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.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said during a conference call with bloggers and other media that he would support an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill before the U.S. Senate this week that would require immediate redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days and virtually all troops being redeployed by March 31, 2008.
The legislation is known as the Feingold-Reid Amendment and was first considered by the Senate earlier this spring. It did not receive the necessary 60 votes to override any Republican cloture attempts.
Earlier today, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said he would again offer the Feingold-Reid amendment to legislation being debated by the Senate. In response to President Bush’s comments at a town hall meeting in Ohio this morning, Feingold released this statement:
“The President’s Iraq policy has been one failure after another. The President’s decision to escalate this mistake has led to more instability, more violence and more needless deaths. It is encouraging to see some Republicans finally coming around to the reality that the President’s course in Iraq has failed. But as the Senate prepares to once again debate the war in Iraq, Americans will be watching closely to see if that talk is backed up with real action. We need to pass tough legislation that will end our military involvement in this Iraqi civil war so that we can refocus on the global fight against al Qaeda.”
In addition to the Feingold-Reid Amendment that will be offered, Sens. Carl Levin and Jack Reed, as well as Sen. Ken Salazar, intend to offer amendments that would not be as binding as Feingold-Reid but would still seek to begin limiting or ending the Iraq war.
In addition to affirming his strong support as a co-sponsor of Feingold-Reid, Harkin added that it was time for Republicans in the Senate to make a choice.
“Quite frankly, the Republicans have a choice — do they stand with the public or the president?” Harkin said. “That’s what the votes this week or next week will show.”
Harkin also added that Senate Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Dick Lugar, who have defected from ardent support of the Bush surge strategy, are trying to have it both ways. He called on activists and bloggers across the United States to call on those senators to stand up and join the Democrats in ending the Iraq war.
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