Iowa Rep. Steve King: defending the right of kids to attend dog fights!

Draft-dodging radical right-wing CPAC poseur, Iowa Rep. Steve King, apparently hates animals as much as he disdains human minorities.


(Via JoeMyGod)



King's appalling voting record:

• King, a miserably ineffective showboat, has sponsored 17 bills in the U.S. House, but, according to Open Congress, not one of them has been enacted
• Has one of the worst congressional ratings, according to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and avoided the Vietnam draft for three years before he suddenly quit college after being assigned a high draft number which ended the threat of him being forced to shoot at anything that shoots back
• Engaged in deceitful race baiting in the House of Representatives
• Voted to expand internet surveillance of users by forcing Internet Service Providers to retain customers' temporarily-assigned IP addresses for 12 months as well as other information
• Voted for a $250,000 congressional publicity stunt/nonbinding resolution to encourage public display of "In God We Trust" and to affirm that divisive religious bumper-sticker slogan which replaced E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one), the US' original motto
• Voted to defund your local NPR station, presumably in an attempt to get you to listen to Rush Limbaugh more
• Voted to strangle Medicare
• Voted to force a rushed decision to extend the toxic, leaky Keystone XL pipeline through the Ogallala aquifer
• Voted for the "2004 American Jobs Creation Act" — which cut jobs
• Accused Iowa marriage equality supporters of following him around and screaming "the worst profanity I've heard anywhere" — but offered not a shred of proof
• Somehow concluded that the existence of babies in trashcans meant that the Obama's Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional
• Was endorsed by Wall Street financiers who want to eliminate farm subsidies and were fined by the Federal Elections Commission
• Played hookey from the House to whine at CPAC about Nancy Pelosi forcing him to use energy-saving lightbulbs in his office while the rest of Iowa's congressional delegation was on the job fighting to protect Iowa National Guard jobs
• In a legislative passion ploy, showcased Bishop William Lori, a notorious Catholic bully, as Joan of Arc, tied to the stake by marriage equality advocates
• Claimed he bulldozed throngs of intimidating, profane gays to protect Connie Mackie (but unfortunately failed to provide any evidence whatsoever of this)
• Was called an embarrassment to Iowa by the state's largest newspaper, in its 2010 endorsement of opponent Matt Campbell. The Des Moines Register added that King was "provocative, not focused on getting results for Iowans... reactive, not visionary" and added that it was time for Iowa voters to replace him

Iowa Rep. Steve King says he never personally heard of a girl getting pregnant from incest or statutory rape

Iowa Rep. Steve King, Iowa's #1 draft-dodging, homophobic Republican, is evidently so eager to run interference for toxic Missouri GOP Representative Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" remark that he actually told an Iowa television reporter Monday that such a circumstance (a child getting pregnant from statutory rape or incest) has never been "brought to me in any personal way.”
     Well! Obviously King's personal experience is far more important than the fact that a 1996 review by the Guttmacher Institute found “at least half of all babies born to minor women are fathered by adult men.”
     On October 23, 2010, the Des Moines Register endorsed Matt Campbell in Iowa's fifth district congressional race, and called Steve King an "embarrassment to the entire state."

Democrats go after abysmal voting records of Steve King, Tom Latham

Maggie Haberman of Politico reports that "the labor union AFSCME, along with SEIU and the pro-Democratic candidate House Majority PAC, are pooling resources for a $400,000, four-week ad buy against Iowa Rep. Steve King."

That ad is below, followed by a House Majority PAC ad exposing Tom Latham's record.

CBS: House GOP has squandered $50 million of your taxes repealing Obamacare 33 times

Above: Iowa and Nebraska's GOP representatives.  Clockwise from upper left:
Steve King (5th district, Iowa), Adrian Smith (3rd District, Nebraska),
Lee Terry (2nd district, Nebraska), Tom Latham (4th District, Iowa),
Jeff Fortenberry (1st District, Nebraska)

Incessant iterations of Obamacare repeal by House Republicans have gone nowhere, as the Senate is controlled by Democrats and as Obama would be sure to veto such a measure. But the Grand­standing Old Party is still squandering millions of tax dollars on it. CBS reports that it costs about $24,000,000 per week to run the House, which has spent at least two workweeks tilting at this particular windmill.

Iowa Rep. Steve King is 'Mr. Right' for GOP Veep, says Stephen Colbert

Now that Rick Santorum has pulled out of the GOP presidential race, Stephen Colbert is helpfully trying to find the very best running mate for Mitt Romney, and just announced on his Comedy Central show that he has found Mr. Right — in Iowa.

Colbert to Iowa Rep. Steve King: "I was a cornpacker. And I know that term is offensive to some people because cornpacker is a derogatory term for gay Iowan. I would like to apologize to representative King — I have since learned the correct term is cob gobbler."


That's why I insist that no one at the Rapport tell me their sexual orientation, from the lowliest intern to my cameraman, Julian. Right Jules? Alright. Say Hi to the wife and kids for me! So, I say, 'You go, Steve King!' And I assume this means you won't be telling us whether you're gay. Although coming up with a great excuse to keep everyone in the closet is a pretty big hint!
(Via Towleroad)

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Iowa Rep. Steve King thinks a dude with a picture of his boyfriend on his desk should be grounds for firing

ThinkProgress' Scott Keyes caught up with Iowa Rep. Steve King in homophobe-friendly LeMars, Iowa, home of the Blue Bunny dairy, whose owners have funded Iowa's leading heterosexual supremacist, Bob Vander Plaats.

KING: You have private sector businesses here and they need to have freedom to operate. In the first place, I would think that unless someone makes their sexuality public, it’s not anybody’s business, so neither is it our business to tell an employer who to hire. He won’t know who to discriminate against in the first place.

Homophobic Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King panics; after never debating a congressional opponent, he now wants SIX debates with Christie Vilsack

His congressional district, the fifth, was eliminated, and he's running against the wife of a former governor, Christie Vilsack, in a redrawn, more liberal fourth district, so Iowa GOP Rep. Steve has suddenly done an about-face on refusing to debate opponents. Now he has demanded SIX debates — at venues and times of his choosing, of course. He says Vilsack meets his "criteria" for a debate and wants an answer right away, due to his busy schedule of not getting any of his bills passed.
     Christie Vilsack called his flip-flop "refreshing" but says it will happen only at neutral venues.

Steve King's appalling record:

• King, a miserably ineffective showboat, has sponsored 17 bills in the U.S. House, but, according to Open Congress, not one of them has been enacted
• Has one of the worst congressional ratings, according to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and avoided the Vietnam draft for three years before he suddenly quit college after being assigned a high draft number which ended the threat of him being forced to shoot at anything that shoots back
• Engaged in deceitful race baiting in the House of Representatives
• Voted to expand internet surveillance of users by forcing Internet Service Providers to retain customers' temporarily-assigned IP addresses for 12 months as well as other information
• Voted for a $250,000 congressional publicity stunt/nonbinding resolution to encourage public display of "In God We Trust" and to affirm that divisive religious bumper-sticker slogan which replaced E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one), the US' original motto
• Voted to defund your local NPR station, presumably in an attempt to get you to listen to Rush Limbaugh more
• Voted to strangle Medicare
• Voted to force a rushed decision to extend the toxic, leaky Keystone XL pipeline through the Ogallala aquifer
• Voted for the "2004 American Jobs Creation Act" — which cut jobs
• Accused Iowa marriage equality supporters of following him around and screaming "the worst profanity I've heard anywhere" — but offered not a shred of proof
• Somehow concluded that the existence of babies in trashcans meant that the Obama's Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional
• Was endorsed by Wall Street financiers who want to eliminate farm subsidies and were fined by the Federal Elections Commission
• Played hookey from the House to whine at CPAC about Nancy Pelosi forcing him to use energy-saving lightbulbs in his office while the rest of Iowa's congressional delegation was on the job fighting to protect Iowa National Guard jobs
• In a legislative passion ploy, showcased Bishop William Lori, a notorious Catholic bully, as Joan of Arc, tied to the stake by marriage equality advocates
• Claimed he bulldozed throngs of intimidating, profane gays to protect Connie Mackie (but unfortunately failed to provide any evidence whatsoever of this)
• Was called an embarrassment to Iowa by the state's largest newspaper, in its 2010 endorsement of opponent Matt Campbell. The Des Moines Register added that King was "provocative, not focused on getting results for Iowans... reactive, not visionary" and added that it was time for Iowa voters to replace him

Draft-dodger Steve King AWOL at CPAC while rest of Iowa's congressional delegation fought to save IA National Guard F-16 unit jobs

Below: After whining about how Nancy Pelosi forced him to use energy-saving light bulbs, King, who dodged the Vietnam draft for years, declared that "combat veterans deserve our special honor" and implied that women and minorities don't. While King played hooky from the House, grandstanding at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the rest of Iowa's congressional delegation was on the job fighting to protect Iowa's National Guard.



Below: King's evidence-free smear of Iowa gays.

Click on the "Steve King" label at the bottom of this post to see how Steve King has voted to expand surveillance of your internet browsing, has endorsed a Wall Street group lobbying to kill farm subsidies, has voted to eliminate Medicare, has voted to subsidize hate-mongering religious schools at taxpayer expense, has voted to defund NPR, and has called restoration of funds denied otherwise qualified black farmers "slavery reparations." Click here to see a great example of why the Des Moines Register has called King "an embarrassment to the state of Iowa."

Compare and contrast: Rep. King is running against former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack. Iowa has never elected a woman governor, US Senator or US Representative.

Iowans need problem solvers representing us, not just partisan fighters...We need leaders willing to lower their voices and start lifting their sights.

Des Moines Register's GOP endorsement goes to...

Faced with the smelly job of trying to identify presidential timber in this year's Republican pile of nuts, half-wits, liars, and venal hypocrites, the Register unsurprisingly has picked Romney as the best option. You can read the complete editorial here.

The more conservative Omaha World-Herald, influential in western Iowa, probably has something to say about this too, but after that rag endorsed Tea Party bomb-thrower Steve King for Congress, AKSARBENT lost interest all in its ill-considered political opinions.


The Register also published a precis of each candidate to be interviewed by its editorial board, summed up in the following lines from Snapshots from our interviews:

Michele Bachmann: An impressive fireball who can absorb and regurgitate tons of information, even if some of it turns out to be inaccurate.
Newt Gingrich: Between the books he’s read and the books he’s written, Gingrich juggles endless ideas, but he has yet to make the case he could focus his attention on the important ones.
Ron Paul: A well-schooled contrarian who shouldn’t be written off as a nut, even if some of his ideas are nutty.
Rick Perry: After some debate stumbles, he asks voters to take a second look, but it may take more than that.
Rick Santorum: He’d use the presidential bully pulpit to be the nation’s minister-in-chief.

Iowa Rep. Steve King on Perry, Santorum: 'I would stand in a blind and shoot next to either one of them any time."

King isn't quite fishing buddies with either of the two Ricks (Santorum-Perry) but he recently went pheasant hunting with each of them and told the World-Herald that both men "showed skills." King was asked but wouldn't tell exactly what each of his companions bagged, warning, "I just don't know if I'd want to be between them in a debate."

     (Aksarbent notes that King's Selective Service records indicate that he prefers to shoot at things which don't shoot back.)

Iowa Rep. Steve King uses notorious Catholic bully, Bishop William Lori, to trash gay constituents; Gay civil marriage wrong because it insults Catholicism; Next stop: divorce?

Here we see, courtesy of Right Wing Watch, Rep. Steve King of Iowa, speaking at a crudely fabricated Washington, D.C. hearing concocted to recast tax-exempt Christian bullies* as victims (House Judiciary subcommitte hearing on "The State of Religious Liberty in the United States.")



In his legislative passion ploy, King chose Bishop William Lori, Catholic Bully,* to play Joan of Arc, tied to the stake by gay marriage advocates.

Watch King cynically and stupidly attempt to paint the LBGT drive to gain legal protections for gay families through same sex civil marriage as, somehow, an attack on heterosexual church marriage.

Equating apples to oranges is a logical fallacy, which King may not have studied in college because in 1970, draft avoider Steve King quit college (and its Vietnam draft deferments) after having drawn a high lottery number (#308) on December 1, 1969, meaning he was safe from having to serve in Vietnam. In 1970 he abruptly quit Northwest Missouri State three years into his college education without earning a degree.

King: If a group of individuals actively engaged in or promoted the idea of desecrating the Eucharist, would that be a direct affront to the Church?

Bishop William Lori, Catholic Bully:* Why yes!

King: Would you name the seven sacraments (of the Catholic Church)?

Bishop William Lori, Catholic Bully:* Baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, annointing of the sick, marriage and holy orders

King: When there's an active effort to desecrate a sacrament of the church, that is a direct insult and affront to the Catholic Church

Bishop William Lori, Catholic Bully:* Absolutely!

Steve King is a member of St. Martin's Church in Odebolt, Iowa, a Roman Catholic church.

_________________________

*WikiPedia says this about King's hearing witness, Bishop William Lori:

While an auxiliary bishop in Washington D.C., he led an investigation at the behest of Cardinal James Aloysius Hickey into a liberal parish in Georgetown. Investigators taped their questioning of priests, staff and volunteers and asked them all to pledge their honesty. Critics said the tactics were a heavy-handed attempt to bully the parish away from its liberal ways. One called it "an inquisition."

Senate Panel: 2004 American Jobs Creation Act, voted for by Lee Terry and Steve King, killed jobs and increased corporate profits

USA Today said the report, released by a Senate panel, found that overall, firms that took advantage of the America Jobs Creation Act to repatriate overseas income from 2004 to 2006 actually cut jobs and research and development spending, while raising stock buybacks and executive pay.

And who voted for this budget-busting, job killing hoax? Why, Lee Terry (R-Nebraska) and Steve King (R-Iowa), of course!

Iowa Rep. Steve King goes gay bashing at "Value Voters Summit"

Steve King continues to spin his tangled web of victim mythology without any supporting evidence.

They would come out and they would stand in there and they would scream and yell and curse with the worst profanity I've heard anywhere and I've spent my life in the construction business. They were the most unhappy people I ever met that called themselves gay [laughs at own lame joke].

Click on the "Steve King" label at the bottom of this post to see how Steve King has voted to expand surveillance of your internet browsing, has endorsed a Wall Street group lobbying to kill farm subsidies, has voted to eliminate Medicare, has voted to subsidize hate-mongering religious schools at taxpayer expense, has voted to defund NPR, and has called restoration of funds denied otherwise qualified black farmers "slavery reparations." Click here to see a great example of why the Des Moines Register has called King "an embarrassment to the state of Iowa."

Compare and contrast: Rep. King is running against former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack.

Iowans need problem solvers representing us, not just partisan fighters...We need leaders willing to lower their voices and start lifting their sights.

Internet privacy: snooping bill advanced in House; Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sponsors similar bill in Senate; assault on consumer privacy; increases data breach risks; police organizations back bill

The National Sheriff’s Association, the Major County Sheriff’s Association, the International Union of Police Associations and the Fraternal Order of Police are backing a bill in the house which would force ISPs to retain customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses for 12 months.
     CNET reports that the so-called "Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 (H.R. 1981)" was sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
     Xbiz Newswire reports that a Senate version of the measure — S. 1308 — was introduced June 30 by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch and cosponsored by Republican Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
     The Raw Story quotes Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, which advanced the bill 19-10: "The bill is mislabeled. This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It's creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes."
     The Electronic Frontier Foundation had this to say about the bill:

"The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have recognized," Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said.
     "Requiring Internet companies to redesign and reconfigure their systems to facilitate government surveillance of Americans' expressive activities is simply un-American. Such a scheme would be as objectionable to our Founders as the requiring of licenses for printing presses or the banning of anonymous pamphlets."

That's My Congress reports the roll call of the vote in the House Judiciary Committee in favor of H.R. 1981′s expansion of online surveillance through private internet service providers revealed the following "yes" votes:
Lamar Smith, Howard Coble, Elton Gallegly, Bob Goodlatte, Dan Lungren, Steve Chabot, Randy Forbes, Steve King, Trent Franks, Tim Griffin, Thomas Marino, Trey Gowdy, Dennis Ross, Sandy Adams, Howard Berman, Sheila Jackson Lee, Pedro Pierluisi, Mike Quigley, Ted Deutch

The bill is opposed by the following groups, which signed on to an ACLU letter opposing the bill:

Advocacy for Principled Action in Government
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
American Civil Liberties Union
American Library Association
Association of Research Libraries
Bill of Rights Defense committee
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Digital Democracy
Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights
Center for Media and Democracy
Center for National Security Studies
Consumer Action
Consumer Federation of America
Consumer Watchdog
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Defending Dissent Foundation
Demand Progress
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Friends of Privacy USA
Liberty Coalition
Muslim Public Affairs Council
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
National Workrights Institute
Patient Privacy Rights
Privacy Activism
Privacy Journal, Robert Ellis Smith, Publisher
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
World Privacy Forum

Steve King endorsed by Wall St. group which lobbies to kill farm subsidies

The Des Moines Register's William Petroski reported today that The Club for Growth has endorsed U.S. Rep. Steve King's reelection bid to represent the state's newly-drawn 4th Congressional District.

"The country needs more conservative leaders like Congressman Steve King,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. “Congressman King has an exemplary record of service, and has a proven committment to pro-growth policies that create jobs... Club members are looking forward to providing Congressman King the resources he needs in order to win in 2012.”

     While The Club for Growth claims that extremist firebrand King's record is "exemplary," the Des Moines Register has called him an embarrassment to the state of Iowa.
     In 2007, the Federal Elections Commission fined The Club for Growth PAC $350,000 for failing to register as a political committee. Former Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has referred to the group as "The Club for Greed."
     Typically, The Club for Growth spends millions in attack ads savaging the opponents of candidates it endorses.
      The Club for Growth has posted more than 20 articles on its web site condemning farm subsidies, which it claims "distort the agricultural economy" and are "nothing more than an income redistribution program." The group says that "the notion that we need farm subsidies to protect the country are absurd."

     It also claims that "farm subsidies impede our ability to expand international trade."

Iowa lunatic homophobe Rep. Steve King's job to be eliminated; Ex-Iowa first lady to challenge him in new district

POLITICO reports that former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack (from Mt. Pleasant) has received the blessing of Iowa Democratic party leaders for a congressional challenge to Rep. Steve King, who represents the soon-to-disappear Iowa Fifth Congressional District. The Des Moines Register has called King an embarrassment to Iowa. Nebraska's Omaha World-Herald, widely distributed in Western Iowa, has endorsed King.

An Iowa Democrat familiar with Vilsack’s planning said she is mulling a move to [ultra-liberal]Ames, Iowa, which would place her in the newly drawn 4th district that King occupies...
     Vilsack had been weighing the possibility of running against a Democratic incumbent in a primary — against either Rep. Dave Loebsack or Rep. Leonard Boswell — but waging a campaign against King instead would allow her to rally the party against a lightning-rod conservative and avoid a contentious and potentially bloody intraparty battle.
     The scrutiny surrounding Vilsack’s future comes as Iowa lawmakers finalize a new congressional map that will shrink the state’s House delegation from five seats to four. The Legislature approved a new map last week and sent it to GOP Gov. Terry Branstad, who told local reporters Friday that he will sign the plan into law.

The World-Herald is saying that a possible Vilsack vs. King matchup would have all the makings of a high-profile, red-hot race, according to Steffen Schmidt, a political scientist at Iowa State University:  “It’s great. It’s wonderful. It’s going to make that race one of the most expensive House races in the State of Iowa,” said Schmidt.

Voted to kill Medicare: Lee Terry, Jeff Fortenberry, Adrian Smith, Steve King and Tom Latham

Nebraska/Iowa Republicans who voted to kill Medicare (clockwise from upper left):
Steve King (5th district, Iowa), Adrian Smith (3rd District, Nebraska),
Lee Terry (2nd district, Nebraska), Tom Latham (4th District, Iowa),
Jeff Fortenberry (1st District, Nebraska)

Via Americablog comes the news that 235 Republicans supported the Medicare elimination bill, with just four GOPers casting a vote to leave Medicare unmolested. Five of the usual suspects, the Nebraska/Iowa gang of five, above, were among the supporters of the House Republican plan which:

repeals traditional Medicare and replaces it with a health insurance voucher that loses its value over time. Because the value of the Republicans’ privatized Medicare replacement does not keep up with the cost of health care, their plan will gradually eliminate Medicare because its increasingly worthless vouchers will eventually only cover a very tiny fraction of the cost of a health insurance plan.

This new attack on seniors comes courtesy of:

Steve King:
1131 Longworth Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202.225.4426
Fax: 202.225.3193

Tom Latham:
2217 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Toll Free:866-428-5642
Phone: 202-225-5476
Fax: 202-225-3301

Lee Terry:
2331 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4155 phone
(202)226-5452 fax

Jeff Fortenberry:
1514 Longworth House Office
Washington, DC 20515
p (202) 225-4806
f  (202) 225-5686

Adrian Smith
503 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone (202) 225-6435
Fax (202) 225-0207

Nebraska/Iowa Republican Gang of Five provides huge financial boon to anti-gay Christian schools at taxpayer expense; erodes funds for public schools

Nebraska/Iowa Republicans who helped mug DC public schools (clockwise from upper left):
Steve King (5th district, Iowa), Adrian Smith (3rd District, Nebraska),
Lee Terry (2nd district, Nebraska), Tom Latham (4th District, Iowa),
Jeff Fortenberry (1st District, Nebraska)

All five Iowa/Nebraska House Republicans voted for HR431, a D.C. school voucher program.

Here is what People for the American Way said:

While Tea Party Republicans are claiming to take the high ground on government spending, they vote to throw millions of dollars at reviving a program that the Department of Education has shown is ineffective. After studying the program for four years, the Department found that use of a voucher had no statistically significant impact on overall student achievement in math or reading. The results were the same when the Department looked only at students who had applied from schools in need of improvement. As the Obama Administration stated in opposing the bill: "The Federal Government should focus its attention and available resources on improving the quality of public schools for all students. Private school vouchers are not an effective way to improve student achievement." So if the program doesn't educate kids effectively, what exactly does it do?

For one thing, it helps religious schools stay open. This voucher program has been in existence since 2003, and more than three fourths of the students in it have used these government funds for private religious schools. While Congress is slashing government spending on public education in communities across the country, the House decided to throw a few million dollars to keep religious schools afloat. This raises significant First Amendment concerns.

Defunding of National Public Radio supported by Nebraska's Terry, Fortenberry and Smith and Iowa's Latham and King in H.R. 1076 vote to strip member stations of funds to buy programming; PRI affected too

Fresh from their votes to trash Netflix and further enrich cable TV operators, Nebraska's three Republican representatives and two of Iowa's have now attacked NPR. Rep. Henry Waxman capsulized their behavior beautifully when he called their actions “a mean ideological assault on public radio.

"This bill does not save a cent," he says. "It simply says that any grantee of funds from the federal government to public stations can’t use that money to buy programs from NPR [or PRI — Aksarbent]. It’s a dramatic interference with the ability of the American people to get the content they can’t get anywhere else except public television and public radio."

Why not call Terry, Fortenberry, Smith, King and Latham and let them know what you think of their efforts to destroy the evenhanded reporting, incisive interviewing, rich social commentary, penetrating documentaries and witty entertainment  of Nina Totenberg, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Teri Gross, Car Talk, Prairie Home Companion, This American Life, Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me! and all the other terrific programming from NPR and PRI?

Ask them why they are attacking the tiny amount of federal money consumed by Public Radio, and interfering with the decisions of member stations on where to buy programming to best serve their audience.

Steve King:
1131 Longworth Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202.225.4426
Fax: 202.225.3193

Tom Latham:
2217 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Toll Free:866-428-5642
Phone: 202-225-5476
Fax: 202-225-3301

Lee Terry:
2331 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4155 phone
(202)226-5452 fax

Jeff Fortenberry:
1514 Longworth House Office
Washington, DC 20515
p (202) 225-4806
f  (202) 225-5686

Adrian Smith
503 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone (202) 225-6435
Fax (202) 225-0207

Video: Heroically gallant Iowa Rep. Steve King recalls protecting Connie Mackie by personally 'bulldozing' throngs of screaming gays that were 'so intimidating and so threatening and so profane'

Steve King said this happened after he got off the NOM/FRC Judgebus "at nearly every stop." Yeah? Funny, we at Aksarbent don't remember seeing any of that at all. But hey, what news team would want to put conflict like that on the news! We're sure that's why Steve's vivid recollections of political pandemonium never aired on any of the TV stations covering the Judgebus tour.

Take your meds, Steve.

Transcript of interview from Political Correction:

KING: Well let me just do a little bit of history. I was one of the authors of Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act when I was in the state Senate. The language of that is language that I drafted. So that foundation is there.
And I've been a co-sponsor, original co-sponsor of a constitutional amendment to establish marriage between a man and a woman. When the seven Iowa Supreme Court justices ruled and imposed by judicial fiat same-sex marriage in Iowa, I opposed the three of them that came up on retention ballot.
I went on the judge bus tour with the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council, and I climbed off of that bus into the heart of the screaming, profane gays that met us at nearly every stop, and I took them on directly, and in some cases actually — not direct violence, but physical. Yeah, so, and then, I went back down and sat down in the radio studio —
POLITICAL CORRECTION: You were physically — they, like, physically tried to —
KING: Well here's the extent of it. They get right in your face and they scream profanities right at you. And you have to stand there and deliver it. I finally, as my voice gave out, I turned it over to Connie Mackie who is a verbal pugilist of the first order, and they even crowded tight around her, so I turned my back to them and just, I backed up into them. I kept bulldozing them away from Connie Mackie because they were so intimidating and so threatening and so profane.

Huffington Post adds: After losing the initial 2009 battle to the Iowa Supreme Court, King renewed his campaign against gay marriage in late 2010, saying that children raised by same-sex married couples would be similar to those "raised in warehouses."

UPDATE: GoodAsYou has written about this here and has posted links to relevant Prop 8 Tour Tracker documentation of the JudgeBus stops in Waterloo, Mason City, Clinton, Dubuque, and other Iowa cities. Nothing anything like Steve King's outrageous lies was observed in any of those stops. Jeremy Hooper wrote the following at G-A-Y, linked to earlier in this paragraph:

If a Congressman 'bulldozes away' 'screaming,
profane gays' and no one's there to film it...

...does it still make a sound? 

We ask, because there's no record of the following recount actually happening. Not from Iowa's mainstream press. Not from bloggers. Not from YouTubers who filmed the events. Not even, up to this point, from anyone in the conservative movement -- a movement filled with folks who LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to exploit any and every chance to make gays look aggressive. 

But leave it to Congressman Steve King (Very Far R-Iowa) to all of a sudden remember some sort of militant, radical, profane gay aggression that's gone wholly unreported for a matter of months:

[Excerpt of video transcript already quoted above]

So produce a tape, Congressman! And by "produce," we don't mean commission the firm that did NOM's "Gathering Storm" ad to CGI some "intimidating, threatening, profane" gays into stock video of a rally. We mean "produce" as in cough up the tape. As in show us where any of this happened. Because we know people who were there on the ground in Iowa -- and none of them saw anything even close to resembling an altercation.

So seriously, dude: Show us some documentation of how you boldly saved Connie Mackie from the de facto burning building that is the equality movement. Until you can, we're gonna stick with our own memories from this tragically misguided tour:

[two embedded videos]

Contact information for Rep. Steve King:

DC Office:
1432 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-4426
Fax: 202-225-3193
Email: steve.king AT mail.house.gov
Web Email
Website
District Office- Council Bluffs:
40 Pearl Street
Council Bluffs, IA 51503
Phone: 712-325-1404
Fax: 712-325-1405
District Office- Sioux City:
526 Nebraska Street
Sioux City, IA 51101
Phone: 712-224-4692
Fax: 712-224-4693
District Office- Storm Lake:
607 Lake Avenue
Storm Lake, IA 50588
Phone: 712-732-4197
Fax: 712-732-4217