liberals. The resultant GOP debacle struck their big tent and it may now be impossible for Abe Lincoln/Teddy Roosevelt Republicans to wrest it away from a religious right that is bent on setting it back up to hold revivals to bring the nation under control of that old-time religion.
CAN YOU BANK ON IT?
Yes, the money put into the hands of skimming capitalistic bankers is gone and they refuse to say where they are stuffing it - try looking into their Swiss bank accounts. When it is time for the “loan” money to be repaid to WE THE PEOPLE, the bankers are going to also be long gone from the banks that will no longer have the bucks to pay us back.
HOW SICK IS HEALTH CARE IN THIS COUNTRY?
Sick enough that it is time to cut the money-skimming health insurance industry out of siphoning resources away from the provision of health care and refocus decisions back to doctors and their patients.
Economic royalists that have controlled the policies of the Republican Party, have done serious damage to the nation: from the economy, to the environment, to middle and working-class income earners, to energy, and to health care.
This nation spends more on providing health care than any other nation in the world and gets less in return than do nations that provide universal health care. It is past time for this nation to adopt universal health care for all of our citizens and thus improve service and reduce financing costs.
We will continue to pay more for actual health care because of medical science’s continued capacity to enable doctors to do more. Back in Civil War days, little money was spent on aircraft carriers, reconstruction, heart transplants and reconstructive surgery. However, at Gettysburg, grave registration costs exceeded expenditures for medivac helicopter retrievals - Lincoln ’s speech was too short to commemoratively note the savings.
IS THE INTENTIONAL TAKING OF ANOTHER'S LIFE A GOOD IDEA?
States and nations that do not have the death penalty have lower homicide rates than do states and nations that have the death penalty.
Some people like the idea of people being killed for some reason that they find acceptable, and if one person can have their reason for killing, so will another.
Violence breeds violence and it starts and continues with one who is willing to cast the first or last stone. Currently it is not fashionable to be stoned.~
Sam
Osborne, former editorial writer and Opinion Page Editor,
Iowa City Press-Citizen; former college professor and Business Department chair,
Ellsworth Community College; and currently out to pasture drinking too much
coffee. His commentary, The Obstructed View, will appear on these blog pages weekly, more or less.
Tuesday, January 6
Donald Kaul Agrees with Blog for Iowa on Caroline Kennedy Appointment
by
Trish Nelson
on Tue 06 Jan 2009 05:00 AM CST
Donald Kaul Agrees with Blog for Iowa on Possible Caroline Kennedy Appointment
 I have long suspected that former Des Moines Register columnist and RAGBRAI co-founder Donald Kaul is getting inspiration for his column from reading Blog for Iowa. Here is the most recent evidence: Awhile back, I posted an article to the effect that Caroline Kennedy's qualifications for Senator are being overlooked and minimized by the cable news punditocracy who have been lazily relying on GOP Talking Points for their analysis (see “Pundits Use GOP Talking Points to Analyze Possible Caroline Kennedy Appointment,” December 22).
Exactly nine days later, in a spectacular coincidence, my all-time favorite columnist, the former OT Coffee, echoed these sentiments (well, sort of...) albeit in a way-funnier, super-articulate fashion as is his way, so I just had to post an excerpt here. I wish I could have made my point one tenth as well. I never would have thought to use the phrase “we have senators with the mental acuity of cabbages.” Oh well, you know what they say, don't try this at home, leave it to a professional. Enjoy. ~
by Donald Kaul
MinutemanMedia.org
Caroline Kennedy - Daughter of John and Jackie, sister of John-John, niece of Teddy and Bobby, cousin of Robert jr. and Maria S., etc., etc. - has announced her willingness to be appointed Senator from New York.
Some have criticized this as presumptuous. They say that one should not expect to be a New York Senator without prior immersion in the hurly-burly of New York politics, serving in menial positions like Congressperson or Governor or Mayor of New York City. They question her qualifications for the office.
To which I say: Qualifications? For the U.S. Senate? Whatever are you talking about?
There are no qualifications for the Senate. We have senators with the mental acuity of cabbages, senators who are senile, who are crooks, lazy or crazy, we have senators who are sexist, homophobic or racist. We have senators whom you would not trust to hold your watch while you dived into a pool to save a drowning child.
Carolyn Kennedy is none of these things. She is smart, hard-working and, from the look of her, a genuinely nice person. These qualities alone would put her, if appointed, in the upper half of the Senate. If she figures out where Utica is and what’s it’s doing there, she could quickly move into the top 20 percent of the class.
I say appoint her.
Rod Blagojevich - The governor of Illinois is the anti-Caroline, her absolute, polar opposite. Far from being appointed to office, he overcame a severe hair disability to win election - twice. He was not a neophyte; he was a battle-hardened veteran of the political wars, having served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Yet, when last seen he was selling U.S. Senate seats from the back of a truck.
Which proves that in politics, as in most things, experience can be a good thing but it doesn’t have to be. It depends on the experiencer.
(Click here to read the entire column at MinutemanMedia.org)
Don Kaul is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-losing Washington correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he's wrong. Email Donald Kaul
Saturday, December 13
Gotta Get 'em While They're Young!
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 13 Dec 2008 05:00 AM CST
Gotta Get 'em While They're Young!
 Okay, perhaps I am spending too much time on Twitter. But I hooked up with a mom blogger there named Amy S. who posts over at SnarkyMommy.com.
Amy tells the story [from just a couple of days ago] of her son, Jack, who is 2 years and 9 months:
Last night, I was super-excited because we were going to watch "Charlie Brown Christmas" when we got home from dinner.
I turned to Jack and said, "I have a surprise for you on TV when we get home!"
He got a huge smile on his face and said, "Obama?"
Seriously....
I am really hoping for two terms from this administration. It will help the parenting process around these parts.
I dunno. Maybe I'm getting soft in my middle age. Well, it is of no import. Monday is my last day filling in on Blog for Iowa as our wonderful new editor, Trish Nelson, will be taking over the editorial duties. Congratulations, Trish!
Friday, December 5
Did You Hear the One about Obama?
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 05 Dec 2008 05:00 AM CST
Did You Hear the One about Obama?
A true story in one part, by Linda Thieman
 On Wednesday of this week, Florida congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen picked up her phone and found herself on the line with President-elect Barack Obama. Well, that’s who he claimed to be, at any rate.
The Republican representative assumed the call was a prank, telling the Miami Herald, "I thought it was one of the radio stations in South Florida playing an incredible, elaborate, terrific prank on me. They got Fidel Castro to go along. They've gotten Hugo Chavez and others to fall for their tricks. I said, 'Oh, no, I won't be punked.'"
So she talked to Obama (the ACTUAL Obama) for about a minute, complimented him on his Obama impersonation, and promptly hung up on him.
Then Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, called her to clear things up. Come on! She’s on to you, punk! She didn’t buy that ploy either, and she hung up on him, too.
Well, you can see why a gal would want to be careful after what happened to Sarah Palin.
Finally, Obama’s staff did what they should have done in the first place and had someone the congresswoman actually knew—a trusted colleague—call her to let her know Barack Obama was going to be calling her. And I imagine he said, “And don’t hang up this time, for heaven’s sake!” Or something mild like that.
Luckily, when Obama finally got through and didn’t get hung up on, he thought it was a real hoot and could sympathize, adding that the Chicago radio stations do that sort of thing all the time.
Who knew?
Source
Saturday, October 25
So What if Alaska Did Secede from the Union?
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 25 Oct 2008 12:19 PM CDT
So What if Alaska Did Secede from the Union?
by Linda Thieman
 Sarah Palin is something of an enigma to me. On the one hand, she only approves of the “pro-America” parts of America. On the other hand, she’s married to a guy who wants Alaska to secede from the Union.
As I see it, having Alaska secede from the Union and becoming The Independent State of Alaska might be advantageous to the Palin clan. For one thing, they could just convert the Palin governorship to Sarah Palin, President of Alaska for Life. And hubby could be her VP Rovian puppetmaster manipulator adviser.
As President for Life, Palin could then nationalize the oil industry in Alaska, and send an ambassador to OPEC to learn how to gouge the lower 48. It’s a win-win situation for Alaska, although if their next door neighbor to the left, Russia, decided to pull a Cheney and invade Alaska for their oil, I can’t say as I think Canada would come to the defense of The Independent State of Alaska, no matter how recently a mutual-defense treaty had been signed. So, that could be a bit of a drawback, unless Alaska quickly formed a militia made up of moose hunters with shot guns.
Looking at it from the perspective of the lower 48 and Hawaii, that would leave us with an unseemly number of states: 49. There is nothing good about the number 49. You can’t even divide it by anything except one and itself, if you don't count seven, which clearly, I don't think we should. Something would have to be done about that and quickly.
So, I was thinking, I know Quebec is not happy being part of Canada. Once they secede from Canada, maybe we could invite them to join the Union. That would be advantageous in that we would then have a French-speaking state that we could send all our college juniors to for a year of study without even having to leave the country.
Of course, once Quebec got rid of Canadian control, they would hardly want to come under the thumb of the even-worse U.S. federal government. It would be like an 18-year-old woman finally getting away from the oppression of living with Mom and Dad, only to instantly get married and have to live under her young and tyrannical new husband’s thumb for the rest of her life (or until which point she decided to secede again.)
We could, perhaps, make up the numbers we needed by inviting Puerto Rico to join us as the 50th state. I know Gerald Ford seemed to think it was a good idea in the waning days of his presidency.
Alternately, we could go back to 48 states. 48 is a great number. It can be divided by a whole host of other numbers, such as 24, 12, 6, 4, 3 and 2. We’d even have the model of a former U.S. flag to go by, so that would save time.
Only trouble with going back to just 48 states is that we’d have to decide which one to get rid of. I’d say, give Hawaii the first shot at it since they were the most recent to join. A lack-of-seniority kind of a thing. However, if Hawaii enjoys the advantages of statehood and does not wish to secede, then maybe Texas would be willing. Texas used to be their own country anyway, and they often grumble about the good ol’ days of independence down there. It wouldn’t hurt to ask.
That would only leave us with one real problem that I can see. When I was a kid, I didn’t get to sing this song at school and have often resented it. But my sister got to, so I know it well. It’s called “50 Nifty United States.” I’m afraid that if we were to switch back to only 48 states, this would be a problem because “nifty” does not rhyme with 48. We might be able to change it to “48 Really Great United States.” That could work. Although, I suppose we’d have to vote on it.
This commentary is meant to be humorous and does not actually represent the views of Blog for Iowa or Linda Thieman, unless you agree with it and then she looks pretty smart.
Saturday, October 18
NEW Crazy McCain Photo; Palin on SNL Tonight
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 18 Oct 2008 05:00 AM CDT
NEW Crazy McCain Photo; Palin on SNL Tonight
by Linda Thieman
 I realize that in the grand scheme of things, this is less than minor. But it's sort of like that photo Blog for Iowa ran of a dog doing it's patriotic duty on a Bush/Cheney sign several years ago. And that is, it's something that just should not be missed by the political activist/connoisseur.
This photo was captured by Reuters' photog Jim Bourg just after Obama and McCain had shaken hands at the end of the third debate. Obama exited towards his people and McCain began to follow him (click here to see the whole story and the whole photo). Bourg conjectures that McCain had just been informed that he was going the wrong way and that this was his reaction right before he pivoted to walk off the stage on the other side.
At any rate, it is yet another horrible photo of McCain in a long line of very-easy-to-find horrible photos of McCain that I have been having an enormous amount of fun with on Blog for Iowa these last two weeks. Check the archives to see what I mean, as if you hadn't noticed. (A personal favorite is the "blowfish" photo.)
In other world-shaking news, reports indicate that the woman now known as the formerly-charming Sarah Palin will be doing a stint of celebrity image rehab on Saturday Night Live tonight. If you miss it, never fear--it will be all over the web tomorrow.
Update: Here's the sketch.
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