Free Republic

For conservative political junkies in the Hawkeye State, Saturday is a great opportunity to get your fix. Three major events take place throughout the day and they are spread out enough that you can check out all them. The first is the Iowa Tea Party Statewide Convention...

In Iowa, Euphoria Gives Way to Second Thoughts on Obama JEFF ZELENY November 2, 2009 WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa — Pauline McAreavy voted for President Obama. From the moment she first saw him two years ago, she was smitten by his speeches and sold on his promise of change. She switched parties to support him in the Iowa caucuses, donated money and opened her home to a pair of young campaign workers. “I really thought there would be immediate change,” said Pauline McAreavy, 76, a retired school nurse. But by the time she received a fund-raising letter last month from the Democratic...

Pauline McAreavy voted for President Obama. From the moment she first saw him two years ago, she was smitten by his speeches and sold on his promise of change. She switched parties to support him in the Iowa caucuses, donated money and opened her home to a pair of young campaign workers. But by the time she received a fund-raising letter last month from the Democratic National Committee, a sense of disappointment had set in. She returned the solicitation with a handwritten note, saying: “Until I see some progress and he lives up to his promises in Iowa, we will...

DES MOINES, Iowa (BP)--In the first statewide survey since the Iowa Supreme Court's landmark "gay marriage" ruling, a new poll shows that just over two-thirds of the state's voters support placing a constitutional marriage amendment on the ballot. The survey of 500 registered voters by Voter/Consumer Research was released Monday, more than three months after the court made the state the first in the heartland to recognize "marriages" between homosexuals. The proposed marriage amendment -- proposed immediately after the ruling by state legislative Republicans but blocked by Democratic leaders -- likely will be an issue in next year's gubernatorial and...

Missouri state Sen. Jolie Justus of Kansas City on Friday boarded a bus for Iowa where same-sex marriage is legal to wed her partner of nearly two years, the Democratic senator said Sunday. Justus said she married Shonda Garrison of mid-Missouri at a ceremony in Iowa City. The two were one of 17 couples mostly from the St. Louis area that took advantage of the recent Iowa Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the Hawkeye State. Missouri does not recognize same-sex marriages, meaning that the marriage carries no legal weight back home in Kansas City. The couples boarded a...

In a way, life looked unexpectedly ordinary here on Monday as Iowa began allowing same-sex couples to marry. The large, angry protests some had imagined never materialized in this city, the state’s most populous. Neither did the crowds of couples from all over the nation that some feared might create a carnival-like atmosphere captured in earlier images from other places. By noon, no protesters could be found outside the marriage license office. Extra sheriff’s deputies assigned to keep order milled around the Polk County recorder’s office, looking bored. And an early-morning line of dozens of same-sex couples waiting to apply...

By now, everyone knows that the Supreme Court of Iowa has imposed same sex “marriage” on the heartland of America, a mere 10 years after the people of that state had expressly voted against it. What very few people know is exactly how unfair this fight really was. Not only was the line-up within the courtroom imbalanced, but the trial court refused to hear relevant evidence. When the case made its way to the Iowa Supreme Court, they didn’t behave much better. This case, known as Varnum v. Brien, began with a half dozen same sex couples applying for...

And they wonder why they are third on cable news behind Fox and MS NBC. CNN's Don Lemon even looked at his notes before he said Rhode Island, which should have been "Iowa" that has recently legalized Gay Marriage. And during the rest of the segment no one in the control room corrects him. Crack staff over there! Good job!

Opponents of the Iowa Supreme Court ruling last week allowing same-sex marriages said Friday that they would step up pressure on state lawmakers to block the marriages through a constitutional amendment and predicted political fallout for Democratic state leaders, including Gov. Chet Culver, if they did not join the opposition. “This isn’t over, not even for this year,” said Bryan English, a spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy Center, which encouraged hundreds of opponents of same-sex marriages to meet and pray outside the State Capitol in Des Moines this week, and plans a similar rally next week. “Everyday folks who...

Rep. Steven King (R-Iowa) is calling for help to fight last week’s Iowa Supreme Court decision creating homosexual marriage in the heartland. “I am asking for help from across the country, so that we get people that will come in and raise this issue, so that at least Iowans understand, by the time they go to the polls in 2010, the difference between marriage and same-sex marriage,” he said Tuesday. King told CNSNews.com that “most Iowans don’t support same-sex ‘marriage’ ” – and don’t want judges to impose what he called “a radical redefinition of marriage.” “This is an unconstitutional...

Dear Friends of Marriage,You have been so faithful in your work to encourage the West Virginia legislature to let the people vote on a marriage protection amendment.  While we wait for our legislature to respond to your many thousand requests, our countrymen in Iowa need your help -- RIGHT NOW!!As you are aware, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the Iowa Defense of Marriage Act last week.  What you may not know is that Iowa has been a target of homosexual activist and billionaire Tim Gill for the last decade.  His money has bought several seats in the Iowa Assembly,...

The recent ruling in Iowa to permit homosexual marriage should scare all Americans. This change in thinking is indeed indicative of a country’s regression. Here in New Jersey, we sometimes forget that the country is not as diverse as we may like to believe; to consider our perspective analogous is obtuse. I agree, to us, the notion of homosexuality may not be foreign, yet that does not give us license to transcend the laws and consensus of the nation. We may harbor a more affable sentiment toward homosexuals, but that is in no way representative of the nation. The truth...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Chet Culver on Tuesday ended days of silence on the Iowa Supreme Court's decision allowing same-sex marriage, saying he disagrees with the ruling but is "reluctant to support" amending the state constitution to reverse it. Culver said in a lengthy statement that he hadn't changed his mind that marriage is between a man and a woman: "This is a tenet of my personal faith." However, Culver said the issue before the court in its unanimous ruling Friday involved only civil marriage, and that churches and other religious institutions do not have to perform them....

April 07, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Fiction and FactionIowa judges have imposed gay marriage on a state that voted against it. By Andrew C. McCarthy Faction is the eternal condition of mankind. “As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed,” wrote James Madison in Federalist No. 10. “As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.” A...

The Senate's top Democrat said Monday he won't let the same-sex marriage issue be debated this session, a position the top GOP leader decried as obstructionist. "I have no intention of taking it up," said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs. "I'm not going to put discrimination in the state Constitution. It's just a horrible idea." Gronstal said the Iowa Supreme Court ruled last week that a state law defining marriage as only between one man and one woman violated equal protection guarantees for all people. To follow that with a resolution to amend the Constitution with a one-man,...

Kids learn that there are three branches of government that have checks and balances on each other. But adults can be forgetful. Here’s a reminder. After Iowa’s Supreme Court ruled that the will of unelected judges means more than the will of the people regarding marriage, Polk County Attorney John Sarcone is quoted saying:  “Our Supreme Court has decided it, and they make the decision as to what the law is, and we follow Supreme Court decisions.” Yes, he must follow the decision. But no, the final decision does not rest with the court. Not in a democracy. The U.S....

Maddow gets excited over Iowa Gay Marriage ruling which stated it is unconstitutional to prevent gay marriage under the equal protection statute. Now, the gay man Maddow, can finally marry that sexy gay male lover of hers. What's that? She's not a dude? Okay, so she can move to Iowa and chew all the grass she wants now! Is that wrong of me? Did I cross a line?

Today Iowa becomes the first state not on either of the nation’s two liberal coasts to impose counterfeit, homosexual ‘marriage’ or its mischievous twin, ‘civil unions,’ on its citizens through judicial tyranny. To call this decision bankrupt is to understate its perniciousness. The evil genius of the pro-sodomy movement is that it targets noble institutions like marriage and adoption in the name of ‘rights,’ and then perverts and uses them to normalize aberrant and destructive behaviors. 'Homosexual ‘marriage’ is wrong because homosexual behavior itself is wrong and destructive – as proved by its role in the needless, early deaths of...

State Reps. Dwayne Alons, R-Hull, and Dolores Mertz, D-Ottosen, have proposed a bill to amend Iowa’s Constitution and define marriage as being between a man and a woman. House Joint Resolution 6 was introduced Friday as funnel week was coming to a close. It has little chance of coming up for debate this session. It was introduced, Alons said, in response to Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, introducing a bill making Iowa’s marriage laws gender neutral by removing the words “husband” and “wife” and replacing them with “spouse.” All this takes place in the shadow of Varnum v. Brien, a...