Bluestem Prairie

A tough row to hoe: on the recall of Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce

The adoption of SB1070 by the state of Arizona was a wake up call for me. Though far from the prairie, the bill made me realize how corporate self-interest could marry anti-immigrant sentiment and give birth to monsters. That monster migrated north in the spring of 2010, in the form of ALEC-inspired Minnesota HF3830, wearing Steve Drazkowski's jacket.

I learned that simply waking to the monsters prowling in America's political landscape wasn't enough. Working with others, we beat back HF3830, though Draz and his kindred still occasional rumble about the need for repressive.

Given the importance of SB1070 in my life as a writer and activist, it's enormously satisfying to read this headline and lead. Fox News Latino reports in Total Recall: Author of Arizona Immigration Law is Voted Out:

In an unprecedented recall election, Arizona's State Senator and Senate President Russell Pearce, conceded defeat Tuesday. The defeat was a stunning rebuke to the author of Arizona's controversial immigration law and could serve as a warning signal to politicians who have advocated hard-line policies on immigration.

The recall vote was widely perceived as a referendum on immigration policies by both sides of the political divide. Pearce himself painted the recall advocates as liberal outsiders who were targeting him because of immigration.

Although the GOP retaines control of the Legislature, Pearce's defeat is being interpreted by Republicans as message that divisive stands on immigration and other issues are not welcome by voters. 

Rebuke. There were other rebukes last night--in Ohio and elsewhere--but none is so sweet as this, or one that will be as personal to friends, from an experienced labor leaders to a young organizer and a young writer. It's good to know that we can unite and turn this country around.

And important to realize that this is just one field rock in a long row to hoe.

Photo: Russell Pearce conceded defeat last night.

Immigrants for Sale: Will Appleton's shuttered private prison open in human trafficking scheme?

Yesterday at the Minnesota Independent, editor Jon Collins broke the news that the Corrections Corporation of America's private prison in Appleton, shuttered for want of business from the state of Minnesota, may reopen.

In Private prison company’s growth went hand-in-hand with political influence, Collins reports:

It’s been almost two years since the privately-run prison in Appleton has held prisoners. But in early 2012, the prison’s owner, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), expects to fill Appleton’s Prairie Correctional Facility and another facility in Colorado with 3,256 inmates from California.

In the last ten years, the revenue of CCA, the country’s biggest private prison company, has almost doubled, according to their annual reports. Critics say that CCA’s success, and even the likely reopening of the prison in Appleton, stems from their use of lobbying and campaign donations to push through tougher crime laws and increase detainment of illegal immigrants.

“Prison privatization contracts are designed by policy makers. It’s important for these companies to have a political strategy to increase their market share,” Paul Ashton, author of a recent report on private prisons for the Justice Policy Institute, said in a conference call Wednesday. Private prison companies “game the system,” he said, by pushing to increase market share, which in the private prison business means putting more people in prison.

The Appleton facility is in DFLer Andrew Falk's House district and Gary Kubly's Senate District. When the state began transferring inmates from the private Prairie Correctional Facility to the less-costly public facility in Faribault, the Morris Sun reported that both legislators went to bat for the jobs the corporation provided:

“Devastating’’ is how Appleton Mayor Ron Ronning, himself an employee of the private prison, described the consequences to his community should the facility be closed or mothballed. The mayor was among well over 120 people, most of them employees of the facility, who packed the Appleton Civic Center on Friday morning for a town meeting hosted by State Sen. Gary Kubly, DFL-Granite Falls, and State Rep. Andrew Falk, DFL-Murdock.

Mayor Ronning said he feared that Appleton and the surrounding rural area could see a major exodus of jobs and suffer the economic strife that gripped it during the farm crisis of the 1980s, when businesses shuttered their windows and homes were left vacant.

The 1,600-bed Appleton facility is currently housing 542 inmates from Minnesota and another 525 from the state of Washington, according to Tim Wengler, its warden. The state of Washington has been slowly reducing its number of inmates.

So what's the problem with re-opening the prison and putting people in Appleton back to work? Back to the Collins' report. Go read about the influence of private money on public justice. And there's also this:

One thousand seven hundred fifty miles from L.A. to Appleton
CCA and other private prison companies are doing very well. In 2010, CCA saw total revenue of $1.67 billion, according to CCA’s annual report. But there is a human cost to the industry too.

Amy Gottlieb of the American Friends Service Committee told the Minnesota Independent that prisoners transferred to other states often face both emotional and legal hurdles.

“Ultimately, we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people around the country who are being locked up, held away from their families, in the immigration context are often unrepresented by council,” Gottlieb said. “People are profiting off of that.”

According to CCA’s website, one of the benefits of out-of-state inmate management is that the company will “[a]dhere to state-specific policies and procedures, as well as hundreds of standards set by the American Correctional Association and our company.”

But the fact that prisoners, including detained immigrants in some federal facilities, are being held in the less accountable private facilities is of concern to advocates like Gottlieb.

“We have seen over and over again that the private prison lobby is extremely powerful and they have deep connections to a lot of politicians and get a lot of federal contracts,” Gottlieb said. “That creates very serious concerns when what we are really talking about here are human rights and human rights violations.”

The Cuentame community told the story via the powerful video, "Immigrants for Sale":

I've praised both Kubly and Falk in the past on Bluestem, but won't hesitate to cry foul if either cheers this development by CCA.  Opening the prison for detainees would only feed the human supply chain for private profit that was at the core of SB1070--and copycat bills like ALEC zombie legislator Steve Drazkowski's own HB3830.

Rural Minnesota needs jobs, but profiting from human trafficking isn't the way to do it.

Update: Roy Pratt at City Pages reports Prairie Correctional Facility, private prison, not re-opening soon, says Rep. Andrew Falk.

Note: Currently in Minnesota, ICE detainees are held in county jails that the Department of Homeland Security contracts with for detention services.

Image: via Cuentame.

Bachmann schedules 2nd date with Sheriff Joe Arpaio; says "I love Hispanic Americans"

Back in March, the City Pages that Michele Bachmann schedule[d] date with Sheriff Joe Arpaio:

This is a match made in some sort of violently perverted heaven: Michele Bachmann, Minnesota's own Matron of Mean, is advertising an upcoming appearance with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Arizona lawman who has earned national fame as a cruel and corrupt little fascist.

That's right! For the low, low price of $250, you can attend a VIP reception with both these proud Americans at the luxurious Scottsdale Plaza Resort outside Phoenix.

The gentlewoman from Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District can't get enough of Sheriff Joe, returning to Arizona for a visit yesterday,  MSNBC reports in Bachmann courts 'America's toughest sheriff':

If you're running for president, how do you convince supporters you are tough enough on immigration? Get the endorsement of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America whose uncompromising stand on illegal immigration is a point of pride.

On Wednesday Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was the latest Republican presidential candidate hoping for Arpaio's backing.

She met in Phoenix with the Republican sheriff, whose endorsement is frequently sought by candidates in all types of races across the country.

Arpaio said he hasn't yet decided which candidate he will back in the GOP primary race. .  .

The network reports that Bachmann didn't answer questions about whether she supports SB1070. However, last year Immigrants List cited her support for the bill, Andy Birkey reported in Group inducts Bachmann into the Immigration Hall of Shame:

5. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) — The potential presidential candidate has a history of inflammatory statements which go along with her outlandish voting record. She’s spread the widely-debunked rumor that Phoenix is “the kidnap[ping] capital of the United States,” using that myth to justify her support for an armed presence on the border. She’s advocates Arizona SB 1070, and told Bill O’Reilly that all local law enforcement should be required to ask for proof of immigration status. Bachmann chairs the House Tea Party Caucus.

Following Wednesday's visit, Bachmann was interviewed by KFYI's studio by Mike Broomhead (full Youtube here). Bachmann shared the details:

Bachmann:...I can't wait to come back and do a tour the border and maybe go back and see the tents that Sheriff Joe has set up. I'll be back.

Broomhead: Did he give you pink boxers?

Bachmann: Of course, I wouldn't have left his office. I got his book and I got the pink boxers and he wrote on the pink boxers to my husband, so I'm very glad....

Broomhead: ...He gets this racist moniker all the time. . . It's the easiest thing to throw at him. . . .

Bachmann: That's changing the story though.  Because it's not about racism. I love--usually people think it's anti-Hispanic. I'v had a wonderful response from Hispanics. I love Hispanic  Americans...

Is Bachmann targeting President Obama, who has deported record numbers of immigrants, with her comments about the need for a president who will enforce the law, or her Tea Party rival Rick Perry, who supported in-state tuition for undocumented students whose parents entered the country withotu authorization?

And despite her claims that some of her best friends are Latinos, the Houston Chronicle reports in Struggling Bachmann hunts for votes, cash in Calif:

The conservative Bachmann, who counts evangelical Republicans, home-school advocates and members of the tea party movement among her supporters, stops over on the same weekend the state party considers rewriting its platform in what supporters call an attempt to broaden the party's appeal, especially with Hispanics and independents.

Moderates want to push the party toward the center on immigration, guns and gay rights. The proposed changes — opposed by the party's conservative wing — retreat from opposition to same-sex adoption, domestic partner benefits and child custody, avoid any mention of overturning Roe v. Wade and drop demands to end virtually all federal and state benefits for illegal immigrants and establish English as the official language of government.

Bachmann was lifted earlier this summer by a victory in the closely watched Ames, Iowa, straw poll — an early gauge of candidate strength — but she's trying to reverse a slide since the Texas governor entered the campaign and replaced her as a leading contender for the nomination. . . .

. . .

The party is also planning to outline a new effort to recruit Latino voters, an acknowledgment of the state's changing face. Hispanics accounted for about 80 percent of the increase in registered voters in the state over the last decade and the weak showing of GOP candidates in recent statewide races has been attributed, at least in part, to a lack of Hispanic support.

Bachmann has taken a tough line against illegal immigration — she supports building a wall on the border with Mexico and has suggested more troops should patrol the nation's southern boundary. In a debate earlier this week, she distanced herself from Perry after he said Texas offered incentives for illegal immigrants to contribute to their communities, including in-state tuition rates for higher education. Bachmann said taxpayers shouldn't pay for benefits for those who have broken U.S. laws.

In California, the GOP has been withering.

It's telling that Bachmann took the pilgrimage to Phoenix to visit BFF Sheriff Joe in an attempt to shore up her support in the xenophobic Tea Party Republican base, perhaps banking on the notion that painting Perry as moderate might hurt his chances.

The Arizona Republic reports that the Bachmann visit was a surprise to local Republicans:

Bachmann, in Phoenix for a fundraiser, is the most recent to seek Arpaio's approval.

Her visit came as a surprise to many in local Republican and conservative circles.

"NOT good form when a presidential candidate comes to Arizona and fails to notify the state party or Governor," Shane Wikfors of the conservative blog Sonoran Alliance said Tuesday night on Twitter. In a follow-up Twitter message, Wikfors expressed dissatisfaction with the Bachmann campaign "for blowing off conservative supporters in AZ tonight!"

Bachmann called Arpaio "one of her heroes."

Photo: Bachmann and Sheriff Joe.

Related posts: The windmills in Norm's mind: Pawlenty, American Action Network, and the Hispanic Leadership Conference

The Emo Senator: E-verify for thee, but not for me

Emo Senator fans will be relieved to learn that Senator Mike Parry's amnesia is over, since he has once again learned that he owns a Godfather's Pizza. Bluestem, your humble narrator, hopes that this means he won't be asking for a salary increase in our next season at the legislature.

Readers may remember from the June episode, Suddenly socialist Mike Parry demands pay according to his needs, that Senator Parry suffered a severe lapse of memory, causing him to believe that his legislative salary was his only source of income, along with the per diems he maxed out on.

Later, during the shutdown, he developed a twitter rivalry with a laid-off state employee who in better times trimmed the lawn at the governor's residence, under the mistaken belief that the man still riding the gubernatorial mower.  Still, The Emo Senator was beginning to remember his role in the Waseca community as a "job creator," as fans learned in the installment, Emo senator Mike Parry pats self on back for compassion, reveals another income source.

As we tune in today, Senator Parry is waxing lyrical to Minnesota Public Radio (via the Owatonna People's Press article Parry revives E-verify policy) about the close bonds shared at the pizza franchise he owns:

Parry, who owns a Godfather’s Pizza franchise in Waseca, doesn’t use E-Verify at his business. He said he’s not opposed to using E-Verify, but does not think it necessary for his shop.

“All of my employees at this point in time are pretty much high school students,” he said. “We know the families, and they’ve been living in town for quite a few years, and we know the parents and everything so we just haven’t used the E-Verify on that.”

And what is this E-Verify that Parry doesn't need at Waseca's version of Cheers, where everybody knows your name--and your parents too?

The MPR/OPP piece explains:

A contentious piece of immigration policy made it into the final budget deal approved last month. E-Verify is back, but with a twist.

The state is again requiring its big contractors to verify the legal status of their employees using a federal database run by the Department of Homeland Security. Former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty first mandated E-Verify for large government contractors through an executive order in 2008. At that time, he also ordered the state to run its own new hires through E-Verify.

Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, let the requirements lapse last April.

This time, the new law inserted into the budget deal applies only to businesses.

The new law was sponsored by Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, who says he pushed for its return because he believes it protects Minnesotans from losing jobs to unauthorized workers.

“We need to know that those working in our businesses, throughout not only the state but the nation, are people who are legally here in the United States,” Parry said. “So it was put into the bill, and of course this time the governor passed it into law.”

Not that Parry's own business needs it under the  law.  Those high school students aren't baking up that many pizzas for the State of Minnesota to trip the $50,000 threshold.

Still, Parry's newest antagonist, Minneapolis attorney DeAnne Hilgers, notes that E-verify costs other companies money:

Companies providing more than $50,000 worth of services to the state must enroll in E-Verify to check the work status of new hires. Hilgers is concerned the new requirement, which is already in effect, will catch companies unaware.

“It was not a complete surprise that E-verify was back in play, but I did not expect it to come in the middle of the night with no discussion and no opportunity,” she said.

Hilgers said E-Verify costs companies extra time and money beyond what companies are already doing to ensure compliance with immigration law.

Hilgers also found it noteworthy that Pawlenty’s executive order required the state to run its own new hires through E-Verify, but the new law applies only to companies doing business with the state.

“Why is it OK for the state to subject contractors to a requirement aimed at bringing employers into compliance, when an employer as large as the state of Minnesota itself is not subject to the same requirement?” she asked.

Always the watchdog for job creators, the guardian of small business against government regulation, the Emo Senator has no idea how much using E-verify costs those people closest to his heart:

Parry disagrees with Hilgers that E-Verify poses a burden to companies. He couldn’t estimate how much it costs companies to comply, but said he has called business leaders and asked them for their thoughts.

Fortunately, the narrator's quick googling fingers have discovered this Infographic: The Costs of E-Verify: A Closer Look at the Government's Work Authorization System, by Center for American Progress Immigration Policy Analyst Philip E. Wolgin. Wolgin shares some information that might give the financially struggling Emo Senator pause--or explain why this staunch defender of requiring others to use E-verify doesn't actually use it himself.  

The Analyst writes:

This infographic explains the costs of E-Verify, the government’s Internet-based work authorization system. It highlights the system’s known costs, such as lost tax revenue and monetary burdens on small businesses, and estimates the costs of additional fiscal burdens—to individuals verified through the system, to employers utilizing the system, and to the federal government in running the system—absent from much of the dialogue. E-Verify expands the size of government while decreasing revenue, places a crushing burden on small businesses, and imposes a “jobs tax” on ordinary Americans.

So urgent is the Emo Senator's need (we worry about a relapse of that amnesia) that Bluestem has swiped the infographic and included it in at the top of this episode, so that Parry and all our fans can discover for themselves how much this policy costs individuals, businesses and the federal government.

Is it worth that cost? Apparently not to the Emo Senator, who doesn't pay to use it at his own business. Should E-verify be extended to all businesses, or does our sensitive hero have a means by which he can discern which small business owners are like himself and will only hire people they already know?

Graphics: ; Infographic: The Costs of E-Verify: A Closer Look at the Government's Work Authorization System from the Center for American Progress (above). The Emo Senator (Belle of Southern Minnesota) by Tild (below)

Earlier episodes of The Emo Senator are found below the fold.

Tales of Hoffman: Scenes from the ideological struggle in Fergus Fall, Minnesota

As late as yesterday at 11:15 a.m., this was the line-up for Senator Hoffman's budget rally, via the Fergus Fall Daily Journal news brief, Hoffman budget rally today [UPDATED]:

Senator Gretchen Hoffman has organized a rally on the state budget at 5:30 p.m. today at N.P. Park. Radio host Scott Hennen is emceeing the event, and other speakers include Hoffman, Rep. Mary Fransen, and Danielle Saul, Fergus Falls resident and chairperson of the Minnesota State University Moorhead College Republicans, as well as others.

Speakers will be talking about the budget situation at the State Capitol. Admission is free.

However, something changed, and an hour or so later, this line-up appeared on Senator Hoffman's Facebook page:

Today is rally day! I'm looking forward to seeing everybody at the Fergus Falls rally today at 5:30 in NP Park! Scott Hennen will be MC'ing and I am happy to welcome Senators Parry and DeKruif as well as Representative Franson to SD10 for the rally. Other speakers include constituents from the district and there will be open mic time for a discussion about the Minnesota budget.

Why did Michael Brodkorb feel the need for re-enforcements  from Southern Minnesota for the rally? Do  Parry and Dekruif's constituents feel that their own senators' time is best spent in a district on the other side of the state? Shouldn't they be taking questions about the shutdown in Senate Districts 25 and 26?

I eagerly look forward to read news accounts of the rally and seeing YouTubes of what were no doubt stirring speeches.

Scenes from the ideological struggle in Fergus Falls, Minnesota

Update: The Fergus Falls Daily Journal has posted A rally for conservatism [UPDATED]. Some gems:

“We have been told in our classes over and over that being successful and making lots of money is bad, while we are being shown that if you do not work, you are often rewarded,” said Danielle Saul, Fergus Falls resident and president of the Minnesota State University College Republicans. “This mentality needs to end now, with my generation, and you have the chance to show us that hard work and perseverance are two characteristics that will not be forgotten.”

Saul, who was Hoffman's intern this past session, is sounding awfully like Hoffman herself. Perhaps they both could get a bit more specific and tell the general public which classes they enrolled in on Not Being Successful. None of my college friends have shared this experience with me--indeed, one includes a statement from a professor among his Facebook quotations: "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, having money is better."

But perhaps my young friends have had very different experiences than Danielle and thus are not in a position to parrot Hoffman's view of college.

Here's more:

Though billed as a budget rally, the topics of the gathering were wide ranging. Health care advocate Twila Brase spoke about stopping President Barack Obama’s health care plan, attorney and GOP activist Peter Balega thanked the nation’s servicemen and told attendees that they were engaged in an ideological struggle, and Hennen kept the crowd laughing with his lampooning of government and the news media (including jokes that State Government Innovation Committee is “an oxymoron” and that he sometimes refers to the Star Tribune newspaper as “The Star and Sickle.”)

But one theme was woven through all of the speakers’ talks: their frustration with DFL Governor Mark Dayton.

Hoffman, Senator Rick Parry and Senator Al DeKruif all spoke of Dayton’s unwillingness to compromise and inconsistency as a negotiator, with Parry going so far as saying that Dayton has been planning for a shutdown before the legislative session ended. . . .

In short, the usual template.

Photo and screenshot: Mike Parry, Waseca, traveled to Fergus Falls yesterday as a last minute guest at Senator Hoffman's rally (top); Hoffman's Facebook posting, captured about 11:30 a.m. today, with the time stamp, "23 hours ago." Image added at 11:42 a.m.(below).

Note: the title of this post has been changed from  "Tales of Hoffman: Senate Majority Leader Brodkorb sends Parry and Dekruif to Fergus Falls rally" to improve your snark intake.

Steve Drazkowski earns another accolade: Local Wall of Shame from Immigrants' List

Via today's column by Winona Daily News editor Darrell Ehrlick, Bluestem has learned of The Draz's anointment as a charter member of the Local Wall of Shame by Immigrants' List:

Steve Drazkowski, State Representative – Minnesota

In May 2010, Steve Drazkowski introduced a bill in the Minnesota House that was modeled on AZ SB 1070, permitting local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws, requiring possession of alien identification cards, and prohibiting transportation and housing, among other provisions.

But it's the way Drazkowski defended the bill that makes him distinctive -- fanning the flames of fear and mistrust of people different than you; Steve Drazkowski told the Minneapolis City Pages that “even more important than the money is the government's role of protecting its people. If we have people here who don't have a loyalty to their country, we need to be concerned.” In particular, Drazkowski said, he's concerned about “criminal alien felons who are being incarcerated for murder, rape, and child molestation."

It's shameless to exploit and prey on people's fears. Drazkowski can claim to be concerned about "the government's role of protecting its people," but when he uses fear as a cudgel to divide people and spread mistrust, he's the one creating the greatest danger and putting everyday Minnesotans at risk.

Apparently, reading about this honor fired up Ehrlick's formidable editorial resources, for he's in fine form in ‘Hall of Shame’ well deserved for Draz:

. . . Sure, Immigration List isn’t exactly a household name or power broker, but it is significant the rhetoric, legislation and the actions of a local (rural) politician have earned him a nationwide spotlight.

The point isn’t that Draz’s views seem to hurt his own constituents as well as being generally divisive. It’s that his views are so radical and out of step, they’re drawing attention from far away.

I worry that Winona County — the second-largest dairy producing county in the state — becomes known as a place openly hostile to those who are willing to work on dairy farms and just happen to speak Spanish.

I worry that southeastern Minnesota gets the reputation of being unwelcoming to those whose skin color is a few shades darker than mine. . . .

Ehrlick isn't alone in worrying that anti-immigrant sentiment will give Minnesota a reputation for being hostile to newcomers. Earlier this year, those dirty hippies at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce took a pro-reform message on the road.

Immigrants' List's leadership pointed out that Draz's anti-immigration legislation is a potential job-killer:

Immigrants List board member Amy Novick said, “He’s using his position as a state representative to import anti-immigration legislation into Minnesota — hurting Minnesota’s businesses and catching our farmers in his crossfire. Just as bad, he’s arguing for his job-killing policies by preying on people’s fears.”

Ehrlick concludes that things weren't always this way with the Draz. When he first took office

. . .we saw a capable, energetic and tireless worker who spent night and day working on flood recovery, fighting to get his district the help it needed.

In other words, solid work on real issues.

He broke with his own party to ensure his district was served.

He appeared to care more about the people than the politics.

A lot has changed, sadly.

Drazkowski has been a headline and editorial producer — championing one nutty bill after another.

But just think about all that time that could be spent actually helping people rather than driving them apart.

Good for headlines, newspapers, pundits, wonks and commentators, I guess.

Bad news for places like Winona County and Minnesota.

Photo: A classic from Tild.

 

Whatever the game may be, Parry borrows tax refugee fear talk from Glencoe Glenn Gruenhagen

Back in May, Bluestem caught Glenn Gruenhagen going wild with some talk about tax refugees when it posted Glenn gone wild: Gruenhagen's baseless talking point about tax refugees fleeing OR & MD.

Today, I opened the online version of the Austin Herald to discover that Suddenly Socialist Mike "I Have Needs" Parry has picked up Gruenhagen's baseless talking point and taken it on a royal pilgrimage across Southern Minnesota.

There's also a wonderfully scrambled sports metaphor, in which Parry says the ball is in Dayton's court, while also being placed on the fifty-yard line by Brodkorb's caucus. If the needy state senator figures out what the game is, perhaps someone will let the governor know.

His visitation with the citizenry of Spamtown is commemorated in GOP’s Parry: Dayton’s move, as well as with a marvelous photo that begs for 'shopping by the Divine Tild. We learn that Parry won't raise taxes on the wealthy:

Parry said the conservative majority was not willing to compromise to the point of raising taxes for the top two percent of earners in the state, particularly because that tax strategy has backfired in other states.

“What the governor wants is a 2 percent increase on the highest wage earners,” Parry said. “Maryland raised taxes on the upper income earners in 2008, and they had a 30 percent decrease in their tax returns in that bracket.

“The wealthiest can move their money wherever they want to.”

Since the Republicans have decided that recycling talking points, regardless how debunked, is the game plan (whatever the game may be), Bluestem will go back to the debunking cited in the May post.

Over at BlueOregon, Executive director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy Chuck Sheketoff noted in Facts Go Missing: The Unsubstantiated Tale of the Fleeing Maryland Millionaire:

. . .Instead of circulating stories founded on supposition, the Senate Republican Office would do better to distribute the analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP),Where Have All of Maryland’s Millionaires Gone? Nowhere – They’re Probably Just Not Millionaires Anymore. (PDF).

ITEP examined the preliminary tax return data released by the Maryland comptroller — who acknowledged that not all the data is in yet, particularly for high-income earners — and found that the data fail to support the Wall Street Journal’s claim:

[A]s a result of legislation enacted in 2007 and in 2008, income tax rates for affluent Marylanders were higher this past year, not just for residents with taxable incomes over $1 million, but for individuals with taxable incomes above $150,000 and for families with incomes over $200,000. Consequently, if it is the case that wealthier taxpayers respond to changes in income tax liability by changing their state of residence, one would expect to see that response not just for taxpayers with incomes above $1 million, but, to some degree, among all affected taxpayers. The Comptroller’s preliminary data suggest that this is not the case.

With the exception of “millionaires”, the number of returns in the affected ranges of taxable income appears to have grown between 2007 and 2008. Given recent economic events – and, in particular, the widely-anticipated decline in income from capital gains, which are received almost exclusively by the very wealthiest residents of each state – a far more likely explanation for the alleged disappearance of Maryland’s millionaires is that, for 2008 at least, they are no longer millionaires. Instead, their incomes may now fall in lower ranges of the distribution, thus potentially accounting for some portion of the increase in the number of returns in those ranges.

In other words, analysis of the preliminary data from Maryland fails to support the assertion that a tax increase on the wealthy will cause them to flee.

And that's just Maryland; Sheketoff takes a look at claims about tax refugees from other states Parry doesn't specifically mention, deftly dismissing them.

Over at Across the Great Divide, Charlie Quimby suggest that you Don't Look to Rich or Business for Salvation. He writes:

For years, Growth & Justice has been looking for and failing to find strong evidence that Minnesota is losing jobs, wealthy residents and businesses due to corporate and personal income tax rates.

Just last month, the Council on State Taxation, an association made up largely of corporate tax attorneys, released a study [PDF] by Ernst and Young that says differences in tax rates are not a main factor influencing businesses to build or hire in one state over another — and that Minnesota ranks 10th best in terms of the competitiveness of our investment tax climate.

Despite this — and absent more than anecdotal evidence of business flight — political figures, business executives and their hired guns always come back with the same line: Higher state tax rates kill jobs and drive job creators and wealth out of Minnesota. . . .

Check out his analysis of the business version of Parry's broader claim, while Bluestem waits for Parry to settle on a single unified sports analogy.

Bleg: Like what you're reading? Throw a few coins in Bluestem's tip jar for the blog's June reader support drive. Need more information? Read all about it here.

Photo: Scary Parry trying to get a grip on something. Photo by Matt Peterson at the Austin Herald.

Related post: Glenn gone wild: Gruenhagen's baseless talking point about tax refugees fleeing OR & MD.

Troubled "Secure Communities" amendment slipped into Data Practices bill

Across the country, an ICE program known as "Secure Communities" is coming under increased criticism as it sweeps up people with no criminal backgrounds. On Saturday, those dirty hippies at the Wall Street Journal reported in States Rebel Over Deportations:

Lawmakers and law-enforcement officials in several states are turning against a mandatory federal program that is a cornerstone of the Obama administration's immigration policy.

The Secure Communities initiative is designed to spot and deport illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. Under the program, fingerprints of people booked into a jail are transmitted to a database reviewed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. If found to be in the U.S. illegally, they can face deportation.

Recently, such states as Massachusetts, New York, Illinois and California have raised objections to the program's real-world effects: Although designed to remove criminals from the country, it has led to the deportation of thousands of people without criminal records. . . .

But a last-minute gambit by Republican majorities in the Minnesota legislature may bring the Orwellian-named "Secure Communities" to the Gopher State.

Pro-transparency and privacy rights blogger Rich Neumeister is on the watch at Open Secrets. He reports in Democratic Process hijacked at Legislature:

As I stated in a previous posts, the last week or so at the Legislature the democratic process is compromised for sake of expediency, but sometimes it is done to keep discussion on a subject to a minimum. This happened today with an initiative by Senator Ortman.

The Omnibus Data Practices bill, SF 1143, was heard on the floor of the Senate today.  As the bill goes through process, there are amendments.  Sen Ortman offered an amendment that would have the State participate in the Department of Homeland Security, Secure Communities Program.  The amendment was adopted.  Some givens, the amendment was not introduced as a bill, sometimes a bill is introduced, but not given a hearing, therefore, legislators try to get the bill on a proposal that is on the passage of becoming law.

With the Ortman amendment not being introduced as a bill, people did not know about the possibility of this legislation.  So today in the Senate, opportunity for her amendment.  No public notice and no process for public input on the floor of the Senate. . . .

I knew that the Secure Communities program has privacy and civil liberties issues.  With it being on the Senate bill I knew more than likely the issue could have a full hearing when the bill got to a conference committee which may be in a day or so.  This is done many times by legislators where an amendment is done in one body, but not in the other, and it is worked on in the conference committee.  When the process is done this way, organizations and groups are given notice, and also made aware that in conference committee they will have an opportunity to be heard.

But, low and behold at approximately 9:30pm, I saw on tweets that there was going to be a surprise policy amendment on the Crime Conference bill. . . .

The amendment was placed on the Crime conference bill without due diligence public notice, no opportunity for interested parties who oppose or critical to testify, and done in a way which the democratic ideals are made a mockery. . . .

Good legislation is made when both sides can be presented and be heard.

Go read the rest at Open Secrets. The post is also up at TC Indymedia.

While Minnesota Republicans have tended to take a hard line on all aspects of immigration issues, other players in Minnesota, including local law enforcement officials, the faith and human rights communities, and possibly even the business community, might well have wanted a word in edgewise on whether the North Star State should opt into this program.

Image: Indymedia created a surprise card.

With redistricting's jumping borders, will karma zap Steve King with Christie Vilsack's challenge?

Steve King first hit my radar when Gil Gutknecht transported him across the Iowa border in the 2006 congressional race to talk about immigration.

That worked out great. For the DFL, which elected Tim Walz to represent a part of the world historically favoring Republicans.

King's returned to Southern Minnesota--most recently as keynote speaker for the 2010 First Congressional Republican Convention about a year ago. The citizens of the First picked Walz again in November.

Walz's tenure may no longer get a boost from the conservative Northwest Iowa Republican, who has had his own borders shifted with Iowa's loss of a seat in Congress. The Fourth is now more liberal, stretching over to include the college town of Ames and Mason City. Ah, the fluidity of political borders.

And a serious threat to King, Christie Vilsack, is moving to Ames, with the intent to run for Congress. The distaff Vilsack has the potential to both unseat King and to end Iowa's presence on the exclusive club of states that have not yet sent women to Congress or the Governor's mansion:

Iowa, it turns out, is one of only two states that has never elected a woman to the House, the Senate, or the governor's mansion. The other, in case you were wondering, is Mississippi.

No offense to Mississippi, which did open the nation's first public college for women in 1884, but the dishonor is particularly unexpected-and embarrassing-for Iowa. While Mississippi was dead last in a 1998 study of civic culture in American states [PDF], Iowa is noted for engagement, tolerance, equality, and support for civil rights and women's rights.

King has been working overtime--with his BFF Michele Bachmann--to dial back Iowa's tolerant culture.

The Worthington Globe noted in an editorial, A possible challenge to King:

. . .Democrats have got to be pleased at the prospect of Vilsack’s intent to run, as they no doubt would savor a defeat of King. While King has certain proven to be popular enough to win comfortable re-elections, he has proven to be a frequent opposing-party target as a result of either controversial or factually questionable statements. He has also become a favorite within the Tea Party movement; the AP noted Wednesday that “he is often allied with Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann as she explores a run for the (presidential) nomination.”

Can Vilsack win? It’s too early to tell, but Democrats should be happy that they could well have a legitimate chance.

If nothing else, should Vilsack prove to be a skilled campaigner, King may have to stay on his side of the border. Without King's brand of crazy fury coming to the First, it's a good thing Walz--who still doesn't have a declared opponent--is fundraising at a healthy clip.

Photo: Can we protect southern Minnesota's bullhead population and close the Iowa border? Congressman Steve King, as interpreted by the good folks at Down with Tyranny.

Sen. Rosen builds modest Mendota pied-à-terre; could redistricting end residency p.r. worries?

Could creative redistricting help avoid a clash of elephants in Southern Minnesota?

The Star Tribune noted on March 16 that, according to 2010 Census figures Senator Julie Rosen represents one of the smallest state senate districts in terms of population. The Fairmont Sentinel reported in Region could see less representation:

State Rep. Bob Gunther, R-Fairmont, says his Minnesota House district has decreased in population by 4,700 people since the 2000 Census.

House District 24A includes all of Martin County, as well as portions of Faribault and Watonwan counties. The district to the east - 24B, represented by Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder - lost 3,700 people.

Adding together those losses equals 8,400 people, and they represent the total lost in Senate District 24, represented by Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont. . . .

. . .What it means for him is that his district may be growing larger again. In 2002, it expanded from 906 square miles to 1,200 square miles, he said. Another expansion may require Gunther to face a Republican primary opponent as districts are combined.

If Fairmont resident Gunther risks facing a primary opponent as districts are combined, Rosen may face the same challenge.

She may also have built a perception problem on the bluffs in Mendota.

This item from Politics in Minnesota is a bit old, but State Senator Julie Rosen (R-Fairmont), has a new home in Mendota:

Sen. Julie Rosen is building a new home in Mendota, just a few minutes from the Capitol. Does this mean the third-term Republican senator from Fairmont is planning a move to the city, and therefore out of her seat in the Legislature?

No way, says Rosen: “This is a second home,” she told PIM yesterday. “My residency is in Fairmont.”

Her new place is likely to be the envy of greater Minnesota colleagues who put up at Kellogg Square or the Kelly Inn when the Legislature is in session; the $300,000 parcel sits on a hillside on Sibley Memorial Highway overlooking the river. The home next door is valued at a little over $1 million.

Rosen and her ex-husband, Rosen Diversfied/American Food Group mogul Tom Rosen, divorced last year. Word is that Rosen moved into the home in Mendota this weekend.

Questions of perception aside, there's a good reason to have a little place in the Cities if you're a state senator from Greater Minnesota. It's a long drive to Fairmont, which is 150 southwest of St. Paul, and while the upscale price tag is unusual, the need for outstate legislators to live in the Cities during the session--and duties during the off-session months--poses vexing questions for them. Salaries are quite low ($31,140 per year) and per diem allowances controversial.

But Bluestem thinks that Brodkorb's redistricting brigade could kill two birds with one stone with a little geographic creativity.  Rosen's new and modest pied-à-terre on the river invites a simple, if meandering solution.

Brodkorb and his crack team can simply crayon in SD24's boundary up the middle of the Minnesota River toward Rosen's house, carve out a couple blocks and call it a day.

While the senator's neighbors may resent having Tony Cornish foisted on them, Rosen is highly respected on both sides of the aisle and should serve her new slice quite well.

Photo: Rosen's new second-home in Mendota. Photo courtesy PIM; used with permission.

Paul Westrum at his wits' end over "horrific endowment" of immigrants

Immigration reductionist Paul Westrum tells the readers of the Austin Herald today that they're Too complacent to recognize issue.

What is it we don't see? Tsunamis racing to shore? Dead Kinseys? Charle Sheen?

Oh no. Westrum is raising the alarm over demographic shifts in America:

After hammering on the immigration issue for the past 18 years, I am at my wits end on how to alert a complacent American citizenry as to its children’s ominous future. What’s more, I don’t think anyone understands their horrific endowment to future generations, i.e., our kids.

For a fact, I know the U.S. Congress and the past five presidents did not, and our current president does not, understand the final ramifications of unrelenting immigration. They stand blind, deaf, dumb and stupid to the accelerating drama within our civilization.

At the current rate of legal and illegal immigration, plus the immigrants’ children, our country will watch the addition of 72 million immigrants, mostly from third world countries, within 24 years. Have you given thought to how that will affect the environment? Our culture? Our quality of life?

What will "legal and illegal immigration" bring? If you listen to Bill Blazar of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, good things.

I attended two presentations of many that the MN Chamber and its allies put on throughout Greater Minnesota back in January and February and the facts suggest that Westrum's fear-mongering is not just unfounded--but that policy based on his fear of the "horrific endowment" of "third-world" people by the current generation would substantially harm Minnesota's quality of life.

Typical news coverage of the presentation and discussion: an Agrinews article about the Fergus Falls meeting, Farmers say that something has to be done with immigration regulations. Or the article in Willmar's West Central Tribune.

Read more about the business case for immigration reform here. It's not complacency, but understanding that makes me, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and a host of other organizations reject Mr. Westrum's arguments.

And real reform will not simply mean fixing the part of a broken system where there is no line for many to get into, but which also shortens the wait for those who do get in line.

Just as union and nonunion, public and private get played off against each other, New Americans are urged to focus on resentments of each other provoked by that line, rather than commonalities. But in citing both legal and unauthorized immigrants as a "horrific endowment," Westrum lets the cat out of the bag. The problem isn't status--it's difference from Mr. Westrum's background.

In earlier waves of immigration at the turn of the 20th century, old immigrants--the WASPS and their kindred--fretted about "The Rising Tide of Color." Westrum's playing the same game.

And yet, the adaptive power of American culture--itself the churn of many cultures--made this country stronger with the addition of people from Eastern and Southern Europe, from Indochina, from everywhere. 

I am not frightened for this country or our culture; I only fear our fear itself.

Photo: Paul Westrum.

Whose rural values, part 2: Draz plan to end pay equity gets New Ulm Journal's thumbs down

In Whose rural values? Drazkowski plan to end pay equity gets Greater MN's thumbs down, Bluestem looked at the negative reaction by outstate newspapers to a divisive Drazkowski proposal.

Now the fairly conservative New Ulm Journal has weighed in.

In the editorial, Equal pay and smoking — why weaken laws?, the editors write:

One bill would repeal Minnesota's Local Government Equal Pay Equity Act. This law has been around since 1984 and, slowly but surely, has raised the wages of women public employees to the levels of men doing equal work. That's a good thing, right?

But some GOP legislators think the law needs to be repealed. It's too expensive, they say, for local governments to prepare and file the pay reports they are required to submit every three years.

While it is true that pay inequity has all but disappeared in Minnesota's public sector, it is worthwhile to keep checking. It took us 27 years to get to this point. We suspect it would take a much shorter time for inequities to creep back in.

Perhaps readers might consider the larger worldview underlying Drazkowski's inclusion of pay equity provisions in a bill to eliminate "mandates.

Measures to ensure that the principle of equal pay for equal work is more than just an idle promise to women? For Draz, simply red tape and hoops for guys running local government to jump through, since the proper of role of state government is to make everyone speak and read English (while freezing the salaries of those who teach the subject).

Photo: Screenshot of Steve Drazkowski, from an Emmer for Governor endorsement video.

Austin MN Human Rights Commission to show "Welcome to Shelbyville" Friday, Feb. 18

The Austin Daily Herald reports:

Austin’s HRC will present “Welcome to Shelbyville,” a documentary on immigration in a southern community Friday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Frank W. Bridges Theatre at Riverland Community College.

“Welcome to Shelbyville” is a film currently on tour around the nation which shows how a community in southeast Tennessee dealt with racial, immigration and religious issues.

“It’s another opportunity to continue dialogue about the city of Austin and its residents,” said Kirsten Lindbloom, chairwoman of the HRC. “it’s important for us to continue to talk about and highlight issues in our commmunity.”

Home to Hormel and Quality Pork Processors meat processing plants, Austin has been one flashpoint in Minnesota's debates over immigration policy. Anti-immigrant and racist groups, including MinnSIR, the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction, partnering with the Minuteman movement, and the National Socialist Movement, have exploited local tensions to promote their agenda.

WTS's online multimedia site offers additional tools for discussion and action, as well a description of the film:

Change has come to rural Tennessee. Set against the backdrop of a shaky economy, Welcome to Shelbyville takes an intimate look at a southern town as its residents – whites and African Americans, Latinos and Somalis – grapple with their beliefs, their histories and their evolving ways of life. Welcome to Shelbyville is directed and produced by Kim Snyder and executive produced by BeCause Foundation in association with Active Voice.

Here's a trailer for the documentary:

Eleven-year-old Jason Thormodson on politics: "it could get crazy"

On Tuesday, I went to St. Paul with a group of Minnesota Farmer's Union members to meet with our state legislators, Attorney General Lori Swanson, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Governor Dayton. Though a lot of work, it was interesting: watching a committee hearing on Green Acres and listening to the concerns of family farmers from across the state.

The group's star grassroots citizen lobbyist was eleven-year-old Jason Thormodson, from the Madelia area in Watonwan County. After spending a few minutes talking to Thormodson in front of the MFU delegation, Governor Dayton asked if he could mention him in the next day's State of the State speech. The quietly confident boy immediately agreed.

And the governor followed through in yesterday's speech, saying:

I want to thank Jason Thormodson, an 11 year-old future farmer and mechanic from Madelia, for reminding me yesterday how very important agriculture is to our state.

This attention has put the media spotlight on young Thormodson. The Mankato Free Press reports in Madelia boy gets governor’s attention:

Jason Thormodson is a fifth-grader from rural Madelia who has more interest in tractors, combines and electric cars than he does political machines.

Even after the 11-year-old quizzed Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday, got a mention in the new governor’s State of the State address on Wednesday and received statewide media coverage Wednesday and today, Jason said he has no interest in a long-term stay in the political limelight.

“Mmm, uh-uh,” Jason said of a potential career as an elected official. “Because it could get crazy, and I just kind of want a quiet life, like being a mechanic.”

Pascal himself would be proud of the young man's natural prairie understanding of diversion. The kid is staying pretty calm. The Free Press story was prompted by the speech and an MPR story, An 11-year-old may have worked his way into Dayton's speech:

Jason Thormodson is going to get his name in the history books. The 11-year-old from Madelia is more than likely going to get mentioned in Gov. Dayton's State of the State. The reason: Thormodson was one of the many Minnesota Farmer's Union members who visited with Dayton on Tuesday.

"Are you going to talk about farming in your State of the State address?" Thormodson asked Dayton.

Dayton said yes. He then added "What do you think I should say?"

A stunned Thormodson was speechless at first. Sensing Thormodson's hesitation, Dayton asked Thormodson what he thinks is important about agriculture.

He then asked his spokeswoman, Katharine Tinucci if she was taking notes. "I'm going to put this in (his speech)," Dayton said.

Thormodson mentioned farming, the seeds and the ability to feed the world through farming.

"What kind of farming does your family do?" Dayton then asked Thormodson.

Thormodson told him his family farm deals with cattle, soybeans and corn. . . .

On one level, it's a cute, spontaneous story; on another, it's a bedrock illustration of a state where politicians and other leaders are usually not too far removed from the ordinary citizen. The Free Press reports that Thormodson first chatted up Dayton at Farmfest during last year's campaign, and that the kid was willing to hold the governor accountable:

He was comfortable enough with Dayton on Tuesday to put him on the spot about why he hadn’t answered the letters his fifth-grade class had recently sent. Dayton admitted he was running behind on responding to his correspondence and pledged to get moving on the responses to the Madelia fifth grade.

This give and take made all of us smile in the governor's reception room on Tuesday. Another meeting took place that also reinforced the notion of civility: with several other MFU members, including the president of the Meeker County chapter, as McLeod County MFU president, I met with Representative Ron Shimanski, R-Silver Lake.

Although I had criticized Representative Shimanski on this blog for co-sponsoring last session's HF3830, a copycat version of Arizona's notorious SB1070 law, his office set up the meeting without hesitation, and he was very engaged and courteous during the talk. This response paralleled our interaction last year when we disagreed via email; from my observations, Shimanski always remains respectful and accessible, regardless of whether or not the constituent agrees with him.

In this case we agreed. We mostly found a lot of common ground on agriculture issues, especially his understanding of the need for small, "micro-farms" that can be used intensively, profitably and sustainably in growing crops for sale at local farmers' markets. Such small farms are often the entry point into agriculture for new farmers, especially immigrants.

Of course, state policy needs to be flexible to accommodate a wide range of farms, producing at different scale--such diversity is welcomed in the ranks of the MFU--but it's good to know there's at least one legislator in the majority party who gets it. Earlier in the day in committee, Shimanski had unsuccessfully tried to move forward an amendment to the state's Green Acres statutes so that micro-acreage farmers could have the same tool to use as larger-scale farmers.

It was a great meeting, and I look forward to talking more about ag with Representive Shimanski, who farms and grows apples.

Two episodes the next day underscored Tuesday's lessons, including young Thormodson's understanding that politics "could get crazy."  One was already mentioned: Dayton's speech, a powerful example of a leader showing the way without showing anyone the door.

The other was the ethics hearing on the complaint against Senator Newman, who represents me in the legislature.  One can watch the hearing (hours and hours of it) at the Uptake; Bluestem, which first published the offending email sent out by Newman's LA, is mentioned. Over at Cucking Stool, Aaron Klemz produced my favorite reaction to the hearing and the subcommittee's decision not to move forward with the ethics complaint, in  "Who's Kidding Who?":

Everybody in the room deplored this email. They regarded it as "uncomfortable," an act that would exact a "political price" of Sen. Newman, who has "already paid the price." Newman, for his part, seemed contrite. So much so his lawyer, Fritz Knaak, stated that he was "surprised he's not blue in the face" from apologizing. In the end, the committee regarded his testimony that he had no knowledge of the email or policy against meeting with political opponents as "truthful and credible" and decided that there was no probable cause that he had violated Senate rules.

So that's that! And no harm done!

But on the path to that verdict, Newman (and former Coleman) lawyer Knaak held forth on the nature of the Minnesota Legislature. And boy, it's not a pretty picture. It's a world where everybody knows that access to legislators is for sale, and we should stop kidding ourselves. In his view, there's simply no rule that prohibits lawmakers from refusing to meet with political opponents. As Knaak put it, "while what happened is unfortunate, it is not a violation of the Senate rules." "If you look at past practice, and you look at history, something that is suggested in that particular email certainly was the case once upon at time if it isn't anymore."

Or, as he succinctly put it; "who's kidding who?"

Go read the whole post and watch a Youtube of Knaak's closing remarks at the Stool. Watching the hearing and reading the reaction in the blogsosphere made me understand the cynicism mentioned in the complaint, a sad rejoinder to the wonderful interaction with constitutional officers and state legislators I had enjoyed just the day before.

On Tuesday, one incident marred my visit. The Minnesota Farmers Union had requested a meeting for constituents with Senator Newman for our Day on the Hill. The office had asked for the names of those who would be attending, which the MFU cheerfully and dutifully provided.

No word came back from Senator Newman's office, and so we didn't meet with him. Was the lack of response due to his hapless aide? A decision on his part? No one knows. But readers might forgive me if I conclude that Newman is no Ron Shimanski or Mark Dayton when it comes to these sorts of things.

Or Jason Thormodson.

Photos: Jason Thormodson and SOS Mark Ritchie, photo by Sally Jo Sorensen (above); Ron Schimanski (middle); Scott Newman (below).

Offended by launch of Spanish language website, Hanska's resident hater rejects Heritage

Posting on the Confederate Americans for Secure Borders elist last week, Ruthie Hendrycks, who does business under the assumed name Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform (MinnSIR) has called for her followers to decide whether they wish to be removed from the mailing lists of the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation.

She shared her rejection email with the list:

My removal from Heritage Foundation

I sent this to a few Patriots last night and am forwarding to all now

You decide - what your thoughts are on the matter

my short email follows

RE: Concerning this action.................

Meanwhile, the GOP-leaning Heritage Foundation will soon unveil a website called Libertad.org (Spanish for "liberty").

Erin Bender

staff@... [redacted by Bluestem]

website www.heritage.org

Please remove my following email addresses from your database immediately I am proud on the English language, and believe America – [sic] s strength is in unity not in division - this decision by Heritage Foundation DOES NOT garner my support and I will have no further involvement with your organization – [sic] including the forwarding of your educational material etc.

In 2006, Hendrycks told a Star Tribune reporter that a traumatic shopping event helped spur her to founding MinnSIR:

There were little things, too, such as when she went to the store to buy her hair coloring and the writing on the box was in Spanish.

"I think our sovereignty in the U.S. is at risk,'' she charged. [Jean Hopfensperger,"Standing firm in opposition to illegals. . .," Mpls. Star Tribune, April 28, 2006, Nexis All News database, accessed January 30, 2011]

That section of Preference and Excellence by L'Oréal Paris in the local Target always causes me to have the fantods, too--mostly because the store never seems to stock enough Dark Auburn, in whatever language.

I'm equally disturbed by preposition choice errors like being "proud on the English language" on the part of people whose first language is English. One wonders what Hendrycks learned about English composition while studying at LaCrosse University. Or maybe not.

MinnSIR's castigation of the Heritage Foundation ranks right up there with its call to boycott the Marine Corps. Clayton Schoolcraft has more Ruthie goodness in a YouTube produced following MinnSIR's famous Tea Party Against Amnesty in November 2009.

Hendrycks apparently didn't get the memo from Norm Coleman's American Action Network, which calls for promoting Hispanic Leadership, after fueling independent expenditures supportive of anti-immigrant, pro-SB1070 Congressional candidates. Perhaps such slickness is beyond the frozen shores of Lake Hanska.

Photo: A little Ruthie Hendrycks cheescake, served with a generous topping of Latino loathing.

English-only mania afflicts Driftless Region headline writer

One of the enduring parade chants from the Walz campaign features energetic volunteers spelling out Tim Walz's name in response to a shouted question, "Who's gonna fight for me?"

In this morning's Winona Daily News, either the headline writer hadn't heard that, fell victim of aggressive spell-checking software, became hooked on phonics, or perhaps was recruited by the local Minutemen as a stealth supporter of Representative Steve Drazkowski's English-only bill.

The screenshot to the right preserves the moment.

Headline now corrected, the WDN editorial itself is quite kind to Congressman Walz. In Our view: Walz struck the right tone, Darrell Ehrlick writes on behalf of the editors:

It's not that big of deal for residents of Minnesota's 1st Congressional District to see their congressman out and about. Rep. Tim Walz is a familiar face - and the entire region is better for it.

Most of the time Walz is not the guy in the tie. He looks like most of us; he's a former high school teacher and football coach; he truly is one of us, who happens to be a member of Congress.

So, when Walz announced a week ago that he was going to make a few public appearances, no one really thought much about it.

But in a subtle, yet not provocative way, he made a big statement. . . .

The statement was that the shooting of his friend and colleague in Arizona--and the murders that accompanied it--won't make him less accessible to the public.

Read whole thing at the WDN.

Screenshot: Pay no attention to that large sign behind the congressman--in English, we waltz.

ISO time-wasting, divisive legislation? WDN says hookup w/ Draz!

Earlier in the week, Bluestem Prairie hailed the dedication of the Drazkowski clan, of Bluff Siding, Wisconsin, to job creation. The post, Drazkowski: In age of widening wealth gap, let working people choose to earn less received a fair bit of attention as Drazkowski's fame spreads.

The Winona Daily News thinks that its readers should look elsewhere for evidence of Drazkowski's legislative brilliance. In Our view: The good and the bad bills in St. Paul, publisher Rusty Cunningham writes on behalf of the editorial board:

. . .If you’re seeking Exhibit A for time-wasting, divisive legislation, look to Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa.

For the third time, Drazkowski has introduced legislation that demands that English be used as Minnesota’s official language.

He says it will promote unity and cut costs.

Instead, it will promote cultural divisiveness and tell businesses interested in pursuing a global economy that Minnesota isn’t the place to do business.

Cut costs? We’ve yet to see a dollar figure — never mind that this is the third time around for this bill. . . .

. . .Our motto does not say — and should never say — speak English or get out.

That wasn’t what our state stood for when the French and Polish and other Europeans came here. It isn’t what the state stands for now that Hmong and others have settled here.

In 2009, former Rep. Cy Thao — born in Laos —  challenged Drazkowski to a spelling contest in English on the House floor, and promised that he would vote for Drazkowski’s English-only bill if he lost.

Drazkowski’s response was to say that he would agree as long as the tie-breaker was in Polish.

There’s nothing funny about this bill. There’s nothing productive about the debate.

From the era depicted in the state seal and into the future, hatred in any language is wrong.

It’s not what Minnesota or Minnesotans stand for.

The board must not have noticed the jobs the bill would create, predicted in our post,Tongue in cheek: WSU English teacher gets cheeky about official English bill.

Will Bachmann propose retroactive repeal of 1862 Homestead Act in fight against federal hand-outs?

In English-only bill is unnecessary but assures Drazkowski's re-election, a recent column about anti-immigrant legislation sponsored by state representative Steve Drazkowski, St. Paul Press columnist Ruben Rosario observed:

Which leads me to what's really the bedrock driving this English-only push: a perception that the immigrants of today are refusing to learn English or not quickly enough when compared with those very romanticized European-centric immigrants of yesteryear.

B.S., to put it as plainly as I can in a family mainstream newspaper. Joe Salmons, who heads the German department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pretty much debunked that often-anecdotal myth.

Analyzing old census data and other historical documents, Salmons and a university colleague concluded in a 2008 study of the German immigration experience in Wisconsin that "many immigrants and their descendants remained monolingual, decades after immigration had ceased.

Elsewhere in the column, Rosario suggests that Drazkowski's introduction of an Arizona-style law might predispose the Mazeppa pol to throw other back-to-the-future style bills in the hopper like opposition to observing Martin Luther King Jr's birthday and the revived "displaying those "no dogs or Mexicans" signs that once adorned Arizona eateries and other public venues in the not-too-distant past."

Word comes to tonight from Iowa that Michele Bachmann, the competitive gentlewoman from Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District, may have felt a need to upstage the Draz. Kathie Obradovich, political columnist for The Des Moines Register, reports in Bachmann impresses some top Iowa Republicans:

Bachmann’s speech included a lengthy description of her ancestors’ arrival in America from Norway, their hopes and aspirations and the challenges they faced. She didn’t segue into today’s immigration issues, but noted that the country’s original settlers “didn’t come here for a federal handout.”

This is a stunner, even by Michele Bachmann's high standards of truth telling. After all, as one timeline of immigration to America notes:

The Homestead Act provides free plots of up to 160 acres of western land to settlers who agree to develop and live on it for at least five years, thereby spurring an influx of immigrants from overpopulated countries in Europe seeking land of their own.

In fact, many European settlers came to this country to get a handout: 160 acres of land west of the Mississippi; one didn't need to be a citizen, merely have the desire to become one. Norwegians jumped on it:

The end of the Civil War brought about a great increase in Atlantic crossings. The number of Norwegian emigrants leaped from 4,000 in 1865 to 15,726 in 1866, heralding the era of mass migration. The migration occurred until 1873 when, in the course of only eight years, some 110,000 Norwegians left their homeland. The second, and also the greatest, period of emigration lasted 14 years from 1880 to 1893, when on the average 18,290 left annually—ten for every 1,000 Norwegians. During this time Norway's emigration intensity was the second greatest in Europe, surpassed only by Ireland. . .

. . .The majority of Norwegian agrarian settlements developed in the northern region of the so-called Homestead Act Triangle between the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. The upper Midwest became the home for most immigrants. In 1910 almost 80 percent of the one million or more Norwegian Americans—the immigrants and their children—lived in that part of the United States.. . .

That federal hand-out--along with crushing poverty in Norway--provided an incentive to come to America. Like today's immigrants to the United States, they worked pretty hard. There is one big difference between today's and yesterday's immigrants, though, when we consider "federal handouts."

Today's documented immigrants are ineligible for most federal benefits until they have been here for five years or have become citizens; the undocumented worker can legally receive very few "federal handouts." The federal hand-out of 160 acres of land to improve that the nineteenth century immigrant  received was touted as an economic development tool. Not that there wasn't any protest about this: indigenous people weren't very happy about the federal handouts.

Since immigrants coming to the United States to bag federal hand-outs bothers her so much, perhaps Bachmann will propose a reactive repeal of the Homestead Act and a radical unsettling of America west of the Mississippi. It's not a new idea.

Next, she might demand an apology from all those Norwegian-Americans who, like Germans, clung to their traditions and language long after their ancestors got off the boat:

The cultural baggage of Norwegian immigrants included their specific local dialect and a Danish literary language. The latter played a significant role in the immigrant community, attaining a nearly sacred quality. It was the language of their institutions, secular and religious, and of sacred and profane literature. The immigrants had little appreciation for the linguistic reforms in the homeland; often such changers were viewed as a betrayal to a common cultural heritage. Changes in the official written language in Norway made the older form even more difficult to retain in America. A newspaper such as Decorah-Posten in Decorah, Iowa, persisted in using a Dano-Norwegian orthographic tradition from the 1870s well into the 1950s. The situation created confusion among teachers of Norwegian at American high schools, colleges and universities, who felt obligations to the language of the immigrant community. Only just before World War II did they in principle agree to teach the written standard—generally the Dano-Norwegian bokm'al — which at any one time was recognized as the official one in Norway.

English was another threat to the maintenance of the Norwegian language in America. Rural settlement patterns protected spoken Norwegian so it still can be heard in some Norwegian communities. According to researcher Joshua A. Fishman, about half of second generation Norwegians in the period 1940 to 1960 learned the language; and in 1960 there were as many as 40,000 of the third generation who had learned Norwegian. As of 1990, about 80,000 speakers of Norwegian remained in the United States. In Minnesota, Norwegian, with 16,000 speakers, is the second most common European language after German. Across the country there are still two bilingual newspapers, Western Viking in Seattle and Nordic Times in Brooklyn. The bygdelag promoted the use of rural vernaculars and, indeed, their annual reunions provided an environment where rural speech was honored and encouraged. It was, however, a mixed language with English words and phrases integrated.

Perhaps Bachmann could find an expert to free the children of those immigrants from the numbing cycle of living off federal hand-outs.

The windmills in Norm's mind: Pawlenty, American Action Network, and the Hispanic Leadership Conference

Norm Coleman's AAN Court Latinos--After the Election

Politico reports in Little immigration talk at GOP event:

The goal of a conference of Hispanic Republicans here was to show that the party wants to broaden its reach into the fastest-growing population of voters.

It did just as much to underscore the GOP’s challenge.

The Republicans who gathered at the posh Biltmore Hotel for the newly formed Hispanic Leadership Network generally support a broad reform of the immigration system, one that includes some means for legalizing the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. The organizers included former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez – two leading Republican voices for a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

But they are not part of the dominant wing in the Republican Party, which has embraced an enforcement-first, no-legalization-under-any-circumstances position in recent years – a shift that the conference organizers say has hampered the party’s outreach to Hispanics.

Yet there was little direct challenge to the party’s rightward drift on immigration.

None of the organizers – Bush, Gutierrez and former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) – made a direct mention of immigration in their opening remarks. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty relegated the issue to the end of a more than 20-minute speech

Carrie Budoff Brown, the Politico reporter on the scene, doesn't inquire much beyond that angle. Readers can be forgiven for thinking that the dilemma for the Republican Party is merely one of substance or tone when approaching Latino voters.

Coleman seems almost cocky that the Hispanic Leadership Conference will win the hearts and minds of Latino voters without addressing immigration:

Asked whether Republicans can make meaningful gains unless they resolve the immigration issue, Coleman said it was entirely possible.

“You are focused on D.C. chatter,” Coleman said in an interview. “My proposition is that jobs are the most important issue.”

Coleman cited the historic gains that Hispanic Republicans made last year, rising to governor in New Mexico and Nevada, winning a Senate seat in Florida and taking seven House seats.

“In spite of the Washington-centric focus on immigration as some barrier, that is simply not the reality in heartland America,” Coleman said.

 

American Action Network inactive in electing 2010's new Republican Latino Reps

The Hispanic Leadership Conference is a project sponsored by Coleman's American Action Network (AAN). How much did the AAN have to do with these victories?

It's no secret that the AAN funded "issue ads" across the country. On October 18, the committee released a list of Congressional districts where it was running an"issue ads" attacking Democrats in sixteen districts: MI-7, NV-3, OH-6, PA-12, WI-8, CO-7, IN-2, NM-1, OR-5, CT-4, CT-5, MN-1, SD-ALL VA - 11, VA-05 and VA-9.

Another ad ran in NH-2, WV-1, PA-7,IL-10, AR-1 and MA-10. On October 23, AAN announced it was running new ads in OH-06, PA-12, WI-08, CO-07, IN-02, NM-01, OR-05, CT-05, SD-ALL and VA-05.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Five Latinos were elected to the House, including two from Texas: Rep. Francisco Canseco, R-San Antonio, and Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan.

All told, there will be 17 Democrats and seven Republicans of Hispanic heritage serving in the House, along with Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J.

Latinovations'  La Plaza blog reports that the five new Republican Latino House members are David Rivera (FL-5); Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-5); Francisco Canseco (TX-23); Bill Flores (TX-17); and, Raul Labrador (ID-1).

Missing in action in those districts? American Action Network. It spent elsewhere.

So who did the AAN support and elect? Can those candidates be said to appeal to Latino voters? I'm going to hazard a guess that immigration hardliner Dr. Joe Heck (NV-3) isn't terribly popular.

NumbersUSA loves Tim Walberg (MI-7), who was the darling of the Minutemen in 2006. And so it goes.

 

Pawlenty at Coral Cables

It's no wonder that former Minnesota Tim Pawlenty fit in so well with the AAN's attempted seduction of Latino voters. While Pawlenty droned on the "State of the States" to the Hispanic Leadership Conference in Coral Gables, Latino activists back in Minnesota debated the right time to allow a Pawlenty executive order to expire:

Tongue in cheek: WSU English teacher gets cheeky about official English bill

Demonstrating the Republican House Majority's firm commitment to jobs creation while leaving divisive social issues behind, Mazeppa's Steve Drazkowski has introduced a bill to make English the North Star state's official language.

While I'm not certain of job creation potential in The Draz's bill as written (his rationale for the  bill is found here on his campaign website), it will dial back on over 150 years of official tolerance in Minnesota for speakers of languages other than English. In 1896, election instructions were printed in nine different languages, including Polish, the language of Draz's ancestors.

I shorten his name, a standard practice employed by the representative and candidate himself. The cost-saving of such a move are also explored in an op-ed piece by WSU English department member Chuck Ripley in today's Winona Daily news, Let’s outlaw lunch meat while we’re at it.

Like members of the Church of the Later Day Saints who seek out ancestors in order to include them in the "saving ordinances" of their faith, Ripley playfully suggests that the bill could require reparations from all people whose ancestors ever spoke languages other than English on Minnesota soil:

The bill must also make it a penalty for not speaking English at any time, applying it not only to the living but also to all of our grandparents, great-grandparents, who did not speak English or spoke it poorly.

The living descendants of these foreign-word smugglers ought to have enough shame to pay for any cost that the language of their ancestors did to our society with any legislative action. But as many people today remember these foreign words with misplaced nostalgia, the force of law will be required to instill a proper amount of embarrassment at one’s non-English-speaking ancestry and the social and financial harm their bizarre languages did to us all.

The least such people can do is to change their foreign-sounding last names to clear, simple English ones. The Minnesota Polish population alone costs the state millions in extra ink and paper with their long last names and harsh-sounding combination of consonants. . .

Would Draz challenge that? Only the Draz can answer that.

Ripley does suggest adding a job-creation angle to the bill:

Finally, as an English professor, I hope that Drazkowski will include an amendment to deputize English teachers to enforce the rules and customs of the language and the power to levy fines, imprison and deport all users of foreign languages as well as those who offer facile and divisive solutions to real problems.

Surely, with that added public safety responsibility, class sizes in MNSCU composition and developmental English classes would have to be smaller, requiring new hires across the state.