State/Local Archives

May 7, 2004

Minnesota Senate Pulls The Switcheroo on Social Studies

The Minnesota Senate, working against time to complete their business before a mandated adjournment date, thumbed its nose at the House by passing an alternate set of Social Studies requirements that conflict with those passed weeks ago by the House: The DFL-dominated Senate gave its approval Thursday to a set of social studies requirements for all Minnesota students that goes lighter on the facts and heavier on the analysis than its more knowledge-based counterpart passed by the House in March. ... The chief author of the policy bill, Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, said he didn't think differences in the general principles of what's required in the two versions were that big. But a major difference is in the number of people, places and events kids are required to know. In the Senate social studies standards, those are generally left up to the teacher, though numerous examples are provided. The House...

May 8, 2004

More Apologies from The Gopher State

After yesterday's performance by our intellectually- and historically-challenged Senator, Mark Dayton, Minnesotans have felt the need to abjectly apologize to the rest of the nation in general, and to the military specifically. Hugh Hewitt challenged us to demonstrate our contrition, which I did on his show yesterday and here at CQ as well. One of my readers, a fellow MN-blogger who operates the Intergalactic Capitalist blog, also apologizes in a humorous and R-rated rant that discusses Dayton's intellect, his grasp of history, his neurology, and his potential for becoming an Enzyte spokesman. StarBanker notes this Power Line entry by Rocket Man, who reported on Dayton's "homily" to a Roman Catholic audience at St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis last summer: Our country has moved decidedly to the right. Our citizens, many are less involved. Our social system is less compassionate, government is less effective and liberalism is more distrusted....Where...

Let's All March ... Somewhere

I don't often do this, but I perused the local Minneapolis Star-Tribune due to acute boredom this afternoon. After getting past the fact that the Strib managed to bury most of Mark Dayton's appearance at the Hill yesterday -- which means they understand exactly how poorly he fared -- another headline caught my eye: 1,000-Man March Planned May 21. I suppose these days a protest just doesn't count if you can't tag "[round number]-Man March" onto it in the same way that a scandal without a "-Gate" suffix gets relegated to page A-32, but the number seems to be pretty low, compared to the Million-Man March (that attracted about 800,000) and the Million-Mom March (which drew 150,000). I figured that a thousand-man march might draw something like, oh, twelve guys and thirty-three reporters for their true and noble cause. Of course, on this point, the whole notion falls apart. Take...

May 11, 2004

Mark Dayton, Partisan Political Hack

Mark Dayton, our illustrious senior Senator, managed to make a name for himself again today in the hearings regarding the abuses at Abu Ghraib. While the rest of the Senate asked questions of Maj. General Antonio Taguba, who spent months investigating the incidents, Dayton could not be bothered to ask one single question. Dismissing the opportunity to actually get information from an important witness, Dayton instead spewed forth with his partisan posturing during his entire ten minutes, making clear that the purpose of the public hearing was to score as many points against the military and the administration: On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Mark Dayton of Michigan [sic] never asked a question during his time, instead using it to accuse Pentagon officials of sanitizing the abuse and obscuring the truth. "That's why the pictures have been so important," he said. "The pictures showed us the truth. ......

May 17, 2004

Minnesota Senate Sneaks Out After Partisan Cheap Shot

The Minnesota Senate closed its session early Sunday morning on a legally mandated schedule, but snuck in a final cheap partisan shot by firing Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke. Yecke's sin was not malfeasance nor gross incompetence, but her pledge to enact Governor Tim Pawlenty's policies for education -- the same policies that won him the election in 2002: When the smoke cleared from the education wars at the Capitol early Sunday, Minnesota had one fewer commissioner but a brand new set of requirements for social studies and science. Cheri Pierson Yecke was fired by the Senate on a 35 to 31 vote at 3:40 a.m. that followed strict party lines, after a day virtually devoid of any education action. ... Yecke's firing was effective immediately, without so much as a two weeks' notice. Yecke, who hosted reporters at a Sunday afternoon news conference in her Blaine home, said she...

May 27, 2004

Did Any Drive Home Afterwards?

The Democrats in the Minnesota State Legislature had quite a time in the closing hours of its last session, when they fired Cherie Pierson Yecke just to show their solidarity. Apparently, the DFL fortified themselves with more than just a healthy dose of partisanship, as local station KMSP found out when a news crew looked behind the scenes in the session's final hours: Late at night, in the closing days of the legislative session, lobbyists, state workers and even some lawmakers gathered in offices at the State Capitol to drink beer, wine and liquor, KMSP-TV reported Wednesday night. The station showed trash cans full of beer, wine and liquor bottles and suggested that at least some the alcohol of might have been provided by lobbyists. Lobbyists are not allowed to give gifts to legislators. ... KMSP said state policy forbids state workers from drinking on the job, even during rest...

June 2, 2004

Minnesota Makes Sure Drivers Don't Gouge Oil Companies

In this period of rapidly rising gasoline prices, you may feel relieved to hear that the state of Minnesota has focused on the pump prices to make sure that there are no shenanigans going on. However, that feeling might be fleeting when you find out that they're keeping prices up: With gasoline prices painfully high, it may be surprising for some to learn that state regulators are penalizing retailers for, well, for not charging Minnesota motorists enough for gasoline. The Commerce Department snagged its first offenders last week under a 2001 law that aims to prevent predatory pricing by requiring gas merchants to charge 8 cents more per gallon than they pay for fuel. Arkansas-based Murphy Oil was penalized $70,000 for violating the law prohibiting below-cost sales. The company operates 10 service stations in Minnesota on property it leases from retail giant Wal-Mart. If the oil companies got together and...

June 5, 2004

Kegger At Dean's, BYOB

The two major political parties have reached an agreement on opening a special legislative bacchanalia session to complete the work they left on the table when time ran out, or when the booze ran out, whichever came first. Governor Tim Pawlenty, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, and House Speaker Steve Sviggum met over some barbecuing brats at the Governor's mansion to reach an agreement on the agenda: After a two-hour meeting featuring gubernatorially grilled brats and beans on the patio of the governor's residence on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said he will report by noon Tuesday on whether he can agree to some broad framework that would set the stage for a one- or two-day legislative session, possibly before the end of June. The Legislature adjourned May 16, leaving unfinished its work on a major bonding bill for state borrowing and budget adjustments that would balance the...

FBI, DoJ Clear Police In Porter Case

The FBI and the Department of Justice have closed the case of alleged police brutality brought by Stephen Porter, a drug dealer and sometime informant of the Minneapolis PD: Two Minneapolis police officers named in an explosive allegation that a man was sexually assaulted with a toilet plunger handle during a drug raid won't face federal criminal charges, Chief Bill McManus announced Friday. Stephen Porter said that he was assaulted in a north Minneapolis apartment nearly eight months ago. McManus said the U.S. Justice Department investigation found no evidence of a "prosecutable violation" of federal criminal civil rights laws by officers Jeff Jindra and Todd Babekuhl. When this case hit the media, it was front-page news, especially since it echoed the notorious Abner Louima case in New York. However, the Stephen Porter case seemed wrong from the start. First off, the alleged abuse took place not in a police station...

June 10, 2004

Hospitals: A Great Place To Smoke

I few weeks ago, I weighed in on a St. Paul proposal to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, pointing out that regardless of whether such a ban was good public policy, the city and state had the authority to regulate behavior in public places -- and then half-heartedly endorsed the proposed ban. The hue and cry that post brought rivalled anything I'd written before, and I received some especially fierce (but good-natured) ribbing from the gang at Fraters Libertas. I hadn't realized that they were part of the tobacco cabal, although the Elder does remind me of the Marlboro Man at times, sans horse. Today, then, even as Atomizer weighs in on the difficulty of being a smoker and a bird lover, the Star Tribune reports on a major victory in their battle to keep the environment friendly to nicotine addicts: Irwin Kester, a patient committed to the psychiatric...

June 11, 2004

Nick Coleman Eulogizes ... Corporate Logos

I normally don't read Nick Coleman, either for elucidation or for unintentional humor, until I see him get fisked by the guys at Fraters Libertas, especially St. Paul's terrific pieces. However, for some reason, I decided to take a look at Coleman's piece today, entitled "It'll always be Dayton's to us." Unbelievably, the man of the little people spent his column space shedding tears for the demise of a corporate image! We're still not over Dayton's. Dayton's dropped its century-old name in 2001, switching to Marshall Field's after parent company Target Corp. bought Chicago-based Field's. The new owner, May Department Stores Co., says it'll keep the Marshall Field's name, but who cares? It's still Dayton's to us. See, this is the problem with people who want to imbue business concerns with all sorts of emotional baggage. They never understand that business has little to do with emotions; they either succeed...

August 21, 2004

Meet Pam Wolf And Captain Ed!

Pam Wolf has been a CQ sponsor for the past few weeks, and she's running for the Minnesota State Legislature in November, in state district 51B. She faces a tough race in her district and needs the support of fellow Republicans across the state in order to bolster the Republican majority in the House. Pam's announced a great fundraiser for Sunday, September 12th -- a golf tournament at Brightwood Hills Golf Course in New Brighton, where Pam has made me the guest of honor! The entry fee is just $30 to support one of the Republican grassroots efforts to ensure the success of Governor Tim Pawlenty's program and to play golf with one of the worst duffers in Minnesota -- me. If you don't want to play golf but just want to hang out with us and have a hot dog, come on out! Pam has the option for those...

October 12, 2004

The Mini-Kerry Of Minnesota

Today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune reviews the flip-flopping going on in one of our Congressional races, pitting popular Rep. Mark Kennedy against political neophyte Patty Wetterling. Wetterling has built a name for herself from her tireless work on behalf of missing children after the tragic disappearance and loss of her son, Jacob. However, the Democratic strategy to run her against Kennedy appears to be floundering as their candidate can't decide which policies she supports or opposes, even on basic-values questions such as abortion: U.S. House DFL candidate Patty Wetterling confirmed Monday that she unreservedly favors abortion rights and supported the war in Afghanistan, two issues that may play a decisive role in her Sixth District race against Republican incumbent Mark Kennedy. ... Wetterling retreated from previous statements that she and others made that she opposed second-trimester and late-term abortions. "I did have concerns about late-term and second-trimester," she said Monday. "I always...

Minnesota Senator Meltdown?

The bizarre behavior of the senior Senator from Minnesota continues and deepens this afternoon, as CBS News reports that Mark Dayton has closed his office for security reasons. CBS also reports that government sources are baffled by his reasoning, as no specific intelligence exists which would lead them to believe he's been targeted (hat tip: CQ reader Laura): Sen. Mark Dayton said Tuesday he is closing his Washington office because of a classified intelligence report that made him fear for the safety of his staff. Dayton, D-Minn., said the office will be closed while Congress is in recess through Election Day, with his staff working out of his Minnesota office and in Senate space off Capitol Hill. "I take this step out of extreme, but necessary, precaution to protect the lives and safety of my Senate staff and my Minnesota constituents, who might otherwise be visiting my Senate office in...

October 16, 2004

Dayton Response "Ridiculous", "Paranoid": DC Politicians

The fallout of Mark Dayton's decision to close his offices in Washington DC due to unspecified threats continues, generating ridicule from both sides of the aisle and embarassment for Minnesotans. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that local DC reaction fluctuated from fury to concern over Dayton's psychological fitness: The surprising response by the freshman senator from Minnesota to the latest in a series of warnings prompted ridicule and a flurry of angry reactions yesterday. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said Dayton's decision was "ill-informed." Minnesota's senior senator, Norm Coleman (R), called Dayton reckless. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) compared him to the boy who cried wolf. Colleagues on both sides of the aisle whispered "paranoid." ... Dayton's reaction to the extreme possibility was ridiculous, D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said. "It's not based on any credible information that's come in. Nobody knows why he is doing what he...

November 2, 2004

Senate Update

Fox and CNN have both called the Oklahoma Senate race for Coburn. This was a hard fought, sometimes nasty race. OOPS: Ed and I did a double-post, so see below for his comments....

November 3, 2004

Dayton Slouches Back To DC

Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton, who did his best Brave Sir Robin* impersonation last month when he "bravely ran away, away" from DC after a security briefing that caused no one else to leave town, has decided to make his triumphal re-entry now that George Bush won the election: Sen. Mark Dayton said Wednesday he is reopening his Senate office after closing it last month, citing terrorist threats. Dayton, D-Minn., said that the threats outlined in classified intelligence reports that prompted the closure covered activity only through Election Day. "The timeline for the heightened threat has passed in those reports," Dayton said in a conference call with reporters. "I will be opening the office effective next Monday." Dayton announced that he would release the declassified report next week so people can make up their own minds about his decision to run screeching for the hills. However, the report will not outweigh...

November 11, 2004

Minnesota Teen Democrats Take 'Moonbat' Label Seriously

Two days after John Kerry lost to George Bush, three of his teen supporters got into a dispute with a Bush-supporting schoolmate at their Minnesota Zoo School of Environmental Studies, and after some juvenile taunting, the budding Democrats beat the other teen with a baseball bat: Three high school students, one allegedly armed with a bat, were charged with attacking a pro-President Bush classmate after he reportedly said only gays would support Sen. John Kerry. ... The alleged assailants have all been charged: one with felony assault because he allegedly went to his car to get a bat during the assault, prosecutors said one with misdemeanor assault and one with disorderly conduct. In fact, both sides called the other "gay" for their political views, which still managed to outstrip the maturity level in some of the public debate from this election. Perhaps Lawrence O'Donnell counseled these young Democrats....

December 3, 2004

Brave Sir Robin Wonders At Snub (Updated!)

The Star Tribune reports that Senator Mark Dayton alleges that Republicans denied him a trip to Iraq in order to undermine his chances for re-election in 2006. Dayton cannot comprehend a single reason why Republicans would have bypassed him for a slot on the fact-finding tour and the denial of permission to travel separately: Sen. Mark Dayton wants to make a return trip to Iraq, but his request has been denied, the Minnesota Democrat said Wednesday. Dayton speculated that his request was denied by the Senate Armed Services Committee because he has criticized President Bush's handling of the war and because he's up for reelection in 2006. "Either one of those reasons is absolutely wrong, and unjust and unwarranted, and I regret very much the committee's decision," he said in a conference call with reporters. Perhaps he should re-read the transcripts from his participation in the Abu Ghraib hearings in...

December 12, 2004

St. Paul Snobs Strike Snoopy Statues

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that a local beautification group has filed an objection to bronze statues of "Peanuts" characters in Rice Park, complaining that the memorialization of perhaps the most beloved and influential comic strip in American culture demeans the historic nature of the area: The Ross Group is an 11-member organization that's been involved in city beautification efforts for the past dozen years. They say bronze statues of Peppermint Patty and Marcie don't fit with the historic character of the park in the middle of downtown St. Paul. In particular, they say the characters clash with the park's statue of St. Paul-born author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The group says the "Peanuts" statues could jeopardize the park's possible designation as a historic site. The snobs at the Ross Group apparently do not understand -- or care to learn -- the influence of Charles Schulz on American culture, one that...

December 21, 2004

A Costly Game Of Hide And Seek

The 21st Century Democrats, a PAC affiliated with the DNC, has found out that Minnesota means business when we demand full disclosure on donations. After ruling that the Democrats had slipped in hundreds of thousands of dollars without disclosing their source, the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure board issued a stinging rebuke and a six-figure fine: Minnesota campaign regulators slapped a national Democratic political group with $317,950 in fines Tuesday for violating state campaign finance disclosure laws, the largest penalty of its kind issued in Minnesota. The 21st Century Democrats is the same organization at the center of a campaign finance flap involving House Democratic leader Matt Entenza, whose $300,000 in contributions to the group prompted Republicans to file complaints with state and federal election watchdogs on Monday. I posted about Entenza's checkbook politicking three weeks ago. At the time, I speculated that the 21st Century Democrats and Entenza would...

December 29, 2004

Nick Coleman Goes Insane

Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Nick Coleman went off his meds today, or on some new ones, in writing a smear job on Power Line, who he sees as his archnemesis these days. Without bothering to do any research whatsoever, Coleman accuses the "lads" of being unaccountable sellouts and worse: The lads behind Powerline are a bank vice president named Scott Johnson and a lawyer named John Hinderaker. If you read Powerline, you know them better by their fantasy names, Big Trunk (that's Johnson) and Hind Rocket (Hinderaker). I will leave it to the appropriate professionals to determine what they are compensating for, but they have received enormous attention from the despised Mainstream Media and deserve more. Oh ho, a penis reference from Coleman! What a great way to express his superior intellect and standards, seeing that he is a newspaperman: I work for a dopey old newspaper committed to covering the...

January 15, 2005

St. Paul Firefighter Union Chief: We're Uncontrollable Drunks

The firefighters in the IAFF Local 21 of St. Paul might want to check the coffee in the firehouse where Pat Flanagan serves. In what was meant as a stinging rebuke to Mayor Randy Kelly, Flanagan specifically e-mailed a warning to Kelly not to attend their annual installation bash, warning Kelly that "alcohol will be served" and implying that would make the party dangerous for the mayor: Reasons for the snub, Flanagan wrote, are the mayor's budget cuts, his decision to decommission an engine company, and growing tensions at the bargaining table. Flanagan ended his three-paragraph missive, dated Jan. 10, with this salvo: "Alcohol will be served at this event, so we write this letter in the best interest of all parties involved." On Thursday, Kelly fired back with an e-mail of his own. He defended his record and said he was "perplexed" by the reference to alcohol. Was that...

January 31, 2005

Dayton's Numbers Sink Rapidly

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes that approval ratings for both Minnesota senators has dropped over the past year. Both Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton have dropped below the 50% mark in the latest Minnesota Poll. But while the former attracts about the same level of support as President Bush received in the last election, Brave Sir Dayton has seen his popularity crash 15 points, winding up far below John Kerry's final numbers: Dayton, a Democrat who's up for reelection next year, took the heaviest blow: His approval rating declined by 15 points in a year, from 58 percent to 43 percent. The approval rating for Coleman, who just began his third year in office, fell by 7 points, from 54 to 47 percent. Dayton's job approval decreased among all categories of Minnesotans, grouped by age, education, income, party and ideology, with the largest drop among men -- down 27 points --...

February 26, 2005

Michelle Bachman And The NARN

One of the pleasures of participating in local radio is meeting the people who shape our community in many different ways. Today on the Northern Alliance, we had the pleasure of spending an hour with Michelle Bachmann, our state Senator from District 52 who just announced her candidacy for Mark Kennedy's Congressional seat. Kennedy plans on running for the Senate seat that Brave Sir Mark Dayton will vacate in 2006. Michelle took to live radio like a seasoned professional, making the rest of us juuuuuuust a little envious of her performance. She promises to come back for one of our upcoming live remotes at White Bear Lake Superstore, where I think Paul Rubin will be delighted to have her presence to light up the showroom. We'll let you know when that happens. In the meantime, we captured the moment for posterity (courtesy of Fraters Libertas and Michelle's friend Barbara, who...

March 13, 2005

Race-Baiting At The City Pages Reveals Babelogue's Character

The Twin Cities freebie tabloid City Pages and its blog Babelogue has long harbored the worst of Twin Cities reporting, even surpassing the bloviation and pomposity of Nick Coleman -- which represents a fairly high threshold. Their primary means of financial support appears to come from selling scads of classified advertising to local sex workers, which as a more libertarian sort doesn't bother me but does point out the fringe appeal of the publication. The tone always tends towards the hysterical and overwrought, which is why I almost always avoid it, even at the price offered. Unfortunately, someone pointed out a Babelogue post which goes too far even for the ethics-challenged staff of the City Pages. Molly Priesmeyer attended the Center for the American Experiment's sendoff of Dan Rather Wednesday night, hosted by Power Line's John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, and attended by Mitch Berg and the Fraters Libertas fellows....

March 22, 2005

Tragedy At Red Lake

Once again in Minnesota, we're confronted by the spectre of a teenager on a killing spree, this time in the economically challenged community of Red Lake near the Canadian border. Jeffery Weise, a Native American who incongruously bought into the madness of neo-Naziism, killed nine people and wounded several others at his school before turning his weapon on himself. No doubt this story will get all sorts of play in the national and local media, and I really don't have much to add to the facts already known. The strange connection between Weise and the nihilistic philosophy of National Socialism strikes me as so predictable for an isolated sociopath and so odd for a Native America as to defy belief. However, based on the information reported so far, it appears to be true. One of the greatest mistakes made in the past twenty years or so has been the dimunition...

March 29, 2005

Red Lake Shooter Not Exactly A Loner

After the spate of news stories following the Red Lake Massacre that killed ten people painted gunman Jeff Weise as a loner, Minnesota will be surprised to find out that the FBI has arrested another teenager as a co-conspirator. Louis Jourdain, the son of the tribal chief, was taken into custody last night and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, according to the Star Tribune: The teenage son of Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. was charged with conspiracy Monday in connection with the March 21 shootings that killed 10 people, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. The source said that Louis Jourdain, who is believed to be 16 or 17, plotted with the gunman, Jeffrey Weise, to violently attack Red Lake High School. One witness told reporters that Jourdain hid out with her in the library and knew without looking that Weise was the shooter,...

May 6, 2005

St. Paul Mourns The Loss Of A Hero

The city of St. Paul lost one of its heroes early this morning when Sgt. Gerald Vick, a two-time Medal of Valor recipient, died in a hail of gunfire while protecting the citizens of our state's capitol. Police have two suspects in custody: Police said Antonio Alexander Kelly, 27, and Harry Jerome Evans, 32, were being held on probable cause in the shooting of Sgt. Jerry Vick, which happened across the street from Erick's bar about 2:20 a.m. St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington announced the arrests at 12:10 p.m., saying Kelly was arrested at 3:30 a.m. and Evans was arrested at 10:15 a.m. Evans was covered with mud and appeared to have been hiding. Vick, a member of the department's vice squad, was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Harrington said. Vick had been shot in an alley near 7th and Forest Streets after exchanging shots with...

May 21, 2005

Strib Has Its Eye On The News

Power Line posted late last night that the local broadsheet, the Star-Tribune, finally noticed that the Governor had invited several Metro-area bloggers to the mansion for a meet-and-greet last Tuesday. Scott and John do a good job of poking holes in the reporting of Mark Brunswick, so I don't necessarily want to cover the same ground, but some aspects of Mark's report are just too good to pass up. First off, I can confirm what Scott says about having received no contact from Brunswick about this report despite the four days it apparently took him to write it. I display my e-mail address right on my website, just below the Day by Day cartoon now, and I can assure readers that my e-mail service works just fine. (In fact, this morning I've already received three offers from former Nigerian heads of state who need to get millions of dollars out...

May 25, 2005

Franken To Relocate To Minneapolis; Don King Next?

Michelle Malkin notes that Al Franken, the premier host of the dying Air America talk-radio network, will move back to Minnesota and broadcast his national show from the Twin Cities. Franken has lived in New York for decades, but returns to the Land of 10,000 Lakes for a particular purpose: Radio host Al Franken, who is mulling a run against Republican Senator Norm Coleman in 2008, has purchased a town house on the edge of downtown Minneapolis and will establish residency in Minnesota. "It's one of the things I need to do if I decide to make a run," Franken said from his current home in New York. "I haven't made the decision yet, but if I do, I'll have to have been living in Minnesota a while." Franken might also want to make a run for the seat that Mark Dayton will vacate at the end of next year,...

July 14, 2005

Did Abortion Waiting Period Save 2,000 Babies In 2004?

The AP reports that abortions dropped by 30% in Minnesota in 2004, a year after passage of the Women's Right to Know Act. The new law requires abortion providers to give information about medical risks, potential fetal pain, and assistance options to women seeking abortions, and imposes a 24-hour waiting period. In its first year of application, abortions dropped to their lowest level in 30 years: The number of abortions in Minnesota dropped to a 30-year low in the first full year after the state passed a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions. ... The number of abortions in 2004 dipped to 13,788, the lowest level since 1975, the first year the state Health Department started tallying the numbers. The department has been reporting annual abortion figures to the Legislature for the past five years. The number of abortions in the state has been falling since it peaked in...

August 17, 2005

Two Minnesota Politicians Flock To Sheehan's Side

Two Minnesota politicians have announced that they will travel to Crawford to join Cindy Sheehan and join the media circus surrounding her protest. State Senator Becky Lourey joins FBI whistle-blower and Congressional candidate Coleen Rowley to garner some publicity and to take part in Sheehan's grandstanding: Rowley, now a Democratic candidate for Congress, and Sen. Becky Lourey will join a protest initiated by Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq last year. Sheehan started the vigil Aug. 6, coinciding with Bush's summer vacation. She has said she won't leave until the president meets with her. Rowley said Tuesday that she and Lourey would leave Thursday and stay at least through Sunday, sleeping in a tent at the site. They are paying their own way, she said. Lourey's son died in Iraq three months ago in an attack on his helicopter. The theme of the protest does make a certain...

September 8, 2005

Feds Finding Something Amiss In Minneapolis?

Federal authorities appear to be conducting two different investigations into Twin Cities politics, as they launched raids at a city councilman's home and the offices of a key player in an earlier bribery scandal. However, an alert CQ reader whose name I will withhold for the moment found a connection between the two which may indicate that the FBI has uncovered something larger than a repeat of the Brian Herron case. Local ABC affiliate KSTP has a terse statement: [Dean] Zimmermann is a member of the Green party and a first-term council member. He wasn't available for comment, but his campaign manager, Lauren Maker, said the agents spent three hours at Zimmermann's home. Maker said the agents told her the affidavit attached to the search warrant was sealed, so she couldn't explain the purpose of the search. Because of redistricting, Zimmermann is in the same ward as council vice president...

September 9, 2005

Zimmerman Following In Herron's Footsteps? (Update!)

Dean Zimmerman took Brian Herron's spot on the Minneapolis City Council after the arrest and conviction of the latter on federal bribery charges. Now the Strib and the AP confirm that federal agents have their eyes on Zimmerman for the same kind of behavior, apparently having caught him in a sting operation assisted by an anonymous local developer: A City Council member is being investigated for allegedly accepting bribes from a developer in exchange for help with zoning permits, according to court documents filed Friday. Councilman Dean Zimmermann, a Green Party member seeking his second term, is accused of accepting thousands of dollars from the developer, who was working in cooperation with the FBI. One payment was to help with attorney fees owed by Zimmermann, according to the document. Other payments were for the councilman's re-election campaign, the document said. The exchanges between Zimmermann and the developer were recorded on...

October 9, 2005

Wetterling Joins Race For Dayton's Seat

Patty Wetterling has decided to bypass another attempt at the sixth Congressional district seat she lost in last year's election against Mark Kennedy to take on the same opponent in the race for the Senate seat that Mark Dayton's retirement will leave open. The political novice lost a tough battle against Kennedy last year in which she showed a thin skin for politicking and plenty of inexperience and indecision on policy. She has to convince Democrats that she can more effectively challenge Kennedy than Hennepin County DA Amy Klobuchar, a much more experienced DFL politician who has already declared her candidacy: Last year, she lost a bruising battle for Congress to U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, who is now the Republican candidate for Senate. Although Wetterling was a political novice at the time, her name was recognizable to many Minnesotans. She became one of the country's foremost child-safety advocates after her...

October 25, 2005

Thank You, SD41

I want to pass my thanks along to the Republicans of Senate District 41, who invited me to speak at their monthly meeting tonight. After treating me to a lovely dinner and meeting State Senator Geoff Michel, I had the opportunity to talk about blogging, politics, the media, and the intersection of all three in the coming election cycles. I met many new friends there like the two Tonys and Jerry, as well as old friends such as Laura and Ken. Brien Martin wrote up a nice blurb about the event in their newsletter announcement earlier, and I understand they will review the evening's festivities in their next one. Here's my review: I had a blast talking with real grass-roots, politically involved Republicans who have enthusiasm for their political goals and beliefs. With luck, I'll be able to do it again sometime soon....

December 8, 2005

Judge Lets Level 3 Sex Offender Walk

In a mind-boggling decision, a Dakota County judge allowed a Level 3 sex offender -- the kind most likely to re-offend -- to walk out of a courtroom after spending two months without making required contacts or registering his whereabouts with the police. Jeremy Queen had turned himself in after a two-month search for the chronic parole violator and spent Tuesday night in jail. Thanks to Dakota County judge Ed Lynch, by Wednesday morning he had won release on his own recognizance: A convicted sex offender wanted by police for failing to report his whereabouts turned himself in to the Dakota County jail on Tuesday night, only to be released the next morning by a Dakota County District Court judge. Prosecutors, dismayed by the decision, said Jeremy John Queen, 26, has a long history of ducking authorities and violating par-ole. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said he will ask the...

January 30, 2006

The Godwin Candidate

I live in Minnesota's second Congressional district and have the honor of being represented by John Kline, a twenty-five year veteran of the Marine Corps and a man who has served honorably in the US Congress. On two occasions I have had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Mr. Kline and found him to be an affable, intelligent, and erudite representative. Of course, he and I see eye to eye on many issues, while principled people may disagree with both of us on how best to run the country and represent the Second. Those principled people who do not care for John Kline's view on the issues should get better representation than former FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley. She has descended far into the fever swamp during her brief yet notorious campaign to unseat Mr. Kline. When last CQ heard from Ms. Rowley, she had just missed her...

February 25, 2006

CFACT Interview On CQ Podcast

The NARN interview with Bll Gilles from CFACT is now on my podcast RSS feed and can be also downloaded from this link. Duane Patterson and Mitch Berg ask some great questions about the funding controversy at the University of Minnesota. You can also come up to speed on this issue at my two posts on the subject: Does The University Of Minnesota Discriminate Against Conservatives? UMTC Cuts Conservative Group Funding Even Further...

February 26, 2006

St. Paul Mayor Defies Own Public Smoking Stance

The new mayor of St. Paul campaigned in part on his support of tough new bans on smoking in public places, especially bars and restaurants, beating the more moderate Randy Kelly in his bid for re-election. However, it appears that Mayor Chris Coleman has one standard for the residents of St. Paul and another for himself, as local columnist Joe Soucheray reported today: The new mayor, Chris Coleman, who couldn't wait to sign legislation that prohibits smoking in bars and restaurants, was puffing away on a big cigar the other night at Stogies on Grand. A guy I know was in there. He told me that Coleman was chomping on a cigar along with former police chief Bill Finney. They have a back room at Stogies with a big flat-screen TV. It is a popular place to smoke a cigar, and usually they have sports on the TV or maybe...

March 17, 2006

Minnesota DFL Leader Lied About Conversation With State Supreme Court

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson has had to fall back on Roget's Thesaurus in order to describe his allergy to the truth regarding his conduct in a recent appearence. Following a claim that three of the seven sitting justices on the state Supreme Court would not rewrite Minnesota law and order gender-neutral marriage legalized, the DFL leader has had to backpedal in embarrassment when the Chief Justice called Johnson a liar: Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson said Thursday that he "embellished" a conversation he had with a state Supreme Court justice to placate clergy who challenged his assurances that the court wouldn't overturn a Minnesota law and allow same-sex marriages. Johnson sought to explain a recorded conversation with clergy in January, when he described an earlier discussion he had with Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz about the state's marriage law. In the recording, Johnson says Blatz told him, "We're not...

Is Becky Lourey The Last Minnesota Voice For Free Speech?

The Minnesota state legislature took up the offensive spectacle of the funeral protests staged by Fred Phelps, the self-described minister whose flock regularly cheers the death of American soldiers at their funerals. Often singing "God Hates America," they claim that the deaths of American soldiers came as a judgment from God for allowing gays to live openly among us, among their barely-coherent rants. These protests embarrass and outrage every community where they occur, as the should. Those who give their lives in defense of our country deserve a respectful farewell, and their families deserve peace and space to mourn. These ghouls use their right to free speech to act like mindless hyenas. However, they do have the same right to free speech, a small technicality that both houses of the state legislature appears to have forgotten in their eagerness to provide a legal solution to a poverty of the soul....

March 20, 2006

Minnesota DFL Endorses Lying

The Minnesota Senate DFL caucus rallied around their beleaguered leader, Dean Johnson, who claimed in a conversation with clergy that three state Supreme Court justices assured Johnson that they would not rule in favor of same-sex marriage. The Majority Leader had tried to convince the ministers to drop a push to put a constitutional amendment banning gender-neutral marriage up for a referendum with this inside information, but was unaware that the conversation had been taped. When the ministers released the tape, Johnson told the press that he may have "embellished" the conversation, but the members of the Court are having none of this: In a rare conversation with reporters, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Russell Anderson today said flatly that no member of the court -- including former Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz -- ever spoke to Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson about the state's marriage laws. Anderson's denial came even...

March 24, 2006

The Revenge Of The Easter Bunny

The city of St. Paul faces some pointed questions from its citizens demanding to know how the Easter Bunny offended the City Council. The council president ordered the removal of decorations hung by employees, including banners with the Easter Bunny and the message, "Happy Easter". St. Paul residents made plenty of angry and perplexed calls wondering whether cultural sensitivity would leave us with any culture at all: The story of the bunny's eviction from the lobby of the City Council offices was the talk of the town on public airwaves, in skyways and on websites throughout the country on Thursday. Even Fox's Bill O'Reilly asked about it. Those who agreed with the decision to pull the "Happy Easter" messages kept a relatively low profile; several city employees who applauded the move asked to remain unnamed. But those on the other side were eager to be heard. "I'm getting very tired...

April 1, 2006

Demanding Accountability For Dean Johnson

The controversy over Dean Johnson's lies to a group of pastors regarding assurances he supposedly received from state Supreme Court justices on how they would rule on gender-neutral marriage has escalated, thanks to two seperate requests for ethics investigations. A former judicial candidate and court critic has joined a Republican state representative in demanding an accounting for either judicial malfeasance or deliberate deception on the part of the Minnesota Senate majority leader: A legislator and a longtime critic of the judicial system filed separate ethics complaints Friday asking a board to determine whether several state Supreme Court justices held improper conversations about Minnesota marriage law with Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson. Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said he discussed the law with justices but they offered him no assurances on how they might rule if it were challenged. The justices have denied talking to him about the law. In his complaint, Rep. Tom...

Those Aggies Don't Just Tip Cows Any More!

One of the pleasures of having a vibrant local press is the colorful stories about the community that get missed when focusing on the national and international news. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports today on an agricultural fraternity at the University of Minnesota that has been suspended and may be disbanded for violating the university's ban on hazing. The FarmHouse Fraternity apparently has pushed the Midwestern envelope a little too far -- say, all the way to San Francisco: Hazing by the suspended FarmHouse Fraternity at the University of Minnesota included hitting members on their backside with a leather strap and taking them to livestock barns for the apparent purpose of having sex with animals, a university report says. The university suspended the agriculturally oriented fraternity, located on the St. Paul campus, on Wednesday and outlined various requirements for the lifting of the suspension in the fall of 2007....

April 3, 2006

Faribault Discovers Bombing Plot

Details are sketchy at the moment, but police in this sleepy Minnesota town have uncovered a plot to bomb public buildings, threaten judges and prosecutors, and target the police. Two brothers are in custody as well as a large cache of arms and explosives: Officials in Faribault, Minn., say they have uncovered what appears to be a plan to bomb public buildings and threaten judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials. The plan came to light in a follow-up to a drug investigation when officers searched a farm last November, Rice County Sheriff Richard Cook said Monday. The county courthouse and law enforcement center were among potential targets, Cook said. One man, Allan Weatherford, 44, was arrested Friday and made a first appearance in court today. He was charged with attempted first-degree arson, possession of explosive devices and being a felon in possession of firearms. His brother, Mark Weatherford, 34, was...

April 18, 2006

Blogswarm For Mark Kennedy

Congressman Mark Kennedy from Minnesota's Sixth District has started campaigning in earnest for the open seat vacated by the retiring (or retreating) Senator Mark Dayton. This seat represents one of two good opportunities for the GOP to pick up a Democratic seat in the Senate for these midterms; Maryland's Michael Steele also has a good shot at Paul Sarbane's seat. If the Republicans intend on staying in the majority next year, this seat has to be a key for the national party. We face some tough races around the country, and Mark faces a tough one here against Minneapolis DA Amy Klobuchar. Kennedy Vs The Machine has a link for contributions to the Kennedy campaign, and the Savage Republican has already done his part. I'm going there now to do mine. If you want to protect the GOP majority in the Senate for the last two years of the Bush...

April 26, 2006

When The Law Is Too Much Of A Bother

The Minnesota House passed a stadium-funding bill that requires Hennepin County to cough up 75% of a $522 million bill to construct a new home for the Twins. Billionaire owner Carl Pohlad would only have to throw in $130 million to get the luxury appointments that will bring cash into his coffers. State representatives passed the legislation despite a legal requirement to put the increased sales taxes to Hennepin County voters, dismissing such rules as too bothersome to heed: The Minnesota House gave the Twins stadium hopes a big lift Wednesday, voting 76-55 in favor of an open-air ballpark that would be paid for mostly by Hennepin County taxpayers. ... The downtown Minneapolis stadium project would cost $522 million — three-fourths from a higher Hennepin County sales tax — and would allow the Twins to flee the Metrodome, their home since 1982 and the place where they clinched two World...

April 28, 2006

Quit Digging

Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton, recently selected by Time Magazine as one of the top five worst Senators in office, just can't seem to stop justifying his inexplicable office closing shortly before the 2004 presidential elections. The Star Tribune tries to assist him by giving him another shovel with which to dig the hole ever deeper: As Sen. Mark Dayton contemplated closing his office because of a terrorist threat 18 months ago, he huddled privately with his top aides, who warned him that such an unprecedented decision would spell his demise. "I said, 'If you close the office and you do so alone, you'll be committing political suicide. You'll be isolated.' ... I think my prediction bore out," said Jack Danielson, Dayton's chief of staff. For Dayton, D-Minn., it is the one issue that won't go away, dragging him down more than a year after he announced he wouldn't run for...

May 6, 2006

Minnesota CD-6: Bachman Jumps To Commanding Lead

King Banaian and Andy Aplikowski report from the GOP convention in the Sixth Congressional District that Michele Bachmann has received 56% of the first-round ballots, coming close to the 60% needed for endorsement. Phil Krinkie, who had been considered a front-runner, only mustered 12% on the first vote and no one else got above 18%. The convention is about to hold its next vote, but one has to presume that the impulse for unity will push Bachmann over the top. She will likely face off against Patty Wetterling in November in the race to replace Mark Kennedy, who gave up his seat to run for the Senate. Stay tuned. UPDATE 2:52 CT: Michele Bachmann won on the third ballot....

May 14, 2006

Mark Kennedy: No Pay For Campaigning

With Mark Kennedy polling within the margin of error against Amy Klobuchar for Mark Dayton's open Senate seat, the Congressman wants to start differentiating himself from the Hennepin County District Attorney. He got his wish yesterday when he pledged to refuse his Congressional salary while campaigning, a promise that Klobuchar's campaign scornfully refused to match: U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy said Friday that he would not accept his congressional pay on days he misses votes in Washington because of his U.S. Senate campaign. Kennedy, the Republican candidate for the seat being vacated by Democrat Mark Dayton, was one of only nine U.S. House members not to miss any congressional votes in 2005. But Kennedy said the demands of the Senate race could force a few missed votes this year. ... Klobuchar's campaign manager, Ben Goldfarb, criticized Kennedy's move as a "phony gimmick" and said the campaign wouldn't respond further. He did...

May 16, 2006

Minnesota GOP Holds As Democrats Drop

In a surprising result from the Star-Tribune's Minnesota Poll, the GOP has surpassed the Democrats in party affiliation by standing firm while voters abandon the DFL. The Minnesota Poll shows that 29% of all Minnesota adults self-identify as Republicans, while the Democrats lost six points since last year, dropping to 25%: A new Minnesota Poll shows that Minnesota's political landscape is almost equally divided between Republican and Democratic voters. In the poll, conducted last week, 29 percent identified themselves as Republicans, exactly the same percentage as a year ago, despite President Bush's record-low approval ratings and the conventional wisdom that Republicans are likely to suffer net losses in this fall's election. Those who identified themselves as Democrats stood at 25 percent, close enough to be considered even, given the margin of sampling error, but down from 31 percent a year ago. Given that this poll does not have a reputation...

June 3, 2006

State GOP: No Taxation Without Voter Approbation

The Minnesota Republican convention overwhelmingly rejected the efforts of the current state legislature to fund a Twins stadium through the imposition of taxes without voter input, with 76% of all delegates adding a platform statement requiring any such revenue device to be put before the voters affected. This answers a bipartisan effort that has saddled the seven-county Metro area with a sales tax addition that will cost Twin Cities shoppers millions of dollars, all going to fund a new playground for millionaires: A new state Republican Party platform plank calling for voter approval of local sales taxes for professional sports stadiums was overwhelmingly adopted Friday by state convention delegates. The vote, which received 76 percent of the delegates' support, was a rebuff to Gov. Tim Pawlenty and dozens of Republican legislators who backed a 0.15 percent Hennepin County sales tax for a new Twins ballpark in Minneapolis. Pawlenty signed legislation...

I'm Angry, I'm Foolish, And Dang It, People Really Dislike Me

The picture of the day comes from Andy Aplikowski of Residual Forces, who managed to get his picture taken with future Senatorial hopeful Al Franken. Al looks thrilled to meet his constituents, doesn't he? Perhaps that might be because Andy's holding a Norm Coleman campaign sign. UPDATE: Doug at Bogus Gold has one almost as good. By the way, Doug reports that Franken had a good sense of humor about this....

June 15, 2006

Minnesota Bats .747 On Missing Sex Offenders

Minnesota has just completed a twelve-day roundup of sex offenders who have failed to keep their registrations up to date. They managed to resolve a little over half of these cases, most of whom just neglected to send their paperwork back on time: A 12-day sweep by law enforcement officers across Minnesota has rounded up hundreds of sex offenders who failed to keep current with the state's tougher registration requirements, officials said Wednesday. Of the 636 offenders targeted in the dragnet May 15 through 26, the first such statewide sweep, 219 were brought into compliance, 35 were arrested and 90 cases were forwarded to prosecutors for possible felony charges, said Tim O'Malley, assistant superintendent of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Another 215 offenders had responded to reminder mailings sent out before the sweep. Assuming that the 90 cases referred for felony prosecution have skipped town (since those arrested...

July 17, 2006

Minnesota Poll No Surprise At All

The Star Tribune reports in this morning's edition that its Minnesota Poll shows Amy Klobuchar with a 19-point lead in the Senate race against current Republican Congressman Mark Kennedy. The Strib describes this as "surprising", but for those of us with experience in the atrocious polling done by the Strib, it comes as no surprise whatsoever: DFL Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar has opened up a strong early lead over GOP rival Mark Kennedy in a Minnesota Poll that shows Klobuchar with 50 percent of likely voters' support, compared with 31 percent for Kennedy. Much can change between now and November. But in what had widely been considered a close race, Klobuchar in midsummer has more support than Kennedy in nearly every demographic category: men, women, liberals, independents, lower- and upper-income Minnesotans, seniors, urban dwellers, suburbanites and outstaters. Kennedy is most popular with younger Minnesotans -- he leads Klobuchar 63 to...

July 18, 2006

Minnesota Meltdown

The DFL has been sent reeling by the meltdown of party leader Matt Entenza, who withdrew from the Attorney General race after having spent the last week tapdancing about oppo research he'd run on a fellow DFL member and the current Attorney General, Mike Hatch. Both men had already received endorsement for the statewide offices for which they campaigned -- Hatch is the nominee to run against Governor Tim Pawlenty in his bid for re-election -- and the meltdown may kneecap the DFL in both races: Buffeted by questions about his credibility and by controversy over his wife's multimillion-dollar stock options from a health-care company, DFL endorsee Matt Entenza dropped out of the race for state attorney general Tuesday. The announcement, less than six hours before the deadline for filing for office, sent shock waves across the state's political landscape. And it threatened to create a multi-candidate internal DFL battle...

July 25, 2006

Survey USA Shows Strib's Polling Ineptness

Survey USA has just released its latest polling on Minnesota's statewide races, and the results look much closer to previous polling than the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Minnesota Poll last week. The Strib's in-house poll showed Rep. Mark Kennedy (MN-06) trailing Amy Klobuchar by a whopping 19 points and losing in almost every imaginable demographic category, despite national polling showing the gap to be between three to eight points. Survey USA's results fall square in the middle of the national polls: 42% Kennedy (R) 47% Klobuchar (DFL) [Democrat-Farmer-Labor, the state's Democratic Party] 8% Fitzgerald (I) 4% Undecided Kennedy has a 15-point lead among men, a demographic that the MinnPoll showed him losing, and an 11-point lead in the 18-34 bracket, an unusual result for the GOP that did get reflected in the MinnPoll. Interestingly, 28% of self-described liberals support Kennedy over Klobuchar, almost identical to the proportion of self-described moderates. He also...

July 26, 2006

Democrats Abandoning Coleen Rowley?

When famed FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley announced her candidacy against Rep. John Kline for Minnesota's second district, Democrats cheered her and swore to support her against the Republican incumbent. Unfortunately, Rowley has transformed from media darling to political incompetent, and now Roll Call reports that Democrats have quietly abandoned her to her own devices: National and Minnesota Democrats seem about ready to walk away from Coleen Rowley’s ill-fated campaign to unseat Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) — just as her campaign manager recently did. Many in the party had hoped that Rowley's national fame — Time magazine named her Person of the Year in 2002 for being a whistle-blower at the FBI — would make her an exciting, appealing candidate in an otherwise Republican-leaning district. But now some state Democrats say Rowley's first run for political office is going so badly that they're turning their sights on damage control. "She's running...

August 10, 2006

When Nazi Photoshops Just Aren't Enough

The John Kline campaign here in MN-02 cried foul as a volunteer for opponent Coleen Rowley attempted to make an illegal cash donation at the Congressman's district office. David Bailey claimed he just wanted to get on Kline's mailing list to keep abreast of his record, but that hardly requires a wad of cash ... at least not for Republicans: Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., accused Democratic challenger Coleen Rowley Wednesday of using a "double-agent" to attempt to make an illegal campaign contribution and infiltrate his re-election campaign. Rowley's campaign denied the allegations of wrongdoing, which were contained in new campaign literature as well as a letter addressed to Rowley. ... The new complaint was made in a letter to Rowley from Kline volunteer Diana Bratlie, who charges that a would-be Kline campaign donor on Feb. 27 was David Bailey, now Rowley's director of "earned" (news) media. According to Bratlie, Bailey...

September 10, 2006

A Dinner For Shawn Silvera

This evening, the First Mate and I will attend a dinner and silent auction in memory of Shawn Silvera. Shawn gave his life one year ago in service of our community as a Lino Lakes police officer. He left behind a wife and family, and a community which he had served not just as a police officer, but also as a member of the Peace Corps and as a volunteer for several charities. The evening will benefit several charities that reflect Shawn's passions for community and service, including Minnesota COPS (Concerns of Police Survivors), Catholic Charities, and our own Marriage Encounter. We're honored to be recognized by the Silvera family and we're looking forward to meeting them tonight. If you have the means, please consider supporting any of these fine organizations, especially Minnesota COPS, in Shawn Silvera's honor....

September 14, 2006

Ellison Gets The 10-Foot Pole Treatment From Democrats

After Keith Ellison won the primary for the nomination for Minnesota's heavily-Democratic Fifth Congressional district, one would have expected a hail of congratulatory statements from fellow party members. However, Minnesota Democrats appeared very cautious about associating with the former Nation of Islam officer as only a handful of his peers endorsed his candidacy in the election's aftermath: Usually, everybody loves a winner. But some Democrats had little to say Wednesday about DFL primary winner Keith Ellison, who seems to have a good chance to become Minnesota's first black congressman, and the first Muslim in Congress. Among those who maintained their silence: Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., who has had a 28-year hold on the seat Ellison is seeking. Sabo was backing his chief of staff, Mike Erlandson, who finished second. ... Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., like Sabo, declined to comment on Ellison's victory in the overwhelmingly Democratic district, which is anchored...

September 26, 2006

Pam Wolf For State Senate

I will be spending the evening supporting Pam Wolf for the Minnesota State Senate. The event starts at 7 pm at Blainbrook Hall, 12000 Highway 65, in Blaine, where I will be joined by David Strom from the Taxpayer's Leage of Minnesota, one of my good friends. Pam's a terrific candidate and a fine Minnesotan, a teacher who wants to teach a little fiscal discipline to the politicians in Saint Paul. I was supposed to spend an afternoon golfing at a fundraiser this summer -- and if you've ever seen me play, you know it would take all afternoon and most of the evening. Unfortunately, my back injury prevented me from joining Pam like I did in 2004, but it also prevented me from demonstrating why a small ball can ruin a day at the park. I swapped that appearance with tonight's, so I hope you can join us to...

September 30, 2006

Keith Ellison On The Hotseat

Keith Ellison, the DFL's candidate in MN-05, has a couple of problems in the local blogs this morning. First, our NARN partner Michael Brodkorb finds a photo of Ellison leading a march against police brutality in 1998, holding what looks like several copies of the Nation of Islam's Final Call: Brodkorb alleges that Ellison was distributing these copies at the event, which puts lie to Ellison's insistence that he had no affiliation with the Nation of Islam or Louis Farrakhan after the Million Man March in 1995. MN Publius, who like Brodkorb does paid political work, defends Ellison by claiming that the picture doesn't show Ellison distributing the copies of Final Call. I'm on the fence in that respect. Sometimes I pick up a copy of the Star Tribune, especially when dining out where no Internet connection exists, and I'd hate to be photographed doing that. On the other hand,...

October 2, 2006

Political Dishonesty In Minnesota Politics

One of the most jaw-droppingly dishonest ads that I have seen in years comes from the Patty Wetterling campaign in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District. The ads have appeared on prime-time television throughout the state, and not only display dishonesty but sheer ignorance. Wetterling accuses Michelle Bachmann of wanting to raise taxes through an increase in the sales tax: Michele Bachmann says she's for lowering taxes, and yet she supports replacing the income tax with a national sales tax," says Wetterling. Under a national sales tax, all taxable goods and services - including daily basics like milk, bread, groceries, clothing, new tires and prescription drugs - could cost 23% more. Lower and middle-class Minnesotans would pay more taxes under this plan, up to $4,077 more per year," says Wetterling. "I find it incredible that Michele Bachmann wants to place a heavier burden on the people who can least afford to pay...

October 4, 2006

Patty Wetterling Overplays Her Hand

Patty Wetterling has done few things right in her latest campaign to win a seat in Congress. She seriously misrepresented Michele Bachmann's position on taxes this past weekend in an ad so poor that even the Star Tribune noticed. The Mark Foley scandal seemed tailor-made to Wetterling' she made her name as a tireless advocate for missing and exploited children after the tragic loss of her own child in the 1990s. She could have been expected to contrast Foley's now-suspect interest in the subject with her own bona fides, leveraging that track record to scold the Republican leadership for not protecting the teenaged pages on Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, she has managed to remind voters of her ongoing problems with the truth. After posting a tough but largely accurate statement on her site yesterday, Wetterling fabricated details for her latest television and radio ads: It shocks the conscience. Congressional leaders have...

October 8, 2006

Sauce For The Goose

Earlier today, Mitch Berg wrote a post about a Star Tribune article on Republican Congressional candidate Alan Fine, who is competing for Martin Sabo's MN-05 seat against Keith Ellison. The Strib highlighted a years-old arrest of Fine for domestic abuse, one which later got expunged as the charges were withdrawn: Minneapolis congressional candidate Alan Fine was charged with domestic violence in 1995 and nine years later had his record expunged, in a case in which he and his first ex-wife give different versions of the events that led to him ending up in the Hennepin County jail. His wife at the time, Rebecca Wexler, dropped the abuse charge, and Fine succeeded in having the case removed from Hennepin County court and police records, according to documents recently obtained by the Star Tribune. Fine, who is the Fifth District Republican candidate, said in a recent interview that he never struck Wexler....

October 16, 2006

The Failure Of Local Media On The Ellison-Fine Race

Over the weekend, we had an opportunity to interview Rochelle Olson from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, who wrote a rather amazing article about the Republican candidate for Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District, Alan Fine, a little over a week ago. The interview exposed the thinking behind the editorial decisions of the local media, in the stories they cover and the stories they do not, and the facts they decide to publish and those they do not. We'll come back to that story in a moment. Today's Front Page Magazine article provides an example of the sins of omission in the local media on this race. Over the weekend, DFL candidate Keith Ellison attended an event sponsored by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Pembroke Pines, Florida. One might wonder why a politician from Minnesota running for Congress in Minneapolis would take a weekend off less than a month before...

October 18, 2006

Where Have All St. Cloud's Men Gone?

Here in the Twin Cities, we have gotten used to the rich fantasy life of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Minnesota Poll. I covered the folly of the MinnPoll last July, showing that the poll has consistently and significantly underrepresented Republican support. In fact, over the last twenty years, its final analysis prior to an election has underestimated Republican support by an average of over seven points. In only one race in 20 years has the MinnPoll overestimated the Republican votes. My good friend King Banaian at SCSU Scholars dissects the problem in the latest "analysis" from the Star Tribune's polling. Earlier, they had shown DFL candidate Patty Wetterling ahead of Republican Michele Bachmann by eight points in Minnesota's 6th District, a district that had voted for Bush by 57% two years ago. How could the district have shifted that much? Apparently, it came from an exodus of men. The Star Tribune's...

Mitch Berg, Editor Extraordinaire

My radio partner Mitch Berg takes on the task of editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a job that apparently became obsolete several years ago at the Twin Cities newspaper. In our interview with Rochelle Olson regarding her October 7 article on Alan Fine, the reporter declared that all of the facts that provided the proper context for Fine's arrest could not fit within the space limitation of the article. Considering that the article ran to a length of 1,214 words, this seems like such a silly argument that neither Mitch nor I could believe she used it. A newspaper leaves out key facts out of a 1200-word article because they don't fit the paper's view of the story, not because it won't fit into that kind of essay length. To give readers a sense of what that kind of space means, most of the op-ed columns I write have...

October 20, 2006

CAIR Execs Defend Ellison Against Their Endorsement

Keith Ellison, the DFL candidate for Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District, has had his connections to CAIR and to the Nation of Islam criticized on Twin Cities blogs such as mine and especially Power Line, and CAIR's executives have had enough. The Minneapolis Star Tribune, which has done nothing to cover Ellison's connections to both groups, runs an op-ed piece by CAIR executive director Nihad Awad and CAIR board chair Parvez Ahmed that basically calls us racists: There has been much sound and fury in certain circles about the American Muslim community's support for Keith Ellison and his campaign to represent Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District. A handful of right-wing bloggers, agenda-driven commentators and political operatives have used scurrilous smear tactics in an attempt to derail his campaign and to marginalize American Muslim voters. These smears and distortions send an un-American message of intolerance and bigotry. We are proud of our personal...

October 25, 2006

Running On Honesty

Many pundits analyze the midterms as a referendum on the war in Iraq. They explain the poor polling for Republicans in a growing dissatisfaction with the progress shown on that front, and some Republicans have tried emphasizing other parts of the Republican platform to counter the trend. Not so here in Minnesota, where Mark Kennedy has decided to make sure his potential constituents know exactly where he stands: As his fellow Republicans try to distance themselves from the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, Senate candidate Mark Kennedy is airing a TV ad in which he squarely states his support — "even though I know it may not be what you want to hear." The 30-second ad, running statewide for at least a week, is Kennedy's latest attempt to catch up to Democratic front-runner Amy Klobuchar. Looking into the camera, Kennedy acknowledges that "we've made some mistakes in Iraq" but says...

CAIR, Islamic Jihad, And Keith Ellison

Gary Gross at Let Freedom Ring follows in Scott Johnson's footsteps to show ties between CAIR and Islamist terrorism, and remind readers of ties between CAIR and Minnesota Congressional candidate Keith Ellison. The Muslim interest group bought significant television advertising here in Minnesota to explain away its ties to Hamas and its front group, the Holy Land Foundation, in order to remove the political poison from their relationship to Keith Ellison. Gary takes a look at the people who front for CAIR, specifically Ahmed Bedier: Ahmed Bedier has acted as Sami Al-Arian’s spokesman. One Google search on the internet of both their names provides over 200 results…mostly news stories containing quotes from Bedier about Al-Arian and his legal troubles. He was even the motivating force in trying to get Al-Arian’s trial moved out of Tampa! Al-Arian, one will recall, recently pled guilty to assisting terrorist organizations (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) and...

October 27, 2006

Democratic Smear Campaign In Minnesota's SD-51

Voters know that the final two weeks of an election season have arrived when the hit pieces start coming in the mail. My friend Pam Wolf in State Senate District 51 has spent her entire campaign focusing on the issues that matter to Anoka County voters -- like the imposition of taxes on their community to build a football stadium for the Vikings without their consent. Rather than debate actual issues, the Democratic Party (called the DFL in Minnesota) spent their time digging through Pam's divorce records and cobbled together a string of ludicrous charges onto a full-color flyer they have dropped all over SD-51. Pam details the charges in her rebuttal: Dear Friends, You may have seen some literature or a television ad from the DFL saying something to the effect that Pam Wolf doesn't pay her taxes. That's ridiculous. I think that what the DFL is calling your...

Wetterling Campaign And DCCC 'Highly Deceptive'

Earlier this week, Patty Wetterling's campaign for the MN-06 Congressional seat and the national DCCC began airing an advertisement on local television that branded Michele Bachmann as soft on crime. Michele Bachmann. Michele friggin' Bachmann! I laughed out loud when I first saw it and wondered how anyone in their right mind could possibly think that a strong conservative like Michele would ever oppose jailing repeat sex offenders for life. The only way she might oppose that is if she had the opportunity to vote to shoot them into space. Even the Star Tribune noticed this disconnect from reality. Eric Black, who really does do good work at the Strib, calls this advertising "highly deceptive": A highly deceptive ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee takes one vote out of context to distort congressional candidate Michele Bachmann's record on crime. The 30-second ad, which has been airing for about a...

A Look At Keith Ellison's Legislative Record

We have highlighted MN-05 Congressional candidate Keith Ellison's ties to CAIR and the Nation of Islam during this election cycle, mostly because the Star Tribune has gone AWOL on their duty to inform their readers of Ellison's track record in politics. However, as Swiftee notes, Fifth District voters have plenty of reasons to vote against Ellison on the basis of his record in the Minnesota legislature. If voters want to make it tougher to get deadbeat dads to pay child support, make it easier to file false police reports, and allow drivers to have open containers of alcohol in their vehicles while driving, then Ellison's your man: 1. 2005-2006 Legislative Session he authored a bill that would remove the state's ability to crack down on people who are delinquent in paying child support. ... SEE HF 1288: Driver's license suspension for nonpayment of support repealed. 2. 2005-2006 Legislative Session he...

October 31, 2006

Local TV Station Gives Wetterling A 'D' For Honesty

Patty Wetterling and the DCCC have continued to run advertisements on local TV that distort the record of Michele Bachmann to the point of complete lies. That judgment comes from local ABC affiliate KSTP-TV (video here), saying the ads are so deceptive that they bear special scrutiny. Earlier, the Star Tribune called the ads "highly deceptive" as well. One wonders why Wetterling and the Democrats continue to to use such demonstrably false allegations against Bachmann. Painting her as soft on crime makes as much sense as painting Wetterling and the Democrats as tax-cutters -- but then again, they've tried that, too, and the Star Tribune called them on it as well. It looks a lot like desperation....

November 3, 2006

Has She Heard Of Corn?

In the Upper Midwest, anyone who has pumped their own gas or has some vague knowledge of either agricultural or energy policy has heard of E85. A Google search on the term finds 3.5 million references to it on the Internet, and with gas tax policy a key issue in Minnesota, one would expect candidates for executive office here to at least recognize the term. Apparently all of this is a little too much to ask for Judi Dutcher, the empty suit selected by Democrat Mike Hatch as his running mate in his attempt to unseat Governor Tim Pawlenty: The DFL lieutenant governor candidate got more attention Thursday than her gubernatorial partner Mike Hatch after a gaffe caught on tape earlier this week. She handed Democrats a self-inflicted wound when she admitted that she'd never heard of an ethanol fuel blend called E-85. "It's like you've asked me the college...

November 4, 2006

Pot, Meet Kettle

When a lawyer attacks a reporter as a "whore", one has to wonder for whom to root in the conflict, or whether to just grab a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the show. However, when the lawyer is running for Governor and the insult comes in response to a political gaffe made by his running mate, it becomes more concerning to the state's voters, who might at some time need to criticize the candidate if he wins office: Hatch’s anger overflowed during a Thursday morning telephone interview. A Forum Communications reporter asked Hatch about Dutcher’s knowledge of ethanol and why she wasn’t available to discuss the issue. Hatch abruptly ended the interview with: “You’re nothing more than a Republican whore. Goodbye.” He then hung up. Television crews following the Duluth native Thursday reported other sharp comments when reporters pressed him for response to Dutcher’s comments. Mike Hatch has a reputation...

NARN Scoop: The New Wetterling Ad

The Northern Alliance has managed to find the audio of Patty Wetterling's new last-minute desperation ad in a hermetically sealed jar on International ANSWER's doorstep, and it's a doozy. It sounds like Wetterling has decided to continue her strategy of, well, relativist honesty in the campaign to the bitter end. Take a listen to the audio from the radio show, as my radio partner Mitch introduces the ad. Follow along with the transcript: Glorious American Federation of Teachers say You must to vote for Patty Wetterling! Do not listen to running-dog capitalist lies! Bachann will raise your taxes 100% Free all sex offenders and given them YOUR teaching jobs! Glorious hero of teacher labor Nancy Pelosi orders you, from her undisclosed location, to vote for greater glory of Minnesota! Vote for Patty Wetterling! I am Patty Wetterling, and I order you to approve this commercial! Yes, this is parody. We...

November 6, 2006

Two Reminders Of Minnesota's Choices

Minnesotans go to the polls tomorrow with some tough decisions to make, and two articles should remind them of the stakes. Joel Mowbray writes about MN-05 Congressional candidate Keith Ellison in his Front Page article, "CAIR's Congressman": Barring a cataclysmic event, Minnesotans tomorrow will elect the first-ever Muslim to the U.S. Congress, and odds are the media serenade won’t be far behind. What remains to be seen, though, is how many journalists will be willing to strike a discordant note by questioning Keith Ellison on his Nation of Islam past or his open embrace of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group founded by two self-identified supporters of Islamic terrorism. Defenders of the Democratic frontrunner thus far have dodged most legitimate questions, instead choosing to smear critics as Islamophobic bigots. The tactic has worked, enabling Ellison to win comfortably the September 12 Democratic primary—and soon the general election. But...

November 8, 2006

Pawlenty A Bright Spot For Minnesota GOP

Tim Pawlenty managed to play Midterm Survivor and keep himself from getting voted off the island last night, eking out a very narrow win over the DFL's Mike Hatch for Governor. With just about every precinct now reporting, Pawlenty won re-election over the state's Attorney General by 13,900 votes. However, the state GOP has little else to celebrate, as it lost significant ground in both chambers of the state legislature: Gov. Tim Pawlenty eked out a narrow reelection victory over DFL Attorney General Mike Hatch early this morning in a climactic finale to one of the closest, hardest-fought gubernatorial contests in memory. Pawlenty was leading by about one percentage point when the Star Tribune declared him the winner about 2 a.m. As one of the few statewide Republican victors in a Democratic state in the midst of an overwhelming Democratic tide, Pawlenty may have enhanced his national image as an...

November 15, 2006

Pawlenty Shifts Leftward

Tim Pawlenty has decided that his second term as Governor in Minnesota will feature bipartisanship and accommodation with the new DFL-controlled legislature. In the first move of his new term, Pawlenty embraced universal health coverage for children underwritten by the state and demanded changes in the medical industry, while incongruently decrying government "meddling" in health care: In a sweeping policy departure that aligns with a top agenda item of the newly elected DFL legislative majorities, Gov. Tim Pawlenty called Tuesday for extending health care access to up to 90,000 uninsured children as a step toward coverage for all Minnesotans. "We all, I think, can chart a path toward universal coverage," he said in a luncheon speech to a health reform conference in Minneapolis. "We're going to have to move in stages. ... We should start with covering all kids." Pawlenty also peppered his remarks with broad criticism of the nation's...

November 27, 2006

Bomb Parts Found In Rental Car At MSP Airport

Early yesterday, an Avis employee found the makings of a bomb in a returned rental car in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport, triggering an FBI investigation on one of the busiest travel days of the year. The device contained shrapnel, wires, and tubing, but fortunately no explosives: A bomb-like device was found in a rental car Sunday morning at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, shutting down part of the Lindbergh terminal parking ramps for about two hours. The Bloomington police bomb squad examined and blew up the device. FBI agents interviewed the man who rented the car after he arrived on the West Coast on Sunday. He said that the device was not a bomb and that he didn't mean to leave it behind, said Pat Hogan, airport spokesman. ... An Avis service employee, who was doing routine cleaning and checks of the car after it was returned about 9:30 a.m....

December 2, 2006

Muslims Want Prayer Room At Minneapolis Airport

The fallout from the US Air decision to bar six Muslims from a flight last week continues. Now local Muslims want Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport to provide them with a room for their prayers in order to keep other passengers from seeing them as a security threat. MSP officials might agree to a non-denominational "meditation space" as a compromise: Area Muslim religious leaders have asked for a prayer room at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after six Muslim leaders were escorted off a plane last week because of security concerns. The local imams, who prayed on the mezzanine level before meeting with airport officials Friday afternoon, said a prayer room is essential because of the need to pray several times a day. The act itself is nonintrusive, they said. "We as Muslims, we are part of this country," said Abdulrehman Hersi, a Minneapolis imam. "You have to pray wherever you are. Our...

December 8, 2006

A Shadow Attorney General?

After narrowly losing his race for governor, most of us expected Mike Hatch to take an extended vacation and then go into private practice. Instead, his replacement as Attorney General has suggested that Hatch could work for her and help run the office, which raises questions about whether Hatch arranged to effectively run for two offices at the same time: Attorney General Mike Hatch will vacate his big office in the west wing of the State Capitol when his term ends in early January, but there's a chance he'll stay on as a staff member under Attorney General-elect Lori Swanson, who has been his long-time top deputy and confidante as solicitor general. The arrangement would be unusual and potentially controversial, say some observers, creating a perception that Hatch is still in charge of an office that he held for two terms and often has described as his life's passion. Swanson...

January 8, 2007

Muslim Taxi Showdown In Twin Cities

The showdown between Muslim taxi-drivers and their passengers gets more out-of-state attention this morning from the New York Sun's Youssef Ibrahim. The refusal of a large number of Islamic cabbies to transport passengers with alcohol in their luggage or service dogs for the blind and handicapped, and the local fatwa on which they rely for their position, has led to a showdown with the Metropolitan Airport Commission: At a meeting Wednesday of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), airport staff members asked the commission to give the go-ahead for public hearings on a tougher policy that would suspend the licenses of drivers who refuse service for any reason other than safety concerns. Drivers who refuse to accept passengers transporting alcohol or service dogs would have their airport licenses suspended 30 days for the first offense and revoked two years for the second offense, according to a proposed taxi ordinance revision. ......

January 15, 2007

Minnesotans Rescue Missing Hiker

Two Twin Cities brothers heard a faint sound while camping in New Mexico's Gila National Forest, strange enough to prompt them to investigate. They found Carolyn Dorn, a 52-year-old woman reported lost five weeks earlier, the subject of a search abandoned two weeks ago: A faint sound made Albert and Peter Kottke stop and look around as they hiked out of the Gila Wilderness at the end of backpacking trip. A figure moved on the other side of the Gila River. As it drew closer, the two university students saw a woman, hunched over and moving slowly. The Kottkes crossed the river to find Carolyn Dorn, 52, who had been alone in the Gila National Forest for five weeks after becoming trapped on the wrong side of the rain- and snow-swollen river. The search for her had been called off two weeks ago. The brothers said they realized Dorn was...

January 31, 2007

Fighting Franken Running For Senate

Former Air America radio personality and comedy writer Al Franken has started telling Democratic Party activists and politicians that he will challenge Norm Coleman for his Senate seat in 2008. The widely predicted move comes earlier than most people would have guessed, and Franken apparently will begin fundraising immediately: On Monday, Franken announced that he was quitting his radio show on Feb. 14, and he told his audience that they'd be the first to know of his decision. But Franken has been working the phones in recent days, telling his political friends he's ready to declare his candidacy. The Star Tribune confirmed today that Franken made calls to at least two members of the Minnesota congressional delegation in Washington to break the news. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity, not wanting to pre-empt Franken's announcement. "From his voice to my ears, he's running," said one House member, who...

February 15, 2007

The Inimitable, Inevitable Al?

Al Franken gave his listeners an expected going-away Valentine yesterday by announcing that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Norm Coleman's Senate seat. Franken had plowed the ground for this move since the 2004 election, and spent most of last year raising money for the DFL (Minnesota's Democratic Party) in order to bolster his credentials as a serious candidate. However, even some in the DFL apparently consider the comedian a bad joke as a candidate: As he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate Wednesday, Al Franken confronted the central question he may face in the early going -- whether a lifelong comic should be taken seriously. "Minnesotans have a right to be skeptical," Franken said in a video message on his campaign website that declared his run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Norm Coleman. "I want you to know: Nothing means more to me...

Why Is This Man Smiling?

Perhaps Norm Coleman just read the polling taken by KSTP-TV in the wake of Al Franken's announcement that the former Air America host will run for his Senate seat. The local ABC affiliate decided to test the waters in Minnesota for Franken, and they found that only 3500 of the 10,000 lakes feels warm enough for a Franken dip: U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman would win easily if he ends up facing comedian Al Franken in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race in 2008, according to an exclusive 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS/SURVEY USA poll. The popular comedian announced that he would seek the seat Wednesday on the last episode of his radio show. The poll shows Coleman getting 57 percent of the vote and Franken getting 35 percent. The poll also looked at a possible matchup between Coleman and attorney Mike Ciresi, who is also expected to seek the DFL nomination. Coleman also wins...

February 17, 2007

Can You Help Gladys Reyes?

Gladys Reyes is a young girl that attends my son's old middle school in West Saint Paul, where my son's mother-in-law teaches Gladys and many other students. Gladys, however, is not in school at the moment. The sixth-grader instead is in the hospital after being the victim of a horrible traffic accident: A fund has been set up to help an eleven-year-old West St. Paul girl who was struck by a van and dragged nearly 500 yards. The accident left Gladys Reyes badly injured and forced doctors to amputate her right arm. She remains in critical condition at Regions Hospital. The alleged hit-and-run driver, 33-year--old Mauricio Sanchez, of St. Paul, has been charged with two counts of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm. Bail is set at 100-thousand dollars, and he could face five years in prison. Reyes is a sixth-grader at Heritage Middle School in West St....

February 28, 2007

Citadel Of Capitalism Demands Government Subsidy

When relatives come to the Twin Cities for a visit, natives usually have to endure at least one trip to the Mall of America. The largest shopping mall in the US sports three levels of retail stores and restauarants, and a walk around each level will put three-quarters of a mile on the pedometer. With the revenue that the mall generates, one could feed a small nation -- and yet, when the owners want to add more parking as part of an expansion project that will generate even more revenue, where to they go to cover the cost? This year, the megamall wants $181 million from state taxpayers to build an 8,000-space parking garage. That's the centerpiece of a package of state and local subsidies worth about $234 million, money the Mall of America says it needs for a $1.9 billion expansion that would double its size. Last year, state...

March 13, 2007

Coleman Still Beating Franken In Polling

Rasmussen has conducted another poll for the 2008 Senate race in Minnesota, and to no one's great surprise, Norm Coleman still handily beats Al Franken. Following a month after a local poll showed Coleman far outstripping the comedian, the gap has narrowed, but not because Franken has gained any support (via Memeorandum): Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman (R) knows he is high on the Democrats’ wish list this cycle and the first Rasmussen Reports Senate poll for Election 2008 shows the incumbent starting off below the 50% level of support. A survey of 500 Likely Voters finds Coleman leading Al Franken (D) 46% to 36% with 10% saying they’d vote for a third party option. Generally speaking, incumbents who poll below 50% are considered potentially vulnerable. Coleman is a freshman Senator who won his seat in 2002 by just two percentage points. Coleman replaced Paul Wellstone (D) in the Senate. Wellstone...

March 14, 2007

Law Of Diminishing Returns

The Minnesota legislature will debate a proposal to require sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses and Internet chat identities, a move under consideration in several other states. Proponents claim that it will make it easier for prosecutors to link the offenders to these profiles when they need to charge them with future sex crimes: Sex offenders already have to tell Minnesota authorities where they live, work, attend school and vacation. Soon they might also have to provide their e-mail addresses. With children playing on the Internet as much as in the neighborhood park, lawmakers here and in at least 13 other states want to protect them from predators. They're considering bills that would make sex offenders register e-mail, instant-messaging and other addresses used to communicate on Web sites. A similar bill has been introduced in Congress. A Minnesota House panel approved the proposal Tuesday after narrowly rejecting an attempt...

March 28, 2007

Public Smoking Ban Passes State Senate

Yesterday, a family member came in from California to spend some time with the First Mate before her transplant on Friday. When she made the plan, we had assumed that the FM would be home until Thursday evening, but as it turns out, the doctors wanted her in the hospital for the entire week in order to keep her blood pressure under close observation. I took our visitor to dinner, and when we were asked by the hostess whether we wanted to sit in smoking or non-smoking, the Californian expressed surprise that Minnesota still allowed businesses to have smoking sections. As it turns out, she just came out a few weeks too early. The state Senate passed its version of a statewide public smoking ban yesterday, one of the first significant acts to come out of the enhanced DFL (Democratic) majority: The Minnesota Senate voted 41-24 on Tuesday to approve...

March 30, 2007

The Democratic Philosophy Enshrined

Gary Gross catches the Minnesota Democratic Party (called the DFL here in the Frozone) in a moment of rare honesty. Cy Thao, a DFL member of the state Legislature, explained his party's philosophy at a committee hearing yesterday: “When you guys win, you get to keep your money. When we win, we take your money.” That was Thao's explanation for how the DFL would raise the money to pay for its slate of new government programs. At least it was an honest answer....

April 6, 2007

Red Light On Photo-Cops

Minneapolis will have to end its use of cameras to ticket and fine drivers who run red lights and commit other infractions of traffic regulation. The state Supreme Court shut down the system in a decision yesterday, ruling that state law overrides the city's decision to use the cameras (via Mitch Berg): The state Supreme Court agreed Thursday with the lower courts that the city's so-called PhotoCop cameras at a dozen intersections are preempted by state law and therefore illegal. State law puts liability for traffic offenses on the driver, while the city ordinance fined the owner of a car caught running a red light. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak vowed to press on for the legalization of the cameras. "We've proven that this makes streets safer," said Rybak, who pointed out that accidents were down 31 percent at intersections with cameras during eight months of operation. "Too many people are...

April 12, 2007

Minnesota Dhimmitude Continues Apace

Katherine Kersten reports in today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the state of Minnesota bars Christians from any expression of their faith on state- and city-run colleges -- but are ready and willing to create prayer facilities for Muslims. The addition of foot-washing basins for their daily ablutions contrasts with their heretofore stringent policy of promoting or favoring religions: Separation of church and state is clearest at the college during the Christmas season. A memo from Cusick and President Phil Davis, dated Nov. 28, 2006, exhorted supervisors to banish any public display of holiday cheer: "As we head into the holiday season ... "all public offices and areas should refrain from displays that may represent to our students, employees or the public that the college is promoting any particular religion." Departments considering sending out holiday cards, the memo added, should avoid cards "that appear to promote any particular religious holiday." Last year,...

April 16, 2007

The End Result Of Multiculturalism

Katherine Kersten follows up today on her column last week regarding the installation of foot-washing basins for Muslims at Minneapolis Community Technical College. Kersten digs deeper into the process by which MCTC will modify its facilities to accommodate the requirements of a specific religion, and discovers the less-than-tolerant agenda of the group advising them (via Power Line): But I also discovered something more important for colleges seeking guidance on "accommodations": Projects like MCTC's are likely to be the first step in a long process. The task force's eventual objectives on American campuses include the following, according to the website: permanent Muslim prayer spaces, ritual washing facilities, separate food and housing for Muslim students, separate hours at athletic facilities for Muslim women, paid imams or religious counselors, and campus observance of Muslim holidays. The task force is already hailing "pioneering" successes. At Syracuse University in New York, for example, "Eid al...

Minneapolis To Muslim Cabbies: Tough

A few Muslim cabbies at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport had demanded the right to refuse passengers who carried alcohol in their baggage. The Metropolitan Airport Commission tried to mediate the dispute, but the cabbies refused to back down from their demands, forcing the MAC's hand. Today, they gave their answer: Starting May 11, airport taxi drivers who refuse to transport riders carrying alcohol will be suspended for 30 days. And after a second offense, their license would be revoked for two years. The Metropolitan Airports Commission voted 11-0 Monday to approve the crackdown, which some Muslim drivers say violates their religious beliefs. Commissioners called the change reasonable, practical and important for rider safety. "We are sending a message that if you want to drive a taxi at our airport you can't refuse our customers," Steve Wareham, operations manager of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Minneapolis has given the Muslim community a rather...

April 18, 2007

Breaking: U of M Evacuates Buildings For Bomb Threat

The University of Minnesota has evacuated at least eight buildings this afternoon after receiving a bomb threat: Eight buildings on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities East Bank were evacuated in response to a bomb threat Wednesday afternoon. The buildings included Morrill Hall, where the university administration offices are located, and Walter Library. None were dormitories. A note was found in Smith Hall, and surrounding buildings were evacuated, said University police Lt. Chuck Miner. The threat was reported about 1 p.m. Other buildings evacuated were Appleby, Kohltoff, Frasier, Johnston and the Science Classroom Building The buildings will be closed until 10 p.m. and classes in these buildings are canceled. Police were also searching other buildings on the central mall area and officials were urging students to leave the area and go home. At the moment, I'm trying to track down my son to find out what he knows; he's a...

May 13, 2007

Troy Scheffler And Hamline University

Mitch Berg and I had the opportunity to invite Troy Scheffler to our studio yesterday to talk about his suspension from Hamline University for his protest against the gun-free zone policy of the school. After the Virginia Tech massacre, Hamline had sent out an e-mail to its students offering trauma counseling. Scheffler responded in an e-mail that asked the school to reconsider its position on making the campaus a "gun-free zone" -- and Hamline responded by suspending him and requiring a psychiatric evaluation before he could return. I was curious about what kind of person Troy was, and so I looked forward to meeting with him yesterday after our intrepid producer Matt Reynolds made the arrangements. I didn't think he'd be a Seung-hui Cho type at all, but I was very much surprised when Troy turned out to be as mild-mannered as anyone I had ever met. He didn't harbor...

June 13, 2007

Coleman To Face Primary Challenge?

Norm Coleman will face his first re-election campaign to the US Senate next year, and so far, he's looking like a lock. Polls show him consistently ahead of his presumptive Democratic challengers, Al Franken and Michael Cerisi, by twenty points in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans. He has maintained a remarkable cushion of support by steering a moderate course in Washington, sometimes frustrating his supporters but normally reliable on key issues. Now, however, that moderate position may inspire a primary challenge, and from a former Coleman supporter and advisor. Colonel Joe Repya, a friend of mine and a formidable force in state GOP circles, told The Hill that he will decide within the next two months whether to launch his bid to unseat Norm Coleman: An Iraq war veteran and former adviser to Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) yesterday said he is considering a primary challenge against the lawmaker in...

July 9, 2007

Keith Ellison, In The Nutball Box

Our new Congressman from MN-05, Keith Ellison, has performed about as well as could be predicted before his election -- he has become a 9/11 Truther. Gary Gross of Let Freedom Ring has kept track of Ellison after the election, and notes a Star Tribune article that shows Ellison not quite having the courage to jump all the way into the paranoia: On comparing Sept. 11 to the burning of the Reichstag building in Nazi Germany: "It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it and it put the leader of that country [Hitler] in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted. The fact is that I'm not saying [Sept. 11] was a [U.S.] plan, or anything like that because, you know, that's how they put you in the nut-ball...

July 30, 2007

Classless

This weekend, the Minnesota open-borders contingent turned themselves into the equivalent of Fred Phelps when they decided to picket the home of Senator Norm Coleman -- as he and his family prepared to bury his father, Norm Coleman, Sr. Coleman's presumed opponent for the 2008 Senate Race, Al Franken, couldn't breathe a word of sympathy for Coleman, and some -- not all -- of the liberal bloggers here in the state followed his lead: A few hundred protesters crowded together briefly Sunday afternoon on the sidewalk and in the street in front of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's St. Paul home, shouting for an end to immigration policies and enforcement practices that the demonstrators say unfairly divide families. The rally -- during which participants first gathered at Summit Avenue and North Lexington Parkway and then marched about a mile to Coleman's house on Osceola Avenue -- came a day before today's...

August 3, 2007

Doesn't Sound Like A Funding Issue

MnDOT officials had concerns about the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River last winter, focusing on the same fatigue and potential cracking that has grabbed the focus of the post-collapse coverage. Engineers debated whether to apply patches to the more worrisome points of fatigue, but in the end, opted to continue inspections instead: Structural deficiencies in the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed Wednesday were so serious that the Minnesota Department of Transportation last winter considered bolting steel plates to its supports to prevent cracking in fatigued metal, according to documents and interviews with agency officials. The department went so far as to ask contractors for advice on the best way to approach such a task, which could have been opened for bids later this year. MnDOT considered the steel plating at the recommendation of consulting engineers who told the agency that there were two ways to keep the bridge safe:...

August 24, 2007

Ten Stroll Past Sexual Assault In St. Paul

Twin Cities residents now have to share a moment of shame with New York City. Forty years ago, Kitty Genovese screamed for help when being murdered, and her Big Apple neighbors didn't lift a finger to help her -- not even to dial the phone to call the police. Yesterday, police in St. Paul say that at least 10 people saw a sexual assault take place in their hallway but did nothing to stop it: Although police say as many as 10 people witnessed a sexual assault in a St. Paul hallway, the suspect said he has no memory of what happened. Rage Ibrahim, 25, said he blacked out from drinking too much alcohol. But he said he wouldn't have committed rape. ... Surveillance video from a Highwood-area apartment hallway makes it clear that a sexual assault happened Tuesday, St. Paul police Cmdr. Shari Gray said. Prosecutors charged Ibrahim, of...

September 17, 2007

Should I Move To Minnetonka?

The answer to that question is usually Only if I win the Powerball lottery, but Jim Ramstad's announced retirement after 18 years in the House leaves yet another tough election campaign for the Republicans in 2008. The 3rd District will likely need as many GOP voters as it can get, because it's one of the remarkable minority of Congressional districts that remains competitive after decades of gerrymandering: U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad announced today that he is retiring from Congress next year and will not seek a 10th term. Ramstad has represented the Third District, made up of the southern, western and northern suburbs of Minneapolis, since he was first elected in 1990. After 17-years of commuting to Washington as a congressman, Ramstad said he's "burned out" in an interview before his official announcement. "My passion for serving people remains as strong as ever," said the Minnesota Republican, one of the...

October 6, 2007

Another Challenger To John Kline

The Democrats have come up with yet another challenger to John Kline for Minnesota's Second Congressional District -- my district. The Hill reports that an Iraq war veteran will file campaign paperwork to run against Kline in the general election as a Democrat, and that the former Watertown mayor sees himself as a vanguard in the effort to make Minnesota go completely blue: Iraq war veteran and former Watertown Mayor Steve Sarvi just began his campaign against Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) on Thursday, but he’s already talking about not only his own victory in 13 months, but three others for the state’s Democrats as well. “We’re talking about the whole state turning blue,” Sarvi said. “It’s going to be an exciting time.” ... Sarvi, who calls himself a fiscal conservative and social centrist, believes he can take a bite out of Kline’s base. He emphasizes that he’s not running as...

October 10, 2007

'One Strib Veteran'?

The Rake, a local alternative newspaper here in the Twin Cities, published an interesting cri de coeur from "one Strib veteran" about the direction of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The anonymous attribution wears thin in the first line of the quote: As one Strib veteran tells the Mole, "The right-wing blog voices that were bashing the paper a couple of years ago, Hugh Hewitt and the rest, have gotten pretty much everything they wanted. The GOP wanted the Minnesota Poll gone, and now it's gone. They wanted to get rid of people like [editorial board members] Jim Boyd and Susan Albright and their editorial policy, and they've succeeded at that. Now there won't be editorials about the war and global warming; they'll write about local issues like zoning conflicts in Coon Rapids instead. They wanted the paper to hire a conservative columnist, and they got that. From here on out, it...

October 11, 2007

You Know How Those Sioux Loved Hockey

I'm just running through the blogs before I head to the airport this morning, and my partner Mitch noticed something amiss at the University of Minnesota. The U recently adopted the policy that they would not allow their sports teams to compete against schools that used Native American references for team names or mascots, part of the political-correctness movement in Academia that continues to aim at the most pointless targets in the US. The U has followed dutifully along, to no one's great surprise. However, one has to wonder about the priorities of the administration when reading this: A University of Minnesota policy discouraging the school's athletic teams from competing against the University of North Dakota in any sport except hockey will stand. The school's Advisory Committee on Athletics said in February that it would reconsider the policy, which was prompted by UND's Fighting Sioux nickname. Committee chairman Douglas Hartmann...

November 21, 2007

Minnesota Official Lied About List

Mark Ritchie won election as Minnesota Secretary of State on a promise to "depoliticize" the office after beating the incumbent, Mary Kiffmeyer. Ritchie said that the Republican incumbent ran the office in "a partisan and unprofessional manner for the past eight years". It therefore surprised Minnesotans when people who do business with Ritchie's office began receiving e-mail soliciting donations for his political campaign shortly after his election. Ritchie denied giving the e-mail addresses to his campaign, but he has now changed his story: Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie now says that he personally gave his campaign a list of participants in a state-sponsored "civic engagement" program so it could send them a campaign newsletter that asked for a political contribution. Ritchie, a DFLer, was elected on a platform of de-politicizing the office, which supervises elections. He has been under fire since two Republican activists who attended the office's publicly...

December 3, 2007

Franken: I Have Iraq Surrounded

The Norm Coleman campaign takes Al Franken seriously, at least seriously enough to do their homework on the former comedian, author, and talk-radio host. If Franken wins the nomination from Michael Cerisi to challenge Coleman in the general election, he will not find Coleman unprepared. The campaign has already readied its first ad, and this one -- on Franken's attempts to triangulate on Iraq -- will leave a big mark: Here are the key parts of the transcript, all of which come from video or audio recordings of Franken over the past eighteen months: “We have to start a withdrawal, I believe, and have a timeline." (10/5/07) “I’m not sure we should set a timetable myself. I may actually, oddly enough, agree with Bush here." (6/16/06) “I neither spoke out advocating the war or against the war." (8/21/07) “Well, first of all, I never spoke out in favor of this...

December 17, 2007

No-Knock In Minneapolis

This could have ended very badly. Police conducted a raid on a house based on bad information and wound up getting shot by the owner, who could not speak English. Fortunately for everyone, no one got hurt, but once again the wisdom of no-knock raids will get challenged by the disaster that could have occurred (via Memeorandum): Police blamed bad information for sending a SWAT team into a north Minneapolis house early Sunday morning in a raid that ended with shots exchanged between police -- who were struck by bullets -- and the resident, who said he was just defending his family. The homeowner, who does not speak English, told his brother that he thought the police were the "bad guys" after they broke through the back door of the house, where he lives with his wife and six children. He fired and hit two police officers, who were not...

Declining Into Dhimmitude

Let's say that a public college started segregating non-restroom facilities by gender, giving women less resources than men. Add to that the dissemination of literature that instructed women to keep their mouths shut, as public speech by women offends. Top it off with diatribes that demands the shunning of Jews and Christians, and one might see the lawsuit appearing quickly in the rear-view mirror. However, in Minneapolis' Normandale College, it's just another concession to radical Muslims (via Power Line): A row of chest-high barriers splits the room into sex-segregated sections. In the smaller, enclosed area for women sits a pile of shawls and head-coverings. Literature titled "Hijaab [covering] and Modesty" was prominently placed there, instructing women on proper Islamic behavior. They should cover their faces and stay at home, it said, and their speech should not "be such that it is heard." "Enter into Islaam completely and accept all the...

January 24, 2008

The Miniscule Grace Of Al Franken

Al Franken has new television commercials playing locally about his deep and abiding concern for Minnesotans, part of his primary campaign to win the Democratic nomination to challenge for Senator Norm Coleman's seat. It talks about how he grew up in St. Louis Park among the fine people of the state. That apparently only applies to Democrats, however, even when stumping for votes. Otherwise, Franken demonstrates nothing but scorn: According to Fritz, things started out fine with him taking photos of fellow Carls (that's what [Carleton College] students call themselves) with Franken. Then Franken's curiosity was raised about why Fritz didn't want to be in a pic. He's a conservative, another Carl yelled out by way of explanation. At that point, Franken reportedly began peppering Fritz with questions about supporting President George W. Bush and former President Ronald Reagan's tax hikes. Fritz told me he got tense and, as he...

February 11, 2008

All The World's A Stage ...

... and the smokers on it only players. At least that's what the bar owners in Minnesota have decided. They have taken a loophole in the state no-smoking law to allow their patrons to have their tobacco, even if they have to sing for their supper, so to speak: On a night when wind chills were expected to reach minus-40 or below, revelers hunkered down for a night of drinking at Barnacle's Resort, a popular winter redoubt for ice fishermen and snowmobilers on the north shore of Lake Mille Lacs. Helmets and jackets were stuffed everywhere. A plastic kiddie pool full of crushed ice held red meat, which was raffled off throughout the night. Two tables of Texas Hold 'Em were full, and someone was telling the story of the night Minnesota Vikings fullback Jim Kleinsasser sat there - right there - in that very stool. Smoke wafted through the...