Geri Huser, the Democrat who lost her legislative seat to Kim Pearson, has been hired for a top position at the Iowa Finance Authority. It's a rare appointment by Terry Branstad until you remember that Huser's dad, Ed Skinner, left his Democratic pals last year to support Branstad over Chet Culver. Skinner is, or at least was, a pretty powerful force in Democratic circles, and some folks say the appointment of Huser was his payback. But no one is saying she isn't qualified for the job, which is running the title guarantee division. Her first day at work was Monday ...

Michelle Bachmann, making the politically mandatory appearance at an Iowa Cubs baseball game, looked out at the field and said the "lawn" was very pretty. ...

Say Oooooooh:

Next Wednesday at 8 p.m. the Ying Yang Twins — you know them, of course — will be the free act at the state fair's Anderson Erickson Dairy Stage, sponsored by KCCI NewsChannel 8. The Ying Yang Twins are a musical act described as American "crunk rap" duo, and Skinny has no idea what that means. But a constant reader tells Skinny not to look for AE to be printing the lyrics of the duo's biggest hit, "Wait (The Whisper Song)" on its milk cartons or NewsChannel 8 to include a clip of the performance on the 10 p.m. news.

But he does suggest that Skinny print the words of "Wait" for the convenience of Fair Board members who want to sing along to the piece, a gentle and romantic love song that was on Billboard's "Hot 100" list for 22 weeks a few years ago. Here's the chorus:

Ay bitch! wait til you see my dick

Wait til you see my dick

Ay bitch! wait til you see my dick

Imma beat dat pussy up

Ay bitch! wait til you see my dick

Wait you see my dick

Ay bitch! wait til you see my dick

Imma beat dat pussy up

Then it gets raunchy. And it ends:

Beat da pussy up, Beat da pussy up, Beat da pussy up, Beat da pussy up, Beat da pussy up, Beat da pussy up, Beat da pussy Up, Beat da pussy up.

(OOOOOOOH!)

If that seems a little rough, you might instead want to look up the lyrics to another Ying Yang Twins hit, "Salt Shaker." Or some of the songs from the duo's latest album, such as "Holla at a Bitch" and "The Girl Is a Hoe."

That's Wednesday at 8 on the Anderson Erickson Dairy Stage, sponsored by KCCI NewsChannel 8. Be sure to bring the kids. ...

This just in: "Crunk rap" is hyped-up rap and, according to the Urban Dictionary, "it all sounds the same and has the same beat and is about ass, bling, money, prostitution and clubbing."

Oooooooh. ...

Did you notice that Branson Air Express no longer flies to Des Moines? On the other hand, did you notice that it ever did fly to Des Moines? In the first six months of 2010, 1,501 people flew on Branson out of Des Moines. In the first six months of this year, the number was zero.

But 463,048 persons got on commercial flights at the optimistically named Des Moines International Airport in the first six months of this year, up 3.29 percent from the 448,280 of a year earlier. And 460,808 got off, up 2.50 percent from the 449,552 of a year before. While you can't fly direct to Branson, you now can fly to 17 cities nonstop from Des Moines. Rumor has it that more will be added next year. ...

After all the arguing and posturing and signing and vetoing, here's how the state budget has come out: The general fund for this year has $5,999,668,307, which is up nearly $650 million from the $5,353,127,954. Most of the increase is for health and human services. The biggest loser: Education, where the state will spend $31.6 million less this year than last, a cut of nearly 4 percent. That didn't seem to come up at the Governor's recent summit on education. ...

As of Aug. 1, there were 102,358 active registered Republicans in the state, 132,864 active registered Democrats and 155,083 active registered independents. The number of Republicans has stayed roughly the same, but the Democratic number has dropped by around 2,000 and the number of independents has risen by around 5,000. Polk County continues to be overwhelming Democrat — with 104,730 Ds, 78,576 Rs and 75,452 independents. ...

Where's Bill Riley when we need him? CV