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.
The American Future Fund, a conservative nonprofit based in Des Moines, has launched an ad criticizing U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley for his support of Muslims “building a mosque at Ground Zero, where Islamic terrorists killed 3,000 Americans.”
Of course, that isn’t exactly true.
Screenshot of American Future Fund's attack ad against U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley.
The proposal drawing AFF’s ire is an Islamic cultural center — which would include a mosque — proposed to be built more than two blocks away from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in a building that formerly housed a Burlington Coat Factory. A New York blogger took the time to stroll around the two-block area surrounding Ground Zero snapping photos of things that are the same distance (or closer) from the site as the proposed Islamic center, including a New York Dolls strip club, an off-track betting parlor and numerous fast food restaurants.
There is already a mosque four blocks away from Ground Zero.
Braley told a conservative blogger this week that the decision of whether or not to allow the Islamic center to be built was a local zoning issue in New York City.
“For centuries, Muslims built mosques where they won military victories,” the ad’s narrator says. “Now, they want to build a mosque at Ground Zero, where Islamic terrorists killed 3,000 Americans. It’s like the Japanese building at Pearl Harbor.”
Those who oppose the planned Islamic center say it is a slap in the face to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Former House Speaker and likely 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said, “Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington” Supporters say it is a First Amendment issue, and that Americans have the right to build a house of worship on private property if they are in concordance with all laws and regulations.
Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote Wednesday that the belief that locating a mosque near Ground Zero would be a desecration of hallowed ground can only be justified if, “(a) you believe that the religion of Islam was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center, and (b) you believe that the Zone of Hallow extends to every block in Lower Manhattan, exact radius from ground zero to be determined.”
American Future Fund has vowed to spend “six figures” on attacking Braley this fall. In a race most pundits have predicted won’t be competitive, Braley is facing off with Republican Ben Lange this fall. In a statement released Wednesday, Lange said the question isn’t whether the Islamic center can legally be built, but rather whether the mosque should be built.
“To chalk this controversy up to merely a ‘local zoning’ issue reflects yet another total disconnect between Bruce Braley and the vast majority of people he represents,” Lange said.
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