At the post office in Maynard, Minnesota, on Monday, one of the other box holders sighed after pulling a junk post card asking him to call Senator Lyle Koenen.
"Why can't they give us a break from campaigns?" he said.
Legally, the mailers that the Minnesota Action Network is sending out aren't campaign hit pieces. They're "issue" piece, requesting voters to contact the target and make an ask. But the man at the post office was on to the game, the slow and steady drip, drip, drip until the organization's PAC would kick in and send him mail, and ask him to vote for someone other than Koenen.
We'd seen the drift of post cards from the Minnesota Jobs Coalition Legislative PAC (a more important player in our recent state house race) and the Minnesota Action Network IE PAC as the election approached, and their counterparts from DFL allies.
The Minnesota Action Network mail to Senate District 57
The latest mail piece hits on Minnesota's "last in, first out" policy for teacher layoffs and teacher tenure itself; Minnesota Action Network has been running television ads about the issue. Governor Dayton and Minnesota Action Network's Norm Coleman have tussled about the issue.
While President Obama, Amy Klobuchar and Clausen won in the A side of the district, voters also selected John Kline and Tara Mack in 2012. In 2014, United States Senator Al Franken, State Auditor Rebecca Otto and Attorney General Lori Swanson won the A side of the state senate district, but Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson, Kline, Mack and GOP Secretary of State candidate Dan Severson triumpled.
In the B side of the district in 2012, Mitt Romney won, along with Congressman Kline and state representative Anna Wills, but picked Klobuchar and Clausen. In 2014, Republican United States Senate candidate Mike McFadden won more votes than Al Franken, while Kline, Wills, Johnson and Severson won their races in the district, while voters picked two DFLers, Swanson and Otto.
Who were Minnesota Action Network's venders for postcards in 2014?
One last thing: who is making money off these postcards?
If the Minnesota Action Network is sticking with the vendor that its electoral wing (the IE PAC) used in 16 of the 2014 races in which it sent maii (see pdf of pre-general election report here), that would be well-known public affairs op shop Weber Johnson. Smart Media of Alexandria, VA, was used for one mailing while the Voyageur Company LLC of St. Paul was used for six campaigns.
Scan: the Minnesota Action Network mail piece that voters received in Senator District 57.
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Part of the Forum Communications newspaper chain, Willmar's West Central Tribune is the only daily newspaper in west central Minnesota.
Via the op-ed page of sister paper, the Worthington Globe, the editors of the Tribune has called for the resignation of Jack Whitley as the Big Stone County Republican Party. In As others see it: Shame on bigoted county GOP leader, the editorial board wrote:
. . . Jack Whitley, who is the current chairman of the Big Stone County Republican Party, posted a series of inflammatory remarks on his personal Facebook page attacking Muslims.
He said Muslims in Minnesota are “terrorists” and “parasites” and suggested the best solution was to “frag ’em” all.
“(Muslims) do not belong in this country,” Whitley told the Star Tribune Thursday. “They cause terror and discontent …”
This and other views by this Republican Party leader in Big Stone County are horrible, narrow-minded and, simply, just plain bigoted. . . .
The editorial makes clear that state leaders of both major parties condemned the statements, then calls for Whitley's resignation:
Whitley’s comments are not only offensive to west central Minnesota residents and Muslim Americans, but are embarrassing to the state Republican Party and Minnesota.
Such a broad-based religious smear is just as despicable as past religious smears against Catholics, Jews, Mormons and other faiths.
Whitley posted Thursday on his Facebook page that he had no inclination to apologize for his beliefs. He deactivated his Facebook page later in the day.
It time for Whitley to resign from his Republican leadership post in Big Stone County.
If he fails to do so, then the Big Stone Republican Party should remove him at the earliest possible option.
West central Minnesota does not need bigoted leaders like Whitley.
One of the things that we've noticed--mostly in comment sections--is the assumption by some readers commenting at the Star Tribune, Raw Story and elsewhere that Big Stone County is a red county, perhaps because it is so very rural.
The pattern held true in 2010. Voters favored the Republican for the state house race (he lost the district as a whole) but voted for Democrats in all the other races. In 2006, the non-presidential year prior to that, Big Stone County voters picked DFLers in all of the partisan offices.
Just as Jack Whitley's extreme bigotry isn't representative of all Minnesota Republicans, neither is his party affiliation indicative of Big Stone County.
A friend reminded us today that Minnesota's western boundary waters--the headwaters of our beloved Minnesota River Valley--is old Farmer-Labor Party territory. It's that, and like so much of the Upper Valley, it's little known, far less than it should be given the friendly people and distinctive prairie river landscape.
Photo: Big stones in the Stone Federal Wildlife Refuge near Ortonville. Early spring.
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Torrey Westrom's television ad may tout "our values. Honest work. Living within your means," but a new filing in the Watonwan County courthouse suggests that there's one plumbing bill that TSI Real Estate LLC hasn't paid, prompting additional action on a mechanics lien on a Madelia apartment building.
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Was Dan Severson running for Minnesota Secretary of State in 2010--as he is in 2014--or to be God's own non-stick cookware?
Just months before he declared his candidacy in October 2009, self-proclaimed prophet and New Apostolic Reformation leader Cindy Jacobs delivered "prophetic words" at the Deborah Company Midwest Convocation in Bloomington on Saturday, July 25, 2009, promising the Minnesota Republican that he could "to be able to say outrageous things and still have favor. I'm going to give you favor - I'm going to make you Teflon."
The Lord says that you are called to this state for such a time as this. It has been really hard but God says I will make your forehead like flint.
God says I will put my words in your mouth - because Dan I have called you like Jeremiah - I have called you from your mother's womb. You were given the name Daniel for this day and this hour. And the Lord says I'm going to open up a Cyrus who is going to begin to open up funding. You will be a voice for the unborn. I call you to be a father to the unborn children, says the Lord.
I am going to show what to do and how to do it. This day I give you favor as your treasure. You are going to be able to say outrageous things and still have favor. I'm going to give you favor - I'm going to make you Teflon.
CathyJo you are to raise up a greater prayer army. I have called you to be a warrior woman. The Lord says you must build a thicker wall. You must build a wall. For I have called the two of you to be like Nehemiah. To build the wall says the Lord
While it's unclears from the post that the Seversons were in the audience, some of the textual clues suggest that they might have been. First, Jacobs speaks of them by their first names, and the site editor Karen Krueger has added their last name in parenthesis. Earlier in the intercession, Jacobs mentions Michele Bachmann, but uses the congresswoman's full name.
Bluestem contacted General International by phone to ask Jacobs if she recalled if the couple were present at the meeting in 2009, but learned that Jacobs was traveling in Asia. Emails to Krueger and the Severson campaign asking if the couple were in the audience in Bloomington were not returned.
. . . To give an impression of how Jacobs thinks the world hangs together, here is Jacobs claiming that the lands of Texas are cursed with violence because they were previously inhabited by Native Americans who “did blood sacrifice” and “were cannibals and they ate people.” Fortunately Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally in Houston broke the curse and “the land is starting to rejoice, you see, because of that prayer” (here is a more in-depth explanation of the kind of phenomenon she has in mind). Later she demanded that those with American/Indigenous heritage must renounce and repent for their ancestor’s sins, since that’s the kind of person she is. In Jacobs’s world God also sent prophets to Germany before the war to warn the Jewish population of the Holocaust, implying that if they didn’t manage to escape it must have been because they were unwilling to listen.
She has also plead the government to ban abortions because it “curses the land”. You want proof? In 2011 there were a couple of cases of large flocks of birds dying in some US states. Jacobs immediately perceived the reason: the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” made God send us a message (also here). It is a little unclear why God would warn us by randomly killing birds in Arkansas (there is no evidence that these were gay birds), but to a mind like Jacobs everything can mean whatever she wants it to mean. . . .
Until July 2012, Jacobs had a strong connection in Minnesota: her late sister Lucy Riethmiller ran a non-profit service organization, Life Resources Counseling Services, in Buffalo, as well as serving as the president of Deborah Company Midwest, which sponsored the 2009 convocation.
2012 caught her working hard to affect the outcome of the election, calling for half a million prayer warriors (through her United States Reformation Prayer Network (USRPN)) to make sure Republicans got elected by praying about it. One of the reasons they need to fight the current government is that, according to information that only USRPN subscribers have received, health care reform legislation apparently requires everyone to get an RFID chip implanted in their finger in order to receive health care. She has earlier prophecied that God is going to “sweep judicial activism” out of America’s courts, which is, I suppose, an example of a fractally wrong (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fractal_wrongness) message. She also asked her followers to pray for the destruction of the separation of church and state. Here is Cindy Jacobs, being apparently dimly aware that some of her political suggestions may be controversial, trying to explain why even environmentalists are dominionists by rather feebly trying to redefine words.
1. Decree the mountain of the Lord will be exalted over the government mountain of Minnesota. 2. Decree God’s righteous government will flow into all cities and counties of Minnesota. (Isaiah 2:2) 3. Decree that law and justice will prevail at every polling place in Minnesota. (Deut. 32:4) 4. Decree that all corruption and illegal voting will be exposed. 5. Decree that believers will rise up, vote and choose God-fearing men and women of truth who hate unjust gain. (Ex. 18:21) 6. Decree to loose the bonds of tradition and generational politics so voters can choose freely. 7. Pray that believers in Minnesota understand their vote is a covenant act before God that declares their allegiance to the standards of the candidate, whether they be for God or against Him. 8. Pray at your polling places. Dismiss the spirits of corruption and confusion that have influenced the hearts and minds of the voters. Ask God to station angels there to protect the integrity of voting. 9. Pray for protection over the Voter ID Constitutional Amendment and that the people of Minnesota will have their voice heard. NOTE: The ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging the voter ID constitutional amendment. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie opposes the law, so there is a question of whether he will defend it or not. There is also discussion that the legislature will not defend the case, alleging it will be too expensive.
Minnesota's voters rejected the voter ID amendment, as well as handing control of both chambers of the state legislature to the DFL, after two years of Republican control. (For an overview of Seven Mountain Dominionism, click here; Minnesota's Capitol Prayer Network, which Cathy Jo Severson once led, also espouses a Seven Mountain worldview).
Dan Severson had long made Voter ID and claims of electoral corruption a centerpiece of his political talking points. He was so appalled at the results of the 2012 elections that he threatened to move from the state.
Dan Severson stood in disbelief watching election returns.
The former Republican state representative and two-time statewide candidate watched election night as Fox News called the presidential race for Democratic President Barack Obama, and his mood got worse from there as an unexpected Democratic wave formed.
He did not understand.
“It’s immoral,” he said at the Minnesota Republican Party post-election gathering in a Bloomington hotel. “I’m in a state of disbelief. If that’s what Minnesota wants to do, I’m not a Minnesotan for long.” . . .
Well then.
The 2009 intercession isn't the only point where the Severson name surfaces in Minnesota's prophetic community. According to the 2012 Generals International Minnesota Root 52 Prayer Guide:
2007 CATHYJO SEVERSON - Jubilee Worship Center, St. Cloud
"I WANT Minnesota to be a Cancer Free Zone": March 25th, 2007 Minnesota is called to be a place of healing. God wants us in Minnesota and at Jubilee to steward healing virtues. I see a warehouse in heaven marked for the people of Minnesota. From that storehouse He will be giving us body parts and more. St. Cloud sits on the Mississippi and is located at the top of what is known as "Medical alley". St. Cloud is on the northwestern end and Rochester is at the southeastern end of Medical Alley. St. Cloud's destiny is to be a place of healing.
At the top of this state are the headwaters - Living Waters of Revival will flow (Baudette is strategic)
St. Cloud is on the Mississippi and in the strategic place to be impacted by that great outpouring. We need to position ourselves in faith to capture that revival as it is carried on down in the current of God. I see people coming here, Minnesota and Jubilee for healing. I see the map of Minn. Outstretched before me and people crossing over its borders and receiving their healing!
Heavens alone knows what building the Sandpiper oil pipeline in the Headwaters region might do to that vision of healing carried downsteam if there's a leak, but something we doubt Seven Mountain Republicans in Minnesota will raise the issue.
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A letter in today's Aitkin Independent Age slamming first-term state representative Joe Radinovich should help remind voters in Minnesota House District 10B of Republican dirty tricks in the last election.
Two years ago where a candidate lived was extremely important to Democrats when they unmercifully ganged up on and hounded Chip Cravaack. He lived in CD8, even though his wife accepted a job in Connecticut and moved there with their kids. The criticism was as unrelenting as it was unwarranted. But then, dirty politics is nothing new to the DFL.
. . .Joseph Radinovich’s address is listed as PO Box 215, Crosby, MN. Property records indicate he does not own any property in Crow Wing County. If he happens to rent his domicile is that closer to Chip Cravaacks situation or that of Oberstar? Chip lived here and Oberstar and Joe were/are packsackers. Kinda like modern day carpetbaggers.
In addition to a residency question, Joe is employed by a government employees union. That on its face is a conflict of interest, he can act either as our representative or as a union employee. His loyalties are divided. He cannot put both hats on at the same time because the two sometimes conflict with each other. He needs to take one off permanently. . . .
First, the mailing address that Williams lists in the P.O. Box for the campaign committee. Had Williams had the capacity to look on Radinovich's official page, he would have seen an address in Crosby. However, a friend who works in the legislature recalled hearing that Radinovich had sold his house and moved to his brother's house in the district.
Bluestem contacted the first-term legislator, who said in a phone interview that he had sold his home in January.
Because of the significant drop in his income, Radinovich discovered that he needed to tighten his budget, sold his home iand and now rents the upstairs at his brother's home at 225 5th Street in Ironton. He registered to vote at this address for the August 12 primary.
Like other people who live in that part of Ironton, he receives his mail at a post office box, though not the campaign P.O. box listed in Williams' LTE.
Getting mail at the post office is a common practice in towns too small for home delivery routes; Bluestem's editor lives in the same situation in sunny Maynard.
Williams' concern trolling about Radinovich's home and job is simply false.
On October 23, the Brainerd Dispatch published a letter to the editor written by a self-proclaimed Democrat named Stephen Sundquist.
Sundquist's letter expresses disappointment with Joe Radinovich, the DFL-endorsed candidate in House District 10B, and urges "all true Democrats," a set of people including himself, to vote for a write-in candidate instead.
But it turns out Sundquist isn't who he said he is. He's actually a paid MNGOP staffer working for the campaign of Dale Lueck, the Republican candidate running against Radinovich.
A simple Google search of Sundquist yields the following (his actual LinkedIn profile has been deleted):
The DFL filed a complaint with the state Office of Administrative Hearings alleging that Sundquist's letter violates the Fair Campaign Practices and Campaign Finance Acts. . .
The complaint itself was dismissed because the law applies only to accusation against the candidates themselves, but the administrative law judge acknowledged that the alleged behavior was highly objectionable:
While the conduct that the Complainant attributes to Mr. Sundquist, if true, is highly objectio nable, it is not actionable under the Fair Campaign Practices Act. The Fair Campaign Practices Act does not reach every misstatement of fact made in a Letter to the Editor, but only those that relate to a candidate’s personal or political character or acts. In this instance, the only assertions contained in the Letter to the Editor that the Complain an t alleges are false pertain to Mr. Sundquist himself . None of the statements that were alleged to be factually false relate to the personal character of Mr. Radinovich, the political character of Mr. Radinovich , or the acts of Mr. Radinovich.
Williams' letter does accuse Radinovich of not living in the district--but as the Republican activist is not an official on the Dale Lueck campaign 2014, it's probably up to the newspaper to retract the letter as it contains information that is simply false.
That's not all. After Radinovich was elected, dubious letters kept coming. In early April 2012, the Aitkin Independent Age reported DFL files complaint over political attack:
The Minnesota DFL has filed a complaint against State Rep. Greg Davids with the Office of Administrative Hearings for false claims he made in a political attack against Rep. Joe Radinovich (DFL-Crosby).
In a letter to the editor in the Brainerd Dispatch on Feb. 22, and in the Aitkin Independent Age Feb. 27, Rep. Davids claimed Radinovich voted for a $3.7 billion tax increase.
Davids claimed Radinovich voted yes on Gov. Mark Dayton’s now-outdated tax proposal. In truth, the vote was on a procedural motion to move the bill from one committee to another where it could receive more public input.
“Rep. Davids is the longest serving Republican in the House and he knows the difference between a procedural motion and a vote on bill,” said DFL Chair Ken Martin. “This is politics at its worst and a disservice to the public, who has a right to know the facts about what their representative has actually voted for and voted against.”
Photo: Letter writer and Tea Party Republican activist Pat Williams of Aitkin, via Minnesota Public Radio(above); Joe Radinovich (right) on a Youth Waterfowl Hunt near Deerwood. He sure looks like he's from around there (below).
*Oscar, the supervisor at Bluestem Prairie's World Headquarters, turned up his freckled nose this idea, since there's no reason to buy the tuna if you've got the treats.
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It's a good thing that the Republican Party of Minnesota has put together a Solutions Center, since in a moment of incipient McFaddenism, Minnesota Minority Leader David Hann (R-Eden Prairie) can't answer questions about what his party would do if it still had control of the legislature.
. . .“A lot of things we’ve dealt with have been dealt with in a very partisan way,” said Hann. “With one-party rule, we’re getting a very ideologically driven agenda.”
Hann was not specific when asked what Republicans would change if they were still in charge. He did not answer a question about whether they would repeal a minimum wage law or roll back a plan to fund all day, every day kindergarten, both items the Legislature has adopted since the DFL took control. . .
If Bluestem recalls correctly, when Republicans controlled both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature from 2011-2012, they were totally non-ideological, what with that government shutdown in 2011 and those two constitutional amendments on the 2012 ballot that were designed to spur conservative voters to the polls.
Perhaps that's the sort of better job he means.
Photo: Minnesota Minority Leader "Silent Dave" Hann. via Hometown Source.
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His announcement comes less than a week after DFL activist and blogger Shawn Towle with Checks & Balances commented on Twitter that he had talked with Nguyen and the candidate confirmed he'd been to a strip club with a Republican leader. A later Twitter post said Nguyen had been seen with Senjem at the the Seville Club in Minneapolis.
Republican blogger Jeff Kolb followed up on those tweets, calling for more Republicans to get in the race. He also tweeted that he had talked with Nguyen who "confirmed he was at a strip club with Senjem on Senjem's birthday."
Bluestem paused in the middle of the first sentence, since Checks & Balances is no longer publishing, its archives are no longer online at its URL and the last post with content at the Internet Wayback Machine is the August 4, 2012 crawl. The content is about the Quist for Congress campaign, The Internet Wayback Machine lists two later crawls, September 3, 2012, and November 3, 2012, but only login screens were captured.
Is Checks and Balances still a thing?
The last time Towle tweeted new blog content via the Checks and Balances twitter account was November 15, 2012, although it's impossible to determine the exact date of publication of the post-election material:
It's fair to say that Shawn Towle hasn't been an active blogger for well over a year. When Bluestem contacted Carlson about Towle's non-blogger status, her response was professional, grounded in the fact that Towle is listed in the capitol news media directory. She was surprised that he was still listed.
Hired gun: Enlightened Enterprises and media credentials
But there's a more serious issue with Towle's continued inclusion in the Senate Media Directory, that Carlson acknowledged and conservative bloggers have explored (although their examination of his content in tweets and Wayback Machine archives are cursory).
The issues were first pointed out on Look True North by CAE Senior Fellow and former Republican legislative candidate Bill Glahn in two posts, Hired Guns and Hired Guns, Part 2. The issue was echoed by conservative and capitol media credentialed blogger Mitch Berg in The Ringer.
It turns out that in 2012 and 2013, the senate Democrats paid a total of $30,250 for “research” to a company listed as “Enlighten Enterprise” of 254 Wheeler Street in St. Paul.
As pure coincidence would have it, a Shawn Towle is listed in both the 2012 and 2013 editions ofCapitol News Coverage Directory as an accredited member of the senate press corps, representing Checks & Balances. That Shawn Towle is also listed in the current 2014edition.
According to the Directory, Senate Rule 16.1(a) reads in part,
The Sergeant at Arms may not issue credentials or day passes under this rule to political organizations. For the purposes of this rule, "political organization" means an organization owned or controlled by a registered lobbyist, a political party, or any party organization.
So we know that the media’s Shawn Towle can’t be the same one that started the similar sounding company of the senate’s research contractor.
The sarcasm doesn't advance the case, nor does the fact that Towle was no longer publishing Checks and Balances by the beginning of 2013. Glahn doesn't break down the 2012 and 2013 payments for Enlighted Enterprises, but Towle was paid $3500.00 on January 7, 2013 and $1500.00 on June 25, 2013 for "research."
While Towle received two checks totaling $5000 in 2013 from the DFL, he was no longer publishing a blog, but he didn't lose his capitol news media credentials either for being on contract with the DFL Senate or being without a publication. Perhaps he was still showing up at press conferences and the like, but the only platform upon which Towle was publishing was twitter. Did that merit continued credentials from the Senate?
Checks and Balances senate tweets: January-June 2013
Whatever research the DFL Senate was paying for in, it didn't involve using the defunct Checks and Balances to promote a message. If the ChecksNBalances twitter account was intended to tip the capitol press corps about "research," what did Towle tweet that's related to the Senate between January 7 and June 25, 2013?
Glahn alludes to a few issues that CheckNBalances/Towle tweeted, but it's cherry picking at best. Placed on reverse chronological order--with some repetitive material eliminated, here are the senate-related issues the account tweeted:
The only senate-related topic during the period is Michael Brodkorb's lawsuit. Since Brodkorb's lawsuit against the Minnesota Senate, originally filed on July 23, 2012, became Senate DFLers's problem with the recapturing of the upper chamber, it's hard to agree with Glahn's speculation that the 2013 payments were for Towle's journalistic endeavors.
What the "research" was is Senate caucus campaign director Mike Kennedy's business. Bluestem sure hopes that if he paid $5000 for that set of tweets, the rest of us get paid the same rate for such services.
Hired gun II: Key Strategies LLC and media credentials
In Hired Gun 2, Glahn writes about a second, earlier contract Towle and the DFL Senate Caucus campaign committee:
Today, I document a series of coincidences around a company called Key Strategies, LLC. In the 2012 report for the Minnesota DFL Senate Caucus, senate Democrats report making a series of four payments to the company (p. 75). Key Strategies is also listed under the 254 Wheeler Street address and received a total of $8,250 from March 7, 2012, to June 5, 2012. Payment was for “strategic consulting.”
According to records on file with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office, a company called Key Strategies, LLC, is listed as inactive, having been terminated on January 11, 2007. It was registered to a Shawn Towle of 213 Front Street, St. Paul.
By coincidence, the Shawn Towle of @ChecksnBalances was also active during this period in 2012. Beginning March 15, 2012, Mr. Towle tweeted about the ethics complaint filed against then-state senator Geoff Michel, which he continued to report on through the end of May.
During this period, Towle would tweet about new Checks and Balances reports as well, although the URLs that accompany the tweets led to the dead domain. What other senate-related material did Towle tweet in 2012, when he received over $35,000 of the total payments? In the spring of 2012, one of his firms was paid for "strategic consulting" and from July through December, "research."
Glahn and Berg imply the DFL senate caucus campaign committee was paying him for the media he produced. What did he produce?
Checks and Balances senate blog posts and tweets: March-December 2012
In chronological order, here are senate-related tweets from the ChecksNBalances twitter account and the Checks and Balances URLs that are the ghosts of the now-defunct website.
We can only conclude that while Towle himself clearly broke the credentialing rules by taking on a political party as a client while also serving as a member of the capitol press corps--and after he no longer maintained a venue for publishing his articles, it's hard to see just what the DFL Senate Caucus was getting via Checks and Balances while it was still online, nor from the tweets Towle provided.
And while some material about campaign violations and other material shows up on Towle's stream, tweets from an account with 451 followers of committee hearings that were covered and broadcast aren't particular high value.
We only hope that the strategic consulting and research the DFL Senate Caucus received were of higher quality than tweets and now-vanished blog posts that seemed more obsessed with--and sympathetic to--the firing of Michael Brodkorb than the DFL senate campaign ever was.
Should Towle keep his credentials? The guidelines suggest that those who possess them ought publish regularly about the legislature and be free of connections with "an organization owned or controlled by a registered lobbyist, a political party, or any party organization."
Disclosure: Bluestem's editor and owner does taake on clients for unrelated projects and sponsored articles for the blog. If a post relates to an unrelated project, we disclose; if a project is sponsored (like the articles we published about rural marriage equality supporters last spring), we disclose.
And since we take contracts--even ones that are usually unrelated to our posts here--we'd never considered asking for capitol media credentials.
Photo: Shawn Towle in 2007,via Facebook.
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Catholic Answers, a lay-run apostolate of Catholic apologetics and evangelization, defines purgatory as:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a "purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven," which is experienced by those "who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified" (CCC 1030). It notes that "this final purification of the elect . . . is entirely different from the punishment of the damned" (CCC 1031).
The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27) and, while we may die with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be many impurities in us, specifically venial sins and the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven.
As humble rock sitters in Chippewa County, Bluestem is loathe to compare the 2012 election to either a particular or general judgement, while declining to discuss its connection with God's will.
Senator Scott Newman (R-Hutchinson), author of the rejected Voter ID Amendment, is comfortable with discussing the defeat in these terms with Republicans in McLeod County. In County GOPers get pep talks, McLeod County Chronicle editor Rich Glennie reports:
Newman said the 2012 elections were tough for Republicans, who lost control of both houses of the Legislature. “Being in St. Paul is like being in purgatory; it’s not exactly hell, but it’s not heaven either,” Newman said as a GOP minority member.
But he told his fellow Republicans, “We can do something about that. The Republican Party is the party of America!
Scott Newman might think that, but Bluestem couldn't possibly comment.
Image: A minority caucus meeting in the Minnesota Senate, or a Dore engraving from Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vision of Purgatory, Complete,by Dante Alighieri, translated by Rev. H.F.Cary? Scott Newman believes that the two compare.
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If Pine County Commissioner Mitch Pangerl has his way, there will be no electronic sign on land owned by the county because a local LGBT Pride event might use the sign, a group he called a "bad apple."
The Pine County board could have heated meetings in the months ahead, according to one commissioner, if it allows an electronic sign on land owned by the county.
Commissioner Stephen Hallan of Pine City brought forward a request for a group to lease space in front of the old county courthouse in Pine City to advertise community events.
The sign would cost $30,000 and the group would pay for all costs associated with it. Hallan said the fundraising would probably be spearheaded by Kevin Anderson and the Pine City Chamber of Commerce. Hallan said the sign would be used for advertising events such as the Lions pancake breakfast, fishing contests, fair and Arts in the Park.
Fellow Commissioner Mitch Pangerl of Pine City stated he was against the proposed lease of land.
Having an electronic sign in the community has been controversial in the Pine City school system, which formerly had a sign outside the elementary school that was used for community events. In 2000, the sign was erected, with $10,000 coming from the Greater Pine Area Endowment, to promote school and community events.
It was used by more than 20 community groups until this year when Pride in the Park wanted space to promote their event on the sign. Soon thereafter, the school board decided to only use the sign for school events, stating that some members of the public did not support the Pride in the Park message in front of the school.
Pangerl, who said “one bad apple that advertised on that sign,” said he got 30 phone calls on it. The school district, after limiting the message on the sign, refunded the $10,000 donation.
Faust voted to legalize marriage equality last spring, gaining national attention for his moving floor speech, in venues like the Huffington Post.
The East Central Minnesota Pride picnic, which will celebrate its tenth year this summer, is a high profile rural rainbow event. Last summer's entertainment included:
. . . Chastity Brown, a 30-year old Minneapolis-based, internationally-recognized musician who has released three full-length albums and, despite being named “Best Folk Singer” of 2012 in City Pages’ “Best of the Twin Cities,” she straddles multiple genres.
Former Minnesota Viking Esera Tuaolo will also be present to debut release his new smash single “Stronger” on the East Central Minnesota Pride stage. Tuaolo played in the National Football League for nine years and since shocked the world in 2003 with his announcement on HBO REAL SPORTS with Bryant Gumble that he is part of the LGBT community. . . .
Pangerl and others might not like those apples, but tabling a project for a community sign isn't going to stop the fun. There's a worm in Pine County, but it's not the local Pride picnic.
Photo: Mitch Pangerl, 2010.
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Federal money may not grow on trees for health care, but if it's his own defaulted federal loan? Apparently it's just a little shrubbery to borrow from the federal government for a private business, even if that doesn't work out.
Nienow lent money to campaign while not paying SBA debt down
Curiously enough, Sean Nienow might not have been able to find money to pay his SBA loan or fulfill the money he owed to National Camp Association, Inc, a New York corporation, which received a court judgement for outstanding cash, but he was able to loan his campaign money.
When did Nienow loan his campaign nearly $5000? Looking backward to to 2011, Nienow lent his campaign $4950.00 on December 31, 2011 (mind you that it paid him back ASAP in 2012), according to his 2011 end of year report.
But there's more!
In the 2011 year end report, Nienow's campaign repaid earlier loans from the candidate. A partial loan payment of $990 was made on August 9, 2011, another of $500 on November 14, 2011, and a final partial payment of $900 was made on November 20, 2011 for a total of $2390 repaid for the year.
In the 2010 year end report, Sean Nienow loaned his campaign $4700 on July 19; his employer is listed as the National Camp Association Inc. He repaid the loan on July 21, as well as repaying any earlier loan for $4700 on January 4, 2010. The campaign had two outstanding loan balances as of October 18, 2010: $50 from the candidate on August 5, 2002 and $4900 lent by the candidate on December 30, 2005.
“The defendants ceased making payments on or about July 28, 2010, and the Note has not been repaid,” the suit said. “Defendants have defaulted under the terms and conditions of the Note by failing to repay said Note.”
Apparently Nienow found $4700 to loan his campaign on July 19 and got it back of July 21, but didn't direct that cash toward his outstanding balance with the SBA. Did he hoard it until lending it once again to the campaign committee?
The two loans at $4950, along with a December 31, 2009, loan from the candidate of $4700, are listed on his committee's 2009 year end report.
Earlier campaign finance reports do not fall within the period of the contract to buy the assets of National Camp Associatio, Inc. of New York or of the SBA loan.
Nienow does seem to have managed to loaned money to his campaign--and gotten it back--even as he wasn't paying on his loan and contract. Money doesn't grow on trees, after all.
Photo: Sean Nienow. He's not up for re-election until 2016, so maybe everybody will forget this by then.
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There's a lovely story in the most recent issue of the Red Wing Republican Eagle about the respect that "quiet strength" and "fight for truth" earned for a city resident deeply involved in environmental education and human rights for LGBT people.
From that most main street of organizations, the Kiwanis.
When Bruce Ause went to Thursday’s Noontime Kiwanis meeting, he thought he was there to help talk about the early years of the Environmental Learning Center. Instead, he was honored for his work with the ELC and other community involvement when he was named the 2013 Red Wing Neighbor of the Year.
He was chosen from a handful of nominees and stood out for getting the ELC off the ground, work at the state Capitol and locally for Red Wing PFLAG, and his “quiet strength” and fight for truth, Kiwanis members said.
A google search returns a couple thousand hits on his name, and the Red Wing Republican Eagle story condenses that record into a life spent changing people's minds:
In his work with PFLAG, Ause has been “fighting for equality when it’s not very popular,” Leise said.
“He’s one of the few people who can change people’s minds,” she said. “By changing minds, you can change a community.”
Ause said his work with PFLAG has been aimed at curbing discrimination, which he said many people can’t fully understand until they’ve experienced it.
“I am most appreciative of the fact that Minnesota is leading the country in respect and dignity for those that are different,” he said.
Ause began working with the Environmental Learning Center when it started in 1970, seeking "to make a difference one kid at a time,” Killey reports. Ause was also speaking up in April, 2011 about the need to scrutinize industrial scale frac sand mining, according to an Associated Press report, SE Minn. Could Become Hotbed For ‘Frac Sand’. While most people were still babbling on about a "new gold rush," Ause was more cautious:
But some residents fear that sand mining will spoil the local environment, said Bruce Ause, retired director of the Red Wing Environmental Learning Center.
“It’s not that they don’t want any development whatsoever,” Ause said. “But I think they want smart development, sustainable development that doesn’t damage the main reason that people live here or want to live here.”
Breitbart notes that the IUPE and the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) are aiding a Republican PAC:
On Monday, the National Journal reported that "documents filed by other groups show that two labor organizations, the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Laborers' International Union of North America, directed a combined $400,000 to the Republican group [the Defending Main Street super PAC] in September and October."
. . .earlier press reports indicate that it claims to have already raised $4 million of a planned $8 million to defeat Tea Party candidates in Republican primaries.
SW Metro Tea Party Patriot and freshman state representative Cindy Pugh doesn't seem to have had any trouble with the Republican Party before. A long time GOP activist, Pugh was endorsed over a sitting Republican legislator who later challenged her and lost in the 2012 primary. Perhaps she doesn't know about the anti-GOP post.
Or maybe challenging sitting Republican legislators is only bad when they're right-wing etremists, rather than part of the game-o of letting people elect their own leaders.
Nor do we recall any outcry from Minnesota's Tea Party chapters when Minnesota unions endorsed some of Pugh's colleagues in the last cycle.
The Republican incumbents endorsed by the union are:
Sens. Bill Ingebrigtsen (SD 8), Jeremy Miller (SD 28) and Dave Senjem (SD 25)
Reps. Jim Abeler (HD 35A), Tony Cornish (HD 23B), Kurt Daudt (HD 31A), Pat Garofalo (HD 58B), Tom Hackbarth (HD 31B), Rod Hamilton (HD 22B), Joe Hoppe (HD 47B), Larry Howes (HD 5A), Denny McNamara (HD 54B), Tim O’Driscoll (HD 13B), Tim Sanders (HD 37B), Joe Schomacker (HD 22A) and Steve Smith (HD 33B)
Will Pugh and her Tea Party supporters demand that her colleagues repudiate their union ties now that the national union of the 49ers is supporting moderate Republicans over Tea Party darlings? Or will she insist on purity and leave the GOP?
Only Howes lost his bid last year, while Daudt emerged as minority leader after the dust settled. Hamilton essentially leads the rural Republicans in the House, while Cornish, a former union rep, is a guardian of gun rights who's fundraised for Pugh.
Does her base really loathe the IUPE? The GOP?
Screenshot: The SW Metro Tea Party post. Is SWMTP leader representative Pugh as hostile to her party?
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According to the agenda for the Inaugural State of the Workforce Symposium: From Education to Employment, sponsored by the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU), the trade group for for-profit private colleges, Second Congressional District Congressman John Kline spoke this morning to symposium attendees about "Education and the Workforce."
A Republican, Kline chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
He also receives boxcar loads of campaign contributions from the parent corporations operating the for-profit schools, which are typical far more expensive than Minnesota's public technical and community colleges and four-year universities.
According to Bluestem's analysis (and we'll be doublechecking our addition, not a strong suit), Kline's campaign and leadership committees took in $57,000 in contributions from PACs and individual contributors associated with for-profit colleges and two formerly for-profit colleges that recently changed their status during FEC's third quarter.
An earlier analysis by USA Today revealed that Kline received "$138,350 from April 1 through June 30 from the political action committees, employees and lobbyists of for-profit schools for his reelection campaign and his leadership PAC."
Kline received less than $15,000 from the same sector in the first quarter, but the dollars for the cycle add up to nearly a sixth of the congressman's haul for both committees in the cycle.
It's a busy time for APSCU, the trade association of America's for-profit colleges. The group spends its time trying to block reasonable measures to hold the worst actors in its industry responsible for their systematic abuses of students and taxpayers, as if the industry is permanently entitled to the enormous amounts of federal taxpayer money -- $33 billion in a recent year -- that it receives. And the industry is under siege, now that media and government investigations have exposed that many for-profit colleges offer a toxic mix of deceptive recruiting, high prices, low quality instruction, and poor job placement records.
Last week the Guardian revealed documents that, among other things, reaffirmed the link between the troubled for-profit college sector and the controversial corporate advocacy group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). . . .
Most of the corporations in the group have fled ALEC, Halperin writes, but ALEC hopes to woo them back:
ALEC documents showed that the group has a "prodical son" (sic) project that seeks to return to the fold lapsed members, and that list included the for-profit college companies Kaplan and Bridgepoint Education. Republic Report was the first to report last year that industry members including Kaplan, Bridgepoint, Corinthian Colleges -- and APSCU itself -- have all been ALEC members. The documents revealed by the Guardian also show that ALEC listed as possible recruits for membership the for-profit college businesses Capella, DeVry, and Education Management Corp.
So what's the problem? Halperin points out:
Given that in the past year numerous for-profit college companies, including Corinthian and Career Education Corporation, have been accused by state attorneys general and others of misleading students about their job placement rates, and given that for-profit colleges today account for 13 percent of college students but nearly half of all student loan defaults, it would be great if APSCU actually got serious about pressing its members to train students for careers. But this two-day session is just talk, not action.
And right now, it's clear that APSCU is actively resisting such accountability for its members. The Obama administration has for four years pursued a "gainful employment" rule, aimed at cutting off taxpayer funds to career education programs that consistently leave their students with insurmountable debt. Instead of accepting a reasonable rule, APSCU lobbied heavily to get the rule watered down by the White House, tried to have it overturned by Congress, and then finally managed to get it blocked by a federal judge.
In some ways, the schools resemble lampreys, attached to the body of higher education for the sake of their stockholders.
Kline and for-profit higher education corporation political contributions
A USA TODAY analysis of newly filed campaign reports shows Kline raised $138,350 from April 1 through June 30 from the political action committees, employees and lobbyists of for-profit schools for his reelection campaign and his leadership PAC. That's nearly one-quarter of his total receipts and up from $20,700 that the industry gave to Kline during the first three months of the year.
On Friday, Rep. Kline will be the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Minnesota Career College Association, the trade group for the state's for-profit colleges. Not all for-profit college programs are bad; some work hard to train students for careers. But the Minnesota organization includes schools owned by some of the industry's worst predators -- described below.
. . . Kline, USA Todayreported over the summer, "saw a dramatic upsurge in campaign contributions from for-profit colleges in recent months," at the same time that he has advanced a bill that would shield for-profit colleges from greater accountability for waste, fraud, and abuse. Kline's legislation has the ridiculous name the "Supporting Academic Freedom through Regulatory Relief Act," but it has nothing to do with actual academic freedom. Instead, Kline's bill is about blocking the Obama administration from issuing a new "gainful employment" rule that would end taxpayer support for career training programs that consistently leave students with insurmountable loan debt . . .
Halperin connects the dots between Kline's contributors and Kline's support for "policies that have fueled a ten-year race to the bottom, where for-profit colleges instead know that the more they mislead and abuse students, the more money they can make." Go read the article for the details.
Kline's third quarter haul from for-profit colleges
The Halperin and USA Today articles both use contribution data on file with the FEC from the second fundraising quarter of 2013. More money came in during the third quarter, and so Kline's talk today might be construed by some as a reward for his own investors.
Schedule A Line #: 11C of his October quarterly campaign committee report includes additional contributions from PACs associated with for-profit schools and higher education services and the corporations that own them:
Apollo Group PAC 4615 Elwood St E Phoenix, Arizona 85040
09/20/2013
5000.00
5000.00
Apollo Group PAC 4615 Elwood St E Phoenix, Arizona 85040
09/20/2013
5000.00
10000.00
Bridgepoint Education Inc. PAC 13500 Evening Creek Dr N Ste 600 San Diego, California 92128
08/05/2013
2000.00
5500.00
Bridgepoint Education Inc. PAC 13500 Evening Creek Dr N Ste 600 San Diego, California 92128
From individuals connected with for-profit schools:
Mr. John Hayes Batson 130 Mississippi River Blvd S St Paul, Minnesota 55105
Regency Corporation
07/15/2013
1000.00
Education
1000.00
Kevin Gilligan 5804 Crescent Ter Minneapolis, Minnesota 55424
Capella Education Company
08/01/2013
2600.00
CEO
2600.00
Mr. Daniel M Hamburger 590 South Ave Glencoe, Illinois 60022
DeVry Inc
07/17/2013
500.00
President & CEO
500.00
Ms. Renee Herzing 4090 Lake Dr N Shorewood, Wisconsin 53211
Herzing University
08/19/2013
5200.00
President & CEO
5200.00
Ms. Renee Herzing 4090 Lake Dr N Shorewood, Wisconsin 53211
Herzing University
08/20/2013
-2600.00
President & CEO
MEMO
2600.00
Redesignated to General 2014
LIMITS
Ms. Renee Herzing 4090 Lake Dr N Shorewood, Wisconsin 53211
Herzing University
08/20/2013
2600.00
President & CEO
MEMO
5200.00
Redesignated from Primary 2014
LIMITS
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson took Herzing University to task for "a medical-assisting degree that didn’t have the accreditation desired by potential employers," the Star Tribune's Paul Walsh reported in the November 27, 2013 story Minn., Herzing University reach deal over program that lacked accreditation.
Mrs. Emily H King 15W090 Sedgley Rd Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527
Retired
08/31/2013
5000.00
Retired
MEMO
5000.00
Reattributed from Robert King
LIMITS
Mrs. Emily H King 15W090 Sedgley Rd Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527
Retired
08/31/2013
-2400.00
Retired
MEMO
2600.00
Redesignated to General 2014
LIMITS
Mrs. Emily H King 15W090 Sedgley Rd Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527
Retired
08/31/2013
2400.00
Retired
MEMO
5000.00
Redesignated from Primary 2014
LIMITS
Mr. Robert E. King 15W090 Sedgley Rd Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527
Rasmussen Inc
08/30/2013
10000.00
Chairman
10000.00
Mr. Robert E. King 15W090 Sedgley Rd Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527
Rasmussen Inc
08/31/2013
-5000.00
Chairman
MEMO
5000.00
Reattributed to Emily King
LIMITS
Mr. Robert E. King 15W090 Sedgley Rd Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527
Rasmussen Inc
08/31/2013
-2400.00
Chairman
MEMO
2600.00
Redesignated to General 2014
LIMITS
Mr. Robert E. King 15W090 Sedgley Rd Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527
Rasmussen Inc
08/31/2013
2400.00
Chairman
MEMO
5000.00
Redesignated from Primary 2014
LIMITS
Mr. Michael D Perry 5549 Grove Ct W Visalia, California 93291
San Joaquin Valley College
08/30/2013
5200.00
CEO
5200.00
Mr. Michael D Perry 5549 Grove Ct W Visalia, California 93291
San Joaquin Valley College
08/31/2013
-2600.00
CEO
MEMO
2600.00
Redesignated to General 2014
LIMITS
Mr. Michael D Perry 5549 Grove Ct W Visalia, California 93291
San Joaquin Valley College
08/31/2013
2600.00
CEO
MEMO
5200.00
Redesignated from Primary 2014
LIMITS
With the PAC money, that adds up to $43,000 for the quarter. It's $48,000 with July contribution below. In Kline's Freedom & Security Leadership PAC's filings, July through November, we find one more:
Stevens-Henager's CEO, Eric Juhlin, explained to the Idaho Statesman that the switch was made to allow the college to obtain private donations and, according to the paper, "to meet the long-term vision of its single shareholder, Carl Barney, who purchased Stevens-Henager about 15 years ago." The paper also noted that Juhlin is a board member of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, "the new name for Stevens-Henager Inc."
But there are reasons to be concerned about this new entrant to the non-profit college sector. Stevens-Henager and three affiliated schools were all, according to one of their admissions supervisors whom I reached by phone, converted to for-profit status on January 1, and their umbrella for-profit entity, actually called CollegeAmerica, Inc., became part of the non-profit Center for Excellence in Higher Education. But a new January 14 job posting says that CollegeAmerica, Inc. is hiring and it "is a privately held company that ... operates for-profit Colleges and owns Stevens-Henager Colleges in Idaho and Utah." The supervisor I spoke with at the college, whatever its name is, said that despite the formal conversion, the school was still "in transition." The job posting is for an "admissions consultant," but it is explained that the job is a "sales position" requiring "exceptional persistence" and the ability to work evenings and weekends, and that sounds a lot like the boiler-room style recruiting of for-profit colleges. . . .
Stevens-Henager and its affiliated colleges have established records of leaving their students deep in debt. For example, as of 2009, 40.2 percent of students of the Flagstaff, Arizona, campus of CollegeAmerica defaulted on their loans within three years. The figure was 38.8 percent at the CollegeAmerica campus in Denver, and a still-high 24.7 at the Stevens-Henager campus in West Haven, Utah. For comparison, the default rate at Michigan State University was 4.3 percent.
With the release of first quarter campaign donations, an examination of Federal Elections Commission disclosures by the Wonk Room has found that Kline received nearly $50,000 from for-profit colleges so far this year. Notably, on March 15, 2011, two days before the House passed his amendment against the Department of Education, Kline received $21,200 from the same companies . . .
Kline, who received another $100,000 from the industry last year, also hosted a brazen fundraiser with subprime college lobbyists on March 8th. That means for two straight weeks, industry lobbyists funneled cash to Kline so he could help them drain more taxpayer money without properly educating their students. . . .
[Drazkowski] asked, "Why is it that we cannot focus on the needs of the people who take care of the people who are the most vulnerable among us?"
Drazkowski did not specifically say he would support The 5% Campaign, but did say he would set a high priority on funding for programs that care for the state's most vulnerable.
In an interview, House Health and Human Services Policy Chairwoman Tina Liebling said it is important to remember that the GOP-led House passed legislation in 2011 cutting funding for these programs by 1.67 percent. Democrats prevented those cuts from taking effect and increased funding by an additional 1 percent. Meanwhile, nursing homes received a 5 percent pay increase. She said she supports efforts to find additional dollars for these providers in the upcoming legislative session.
"They are right. We don't pay enough to do what we need to do for people in long-term care, and it really was unfair that we providing a 5 percent increase to nursing homes and must less to long-term care."
Good for Carlson for going the extra distance and interviewing Liebling.
Video still: Steve Drazkowski in the famous meeting with care provider staff in 2011 where he recommended saving costs by installing baby-monitor-like devices to replace staffers in the wake of Republican sponsored budget cuts. Video here.
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Now broadcasting without longtime sidekick Jake Macmillian MacAulay, Bradlee Dean nonetheless remains on the radio via the Sons of Liberty radio show.
He's still saying peculiar things on the show, even without MacAulay's help. On Saturday, October 12, near the end of the first hour, Dean claimed that Barack Obama seeks to "eradicate the Hispanic and the 'Negro' race," via Planned Parenthood.
Dean went on to say that Obama isn't popular in either black or Latino communities, so much so in the latter case that the President of the United States has to bring "illegals in Mexico" to this country.
Heckova plan to eradicate "the Hispanic race" in America, but what does a small-town blogger know.
Here's the transcript:
And do tell your black friends and your Hispanic friends, that the Obama Administration, through Planned Parenthood, is looking to eradicate the Hispanic and the Negro [sic] race. Hey friends, just saying, just ask Margaret Sanger, do a little homework friends.
Who's the greatest advocate for Planned Parenthood?
And-and-and here's another thing, let's get this right out of our minds, let's dispell all of these lies, friends, the black community doesn't support Barack Hussein Obama the way the state run media wants to you believe he does. And they do! They don't!
And the Hispanic people! Because if they did, then why is he looking to legalize and give license to illegals in Mexico to come to America if he had all of that support? He doesn't have the support!
But the state-run media has deceived you into believing that they do. Friends, they only get away with what you let them get away with.
The audio clip (along with a famous picture of Dean giving the infamous prayer--later stricken from the record of the Minnesota House--in which Dean questioned the President's faith):
Dean is riffing off a right-wing conspiracy theory that holds that Sanger, who did hold racist attitudes though not eliminationist views, planned to wipe out black people. In fact, Sanger did not believe in forced sterilization or birth control for any person. Planned Parenthood looks at the conspiracy theory here.
If the president, a man of African and white heritage, seeks to eradicate "the Negro race," he's not doing a very good job of it.
As for the President's popularity in African-American and Latino communities, perhaps the best index for measuring that opinion was the 2012 presidential election. A snapshot of demographic factors assembled by National Journal after the election noted that 93 percent of black voters cast their ballot for Obama, while 73 percent of Latino voters did so.
That's some hating on the man.
As for the plot to "to legalize and give license to illegals in Mexico to come to America," we're stumped as to what's "illegal" about Mexicans living in Mexico, or why someone who supposedly seeks to "eradicate" Latinos would do so opening up immigration from Mexico.
However, since the discussion over comprehensive immigration reform involves creating a pathway to citizenship for people living in the United States without authorization, updating rules for those seeking to live and work in the country, and border security, Bluestem missed the part about wiping out Hispanics (in order to destroy them!) or bringing in more Mexicans because Latino Americans dislike the president.
Photo: Bradlee Dean speaking at a St. Cloud College Republican sponsored event in April 2012. According to one Dean employee and former SCSU student, the visit helped rescue her from boys, booze and books.
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Conservative talk radio gadfly and lightly-defeated 2012 Ramsey County Commissioner candidate Sue Jeffers told a September 26 meeting of the Rochester Tea Party Patriots that former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former United States Senator Norm Coleman, as well as former state party officials Ron Carey, Tony Sutton and Michael Brodkorb were Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) who destroyed the party brand and thus need to be thrown out.
There's a lot of that going around in Minnesota's Tea Party groups, which also claim to so not be Republicans. Last month, Bluestem looked at the coming visit of a RINO hunter to Tea Party groups in Central Minnestoa and the Southwest Metro in Central MN Tea Party & "Chanhassen" to host Doc Thompson's Operation RINO Hunt.
Jeffers said of the Republican stalwarts in the video below (full talk here):
I think, back in 2004, 5, 6, 7, thanks to people like Tim Pawlenty, thanks to the people like Norm Coleman, squishy, white-bread RINOs--you know what? I'll throw Ron Carey in there, I'll throw Michael Brodkorb in there, and I'll throw Tony Sutton in there, I'll throw them all under the bus.
I think they helped destroy the Republican brand and it's our job to fix it. We have to fix it. I think because they crushed down good candidates in some many different areas, not just me--because my advice to you is don't start out running for governor, start out a little bit lower on the food chain, definitely (audience laughter)--
They crush down so many good people, so many people who could have made a difference that it hurt us, it destroyed our brand.
And I think that people like John McCain now, who's calling Ted Cruz names, or Lindsey Graham, people like that, they're hurting the Republican brand even more, and of course they don't have one good thing to say about the Tea Party people, they don't have one nice thing to say.
They all claim to be conservatives, but they aren't. They aren't. And we have to start calling them on it and we have to start throwing them out.
Here's the video:
Jeffers always has been known to challenge Minnesota's Republican establishment from the right--she famously primaried Tim Pawlenty as he sought a second term in 2006, but Bluestem is surprised to hear the names of Carey, Sutton and Brodkorb placed in her litany. Coleman did start out as Democrat, and Pawlenty seemed squishy to Jeffers and her ilk for embrace dirty hippie policies like renewable energy standards.
But Sutton and Brodkorb? While Sutton destroyed the MNGOP brand through reckless accounting, we don't recall ideological beefs with the anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-gambling political operative. Ditto with Brodkorb, who seemed brought down more by his philandering than his politics. During their sway, the Republican Party brought such Jeffers favs as Dave Thompson to office in 2010--and Thompson received a healthy stipend as a media consultant while he ran for state senate. Just saying.
Carey a RINO? Is she inventing a new acronym: RINO In Name Only?
Bonus round: Sutton purged moderate Republicans in 2010
In a dramatic display of the new Republican order, Minnesota’s state GOP
banished 18 prominent party members — including two former governors
and a retired U.S. senator — as punishment for supporting a third-party candidate for governor. . . .
Those exiled warned that the measure, which bans the 18 former members
from participating in party activities for two years and bars them from
attending the 2012 Republican National Convention, may provoke a
backlash that undercuts the party’s competitiveness in a state that’s
voted for the GOP presidential nominee just once in the past half
century.
“The Republican party is trying to become ... you would call it
introverted totalitarianism,” said former congressman and Gov. Al Quie, a
onetime vice presidential prospect who plans to stick with the party
despite the penalty. “It’s just plain dumb on their part. ... In the
long run, if the party persists with this, [it's] going to just become
smaller and smaller and eventually something else would come in its
place.”
Among those rebuked along with Quie were former U.S. Sen. David
Durenberger, former Gov. Arne Carlson and former state House Speaker
David Jennings.
State Republican Chairman Tony Sutton said Saturday’s measure, which
passed by 59 to 55 votes, was “a venting of frustration” that grew out
of the belief that the candidacy of Republican-turned-independent Tom
Horner cost GOP nominee Tom Emmer the governor’s race in November.
Brodkorb later threw Emmer under the bus, blaming his campaign for the loss and more. Now he and Sutton--now two party leadership elections in the past--are the RINOs facing exile if Jeffers and her ilk get their way.
Will this purge include folks like moderate Rochester Republican Senator Dave Senjem? Elsewhere in the video, Jeffers and her audience aren't very happy about Mayo's new Destination Medical Center. How involved can an independent organization like the Rochester Tea Party-- which fought with the IRS for its tax status--get with the internal politics of one party?
In June 2012, the IRS contacted the group and informed them they should apply for 501(c)(4)
status instead [of 501(c)(3) status as a charitable organization], which covers not-for-profit civic leagues or
organizations operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.
On Sept. 6, 2012, the group received 501(c)(4) status.
Photo: Sue Jeffers, who talked to the Rochester Tea Party Patriots on September 26, 2013, as if they were part of the Republican Party. Perish the thought.
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The Belle Plaine Herald has published a remarkable letter by Gene Thomas Kornder, who received 13.38 percent of the vote in the 2012 Senate District Republican primary.
By proclaiming November to be "Muslim Appreciation Month," the current occupant of the White House has reached a new low.
Paradoxically, I agree. Americans do need to thoroughly appreciate Islam and its' Muslims.
To fully appreciate Islam, I recommend these books: 'What Americans Need to Know About Islam' by Michael Federer and 'Barbarian Cruelty' by Francis Brooks. First published in 1693, 'Barbarian Cruelty' is available from T.B.R. Book Club, P.O. Box 15877, Washington D.C. 20003 for $9 and $4 S&H.
A word to the wise is sufficient.
Gene Thomas Kornder
Bluestem believes a word to the wise is not only only sufficent, but necessary for those reading this letter. Let's unpack this one, beginning with "Muslim Appreciation Month."
Pants on fire: Polifacts and Snopes on "Muslim Appreciation Month"
Apparently, the editors of the Belle Plaine Herald have not learned that Google is their friend, as it's possible this missive might not have seen the light of day had they simply tossed "Muslim Appreciation Month" into the search engine.
The fact that it came from a website, National Report, known for Onion-like satire, didn’t stop some bloggers from reporting it as news.
The piece was packed with fake details designed to press anti-Muslim
buttons: President Barack Obama held a news conference to make his
declaration. He said Muslims "are not all bad. In fact, most of them are
good."
His announcement was hailed by a "member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s
Freedom and Justice Party." He said he would work with Congress to make
it easier for Muslims to earn U.S. citizenship.
"Mr. Matei of the Muslim Brotherhood assured me they want to come to
this country to help us, not harm us," he was reported to say.
Following other attempts to paint Obama as a Muslim -- such as this one that we rated Pants on Fire -- the National Report’s gambit worked.
"How dare Obama declare November, the month when we give thanks to
God for our blessings and great nation, National Muslim Appreciation
Month!" wrote a blogger for Tea Party Nation.
The PolitiFact inbox saw email after email with links to such stories from readers who got it from outraged friends.
Urban-legend debunker Snopes.com quickly confirmed that it originated with National Report.
The headline was utterly invented, and the event was entirely fabricated. . . .
Snopes.com's debunking of the bloggers' inability to understand satire closes with the recognition of a nice touch on the part of the National Report writer:
The phone number given at the end of the National Report article for contacting the "24-hour National Muslim Appreciation Hotline" actually belongs to the notorious Westboro Baptist Church.
Uffda.
White nationalism: the Barnes Review and Willis Carto
Bluestem doesn't wonder that Kornder missed that one, since he's recommending books available through the TBR Book Club, an adjunct venue of the notorious white nationalist publication, the Barnes Review. Unlike the folly of witless bloggers failing to understand satire, the Barnes Review and its founder Willis A.Carto are no laughing matters.
The Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Files entry for the Barnes Review begins:
Founded by Willis Carto in 1994, The Barnes Review (TBR) is one of the most virulent anti-Semitic organizations around. Its flagship journal, The Barnes Review,
and its website, Barnesreview.org, are dedicated to historical
revisionism and Holocaust denial. The organization is also a moneymaking
enterprise. Besides journal subscriptions, its TBR Book Club and online
bookstore promote and sell a wide range of extremist books and
publications. The Barnes Review also hosts nearly annual
conferences that attract an international crowd of antigovernment
extremists, anti-Semites, white supremacists, and racist conspiracy
theorists.
Voters in most of Le Sueur County and other parts of state Senate
District 20 won’t be able to use the old “they’re all the same, anyway”
excuse for not voting in the Aug. 14 primary election. . . .
At times Kornder sounds like other Republican candidates: “More people
work for government than for private enterprise, and this situation is
unsustainable.”
Mostly, though, he sounds different.
Kornder wants to look into whether powerful energy companies are
suppressing revolutionary new forms of energy such as small-scale
nuclear fusion reactors. He’d like to abolish the income tax and
believes property taxes are unconstitutional under the Minnesota
Constitution.
He wants to shut down the Metropolitan Council and shift its revenue
into a new “Bank of Minnesota,” patterned after the Bank of North Dakota
formed by the Nonpartisan League a century ago. That would allow the
state to pay interest to itself when borrowing, Kornder said.
Kornder would shrink government and fund it with sales and excise
taxes, making the excise taxes progressive when possible — applying
higher rates, for instance, to luxury cars than to lower-end models.
That’s much preferable to property taxes, which are a tax on wealth, and
income taxes, which tax the production of wealth, he said.
“If you tax wealth and the production of wealth, you’re actually
limiting or destroying these things,” said Kornder, who has previously
run unsuccessfully for the Belle Plaine School Board and the state House
(in 1978 as a member of The American Party).
In response to a questionnaire from the Northfield News, Kornder summed
up his motivation for running: “I offer those who are disappointed with
the current leadership, those who support Ron Paul, Tea Partiers, 911
Truthers, Birthers and Conspiracy ‘freaks,’ the opportunity to put
someone in the Minnesota Senate who will make a difference.”
Kornder told the Belle Plaine Herald (among other things):
What facets of the Republican Party would you change?
In recent decades, the neo-cons, evangelical-Zionists and RINOs
(Republicans In Name Only), have transformed the Republican Party into a
tool of the New World Order. I am determined to reverse this.
It's no wonder that Dudley won; what we wonder about is the sanity of the 400 people who voted for this guy, as well as the discernment of the editors who ran the letter.
Photo: A double facepalm from Washington.
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Marriage equality is the law of the land, but St. Cloud Times Writers Group columnist Cathy Williamson, a landscape architect and home educator whose contributor bio notes that she "loves creativity, people and truth," assures readers that God is still hating on teh gay.
While these and other references paint the picture of God’s norm for
marriage, specific teachings reveal God’s negative attitude toward
homosexuality. Leviticus 18:22; 20:15: “You shall not lie with a male as
with a woman; it is an abomination,” and those who do “shall be put to
death” for their guilt. I Corinthians 6:9 informs homosexuals that they
will not inherit the kingdom of God. In Romans 1, homosexual acts are
deemed “contrary to nature, dishonorable passions,” deserving death.
Those doing them give approval to those who practice them, thereby
heaping up more liability. In I Timothy 1:8-10, homosexuals are counted
among the “unrighteous.”
There’s just not any indication here that God is pro-homosexual behavior.
The biblical God of love would have homosexuals turn to him for a change of heart, not a change of status.
Yes,
I wonder at the abysmal research that supported the promotion of
homosexual marriage. But I wonder more that we Minnesotans, well
educated and replete with Christian churches, settled for such poor
scholarship and skewed biblical understanding. What were we thinking?
Indeed. Bluestem does wonder what a person so concerned with scholarship is thinking when she blends Leviticus 18:22 and 20:15 in a discussion of same-sex behavior. While 18:22 (Revised Standard Version) is related to the topic, here's 20:15:
“‘If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he is to be put to death, and you must kill the animal.
That's some scholarship, chapter and verse. Some of Bluestem's friends do date bears, but we're not sure how Williamson might document that, much less punish it. Maybe she had furries in mind.
Both chapters also forbid married hanky-panky while Aunt Flo is visiting, although only the second iteration shares God's prescribed punishment: banishment. Perhaps Williamson can wave the bloody flag of divine law on that one in a future column.
"What were they thinking?" is a rhetorical question, but the "kill the homosexuals" verse from Leviticus (actually 20:13) that she lovely cites did come up in the discussion--and was rejected by Minnesota for Marriage as well pro-equality forces in a memorable episode in the amendment fight. On june 28, 2012, Bluestem posted in M4M disavows Leviticus 20:13 verse used in October letter it promoted on Twitter:
Hacking a person's or organization's social media accounts is
strategically stupid stuff, and it's likely that the thimblewit who hijacked Andy Parrish's gmail account (and all the related Facebook pages to which the intruder gained access) will be caught.
The culprit deserves what's coming to him or her.
But the bible verse that he or she posted, creating such an uproar,
isn't new to Minnesota for Marriage tweets. Back on October 6, 2011, the M4M account tweeted:
Today a fight is brewing for the Marriage Amendment that defines a
marriage as between one man and one woman. People are saying that this
amendment means nothing, that it is no big deal because we have laws
against homosexual marriage. They are wrong.
We need this Marriage Amendment because if we don’t, then they can
get the law changed. This same homosexual group has changed the law in
other places such as Iowa and New York. Now they say they want to get
the law changed in Minnesota. They plan a massive blanketing of
Minnesota by going neighborhood to neighborhood, making phone calls and
distributing pamphlets.
This is what the Lord says of homosexual marriage: Romans 1:24-27, Leviticus 18:22-23, and Leviticus 20:13.
“‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman,
both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to
death; their blood will be on their own heads.
When M4M deputy campaign director first raised the Facehack issue
yesterday, he tweeted that the posting on the M4M page was "garbage":
My Twitter, Facebook, @gmail.com @me.com were all hacked and garbage was posted on the MInnesota For Marriage FB. I won't be intimidated.
“We are currently working with Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and Apple to
see who hacked Andy’s account and who posted this message,” reads the
message posted on Minnesota for Marriage’s Facebook page on Wednesday
morning. “Clearly we would never advocate for anyone to be put to death.
We strongly believe that people are entitled to love whomever they
choose, but they are not entitled to redefine marriage for all of
society.”
While M4M will continue to push for enshrining one version of
marriage in the state constitution (the bible suggests other forms),
it's good to see the group moving from recommending LTEs quoting
Leviticus to taking the position that people can love whomever they want
without facing the death penalty.
As for Old Testment passages that note multiple wives(those forms of marriage other than one man, one woman), Williamson writes:
Heterosexual marriages remain the norm as the biblical narrative unfolds, despite that many Bible characters wrongly multiplied the number of wives in the equation.
So the Bible is right, except for those cases where it doesn't fit Williamson's definition of divinely-sanctioned "Edenic" marriage. Okay then: it's the characters in the books' faults, not the author.
Straw man: using outdated Kinsey claims to bash equality
Earlier in the letter, Williamson also commits the signature rhetorical move of the movement to end marriage equality: assert that those arguing first against the amendment, then for marriage equality, made a claim that they didn't, then attack that strawman.
When the legal definition of marriage lay on Minnesota’s table recently, the public was informed that 10 percent of our population is homosexual. That figure came from the faulty mid-century Kinsey report. However, research reported in a 2012 online Atlantic article, “Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are,” puts it closer to 1.7 percent.
During that same time, U.S. Sen. Al Franken informed me that homosexual marriage would strengthen Minnesota families. When asked to quantify that statement, he met me with silence.
That's quite a bait and switch, and we admire Franken for refusing to play Williamson's game of "quantity," however she happened to actually frame it for the senator she was baiting. Apparently, the smaller a minority, the more empowered Williamson feels she is to work to deny it rights.
But if one walks the Atlantic article back to the Williams Institute study on which it's based, we find this sentence at the top of the summary:
An estimated 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual
Williamson's definition of "homosexual" erases all bisexuals, including those who might fall in love and wish to marry a same-sex partner.
But Bluestem recalls that Minnesota United, the coalition that worked first to defeat the amendment, then secure the freedom to marry for all people, didn't much talk about the percentage of Minnesotans who might be LGBTQ. Rather the argument was framed on the very American proposition that the loves between two people, regardless of gender, were no different, and that every single adult should be able to marry the single adult that he or she loves.
Thus, the group didn't turn to Kinsey or even the Williams Institute study that's the basis for the Atlantic article when it came time to "quantify." In those few moments when MU talked numbers, it used the most reliable data available: same-sex households enumerated in the United States Census.
Minnesotans United for All Familiesis
a coalition of organizations dedicated to defeating the constitutional
amendment that would limit the freedoms of Minnesotans and ban marriage
for same-sex couples in Minnesota.
Freedom to Marryisthe campaign to win marriage nationwide for all loving and committed couples.
Human Rights Campaign is the
United States' largest civil rights organization working to achieve
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality.
OutFront Minnesotais the central statewide organization leading a multi-year campaign for marriage in Minnesota.
Project 515 is a
focused initiative with a specific, achievable goal: to ensure that
same-sex couples and their families have equal rights and considerations
under Minnesota law.
POLLING DATA: A rapidly increasing plurality of residents in Minnesota support marriage for same-sex couples, with 51% of
respondents saying they support the freedom to marry, and only 47%
saying they are opposed. These numbers affirm that the momentum for
state legislators to extend the freedom to marry to same-sex couples in
Minnesota is stronger than ever. (KSTP/SurveyUSA, April 2013)
Until 2000, the US Census Bureau didn’t even count same sex couples. Now, the government reports more gay households than ever before, including Minnesota.
It’s TRUE: 13,718 same sex couples reported living in Minnesota in
2010. It’s a 50 percent jump in just 10 years, according to the latest
government count.
IN FACT, one study, from the California-based Williams Institute,
estimates 54 percent of Minnesota’s same-sex couples are female while 46
percent are male. . . .
The numbers may be under-reported, and it doesn’t reflect how many people may consider themselves gay.
So, where does Minnesota rank?
Approximately 2.9 percent of Minnesota’s 5,379,139 population call
themselves gay: that’s below the national average of 3.5 percent.
Washington, D.C. ranks highest with a gay population estimated at 10 percent. North Dakota ranks the lowest at 1.7 percent. . . .
On the other hand, we've never found telling voters that they're dupes to be a particularly flattering or winning strategy. The Friends of Cathy W can try it.
Photo: The first same-sex couple to be married by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak in City Hill. Also their cute son. Via MSNBC (top); Cathy Williamson, via St. Cloud Times (below).
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While southern Minnesota's geography is largely rural, voters there cluster in Rochester (Minnesota's third largest city), thriving mini-metro college towns as Winona and Mankato, and blue-collar regional enclaves like Austin, New Ulm and Faribault.
Nathan Gonzalez, deputy editor of the Rothenberg Political Report,
said he sees the race as one in which Republicans are still looking for a
candidate.
“Republicans are determined to play offense in Minnesota’s 1st
District,” Gonzalez said in an email. “They are still searching for a
candidate, but they don’t want Walz to get a free ride. Walz has proven
to be a tough incumbent to defeat, so it’s up to Republicans to prove
that 2014 will be any different.”
Shaw explores the geographic calculus that the Republicans need to solve to beat Walz, although electoral history demonstrates that geography isn't destiny for the Mankato DFLer.
Walz beat six-term Rochester Republican Gil Gutknecht by 5.62 percent spread in an upset in 2006, Rochester doctor Brian Davis by a nearly 30 percent landslide in 2008 and Hayfield legislator Randy Demmer by 5 percent in the Republican wave year of 2010. Hayfield is about a half-hour drive from Rochester, a stone's throw in the sprawling Fighting First.
Shaw points out, "In 2012, Walz defeated his Republican opponent, Allen Quist, by a commanding 15 percentage points." Nicollet County made the Republican a relative home boy for a Mankato incumbent.
Those who subscribe should read all of Shaw's solid reporting. One thing that remains constant for CD1 Republicans is the rhetoric that Walz acts "like us" in the district while voting with his caucus in DC:
“The fact is that when he comes home, he talks like us. When he goes to
Washington he votes like [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi,”
Stevenson said. “Republicans don’t feel that he matches the district
very well at all. His support for Obamacare is really what’s motivating
folks here.”
Earlier this year, Mankato Free Press veteran political reporter Mark Fischenich pointed out how shopworn and unsaleable that line of goods has been for district Republicans:
[Aaron] Miller also made the same pledge that Brian Davis, Randy Demmer and
Allen Quist made early in their campaigns to unseat Walz, who defeated
six-term incumbent Congressman Gil Gutknecht: to persuade southern
Minnesotans that Walz is conning them rather than revealing his true
beliefs and values.
“He wants you to believe he’s ‘the moderate from Mankato,’” Miller said.
This time it’s for an email he sent comparing union politics to the tactics of Fidel Castro and Adolf Hitler. . . .
In the email, the woman asked Hackbarth to support Gov. Mark Dayton’s
budget plan that would raise income taxes on Minnesota’s top earners.
When she got a return email from the lawmaker, she took it to the union that represents her.
Hackbarth wrote: “Are you a union member? If so, are they the
communist giving you this propaganda?Do you know the who, what, when,
where, why and how of Fidel Castro? Hitler rose to power using and
blaming the Jews for the destruction of the German economy. Castro built
his army of murderers by blaming the rich bankers and capitalist for
destroying Cuba and taking advantage of the Cuban people. Hummm?” . . .
. . . House District 31B: Rep. Tom Hackbarth is seeking a ninth term in the Legislature. He will face opposition from at least one fellow Republican — Calvin Bahr, who runs a trucking business in the area — at Saturday’s endorsing convention. “The general thinking here is that I don’t agree with all of the things that Rep. Hackbarth is proposing for laws,” Bahr said.
In particular, he takes issue with the incumbent’s support for funding a new Minnesota Vikings stadium from the proceeds of casinos at horse racing tracks. “That will be a very big issue,” Bahr said.
“Running a private company to fund capital improvements for another private company is not a role of government.” . . .
Beyond the issues, Hackbarth’s personal conduct could be a concern for delegates. Shortly after the 2010 election, he was briefly detained by the police in St. Paul after being spotted in the parking lot of a Planned Parenthood clinic with a loaded gun. Hackbarth said at the time that he was unaware that the parking lot belonged to the security-conscious facility. He was not charged with any crime, but he was stripped of the chairmanship of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee as a result. He was subsequently given the gavel of the House’s Energy Subcommittee.
Bahr said he doesn’t intend to make an issue of the incident. “There was a small lapse in judgment, and I’m sure he learned from it,” Bahr said. “Everybody makes mistakes.”
Yes, ladies, stalking dates in Highland Park allies is no problem.
All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors. While progressive in outlook, she does not caucus with any political party.
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