Catching up on news from last week, the U.S. House approved the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2013. Details on how Iowa’s five representatives vote on that bill and on important amendments are after the jump.

I also enclose the statements released by members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation. Not surprisingly, several self-styled deficit hawks bragged about supporting a bill that prohibits various cost-saving measures and mandates spending on some items the military doesn’t even want.

This is an open thread: all topics welcome.

After the jump I’ve posted some pictures of Virginia waterleaf, a wildflower found throughout Iowa in woodland areas. It can bloom anytime between May and July, but came out early this year, like everything else.  

Cedar Rapids resident Katie Beckett passed away last week, prompting many tributes to the woman whose fluke childhood illness helped change federal policy on caring for the disabled.  

Karl Rove’s super-PAC Crossroads GPS launched another television commercial slamming President Barack Obama yesterday, less than a week after its last ad hit tv screens in Iowa and nine other swing states. “Basketball” targets women who initially supported Obama for president but are discouraged about the economy. The video and transcript are after the jump.

Reverend Keith Ratliff, president of the Iowa/Nebraska branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said today that he may leave the organization because of the national board’s public support for same-sex marriage rights.

UPDATE: Comments from two three of the NAACP local branch presidents in Iowa are below.

I don’t write many posts in the “wacky and mean-spirited things conservative say” genre, but I’m making an exception today.

Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Vice Chair Jeff Lamberti was arrested Friday night and found to have a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.

UPDATE: Added Governor Terry Branstad’s comments below.

What’s going on with Brad Zaun? This month he’s stuck his nose into two Republican primaries that should be of little concern to a state senator from the Des Moines suburbs.

Summer unofficially kicks off next weekend, which means lots of Iowans will be enjoying themselves at lakes and rivers. Follow me after the jump for recent news related to lake and river projects, flood prevention, and water quality in Iowa.

This is an open thread: all topics welcome.

Republican nominee in waiting Mitt Romney went up on the air yesterday with his first general election television commercial in Iowa. The video and transcript are after the jump.  

Some bad public policy ideas take hold because decision-makers become convinced they will work. Other times, bad ideas gain momentum because politicians who should know better are too scared or lazy to make the case against them.

In what looks like a textbook example of the second scenario, all three Democrats representing Iowa in the U.S. House are now on record supporting some form of constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget.

Not put off by picking the wrong candidates in two Iowa Republican primaries in 2010, the National Republican Congressional Committee has elevated Ben Lange to “contender” status in Iowa’s first district, while taking a neutral posture in the second district primary.

Crossroads GPS, the super-PAC headed by Republican strategist Karl Rove, is going up on the air today in Iowa and nine other states as part of a $25 million advertising campaign over the next month. The 60-second negative spot about President Barack Obama is after the jump, along with an annotated transcript.

The U.S. House approved the Republican version of a bill reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act yesterday. Iowa’s representatives split along party lines, as did most of the House members.

Here’s your mid-week open thread: all topics welcome. After the jump I’ve posted some photos of Sweet William, also known as blue phlox. Bleeding Heartland readers caught a glimpse of this flower in one of the May apple pictures a few weeks back, but the species is pretty enough for a separate diary.

As a bonus, I added two photos of an unusual Jack-in-the-pulpit I saw recently while pulling up garlic mustard (an invasive plant).

Farmers have withdrawn an application to build a 5,000-head hog facility in northern Dallas County, amid strong local opposition to the project.

State Representative Brian Quirk announced today that he is no longer a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which lobbies for a wide range of conservative and corporate-friendly policies in state legislatures. Up to now, Quirk had been the only ALEC member among the 40 Democrats in the Iowa House.

Follow me after the jump for background and details on Quirk’s decision, as well as recent comments about ALEC by former Iowa House Democrat Dolores Mertz.

Longer days, warmer weather and the approaching end of the school year mean more time outdoors for many Iowans, especially children. Last week Kamyar Enshayan, a Cedar Falls City Council member and director of the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Energy and Environmental Education, raised an important question: “Is having weed-free lawn worth it?”

Speaking in Des Moines this afternoon, Mitt Romney promised to lead the country “out of this debt and spending inferno” by reducing federal government spending from 24.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product to 20 percent of GDP within four years. Romney would address what he called a “prairie fire of debt” by moving some federal programs to the state level or the private sector, repealing “Obamacare,” reforming Medicare and Social Security, and reducing “redundancy and waste” in government programs.

I’ve posted the full prepared text of Romney’s remarks after the jump, along with a few comments.

Governor Terry Branstad’s education reform blueprint called for higher academic standards and better methods to assess student skills. I just hope my kids don’t learn to count the way the governor counts jobs created in Iowa.