CityView
Central Iowa's Alternative
[http://www.dmcityview.com/winners-losers.shtml]
November 17, 2005
[Note: This material is copyright
by Cityview, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for
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prior approval of Cityview.]
In a move that
helped assure us that all old people aren't completely off their fucking
rockers, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley finally fessed up that the Iowa Rain
Forest project -- subject to nationwide ridicule after Grassley porked
Congress for $50 million to get it going -- might be a non-starter. Grassley,
of course, has been hinting for months that the project, which was laughed
out of Des Moines, might be (gasp!) in trouble, as the group in charge
has come up with a pocketful of lint in matching funds. But last week the
Iowa dinosaur told Ted Townsend and Co. that they have two years to get
their collective shit together or he will pull the plug. "I want to make
sure the tax money isn't frittered away," Grassley told reporters without
so much as a thigh slap or a grin. Some $2.9 million of the grant has already
been spent on jet fuel and sack lunches so that project leader David Oman
can "woo" people who look at him when he's finished with his presentation
and ask, "Rain Forest?"