Yesterday, the California Supreme Court overturned a gay marriage ban that was voted on and passed by the people of California in 2000. Question: What good is it for the people of California to vote on single issue propositions if a few people who happen to be appointed judges can overrule the will of the people?

My friends, Democracy is dead, and in its place we have an Oligarchy, a small ruling class of activist judges.

Who’s to blame? Take a look in the mirror.

I really enjoy ready Peggy Noonan’s columns in the Wall Street Journal. Today her column is about the death of the Republican Party.

The Democrats aren't the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead. For all their fractious fighting, they're finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They're busy being born.

The Republicans? Busy dying. The brightest of them see no immediate light. They're frozen, not like a deer in the headlights but a deer in the darkness, his ears stiff at the sound. Crunch. Twig. Hunting party.

The good news is that all of this is simple to turn around. Here are some first steps we must take.

1. Ignore national story lines and trends.

2. Get local, help elect good conservatives to your city councils, school boards, county boards of supervisors, and state legislative offices.

3. When it’s a gubernatorial or presidential year, use it to grow and expand your local network of activists, but keep the focus on those races local.

4. Know the enemy. If you don’t like living in an Oligarchy, vote for people who will appoint constitutionalist judges. What type of judges do you think Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver will put on the court?

This is why every election is important. The liberals want to toss these issues to the courts because for years they have loaded them with liberal extremists, they know they will get the ruling they want. Even here in Iowa we have a Democrat Legislature which actually wants the courts to decide the gay marriage issue. Why? Because it shields liberal legislators from having to vote for an issue 80% of the public opposes.

Our only avenue of recourse is the ballot box.

I’m sure that some groups are celebrating Chet Culver’s veto yesterday of the Collective Bargaining bill, and the salary increases for himself and other statewide elected officials. They should celebrate, it was important for them to bring pressure on Culver to do the right thing. Now before we pat ourselves on the back too much, Chet Culver made a brilliant political move yesterday which will make him much more difficult to beat in 2010.

Now I don’t think for a second that Chet Culver is brilliant, but I do think he is smart enough to listen and follow the advice of Jerry Crawford. Culver’s veto yesterday took away two issues that would have killed him in a reelection campaign. Now he has a year or some to rebuild the trust of the unions he pissed off by not signing their legislation. Time heals all wounds, and I have no doubt that the unions will be supporting the Big Lug in the fall of 2010. Get ready to watch the Culver for Governor TV ads telling us how he went against his own party to do what’s best for our state and economy.

Very smart political move yesterday by Culver.

Second Miller-Meeks ad is a Gem.

In the 2^nd District Republican Primary for Congress, Mariannette Miller-Meeks has released her second TV ad. It’s well done and does a great job of telling the voter what type of person she is. What I find amazing in this race is that every one assumed that Teahen would raise more money, he hasn’t. Everyone assumed by reading his resume that he would have the best story to tell the voters, wrong again, Miller-Meeks continues to impress in Southeast Iowa. It will be interesting to see if she can pull it off. Here ad will be below in the update section.

John Carlson from the Des Moines Register has commented about the Agriprocessors Raid in Postville. It is an excellent read and I encourage all of you to read it.

Documents supporting a federal search warrant show that a former plant supervisor estimated 80 percent of the nearly 1,000 workers are in the country illegally, and company officials helped make it happen.

The former supervisor is said to have discovered a methamphetamine lab in the plant and was fired after dismantling the thing. The same person told investigators the plant's human resources manager laughed when told three employees all were using the same Social Security number.

Federal prosecutors say Agriprocessors was notified of more than 1,000 discrepancies between names and Social Security numbers on W-2 forms sent to the Internal Revenue Service between 2002 and 2005.

Another plant worker told federal authorities about witnessing a supervisor duct-tape the eyes of an illegal worker shut and then hit that person with a meat hook. The worker didn't report it for fear of being fired.

A legal immigrant working at the plant told authorities that other Agriprocessors employees - presumably in the country illegally - were paid in cash or with different colored checks.

I think this raid is going to have a major impact on our immigration laws. Agriprocessors is going to give all employers, and especially meat packing plants a black eye. Sholom and Aaron Rubashkin knowingly employed and exploited illegal workers. That’s not just a hunch, they actually admitted to it last year when their “workers” voted to join the union. They asked the court to nullify the workers vote because of their illegal status.

While what the Rubashkin’s are guilty of is inexcusable and deserves to be punished, let’s not forget the other law breaker, the illegal immigrant. For the U.S. to fix its immigration problems we must secure our boarders, hold punks like the Rubashkin’s accountable for their actions, and hold people who are in this county illegally accountable for their actions. We have to deal with all three aspects of the problem if we ever want a solution.

Prevent them from entering, make it impossible for them to find jobs in the U.S., and stop turning a blind eye to people who have broken the law and are living and working here illegally.

By Emily Geiger

So , I was watching TV yesterday, not really paying much attention, when all of the sudden, one line from an announcer grabbed my attention.

It was an ad for Hawk-I, Iowa’s low-cost or free health insurance plan for kids who come from low income families. The ad basically explained what the program was and how to get more information, but then came the kicker. The very last thing the announcer said was, “Hawk-I… You’ve earned it.”

Huh? Since when do you “earn” free crap from the government? That’s the whole point, isn’t it? They haven’t earned it, but we’re giving it to them anyways. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that this program is necessarily a bad thing (though I do think the expansion of it to higher income families is bad… if you make $62,000 a year, you ought to be able to budget and buy your own insurance). But let’s be honest. This is not something that’s earned. It’s something we give away because we’re so darn nice.

And then I got to thinking about how I hate ads for government programs in general. Isn’t there a more cost effective way of letting people know about this program… maybe send a note home with school kids? Or heck, send a note home with the baby from the hospital explaining the free program.

And then I saw this today. In one of the few smart moves it made this session, the Legislature actually reduced the funding it gives DHS to advertise for the program. But here’s where it gets interesting. “Despite the recent barrage of ads” that have been running in recent months, enrollment in Hawk-I has remained at about 21,000 participants. SO THE ADS DON’T EVEN WORK.

“We should be using the best methods to find these kids, and I'm not sure mass marketing is the best method," said Carrie Fitzgerald, a senior health policy associate for the Child and Family Policy Center.

In case you were losing hope that anyone at DHS had any brain cells firing, they have come up with a new method of identifying kids potentially eligible for the program. The legislature approved adding a box you can check to your state tax form to identify whether you have children without health insurance. Since the forms also contain the family’s income level, this gives the state a good idea as to whether a particular family is eligible, and the state will contact those who check the box.

The bad news is that, despite the advertising budget cuts, DHS still has over a half million dollars to spend on advertising that doesn’t work. Think about that next time you get your paycheck and look at how much state taxes are taken.

Doesn’t it make you feel warm and fuzzy all over?

There is an immigration raid occurring at the Agriprocessors Inc. complex in Postville, Iowa (i.e. the kosher meat packing plant). There has been speculation for weeks that an immigration raid was in the works somewhere in Eastern Iowa due to the fact that the feds had leased the entire Waterloo Cattle Congress grounds for several weeks and were not answering any question as to the reason for the lease.

Reports state that at least 700 arrests are likely. Government officials are also saying that they are trying to take care of any health and child care issues the arrestees might have (likely to avoid the publicity nightmare they faced after the Marshalltown raid). But I’m wondering how many illegals will cop to having kids when they’re being asked about it by federal agents. I’m guessing not many, and then we’ll be hearing the same sad stories of families being divided by the big, bad government.