Winners

Kudos to Chet Culver for standing his ground against nationalistic, backward-thinking policies, like English-only legislation. The Dem gubernatorial candidate has said he would seek to overturn Iowa's mandatory-English laws. His opponent in the race, Jim Nussle, told a crowd of DMACC students last week that he supports English-only legislation. A Register story last week quoted Nussle as saying, "For too long we've taken an attitude that it's maybe O.K. if you don't know enough English to survive in our society. That's not true." We wonder how Nussle thinks Iowa's economy would survive without the migrant farm workers responsible for a good chunk of Iowa's harvest, or the thousands of immigrants keeping Iowa's meatpacking plants afloat. We don't think that Iowa - whose workforce grows more elderly by the moment - would be "maybe O.K." without the diverse immigrant populations that are actually injecting some culture into this snow-white state. It's about time we started treating them with respect - and that means putting a stop to racist grandstanding and political point-gathering over language.

It's with heavy hearts that the men behind the Iowa Bystander are demanding answers from Ako Abdul-Samad, whose agency Creative Visions is being audited and who resigned amidst controversy from the CIETC board. Former publisher Jon Narcisse and new publisher Jerald Brantley have both supported Abdul-Samad through the years, but now they're frustrated that he won't give the Bystander an interview - possibly because he expects the black newspaper to ask tougher questions than white reporters, or the white business community. "He's not eviscerating white guilt when he deals with us," Narcisse says. "The war stories that impress white liberals making $150,000 and $250,000 a year do not impress us. What impresses us is, are you helping folk?" The newspaper reports that former Creative Visions employees have approached the paper with allegations of criminal conduct at the social-service agency, and they want to hear Abdul-Samad's side. "We will give you a fair hearing, but we're going to ask you some tough questions," Narcisse says. Brantley has written an impassioned editorial taking Abdul-Samad to task for calling himself a victim on WHO-TV. This was a politically bold move, and the Bystander is taking heat for criticizing this candidate for the House District 66 seat. But isn't it racist to expect less from African-American politicians than white ones? Narcisse and Brantley get points for standing up, and double points for not being mean-spirited about it. "The truth is, it just breaks my heart," Narcisse says.

Losers

It's more than just the creepy clowns. We have some serious misgivings about the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus that is rolling into Des Moines on Sept. 14. Turns out, the famous circus crew doesn't have the best record when it comes to animal welfare. Since 1993, the USDA has cited Ringling Bros. more than 100 times for deficiencies in animal treatment. Ex-Ringling employees have described an atmosphere where handlers abuse circus animals, including elephants, lions, tigers - even baby animals. Think what you want about animal-rights grounds like PETA and ASPCA - both of which have waged campaigns against Ringling for its history of animal cruelty - but it's hard to ignore the facts when the government comes down on Ringling for failing to provide animals with water, failing to properly vent cages during transport, and failing to call a veterinarian when a baby elephant was dying. The conditions are so bad that certain circus supporters, such as Sears, Roebuck & Co., have yanked their sponsorship. See you under the Big Top? We don't think so.

It's just desserts time for Deb Dessert, who's getting her face plastered in the media as the story unfolds about her role as a paid adviser to CIETC while her hubby, CIETC CFO John Bargman, was raking in the bonus money. Interim CIETC head Mary Gottschalk told the Government Oversight Committee that Dessert apparently set up CIETC's accounting system in a way that would make it harder for people to figure out what was going on. CV

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