An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration.^[1] However, official status can also be used to give a language (often indigenous) a legal status, even if that language is not widely spoken. For example, in New Zealand the Māori language has official status under the Māori Language Act 1987 even though it is spoken by less than five percent of the New Zealand population.^[2] Non-national or supra-national organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union may also have official languages.

Politics[link]

Official language status is often connected with wider political issues of sovereignty, cultural nationalism, and the rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, including immigrant communities.

For example, the campaign to make English the de jure official language of various states in the United States of America is often seen as a way of marginalizing non English-speaking minorities, particularly Hispanic and Latino Americans, while others see it as a unifying force among numerous immigrant groups. In the Republic of Ireland the decision to make the Irish language an official language was part of a wider program of cultural revitalization, de-anglicisation and Gaelic nationalism following centuries of English rule in Ireland. Despite its status as an official language, Irish has been reduced to a minority language in Ireland as a result of English rule, as is the case in North and South America where various indigenous languages have been replaced by that of the colonists. Various indigenous rights movements have sought greater recognition of their languages, often through official language status.

See also[link]

• List of official languages by state
• List of official languages by institution

References[link]

• Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms (1990), ISBN 0-8048-1654-9 — lists official languages of the countries of the world, among other information.

Porter Robinson
Performing in January 2012.
Background information
Birth name	Porter Robinson
Born	(1992-07-15) July 15, 1992 (age 19)
Origin	Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Genres	Complextro, Electro House, dubstep, Moombahton, trance, progressive house
Occupations	Producer, DJ, Musician
Years active	2010–present
Labels	OWSLA, Big Fish Recordings, Ministry Of Sound
Website	Porter Robinson Facebook Porter Robinson Twitter

Porter Robinson (born July 15, 1992) is an American electronic dance music producer and DJ from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He primarily produces in the electro house genre. He also named the genre complextro when he created the portmanteau to describe his own sound.^[1]

Biography[link]

Porter Robinson began producing at the age of 13 using Sony ACID Pro emulating sounds he heard from video games. He later began producing hands-up under the alias Ekowraith^[2] using FL Studio. It was at this time that Robinson became friends with a young Madeon, who was also producing hands-up under the name Deamon, and also using FL Studio.

Robinson primarily uses Lennard Digital Sylenth1, Native Instruments Massive, 3xOsc, Sytrus and several other commercial and free audio plugins.

He is currently 19 years old and recently graduated high school in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.^[3][4]

Music career[link]

He has released a variety of original singles on Glamara Records and Big Fish Recordings. His first single, "Say My Name", was an enormous success, landing at #1 on Beatport's Electro House chart.^[5][6] In the summer of 2011 he signed with OWSLA, a new label operated by Skrillex, to release his first EP entitled Spitfire. Spitfire reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance chart as well as the number one spot on Beatport's overall release chart.

Porter has been commissioned for official remixes by Lady Gaga (Interscope Records), Avicii (Ministry of Sound),^[7] Spencer & Hill (Bazooka Records)^[8] and Innerpartysystem (Red Bull Records).^[9]

Touring[link]

As a DJ, he has toured internationally^[10] and performed alongside artists including Deadmau5, Tiesto, David Guetta, Skrillex, Diplo, Madeon, Moby, Afrojack, Above & Beyond, Dada Life, A-Trak, Gareth Emery and many more.

He performed at many major music festivals during 2011 including Ultra Music Festival,^[11] Electric Daisy Carnival (3 cities),^[12] Electric Zoo,^[13] South by Southwest,^[14] Global Dance Festival, Virgin Mobile FreeFest, Beyond Wonderland,^[15] Electric Forest and Nocturnal Festival.^[16]

Throughout February 2011, he appeared on the Project Blue Book Tour with Skrillex and Tommy Lee & DJ Aero.^[17]

In June and July 2011, he performed as direct support to Skrillex on the OWSLA tour.^[18]

In August 2011 he toured throughout Australia and New Zealand.^{[citation needed]}

In September and October 2011, he performed as direct support to Tiesto on his College Invasion tour of the United States and Canada.^[19] Following this, Porter began a run of headline dates across clubs in North America as part of "The Spitfire Tour".^[20]

In 2012 he is announced to play festivals including Festival Imperial, Coachella, Future Music Festival, Ultra Music Festival, and Lollapalooza, and performed a live Essential Mix that was broadcasted from Hull City Hall, January 28 on BBC Radio 1 during his first trip to the UK. During the set, he played a new, unreleased track called "Language" which was later released on April 10.

Discography[link]

EPs[link]

• Spitfire (2011)

Singles[link]

• "Leaving" (2010)
• "Get Brain" (2010)
• "Say My Name" (2010)
• "I'm On Fire" (2010)
• "Hello" (with Lazy Rich and Sue Cho) (2010)
• "The Wildcat" (2010)
• "Language" (2012)

Remixes[link]

• Picco , "Venga" (2010)
• Heiko & Maiko, "Wer Ist Sie?" (2010)
• Spencer & Hill, "Less Go" (2010)
• Tim Berg, "Seek Bromance" (2010)
• Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup, "We No Speak Americano" (2010)
• Innerpartysystem, "American Trash" (2011)
• Lady Gaga, "The Edge of Glory" (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Porter Robinson Beatport
• Porter Robinson Soundcloud
• Porter Robinson Twitter
• Porter Robinson Facebook
• Porter Robinson OWSLA
• Interview with Porter Robinson Immediately following his first show ever
• Porter Robinson FL Studio Power User page

Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann on set of his television program "The Big Picture".
Born	(1951-05-07) May 7, 1951 (age 61) Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Radio/TV host, political commentator, author, former psychotherapist, former entrepreneur
Spouse	Louise Hartmann
Website
thomhartmann.com

Thom Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week.^[1] In 2008, 2009, and 2010, Talkers Magazine named Hartmann the tenth most important talk show host in America,^[2] and number 8 in 2011 defining him as the most important liberal host for four years in a row (the ones above Hartmann are conservatives).

Hartmann's article "Talking Back To Talk Radio" became part of the original business plan of Air America Radio. He replaced Al Franken on the network on February 19, 2007. On March 1, 2009, Hartmann moved syndication of his show from Air America to the former Jones Network, now owned by Dial Global (which also syndicates Neal Boortz, Ed Schultz, Michael Smerconish, Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, and Clark Howard). In the summer of 2009, his program began to also be offered to nonprofit stations via the Pacifica Radio network, and some community/nonprofit stations in the US are also carrying his show. The radio program is also simulcast as a TV program by Free Speech TV^[3] on Dish Network and DirecTV. Additionally, he stars in a one-hour daily TV show which his production company records at the studios of and licenses to the RT news network, The Big Picture; that TV show is also syndicated by Free Speech TV and carried on both Dish Network and local cable TV stations.

Hartmann is a lay scholar of the history and textual analysis of the United States Constitution; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); Thomas Jefferson; the Assassination of John F. Kennedy; the Federalist Papers; electronic voting rigging; and environmental issues like global warming. He has authored many books on political topics and ADHD. He is the inventor of the Hunter vs. farmer theory of the condition.

Early life[link]

Hartmann was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of a staunch conservative Republican, atheist father and a Christian mother,^[4] and grew up in nearby Lansing. His paternal grandparents were from Norway.^[5] Interested in politics from a young age, he campaigned for Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential election when he was 13.^[6] By 1968, Hartmann was studying at Michigan State University and working as a part-time news announcer at local country music station WITL while protesting the Vietnam War with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).^[7]

Beliefs[link]

Hartmann is considered to have progressive/liberal politics (although he describes himself as part of the radical middle).^[8] He is the author of numerous books including Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights, in which he argues that the 1886 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (118 U.S. 394) did not actually grant corporate personhood, and that this doctrine derives from a mistaken interpretation of a Supreme Court clerk's notes. Hartmann considers this a clear contradiction of the intent of the Founding Fathers of the United States.^[9] He has also written on the separation of church and state, drawing upon the Federalist Papers to argue that the Founding Fathers warned against the notion of the United States being a Christian nation. He contends that the 2000 American election and 2004 American election were stolen through electronic tampering, denial of the voting franchise by rigged voting lists, and limiting availability of voting machines in selected precincts. He also accuses the Bush administration of eroding democracy and individual freedoms.

Hartmann is also a vocal critic of the effects of neoliberal globalization on the U.S. economy, claiming that economic policies enacted during and since the presidency of Ronald Reagan have led, in large part, to many American industrial enterprises' being acquired by multinational firms based in overseas countries, leading in many cases to manufacturing jobs' – once considered a major foundation of the U.S. economy – being relocated to countries in Asia and other areas where the costs of labor are lower than in the U.S.; and the concurrent reversal of the United States' traditional role of a leading exporter of finished manufactured goods to that of a primary importer of finished manufactured goods (exemplified by massive trade deficits with countries such as China). Hartmann argues that this phenomenon is leading to the erosion of the American middle class, whose survival Hartmann deems critical to the survival of American democracy. This argument is expressed in Hartmann's 2006 book, Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class and What We Can Do About It. One of the book's main arguments is that media deregulation leads to corporate media's shifting the American consensus towards the acceptance of privatization and massive corporate profits – which causes the shrinking of the middle class.

In the book Ultimate Sacrifice, he and co-author Lamar Waldron argue that President John F. Kennedy's assassination resulted from a conspiracy by two mafia godfathers (Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante, Jr.) who took advantage of a proposed 1963 USA-sponsored coup (against Cuba's Fidel Castro) to kill the President and then hide their tracks in the resulting cover-up of the top-secret coup plans. Gore Vidal, in his recent autobiography "Point To Point Navigation" devotes much of the final two chapters of his book to praising Hartmann's and Lamar Waldron's scholarship in "solving" the JFK case (JFK was a friend of Vidal's).

Talk radio career[link]

Thom Hartmann doing his radio show, the Thom Hartmann Program.

Hartmann started in radio as a DJ (country, rock, progressive overnight) in 1968 in Lansing, Michigan, (on WITL, WVIC, WFMK) and program director at WNBY and worked full or part-time in radio while also attending school and/or running businesses in Michigan for a decade. He returned to radio in February 2003 with a show on a local station in Vermont, then a month later picked up the noon-3 PM ET slot on the i.e. America Radio Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. In 2005, he moved from Vermont to Oregon and, in addition to continuing his national show, also co-hosted a local talk show in Portland, Oregon (with Carl Wolfson, the late Heidi Tauber, and later Christine Alexander), from 2005 until early 2007 on KPOJ, initially an affiliate of Air America Radio owned by Clear Channel Communications. The KPOJ local morning 6 – 9 AM PT is now hosted by Carl Wolfson. In late 2010 Hartmann moved his show from Portland to Washington D.C.^{[citation needed]}

Hartmann's national program, on the air since 2003 and now in the 3PM to 6PM ET daypart, was chosen by Air America to replace Al Franken on most Air America affiliates in 2007.^[10] Some stations, such as The Quake in San Francisco, had already dropped or moved Franken for Hartmann, who now is, according to Talkers Magazine, America's most important liberal talker. As of March 2012, the show was carried on 81 terrestrial radio stations in 34 states as well as on Sirius and XM satellite radio. A community radio station in Africa, Radio Builsa in Ghana, also broadcasts the show. Various local cable TV networks simulcast the program.

According to his syndicator Dial Global, more people listen to Hartmann's show on more stations than any other progressive talk show in America. The Thom Hartmann Show is estimated by industry magazine Talkers to have 2.75 million unique listers per week. In addition to Dial Global, a subsidiary of Triton Media Group, the show is now also offered via Pacifica Audioport to non-profit stations in a non-profit compliant format and is simulcast on Dish Network Channel 9415 via Free Speech TV Network.

Many guests appear on the show purporting points of view on diverse social and political topics. Some guests proffer progressive views similar to Hartmann's, but more than half are conservatives, libertarians, or Ayn Rand Institute members^[11] who espouse opposing views. A vigorous debate with the host usually ensues. There are four regular guests on the program, and they are sympathetic to Hartmann's political views. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind.-VT) appears every Friday during the first hour of the show titled "Brunch with Bernie". Ellen Ratner of the Talk Radio News Service provides Washington commentary daily. Victoria Jones who is the White House correspondent for Talk Radio News Service appears occasionally as does Dr. Ravi Batra an economics professor at SMU.

Like all talk radio shows, The Thom Hartmann Program takes calls from listeners. When callers asked Thom how he was, he used to reply, "I'm great, but I'll get better." But after a time callers would regularly try to elicit this response so he's stopped replying this way routinely. Hartmann ends each show with the phrase, "Activism begins with you, democracy begins with you. Get out there, get active! Tag, you're it!"

TV program[link]

Hartmann produces a one hour daily TV show, The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann, which is seen worldwide on the Russian-based RT news channel, as well as on Free Speech TV; through Free Speech TV it is also seen on selected local-origination and Public-access television cable TV channels.

Business career[link]

Hartmann began his business career in the early 1970s while in his 20s, co-founding The Woodley Herber Company. Woodley Herber sold herbal products, potpourris and teas, and operated until 1978. It was during this time that Hartmann obtained three degrees in herbology and homeopathic medicine, one of which was from a diploma mill. Thereafter Hartmann moved to New Hampshire to begin The New England Salem Children's Village,^[12] which still operates in Rumney, New Hampshire. He was Executive Director of NESCT for five years, and on its board for over 25 years. NESCT's child-care model was based on that of the German Salem International organization, and through his affiliation with that group he helped start international relief programs in Uganda, Colombia, Russia, Israel, India, Australia, and several other countries between 1979 and today.

Hartmann founded International Wholesale Travel and its retail subsidiary Sprayberry Travel in Atlanta in 1983, a business which in the intervening years^{[clarification needed]} has generated over a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue.^{[citation needed]} According to their website, Sprayberry Travel was lauded by the Wall Street Journal in 1984 for being one of the early adopters of frequent travel programs analogous to the recently initiated frequent flyer programs of the airline industry.^[13] He sold his share in the business in 1986 and retired with his family to Germany to work with the international relief organization Salem International.^[14] In the late 1970s, he had been a trainer in advertising and marketing for The American Marketing Centers (now defunct), and in 1987 after returning from Germany founded the Atlanta advertising agency Chandler, MacDonald, Stout, Schneiderman & Poe, Inc., which did business as The Newsletter Factory.^[15] He sold his interest in that company in 1996 and retired to Vermont.

Other areas of notability[link]

Hartmann is a writer who has published more than twenty books on diverse topics. The title which won the most critical acclaim is The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. In 1999 he was invited by the Dalai Lama to spend a week in Dharamsala after the Dalai Lama finished reading this book. Hartmann won the Project Censored Award in 2004 for Unequal Protection. As a result of a book on spirituality, The Prophet's Way, he was invited in 1998 to meet Pope John Paul II.

Trained in the 1970s in Neuro-Linguistic Programming by Richard Bandler (Hartmann is licensed by Bandler's Society of NLP as both an NLP Practitioner and an NLP Trainer, and Bandler wrote the foreword to his book "Healing ADD"), Hartmann popularized some of its concepts in Cracking the Code (2007), which argues that Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz made use of them in the 1980s and 1990s for Republican Party causes and advocates using them to advance liberalism. His book "Healing ADD" also leans heavily on NLP techniques. His book on the JFK Assassination (written with Lamar Waldron) titled "Ultimate Sacrifice" is cited extensively in the last two chapters of Gore Vidal's recent autobiography as having "finally solved" that case.

Hartmann was one of several contributors to Air America, the Playbook, a 300 plus page collection of essays, transcripts, and interviews by liberal radio personalities. It was published shortly before the 2006 Congressional elections and was on The New York Times Best Seller list for October 8, 2006.^[16]

Leonardo DiCaprio made a web movie titled "Global Warning" that was inspired by The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. Hartmann appears in DiCaprio's 2007 documentary The 11th Hour, as well as the feature documentary film Dalai Lama Renaissance (with Harrison Ford), and Crude Impact.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder[link]

Hartmann has authored in the area of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and adult attention-deficit disorder (AADD) and is the creator (first proposed by him in 1978, first published nationally in 1992) of the now well-known hunter vs. farmer theory that ADD is an expected evolutionary adaptation to hunting lifestyles. These individuals have the ability of rapidly shifting their focus and external attention and of holding multiple trains of thought. This ability causes difficulties when they must live and work in cultures in which "farming" – well-planned, predictable, organized and repetitive behaviors – is typical. His first book on the disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder: a Different Perception was described by Scientific American as "innovative and fresh".^[17] Hartmann has established specialized schools^[quantify] for children with ADHD, such as The Hunter School in Rumney, New Hampshire,^[18] which he co-founded with his wife Louise.

He also operated the "ADD Forum" and "DeskTop Publishing Forum", along with several others, on CompuServe.^[19]

Bibliography[link]

• 2011: Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country. Berrett-Koehler. ISBN 978-1-60509-706-0. 
• 2010 (second edition): Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" – And How You Can Fight Back. Berrett-Koehler. ISBN 1-60509-559-1. 
• 2009: Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture. Viking. ISBN 0-670-02091-5. 
• 2008: Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination (by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann). Counterpoint. ISBN 1-58243-535-9. 
• 2007: Cracking The Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision. Berrett-Koehler. ISBN 978-1-57675-458-0. 
• 2006: Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class and What We Can Do About It. Berrett-Koehler. ISBN 1-57675-414-6. 
• 2006: Walking Your Blues Away: Practical Bilateral Therapies for Healing the Mind and Optimizing Emotional Well-Being. Park Street Press. ISBN 1-59477-144-8. 
• 2005: Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-1441-7.  by Lamar Waldron, with Thom Hartmann
• 2004: What Would Jefferson Do?. Harmony Books. ISBN 1-882109-38-4. 
• 2004: We the People: A Call to Take Back America. Coreway Media, Inc.. ISBN 1-4000-5208-4. 
• 2004 (revised ed.): Unequal Protection. Rodale Books. ISBN 1-57954-955-1. 
• 2004 (revised ed. – first ed. 1998): The Prophet's Way. Park Street Press. ISBN 0-89281-198-6. 
• 2004 (revised ed. – first ed. 1997): Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 1-4000-5157-6. 
• 2003: The Edison Gene. Park Street Press. ISBN 0-89281-128-5. 
• 2000: Thom Hartmann's Complete Guide to ADHD: Help for Your Family at Home, School and Work. Underwood Books. ISBN 1-887424-52-0. 
• 2000: The Greatest Spiritual Secret of the Century. Hampton Roads. ISBN 1-57174-166-6. 
• 1998: Healing ADD. Underwood Books. ISBN 1-887424-37-7. 
• 1996: Beyond ADD. Underwood Books. ISBN 1-887424-12-1. 
• 1996: Think Fast!. Underwood Books. ISBN 1-887424-08-3.  by Thom Hartmann and Jane Bowman, with Susan Burgess
• 1995: ADD Success Stories. Underwood Books. ISBN 1-887424-03-2. 
• 1994: Focus Your Energy: Hunting for Success in Business. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-51689-2. 
• 1994: ADHD Secrets of Success: Coaching Yourself to Fulfillment in the Business World. Select Books. ISBN 1-59079-017-0. 
• 1992 (first edition): ADD: A Different Perception. Underwood Books. ISBN 1-887424-14-8. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• ThomHartmann.com Official site. Includes information on and streaming of the radio and TV shows, essays, chatroom, and a discussion board.
• Past episodes of The Big Picture on YouTube
• Various video clips at BigPicture.tv Hartmann speaking on various topics.
• Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class and What We Can Do About It, Hartmann talks about his book in a video at Fora TV.
• Thom Hartmann with the Dalai Lama Videos made during the filming of the documentary Dalai Lama Renaissance.
• "When Democracy Fails" Podcast on Google Video.
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Hartmann, February 7, 2010

Steven Arnold "Steve" King (born May 28, 1949) is the U.S. Representative for Iowa's 5th congressional district, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.

The district is located in the western part of the state and includes Sioux City and Council Bluffs.

Early life, education and career[link]

King was born on May 28, 1949 in Storm Lake, Iowa. The son of Emmett King, a state police dispatcher, and Mildred King, a homemaker, King graduated in 1967 from Denison Community High School.^[1] He attended Northwest Missouri State University from 1967 to 1970,^[2] taking courses toward becoming a wildlife officer.^[1] He does not have a college degree.^[3] In 1975, he founded King Construction, an earth moving company. King founded the Kiron Business Association in the 1980s. His involvement with the Iowa Land Improvement Contractors' Association led to regional and national offices in that organization and a growing interest in public policy.^[1]

Iowa Senate[link]

From 1996 to 2002, King served as an Iowa State Senator, representing the 6th district.^[2] King worked as the Chairman of the State Government Committee and Vice Chairman of the Oversight Budget Committee. He was a part of the Appropriations Committee, Judiciary Committee, Business and Labor Committee, and the Commerce Committee. He assisted in eliminating the inheritance tax, enforcing workplace drug testing, strengthening parental rights, passing tax cuts for working residents of Iowa, and passing a law that made English the official language in Iowa.^[4]

U.S. House of Representatives[link]

Committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
  • Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
  • Subcommittee on Nutrition and Horticulture
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on the Constitution
  • Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law (Vice Chairman) ^[5]
• Committee on Small Business

• Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus
• Republican Study Committee
• Tea Party Caucus

Political positions[link]

King is considered an outspoken fiscal and social conservative. After winning the 2002 Republican nomination, he said that he intended to use his seat in Congress to "move the political center of gravity in Congress to the right."^[6]

During the 110th Congress, King voted with the majority of the Republican Party 90.9% of the time.^[7] King has continuously voted for Iraq War legislation, and has supported surge efforts and opposed a time table for troop withdrawals.

During the 112th Congress King was one of 40 "staunch" members of the Republican Study Committee who frequently voted against Republican party leadership and vocally expressed displeasure with House bills.^[8]

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave King a 'B' grade, based on the key veterans' legislation that came to a vote during the 110th Congress. King was the only US Representative from Iowa who did not receive an 'A' or 'A+' from IAVA. For reference, former POW John McCain received a D in the same report.^[9]

He was the only Representative from Iowa to score 100 percent on the joint Family Research Council Action/Focus on the Family Action Congressional Scorecard in the second session of the 109th Congress. In the 109th United States Congress, and again in the 110th Congress, King chairs the Conservative Opportunity Society, an organization founded by Newt Gingrich and others consisting of Republican members of Congress committed to representing the conservative agenda in the House of Representatives.^[10]

In November 2010 King endorsed Michele Bachmann for House Republican Conference Chair.^[11]

Abortion[link]

Representative King scored a 100% rating with the National Right to Life Committee, indicating a pro-life voting record. King also voted no on allowing human embryonic stem cell research.^[12]

Gun control[link]

King supports a broad legal latitude for individual gun ownership.^[13]

Race and gender[link]

King opposes race based quotas and affirmative action. King has stated: “There’s been legislation that’s been brought through this House that sets aside benefits for women and minorities. The only people that it excludes are white men...Pretty soon, white men are going to notice they are the ones being excluded.” ^[14]

Steve King said on the floor of the House on June 14, 2010 that racial profiling is an important component of law enforcement: "Some claim that the Arizona law will bring about racial discrimination profiling. First let me say, Mr. Speaker, that profiling has always been an important component of legitimate law enforcement. If you can’t profile someone, you can’t use those common sense indicators that are before your very eyes. Now, I think it’s wrong to use racial profiling for the reasons of discriminating against people, but it’s not wrong to use race or other indicators for the sake of identifying that are violating the law."^[15] As an example of profiling, King described an instance when a taxi driver would stop for him before he had to hail a cab, just because he was in a business suit.^[16]

Same sex marriage[link]

On April 3, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a state ban on same-sex marriage violated the Iowa constitution.^[17] King soon commented that the judges "should resign from their position" and the state legislature "must also enact marriage license residency requirements so that Iowa does not become the gay marriage Mecca." ^[18] King, along with others, mounted a campaign against the retention of all three Iowa Supreme Court judges who ruled on the gay marriage case. King bought $80,000 of radio across the state calling for Iowans to vote "no" on the judges. Subsequently, all three judges were not retained.^[19]

Federal spending[link]

King fought against Medicare and Medicaid paying for a number of medications such as Viagra, which he described as "recreational drugs".^[20] King also has voted against each stimulus bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, saying, “Our economy will not recover because government spends more. It will recover because people produce more.”^[21]

King gained prominence by being one of 11 in Congress to vote against the $52 billion Katrina Aid package citing fiscal responsibility and the government needing a comprehensive plan for spending aid money. The Sioux City Journal wrote the following about King's vote:

"In September, we took our congressman, Steve King, to task for voting against a $52 billion aid package for victims of Hurricane Katrina. King - who was just one of 11 members of Congress who voted against the package which passed both houses and was signed by President Bush - based his vote on the need for "fiscal responsibility." He said the federal government needed to develop a comprehensive plan for spending aid dollars, including input from members of Congress, before more money was appropriated. He earlier had voted for a $10.5 billion emergency aid package. Well, after reading an Associated Press story about a report that details how perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in Katrina disaster aid have been misspent, it appears we were wrong and King was right about his vote on the $52 billion." ^[22]

Illegal immigration[link]

King is against illegal immigration.^{[citation needed]}. He is considered a likely candidate to chair the House Immigration subcommittee in the Republican-majority House of Representatives.

In April 2006, conservative members of Congress proposed strengthening law enforcement against illegal immigration to the United States. When asked if "the US economy simply couldn't function without" the presence of illegal immigrants, King said that he rejected that position "categorically". He said "they", referring to the 77.5 million people between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five in the United States who are not part of the workforce, "could be put to work and we could invent machines to replace the rest."^[23]

King said that "members of Congress that vote for a guest-worker plan ... will be supporting an amnesty plan and they should be branded with the scarlet letter 'A' and pay for that amnesty in the ballot box in November [elections]".

Political lobbying[link]

On February 26, 2010, King went to the House floor to protest the Democrats' handling of health care reform and said: "Lobbyists do a very effective and useful job on this Hill ...There's a credibility there in that arena that I think somebody needs to stand up for the lobby, and it is a matter of providing a lot of valuable information."^[24]

Political campaigns[link]

Steve King at an event in Ames, Iowa in August 2011.

In 2002, after redistricting took 5th District incumbent and fellow Republican Tom Latham out of the district, King ran in a four-way Republican primary for the seat. His most prominent opponents were fellow state senator John Redwine and State House Speaker Brent Siegrest. The 5th, then as now, was so heavily Republican that it was generally thought whoever won the Republican primary was all but assured of victory in November.

King won the primary election with 30% of the vote, short of the 35 percent required by Iowa law to be named the outright winner. Subsequently, a nominating convention was held which King won on the third ballot.^[25] King easily won election in November over Council Bluffs city councilman Paul Shomshor, and he was reelected almost as handily in 2004.

In 2006, King won re-election in the 2006 general election against Democrat Schulte and Independent candidates Roy Nielsen and Cheryl Broderson with 59 percent of the vote.^[26]

2008[link]

In 2008, King had been seen as a possible challenger for Tom Harkin's Senate seat, but on March 7, he announced that he would run for a fourth House term. King was opposed by Democratic nominee Rob Hubler and Independent candidate Victor Vara. King won with 60 percent of the vote and for the first time won all 32 counties in his district.^[27]

2010[link]

King ran against Democratic nominee Matt Campbell and won with his highest percentage yet of 66 percent. King also won all 32 counties in the 5th District for the second election cycle in a row.^[28]

2012[link]

Iowa lost a district as a result of the 2010 Census. King's district was renumbered as the 4th District, and pushed well to the east, absorbing Mason City and Ames in the process. This placed King and his predecessor, Latham, in the same district. Latham opted to move to the reconfigured 3rd District and challenge Democratic incumbent Leonard Boswell. While the new district closely resembles the area Latham represented for his first four terms, it is much more competitive than King's old district. The old 5th had a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+9; the new 4th has a PVI of R+4.

Soon afterward, former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, the wife of former Governor and current Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, announced she was moving to the new 4th to challenge King.

Remarks about Barack Obama[link]

On March 7, 2008, during his press engagements to announce his reelection campaign, King made remarks about Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his middle name, saying:

"I don't want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name - whatever their religion their father might have been," I'll just say this: When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States -- I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror. Additionally, his middle name (Hussein) does matter. It matters because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world...If he were strong on national defense and said 'I'm going to go over there and we're going to fight and we're going to win, we'll come home with a victory,' that's different. But that's not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he's elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror." ^[29]

Then on March 10, King defended his comments to The Associated Press, saying "(Obama will) certainly be viewed as a savior for them.... That's why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him."^[30]

Obama said he did not take the comments too seriously, describing King as an individual who thrives on making controversial statements to get media coverage. He said, "I would hope Senator McCain would want to distance himself from that kind of inflammatory and offensive remarks." The McCain campaign disavowed King's comments, saying "John McCain rejects the type of politics that degrades our civics…and obviously that extends to Congressman King's statement."^[30]

In mid-January 2009, King acknowledged that terrorists were not dancing in the streets, and in fact "They have made statements against Obama." He also said that he found Obama’s decision to use his middle name, "Hussein", when he is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009, to be "bizarre" and “a double-standard."^[31]

Steve King said on a radio show on June 14, 2010 that President Obama's policies favor black people. On G. Gordon Liddy's radio program, King said, "The president has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race - on the side that favors the black person."^[32]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Iowa portal
	Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Steve King

• U.S. Congressman Steve King official U.S. House site
• Steve King for U.S. Congress official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa 1st W. Thompson • Miller • Henn • A. Hall • S. Curtis • J. F. Wilson • McCrary • Stone • McCoid • B. Hall • Gear • Seerley • Gear • S. Clark • Hedge • Kennedy • Kopp • Eicher • Martin • Schwengel • Schmidhauser • Schwengel • Mezvinsky • Leach • Nussle • Braley 2nd Leffler • L. Clark • J. P. Cook • Thorington • Davis • Vandever • Price • Smyth • W. Wolf • Cotton • Tufts • Price • Farwell • Murphy • Hayes • G. Curtis • Lane • Rumple • Wade • Dawson • Pepper • Vollmer • Hull • Letts • B. Jacobsen • W. Jacobsen • Talle • L. Wolf • Bromwell • Culver • Blouin • Tauke • Nussle • Leach • Loebsack 3rd Allison • Donnan • Ainsworth • Burdick • Updegraff • Henderson • Birdsall • Pickett • Connolly • Sweet • Robinson • Willford • Gwynne • Gross • Grassley • Evans • Nagle • Lightfoot • Boswell 4th Grinnell • Loughridge • Walden • Pratt • Deering • Luman Hamlin Weller • Fuller • Sweney • Butler • Updegraff • Haugen • Biermann • Talle • Le Compte • Carter • Kyl • Bandstra • Kyl • N. Smith • Ganske • Latham 5th Kasson • G. Dodge • Palmer • J. Wilson • R. Clark • W. G. Thompson • J. Wilson • Frederick • Kerr • J. Hamilton • Cousins • Good • Cole • Thruston • Le Compte • Cunningham • N. Smith • Scherle • Harkin • Lightfoot • Grandy • Latham • King 6th A. Hubbard • Pomeroy • Orr • Loughridge • Sampson • Weaver • Cutts • J. C. Cook • Cutts • J. C. Cook • Weaver • Lacey • White • Lacey • D. Hamilton • Kendall • Kirkpatrick • Ramseyer • Dowell • Utterback • Dowell • Goodwin • Cunningham • Gilchrist • James Dolliver • Coad • Hoeven • Greigg • Mayne • Bedell • Grandy 7th Kasson • Cummings • E. Gillette • Kasson • H. Smith • Conger • Hays • Hull • Prouty • Dowell • Wearin • Jensen • Hansen • Scherle 8th McDill • Sapp • Hepburn • Anderson • Flick • Hepburn • Jamieson • Towner • Evans • Thurston • Gilchrist • Hoeven 9th Orr • Oliver • Carpenter • Pusey • Lyman • Reed • Bowman • Hager • McPherson • W. Smith • Green • Vincent • Swanson • G. Gillette • Harrington • Narey 10th Holmes • Jonathan Dolliver • Conner • Woods • Dickinson • Gilchrist 11th Struble • Perkins • Thomas • E. Hubbard • Scott • Steele • Scott • Boies • Campbell AL Hastings and Leffler Terr Chapman • A. Dodge