President Barack Obama has said he wants Guantanamo Bay facility by January. A nearly-empty Illinois prison near the Mississippi River on the border with Braley’s district is among U.S. locations being considered to house the detainees.

Caitlin Legacki, Braley’s communication director, said the congressman has met with officials from the White House, Department of Homeland Security and the Illinois Bureau of Prisons to discuss the security implications associated with this proposal.

“Additionally, Congressman Braley believes the input of surrounding communities should be considered in this decision-making process,” Legacki said. “This decision should be made based on our national security interests and the safety and security of our citizens, not based on people trying to score political points.”

Earlier Monday, Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn called on Braley to oppose the proposal to move the detainees to Illinois. That call was later joined by U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, who said if the terrorist were ever released “innocent people would die and some of them likely will be Americans.”

According to Federal Bureau of Prisons statistics, there are already 347 inmates in federal prisons convicted of international or domestic terrorism. Those include Richard Reid, known as the “shoe bomber,” Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the man behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Wadih El-Hage, Osama bin Laden’s former secretary, and Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted for his role in the 9/11 attacks.

Under the plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay facility, only about 60 detainees would be transferred to Illinois.

Bob Bauer has a public record of defending Barack Obama’s relationship with ACORN. Bauer’s hiring appears to be a tactical maneuver to strategically defend the White House exactly one week after Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell raided ACORN’s national headquarters in New Orleans and seized paper records and computer hard drives that may lead to the White House.

The actual story, as Tony Romm points out, is that Bauer, in his service as the general counsel for the Obama-Biden campaign, criticized Republicans for the last-minute lawsuits against ACORN in swing states. As the story roiled–and it’s entirely possible the negative attention helped win Missouri for the McCain-Palin ticket–he asked the attorney general to investigate any involvement between the Bush Justice Department and the GOP’s campaign. Read the letter–he doesn’t really defend ACORN at all. King’s attack here is almost surprisingly irresponsible. Almost.

David Weigel covers the conservative movement for The Washington Independent, a Center for Independent Media site.

He skipped his son’s wedding.

As the Sioux City Journal’s Bret Hayworth reports:

“It was not a hard decision for me to decide then that I had to be in Washington, if that was the time the vote was coming up. But it was still hard, if you know what I mean,” King said.

The reaction in the room?

“No one in this family asked me to reconsider. They all said, ‘We know that you will do what you have to do,’” King said. “So I call it full-family support and full understanding. As I said, the best thing that I could give them would be to preserve the freedom that I was born into and be able to pass that along to any children that they will be blessed with.”

While walking away from the U.S. Capitol, King, a Republican from Kiron, said page 644 of the health care bill says the government must “encourage the promotion of suicide or assisted suicide.”

But what King fails to point out is the sentence just before that line reads “Nothing in this section shall …” before listing several provisions that are prohibited, including the “promotion of suicide.”

When asked if the bill actually encouraged suicide, King seemed to acknowledge the falsehood by saying, “That’s what it says, but that’s not necessarily what it means. This is government, ya know.”

The portion of the bill in question refers to voluntary end-of-life counseling. It’s a provision that has been repeatedly attacked by Republicans. In August, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said the counseling would lead to government mandated euthanasia of the nation’s elderly, an untrue claim thoroughly debunked by political analysts, policy experts, and even one of Grassley’s fellow Iowa Republican lawmakers.

Steve King

U.S. Rep. Steve King is hoping to derail health care reform legislation scheduled to be debated in the U.S. House by trying to harness the Tea Party protests that took place throughout the summer and once again bringing them to the nation’s capital on Saturday.

King announced Friday that “will join his Republican colleagues and Americans from across the nation” at the U.S. Capitol at 1 p.m.

“Republicans and other participants will deliver a message that the American people reject a government takeover of health care,” King said in a statement.

However, King’s event appears to be hastily planned. Levi Russell, a leader in the national Tea Party Patriot movement who participated in Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s health care protest Thursday, told the liberal blog Talking Points Memo that he was unaware that the gathering was taking place.

When asked if how many people residing in his district were uninsured, King responded that the people of the 5th district “want freedom.”

An August 2009 study by the Economic Research Service Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture documented that roughly 13 percent of all individuals living in the Midwest had no current health care insurance. The study also noted that although there were no statistical disparities between rural and urban in coverage or levels of health expenditures, rural residents earn less than residents of urban areas and, therefore, often spend larger portions of their income on health care.

Among all farm-operator households, according to the study, 14 percent of all members did not have health insurance during 2007, and that lack of insurance coverage was higher (20 percent for non-elderly and 6 percent for elderly populations) for members of households in which farming was the primary occupation of the operator.

More of Stark’s series can be found on his website.

Steve King

The Kiron Republican told Des Moines NBC affiliate WHO-TV that he wants to be a part of the national debate over how to “refurbish the pillars of American exceptionalism.”

Whether he decides to join the GOP primary to take on President Obama in 2012, the party needs numerous candidates offering distinct visions on how to improve the country, with the winning candidate being able to “sort those visions and bring the best one forward.”

“We’re going to need a lot of help in 2012, and being in Iowa and from Iowa, representing Iowa in a strong district in Iowa gives me a platform to be able to articulate those arguments, and I tend to do that,” King said.” And we’ll see what happens.”

King’s presidential aspirations were first brought up by Minnesota’s controversial U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who told the Sioux City Journal’s Bret Hayworth that King “has been mentioned” as a potential candidate for president in 2012.

Bachman’s endorsement of a King candidacy came as no surprise to those familiar with the congresswoman’s political career, as she has repeatedly described as “stunning.”

Below is the video of WHO-TV’s interview with King. He discusses his presidential aspirations at 3:25.

I don’t think anything that Rush Limbaugh said was offensive, but with Fergie and with J-Lo, they have, between the two of them, alleged that the CIA are terrorists and liars, they’ve promoted sexual abuse of women, they’ve used the N word, verbal pornography, recreational drug use, etc. And they are owners of the Dolphins. And it’s also ironic that Fergie was approved as an owner on the very day that you made your statement on Rush Limbaugh.

It’s probably worth mentioning that the House Judiciary Committee hearing was titled “Legal Issues Related to Football Head Injuries.”

Here’s the video:

David Weigel covers the conservative movement for The Washington Independent, a Center for Independent Media site.

The odds of passage–which would demand that Democrats endorse bill language about “skyrocketing deficits, taxpayer-funded bailouts, pork-barrel projects, burdensome taxes, unaccountable policy czars, command-and-control energy policy, and a government takeover of health care”–seem slim.

The full resolution is after the jump.

RESOLUTION

Expressing gratitude and appreciation to the individuals and families who participated in the Taxpayer March on Washington on September 12, 2009.

Whereas, on September 12, 2009, hundreds of thousands of American patriots, who refuse to sit idly by as the Federal Government advances skyrocketing deficits, taxpayer-funded bailouts, pork-barrel projects, burdensome taxes, unaccountable policy czars, command-and-control energy policy, and a government takeover of health care, came to Washington, DC, to show their disapproval;

Whereas individuals also wanted to convey their displeasure with the future tax increases that will be required to pay for deficit-financed spending;

Whereas these individuals understand that the fundamental American principles of limited government and personal liberty are under direct assault;

Whereas this dedicated group of freedom-loving Americans believe in open, accountable, responsible, constitutionally based government;

Whereas hundreds of buses, multiple caravans of cars from across the country, and many individually chartered flights, as well as thousands of lone-traveling cars and trucks, brought these patriots to Washington, DC, solely for this event;

Whereas these individuals endured considerable personal expense to get to the march, including transportation and lodging expenses, as well as lost wages in many instances;

Whereas estimates of the number of people who peacefully marched from Freedom Plaza to the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on September 12, 2009, range as high as 1,700,000 marchers;

Whereas all 50 States were represented in the march;

Whereas this event is considered to be the largest ever gathering of fiscal conservatives in Washington, DC;

Whereas special accolades are due to the grassroots citizens organizations across the country who helped individuals exercise their constitutionally protected First Amendment rights in the Nation’s capital; and

Whereas when the current trends of government expansion and freedom retrenchment are reversed, it will be due in large part to the efforts of the hundreds of thousands who marched on Washington, DC, on September 12, 2009: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives expresses its gratitude and appreciation to the hundreds of thousands of people who marched on Washington, DC, on September 12, 2009, to show their love of liberty and their grievance with recent government actions.

David Weigel covers the conservative movement for The Washington Independent, a Center for Independent Media site.

From Hayworth’s blog:

Additionally, I asked Bachmann if she is being prodded to seek the 2012 presidency, given her growing national profile. She said she has no doubts the GOP will produce a good crop of  presidential candidates, and threw out King as a name of interest.

“Steve King is mentioned as a potential nominee. I have a very high opinion of Steve King and his ability, so I would encourage him to consider any position for higher office,” Bachmann said.

As for herself, Bachmann said, “Goodness, I’ve only been in the House for three years, so, no, I’m not considering anything like that.”