Tag Archives: Zach Couture

Randy Evans is an annoying loudmouth

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RANDY EVANS IS AN ANNOYING LOUDMOUTH
When it comes to freedom of speech, Randy Evans is perhaps Iowa’s biggest loudmouth. Furthermore, if you’re a public official operating in secret or treading on people’s First Amendment rights, Randy can be downright annoying.

Those are two of the qualities I admire about Randy, who writes a weekly column as president of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. On this week’s radio show/podcast, he and I discuss two of his recent columns calling out public officials for a lack of transparency.

NEWTON VS THE FIRST AMENDMENT
In a March 30 column, Respectful or not, America enables criticism and dissent, Randy writes, “[Noah] Petersen went to two [Newton] City Council meetings in 2022 to express his frustrations during the public comment period. Despite Petersen’s calm approach, both times the mayor ordered him to be quiet, then had Petersen arrested, placed in handcuffs and led out of the council meeting…” Continue Reading →

Does America need a divorce, or just marriage counseling?

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Des Moines Area Community College poli-sci prof, Jeffrey Weiss, thinks so. He’s written a piece called We the people, to dissolve an imperfect union, grant a divorce to the United States of America. You oughta read it.

Weiss also makes his case on this week’s Fallon Forum. We discuss dividing the country along the Mississippi River — Republicans on one side, Democrats on the other. I ask tough questions like, “Who gets the nuclear weapons?” and “Won’t it just devolve into another violent civil war?”

Really, someone oughta organize a debate for us.

I’m not for divorce. I’m for marriage counseling. Let’s talk through our differences and brainstorm solutions. I believe that most Americans want to persevere and continue this grand experiment to build a more perfect melting pot of freedom, justice, and democracy. (I know, we still have a long, long way to go.)

As Kathy said to me after we recorded the program, “When a relationship is so bad that one party recommends ending it, both parties might suddenly wake up to the reality that splitting up would be harder than taking steps to make up.” Continue Reading →