Friday, May 09, 2008

Ron Wieck tackles the contumacious and contemptible IDOT.


Once again, the Culver gang over at the Iowa DOT is showing a complete lack of respect for Iowa statutory and common law.

Today’s
DM Register reports that the Iowa Dept. of Transportation has refused to comply with Judge Staskal’s order that public documents be printed in the English language only-as is plainly required by the language of the 2002 law that passed overwhelmingly in both houses of the General Assembly and was signed, and then ignored, by then Governor Tom Vilsack. The Culver Administration is not only breaking the law but doing so for the purpose of diminishing American culture and national unity (there’s that division issue rearing its head again).

This truly shocking level of elitist contempt is pretty bad. Worse yet, the refusal to comply with state law comes from an administration that not two weeks ago proposed raising, yes raising the per gallon tax on gasoline to offset the declining levels of consumption because the DOT was desperate for money.

Our Senate Leader Ron Wieck didn’t let this outrageous display of arrogance, greed and bad judgment go without comment. Early this year Ron assured me that immigration issues were important and would remain a focal point of the Senate agenda.

Ron was good to his word throughout the session. It’s most gratifying to see that Ron’s commitment to preserving our American culture did not adjourn with Senate last month.

Senator Wieck has recognized the importance of this vital intersection between policy and politics, much like Generals Buford and Reynolds recognized the importance of the cross roads town of Gettysburg in the first great culture war we won over the Democrats back when our party was young.

Now, we Republicans have a challenge to rally around Senator Wieck and keep this issue before the public through the use of new and more aggressive tactics in the Culture War. Can we do it?

38 comments:

Unknown said...

I read this story on the DMR website. I was encouraged that most commenters where in agreement that the state needs to enforce the law and eliminate the items that are in languages other than English. How about a law that puts the head of DOT in jail for not complying with the will of the people? As I stated in the DMR site, we have to follow the laws and don't have the luxury of picking and choosing which ones. DOT is responsible for enforcing the law and I see them out there everyday doing just that. This man has no credibility and needs to leave his job NOW!

Anonymous said...

Screw those Bosnians or Spanish speakers! If they don't want a freeway running through their yard they should just learn English!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

When I was at the Ellis Island immigration museum, I saw numerous old government posters etc. in all kinds of languages. Some surely in Sporer's forefathers' languages. Did all that destroy or diminish American culture and national unity? I'm also wondering if Sporer thinks bilingual kids threaten our culture and national unity?

Anonymous said...

THe d's still want illegals to vote illegally. First stop - the IDOT for their illegally obtained drivers license.

The d's told the drivers license folks to ignore the need to produce a birth certificate or other document to prove citizenship.

Michael Barone reported on this months ago during the Hillary/Spitzer/Obama kerfuffle about giving illegals drivers licenses.

It was one of those things Vilsack agreed to do when he sold his soul to the devil clinton so he could get a cabinet position.

Anonymous said...

rf - having multiple languages at the Ellis Island museum makes senes. Your equating it to getting government documents is apples and oranges.

And, our ancestors insisted on english and assimilation in order to become americans.

They came here to become americans, not continue to be Irish, or italian, or greek, or norwegian, or german or finnish.

They knew they could not succeed without english.

Anonymous said...

What happened to the big tent republicans??? Most people that have immigrated here are legal. We are sending a message that as republicans we don't want you in our party. English only is a bad law! PS when was the last time you saw a republican booth at a bosnian or spanish event?? Ever wonder why we can't get greater margins in areas like Sioux City, Storm Lake, Marshaltown and Waterloo. It is because we hate hispanics!

Anonymous said...

You can't become a citizen unless you can speak english. If you are a legal citizen you can speak english. How did you complete your citizenship application - which is in english?

Anonymous said...

How much money is the government wasting printing documents in bosnian? How many government interpreters do we need to get as union government employees?

D's wish to keep illegals illegal and in the shadows. - Dang, if they learned english and became full citizens, they'd no longer be victim material for d's to exploit.

R's want them to become full members of society with all the joys and benefits being legal brings.

Why don't d's want illegals to become legal? Why do they want to keep them exploited and in hiding, underpaid and victimized?

Anonymous said...

When my grandfather came here he only spoke German, many of the documents that he paid his taxes were in german so that he could understand it. Give the hispanics a chance. These people would be amazing republicans. Why don't we start courting them!!
Why do republicans hate hispanics?

The Deplorable Old Bulldog said...

9:31 has a very good point on one level, we Rs have been very remiss in organizing immigrants. However, that doesn't change the need for English to remain our national language and for the government to respect that.

Immigrants come here and are welcomed here. learning the language of the country to which one immigrates is a basic expectation of immigration. Check out the Mexican immigration laws and decide which country is more welcoming.

Anonymous said...

Why is that Hamas thinks Barack would be the best president for them to deal with? Why do they love Barack? What does Hamas see that it can get from Barack that they can't get from Hillary or John? We know why they don't want John - John won't let them nuke Isreal. What will Barack do? Why does he have staff that are sympathetic to Hamas? See below.


One of Barack Obama’s Middle East policy advisers disclosed yesterday that he had held meetings with the militant Palestinian group Hamas – prompting the likely Democratic nominee to sever all links with him.

Robert Malley told The Times that he had been in regular contact with Hamas, which controls Gaza and is listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organisation

Anonymous said...

Barack has clearly lost his bearings.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with you Ted, but still opose the english only on a financial and pr basis for the republican party.

English unifies our country and our cultures but the standard should not be forcing people but encouraging people to learn english. and if you do the research 2nd and third generation hispanics are learning english and becoming democrats.. Hmm something to learn there!

Anonymous said...

La Raza (literally "The Race") is used to denote the people of Latino and the Chicano world, who share the pride of their Native American heritage.

The term originated in the book La Raza Cósmica written by a Mexican writer, José Vasconcelos. He described La Raza Cosmica as the product of racial mixing over time that was already in progress in the Hispanic world.

Vasconcelos believed in Supremacism in that eventually all of the people within the Spanish Empire would completely mixed into a new race that had the best attributes of all the cultures; armies of these people would then go forth around the world professing their knowledge and initiating the "universal era of humanity".

Anonymous said...

The bigger problem we have is many in our party do not want to see the hispanic culture to be apart of our own similiar to the Irish, German, Swedish or Dutch cultures.

Anonymous said...

You are making that up. That reveals more about you than those you insult. That's just nuts.

Anonymous said...

This is a good debate today!

Anonymous said...

I have done business with a couple guys from the Philipines they relocated their "small" business to the US about 4 years ago, they pinpointed Mason city or Sioux City as ideal locations to relocate and move their families to. Their business is a specialty manufacturer that does hi-tech product their reason to relocate was to do business with our defense industry (growing market). When the two parnters came they did not want any government handouts they wanted to be treated like anyone else. They made an appointement they were in the market for 160,000 sqft property. Several realtors and developers would not touch them they because they were hispanic.

Final insult came when a realtor would only show them building that were only 1/4th the size needed. and told them they did not need such a large building.

Fast forward: Today they a located in Mobile AL and have the business card of the Realtor on the wall of thier headquarters. They build a new 200 million dollar facility with cash and employ of 600 people.

Good Iowa!

Anonymous said...

Interesting, but irrelevant. The issue is about requiring citizenship for drivers licenses.

Anonymous said...

So, what is your point 10:22 - go talk to the realtors union. What does that have to do with the IDOT following the law?

Anonymous said...

What's the name of that company? let's check out the story. Who is it? When did this happen? What town? Sounds like civil rights violations. Why aren't d's pursuing that? You have all the government apparatus to get justice to these people. Come on! Give us the true facts of the situation.

The Deplorable Old Bulldog said...

Anon 10:05

English only doesn't force anyone to learn English, but it encourages it because proficiency in English is necessary to get a driver's license or ID card.

The Deplorable Old Bulldog said...

That story about the business i a little suspicious.

I deal with realtors, both Dems and Rs almost daily. I don't know any that would turn down a commission becuase their customer is Hispanic.

Libs typically look for racism as a motive where other motives exist to explain conduct.

If he didn't like Sioux City how about Des Moines or this area? There are tens of thousands of Hispanics, legal and illegal here.

Anonymous said...

Let's get back to talking about where the real racism is occuring - in the original home of the proponents of slavery, anti women vote, anti-civil rights and Jim Crow - The Democrat Party.

From Derrick Jackson a the Boston Globe today.

"In the late throes of her insurgency, to borrow from Dick Cheney, Clinton is playing "divide and doubt" about Obama getting "only" 37 percent of the white vote in North Carolina and Pennsylvania and 40 percent in Indiana.

Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 in three-way races with a grand total of 39 percent of the white vote and 83 percent of the black vote and 61 percent of the Hispanic vote and besting the first President Bush and Ross Perot among all age groups.

Ironically, Obama got to where he is by not being the "black" candidate.

It is Clinton who is now the race candidate, diminishing black voters and eggheads, her final hopes resting on the thinnest of eggshells."

Anonymous said...

Let's not change the subject:

Why do republicans hate hispanics and/or drive them to the other party?

Anonymous said...

The thing with the d's is that the completely cater to their voting groups. They say "hey listen we may be anti-family and in the long-term destructive to everything you believe in but you know you are underprivledged and taken advantage of right now lets rectify this with a check". They may be racist in the fact that they stereotype the races but more important they play the class warfare game.

The Deplorable Old Bulldog said...

Anon 10:45

Your commentary betrays the true extent to which Democrats rely on racial division and pandering.

We Republicans are primarily a party of principles. we may be imperfect in our allegience to those principles but we always track back to our core.

Among those principles are the inclusion of all WILLING people in the American experience. That American experience includes both duties and liberties. One duty is that immigrants become Americans. Our culture grows as we add immigrants but we don't become the immigrants old country.

The language of the United States is English. You don't advance in this society by speaking only some other language.

We don't pander and say to Hispanaics, don't assimilate. Sure, we'll change our national language and let you fly the Mexican flag over american schools because you don't want to be American. Those who advocate that form of immigration are merely the same ultimately self loathing liberals that Theodore Roosevelt took on more than a century ago.

We don't care about a person's race, gender or national origin only their willingness to join the American experience.

Anonymous said...

This is from Rich Lowry this morning. This is the modern democrat party. It was born during the temper tantrums of 1968. They have become fascists and we can see the affects today in this years fascist Iowa legislative session.


"The freedoms fought for in the student revolt soon curdled into the opposite: free speech became speech codes; sexual liberation became the regime of sexual harassment; civil rights became quotas.

Meanwhile, Mark Rudd and a fringe of the New Left spun off into the Weather Underground, which took the destructive spirit of the campus protests to its logical conclusion in a campaign of terrorist bombings.

Jonah Goldberg reminds us in his book "Liberal Fascism" that the radical left committed roughly 250 attacks from September 1969 to May 1970."

Anonymous said...

Contradictions abound in our arguements on immigration.

First as republicans we believe that we should provide a fair and equal playing field to all, Right?

Truth is our base does not feel the same they feel that that rule should only apply to themselves or business. If someone has a disability shouldn't we provide every opportunity for that individual to become a productive member of society? We oppose hand outs yet we are willing to slap the hands of those who choose to pull themselves up. Immigration is the very such thing. Not a single one of us is not the decendants of an immigrant. We should provide the same opportunities thet we provided to our grandfathers. We should educate the immigrants and treat them with the same respects that we would have wanted for our grandfathers. Our Country has been build on the blood sweat and tears of immigrants. Our grandfathers lived in a time where immigration was much more prevalent than now and had fewer restrictions imposed upon them than today. English only allows now tolerance for those who come here for the same opportunities that our grandfathers had. Imagine if we would not allowed our grandfathers to purchase land to farm from the government if they only spoke German or Dutch. Instead of passing wasteful laws why don't we promote english education and mentorship to incorporate hispanic and other cultures in to society. This would be far more productive, we could promote higher education leadingf to better opportunities more businesses and more tax revenue because people who learn more tend to earn more. Inaddition , the myth that immigrants don't pay taxes and live on the welfare dime would truly be proven wrong.

Anonymous said...

"Among those principles are the inclusion of all WILLING people in the American experience. That American experience includes both duties and liberties. One duty is that immigrants become Americans. Our culture grows as we add immigrants but we don't become the immigrants old country."

This is false If we did not try in some instant to recreate our old country here we would not have roads in pella named dutch names, or people in story city dressing in traditional garb during their annual town celebration or the style of building built all across this state. Come on please tell me you have not drank a green beer?

We assimilate cultures into our own that is what has made america great! Imaging a world where english and irish live next to each other in peace, Where people of opposing ethnicities can live next to each other and not want to kill each other. Our country is great because we offer opportunity, prosperity and freedom for all. Look at the very words on the foundation of the Statue of liberty . Look at our founding fathers. Look at the pioneers that built this country.

The truth is Tom Tancredo is a racist and not a republican.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:27 said:

"And, our ancestors insisted on english and assimilation in order to become americans.

They came here to become americans, not continue to be Irish, or italian, or greek, or norwegian, or german or finnish.

They knew they could not succeed without english."


First of all, I'm pretty sure our current crop of immigrants - legal or illegal - realize one cannot succeed in this country without good english skills.

Regarding assimilation of the previous immigrant generations, I would not be making too many grandiose statements. You walk around Little Italy in NYC today, and you hear plenty of Italian. Surely not many first generation Italians around any more. They must be some really bad Americans for being proud of their heritage and preserving their culture and language. Traveling in Michigan UP a couple of years ago, I went through a town that had street names in two languages - English and Finnish. Those damn Finnish immigrants way back had apparently also refused to assimilate.

Anonymous said...

We need to make more laws reguarding those dutch people in Pella that have not fully integrated into society! Have you driven aroung thier town, why the have streets that are not in english (a direct violation of state law) many businesses sell stuff that is not in english and the consistantly marry only fellow dutch people. Also their beliefs are a little different than that of regular americans. I say we send the state patrol down to investigate and crack down on the law!

Anonymous said...

I've been going up through Pella all my life and I've never heard anyone speaking Dutch.

I know I have never seen any official gov docs in Dutch.

You are really stretching.

Anonymous said...

Rf - I can tell it's been a while since you've been to NY. I was just there and specifically went to what used to be Little Italy to get some good italian food. Little Italy is nearly nonexistant. I asked about it. They have assimilated and there is very little left.

Interesting, isn't it? There is very little of any ethnic neighborhoods anymore. There is still some Chinatown, but mostly, not.

It's all tourist ethnicity now. Nothing real. There really aren't even any bad neighborhoods. The high crime areas are mostly gone.

$3 million dollar apts, right directly across the street from rent controlled.

Harlem? Since Bill showed up, there's very little of the old Harlem.

Interesting, isn't it?

New York has mostly melted into a homogeneous melting pot.

Anonymous said...

The south side italian democrats who were sent here by their Chicago gangster relatives for safekeeping during the mafia wars don't even speak Italian anymore.

Anonymous said...

Anon,

I’ll take your word for today’s Little Italy. I have to admit the last time I dined there was around 1999. Back then you could still hear plenty of Italian. - Just thinking of that makes me hungry! A tasty Italian meal in good company. Maybe peppered with some feisty political discussion. Nothing can beat that. Good thing Italian-Americans have kept the culinary part of their culture.

Anonymous said...

Oh Shit!!!! Those Italians are still making italian food!!! Oh Crap we need to crack down on this we need to make sure they integrate into society. I propose the we write a law that we have american only food!
No more italian sausage, i don't understand what the difference is from american sausage. And we all know that these people are famious for being WAPs (Without Papers) Everything about this spells illegal aliens if not the children of illegals. And this is just the Italians!

Art A Layman said...

anon 8:07:

And it took how many generations to meld?

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