You’ve heard about the Fast and Furious Gunwalker Scandal. And you’ve heard about the scandal involving the Obama Administration’s raid of Gibson Guitars. But it took Iowahawk to combine them.
Posts Tagged ‘Iowahawk’
Two Great Scandals that Taste Great Together
Sunday, September 4th, 2011Iowahawk on the Coming Debt Limit Armageddon
Thursday, July 28th, 2011He paints a picture of unimaginable horror:
Roving bands of outlaws stalk our streets, selling incandescent bulbs to vulnerable children. Breadlines teeming with jobless Outreach Coordinators, Diversity Liaisons, and Sustainability Facilitators. General Motors unfairly forced to build cars that people want, for a profit. Chaos reigns at Goldman Sachs, who no longer knows who to bribe with political donations. At-risk Mexican drug lords forced to buy own machine guns.
Oh the humanity!
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Now With Added Dick Jokes
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011Iowahawk has outdone himself this time.
`My name is Weinermandius, Dong of Dongs:
Look on my junk, ye mighty, and despair!’
LinkSwarm for May 23, 2011
Monday, May 23rd, 2011Iowahawk Strikes Again!
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011Evidently I wasn’t the only one struck by Iowahawk’s masterfully takedown off Paul Krugman and The Economist on the middling (at best) performance of Wisconsin’s unionized education system. Now Iowahawk strikes again to confirm that, yes, he was right the first time. He also goes into more detail of the various dropout statistics, ACT/SAT scores, etc.
Also, Iowahawk reader Michael Pollard helpfully supplied statistics showing the comparison between Texas and Wisconsin also held generally when comparing the other maligned non-union states to Wisconsin. Sayeth Iowahawk: “Wisconsin is a (1) middling performer for white students; (2) below middling for Hispanic students, and (3) an absolute disaster for black students.”
Read the whole thing.
Iowahawk Defends Texas (And Slaps Paul Krugman and The Economist Into Next Sunday)
Monday, March 7th, 2011Iowahawk took time out from his busy schedule as the web’s premiere political satirist to evaluate some claims Paul Krugman and The Economist made about the educational achievements of Texas.
Wait, did I say “evaluate?” I meant “demolish like a bulldozer ripping through a condemned shantytown” (or an “Obamaville,” if you prefer). Kruggers and the EcoMen (which, I have to point out, would be a good name for a rock band) have been as thoroughly pwned as a hungover frat boy waking up after a late-night kegstand to find male genitalia Magic Markered across his face. It’s an epic take-down.
Let’s start with assertions that started the whole thing, and which exemplify a specific type of liberal desire to wish away Texas’ deeply inconvenient economic success. From Krugman:
And in low-tax, low-spending Texas, the kids are not all right. The high school graduation rate, at just 61.3 percent, puts Texas 43rd out of 50 in state rankings. Nationally, the state ranks fifth in child poverty; it leads in the percentage of children without health insurance. And only 78 percent of Texas children are in excellent or very good health, significantly below the national average.
Next comes the bit from The Economist:
Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows:
South Carolina – 50th
North Carolina – 49th
Georgia – 48th
Texas – 47th
Virginia – 44thIf you are wondering, Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is ranked 2nd in the country.
With that background, you’re now ready for Iowahawk to demolish the subject like Charlie Sheen demolishes an ounce of cocaine. First, the necessary context:
A state’s “average ACT/SAT” is, for all intents and purposes, a proxy for the percent of white people who live there.
Actually this is not strictly true; it’s more accurate to say its a proxy for the percent of white and Asian people who live there. But close enough for government work.
Iowahawk goes on:
In fact, the lion’s share of state-to-state variance in test scores is accounted for by differences in ethnic composition. Minority students – regardless of state residence – tend to score lower than white students on standardized test, and the higher the proportion of minority students in a state the lower its overall test scores tend to be.
But don’t take his word for it. Take his facts for it, as he provides grade-by-grade comparisons of each of the two sates students broken down demographically (by white, black and Hispanic students). Go over and take a look at the data if you haven’t already. His conclusion:
To recap: white students in Texas perform better than white students in Wisconsin, black students in Texas perform better than black students in Wisconsin, Hispanic students in Texas perform better than Hispanic students in Wisconsin. In 18 separate ethnicity-controlled comparisons, the only one where Wisconsin students performed better than their peers in Texas was 4th grade science for Hispanic students (statistically insignificant), and this was reversed by 8th grade. Further, Texas students exceeded the national average for their ethnic cohort in all 18 comparisons; Wisconsinites were below the national average in 8, above average in 8.
Perhaps the most striking thing in these numbers is the within-state gap between white and minority students. Not only did white Texas students outperform white Wisconsin students, the gap between white students and minority students in Texas was much less than the gap between white and minority students in Wisconsin. In other words, students are better off in Texas schools than in Wisconsin schools – especially minority students.
He does the same job for Krugman’s dropout rates:
White and Hispanic Texas students indeed seem to dropout at a higher rate than their counterparts in Wisconsin, although in both cases (a) the difference is not statistically significant; and (b) in both cases, both states are significantly below the national average. Among black high school students, Texans have significantly lower dropout rates than their national cohort and Wisconsinites. Black high school students in Wisconsin have significantly higher dropout rates than national.
Your first question is probably, “why do the union teachers in Wisconsin hate black students?” Sorry, can’t help you there, I’m stumped too.
Ouch! You know that’s going to leave a scar…
Giving Congressional Democrats the Outplacement Help They Deserve
Friday, December 24th, 2010Sure, it’s been a great for those of us fighting Big Government, but since it’s the Christmas Season, have you given any thought to helping the less-fortunate? Has anyone given a thought to all those poor Democratic congressman and staffer who just lost their jobs?
Iowahawk has, and he’s provided a handy outplacement guide for those unfortunates voters have recently retired:
In order to land that good job back in your home district, you first need to understand the ins and outs of the non-Washington economic system. Unlike Washington’s easy-to-understand system of leveraging raw unbridled rulemaking and police power to extract tribute from fearful and/or favor-seeking constituents, non-Washington industries are largely based on the production of “goods” or “services.” It sounds complicated, but the basic idea boils down to making things or doing things that other people will pay for. The complicated part is to remember that they must pay for them voluntarily.
That’s Iowahawk for you: Always looking out for the unfortunate.
God bless us each and every one.
LiveBlogging the 2010 Election
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010Live-blogging the election, most recent comments on top.
12:12 AM: Prediction for tomorr- er, today: Democrats complaining non-stop about how voters are still too stupid to appreciate how awesome they are.
12:07 PM: A few got away, but this was a very successful night for Republicans. If you had predicted the magnitude of Republican victory any time in 2009, pundits would have laughed at you. Remember, in October of 2008, Daily Kos said ” At this pace, we’re headed toward a 65-70-seat Democratic majority in the Senate by the end of 2010.” The magnitude of the Tea Party turnaround in Republican fortunes is one of the most astonishing political feats of our lifetimes.
12:00 AM: Some happy thoughts to leave you with:
- Republican Steve Pearce beats incumbent Democrat Harry Teague in NM 2, which RCP had as a leans Dem seat.
- Republican Scott Tipton beat incumbent Democrat John Salazar in CO 3
- Republican Cory Gardner beat incumbent Democrat Betsy Markey in CO 4
- Just about every office in Wisconsin that could reasonably have a chance to flip Republican did. How do you like your shiny new red state, WisCon?
11:57 PM: At Midnight all the agents…have to stop blogging and go to bed. I’ll have some more analysis scattered over the next few days.
10:54 PM: Fox news calls CA for Boxer. No surprise.
11:48 PM: Murray has a small lead in Washington, but there are a lot of votes still outstanding.
11:44 PM: Pennsylvania Senate race called for Toomey. Don’t let Harry Reid’s narrow escape keep you from realizing what a huge improvement Toomey is over Arlen Specter. This is a big plus for Pennsylvanians, Republicans, and Americans, and even Democrats (who won’t have Specter as their problem any more come January).
11:40 PM: Legal pot defeated in California. I would have supported this were I living in California, as I do not think that regulating it is a legitimate concern of the federal government, and the War on Drugs has been an astoundingly expensive failure. But if legal pot can’t win in California, then where can it win?
11:39 PM: NV called for Reid. Dang.
11:38 PM: IL Senate race called for Kirk.
11:37 PM: Blog went down for a while, but Blue Host brought it back up more quickly than I expected.
11:03 PM: NBC: “The Tea Party has arrived in Washington, DC. The House did everything the Obama White House asked them to, and they paid the price.”
10:59 PM: Republicans are over-performing expectations of a week ago, but under-performing those of a day or two ago (including mine). It’s shaping up to be a bit worse for Democrats than 1994, which is bad enough (for them), but short of the (deep, scary voice) DEMOGEDDDON some were predicting.
10:55 PM: Senate Race quick updates:
- Kirk slightly ahead in IL. (“KHAAAANNNNN!”)
- Toomey still holding the lead in PA, with not many districts outstanding
- Rossi/Murray tied in WA; it’s flipped back and forth
- Reid slightly ahead in NV
- Boxer up slightly in CA, but voting is early
10:49 PM: Speaking of Alvin Greene, at least he got his own comic book out of the deal.
10:46 PM: I’m still amazed the Democrats couldn’t find anyone to run against John Thune in South Dakota. It makes South Carolina Democrat’s choice of Alvin Greene seem slightly less pathetic. At least he showed up.
10:40 PM: TX23 called for Doggett over Campbell, but 52% is a lot closer that most people expected.
10:35 PM: Back from walking the dog.
10:05 PM: Stop! HAMMERTIME!
10:00 PM: Did I mention that Republican Dan Benisheck took Bart Stupak’s seat? I think I know exactly what circle Dante would place Bart Stupak in…
9:58 PM: Toomey slips into the lead over Sleestak Sestak. Setak had held the lead virtually all night. Over in the opposition camp, the Daily Kossacks are despondent, saying there are only heavily Republican counties left.
9:52 PM: “Captain’s Log…I’m tired!” I’ve been staring at glowing rectangles for too long. I’m going to take a break to walk my dog in a few minutes.
9:49 PM: ABC refusing to call Florida or Ohio Governor’s races for the leading Republicans. I think they’re whistling pass the graveyard.
9:43 PM: This was announced earlier, but Barney Frank survives, alas. I’m sure he’s already dreaming of new ways to inject taxpayer money into the housing market.
9:41 PM: Republican Nikki Haley takes South Carolina Governor’s race.
9:40 PM: Wisconsin Senate seat called for Ron Johnson over Russ Feingold. GOP pickup.
9:38 PM: Sadly, Cao is going down in LA 2. Still, it’s an overwhelmingly Democrat seat that only went Republican in 2008 due to corruption on the part of William “cold 90 grand” Jefferson.
9:36 PM: Dana Loesch is on ABC. She looks pretty hot. (Note: This was the point in the evening when my internal censor decided to pack up and go on vacation.)
9:31: Ha! Barletta over Kanjorski. Also, “Red Barchetta” over “The Camera Eye.”
9:29 PM: Hingham, Mass, suffers from excess of Kitty litter.
9:25 PM: Fox 7 interviewing Larry Gonzalez. He looks excited, articulate, and sweaty. “Oh my gosh.” :-)
9:23 PM: Man, that CBS theme music of repeating flute riffs is annoying. Like a pastiche of Philip Glass written by someone who hates Philip Glass.
9:22 PM: Katie Coric: “Some think Haley Barbour is a future GOP Presidential candidate.” Yeah, some people on a very poor grade of crack…
9:21 PM: PA Senate still too close to call. IL Senate still too close to call. WI too close to call. CO too close to call. NV too close to call. Still, I have the distinct feeling Republicans won’t take the Senate.
9:18 PM: ABC has finally decided to grace us with election news. Ed Rendell is spinning madly that Democrats aren’t losing bad as some people expected.
9:17 PM: Though CBS has a well-known liberal bias, their House race tracker is fairly well laid-out.
9:14 PM: Fox 7 has Texas congressmen Chet Edwards, Solomon Ortiz and Ciro Rodriguez all losing. As well as 20 Democrat state House incumbents going down.
9:11 PM: Hmmm. CBS has Republican Thomas Reed beating Matthew Zeller in NY29, despite Zeller’s total currently being higher than Reed.
9:07 PM: Flores winning big over Chet Edwards for TX-17.
9:02 PM: More local Texas updates from KEYE: Doggett back up over Campbell, but only by 5,000 votes. Larry Gonzalez maintaining 59-39% lead over Moldanado.
9:00: Democrat Bill White concedes in Texas.
8:55 PM: Republican Dennis Ross over Dem Lori Edwards in FL 12. (GOP hold.)
8:53 PM: Palin: “Delaware is a deep blue state. Exit polls show Castle would have lost on Delaware the same way O’Donnell did. The Tea Party didn’t cost the GOP that race.”
8:51: Fox predicts GOP picks up PA Governorship.
8:51: Palin now slamming the “lamestream” media.
8:50: Palin just admitted she might run for President.
8:49: Fox: “Is Marco Rubio a possible Vice Presidential candidate?” Palin: “He’s a possible Presidential candidate.”
8:47 PM: Palin says the Tea Party movement is libertarian in character. “They’re not going to Washington to raise taxes.”
8:45 PM: Sarah Palin being interviewed on Fox right now. Like Bush, I think it’s her accent that’s the source of the American left’s instant, irrational rage against her.
8:45 PM: Republican Rigell over Nye in VA02.
8:40 PM: RCP has Republicans picking up North Dakota Senate seat (as expected).
8:37: PA, NV senate races still too close to call.
8:33 PM: CBS: Republican Steve Southerland over incumbent Dem Allen Boyd in FL 02.
8:30 PM: Houston Chronicle calls Governor’s race for Perry. No surprise.
8:27 PM: Fox: Vitter holds on in LA.
8:23 PM: KVUE: Larry Gonzales over Moldanado in early voting for the Texas House District 52 race!
8:23PM: KVUE: Texas news starts coming in: Perry kicking White 59% to 39%. Whoa! Campbell up over Doggett??? (only 5% in, though)
8:16 PM: NBC saying Ohio’s Governor’s race is closer than [insert cornpone Dan Rather saying here]
8:13 PM: Fox predicting: 239 Republicans in the House, 196 Democrats.
8:12 PM: Fox News predicts Republican takeover of the House. Booyah! Take that Nancy Pelosi! But pretty much everyone to the right of Daily Kos predicted that.
8:09 PM: Republican Charles Fleischmann holds on to Zach Wamp’s seat. I just like typing “Zach Wamp.” ZACH WAMP!
8:08 PM: Tom Brokaw just called the American electorate a “wild bull.”
8:05: Foxnews.com has Republican jeff Duncan picking up Gresham Barrett’s SC 03 seat.
8:01 PM: Nice of you to join us, Fox News.
8:00 PM: Republican Lou Barletta edging Democrat Paul Kanjorski in PA-11, but the lead is small and only a small number of districts have reported.
7:55 PM: Republican Young over Democrat Hill in IN9, according to RCP Donnelly/Walorski still too close to call.
7:50 PM: Sadly, they’re calling it for Democrat Manchin in the West Virginia Senate race. There’s one prediction I missed.
7:47 PM: Arkansas Woman Forges Judge’s Signature to Buy Mustang. Not election-related, but man, that’s some turbo-charged stupid…
7:41 PM: As a reporter, getting caught conspiring against a Republican candidate gets you: A.) A Pulitzer, B.) A job with MSNBC, or C.) A pink slip. (Of course, they might still get the MSNBC jobs…)
7:39 PM: “Election Alert: Fox News Projects Republican John Boozman Defeats Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas.” Almost as shocking as a Mike Tyson victory over Woody Allen.
7:36 PM: Republican Griffith over Dem Boucher in VA 09.
7:31 PM: As part of their non-election, ever-so-important “Trapped in an Elevator” coverage, PBS is showing footage of the World Trade Center collapse. I’m sure Democrats are calling up PBS execs. “You’re not helping!”
7:27 PM: They’re also calling IN 08 for Republican Buschon.
7:25: CBS has Sandra Adams beating Suzanne Kosmas 60% to 40% in FL 24. Kosmas was an ObamaCare flipper, though not one of the Stupak group.
7:15 PM: Pause for pizza.
7:13: Drudge: REPUBLICANS WIN SENATE SEATS: AL, FL, GA, IN, OH, KY, MO, NH, SC…
DEMS WIN: CT, DE, MD…
TOO CLOSE TO CALL: PA, IL…
No real surprises there…
7:09: ABC: Bucshon over Van Haaften 55% to 39% for IN 06, but Donnelly up over Walorski 49% to 46% with 56% reporting.
7:06 PM: “Fox News Projects GOP Marco Rubio Wins Fla.”
Hey, Charlie Crist:
7:02 PM: Well, thank God for PBS and their focus on public-minded–CLICK. “Trapped in an Elevator.” Your tax dollars at work.
7:00 PM: Glee, Fox? Dancing with the Stars, ABC? On election night? Thanks for NOTHING!
6:58 PM: Jackie Walorski up over Stupak-bloc flipper Joe Donnelly 53% to 42% with 19% of the vote in.
6:51 PM: Foxnew.com has Frank Guinta up over incumbent Democrat Carol Shea-Porter in NH1 by 12,585 to 10,348. If anyone had Shea-Porter on their endangered list, I must have missed it.
6:49 PM: Alan Grayson (FL-08) is down 63 percent to 29. Can you hear my crazy now?
6:47 PM: Drudge predicting a 50 seat GOP pickup in the House.
6:44: PBS has Robert Hurt up over Dem Golden Boy Tom Perriello by 55%, in Virginia, despite national Dems pouring millions into the race. But the returns may not be representative of the district as a whole.
6:42 PM: Nancy Pelosi is still saying the Democrats will keep the House. Also thinks Dallas Cowboys will win the Superbowl.
6:39 PM: Coats beat Stupak-bloc flipper Brad Ellsworth, who left his seat to run for the Senate. How’s that ObamaCare working out for you?
6:35: DeMint called in SC, but he’s only at 55% right now, which has to be a disappointment considering the quality of his opponent.
6:30 PM: PBS calls race for Republican Portman in Ohio. KLRU is the only broadcast station in Austin showing news right now.
6:29 PM: Minnesota Democrats using the mentally handicapped to commit vote fraud. Must not make joke. Must not make joke. Must not make joke…
6:23 PM: Moving the TV into the office. Old 36″ tube. Weighs approx. 3 metric tons.
6:13 PM: Drudge exit polls via Instapundit:
Tea for Three: Coates, Paul, DeMint Win Senate Seats…
EXIT POLLS:
IL 49-43 Kirk [R]… NV TIED…
Arkansas: Boozman (R) over Lincoln (D)
California: Boxer [D] over Fiorina [R]
Florida: Rubio [R] over Crist [I], Meek [D]
Ohio: Portman (R) over Fisher (D)
North Dakota: Hoeven (R) over Potter (D)
Wisconsin: Johnson (R) over Feingold (D)
6:11 PM: Whoa, that was quick. ABC, Fox, and NBC are already calling the Senate races for Rand Paul in Kentucky and Dan Coats in Indiana.
6:07 PM: The Fark election thread, for one of the few venues on the Internet where both left and right gather to drink heavily and troll each other.
6:00 PM: Greetings Instapundit readers! Damn he’s fast. Within minutes of me dropping him an email the link was up. It’s like that Warner Brothers cartoon when the wolf writes off for an anti-smoking kit, and when he goes out to mail the letter the postman drive out, snatches the letter from his hand, hands him the kit and drives off…
5:56 PM: The Washington Examiner on races to watch.
High turnout in West Virginia.
The Democratic wailing and rending of garments has already begun.
Kathryn Jean Lopez of NRO predicts a flip of 80 House seats for the GOP (among other NRO writer predictions at that link).
Iowahawk brings the election funny.
12:50 PM: Gallup is reporting a 19 point “enthusiasm gap” among likely voters, the biggest ever on record.
12:10 PM: Jay Cost of The Weekly Standard weighs in with a prediction (based on his models and Gallup’s final numbers) of Republican House gains of about 75 seats.
Jim Geraghty makes my prediction of a 67-seat House pickup look pessimistic by predicting a Republican net pickup of 70 House seats. And he’s been following individual races a lot more closely than I…
Attention the Internets: I will be liveblogging the 2010 election starting around 7 PM CDT and running until who knows when.
Expect heavy snark with gusts of full-blown schadenfreude reaching 75 miles per hour.
IowaHawk brings us Bob Etheridge’s martial arts secrets!
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010Learn his deadly technique for a mere $19.95!
Etheridge has already proven how effective it is…