Jared Stene visitation today
The Strib reports Services set for Winona State student Jared Stene. Read the story. Details of the services:
Visitation will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. today at Wulff Funeral Home, 2195 Woodlane Dr., Woodbury. Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 6355 10th St. N., Oakdale.
Go read the Caring Bridge journal for information about lodging for those needing it, and click on the link to earlier entries for a moving statement of thanks from Stene's father.
The Woodbury Bulletin's obituary is here.
"Moose tacos" and the NAFTA Superhighway
One of the articles of faith among the Minnesota's First Congressional district "immigration reduction" crowd is the plan for a "NAFTA Superhighway" that would be a road to eliminating the United States' borders and sovereignity, while providing a high-speed pipeline for undocumented immigrants.
Today's Washington Post fact-checks the urban legend and concludes:
There are proposals to upgrade the U.S. interstate highway system to facilitate travel between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. There are also plans for a new Texas state highway between Laredo and Arkansas. But the descriptions of a new "NAFTA superhighway" by Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter, and Tom Tancredo that would undermine U.S. sovereignty, serve as a conduit for illegal immigrants, and flatten quaint towns along the way are largely fantasy. Four Pinocchios all around.
Nope, it doesn't look as if we'll be forced any time soon to use the aunties' lefsa as wraps for Stephen Colbert's "moose tacos."
Sadly, we doubt that Dick Day's local immigration reduction running buddies will be convinced by facts. In September 2006, Day met with the Steele County Coalition for Immigration Reform. Its leaders are Owatonna's Marlene Nelson and Albert Lea's Paul Westrum, according to 2006 reports.
In May of this year, Paul Westrum, founder of the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction, wrote a letter to the LaCrosse Tribune warning of the NAFTA Superhighway, among other things.
And then there's the page warning us about the NAU and the NAFTA Superhighway on the MINN-SIR site. MINN-SIR hosted the infamous Minuteman meeting this fall where Senator Day promised to go to Arizona where the Minutemen conduct operations. (MINN-SIR is also the Minnesota chapter of the Minutemen).
A Rochester Post Bulletin editorial recorded Day's response to criticisms of the meeting:
. . . he said he'd attend such a meeting again and didn't denounce the sentiments that were expressed.
"If anybody thinks this was just a bunch of kooks, they're wrong," he said. "But I would hope that meetings in the future wouldn't be as vigorous." . . .
Westrum's group also wants legal immigration drastically cut back by 80 percent:
We feel that the number of legal immigrants should be cut back from the nearly 1-million we currently let in per year to 200,000. From 1924 – 1965, we let in an average of 178,000 immigrants per year.
Those who seek to defend Southern Minnesota's anti-immigration groups as only being worried about illegal activity need to do their fact-checking. Has the Owatonna chapter broken with its parent group, or does it--and all chapters, support this goal of rolling back a generation of legal immigration policy?
So we're wondering: would Day oppose upgrading the north-south interstate system in the central states because his "immigration reduction" pals believe in urban legends? Does he agree with his local pals Marlene Nelson and Paul Westrum that legal immigration should be reduced by 80 percent?
Day has been carrying on a bit these days about leadership in transportation issues, as well as on immigration. Thoughtful people must wonder where (and how) he'd lead us if these are the folks with his ear.
Funny, but it's the same crowd Gil Gutknecht hung out with for advice on immgration policy and we know how this issue turned out for the former six-term Congressman.
Filibuster and veto threats
The AP reports Congress returns for crowded agenda. Buried at the end:
With time so precious, leverage is flowing to Bush, who's armed with both a veto pen and enough Republican allies in the Senate to sustain filibusters against bills they don't like.
Doubtless our pachyderm friends and media will tell us how the vetoes and filibusters are the fault of a do-nothing Democratic House.
Netroots
It's about a week old, but Pacific John's DailyKos post, IAVA: Congress should call off the Collection Agents (u/d with more cases) looks at a continuing boneheaded move by the Army: billing Purple Heart recipients for a prorated portion of their signing bonus. That's right: get wounded, get a bill. CBS News reported on the case of Jordan Fox, the soldier mentioned by the IAVA:
Jordan Fox received a $10,000 signing bonus when he joined the Army. The Mt. Lebanon man served his country in Iraq, where as a sniper he survived machine gun battles and a roadside bomb that knocked him unconscious and blinded him in his right eye.
The injury forced the military to send him home. A few weeks later, Fox received a bill from the Department of Defense, saying he owes the military nearly $3,000 from his original enlistment bonus because he couldn't fulfill three months of his commitment.
"I tried to do my best and serve my country and unfortunately I was hurt in the process and now they're telling me that they want their money back," Fox told CBS station KDKA-TV.
This is apparently not an isolated bureaucratic foul-up. The military is allegedly demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses - up to $30,000 in some cases. Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
The Department of Defense dropped the bill for Jordan Fox, but unfortunately, his is not an isolated case. To make sure this doesn't happen, Pennsylvania Congressman Jason Altmire has introduced the "Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act" (H.R. 3793). Walz is an early co-sponsor, having signed on to the bill back in mid-October.
According to the LOC's Thomas, the bill now has 219 sponsors in the House, including conservative Republicans such as Joe Barton (TX) and Zack Wamp(TN) ; among Minnesota's delegation, Ellison, McCollum, Peterson, and Walz have signed on. We weren't surprised that Bachmann left her name off, but we're a little baffled that Kline, Ramstad, and Oberstar aren't on the list.
This one has the bureaucratic bean counter feel of a similar episode: cutting the Red Bulls' deployment order for a day less then that required for full G.I. Benefits. If our troops are going to be nickel-and-dimed by a rigid enforcement of the letter of the rules, then Congress should change the rules in favor of those soldiers who can't serve out their enlistments because they were wounded. It's common sense and common decency.
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