A Bluestem Prairie

Marking Martyrs' Day

Yesterday's New York Times article about Walz's teaching in Nebraska mentioned that April is the month for marking a number of genocides: Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and quite often, the Holocaust (May 1 this year).  Today is Martyrs' Day, a day of remembrance for many Armenians.

Over at SCSU Scholars, conservative blogger King Banaian, whose grandparents fled Armenia, shares a deeply personal memory of the songs his grandmother sang and his own efforts at learning what those songs meant. A bittersweet and worthy post: 93 and remembering .

Courageous journalist Dith Pran dead at 65

We are saddened to learn of the death from pancreatic cancer of Cambodian-American photojournalist Dith Pran, whose harrowing story of survival was told in "The Killing Fields." Dith is credited with coining the term for the genocide that took place during the Khmer Rogue regime in Cambodia.

Dith escaped from his native country in 1979 and moved to the United States,where he became a photographer for the New York Times in 1980.  His AP obituary reports:

"After Dith moved to the U.S., he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.

He was "the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America," said Associated Press photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association."

The New York Times reports he hope others would work to help prevent such horrors anywhere:

“One time is too many,” he said in an interview in his last weeks, expressing hope that others would continue his work. “If they can do that for me,” he said, “my spirit will be happy.”

Dith is a personal hero. Here's hoping that more people can make his spirit happy.

Photo: In August 2002, Mr. Dith photographed young visitors perched on the base of "Liberation" by Nathan Rapoport in Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The bronze sculpture is a memorial to American soldiers who helped to liberate Nazi concentration camps.  For more of Dith's work, see the slide show at the New York Times.

The GOPeapod; or, scenes from the partisan struggle in Southern Minnesota

The Star Tribune reports today that Endorsement is only first round in GOP struggle to knock off Walz. After watching GOP congressional candidates state Senator Dick Day and state Representatives Randy Demmer on Almanac (video of the show is online), several of our more polite readers wrote to tell us how much they too thought the contenders were struggling.

We will not share what the our less genteel readers said, even though the folklorists who frequent this site would appreciate the vernacular.

Turning back to the Star Tribune article, there's the basic set up:

Two of the contenders, state Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield and Mayo Clinic doctor Brian Davis, have agreed to support whomever the party endorses.

But with greater name recognition, a rebel attitude attractive to some voters and more money than his opponents, state Sen. Dick Day is waiting in the wings.

Day, of Owatonna, is skipping the GOP endorsement process and running in the September primary.

That leaves Demmer and Davis in Albert Lea this weekend. Day and Demmer appeared on Almanac; Davis, he of the lesser name recognition, declined the invitation.

The criticism of Walz is simply that he's too liberal:

Walz's challengers criticize him for voting more with congressional liberals than his 2006 campaign had indicated, but [WSU political science professor] Downs said Walz's back-and-forth is necessary in a district that, before Gutknecht, was represented by Democrat Tim Penny, who served the southeastern Minnesota district from 1982 through 1994. Gutknecht won election when Penny retired.

The Star Tribune article doesn't point out that other sources deem Walz a centrist.  The National Journal, for instance, recently issued its rankings. Walz was among the centrists. Conservatives have often used these rankings to decry Democrats in the publication's "Liberal" bracket, but they've been mum about this particular ranking system,  Vote View, maintained by UC-San Diego political scientist Keith T. Poole and Princeton's Howard Rosenthal. It places Walz at in the 199th position in a spectrum ranging from most liberal (1) to most conservative (437). In short, he's pretty close to the middle of the spectrum.

Part of the struggle for the Republicans are the numbers:

In a telephone interview from Washington, Walz said that he's been focusing on his work in Congress but expects to unleash his force of 2,000 volunteers on a door-knocking campaign as soon as Republicans endorse their candidate.

"We're highly organized," he said. "We're highly energetic."

With incumbency on his side, he's managed to amass a much greater campaign treasury and a grass-roots campaign organization, far outpacing the Republicans' reported dozens to 100 volunteers.

Walz has large money edge

According to their campaigns, Walz has raised $1.1 million, Davis has raised about $160,000, Day $210,000 and Demmer about $205,513.

"There's no point in [Walz] displaying the image of a candidate that's panicky," Downs said. "Tim Walz has an edge at this stage of the race."

Matter of fact, the neighbor-to-neighbor campaign isn't waiting for news of the endorsement. It's scheduled for that day:

On Saturday, March 29 Tim Walz for U.S. Congress will begin mobilizing volunteers across southern Minnesota to start having one-on-one conversations with voters about the issues that matter most. The campaign will build the largest volunteer-driven grassroots campaign in the history of the Minnesota First Congressional District. Sign up to volunteer on March 29 to help Tim Walz talk to voters in Winona, Mankato or Rochester about his positive vision for a better future, please click here.

And there's the race to the right by the Republicans the Strib reports:

All three Republicans call themselves social conservatives who take a tough stance against illegal immigration and are against a firm timetable for the U.S. military pulling out of Iraq  . . .

. . . "It comes down to a personality contest," [Sarah] Janecek said of the Republican candidates. "I don't see a front-runner.

Let's recap: there's an accessible man-of-the-people working hard in Washington D.C. who spends congressional recesses in his swing district conducting dozens of listening sessions. He enjoys a cash edge, and both incumbency and the virtue of a fresh face. The GOP contenders are PeaPod Republicans, tilting distinctly right ward, who are in a personality contest.  That bodes will for Congressman Walz.

And then there's the Other Money Problem confronting the Republican's federal campaign committee. We read in this morning's CQ Politics' article Dem House Campaign Unit Gained While GOP’s Drained in February:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which helps fund the campaigns of Democrats who are running for the U.S. House, reported raising $6.2 million in February. That compared to $4.6 million raised by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the partisan counterpart to the DCCC, which also filed a campaign report Thursday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The NRCC expected to have had a bit more at the end. But the House Republican organization revised its cash-on-hand total downward by about $740,000, following the results of a preliminary investigation that alleged financial mismanagement by former NRCC treasurer Christopher Ward.

Given their money disadvantage, Republican officials also may wish they had taken back some of the $1.1 million they invested in February on the campaign for March 8 special election in Illinois’ 14th District. Democrat Bill Foster went on to win that contest by 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent over Republican Jim Oberweis — an outcome widely described as a setback and even an embarrassment to the GOP, as the Republican-leaning district had long been held by Republican J. Dennis Hastert, the former House Speaker, who resigned from Congress last November. . . .      

The Democratic committee has held a steady fundraising lead since its party’s 30-seat gain boosted it into its current House majority. And the February figures show that the imbalance between the two parties, in terms of money that each House campaign committee had left to spend on races across the nation at the end of last month, grew to its widest yet. The DCCC began March with $38 million left to spend and had $763,000 in debts, compared to $5.1 million for the NRCC, which reported $1.9 million in debts.

Washington Post: Walz "shrugged off" fearmongering ads

In House Passes a Surveillance Bill Not to Bush's Liking, the Washington Post's coverage of today's vote on FISA's revision, we find this passage:

"I'm very uncomfortable with an issue of this importance entering such a political realm, but I don't see us pulling it out of this mess either," said Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), a swing-district freshman who shrugged off a barrage of advertisements that accused him of jeopardizing national security.

Indeed.  The general reaction in the First to the ads has been greater respect for Walz in standing his ground.

This respect doesn't stop at the district's borders.  Over at DailyKos, Mcjoan writes of the vulnerable House freshmen:

Particularly deserving of thanks, though, are those Freshman Dems who would not be intimidated by everything being thrown at them by the Republicans--the robocalls to their constituents saying they were with the terrorists, the deceitful and inflammatory Defense of Democracy's crazy television ads. Particularly of note are Mike Arcuri who managed the Rule on this vote, and Nancy Boyda, Carol Shea-Porter and others who stood on the floor during these debates and strongly stood up for our civil liberties. You can show your support for them here.

The Freshmen who voted for the bill are being called the "hang-tough Dems."

Mid-afternoon news digest: fending for themselves edition

We expect to get our YouTubes from yesterday's Renewable Energy Forum later today; we've been districted by the spy bill debate in the Senate.

Meanwhile, those interested in talk of energy independence can read about the summit in the Worthington Globe article Addressing renewables at the state level.   Reporter Julie Buntjer quotes Walz extensively.  However, Walz left most of the talking at the meeting to the experts like Dan Juhl and Mike Bull.  Juhl says:

Juhl said Minnesota needs to do all it can to keep energy dollars from leaving the state.

“We export billions of dollars out of this state in energy resources every year,” Juhl said. “We have no gas, we have no oil, we have no coal, we have very little hydro, but we have a lot of wind. This is something we can really leverage into long-term economic viability for rural Minnesota.”

C-BED (Community-Based Energy Development) legislation was first approved in Minnesota in 2005. Each year since, there have been some tweaks as the state gears up to implement its plans.

“This is our chance of a lifetime,” Juhl said. “Wind energy can be to us what the tractor is to farming. It’s really an opportunity for us to do something and keep long-term economic viability in our communities and add a new cash crop to our basket.”

We suspect we'll have to wait awhile for vintage wind turbine swaps that will match vintage tractor jamborees, but you never know.

Mike Bull noted the coming shift in scale by the state:

“Rather than utility-scale projects that we’ve been working on, now we’re looking at homeowners, businesses and farms to get capital assistance for single-site and neighborhood-based renewable energy projects,” Bull said. “We’re looking on a smaller scale to capture some of the renewable resources we have.”

One of the problems flood-stricken people in Southeastern Minnesota have had in using some of the "hands-up" offered by FEMA was the lack Firm hired to develop county hazardous mitigation plan.  Editor Charlie Warner notes the efforts by Walz, Klobuchar, Coleman and Pawlenty to speed up the process are noted:

Houston County is working to have a hazardous mitigation plan in place ASAP to help bring much-needed flood relief assistance for the area. Last month numerous news reports indicated businesses in Houston and Fillmore counties would not be eligible for certain FEMA grants and low interest loans because the counties did not have a hazardous mitigation plan in place.

In January U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, along with First District Congressman Tim Walz,  urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to waive a paperwork requirement that could otherwise cause serious delays in the delivery of much-needed flood disaster assistance for the area. The following week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a similar plea to FEMA.

In letters presented to FEMA’s Administrator R. David Paulison, the three members of Congress and Minnesota’s Governor asked for a waiver of the federal requirement that local communities must first submit a “local hazard mitigation plan” before receiving funds under the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. 

Five of the flood-damaged counties in southeastern Minnesota do not have approved plans.  The counties affected are:  Dodge, Fillmore, Houston, Olmsted and Wabasha. . . .

Managing Editor Daniel McGonigle remembers Matthew Kahler, killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in Soldier from Granite Falls had touched many lives, including mine. While editor of the Granite Falls newspaper, McGonigle had met Kahler at a send-off party in the fallen soldier's home town.

Over at the Post Bulletin's blog Political Party, Washington bureau reporter Ed Felker looks at John Kline's assignment to help explain the NRCC's fundraising irregularities [emphasis ours]:

. . .With Democrats taking the majority in 2006 and a number of Republicans leaving the House rather than run this fall, the NRCC has had problems raising money -- which means Republicans hoping to win back seats lost in 2006, including Mankato  Rep. Tim Walz's seat in the 1st Congressional District, may be left to fend for themselves.

Now comes word that the NRCC has called the FBI to investigate, at the least, "irregularities" in its accounting.  NRCC Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., joined Kline last Thursday to brief the Republican caucus behind closed doors. Kline is declining comment for now, and there is no indication yet that he is somehow involved or affected, but it can't be a situation he relishes with the  fall elections looming. Kline will face the winner of the DFL endorsement contest between Dan Powers of Burnsville and Steve Sarvi of Watertown.

We doubt that Powers will present much of a challenge to Sarvi, so we look to seeing a Kline-Sarvi ballot in November.

 

Caring Bridge: Jared Stene's parent reflects on son's activism

The late Jared Stene, president of the WSU student senate at the time of his unexpected death from a genetic liver disorder, worked to help lower the costs of textbooks. One of his parents reflects on this at his Caring Bridge page, following the inclusion of textbook reform language in the federal higher ed bill:

About two years ago I remember Jared calling me to tell me that he was helping to organize a demonstration on campus at Winona State to protest the high cost of textbooks. The idea was to build a ‘coffin’ and then invite students to bring books that they were not able to sell back to the bookstore and place them in the coffin. One of the high costs of attending college is the cost of textbooks; the average student will spend $900 a year on books. You buy a textbook at the beginning of the semester for let’s say $100, three months later the bookstore will buy back the book for $10, or worse they will not buy the book at all because a ‘new edition’ has been printed.

When I heard that he was planning a ‘demonstration’ on campus my first reaction was, ‘Jared promise me that there will be no book burnings’. I could just see him leading the news, as video of him showed him throwing books into a bonfire. He assured me that there would be no burnings and that the books collected would be sent to other schools to be reused.

The day of the event came and it was quite successful in getting people’s attention. In fact Jared was interviewed by the Lacrosse, Wisconsin TV station and he was the lead story that night. (I have added a few pictures of the event).

Jared also told Congressman Tim Walz about the problem.

On Thursday February 7^th, 2008 a bill was introduced into Congress in Washington D.C. regarding Higher Education. A part of that Bill calls for a revision in the way textbooks are purchased by colleges that would reduce the price of textbooks for college students. As part of the process, Congressman Walz stood in the House of Representatives to announce that there was ‘a constituent in his district named Jared Stene, the President of Winona State University, who had worked for years on this problem’ and that due to his efforts the Committee had included this provision in the bill.

I think Jared would have liked that, to hear his name mentioned on the House floor in Wash. D.C. in association with this Bill. As Congressman Walz told me, if this bill is enacted it will ‘impact millions of students for years to come.’ I think Jared would have liked that, too.

Read more about the issue at IDHA.

Mid-morning news digest: ambush protected edition

The LaCrosse Tribune reports in  As Bush targets earmarks, area lawmakers defend their spending:

. . .Area lawmakers tend to agree the process needs reform, such as new rules that require sponsors put their names on earmarks and attest they and their families won’t directly benefit.

Still, they claim they — not Washington bureaucrats — are best qualified to determine the needs and merits of projects.

“I’m not one who subscribes to the notion that all earmarks are evil,” said Rep. Ron Kind,

D-La Crosse. “The (Congress-ional) representative knows the community and what the needs are. The president doesn’t know that. Bureaucrats don’t know that.”

Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz, D-Mankato, cites the example of the National Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University.

The first-of-its-kind program, which trains prosecutors and others in handling child abuse cases, had applied to the Department of Justice for funding. It was ranked fourth on a list of 137 programs deemed worthy of funding, but an administrator passed it over for a lower-ranked project to use golf to teach children life skills.

In 2007, Walz sponsored a $1.22 million appropriation for the center.

While the president has targeted the issue under a Democrat-controlled Congress, earmark spending actually peaked in 2005 when Republicans were in charge, according to the White House budget office.

“It’s a bipartisan problem,” said Kind, who is working on legislation to create a bipartisan commission to crack down on earmark spending.

In the Worthington Globe, Congressman reviews trip to Iraq. Walz writes:

A few weeks ago, as I landed in Afghanistan during a nine-day visit to the Middle East and Central Asia, I saw Army engineers unloading some important cargo from the plane I’d traveled on: the first Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle to arrive in Afghanistan.

Because an ambulance can’t carry heavy armor the same way a Humvee can, injured soldiers in Afghanistan were being transported from the battlefield to the medic’s station in vehicles that were insufficiently protected. The plane I hitched a ride on was carrying new MRAPs that will serve as battlefield ambulances, ensuring that our soldiers get the best care possible, from the very moment they are injured.

The soldiers at Baghram Air Base were clearly excited to finally be getting their hands on these state-of-the-art vehicles that they had been waiting for. What wasn’t so clear to me was why—nearly six and a half years after the war in Afghanistan began—we are just now getting around to providing them with armored vehicles to serve as ambulances.

It occurred to me that the delivery of that MRAP was emblematic of the changes that are taking place within military health care: we have all the resources our injured soldiers need, but unacceptable delays and needless bureaucracy have made the recovery process longer than it should be.

My visit to Afghanistan was part of a longer trip, which also took me to Iraq, Pakistan, Kuwait, and Germany. I traveled with two of my colleagues – a Democrat and Republican, as well as the Surgeon General of the Army, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the military’s health care system. . . .

We look forward to the Owatonna People's Press condemn the delivery of the ambulance as a waster of jet fuel.  After all, the paper got pretty pissy about any money or jet fuel being spent on that trip. We anticipate Dick Day's promises he'll walk everywhere if elected to Congress since his hometown paper decided that flying is naughty. In the Political Party blog, Ed Felker wonders About Walz's border trip.

In a letter to the Hastings Star Gazette, Second DFL contender Steve Sarvi contrasts Walz's and Kline's approach to earmark reform:

. . .Last year, when the new Democratic leadership took office, the process underwent review. The new leadership sought reform. Strangely, in light of his current position, Rep. Kline opposed reform. Now, he has simply opted out altogether, leaving his constituents to dig deeper into their own pockets for the necessary resources to get urgent work done.

On the other hand, Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz provides an example of how to work for change while still serving his district. Rep. Walz attaches his name to all funding requests and supports greater transparency in the process on the whole. This kind of needed change will be wrought by pulling people together to agree to solutions. By contrast, Rep. Kline’s position is to simply push away from the table. This is not leadership. . . .

The Minnesota Daily reports in Faculty donations buck trends that:

According to the data, in the first three reporting quarters of 2007, University faculty and staff donated $13,600 to Democratic Senate hopeful Al Franken, $5,800 to Democratic Rep. Tim Walz and $5,000 to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Mountain Lake Observer/Butterfield Advocate editor Kris Langland asks How low can they go? in reviewing one of FOX's John Gibson's radio shows.  Answer: pretty low.

The Winona Daily News decides anti-chicken ordinances are nothing to crow about in Winona, don’t fence us in.

Finally, in Class honoring their hero, the Marshall Independent has news of ways former high school classmates plan to remember Matthew Kahler and help his family. Killed by suspected friendly fire in Afghanistan, Kahler leaves behind a wife and four-year-old daughter.

 

Early afternoon news digest: extreme mumblety-peg edition

We were involved in a subzero split the kipper contest out on Mud Lake early this morning, and have only now recovered. Our apologies for the late post.

Yesterday, the New Ulm Journal reported that Granite Falls'  Fallen soldier has local ties:

A U.S. Army soldier whose father lives in Searles died Jan. 26,  from small arms fire injuries suffered in Waygul, Afghanistan

Sgt. 1st Class Matthew R. Kahler, 29, of Granite Falls, was the son of Ron Kahler of Searles and Colleen Kahler of Montevideo.

The Department of Defense said Kahler may have been hit by friendly fire from an Afghan guard who mistook him for an enemy, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Searles is south of New Ulm on Minnesota Highway 15.  The Marshall Independent reports Trust fund set up for soldier's family:

A trust fund has been set up by the Yellow Medicine East Class of 1997 for the Matthew Kahler family. Contributions may be sent to: Matthew Kahler Trust Fund, care of Granite Falls Bank, PO BX 8, Granite Falls, MN 56241 or dropped off in person at the bank at 702 Prentice Street, Granite Falls.

Kahler leaves behind a wife and four-year-old daughter.

A friend sent us an article from CQ Today that appears to be lodged behind a firewall, "Freshman Democrats Push for Contempt of Congress Citations for Bolten, Miers"

A determined group of freshman Democrats is pushing for a House vote on a resolution citing White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for contempt of Congress.

The freshmen, who were elected to the House on a wave of anti-Republican sentiment in 2006, say the House needs to act in order to preserve its authority to oversee the executive branch.

“I think the American people are eager to see Congress taking steps to reassert the proper balance in our constitutional framework,” said Paul W. Hodes of New Hampshire.

The House Judiciary Committee approved the resolution last July. The committee had subpoenaed Miers to appear at a subcommittee hearing on the firings of several U.S. attorneys in 2006. The committee subpoenaed Bolten for White House documents related to the firings. Miers and Bolten did not comply with the subpoenas; the White House asserted executive privilege in preventing Miers from testifying and in refusing to hand over documents.

Tim Walz of Minnesota, the president of the 44-member freshman Democratic class, echoed Hodes, saying “maybe it’s coming from the freshmen because we’re so ground level.” Walz said that his class is pushing Democratic leaders to put the resolution on the floor, and freshman proponents are working to build support in their individual state delegations.

Democratic leaders may have political reasons for putting off a House vote. Republicans are certain to paint it as a partisan exercise. And one House Democratic aide said that not all freshman Democrats are eager for the vote.

But Walz, Hodes and their allies insist that the House needs to act. . . .

The Albert Lea Tribune asks How will you spend a rebate? In Owatonna, the residents simply doubt one is on the way in Economic stimulus package met with cynicism.  A taste of the mood in Owatonna:

"I'll believe it when I see it," Muir said dryly. "There's always something to spend it on, I won't have any trouble with that."

Others believed the package is too good to be true.

"I'm a little wary of it because, as I see it, all the rich people will get most of it and we'll all get $20," said Target employee Melissa Haselton as she worked the electronics counter in the store.

The reporter interviewed Walz:

Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., wasn't surprised that the measure was met with disbelief, but was optimistic that the package had enough support from both parties to be out of the congressional chambers and onto the President's desk within a week.

"I would say they have become wise on that, and I wouldn't blame them," Walz said. "But if there's been an issue that has united us, it's the package."

Walz called the package the "first real relief for the middle class" and said he expected to pass the package in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The Senate will look at the package today.

In the New Ulm Journal, a letter writer suggests buying American-made products with the rebate, or at the very least, shopping local in Stimulating the economy – whose?.

The Owatonna People's Press also reported Walz leads fundraising for 2008 election. Read remarks from the Walz political director and the three GOP contenders at the OPP.

The OPP also reports Walz witnesses arrests on U.S.-Mexico border, though the story isn't on its front page online.  Walz's view on immigration reform is contrasted with that of the local GOP contender's support for a "wall" between the two countries:

By contrast, Walz believes that the key to solving the problem is stepped up security and immigration reform, which would make legal immigration more efficient and attractive than a risky journey through the desert.

"There are 5,000 spots, but there are 10 million [people] in the line," Walz said. "We're incentivizing illegal immigration." Walz added that employers are in dire need of workers, and that a better immigration policy would enhance the economy. On this point, activists with Centro Campesino are in agreement.

"The U.S. has its right to protect its borders, just like every country," said Ernesto Clara, who works for Centro Campesino. "What we're against is that they're apprehending hardworking people, rather than real targets."

In Worthington, a speaker talked to school children about the Holocaust in From Holocaust to racism, according to the Globe. The lead:

How do you see the spirit of the Holocaust alive and well in Worthington, Adrian or Ellsworth?

Is it in the school cafeteria, where the popular kids congregate with their kind and the stoners and the loners with theirs?

Is it at home, where parents talk negatively about the community’s influx of Hispanics, Asians and Somalis?

Is that spirit alive within you — a flicker of hatred toward gays, lesbians, blacks, Jews, Jehovah’s Witness? … The list goes on and on.

If you can look at yourself in the mirror and see even the tiniest flame, then Timothy Scott wants you to extinguish it before it gets fanned. . . .

. . .Scott, an attorney with Bakke Norman Law Office in western Wisconsin, has spent the past 17 years traversing the Midwest to tell the story of the Holocaust and relate it to the racial and ethnic tensions that are alive today in countries across the globe — and in our own backyards.

“You don’t have to be white to hate,” he said.

The documentary film "So the Bible Tells Me So" has been shown in Jake Reitan's home town, the Mankato Free Press reports in Acclaimed film reaches Mankato:

The film features Jake Reitan, and his parents Phil and Randi, while telling the stories of religious couples who discovered one of their children was homosexual. Jake Reitan was 15 years old and a sophomore at West High School when he first told his sister he was gay. It was a year later before he told his parents.

An interesting coalition teamed up to show the film:

And it was a group of six local churches — along with the Human Rights Campaign and Minnesota State University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center — that has brought “For the Bible Tells Me So” to MSU’s Ostrander Auditorium and downtown’s Maverick 4 Theatre in the Mankato Place Mall.

IAM leader Rich Michalski looks at the impact of trade policy on good jobs in Opportunity for U.S. aerospace in Minnesota in the Albert Lea Tribune.

The Waseca County News reports Economic measures affect Waseca. Former Congressman Tim Penny and other local leaders discuss the economic climate. 

The Fairmont Sentinel editorial board writes Mouthing ‘change’ won’t  alter underlying realities.  As usual with the very conservative paper, they're against Walz. And expanding SCHIP, ending the Iraq War, and affordable health care insurance, and economic policy directed toward helping the middle class.

Update on Jared Stene: Cause of death was Wilson's Disease

On January 10, his family had posted at the Caring Bridge page about the cause's of Jared Stene's death: Wilson's Disease:

Wilson’s Disease is an extremely rare disorder that effects how the liver handles copper as it enters your body. Normally the liver passes copper into bile, which the body uses in digestion. In Jared’s case the liver did not pass copper, instead it stored it in his liver. As the copper builds up in the liver, it starts to injure the liver tissue. Over time, this damage to the liver causes the liver to release the copper directly into the bloodstream, where it begins to affect other organs.

This condition is hereditary; Jared was born with it.  . . .

As a family, the news has been somewhat a comfort. The nagging questions that persisted as to what caused Jared to be taken from us have been somewhat answered. The questions of ‘what if’ that our family has been thinking about have been put to rest for now. The unfortunate part of this disease in Jared’s case was that once he started to present symptoms, his liver had already failed and resulted in fulminant liver failure. .  .

There's an article about Jared in today's Star Tribune: Rare and undetected genetic disease killed Winona State student at age 22.

First district Pakistani residents react to Bhutto assassination

According to the Post Bulletin article, Bhutto assassination shocks Pakistanis in Rochester:

Pakistanis in Rochester had a complex response to news of Benazir Bhutto's assassination Thursday. They were filled with shock and horror at the former prime minister's death. Some were distraught. But they were not, paradoxically, surprised that it happened.

"This seems to be something that has been repeatedly going on for the past few years. She is another victim of that -- of the mindless killing," said Tariq Choudhry, an IBM engineer who has lived in Rochester for the past 14 years. "Like her father, she gave up her life for the country."

He and other area Pakistanis also worried about the fate of their troubled country.

They said her death was a major setback for a country that stands at a critical crossroads, between democracy and the rule of law, on one hand, and chaos and perhaps civil war, on the other. . . .

Rochester is home to a small Pakistani community of 30 to 40 families:

Several said they immigrated to the U.S. to take advantage of the educational and career opportunities that weren't available in Pakistan.

The Owatonna People's Press relates a more personal tale in Benazir Bhutto assassinated.  Owatonna resident Shah Ashraf, a member of the Pakistan's People's Party, was a childhood friend of Bhutto.

The Ashraf and Bhutto families have met once or twice a year in London or Dubai since she went into exile, and Bhutto stayed in his home in Owatonna after she gave a lecture at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa. 

Ashraf hopes to make a run for a senate seat in Pakistani following the parliamentary election, provided that they are not cancelled. Senators in Pakistan are elected indirectly by provincial assemblies and the territories’ representatives.

He blames Al-Qaida for the assassination:

. . .because of Bhutto's support for western-style democracy and her support for the war on terrorism. He doesn't believe Musharraf had anything to do with her assassination.

"The outcome of this death is that, now, every Pakistani will have to stop these idiot fundamentalists," he said.

The Washington Post looks at possible killers in Many Had Desire, Means to Kill Bhutto.  Bhutto was the head of the People's Party, which she continued to lead while in exile.

A November news report in the LaCrosse Tribune notes that Ashraf, who maintains a dual US-Pakistani citizenship, was with Bhutto in Pakistan  Oct. 18 when an explosion killed 136 people and injured hundreds of others.

KAAL-TV has posted a video feature about the friendship.

Tuesday morning news digest: budget bill edition

The Washington Post reports House Approves Spending Bill. The lead:

The House last night approved a $515.7 billion domestic spending measure that shaves billions from spending levels desired by Democrats and uses emergency spending and other tactics to challenge President Bush on his budget demands.

The legislation, which passed 253 to 154, funds every agency of government but the Defense Department for fiscal 2008. The House then voted 206 to 201 to approve an amendment that includes $31 billion for fighting in Afghanistan but none for the war in Iraq.

The Walz congressional office sent out some background information about the bill:

The Rules Committee has posted the text of the omnibus spending bill (in a non-searchable format) here:

This legislation contains funding for a number of specific Minnesota projects, 20 which are included at the request of Congressman Walz. A final installment of $195 million for the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis is also in this bill.  It can be found in Division K, page 21, line 22. 

Download  OmnibusReportSprdsht0final.xls,  the list of projects requested by Congressman Walz.  Some of the money is for Highway 14;  over at IDHA, DJ notices Day ignores transportion (among other issues) to hang with the Minutemen.  Danielson an artist's rendering of Day's press release claim that he go to look through night vision glasses. We suspect that Santa found Day's googles here.  KAAL reports Highway 14: A Dangerous Drive.

The Strib reports I-35W bridge funding passes House and Money for Minnesota, including the Walz money for Highway 14.

More grieving at Winona State University, as another college student dies.  An ignorant reader comments that the deaths are alcohol-related, and other readers object. KTTC has more  in A Tragic Month, including the news:

So far there is no indication that any of the student deaths had to do with drugs or alcohol.

Politically Connected House Watch: Nope, the editors still haven't changed the top links for stories  listed under "National Politics: House." The November 29 (Updated December 4) Day press release on immigration is still a top item on December 18. 

WDN Editorial: Stene is the best of what WSU has to offer

The Winona Daily News has published a moving editorial praising the legacy of Jared Stene:

It’s hard not to love a guy who has an abiding appreciation for hot dishes. It hard not to love a guy who is so passionate about “The Price is Right” he starts a local fan club. And that’s why it’s so hard not to cry a little at the passing of Jared Stene, the Winona State University student body president. . . .

. . . But Stene’s life should serve as another powerful reminder to those outside the WSU scene. Too many folks in this community are sometimes too quick to believe in the stereotype of college students being drunk, careless or uninspired.

You only have to look at the life of Jared Stene to know that’s simply untrue. His life and his service prove the next generation will be in good hands if people like Stene are involved.

There is compassion. There is intelligence. And most importantly, there are still students — maybe even more of them today than ever — who look at life with an unflinching tenacity, ready to embrace it, celebrate it and squeeze everything out of it they can.

That was Jared Stene.

And so Jared Stene has indeed left us — he’s left us an important reminder to celebrate the life we have and to have faith in the next generation.

Go read the whole thing at the WDN.

150 ideas about the legacy of Jared Stene

Bronson Pettit, editor of the Minnesota State-Mankato Reporter, writes of Jared Stene: Passing of 'passionate,' 'good-humored' president shocking. Student government leaders from MSUM attended the wake and funeral. Work responsibilities kept us away, but friends said both wake and funeral were packed, with an overflow crowd listening to yesterday's services in the parish hall. DJ said it was the first time he'd heard his blog mentioned from a pulpit.

His friend Rick Howden remembers him in a post from yesterday.  The Facebook group (registration required) "In Loving Memory of Jared Stene" has 960 members, and a link to a pretty funny video of Stene mattress jousting.

WSU alum Holley Faye Schmidlapp has started an art project in honor of Stene for WSU's Sesquicentennial Celebration:

Jared Does 150: Art Muse Sesquicentennial Celebration at WSU Hi everyone, I am respectfully looking for 150 words, motions, ideas, adjectives, representations, characteristics, movements, or things in general that describe or honor our Student body leader and friend, Jared Stene. If there are 150 things that Jared liked or advocated for to make help make WSU a true community of learners, then i want to hear about them :)

I know all of you are grateful to have had Jared in our lives, and will cherish the many silly stories and times shared. That's why I thought I'd bring together 150 ideas or concepts or things that Jared did, impressions and lasting legacies, into some sort of collage for WSU's Sesquicentennial Art Muse Celebration.

I'm looking of at least 150 contributors in this artistic celebration of Jared's Life!

Spread the word... senate members past and present, students, staff, political activists and coffee drinkers!

Deadline for submission : Thursday, at noon. Post em here or send an email. Open to any suggestions and thoughts in general.

Ideas can be posted on the Facebook page or sent to the artist's via email (visit the Facebook page for the addresses).   

We imagine that other memorials will be established in Stene's name as the shock wears off, and we'll let readers know about them.

Monday morning news digest: mourning and moose tacos edition

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.

Sunday morning news and netroots digest: grieving and green power edition

Jared Stene
Closer to home, the Pioneer Press has published WSU student leader Jared Stene obituary. Go over and sign the guestbook.  There's a brief Stene tribute up at the website for the Minnesota State University Student Association, which cancelled its December meeting this weekend out of respect for Jared, who served as the WSU member of its executive board. Hal Kimball, former MSUSA president, has a couple of new posts of memories. Terri Burke, one of Stene's roommates, contributes a guest post at IDHA, Finding Strength.  Jared's Caring Bridge page reports that the Associated Press has picked the story of his passing.

It's all good.

Netroots
A couple of bloggers have reflected on the meaning of Dick Day's run for the border. Spotty looks at how Big Dick joins a posse!, then contrasts the Strib's treatment of Day's  braggadocio (we wish we would have thought of that word) and the Ritchie email dust-up. Over at Firedoglake's new digs, Phoenix Woman takes aim in her post Come Saturday Evening:  Strib Straps On the Kneepads for the GOP. 

Green revolutions
When we visited Washington in June on behalf of the Audubon Society's push for strong conservation measures in the Farm Bill, Congressman Walz talked about research being exploring pond scum as a biofuel stock.  Today's New York Times reports Algae Emerges as a Potential Fuel Source and takes us into a University of Minnesota lab:

The 16 big flasks of bubbling bright green liquids in Roger Ruan’s laboratory at the University of Minnesota  are part of a new boom in renewable energy research.

Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Dr. Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source.
Some algae is as much as 50 percent oil that can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is cutting the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon.

“If you can get algae oils down below $2 a gallon, then you’ll be where you need to be,” said Jennifer Holmgren, director of the renewable fuels unit of UOP, an energy subsidiary of Honeywell International. “And there’s a lot of people who think you can.”

Algae farms wouldn't take up cropland:

If the price of production can be reduced, the advantages of algae include the fact that it grows much faster and in less space than conventional energy crops. An acre of corn can produce about 20 gallons of oil per year, Dr. Ruan said, compared with a possible 15,000 gallons of oil per acre of algae.

An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It would not require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water and could consume pollutants from sewage and power plants.

The debate over Farm Bill also raised the question of subsidies (we'd like to see them capped, but not eliminated). One of the arguments for ending subsidies revolves around the notion without American subsidies to our own farmers, poor farmers in Africa would prosper under free trade. Given the effect of NAFTA on Mexican agriculture, we've had our doubts.   

An article in the Times suggests that maybe the equation was bass ackward. Instead, African farmers could use a safety net of their own. In  Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts, we read:

. . .Farmers explain Malawi’s extraordinary turnaround — one with broad implications for hunger-fighting methods across Africa — with one word: fertilizer.

Over the past 20 years, the World Bank and some rich nations Malawi depends on for aid have periodically pressed this small, landlocked country to adhere to free market policies and cut back or eliminate fertilizer subsidies, even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers. But after the 2005 harvest, the worst in a decade, Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi’s newly elected president, decided to follow what the West practiced, not what it preached.

Stung by the humiliation of pleading for charity, he led the way to reinstating and deepening fertilizer subsidies despite a skeptical reception from the United States and Britain. Malawi’s soil, like that across sub-Saharan Africa, is gravely depleted, and many, if not most, of its farmers are too poor to afford fertilizer at market prices.

“As long as I’m president, I don’t want to be going to other capitals begging for food,” Mr. Mutharika declared. Patrick Kabambe, the senior civil servant in the Agriculture Ministry, said the president told his advisers, “Our people are poor because they lack the resources to use the soil and the water we have.”

The country’s successful use of subsidies is contributing to a broader reappraisal of the crucial role of agriculture in alleviating poverty in Africa and the pivotal importance of public investments in the basics of a farm economy: fertilizer, improved seed, farmer education, credit and agricultural research. . . .   

Saturday midday Walz news digest: catch up edition

We spent most of yesterday on a field trip to the Cities, so we're catching up. 

First, a Soldier from Hayfield dies in Iraq, the Post Bulletin reports.  The basics:

Flowers were placed in newly fallen snow at the Hayfield Veterans Memorial this morning and the flags were at half-staff in honor of John J. Tobiason, who died of injuries in Iraq on Wednesday.

His family put the flowers on the memorial Thursday afternoon to remember the 42-year-old Hayfield man who had made the Army his career.

"This is what he lived for, ... and it is what he died for. We need to be proud," his sister, Nancy Mitchell of Mantorville, said this morning.

Sgt. 1st Class Tobiason, who was an Army cook, died in Baghdad of injuries he suffered in an incident. The military told the family that an investigation has been completed, though they have not seen the report yet, Mitchell said.

She said all the family knows is that Tobiason stepped outside of a tent and shots were fired. . . .

The Post Bulletin has more in Hayfield soldier was deeply private, affectionate, loyal.  Thank you for your service, Sgt. 1st Class Tobiason, and may you rest in peace.

Yesterday, the Post Bulletin reported that Walz seeks bridge between energy interests:

As Congress moves to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Rep. Tim Walz has begun reaching out to environmentalists and energy producers in the hopes he can satisfy both.

Walz met with members of the Sierra Club on Monday, the same day he attended a fundraiser held for him by representatives of area rural electricity cooperatives. He used both occasions to explain his support for bills that would cut emissions through higher fuel standards and new mandates on industry and energy producers.

The meetings came in the wake of his decision to sign on to the Safe Climate Act, a Democratic bill that would reduce the overall level of greenhouse gases by 80 percent over 1990 levels by 2050, in part by imposing limits on utilities.

He also called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to stand firm behind a House-passed energy bill provision that sets a 15 percent mandatory renewable standard for electrical utilities, while excepting cooperatives and municipal utilities, and to support a Senate-passed boost in overall auto mileage standards to 35 miles per gallon.

Those provisions are at the heart of negotiations between the chambers over their respective energy bills. A vote on a final bill could come in the next two weeks, when Congress returns to wrap up its legislative year.

The rural power cooperatives held the fundraiser because of Walz's work on the Farm Bill:

[Mark Glaess,  general manager for the Minnesota Rural Electric Association,] said the fundraiser was held in part because Walz has been active on rural cooperative issues, notably winning a provision in the pending Farm Bill that would require a study of rail rates on the rural economy.

The Albert Lea Tribune noted how  Walz touts 2007 farm bill.  Walz also talked about No Child Left Behind,  Medicare, and  transportation.

In the Tribune's sister paper, the Austin Daily Herald, we read a piece about the carbon-monoxide -in-meat-packaging hearing in  Walz: Hormel hearing ‘heavy-handed’.  The meat of the article:

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz on Wednesday called the House hearing on Austin-based Hormel Foods’ modified atmosphere packaging process “heavy-handed” and unrelated to food safety.

“Of all the issues I’ve been involved with out there — Iraq and everything else — this one really took me by storm on how it seemed to me that this was corporate interests affecting another corporation’s interests,” Walz said. On Nov. 13, the chief executives of Hormel and Cargill Inc. testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigation about concerns over including carbon monoxide in the packaging process of meat to keep the product looking red and fresh longer. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Bart Stupak represents a district in Michigan, the state that is home to Kalsec Inc., a company with a competing technology that has spent $840,000 over the last two years lobbying against carbon monoxide in meat packaging.

The Austin papers also reports Vet declines war medal.  World War II vet Donald Kofron received an Air Medal with three oak clusters. Walz's office had asked to have him receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, but the Secretary of the Air Force downgraded the request to an Air Medal.  Since Kofron already had one, he declined the honor and a ceremony for him on the day after his 91st birthday.   Kofron briskly sums up his heroism:

“I’m proud to be an American and proud to have served my country” he said. “There are 10 men alive today because of what two pilots did in that bomber and I’m one of them,” he said.

The Winona Daily News has posted Winona State student senate leader dies: Jared Stene remembered as ‘the face of WSU’, a fine article about the candlelight vigil for Jared Stene at Winona State University.  Stene's Caring Bridge page now features a statement from his family and notice of his visitation and funeral:

                                                     Hey Everyone!

Please join us as we celebrate Jared's life. We will be holding a Memorial Visitation on Monday December 3rd at:
Wulff Woodbury Funeral Home
2195 Woodlane Drive
Woodbury MN 55125
at 3pm-9pm

The funeral will be Tuesday December 4th at:
Holly Cross Lutheran Church
6355 10th Street North
Oakdale MN 55128
at 10:30am

Full obituary to be printed in Sunday's edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

We invite all of you to join our family in celebrating JJ's amazing life.

Hope to see you all soon,
Cait

Rest in in peace, Jared Stene

We are deeply saddened by news we just received of the death of Jared Stene, president of the Winona State University Student Senate.

Over the Thanksgiving break, Jared had suddenly developed jaundice, then liver and kidney failure. According to his friend Hal Kimball (Blue Man), he suffered a heart attack in the intensive care unit of Fairview hospital in Minneapolis, where he was waiting for a liver transplant.

Jared Stene, a senior majoring in Political Science and Public Administration, with a minor in Mass Communications at WSU, hailed from Woodbury, Minnesota. He was 22 years old.

A crusader for student issues and affordable higher education,  Stene is mourned by his parents, his sister Caitlin at WSU, and the countless people he touched in his life with his passion, kindness, and energy.

In addition to his years of service in WSU's senate, Jared served as the treasurer of  the Senate District 31 DFL and the Winona State University Board Member for the Minnesota State University Student Association.

He is part of the group shot of our pesky (but dear) friends on the banner of I Don't Hate America.

You can learn more at his page on caringbridge.  His sister writes:

God has plans that we all sometimes dont understand right way...

God must have a GREAT ONE FOR JJ!!

My family and I were with JJ when he took his last breathes of air tonight...

Jared Paul Stene passed away peacefully tonight the way he would have wanted it to be.

Funeral arrangements are pending. Our prayers go out to his family and friends.

Update: Ian G., Jason and DJ have posted a hotdish of their memories of Jared at IDHA in three posts:
RIP Jared Paul Stene July 18, 1985- November 29, 2007
Jared Stene - Passionate human being
It still hasn’t sunk in: Jared Stene is gone

Hal Kimball at Blue Man in a Red District shares his memories in Tough night:  RIP Jared Stene.

 

Walz: Block grants to expand Operation Hometown Gratitude

We had a number of tech issues to be resolved at work this morning, and so posting is late today.  We'll have more in the evening.

In today's Post Bulletin, Jeff Kiger writes in Grieving parents thank Operation Hometown Gratitude:

"Just like Christmas" is how Army Reserve Spc. Rachael Hugo told her parents that receiving care packages from Rochester made her feel.

After her death in Iraq in early October, her father, Kermit Hugo, wants all of the troops overseas to have that "Christmas" feeling, as well as giving the high school students across the country the experience of sending those packages.

They want to bring the two-year-old Operation Hometown Gratitude care-package program to Wisconsin and eventually across the nation. . . .

. . .

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, himself a veteran, supports the idea. He hopes to help the cause by working through the Veterans Affairs Committee to create block grants for such projects and to do things like finding ways to discount postage for these packages. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1215 in Rochester has paid all of the postage for Operation Hometown Gratitude. More than 2,600 packages of cookies and other treats, as well as basic toiletry items have been collected by the students, boxed up and shipped to soldiers overseas.

"We need to do all we can," Walz told the group Saturday. "This nation has a debt to pay that can never be repaid, but we can try."

Hugo's father agrees.

"It is like a circle," Hugo said.

Web links

• Operation Hometown Gratitude

A short week in the House: Gilmor funeral and Rosh Hashanah

CQ Politics is reporting that this won't be a week for a lot of votes in the House:

House leaders plan to hold votes only on Monday next week to allow members to attend the funeral of Rep. Paul E. Gillmor, R-Ohio, and observe the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

Gilmor's sudden death has been ruled accidental by the local medical examiner, according to CQ Politics.

However,  the short week should still be full of drama, if not votes. Today, General David Petraeus presents his report on the surge to the joint session of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees. Petraeus will brief the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. Envoy Ryan Crocker is also in town.  The Washington Post looks at the  Congress, White House Battle Over Assessment and Spotlight Shifts to Views Of U.S. Envoy to Iraq.

Polling indicates that many Americans do not trust Petraeus to deliver an accurate reprot to Congress.  CNN reports:

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll taken last month found about two-thirds of Americans -- 64 percent -- oppose the Iraq war, and 72 percent say even if Petraeus reports progress, that won't change their opinion.

The poll also found a great deal of skepticism about the report, with 53 percent saying they do not trust Petraeus to give an accurate assessment of the situation in Iraq.

The Strib reprints History echoes in Petraeus' testimony, a LA Times piece which asks whether the general will be remembered as a Grant or a Westmoreland.  Only in the toadying worldview of staff officers could the American Civil War and the Iraq civil wars be conflated.

UPDATE #2: The Cucking Stool provides a Petraeus Handbook to help the home viewer. A better value than any Cliff Notes.

UPDATE: Conservative site Red State is livid over a MoveOn.org ad and is suggesting that its readers call "vulnerable" Democrats to denounce the ad. Walz is on their list:

Here is a list of vulnerable Democrats. Call them and get their comments on MoveOn.org's ad campaign. Put their response in the comments.

My, my.

Mankato Free Press: Hundreds line streets in rain to honor Thompson

The story and photos that accompany this stroy are deeply moving.  Here's a description of the funeral:

The funeral, at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, took place in a steady and heavy rain.

As mourners packed the inside, hundreds of Patriot Riders — the Harley-riding veterans who provide assistance at military funerals — were stationed outside, holding American flags for hours in the downpour.

Inside, the military pageantry of a full-honors funeral was evident. At the start of the funeral, the flag-covered, steel-gray casket was pushed slowly to the back of the church by two soldiers.

Six soldiers, three aside the casket, slowly, meticulously lifted and folded the flag into a triangle to later be presented to Thompson’s parents, Charlie and Barb Thompson. The casket was then moved back to the front of the church for the service.

During the service, military officials presented Thompson’s parents with medals he’d been awarded with posthumously — the president’s Bronze Star for meritorious service, the Purple Heart for injuries received the day he died, and the Army Commendation Medal.

As Thompson’s casket was loaded into the hearse, the Patriot Guard members lined the path and others, on motorcycles, led the processional of cars and three buses of people as they wound their way across Mankato to Calvary Cemetery.

Along the route, hundreds of people, many who’d stood in the rain for hours, held flags and signs of respect for Thompson. Dozens of people ringed the edge of the cemetery. Taps was played and a 21-gun salute sounded as Thompson was buried.

KEYC-TV has produced a moving report and video of the funeral. Yes, it was a downpour.