A Bluestem Prairie

RNC Chair Michael Steele's hip-hop rebranding inspiration uncovered

Update #2: Yet another friend notes that given the difference in Central and Pacific time zones, BSP's post actually was up first. Hmm. Whatever the case, it's still two people recalling the same pop culture reference [end update]

Update: A close friend of the kind friend observed that Kos had the same idea. Indeed--and he posted it first. Maybe we should start reading that site again.[end update]

A kind friend sent us links about RNC chair Michael Steele's remarks about the Republican's latest effort to rebrand itself as the fun people party. CNN reports RNC chair plans 'off the hook' campaign, tells critics to ‘stuff it’, and the ever-vigilant Steve Benen at Washington Monthly assesses the damage:

Steele said the party needs "messengers" who can capture a "region" made up of "young, Hispanic, black, a cross section." He added, "We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.... [W]e need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets."

Steele went on to explain his public-relations vision, saying, "It will be avant garde, technically. It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone -- off the hook."

Asked if he imagines a cutting-edge approach, Steele replied, "I don't do 'cutting-edge.' That's what Democrats are doing. We're going beyond cutting-edge."

Raise your hand if you think Michael Steele has the foggiest idea what he's talking about.

Look, Steele seems to believe the Republican Party will do really well with a fresh coat of paint on a rusted, broken-down car that's already been driven into a ditch. For the RNC chairman, the problem is about branding. If only the party can put together a song about capital gains tax cuts that sounds like Lil Wayne, younger voters will swoon.

Spring must be on its way if it's rebranding time for the Republicans. Last May, the grand rebrand was led by the NRCC's swiping Wyeth's slogan for an anti-depressant; this time around, the strategy is extracted from a Simpson's episode. We've found some representative clips from the Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show:

Contrary to rant, Bachmann's district projected to benefit most from job creation bill

Yesterday, we posted information from a White House press release which linked to job creation projections on a congressional district level.  Meanwhile, bloggers around the country--most notably the Washington Monthly and Huffington Post, took a closer look at a Ken Avidor audio clip of Sixth District Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on her latest ranting points.

The now-famous clip:

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly picked out the gems, including this one:

the recovery package is part of a Democratic conspiracy to "direct" funding away from Republican districts, so Democratic districts can "suck up" all federal funds. Bachmann doesn't think this will work because, as she put it, "We're running out of rich people in this country."

The zany "running out of rich people" quip has attracted most of the attention, but we'd like to look at the first part of that assertion: that recovery money is going to be pulled from Republican districts and funneled to Democratic ones. 

For Minnesota, this seems bass ackwards if the adimnistration figures are accurate.  Here are those job creation projections for congressional districts in the North Star state, with an added emphasis on the figures for Bachmann's own district:

Minnesota                                     66,000

Congressional District 1 Minnesota     7,800
Congressional District 2 Minnesota     9,200
Congressional District 3 Minnesota     8,300
Congressional District 4 Minnesota     7,700
Congressional District 5 Minnesota     7,900
Congressional District 6 Minnesota     9,500
Congressional District 7 Minnesota     7,500
Congressional District 8 Minnesota     8,100

Bachmann's own district is projected to benefit most of any district in Minnesota under the recovery bill. Enough said.

The clip was originally posted by the blog Dump Bachmann and picked up by the MN Progressive Project,  It looks like--recovery bill or not--Missy Bachmann's wild stylings will continue to help foster an online cottage industry.

Upgrade?: After voting against jobs, Bachmann flies home First Class

Rumor has it A reliable source tells us that after voting against the economic stimulus package that would preserve and create jobs, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann sat in First Class on her way home on a Northwest flight from Washington to Minneapolis, via Detroit.

Upgrade with frequent flyer miles? Self-indulgence?

Or maybe just an illustration of the truth underlying the headline in today's Washington Post: GOP Faces Misshapen Identity--and this paragraph in that feature article:

But what do Republicans do?

Who are they?

"That all needs to be sorted out," Czwartacki says. "Are we the party of fiscal responsibility? Are we the party of small government? Are we the party of smarter small government? Are we the party of property rights?

Or the party of First Class and misinformation on Glenn Beck?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coming to an inbox near you, soon.

Monday morning digest: connections

One of the reasons the Star Tribune gave for endorsing Congressman Walz over Davis was:

But Davis has not made the case that he's a better fit. His responses on veterans' issues have not connected.

In Letter: Walz has done much for veterans, Robert C. O'Connor of Jackson writes the Worthington Globe:

I am writing to urge veterans to support the re-election of Congressman Tim Walz. I had become resigned to all talk and no action by his predecessor.

When Tim first went to Congress in 2007, I was especially glad to see him volunteer for the Veterans Committee. As a leader of the group of newly elected Congress men and women, his impact was immediate. This was one of the best places for a retired National Guard Command Sergeants Major to continue taking care of veterans.

In the two short years that he has been working in Washington for southern Minnesota, Tim Walz has helped produce significant veterans’ legislation. First was the passage of the new GI Bill that helped restore the value of GI education benefits to close to where it was after World War II, when the first GI Bill was enacted. Our returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan will be able to afford go back to school when they finish their service. Second, this Congress passed the largest-ever increase to funding for the Veterans Department. We see this locally in the increased dollars flowing to the Luverne Veterans Home.

Much of this legislation was achieved with bipartisan support. Both parties worked to accomplish significant legislation for Veterans, and Rep. Walz was one of many that reached across the aisle to get this done. I know Tim Walz, and he will work without regard to party affiliation to get things done for veterans.

It is so refreshing to see Congress take veterans’ issues seriously. Veterans need to keep this retired Command Sergeants Major working in Congress.

Supporter Eric Bartleson writes the Winona Daily News to say Walz opposed Social Security privatization and so he has his support.

The LaCrosse Tribune reports Candidates for Minnesota's 1st Congressional District spar over economy, agriculture.The article is adapted from coverage published earlier in sister Lee Media paper, the Winona Daily News.

In the netroots, McPherson Hall asks an interesting question raised by language in the Fairmont Sentinel's endorsement of Davis. The retired accountant's query in MN-01 : Davis Endorsement – The End of Mortgage Tax Deduction warrants an answer.

Does Brian Davis agree with the paper's editors about ending the mortgage tax deduction for homeowners? The paper cites the tax break as a cause of the recent financial meltdown.

The National Journal's Hotline cites the New Ulm Journal's endorsement of Congressman Walz in If You Work Hard, You'll Go Places...Like DC.  Funny how people in Southern Minnesota like it when their representative works for them.

Some of our friends in the labor movement are working pretty hard in organizing GOTV phone banks and other efforts to contact union members.  Here's a little dance music to get everybody in motion this Monday morning, in a shout out to Laura especially, but also to Dale and that troublemaker Jussein:

Photo: House Veterans Affairs Committee chair Bob Filner, Wayne Stillman, Congressman Tim Walz & Chris Schmitter by "Nurse" at the Soldiers Field Veteran Memorial in Rochester.          

Globe: Obama signs MIA in Worthington

Update: Blueman reports a truly sick instance of vandalism to an Obama sign. [end update].

In A sign of the times, the Worthington Globe reports:

Every election year, people particularly involved in politics post signs in their yard declaring their support for a candidate or a political party. And every year, mischief makers pull the signs out to put in other yards, vandalize or destroy.

According to Worthington Police Captain Chris Dybevick, the culprits are generally juveniles doing random acts of sign heisting, and most people don’t bother to report the loss.

But this year, the Nobles County DFL Party has noticed a disturbing trend that Deb Hogenson, secretary of the Nobles County DFL, said is depriving them of their right to express political views.

The DFL group believes there is a small group of people targeting the Barack Obama signs — travelling with a clipper to cut zip ties and gathering up Obama signs from all over Worthington.

In a prepared statement, Nobles County DFL Chair Doug Bauman said the theft of the signs is more than property theft — it robs them of their freedom of speech.

“A group of people in our community want to suppress any show of support for Senator Obama in Worthington,” he said. “They want to suppress freedoms guaranteed by our nation’s constitution.” . . .

Read the rest at the Globe. Our friend Dale at Corner House Comments emailed us about this disturbing trend earlier this week, noting that only Obama signs have been swiped, while Franken, Walz, and the  MN House candidates' placards stay put.

Last night, KEYC-TV noted Stealing Campaign Signs Carries a Penalty. Obama signs seem to be a favorite target in the Key City too:

As the election heads down the home stretch, political differences may be flaring up, even among long-time neighbors. And as News 12's Ryan Gustafson reports, that has caused some lawn signs to turn up missing.

[Mankato Public Safety Commander Debbie] McDermott says, "We've taken a few scattered reports of different political signs being taken in the last couple of weeks." It's not an overwhelming epidemic or anything, but showing support for a political candidate can be a hassle.

Kent Harrison had been hearing about fellow neighbors losing political signs in their yard, until...

Obama supporter Kent Harrison says, "Sure enough, our sign was taken, so I got another one and put it behind the window, so obviously if someone wants to get it they'll have to break the window.Obviously they targeted the Obama sign, because I have 3 other signs in my yard and I still have them.I don't have anything against John McCain, and I think he's a good and decent man, I just want Obama to be President."

That support is shared by his son Conner, who feels the signs are a way for people to express their support. Conner Harrison says, "They kind of keep to themselves, partially because they don't want to spread their wants about the election."

Police remind people that there's a price to pay for stifling someone else's free speech. Commander Debbie McDermott says, "That would fall into a misdemeanor violation which would be punishable by up to 90 days in jail and up to a $1000 fine."

Either way, Harrison keeps this election in perspective.Harrison says, "I think I have a pretty good sense of humor about these things..."

A Nobles County DFL official put it best:

“We ask our fellow citizens across the political spectrum to stand up against the thieves,” Bauman said in his statement. “Help us protect our democracy by reporting any thefts or vandalism to political signs of any kind.”

Photo: Nobles County DFLers display a homegrown Obama sign. Photo accompanied the Worthington Globe story.

Forum papers: "Vandals did not discriminate"

In Vandals threaten Minnesota politicians, the Forum papers political reporter Don Davis observes:

The vandals did not discriminate. Victims are Muslim, Christian and Jewish; conservative and liberal; white and black; Democrat and Republican.

What seems to have caused four representatives to be missed is proximity. Representative McCollum lives in a hi-rise, while:

U.S. representatives who live in rural areas – Collin Peterson of Detroit Lakes, Jim Oberstar of Chisholm and Tim Walz of Mankato – reported no vandalism occurred.

We hope this ugly incident inspires all the campaigns to work harder and work cleaner. And to get readers in the spirit, here's Johnny Cash singing our favorite Thomas Dorsey classic in 1987. Growing up in the Minnesota River Valley during the era of the Vietnam War, this song spoke to us. It still does.

Why do the vandals rage?: Homes of Minnesota reps and senators hit by graffiti cowards

The Strib reports in Police: Coleman, Klobuchar, four others have property vandalized:

Vandals struck the garages and homes of at least six Minnesota members of Congress Tuesday night, spray painting angry graffiti including a Biblical reference to "Psalm 2."

In the Pioneer Press account, Six Minnesota Congress members' homes vandalized, there's an interesting tidbit about the words word at Congresswoman Bachmann's Stillwater property:

As the staffer arrived at the Stillwater home, which the Congresswoman is trying to sell, a realtor was arriving at the home with clients.

Marston said the black spray-painted message said, "Scum," "Psalm 2" "Resign Now" and "Vote no on the bailout."

The criminals who did this are as ill-informed as they are cowardly.  With Representatives Peterson and Walz, Congresswomen Bachmann voted against the bailout. We hope the perps get the punishment they deserve, and that police in the First step up patrols near the Davis, Mikkelson, and Walz homes.

Don't like a politician's voting record? Express your opinion by way of the ballot on November 4!

Economic know-nothingism: Davis blames CRA for market woes

Representatives Bachmann and Ellison have already engaged in a call and response about the alleged role of the Community Reinvestment Act in shaping the current financial climate.

Turns out that Bachmann's statement was a dog whistle for her BFF Brian Davis, the GOP candidate in MN-01. He supplied the reprise to the Mankato Free Press:

Walz’s Republican opponent agreed with the vote, but placed most of the blame for the financial crisis on government — including actions by the Clinton administration to promote low-income home ownership — rather than Wall Street.

“I’m pleased to see the bailout was rejected,” said Brian Davis, R-Rochester, not faulting Walz’s vote. “I imagine he and I propose a different solution to all this.”

Davis said large amounts of taxpayer money should not be risked on a bailout plan until underlying causes of the subprime mortgage mess are identified and fixed.

Davis focused first on the Community Reinvestment Act, originally passed in 1977 to prohibit lenders from avoiding offering loans in low-income areas. The administration of President Bill Clinton became aggressive in enforcing the act, pressuring banks to offer mortgages to risky applicants, Davis said.

“That’s what started it,” he said.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, came under criticism last week when she also placed blame on the Community Reinvestment Act. Bachmann said during a congressional hearing that the Clinton administration pushed the issuance of home loans “on the basis of race and little else,” according to the newspaper Roll Call.

The comment prompted the Congressional Black Caucus to write a letter to House Minority Leader John Boehner rejecting the “assertion that ‘minorities’ caused the current financial crisis.”

Davis said he doesn’t oppose the idea of promoting responsible lending to low-income groups but believes the Clinton administration was too aggressive in pushing the idea.

“The goals of the program are laudable,” he said.

We'll have more debunking this new article of right wing faith, but let's start with Business Week's Aaron Pressman in Community Reinvestment Act had nothing to do with subprime crisis. We post the entirety for our click-impaired readers:

Fresh off the false and politicized attack on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, today we’re hearing the know-nothings blame the subprime crisis on the Community Reinvestment Act — a 30-year-old law that was actually weakened by the Bush administration just as the worst lending wave began. This is even more ridiculous than blaming Freddie and Fannie.

The Community Reinvestment Act, passed in 1977, requires banks to lend in the low-income neighborhoods where they take deposits. Just the idea that a lending crisis created from 2004 to 2007 was caused by a 1977 law is silly. But it’s even more ridiculous when you consider that most subprime loans were made by firms that aren’t subject to the CRA. University of Michigan law professor Michael Barr testified back in February before the House Committee on Financial Services that 50% of subprime loans were made by mortgage service companies not subject comprehensive federal supervision and another 30% were made by affiliates of banks or thrifts which are not subject to routine supervision or examinations. As former Fed Governor Ned Gramlich said in an August, 2007, speech shortly before he passed away: “In the subprime market where we badly need supervision, a majority of loans are made with very little supervision. It is like a city with a murder law, but no cops on the beat.”

Not surprisingly given the higher degree of supervision, loans made under the CRA program were made in a more responsible way than other subprime loans. CRA loans carried lower rates than other subprime loans and were less likely to end up securitized into the mortgage-backed securities that have caused so many losses, according to a recent study by the law firm Traiger & Hinckley (PDF file here).

Finally, keep in mind that the Bush administration has been weakening CRA enforcement and the law’s reach since the day it took office. The CRA was at its strongest in the 1990s, under the Clinton administration, a period when subprime loans performed quite well. It was only after the Bush administration cut back on CRA enforcement that problems arose, a timing issue which should stop those blaming the law dead in their tracks. The Federal Reserve, too, did nothing but encourage the wild west of lending in recent years. It wasn’t until the middle of 2007 that the Fed decided it was time to crack down on abusive pratices in the subprime lending market. Oops.

Better targets for blame in government circles might be the 2000 law which ensured that credit default swaps would remain unregulated, the SEC’s puzzling 2004 decision to allow the largest brokerage firms to borrow upwards of 30 times their capital and that same agency’s failure to oversee those brokerage firms in subsequent years as many gorged on subprime debt. (Barry Ritholtz had an excellent and more comprehensive survey of how Washington contributed to the crisis in this week’s Barron’s.)

There’s plenty more good reading on the CRA and the subprime crisis out in the blogosphere. Ellen Seidman, who headed the Office of Thrift Supervision in the late 90s, has written several fact-filled posts about the CRA controversey, including one just last week. University of Oregon professor and economist Mark Thoma has also defended the CRA on his blog. I also learned something from a post back in April by Robert Gordon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, which ends with this ditty:

It’s telling that, amid all the recent recriminations, even lenders have not fingered CRA. That’s because CRA didn’t bring about the reckless lending at the heart of the crisis. Just as sub-prime lending was exploding, CRA was losing force and relevance. And the worst offenders, the independent mortgage companies, were never subject to CRA — or any federal regulator. Law didn’t make them lend. The profit motive did. And that is not political correctness. It is correctness.

Enough said.The Free Press article, Walz, Davis oppose bailout plan, reports on Walz's reasons for his no vote as well.

Photo: Brian Davis and his financial advisor, Rep. Michele Bachmann.  She's back in the news today--this time for deflating a bubbling GOP talking point about yesterday's failied vote. See Roll Call's Bachmann Inadvertently Knocks Down GOP Explanation. My, my. 

Roadkill: the new bump

We closed our Monday mid-day digest: In which we stick a fork in it edition with some observations about a newly-released Tarrance Group poll commissioned by the Brian Davis Campaign/NRCC. We drew our  comments from a press release and memo sent out via email from the Davis campaign that was forwarded to us.

A sharp-eyed friend noticed that the information we cited from that document wasn't part of the release posted at the Davis campaign's official blog, Brian 2008.

He's right: the Davis blog post only includes the generic party preference for the district ( 44 5 DFL; 39% GOP) and the matchup between McCain (45%) v. Obama (43%) in a survey with a margin of error of 6%.

We are then told:

Incumbent Democrat Tim Walz has lost four points off his ballot score over the last month. All of that vote and more, moved over to become part of the Davis coalition. Now that voters know who he faces in November, Walz garners just 50% of the vote.

What's missing in the post? Here it is, clipped from the email press release and memo that was forwarded  to us:

Congressional Ballot: A Time Series 
                    Aug.  17-18, 2008        Sept.   17-18 2008                                                                                                                                               
Brian Davis (R)             27                      32                   +5
Tim Walz (D)*              54                      50                   -4                                     
Greg Mikkelson (I)        4                        4                                                       
Undecided                   16                      14   

[we add it up            101%                   100%]

Thus, the Davis campaign wants readers to believe that Davis, at 32% (below the generic Republican, who would get 39%) is within striking distance of Walz, who enjoys an 18% edge.

This feat of persuasion can only be accomplished by failing to post the actual numbers polled in the race. It's one of the tackiest edits we've seen. It speaks volumes about the mendacity of the Davis candidacy-- and of any blogger or journalist who pimps this drivel. And, yes, we've saved screen shots of the entire post.

Roadkill: it's the new bump. Brian Daivs? Misleadership at it's most dismal.

After whining about August work break, Republicans make motions to adjourn

We have to hand it to the House Republicans. After a number of them spent August kvetching about adjournment and demanding that Speaker Pelosi reconvene Congress, today they're back to their old trick of offering procedural motions to adjourn in order to gum up the works.

Two of the initial leaders of the publicity stunt in the dark last month, Tom Price and Mike Pence (see clerk's entries here at 11:54 a.m. and 1:13 p.m.) made the motions. The existence of the maneuver as mere partisan game playing is illustrated by the fact that neither man voted for his own motion, according to roll call votes no. 592 and 594.

Here's a good example of roll call votes (200-299) from mid-April through early May that includes a number of time-wasting votes prompted by procedural motions to adjourn. We took note of them last spring in a post written after we'd heard Congressman Walz mention them as a form of partisan gaming playing he disdains.

Back to the future: more brilliance from Doc Davis

Looking over the Brian Davis campaign site, we've noticed an interesting link dated yesterday:

September 15, 2008
Brian Davis for Congress Releases Their First Television Ad

The average reader might take that to mean that, gosh, the Davis for Congress committee had released its (we like to use the appropriate pronoun, but maybe the ultra-conservative Davis simply doesn't know about collective nouns) first television ad.

Davis had run an ad on cable before the primary, asking for viewers' votes in the September 9 Republican primary. The launch of a tv ad would certainly mark a new phrase for the Davis campaign (click on thumbnail below to view a screenshot of the link on the Davis home world).

Alas, when we clicked on the link, it simply took us to an August 27 press release for the ad Davis ran on cable. That's the one the Winona Daily News blogger and the Mankato Free Press called misleading, as the DFL pointed out in Davis Campaign Lies About Walz Record.

By all means, those who wish to vote for Dr. Davis in the September 9 primary should contact Dr. Emmett L. Brown and make the necessary arrangements.

Davis's web master also updated the link on the front page yesterday:Upcoming Events: UPDATED 9/15 which leads to a list that ends with this:

September 5, 2008 – Mankato Rally

September 6, 2008 – Mabel

September 7, 2008 – Mantorville

September 8, 2008 – Rochester Rally

September 9, 2008 – Primary

September 13, 2008 – Worthington Parade and Meet and Greet

Election: November 4!

Page Dr. Brown if you want to join Davis at last week's events.

Finally, we took a look at Davis's profile at blogger, where his favorite book was listed: Reagan's War by Peter Schweikert.  Davis is the only person of hundreds of thousands of bloggers using the Blogger platform who lists this title and author as a favorite (click on the thumb nail to see the cropped screen shot).

That's probably because Reagan's War was written by Peter Schweizer.

Dr. Davis's supporters routinely suggest that voters should support their candidate because he's a genius. Even a brief visit to his web site reveals the depth of that claim.

Making a cat laugh: Prominent Olmsted County Republican loses address of local party HQ

We grow daily more concerned about the well-being of the Olmsted County RPM. First there was the problem of lost or destroyed paperwork for $13,000+ in 2007 contributions.  Now it seems as if Southern Minnesota's most beloved conservative blogger  (an Olmsted County Republican activist) can no long remember the location of the committee's office.

He snarks this morning in a post about Davis's press conference with Tom Cole today:

Where: 1530 Greenview Drive SW, across from the Pump'n'Munch station (NOT in the GOP office as misreported - surprise, surprise - by Walz's bought-and-paid-for Bluestem Prairie blog)

Poor Mr. da Silva doesn't tell his readers know that 1530 Greenview Drive SW is the address for the Olmsted County RPM, according to its own website.

Mr. Da Silva is also experiencing difficulties today with basic HTML code. Given that his link to Bluestem Prairie doesn't work, his misled readers won't be able to learn directly that this is what we posted:

Oh boy! Political Party reports that Smiling Tom Cole and Brian Davis will be holding a press conference in Rochester about energy issues:  

Brian Davis will take up a similar theme on Thursday when he and Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, hold a press conference at the Olmsted County Republican headquarters.

We quoted the Rochester Post Bulletin's blog, Political Party and linked to it. Perhaps Mr. daSilva believes that the Post Bulletin is bought and paid for by Congressman Walz, but that idea would make a cat laugh (not to mention the PB's political reporters Matt Stolle and Ed Felker).

We find the poor man's vapors about Bluestem Prairie's proprietorship and funding to be intensely silly accusations. Hundreds of thousands of Americans blog about politics on personal sites like BSP without being paid to do so, motivated by love of country and concern for its citizens; we are among that multitude. Barring any evidence to the contrary, we assume the same is true for Mr. daSilva.

It is our understanding that Mr. daSilva has been on the executive board of the Olmsted County RPM in the recent past, if not this year. We know they're have some paperwork problems down there, but seriously folks, please teach Mr. Silva to remember the address in case he wanders off again.

Were we more cynical than our bovine nature allows, we might think that the beloved blogger's bringing up the gas station across the street from 1530 Greenview SW in Rochester, Minnesota, was a defensive reaction to Congressman Walz meeting yesterday at a gas station with the owner and other small business owners. 

Austin Herald: Southern Minnesota's silliest criminals

One small town ritual of our childhood was climbing the local watertower. This was usually done by high school students around the time of graduation--an exercise in teen risk-taking and marking one's turf.

We think the guys apprehended in Austin are just a little too old for their prank (age range 20-21), reported in 5 face charges after watertower rescue:

Five have been charged with trespassing after police discovered them inside the Austin water tower fence around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, according to Austin Police Chief Paul Philipp, who said the Austin Fire Department was called to help the several of the suspects, believed to have been drinking, down from the tower.

It's important to be able to climb down if you've climbed up.

Southern Minnesota's dumbest criminal...

...actually lives in Iowa. We got a big laugh from this item in the Jackson County Pilot, Alleged car thief left old vehicle behind — in the victim’s garage:

It didn’t take Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputies long to figure out who stole a car from a rural Alpha residence earlier this month.

The alleged thief left his old car at the scene of the crime.

Mark D. Hotzler, 42, of Webster City, Iowa, was arrested June 2 and charged with the theft of a motor vehicle, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, $10,000 in fines or both, stemming from a bizarre incident at a residence in rural Alpha.

On the afternoon of June 2, the sheriff’s department received a report of a stolen vehicle from Nicholas Von Ohlen of rural Alpha. According to court documents, Von Ohlen told deputies that the person who stole his vehicle had left his or her own vehicle at the scene of the crime, parked in his garage.

When deputies ran the license plate number of the abandoned vehicle — which had its doors locked — they discovered the car was registered to Hotzler. Von Ohlen recognized the name as that of his cousin, with whom he had not had contact in around two years. Deputies said Von Ohlen told them his cousin did not have permission to take his vehicle.

Further investigation revealed Hotzler had entered Von Ohlen’s house, also without permission.

Deputies had Hotzler’s car impounded and arrested him when he returned the stolen car to Von Ohlen later that afternoon.

The car sustained no damage and nothing was missing from it, deputies said.

Sounds like what we have is a failure to communicate. Like, when you don't have enough sense to ask before taking something, reasonable people don't see that as "borrowing."

Davis recites urban legend about Cuba and China drilling

One of Dr. Davis's standard talking points about offshore drilling is that the government of Cuba is working with China to develop offshore oil fields. In his Rochester Post Bulletin op-ed column, Davis wrote:

While our federal government sits on its hands just 45 miles off the coast of Florida, the government of Cuba is working along with China in developing oil fields.

Past predictions of a limited supply of oil have often proved wrong. Offshore areas along the U.S. coastline and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska have an estimated 100 billion barrels of crude oil, enough to provide all U.S. transportation needs for more than a decade.

To start addressing the problem of rising gas prices and our economic "stall," it is my view that our government should remove obstacles to increasing domestic oil production as soon as possible. Opening ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf for oil exploration and recovery would be a good first step. . . .

This echoes an earlier statement in an email Davis distributed in January:

If Congress wants an energy bill it should work to remove obstacles to domestic energy production by increasing supply, such as opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf for oil exploration and recovery.While our federal government sits on its hands, just 45 miles off the cost of Florida, Cuba is working with China developing oil fields.

Has Cuba leased offshore sites to oil companies? Yes. Are any of them Chinese? Republican Senator Mel Martinez schooled Cheney on Thursday, according to Chinese oil drilling off Florida coast? 'Akin to urban legend', senator says, by  McClatchy Washington Bureau reporters Erika Bolstad and Kevin G. Hall:

As Congress has debated energy policy over the past several days, an unusual argument keeps surfacing in support of drilling off the U.S. coastline and in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Why, ask some Republicans, should the United States be thwarted from drilling in its own territory when just 50 miles off the Florida coastline the Chinese government is drilling for oil under Cuban leases?

Yet no one can prove that the Chinese are drilling anywhere off Cuba's shoreline. The China-Cuba connection is "akin to urban legend," said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida who opposes drilling off the coast of his state but who backs exploration in ANWR.

"China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon's research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight.

Even so, the Chinese-drilling-in-Cuba legend has gained momentum and has been swept up in Republican arguments to open up more U.S. territory to domestic production. . . .

The AP story reports more facts in Cheney oil comment attacked:

Jorge Pinon, a senior energy fellow at the University of Miami specializing in Latin America, said Cuba has awarded offshore oil leases, or concessionary blocs, in its offshore waters to six oil companies — none of them Chinese — and soon may announce an agreement with Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras.

"But no one is currently drilling in any of those concessions," said Pinon in a telephone interview. Pinon, who supports drilling in the eastern Gulf and believes it can be done without hurting the environment, said China is being raised as an unnecessary "boogeyman" by drilling proponents.

"There is no actual drilling yet. ... There is exploration," said Johanna Mendelson-Forman, a senior fellow on energy and Latin America at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

She said China's oil company, Sinopac, has conducted exploratory drilling on a lease on land in western Cuba, but is not involved in the offshore development.

But talk of China drilling in waters within 50 miles to 60 miles of Key West has been a common theme among Republicans. They are clamoring to open more of the country's offshore waters to energy development, including the eastern Gulf where drilling is strongly opposed by Florida officials.

That's what Brian Davis has been saying and writing for month. It is simply not true.

At Atrios, Duncan Black wonders where George Will got the information Cheney cited. We're not sure, but we do know where Davis got it, from an article published by the conservative group, the Heartland Institute, on August 1, 2006.  The piece, by James M. Taylor, states:

The presence of Chinese oil rigs, there by agreement with Cuba, within view of the Florida coastline has irked state residents. Cuba has announced it will expand those operations.

"I saw all kinds of wells with Chinese writing on them just south of the Keys," Leonard Gropper, a Marathon, Florida retiree, told the June 20 Orlando Sun-Sentinel.

With just 90 miles separating Cuba and the Florida Keys, Cuba has legal rights to oil and natural gas reserves in its half of the Florida Strait. Cuba can, therefore, produce or lease for production oil and natural gas reserves as close as 45 miles from U.S. shores.

"China is trying to lock up resources around the world, and they are locking up resources in our own backyard where we can't even compete and play ball," Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) told the Sun-Sentinel. "This is simply wrong. I've had enough, and I believe the American people have had enough."

That Sun-Sentinel story seems to be the ur-narrative, an account from a retiree who saw oil derricks with Chinese writing on them. And that's it.

According to the AP report, Cheney's office has acknowledged the error:

Vice President Dick Cheney's office acknowledged on Thursday that he was mistaken when he asserted that China, at Cuba's behest, is drilling for oil in waters 60 miles from the Florida coast.

In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cheney said on Wednesday that waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, long off limits to oil companies, should be opened to drilling because China is already there pumping oil.

"Oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida," the vice president said. "We're not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply."

He cited his source as columnist George Will, who last week wrote: "Drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are."

Can Brian Davis also admit he's wrong? Or will he simply continue to repeat urban legends that his supporters blindly accept as "common sense energy policy"?

Photo: The Kiester derrick.

More truthiness: false urban legend still making the rounds

After a kind friend emailed us about a Davis supporter's use of a debunked urban legend making the rounds, we posted Republican commenter pushing urban legend at Post Bulletin.

In The GOP’s Bigotsphere:  Come For The Lies, Stay For The Slanders, posted  at Mercury Rising, Phoenix Woman looked at the same email used in a True North post.

Minnesota's right blogosphere doesn't seem to be able to resist this one (probably because the GOP strategy of blaming high prices on the Democrats is such a perfect match for the false urban legend). Last night, it showed up at Residual Forces. He writes that got it from his mother, a Republican activist who must find such truthiness persuasive.

Once more, the straight skinny on why this one's a stinker. From Factcheck.org:

Did electing a Democratic Congress in 2006 really lead to increased unemployment, higher gas prices and more home foreclosures?

I received this by e-mail and I’ve also seen it posted as a comment on a lot of blogs and news sites. Is there any truth to it?

No, and most of the figures in a widely-circulated e-mail are made up. In fact, the entire premise of the e-mail is a logical fallacy.

Like most of the chain e-mails making the rounds, this one is inaccurate. Some claims are outright false while others are grossly out of context. Overall, the e-mail commits the logical fallacy known as post hoc ergo propter hoc (or after the fact, therefore because of the fact).. .

And from Snopes: Urban Legends Reference site:

Status: False.

This piece is one of the more ludicrous examples of the post hoc ergo propter hoc ("after this, therefore because of this") fallacy we've received in a long time. . . .

We eagerly await news of alligators thriving in Rochester's sewer systems, large rats mistaken for small dogs, and dating advice that recommends handing out green M & M s.

Ixnay on the apple pie, too? WaPo reports House GOP votes against moms

We've been chronicling the financial and ethical woes of the NRCC and House Republicans for the last few days here at the Bluestem Prairie. And after Congressman Walz mentioned the nuisance votes that House Republicans, we went to Thomas and looked at the frivolous motions to adjourn that were impeding the people's business over the last few days..

But nothing prepared us for Dana Milbank's headline this morning in the Washington Post: Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens.  The details:

It was already shaping up to be a difficult year for congressional Republicans. Now, on the cusp of Mother's Day, comes this: A majority of the House GOP has voted against motherhood.

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt's request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.

It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.

Republicans, unhappy with the Democratic majority, have been using such procedural tactics as this all week to bring the House to a standstill, but the assault on mothers may have gone too far. House Minority Leader John Boehner, asked yesterday to explain why he and 177 of his colleagues switched their votes, answered: "Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother's Day."

By voting against it?

If Boehner's explanation doesn't make much sense, he's been under a great deal of stress lately.

There's the case of one member of his caucus, Rep.Vito Fossella (N.Y.); the father of three from Staten Island yesterday announced that he has a fourth, a 3-year-old love child with a woman from Virginia. . . .

. . .For the record, Fossella did not participate in the Mother's Day vote.. . .

. . . Boehner has enough trouble to preoccupy him here in Washington, where House Democrats have been passing their agenda with little thought for Republican preferences. "The majority has taken, once again, their go-it-alone policy," Boehner lamented yesterday. "It's time for Democrats and Republicans to work together."

To induce this working together, Boehner decided to stop the House from working at all. As House Democrats tried to pass legislation to ease the mortgage crisis on Wednesday, Republicans served up hours of procedural delays, demanding a score of roll call votes: 10 motions to adjourn, half a dozen motions to reconsider, various and sundry amendments, a motion to approve the daily journal, a motion to instruct and a "motion to rise."

The high point came just after 6 p.m., when, after one of the motions to adjourn, 61 members lined up to change their votes, one by one. Forty-six went from aye to no, while 15 changed from no to aye. The maneuver ate up 28 minutes in all -- and caused an eruption by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who accused the minority of a "filibuster by vote changing."

. . . the dilatory maneuvers continued, and the Democrats finally announced that they would postpone the vote on the mortgage bill until Thursday, thereby pushing a war spending bill to next week.

Finally, Republicans decided yesterday to suspend their shenanigans; it was time to catch flights to their districts. "Never underestimate the desire of members to go home," Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith explained.

They might also need some extra time with their mothers.

For the record, Congressman Jim Ramstad (R--MN-3) joined Minnesota's Democratic Representatives in voting for motherhood after they had voted for it. Representative Bachmann and Kline voted against motherhood after they voted for it.

Will baseball and the flag be next?

Update: Think Progress has the video.

Jackson County Pilot publishes urban legend--with a twist

We were reading the papers today and came across a letter published in the Jackson County Pilot over the signature of  Les Opheim of  that fair southern Minnesota city.  Labeled Food for Thought, here it is:

To the Editor:

About the time our original 13 states adopted their new Constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years.

During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith (pilgrims);
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence (here now);
8. From dependence back into bondage.”

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University’s School of Law in St. Paul points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 presidential election:

- Number of states won by Gore: 19; Bush: 29
- Square miles of land won by Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000
- Population of counties won by Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million
- Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by Gore: 13.2; Bush: 2.1

Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore’s territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare.”

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency” and “apathy” phases of Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “government dependency” phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to 20 million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say good-bye to the U.S.A. in fewer than five years.

Les Opheim
Jackson, Minn.

Most of that looked pretty familiar, so we went online and sure enough, it isn't original. With the expection of the final paragraph about illegal immigrants, it's an urban legend, according to a page at Snopes' Urban Legend Reference site.

What makes it an urban legend?  According to the Snopes site:

1. The population of the counties and square miles of area won by each Bush and Gore appear to be accurate. They are consistent with the election-result map published by USA Today on 20 November 2000.

2. The number of states won by each candidate is wrong, but the numbers given (29 and 19) imply this piece was written before the results of the Florida and New Mexico vote-counts were determined. The final tallies were 30 states for Bush and 20 for Gore.

3. The quote from "Alexander Tyler" is very likely fictitious. His name was actually "Lord Woodhouselee, Alexander Fraser Tytler," and he was a Scottish historian/professor who wrote several books in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

However, there is no record of The Fall of the Athenian Republic or The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic in the Library of Congress, which has several other titles by Tytler. This quote has also been cited as being from Tytler's Universal History or from his Elements of General History, Ancient and Modern, books that do exist. These books seem the most likely source of the quote, as they contain extensive discussions of the political systems in historic civilizations, including Athens. Universal History was published after, and based upon, Elements of General History, which was a collection of Professor Tytler's lecture notes.

Tytler's book, Universal history, from the creation of the world to the beginning of the eighteenth century, is available for viewing and searching on-line. The complete text was searched for each of the following phrases:

• Athenian Republic
• democracy
• generous gifts
• public treasury
• loose fiscal
• fiscal
• bondage
• 200 years
• two hundred years
• spiritual faith

In no case was text identified that was remotely similar in words or intent to the alleged Tytler quote.

4. Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University is not the source of any of the statistics or the text attributed to him. Professor Olson was contacted (by me) via e-mail, and he confirmed that he had no authorship or involvement in this matter. And, as Fayette Citizen editor Dave Hamrick wrote back in January 2001:

I really enjoyed one recent message that was circulated extremely widely, at least among conservatives. It gave several interesting "facts" supposedly compiled by statisticians and political scientists about the counties across the nation that voted for George Bush and the ones that voted for Al Gore in the recent election.

Supposedly, the people in the counties for Bush had more education, more income, ad infinitum, than the counties for Gore.

I didn't have time to check them all out, but I was curious about one item in particular... the contention that the murder rate in the Gore counties was about a billion times higher than in the Bush counties.

This was attributed to a Professor Joseph Olson at the Hamline University School of Law. I never heard of such a university, but went online and found it. And Prof. Olson does exist.

"Now I'm getting somewhere," I thought.

But in response to my e-mail, Olson said the "research" was attributed to him erroneously. He said it came from a Sheriff Jay Printz in Montana. I e-mailed Sheriff Printz, and guess what? He didn't do the research either, and didn't remember who had e-mailed it to him.

In other words, he got the same legend e-mailed to him and passed it on to Olson without checking it out, and when Olson passed it on, someone thought it sounded better if a law professor had done the research, and so it grew.

Who knows where it originally came from, but it's just not true.

5. The county-by-county murder-rate comparison presented in this piece is wrong.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), in the year 2000 the national murder rate was about 5.5 per 100,000 residents. Homicide data by county for 1999 and 2000 can be downloaded from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NAJCD), and the counties won by Gore and Bush can be identified using the county-by-county election results made available by CNN. (The NACJD provides not only the number of reported murders for each county, but also the population for each.) The average murder rate in the counties won by Gore vs. the rate in the counties won by Bush can be determined from this data.

By calculating the murder rate for each county and then taking the averages, we find a murder rate (defined as number of murders per 100,000 residents) of about 5.2 for the "average" Gore county and 3.3 for the average Bush county. But since people, rather than counties, commit murders, a more appropriate approach is to calculate the total number of murders in the counties won by each candidate and divide that figure by the total number of residents in those counties. This more appropriate method yields the following average murder rates in counties won by each candidate:

Gore: 6.5

Bush: 4.1

There is a distinct difference between these two numbers, but it is nowhere near as large as the quoted e-mail message states (i.e., 13.2 for Gore vs. 2.1 for Bush). Note that the average of these two figures is 5.3, which, as expected, is very close to the reported national murder rate of 5.5.

Last updated:   3 April 2008

As readers may remember from early April, the publisher of the Redwood Falls Gazette recently published a passed--along-email that is often attributed to Andy Rooney, who disavowed the contents as hateful and contrary to everything America stands for. The column, published on April 1, was not a joke.

Now we find a local Jacksonian passing another urban legend off as his own letter.  Presumeably the editors simply trusted the words to be original to the author. The final paragraph strays from the version at the urban legend reference site, though it, too, is not original, as a Google search turns up this blog post and other hits. Just the current version being spread around.

It's certainly an interesting trend: conservatives circulating urban legends in their search for The Truthiness.  We're guessing Opheim will probably use the same defense as the publisher--who cares about facts, when the sentiment is "true."   As the contemporary Ameircan philosopher Stephen Colbert said:

"We're not talking about truth, we're talking about something that seems like truth—the truth we want to exist."

Who knew that the Snopes site--intended for checking up on facts--would become the lending library for the forces of Truthiness in Minnesota?

Identity theft? Davis swipes Senator Day's campaign card rhetoric

...in the immigration debate.

Early last September, Dick Day said in a campaign press release:

“There is absolutely no reason VISA and Mastercard should do a better job than the US government at keeping track of people.

Last night on KTTC, Davis said:

"I don't understand when you go to an ATM, Visa or MasterCard can check someones identity pretty quickly and efficiently and almost instantaneously. Why the federal government can't get some of that technology to determine someones residency status," Davis says.

This is what is passing for common sense among Republicans these days? Back in September, Dave Mindeman at mnpACT! pointed out:

And besides, if you want to stand by this statement:

"There is absolutely no reason VISA and Mastercard should do a better job than the U.S. government at keeping track of people."

I hope [you're] willing to explain that analogy to those constituents who have been victims of identity theft [link added to statistics]. I'm not sure they will be so quick to agree.

Dave's right. Ruthless and clever thieves have come up with all sorts of ways to circumvent Visa and Mastercard ability to match card and cardholder. Breaching databases of electronic fund transfer information at retailers to swipe account numbers and PINs is a big problem.  Within the last 24 hours, the Associated Press reported:

There were 167 breaches in the U.S. in the first three months of 2008, up from 76 in last year's first quarter, the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center announced Wednesday.

Breaches disclosed so far this year have potentially affected 8 million people, said the nonprofit group, which counts breaches reported in news media and other sources that it considers reliable.

This year's biggest breach so far occurred at Hannaford Bros. Co., a Maine-based supermarket chain that said last month that hackers had exposed more than 4 million credit and debit card numbers in a breach that led to at least 1,800 cases of fraud. The breach affected Hannaford stores in the Northeast and Sweetbay stores in Florida that are owned by Delhaize America.

Last year, the Identity Theft Resource Center counted 446 breaches, up 43 percent from 2006.

Other strategies involve installing equipment on legitimate bank ATMs. Bad people figure out how to circumvent those things that supposedly match the cardholder and the card.

Consumer protection laws help prevent financial losses to the individual cardholder, depending upon the type of card used (credit or debit/check).  Visa and Mastercard often eat the consequences after the fact, again depending upon whether the card is a credit card or debit.

It's costly to Visa and Masterard, and takes time for consumers to resolve. The most recent FBI report on financial crimes (FY 2006) says:

A survey conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2006 estimated that 8.3 million American consumers, or 3.7 percent of the adult population, became victims of identity theft in 2005. Most of the financial losses are suffered by credit issuers and banks, as victims are rarely held responsible for fraudulent debts incurred in their name; however, victims often bear  the responsibility of contacting their banks and credit issuers after an     identity theft has occurred. The same FTC survey determined that victim consumers spent over 200 million hours in 2005 attempting to recover from identity theft.

While matching PIN to card is pretty easy, have VISA and Mastercard come up with a fool-proof match of card and cardholder? Hardly. Can Dick Day keep Brian Davis from absconding with foolish analogies? Guess not.

The BBC's The Real Hustle illustrated one of the scams (it's not localized to Great Britain):