Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 11 - 9/13/2007
Note from the Publisher:
Sarah Janecek is on a brief vacation to the Middle East, around Egypt and Jordan. We basically haven't heard anything from her at all! Today's issue of Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report was composed entirely by Web Editor Dan Feidt, contributing writer Nick Lambert, and Morning Report Editor Tracey Howell, staunch Democrats every one. In other words, the inmates are running the asylum this week.
As the Avista Capital Partners "Gulag" strips & flips Strib assets & human capital, MinnPost and the Daily Mole roll out
This week we finally learned what Steve Perry will call his new culturally-oriented media website, The Daily Mole. You can sign up to be a beta tester by emailing beta.list@gmail.com. Joel Kramer's nonprofit baby MinnPost.com, meanwhile, has already collected more than a hundred 'founding annual members' and just set up a new office in the St. Anthony Falls area at 900 Sixth Ave. SE, Suite 220, which provides better nearby bars than downtown for plotting intrigues.
Avista and Par Ridder saw another respected figure empty her desk, surely enhancing the short-term profits of those faceless oil speculators: longtime media observer Deborah Rybak is leaving for greener pastures, Brian Lambert at The Rake reported: "In the end, I decided to reassign myself out of management's reach.... I'm like a prisoner who has just been released from the Gulag. I want to be a spectator for a while before I jump back in with another work crew." Amen, sister.
Reportedly, Avista phoned in some typical pressure unto the Strib editorial board: Lambert reported on Sept. 4th that Avista "suggested heavily" that they offer other options than a gas tax when presenting ideas of how to deal with the I-35W bridge disaster. What a surprising move from that cipher of strip & flip big oil players.
Drunk on code? The Intoxilyzer 5000EN Supreme Court source code battle
Over in California, Secretary of State Debra Bowen keeps discovering that electronic voting machines are horribly flawed, easily hacked black holes of doom, as far as accurate democracy is concerned. It gets to a basic idea: the technology used by the government has its own profound political importance, and the functioning of these devices is critical to the whole process. When it's absurdly easy to, for example, insert +500 votes for one candidate, and -500 votes for another, simply by rewriting the memory card, and the machine never notices, nor generates a written record of its actions, then everything suddenly looks like a creepy façade. In Ohio, the Republican Party is pulling out all the stops to prevent a complete audit of their monstrous machines, which caused serious and generally under-reported anomalies in the 2004 election (and as usual, coverage here is mostly gerrymandered into the alternative media).
But what about entirely different machines? Breathalyzers, to be specific. If you've got a blood-alcohol level over .08 in this state, you're breaking the law and putting everyone at risk. If you get pulled over and exhale into a box that spits out a number above .08, you're going to jail and probably lose your license for a while. However, if your lawyer questions why that box spit out a .08 in the first place, you're questioning another black box that generates political reality. Cool. Dale Lee Underdahl, accused of drunk driving, essentially asked, "Can I have your badge number and the source code to your breathalyzer?" which tech site Ars Technica noted has become a more popular defense in recent years. (As a bonus, often states fail to re-certify machines like breathalyzers after each source code patch, so they might have untested bugs.)
In New Jersey,
a
lawyer got the source code for the Draeger AlcoTest 7110 and found that it
was mostly general algorithms,
lacked
error safeguards and was "not really unique or proprietary," indicating
the 'trade secrets' claim manufacturers typically hide behind was spurious.
After a Minnesota district court ordered the code to be produced, Commissioner
of Public Safety Michael Campion tried to stop the source code release.
Underdahl's case ascended to the
Minnesota
Supreme Court, which ruled:
The district court ordered the production of the "complete computer source code" for the Intoxilyzer 5000EN. In support of its order, the district court found that under the contract between the state and CMI, the state owned the source code for the Intoxilyzer 5000EN.... While on the one hand the commissioner argues that ownership of the source code for the Intoxilyzer 5000EN is to be determined under federal copyright law and that under that law he does not have possession, custody or control of the source code, on the other hand he concedes that the state owns and thus controls some portion of the source code. That concession is supported by the express language of the RFP granting CMI the right to supply the Intoxilyzer 5000EN to the state.CMI, the manufacturer, has refused to cough up the source code. A hearing on Sept. 17th will apparently decided the defendant's fate. Thus far, it seems like a partial victory against the myth of reliable, politically powerful black box machines.
Further, given the express language of the RFP that requires CMI to provide the state with "information to be used by attorneys representing individuals charged with crimes in which a test with the (Intoxilyzer 5000EN) is part of the evidence" when production of the information is mandated by court order "from the court with jurisdiction of the case," it is not clear to us that the commissioner is unable to comply with the district court's order. Accordingly, we cannot conclude that the district court ordered the production of information that is clearly not discoverable...
Petraeus fallout among the Minnesota Delegation
Sept. 11th not only marked the 6th anniversary of Al-Qaeda's attacks on the United States, but was also the day General David Petraeus gave his testimony before the Senate on the situation in Iraq. As expected the Democratic reaction to Petraus' assessment was almost universally harsh. By Monday, the General's testimony to the House Armed Services Committee had already sparked outbursts by Minnesota's congressional delegation. The Strib chronicled the reaction quite well. The split is almost entirely down party lines, with Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, and U.S Rep. John Kline (R-MN-2) noting the improved security in Iraq, while acknowledging the need for a slight troop reduction as a necessary tool to send a message to the al-Maliki government. U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN-3) sees the possibility of troop reduction as a positive; he voted against the surge initially, but is willing to defer military leaders when making decisions about troop levels noting, "General Petraeus’ prediction of troop drawdowns is a step in the right direction," said Ramstad. "The remainder of our troops should be withdrawn when commanders in the field determine enough Iraqi forces are trained to secure their own country."
The Democratic side of the aisle, to almost no one's surprise, reacted vocally to The Petraeus testimony. U.S. Rep. Ellison (DFL-5) responded sharply, consonant with his tone on Irag war, stating "I remain more convinced than ever that it is time to get our troops safely home from Iraq now." U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL), U.S. Rep. Betty Mcollum (DFL-4), and U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (DFL-8) were all critical of the current policy, stressing the need to change from the "Stay the course" attitude championed by the Bush Administration for so long.
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz (DFL-1) appeared on Hardball With Chris Matthews and, as expected for the anti-war candidate, was highly critical of the entire Iraq situation. Transcript here. Video here. He looked pretty good. Walz has gotten quite a bit of airtime on MSNBC and we think he's handled himself well.
Security theater -- not protesters -- damage Sydney's economy during APEC summit; Global protest trends now locally relevant
With the Republican National Convention now less than a year away, it's starting to dawn on Minnesotans that this will be a really big deal, a bigger spectacle than even Jesse Ventura's inaugural ball. While officials prepare to receive thousands of die-hard GOP activists and thousands more ardent opponents of the Bush Administration, debates over free speech, protesting, logistics, and all the expenditures involved are heating up, and heavily secured events around the globe suddenly become relevant to us here.
Leading the charge for right-wing paranoia, Strib columnist Katherine Kersten has stuck to her usual predictable cadence, denouncing with apocalyptic tones the whole concept of protesting, relating her friend Annette Meeks' experience with "acts of domestic terrorism" at the 2004 RNC in New York. While somehow the idea of presenting symbols and dissent against the prevailing order never quite gets explained in Kersten's columns, she wheels out the most notoriously bad journalist of the 21st century, Judith Miller, as an authority on decoding the intentions of the hordes of killer anarchists purportedly set to descend upon the fair people of Minnesota. (Miller?! We almost spit our coffee all over the computer on that one. Seriously.) MPR's Bob Collins had to take some rotation off her spin on the Polianut news blog.
President Bush recently appeared down under at the APEC Summit in Sydney, Australia, bringing with him the now-familiar overwhelming security measures deployed at such events. Downtown Sydney saw an unprecedented giant security fence set up, encircling the core of the city with checkpoints and riot police. The John Howard Administration and media outlets (especially those owned by Rupert Murdoch) proclaimed a high likelihood of violent protests and restricted entry into the zone, as police asked people for identification at random and hassled people who took pictures of the security fences. Not surprisingly, regular people -- and protesters -- avoided the security zone, and a pro-Bush group were among the very limited set of those allowed to protest within the perimeter (even permitted to bring poles, which were supposedly banned). Local bars and restaurants didn't get assaulted by mythical violent anarchists; instead, they got the wallop of empty tables and missing customers. Fear-mongering and heavy-handed security measures delivered a much more punishing blow in the name of security and APEC's globalization than even the most violent protesters could hope to inflict. When around 10,000 protesters did mass around the general area, restaurant owners appreciated their business, much as they did in New York in 2004.
Events like APEC are really "security theater," a psychologically intimidating display of power and force that is supposed to break the will of anyone who would disrupt operations, and make the authorities look technocratic and skilled (which was well-covered recently in City Pages). These spectacles have been raised to a high political art form in the post-9/11 era, but the best moments of these presentations come when pranksters suddenly reveal that the Emperor has no clothes: for all the smoke and mirrors and shock and awe, the actual security sucks. At APEC, the popular Australian Broadcasting Corporation show "The Chaser's War on Everything", which mainly punks the authorities, put together a fake Canadian motorcade that sortied into the almighty security zone. The motorcade slipped through two supremely secured checkpoints, finally getting stopped 30 feet from the Sydney hotel where President Bush was staying. Which fake power-broker was the motorcade carrying? An actor dressed as Osama Bin Laden! Yet another bit of evidence that the fearsome, but loose, security measures are just a show, garnering admiration from authoritarian supporters and dispelling dissenters from protesting. Prime Minister Howard's popularity now slouches to new lows, putting his fate at upcoming elections into jeopardy.
The Internet has certainly shifted the strategies of protesters, and facilitated the worldwide distribution of critical events at protests otherwise easily forgotten. The alternative media quickly disseminated an incident at the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" summit in Canada. A video on YouTube documents peaceful protesters, organized by a union leader Dave Coles, confronting masked "anarchists" who seemed intent on throwing objects at police. They demand that the masked men go away, since the protest was intended to be peaceful. When the organizer accuses them of being police agent provocateurs, they suddenly get nervous and run straight into the arms of the police. As they're arrested, the video shows that both the protesters and the police are wearing nearly identical new black boots with yellow safety insignia on their soles. This incident prompted demands from Liberal Democrats in Parliament to explain the role of undercover cops at protests, and the police were forced to admit they had indeed inserted undercover police at the demonstration. According to blogger reports from Australia, Aussie protest organizers were keenly aware of the SPP provocateur incident, and self-patrolled their demonstrations to prevent staged trouble-making that would create a pretext for police attack.
Finally, in Washington, DC, local police, in S.W.A.T. and horseback form, forcibly broke up a press conference wherein antiwar protesters were showing the media that they had legally permitted adhesive for their posters. (The authorities had previously claimed that they were using illegally strong sticky stuff, so, you know, their press conference was dangerous). Again, a YouTube video turns what's merely a weird story into a visceral, visual intrusion by the state.
After the recent downtown Minneapolis confrontation between Critical Mass, a monthly horde of bikers that wanders around town, and more than forty squad cars and paddy wagons, PIM wonders if police resources should have been better spent catching drunk drivers on the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend. (PIM staff were under the impression that Mayor R.T. Rybak had instructed the police to refrain from attacking Critical Mass since a notorious incident in April 2003; Rybak reportedly joined Critical Mass the next month, saying "I'll let you in on a dirty little secret-I don’t have a license for my bike. I haven’t been put up against a cop car and I don't expect to be and I don't expect other people to be."). By the way, former Minnetonka GOP Rep. Ron Abrams, recently appointed to the bench, handled court proceedings for the arrested bikers.
The lesson: when it comes to economic damage from big events, it's the security theater measures, stupid!
Six years after 9/11, they're still asking questions -- with a potent political message machine
Minnesota had its own peculiar role both before and after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Minneapolis FBI field office had started investigating suspicious behavior at in-state flight schools, despite roadblocks created by FBI higher-ups, and of course they captured Zacharias Moussaoui before the event, though they couldn't get a warrant to search his stuff without authorization from above that they never got. Former FBI agent Coleen Rowley became one of the first national-security whistleblowers to face difficult circumstances under the Bush Administration, as other whistleblowers such as FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, National Security Agency staffers Russ Tice and Kenneth Ford, and many others tried to shed light on malfeasance, corruption and shady happenings deep in the federal government. (Rowley helped set up the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition to help advance their cause; so far, there is no 'safety net' for national security whistleblowers in the civil service and among government contractors, unlike those from the private sector.)
After the 9/11 Commission finally got underway, another Minnesotan became the only sitting member of the Senate to challenge its findings. The unlikely figure of former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton raised questions about how, exactly, timelines of critical events on the morning of 9/11 got shifted around. He said NORAD officials "lied to the American people, they lied to Congress and they lied to your 9/11 commission to create a false impression of competence, communication and protection of the American people." Apparently, NORAD said just after the attack that they received FAA notifications of three hijackings prior to their crashes. However, the final commission report said NORAD heard much later, after the crashes, thus letting them 'off the hook' for failing to scramble planes (as they had often done, such as when Payne Stewart's aircraft depressurized and drifted across America). Dayton was not suggesting a sinister conspiracy, but he pointed out that most typical byproduct of blue-ribbon panels: disingenuous blame-shifting that covers the collective bums of certain bureaucracies. By fiddling around with the timelines, blame for 9/11 failures got shifted in a way at odds with reality, and that fact in itself seems to have gotten under some people's skin, fueling the endless speculations of conspiracy theorists.
On the sixth anniversary of September 11th, a screening of the documentary "9/11 Press for Truth" completely filled up Minneapolis' Riverview Theatre, presented by 'Minnesota 9/11 Truth'. Rowley herself did radio ads on Air America Minnesota to promote the screening and introduced it. The film doesn't make the case for any vast Hollywood-style conspiracy. Instead, it simply charts how a group of 9/11 widows, the "Jersey Girls," relentlessly push the government for answers, leveraging their media savvy to get the Commission set up and get Henry Kissinger kicked off; it clearly conveys how the government pushes back with obfuscation and foot-dragging. It's been nearly forgotten by today's conventional wisdom, but the big political story of 2002 was how difficult it was to convince the Bush Administration to impanel anyone to thoroughly examine the terrorist attack. While Pearl Harbor and the Titanic had panels opened within days, it took more than half a year to get the 9/11 Commission started, and the film clearly shows how heavily the Bush Administration leaned on commissioners, blocking access to classified material and top aides, and so forth.
An interesting sub-rosa story is how the self-labeled '9/11 Truth Movement' has organized and propagated itself via viral videos, websites, forums, fliers and other alternative media. Despite the fact that no one in the establishment media wants to push doubt about 9/11's official story, young Minnesotans who get their news through the Internet are often quite aware of the conspiracy theorists' major claims, an impressive political messaging feat. Any social movement should take a look at how the 9/11 Movementarians have organized and spread their message. The last year has seen a surprising number of prominent celebrities, military and government figures gaining waves of attention for questioning that story. Even though the establishment wants to talk about 9/11 about as much as the failed War on Drugs, Iran-Contra or hacked voting machines, a surprising 51% of Americans would like a new investigation into 9/11, according to a brand-new nationwide Zogby poll. (Air America knows their audience: they ran a table at the screening.) The JFK assassination ultimately got four separate blue-ribbon panels, and each one added to public knowledge. Even for regular folks who don't care about exciting conspiracy theories, it might be nice to get a new investigation to lay those theories to rest, while also shedding more light on the inaccurate 9/11 Commission findings like those flagged by the lonely Sen. Dayton.
MN-GOP gets the good Wall Street Journal URLs for typical GOP-framed Franken story
An impressive victory against pesky pay firewalls on big media sites: We couldn't find a free link for the Al Franken profile in the Wall Street Journal. However, the Minnesota GOP managed to score the big hyperlink that lets you read the story: Heard the one about Al Franken, Senate candidate?
Talk about a valuable commodity in the information age. The article itself is another boring riff on Franken's old statements coming back to doom him. The MN-GOP's regular efforts to discredit Franken exclusively by hoisting up ancient quotes like some kind of deep and profound political research are getting pretty boring, and unless something new happens, regular Minnesotans probably won't give a damn.
"Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" was an excellent book that really nailed the whole schtick early on; Franken's day job for decades has been puncturing the pompous façades of professional moralizers. That takes a little bit of crude humor, since it takes a good barrage of irony to really threaten the official GOP narrative and break out of the effective prison of buzzword framing. It would be pretty cool to have a senator who could just shatter the Beltway's dumb dominant stories like the time Stephen Colbert momentarily killed the black magic of the whole program when he hosted the White House Correspondent's Dinner (video). Franken's big vulnerability is among those who believe it's just plain improper to disparage conservatives, even while the Sean Hannitys belt out every kind of prevarication and ugly label against their adversaries. If experienced (and often trenchant) entertainers have disqualified themselves from elected decisionmaking, why do the Republicans latch onto charismatic actors, the tough guy images offered by Ronald Reagan, Arnold Scharzenegger and Fred Thompson like a bunch of doe-eyed groupies?
[But let's not forget the perpetually eclipsed Mike Ciresi: it would be pretty cool to have a skilled, progressive lawyer in the Senate that big corporations might actually be afraid of, too!]
Oberstar busy with bridges, bikes and the Mexican trucker fiasco
The U.S. Secretary of Transporation, Mary E. Peters, announced the Administration’s intent to conduct a one-year pilot program that would grant 100 Mexico-domiciled trucking companies unrestricted access to U.S. roads in her February 2007 statement. U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (MN-8) released a statement Sept. 6th against USDOT's Cross-Border Pilot Program Initiation; better known in the media as "Bush's plan on Mexican trucks". The Rep. has been busy firing broadsides against this bizarre plan to permit Mexican truckers to roam across America, much to the chagrin of the Teamsters and everyone skeptical of NAFTA-style schemes that usually turn out to be a race to the bottom. He initially got media attention observing that the truckers will drive ten hours inside Mexico, and then another straight ten inside the United States: the perfect recipe for fatigued, unsafe drivers.
Your writers are not sure what all the commotion is about. This seems to be just another example of the Administration ignoring Congress. According to Oberstar, since Peters' announcement in February, the House has passed three bills that outline specific sets of conditions and prerequisites that should be met for a successful and safe implementation of the program. Perhaps more importantly, Oberstar says the bills contain mechanisms for shutting down the program if any threats to U.S. safety arise at any time. It is this pronouncement that seems most repugnant to the Administration. While Secretary Peters touted the DOT's intention to cooperate with Congress in her initial statement, the Bush Administration has refused to adhere to the criteria approved by the House and has not altered its proposed pilot program in any way, shape, or form. In other words: pretty standard stuff. Charlie Savage has a fun story in the Boston Globe that estimates Bush has ignored somewhere around 750 laws enacted by Congress since he took office.
Oberstar's staff led by communications director John Schadl have been getting plenty of video clips onto Oberstar's government website as well as a snazzy clip on You Tube. In a press release Monday, Schadl said, "Feel free to use it as you see fit, but please do not edit it for content." We don't quite get what he means. Don't forget what Copyright.gov says: "Works by the U.S. government are not eligible for U.S. copyright protection."
In other road news, the American driving public can thank Rep. Oberstar, who has also been trying to put together a national program to save our crumbling bridges. In fact, our nation's aging infrastructure will be the subject of Oberstar's forum on Oct. 8th. The event, which will be held at the Radisson University Hotel, is free and open to the public. You can register online at cts.umn.edu/oberstarforum.
Bikers also have reason to smile on Oberstar this month. He's helping out a biker who was beaten by an officer at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for trying to ride his bike out of the terminal (WCCO covered the story in July). In a letter sent to the abused cyclist, Oberstar expressed his concern for the individual's safety and mentioned that "language has now been added to the FAA reauthorization 'which will make bike lanes and bike facilities eligible for funding out of the Airport Improvement Program (AIP)'. Furthermore, the MSP airport, previously uninterested in applying for a grant out of 25 million in available funds for 'mode shift', has now changed their policy and will 'apply for a grant and will pursue strategies to make the MSP bike accessible and bike friendly'."
Politics in Minnesota: Bits and Pieces:
While discussing the travails of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig (R-The Closet) with Howard Fineman on Sept. 5, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann joked that no one will fly to the Republican National Convention next year because they don't want to go through the well-secured Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Minnesota Small Business Development Center to help Vets. A free training session will be offered to Veterans of the Army Reserve, National Guard, and other military branches on Sept. 14th, Sept. 21st, and Sept. 28th. The programs will focus on financing, marketing, government contracting, and franchising. Registration is required and can be done here.
DFL's time to golf. The 5th annual Senate DFL Caucus Golf Scramble is Wed. Sept. 19th. The Shotgun will start at 9 a.m. and the tourney will be held at Francis A. Gross Golf Course. RSVP by Sept. 12th to Mike Kennedy at 651-251-6331.
The Intelligent Transportation Society of Minnesota will have its fall industry forum Oct. 16th from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The event which will take place Continuing Education and Conference Center at the U's St. Paul Campus will feature experts discussing a variety of topics concerning transportation in Minnesota. With the recent event one can imagine this forum will take on a whole new meaning. For registration visit their site at itsmn.org.
Help end violence at the 4th Annual PEACE Ball. The Public Engagement And Community Empowerment Foundation will be help Oct. 13th 7 p.m. to "after midnight." Get down all night long to the soothing sounds of R&B, Soul, and Funk, with appetizers and a cash bar. Visit the website for ticket information.
Applications are now being accepted for three First Judicial District trial court bench vacancies. The judgeships take effect Jan. 1st, 2008 and were recently created by the 2007 Minnesota Legislature. The positions have been certified (one each) for Shakopee, Hastings, and Chaska. Only licensed Minnesota attorneys who are residents of the First Judicial District may request an application for any or all of these positions.
The Sierra Club accuses Pawlenty's energy policy of being two-faced. In a statement released on August 31st regarding the Big Stone II Transmission Settlement that provides the approval of an expansion of the Big Stone coal-fired power plant in South Dakota to serve Minnesota markets, the Sierra Club states that the "approval of this massive dirty coal plant stands in stark contrast to a Governor who earlier this year signed a renewable energy requirement committed to reducing fossil fuel use in MN by 15%". Pawlenty's decision to allow expansion of the plant will result in 3,500,000 tons of additional global warming pollution each year for the next 50 years. There're only three words for that amount of pollution: Really. Massively. Dirty. An odd choice indeed for a man heading the National Governor's Association...an organization that just launched their Chair's (AKA: Pawlenty's) initiative: Securing a Clean Energy Future.
The Minnesota Family Council claims that an Iowa judge's ruling striking down an Iowa marriage law highlights the need for a constitutional amendment in Minnesota. They believe that Minnesota marriage laws are under attack in the MN State Legislature and courts. Tom Prichard, the President of the Minnesota Family Council (MFC), criticized the actions of two Iowa judges and said that "The actions of these Iowa judges to overturn that state's marriage law and then facilitate the immediate issuance of marriage licenses to homosexual couples reaffirms the importance of a marriage amendment in Minnesota." Katherine Kersten couldn't agree more in her most recent Strib column. According to Kersten, we need to amend the Minnesota State Constitution before those squirrelly robed homohuggers can strike down our beloved marriage law. I mean really, if we've learned anything these last six years, it has to be that preemptive action is good action...right?
The Center of The American Experiment will be holding a forum
entitled Education Entrepreneurship Why is there so Little? Sept.
18th at 6 p.m. at the St. Louis Park Doubletree Hotel. The forum, centered
on Fredrick Hess, will argue for a "supply-side strategy," one in
which "entrepreneurial problem-solvers are better positioned to take good
ideas to scale." To register sign up at the
American
Experiment website.
The
Civitas Conference on Charity will be held Sept. 28 through 29. It is a
MacLaurin Institute program co-sponsored by the
CAE.
Join policymakers, practitioners, non-profit leaders, students and faculty
for a national conference, right here in the Twin Cities, that explores the
collaboration between government and faith-based organizations in the
delivery of social services.
Congratulations to Kevin Kelleher who was appointed Southeast Minnesota's Business Development Representative and will be in charge of coordinating the Department of Employment and Economic Development's flood relief activities. DEED Commissioner Dan McElroy said Kelleher’s extensive leadership in local government and non-profit sectors will serve Minnesota and the agency well. Also, DEED is putting on training sessions for veterans and National Guard members in Moorhead and the Twin Cities. Here's more info.
On September 15, thousands of Americans from around the country will join together in Washington, D.C., to demand the impeachment of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush and insist on the immediate end to the occupation in Iraq. Visit impeachbush.org for more information. In addition, big marches are planned for the 15th and the 29th in Washington, but the pressure will be all month long. September has something for everyone against current policy in Iraq. There are local events all over the country on the Democrats.com September calendar. (The Zogby poll about Sept. 11 showed that 26% want impeachment against both, 1.9% against just the President, and 2.9% against just Cheney. The crosstabs are interesting on that one.)
This morning the Minnesota Court of Appeals heard the appeal of UnitedHealth Group, which has resisted the efforts of the Attorney General's Office to investigate the controversy surrounding the billions of dollars in backdated stock options issued by the board of directors of UHG to its executives. Attorney General Lori Swanson argued the case for the State of Minnesota.
The Minnesota DFL Party just issued a scathing press release on Gov. Pawlenty (big surprise). After the Governor traveled to Washington, D.C. yesterday to speak about clean energy at the National Press Club, the DFL accused the governor of turning his back on the state and playing politics after ignoring the suffering of Minnesotans during the historic crises of August and failing to address Minnesota's urgent need for comprehensive transportation funding and property tax relief.
Taxpayers League discovers sweet online Ag subsidy tracker: New applications of information technology can reveal to everyday citizens where the black holes of government spending geographically lead to. Farm subsidy checks sent to Central Park West in Manhattan is pretty funny, the League notes: "Bet you didn’t know that so much farming goes on right outside the front door of the Metropolitan Museum of Art." To find out where the Feds are sending ag subsidies, click here and zoom all over the country. Edina and Lake of the Isles are interesting recipients of Fed largesse. If only we could see where the hundreds of billions vanishing into the military-industrial complex really go. Back in the 1990s, Hamilton Securities developed software to analyze geographic mortgage patterns for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which showed that the government's mortgage insurance loan sales programs were rigged in favor of Wall Street firms, a development seemingly intersecting the sprawling Iran-Contra and Savings and Loans scandals. Modern technology could render these kinds of things transparent to the public, if someone tried. It's breathalyzers all over again.
Last week we noted the passing of Prof. Gary Wynia, but misstated where he spent much of his career. He started at the U, but from 1983-1998 was a professor at Carleton College, where he led the inaugural program to Maastricht, The Netherlands in 1993 to study the European Union. The longtime reader who corrected us noted that "I had the chance to participate in this fantastic program with Gary, and it continues to be a popular off-campus study choice for students at the college."
Politics In Minnesota: Lobbyist
Watch
--Who is working what issues--
From the Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure
Board:
Morning Reports
