n Tuesday’s Daily Globe, area state legislators Rod Hamilton and Joe Schomacker did their best to highlight positive attributes of the new two-year Minnesota budget. Hamilton and Schomacker each lamented the government shutdown that preceded the budget deal, but also praised government reforms that resulted.
Also Tuesday, a letter authored by Worthington Mayor (and Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities Vice President) Alan Oberloh sharply criticized the budget agreement. “Any high school class from Worthington, Willmar or Wadena would have produced a far better budget for Minnesota property taxpayers and their communities,” Oberloh wrote.
We won’t go quite that far with our assessment of the new budget deal, but that doesn’t mean our electeds did the best they could for us. Not only did the nearly shutdown cost people — and the state — untold dollars, but the fix that ultimately resulted — delay school payments and borrow from the tobacco settlement — simply puts off a significant financial problem until later.
Hamilton and Schomacker want people to believe there were some significant accomplishments in this past session. What’s more significant is what wasn’t accomplished. [emphasis added]
Earlier this week (Daily Globe, July 26), Rep. Rod Hamilton gave us his spin on the recent budget compromise that ended the state government shutdown. The letter was short on facts and long on hyperbole and misdirection. I had hoped for better.
Rep. Hamilton touted the “meaningful reform” in the budget bill that will “save Minnesotans billions of dollars in the future.” Well, the facts are the budget relies heavily on borrowing that will cost us billions.
The budget plan forced on the state by the impasse between Gov. Dayton’s balanced approach of long-term cost cuts and targeted tax increases. Hamilton’s short-term planning approach of no taxes, no matter what, will cost Minnesotans billions in the future. Bill Marx, the fiscal analyst for the Minnesota House of Representatives, says GOP borrowing against the future will cost taxpayers between 150 percent and 200 percent of the money borrowed. This means the planned $640 million tobacco bond will cost us $1 to $1.3 billion.
If this is Rep. Hamilton’s idea of reform, it is a reform we could live without.
I was shocked to read Rod Hamilton’s letter in your paper, especially the part where he says that $3 billion was cut from the state budget. He went on to claim credit for trimming the budget to just over $34 billion. I am sure Mr. Hamilton is aware that the budget includes $35.7 billion dollars in spending. In my book, $1.7 billion is quite a bit more that “just a bit over.”
When will Rod Hamilton own up the truth about this budget? It’s flat wrong for Minnesota, and if Rep. Hamilton has any business sense he knows that.
If Rod Hamilton is serious about trimming the state budget with “meaningful reforms,” he would offer to cut the cost of state government by cutting his wages. After all, the public got very little for the money we spent on our legislature.
Uffda. However, Hamilton has won his last two races by taking 60 percent or more of the vote, although in 2006, the margin was much tighter, with Hamilton taking 7713 (51.51 percent) to Richard Peterson's 7249 (48.41 percent). With redistricting up in the air, it's difficult to say with certainity that this will remain entirely a safe Republican seat.
Photo: Rep, Rod Hamilton, now getting chastized by Worthingtonians.
Last spring, Representative Rod Hamilton and Senator Doug Magnus introduced so-called "ag gag" bills in their respective chambers that would criminalize photographing, videotaping or audiotaping livestock and farm fields as well as the possession and distribution of these images and sounds.
Needless to say, this kind of flies in the face of First Amendment law as most people understand it. The bill has been widely ridiculed in the press, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has deemed the bill unconstitutional.
So maybe it's no surprise that the authors of the bill, Rep. Rod Hamilton and Sen. Doug Magnus, wouldn't speak to City Pages to defend their hideous and unloved offspring.
Months later looks as if Representative Rod Hamilton is still a bit sensitive about his bill, but at least now he's willing to misrepresent its contents in southwest Minnesota's biggest daily.
The allegations leveled in a recent letter authored by Jerry Giefer couldn’t be further from the truth.
Mr. Giefer believes animal abuse may (may being the key word here) be happening on our farms, and is upset with a bill I’ve sponsored that would prevent people from tampering at an animal facility.
Producers care for their animals and most have animal welfare policy statements, a thorough training and audit plan in place to address animal abuse and neglect. If a person then chooses to violate the policy and abuse an animal, then that person will be dealt with accordingly.
The problem with a person secretly coming onto a farm and capturing video of an alleged abuser is twofold. One, they break bio-security protocols, which jeopardizes the safety of our nation’s food supply. Secondly, they are just as guilty of animal abuse and neglect, because they do not immediately report the abuse. I think the person who records it and does nothing should be prosecuted along with the abuser. [emphasis added]
This bill protects the safety of the animal and the consumer. . . .
This is a most curious defense of his legislation on Hamilton's part since he mentions "tampering." The Giefer letter objected to a section of the bill with the title "Animal Facility Interference," not the language in the bill addressing tampering.
Here's the relevant language about visual and audio recordings from HF 136:
ANIMAL FACILITY INTERFERENCE. 4.28Subdivision 1.Prohibited acts.A person who acts without the consent of the 4.29owner of an animal facility to willfully do any of the following is guilty of animal facility 4.30interference: 4.31(1) produce a record which reproduces an image or sound occurring at the animal 4.32facility if: 4.33(i) the record is created by the person while at the animal facility; and 4.34(ii) the record is a reproduction of a visual or audio experience occurring at the 4.35animal facility, including but not limited to a photographic or audio medium; 5.1(2) possess or distribute a record which produces an image or sound occurring at the 5.2animal facility which was produced as provided in clause (1); 5.3(3) exercise control over the animal facility including an animal maintained at the 5.4animal facility or other property kept at the animal facility, with intent to deprive the 5.5animal facility of the animal or property; and 5.6(4) enter onto the animal facility, or remain at the animal facility, if the person has 5.7notice that the facility is not open to the public. A person has notice that an animal facility 5.8is not open to the public if the person is provided notice before entering onto the facility, 5.9or the person refuses to immediately leave the facility after being instructed to leave. The 5.10notice may be in the form of a written or verbal communication by the owner, a fence 5.11or other enclosure designed to exclude intruders or contain animals, or a sign posted 5.12that is reasonably likely to come to the attention of an intruder and which indicates that 5.13entry is forbidden.
There's nothing in his bill that exempts those who tape abuse in order to provide evidence of the crime to law enforcement. Anyone wishing to record animal abuse and neglect to turn in an abuser is just as guilty under the proposed language as the demented person who'd videotape these horrors for later private jollies.
Had Hamilton wanted to exempt whistleblowers, he could have done so. He did not. The City Pages looked into the controversy more in Daryn McBeth, agribiz lobbyist: People who photograph farms should be felons. And while McBeth mentions the bio-security concern, that appear to be a secondary issue to this:
Daryn McBeth, the council's president, told City Pages the bill is necessary because existing laws just don't seem to be adequate to keep pictures of what goes on at farms from reaching the public.
"Minnesota has trespassing laws, but that's proving not to be a strong enough deterrent," McBeth said.
Besides, trespassing laws don't do anything to protect against farm workers who take pictures of their own farm's operations. . . .
It's an anti-whistleblower bill along with an anti-trespass and tampering bill.
There's also a section in the bill prohibiting video and audio taping crops, or "crop operation interference" but apparently both Giefer and Hamilton are much less worried about field corn and soybean abuse and neglect.
Bluestem doesn't know of a state statute that makes torturing barley a crime, although the county weed inspectors are seriously on the look out for the sort of neglect that breeds thistles. Nor is it clear why taking photos of cornfields should be a felony.
On Wednesday, Daryl McBeth will be on a Farmfest panel considering "Finding A Common Message for Agriculture," so perhaps someone could ask him what was up about criminalizing alfalfa photo albums.
Back in April, Rep. Rod Hamilton and Sen. Doug Magnus authored/introduced two bills: (S.F. 1118/HF 1369) that would have criminalized anyone who blows the whistle on animal cruelty, food and worker safety, labor abuses, and environmental crimes etc. These two Republicans were trying to make it a crime to videotape the appalling conditions and abuses that may exist on Minnesota farms and factories.
How is this going to protect us from E.coli- or salmonella-tainted food products? What is happening on these farms that they don’t want you to see? Why is their number-one priority elevating the corporate farm industry above the law, thus guaranteeing them special protections? Shouldn’t their top priority be the protection of workers and consumer safety?
This shouldn’t surprise anyone, since they both list their occupation as farmers. They’re just looking out for themselves at the expense of the majority of their constituents. The people of southwest Minnesota better wake up. The people you elected as your representative/senator are robbing you of your rights as citizens of Minnesota. . . .
Giefer is assuming that conditions are appalling, and frankly, pointing out that Hamilton and Magnus are engaged in agriculture is something of an ad hominem attack. A more recent letter on the bill underscores why.
A conservative farm woman: ethical producers have nothing to hide
In Jerry Giefer’s July 26 letter to the editor, he commented on Rep. Rod Hamilton and Sen. Doug Magnus supporting bills that would-have made it a crime for anyone to videotape conditions on farms and in factories. I generally agree with Republicans on social issues and on budget issues. We need to quit spending more money then we are bringing in in revenue. There should be no new taxes and no increase in tax rates. The only way we should be bringing in more tax revenue should be by people and companies earning more, thus paying tax on more earnings.
However, I did not agree with these bills on videotaping, and my husband and I are also farmers who raise beef when it is profitable. I believe that if you are raising and slaughtering livestock in an ethical manner (which everyone should be), you should have nothing to hide from anyone videotaping your operation. . . .
According to projections by non-partisan state House legislative staff, the budget deal could lead to property tax increases of 4.6 percent statewide. Communities outside the Twin Cities would see the biggest jump, about 6 percent on average. Metro area taxes would rise about 4 percent.
Cities in south central Minnesota could see the biggest increase, about 7.3 percent. Property taxes in the Iron Range and Duluth are projected to rise 7.2 percent, while in east central and southeast Minnesota the hike will be just under 7 percent. . . .
Steil cites suburban Republican leigslators who disagree with the nonpartisan staff, but in looking at local reports around the state, Bluestem thinks the legislative staff might be on to something. And if no property tax shifts are coming, then there's belt tighten for the already slender.
The state of Minnesota is beginning to function again following a 20-day government shutdown that was resolved last week when Gov. Mark Dayton signed into law a number of bills passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The new biennial budget has been widely criticized by DFL legislators and the Independence Party of Minnesota as once again deferring rather than solving the chronic state budget deficit.
That perspective seems to be shared by city and school officials here. The American-News asked Montevideo City Manager Steve Jones and Montevideo Superintendent of Schools Luther Heller for their reactions to the budget.
City of Montevideo “The main impact on the city for 2011 is that we have to cut $326,000 from our existing 2011 budget,” wrote Jones in an e-mail. “Staff has sat down this week and has a plan in place. . . .
What does that mean in concrete terms?
“We cut funds for items such as plow trucks, mowers, heavy equipment, police cars, park improvements, park maintenance, trees, computer equipment and building repairs and upgrades,” he wrote.
The city will face a similar revenue shortfall in 2012, according to Jones.
“For 2012 we will also have $326,000 less than anticipated, so the capital improvement fund will continue to be underfunded for future equipment, replacement and repair needs. Very little, if any part-time summer help will be hired, and except for needed maintenance projects, upgrades and major repairs could be delayed.
“Our real fear is for 2013 and beyond. Because the state chose to delay real reform, we will go through this same scenario in 18 months, and we will be weaker and less financially able to weather the storm in 2013 than if they had made all the necessary changes now.”
The ever-changing local government aid and market value credit are changing once again.
City Finance Officer Lou Guzek told council members to plan on only getting the amount for LGA that the city received in 2010, about $550,000, even though it is slated to receive $690,500 in 2012.
Guzek said if the city should happen to get the full amount promised by the state, he recommends the unbudgeted $140,000 be put into the debt service fund.
“I’d take the conservative approach and budget with the $550,000,” he said.
For market value credit, in 2011, cities will receive what they did in 2010, and next year “it disappears as a payment to the cities,” Guzek said.
The city budgeted for $202,000 in MVC in 2011.
For 2011, the city levied about $3.4 million in taxes. That came half from residential and half from commercial or “other” properties.
But with recent changes in market value, if the city levies for $3.4 million again next year, commercial properties will feel the squeeze much more than homeowners.
Homeowners won’t see much of an increase at all, but commercial property will see about a 12 percent hike in city taxes.
Guzek said that cities without LGA will also be without MVC, so it doesn’t affect the larger metro cities that already don’t receive LGA.
“We’re out fighting this battle by ourselves,” he said. . . .
We know the state is in a tight financial bind, but this is just plain bad tax policy that could really hurt greater Minnesota, and especially businesses in greater Minnesota — and the jobs they provide.
Rural Minnesota lawmakers should push for a change to this stink bomb of a tax law when the Legislature meets again next year: Property taxes are already a major concern of small business owners, and this change just makes it worse.
The passage of the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was the defining moment of the final days of Minnesota’s 2011 legislative session, and the first modern Republican-controlled Legislature is gearing up to bypass DFL Gov. Mark Dayton’s signature again next year and add a few more to the 2012 ballot.
After a gubernatorial veto last session, a move to put voter photo identification on the ballot is already afoot. And during internal caucus negotiations on the special session budget deal, a group of hard-line House Republicans exacted a promise from leadership to pass an amendment to require a legislative “super-majority” to raise taxes in exchange for their budget votes. In addition, GOP Capitol hands say there are eager talks about throwing a right-to-work amendment into the mix.
Perhaps those distractions will prompt rural Minnesotans to pay no attention to those job-killing property tax hikes.
As a woman of a certain age--far closer to Bachmann's age than that of my friend--my first thought upon hearing this news earlier in the week was "Here we going again" with focusing in on candidates' appearance rather than their substance.
Not just the ladies
While it's a greater issue for women running for office--witness the snark about Hilary Clinton, Margaret Anderson Kelliher and, more recently, Amy Koch--pretty isn't just a problem for political ladies in a pop-driven culture.
Case in point: the 2006 congressional race in Southern Minnesota. I started Bluestem Prairie five years ago this month as a blog focused on the Tim Walz-Gil Gutknecht race, and one source of fodder in those early days was the traditional media's unshakeable belief in the power of Gil Gutknecht's perfect hair. So firm was this conviction that only one Twin Cities television station even bothered to dispatch a camera crew to Mankato to cover what turned out to be one of the nation's biggest surprise upsets.
Since then, Walz has shed more hair while picking up a couple more terms.
A more recent example of gazing on male beauty in Minnesota politics is the attention given to Bachmann running buddy, aging toxic metal preacher Bradlee Dean (Bradley Dean Smith); the homophobic fashion victim cries about the injury here. Let's face it: as someone who works his image for the Lord, he could use a haircut and Marcus Bachmann's help in a fashion makeover. Rachel Maddow and the gay agenda got nothing on middle-age itself as far as putting Mr. Smith's public persona in a bad light.
My second thought on the news: Hell yes, girl. Lookin' good! (except for the crazy eyes).
Brand Bachmann: the beauty of frugal
But in the long run, the expense of keeping up appearances undercuts the ethos Bachmann has set for herself in her current brand position. Not only has she talked up fiscal conservationism while running down dirty hippies and the gay, but she's branded herself to her base as the frugal right-wing Mother Courage who clips coupons and wears second-hand clothes.
Far from distancing herself from the topic as frivolous, Bachmann reveled in the invitation to describe a style that's determinedly feminine.
Over the past several years, her look has provided fodder for radio hosts, gossip columnists and bloggers. Some naysayers try to diminish her with descriptions such as "sexy" or "hot," while one simpatico site good-naturedly swooned over her as "Senator Eye Candy."
Doesn't bother her. Election night's foray into full-tilt glamor was ordained when she emerged from the dressing room to a "Wow," in unison, from campaign spokeswoman Connie Slama and a girlfriend. When Bachmann, in her victory speech, vowed to "hit the ground running, even in high heels," it was no empty promise.
But those articles always pitched an image of a bargain-shopping beauty, and Bachmann incorporated cheap chic into appeals to her base.
For Brand Bachmann has sold itself not only as fiscally prudent in policy, but as one in the woman's personal life as well. In an April 2010 Tea Party speech reported by Fox News in Tea for Two: Partiers Bask in the Glow of Palin and Bachmann, she said:
"I am the chief coupon-clipper at our house," she told a cheering crowd of 200 conservative activists outside the Minnesota state capitol. "Whoever balances the checkbook knows we gotta bring in at least a little bit more than what you put out."
Bachmann went on to say that she and her husband, parents of five biological children (the same number as the Palins) as well as 23 foster children, "always bought used cars" and "clothes in consignment stores."
"We've lived like all of you live because we balance the checkbook," she boomed.
Perhaps the spotlight and nonstop scrutiny of the presidential campaign have convinced Bachmann of the need for pricey stylists. But will Bachmann's $4,700 bill hurt her in the eyes of the fiscal conservative[s] who've taken to heart her message on spare spending?
This affront to her own carefully constructed ethos comes in the same week as couple of other headlines that would send a corporate marketing campaign scurrying back into the office on a lovely summer weekend like this. AP reporter Brian Bakst's Spouse standard shifts for Bachmann is one:
Republican Michele Bachmann says scrutiny of her husband is out of bounds as she seeks the Republican presidential nomination. But her rules have changed since she attacked Democrat Barack Obama over comments his wife made three years ago.
Then there's the even more curious headline in yesterday's Rochester Post Bulletin,Bachmann trying to broaden her appeal, in which we're seeing this sort of thing:
Bachmann is clearly trying to make the leap from cable TV grenade-thrower. Although still defiantly opposing a hike in the nation's debt ceiling, she is otherwise toning down her rhetoric — when discussing her anti-abortion views, she paused to say she didn't mean to condemn women who have had an abortion. She made similar conciliatory remarks about Muslims and China, two targets this year of GOP campaigns.
And her campaign, too, is trying to convey the image of general election juggernaut rather than understaffed primary campaign. Her events tend to be lush — expensive and well-produced with professional lights and sound. They are also tightly managed: In Muscatine, a staffer kicked out a supporter of Texas Rep. Ron Paul who was subtly handing out a flier comparing their congressional records. . . .
It's not so much a question of personal integrity here as brand integrity--and repositioning. Can Brand Bachmann--which once co-starred at a 2009 libertarian student rally at the U with Representative Paul--gain a greater market share in time to capture the 2012 Republican presidential nomination? Or will sales slump as Brand Bachmann moves out of its secure place in its current niche? And as the national Republican marketing teams--which heretofore have touted this product--drop the line?
Photo: There's a whole lot of repositioning going on since Politico published this snapshot of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul in Iowa in March.
Former State Senator Dan Skogen announced this week that he will be seeking the DFL endorsement for the Minnesota Senate next spring. Skogen served four years in the state senate beginning in 2007, as the senator from District 10, which included all of Otter Tail and Wadena counties, and part of Becker County. While in the senate Skogen served on the Education, Agriculture, Veterans, Commerce, and Environment committees.
“I enjoyed my time in the Senate.” said Skogen, “especially the work on constituent issues.”
A radio sports broadcaster, Skogen defeated veteran lawmaker Cal Larson in 2006 by a 55.23 percent to 44.71 percent spread. Four years later, the margin flipped against him, with Gretchen Hoffman taking 54.79 percent of the votes to his 45.12 percent.
In Minnesota, state senators serve four year terms, except at the begin of each decade, when redistricting is cause for a two-year term. Will redistricting help Hoffman or Skogen? Stay tuned.
How did Kurt Zellers' whip his caucus to vote for a $35.6 billion budget, despite many members' pledge to spend "not a penny" more than $34 billion?
By promising guys like Ernie Leidiger--best known outside his district as the guy who invited homophobic preacher Bradlee Dean to pray in the Minnesota House of Representatives--that a "conservative slant" will rule next year's legislative agenda.
Since the end of the state shutdown, [freshman Representative Ernie] Leidiger has come under more scrutiny for telling his constituents that he would vote against the budget bills because they would increase state spending.
However, the vote tally shows Leidiger voted for the bills, with the exception of the bonding bill.
In the aftermath, Leidiger claimed in an e-mail to the newspaper that he and 15 other conservative GOP House members indeed planned to vote against the budget bills until Republican leaders promised them a conservative slant on next session's agenda.
"The conservatives stayed together and were assured conservative policies would prevail in the future," he said.
The Legislature is adjourned until Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012.
Leidiger was one of only 16 representatives to vote no on the bonding bill. Most Republicans, including Chaska’s Rep. Joe Hoppe and Chanhassen’s Sen. Julianne Ortman, recognized the value of this bill and voted in favor of it.
Since Bradlee Dean's "ministry" operates out of Annandale, he's a homie of sorts for those of us fortunate to live in sunny Senate District 18. Out here, we've had our time on the cross with Dean and have learned there's more than enough to share.
Aiming for his latest round of fifteen minute fame, Dean's riding on Michele Bachmann's presidential coattails by linking his $50 million lawsuit against Rachel Maddow and Andy Birkey with a nefarious gay plot to destroy Michele Bachmann's higher ambitions.
Bradlee Dean's lawyer, Larry Klayman, is quite the character.
Really. As in, there's actually a character in the show West Wing based off of him named Harry Klaypool. Klayman is also the founder of Freedom Watch, might have been the inspiration for the Tea Party, and claims to know Michele Bachmann "very well."
He's also the guy who sued Facebook for more than $1 billion earlier this year. And, according to state records, his license is currently on "administrative suspension" in Pennsylvania. In 2009, Klayman released a book called "Whores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment."
Wow! If you didn't think Michele Bachmann's favorite, heavy metal, tracksuit pastor could get more wacky, Bradlee Dean went on right-wing, conspiracy maven Alex Jones' show (they share the same podcast/radio network with Bachmann pal Jason Lewis) resulting in the one of the most hilarious wack-job gab-fests ever.... the money quote:
Alex Jones: "All over the country it is a fact, and I wouldn't want heterosexuals recruiting seven-year-olds, they target children and I can't even say on the radio what's been for twenty years taught, but they teach people sexual acts that can kill you. We are talking about... well, fisting, ladies and gentleman. Things like that are taught to seven-year-olds."
Radio minister and former rocker Bradlee Dean canceled his appearance with SiriusXM’s Michelangelo Signorile yesterday afternoon (claiming that he was overwhelmed with “interview requests”), but felt well enough to appear on Alex Jones’ show to discuss his lawsuit against MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and the Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey. Dean alleges that Maddow and Birkey defamed him and his ministry when they suggested that he wants to kill homosexuals and ignored a “very clear disclaimer” on his website saying that he does not endorse such action.
In his appearance on Jones’ show, Dean doubled down on his long record of anti-gay rhetoric, claiming that his lawsuit aimed at “protecting the young in public high schools” from homosexual indoctrination and agreeing with Jones that gay people teach fisting to young children. . .
Perez Hilton finds Maddow guilty of raised eyebrows, but little else.
Closer to home in nearby Carver County, Bradlee Dean's name turns up in the Chaska Herald's review of Minnesota's 2011 legislative session, Legislators share viewpoints on 2011 marathon:
The 2010 election brought many new faces into the Legislature, one of them a staunchly conservative Republican from Mayer named Ernie Leidiger, who filled the House seat vacated by Paul Kohls, a Victoria Republican who retired from the House following his failed bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010.
Leidiger made headlines this session, not so much for the legislation he authored but because he invited a controversial talk radio preacher from Minneapolis to lead prayer on the House floor. The preacher, named Bradlee Dean, suggested that President Barack Obama doesn't believe in Jesus Christ, and in the past Dean has reportedly equated homosexuals with predators and molesters.
Leidiger later said the reason he invited Dean was because of Dean's advocacy for Constitutional education in public schools, and he said he was unaware of his radical anti-gay views. . . .
And that's the news from Onion County, Minnesota, where women are uncertain, men inappropriately attired, and Bluestem sends the stuff it couldn't possibly make up.
Photos: Bradlee Dean's sartorial splendor at his NYC press conference (photo by Nick Pinto via City Pages).
From the way Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is carrying about scrutiny of her husband Marcus, the American public might think she believes political spouses are off limits during campaigns.
And that Marcus Bachmann is merely a humble partner wearing a respectable Republican cloth coat, and Michele could always tell he would look good in anything.
But Bachmann's history of criticizing Michele Obama--and her husband's own claims to being a strategist in her public life--don't let her evasions pass a smell test.
Michele Bachmann isn't happy with the attention her husband, Marcus Bachmann, has been getting in the press lately over allegations his clinic practices gay conversion therapy. In fact, she thinks he should be kept out of the campaign entirely.
"I am extremely proud of my husband, I have tremendous respect for for him," Bachmann said at a luncheon in DC on Thursday. "I am running for the presidency of the United States. My husband is not running for the presidency. Neither are my children, neither is our business, neither are our foster children."
But Bachmann has a very different take when it comes to other candidates' spouses: She's repeatedly attacked Michelle Obama in the harshest terms and specifically challenged the press to join in on her condemnations.
But Bluestem thinks there's another problem: statements by Marcus Bachmann himself about his role in the campaign. Back in March, when the Bachmann family took its first exploratory trip to New Hampshire, Marcus Bachmann told Star Tribune political reporter Kevin Diaz:
Bachmann's closest aides say that until now, the three-term congresswoman's kitchen cabinet has consisted mostly of her family.
"The only person she talks to as an insider is her husband, Marcus, who's a wonderful man, and her son Lucas," said former Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey, who served as Bachmann's chief of staff last year. "That's really her brain trust."
"Yes, I'm her strategist," said Marcus Bachmann, a Christian therapist, as he dashed into Calef's.
Lucas Bachmann, 28, also acknowledged a role, calling himself a William F. Buckley libertarian conservative. . . .
Bachmann has had difficulty holding on to senior Congressional and campaign staff during her four and a half years on Capitol Hill, a problem that could easily persist in the pressure cooker of a White House bid. However, Bachmann’s inner circle of political advisers has remained constant — a fact often overshadowed by her Congressional staff turnover — and she does boast close relationships with Republican operatives who have presidential campaign experience.
Bachmann’s most trusted advisers include media strategist Ed Brookover; Chief of Staff Andy Parrish, a former campaign aide; fundraising consultant Guy Short; and her husband, Marcus Bachmann, a marriage and family therapist.
. . .Rollins told The Hill that he’ll be working exclusively for Bachmann as she mulls a longshot bid for the GOP nomination. “It’s totally premature to say I’m running it or not running it,” he said of her campaign.
Bachmann’s chief of staff in her congressional office, Andy Parrish, recently joined her campaign team as a top advisor. Her husband, Marcus Bachmann, is also expected to play a key role in the campaign.
There are more examples--and no instances of the Bachmann campaign crying foul over the description of Marcus Bachmann being described as a political insider and strategist on the campaign.
Now that Congresswoman Bachmann has pulled him off the campaign bus, will Marcus be staying home and minding the family business?
Or, given that Pawlenty's staffers and strategists are up for scrutiny (ask Nick Ayers) will Marcus receive more scrutiny if he stays on as a campaign strategist?
Photo: Michele Bachmann and self-proclaimed strategist Marcus Bachmann. For some awesome meanness, Mean And I Do Mean Mean check out Tild's interpretation of the respectable Republican cloth coat.
While a high-profile lawsuit and DOJ investigation of bullying in a suburban school are drawing headlines like the Strib's Anoka-Hennepin sued over bullying, community anti-bullying organizing is gaining steam in southern Minnesota, the Austin Herald and the Austin edition of the Post-Bulletin report.
The Herald began covering anti-bullying efforts by the schools last October in Schools aim to be proactive to stop bullying. In February, the paper published AHS takes serious look at bullying which detailed a visit by anti-bullying advocate Jamie Nabozny, whose lawsuit against the Ashland, WI, district "was the first time a court found schools have a responsibility to protect students from anti-gay slurs and abuse."
While community organizers acknowledge Austin’s efforts to combat bullying, parents are saying it isn’t enough. One of the measures the community group wants is more volunteers working as playground supervisors, from about two helpers to 10 per recess. They also want stricter punishments for younger bullies and monthly bullying lessons taught in the classroom.
“I don’t want Austin to have a child hurt themselves or commit suicide because of bullying,” Borgerson-Nesvold said.
Board members agree the issue is serious, but some of them wondered how effective teachers could be in stopping bullying for fear of reproachment or lawsuit.
The community group will start a community-wide campaign within the next month or so, hoping to spread the word across town to stamp out bullying. . . .
A parent group, started by Danielle Borgerson-Nesvold, is growing and hoping to start a community-wide campaign targeting bullies who take their antics off school property.
Even the Austin Police Department is getting in on the initiative, with officers organizing a group of high schoolers to work with elementary school students, giving presentations and teaching about ways to stop bullying.
“I’m very excited,” said Mark Walski, AHS liaison officer. “Hearing adults tell you what’s wrong and right is a lot different than when peers are doing it.”
. . .Walski said while dealing with bullying is something he has to do if it becomes a criminal matter, cases of bullying hadn’t noticeably increased. He chalks up the current anti-bullying efforts to an increased awareness in parents and staff.
“I’ve been very impressed at how (AHS) has dealt with bullying,” Walski said.
The organizers who started an anti-bullying campaign are getting a lot more support.
The Community Against Bullying committee is ramping up fundraising efforts to hire national anti-bullying spokesman The Scary Guy to come to Austin this November. Their target is $20,000 in funding for a several-day program.
“There’s a lot of huge community outpouring,” said Danielle Borgerson-Nesvold.
The group is campaigning to bring in The Scary Guy, an award-winning anti-bullying advocate known for his tough stance on hate, prejudice and bullying, and for his tattoos, which cover about 85 percent of his body and most of his face.
Many local organizations are throwing their support behind the bullying group. . . .
Though this year’s goal is to bring in The Scary Guy, CAB organizers say they’re going to continue working to erase bullying from the community.
“It was so prevalent, you’d think it was normal, but it’s really not,” Borgerson-Nesvold said. “We’re starting to see the damage that it does to our kids.”
The group's meeting Thursday came on the same day that the state's largest school district, Anoka-Hennepin, had a federal lawsuit filed against it by two national civil rights groups and a law firm in Minneapolis. The suit involves the district's sexual orientation curriculum policy, along with students who claimed they were bullied due to their sexual orientation.
Borgerson-Nesvold said she's had a lot of people mention that a group like CAB should've been around five or 10 years ago. "But we're here now," she said.
"We're going to move forward and we're going to change the climate in our town," Borgerson-Nesvold said. "We have a huge future ahead of us."
Back on July 15, 2011, State Senator Gretchen talked on the Scott Hennen radio show about how the public wasn't missing Minnesota's state parks, since "private sector" camping facilities at county and city parks were better able to Minnesotans' congential craving for being outdoors in summer.
She took notes and planned "to deal with some of that stuff" in the next session.
Requests from more than 4,000 people flooded the state park’s reservation systems Tuesday during the first day the services were back online after the state government shutdown began July 1.
When the dust cleared, officials announced a new one-day record: 4,140 reservations, made for a total of 11,489 nights.
“We had 162 reservations in the first five minutes,” said reservation system manager Bill Anderson in a release. “It was by far the busiest day in the history of our reservation system.”
The previous record was set June 2, 2008, when the state recorded 1,761 reservations for camping and lodging — the first day the state allowed reservations to be made up to a year in advance for a location.
Whitewater State Park and Forestville/Mystery Cave state park both received more than 100 reservations, and were among those who had the highest number of park reservations. Itasca State Park received the most with 379.
Although newspapers across Minnesota reported that families reluctantly left state park campgrounds when the government shut down, Gretchen Hoffman told talk radio host Scott Hennen on Friday that she learned over the course of the Independence Day weekend hat the private sector did a better job of serving campers than state parks ever could.
...People were walking into the state parks, but the other thing I did see that was remarkable was every private campground, every public beach, every county campground, or city campground, was packed. The private sector can pick up and do better than what government does.
So I've been taking notes throughout this whole shutdown to see how intertangled the government has become through our private sector, and when we come back next session--this is next January--we're going to try to deal with some of that stuff.
Given Hoffman's apparent reluctance to ever back down from her own bullshit, regardless of matters of fact, Bluestem will see if she picks up her litter and packs it out when she walks away from this one.
But now that there's a budget agreement, Parry recommends stoicism. The Waseca County News reports in County, state discuss budget that the Emo Senator got all scornful at a meeting set up by Waseca County Commissioners, who invited Parry, Rep. Kory Kath, Rep. Tony Cornish and Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont to discuss the shutdown and its fallout.
The paper reports the concerns county and city staff and electeds shared with the state legislators:
For Steve Peterson, Court Services director, his biggest concern is chemical dependency funding. The county is now required to provide 15 percent of the cost of chemical dependency treatment for indigent residents, he said.
“It will possibly curtail people from getting into treatment,” said Peterson. Overall, Waseca County loses $6,000 in County Program Aid and $200,000 from the elimination of the Market Value Homestead Credit program as the result of the state budget.
Waseca City Manager Crystal Prentice said she found the shutdown irritating but the final budget is “much more alarming.”
In the past four years, she said, the city of Waseca has lost $1,729,539 in state aids and credits. She asked the representatives what they can do to become change agents so they can compromise and produce balanced budgets that don’t hurt the people they are serving?
Les Tlougan, Waseca City Council member, said the new budget leaves a lot of people, cities and counties in the lurch. In Waseca, Local Government Aid accounts for 40 percent of the budget, he said. If the legislators feel Waseca can live at 60 percent of revenue, that means cuts in security, water, streets, and sewers, said Tlougan.
“If we raise taxes, some legislators say, ‘It’s your fault; you made the choice.’ Did we?” he said.
These are reasonable questions, but Parry was scornful of the lifestyles of those who need services:
“We’ll always have this problem unless we decide who needs money; we’re so anxious to give money away to make someone feel good,” said Parry.
“Take personal responsibility; take government out of people’s lives,” he said. “How do we change the lifestyles of those in the entitlement mentality?”
It's unclear from the article if Parry wanted poor drug addicts, county and city staff and officials or property taxpayers to feel bad. Or why taking away chemical dependency treatment will change lifestyles.
But perhaps they'll sort it out in Waseca County as government gets out of people's lives and residents take personal responsibility for security, streets and sewers.
Think a journalist has a super power? Like, say, the ability to see into the future?
If you're toxic metal preacher Bradlee Dean Smith, and you also think Andy Birkey is a naughty gay man and atheist, it's time to act, and take the publication he works for, MSNBC, and Rachel Maddow along in your $50 million lawsuit.
Dean is accusing the defendents of saying naughty things about him to take down Michele Bachmann's presidential bid, even before Bachmann decided to run. In short, an appeal to motive.
Seriously, there's nothing as deadly as an atheist on God's speed dial, getting word even before Minnesota's Best Christian that she'll be running for President.
And for your lawyer for this hot mess? Freedom Watch's Larry Klayman, a professed close friend of Michele Bachmann. (Hat tip to Karl Bremer).
Michele is not a "Republican In Name Only" (derisively known as "RINOs'); she is someone who puts conviction to action, and I have come to know her very well in the last year. . . .
. . .I became reacquainted with Michele last fall when I visited her in her office in the Rayburn Building. As I waited in the lobby, I remember her "bouncing" out of her office like an energetic, enthusiastic staffer, quickly walking over to me and with a warm smile holding out her hand. Looking into her eyes, I told her how nice it was to meet her. In a quick response she quipped, smiling, "Larry, I met you many years ago at CNP!" The Council for National Policy is a group of conservatives that gathers in private quarterly to discuss policy. I obviously did not remember this (Michele had not yet run for office), but it said a lot to me that she remembered. Michele obviously was a fan of Judicial Watch, the public-interest group I had founded and built into an anti-corruption fighting force – the real "People's Justice Department." Now I was visiting her as chairman of Freedom Watch, which is the next generation of freedom fighters I founded later on, my having left Judicial Watch in 2004 to run for the U.S. Senate in Florida.
Because of her popularity among tea partiers in particular, Michele has been vilified by the left for quite a while. But now that Michele in recent days has made it known that she is considering a run for the presidency, the left has emerged from "its venomous closet" in an attempt to abort her presidential bid prior to birth – pun clearly intended!
Not that she was treated well by the likes of Chris Matthews, Keith Obermann, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell – the vicious male and feminist lesbian ultra lefties of MSNBC – before her tacit announcement, but now that she is taking on the leftist establishment on the ultimate scale, and has arisen like Lazarus (ironically my name in Hebrew) as the replacement for their previous heterosexual female victim, the already politically assassinated Sarah Palin, Mathews, Obermann, Maddow and O'Donnell – along with the pliant lackey commentator minions who suck up to them to qualify as "regulars" on their programs – are foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs.
Oh, the victimization.
Attacking Bachmann by attacking Dean
And it does seem like Dean yokes his claims close to attacks on Bachmann, his lawyer's close friend.
Controversial pastor and rock musician Bradlee Dean filed suit Wednesday in federal court alleging he was defamed by reporting from the Minnesota Independent as well as MSNBC star Rachel Maddow and her show.
Dean, of the ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCR), claims that reporting on his May 15, 2010, radio show “maliciously set out to and did harm not only the Plaintiffs but by extension also the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.”
A Nexis search reveals that while Birkey has written extensively about Bachmann, very few articles posted prior to the Dean piece focused on a Bachmann presidential bid. Those few that did were mere blog posts about questions Bachmann fielded from other publications about a possible run.
It's not as if Birkey possesses a gift of prophecy.
In February 2010, Birkey reported in Bachmann: Nancy Pelosi hates me that radio talk show host Michael Savage asked if Bachmann sought higher office, mentioning a Bachmann-Romney ticket. Bachmann stressed that she was focused on being re-elected to the house, according to Birkey.
Clark’s campaign asked, “What’s she running for?” in a fundraising pitch Friday:
Today, Michele Bachmann will appear on the presidential preference ballot at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC before jetting off to Miami to speak to the ultra right-wing fringe Taking America Back Conference.
Bachmann is campaigning for candidates throughout the nation. She’s got a national PAC. She’s visited Iowa multiple times. She’s even got a fancy tour bus. It’s like my grandma used to tell me: If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, Michele Bachmann is considering running for President.
As news surfaced in the press about the emerging Bachmann bid, Birkey's coverage increased.
In covering the preacher, the Minnesota Independent did not single out Dean's relationship with Bachmann, but covered his connections with other Republican politicians as well, including gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. Dean's beliefs played a part in the criticism Target received for a corporate contribution to a business PAC that supported Emmer.
Given the paucity of material published by the Minnesota Independent about a hypothetical presidential run by Bachmann before May 2010, Dean must imagine that Birkey has super powers, setting up the May 2010 article as a marker for the destruction of both preacher and a yet-to-be announced presidential bid. That will stand up in court. Ya betcha.
"The allegations by Bradlee Dean and You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCR) are completely without merit," the statement says.
The statement continues:
The American Independent News Network stands firmly behind our news site, The Minnesota Independent; our reporter, Andy Birkey; as well as their reporting on Dean and his ministry. The complaint describes Birkey as taking "a 'special interest' in Plaintiffs Dean and YCR because he is a secularist and/or atheist and gay activist with a politically left ideology who despises people of faith."
However, in giving Birkey and The Minnesota Independent first prize for Best Continuing Coverage of their reporting on YCR, the 2010 judges for the Minnesota Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalist's Page One Awards stated, "the reporter [Birkey] takes a deep-dive with an even-handed approach into a weighty subject sure to provoke controversy from various standpoints. Leads readers to think about serious public policy and constitutional issues."
We are confident that the courts will agree that this lawsuit is completely frivolous and is a blatant attempt to chill freedom of the press.
MSNBC released a slightly less detailed statement:
This suit is baseless and we stand by our reporting.
Final thought: how these people find each other?
And so it goes. Bluestem is curious: did Dean find Klayman, did Klayman find Dean, or is the Bachmann campaign the go-between? Is Bachman, the attorney of record's close friend, comfortable in being mentioned so prominently in the case?
Photos: Dean at today's presser, photo by Nick Pinto, used with permission of the Minneapolis City Pages (above); Andy Birkey (below)
While the Mankato Free Press editorial board is happy about "reforms" in the state budget compromise, it's so not pleased about the sale of tobacco bonds in the agreement, calling the revenue source a "loan-shark, pawn-shop type of public finance."
It's a new addition to the loan-shark, pawn-shop type of public finance that borrows from the kids' school aid funds at an ever more burdensome formula.
Taxpayers might find themselves coughing, hacking and wheezing when they take a drag of the so-called tobacco bonds lawmakers and the governor used to solve the state budget deficit.
Experts estimate the $640 million the state is borrowing from future tobacco payments will cost us from $1 billion to $1.3 billion in interest and other costs when the smoke clears. That’s for borrowing our own money. . . .
The editors note that the 5 to 6 percent interest on tobacco bond exceeds that on typical municipal bonds and that the state's credit rating might be downgraded because of the bonds, thus raising the costs of other borrowing by the state.
Moreover, since the state's tobacco settlement income is tied to rates of smoking, any pronounced dip in the rate of smoking poses the risk of the state defaulting on the bond. The paper cites a story in that ultimate bedside read Bond Buyer magazine that notes how tobacco companies payments to states are declining since tobacco use is dropping “above and beyond” predictions.
The editorials money paragraphs:
Of course, Republicans deemed this approach better than raising taxes and Gov. Mark Dayton deemed it better than making deeper cuts in spending.
But it sure seems like a loan-shark, pawn-shop type of public finance not worthy of our state and its responsible citizens. . . .
. . .Ultimately, state leaders would do well to try to get taxpayers out of this ponzi-like scheme sooner than later. We’ll all breathe a little easier.
But over in the New Ulm Journal, there's a telling comment by Paul Torkelson in Area legislators listen to citizens’ comments on budget that suggests the addiction to costly borrowing gimmicks isn't going to go away soon.
Torkelson said the state education funding delay as a way to deal with the budget deficit is not new and is more than offset by increased pupil funding over the next few years.
"It's been used many times and we always pay the money back, although it took 10 years once," Torkelson said.
What Torkelson isn't sharing is that the deal changed the formula--or that it took the state 15, rather than 10 years to refill the kids' piggy bank. The Star Tribune notes in School aid delay comes with some extra costs:
The state has long held back a portion of per-pupil school aid, a practice that originated as a kind of fiscal safety valve. Starting in 1971, the state would withhold 10 percent of funding until the next fiscal year in order to deal with fluctuations in student numbers. If a district had more students at the end of the school year than originally projected, the state had money on hand to pay the difference. If a district wound up with fewer students, the state held on to whatever it no longer owed the district.
In 1983, as the government grappled with red ink, it used a school funding shift as a budget-balancing tool, something it has done intermittently in the years since. That year, it held back 15 percent of school funding, a shift that took 15 years to repay in full.
In 2003 and 2004, with the state again confronting budget deficits, it shifted 17 percent and 20 percent of school aid payments, respectively, into the next year.
In the past two years, the shift has mushroomed. Twenty-seven percent of school funding was held back in the 2010 budget year, and 30 percent in 2011 as the state dealt with a multi-billion-dollar budget gap.
Now, under the new budget that ended the 20-day state government shutdown, 40 percent of the appropriated funds will be withheld until next year.
Nor everyone is as cheery as Torkelson about the per-ppupil increase covering the added costs of borrowing. The Hutchinson Leader reports in Budget deal puts burden on schools that school officials here are a bit more pessimistic:
The deal includes a $780 million school aid payment shift that Business and Finance Director Donna Luhring said “makes cash flow for us a lot more difficult.”
“My concern is that they haven’t taken any action to solve the underlying financial problem,” she added.
The education finance bill will also increase state funding by $50 per pupil in 2012 and $100 per pupil in 2013. Luhring said that increase probably won’t be enough to cover the interest on the money the district could potentially have to borrow, although “any money is appreciated to help offset the cost.”
Will the tobacco bond borrowing prove to be any wiser? And all this just to protect lower tax rates for a handful of wealthy Minnesotans? What a deal.
Cartoon: The GOP Pig by Ken Avidor. Koch can do her best with the lipstick and Mike Brodkorb adjust that wig, but we can still see the pig (or boor as it were). Sketched by request.
Having studied the New Minnesota Politics of the Postmoronic in some depth, Bluestem begins to wonder if, since so many recent, real news reports seem at first glance to be Onion parodies, the state needs an imaginary county bearing that eponymous name.
To be placed in the final category of Onion County's chorus of voices? A lawsuit being filed by my neighbor in Minnesota's Senate District 18, scary home companion, Bradlee Dean, in which the gym suit preacher will be seeking $50 million in damages from Rachel Maddow, MSNBC, and others who repeated what he broadcast on his radio show.
Right wing radio host and preacher Bradlee Dean has filed suit against Rachel Maddow and MSNBC for a report claiming that Dean had called for the execution of homosexuals. According to the suit, Dean did not and does not endorse executing gay people. Dean and his band have performed at fundraisers for Rep. Michele Bachmann and she has praised his ministry. . . .
"Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America. This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination."
Freedom Watch, a political advocacy group run by Larry Klayman, the one-man Tea Party who is repping for Dean, issued a media advisory about tomorrow's press conference in Manhattan about the lawsuit. The presser notes that "others" are being sued, but so far, none of our friends who first heard, recorded and posted his radio broadcast have been served, nor any of the others who write about the winsome Mr. Dean and his ministries.
Neither has Bluestem, even though Onion County is very close, situated as it is between McLeod, Wright, Meeker and Sibley Counties, just west of Cottonwood and north of Yellow Medicine, and the small part the blog played in making a local Walmart become his Waterloo.
A magical place, this Bluestem Prairie, indeed, with no spot more breathtaking than Onion County, where the sort of news breaks that --even with my advanced degree in imaginary writing from the Ozarks Famous Writers School--I could never dream of making up.
Photo: Bradlee Dean delivering the prayer in the Minnesota House of Representatives that brought a lot of attention to the chappie. See the Daily Beast's Uproar Over Evangelist Bradlee Dean's Obama Slur.
Those progressives who chide Minnesota's glitter-bombing gay barbarian horde as "not helpful" in focusing media attention on the harmful, tax-funded "pray away the gay" therapy offered at Bachmann & Associates clinic might need to think that through a bit.
Or at least not take their cues from the Right.
When the Right--like GOProud or Glenn Beck--weighs in with advice that a strategy isn't "helpful," that unsolicited advice from the other side of the aisle is a sign that the action is effective.
Any time the Right--like Glenn Beck or True North-- trots out an absurd argument that claims if those in an action did something else, other than what actually happened, they'd be dangerous, that tactic is working.
It's clear from latest news that the Bachmann campaign doesn't want to answer to barbarians or to the traditional media, but to shove this issue back into the closet. TPM reports that the Bachmann campaign is aggressively acting to stifle any scrutiny of the clinic, in which the presidential candidate is a co-owner, by the traditional media.
Earlier this month, after an undercover investigation confirmed that Marcus Bachmann’s Christian counseling clinics performed ex-gay therapy, Michele Bachmann was asked about the practice by Iowa’s WQAD, a local ABC affiliate. The Congresswoman refused to comment on the matter, saying only that she is “very proud of our business” and “proud of all job creators in the United States.”
During the interview, Bachmann’s advisers reportedly “threatened WQAD producers that they would cut off the feed if Rae Chelle [the anchor] repeated the question.”
Michele Bachmann made a visit to the Quad Cities last night to speak with supporters and give interviews to the local television media, that is, with one exception. Despite promises to WQAD for a one-on-one interview the Congresswoman's managers openly, and aggressively denied News 8 access to the Iowa Republican front-runner.
At the end of last night's event the Bachmann campaign said the snubbing was based on interview questions News 8's Rae Chelle Davis asked the Congresswoman during a satellite interview two weeks ago. . . .
. . .Voters wanted to know if the story [about gay reparation therapy at the Bachmann & Associates clinic] was true and to hear what Michele Bachmann had to say about it.
But the Bachmann campaign isn't just snubbing one station. It's actively and aggressively stifling all questions from the media about the clinic's controversial practice. The WQAD report continues:
Then the same man came over and said I could have my interview outside," said Chuck McClurg a veteran News 8 photojournalist.
McClurg continued to shoot the event. Afterwards, he walked with the Congresswoman and her team down the stairs and out the door.
"I followed them outside hoping to get the interview I was promised," said McClurg
McClurg began rolling his camera as another local Quad Cities news station started asking their questions.
"I started to tape something off of that interview and a staffer pushed me aside and stood in front of my camera and said that this was for the other station only."
The reporter asked a question about Bachmann's clinic and her husband. At that point, McClurg says the staffer took the microphone off of Bachmann, tossed it to the reporter and said their interview was over.
That's the treatment a second reporter, from another station, received at the hands of the Bachmann campaign.
The controversial practice of trying to change someone's sexual orientation was roundly discredited by the American Psychological Association in 2009 as ineffective and potentially harmful. The first-hand accounts and video evidence surfacing Monday have rekindled questions about the Bachmann family business.
Clinton Anderson, who heads the association's Office on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns, told ABC News that his organization did an exhaustive review and found no evidence that efforts to convert someone from gay to straight could succeed.
"The harm is that when people are already in distress, and feeling conflict about their religion and their sexuality, to tell them they can change if they work hard enough, when in fact they can't do that … just makes their distress and their shame -- their depression -- even worse," Anderson said.
Enter the barbarians
So what is to be done when a candidate's campaign literally disconnects from reporters' questions? The question about the clinic's offerings are a matter of public concern on several levels. First, taxpayer dollars are going toward the operation of the clinic, and the public has a right to know whether its money is being spent wisely.
Second, the therapy is harmful. It hurts real people who come to the clinic seeking help.
And in LGBT politics, there's a long history of civil disobedience and street theater that paralleled the activism of the more respectful and respectable organizations like the HRC. Witness ACT-UP's strategies during the AIDS crisis.
Now, Get Equal is helping the glitterati, LGBT activists and allies who recently took Marcus Bachmann's barbarian remarks quite literally and decided to dress the part while visiting Bachmann & Associates to demand the discipline that Marcus Bachmann prescribed for them. Failing to receive the discipline they craved, they acted like joyous barbarians, dancing and throwing glitter over their heads.
The Youtube went viral, from organizer Nick Espinosa's "Robert Erickson" facebook page to the Washington Post. A story that might have been a blip in the news cycle--easily swept into the closet by the Bachmann campaign--enjoyed a glittery second act.
Not Helpful: GOProud,Glenn Beck and Bill Prendergast react
The now out-foxed Glenn Beck threw a rhetoric bomb in Glenn Beck on 'Gay Barbarian Horde' Glitters Bachmann Clinic, breathing pretty hard when he imagined a frightened clinic receptionist, but not before noting the "violent" protest "wasn't helpful." Locally, and more hilariously, a conceptual-challenged right-wing blogger sounded the alarm about glitter bombers ramping up. The glitterati throw glitter; indeed, in the latest action, they throw it above themselves. Only in the blogger's fecund imagination is anything other than glitter flying. She should stick to critiquing office design.
Let me repeat two universally acknowledged facts about strategy and tactics:
Anytime the Right weighs in with advice that a strategy isn't "helpful," that unsolicited advice from the other side of the aisle is a sign that the action is effective (as the hit count on the Youtube also suggests).
Anytime the Right trots out an argument that claims if those in an action did something else, they'd be dangerous, that tactic is working. For the truth is, the gay barbarian horde threw glitter. Nor has anything other than glitter been thrown with each additional action. But, Beck's own rhetoric and suggestions for countering glitterbombing is, on other hand, getting more charged, with thinly veiled threats that security officers might cap a gay barbarian.
Bluestem agrees with the need for calling the fashion police that's implied in Wonkette's headline,Mismatched Youths Attempt to Glitter Bomb Marcus Bachmann. BSP fears these barbarians will wear white to their after-Labor Day actions, so perhaps a past wardrobe designer for Xena could stage an intervention.
But it is 2011 now, and young activists require tactics that not only prove a point, but provide really hilarious videos to post to the YouTube. This is why we now have “glitter bombing!” The young people love to do the glitter bombing, because they get to throw stuff on hate-mongering anti-gay wack jobs and gain Internet celebrity while also participating in the democratic process.
And singing, dancing and laughing while they do it. The right provides its own chuckles as they pass out over the WMD potential of glitter, while simultaneously sniffing at the ineffectiveness of the protests. (Of course they want it both ways). Both the action and the reaction kept the story in the news cycle that Bachmann owns a clinic that practices a discredited and harmful therapy.
But since the Right criticized the tactic as not "helpful" for recognition of equality, as well as scary, the knee-jerk section of the progressive movement instantly surrendered, as is so often the case in American politics. Witness Bill Prendergast at the Minnesota Progressive Project, yelling at those kids to get off his turf because they couldn't possibly know what they're doing.
And now, back to the news
What did the glittery gay barbarians accomplish? Several more days of the story in the news cycle, and hundreds of thousands of more people knowing that there's a story here at all.
And so, with as new reports surface about the Bachmann campaign's attempt to suppress news inquiry about the clinic's practices, those folks have a glimmer of what this story is about.
Screenshots: Chuck McClurg, WQAD photojournalist (above); Mismatched gay barbarian horde (below). Video (below) via WQAD.
With support from local newspaper editorials and local chambers of commerce, small town mayors fought to keep local government aid for cities of all sizes in the state's budget. The united efforts helped keep LGA alive.
And since the final deal freezes LGA at 2010 levels, local governments have to decide whether to cut services or raise revenue, or a combination of both.
Any high school class from Worthington, Willmar or Wadena would have produced a far better budget for Minnesota property taxpayers and their communities.
The governor and Legislature took a bad state budget situation and made it worse. Their decisions not only prolong the state budget challenges because of their borrowing; they also once again passed the buck down to local officials to make the hard decisions on spending cuts and tax increases.
This budget will result in Greater Minnesota families and businesses once again being hit with property tax increases and significant cuts to critical community services like police, fire, snowplowing and economic development.
Given Oberloh's truly admirable beard, perhaps moonlighting in a ZZ Top cover band for extra cash would be another option for raising revenue.
Across the state, on the northern edge of Drazistan, the Red Wing Republican Eagle reports in Local leaders have mixed feelings about state budget that mix ranges from dismay from local officials to severe pain in the part of Republican legislators who disclocated their shoulders while patting themselves on their backs in praise of the final deal.
The reality for the City of Red Wing? Tough choices:
In the days since the budget was approved, concerns have surfaced from those seeing cuts in state funding.
For example, the new budget allots $619,586 in Local Government Aid to Red Wing for 2011, the same amount it received in 2010. But the city was slated to get more than $1.7 million.
Red Wing city officials have said if LGA funding was low again this year, it could mean significant cuts to city services and could drive up local property taxes. That could be the case throughout the state, especially in rural areas.
The state government may be up and running again, but now the city of Austin must cope with the Local Government Aid (LGA) freeze put in place when the shutdown ended.
When Minnesota legislators voted to end the 20-day shutdown, they also voted to freeze LGA at 2010 levels, meaning Austin will miss out on more than $687,000 of its certified LGA amount for 2011, according to city Finance Director Tom Dankert.
Half of the city’s $7.1 million LGA check is scheduled to be sent to the city by July 27; the other half of the funds will be sent in December. The 2012 LGA payment will also be the 2010 amount, which is $7.1 million.
The LGA freeze coupled with the elimination of market value credit will create a loss of more than $1.3 million for Austin over the next two years.
“1.3 million dollars — that won’t be easy for the city of Austin to deal with,” Dankert said. “We are in the realms where we’ve never been before.”
Mirroring the decision Minnesota legislators had to make to balance the state budget, Austin City Council members will have to decide whether to cut services or raise revenue, or a combination of both.
It will be interesting to watch how cities throughout the state deal with the choices facing them. I know that Hutchinson already made some tough calls even before this latest development.
Photo: Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh, via the Globe.
Over and over, Minnesotans are hearing from the MNGOP about the $34 billion "General Fund" spending, but even in a poorly lit room, we can see the wrinkles on the face of this deal: the borrowing and the costs of that debt. As MNPublius's Jeff Rosenberg points out in How irresponsible accounting lets the MNGOP lie about their budget,
That $1.4 billion isn’t a “savings” in any way — it’s borrowing. After accounting for the borrowing, this is a $35.7 billion budget.
And that concealer grows ever more thin as the details on the costs of tobacco bonds see the light of day. Via the TCDP, Hamline professor David Schultz noted in the Schultz's Take post, The Minnesota budget deal: lipstick on a pig:
The tobacco settlement money gets robbed, diverting it from the stated purpose to address health costs and education surrounding smoking. The borrowing here off the tobacco money means increased debt for the state. Thus, Minnesota continues to borrow and shift debt to the future in ways similar to what federal government has done for years. It is no different than paying off one credit card with another. In 2013 Minnesota will be back to the same place it is now. Minnesota is effectively deficit spending but budget tricks and borrowing hide that reality.
The budget deal that ended Minnesota's government shutdown comes with a hefty price: It relies heavily on borrowing $640 million against money from the state's 1998 tobacco settlement, but might cost that same amount in interest - plus a substantial annual revenue loss for years to come.
Still, it allowed Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders to avoid $640 million in spending cuts or tax increases.
"From the Republican standpoint it is considered better than a tax increase. I would presume from the governor's standpoint it makes money available to support critical programs," said Tom Hanson, who was the state's finance commissioner under former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. "The downside is it's money that's not going to be available in the next biennium ... but the spending expectations will probably be there." . .
. . .The budget deal calls for $1.4 billion from tobacco bond proceeds and delayed payments to schools. Minnesota currently gets about $160 million a year from the cigarette makers, so it's expected to receive about $320 million in the two-year budget period that began July 1. The loss of an as-yet unknown portion of that revenue in future budgets means lawmakers may have to find a way to plug that gap.. . .
As a general rule, said Bill Marx, a fiscal analyst for the Minnesota House of Representatives, the final cost to the taxpayers could be 150 percent to 200 percent of the bonds issued. By that math, a $640 million tobacco bond issue could cost nearly $1 billion to close to $1.3 billion.
Marx said the full costs won't be known until the bonds are finally put out for bids, so it's difficult to know yet what the interest rates would be. Tobacco bonds typically get slightly lower ratings from Wall Street analysts than the state gets for general obligation bonds, he said.
Oh, and the amount of money the state from the tobacco settlement is tied to tobacco sales. As a blog of a certain age, Bluestem knows what tobacco can do to one's complexion.
These circumstances haven't stopped the MNGOP brand from aggressively marketing the November 2012 lipstick for this pig, however. Chatter about "reform" --the "rad reform red" glossing the porcine--is popping up in the press like product placement tweets by poptarts and spambots alike.Lori Sturdevant wrote in The people beg to differ:
Already last week, Republicans didn't seem to want to say much about how the budget was balanced. They wanted to talk about reform. That's a worthy topic. There's work to do be done on that front, and unless Dayton picks up that theme quickly, the GOP can position itself as the reform-friendly party in 2012.
Minutes after Minnesota legislators passed that budget, Republican leaders were talking about making reforms through-out state government next year and saying that they think Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton will be an ally.
Dayton is right there.
“I want to go top to bottom with us as a state and really transform how we deliver ser-vices and do them better,” Dayton said in a Forum Communications interview.
The stereotype is that Democratic-Farmer-Laborites defend government and hesitate making changes. Not Dayton.
So what have we learned from the great state shutdown of 2011?
Legislators and the governor have learned they could screw up a single-car parade.
Instead of making substantial changes that would cure the budget problems that have vexed the state recently, lawmakers continued to pick on schools because - quite frankly - they can't fight back.
There were so many choices and our friends in St. Paul took what could have been the worst one.
But, we've learned a more important lesson that seems to be repeated every year at the Capitol.
Things got a bit testy on KTLK-FM Thursday morning as host Bob Davis and a chorus of callers assailed GOP lawmakers for not restraining spending in the final budget. “The spin now is ‘Oh look, look what we’re doing, we’re saving money over the next two years.' Bull,” Davis said. “I’m just saying, I’m going to call bull. It’s BS. Because they increased the size of the budget.” Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, called in later to defend his caucus and list reforms in the bills. “I was somewhat disappointed listening to folks this morning, because they don’t understand,” Parry said. “And unfortunately, Bob and Tom, I don’t think you guys understand yet either.” A caller responded with “baloney.” “You didn’t cut like you said you were going to cut,” he said. “We put you in the place to cut the budget and you didn’t. You raised it.”
The MNGOP and the governor can slather on whatever face they wish to this deal, but Bluestem thinks most Minnesotans are NOT going to forget what the state woke up with, once Republican leadership and the executive branch shook hands and settled on a price. Or that cut that the pig's "business agents" at the banks and Wall Street skimmed from this behind-closed-doors transaction.
Cartoon: The GOP Pig by Ken Avidor. Koch can do her best with the lipstick and Mike Brodkorb adjust that wig, but we can still see the pig (or boor as it were). Sketched by request.
There's also welfare reform. Welfare abuse in this state has alarmed a number of lawmakers for years.
Take our Electronic Benefits Transfer cards, which are supposed to provide food for needy Minnesotans.
We've found during the years that cards are shared, sold, or used for alcohol and tobacco products. New laws will require a recipient's name to be placed on the card, and prohibit alcohol and tobacco from being purchased with taxpayers' money. If the recipient abuses the privilege, he or she will lose it for good.
Hundreds of millions of dollars will be saved with these reforms. We will start future bienniums on a much lower spending curve than we would have without this budget.
Hundreds of millions? There's fraud here alright, and it's name is rhymes with "razz."
That's some evil logic there, Steve. And of course the Draz couldn't resist touting that "General Fund" budget figure in his column. MnPublius's Jeff Rosenberg deftly points out the problem in MNGOP already trying to whitewash “beg, borrow, and steal”:
The ink hasn’t even dried, and they’re already trying to whitewash their irresponsible bill, pretending that putting our budget on a credit card is somehow a victory for Minnesotans. For example, they’re already lying about the size of the budget:
Republicans say they stuck to their pledge to spend only $34 billion over the next two years. The Dayton Administration says the tally is $35.7 billion. The difference depends on how you account for the shifts and borrowing.
More precisely, it depends on whether you account for shifts and borrowing. Apparently, the GOP is just going to pretend that their irresponsible borrowing never needs to be paid back. That’s a lie, and it is shockingly irresponsible.
And speaking of credit cards: who gets a cut from those EBT cards? Or are the banks waiving their fees for those receiving public assistance?
Today, BSP learned that the Emo Senator is petulant about his former colleagues on the Waseca Council expresse[d] dissatisfaction with state, including the state legislature, over the shutdown. While the council didn't single out party or person, but the process, Parry wants the finger pointed only at the governor.
The Waseca County News reports:
While the Minnesota Legislature was busy passing bills in a Special Session called Tuesday by Gov. Mark Dayton, the Waseca City Council voted unanimously to express its dissatisfaction with the state government impasse that led to a state shutdown.
“If a mayor could support something more than 100 percent, I would,” said Mayor Roy Srp about the resolution authored by council member John Clemons. . . .
. . .Tlougan suggested changing the wording slightly so that the resolution does not target only the governor and legislative leaders. Clemons agreed with the change and said he did not want to target one party or another.
“The whole mess of them have let me down,” he said. “... hopefully this will gain momentum with other cities officially expressing their own disappointment.”
With passage of the resolution, letters will be sent to the governor, Rep. Kory Kath (DFL-Owatonna) and Sen. Mike Parry (R-Waseca).
And Parry's reaction? Don't blame me for anything, blame the governor:
As for the letter of disappointment on its way from the city of Waseca, he said the council should be blaming the governor.
“Every city in the state should be happy they are getting Local Government Aid at the 2010 level,” he said.
“I’m disappointed in some of our city leaders and the stances they took. They’re not willing to make the hard decisions that we just made in the legislature,” said Parry.
Already uncomfortable with the size of the $34 billion budget Republican lawmakers were pushing by the end of the regular session, Hoffman balked at over $1 billion in new funds from school fund deferments and tobacco settlement bonds. She only relented when she was convinced that Dayton’s compromise also allowed for significant GOP reform measures, like savings she said could total $10 billion in health and human services over the next decade.
The Tales of Hoffman Chorus
Hoffman isn't alone among Minnesota Republicans to be claiming a $10 billion savings over 10 years from the HHS bill, nor crowing about Dayton signing on for reforms, in the special session and the future.
Take Mike Parry, holding the same hand in this game of liars' poker. In Parry, Fritz weigh in as state shutdown ends, Faribault Daily News staff writer Joseph Lindberg reports:
Sen. Parry said overall, he was pleased with the reforms included in the budget bills — but displeased with the governor.
“The bills that were signed today will bring us long-term structural costs savings,” he said. “We have major fiscal reforms in health and human services that will save us $10 billion over 10 years.”
Sen. Parry said there was more reform in these budget bills than any other time in Minnesota history, and was excited to travel his district in the next few months to deliver that news directly to the public.
That's one road trip Bluestem will eagerly follow. But what are those reforms that will deliver billions and billions and billions across five biennia?
Spending bender?
Perhaps it's accounted for by what freshman representative Roger Crawford posted on his campaign site in Budget includes Important Reform:
We all can probably find areas of disagreement with our new state budget, but that is the nature of compromise. We needed to end this state shutdown and pass some key reforms that will put Minnesota on a more sustainable fiscal path.
We passed a package of 12 budget bills Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The governor has signed each of them into law. Our General Fund budget will be $34 billion, more than I thought we should spend, but down from the $39 billion we were projected to spend. It also is more affordable than the $37 billion Gov. Mark Dayton proposed.
The health and human services bill probably is the best example of improvements we made through reform. This portion of our budget was set for a 22-percent spending increase, but we managed to draw that down to a more sustainable 4.8 percent; this will save taxpayers an estimated $10 billion over the next decade.
There's that "General Fund" budget again (see MnPublius's discussion of the blarney), but at least the $10 billion figure is connected with an explanation for the supposed savings. That is, if spending on health and human services is held at 4.8 percent. Presumably for the two-year cycle, but the math isn't spelled out.
We accomplished our work without surcharges and without tax increases. We bent the cost curve from future increases of over 22 percent down to a manageable 4.8 percent. We prevented cuts to nursing homes, boosted rural care and minimized reductions to disability services.
Where reductions were needed, they were targeted and done with care to maintain the integrity of the whole system. We reformed the critical areas of care delivery, county services and safety net programs. Perhaps most important, we made public programs more flexible, accessible, effective and sustainable. ...
Read the specifics in his article.
But the GOP base isn't buying the numbers--either the $34 billion figure or the promise of savings. Eric Roper's piece in today's Morning Hotdish e-newsletter from the Strib suggests that horde of tea party barbarians might be ready to glitter bomb Kurt Zellers and Amy Koch's offices--and perhaps even take a trip to Waseca:
Things got a bit testy on KTLK-FM Thursday morning as host Bob Davis and a chorus of callers assailed GOP lawmakers for not restraining spending in the final budget. “The spin now is ‘Oh look, look what we’re doing, we’re saving money over the next two years.' Bull,” Davis said. “I’m just saying, I’m going to call bull. It’s BS. Because they increased the size of the budget.” Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, called in later to defend his caucus and list reforms in the bills. “I was somewhat disappointed listening to folks this morning, because they don’t understand,” Parry said. “And unfortunately, Bob and Tom, I don’t think you guys understand yet either.” A caller responded with “baloney.” “You didn’t cut like you said you were going to cut,” he said. “We put you in the place to cut the budget and you didn’t. You raised it.”
Dayton also said Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson will continue working with GOP leaders to find more efficient ways to deliver health-care services to the state’s poor, disabled and elderly. Health care is the biggest cost problem government faces.
Bluestem has a simple question: are these $10 billion in savings more real than the $34 billion budget figure cited? And will spending growth for health and human services (given the aging of the population) really be able to be held to under 5 percent?
“Republicans were able to eliminate a $5 billion differential between what Gov. Dayton originally wanted and the final $34.3 billon general fund budget without raising taxes. Republicans even eliminated a tax – the 2 percent provider tax hidden on every patient bill issued in Minnesota – a $10 billion savings to patients over 10 years,” Sutton said.
Now, that's lost revenue, as the hypothetical savings are passed on, as Sutton says, to patients rather than the government. Is the reduced rate of increases in spending tied to the loss of revenue?
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