It has two names kinda sorta. Let’s see if I can explain this right. It’s not an official organized ride, at least not this year, we don’t really know how it will play out. The first name we game up is the UGRAB. The Unofficial Great Bike Ride Around Bremer. It’s a nice respectible name in the event that it would become some “official” ride like several cities and counties have.

However, it has an unofficial name, it’s a sweet name that T-Shirts will be made for. The Great Roll Around Bremer And Summer Social. You got it, folks, the GRABASS. Anyway, the map is below. As you can see it is about a 60 mile route. We will start in Waverly and go through the towns of Denver, Readlyn, Tripoli, Fredericka, Horton, Bremer and back to Waverly. Obviously folks who did not want to do the full 60 miles could stop in any town along the way. There is a two miles section of Highway 63 after Fredericka that I do not recommend anybody ride their bikes on. We will have vehicles, probably Team Punch-n-Pie’s bus to move folks those two miles. If you want to ride 63, be my guest.

The ‘And Summer Social’ part of the GRABASS will take place at my house after the event.

Further details will follow.

WAVERLY — A councilman convicted of fourth-degree theft for writing a bad check says he intends to appeal the judge’s ruling in the case.

Duane Liddle, 56, earlier this year entered an Alford plea to the serious misdemeanor, according to court records. By entering an Alford plea, he admitted no wrongdoing but acknowledged a strong possibility existed he would be convicted if the matter went to trial.

Yes, he would have been convicted of a felony, but instead worked out a deal to knock it down to a serioius misdemeanor, which prevented his bootage from the city council.

But get this, he’s going to appeal it now.

Liddle said Monday he entered the plea expecting to receive a deferred judgment for an incident that began in 2006. Such a judgment would mean the conviction would be wiped from Liddle’s record if he avoids additional legal trouble.

Instead, Judge Richard Gleason said the crime “does not seem particularly out of character for the defendant” and that other behavior “displays a general lack of honesty,” according to court documents filed April 8 in Dubuque County District Court.

Liddle said his case suffered from an inexperienced lawyer, adding he is consulting additional legal counsel regarding an appeal. Liddle also said he has a private investigator looking into the incidents that led to the initial charge, which was more serious. Authorities first charged Liddle with first-degree theft, a Class C felony.

Poor baby, don’t right a $45,000 check when you don’t have the funds in the account to right it. Duh.

The councilman said he feels support from some in the community but is also concerned about his reputation.

The ship has sailed on the whole reputation thing a long, long time ago.

Police said in a report: “Mark, who lives with his girlfriend, Kiley Junge, stated that Kiley’s child’s father, Keon Patton, knocked on their apartment door. Kiley answered the door and there was Keon… Keon told Kiley that he was ready to get it over with. Mark approached the door and told Keon that he didn’t want any problems.”

But both men ended up in the front yard wrestling on the ground.

Jones yelled that Patton bit him. Then Patton pulled out a handgun and fired a shot in the air, telling Jones the next bullet would go through his heart, police said.

Where are the cheerleaders? Fight, bite, shoot! Fight bite, shoot!!

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. John McCain travels the campaign trail without Secret Service protection although he is the Republican Party’s likely presidential nominee, the agency’s director told Congress on Thursday.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the Arizona senator has not requested his agency’s services.

The same can’t be said for the wussy Democrats.

That contrasts with his Democratic rivals.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton travels with Secret Service agents due to her status as a former first lady, and Sen. Barack Obama requested and began receiving protection last year.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama went after the “We’re not paying enough taxes to the government” vote today during a television interview in New York.

First, he said the Bush tax cuts ought to die. He likes that top marginal rate of 39%. Although the non-partisan National Journal recently declared him the most liberal of the 100 senators, Obama denied being a “wild-eyed liberal,” which wasn’t what the Journal called him, but it sounds good on TV where everything moves by so quickly.

Maria Bartiromo on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” asked, “Who should pay more and who should pay less?” Predictably, the politician chose to talk about who would benefit from his higher tax plan, not who would get socked the hardest. But from his answers it sounds like the “wealthy” in his mind are those making more than $75,000.

“I would not increase taxes for middle class Americans and in fact I want to…. provide a tax cut for people who are making $75,000 a year or less,” he said. “For those folks, I want an offset on the payroll tax that would be worth as much as $1,000 for a family.

If he is going to lump people like me into the “rich” catagory, he’s gonna get smoked in the election. (Which it appears that is going to happen, barring some sort of classic McCain meltdown.) He is already losing to McCain in head to head match-ups. (It’s too early to trust those kind of polls though.)

UPDATE: Maybe he means $75,000 a person.. so $150,000 total… If that’s the case, then, damn, I’m not rich. Though personally I don’t think $150,000 should be considered rich anyway.

During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion– positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he’s projected during his presidential campaign.

The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.

Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he “never saw or approved” the questionnaire.

They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who “unintentionally mischaracterize(d) his position.”

But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago non-profit group that issued it. And it found that Obama – the day after sitting for the interview – filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes adding to one answer.

I like this line myself.. They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who “unintentionally mischaracterize(d) his position.” Anybody notice how often he likes to throw his aides under the bus? It’s never his fault.. He sounds like my 4 year old daughter Ellie. She is having a hard time accepting blame for anything. Yesterday she tripped going down the stairs and she said “They shouldn’t have put those steps there!” Yes, she blamed the steps for being there.