Thissen Reports to Constituents

MN House, MN Senate I just received a very lengthy letter from Rep. Thissen (63A) regarding the current budget impasse taking place in St. Paul. Once I have some time to digest it, I will update this post.

Who Do You Believe

The articles below were all posted on the New York Times site today, 6/28. Russian Says Gitmo Guards Defiled Quran By AP Ex - Gitmo Inmates: Quran Was Desecrated By AP Muslim Cleric: Gitmo Guards Defiled Quran By AP Senators Laud Treatment of Detainees in Guantánamo By David D. Kirkpatrick

New Ron Keeping Promises

As stated in a blog frenzy a few weeks ago (just check June archives of KvM, ARUC and RF), one reason Ron Carey was elected was because he said he would stay more connected with the grass roots of the party. It looks as though he is off to a good start because rumor is that he will be attending the CD5 Full Committee meeting tonight.

A Vigil for the State

MN House, MN Senate The GOP Caucus in is holding a vigil outside State Sentator Dean Johnson's office. Go check out their blog here for more details. Hat tip to MDE.

"Members of the House Republican Caucus are positioned outside of Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson's office 24 hours a day non-stop, ready to call House Leadership at a moment's notice to negotiate the budget and an end to the 2005 special session of the Legislature."

Yecke Takes Bait Offered by KVM

2006 Elections People in the MOB (MN Org of Bloggers) are tagging each other with a list of questions about books. Well, Gary from KvM took a flyer and tagged some non-MOBsters and he actually received a response from a CD-6 Republican candidate, Cheri Yecke. As a former teacher, you can understand how she is an avid reader. I liked it that she tapped the Little House Series as one of her favorites.

Money, Money, Money

Media, Federal Today my lefty leaning brother emails me a link to this article. As I have stated in previous posts, he is not a Bush fan. Thankfully he is not a bumper sticker guy, otherwise he may even have one of those "no W" stickers on his car. Anyway, the article obviously hopes to put bad light on the fact that the Republicans have been in the White House and controlled, or almost controlled, the Senate and House since 2002. I do have to admit it highlights a disturbing trend in that the voice of the individual is overshadowed by the voice of a group or corporation. I did ask my brother if he was naive enough to believe that if the Democrats were in this position it would be different. It would be different in only one way, there would probably be different groups.

How Could I?

MN House So this blog is supposed to be on top of all that is politics for SD63, well I can't believe I missed this one. Rep. Paul Thissen (MN House 63A) has his own blog! Stay tuned as I do not have the time to digest the content at the moment.

Typical Red Star

Media, Federal OK, I have not taken a shot at the Red Star in a long time, mostly because there are other people who have it well covered (see KAR, Anti-Strib and Star Tribune Bias). The guys at KAR must be sleeping in today because they have not commented on this editorial garbage. Here is an excerpt:

His remarks were condemned by the White House, the Pentagon, the Christian Coalition, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Newt Gingrich (who called for his censure by the Senate) and by the entire right side of the talk radio/television/blog world. The heat got so bad that, late in the week, Durbin apologized if his remarks had been "misunderstood." They weren't, and Durbin should not have apologized.

First, it really was not an apology. He really just said that he was "sorry" that we, those who are blasting Durbin, are so offended by what he said. So instead of an apology he really was just being condecending basically saying he is sorry we are too stupid to understand his point. The comparison is just ludicrous! Were their problems at Abu Ghraib, yes, at Gitmo, maybe, but they do not even compare to the gulags, etc. Another point that is lost is that many of the events at Gitmo happened 2-3 years ago and have since been addressed, especially after the Abu Ghraib abuse.

Domain Sqautting B@$T@RD$

Misc. So, on 6/14 I went to networksolutions.com to check if sd63.com was available, it was and I was all ready to pull the trigger and register for it, but then I got wise. I had not consulted with the finance committee and I also didn't think about how long to register it for. Just one week later, 6/21, I go out to find that the domain was registered by someone on 6/17. Since I am a IT geek I fully understand that someone has some sort of robot sniffing this stuff out and they "saw" my interest in the domain. So they took it hoping to make a buck or two. Capitalist pigs! WHOIS = Registrant: Navigation Catalyst Systems, Inc 15260 Ventura Blvd. Suite 2000 Sherman Oaks, California 91403-3347 United States Registered through: GoDaddy.com Domain Name: SD63.COM Created on: 17-Jun-05 Expires on: 17-Jun-06 Last Updated on: 17-Jun-05 Why did I hesitate? I guess I'll wait a year. OK, I'm done whining.

SD63 DFL Roster Takes Shape

MN Senate, MN House They are starting to line up for the position being vacated by Amy Klobuchar as she runs for Mark Dayton's vacated Senate seat. I recommend KvM to follow that race. On Thursday, Andy Luger announced his run for the position joining Phil Carruthers and former Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. Luger will run as a DFL candidate and will drop out of the race if another candidate is endorsed. As the article states, he comes out of the gates with some big names behind him.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak stood beside Luger at his announcement, along with state Reps. Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Frank Hornstein and Paul Thissen, all DFL-Minneapolis, and Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park.

Luger lists 300 lawyers as supporters. Among his backers are Mike Colich, Joe Friedberg, Bill Mauzy, Ron Meshbesher, Kevin Short and Peter Wold; Daniel Boivin; Sam and Sylvia Kaplan; former assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Larsen; assistant U.S. Attorney Hank Shea; Larry Leventhal, Mark Rotenberg, and John Stanoch.

In case you didn't notice, none other than SD63A's Paul Thissen was there supporting Luger. The article made no mention of Jane Ranum, however if State Senator Ranum was intending to run for the Hennepin County Attorney position, as speculated here, then I suspect Mr. Thissen may have supported her. This leads me to believe there will be no shake up in SD63 and we should have the same DFL incumbents running for re-election in '06.

Poor Man's Categories

Thanks to Tony at Always Right Usually Correct, I have added "poor man's" version of doing categories here at SD63. I do not have every post categorize and if I'm lazy or in a hurry some will get missed. I'll do my best.

Another Uncle Tom!

How dare Walter E. Williams make such crazy statements. Walter is no doubt labeled as another "Uncle Tom" or attacked like Bill Cosby was a while back. I found this piece to be very enlightened. I have posted the whole piece here for fear the link may someday disappear and I don't want to lose this one. I have taken the liberty to highlight some key points.

If you listened to the rhetoric of black politicians and civil rights leaders, dating back to the Reagan years, you would have been convinced that surely by now black Americans would be back on the plantation. According to them, President Reagan, and later Presidents Bush I and II, would turn back the clock on civil rights. They'd appoint "new racists" dressed in three-piece suits to act through the courts and administrative agencies to reverse black civil rights and economic gains. We can now recognize this rhetoric as the political equivalent of the "rope-a-dope." As my colleague Tom Sowell pointed out in a recent column, "Liberals, Race and history," if the Democratic party's share of the black vote ever fell to even 70 percent, it's not likely that the Democrats would ever win the White House or Congress again. The strategy liberal Democrats have chosen, to prevent loss of the black vote, is to keep blacks paranoid and in a constant state of fear. But is it fear of racists, or being driven back to the plantation, that should be a top priority for blacks? Let's look at it. Only 30 to 40 percent of black males graduate from high school. Many of those who do graduate emerge with reading and math skills of a white seventh- or eighth-grader. This is true in cities where a black is mayor, a black is superintendent of schools and the majority of principals and teachers are black. It's also true in cities where the per pupil education expenditures are among the highest in the nation. Across the U.S., black males represent up to 70 percent of prison populations. Are they in prison for crimes against whites? To the contrary, their victims are primarily other blacks. Department of Justice statistics for 2001 show that in nearly 80 percent of violent crimes against blacks, both the victim and the perpetrator were the same race. In other words, it's not Reaganites, Bush supporters, right-wing ideologues or the Klan causing blacks to live in fear of their lives and property and making their neighborhoods economic wastelands. What about the decline of the black family? In 1960, only 28 percent of black females between the ages of 15 and 44 were never married. Today, it's 56 percent. In 1940, the illegitimacy rate among blacks was 19 percent, in 1960, 22 percent, and today, it's 70 percent. Some argue that the state of the black family is the result of the legacy of slavery, discrimination and poverty. That has to be nonsense. A study of 1880 family structure in Philadelphia shows that three-quarters of black families were nuclear families, comprised of two parents and children. In New York City in 1925, 85 percent of kin-related black households had two parents. In fact, according to Herbert Gutman in The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom: 1750-1925, "Five in six children under the age of 6 lived with both parents." Therefore, if one argues that what we see today is a result of a legacy of slavery, discrimination and poverty, what's the explanation for stronger black families at a time much closer to slavery -- a time of much greater discrimination and of much greater poverty? I think that a good part of the answer is there were no welfare and Great Society programs. Since black politicians and the civil rights establishment preach victimhood to blacks, I'd prefer that they be more explicit when they appear in public fora. Were they to be so, saying racists are responsible for black illegitimacy, blacks preying on other blacks and black family breakdown, their victimhood message would be revealed as idiotic. But being so explicit is not as far-fetched as one might think. In a campaign speech before a predominantly black audience, in reference to so many blacks in prison, presidential candidate John Kerry said, "That's unacceptable, but it's not their fault."

I really can't add anything to this. He is obviously in a much better position to comment. I just found it extremely interesting.

SD59 and SD60 Events

Support our friends in other "districts of blue", here are some events for SD59 and SD60. SD60's Eighth Annual Summer Solstice Picnic Saturday, June 18th, 2pm Kenwood Park 2101 W Franklin Ave. Contact: Clarence Carlson (612-824-7597) Eastside Parade Tuesday, June 21st, 5pm The Minneapolis City Committee, Senate District 59 and Sandy Burt for State Senate are entered into the parade. Lineup starting at 5:00 at Shoreham Rail Yards 29th-30th Ave and Central Ave in Northeast Minneapolis. Our unit number is 106. Contact: Steve Sumner (SD59 Republican Chair) at 612-782-2008 for any details or to offer help.

Yahoo Gets the Boot!

The SD63 Republicans had registered the domain www.sd63.org a while ago, but they were just using free web space provided by Yahoo. The free space just got the boot, check out the new site. This blog is linked there and I of course provided a link to it (I have had a link to the SD63 DFL site since about January).

Snapshot of site.

Mother of the Year

Maureen Faibish called the San Francisco Chronicle to "defend" herself from all the criticism after her 12 year-old boy was killed by one of their "pet" Pit Bulls. This woman wins two awards, "Mother of the Year" and the coveted "Darwin Awards". Check out her comments from the article that is posted on MSNBC.

Maureen Faibish said she ordered Nicholas to stay in the basement while she did errands on June 3, the day he was attacked by one or both of the dogs. She said she was worried about the male dog, Rex, who was acting possessive because the female, Ella, was in heat. “I put him down there, with a shovel on the door,” Faibish told the San Francisco Chronicle. “And I told him: ‘Stay down there until I come back.’ Typical Nicky, he wouldn’t listen to me.” Nicholas apparently found a way to open the basement door.

OK, so we have problems on several levels here:

1. She fails to realize that locking him in the basement, while "protecting" him from the dog ensures he would probably die if a fire started.
2. She raised a 12 year-old boy who apparently does not have the restraint to obey his mother, so that is why he had to be locked in the basement rather than put him in his room and say "stay in here and play your Xbox until I come home".
3. Why the hell do you have a "pet" in your house that has a high probability to hurt your child?
4. At what point do we realize that this breed of dog is quite possibly more dangerous than things like a wolf.

The poor kid didn't have a fighting chance in life with a mother like that.

State Central Fallout

A lot has been said today regarding the MN GOP State Central Convention that took place today. You can look for yourself at KvM, ARUC and RF. I had a conversation with a delegate or two (including a CD VP and a SD Chair) since the meeting ended, this post will focus on their thoughts and mine after listening to them and reading some of the other things I've seen on the blogs today. I will also add that I am a still novice in this arena, so feel free to shoot the arrows at me if you like. First, on Wednesday I heard this thing was getting ugly, REAL ugly. After hearing that, my thought was that events like this can result in one of two things, a stronger party if people get over this (especially if the winners are humble and losers are forgiving and open minded) and get back to work OR a temporarily debilitated party that has people who are unable to let go and move on to fight in '06. I hope the dust will settle the next few days and people start mending bridges, fences or whatever metaphor you prefer. A delegate who was part of the "mutiny", as some have called it, had two main rationales. He agreed with some others that Ron (Ron = Ron Eibensteiner and Carey = Ron Carey for the remainder of the post) was losing touch with the grassroots of the party and he was very disappointed with the lack of initiative for things such as training for people ready to learn and work for the state party and BPOUs. One specific instance was when a meeting was scheduled with Ron E. To meet with him and a strong potential candidate for a US House seat. The meeting was set, it was close to Ron's house and this potential candidate was just looking for a small bit of reassurance the state party would support him. Ron was a no-show, no call, just an excuse later that he had a "scheduling conflict". When you have strong potential candidate that is ready to go, isn't this inexcusable, not to mention rude. That said, as short as two months ago this delegate was on a list of names that was supporting and ready to endorse Ron. The problem is that over those two months he did not receive a single phone call from Ron or Eric Hoplin, but every other candidate contacted him personally (remember there are only ~347 delegates so a phone call to each is not asking too much). So it was just in the last few weeks that he was moving away from Ron. He voted Pulkrabek and then Carey today. After all that happened, this delegate was obviously upbeat. He knows that the Governor and others come away wounded by this, but he feels calmer heads will prevail, relationships will be built and positive change will happen. Specifically, he REALLY likes Hoplin even though he has had a few negative experiences with Eric. He believes that Eric has strong potential, just rough around the edges and with a Carey as the chair some of those edges will be smoothed out. Other delegates in the same SD as this delegate stayed in Ron's camp, so you can see how difficult this was for all the delegates today. I know all these people and this event made the last four days difficult ones for them. What is my perspective? Well, first of all I confess there are many things I do not know about the topic. So, maybe I should just be careful and stick to what I know? I know that it was a rough day for the MN GOP, I know people on both sides and they both want the same end result. For the party to come out of this stronger, I know that ALL parties need to leave the bickering and ugliness where it belongs, in the past. The "winners" need to work their arse off the coming weeks talking to the people on the other side, they need to be humble and ready to listen (the numbers, 196 to 151, do not indicate a mandate for Carey). The "losers" from today need to swallow their pride, and be ready to work with the new group. Easy for me to say, but I guess that's the luxury of my position. Time will tell...

Immigrant Poll Closed

Polls I closed the poll regarding the proposed ordinance in Richfield which deals with immigrant status and city employees (including police officers). You can see the results below.

Published!

The letter that was sent to the Mayor and the Sun-Current (and posted on SD63), was published this week. Nice job Bob, the letter was clear, well thought and well written.

This! In the MN Daily?

I stumbled across this nice little column in the newspaper for the University of Minnesota. The "U" as we call it here in MN is not known for thinking that leans more towards the "right". The columnist makes some great points, it is worth the read. The author of the column also has a blog. Nice work Marty.

What Should You Do?

If you are concerned about the proposed ordinance discussed in previous posts (here, here and here), then contact the city council members. I especially urge you to contact the Mayor, Martin Kirsch, because it is possible he may cast the deciding vote. Mayor Martin J. Kirsch 6725 Penn Avenue #103 Richfield, MN 55423 612-866-1895 (h) 952-887-3113 (w) Term Expires: December 31, 2006

More Input for Mayor Kirsch

Residents of Richfield have woken from a slumber to find troubling things happening at city hall and they are making sure their opinion is heard. Here is yet another letter from a concerned Richfield resident:

Mayor Martin J. Kirsch 6725 Penn Avenue #103 Richfield, MN 55423 Dear Mr. Kirsch: I recently learned that a proposal for a new ordinance has been presented to the Richfield City Council restricting the police department from acquiring the immigration status of aliens. I am a tax-paying, law-abiding over 30-year resident of Richfield and am deeply concerned about the risks this ordinance poses to the citizenry of Richfield. At a time when our nation is under world-wide threat from radical Islamists bent on destroying us and our civilization, we must do everything possible to protect our country and citizens. In going about their normal duties, if the police are prohibited of becoming aware of illegal immigrants, this ordinance puts the safety of all Richfield citizens, including you and your family, at risk. It is only a matter of time when a terrorist will launch an attack here. I don't want the terrorism now occurring in Iraq to come here, which is why we must maintain our vigilance. Richfield is so close to the airport, the Mall of America, Southdale as well as having a concentration of people and commerce. It would be possible that someone could shoot down an airliner during landing or takeoff, bomb the light rail station at the airport, or attack the Mall of America. Remember these terrorists want to inflict as many casualties as possible. If the proposed ordinance obstructs the ability to protect these assets, heaven help anyone who has their name attached to it. Do people have such short memories and fail to recall that several of the terrorists involved in 9/11 had been stopped for traffic violations and found they had overstayed their visas. Moussaoui also had immigration problems, and he was in our own backyard. The complaint in the 9/11 Commission report was that no one connected the dots and there was a lack communication between various agencies. This ordinance is a mockery to legal immigrants and naturalized citizens. These people, following the law, might have waited up to 20 years to enter this country while someone else can just walk across the border. It would be a disgrace to treat both of these immigrants equally. If our immigration laws can be so easily dismissed then what other laws can also be deemed irrelevant. The attachment of a $1,000 fine just shows the main purpose of this ordinance. Anybody can see that this is only a rip-off similar to other con jobs such as planting finger tips in fast food restaurants. I am a veteran who served my country in Vietnam and do not want that I waste my time to help illegal aliens from coming into this country in destroying it or rip it off. This ordinance is silly and is a slap in the face to anyone trying to protect this country. Sincerely, John D. Cross

Don't Go Zakcq!

Zakcq, I have not had a chance to respond to your comments due to the reasons discribed in the post below. Please don't let this be your last comment post:

Anyways, I have no need to get into a pissing match with an intelectual midget. I was hoping that this would be an interesting site to debate local public policy issues. Obviously not. Well, at least we aren't in Iran. Your political viewpoints are the same, but at least i'm not in jail (yet). I won't be back. zakcq

Streptococci Redux

I was "offline" and not available to post for the weekend and I also am in the middle of round two with "strep throat". Round 1 had me taking amoxicillin and that seemed to do the trick, but just 3-4 days after I finish the regimen I started getting the swollen tonsils again. So now I'm on 10 days of augmentin. I'm back online, but posting will be affected by my need to get rest.

Doh!

Umm... If you run a university, you probably should consult a few people before you say you are going to throw a group off the campus.

Heating Up in Richfield

Richfield It is getting hot in Richfield, and I'm not talking about the 85 degree day we had today. The battle over a new proposed ordinance in Richfield is heating things up. ISAIAH and other groups pushing this ordinance may have a head start, but opponents to it are pulling together. Here is a letter sent to the local media by a concerned Richfield resident and past mayoral candidate:

To the Editor: In the May 26 Sun Current, you quoted Joyce Craciela Stellick's description of women "beat up" and "afraid to speak about who did this" because their spouse/boyfriend might be deported and she would be left alone. She then made what I consider to be a racist, sexist and stereotyping allegations that this is what happens to "people of color." She might be surprised to learn that such behavior knows no racial barrier. Her anecdote, and those of other panelists alleging that immigrants perceived our police to be as corrupt and abusive as their police in their native countries, was designed to support a new city ordinance. I attended the forum, sponsored by the Richfield Human Rights Commission, and was surprised that the proposed ordinance was not available for review. Here are some excerpts, quoted from a copy obtained from the City: Subd. 1. Purpose and policy statement. It is the policy of the City of Richfield that all residents are equally entitled to protection and that all residents should be able to city services to which they are entitled, without regard to their immigration status under federal law Subd. 3. (1) Public safety officials may not undertake any law enforcement action for the purpose of detecting the presence of undocumented persons, or to verify immigration status" Subd. 4. (b) Complaints of a violations shall be received and investigated by the Richfield Human Rights Commission. Subd. 4. (c) If a court finds that a city employee has violated this ordinance, the city shall be liable for civil action brought by any aggrieved party in the amount of $1,000 per violation plus(expenses). If this passes, I believe all of our city employees will need video cameras mounted on their shoulders to defend themselves and our city. If immigrants can learn they can get $1,000 by complaining, they can learn that Richfield civil servants are not like those in their native country. I ask again, as I asked then (it was not posed to the panel by the screeners), "Why do you not devote this energy to telling immigrants that Richfield police are here to protect and serve?" Police Chief (Public Safety Director) Dan Scott is already doing just that. We do not need this ordinance to provide safe harbor for illegal immigrants? Robert L. Hall

Thanks for attending the meeting and the letter Bob, couldn't agree more.

Stadiums = Strange Alliances

So I heard that Phil Krinkie and John Marty are holding or held a joint press conference to announce a new bill regarding stadiums. This stadium issue sure has a way of bring people together (or apart). Of course these two have been on the same page since 2001. I just find this interesting, nothing more to add to this decade long debate.

Please Vote!

I put up a new poll finally. It is related to this immigrant issue in Richfield.