Bluestem Prairie

Where does Michele Bachmann get her staff? Was Massachusetts slur a jab at Mittens?

Dump Bachmann takes note of some startling Bachmann bashing from MSNBC:

Yesterday, Lawrence O'Donnel had three questions on his blog:

1. How ignorant is Michele Bachmann and how did she get that way?
2. Where does she find her shockingly ignorant staff?
3. What explains the rank ignorance of 52% of the voters in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District?

The third question aside--I don't think it's fair to trash the voters when most of the media in the district carries little political news, while the Twin Cities media, especially the Star Tribune, have given Bachmann a free pass since her days in the state senate--O'Donnel asks where she gets her staff, and snarks a bit that it must be from her district.

To engage in a bit of fact-checking in a barrel: maybe not. Let's take a look at where she gets her communications staff. O'Donnel asked.

Bluestem was first to point out that in early December that Michele Bachmann hired Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell's spokester Doug Sachtleben. He's still on staff. Sachtleben doesnt seem to have any roots in Minnesota, having worked for O'Donnell --closely in proximity of being on the staff of the House Republican Conference.

His Facebook page notes he's from New Jersey.

Then there was Sergio Gor, who split work between Bachmann and Steve King's offices. He's from Malta via Los Angeles and has worked in DC for years.

Rebekah M. Breitbarth, who served as press secretary for a bit, is from Minnesota--but not from the Sixth. She's from Fairmont, a graduate of Bethany, and daughter of GOP activist Neil Breitbarth. That's down in Minnesota's First, where people were smart even to elect and re-elect Tim Walz, who has hired pretty smart staff, many from the district.

David Dziok, her longest-serving press secretary, honed his skills as a political operative in Virginia.

Those are congressional staffers, rather than campaign or leadership PAC staff, so perhaps it's unfair of O'Donnel to call out Bachmann's congressional staffers for allowing her ignorance to go unchecked on a partisan, political trip.

However, Sergio Gor did consult with the 2010 campaign.We'll have to wait until the reports are due for campaigns to find out who is working on her campaign side (Q1 due April 15; MICHELE PAC reports monthly).

But it looks like Bachmann isn't drawing any communications staff from her own district. Rather, her communications staff is drawn from the cadre of national Republican operatives. Maligning a whole congressional district simply won't do.

One other thing: Bachmann's snide apology. Victor Tomasky writes at the Guardian:

Now, with this inaccuracy, as I said above, she knows her stuff; knows how to play the game. The surefire remedy for historical ignorance is to insult liberals, to wit:

Soon after the gaffe, Bachmann, who is seriously exploring a 2012 presidential bid, responded on her Facebook page saying, "So I misplaced the battles Concord and Lexington by saying they were in New Hampshire. It was my mistake, Massachusetts is where they happened. New Hampshire is where they are still proud of it!"

I'm not sure if that should be read as a jab at liberals, but at former Massachusetts Governor Romney, also thought to be seeking the endorsement. Republican Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown was also elected with an assist the tea party.  Indeed, the comeback looks like more #materialfail.

Here's the video:

Related posts:

The gaffe heard 'round the twitter: challenged by history, Bachmann flubs geography as well

Also not a witch: has Michele Bachmann hired Christine O'Donnell's spokester?

Michele Bachmann to share "sharp operator" press secretary with Iowa Rep. Steve King

From twit to bull elephant: Waseca's Mike Parry takes lead role in attacks on public employees

Senator Mike Parry first burst into the scene following a series of unfortunate tweets were discovered by tweeps and bloggers during a special election in January 2010.

Apparently, the Republican Party of Minnesota knew it had its guy with the former Waseca city council member, ex-radio guy, consultant and owner of a Godfather's Pizza.

Now,  he's taking a lead in shifting Minnesota's tectonic plates toward Wisconsin.  Hot Dish Politics at the Strib reports:

Turning up the heat on an already sensitive topic nationally, Republican legislators in Minnesota said Monday that the state’s public employees needed to pay more of their pensions to help solve the state’s budget crisis.

A rapid shift. The Strib notes:

In a sign of how quickly the proposal was moving in the Republican-controlled Legislature, Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, who chairs the Senate State Government Innovation and Veterans Committee, said the legislation would be introduced Monday and be referred to his committee.   Parry said the plan would not await to be heard by a legislative panel on pensions.

The proposal would, for example, require correctional employees to raise the percentage of their salary that goes to their pensions from 8.6 percent to 11.6 percent. Judges would go from 8 percent of their salary to 11 percent of their salary, and basic members of the Public Employees Retirement Association would generally go from 9.1 percent to 12.1 percent.

The governor and labor leaders responded quickly. The AP reports:

Dayton avoids issuing direct veto threats of specific bills, but at a press conference Monday, the governor said the GOP pension proposal "would go far beyond what Wisconsin is proposing." The Democrat also reaffirmed his support for collective bargaining rights for government employees.

"Those agreements are contracts, legal obligations of both parties and they need to be honored," Dayton said. "The right to negotiate changes to those is something that both parties have and should not be taken away unilaterally by some kind of outside authority."

In  Minn. GOP senators take aim at public worker benefits, AFSCME leader Elliot Seide told MPR report Tim Pugmire:

This is a unilateral pay cut," said AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Eliot Seide.

He said he hopes DFL Gov. Mark Dayton will block such changes.

Seide also said Minnesota isn't ready to follow Wisconsin's lead.

"I think this is precisely the plan laid out by Gov. Walker and the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is run by right-wing extremist billionaires and other cheap labor conservatives, to divide public workers against private workers and to drive down the wages and benefits of all workers," Seide said.

A comparison shows that the situations in Minnesota and Wisconsin are different already.

Before Wisconsin's so-called budget repair bill passed, public employees contributed little to their own retirement and health care. That's not the case here.

In Minnesota, public workers and taxpayers evenly split contributions, at rates varying from about 5 percent to 10 percent of salaries.

Numerous friends in the private sector have chimed in on twitter that that contribution rate equals their own.

Shar Knutson replied that Parry’s Plan is a Wisconsin-style Attack on Middle Class Families:

Responding to State Senator Mike Parry’s proposal to further squeeze public sector workers’ hard earned pensions, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson issued the following statement:

“Senator Parry’s pension proposal is unfortunately an attempt to bring an extreme, Wisconsin-style attack on middle class families across the border to Minnesota.

“Senator Parry should know that Minnesota public employees already pay a significant share of their pensions out of pocket.

“The Senator should also recognize that the average public employee makes around $38,000 a year and retires with an average annual pension of $13,000 a year.

“Middle class families across the state have already sacrificed more than their fair share in the last decade.

“It’s time for lawmakers to stop these attacks on middle class families and stay focused on creating jobs now and balancing the budget fairly.”

 The move looks like more of the same divide and conquer strategic, playing workers against each other, just as the GOP pits urban and rural against each other.

Related post: Will dividing Minnesotans add up for Republicans and their allies?

Photo: Senator Mike Parry.

Exhuming McCarthy: Spirit of Tail-gunner Joe animates Chip Cravaack

In Rep. King's red scare, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank takes note of freshman Minnesota congressman Chip Cravaack's affection for another divisive Wisconsin politician.

This one's dead. Really dead, not merely facing recall countdowns and massive popular protest. nope, Cravaack's romancing conservative zombie Wisconsin:

The New York Republican {Peter King]  was eager to avoid the Red Scare taint, and he allowed the 84-year-old dean of the House, Democrat John Dingell of Michigan, to open the session with wisdom learned during his time as a chairman. "I kept a picture of Joe McCarthy hanging on the wall so that I would know what it was I did not want to look like," Dingell said, cautioning the committee not to "blot the good name or the loyalty" of Arabs or Muslims.

But the ghost of Tail-Gunner Joe would not be denied. It found a host in the body of freshman Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), who asked Los Angeles Sheriff Leroy Baca, a witness, about his work with a large Muslim group called CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"You are aware that this is a Hamas and . . . Muslim Brotherhood entity?" the lawmaker asked, pronouncing Muslim as "moo-slim."

"No, I'm not aware of that," the sheriff replied.

Cravaack informed Baca that CAIR was founded by two people identified by the FBI as "Hamas members." "Basically you're dealing with a terrorist organization," he said.

"If the FBI has something to charge CAIR with, bring those charges forward," Baca replied, coolly.

Cravaack was indignant. "Are you saying that the FBI was wrong in identifying that CAIR is part of Hamas, an entity of Hamas?"

This is the very definition of McCarthyism: false allegations of subversion. King didn't even bother inviting the group to defend itself.

Read the rest at the Washington Post. Milbank notes that CIAR isn't considered a terrorist organization:

I'm no fan of CAIR, which was one of 250 unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist finance case of 2007. But the FBI doesn't call CAIR a terrorist group. Nor does it allege that CAIR was founded or financed by Hamas. In America, if somebody, even somebody unpopular, has committed a crime, we bring charges. We don't float Internet rumors at a congressional hearing.

No, floating internet rumors is reserved for Public Safety committee meetings in the Minnesota House.

Cravaack is pretty proud of this exchange and posted it on his Youtube page. It begins at 2:18:

Will dividing Minnesotans add up for Republicans and their allies?

Yesterday, Bluestem noted that GOP caucus cuts to local government aid play metro and rural cities against each other:

This geographically divisive strategy-- a divide and conquer strategy similar to pitting public and private workers against each other--isn't getting much purchase among the state's mayors.

City officials across Minnesota are taking a Three Musketeers strategy when it comes to LGA ("All for one, one for all"). Rural mayors say they won't support LGA cuts to metro cities.

Now a Star Tribune article points out another division being created in Minnesota. This time it's within the business community. Business columnist Neal St. Anthony writes in Local-aid battle divides business: Some chambers of commerce say state cuts to cities have gone too far already:

In the budget battle playing out in St. Paul, business interests are diverging.

Doug Olson is business development manager with Lou-Rich Inc., a contract engineering and manufacturing company with more than 325 employees in Albert Lea, Minn. He's also chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce.

"We are considering hiring more people, some from outside our area," said Olson of his company. "The city of Albert Lea has done a good job of being as efficient as possible. And we don't want to lose good candidates because of [diminishment of municipal services]. That's a concern for us if local government aid gets cuts further."

The question Albert Lea and other cities are asking is whether they can afford another year of cuts in state aid that helps keep the local snowplows running and the extra cop on the night shift.

Olson's enough-already view adds to concerns among state chambers that more cuts in "local government aid" may hurt the local business climate.

Has the state Chamber of Commerce hitch a ride on the big corporate highway, leaving Main Street's interests behind?

It sure seems like it sometimes. Read the whole article.

Minnesota Public Radio points of that cuts proposed by the House aren't evenly distributed around the state, either in House Republicans want to cancel projects in DFL districts:

 GOP Rep. Larry Howes is proposing to cancel $60 million in already approved public works projects. Howes, the chair of the House Capital Investment Committee, is scheduled to hold a Wednesday hearing on his bill to cancel projects. The list includes the Minneapolis Planetarium, the Mesabi Trail Connection and planning money for the Inter-City Passenger Rail project. Read the draft bill here.

All but one of the projects tapped for elimination are in districts represented by Democrats. The only project in a GOP district is the Greenleaf State Recreation Area. GOP Rep. Dean Urdahl represents that area. But that doesn't mean the project will be eliminated since Urdahl chairs the Legacy Fund division which appropriates money for outdoors projects.

 Not all of the DFL districts are in the Twin Cities. One project scheduled to get the axe is $100,000 for Mott Hall at the Minnesota State Academies in Faribault, served by Patti Fritz. The State Academies educate deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired and deaf/blind people from across the state.

In an online chat today, a friend shared his frustration with political rhetoric that sees only divisions and differences among Minnesotans. 

My friend wasn't born in the state, but now lives in the metro area. He observed, "There are so many connections among ordinary people throughout Minnesota; I've never seen such strong regional ties between cities and rural areas anywhere else."

Thinking about when I lived in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri, I had to agree with him. And he's right, I think, in agreeing with the mayors and others: Minnesota will do better when our leaders see us as one state, vitally connected.

 

BREAKING NEWS: New Ulm Irish community lacks permit to bury toxic German cuisine

We were warned.

At the urging of Range DFLers hungry for jobs, and Republicans eager to widen the gulf between the rich and poor, earlier this month Governor Dayton signed into law a measure to make the permit process in Minnesota move at "the speed of commerce."

The pristine Minnesota River Valley will be the first of the state's wilderness areas to suffer the consequences of the rush to nonjudgement. Indeed, the Brown County metropolis's Irish community has moved at the speed of a quick slip jig to test the new limits of the law.

The New Ulm Journal reports in St. Patrick’s Day to have heart healthy theme:

The annual Sauerkraut Burying Contest will begin at 3:15 and will continue until all of the kraut in town is gone, so resident are asked to search their cupboards and bring what they can to Irish Park.

"This event was so popular last year that we will also be burying Lutefisk," said Kearney. "We are hoping no one lets the MPCA know about this because we could get in trouble for polluting the soil and groundwater."

However, the Irish believe the improvement in air quality will more than make up for the soil and water pollution.

Given the predictions of widespread, record flooding for the New Ulm area, and the city's dearth of resources for flood mitigation, the improper disposal of sauerkraut and lutefisk could trigger widespread degradation of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers if that stuff oozes into the river.

Bluestem Prairie's sources in the area recommend a full investigation by citizen journalists.

"I don't know what those folks are thinking," local wind energy expert Millie Seppmann said.

Local Tea Party activists are outraged by another item in the New Ulm Journal's reporting:

City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten called in and said he had heard the state was going to put a tax on brains to help settle its budget problems. Nierengarten asked if he could qualify for a refund.

A rally to protest the proposed tax on brains is in the works. No word if Representative Glenn Gruenhagen plans to seek a temporary restraining order to halt the "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" kissing contest:

Other causes for concern include potential violations of the state's brewing laws:

The St. Patrick's Monument steering committee has been working with the Schell's Brewery to develop a green beer called Blarney Beer. The committee hoped to have it in the liquor stores by the first of this year to raise money for the St. Patrick Monument, but Schell's has been so busy due to the popularity of its Grain Belt and Nordeast beer that it hasn't had time to make Blarney Beer. The committee was told that if it bought Schell's beer this year it would definitely turn green within eight or nine months and be ready for sale in 2012.

Read the rest of the atrocities in the New Ulm Journnal.

Tractorade joins biggest Madison rally yet; 1000s mock Walker at rural Washburn fundraiser

Wisconsin family farmers rallied with pro-union forces yesterday to protest Scott Walker's power grab that will erode the middle class. Posted on the Land Stewardship Project Youtube page:

Vegatable and beef farmer Tony Schultz is a member of Family Farm Defenders, which sponsored the tractorade along with the Wisconsin Farmers Union and LSP.

The Cap Times looks at Why farmers are driving their tractors to protest at the Capitol:

Monroe County dairy farmer Joel Greeno works 90 to 100 hours a week. He and his wife, who works at a Wal-Mart distribution center, have a 4-year-old daughter and are expecting their second child at the end of April. Despite the fact that both are working, they qualify for health-care coverage through the state-funded BadgerCare program.

"It's just sad," says Greeno, 44. "I work hard and my wife works for one of the largest corporations in the world. Where we are right now scares me."

Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill, which he signed into law Friday, and his recently released budget proposal haven't exactly eased Greeno's mind.

In the name of narrowing the state's projected $3.6 billion budget deficit, Walker has proposed sweeping changes to Medicaid-funded programs including BadgerCare, cuts in state aid to public schools by nearly $834 million and a $96 million cut in aid to local governments, including cities, towns and counties.

All those cuts have Greeno wondering what kind of health coverage he will have when his newborn arrives and if the school where his daughter had her kindergarten screening a few weeks ago will still be open when it's time for her to start school this fall.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in Farmers, labor join in capitol protests:

On the seat of his tractor, Chuck Arentz protested the actions of Gov. Scott Walker as both a farmer and a Teamster.

Both will suffer as a result of the budget-repair bill that strips collective bargaining rights from public employees and gives more authority to the administration in dispensing Medicaid to the poor, said Arentz, who runs a dairy farm in Cashton.

"He's cutting Medicaid for the low-class, the middle class, the people who don't make a lot of money and cutting $900 million to schools," he said after participating in the tractorcade Saturday. "That's our future.

"Can't he see what's going on down here? I don't think he wants to."

Silas Bernardoni, a beef farmer from Darlington, said farmers would suffer under the budget cuts proposed by Walker.

"It's rural areas that are going to be hit hardest," he said. "Who lives in rural areas? Farmers. We're in one of the poorest counties in this state." . . .

Walker wasn't around to see the massive rally; instead, he was off to a Republican fundraiser in Washburn, a rural community on Lake Superior in Bayfield County. But angry badgers didn't leave him alone, the Duluth News Tribune reports in Wis. governor greeted at Washburn fundraiser by thousands of protesters:

Wisconsin’s protracted family fight over the budget and public employee unions moved to this Bayfield County town Saturday evening, as embattled Gov. Scott Walker spoke at an invitation-only event and was greeted by at least 2,000 angry protesters outside.

Walker arrived in a convoy of six unmarked police cars that pulled up at 5:45 p.m. to the Steak Pit for a Republican Lincoln Day fundraiser. The large, boisterous crowd, which had been lining the streets leading to the restaurant since 4:30, quickly recognized him and erupted in boos and shouts of “Recall Walker.”

The presence of the protesters more than doubled the number of people in the small town:

Bayfield County Sheriff Paul Susienka said Saturday evening that he didn’t have a crowd estimate, but various people had estimated the size at between 2,000 and 5,000. So the protest probably at least doubled the size of Washburn, which has a population of 2,271.

Susienka said there had been no incidents and no arrests.

No arrests occurred at the massive rally in Madison, either. The paper talked to the rally's organizers:

Ron Borchers, a substitute teacher in Washburn, said he was among 24 people who organized the rally, which began Friday afternoon behind Stage North, a community theater and entertainment venue.

Borchers praised Washburn police, whom he said worked closely with the organizers to agree on ground rules.

Scott Griffiths, a freelance artist in Washburn, also was among the organizers.

“The thing that really got me here is the disparity of wealth that has grown way too out of hand,” Griffiths said. “This is not a Wisconsin thing. This is a global pandemic of wealth buying power.”

Recall Walker has posted a video:

Photos: A sign from the Madison rally: "Now settle down kitty." Photo by Rafael Morataya (above).

Dahms & Magnus play LGA Pollyannas in Marshall; GOP caucuses audition for Scrooge in St. Paul

  An article appeared in Friday's Marshall Independent in which two freshman Republican Senators were upbeat about local government aid not taking much of a hit under Republican budget targets.

In GOP plan hits agencies, social services; Senator says Republicans’ proposed reductions in aid to local governments doesn’t mean LGA will be sacrificed, Per Peterson reports:

But District 21 Sen. Gary Dahms stressed Thursday that just because aid to local governments could potentially take a hit, it doesn't mean Local Government Aid will be sacrificed.

"We're working very hard to keep LGA where it was last year," said Dahms, R-Redwood Falls. "You may see some cuts in LGA, but they're not cuts that will wipe LGA out. I still think we're going to see some reasonable numbers coming on LGA. We're going to have LGA; we just need to try to hold it as close to where it was last year, and I feel confident we'll have some success in doing that."

LGA is part of a tax aids and credits spending package that could see as much as a 9.6 percent decrease. Dahms said that package has yet to be broken down, so it's unclear where the cuts will hit the hardest. . . .

. . .Dahms said too many people pick out LGA when the discussion of cuts comes up because it has become one of the more controversial issues of the 2011 session. Both Dahms and Magnus said it's too early to determine the fate of LGA and how deep any potential cuts to the program would be.

Their cheery outlook about LGA cuts by either chamber is rosy indeed in the light of what has seen the light of day and one wonders how much in the loop the news senators were when they spoke to the local paper. What the Republican caucuses offered isn't so rosy.

At MinnPost, Doug Grow writes of the senate plan:

And, as expected, Local Government Aid appears to be a $700 million loser in the Republican plan, though LGA is buried in a category called “tax aids and credits spending” and Senate leadership was not prepared to say just what the fate of LGA will be if Republican wishes prevail. Again, the difference between the governor and Republicans is a robust $800 million in the overall category.

The Star Tribune reports in House plan would decimate city, county aid:

A new plan from the Minnesota House would decimate state funding for cities and counties, leaving the state's local governments to largely fend for themselves.

The plan, crafted by members of the House Property Tax and Local Sales Tax Division, would cut nearly $300 million from local government aid by immediately slashing half of metro suburbs' state help and a quarter of big cities' aid from the state.

The plan would eliminate all state aid to metro suburbs by 2013, and by 2015 city funding would be gone.

And the strategy appears to be playing Greater Minnesota off against metro areas. Minnesota Public Radio reports:

Republicans in the Minnesota House are proposing to dramatically cut state aid to metro cities and counties. The proposal, released by House Property Tax Committee Chair Linda Runbeck, cuts $300 million in Local Government Aid. It proposes to phase out LGA to metro suburban cities that receive Local Government Aid by the end of the biennium. It also proposes eliminating LGA for Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth by the end of 2015.

Rural cities will mostly be spared from the LGA cuts. That's a key signal that House GOP leadership is working to insulate rural members from heavy criticism over LGA cuts.

This geographically divisive strategy-- a divide and conquer strategy similar to pitting public and private workers against each other--isn't getting much purchase among the state's mayors.

City officials across Minnesota are taking a Three Musketeers strategy when it comes to LGA ("All for one, one for all"). Rural mayors say they won't support LGA cuts to metro cities.

State aid to counties, in the form of County Program aid and the Market Value Credit, would also be eliminated in some cases.

The Strib article noted the urban and rural cities' united position:

The House plan would largely spare outstate cities from such severe cuts, but pits suburbs and the urban core against smaller cities. Last week, mayors from places big and small said they would not tolerate such a divide-and-conquer approach.

The coalition that represents the state's small cities promptly shot down the proposal Saturday in a statement: "We are pleased that the proposal recognizes the importance of LGA to homeowners and businesses in greater Minnesota, however we strongly disagree with the exclusion of metro and suburban communities from a policy that has benefited the entire state." . . .

. . .The House committee report was released late Friday night, prompting DFLers in the Legislature on Twitter to dub it a "super secret" plan.

Earlier in the week, the Worthington Globe reported in Governor sides with mayors:

Long-time mayors said they do not remember a mayor-governor meeting over state aid to local governments like occurred in the Capitol Wednesday. While Dayton and mayors agree on the importance of state payments, mayors said it is important to reinforce the Democrat governor’s feelings and provide him with arguments as he and Republicans enter budget negotiations later this spring.

Republicans say cities and other local governments must take their own cuts as the state fills a $5 billion deficit.

“We’ve already done our share to help with the (state) budget,” Granite Falls Mayor Dave Smiglewski told Dayton, referring to Local Government Aid and other state cutbacks since 2003.

Added Thief River Falls Mayor Steve Nordhagen: “Thief River Falls and other cities out there would not exist without Local Government Aid.”

About 20 city officials delivered their message to a governor who wants LGA and other local government payments increased in the next two-year budget.. . .

. . .“We think this is a critical time for the cities throughout the state,” said Park Rapids Mayor Nancy Carroll, who as Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities president hosted Wednesday’s meeting with Dayton.

The future of cities is at stake, she added. . . .

Go read what the mayors said. Local leadership wasn't buying the divide and conquer routine-- even before the details of it came out.

Photo: Governor Dayton and mayors dicuss LGA funding. Photo via Office of the Governor.

The gaffe heard 'round the twitter: challenged by history, Bachmann flubs geography as well

Life on the road is tough for Michele Bachmann. She seems to forget those social studies fundamentals she fought so hard to restore with the repeal of the Profiles of Learning.

In a speech today,  she located Concord, where the shots heard 'round the world were fired, in New Hampshire, where she happens to be right now. Politico has the scoop in Bachmann fails political geography 101:

"You're the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord," she said Saturday morning at an event organized by the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire. "And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors."

Good, patriotic stuff … only the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” was fired about 70 miles to the south in Concord, Massachusetts.

Perhaps the gentlewoman from Minnesota's Sixth has simply located "secret" gunshots the founders and the media--including that rascal Ben Franklin--concealed from the rest of us, like the "secret" funding in a recent bill she lamented. The Star Tribune today editorialized that Michele Bachmann's 'bombshell' is a dud: There was nothing secret about health care funding.

And given her level of understanding of early American history, it's no wonder she is the Queen of a Tea Party that defends tax breaks for corporations and the stripping of power from local officials, when the original Boston Tea Party protested tax breaks for corporations and taxation without representation.

Photos: Michele Bachmann (above); Statute of the Minuteman, Concord, MA (below).

University of MN Regents form panel to determine if Sviggum's new $80,000 year half-time Humphrey Institute job creates conflict

Many pixels burned bright over the selection of former legislators Steve Sviggum and Laura Brod to become members of the University's Board of Regents.

Now the Star Tribune reports in New regent's U job raises concern that a new half-time job paying $80,000 that the Kenyon Republican has secured at the U's Humphrey Institute may pose a conflict-of-interest. A three-regent committee has been appointed to review the issues and map out suggestions for addressing the concerns.

The University's website notes that Regents serve for six years without pay.

According to the article, when  the Regent Candidate Advisory Council vetted and recommended Sviggum in mid-January, he was an adjunct at the institute:

In his application for the Board of Regents, Sviggum answered the question about conflict of interest by saying that "full disclosure and transparency is important."

"To that point," he continued, "I am an adjunct professor at the Humphrey Institute."

The Regent Candidate Advisory Council, the citizen group that recruits and screens candidates, had formal and informal conversations with Sviggum about his teaching, and "the council was apparently satisfied that he understood conflict of interest and would act responsibly if that occurred," said Jane Belau, chair of the council.

"The big change in Sviggum's employment relationship with the university came after our committee's selection," she said.

The Strib reports that Sviggum signed the contract for the new position on February 4, prior to a vote by the legislature appointing new regents on February 21. The paper lays out the details onthe new job:

The chairman of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents opened an investigation Friday into whether it is a conflict of interest for Sviggum to be both a member of the Board of Regents and a fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

 "I think there is a substantial issue," Chairman Clyde Allen said. "I do not intend whatsoever to say there is a conflict, but there is a question." . . . .

. . .Allen formed a three-person committee to look into the question. The move, outlined in the board's policies, follows several meetings involving Sviggum, Allen and the U's general counsel.

 The question arises in part because Sviggum, who has taught courses at the U for several years, recently took a bigger job there -- in the midst of interviewing for the unpaid seat on the Board of Regents.

 Sviggum signed a contract to be a legislative fellow with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs on Feb. 4, a few weeks before the Legislature voted him onto the U board. The half-time position, for which he's being paid $80,000 a year, involves teaching, fundraising, hosting public forums and writing opinion essays. . . .[emphasis added]

The MN Daily, the unversity's student paper, describes the concerns about conflict of interest in Regent's dual roles questioned:

According to board policy, a financial conflict of interest occurs whenever a regent has a “financial interest or any other interest in a matter pending before the Board that may impair independence of judgment.” Sviggum’s conflict could extend to finances, as well as faculty and educational planning issues, Allen said.

“We’re dealing with lots of issues there like 'Do we have the money for pay raises?'” Allen said. “'Should we reduce here or expand there?'"

Normally, regents recuse themselves from voting on matters where a conflict occurs. But the depth of Sviggum’s involvement with the school creates the potential for on-going conflicts.

“That question will be with us throughout his service if we don’t resolve it now and get some criteria set clearly,” Allen said.

Previously only a lecturer, Sviggum now holds the title of Legislative Fellow in the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at Humphrey.

Other media venues are covering the concerns. Minnesota Public Radio's On Campus reports in U of M board investigates conflict concerns for new regent:

Allen said that puts Sviggum in an ethical gray area when it comes to serving on the school’s governing body.

“I will simply say there is a substantial issue there right now. I do not want to draw conclusions, that’s without the advice of the panel. But I think there is a substantial issue.”

University officials say they can’t remember a case of an employee ever being appointed to the board.  There doesn’t appear to be a rule that prohibits employees of the U from serving in an unpaid position on the board of regents.

But according to the board’s code of ethics, members aren’t allowed to vote on issues where they have a financial interest.  In that case regents recuse themselves from a board decision.

“This one is different in that it looks like it could have a large number of ongoing such recusals,” Allen said.

As an employee of the U, Allen maintains Sviggum has a financial interest in much of what the board does, whether that’s deciding budgets or handing out pay raises.

Sviggum both apologized for and defended his actions, implying that his dual salaried role as teacher and fundraiser would pose a conflict withhis duties as a Regent:

At today’s board meeting Sviggum apologized to his new colleagues for putting them in an awkward position.  But he told them he didn’t think his work as an instructor and a regent would conflict.

“If there is a sin, the sin is I’m raising money for the University of Minnesota,” Sviggum said. “The sin is I’m teaching students at the University of Minnesota and educating them. They love the class and they love the involvement in the class.”

In U panel to determine whether new Regent Steve Sviggum has conflict of interest, the St. Paul Pioneer Press provides more details on the nw committee:

He also has a 53 percent-time appointment at the U's Humphrey School of Public Affairs as a lecturer with the title of "legislative fellow." He signed the contract Feb. 4, a few weeks before he was elected a regent.

Sviggum is well-qualified for both roles, Allen said.

"The question is, can the two things be done together without there being a conflict?" he said.

Regents recuse themselves on various matters, Allen said, but those are infrequent. The issue is whether "a substantial employee" would face repeated conflicts on a board that often deals with matters affecting employees, he said. "(It's) a new situation we've not had before."

Allen, Vice Chair Linda Cohen and Regent Patricia Simmons will serve on the ad hoc committee, which is expected to report back to the board at its next meeting in May.

Let's hope  the panel can work things out. It would be great for the U get at least a half-time Regent out of Sviggum's appointment.

Photo: Former state representative and Pawlenty administration official Steve Sviggum, known as a gifted teacher at the Humphrey Institute.

On Monday, Parry-chaired committee to hear bill to strip bargaining rights from MN teachers

The corporate-funded, Republican-directed blitz to gut the American middle class is advancing in Minnesota.

A press release from Senator Barbara Goodwin:

On Monday, March 14, the Senate's State Government Innovation and Veterans Committee, chaired by Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, will hear a bill to take away essential bargaining rights from Minnesota teachers (S.F. 208 – Hann). In response, Sen. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, issued the following statement:

“Minnesota Republicans may claim they’re focused on the economy and budget, but it’s becoming clearer every day they’d rather bring Wisconsin politics into the Minnesota Capitol.

On Monday, Senate Republicans will hold a hearing on a bill that would take away essential bargaining rights from Minnesota teachers and allow school boards to unilaterally implement contracts without employee approval. This bill is yet another assault on middle-class families from the Republican majorities in the Minnesota Legislature.

Just yesterday, we heard Republican leaders promise to spend the next two weeks putting together their property-tax raising, all-cuts budget. Now we see Republicans are more interested in attacking working families than doing the hard work of balancing the state’s budget.

Committee budgets must be passed by March 25. Sen. Parry’s committee has been charged with cutting the budget of state agencies and veterans programs by 53% over the next two weeks. How is the committee moving any closer to meeting that goal by taking on collective bargaining rights? I find it ironic that a committee that purports to value government efficiency is spending its time on controversial policy instead of the state’s $5 billion budget shortfall. Rather than attacking workers, we should be getting to work.

This is a very important time at the Capitol. We are just beginning the important process of putting together the Legislature’s budget proposal. This is not the time to bring such a divisive, ideological agenda into the Capitol.”

Long a key part of the professional (and unionized) middle class, teachers are being cast as greedy thugs draining public coffers.

One signal that the attacks have gone too far? Education historian and Bush I school reform architect Diane Ravitch has come to the defense of the teaching profession, pointing to the economic poverty that plays a key role in student success. So-called reformers, she says, are "tearing education apart and demonizing teachers.”

For more on Republican attacks on teachers, check out this  MPR report: Minn. GOP takes aim at teachers' bargaining power.

Jon Stewart takes a more pointed shot at a discourse that takes potshots at teachers while idolizing the well-to-do:

 

 

 

Paul Westrum at his wits' end over "horrific endowment" of immigrants

Immigration reductionist Paul Westrum tells the readers of the Austin Herald today that they're Too complacent to recognize issue.

What is it we don't see? Tsunamis racing to shore? Dead Kinseys? Charle Sheen?

Oh no. Westrum is raising the alarm over demographic shifts in America:

After hammering on the immigration issue for the past 18 years, I am at my wits end on how to alert a complacent American citizenry as to its children’s ominous future. What’s more, I don’t think anyone understands their horrific endowment to future generations, i.e., our kids.

For a fact, I know the U.S. Congress and the past five presidents did not, and our current president does not, understand the final ramifications of unrelenting immigration. They stand blind, deaf, dumb and stupid to the accelerating drama within our civilization.

At the current rate of legal and illegal immigration, plus the immigrants’ children, our country will watch the addition of 72 million immigrants, mostly from third world countries, within 24 years. Have you given thought to how that will affect the environment? Our culture? Our quality of life?

What will "legal and illegal immigration" bring? If you listen to Bill Blazar of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, good things.

I attended two presentations of many that the MN Chamber and its allies put on throughout Greater Minnesota back in January and February and the facts suggest that Westrum's fear-mongering is not just unfounded--but that policy based on his fear of the "horrific endowment" of "third-world" people by the current generation would substantially harm Minnesota's quality of life.

Typical news coverage of the presentation and discussion: an Agrinews article about the Fergus Falls meeting, Farmers say that something has to be done with immigration regulations. Or the article in Willmar's West Central Tribune.

Read more about the business case for immigration reform here. It's not complacency, but understanding that makes me, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and a host of other organizations reject Mr. Westrum's arguments.

And real reform will not simply mean fixing the part of a broken system where there is no line for many to get into, but which also shortens the wait for those who do get in line.

Just as union and nonunion, public and private get played off against each other, New Americans are urged to focus on resentments of each other provoked by that line, rather than commonalities. But in citing both legal and unauthorized immigrants as a "horrific endowment," Westrum lets the cat out of the bag. The problem isn't status--it's difference from Mr. Westrum's background.

In earlier waves of immigration at the turn of the 20th century, old immigrants--the WASPS and their kindred--fretted about "The Rising Tide of Color." Westrum's playing the same game.

And yet, the adaptive power of American culture--itself the churn of many cultures--made this country stronger with the addition of people from Eastern and Southern Europe, from Indochina, from everywhere. 

I am not frightened for this country or our culture; I only fear our fear itself.

Photo: Paul Westrum.

Seeing dead people in the Public Safety committee: Gruenhagen berates Alfred Kinsey

My first freelance post for the Minnesota Independent, GOP’s Gruenhagen calls for destruction of ‘filthy’ Kinsey research, relates an episode of Gruenhagenia that occurred Wednesday while the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance committee heard testimony about a hotline for victims of sex trafficking.

Glenn Gruenhagen (Onion County-R) lectured a group of nonprofit employees, trafficking victims and nuns about the perverted ways of Alfred Kinsey. Go read the post at MNIndy.

Kinsey died in August 1956, before Gruenhagen and this crabby old blogger were born. I'm detecting a pattern here in the conservative representative's reverence for the past as a place to locate impossible arguments--just yesterday, Bluestem noted how he claimed that  MPCA regulations would have compromised American effort in World War II.

Wednesday, neither the quiet patience of the nuns, nor the sexologist's long-ago demise, stopped the freshman Republican legislator from "beseeching" his audience to destroy research that he felt unleashed a fearsome adversary:

. . . there is nothing more destructive — or, one of the most destructive things to a society  . . . when the male sex drive is released in an uncontrolled and undisciplined way. . .

Having watched the BBC stream news this morning about the earthquake in Japan, I find myself disagreeing, although it's possible that some might link the shifting of the earth's plates to the male sex drive.

All joking about Gruenhagen's moral panic aside, the issue of human trafficking is a serious one--and one that unites a broad spectrum of faith, feminist and human rights groups. A good place to start learning about human trafficking in Minnesota--and efforts to assist its victims--is the Civil Society, the group that presented to the Public Safety committee just before Gruenhagen raised the spectre of Kinsey. 

A long consideration of the politics of attacks on Kinsey (and a good debunking of Reisman) is found here.

Winona in Wisconsin: MN teachers join boilermakers, Teamsters, cops and firefighters

The Winona Daily News's Jerome Christensen reports on a group of Winonans who traveled to Madison to join the protests on Thursday.

In Winonans travel to Madison to support public employees, Christensen writes:

Like Joshua at Jericho they went round and round, drums beating, horns blaring, loud shouts echoing from the stonework. But the walls of the Wisconsin State Capitol didn't fall down and the doors opened but a virtual crack. . . .

. . .Twenty-five Winona area supporters joined the crowd, traveling to Madison on a bus chartered by the Winona Education Association. Dwayne Voegeli, trip organizer, said that teachers and union supporters were taking advantage of spring break ...

And thre's some humor amid the frustration:

Security was tight as State Troopers blocked all entrances to the Capitol building, admitting only a trickle of demonstrators, each of whom had to empty all pockets, be passed over with a metal-detecting wand and submit all bags and packages for a search. "I feel I should be getting onto an airplane," one demonstrator quipped as he stuffed wallet and change back into his pockets.

"Hey, we let you keep your shoes on and didn't take your toothpaste," the trooper shot back with a grin.

And:

On the other side of the building Randy Schmidt, Fredonia, Wis., and a lone companion held up signs in support of Walker and the Republican majority. . .  Despite repeated challenges and a fellow standing next to him holding a sign reading "This is what underfunded education looks like" with an arrow in Schmidt's direction, Schmidt said he felt he was "among friends" and that the overwhelming majority of demonstrators defended his right to disagree.

Read the entire article at the WDN.

Photo: Shame in Wisconsin.

Making lists, naming names: MN Republicans, the Aspen Institute and the Axis of Soros

Over at True North, best-selling self-help author Sheila Kihne is upset with all Republicans who have had something to do with the Aspen institute, which she locates within the dreaded Axis of Soros:

Look, I've been saying this for a while now:  There are two types of Republicans:  Those who understand what the country is facing and what we're up against in terms of battling the left....and there are those who don't.  You shouldn't need to go to organizations directly connected to George Soros to figure these things out and I don't care how nice or free the trip.

Being one to make lists, Kihne constructs a list of Republican who have traveled on the Aspen Institute's dime, including two Minnesota Republicans--her own congressman, Erik Paulsen and former state representative Laura Brod--and some who have not, including Michele Bachmann.

A well-respected researcher within the conservative blogger community, Kihne employs a very direct methodology for her sleuthing. She uses the Aspen Institute's own search engine to find who among the local elephants has been naughty and who's been nice.

However, for identifying  Congressional trips paid by private entities, there's no better tool than Legistorm, a database of past and present elected member and staff info.

Using Legistorm, I was able to determine that there are additional Minnesota conservatives who are the second kind of Republicans Kihne identifies: the ones who, in her view, have gone to the wrong place to "figure things out."

Making a list from the database (Erik Paulsen's fellowship was granted in 2005 while he was Minnesota House Majority Leader  and  thus is not part of the Legistorm database, while Laura Brod was a fellow in 2006 while an Assistant Majority Leader), they are:

Currently serving Republicans:
John Kline (a trip to Turkey)

Former Congressional Republicans from Minnesota
Norm Coleman  (trips to Spain and Mexico)
Gil Gutknecht ( Queenstown MD)
Mark Kennedy (White Sulfur Springs WV)

And for fairness sake, a list of DFLers now serving or recently serving who traveled on the Aspen Institute's purse:

Former Congressional DFLers from Minnesota
Jim Oberstar  (lots of them-click on his name)
David Minge ( Queenstown MD)
Bill Luther ( Prague, White Sulfur Springs WV, St. Petersburg FL)

That's twice as many  Minnesota Republicans spinning on Aspen's Axis of Soros than DFLers--if we accept Kihne's definition.

It's not surprising that Representative Tim Walz, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Senator Al Franken don't show up on the list; records at Legistorm show no privately-funded member or staff travel at all  for them (a spokester for Walz's congressional office said the three-term DFLer maintains a no-privately-funded-travel ban for himself and his staff).

Other current and former members of the state's congressional delegation travel or have traveled in varying degrees on others' dimes. My congressman and his staff seem to spend a lot of time with groups related to farms, food, and pheasants (big rural district), while Michele Bachmann not surprisingly does a lot of travel on ideologically conservative dimes. Check out the rest at Legistorm.

Frankly, I'd like to see Congress and the state legislature put severe restrictions on all privately funded travel, if not ban it outright--and have everyone follow the self-imposed restraint that Walz and others practice. Just don't take it--from anyone.

For while I don't see Soros as the Bugaboo that Kihne does, the larger concern about private interest money corrupting public officials is a valid worry. However, in the era of the Citizens United decision and other revelations of the role big money plays in the lives of elected officials, I'm not particularly optimistic that much will change on the institutional level.

For now, we'll have to look for individual acts of integrity in elected officials who are willing to turn all offers of privately-funded travel down. Chip Cravaack has had to report travel yet; let's hope he joins Walz, Klobuchar and Franken in just saying no.

Disclosure: The Minnesota Independent, where one of my freelance pieces was posted today (a first for me), once recieved support for its national nonprofit from Soros' Open Society Institute, although the American Independent News Network no longer receives such funding, according to my editor.

SNL at Gruenhagen's town hall: MPCA would have compromised American effort in World War II

There's no stopping the reasoning powers of Representative Glenn Gruenhagen. Defying time (I'm not sure about space), he asserted at a recent town hall in Le Sueur:

Gruenhagen also resumed a campaign attack on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), alleging if Minnesota iron mines had to comply with MPCA standards during World War II, the war effort would have been compromised. “(MPCA regulations) are one of the most restrictive in the United States,” Gruenhagen said. “It makes it difficult for business to start or expand here.”

Well, sure, Glenn. Minnesota's Iron Range provided 75 percent of the iron used in the war effort.

And if the various war administration bureaucracies Roosevelt's government put into place hadn't rationed food, gasoline, and other commodities, while transforming much of the private manufacturing sector into the arsenal (and haberdashery and commissary) of democracy--while raising imposing and raising income taxes on nearly everybody--the war effort would have been compromised as well.

One might speculate that a state's environmental regulation would have stood in the way after all that mobilization. Right.

Or, one might consider this a real-life application of the logic employed in a classic  Saturday Night Live "What If?" sketch in which a panel of experts consider whether the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo would have changed had Napoleon had a B-52.

Gruenhagen joins Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Loraine Newman and Mitchell Laurance in the school of hilariously hypothetical and impossible history. Unlike the SNL crew though, Gruenhagen is arguing in good faith, however flimsy his choice of historical analogy might be.

This, in short, might the entire problem with Gruenhagen: good faith, bad brains.

Image: What if Napoleon Bonaparte ran against Glenn Gruenhagem on the Green Party ticket in 2012? How about Napoleon Dynamite? No?

Strong ties in SD18: a former aide, Republican activists and Scott Newman's social network

Did Senator Scott Newman understate the role of former legislative aid Kim Kelley in Senate District 18 Republican activism?

An analysis of the social network that weaves Newman and  local Republican activists together suggests that the Hutchinson state senator was being less than candid in his sworn testimony.

When State Senator Scott Newman was asked about his now-former legislative aide (LA) Kim Kelley, in the probable cause hearing conducted by the Senate ethics subcommittee last month, his answers made it seem like her serving as a staffer for the Senate Majority Caucus was a case of the strength of weak ties.

In the hearing last month, the senator leading the DFLers' questions was trying to establish why the aide might have assumed the authority she did; questions about the hiring and training of the aide, as well as how well Newman and the aide knew each other were raised in the hearing.  Those questions weren't answered.

Senator Newman stated for the record (and under oath) that he had maybe met Kim Kelley once, at a parade in Dassel, her hometown, that she had gone to Bethel, that she wasn't politically active as far as he knew. In this Uptake video archive of the subcommittee meeting, Newman asked about how he knows his assistant at the 1:36:43 and 1:46:18 marks in the video.

He hesitates as if he has little knowledge  of her life, and has to think before he remembers, counsel at his side.

The subcomittee found no probable cause to investigate an ethics complaint filed by four DFL Senators after Newman's aide sent an email to the Minnesota Nurses Association saying that the legislator wouldn't meet with members of groups that supported or contributed to his  opponent's campaign.

But a review of local Republican activists and of Scott Newman's social network on Facebook suggests a somewhat different story.

Kim (Danielson) Kelley: Republican activist

Serving as an alternate or delegate to a state convention is one standard operating definition of party activist.

According to the web site for a  local Republican BPOU, in 2010, the Meeker County GOP elected Kathy Danielson to be an alternate to the Seventh Congressional District and state Republican conventions, along with a Kim Danielson.

A Republican activist in Meeker County who wished to remain anonymous describes Kathy Danielson as an old-school  long-time Main Street Republican activist in Meeker County; Meeker County is part of Senate District 18. Another source who knows Danielson said that Kim Danielson is Kathy's daughter.

Online sources such as wedding registries and a church ministry blog note that Kim Danielson and Ben Kelley were married on August 7, 2010. Their respective Facebook pages say each attended Northwestern College in Roseville.

Facebook pictures show that Kim (Danielson) Kelley is indeed Kathy Danielson's daughter, as the young woman with her hand on Danielson's shoulder is the same Kim Kelley pictured in her husband's profile shot as well as her own.

Thus, while still Kim Danielson,  Kim (Danielson) Kelley was an activist in the Meeker County Republican Party, apparently caucusing there and attending the county convention, then representing the BPOU at the congressional and state conventions.

Perhaps Kim Kelley or Scott Newman didn't attend the same county convention, CD convention or state convention, and their paths never crossed.

The social network

There are other connections, however. The elder Danielson is a friend of Senator Newman's wife and other Republican activists in Senate District 18.

Unlike some of us, Senator Newman's wife Ginny isn't particularly social online. Following a pattern that's not unusual for rural women) she has friended only 38 people, mostly local people and family. As the screenshot to the right illustrated, her husband Scott is there, and  Lindsay Ramanathan, who was the contact person for at least one Scott Newman campaign event, according to the Hutchinson Leader.

Weighing in with another small network of 100 Facebook friends, Kathy Danielson lives across Dassel's Willis Street from former 7th CD Chair and Meeker County GOP Haapala.

Danielson is also a Facebook friend of Haapala and Lindsay Ramanathan. Haapala is a Facebook friend of Ben Kelley, Kim Kelley's spouse, and Ramanathan.

Haapala owns Computer Samurai, which most of the people in this network "like" and which supplied web hosting services to the Newman campaign. Like the Danielson, he was elected as an alternate to the CD7 and state Republican Conventions.

While Scott Newman isn't a Facebook friend of Kim Kelley and Kathy Danielson (and who would blame 1hem for unfriending each other if they indeed had ever been Facebook companions), theirs is a network of friends, family and neighbors, with Kelley's mother tying them together.

A late parade

It is possible that beyond attending Republican conventions on behalf of Meeker County'd Republican party, Kelley only participated in one parade, then found herself fortunate enough to be hired as a LA for the Senate District in which the county she is active in is part.

Did Scott Newman and Kim Kelley never cross paths at party meetings--despite mutual contacts and interests shared by their wife and mother respectively--and meet only at one of the very late parades in the Senate District's campaign circuit?

The parade in Dassel is part of Red Rooster Days, which occurs on Labor Day weekend, while the caucuses and conventions took place through February to late April. Scott Newman was endorsed in a separate senate district convention in Silver Lake.

It's possible. And as Senate personnel files are exempt from the Minnesota Data Practices act, an inquiry determined--it's not possible to learn whether the young woman who successfully applied for a position with the state senate mentioned knowing Senator Newman.

Because, pardner, Ol' T-Paw done grew up punchin' cows in South Sain' Paul

A Facebook friend wondered yesterday morning, "Anyone just hear Pawlenty on MPR?  Where did this new cowboy accent come from?"

At the Washington Post, Dana Milbank noticed the same thing in With Pawlenty's Iowa speech, a side of syrup:

But now Pawlenty is campaigning as if he's some sort of Southern preacher. At the Faith & Freedom event, he was dropping g's all over the place, using "ain't" instead of "isn't," and adding a syrup to his vowels not indigenous to Minnesota. He didn't utter the word "jobs," made only passing reference to economic woes, and instead gave the assembled religious conservatives a fiery speech about God, gays and gynecology.

There's a logical explanation.  When Tim Pawlenty grew up in South St. Paul, the stockyards were still going. Little Timmy probably slipped out of the house and his father's Teamster vernacular to punch a few cows and pick up the inflections of the High Plains drifters who herded Elsie through the streets to her fate.

It doesn't sound like he was talking to Minnesota farmers who raised the cattle, by golly.

Milbank notes that the problem for the GOP in 2012 might not be inflection, grammar, or diction, but content:

In 2010, Republicans harnessed anger at Obama for his perceived overreaching, particularly on health care. But that theme has been blunted: Now in power, Republicans such as Scott Walker have demonstrated that they are every bit as capable of overreach. Likewise, the Republicans' economic message is beginning to atrophy as private-sector job growth improves and the new House Republican majority struggles to focus on the economy.

Instead, the religious conservatives who dominate primaries are pulling Republicans back toward themes such as abortion and gay rights. The Tea Party is morphing from an economic movement into a conventional moral crusade.

Or as in the case of Minnesota, they might follow Glenn Gruenhagen's lead and mix it a bit, blaming both "sodomy" and, as I noted yesterday in Playing politics with pain: Glenn Gruenhagen blames Hutch Tech lay-off on taxes, taxes--in cases where manufacturing lines (set up during the administration of  a Democratic governor of a neighboring state or in Thailand) were the greatest factors influencing restructuring.

But why play straight with the facts?

Note: As someone who studied poesy at the University of Arkansas with some wonderful writers from North Carolina, Mississippi and Arkansas, I appreciate an authentic southern accent. But those of us from South St. Paul and Southern Minnesota have our own dulcet tones.

Photo: The last days of South St. Paul's Central Livestock Association in 2008. via the NYTimes.

"10x more awesome": facing loss of Badgercare, farmers to join workers' protests Saturday

The tractorade, a tool for agrarian protest developed by the American Agriculture Movement in 1979, is being revived in Wisconsin.

In ‘Tractorcade’ moves farmers into budget debate, the Wisconsin Farmers Union reports:

Farmers, many driving their tractors, will descend upon the Wisconsin Capitol Saturday to express concerns about the effects Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget repair bill and 2011-2013 biennium budget would have on rural Wisconsin.
 
The farmers will be part of the Farm Labor Tractorcade, hosted by Wisconsin Farmers Union and Family Farm Defenders. The rally on capitol square and at the capitol will include music and presentations by farmers speaking out against the governor’s proposals.
The event will start at noon.
 
“There’s plenty in the bills which, if they’re passed, would really hurt farmers and rural communities,” said Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden, a Westby-area dairy farmer. “Our members have been telling us they want their voices heard, so we’re giving them the forum for the governor and Legislature to get the message that there are problems with the bills.”
 
The budget repair bill would threaten BadgerCare, on which more than 11,000 state farm-family members depend for health insurance coverage, and would nearly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees. The biennial budget takes more than $800 million from public schools while allowing 0 percent levy increases without referendum -- which means small rural schools each would have to either increase farmers’ property taxes by hundreds of thousands of dollars or drastically cut programs. Shared revenue cuts to municipalities also would make it difficult for townships to offer services.
 
Organizers of Saturday’s event say those issues would greatly hurt family farmers and their rural communities. Just as important, efforts to cut public workers’ collective bargaining rights is an affront to the collective bargaining process, in which family farmers participate through cooperatives and pooling.

“Farmers need to stand behind workers and their freedom to collectively bargain,” said Family Farm Defenders vice president Joel Greeno, a Kendall-area dairy farmer. “All farmer cooperatives depend upon the same principle, so any attempt to take away that right needs to be challenged.  If you lower the bar for anyone, you ultimately lower it for everyone else. Just because farmers are going bankrupt due to unfair prices doesn’t mean workers should lose living wages, too. There is no way to repair the budget until we restore fairness to the whole economic system.”
 
“A lot of family farmers depend upon BadgerCare because they have no other insurance options,” said Tony Schultz, a member of WFU and FFD and an Athens-area community-supported agriculture farmer. “Many of our CSA customers also happen to be teachers, nurses, and other public workers so this backward proposal has a direct impact on our future livelihood.”
 
Von Ruden said the bills, which together would remove $1.25 billion from school and municipal aids, shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
 
“Many of these important programs were implemented by Tommy Thompson’s administration,” Von Ruden said. “He saw the importance of creating two-thirds state school funding and BadgerCare, which was backed by the Doyle administration. Gov. Walker keeps saying he’s giving schools and municipalities the tools to cut costs and somehow be able to operate better than they operate now. But the only tool we see the governor providing is a hammer to smash things.”
 
Farmers who take their tractors to the event will gather in a downtown Madison parking lot and drive their tractors to the capitol. Anyone interested in driving their tractor or providing a tractor for another farmer to drive should contact Greeno at (715) 463-7634.
 
Donations to help offset farmers’ expenses for taking their tractors to Madison are being accepted at http://www.razoo.com/story/Farmer-Labor-Tractorcade-Fund?1299566160.

There's even a Facebook page if you want to sign up. Boing-boing noted:

This has been a very weird event, by U.S. standards. We don't often have protest movements that sustain their momentum, at this level, over this long a period of time. Hell, one day is usually the maximum. So it's been interesting to me to see the Madison protests evolve. Up next, apparently, are theme protests. Next Saturday, March 12, starting at noon, it's farmer-labor day at the Wisconsin Capitol Building—with farmers from across the state set to bring a tractorcade of support to the protesters in Madison. Yes. A tractorcade. This just got 10x more awesome.

Farmer and labor alliances are nothing new for Midwest Unrest. North Dakota was home to the Non-Partisan League. In Minnesota, the Farmer-Labor  Federation, later the Farmer-Labor Association, united rural and urban citizens.

Photos: A flag-draped John Deere from the 1979 tractorcade (above); a Farmer-Labor Party campaign vehicle from 1925, via the MSHS (below).

Note: I'm active in the Minnesota Farmers Union.

Rep. Andrew Falk: Helpful resources for flood preparedness (and flood insurance)

As Bluestem noted yesterday in Flood worries spill out across state; overflow crowd greets Dayton in Montevideo, the western reaches of the Minnesota River Valley are expected to experience some of the worst flooding this spring.

It's not surprising, that Rep. Andrew Falk, who represents HD 20A on the river (Lyle Koenen, 20B, has Montevideo) sent out a press release about flood preparedness. It's importance for property owners to obtan flood insurance ASAP.

From Falk's office:

State Representative Andrew Falk today warned Western Minnesotans to prepare for spring flooding across the region.

“Minnesota’s state government has been preparing for various flooding scenarios,” said Falk, noting Governor Dayton and his administration have held meetings across the state. “I encourage residents in Western Minnesota to be prepared for the spring thaw and take action to protect their assets. If your property is at risk of flooding, I encourage you to look into a flood insurance policy immediately.”

Flood insurance policies are not activated until 30 days after the premium is paid in full.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce has prepared the following flood preparation tips in advance of flood season:

Is My Home or Business At Risk?
The best way to know if your home or business is at risk for flooding this spring is by logging on to www.floodsmart.gov. By inputting your address into the Flood Risk Profile, you can find out if your property is in a low, moderate, or high risk flood area. The Flood Risk Profile will also estimate your annual premium cost and suggest local insurance agents serving your area.

What Should I Do Next?
If you already have flood insurance for your home or business, contact your insurance agent to discuss your policy and ensure you are prepared for any possible flooding. Then, take a photo inventory of your building and its contents to properly document your assets. This will save you time and headaches after a flood. You can find out more about home inventory checklists on the Department of Commerce website.

If you do not have flood insurance, use the Flood Risk Profile to determine the threat of flooding in your area and identify local insurance agents who can help you purchase flood coverage.

When Should I Start Preparing?
It is important to act now, and take easy, affordable, preventive measures to avoid devastating losses in the upcoming flood season. Flood coverage doesn’t become active until 30 days after your premium is paid in full. It may be better to pay a few hundred dollars for an affordable flood policy now than pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages after it is too late. Remember, even if your property has never flooded before, 25 percent of all flood insurance claims are in areas where residents and business owners never expected a flood to occur.

Who Do I Contact With Questions?
You may call the Commerce Department consumer helpline with any questions you have regarding flood insurance at (651) 296-2488. You can also find more information about residential and commercial flood insurance on our website at www.commerce.state.mn.us.

 Photo: State Rep. Andrew Falk.

Playing politics with pain: Glenn Gruenhagen blames Hutch Tech lay-off on taxes

Update 3/16: While Minnesota Republicans carried on about how HTI's relocation of jobs could have been motivated by a two-year tax credit for businesses relocating to Wisconsin, that's probably not a motivating factor. According to this business source:

"No deduction or credit will be allowed if the person, partnership, limited liability company, or S Corporation has done business in Wisconsin during any of the two taxable years preceding the first taxable year in which the deduction or credit would otherwise be allowed." Since HTI's Eau Claire (above photo) has been open and operating for some time, this MNGOP talking point is clearly nonsense. [end update].

I live in Hutchinson, Minnesota, and so have followed the fortunes of a local company that manufactures suspension drives for computers. Put bluntly, the company's fading from the local scene mostly has to do with shifts in demand for the product, created by changing computer technology, as well as shifts in manufacturing offshore.

That hasn't eased the pain of the people I know who worked there--mostly parents of young friends around college age--who have been laid-off in the last few years from the non-union plant. Fortunately, most have been able to go back to school and switch careers.

Today's Star Tribune reports in Hutchinson Technology laying off hundreds:

Far fewer people will be working for Hutchinson Technology due to the Minnesota company's plan to restructure and move its components operations from Minnesota to its facility in Eau Claire, Wis., and overseas.

Hutchinson, based in its namesake city west of the Twin Cities, said Tuesday that it will cut its current U.S. workforce of about 2,275 by 30 to 40 percent. In Hutchinson, about 600 of the 1,125 jobs will be eliminated.

Leave it to Minnesota's Republicans to seize on a local small town's misery to tout Wisconsin, run by divisive fringe Governor Scott Walker, over Minnesota. My favorite new state House member, Glenn Gruenhagen wrote in an email that went out today:

This is how a stable, low-tax and pro-growth business climate at the federal level can generate revenue for Minnesota. But there is still vast room for improvement at the state level and we continue losing jobs to neighboring states. We recently learned a prominent Hutchinson company will shift its manufacturing operations to Wisconsin at a savings of $45 to $60 million annually. Our tax climate remains among the most unfriendly in the country and Gov. Dayton’s plans to raise taxes would put us at a further disadvantage.

You reach a point of diminishing returns when tax increases push our job creators out of the state, cutting off revenue streams we need for sustainability and a strong economy. Our neighbors – including Wisconsin – recognize this and declare themselves “open for business” instead of strangling the goose that lays our golden eggs.

Is Minnesota's tax climate the reason to blame for HTI's shift in production? Or is Gruenhagen simply demogoguing the pain that workers will be feeling in nearby Hutchinson (Gruenhagen lives in Sibley County, but sells insurance in McLeod County's seat, Glencoe).

A curious closing in South Dakota

Posted on the company's website, the press release announcing the restructuring notes:

Fortun said that improvements in TSA+ yield and output and being ahead of plan with the ramp of its assembly operation in Thailand have provided an opportunity to further lower the company's operating costs. "With a faster than expected transition from our legacy TSA component manufacturing process to our more automated TSA+ process, we need fewer employees to meet customers' volume requirements," said Fortun. "Additionally, progress at our Thailand assembly operation is enabling us to accelerate the transition of assembly manufacturing to that location. The continued transition of TSA to TSA+ and the continued ramp of our Thailand operation, combined with the savings from our consolidation and restructuring, will improve the utilization of our high-volume manufacturing locations and support infrastructure and help us return to positive cash flow and profitability sooner."

And where are those TSA+ components made? The Hutchinson Leader reports in Hutchinson Technology to end manufacturing in Hutchinson:

The decision to consolidate manufacturing in Eau Claire was made because the plant there is better equipped and has the capacity for the production of TSA+, the company's newest line of suspension assemblies.

TSA+ suspension assemblies, which accounted for about 45 percent of the company's fiscal 2011 first quarter shipments, are expected to account for more than half of the company's fiscal 2011 second quarter shipments and two-thirds of its shipments by year end.

Fortun said improvements in TSA+ yield and output and being ahead of plan with the ramp of its assembly operation in Thailand have provided an opportunity to further lower the company's operating costs.

"With a faster than expected transition from our legacy TSA component manufacturing process to our more automated TSA+ process, we need fewer employees to meet customers' volume requirements," Fortun said.

In 2009, the company announced it was resuming plans to build a plant in Thailand, according to news reports in July 2009:

HTI shipped 146 million suspension assemblies in the quarter and about 10 million TSA+ suspension assemblies, a next-generation product made in Eau Claire.

Company officials said sales of TSA+ suspension assemblies have the potential to double in the fourth quarter. HTI also resumed plans to establish an assembly operation in Thailand, which could be operational by the second half of next year.

In April 2009, the local paper in Eau Claire reported:

"Our TSA+ manufacturing processes are critical to providing next-generation suspension assembly products that meet customers' requirements for superior performance and lower costs,"  Pautz added. "High-volume TSA+ production is done in Eau Claire. That team is doing a great job in meeting increased demand, while at the same time continually improving the process.

In 2009, Democrat Jim Doyle was in his second term as governor; Democrats had taken control of the State Assembly with the 2008 elections, while retaining control of the State Senate. Under Republican logic, one would think that Hutch Tech jobs would have flowed to South Dakota. 

And indeed, Hutch Tech did open a plant in South Dakota in 1988, and company co-founder Jeff Green made waves at the time by criticizing Minnesota's business climate. Employment peaked at that plant in 1999, but declined after that time ( Rob Swenson, "Hutchinson Plays Smaller, Vital Role", Argus Leader, September 17, 2008, Nexis, accessed 3/8/2011).

But Hutch Tech closed that Sioux Falls plant in January 2009. 

It moved equipment and a few hundred jobs to Hutchinson and Eau Claire.

There's nothing in the current reportage to suggest that taxation is causing the consolidation to Eau Claire, nor the placement of the TSA+ lines in Wisconsin during the Doyle years.

And this company's leadership isn't shy. Were today's decision made because of the sudden shift in Republican talking point about business climates in Wisconson and Minnesota, we'd have head about it. Instead, the restructuring follows siting decisions made some time ago.

Offshoring of manufacturing

And then there's the shift to offshore manufacturing. In a related blog post at the Strib, business writer Eric Wieffering writes in Hutch Tech: Too little, too late?:

To some degree, the people of Hutchinson have been bracing for this moment ever since their namesake company's fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse almost three years ago. The company has shed about 2,000 jobs since then. Still, the impact of the latest cuts is hard to overstate: the elimination of up to 40 percent of all jobs, including nearly half in Hutchinson.)

(One measure of how depressingly familiar this type of news has become for Hutch Tech: The quote that accompanied today's news is, word-for-word, the same as the one the company issued in '09, when it shut its South Dakota facility and laid off 300 employees. The only difference was the executive whose mouth the words were attached to.) [BSP: and the state in which the plant was located]

A year ago, Hutch announced plans to build its first overseas production facility, in Thailand. The company is banking on that facility to help claw its way back to profitability, but given that many of its competitors moved manufacturing to Asia a decade ago or more, did Hutch wait too long?

Details, details. Why would Glenn Gruenhagen look at facts when he can use his neighbors' misery to flog Governor Dayton?  Why let facilities and global trends get to the way of a chance to punish a DFLer?

Images: Hutch Tech, Eau Claire (above); Screenshot of Representative Glenn Gruenhagen's email (below)