(The following piece is a guest writer contribution from Chad Brown)

Iowa’s Latino Heritage Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and has grown into the largest cultural event in our state.  This is a family event that offers something for everyone.  It is a time of celebration.  I also feel it is time to engage in an honest conversation.  I want to present my argument for why the Republican Party is the best Party to advance the best interests of Latinos in our city, state and country.

We are witnessing the progressive growth of Latino businesses in Iowa. They generate millions in sales every year and create thousands of jobs for Iowans.  Latino businesses are among the fastest growing   segments of the small-business-community …

In part one of this interview, the last legislative session was the main focus. Now we will turn our attention to the major issues that will be hotly debated in 2012.

One of the first things to jump out at anyone who starts digging into the issues being wrestled with by our general assembly is how much they mirror the issues being debated at the Federal level. This being the case, there is no better place to start than how Obamacare and trimming entitlements manifest themselves here In Iowa.

Obamacare and the Politics of Medicaid

While scarcely publicized, last session included preliminary debates into setting up Iowa’s insurance exchange, which Obamacare mandates be done by next year’s legislative adjournment. The tricky situation for state legislators …

Three weeks removed from ending the third longest legislative session in Iowa history, I had the pleasure of sitting down for an interview with District 35’s representative in the Iowa Senate—Republican Jack Whitver. The main focus of our conversation was the results of the 172 day session and the political clouds already forming on the horizon for next year’s Senatorial get together.

In the interest of adding perspective, here is a brief overview of Senator Whitver’s political and business careers: He joined the Iowa Senate this year by virtue of winning a special election to fill the seat of Larry Noble, first beating five other Republicans in a truncated primary and then defeating Democrat John Calhoun (63%-36%). The district covers most of the northern half …

The Des Moines Register’s Opinion Section on Sunday, July 3, 2011 featured a “Progressives Trifecta” of half-truths and sophistry:

Richard Doak – What if the founders were around today?

Donald Kaul – My favorite 4^th of July speech

Dean Baker – Keep Social Security safe from politicians who want to save it

This week I will focus my comments on Dean Baker’s article sub-titled “Real patriotism requires coming to terms with the grimmer side of American history”.  Mr. Baker is co-director for the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).  The CEPR home page lists 10 funders, mostly far left organizations including the Open Society Foundations, which was founded by and led by George Soros.

Dean Baker-He advises the reader that two thirds of people …

The Des Moines Register’s Editorial on Monday, June 27, 2011 was titled “Steep budget cuts now could harm economy”.

Summary – The Register’s Editorial group pointed us once again to the “nonpartisan fiscal agency”, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).   They quoted the CBO’s “dire warning about unsustainable federal deficits”, but cautioned that the report also “warned that steep cuts right now could make the nation’s fiscal condition even worse by kicking the legs out from under the economy”.   Also on June 27^th, The Wall Street Journal’s front page led off with an article titled “Debt Hamstrings Recovery”[1].   The WSJ’s Tom Lauricella notes “Around the globe, the inability of governments and households to reduce their debt continues to cast a shadow over …

Question #1 during much of the Health Care Debate was: “Why the rush?”.

I should have seen it at the time, but now, it is clear to me just how important it was for Democrats to pass Health Care Reform, in any condition.  Even torn to shreds.  Getting it done early in 2010 was absolutely essential.

Because that was the one chance that Democrats had of holding seats in November.

It’s a gambit that tries our souls and puts folks on both the left and right on edge.  By completing the effort early in the year, Democrats have essentially taken ownership of the election, or at least taken a position that gives them a stronger political advantage.  That is, stronger than they would have had …

As goes Energy, so goes the country.

“The worse, the better,” Vladimir Lenin is said to have observed. What Lenin meant was that the worse social conditions became in Russia, the more likely he and the Bolsheviks could foment a communist revolution. President Barrack Obama’s White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently updated Lenin’s maxim, saying, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste.”Last Friday, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives took those maxims to heart when they pushed through their 1,200-page American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act by a vote 219 to 212. The bill is supposed to address the twin crises of economic recession and climate change by creating millions of new “green” jobs. Instead of an

To begin with, let’s get a snip of this morning’s op-ed up on National Review:

Arlen Specter belongs to a type familiar to Congress: the time-serving hack devoid of any principle save arrogance. He has spent three decades in the Senate but is associated with no great cause, no prescient warning, no landmark legislation. Yet he imagines that the Senate needs his wisdom and judgment for a sixth term. He joined the Republican party out of expediency in the 1960s, and leaves it out of expediency this week.

Indeed. At the end of the day,what we have here is the second in a line of what will be many ‘victims’ of what are now being called the Tea Party protests. The first, I think, was …

Bruce McQuain, this morning at Q&Q:

Well there’s an agreement on the Generational Theft Act of 2009. The squishy middle has capitulated.

As expected, just enough Republicans have signed on to ensure its passage. Names?

Specter for one:

Specter said Friday night that action was “very necessary,” and this bill, though not perfect, is better than inaction.

“I think no one could argue with the fact that the situation would be much worse without this bill,” Specter said at a news conference.

And of course, Susan Collins is the other (and Olympia Snowe is also reportedly going to vote for it). Voinavich and Martinez bailed. They’ll give this the veneer of bi-partisan legitimacy.

Which, doubtless, will be endlessly touted by the Democrats …

Here we are!  2009!  What can we say?

2008 is gone and I think we’re all grateful for that.  Republicans had their hats handed to them, although Conservatives fared pretty well.  And there’s the difference.  Moderate Republicanism is indistinguishable from the Democrats.  If Republicans want to regain their stature in Washington and the state houses across America, they need to do it at the grass roots level and they need to return to Conservative values.  Barack Obama is the President-elect not because of his microscopic resume, or because of the political cesspool he climbed out of, or the message of change and hope, because he represents neither.  He won the national election because the Republican candidate was a moderate with a poorly-crafted message, and so …