by Art Smith | Apr 8, 2009
Thursday morning (that’s tomorrow) at 8:30 there will be rally at the Iowa State Capitol West Lawn. Lots of information at letusvoteiowa.org. Please go there and read the information on parking, purpose, etc.
There are a number of legislators, along with Governor Culver, who are questioning the political safety of supporting this amendment. Between their fears and the outright obstinance of Democratic leaders to prevent the voice of the people from being heard, we are in dire need of people to take a stand now, to show the Iowa General Assembly that this matters to Iowans in a big way.
Some good information from letusvote.org:
WHAT CAN I DO TODAY?
You can continue to keep pressure on the Iowa House by calling the following Members who are still undecided as to how they will vote on the Iowa Marriage Amendment. Urge them to vote yes on the procedural vote. Remind them that the procedural vote is a vote on the Iowa Marriage Amendment.
Representative Brian Quirk – [email protected], 515.242.6436 (desk),
Home Address: 1011 Sunset St., New Hampton, IA, 50659
Representative McKinley Bailey – [email protected], 515.281.7480(desk),
Home Address: 521 Elmhurst Dr., Webster City, IA 50595
Representative Mike Reasoner – [email protected], 515.281.3238 (desk),
Home Address: 702 New York Avenue, Creston, IA, 50801
Representative Kurt Swaim – [email protected], 515.242.6417 (desk), 641.208.6330 (cell)
Home Address: 504 North Davis, Bloomfield, IA, 52537
Representative Larry Marek – [email protected], 515.242.6442 (desk), 319.430.0294 (cell)
Home Address: 1741 Riverside Road, Riverside, IA, 52327
Representative Kerry Burt – [email protected], 515.281.7342 (desk), 319.215.8685 (cell)
Home Address: 150 Hawthorne Ave., Waterloo, IA, 50702
Representative Wayne Ford – [email protected], 515.281.4061 (desk), 515.271.0605 (home)
Home Address: 3301 Cottage Grove Ave, Des Moines, IA 50311-3709
Representative Nathan Reichert – [email protected], 515.281.7332 (desk), 563.571.5242 (cell)
Home Address: 1155 Iowa Avenue, Muscatine, IA, 52761
Representative Paul Shomshor – [email protected], 515.281.7325 (desk),
Home Address: 3018 Avenue M, Council Bluffs, IA, 51501
Representative Phyllis Thede – [email protected], 515.281.7336 (desk), 563.508.1773 (cell) Home Address: 2343 Hawthorne Court, Bettendorf, IA, 52722
Also, check out this post from Shane Vander Hart.
by Art Smith | Apr 7, 2009
Statement on Governor Culver’s Failure
to Keep Promise to Protect Traditional Marriage
Sen. McKinley: “ I believe Iowans should have the final vote on this very important and emotional issue. Governor Culver has chosen to stand with 7 elite justices and deny the 3 million people of Iowa the right to vote on this significant issue.â€
DES MOINES, IA – Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley (R-Chariton) issued the following statement today in response to Governor Culver’s failure to keep his promise to protect traditional marriage in Iowa:
“Governor Culver has failed to keep the promise he made just last year on January 18 after a filming of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press†to ‘do whatever it takes to protect marriage as between one man and one woman’. He has failed to lead in creating a responsible budget during the last two years, he has failed to keep spending under control and he has failed to push legislation that will help get over 80,000 Iowans back to work and now he has failed to keep his promise to ‘do whatever it takes to protect marriage as between one man and one woman.’ I believe Iowans should have the final vote on this very important and emotional issue. Governor Culver has chosen to stand with 7 elite justices and deny the 3 million people of Iowa the right to vote on this significant issue. This marriage flip-flop is just the latest example of Governor Culver not providing the leadership that every Iowan deserves.â€
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Granted, it’s no surprise to have any politician make a promise that they can’t keep. This particular promise is dreadfully important to most Iowans and for Culver to make this kind of promise and not do everything he can to hold up his responsibility is embarrassing.
This isn’t over.
by Art Smith | Apr 5, 2009
In terms of celebrations and tradition, this week is considered the biggest week of the year for most Christians. Growing up, it was a little confusing because I had understood that the actual days themselves were significant, when the reality is that what the days represent, what they celebrate, is the significance.
Despite that, this is a week when so many people are busy preparing to celebrate the most important thing that God has done for us, and it is sad that we will be desperately distracted with the impact of the Iowa Supreme Court decision that will allow same-sex partners to be recognized as “married”.
Marriage as an institution was designed by God for many good reasons. It is intended to honor Him by bringing two people together to fully give their lives over to create what God called “one flesh”… one man and one woman coming together to serve each other, encourage each other, fulfill each other. The fullness of that relationship results in the establishment of a family that results from that union. Spiritual and physical procreation is the plan of God, and is to the benefit of the family and the society. It ensures that there is an established pattern of love, growth, expansion, regeneration, and glorifying of the creator.
Same-sex marriage rejects these fundamentals of God and society and will lead not just toward the continued moral decaying of society, but by reducing the procreative power of society, will join with the impact of abortion-on-demand to diminish the strength of numbers of future generations. As fatalistic as it may seem, this leads toward a dying society.
Understand, we are in a time where we must by law allow others to do behind closed doors what they want if it doesn’t directly impact others, but by opening the door to normalizing the behavior and institutionalizing it into the form of life-long partnerships with legal infrastructure to support the normalization, homosexual behavior will become more and more common. What I’m saying is, many (and I’ve spoken with people close to me who have said this) who believe that the behavior is wrong, are content with allowing people to do as they please and have no concern about letting gay couples “marry” because they think it is inevitable and and non-impactful.
But they are dreadfully wrong. Along with all of the costs associated with normalizing this behavior, we will undoubtedly see an explosion of growth in it, and eventually a predominance of gay “families”, to be followed by generations of severe stagnance because we are unable to maintain sufficient population. We will become insignificant and absorbed into other cultures that have not been so foolish. If any such survive.
At this point, it is critical that we at least attempt to start the 3 year process of a Constitutional Amendment here in Iowa. Although the politics would seem to dictate that this won’t happen in 2009 and possibly not in 2010 either, every effort needs to be made anyhow. If we cannot begin until 2011, then we are 5 years away from implementation.
The voice of the people may yet carry in pressing this issue with legislators, and your voice counts. Contact your legislator today. There are situations where the high court’s role in establishing what is right for our state is critical and usually makes sense even if people need time to absorb it. This is not one of those situations, and silence only supports the error.
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This will likely be not only a lively week regarding Gay Marriage, but also regarding HF 807 and SF 468: Repeal of Federal Deductibility. Unless the former is so overwhelming that the latter is lost until the hubbub dies. However, it’s more likely that the Democratic Leadership will attempt to plow through the debate and voting on Federal Deductibility in an attempt to diminish the public debate over the Gay Marriage issue.
I’m more concerned that one issue may be used to distract everyone while some end run is concocted on the other. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open. Watch here (our Iowa Tweets) and at the Polk County GOP web site (Polk GOP Tweets) for alerts and updates… the public may need to come to the Capitol again to raise our voices.
Happy Holy Week.
by Art Smith | Apr 3, 2009
The good news is that you can stop holding your breath now. The bad news is that there is more work to do.
The Iowa Supreme Court today upheld Judge Robert Hanson’s 2007 decision in Varnum v. Brien. Today’s unanimous court decision (early rumors had indicated there was dissent on the court) strikes down Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act.
Steve Sheffler of Iowa Christian Alliance hit on a very real financial impact today:
What this means for Iowa and perhaps for the forty-seven other states in the country that currently do not recognize same-sex marriage is, to say the least, a monumental mess. Because Iowa’s statutes pertaining to marriage do not restrict that privilege to Iowa residents, gay couples from any state may come to Iowa, get married, return to their state and demand recognition under the Full Faith and Credit (Article IV, Sec. 1) provision of the U.S. Constitution. “Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.”
I have not had time to review the decision yet, but apparently marriages can commence in 3 weeks.  In making this decision, the justices are quoted from their summary ruling as saying:
“The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion.”
Interesting to me on two counts:
- The court comes out and states squarely that they know this decision does not conform to the will of the people.
- The court seems to be subtly suggesting the very answer conservatives sought 4 years ago: a constitutional amendment.
From what I’ve heard, this topic will likely dominate the General Assembly’s work next week, as well as be center stage in the media. Expect to hear more this weekend, here and elsewhere.
I’ll say it once. I don’t know if the decision was legally right or wrong. But allowing marriage to be defined as anything other than a union between one man and one woman is bad for society, and Iowa in particular. This is a dark day in Iowa.
by Art Smith | Apr 2, 2009
The political fallout continues for Democrats as they try to fend off criticism for Pat Murphy’s behavior Tuesday evening. A letter to the editor in this morning’s Des Moines register lays it out pretty succinctly: characterizing the behavior of the public at Tuesday night’s public meeting prior to being expelled as anything more than brief expressions of disapproval or aproval (granting the first speaker deserved to be treated better) is spurious at best. And Kiernan’s accusations that the public’s actions were orchestrated by Republican leaders is an outright lie; I was there during the preparatory time and there was nothing more than providing people with shirt and buttons… no direction to behave in any way.
If you watched KCCI news on Tuesday night (or the story on the web site), you briefly would have seen my ugly mug. A number of people have mentioned they noticed and were surprised at what happened. One friend’s Facebook Wall comment: “Way to stand up to the man!”.
Democrats have backed up the bus and skipped debating HF 807 either today (Thursday) or Friday it seems. Kent Sorenson twittered us last night that majority leaders were working on an amendment that would ensure enough votes would be garnered to get the bill passed. They are still working with the Governor to ensure they don’t get surprised by him (like they did on the Voter Irrelvancy Act that lost steam last month).
Iowa Independent had an interesting piece on the use of Twitter during the proceedings. I was monitoring Kent Sorenson and the Senate Republican Caucus tweets, while I was commenting via Twitter myself. I was also exchanging messages via email with one of the House members. If you were following my tweets, you’ll know that my cell battery died shortly after the last speaker finished.
So here’s my two cents worth: One might think that Democrats would wise up and give up on this foolish venture and let it lie for now with the economy the way it is. Passing this bill, which is just another case of a solution in desperate need of a problem (if you take it at face value), will just make a large portion of the Iowa voters angry… winning for Democrats on this bill may be worse than losing because they will probably lose over this. A bold move at this point would be to stand up and say “We’ve heard Iowans and we get it: we will work on other methods to help lower income Iowans.”. Democrats won’t get what they want, but then again they are less likely to lose seats in 2010. And if they think that getting this in during the 2009 session has a better chance of being forgotten by November 2010 than if they pushed it through in the 2010 session, that’s a gamble for them. This is something that they would be better to find smaller increments to achieve over a longer period.
If their only goal was this bill, that might work. The bad news is, this bill IS one of those small increments. If you think this HF 807 is a big deal, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Lastly, one of the speakers Tuesday night, Mark Grittmann, got in contact with me and we’ve shared emails and a phone call back and forth over the past couple of days. He was kind enough to share the text of his speech at the hearing, which one needs to understand is very much tongue-in-cheek, and conveys eloquently the point I made above:
Good evening and thank you for listening to the people of Iowa. I’m Mark Grittmann. I’m not a lobbyist and I’m not representing any special interest group. I’m just a hard-working American taxpayer.
I’ve heard the Elimination of Federal Tax deductibility may cause up to a $600 Million tax increase and I’m all for it. And those of you supporting this, say this would be good for the State of Iowa. So if a $600 million tax increase is good for Iowa, then I think you should do more, so wouldn’t a $1.2 Billion tax increase be even better?
Some have foolishly argued against it. Can you believe it?
- Some say the 20% increase in State spending over the last 2 years should be reversed.
- Some say this Bill is revenue neutral. But if that is true, and it doesn’t change anything, then why do it?
- Some say that Government, like family households, should live within their means and not let spending get out of control.
- Some say a tax increase during a Global Financial Crisis and Recession is the worst thing for the economy, and that tax increases would hurt employers, causing a loss of jobs and people would leave Iowa to find work in other States.
- Some say the facts about this Bill as to its true impact on taxes isn’t known or has not been fully disclosed, so how can this Bill even be debated yet? One news report showed that 40% of the individuals receiving a tax increase make less than $40,000 per year. And 69% of the individuals receiving a tax increase make less than $70,000 per year.
- Some say that in November 2010, voters will remember the legislators who raised their taxes by 20%.
And that’s why I think this $600 million tax increase is good for Iowa. It will bring new and improved, and more fiscally responsible Legislators to the State of Iowa in November 2010.
Thank you for listening, and good night.
That gives me an idea. We should call this “The Legislative Replacement Act of 2009/2010”.
The news links herein are to Des Moines Register and Iowa Independent.