A Bluestem Prairie

Automaker bailout vote: Strib fails basic reporting on Walz

Perhaps the reason BSP is so critical about legacy media types dunking bloggers over accuracy is that we often find that the mainstream media has a really difficult time reporting simple facts about Tim Walz.

The Strib reprints a New York Times report on the bailout bill for the automakers and the inaccuracy is glaring. In GOP revolt threatens auto bailout deal, we read this passage:

The House approved the plan, 237 to 170, mostly along party lines. Among Minnesota's delegation, Republican Jim Ramstad joined Democrats Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson, Tim Walz and Jim Oberstar in backing the measure. Democrat Keith Ellison did not vote. Republicans John Kline and Michele Bachmann voted against the measure.

Elsewhere, the Strib posts an accurate Associated Press roll call of the vote . The Strib essentially screws the pooch as far accuracy goes for reporting the votes of 2/5 of Minnesota's DFLers in the House in the longer article; the AP has the vote right, placing "N"s beside Walz and Peterson.

Folks, here's the official roll call vote on the bill. Readers don't have to take our word for the vote--or the Strib's. Click on that link, and you'll find the Clerk of the House's record of the vote.  Congressman Tim Walz voted against the bill, as did Congressman Peterson.

We have to ask: where does the Strib come up with this crap when it edits an NYTimes article?  [Update: a note for clarity: the New York Times article didn't contain the error in fact about the votes by two members of Minnesota's congressional delegation, nor did it focus that tightly on Minnesota at all; that paragraph appears to have been added by an editor at the Star Tribune. [end update]

KETC-TV in Mankato gets it right, and even manages to report Walz's reason for voting against the measure. The Rochester Post Bulletin's headline correctly summarizes area representatives' votes: Walz, Kline vote against House auto bailout bill. 

The PB reports:

Meanwhile, Walz, the DFL 1st District representative from Mankato, said he voted against it for the same reason he voted against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package earlier this year. Kline voted for that measure.

"Nothing in this bill will prevent the auto manufacturers and their suppliers from continuing to move jobs overseas," Walz said in a statement released after his vote. "And we have no guarantee that spending $15 billion in taxpayers' money will actually solve the Big Three's problems. We must preserve and create jobs in America but this isn't the way to do it."

Some nights, we just have to wonder if there's something in the water up there. Time to take a blogger to the blog cabin for forty lashes.

Update: MinnPost follows the Strib's leadership on this one:

The House approved the plan mostly along party lines. In Minnesota's delegation, Republican Jim Ramstad joined Democrats Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson, Tim Walz and Jim Oberstar in supporting the legislation. Democrat Keith Ellison did not vote. Republicans John Kline and Michele Bachmann voted against the bill.

That paragraph is awfully close to the Strib's version in the screenshot above (and equally incorrect about the Walz and Peterson votes), though not attributed:

The House approved the plan, 237 to 170, mostly along party lines. Among Minnesota's delegation, Republican Jim Ramstad joined Democrats Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson, Tim Walz and Jim Oberstar in backing the measure. Democrat Keith Ellison did not vote. Republicans John Kline and Michele Bachmann voted against the measure.

The Minnesota Independent gets it right in Minnesota delegation mixed on auto bailout and even manages to quote the statement Walz released after the vote. Fancy that. As the old joke goes, time for a seminar on blogger ethics. [end update]

Image: A screenshot of the Strib's article; see second paragraph, on the lower lefthand corner.

Urban legend update: the 2008 election, republican decay and Hamline's Joe Olson

According to our site traffic software, we've been getting a large number of google hits over the past few days from readers who wonder whether Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2008 Presidential election.

They click on our post from last April: Jackson County Pilot publishes urban legend--with a twist, which debunks a largely bogus mail cobbled together after the 2000 election. We cite the Urban Legend Reference site's effective take down of the numerous false claims and distortions in the erroneous epistle.

That so many people are researching this item made us think that some wise right-wing distortion artist has re-spun the urban legend, updating it to cover the 2008 election. After all: what tin-foil hat distortion artist could resist the heady mix of murder, inner city, welfare and the like being equated with the election of Chicago's Senator Obama?

So we did a little googling of our own, and while we haven't found the ur-source for this new version yet, we are seeing the urban legend walk again, purporting to describe the demographic differences between the geography of Obamaland and that of McCain Country. We find it peppered and posted all over, including the comment section of The Trail blog at the Washington Post.

Funny thing: the poster breathlessly reproduces the original 2000 election results; another commenter corrects them with the returns from this year. No one so far has challenged the malarky about "Alexander Tyler" or the opinions incorrectly attributed to Professor Olson at Hamline.

Other forums are not quite so sterling as those hosted by the Washington Post. In Car Dealer Forums, for instance, readers can learn about Some unreported stats about the 2008 election.  Of course, it's media bias causing that lack of reporting--though some posters are calling poor Joe Olson senile.

Will the differences in election results and other whoppers in the email deter those who want to believe the missive's dire warnings, prompting even a moment's hesitation before they hit the send button as they forward this to 143 of their closest friends?

We'd sooner bet on a revival of interest in 8-track tapes.  This re-invention of the earlier false urban legend is yet another terrific illustration of Stephen Colbert's definition of "truthiness," in which a perceived gut "truth" overrides facts. Urban legend? Who cares about falsehoods so long as a "value" close to the sender is being reinforced.

Coming to an inbox near you, soon.

Wednesday digest: green jobs and glad tidings edition

In response to a Post Bulletin column by a local Republican that scolded Governor Pawlenty for touting green jobs, Environment Minnesota's Samantha Chadwick writes Now is the time to invest in clean energy:

In response to the Dec. 1 column by Phil Araoz in opposition to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's green jobs initiative proposal, there has never been a more important time to invest in our future.

As we face a severe economic crisis, solutions that will stimulate the economy and create jobs will also bring long-term sustainability to our environment and economy.

Leaders such as Congressman Tim Walz, who realize that Minnesota is blessed with renewable resources and are pushing for development, deserve our praise and support. . . .

Read the entire, well-documented rebuttal in the PB's op-ed section. We're betting that a significant sub-set of the 62.5% of voters who voted for Walz in the First agree with the 2006 Gustavus grad, since energy policy was a major discussion during the congressional campaign.

Araoz's column, Tax breaks for 'green' jobs are bad deal for Minnesota is still online for those who wish to examine the case that sparked Chadwick's response.

The PB's own Greg Sellnow reports that a representative of Congressman Walz's office was onhand when the CP Christmas choochoo rolled into town in Holiday Train is good sign for Rochester:

The townsfolk, all bundled up in scarves, blankets and down coats on a dark night when the temperature was about 15 degrees, were there to see a 13-car train, facing west. It was lit with the outlines of flashing, brightly colored Christmas trees, ornaments and snowflakes. There in the middle was an open freight car where a band played. Santa stopped by to say hello. Our mayor was there to welcome the train. So was someone from Rep. Tim Walz's office. And a representative from the Channel One Food bank accepted a giant check from the Canadian Pacific Railroad for $2,500.

Sellner continues with a discussion of Rochester railroad politics. Interesting stuff. The train made several stops in Southern Minnesota as it traveled both countries to promote giving to food shelves. The train's blogger notes in Rochester residents embrace CP Holiday Train:

There were literally thousands of people braving the elements, all waiting to see what the CP Holiday Train was about and support the cause, when we pulled in!  Mayor Ardell Brede, Cynthia Schaffer from the Channel One Food Shelf and Rick Howden, representative for Congressman Tim Walz, were on hand to kick things off on a high note.. . .

We applaud all efforts to make sure no one goes hungry, but also hope that Congress will quickly pass President-elect Obama's plan for putting Americans to work rebuilding infrastructure, updating schools, and other public investments that will--we hope--reduce the need for food shelves.

And so all those waiting for the tide to turn, here's a song from Nova Scotia's own Melanie Doane, who was on the train that came to Rochester:

Progressive Movement in Rochester recognized by Take Action Minnesota

The footprint, a sustainable, livable community e-zine, writes in Tim Walz recognizes the footprint: at the Take Action Minnesota Progressive Leadership Awards Dinner last Saturday night:

A section of the program about Rochester: Rochester has a longstanding and politically engaged community of peace activists, a vibrant, powerful labor movement, progressive leadership in the Somali community, a solid history of environmental wins, successful sustainable development advocates and growing organizing in low-income communities.Many individuals and organizations deserve credit for these achievements, including the AFL-CIO SE Area Labor Council, AFSCME Council 5, Coalition for Economic Opportunity, ECCO: Earth Community Coalition of Olmsted County, Livable Rochester, Olmsted County DFL, SEIU Healthcare MN, SE MN Alliance of Peacemakers and UNITE HERE Local 21. Together they are transforming a city that progressives had all but deserted just a few years ago. . . .

The footprint's an interesting site; check it out.  Transit for Living's website posted the entire TAM press release here.  Some excerpts:

In the last six years, politics in Rochester has been undergoing a sea change. After more than 30 years of Republican dominance, in 2004 Rochester elected State Representatives Tina Liebling and Andy Welti. They expanded the Democratic delegation in 2006 with the election of State Representative Kim Norton, State Senator Ann Lynch and, in a surprise win, Congressman Tim Walz.  Expanded margins of victory in 2008 races proved these elections were not a fluke. . . .

. . .“Our recent wins come after years of work” said Abdifatah Abdinur, an organizer and leader Rochester’s Somali Community.  “People knocked on a lot of doors and organized a lot of meetings to get us where we are today.  That people kept pushing, even when the outcome was uncertain, says something about people’s commitment to each other.” . . .

While some observers attribute recent DFL successes in Southern Minnesota to the winsome personalities of the successful candidates, our own interviews of progressive leadership in the district suggests that Abdinur is spot on. There's no "secret weapon" or cult of personality driving the wins; mainly,  hard work and smart planning are fueling Southern Miknnesota's leftward turn, along with some underlying demographic and economic shifts in the region. The service ethic embodied by leaders such as Welti, Liebling and Walz doesn't hurt either.

Rochester area labor leader Laura Askelin has assembled a flickr set of the Progressive Movement in Rochester peeps in action.

Photos from set: Members of Rochester's progressive community at the Take Action Minnesota Progressive Leadership Awards Dinner (above); Union volunteers help contribute supplies as part of flood rebuilding efforts in 2007.

Minnpost to battle fellow citizens' reckless blogging

Not long ago, Joel Kramer assembled a stable of legacy media types for MinnPost - High-quality journalism for people who care about Minnesota. That's fine: anyone can start up online and do what he or she wants, restrained by the bounds of time, money, employers, defamation and criminal behavior.

Indeed, bloggers come from practically nothing to being able to say whatever they wish. Now, how the heck did this metamorphosis happen?

It's just so messy; these bloggers who have been known to call other writers wankers and worse. You'd think that we didn't care about Minnesota when we do that.

Fortunately, relief is on its way from the menace of reckless blogging. MinnPost has hired a blog nanny to watch over those of us who presumed to set up blogs without asking permission. Yes, gentle readers, the Blog Cabin is here to award gold stars to those nice people who fit the rules of high-quality journalism and to take naughty posters out to the blog woodshed, according to Minnesota Blog Cabin: Keeping an eye on the state's blogosphere.

We unwashed have all been served notice by one of Kramer's legacy media hires who, as far as the blogosphere goes, was born yesterday but stayed up all night:

Over the last few weeks, I've scoured the Minnesota blogosphere, finding more than 500 blogs with some kind of tie to the state.

Well, bless his little heart.  And he's going to lay down the law:

Now, being a blogger with a worldwide audience also comes with a lot of responsibility. We've all heard at least one story about a blogger who has misled, misrepresented or flat-out lied on their blog.
 
Simply put, there's a lot of garbage in the blogosphere and I won't hesitate to call out a Minnesotan who blogs recklessly.

The people-powered media revolution is knocking at our door, friends. It's time to peak between the curtains.

We'd have thought that a "peek" between the curtains would be more in line, but who are we to judge a gentleman's pleasures?

Update: Looks like Minnpost has corrected its homonym error.

Since Mr. Site Traffic Software Log shows a hit coming to this post via a referring Minnpost email account, we know that someone associated with the online venue saw it.

Will we get spanked by our betters for pointing out that one? We certainly didn't get thanked for the free editing. [end update]

Good luck with that. 

The new village scold prompts us to post this reckless video from the esteemed Marshall Bruce Mathers III (not work safe):

Worthington Globe: Craig Bergh named Windsurfer of the Year

 Southern Minnesota is known for corn, cows, renewable energy--and windsurfing. Really.

The Worthington Globe reports that a Nobles County man is being honored for his work in promoting speed surfing:

Worthington’s windy reputation got another boost in windsurfing circles when a local resident was recently named U.S. Windsurfing’s Windsurfer of the Year.

Craig Bergh of Worthington is featured on the home page of www.uswindsurfing.org for his contributions to the sport of speed sailing through the Midwest Speed Quest.

Bergh's site promoting the sport, Midwest Speed Quest, is "all about the sport of GPS Speed Surfing." Speed surfers use mobile GPS devices to measure their speed; according to the site, the current world record is 49.09 knots (about 56.45 mph), set in France by Antoine Albeau.  Read more about the contest and Worthington at the site.

The Globe article concludes:

Bergh was one of several candidates considered for the honor of Windsurfer of the Year, according to USW President Jim McGrath of Berkeley, Calif.

“The windsurfer of the year is generally someone not in USW, not in the business,” McGrath explained during a phone interview. “The idea is to (recognize) somebody who promotes windsurfing in effective ways, in ways that get more people involved. I don’t know Craig that well, but he was there in Worthington and got a lot of people involved in what he was doing. At the end of the day, windsurfing is all about speed, the ability to go on the water fast. … Anything that increases speed eventually spills over to all the different facets of sailing.”

Bergh said he is “most honored” to have been named Windsurfer of the Year, particularly since MSQ is such a new endeavor. But he hopes the award will help to bring more attention to the sport of speed sailing and the community of Worthington as a windsurfing destination.

“I have tried to create another community-based event for Worthington to be proud of,” he said.

Pretty cool illustration of prairie pride and innovation. Bergh's site features historic pictures of people playing on Lake Okabena, including material more appropriate for chilly December days: ice sailing.

Photo: Worthington 's ice sailors in 1907.  Photo from the Historic Lake Okabena slideshow in the MSQ site.

MFP: New forums spring up to replace paper's shuttered service

The Mankato Free Press reports that two new, independent forums have sprung up to replace that which the paper operated, then closed after some participants engaged in flame wars:

In a testament to the lure of online fellowship, two separate forums have sprang up within days of the closing of The Free Press’ online meeting place.

In the three weeks or so since MankatoForum.com and MankatoChat.com started up — both on the dime of longtime users — dozens of old regulars have returned and signed on.

The Free Press, though, hasn’t stepped out of the forum arena completely, as Publisher Jim Santori said the newspaper is planning on returning the feature to its Web site at some point with different software.

Both of the new forums are similar, though at least a few users believe one skews left on the political spectrum and the other right. . . .

Go check out MankatoChat and Mankato Forum to see if you'd like to join in either or both.

AP: Obama to name retired General Shinseki as VA head

We post a lot about veterans issues at BSP, so this national story deserves a spot here.

From the AP feed at KTTC:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic officials say President-elect Barack Obama has selected retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary.

The officials said Obama will announce his selection Sunday. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the official announcement.

Shinseki is the former Army chief of staff who upset his civilian bosses in 2003 when he testified to Congress that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the U.S. invasion. He was forced out of his job within months for being "wildly off the mark." But his words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a "surge" of additional troops to Iraq after miscalculating.

Reuters reports that President-elect Obama will announce his VA secretary pick tomorrow:

Obama is scheduled to hold a news conference in Chicago at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks.

Obama pledged during his presidential campaign to improve services for retired U.S. military men and women if he won the White House.

Strictly ballroom: ScrippsNews suggests legislation

From ScrippsNews:

Legislation we'd love to see, courtesy of the incoming 111th Congress:

The Austria -Walz Act to promote ballroom dancing in America, sponsored by Reps. Steve Austria, R-Ohio, and Tim Walz, D-Minn.

Would Walz promote that via the House Veterans Affairs, Transportation and Infrastructure, or Agriculture Committee? Austria, who replaces retiring Ohio rep David Hobson, has yet to receive his committee assignments, though he has been elected as GOP freshman class president.

As the Monty Python clip below suggests, outdoor performances of Austrian waltz tunes are fraught with danger:

Red, white and blue Christmas: Minnesota's ornaments on the White House tree

 Mr. Google helped us stumble upon the Minnesota page of ornaments for the White House Christmas Tree, which is:

decorated with 369 ornaments hand-decorated by artists from around the country, who were selected by their members of Congress. Each ornament was specially designed to characterize the unique, patriotic spirit of the artist’s state, district, or territory.

Some of Minnesota's ornament artists follow this year's theme of "A Red, White and Blue Christmas," working in the state's own 150th birthday.

Others adopt the state's iconic images;  artists selected by Amy Klobuchar and Michele Bachmann chose to grace their bulbs with loons swimming in pine-sheltered lakes.

For the First, Congressman Walz asked Owatonna's Todd Andrix to design an ornament (above). Andrix's design followed the theme. Correction: According to the Owatonna People's Press, Andrix asked a former student, Christine Robbins, to work on an ornament. Her bulb was chosen for the tree. 

Of all the Minnesota ornaments, our favorite is the Fifth's, by David Allan Beaman. The iridescent urban winter scene, with the northern lights dancing in the sky, is simply lovely.

FEC post-general reports: Walz spent $2,844,145.73 in election cycle

Update 12/16/2008: The news of El's cash-on-hand, from a report filed with the FEC on December 4, has been noticed this morning on several blogs in the Twin Cities.  We took moment this morning to post our observations about The pace of life on rural blogs: Tinklenberg's war chest [end 12/16/2008 update].

Several of Minnesota's congressional candidates have filed their post-election reports with the FEC. In Congressman Walz's filing, we find that the re-election committee spent $2,844,145.73 and closed with a mere $59,965.27 cash on hand on November 24.

Brian Davis's committee has yet to file its report, due tomorrow. We're curious to see if he spent most of his committee's treasury on the campaign for election, or withheld enough money to pay back the candidate's loans to his campaign.

Update: Davis's post general report has been filed. On November 20, the committee indeed paid back the $124,000 that Davis had lent to it.

The committee ended up spending $896,704.35 while taking in receipts of  $1,093,808.17. Davis had $5871.60 in his committee's treasury at the close oft he reporting period on November 25. [end update.]

The reports from the hotly-contested Third district help put the Walz figure into perspective. Winner Erik Paulsen spent $2,614,963.84 and had $108,154.18 remaining in the bank. Ashwin Madia went through $2,622,768.64, with $43,997.98.

These sums do not reflect independent expenditures, of which there were much in the Third, but very little at all in the First. 

The Republicans started the cycle with high hopes for recovering the seat, which was considered highly competitive in 2007, hopes that were given national attention early in in late March 2008 as well. By the time of the election, however,  the outcome wasn't wasn't considered particularly newsworthy, surprising or noteworthy, as Smart Politics' Eric Ostermeier noted in a comment here earlier this week.

Pick your adverb + adjective combo of choice for describing the outcome of the Walz-Davis-Mikkelson romp of 2008. Any one of the three provided by Dr. Ostermeier is adequate.

Update #2: Tim Walz raised a total of $2820562.39 for the cycle. Sixth District DFL candidate El Tinklenberg's cash total outshines Walz, though not his spending:

CASH SUMMARY
23. Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period	291227.33
24. Total Receipts This Period (line 16)	1854208.35	2952575.02	12546.85
25. Subtotal (23 + 24)	2145435.68
26. Total Disbursements This Period (line 22)	1661805.31	2259303.30	222188.20
27. Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period (25 - 26)	483630.37

We're curious to see how that compares to Missy Bachmann's gathering and spending. Nice war chest Tinklenberg acquired.

Update #3 Congresswoman Bachmann makes all of the gentlemen above look like a bunch of pikers, in that she raised (and spent) 3.5 million:

CASH SUMMARY
23. Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period	1171913.15
24. Total Receipts This Period (line 16)	1001572.28	3508183.12	-25.00
25. Subtotal (23 + 24)	2173485.43
26. Total Disbursements This Period (line 22)	2142983.17	3534821.14	104175.49
27. Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period (25 - 26)	30502.26

KAAL-TV: Tapping the funding network

In Learning to Network for Funding, KAAL-TV reports:

Congressman Tim Walz is trying to educate local leaders and non-profits on how to secure a federal grant.

More than 200 people attended his workshop in Rochester.

With the economy in a recession, finding money can be difficult.

"Anybody who wants in local government or a non-profit understands that funding is significantly reduced," says Mary Gorfine.

For local government coordinator Mary Gorfine and non-profit coordinator Gwen Wolters this event allowed them to network and get advice on how to obtain grants.

One workshop focuses on childcare, while another revolves around economic development.

"Connect the people who are...who are making things happen making that growth happen with some of the funding that needs to make that investment possible," Walz says.

Even with these tools, Walz says it's always a challenge to get grants.

"There’s no guarantees ever but it's one more source and one more tool and I want to see myself as a partner in that," says Walz.

"We do some great work in southern Minnesota and learning how to bring federal dollars into this area is not important for our programs but for the communities in southern Minnesota to be able to prosper," says Wolters.

As many of these organizations plan and research federal funding, the hope is to be able to provide as many services as possible.

Walz calls the workshop a success.

He says they're already planning more for places like Mankato or Austin, early next summer.

In Local officials seek stimulus money , the Rochester Post Bulletin's Jeff Pieters reports:

A planned federal economic stimulus program, centered on public works projects, has already succeeded in stimulating a stampede among local government officials in Rochester.

Legislation prepared by Rep. Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would send $45 billion across the country for road, bridge, aviation and water and sewer projects in the first four months of next year, the Duluth News Tribune  reported on Tuesday.

Oberstar told the newspaper that his legislation could create as many as 7,000 new jobs in Minnesota alone.

The same day the article appeared, discussion had already begun among Olmsted County commissioners to do whatever may be necessary to secure a piece of that funding for one or more projects.

Read the entire article at the PB for details about potential projects that might quality for the funding.

The prairie sunlight today is worthy of an artist's consideration, and so we present a slideshow of work by one of the American masters, set to a recent tune by Lucinda Williams:

Countering political nepotism in America: a modest twine ball solution

Over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald rightfully frets about how Nepotistic succession in the political class is not so good for our democracy. We agree.

Since Greenwald cites a historical example of nepotism in Minnesota politics:

Illustrating that radical change, here's a revealing 1929 article from Time Magazine expressing some mild disapproval for what was, back then, the rare occurrence of a son who was elected to succeed his father in a Minnesota Congressional seat after the father was killed in a tragic fire (the new son-Congressman, the article noted, was "an engaging young man, thoroughly Nordic in appearance").  About this single familial succession, Time sternly intoned:  "Primogeniture and hereditary public office have no place in U. S. tradition."

we bring forth a modest proposal drawn from the experience of players during the same era of prairie politics. We're calling it The Twine Ball Solution.  Not far from where we sit, the Largest Ball of Twine Ever Rolled by Hand by a Single Guy is chilling in its pagoda. The stuff of legends and a Weird Al Yankovic song, the Darwin Twine Ball was twenty-five years in the making, rolled by the obsessive hands of Francis A. Johnson.

Given the nature of his life's work, few Americans--heck, few citizens in pastoral Meeker County--remember that Francis's dad was the colorful Magnus Johnson. The elder Johnson served as United States Senator and Representative, as well as serving in the Minnesota House and Senate.

A 1923 Time article, Magnus the Great, sums up his political agenda:

Magnus—everybody in Minnesota including himself calls him Magnus—won on a platform of Government control (in favor of the farmers) of railroads, coal mines, Federal Reserve Bank. He is for a cash soldier bonus, heavier income surtaxes, excess profits taxes, restriction of the power of the courts in granting injunctions against labor, better prices for farm products, no lowering of wages, no entangling alliances.

The only Swedish-born person to ever serve in Congress, the Farmer-Laborite was known for the theatrics in his farm-yard stump speech, wherein he'd hop on the nearest manure spreader and announce it was the first time he'd ever stood on a Republican platform (we've met a couple of old-timers who heard the line as teenagers).

We, too, pine for the golden age of civility in Minnesota politics.

 None of Magnus Johnson's many children followed him into politics that we know of, and Francis's enduring fame as a roller of twine suggests that the siblings and offspring of the powerful might quench their egos through other pursuits that will earn them a place in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Indeed, the Twine Ball Museum in Darwin, Minnesota, sells a twine ball starter kit for a mere $25. Those committed to stomping out nepotism should organize to distribute these kits to political families deemed vulnerable to aristocratic tendencies. Francis was also an obsessive whittler and collector, activities which might also busy the idle hands of America's growing political class.

We have no children of our own and are nearly past the ability to calve ourselves--nor are we on the staff of the Twine Ball Museum or Weird Al--and so offer this solution to the menace of dynasties merely as a patriotic American.

Photos: Magnus Johnson and his family in 1923, the year he was elected to the Senate (above); the Twine Ball Starter kit, an affordable solution to the problem of America's growing hereditary class (below).

And now for the Weird Al song, because this here is what America's all about:

Wednesday digest: flying carp menace edition

The LaCrosse Tribune reports in Asian carp invade area:

Grass and bighead carp have turned up before in this area, [La Crosse fisheries supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Ron] Benjamin said, but the appearance of the silver is cause for concern. It previously had been found no farther upstream than Clinton, Iowa.

Silver carp, which grow up to 60 pounds and are excited by the vibrations of propellers, are a hazard when they leap into the paths of boaters.

And as an invasive species, they are a threat to the river’s ecosystem. How big a threat is unclear, Benjamin said. “Just to say, it’s a bad thing.”

A CBS News clip from 2006 explores the invasion of the energetic exotics:

This should play hell with the flathead cat fishing; the Minnesota River is one of North America's great flathead catfish waters. We hope that measures will be taken to keep these fiends out of the tributary of the Mississippi River.

Southern Minnesotans might be justified in feeling a bit paranoid about flying critters these days: the Winona Daily News writes in Authorities: Beware around bats:

Authorities are warning Minnesotans to be careful around bats after three of them tested positive for rabies in Olmsted County this year.

The Health Department’s Dr. Joni Scheftel said only one bat from the area tested positive last year and one bat in 2006. 

She says the 2008 results don’t necessarily mean there are more rabid bats out there; it’s probably the result of a spike in the number of bats being tested for the viral disease.

She credits the rise in bat submissions for testing to the story of a Monticello, Minn., man who died of rabies after a bat bite.

Two bats in Winona County tested positive for rabies in August, when health officials reported treating an unusually large number of people who had come in contact with bats.

Still, Rochester veterinarian Dr. Tobin Emrich says he’s concerned because he’s already treated two family pets for rabies because they had ben bitten by infected bats.

Scheftel said the most important thing people can do if they touch a bat, or think they were touched by a bat, is to capture it and have it tested.

We add that pet owners should make sure to have their companion animals vaccinated for rabies; kittehs find bats especially enticing, as some friends recently woke to discover.

The Austin Herald reports in QPP workers protest:

Workers affected by a neurological disorder contracted while extracting pig brains at Quality Pork Processors demonstrated outside the facility Saturday. . . .

. . .Demonstrators from the immigrant rights group Centro Campesino as well as affected workers and their families held picket signs outside the gates of QPP Saturday demanding answers to why the hog processor has allegedly denied workers’ medical restrictions and laid affected workers off. They are also demanding QPP process workers’ compensation claims. . . .

The Byron Review says that Canadian Pacific Holiday Train coming down the track to Rochester on Sunday. Rev. Paul Ibisch writes the Caledonia Argus to say Local food shelves will benefit from Holiday Train in La Crescent. Yes, Virginia, there is a railroad after Kevin Schieffer, as certain as generosity exists. Those who visit the train and listen to the entertainers traveling on it should bring food or funds to donate to local food shelves.

In Spring Grove, the Festival of Trees raises over $15k for county, local charities the SG Herald reports.

Congressman Walz is hosting a workshop on federal grants in Rochester today.

Finally, the great singer Odetta has passed. A while back, we posted a clip of here singing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Here's another clip:

OPP: Highway 14 unlikely to be in stimulus package, may indirectly benefit

In Expanding the highway: No funding secured for next portion of U.S. 14 project, the Owatonna People's Press reports:

Federal money that may be a part of a proposed economic stimulus package for infrastructure is not expected to help the Highway 14 project directly.

Members of the Highway 14 Partnership were hoping the package proposed by President-elect Barack Obama would free up federal funding for remaining portions of what has been dubbed Minnesota’s most dangerous highway.

The stimulus package is reportedly focused on allocating money for road and bridge projects across the country — repairing or improving infrastructure while creating jobs. . . .

. . .The stimulus package would have two criteria for projects to qualify: Projects must have the ability to begin in 90 days and they must not already have allocated funding.

“We understand that they are trying to get us money for the district, but right now we don’t have a 14 project that fits their criteria,” Hernandez said. . . .

. . .District Engineer Nelrae Succio and Assistant District Engineer Greg Paulson explained that although Highway 14 would most likely not meet the requirements to receive funding under this package, if the federal government grants funds to smaller projects here and across the state, that may free other money to allow MnDOT to focus on Highway 14 sooner.

“Something like this doesn’t happen very often — having a stimulus package,” Succio said. “Even if it doesn’t go directly to the Highway 14 project, it gets rid of the ones that are a higher priority. No matter what, I think it’s going to be a benefit.”

Another part of the stimulus discussion is about renewable energy and green jobs. The Mankato Free Press reports in Madelia leads by example that Senator Klobuchar is looking at rural renewable energy projects:

On a swing through southern Minnesota Monday, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar got an earful about something called the Madelia Model and updated communities about the plan to infuse life into the national economy via infrastructure upgrades.

The Madelia Model is still one of those “in theory” ideas. But with a little luck and a little more funding, the project could come together quickly. . . .

. . .

Between Sunday and Thursday, Klobuchar plans to get to communities in 17 counties in a tour she calls the Main Street Jobs Tour. Her goal is to meet with business leaders, especially those in infrastructure- or energy-related businesses.

President-elect Barack Obama has said he intends to find an answer to the ailing economy immediately after taking office. One idea is a plan to infuse the economy with enough of infrastructure projects to put thousands of Americans back to work.

Klobuchar’s tour focused on that and on hearing ideas that offer new ways at creating or saving energy. Her tour included stops in Rochester, where she visited with a group that is retrofitting buses for cleaner operation, a group in Pine River that installs solar water heaters for residential use, and a telephone co-op in Sebeka that works on solar/wind hybrid renewable energy systems.

“We have the possibility of creating energy in different ways,” Klobuchar said.

Read all of both articles at the OPP and MFP.

A little ditty about infrastructure:

Legistorm: Tim Walz's earmarks

Representative Walz is the only member of Minnesota's congressional delegation to release his earmark requests to the press and to post them on his web site.  Legistorm, a great source of information about congressional salaries, trips, etc, now provides a list of them as well.

Mysterious southern Minnesotan voters baffle smart people

In Minnesota Is Not Massachusetts, Smart Politics has some rather unflattering things to say about the DFL's performance at the polls. An interesting analysis that is no doubt extremely substantial, though we wonder at the wording of this passage:

In other words, if the DFL is carrying the ‘right message’ for Minnesotans, how is it that that the Republican Party held the governorship in 2006, held 6 out of 7 Congressional seats since 2006, and appears to have held, subject to the recount, the most fiercely fought Senate race in state history?

Since the Republicans don't hold six congressional seats among the state's eight congressional districts, we think Ostermeier is only writing in the smart prose above about those congressional seats that Republicans held in 2006. The passage itself is certainly a lesson in smart style.

Were we to apply Ostermeier's clear diction and crystalline sentence construction to a discussion of the congressional seats and the statewide constitutional offices held by the Democrats since 2006, the passage might read something like this:

In other words, if the RPM is carrying the ‘right values/ principles’ for Minnesotans, how is it that that the Democratic Party held the attorney general office in 2006, held 10 out of 10 Congressional seats since 2006 (with a gain of one that year),  held a Senate seat in 2006,  and gained two additional two statewide constitutional offices in 2006, though it appears to have lost, subject to the recount, the most fiercely fought Senate race in state history?

It would be apparent to nonpartisan observers that a plurality – if not a majority – of statewide or district-wide Minnesotans are actually voting for Democrats in these high profile contests save one. Indeed, both questions--Ostermeier's and our own imitatio--remain in our mind after reading the learned analysis.

We are less impressed with the scholar's acumen when we find the doctorate of political science glossing over The Mysteries of Southern Minnesota's Recent Voter Behavior, which seem to puzzle political scientists everywhere:

Only Tim Walz (CD-01) successfully met the challenge to ride the Democratic wave into office, and he was clearly aided in 2006 by numerous gaffes made by Gil Gutknecht during his last term in office.

There must be something in the water up in the Cities that renders Walz's surprise--but definitive--victory in 2006 and this year's landslide unfathomable to people who are much smarter than your ordinary blogging heifer.

We tend to think that Walz won his seat in 2006 by out-hustling and out-organizing Gutknecht, who was feeling pretty snug. Another factor in the 2006 race was the deliberate and strategic organizing by the MN-01 DFL after redistricting. A strong tail wind didn't hurt, nor did Walz's unpretentious personality and skills gained in teaching, coaching, and soldiering.

Nah--those sorts of things on the ground couldn't matter, and so we see a DFL win explained by smart people as a mere Republican loss brought on by gaffes. Ostermeier is silent about Walz's 2008 win, so smarter people will just have to repeat that Walz is a good fit for the district or whatever the current conventional urban wisdom might be.

RPM Chair Ron Carey has launched one chestnut that posits that Walz's campaign spending "bought" the election, and we suspect we'll be hearing more of this one. Our disaffected pachyderm friends in the First tell us that Second District Republican Congressman John Kline would like Brian Davis to run again. This being the case,  we doubt people smarter than we are will be blaming the 2008 GOP debacle in the MN-01 race on the candidate's gaffes, general haplessness and lack of appeal for the district's voters.

Instead, smarter people than blogging bovines will continue to call Davis "formidable," despite the fact that he had raised over $1 million by the pre-general election reporting deadline in October (see line 24 here) to get less than 33 percent of the vote. This is as formidable a loss as we know of in southern Minnesota.

The new RPM platitude is to point to Walz's fundraising as the culprit. A contrast of the MN-01 contests in 2004 and 2008, both presidential years in which the MN-01 race featured an IP candidate, might be a good starting point for determining the actual barrier for Davis. Indeed, Davis's fundraising and the duration of his campaign provide a sharp contrast to the bid by last-minute DFL candidate Leigh Pomeroy in 2004.

Pomeroy raised a $55,910 during his entire five-month campaign, launched in July 2004 when health issues forced endorsed DFL candidate Joe Mayer to withdraw from the race. In contrast,  Davis first announced his bid for Congress in the unlikely confines on Representative Walz's own office, which Davis was visiting on behalf of ASTRO in April 2007. Davis didn't file his FEC papers until June 1, 2007, but we understand some very smart people in the Beltway and the Cities were already talking to him about running by then.

Davis thus had over a year more than Pomeroy in which to gain name recognition; purists  might point to the endorsement and primary process, but even so, Davis had months more in the public forum and far more walking around money than Mr. Pomeroy enjoyed.

Despite a much shorter time to get to know the public and a comparative teensy treasury, Pomeroy not only received a greater percentage of the vote (35.59%) in 2004 than Davis did in 2008 (32.93%), but the prof and wine critic also received a greater number of votes (115,088) than did the Mayo oncologist (109,453).

Thus, when we turn to the dollar per voter ratio, Pomeroy raised $.49 per vote received, while Davis's ratio is $9.13 per vote.  And remember,  we're pumping up the DFL dollars here : the Pomeroy fundraising includes some money that came in post-election, while the Davis figure does not. (Walz raised $12.88 per vote gained--again, a figure that will change when the post-election reports are out; we will also be able to compare spending per vote).

Smart people will probably continue to ponder Southern Minnesotans' lack of interest in Brian Davis and will in time come up with explanations that are just as clever as their analysis of the 2006 Walz victory. It certainly can't be because of any weakness in a formidable candidate. We can't wait.

Photo: Anthropologists captured this image of southern Minnesotans in a recent expedition.

Finest worksong: is change coming at DOL?

While some progressives are scolding the President-elect for not moving fast enough to the left, we're looking at bread-and-butter issues ourselves theses days.  Some of the national news suggests that there will be some shifts in policy and approach that will have a great impact on Southern Minnesota's working families.

The Washington Post reports in Labor Dept. Accused of Straying From Enforcement:

The next labor secretary will be taking charge of an agency widely criticized for walking away from its regulatory function across a range of issues, including wage and hour law and workplace safety. . . .

. . .There are few federal agencies where the ideological differences separating many Democrats and Republicans play out more plainly. Labor is one of the government's largest regulatory enforcement agencies, overseeing issues from overtime payments and pension regulations to workplace safety and training programs. The agency has a total budget of $50.4 billion and 16,800 employees. . . .

One interesting contrast in the way the Bush administration has been running the DOL: while the department has been cited by the GAO for lax enforcement of laws protecting worker safety, minimum wage and overtime laws, the department beefed up oversight of labor unions. Lovely. Here's to change and to our labor friends in the First--Laura, Audra, Liz, Dale, Russ, and the rest--who worked so hard to educate, organize, and mobilize union voters this year.

The Post also reports Senate Could Give New President Early Legislative Victories given beefed Demcoratic control of the chamber:

Though they are two votes short of their quest for 60 votes -- with two races still undecided -- Democrats say that regular support from a few Republican moderates will allow them to pass bills that were halted in the current Congress by GOP parliamentary roadblocks. These include health-care programs, immigration revisions and presidential nominations.

The article quotes Senator Klobuchar.  An item we find of interest:

Stimulus: Obama is proposing a stimulus package that could include $500 billion in new spending and $200 billion in middle-class tax cuts, but Democrats cannot be certain that they have the votes to pass such a major proposal. House Republican leaders have disparaged the costly proposals, meaning Democrats may have to find 60 votes to overcome a GOP filibuster.

Democrats appear to have a fall-back plan should that package run into trouble. They now hold a 60-plus majority on a smaller proposal to spend tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure construction.

The second proposal sounds like what Walz and Klobuchar discussed with the Mankato Free Press. The New York Times reports in Squeezing the Most From a Stimulus Plan:

...Prominent economists argue that more than 50 percent of the next package, whatever its size, should be devoted to spending — on public infrastructure like highway and school repair, and on items like food stamps and stepped-up aid to state governments, subsidizing their spending.

Mr. Zandi, who advised the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, said in testimony last month before the Senate Budget Committee that nearly every dollar spent in this fashion generates $1.50 or more in economic activity. Repairing a road, for example, means hiring workers who spend their new salaries at supermarkets, which in turn hire more store clerks and stock more groceries to handle the extra spending.

This “multiplier effect” is missing, however, when the stimulus comes as a tax break. . . .

And there's this in the Post article:

In April, 50 Democrats and six Republicans supported legislation that would have amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act by allowing more time for workers to file discrimination complaints. Five new Democrats will be replacing Republicans who opposed the legislation named after Lilly Ledbetter, the female employee who lost her suit against Goodyear Tire and Rubber over discrimination claims. The Supreme Court ruled that Ledbetter should have filed her claim within six months of the alleged incidents.

So here's a shout-out to all of Laura's "peeps":

Photo: Congressman Walz joined members of Rochester's HERE Local 21 in early 2007 to protest the illegal firing of hotel workers by the then new owners of Holiday Inn Express.