A Bluestem Prairie

A terrible bigotry is born: A bit more about Hendrycks and Day's pal Ron Branstner

In the nearly two months since we posted a photo of California Minuteman and Dick Day pal Ron Branstner,  we've heard from people who thought they recognized him as one of three Minutemen who had been disruptive of a community forum moderated by Fifth District Representative Keith Ellison last summer at Washburn High. Branstner's behavior included shouting down a tearful mother who was speaking at a microphone, according to two of our sources.

Here's a basic description of the meeting from the Twin Cities Daily Planet:

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison is holding a community forum on immigration reform this Saturday, June 23, at 2 p.m.

The Congressman will be joined at Washburn High School, 201 W. 49th St., by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), author of the STRIVE Act (the Security Through Regularized Immigration and Vibrant Economy Act of 2007) a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform.

The forum will include a panel of people from the labor movement, the faith community and the Hispanic, Somali and Hmong communities.

Gutierrez and Ellison will moderate the panel and take questions from the audience.

Our sources recalled Branstner interrupting people who had the floor.

In reading through the threads posted at Protect Our Border, we discovered that their identification was indeed correct. Ruthie Hendrycks posted an email from Branstner to the yahoo group (yellow highlighting and spelling as per the original):

This is a update on the Ellison Immigration reform debate this past weekend

This is straight from Calif member Ron - who was in attendance and we thank

him and all that were able to attend

Of course it will be no surprise to anyone that the pro amnesty slant was

loud and clear - Ellison - must no be re elected EVER!

Ruthie,

Yesterdays open forum at the washburn HS Minneapolis was, to say the least interesting.
Out numbered and out voiced the proponent cheered asthe propaganda machine spoke.
Ellison and Gutierrez said repeatedly that immigrationis flawed and sending people home is not the answer.The gym was filled with a third world eliment and little respect for law.

Gutierrez was speaking in spanish and I stood up and shouted to speak in english and the mob was ready toput a rope around my neck.

The reality is Minnesotans better awaken soon and with some fight.  Ellison has plans to legalize as many 3rdworld people through this amnesty bill. Ellison is fighting to reinstate thousands of Liberians whos visas are about to expire next month, and with chain migration the families are awaiting there ticket to America.  This should be headline news.

Yup, it's funny how annoyed people get at meetings when someone starts heckling.  We've been to a lot of meetings--some where people have been really, really pissed at Congressman Walz for his war funding votes--and yet the custom is to be civil.

And the Liberians Branstner fears are political refugees. And as far as this issue being headline news, the story of their fight to stay in Minnesota wasn't particularly neglected by the media.

To its credit, the Star Tribune ran a series about the group beginning in February that has been regularly updated: A People Torn: Liberians in Minnesota.  Doesn't seem as if Branstner or Hendrycks are aware of it--but facts are stubborn things.

And those visas?  The Strib reported in September that the White House had extended them for 18 months, with the support of Minnesota's federal legislators:

Minnesota's entire Washington delegation supported the Liberians' bid to stay. A bill granting them one more year passed the House in July, but it was blocked in the Senate. In August, 54 House members sent a letter to Bush, urging him to extend the Liberians' legal stay. Signatures on the letter included Minnesota Republicans Jim Ramstad and John Kline and Democrats Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Collin Peterson.

On Wednesday, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said in a statement reacting to the decision: "With Liberia still struggling to rebuild and stabilize following years of civil strife, the country is simply not ready to absorb these people yet." The extension, Coleman said, "will also buy time for policymakers to find a more permanent solution for these important members of our community."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the 18-month window "allows us to put some distance between this issue and the heated immigration debate."

What distinguishes the Liberians' case from many other immigration issues is the fact that they have been living legally in the country and checking in regularly with government officials. "This isn't someone running into our country," Klobuchar said. "These are people who came over as refugees and have been here in some cases for 15 years. ... Their stories are heartbreaking as to what would happen to them if they return to Liberia."

Hendrycks likes to claim that her group only opposes illegal immigrants, and yet she distributes an email objecting to a "third world eliment [sic]" that is in the United States quite legally.

That's one of the reasons BSP has used the phrase "immigration reduction group" to describe unincorporated groups like Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform, which is a subchapter of the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction (MCFIR).  MCFIR seeks to reduce legal immigration by eighty percent, not simply to end illegal immigration. MinnSIR wants "sensible" immigration reform, but never spells out whether  its definition of "sensible" concurs with its parent chapter's agenda item:

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.

MCFIR may foster a subchapter that circulates an email objecting to the Liberians, but the Strib notes that many Minnesotans are quite happy to have the West Africans living here:

Meanwhile, Minnesota employers and communities where the Liberians live had joined their lobbying effort in Washington. Many of the Liberians work in health care jobs, and their employers feared a serious shortage of hospital and nursing home workers come October.

Officials in Brooklyn Park, where many of the Liberians live, also worried that a glut of homes and apartments might depress the city's real estate markets. . . .

So the Liberians have followed the law and worked hard. What were Hendrycks and Branstner objecting to again?

We gave this post a title riffing off William Butler Yeats' great poem, Easter 1916. Reading Ruthie's posts suggests a truncated paraphrase about the candidate for the state legislature:

That woman's days were spent
In ignorant ill-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill. . . .

. . .Transformed utterly:
A terrible bigotry is born.

We are left wondering exactly what MN-01 GOP congressional candidate wannabes Dick Day and Brian Davis find so attractive with MinnSIR leader Hendrycks and the Independent Minnesota Minutemen.

Minnesota Central's inconvenient truths apply to Brian Davis, too

Over at Minnesota Central, our moderate friend McPherson Hall asks Will Dick Day and Ruthie Hendrycks face the Inconvenient Truths on Immigration ?  Hall draws his title not from Al Gore, but from an article in the conservative Weekly Standard:

Dick Day’s resume is full of a pro-business agenda that should easily make him a qualified candidate for US House, yet his immigration agenda is what the papers are reporting.

Ruthie (Ruth) Hendrycks announced her campaign, to replace Brad Finstad representing Minnesota House District 21B, with a focus on immigration. I suppose this should not be a surprise since in her 2006 campaign for Minnesota Lt. Governor, she was running to “preventing the balkanization of Minnesota.”  At that time, she announced “that the lack of political experience is one of our team's biggest assets.”  Well, since she did not acknowledge any “political experience” in her announcement, she might need to a little advice.

William J. Stuntz in the February 18 issue of The Weekly Standard has an article entitled The Inconvenient Truths of 2008 :” The Republican base wants the country to reacquire control over its southern border, and wants to see the millions of illegal immigrants already here expelled or punished--because anything less rewards them for their violations. The first goal is both good policy and good politics. The second is a practical impossibility and a political disaster. No American government can afford to track down and expel, fine, or otherwise penalize 12 million of its residents: 17 times the number of convicted felons who enter prison each year (and today's imprisonment rate has shattered historical records). That much law enforcement is beyond government's capacity--a fact for which conservatives, of all people, should be thankful. . . .

Go read the rest over at Minnesota Central.  We don't agree with all of Stuntz's analysis, but his points are provocative.

We would like to add MN-01 wannabe congressional candidate Brian Davis to Hall's list of aspiring candidates who might need a little schooling about such inconvenient truths (we'll send him somewhere else for an education about global warming, as he is firmly in the ranks of global warming deniers).

Not only has Davis posted YouTubes about his immigration policy positions, he has actively courted the support of Hendrycks' group, Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform. We found evidence of Davis's courtship of MinnSIR yesterday in Protect Our Border Now, a Yahoo group to which Hendrycks frequently posts.  This emailed request for support was sent by Davis and posted by Hendrycks:

Message directly below sent from Brian Davis - Candidate for Congressional Dist 1

Ruthie

Dear Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform,

I would like to encourage everyone to attend their caucus on Tuesday, February 5 at 7 pm!  Your caucus location can be found here: http://www.mngop.com/pf/. This is the time to have our voices heard.  It is also time to elect citizens who will stand up for our laws and insist that our borders be defended.   We need representatives who will ensure that the border fence is built and that amnesty remains an unacceptable option.  If you wish to help, you should work to be elected as delegates on the night of the caucus so that you can attend your County Conventions and progress to become delegates to the First District convention on March 29 and to the State Convention at the end of May.  Only with your efforts can we make a difference.

Thanks for any efforts that you take in this matter!

Sincerely,

Brian J. Davis
Candidate for the Republican Endorsement
U.S. House of Representatives, MN-01

MinnSIR endorses candidates on the state and federal level but does not appear to provide contributions or in-kind support. The group approves of both Day and Davis.

(So far as we are able to determine, MinnSIR is an unincorporated association, although the group's moniker itself is an assumed name registered to Hendrycks herself, according to business  records at the Minnesota Secretary of State's office.  More on the group itself later in the day).

Monday morning news digest: optimism and energy edition

The Cottonwood County Citizen /Butterfield Advocate reports that Optimism & energy were on the agenda at last week's Energy Summit in Windom:

Although the proper name of the event was "Energy Summit," a more apt backdrop might have been: "Congressman Tim Walz: Optimistic about Energy."

More than 70 guests traveled to Windom's Business, Arts and Recreation Center to learn about energy in these fast-changing times. A strong panel of experts gave them answers, but folks also came away with a sense that Walz is upbeat about the future of renewable energy, particularly its impact on this region.

"If they guarantee a level playing field for renewable energy, I guarantee that you will compete," Walz told the audience.

The Nobles County Review notes that footings have built for two wind turbines near Brewster and Welcome. The projects will generate electricity for local power co-operatives.

A change in the board of directors at the Corn Plus ethanol co-operative in Winnebago, the Faribault County Register reports.

A letter writer in the Winona Daily News notes that English-only bill just won’t work. Instead,  Winona's Brian Pederson suggests more effort directed toward integrative programs that will speed the assimilative process. He also notes Winona's immigrant past, including the Polish language school that was established in the river city:

First-generation immigrants have historically been slow to assimilate. At our nation’s founding, it was common to hear many languages spoken in a given day. In fact, the Articles of Confederation were printed both in English and German. German immigrants living in newly founded Winona had their own churches and newspapers, and, as someone of Polish descent who was born in Winona, Rep. Drazkowski may already know that Polish settlers created a Polish language school here in 1873.

Today, these populations have integrated nicely, and there is no reason to think the same will not occur with our immigrants now. According to a recent study by Pew Hispanic Center, 88 percent of U.S.-born children of Latino immigrants are fluent in English as adults, with 94 percent fluency in subsequent generations. The study also found that Hispanics are generally eager to learn English, believing it to be “necessary for success in the United States.”

We hope Pederson's optimism catches on.

Photos: We cribbed the photos from the MHS. The first is a windmill from 1910; the second, a photo of a WPA English language class for Mexican women in 1936. The collection also includes photos of English language classes for other ethnic groups who came to Minnesota.

Sunday mid-day quick news digest: tundra edition

Our county convention is this afternoon, so the news digest will be quick. We'll be back later today with more detailed posts.

While our convention is early, we're were beat by a day by Democrats in the New Ulm area. The Journal reports Brown County DFL supports Franken:

Seven of the ten delegates and four of the ten alternate delegates had expressed their support for Franken to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in November.

Nelson-Pallmeyer, a professor of Justice and Peace Studies at the University of St. Thomas, had one supporter among the delegates and two among the alternates. Ciresi, the attorney whose law firm led the state’s suit against the big tobacco companies in the 1990s, had two supporters among the alternates.

The paper reports that the Watonwan County DFL convention was postponed due to unsafe driving conditions.  Lots of pictures from the convention here, including a cute one of Tim and little Gus Walz.

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) notes that Walz  sponsored  a briefing for the Democratic Freshman class on how NIH works:

On Wednesday, January 23, 2008, FASEB, the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association and the Alzheimer’s Association partnered with Representative Tim Walz’s (D-MN) office to sponsor a briefing for the Democratic Freshman class on how NIH impacts our nation’s health.  Congressman Walz is President of the Democratic Freshman class and represents the greater Rochester area, which includes the Mayo Clinic.

Our post about Ruthie Hendrycks' degree from diploma mill Lacrosse University (chased out of Louisiana and Mississippi by people who value academic standards) has been picked up by The Wege and Mercury Rising. 

Interesting defense by a Hendrycks partisan in the comments section of the latter. Looks as if an activist the SD 62 Republican Party wants to lower Minnesota's standards for legitimate post-secondary education to a level that brought shame to both Louisiana and Mississippi.

Backgrounder: the immigration reduction movement's attempts to hijack environmentalism

What does the You Tube video above have to do with a decade-old battle in the environmental movement? What's the connection in Minnesota politics? It's one of those connect-the-dots moments a local citizen journalist sought today.

Over at Minnesota Monitor, New Journalist Dan Haugen looks at How the anti-immigration movement paints itself green.

Haugen writes as if this is some new wrinkle in the anti-immigration movement here in Minnesota and in the nation. The strategy is by no means new.

Nor is the anti-immigration argument that since the United States has run out of open space and resources we should shut down our borders to legal as well as undocumented immigrants.  Such arguments generally include the idea that the American consumer lifestyle leaves too large an environmental footprint to have many more people enjoy it.

Perhaps the most notorious episode in this history was the attempted hijacking of the Sierra Club's board of directors in 2004 by the immigration reduction movement.  Articles by the Christian Science Monitor (A 'hostile' takeover bid at the Sierra Club), Common Dreams (Board Election Divides Sierra Club) and Mother Jones (The Siege of the Sierra Club) give the details. The Southern Poverty Law Center has also documented the movement.

Find out below the fold about the connection between the billboard and the attempts by immigration reductionists to hijack the environmental movement.

Will Ruthie Hendrycks be seeking higher ed reform, too?

Yesterday, the New Ulm Journal reported that the head of Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform Ruthie Hendrycks throws her hat in Republican 21B ring. The article took due stock of her credentials:

a licensed dental hygienist, a mother of three children who are now adults, and she is president and founder of Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform, a group that supports Gov. Pawlenty’s stance on the immigration issue. . . .

. . .A past volunteer of the Bernadotte 4-H Club, religious instructor for the Church of St. Mary in New Ulm, and Daisy Girl Scout leader as well as member of the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce, the Minnesota Dental Hygiene Association, the Gun Owners of America and the Republican Party, Hendrycks has also volunteered with the American Red Cross.

She lived in California for six years and Utah for one year before she and her family returned to Minnesota.

Aside from her training as a dental hygienist, which she received at Minnesota State University Mankato, she also has a bachelor’s degree in family mediation dispute resolution from LaCrosse University. She is a graduate of Nicollet High School.

We were curious about LaCrosse University, which we assumed from its name might be a nice liberal arts college in Wisconsin, a bastion of the private sector educating young people in the shadow of the University of Wisconsin behemoth at LaCrosse.

Not so, we learned.  It's an online learning institution. Online learning programs are great--we have friends who are enrolled in health care programs at Walden University and Rasmussen College.  One is able to work as a nurse while getting his masters, and another is training to be a pharmacy tech while she raises her first child, due in a couple of weeks.

But those programs and institutions are accredited by groups recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and licensed and registered to grant degrees in our state by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.   

LaCrosse University's situation is--or was--drastically different. The school, which grants degrees for flat fees and gives credit for "life experience," was based first in Louisiana. Then, according to a October 15, 2002 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Louisiana Board of Regents Shuts Down 4 Distance-Learning Institutions:

The board voted in September not to renew the operating licenses of Bienville, Columbus, Glenford, and Lacrosse Universities. Their licenses expired in Louisiana on October 1, but students who were already enrolled in the institutions have until March to finish their work, said Lawrence J. Tremblay, associate commissioner of the Board of Regents, the state agency that oversees higher education.

"Louisiana has become quite serious about protecting its citizens," he said. "Any institution that would call Louisiana home has to exhibit some standards of quality, and the board decided early on that that standard would be accreditation."

LaCrosse University then moved on to a strip mall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.  Frustrated with their state's growing reputation as a harbor for non-accredited online learning programs, Mississippi's lawmakers took action in 2006, according to a short article in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Mississippi officials now have a new weapon with which to crack down on the state’s large population of diploma mills. According to the Associated Press, Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, last month signed into law a bill that gives the Mississippi Commission on College Accreditation the power to go to court to shut down issuers of unapproved postsecondary degrees.

The legislation stemmed from complaints by higher-education officials who said that “not only were the diploma mills harmful to higher education, but they also perpetuated negative perceptions of Mississippi,” according to a 2005 report by the state’s College Board cited by the AP.

A number of diploma mills have apparently moved to Mississippi since states like Hawaii, Louisiana, and Wyoming—previously known for their own diploma-mill industries—passed legislation similar to Mississippi’s. A special report in The Chronicle in 2004, Degrees of Suspicion, outlined the scale of the industry.

Empowered by the new law, the Mississippi Commission on College Accreditation refused to renew its approval of LaCrosse University.  Since then, the non-approved entity was dissolved in Mississippi, as it could not legally do business any longer in that state.

We haven't been able to determine if it is still in operation--or where. When we called the Mississippi Commission on College Accreditation today, we were most emphatically informed that LaCrosse University was no longer authorized to operate in the state of Mississippi. The LU website says that the school has "reached its limit on accepting new students."

In short, LaCrosse University is--or was--a diploma mill.  Indeed, it was one of the more notorious diploma mills named in a 2004 GAO investigation  (prompted by Congress) about federal employees with bogus degrees.

It's quite possible that Ms. Hendrycks is simply a victim here who didn't understand what she wasn't getting when she purchased a degree from LaCrosse University. However,  the resume item does call her judgment into question. 

Given that Republicans have other choices in this race-- Sleepy Eye veterinarian Greg Bartz (University of Minnesota) and farmer Paul Torkelson--we'd hope they'll use a little common sense when selecting a candidate who might get anywhere near setting policy for Minnesota's public post-secondary institutions.

Note: A couple of readers have asked whether the New Ulm Journal might have mistaken UWisc-LaCrosse for LaCrosse University ; apparently not, as the same credential appears in the newsletter of the Twin Cities Republican Association (see page 1).

Saturday morning news digest: quick hits for the road edition

The Albert Lea Tribune endorses: Choose Obama, McCain Tuesday. The Winona Daily News does not like Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney very much in Known knowns and known unknowns.

The Mankato Free Press reports Mankato teens involved in political process.

The Free Press notes that St. James has started a film society in Crescent rises again in St. James.

In an Owatonna Peoples Press letter to the editor, Phil and Maryls Mickelson think Walz is a mover and a shaker.

Former editor of the Worthington Globe Ray Crippen writes in his weekly column that Worthington's Hispanic population dates way back.  Mainly, the article talks about other immigration groups in the area:

. . .There was another interview. November 1984. I was talking with John and Lyda Schaap at Leota. John had a sharp memory of Chandler from one other time when language was a problem:

“In 1908, when Dad moved to Chandler, he would take us to town sometimes.

“You could still tell a Swede by the clothes he wore in them days. You could tell a Hollander by the clothes he wore.

“On one corner there would be a bunch of Swedes talking. You could understand nothing what they were saying.

“On the next corner there would be a bunch of Norwegians. You could understand nothing what they were saying.

“Then the next corner some Dutch.

“The bank, the post office and the store were the only place where the American language was spoken.

“But still they all became friends.”

Both John and Lyda Schaap grew up speaking Dutch. They were children of Dutch immigrants. “We were married in Dutch,” John Schaap told me.

John and Lyda had six boys. Lyda said, “Our oldest children learned Dutch. They were learning from us. Our first boy went to school. He said Dutch words to the teacher. I said, ‘That’s our fault.’

“We quit talking Dutch in our house at that time. The boys had to learn the English language.” . . .

. . . John and Lyda wrestled with the Dutch-to-English transitions. There was never question of their devotion to America. John and Lyda’s eldest son, Marion J. Schaap, the boy who spoke Dutch, was lost at sea when the Japanese sank the cruiser Indianapolis in the final month of World War II in the Pacific.

Now we're off for a little Obamarama  live blogging in Minneapolis.

Early afternoon news digest: not Friday cat blogging edition

Early this morning, we woke to find Oscar de la Hoya (the Golden Boy in the front) and The Big Boo Boo caucusing in their favorite chair. We have it on good authority that they're members of this party, which somehow escaped the attention of staffers at the Secretary of State's office when that nifty precinct caucus finder was put together.

Both Oscar and Boo are shelter cats adopted as adults. Look closely, and you'll notice that Oscar's missing most of his tail and a bit of one ear; he was found half-frozen by a kind soul in December 2005 and brought in for rescue. Proof positive that you really can freeze your tail off in the sort of weather we've had this week if you don't have any luck or sense.

Once frostbitten, twice shy, one would think.

Sadly, that experience doesn't keep the little fighter from sitting on window sills and meowing piteously to go outside. Fortunately, people are smarter than cats, or should be.

The anecdote and lesson are offered to explain why we weren't at a GOP MN-01 candidate forum at Mankato State University-Mankato last night, though we did receive a couple of e-mails from Republicans asking us to cover it (though they weren't from the organizers themselves).

As loyal readers may know, we had tried covering a forum in Jackson for the Uptake in early December, only to get tossed into the snow. We learned from a friend who attended the GOP candidate forum at Rochester Mayo last week that she was ordered (and rather rudely, she thought) not to tape it by two of the students there. We'd hoped to use her material, but she was so shaken by the experience that she left at mid-point without good notes.

And so, we simply decided against attending and covering the event. From the looks of the audience shots in  KEYC-TV's video, at Walz Challengers Debate in Mankato, not many other folks decided to turn out in the cold, either.  We weren't going to risk freezing our tail off, either.

Elsewhere, the Albert Lea Tribune runs the Walz column U.S. medical crews in Mideast deserve better as does the Winona Daily News.

The Austin Herald editorializes  Border security can have better funding stream:

Speaking to reporters on Saturday after spending a day with U.S. Border Patrol on the U.S.-Mexico border, Rep. Tim Walz said he was told by that region’s border patrol supervisor that the agency would need $7 billion to put the necessary technology in place — cameras along the entire border, fences through urban areas, among other things.

That $7 billion would be needed over the next few years to put in place the checks and surveillance already in place in the El Paso, Texas, area along the remaining nearly 2,000 miles of border.

Seven billion dollars may sound like an incredible amount of money, but compare that to the Government Accountability Office’s report released Wednesday on the cost of the global war on terror. The GAO stated that in fiscal year 2007, the federal government spent $139.8 billion on the war on terror, and will likely spend $189.3 billion in 2008. In other words, the dollar figure Border Patrol management says they need to secure the southern border against drug smuggling, human trafficking and threats to national security is the equivalent of two weeks of spending on the war on terror.

If we can agree that national defense is a spending priority — whether that includes the war on terror or not — then we certainly should be able to agree that the borders with Canada and Mexico should be adequately secured, and the funding should be there.

The Herald reports that the Minnesota Environmental Partnership has a field organizer on the ground in Stiles champions environment for southeast Minnesota.

The Pioneer Press mentions MN-01 fundraising figures:

In the 1st District in southern Minnesota, first-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Tim Walz has another big financial edge, with an estimated $850,000 in cash. Walz unseated veteran Republican Gil Gutknecht in 2006.

Three Republicans, state Sen. Dick Day of Owatonna, state Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield, and Mayo Clinic physician Brian Davis, of Rochester, are vying to put the seat back in the Republican column. All three raised about the same amount.

There's another fact we'd overlooked:

In the 4th, 7th and 8th districts, three Democrats, Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson and Jim Oberstar, are unopposed.

Should be an interesting year.

 

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.

Bluegrass meets bluestem: Representative Yarmuth talks about border trip

At "Politics in Kentucky," a blog at the Louisville Courier-Journal, reporter Jim Carroll covers Rep. John Yarmuth's thought about the trip to the U.S.-Mexican border that Congressman Walz led in Yarmuth: Border Patrol says it is "doing much better" against illegal immigration.

Yarmuth brings up many of the same points Walz discussed with the press, but adds an interesting reflection about the impact of American trade policy on the situation of those coming North:

While the group was looking at the border, the lawmakers could see into parts of Juarez. It is clear that the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement still have not had the economic benefits their backers hoped for, Yarmuth said.

"We saw abject poverty you wouldn't let your pet live in," he said. "It's pretty clear why people would want to get out of there."

"The Border Patrol people were great," Yarmuth added. "I was very impressed with their sophistication and intelligence - and also their compassion. They understand we are dealing with a lot of human tragedy."

While they were with Border Patrol officers, the lawmakers spoke to one woman who said she had come from Guatemala. She was 20 years old, she said, from a large family and a mother unable to work.

The woman said her family sold everything it owned to raise $3,500 to give to a smuggler so she could get into the United States, make money and send it home.

"The coyotes (smugglers) stood her up," Yarmuth said they were told. "She tried to get over by herself and got caught."

Will discussions of reforming immigration only be based on a cost-benefit analysis of the economic and security issues raised by people coming to our country? Or will we also broaden the discussion to talk about the drivers of poverty--including trade policy--in those countries whose citizens seek work in America? Yarmuth's observation suggests a broader discussion might yield some interesting answers.

Rochester Post Bulletin: Put people and technology to work for border security

We were fairly harsh about MPR's sloppy insta-coverage of Saturday's press call in this post, so we think it's only fair to point out Ed Felker's story, Walz: People, technology needed at border, as a fine and contrasting example of thorough coverage. It makes our own rambling efforts pale by comparison as well.

Some excerpts:

Rep. Tim Walz, D-Mankato, returned Saturday from El Paso, Texas, after a two-day border security fact-finding trip that convinced him that illegal immigration can be stemmed through additional personnel and technology.

He said he found little support among U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security agents for the 700-mile fence envisioned along the southwestern border. Rather, he said, they favor a mix of fencing in urban areas with improved surveillance capabilities and more agents and trained dogs to handle the traffic at official border crossings.

"It is a resource issue, but it's a smart resource issue," said Walz, who had a conference call with reporters early Saturday. "This is a situation I most definitely think we can deal with, but deal with in a proactive manner that is consistent with our values." . . .

. . .[The trip] comes as the election season is expected to include debates over illegal immigration, nationally and in Walz's 1st Congressional District. One of the three Republican candidates, state Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, visited the New Mexico border in November with the volunteer Minuteman Project, which seeks to point out illegal immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol and highlight the issue of border security.

Support for border initiative

Walz said he favors the current $7 billion Secure Border Initiative over any new effort by Congress to secure the border, including the 700-mile fence authorized by Congress in 2006 and signed into law by President Bush. "I wouldn't argue that (border security) is adequate. Like I said, they are making improvements but there are still things that need to be done, there's no doubt about about that. I think the Secure Border Initiative is the right way to go." . . .

Go read the whole thing.

Early afternoon news digest: law and order edition

In the Mankato Free Press, Lost case led to improved prosecution tells the back story about the National Child Protection Training Center's Victor Vieth, who will be Congressman Walz's guest at the SOTU address. Seems like Vieth's expertise came from hard experience:

In 1991, Cottonwood County assistant attorney Victor Vieth prosecuted a man charged with child sex abuse. He lost the case. Big time.

“Everything went wrong. We didn’t know how to interview children, how to interrogate a suspect, how to get corroborating evidence,” Vieth said.

Out of the failure grew a program that today teaches thousands of police, lawyers and child-protection workers how to better identify and prosecute abusers.

Vieth will get more national exposure in conjunction with Monday’s State of the Union address. Vieth, head of the National Child Protection Training Center, will attend the president’s address and will talk to congressional delegations while in Washington. He was invited by 1st Dist. U.S. Rep. Tim Walz of Mankato.

The 5-year-old training center at Winona State University has been teaching its model across the nation.

They provide a five-day course for investigators on interviewing young abuse victims and on building a good case. They train 10,000 people a year and have programs in 21 states. “That means 1 million kids reporting sexual abuse will be interviewed by one of these trained investigators.”

The center also spearheaded creation of a child-protection studies program that has been approved by the state university system and is being implemented at colleges across the country.

“For the first time, students in law enforcement, law, social work can get a minor in child protection. We hope to have it in 500 universities in 10 years.”

This is the sort of problem-solving that Congressman praises and seeks out from his district. Not merely those who can identify and talk about a problem, but work to create answers. Vieth returns the praise:

Vieth said he’s proud to be invited to the State of the Union and proud of the state’s congressional delegation, which fought for increased funding for the center. A couple of years ago, the center got $300,000 in federal funding. This year, the center will get $1.2 million in federal funds. It also gets state and private funding.

“Elected officials take a lot of criticism. But the Minnesota delegation has supported this in a bipartisan way. Preventing child sex abuse isn’t something you get elected or re-elected for. Here’s an example where our state delegation did something that won’t help them politically, but it helps the country.”

Walz led the drive for increased funding in the House, while Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar pushed it in the Senate.

Indeed, Vieth is right.

After scolding Walz for not bringing home enough bacon for the First, GOP hopeful Dick Day has now decided that earmarks are bad things. Even when one of the earmarked appropriations helps teach law enforcement, prosecutors and others how to catch people who do bad things to children.

The Austin Daily Herald reports Rep. Walz visits with border agents.  Though short, it's a more accurate snapshot of the press call than the MPR muddle.  A sample:

Rep. Tim Walz, who represents southern Minnesota in the U.S. House, said he is returning from a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border with a clearer picture of what Homeland Security is doing right there and what still needs improvement.

“In just the short amount of time we were there it was very apparent that they have a heavy presence, they’re doing the work they need,” Walz said.

Speaking to reporters via teleconference from El Paso, Texas before flying back to Mankato Saturday morning, Walz said the one-day visit with border security agents was focused mostly on border security, and not as much on illegal immigration ramifications back in his district. . . .

The New Ulm Journal reports Walz returns from border. A sample:

Federal agents charged with enforcing the American border with Mexico got a ‘thumbs-up’ from a Minnesota congressman on Saturday morning. . . .

. . .The congressman said Saturday morning that he thinks federal agents in El Paso have a unique perspective that he believes should be highlighted.

Before Sept. 11, the U.S. Border Patrol agents had neither radios nor gas for their vehicles, Walz said.

“...Now they’re on the front line,” he said.

These days, that agency has also added 3,000 new agents. It has video cameras and radar working along the border as a deterrent and it has newer technology, like the biometric fingerprint, which can identify a person’s fingerprint automatically and give agents access to files from many different law enforcement agencies.

The border inspection station that the delegation visited sees 175 million border crossings each year. Walz said he was stunned at the amount of narcotics uncovered at the border that were found by K-9 units. He saw whole shopping carts full of packages of marijuana that were removed after the dogs had found them hidden inside vehicles attempting to cross the border. . . .

American idiots: more slick work from Minnesota Public Radio

The short piece posted yesterday on  MPR's web site about Tim Walz's travel to the U.S.-Mexican border in Texas and New Mexico (Walz calls for tighter border security) left us scratching our head over its simple-minded reduction of the press call we'd taken part in a few hours before.

We reserve our raspberries for the photo caption:

Rep. Tim Walz, who represents Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, said Monday he's pleased the federal government denied a loan for the DM&E railroad expansion. (MPR Photo/Sea Stachura)

Okay then.  We waited a while to see if the crack teams at public radio would catch the goof, but it's still up there at 11:50 a.m. this morning. We've loaded a screenshot for our readers' enjoyment.  From the looks of it, the webmaster probably pulled the DM & E loan denial story page, slapped the news border security article in there, wrote a quick headline, and called it a day.

After all, a press call at 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning? What's wrong with those rubes down in the First?

Sadly, this isn't the first time we've seen MPR bollix a Walz story. On January 10, the site ran coverage of his travel in Afghanistan and Pakistan under the headline Rep. Walz returns from visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Reasonable readers might conclude that Walz had returned to the United States; in fact, those on the press call were told that the trip was not finished, but security reasons prevented the release of the remaining itinerary. Walz next traveled to Iraq and Germany.

The head was later changed to Rep. Walz concludes visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan,  but the confusion was sown.

So what's simplistic about the body of the article? Find out below the fold.

Walz discusses opportunities for security improvements on U.S. - Mexico border

We just got off the press call that Congressman Walz gave at the El Paso airport before catching a flight home. Some interesting stories about watching a pot bust at the border station and the apprehension of a Guatemalan national who had a prior record in Philadelphia.  The technology for checking vehicles for radiation, drugs, and hidden people is also pretty interesting.

While we review our notes and collect our reflections, here's a press release:

Today, Congressman Tim Walz returned from a trip to the U.S. - Mexico border in Texas during which he met with U.S. Border Patrol agents. These agents are responsible for ensuring that unauthorized goods and individuals do not enter the United States.  Walz also inspected some of the technology used by the Department of Homeland Security to protect the border.

"Securing our borders is the first step in addressing problems with illegal immigration in this country," said Walz. ""I organized this trip because I wanted to learn first-hand from the men and women on the ground about what's working and what additional resources these agents need to do their jobs."

Walz toured detention facilities, examined security technology, met with border patrol agents and K-9 units, and visited several sections of the border where security needs differ.

"I was immensely impressed with the professionalism and dedication of the United States Border Patrol," said Walz. "These men and women wake up every day and come to work to secure our nation and I am grateful for their service."

Walz found the following opportunities for improving security:
*    Funding for more security cameras. Two of the most important people Walz saw were a truck driver and an artillery man - members of the National Guard - who were in front of fourteen television screens, watching live footage from surveillance cameras.
*    Increased efforts to recruit and hire new Border Patrol Agents. It is estimated that only one of every sixty people who apply to the program actually becomes a Border Patrol Agent. Enforcement would be increased if agents could be identified, hired and trained more quickly.
*    K-9 units actually seize more drug money each year than it costs to run their program. Currently, Border Patrol agents are not able to train the dogs as quickly as they are needed. Increased funding will expand efforts to seize illegal drugs and drug money.

"In 2007, the Congress funded 3,000 new Border Patrol agents and I am more convinced than ever that more agents and additional technologies are some of the best methods to secure and monitor the border," concluded Walz.

Getting it right: the Post Bulletin on border trips

The Rochester Post Bulletin reports on the trip Tim Walz' trip to the U.S.-Mexican border. Edward Felker reports in Walz leads group studying border security:

Rep. Tim Walz of Mankato is leading a small delegation of House Democratic freshmen to Texas and possibly other southwestern states to examine border security, his office said.

Walz, the president of the House Democratic freshman class, organized the official trip for House freshmen, spokeswoman Meredith Salsbery said. The group consisted of no more than five lawmakers, she said, in part due to the absence of Republican members. The House Republican caucus scheduled its annual retreat this weekend in West Virginia.

She offered few details about the group's itinerary, partly for security reasons. The group was to visit the border area of Texas, but she was unable to say if it would go to other southwestern states.

An advisory issued by Walz's office Thursday said the group planned to meet with Border Patrol and Homeland Security Department personnel and "review security measures, such as K-9 units, new technologies and border fencing, and will visit detention centers."

The trip began Thursday and is to conclude Saturday. "It was something he's been looking at for a while," Salsbery said. . . .

And about Senator Day's trip? The account varies from the Day for Congress press release or the Strib faithful stenographer, Mark Brunswick.  Felker writes:

It is the first trip to the U.S. border region for Walz, who is running for re-election. Republican candidate state Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, went to the Arizona border in November as a guest of the civilian Minuteman Project, which conducts volunteer patrols and reports suspected illegal crossings to the Border Patrol.

"To" the Border Patrol is absolutely accurate. The Minutemen would like the public to think that they are working "with" the Border Patrol. Any person can report suspicious behavior to the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies, but that doesn't make them agents or police officers.

See our earlier reports on the gap between Day's claims about his border trip and the reality here (Nov.19) here (Nov. 30), here (Dec. 1), here (Dec. 1) and here (Dec. 22).  For those who want to see a graphic illustration of the Legend of Dick Day in his Handlers' Minds, we recommend Ms. Tild's most excellent photoshopped artwork.

 

Media advisory: Walz on congressional fact-finding trip to the U.S.-Mexican border

We just received a media advisory from Congressman Walz's office:

. . . Walz is traveling to the border as part of a congressional fact-finding trip that will allow Members to comprehensively review security measures put in place at the border by the Department of Homeland Security.  Walz and other members of the Congressional Delegation will meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, review security measures such as K-9 units, new technologies, and border fencing, and will visit detention centers.  Rep. Walz organized the trip with the assistance of staff from the Department of Homeland Security.

The trip has been in the works for several months now, according to congressional staff.

Misleading headlines: Rochester Post Bulletin and The Hill

Update: We welcome Rochester Post Bulletin readers who are coming to this site from Editor Jay Furst's "Furst Draft" blog.  First, we respect how quickly Furst responded.  Second,  our comment at standard journalistic fare, isn't a slam. It's what we want from newspapers. Finally, the headline could have been "immigration reduction group" rather than "anti-illegal immigration group,"  a choice that would have been entirely accurate about MCIR's agenda to end illegal immigration and to drastically curtail legal immigration. Do all Americans who worry about illegal immigration support steep reductions in legal immigration?  Typically, we hear people say words to the effect, "I have no problem with those coming in legally." The press should be clear about the agenda of immigration reform groups, left or right, rather than muddying already murky waters.  [end update]

The Rochester Post Bulletin helped Minnesotans for Immigration Reduction hide its broader agenda when the paper ran a story about a planned visit to Austin's Welcome Center under the head: Anti-illegal immigration group challenges Welcome Center's role.

The Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction isn't merely an "anti-illegal" immigration group; it seeks to reduce legal immigration to the United States as well.  Here are the group's objectives.  Note what's  first on the agenda:

Our Objectives

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.

Stop illegal immigration.

No more amnesties for illegal aliens.

Make English our national language.

Back in 2003, MPR reported about the group's connections with FAIR in Immigration reform group attracting adherents, critics:

FAIR wants to overturn new federal law it says has resulted in mass immigration. Although Marlene Nelson says FAIR isn't giving her group money, she admits she flew to Washington, D.C. to receive training from the group. She also receives materials and support from FAIR.

Critics like Devin Berghart say following the trail of support for Nelson's group is important.

According to tax forms from 1979 to the mid-'90s, FAIR received more than $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund. The Pioneer Fund was established in 1937 to promote the breeding of white people who settled in the original 13 colonies.

Since its inception, the fund has given money to eugenics research. Eugenics is a science that aims to improve a race of people through selective breeding. It's a field that's largely discredited by scientists. Some critics call the practice racist.

The Pioneer Fund has funded research by various eugenics scientists, including the late William B. Shockley. He contended that African-Americans are inherently intellectually inferior to whites.

Pioneer Fund's tax forms show it also gave money to a national immigration reform group, Project USA. Several news outlets, including the Washington Post and the Associated Press, identify Paul Westrum, the co-founder of the Steele County Coalition for Immigration Reduction, as the Midwest representative for Project USA.

Westrum denies this. He says he's filled in for Project USA's president when he couldn't make it to press conferences in the Midwest.

"This happens a lot of times," Westrum says. "Just because you're answering questions for somebody who can't be here, they automatically figure you're some type of representative for them. I don't know if you could say you're a representative of him if you're associated with him on a few things."

Associations are important in this story. Paul Westrum says the Steele County Coalition for Immigration Reduction has no association with national groups promoting eugenics. He and Marlene Nelson say neither of them have received money from such groups. They say their goal is to help people see that immigration reform means immigration reduction.

More here from the City Pages.  And more recent reports confirm that the group's agenda has not changed. Take this from the Austin Daily Herald in April 2007:

Albert Lea resident Paul Westrum, recognized for his involvement in the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction, said that he has formed 32 related groups. The MCIR’s goals include cutting back the number of legal immigrants coming into the U.S., stopping illegal immigration, eliminating amnesty and making English the national language.

The Post Bulletin should be more accurate in labeling the group. The story itself looks at a flashpoint in a community, standard journalistic fare.

Our second example of a misleading headline is drawn from The Hill: Lawmakers get huge scare in the skies over Iraq.   The first two paragraphs:

Reps. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) and Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) were recently on a nine-day trip to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Germany to investigate military healthcare. What they did not tell their constituents about after they came home was the scary ride they encountered while flying in a Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq.

During the flight, the helicopter automatically triggered anti-missile flares. The passengers knew it was not a routine flare firing, explained an aide who was present, but a reaction triggered by a honing radar lock somewhere on the ground. One aide on the trip remarked that he knew what the flares meant and was still frightened. “My butt puckered,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

So an anonymous aide was frightened. It's not surprising that Walz didn't think to mention that to the press. What's astonishing at all is that the Hill thought that the squib was somehow news at all.

We've been hearing stories from returning vets--most recently at a baby shower in Nicollet County--about how their brothers-in-arms' traumatic brain injury (TBI) isn't brought on by the impact of just one IED rocking or destroying a humvee, but from being in three or four (or more) such episodes. The Hill should start covering that if they want scary.

Walz alluded to these sorts of combat incidents when he talked to the press, since the purpose of the travel was to examine medical record keeping. With TBI,  it's important to keep records for soldiers who seem merely "shaken up" because knowledge of the repeated episodes is important to doctors who will later care for the wounded warrior.

But rather than the story about working to provide better care for active duty personnel and veterans--which the Congressman shared with reporters--the Hill deems the reaction of a civilian's orifice to flares worth covering.   Somewhere, someone must care about this puckering. If you know, please don't tell us.

 

Mid-morning news digest: on the run edition

We have to run to the Cities for a meeting today, so our digest will be hurried.

Much of this morning's news centers on comparing fundraising figures now that the Walz and Demmer information is available. There's MPR: Walz raised over $1 million last year in 1st District race, Minnesota Campaign Report:: Walz Campaign Rocking the Fundraising ...,, KSTP.com - Walz raised over $1 million last year in 1st District race and more of the same.

Walz was in Owatonna for a celebration of Minnesota's birthday, KEYC-TV reports in       Owatonna Kids Say "Happy Birthday Minnesota". Local  state representative Connie Ruth  participated as well.

The Bemidji Pioneer reports Interest high in Minnesota caucuses. Republican GOP Chair Ron Carey brings up his jonesing for a Walz defeat.

The Mankato Free Press's editorial board, which does not like earmarks, approves on Congressman Kline's position.

While Senator Day's grandstanding might make it appear as if he is the only GOP contender for the endorsement on March to naifs from outside of Minnesota, such is not the case. Indeed, preliminary reports suggest that Rochester's Brian Davis has raised more money in the last two quarters.

Moreover, Dr. Davis's position on immigration is every bit as punitive as that advanced by Senator. A YouTube of his remarks at the January 10 Rochester candidate forum is here. Dr. Davis is familar with the border region, but not from hobnobbing with the Minutemen.

Unfortunately, Davis does repeat a common misconception about 287(g) Memos of Agreements in his remarks  We willing be posting some basic information about ICE's ACCESS program and 287(g) agreements that might surprise our readers on both the right and left later this evening, but now we must head out.

Repeating the spin: Day's press release gets recycled once more

At Wright County Republican, Drew Emmer has just noticed that Senator Day has a position on immigration, linking to a Day for Congress press release from the end of November.

It's the one where Day claimed to be on "surveillance exercises" with the Border Patrol, though that was news to them. He was actually a guest of the Minutemen solely.

We wouldn't want to dub Emmer's sudden observation as an epiphany;  the Epiphany, after all, involved wise men, while xenophobia is populism for fools.

Since Day was busy yesterday at the annual pro-life rally in St. Paul, we're wondering what sudden angels called to Drew, a humble shepherd tending the GOP's online message, to post about this now rather than Day's  pro-life message of the day for January 22.  What prompted Emmer's discovery of a two-month-old press release? Why does the shepherd hasten now to adore a rather cold manger?

We suspect that the post is an attempt to replant the notion--seeded by the press release--and repeated dutifully by ace knee-padder Mark Brunswick--that Day's trip was something other than a photo op in the company of the Minutemen.   

While the Strib didn't fact-check Day's claim, he has had a rather difficult time duping the First District's news outlets into mis-reporting that he was accompanied by the Border Patrol during his jaunts in Arizona.

But facts probably won't stop Emmer and others fellow shepherds repeat the blustery nonsense. We can only hope that the press is more vigilant in fact-checking than Brunswick was able to be.

We can only hope that those using Nexis-Lexis will read the hits they get from the Rochester-Post Bulletin's coverage in early fall of the Austin, Minnesota, meeting conducted by immigration reduction groups where a Minuteman was the featured speaker and Day announced that he would go to visit the Minutemen's project in Arizona. The Austin Daily Herald's archives also an article about the meeting.

Day's visit was always about the Minutemen.

Indeed, it might have taken Day time, foresight, and respect for procedure to score a ride-along with the Border Patrol. According to our conversations with the office in charge of arranging visits for the press and elected officials, the waiting list is months long.

We were told that as members of the press, we'd have to wait two years (admittedly, a hick blog written by a faux heifer probably isn't high priority for them). Even a trip to the Canadian border to ride along with agents there--far more feasible for us--would take months.

Our correspondent in the Minutemen has invited us down to the border, but unlike Senator Day, we're somewhat more selective in the company we keep.