Horse crap. Horse manure. Horse — well, follow the pattern. I am sure you’ll arrive at the same conclusion.
We live in serious times with no shortage of serious issues for lawmakers to tackle.
Here in Iowa we have a Republican trifecta. There is nothing Republicans want to do that a Democrat in Iowa can stop. Nothing.
And it’s been that way for seven years.
This is why conservative Republicans are so frustrated with the lack of action from the Iowa legislature on a variety of issues.
By the way, progress has been made. Iowa is in better hands because of our Republican trifecta. But I also think we’re wasting a significant opportunity to do things that are, well, significant.
While passing the Religious Freedom & Restoration Act earlier this session was a big deal, it has sort of been alone in that regard.
The two chambers really haven’t done much of significance besides that.
There is no more significant issue than that of private property rights. Iowans are at risk of losing their private property rights to a private, for-profit company to transport CO2 in pipelines underground.
And this project is likely going to be completed through the use (abuse) of eminent domain.
Why? Because the Iowa Senate and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds have done nothing to defend the private property rights of Iowans. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Some senators have tried — but not enough. And leadership is not making it a priority either.
A basic, fundamental, foundational principle of our country is being violated and Republican state senators could not care less.
Sad, but true. Maybe 14 Republicans in the Iowa House should refuse to vote for a budget until the Senate takes a floor vote on a bill that would prohibit the use of eminent domain for these CO2 pipeline projects. Just a thought…
Anyway, knowing what is at stake for our fellow Iowans who are at risk of losing their private property rights for this CO2 pipeline project, it’s frustrating to see what the Iowa Senate believes is important enough to act upon.
The Iowa Senate could be protecting private property rights. They aren’t.
The Iowa Senate could be working to remove gender identity from the Civil Rights Act. They aren’t.
Instead, the Senate voted 43-3 in favor of passing SJR 2002 on March 4.
This Senate Joint Resolution designates the American Cream Draft Horse as the official horse of Iowa.
That is sad. Depressing. Disappointing. Disturbing.
As Iowans are having their private property rights threatened due to inaction on the part of the Republican-controlled Iowa Senate, the Republican-controlled Iowa Senate is doing nothing to protect and defend those private property rights and instead spent time passing a resolution to designate an official state horse of Iowa.
Seriously.
They will take their property, too. Slippery slope.
It is critical that the Legislature take serious actions to restore trust in our elections. There are many ways that this can be addressed.
1. Require hand counted paper ballots and eliminate the use of electronic voting systems.
2. Place appropriate restrictions on the use of mail-in/absentee ballots.
3. If electronic voting systems are used, require public access to the “cast vote records” (audit trail) and “system access logs.”
4. Require an accurate reconciliation of the names of those who voted in each election with the number of ballots cast in that election.
5. Eliminate the federal government’s involvement at the county level through the performance of biennial and weekly “vulnerability scans” by the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as required by Iowa Administrative Code Sec. 721—29.4 (5).
6. Decentralize our election processes by canceling the Agreement between the Iowa Secretary of State and Civix, a private for-profit nongovernment organization. The Agreement with Civix centralizes voting processes, including but not limited to Election Management, Voter Registration, Precinct Election Officials Management, District and Precinct File Management, Data Maintenance, Secure File Transfers, Voter List Request Interface, System Configurations, and System Needs, including general maintenance needs for the support of the Voter Registration and Election Management System, Electronic Pollbook Integrations, Election Night Reporting, and more.