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.
Ed Failor, Jr., who heads the conservative group Iowans for Tax Relief, made headlines during this year’s legislative session when he compared Democratic legislative leaders to ‘jack-booted Nazis’ after an unruly crowd of conservatives was ejected from the Iowa House during a public hearing on proposed changes to the state income tax code.
Now he has taken the analogy a step further, comparing the Democrats’ strategy for handling the global economic recession to the way Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany.
From the Boone News-Republican’s report of a Republican Flag Day event in Boone County:
Failor, while making sure to clarify that he was not referring to the democrats as Nazis, did draw the comparison between the two. He said that the Nazi party, which started as just another political party in Germany, began their massive rise to power by taking control of private business and means of production – which is exactly what Failor said the democrats are attempting to do.
Failor continued, telling the crowd that if they do not work to elect more Republicans, they could be victims of Nazi-style repression at the hands of Democrats.
Arguing that conservatives must “be willing to be harsh,” he said, “If we don’t engage, 25 years from now, one of two things will occur: There will be a meeting of the Boone County Republicans on Flag Day and we will be in room like this, with 50 to 75 people, all enjoying ourselves…or, we will be in a basement with the lights off and blinds drawn – whispering our history. I challenge you to not let that be the case.”
The Iowa Democratic Party released a statement today calling Failor’s language ‘hate speech’:
“Those thoughts are hateful — to veterans of the Second World War who fought on D-Day, to people of the Jewish faith, and in fact to any decent person,” said Michael Kiernan, Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. “I am asking the newest candidate for Governor, Chris Rants, and all the prospective Republican candidates’ two questions: First, do you agree with Ed Failor’s hateful words? And second, if not, why didn’t you speak up?”
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