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.
On Thursday, Iowa Independent reported on the sharing of anecdotes between New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. Now Time reports that Clinton is using a story on the campaign trail that strongly echoes one that former Vice President Al Gore has told before.
Clinton recalls a story she says was told to her by then United Nations Ambassador Madeleine Albright, who was born in Czechoslovakia and was traveling in Europe to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. Everywhere she went, Albright saw cheering people with American flags that counted only 48 stars. Apparently they had kept the flags — though hidden during Soviet rule — that were handed out by American soldiers who had liberated them from the Nazis. At the time Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states.
In Gore's version, a man from Murfreesboro, Tenn., had come to visit him when he was a senator. The man recounted to Gore how he had escaped from communist Czechoslovokia to come to the United States. Years later, when he returned to his homeland after the communists had fallen from power, he, too, saw those same 48-starred flags in the hands of pro-American Czechs who had kept them since World War II.
The stories, which are indeed poignant, are meant to illustrate that America's values and standing in the world can be reclaimed. But are they less powerful if they were invented or in some other way borrowed?
The authors conclude:
There's nothing particularly scandalous about this. Working in the Senate and the White House, we've seen elected officials (and their staff members) hear stories, mash them up, and make them their own. At least in this case, Clinton and Gore wisely credit their stories to sources that protect them: Clinton because her source is unimpeachable, Gore because his is untraceable.
Of course, there's another possible explanation: maybe Madeleine Albright is from Murfreesboro.
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