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.
Journalists call it “string saving” — collecting little bits and pieces that can eventually be tied together into a story. Here are the loose threads of the week.
And he can, reports Ron Gunzburger at Politics1:
Governor John Lynch (D) signed a law this week that gives Gardner virtually unfettered discretion to set the primary date, along with the candidate filing period, absentee ballot mailing date, and so on. The move is intended to enable the Granite State to outmaneuver all other states. This mean the NH primary could be in November if Gardner wants — but look for him to keep it in the early January period barring unforeseen moves by states he sees as encroaching on their coveted status.
The South Carolina move would put New Hampshire, which demands a week before any other primary, on Jan. 8. And if Iowa sticks with eight days before New Hampshire… New Year’s Eve, folks. Calendar Year 2007 and the national parties and pundits will have kittens.
“The only person who would probably be prepared to be our president on Day 1 would be Bill Clinton — not Hillary Clinton,” Obama said when asked about unnamed Clinton backers questioning Obama’s experience.
“I think that we’re all very qualified for the job,” the freshman senator said. “The question is who can inspire the nation to get us past the politics that have bogged us down in the past. That was true, by the way, in the ’90s as well as more recently.”
It was an obvious dig at the political divisions of the Clinton years.
Obama also went with music from Ben Harper, significantly hipper than Celine Dion.
Her speech ended to a standing ovation and the familiar strains of KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See.” But nowhere to be heard was her anointed campaign tune, Celine Dion’s “You and I.”
So, unlike the Iraq War vote, acknowledging that Celine was a mistake?
Nothing more on that front yet, but now the Cleveland Plain Dealer says another Kucinich challenge has emerged from Rosemary Palmer, an anti-war activist whose son died in the war.
“We need a full-time congressman for this area whose interests lie in developing this district,” Palmer said.
On the GOP side:
With or without a fight, Willamsburg’s stance perpetuates the attitude that politics is a nasty nuisance and that it’s rude to ask someone for a vote. The Register played along with this mindset, illustrating its story with a large NOTICE: NO POLITICIANS ALLOWED IN TOWN sign taking up most of the front page’s above-the-fold space.
Attitudes like that push down turnout and participation and ultimately make our system weaker. Displaying your support for the candidate of your choice is as all-American as it gets and should be welcomed, not discouraged, on the 4th of July and every day.
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