Dems win, assholes still with us

The Democrats won. And perhaps, at lesat in the US House of Representatives, won big. The Democrats sweep the Iowa Statehouse, except in the race for Secretary of Agriculture where Democrat Denise O'Brien goes down in a close loss to Republican agribusinessman Bill Northey.

The Secretary of Agriculture race proves once again that negative campign advertising works. O'Brien, an organic farmer, was quietly ahead in opinion polls for most of the campaign until it really bagan to look like she'd win. Then the Republicans cranked up the slime machine, and the Des Moines Register, jumping on the corn-based ethonol bandwagon, endorsed the Spirit Lake Republican MBA. Oh, well.

But the election isn't the real reason I'm posting today. Life goes on and, to resurrect a Seventies turn of phrase, up-tight assholes are still with us. To wit:

The owner of a Johnston-based hotel chain, Stoney Creek Inns, has pulled the CNN news channel from the cable lineup in his 10 hotels because he believes the cable network supports terrorists.

"Regardless of your views on the war, a recent CNN broadcast of sniper assassinations of American soldiers in Iraq is offensive," James Thompson said in a prepared statement. "We will not be a party to propaganda for terrorists."

Thompson founded Stoney Creek Inns 10 years ago. The company has locations in Johnston and Waukon in Iowa; East Peoria, Galena, Moline and Quincy in Illinois; Columbia and St. Joseph in Missouri, and La Crosse and Wausau in Wisconsin.

Tony Magro of Barrington, Ill., told the Wausau Daily Herald he was staying at the Stoney Creek Inn near Wausau when he noticed he could not find CNN on the television in his room. The hotel staff told him Thompson had instructed his employees to remove the channels because he thought CNN aids terrorists.

Please. CNN supports terrorists. That's the weakest horseshit excuse for dropping a television network I've ever heard. But that's a Republican baaaadass for you. The owner of a small chain of phony mountain lodges seeing phony terrorist under the beds in his cheesey hotels.