State of the State Leaves us in a State

Governor Culver gave his annual State of the State address today, primarily focusing on disaster relief in Iowa. He even showed a dynomite video to illistrate the disaster hardships Iowans have faced. This professional piece of videography leaves us scratching our heads as to how it was paid for. Hopefully some secret donor was nice enough to cough up the cash, but that's doubtful. So as some Iowans will never live in their houses again or see their businesses rebuilt, they can rest assured that a fancy video documenting their hardships was made for posterity. Money well-spent, no doubt.......

Culver also placed a lot of blame. He blamed the feds for getting us into this economic mess and in the next breath advocated for teamwork and consensus from both parties in 2009. Legislators remain in the dark and have yet to see his budget and details of the Rebuild Iowa plan that he wants so desperately to pass as soon as possible. We'll see how that goes.

One thing we can agree on with the governor is using the state’s rainy day funds to the tune of 43 million dollars in flood and disaster recovery. This should have happened sooner. In fact, we think he should have called a special session this summer to nip the problem in the bud instead of waiting till the ice and snow are hard on the ground.

Here are some pictures from yesterday's swearing in ceremony.