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Open letter to readers: Today and tomorrow

By Lynda Waddington | 11.17.11

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.

ACS lockout continues; plan emerges to repeal sugar protections

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By Virginia Chamlee | 11.15.11

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.

Cain campaign: Farmers know more about regulations than EPA

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By Andrew Duffelmeyer | 11.15.11

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.

Mathis wins, Democrats maintain Senate control

Liz Mathis
By Lynda Waddington | 11.08.11

The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.

Press Release

PR: Nation should work to address veterans’ challenges

By Press Release Reprints | 11.11.11

BRUCE BRALEY RELEASE — As US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan ends, it’s more important than ever that our nation works to address the challenges faced by the men and women who fought there.

PR: Honoring veterans, help in hiring

By Press Release Reprints | 11.11.11

CHUCK GRASSLEY RELEASE — A difficult job market is challenging the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have protected America’s interests by serving in the Armed Forces.

PR: In honor of America’s veterans

By Press Release Reprints | 11.11.11

TOM LATHAM RELEASE — No one has done more to secure the freedom enjoyed by every single American than our veterans and those currently serving in the armed services.

PR: Honoring and supporting our nation’s veterans

By Press Release Reprints | 11.11.11

DAVE LOEBSACK RELEASE — Veterans Day is an opportunity to reflect on the service of generations of veterans and to honor the sacrifices they and their families have made so that we may live in peace and freedom here at home.

Racist King Sees Iowa in White and Brown

By Douglas Burns | 06.11.07 | 9:24 pm

[Commentary] We can judge the content of Steve King’s character by the way he speaks about the color of other people’s skin.

Our congressman the other day revealed very clearly the prejudice and cowardice behind his positioning on immigration.

Steve King is a racist.

There’s no doubting this anymore.

There’s no questioning it any longer.At a Washington, D.C., meeting with The Greater Des Moines Partnership — an event attended by Carroll Daily Times Herald General Manager Ann Wilson — King offered up a plan for a worker shortage that will ensue if the Iowa congressman and his jackboot clone from Colorado, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, get their way and deport anyone in America who has ever had a taco.

How would we deal with the worker shortage in the western Iowa towns that have relied on Hispanics since the Farm Crisis of the 1980s?

More Iowa babies are the solution, King told the Greater Des Moines Partnership, according to the reporting of longtime Des Moines Register D.C. journalist Jane Norman.

“What about the `grow your own’ plan,’” King said.

In other words, white people need to have more kids. Let’s get busy, congressman. Puncture all the condoms between the Missouri and Mississippi and lower the age of consent to 14 for anyone with skin prone to sunburn. As for the darkies, give them some extra hours in the packing plant and bad Viagra.

King’s racism is now in plain view, naked in the stark light of day.

In the event with the Iowa group, the Kiron Republican added that the birthrate is so low in Europe that “western Europeans themselves are not having babies fast enough to keep their population up, and because they created ethnic enclaves, as opposed to assimilation, Europe isn’t going to be the same Europe we knew,” reports the Register.

This is not about economics and the rule of law for King. This is about white and brown.

If the Hispanics, many legal, many not, who have played a role in western Iowa’s economy were white German Catholics here without papers, King would stamp their fast-tracked citizenships himself.

King isn’t worried about the illegal immigration. He fears a Latinization of Iowa in much the same way Protestants detested his Catholic forefathers.

But rather than stand with brown-skinned Catholic brethren, King has appropriated the 19th-century American Protestant playbook of hate and language of exclusion.

This isn’t the first time King has sounded like an early 20th-century proponent of eugenics. I’m sure if given the chance King would eagerly measure the head sizes of various races and meticulously chart out the inches with his thoughts on their shortcomings. Perhaps he may even craft a model with action figures similar to the child’s play that was his embarrassing display in an immigration speech on the U.S. House floor last year when he designed his own wall for the Mexican border — complete with electrical cattle wire to charge any colored climbers.

Last year, in interviews and during a speech before the Carroll Rotary Club, King said Iowa needs a “fertility” plan.

Former Republican Lt. Gov. Art Neu of Carroll asked the visiting King to elaborate on references the GOP congressman has made in the media to a “fertility” program King contends could plug a void now filled with immigrant labor.

“I gave them a whole list of things that we could do,” King said. “There are nations out there that encourage a greater birthrate.”

King singled out Singapore, a nation King said has had some privacy issues at the root of its birth-rate problems.

He said the government of Singapore came up with the following plan to increase pregnancies: “We think you ought to put newspapers in your car (windows) to get more privacy.”

Added King, “I remember those things when I read them. They kind of stand out in my mind.”

King repeatedly insisted that race doesn’t play a role in his thinking about immigration or anything else. That’s in spite of King’s not-so-subtle messages that more of the right kind of people need to be having kids — people, ironically, who are a lot like me: white, Protestant, former fraternity guys who can break 80 on a lot of golf courses.

In fact, King once told me he’s so colorblind that he tells his staff not to be racist.

That’s sort of like telling someone to be funny. If you have to say “be funny or be tolerant,” it’s safe to say there won’t be many laughs — or much human decency either.

Comments

  • adabell

    Claim that King is Racist Douglas Burns is judging Steve Kings’s character, but not providing very little support for his conclusion. Grow your own plan, does not sound like a good solution for a worker shortage, but neither does not make him a racist.
    I find people resort to calling names rather then making their point through logic, probably can’t make their point with logic.
    As far a latinization of Iowa is concerned, this is a cultural issue, not a racist issue.  Many hispanics are Americans.  They love this country and our cultural melting pot.  On the other hand the Mexican government is currently encouraging their poor to migrate illegally, ignoring our immigration laws, and telling them where ever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico. This is a quote from the current Mexican president.  Thus many come here to exploit this country, but remain loyal to Mexico, wave the Mexican flag, etc.  This is a culture class, not racist.  They are taught in Mexico that America stole their land.  LaRaza means the race.  It actually is the Mexicans who are racist.  Now we may disagree here, but I think that if you immigrate to a country, it is up to you to assimilate, not put another countries flag on your property.  This dear Douglas is a culture clash.  Those who come legally and show respect for our country, who cares about their color?

    The following is a post in SanDiego:
    As an American citizen of Mexican decent, I find this to be really sad. If I had to estimate what percentage of these illegal immigrants really came here for working purposes I would place at less than 5%. My mother once told me that an illegal immigrant once struck up a conversation with her in a grocery store. While speaking to my mother in Spanish she explained how the stupid Americans had the nerve to call “them” stupid. As she explained, they (illegal immigrants) come here and received everything for free while the Americans work all their lives and for what??? When my mother expressed her outrage and informed her that she was born and raised in this country the conversation abruptly ended. BTW, this illegal immigrant was purchasing a one grocery cart full of beef with food stamps to carry out to her catering truck

  • adabell

    Claim that King is Racist Douglas Burns is judging Steve Kings's character, but not providing very little support for his conclusion. Grow your own plan, does not sound like a good solution for a worker shortage, but neither does not make him a racist.

    I find people resort to calling names rather then making their point through logic, probably can't make their point with logic.

    As far a latinization of Iowa is concerned, this is a cultural issue, not a racist issue.  Many hispanics are Americans.  They love this country and our cultural melting pot.  On the other hand the Mexican government is currently encouraging their poor to migrate illegally, ignoring our immigration laws, and telling them where ever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico. This is a quote from the current Mexican president.  Thus many come here to exploit this country, but remain loyal to Mexico, wave the Mexican flag, etc.  This is a culture class, not racist.  They are taught in Mexico that America stole their land.  LaRaza means the race.  It actually is the Mexicans who are racist.  Now we may disagree here, but I think that if you immigrate to a country, it is up to you to assimilate, not put another countries flag on your property.  This dear Douglas is a culture clash.  Those who come legally and show respect for our country, who cares about their color?

    The following is a post in SanDiego:

    As an American citizen of Mexican decent, I find this to be really sad. If I had to estimate what percentage of these illegal immigrants really came here for working purposes I would place at less than 5%. My mother once told me that an illegal immigrant once struck up a conversation with her in a grocery store. While speaking to my mother in Spanish she explained how the stupid Americans had the nerve to call “them” stupid. As she explained, they (illegal immigrants) come here and received everything for free while the Americans work all their lives and for what??? When my mother expressed her outrage and informed her that she was born and raised in this country the conversation abruptly ended. BTW, this illegal immigrant was purchasing a one grocery cart full of beef with food stamps to carry out to her catering truck

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