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Immigration Raid On Iowa Meatpacking Plant Nets 390
From the AP:
Federal officials say a raid at a northeastern Iowa meat processing plant this week was the largest in U.S. history.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say 390 people have been arrested on immigration charges after Monday’s raid at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville. The facility is the world’s largest kosher meatpacking plant.
The raid was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and people who are in the country illegally.
Fifty-six of those arrested have been released on humanitarian grounds; many of them have to take care of children.
Others arrested in the raid at are being held in county jails and at a converted fairgrounds.
Iowa Caucus Results (UPDATED)
The preliminary results for the Iowa caucus with nearly all the precincts reporting are as follows:
DEMOCRATS (94% Reporting) (100% Reporting)
Obama- 37% 38% –> Winner!
Clinton- 30% 29%
Edwards- 30%
Richardson- 2%
REPUBLICANS (76% Reporting) (87% Reporting)
Huckabee- 34% –> Winner!
Romney- 25% 25%
Thompson- 14% 13%
McCain- 13%
…DEVELOPING
-Hot Joints Staff
Iowa Pastors Supporting Huckabee Receive Anonymous Warning Letters
Iowa pastors who support Republican Mike Huckabee for president have received letters warning them that getting involved in politics could endanger the tax-exempt status of their churches.
Several pastors who have publicly backed Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who has support from many evangelicals, said they have received the letters, which have no return address. They have arrived in the weeks leading to Thursday’s precinct caucuses.
Two letters were sent to the Rev. Brad Sherman, of Solid Rock Christian Church in Coralville. The first arrived a couple weeks ago and warned that he could be prosecuted for his support of Huckabee.
“I just laughed. No one lands in jail for this,” Sherman said. “Somebody is trying to intimidate Christians from getting involved.”
There is no question that those letters were meant to intimidate Christians. A Pastor is allowed to endorse anyone as a private citizen.
It only crosses the line when a church leader actively uses the the pulpit to campaign for a candidate and recommend to the congregation that they should vote for a particular candidate.
However, it’s perfectly legal for a Pastor to encourage his congregation to go out and vote.
-Chris Jones
Huckabee Has Anti-War Protesters Arrested
Mike Huckabee called “the fuzz” on a bunch of shrill anti-war protesters today at his campaign office in Iowa. Of course, the liberal blogs are incensed by the Governor’s audacity.
Eight members of the Iowa Occupation Project and Voices for Creative Nonviolence arrived at Huckabee’s Locust St. campaign office early Monday afternoon, waiting for the former Arkansas governor’s reply to a letter delivered two months ago that sought his pledge to completely withdraw from Iraq within 100 days of assuming office; halt all military actions against Iraq and Iran; fund the rebuilding of Iraq as well as health, education and infrastructure needs in the U.S.; and “…the highest quality health care, education and jobs training benefits for veterans of our country’s Armed Services.”
Brian Terrell, director of the Catholic Peace Ministry in Des Moines, said approximately 35 reporters, including a number of international journalists, were at Huckabee’s office during the protest.
Terrell said in addition to the “Who Would Jesus Bomb?” banner, the eight protesters held signs that read, “End Iraq War” and “No War with Iran,” sang the refrain from “Auld Lang Syne,” chanted ‘Who Would Jesus Bomb?’ and then read names of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers killed in the war.
Sgt. Vincent Valdez of the Des Moines Police Department said officers responded to an early afternoon complaint from the Huckabee Campaign office and arrested Robert Braam, Mona Shaw and Kathy Kelly, on charges of trespassing. He said the three were among a group “holding signs, singing and reading aloud, basically making a disturbance.” Valdez said the officers had no trouble making the arrests and the three were taken to the Polk County jail.
Huckabee was within his rights to call “the fuzz” on the protesters. As I have said numerous times on this site, protesting is fine within reason.
It would have been perfectly acceptable for the group to stand outside Huckabee’s office for as long as they wanted and sing, picket, or smoke a peace pipe.
Where they crossed the line was going into his office to protest. It’s absurd to think you can walk into someone’s office and basically hi-jack the place and start protesting.
They were standing in his office singing, chanting, and holding signs, which undoubtedly prevented work from being done.
Having anti-war protesters thrown in the clink is doing God’s work as far as I’m concerned. I only wish there had been a couple of members of Code Pink involved.
-Chris Jones
Demcrats Debating in Iowa This Very Minute…
Yesterday’s worst debate in history is continuing with Democrats right now. As it was for the Republicans, this is the last debate for the Dems before the Iowa Caucus.
This Week: Last Debates Before Iowa
Nine Republican and six Democratic candidates will meet this week in their final debates before the lead off Iowa caucuses. The back-to-back debates will feature Republicans Wednesday aftertoon, and Democrats on Thursday.
Sponsored by Iowa Public Television and The Des Moines Register, the two debates will be held in Johnston, Iowa, and broadcast live at 2 p.m. EST on Iowa Public Television, CNN, C-SPAN3, Fox News Channel, C-SPAN Radio and Fox News Radio.
Obama Screams At Elderly Iowa Voter
Watch Barack Obama scream at an elderly Iowa voter who asks him what he will do about terrorism and illegal immigrants.
Student Claims She Wasn’t The Only One Fed Questions at Hillary Event
The college student who says she was told what question to ask at one of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign events said Monday that “voters have the right to know what happened” and she wasn’t the only one who was planted.
The 19-year-old sophomore at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, said that giving anyone specific questions to ask is “dishonest,” and the whole incident has given her a negative outlook on politics.
Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, said what happened was really pretty simple: She says a senior Clinton staffer asked if she’d like to ask the senator a question after an energy speech the Democratic presidential hopeful gave in Newton, Iowa, on November 6.
“I sort of thought about it, and I said ‘Yeah, can I ask how her energy plan compares to the other candidates’ energy plans?’” Gallo-Chasanoff said.
“‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the staffer said, according to Gallo-Chasanoff, “because I don’t know how familiar she is with their plans.”
He then opened a binder to a page that, according to Gallo-Chasanoff, had about eight questions on it.
“The top one was planned specifically for a college student,” she added. ” It said ‘college student’ in brackets and then the question.”
Topping that sheet of paper was the following: “As a young person, I’m worried about the long-term effects of global warming. How does your plan combat climate change?”
The Clinton campaign has issued a statement when the planting story first broke and said that Hillary had no idea that one of the people she had called on was a plant.
Gallo-Chasanoff isn’t convinced.
“I don’t know whether Hillary knew what my question was going to be, but it seemed like she knew to call on me because there were so many people, and … I was the only college student in that area,” she said.
Earlier in the week the Clinton campaign also issued a statement admitting that a staff member did discuss questions about energy policy at the forum, but this not standard practice and would never happen again.
Gallo-Chasanoff says that’s also untrue.
“After the event,” she said, “I heard another man … talking about the question he asked, and he said that the campaign had asked him to ask that question.”
The man she referenced prefaced his question by saying that it probably didn’t have anything to do with energy, and then posed the following: “I wonder what you propose to do to create jobs for the middle-class person, such as here in Newton where we lost Maytag.”
A Maytag factory in Newton recently closed, forcing hundreds of people out of their jobs.
You mean politics are dishonest?? Say it isn’t so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Chris Jones
Obama goes door-to-door in Iowa
Democrat Barack Obama knocked on doors in the Iowa capital Saturday talking up his opposition to the war in Iraq.
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