And the hits just keep on coming:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
The Republican Senate candidate in Iowa seemed to lend some weight to the fringe conspiracy theory about the United Nations' Agenda 21, a favorite of tea party icon Glenn Beck, according to a video published Wednesday by Yahoo News.
Ernst was asked in January at a county GOP event about Agenda 21, a non-binding sustainable development plan approved in 1992 that has fixated some on the far right as a means of imposing some kind of New World Order.
Based on her response at the time, via Yahoo, Ernst seemed familiar with the subject and took it seriously. - TPM, 7/13/14
Here's some more info:
http://news.yahoo.com/...
“The United Nations has imposed this upon us, and as a U.S. senator, I would say, ‘No more. No more Agenda 21.’ Community planning — to the effect that it is implementing eminent domain and taking away property rights away from individuals — I don’t agree with that. And especially in a place such as Iowa, where we rely heavily upon our agricultural community, our rural communities. We don’t want to see things like eminent domain come into play,” Ernst said in response to a question about Agenda 21 at the forum.
“We don’t want to see a further push with Agenda 21, where the Agenda 21 and the government telling us that these are the urban centers that you will live in; these are the ways that you will travel to other urban centers,” Ernst continued. “Agenda 21 encompasses so many different aspects of our lives that it’s taking away our individual liberties, our freedoms as United States citizens. So I would adamantly oppose Agenda 21. I don’t believe it is responsible, not for United States citizens.”
It wasn’t the only time Ernst addressed the topic or raised such fears during her primary campaign. “What I've seen, the implications we could have here, is moving people off of their agricultural land and consolidating them into city centers, and then telling them that you don't have property rights anymore,” she told a crowd in rural Ida Grove in November 2013, in response to a general foreign policy question and in remarks first reported by the Associated Press in June.
But with her primary long in the rearview mirror and the general election less than 90 days away, Ernst now sounds more like a debunker of the conspiracy than an alarmist. - Yahoo News, 8/13/14
Yep, the more and more we know about Ernst, the more of a nut we realize she truly is. Now Rep. Bruce Braley's (D. IA) had his stumbles in his the campaign but Ernst's extremist past is what could still hurt her chances:
http://www.msnbc.com/...
But Ernst’s background – farmer, Army veteran, mother, gun enthusiast – and buoyant personality helped paper over the kinds of differences that sparked bitter primaries in other GOP Senate primaries. With both the tea party and establishment wings of the party solidly behind her, she cruised to a dominant primary win and earned a nice boost in the polls heading into the general election.
“Iowans can relate to her, they understand her. She’s like someone who grew up across the street, or goes to your church, or works down the hall, she’s one of us,” Kochel told msnbc. “I think that’s the secret to her primary win, but it’s also going to be the secret to her win in the general election.”
But Democrats saw an opportunity in her primary win as well. As long as Iowa Republicans were introduced to Ernst as Palin’s favored candidate, why not just introduce her to Iowa voters as a Palin clone in the general election?
Here they got some help from Ernst’s own words. Last month when Palin came out for impeachment, Democrats flagged a video from January in which Ernst said President Obama had “become a dictator” and suggested impeachment as a possible remedy. A few weeks later, they circulated a story on Ernst’s various flirtations with “nullification” of federal laws. Braley’s campaign is currently running a television ad calling Ernst “too extreme for Iowa” that cites her opposition to federal minimum wage laws.
“In this election, there are going to be clear choices for Iowa voters between someone who’s going to continue to work across party aisles to try to bring people together…or someone who supports a tea party agenda that’s going to stand in the way of progress for Iowa,” Braley said at the fair.
Braley and his supporters, including NextGen, have also gone after Ernst for saying she’s “philosophically” opposed to biofuel standards that have helped boost demand for Iowa corn, arguing they show she’s a tool of big oil interests like the Kochs. Ernst says she does not favor eliminating the renewable fuel standard unless the government cuts off subsidies to all other industries as well.
The attacks have some potential to throw Ernst off balance. On Friday, she held a press conference with Republican Gov. Terry Branstad to restate her support for the renewable fuels standard, which Branstad said had been questioned by “false attacks” that were “financed by some California billionaires.” But it was an awkward explanation: Ernst defiantly promised to defend Iowa’s government largesse one moment, while suggesting it shouldn’t exist in the next. “If we could get rid of all tax credits, that would be wonderful,” she told reporters when asked about tax benefits for renewable energy. She added that she favored broader tax reform to achieve this goal. - MSNBC, 8/13/14
This race is still ours to win, we just have to get our voters out for Braley. Click here here to donate and get involved with his campaign:
http://www.brucebraley.com/