Good As You: Iowa Roundup
01/21/2011
Video: Come for the pizza, stay to hear Bob Vander Plaats deny gays their slice
The audio is pretty low at points. But this gives you an idea of what Bob Vander Plaats is saying on his current Family Leader tour, which is making its way to Pizza Ranch locations across the state: [YT user:...
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GOP White House takeover: Road begins in Iowa, painting gays as 'distorted'
This is how Iowa's new "pro-family" group, The Family Leader, views our lives and loves: The Family Leader affirms sexual relations within the bond of marriage, and opposes distortions of sexuality or special rights to those practicing distorted sexual behavior....
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01/19/2011
Because we all know the near-Armageddon that a fair Iowa's become
Iowa House Republicans (sans four) hope that a 69 page, unanimous court decision will be nixed by a mean-spirited legislative action: Fifty-six of the GOP’s 60-member majority signed on as co-sponsors to House Joint Resolution 6. Four Republican lawmakers —...
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01/17/2011
Judge not lest ye be judged (by Chuck Hurley and his personal anti-gayness)
In the past, we've heard Iowa's leading "pro-family" advocate Chuck Hurley ask straight students to pray for the "healing of openly gay students." Plus during the recent judicial retention campaign, he also said that gays' civil marriages are "a degradation...
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01/14/2011
Protect marriage decency in Iowa, say Christians (of 1961)
Just an interesting flashback into the pressing "protect marriage" conversation on the lips of Iowans of the early '60s: Those darn activist hours.
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01/13/2011
Iowa's Family Leader tour: To where, exactly, do they wish to lead the state's gays?
Today, when casually looking for information on how Bob Vander Plaats' "Family Leader" tour is going in Iowa, we found some hidden data that shows concretely just how extremely this group -- and its larger parent organization, the Iowa Family...
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01/04/2011
Video: 99 Iowa counties, 1 anti-equality focus
Don't you dare think Bob Vander Plaats is going to rest on the laurels of turning Iowa's judicial retention process into a highly politicized, largely out-of-state, single issue catharsis that pitted qualified judges' careers against conservatives' anti-equality whims. Oh no....
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01/03/2011
Business: Huckabee's made it his to be all up in yours
Iowa Family Policy Center President Chuck Hurley once called for the "healing of openly gay students." During the recent judicial retention campaign, he said that gays' civil marriages are "a degradation of God’s best design for the family." He's the...
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12/17/2010
Legislating from the bench? Try benching from the legislature
It's one thing to rally troops with misinformation in an already scheduled referendum so that they unfairly vote to remove the three judges up for retention (see our complete Iowa For Freedom Archive for that). But now Iowa's anti-equality movement...
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12/06/2010
IFF-y justice: Bob Vander Plaats still confusing deed with merit
We want to address two new things from Bob Vander Plaats, the unsuccessfula Iowa gubernatorial candidate who instead chose to direct his electoral attention towards using personally-held faith to oust three justices who did nothing more than follow the equality...
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11/22/2010
Video: Huckabee in Iowa, applauds dangerous decision to turn retention process into discriminatory smoke signal
This man wants to be your next president of this supposedly church/state-separated nation, a job that will most certainly come with a few U.S. Supreme Court picks: "[Retention vote] wasn't personal. It was just business. It was the business of...
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11/12/2010
Little known fact: 'Vander Plaats' is actually Iowan for 'courts that cater to my whims'
This has to be the most egregious, self-satisfied, overplayed hands in recent "culture war" memory: The leader of a successful campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices says the four justices who remain on the court should consider stepping...
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11/09/2010
Giving truth the Schlaf: Iowa For Freedom edition
Another completely misrepresentative take on the recent "Iowa For Freedom" campaign, this time from conservative doyenne Phyllis Schlafly: "The powers that be in Iowa tried to tell Iowa voters that they had an obligation to vote yes on the three...
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What would a President Huckabee's family policy look like? Look to Iowa
- Iowa Family Policy President Chuck Hurley has called for the "healing of openly gay students," as well as said that gays' civil marriages are "a degradation of God’s best design for the family." - Director of Public Relations &...
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11/08/2010
Audio: Matt's just a dad trying to make it. Oh, in a world sans LGBT people or fair courts, that is.
On Saturday morning, I was literally three feet away from him. A young dad, like a million other dads, playing with cutely rambunctious kids who seemed excited to be in a new state for the weekend. To the young'uns, this...
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11/04/2010
Forget virgins: Iowa Supreme Court justices are God's newly ordered sacrifice
"God is our ultimate authority, and we think that we did God's will by standing up to the three judges who would try to redefine God's institution and say that marriage is anything other than one man and one woman"...
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Church/state[ment]: Evangelicals put much faith in Iowa 'win'
The so-called "Iowa For Freedom" crew made a stride towards destroying judicial independence. But it might be religious freedom -- true religious freedom, which includes the right to live and love as an equal citizen of this nation free from...
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A co-[opted] brand of government
Fundamentally changing the court's role in civil rights history. That is exactly what the anti-gay "Iowa For Mob Rule" "Iowa For Freedom" coalition wants: “What is so disturbing about this is that it really might cause judges in the future...
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11/03/2010
Audio: Congratulations, Iowa: You stopped incest!
Congressman Steve King simply had to help remove the three Iowa Supreme Court justices that were up for retention. After all, the "lawless" jurists unfairly denied the legislature (even though there was nothing unfair nor denying). Oh, and the judges...
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Iowa For Freedom's winnings: Pages of archived lies, ideas that can't be intellectually defended, massive karmic debt, a marriage opinion that still stands...
It's safe to say it now: From the first day many of us heard about the so-called Iowa For Freedom campaign, we were convinced that the opposition would win at the polls. The effort seemed tailor made for anti-gay lashing...
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11/02/2010
Audio: 'Iowa For Freedom' might win. But not with a clean conscience.
More deliberately anti-intellectual assessments of the Iowa judicial retention vote, this time from Maggie Gallagher: (click to play audio clip) *AUDIO SOURCE: Maggie Gallagher, segment 2 [Drew Mariani Show, 11/1/10] That whole "what is this, Russia?" question? It comes straight...
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Fun with 'First name, Last Name' fields: Iowa For Freedom (so-called) edition
*** *SEE ALSO: Our complete Iowa For Freedom Archive
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11/01/2010
Video: Iowans should vote on careers, not one personal whim
Fair Courts For US
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Hey Iowa: Smash pumpkins, not judicial fairness
Over the weekend, the so-called Iowa For Freedom coalition posted this subliminal message regarding the state's upcoming judicial retention vote: [SOURCE] Fortunately, those who don't think judges and the independent judiciary in general should be subjected to a vindictive vote...
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10/31/2010
Grass? On the other side, 'pro-family' money is always greener
Fair Courts For US *** *SEE ALSO: Our complete Iowa For Freedom Archive
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10/30/2010
Video: Hey Iowa For Freedom: Rejecting state DOMA law doesn't mean ignoring it!
Here's some more proud point-missing from the Iowa For Freedom coalition. This time from a voter who believes the state Supreme Court justices "ignored" the DOMA law, even if in reality, the Varnum panel quite openly and honestly found the...
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10/29/2010
Video: Gays/Pilgrims? Well, both did find inaugural freedom in Massachusetts
In Iowa, Eric Cooper is the Libertarian party's nominee for Governor. He also might just be the one candidate who understands civil marriage equality the most: (NoisyEyeDoctor) Can doesn't mean should. Personal whim need not translate into public policy. Religious...
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Video: Iowa For [Infantilizing Supporters of Basic Fairness]
Concerned Woman For America Tamara Scott: *** *SEE ALSO: Our complete Iowa For Freedom Archive
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Video: 'Quote, unquote," except for both the quote and the unquote parts
Never once in the 69 pages of Iowa Supreme Court's Varnum opinion is the phrase "evolving standard" used. One can find Iowa For Freedom head Bob Vander Plaats using the phrase to slight what he sees as the court's unjust...
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10/28/2010
If you retain the Iowa judges, communists win. Or something.
The National Organization For Marriage is still working the canard the claims pro-retention voices are rejecting the right to vote on judges itself. Though this time, with Soviet Union compares thrown in for some extra conservative oomph: In Iowa the...
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Video: 'Every time they have to make a decision, they'll be thinking about 'what will some people out there think?', not what the law is'
Former Iowa Governor Robert D. Ray (R) defends his state's court system against the so-called "Iowa For Freedom" campaign: (H/t: One Iowa) *** *Our complete Iowa For Freedom archive
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'Unimagined rights', detailed by advocates of gay-less fantasy world
This is what the Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous Varnum opinion actually says about "unimagined" rights: In fulfilling this mandate under the Iowa Constitution, we look to the past and to precedent. We look backwards, not because citizens’ rights are constrained...
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Audio: Iowa for (reductive, one-dimension retention)
Obfuscation, thy name is "Iowa For Freedom": (click to play audio clip) *AUDIO SOURCE: FRC Iowa Bus Tour Underway [FOTF] Right. Okay. So let's start with Maggie Gallagher Srivastav. Her first soundbite: "Nobody should be unaccountable, and in Iowa, the...
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10/27/2010
Iowa For Freedom (to paint gays as a degradation)
Iowa For Freedom speakers continue to reveal the obvious: That their current campaign against Iowa's Supreme Court justices has absolutely nothing to do with jurisprudence and everything to do with the faith-based war against same-sex marriage: “It’s a degradation of...
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Bob Vander Plaats' muddled school civics
The Iowa Supreme Court didn't make law. They didn't execute law. They most certainly didn't amend the constitution. In the 2009 marriage equality decision, the unanimous panel of justices did nothing more than determine that the "protect marriage" crowd has...
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10/26/2010
Video: 'This isn't political. Now if you'll excuse me, these two elected officials are going to join me and the president of a special interest group as we hop back on a campaign bus underwritten by one of America's most prolific political action groups.
Concerned Woman For America Tamara Scott knows a well-financed, faith-motivated, single-issue campaign from a coalition of out-of-state "pro-family" groups is in no way politicizing Iowa's judicial retention system. In fact, she'll claim that it's "someone from the outside" who's putting...
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10/25/2010
@JudgeBus Day 1: Aggressive, willful ignorance as substitute for fact
- "The people" vs the "arrogant, rogue judges" - Ensuring that the law passes the constitutional smell test (i.e. the very role of a judge) is somehow "making law" for the first time in U.S. civil rights history. - "The...
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Judge Bus Day 1: Weird football metaphors are King
On the road with the National Organization For Marriage, Family Research COuncil, Iowa For Freedom, and Congressman Steve King (Very Far R-IA): More to come. *** **EARLIER: The big purple bus they're all riding around in: NOM/FRC/IFF sure have a...
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Snooki costumes out of stock, Bob Vander Plaats opts for scary activist judge mask instead
Iowa for Freedom's Bob Vander Plaats continues to scare state voters into believing that marriage equality for same-sex couples is just step one on a road that will lead to repossession, empty gun racks, and death panels. This from The...
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10/22/2010
Video: 'Terry Branstad can't have it both ways'
Yes! Finally. An apt articulation of law, the role of the independent judiciary in determining the constitutionality of said law, and the reason why the conversation between a unanimous high court decision vs. a public vote on minority rights is...
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NOM/FRC/IFF sure have a funny way of honoring Spirit Day
We'd seen mockup images of the Family Research Council/National Organization For Marriage/ Iowa For Freedom "Judge Bus," which is set to hit the road for the vindictive purpose of voting out judges who did nothing more than side with the...
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10/21/2010
Iowa For Freedom campaign is wrong-headed, says 1961
The current war against judges who sided with equal protection and due process in removing gender discrimination from marriage may not be exclusively partisan. But if this, one of the very first editorials written about the Iowa judicial retention system,...
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Video: But there *is* such thing as an activist edit
*** *The original ad *Our complete Iowa For Freedom archive
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Video: Iowa for [acting like a paparazzo chasing Lindsey Lohan]
The anti-LGBT, anti-judicious, far-right-connected, very well-financed roustabouts at "Iowa For Mob Rule" "Iowa For Freedom" continue their bullying habits. This video has been posted to IFF's official YouTube site: (*this is Judge David Baker and Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, two...
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10/20/2010
Video: Wherein a tongue-tied Bob Vander Plaats gets smacked down. Hard.
Iowa For Freedom's Bob Vander Plaats really thought he was on to something when he mentioned the Emancipation Proclamation's role in freeing slaves, as part of a suggestion that the Iowa court shouldn't play a role in the modern conversation...
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Jury of his (and only his) peers: NOM's head activist judge vs. Iowa jurists
Of a new anti-LGBT equality ad that the National Organization For Marriage has produced alongside the Campaign for Working Families PAC and Iowa for Freedom, NOM president Brian Brown says: “This election, we want Iowans to know that their values...
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Video: Iowa for Freedom's oddest spinjob yet
Well, we've been saying it for weeks. Now, in a truly bizarre new video posted to their official YouTube channel under the heading "Iowa Independent Retention Debate Coverage 3," the folks at the so-called "Iowa For Freedom" coalition have all...
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10/19/2010
Iowa For Freedom: Fostering needless controversy, pretending its neither
Perhaps more than any other campaign coalition we've ever witnessed, the so-called Iowa For Mob Rule Based on Personal Faith Whims "Iowa For Freedom" crew has displayed an incredible desire/ability to have whatever conversation they feel like having, wholly independent...
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10/18/2010
Iowa For Freedom: Comment moderation perfect metaphor for campaign itself
Well of course they still haven't posted either of the two (perfectly fair, in no way inflammatory) comments that we have left in their supposedly open forum. But the so-called "Iowa For Freedom" coalition has, in a completely separate post,...
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'Why do you oppose judicial activism?' (*And by 'you' we mean only those who jibe with our preconceived narrative)
A comment we tried to leave on the so-called "Iowa For Freedom" coalition's blog: [SOURCE] Three days later, not one comment has been approved. But hey, we're only talking here about state Supreme Court justices careers, the role of the...
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