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.
Last month, Onyango Obama, half-brother to the President Obama’s father, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and then held by authorities due to an outstanding deportation. He was released last Thursday. Even before his release, House Republicans were already issuing statements calling the arrest a potential conflict of interest, with U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas going so far as to accuse the administration of nepotistic treatment worthy of a “Third World corrupt government.”
Now, U.S. Rep. Steve King is accusing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Janet Napolitano of engaging in preferential treatment by releasing Onyango Obama. On Fox News, King said that “We have to bring drunken ‘Uncle Omar’ in front of the House Judiciary Committee, drill down into this, and tell America what’s going on.”
The accusations of double standards come at a time when the administration has declared its intent to use its power of prosecutorial discretion to grant indefinite stays of deportation on many undocumented immigrants. King, House Judiciary Chair Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, and other immigration-enforcement hawks in Congress are jumping on Onyango Obama as a way to paint deportation reform as an erosion of the rule of law.
They have also pointed to Zeituni Onyango, Obama’s aunt, who was living in the U.S. without authorization but was granted asylum in 2010. King says Zeituni’s asylum was a product of the “bleeding heart” of Napolitano, in spite of the fact that the order to grant Zeituni Onyango political asylum was issued by an immigration judge, not Napolitano herself.
King’s stance on the issue was hotly criticized by Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky, who said that King should be “focusing on creating jobs, strengthening the middle class or standing up for Iowa values” instead of “persecuting distant relatives of President Obama.”
“Iowans want elected officials who try to solve problems and get to work, Congressman King isn’t getting the job done,” Dvorsky said. “Instead, he’s more concerned about asking Republican presidential candidates questions and wild speculation about the President’s relatives.”
As The Iowa Independent previously reported, earlier this month, King served as co-host (along with South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint) of the Labor Day Palmetto Freedom Forum in Columbia, S.C., where he pushed candidates toward a reform of the immigration system that would place higher emphasis on economic concerns than on family ties.
“With this much time devoted to wild sensationalism and the Republican presidential primary, what, if anything, is Congressman King doing to create jobs in Iowa?” asked Dvorsky. “The unfortunate answer, is that jobs for Iowans and policies that benefit the middle class have been abandoned by Congressman King.”
Here’s video of King on Fox News accusing the Obama administration of double standards:
(Lynda Waddington contributed to this report.)
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