Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Move over USO (United Service Organizations), it looks like Obama Girl is getting into the troop-supporting and morale-building business. In conjunction with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Obama Girl put aside her obsession for Obama to join Giuliani Girl and the Romney Girls in a nonpartisan video, “I Like a Boy,” which celebrates and supports our troops.
Unlike Obama Girl’s (aka Amber lee Ettinger) detached obsession with Obama in her debut video, she insists her motives for signing on to “I Like a Boy” are more personal. Her father, who served 23 years in the military, was shipped off to Vietnam when he was 18. The video’s concept was conceived by Barely Political founder, Ben Relles, who joined IAVA founder Paul Rieckhoff to make the video expressing support for the troops. In addition to the plethora of underdressed morale-boosting models, the video features actual soldiers, plus army wives and girlfriends — who lip sync the song’s lyrics to their loved ones.
Staying in tune with the YouTube generation’s interactive zeal, Barely Political is soliciting viewers, whose loved ones have also been deployed, to upload their own video message, which Relles plans on re-mixing into a new video.
“I’ve gotten such a great response today from all of [the army wives and girlfriends], saying they passed it around to their families,” Relles said in a press release. “Both the soldiers and the army wives expressed that, when so much of the war is somber, it was great to be part of something that was upbeat and fun.”The video project has been in the works for weeks before its official release last week. Singer Leah Kaufman cut the track for the video in mid-August, when the video was shot with the political groupies lip-syncing the words. To help give ths song some firepower, rapper Mims performs a cameo, which Relles hopes will help push the new single into the mainstream. Currently, the single can be downloaded from iTunes and all the proceeds go to IAVA.
“I Like a Boy,” featuring Leah, Mims, and Obama Girl
Since the video caters primarily to male soldiers, one has to wonder what Relles plans on doing to help boost the morale of the female soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can we expect an “I Like a Girl” rendition in the future, which will showcase the yet-to-be discovered talents of Hillary Boy?
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